A/N: I decided to finish this first chapter and post it up here while I could. Anyway, I'm still working on chapter 5 of Ready to Roll and a Rosepearl one-shot while trying to balance a sophomore year of college at the same time. (Hey, nobody ever said it'd be easy!) Have a nice day!

As Chalcedony laughed hysterically at the thought of the royals taking her into custody, the young Crown Princess Lapis Lazuli rushed forward and spontaneously produced water from her palms.

"I'm going to kill you!" Lapis Lazuli shouted as she had the water in her control freeze Chalcedony into a wall. "And then I'm going to keep killing you and killing you!"

"Oh no, you don't!" Chalcedony yelled out as she struggled for air.

Garnet and Pearl incessantly shook their hands while the blue Gem had her eyes dead-center on her target and her hands hovering at the victim. A young Bloodstone gem also seemed in on the action, for his oversized rifle was cocked straight at Chalcedony's head. But just when he was going to pull the trigger...

Two Earth weeks ago...

"Dear Heliodor!" the Gem ancilla Aventurine exclaimed. "The royal twins look so beautiful!"

As it just so happened, the blue-green Gem and her fellow slaves (most of whom she was overseeing) were dressing the newborn Gems Oberon and Titania for their public baptism. The event was to take place in just a while so they had to work extensively hard to make the newest additions look their best. Therefore, the twins were dressed in the finest baptism dresses anybody could afford.

Oberon's gown was a velvet-like raspberry pink bedazzled with red and blue and pink gem shards on the seams and his bonnet was a lighter shade than the gown. His sister was in a much, much more glamorous gown except this one was more closely hued a sunset orange (as was the matching bonnet).

"They sure do, Aventurine," added Tiger Iron. "In fact, they look like they came from the gods themselves."

Just then, Pearl came in to see how everything was coming along. As soon as she took one look at her twins, she began to feel tears well up in her eyes.

"Oh, God bless them," Pearl squeaked with joy as the tears began to roll down her face. "If I had a camera with me, I'd take a picture right now and cherish it forever. I did the same for Steven when I saw his gem glow for the first time."

"How long ago was that?" another Gem ancilla, Larvikite, asked.

"I'd say when he was a baby." the white Gem Queen replied proudly.

"He's 14 years old now, isn't he?"

"Correct."

"That's not such a long time."

"Feels that way to me."

Out of the blue, Garnet came in to take a look for herself. She had on the best, most luxurious red-and-blue figure-hugging cutout dress she could choose from her fabulous wardrobe; to say that the patchwork outfit (made possible, of course, by the aboriginal Vivianites and Zoisites) was a huge turn-on for her wife would be an understatement. She'd even taken the time to make sure her hair was in a bun almost as big as her head. As usual, however, she had her three eyes hidden away by her reflective shades.

Oh my... Pearl thought to herself when she saw her hot pink Queen. That dress makes her look so attractive that even the love goddess Hemimorphite would envy her.

The white Gem ran over to Garnet and took her hands into her own. "So," she began to speak to her. "How are you handling things out there?"

"Very well, my Queen," Garnet answered with a smile. "I see our children are looking even more beautiful than when you had them."

"They sure do." Pearl looked back at them and nearly cried again. "God, I hope they don't see me crying like this." She diverted her attention back to her wife before flicking away the tears with just her finger. "Well, what do you say we get this show on the road?"

Garnet nodded and took Pearl by the hand.

"Alright, Your Divinity," Aventurine said. "We're ready to go now. Any final comments before this baptism begins?"

Pearl simply shook her head and smiled.

"That's good enough for us," said Tiger Iron. "Let's go!"

When the queens, their children, and their slaves had made it out to the royal court, they were greeted by several hundred faces in the public crowd as well as many of their royal guards and rulers from other nations. All appeared eager to watch the new pontifex anoint the newborn twins and bless them a lifetime of happiness, love, and endurance. This new pontifex Thaumasite, a pale yellow Gem with magenta tribal markings on her face and shoulders, seemed more than eager to perform her duties as the leader of religious affairs and everyone knew it. In fact, she'd probably waited to become pontifex for a long time.

"Fellow Gems," Thaumasite began to speak. "We have gathered here today to baptize the royal twins, Oberon and Titania, and to celebrate their birth and their induction into a monarchy that has stood the test of time. They are, in fact, the first members of royalty we've had who did not earn their awesome status; impressive, isn't it?" She paused for a moment when she saw that no one had spoken up. "Well, you know what I mean. And so, it is with the purest joy of my heart and the greatest pride of their mothers that I, Fairfax Thaumasite, shall go ahead and cleanse them of all of their ancestors' sins in the name of the Mother Goddess Amber and all of Her children."

As soon as Aventurine and Larvikite had handed the twins over to her, Thaumasite wasted no time in dipping the infants into the bowl of holy water before her.

"In the name of our Mother Goddess Amber and all of Her children, I baptize you." she said.

She made certain that their heads weren't submerged, waited a couple seconds, and then scooped them out. The crowd was awestruck.

But before anything else could be done, the entrance wall abruptly exploded and sent most of the Gems in the crowd crashing down to the floor.

"What was that?!" Pearl asked, baffled by what she'd just witnessed.

It was then that about twenty to twenty-five Gems had swarmed in from the hole they'd created and started attacking the spectators.

"Oh no, not again..." Garnet muttered while burying her face into her palms. She craned her neck towards her wife. "Pearl, we need to get to those intruders and stop them!"

"I'm on it!" Pearl yelled while she summoned her spear from her forehead.

Without hesitation, both Queens leaped up into the air and thrusted down on the attackers. During this time, Garnet also proceeded to summon her gauntlets and strike first onto an Astrophyllite who was just getting ready to unleash her weapon herself. While she was bouncing that Gem's head off of the floor, she managed to sense two other Gems sneaking up right behind her and decided to pursue the suddenly-present opportunity; so right after she'd dealt with the Astrophyllite, she moved straight on to tackling a Joaquinite and an Eclogite into a nearby wall.

Meanwhile, her beautiful wife was fighting spear-to-spear with a Staurolite, a ruddy brown Gem who appeared to have previously engaged in similar duels. Pearl had started off doing well against her opponent, but then when it was Staurolite's turn to strike, she was almost easily overpowered. However, it only took kicking the reddish-brown Gem off their feet and then slashing at them a few times before she ultimately came out on top. Just as she was about to relish in that victory though, another Gem, a Hypersthene, sprang down in front of her and started throwing punches; fortunately, Pearl was able to avoid them with ease.

Eventually, some of the Gems in the crowd started joining in on the rapidly-growing melee; needless to say, it was all very entertaining. By the time they'd taken out the last of the intruders, nearly everyone in the building was celebrating the fact that another attack on the monarches had been prevented. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few seconds before Pearl noticed that her babies had seemingly vanished amidst all the chaos and confusion; upon realizing what must've happened to them, she screamed loudly enough for Garnet to hear her.

"Pearl?" Garnet asked, alarmed by Pearl's screaming. "What's wrong?"

"They're gone!" Pearl shrieked. "The twins are gone!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, look!" Pearl diverted Garnet's attention towards Thaumasite's empty arms.

Garnet's eyes widened with fear while she processed while Pearl had said. "They must've been abducted while we were fighting off those intruders!" she gasped. "But who would do such a thing and why?"

"I think the real question is... why were we attacked in the first place?" Thaumasite asked chillingly.