S2-41
Has the jury reached a verdict?

Following the reveal of Rose Quartz being Pink Diamond, the Freedom Shield has been waiting for William to reform after his unexpected... crash.

Suddenly, William's gemstone began glowing. The green gemstone floated up, projecting a basic wireframe of William's physical form in a meditative position, and emitting pulses of Emerald energy.

All over the room, William's scattered synthetic particles converged on the holographic frame, reassembling his artificial carbon structure. Eventually, William's human form was restored, his chosen articles of clothing being drawn from his gemstone pocket dimension and applied over his physical being.

Once William's physical form had fully reconstituted and restabilized, the Emerald shifted his posture and dropped to his feet, stumbling due to a lack of landing balance.

William then looked around, seeing the Scout Drone that waited for him in the beach house. "What did I miss?"

"After the revelation of Rose Quartz being Pink Diamond, you experienced a physical form destabilization fluctuation, reducing you to nothing more than your gemstone. You took exactly 24 hours to begin reconstitution. During this time, Garnet collapsed into Ruby and Sapphire due to sudden emotional instability resulting from the revelation. Playing back audio fragment."

Sapphire's voice could be heard yelling from a stored recording through the Scout Drone. "She lied to us about everything! She held our hands, looked at us right in the eyes, and told us to never question who we are as Garnet. We never questioned ourselves, and we never questioned her!" The audio playback ended.

"Seems like I need to straighten out a few things between them." William surmised.

"Not necessary. Steven has already reunited them. In other news, Ruby has proposed to Sapphire, and I have taken the liberty of attending the wedding in your stead. In case you want to see the wedding, I have recorded it."

"Sounds good. I'm just glad everything's settled back down."

The Scout Drone exited the house, returning to the Freedom Shield, leaving William to get himself a glass of water.

As William left the beach house, he suddenly heard the Freedom Shield's alarm blaring through the exterior speakers, accompanied by the Freedom Shield's voice, looping a single message. "Emergency: Planetary defense plasma cannon array has been compromised! Solar system defense perimeter is not responding! Earth is exposed!" This put William on edge, making him rush past the panicking people of Beach City to reach the Freedom Shield.

"What's going on?! What's happening?!"

"Three unknown vessels have entered the solar system, and they are, somehow, destroying the planetary defense plasma cannons that have been built on each planet in the solar system en route to Earth."

It then dawned on William just what was going on. The Diamonds were stepping in to deal with the Crystal Gems personally.

He regrouped with the Crystal Gems at the beach, seeing two Homeworld ships, belonging to Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond, entering Earth's orbit, alongside a massive ship of what appears to be Homeworld and Emerald combined design. "Analyzing vessel. Emerald/Homeworld technological combination, ID: Fate-reaper."

"Freedom Shield, fire the-" William was interrupted as the Fate-reaper unleashed a blast of energy from the turret on its underside straight down the barrel of the planetary defense plasma cannon, causing its submerged base to explode, followed by the rest of the defense structure going up in flames and collapsing into pieces, the residual shockwave rippling harshly through Beach City. "No..."

A voice rang from the Fate-reaper, one that was familiar to William and Morlax. "So much for Code E-18!" It was Thavix. She was here!

The ships landed at the shore of Beach City, releasing Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, and Thavix. The Mechanos jumped in to attack, but the AI of the Fate-reaper turned the turret that destroyed the planetary defense plasma cannon array right at the mechanical behemoth and opened fire. The blast ruptured the E.E.R, causing it to explode, destroying William's latest creation.

"Pathetic!" Thavix exclaimed, laughing maniacally.

Peridot took a chance for something risky. "Hey! Yellow Clod! Remember me?!"

Yellow Diamond barely even glanced at the green gem. "No." She sent a bolt of electricity hurdling toward Peridot, only for William to step in the way, absorbing the energy into his gemstone, much to everyone's surprise.

"Peridot, it's time to unite and strike."

"Way ahead of you, William."

William formed a protective dome around the Crystal Gems, giving him and Peridot time to become Justice Emerald. The dome shattered from the inside, blown open from the power surge, which a newly formed Justice Emerald redirected into the Plasma Buster, aiming it as Thavix. "Emerald Thavix, formerly of Epsilon 7-B, by the judgment of the Emerald Order, you are to pay for your crimes! The penalty... is death!"

Justice Emerald unleashed the surge, only for the immeasurable amounts of energy to be harmlessly absorbed by Thavix's gemstone, all while she retained that crooked grin. "An Emerald Link Fusion. What a surprise." She turned to Blue Diamond. "If you may, your highness?" From Blue Diamond, a blue aura erupted and surrounded the area, causing Justice Emerald to collapse and unfuse.

While the Crystal Gems succumbed to the negative pathokinetic energy, William stood tall, but he was surrounded by a green aura... which faded to red.

Blue Diamond and Thavix looked on in shock and confusion as William's gemstone slid up his arm, repositioning itself at the physical core of his form as William appeared to turn into a stainless steel statue of himself, remaining motionless as Blue Diamond ceased her pathokinetic aura projection.

Without warning, William glowed a strong, bright red, causing the sand around him to whirl and spiral into the air.

"What's happening?!" Pearl asked frantically.

"He's catalyzing the energy within his gemstone into a solid form!" Morlax exclaimed.

The sandstorm hindered visibility, but the Gems could still make out the loud sounds of mechanical shifting. When the storm died down, it was revealed that William had turned into a massive entity, spanning 268 feet tall, and appearing to be some sort of humanoid robot.

"Did... Did he...?"

"Yes, Steven. He took the form of a giant robot." Pearl stated.

"Heads up! He's about to go ballistic!" Garnet exclaimed, having seen the event with her Future Vision.

The right arm of William's newly created 'robo-giant' form transformed into a sort of energy cannon, and it was pointed directly at Yellow Diamond!

"Yellow Diamond of Homeworld, by the authority of the Emerald Order, you are hereby charged with the total destruction of the Emerald home planet of Epsilon 7-B! How do you plead?!" William demanded, his voice now lower and deeper.

Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, and Thavix all stared in disbelief and fear, mostly Yellow Diamond, who recalled the order she gave all those centuries ago. "I'm sorry! I'll make it up to you! Please don't vaporize me!"

Blue Diamond could feel the grief, the anger, the hatred emanating from William. Her sadness for Pink Diamond was effectively drowned out by William's mourning for his entire species. "He's been through worse... So much worse..."

Thavix was rethinking the actions she took that lead up to this point, having regrets and second thoughts. "Had I known that allowing the destruction of Epsilon 7-B would lead to this, I'd have never sided with the Diamonds."

"WAIT! WILLIAM, DON'T!" Steven called out.

"Stay out of this, Steven! It's judgment day! Yellow Diamond, for the destruction of Epsilon 7-B, the Emerald home planet, and the eradication of all other Emeralds, you are found guilty, and hereby sentenced... to DEATH!"

"I know what I did! I just never realized that there would be consequences! It was never my plan to destroy your planet! Thavix just presented an offer I couldn't pass up! She offered to join us, to help evolve our technology, in exchange for killing off the other Emeralds!" Yellow Diamond explained.

After thinking about this, William turned his gaze to Blue Diamond. "Is this true?"

"Yes. I was there. I overheard the deal."

William then turned his full attention to Thavix, arm weapon now trained on her. "After reviewing all presented evidence, I have reached a conclusion! Yellow Diamond... was used! The traitor is the guilty one! Emerald Thavix, formerly of Epsilon 7-B, you have betrayed your own kind, and are responsible for their deaths! You are hereby sentenced to DEATH! You will be drained of all energy, and promptly disintegrated!"

Yellow Diamond sighed, then turned to the traitorous Emerald. "Thavix, in light of recent events, I have no choice but to side with William. You tricked me into destroying Epsilon 7-B, and you shall suffer the consequences." As Thavix backed away, Yellow Diamond brought her foot up and stepped on the traitor, destroying her form.

With that done, both Diamond ships turned against the Fate-reaper, grabbed it, then proceeded to tear it to pieces as William reverted to his human form.

As the Fate-reaper was being violently torn apart, William took a hold of the traitor's gemstone, shape-shifted his arm into a sort of box, and began draining the energy out of Thavix's gem, funneling it into his own supply. Once the deed was done, he formed the Plasma Buster, tossed the depleted gemstone into the air, and vaporized it with a single blast, thus killing Thavix, and avenging the rest of his kind. "Freedom Shield, get the planetary defense plasma cannon array back online."

"Very well."

Yellow Diamond interjected. "Hold up. Before you reinstate Code E-18, we have unfinished business here."

"Ah. Of course. Pink Diamond. Rose Quart. The rebellion." William let out a sigh. "We... have news for you two."

Oh, things are getting good. And now we're heading to Homeworld!

I have completely forgotten about this story! I am so sorry! I'll be getting back to it, effective immediately!

Oh, and that robot giant William turned into? Imagine a green version of Gipsy Avenger from Pacific Rim.

See you next time, guys.