Six out of the eight members of the Diamond Octet were crouched on the floor of the massive room, clutching their heads and emitting continuous groans of helpless agony.

Why can't Red stop her?!

"You brought this upon yourself." White Diamond informed them calmly, sweetly, sickeningly so, a smug and disturbing smile on her face. "You couldn't possibly think that you could take me down? Really, you were doomed to fail from the very beginning."

Watermelon nearly gave up all hope on the spot; if six fully grown Diamonds couldn't even shake this colossal goddess, what hope did she, a pint sized runt, have to help at all?

White's next gloating words brought her down to Earth.

"I think you all just need a time out for a while." The Diamond finalized with satisfaction. "You've been very naughty, my little stars." She ran her knife-like nails down the side of Red's agitated face; Red growled and managed to lift her head to snap at White's pale hand.

"Ah, ah, ah." White crooned, shaking her finger in the younger Diamond's face. "That's not how we behave, my darling Red."

"Don't call me that." Red snapped. White frowned in disapproval, and when she lifted her hands to invoke even more pain on their already strained minds, Watermelon made her decision.

"No!" She shouted. Her voice echoed through the large room, and White stopped what she was doing for a moment to look for the source.

"Who is this? Another starling?" White purred. "My dear stars, did you really think you could win with someone so tiny?"

Red broke free from White's control again just long enough to shout, "Watermelon, NO!"

"Nah ah ah." White crooned for the second time, bringing her hand down to touch Watermelon's mother. "You've really been far too much trouble, Red. I think it's time to start your punishment for running away all those years ago."

"NO!" Watermelon shouted again, this time, much more demanding.

"No?" White tilted her star tipped head. "She deserves this, starlight. She's only getting the punishment she's deserved all these years for being such a bad starling to her poor mother."

"I don't care!" Watermelon shouted, looking deep into the titan's black, void-like eyes. Her dagger was concealed behind her back, lined up with her wrist and pointed down in preparation. "Red is the best mother I could ever have! She's brilliant and smart and sweet and I can't let you hurt her! I can't let you hurt my family!" Her teeth were bared as she screamed at the Head Diamond.

"Starlight, all the family you need is right here." White crooned. "Just give up and join mama White."

Watermelon felt the slight temptation to just drop her dagger and bow to her superior, but she realized it was White's mind influence and angrily stomped her feet against the floor.

"Never." Watermelon gritted dangerously, her eyes glowing dark pink with anger. "Never, will I ever join the likes of you."

White blinked at her and sighed dramatically. "If that's what you want, starlight, I suppose there isn't anything else I can do."

And with a quick movement, she bent down and smooshed Watermelon between her thumb and index fingers.

"WATERMELON!" Red shrieked, tears of sadness and fury dripping from her vividly glowing red eyes. She began to lift into the air, but White easily pulled her back into her mind control.

In that instant, Watermelon jumped from her real position on White's head, and stabbed her dagger into White's exposed gemstone.

Shing.

A crack branched from the entry point. Then another. And another.

White's expression of false joy turned to shock and then white hot fury as the cracks extended further and further and opened wider and wider, branching from her forehead throughout her body as her physical form flickered in and out.

A loud crack echoed through the room, followed by a resounding boom as White Diamond disappeared in a puff of smoke and her shards hit the floor with a noise like a wind chime.

Watermelon picked them up in both hands and stared at the shards of the former leader of Homeworld. Her eyes started tearing up, but she wiped them away with one hand and quickly bubbled the glistening evidence of her just-commited murder.

Red picked herself up first, followed closely by Yellow and Blue, and then the rest.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Red cried, running up and grabbing her daughter in a tight hug. "I thought I lost you!"

"I'm alright, mom." Watermelon said with a watery smile.

"I know, but I thought you were gone!" Red sobbed, pulling in her daughter for an even tighter hug, if that were possible.

"What-?" Orange gasped, for once, shellshocked.

"I second that." Yellow agreed dryly. "How on Earth did you accomplish that?"

"No one has ever managed to shatter a Diamond." Blue added, a visible shudder going through her body in the old habit of mourning Pink, before she'd been found to be alive through her son. "And no one has ever been able to fool her. How in the stars did you do it?"

"I'll admit I had something to do with it." Green Diamond admitted, rubbing the back of her neck in uncharacteristic nervousness.

All six pairs of eyes turned to her.

"Go on, explain to us." Watermelon teased.

"We won't be angry." Purple reassured her unnecessarily.

"Well..." Green started out.

"Get on with it!" Red snapped, still holding Watermelon protectively. Green glared.

"Watermelon was originally going to face White as she appeared to." Green began. "But when she confided in me, I told her it was a horrible idea. I may not have met or seen White Diamond before today, but I've heard many things, and a few are that she was very powerful and very, very volatile. So I told Watermelon to hide somewhere close enough to cause damage to her, and I created an illusion of Watermelon."

"You did what now?!" Red demanded. "What if it hadn't worked as planned?! What if White has noticed Watermelon and the plan had failed and she'd shattered her?! She's my daughter, and you can't just go letting her risk her life like that!"

"She's my daughter too." Green answered icily. "And if I'd left her to her plan? Do you really think that would've worked out any better? Do you really think that we wouldn't have been staring and crying over her shards right now if I'd simply gone with her original plan?"

Red froze. "You- you..."

"I know, I'm such a horrible person!" Green yelled suddenly. "I've ignored our issues, been senseless, snarky, and rude when you've brought them up, mocked your love for me and beat you close to death and I'm so sorry, and I know you'll probably hate me forever for that, but I kept our daughter safe, and that's all that matters to me!" She quickly turned her head to hide the tears coming from both eyes and her pleading expression that unwittingly showed on her face.

"You called her our daughter..." Red murmured in shock. "You've never done that before..."

Green turned around and walked over and hugged Red tightly. They cried into each other's shoulders for a few minutes as the other Diamonds awkwardly watched, and Green raised her head to say, with a watery smirk and snarky edge to her tone, "But don't expect me to act any different because of it."

"Of course." Red rolled her eyes in amusement, wiping her tears away. Green laughed genuinely, surprising them all. She never really laughed unless she was mocking someone or if someone had made a joke she enjoyed or at anything, really, except a sarcastic side comment from her creator.

Watermelon felt a weird tingling sensation in her upper back, and she craned her neck to look down at it. She saw a bright pink glow coming from her gem. Her skin slowly lit up and she felt her mind expand as she suddenly sprouted upwards several hundred feet, a few yards taller than Yellow and Blue.

"Whoa." She gasped, and then gasped again; her voice was much less childlike and more like how a woman would sound.

"You grew." Orange said dumbly.

Watermelon laughed, a loud sound that resounded like bells through the massive room.

"I certainly did." She stated, and gasped as she looked toward her outfit; her dress had lengthened to a floor length ball gown, and it was now adorned with sparkles. And her hair- it was no longer short; instead, it was grown past her shoulders and curled up at the tips.

"You must've hit your maturity." Yellow mused. "It may have been caused by shattering White." She shuddered; it was strange remembering that White wasn't here anymore and couldn't hear them speaking of her.

"I really need to study more on this." Red mused excitedly. "This is fascinating."

"You're so beautiful." Blue told her proudly, a smile on her face.

"Hey, now we can shapeshift back to our normal sizes!" Orange exclaimed with a toothy grin. Purple seemed to realize this as well, and both took the opportunity to shapeshift back to their natural heights, which were slightly shorter and taller (respectively) than both Yellow and Blue.

"Wait, you guys aren't normally as short as I was?" Watermelon asked in disbelief. Red nodded, and she and Green both returned to their heights of slightly shorter and taller than Yellow and Blue, respectively.

"Naturally, we're this height, but when I had you, we shrunk ourselves down so you wouldn't feel inadequate." Red explained.

Watermelon made a face. "Now I just feel stupid though."

Purple laughed. "It's alright, I would too."

"So... what now?" Watermelon inquired, and as silence fell, it dawned on her that her fellow Diamonds didn't have any clue where to go from here either.

"Well... Watermelon will be the new leader of Homeworld." Yellow began. "And now that White is gone, we'll need a replacement to fill Pink's place, since Steven has made it abundantly clear that he has no intentions of staying here."

"I suppose that's true..." Red admitted slowly. "Do you need me or one of mine to fill the spot?"

"No." Blue replied, surprisingly firm. "No matter what, Homeworld must have a White Diamond in the Diamond Authority."

"Well, we can't bring her back." Orange pointed out, nodding to White's bubbled shards. "For one, she's crazy, and for another, she's shattered."

"I know what I can do." Red said suddenly, raising her head and finger. "If you've kept any of White's fluid in storage, I should be able to work some of my magic and create another White Diamond variant for us in no time."

"Variant?" Yellow asked with a raised eyebrow at the same time as Blue asked, "Can't you show us how to... create our own kind?"

"No." Red snapped fiercely. Blue gave her a hurt look, and she nodded apologetically. "Only Reds should know the secret of creating Diamonds." Everyone gave her a strange look, so she elaborated. "Reds are easily one of the three most powerful Diamond colors. Only one of us, one Pink, and one White should ever exist at one time, so naturally, we're equipped with the knowledge and magic to do such a thing, and handing that information to anyone else could result in catastrophe.

"Before I fade, I'll create another Red variant to take my place, and she can contribute Red fluid," she ended confidently.

"I suppose that makes sense." Blue admitted slowly. "But what if you shatter?"

"Oh, I have no intentions of shattering." Red replied with a very Green like smirk.

"I don't think anyone does, Red." Watermelon pointed out.

"ANYway, my point being, I'm the only one who gets to know how to create Diamonds. Whenever you want some made, just tell me what to do, and I'll do it, within reason.

"Oh, and another thing. Green, Orange, and Purple, I need you three to harvest your fluids."

"...excuse me?" Green asked with a cocked eyebrow and slight smirk.

"None of you know anything." Red grumbled as the Secondarys snickered. "I need Green, Orange, and Purple Diamond fluids to contribute to the considerable stockpile I've already compiled of everyone else's."

"The colored sweat looking stuff?" Orange asked. Green and Purple nodded and Red nearly poofed with relief until Orange asked her question. "What do you need that for?"

It took all Red had to not stab herself on the spot and retreat to her gem, where the only gems there had any sort of scientific intellect whatsoever.

"Because that 'colored sweat looking stuff' is one of the key components in creating more Diamonds." She explained deliberately.

Orange went, "Ah" and Red was finally relieved.

"Well." Watermelon said flatly. "I suppose we should go announce that I just shattered our glorious leader."

The other Diamonds nodded their assent and they filed out the massive door. Watermelon stayed behind for a second, to look back at White's bubbled shards, and to think about everything that'd happened that day and how much things were going to change form then on. When a faint call of "Watermelon" drew her from her mind, and turned to the dark reddish pink bubble and lightly tapped the top, sending it off. Without a look back, she walked through the door.

And closed that chapter of life.

And opened the door to a new one.

Thus begins the beginning of the Diamond Times universe. I hope you enjoy! Don't forget to vote, comment, and follow!

SalixEnder03