(A/N): Short chapter. Intense topic warning (Suicide).

(Y/N) POV

Inner Voice: "Things will be alright. Whatever happens we can get through it. Keep our head down and nothing will reach us." 

I've been sitting here, letting my inner voice wash over me to help me with the terrible anxiety I feel at what the meeting Emma is at could be about. I don't know why, but it feels like something terrible has happened. I can't shake this oppressive feeling of unrelenting terror that is smothering me like a blanket. I can only hope this is just empty anxiety, and wait for Emma to tell me what happened.

----

It's been hours since Emma left to attend the Diamonds meeting. With every minute that passes, my sense of impending doom grows exponentially. The platitudes of my inner voice rings hollow and empty. I resist the urge to cry. What is happening out there?

Suddenly Emma throws open the doors to her room. I stand to greet her... and notice that she is shaking, tears streaming down her forlorn face. (Y/N): "Emma?! What's wrong?" She looked at me, her eyes bloodshot and her face flushed from crying. Emma: "The Crystal Gems... they took it too far. They shattered Pink Diamond!!" I stood there in shock. Pink Diamond was dead!?! I can't be! Emma ran into me, tackling me to the bed, and just cried into my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her and wept, for Emma, for Pink Diamond, for the beginning of the end of hope for the Empire.

----

It has been a few weeks since we learned of Pink Diamond's shattering, and things have gotten worse here. Everywhere I go, I can hear some poor Gem having a breakdown, or crying, or even the sound of someone poofing- or worse, shattering themselves. The Court sessions the Diamonds hold never go anywhere. Every noble gem is either too depressed or too angry to make any headway on what should be done with Earth, with the Crystal Gems... With the late Pink Diamond's subjects. 

Even the Diamonds barely get anything done. White just sits on her throne, with a blank smile on her face, staring off into the distance until the court is adjourned. I hear that the nobles in Yellow Diamond's court can't get a word in edgewise, Yellow spends the whole time ranting and raving about 'filthy rebels' and 'traitorous scum' whenever she isn't crying about how 'I could have saved her'. Blue Diamond's court just cries and cries, the weight of Blue's emotions drowning all in her unrelenting sorrow.

I've never seen more Blue Spinels in my life. Spinels are companion gems, but the type of companion gem they are is determined by their color. Rare Pinks are 'Best Friends', Greens are musicians, and Blues are made to help gems cope with grief, loss, and sadness. And it seems every Blue Spinel ever made is either helping nobles cope, or walking the street trying to help gems and stop suicides.

Plus, every Moonstone in the Empire has been pulled from Psi OPs. to perform their secondary function as therapists full time until the Empire can move on. Everyone I pass on the street looks so exhausted, and I can't blame them. They have to deal with their own grief at Pink Diamond's passing, and help others work through theirs, and the fact that they can read minds cannot be helping them right now.

But the one that seems to be taking this the worst is Emma. She's been at peak condition for weeks now but she's not only not gone on any hunts, she's barely doing her job. "What's the point? Nothing will help. We can't fix this, we can only leave it be or make it worse." The only time she doesn't look depressed is when she burrows into my embrace, and even then she still seems melancholic.

The other day we had a conversation that terrified me to my very soul. Emma: "(Y/N)... I want to tell you something. And you're not gonna like it. It's going to be the worst thing I've ever said to you, but it's true, and I want you to know it." I turned to face her, concerned. (Y/N): "Yes Emma?" Emma smiled, for the first time since she'd heard of Pink Diamond's demise; it was hollow, and devoid of hope. She looked me dead in the eyes. Emma: "The only reason I haven't shattered myself is because you mean too much to me to leave you here by yourself." 

I felt a cold shock run through me at that. I grabbed hold of Emma's arms, and shouted at her. (Y/N): "EMMA, NO! YOU'RE FAR TOO IMPORTANT, PLEASE!" I hugged her tight. Not sure of what to say, I gently wept into her hair. She wrapped her arms around me. Emma: "It's true though. I promise you, I won't ever say that again, I'll find a way to make this better... for us. I promise."

After that, she went off to attend another pointless war council that won't have any effect. I've been thinking about her promise, and I don't know what she's planning. Make this better for us... What could that mean? What are you thinking Emma?

Emma POV

With but a single death of a beloved leader, everything is falling apart.
The Empire is burning... and there is no one at the wheel.
Because one group did what no one should do, we are all forever damned.

The streets are lined with the shards and dust of a thousand despairing suicides.

The cleaning droids and workers only just now catching up with the death rate.

When we learned of her death, you couldn't walk without stepping on a corpse.

Gems I don't know walk up to me and ask me for a swift death.
Gems I've never met confide in me their hopelessness.
Gems I've never seen stop working to breakdown and cry, the systems they manage breaking down with them.

Once, we were all kept safe and warm in the embrace of a grand and glorious Empire.

Once, we all knew that things were going to get better, and the Empire was growing.

Now, we are all trapped in the belly of a horrible machine... and that machine is bleeding to death.

I can not fix this.
And when the grief is over; what will rise from the ashes of the Empire will be something horrible, and reprehensible. 

Only the Diamonds can fix this, and they will mourn Pink for all of time. 

I know now, what I must do. I walk into my room, and look upon the gorgeous face of the only gem I love; (Y/N). I have figured out a plan to save him from the decay of the Empire. I merely hope he can forgive me for this.

(Y/N) POV

Emma just walked into her room, and is looking right at me. She seems... determined. Her eyes have that same passion that they had before Pink's shattering. She strides up to me, and looks me in the eyes. Emma: "I'm going to say something, and you have to promise you won't get mad if you don't agree." (Y/N): "Of course Emma, what is it?"

Emma: "I'm turning rebel. I'm gathering as many of the gems that serve me as I can, hopping aboard my Disharmonix-class Battlecruiser, and leaving Homeworld to be free. And I want you to come with me as my second-in-command."

(Y/N): "...WHAT?!?!"

To be Continued