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andrewmoocow · 2 years

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The Black Pearl Brigade chapter 16: Shining Diamond, Part 2 (originally posted on July 25, 2022)

AN: It all comes down to this, the epic final battle against Cinnabar. Although it seems hopeless with the Black Pearls brainwashed into becoming mindless soldiers again and Cinnabar using the Vosania Syndicate to take control, there could still be a way to turn things around just in time for Alternate Future to end. But how, you may ask? Well, join us and found out.

Synopsis: In an epic war for control of Homeworld, the Black Pearls must make a choice.

Cast:

Deedee Magno-Hall as The Black Pearl Brigade, Shell/Nacre, Black Pearl-SC0, Aubergine Pearl, Orange Pearl

Kathleen Barr as Púrén

Avi Roque as Cinnabar

Awkwafina as Kyanite

Allison Janney as Pyrite

Kimberly Brooks as Dalmatian Jasper

Zehra Fazal as Zoisite

Lena Hall as Bloodstone

Jodie Whittaker as Xenotime

Matthew Moy as Lars Barriga

Christine Baranski as Hessonite

Olivia Olson as Citrine

Kathleen Fisher as Fluorite

Enuka Okuma as Rhodonite

Ashly Burch as Rutile Twins

Erica Luttrell as Padparadscha Sapphire, Orange Sapphire, Purple Sapphire

Christine Pedi as Holly Blue Agate, Fire Agate

Hayley Kiyoko as Morganite, Violet Morganite

Alex Newell as Monazite, Yellow Monazite

Amy Sedaris as Blue Zircon, Yellow Zircon

Casey Lee Williams as Cat's Eye

Charlyne Yi as Navy

Dee Bradley Baker as George, Elaine, Cosma

Martha Higerada as Blue Topaz

Jonathan Hyde as Supreme Intelligent One

Beau Billingslea as Sheriff Spiegel

Steve Blum as Deputy Edward

Christopher Lloyd as Batsputin Vosania

Shelby Rabara as Squaridot

Featuring Maggie Robertson as Painite

"Greetings, fellow Gems of Homeworld and beyond!" Cinnabar announced in a broadcast sent out across the Gem Homeworld and all connected planets they resided on. "Congratulations on being conquered! Now you may wonder how I could amass so much power in such a short time." She added rhetorically. "Well, it was all thanks to the diligent tutelage of my dear master and your future ruler Black Rutile, my now-dissolved alliance with the crime lord Torius Vosania, and some help from some very special friends I have here today." She then turned to speak to someone offscreen. "Come on, girls, don't be shy!"

"How could we have lost so easily?!" Yellow Zircon panicked while fearing for her life as she and Blue Zircon were surrounded by Black Pearls holding them at spear-point. "Please, have mercy on us! But mostly me!"

"Oh, put a sock in it, you coward." Blue Zircon growled. "You were the one to use me as your little shield from the Pearls."

"I was only allowing you the chance to repay me!" Yellow Zircon began arguing with her blue-hued rival.

"Repay you for what?! For bailing you out of going to prison for associating with Black Rutile?!" Blue Zircon yelled back.

"Exactly!" Yellow Zircon exclaimed, and the two kept arguing while Cinnabar motioned the camera to return to face her.

"Well, while they're off settling their troubled relationship, I also have some extraordinary news!" Cinnabar declared while presenting mugshots of Hessonite, Lars and the Off-Colors, Monazite, and Citrine next to her. "We have some executions scheduled for later today. Hessonite, Citrine, Monazite, Fluorite, Rhodonite, Rutile, and Padparadscha Sapphire are set to be shattered for their numerous crimes against the Gem empire. Be sure to save the date! And to anyone who dares to stand up for me," her pleasant façade turned dark as her face got uncomfortably close to the screen. "you can expect to join them all on the chopping block."

The screens then cut to a custom-made card with the Rutile Rebels' sigil, declaring "WE NEED THE TRUTH, BLACK RUTILE IS THE TRUTH" as Gems prepared for the upcoming execution. Tenno and Concretes stoically patrolled the streets, capturing whatever Gems were plotting to take back their home from Yellow Diamond's former commander and forcing them into slavery. Everything that Era 3 had established was on its way to being long gone as ships were being sent out to reclaim the colonies that were once freed from the Diamonds' control, and weapons were redistributed courtesy of Pyrite, who was more than happy to do the job.

"Oh, how I missed this!" Pyrite sobbed happily as she started throwing weapons everywhere she looked. "It's everything I could've ever wanted! Thank you Cinnabar, thank you so much!"

"Looks like someone's reacclimating quick." Bloodstone commented while handing a Rejuvenation Blaster to a Ruby. "Here, use this in case anyone starts resisting, got it?"

"You have no idea how much I'll abuse my power with this!" the Ruby exclaimed happily while running away with her new blaster.

"Ah, it brings a tear to my eye whenever someone makes good use of my work." Bloodstone chuckled happily.

"YOUR work?" Pyrite added, offended at her part being ignored by the mad scientist.

"Sorry, our work." Bloodstone corrected herself, bringing a smile to the con artist's face before she began pondering. "You know, as amazing as it is to finally triumph over those Pearls, I think I miss them a bit. The smart one especially, she was a great challenge to my intellect."

"Yeah, and I still fondly remember how I fooled the strong one into taking that bad makua motor." Pyrite laughed nostalgically. "Hey, didn't they have a ship of their own, and maybe a robot companion hanging with them that doesn't do much?"

"Yeah, I think they'll get decommissioned soon." Bloodstone responded. "Real shame too. Hope I can make some use over what parts I'll be allowed to find."

Meanwhile, the Servant was kept in a hangar with Sculder resting on a workbench leaning right in front of it. As Bloodstone had said, the ship was soon to be taken apart, so its parts could either be used later or thrown out entirely, and Sculder would also meet the same fate. However, Púrén wasn't ready to give up just yet regardless of her crew's defeat, but being a ship with an AI that can only project itself with a holographic body, saving the day was going to be complicated.

"Come on, Púrén, think!" the artificial intelligence muttered to herself as her holographic body paced around the bridge of the Servant, deep in thought over what to do. "I can't really do anything by myself since I can't actually touch things, so I'm gonna need a body." She then brought up a screen that showed her the outside of the Servant, where Sculder rested on the workbench. "Unfortunately, I don't have that much control over the ship. If only I had someone giving me a hand."

"Perhaps I could be of assistance." An unfamiliar voice rang out, making Púrén jump a bit. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Allow me to introduce myself." The bridge's main screen turned on and began showing a symbol of a pearl on it as the voice revealed its identity. "My name is Shell. Pleased to meet a fellow artificial intelligence, Púrén."

"Hey, you're that program from the Reef!" Púrén gasped in realization. "Wait, how did you install yourself into the ship's systems, and how have I not noticed you by now?"

"When you crashed into the Reef not too long ago, I tried to save my life by installing myself into your vessel." Shell explained while showing a video of itself sticking a cord into the Servant's hull while the Pearls boarded the ship after their dogfight with Cinnabar. "Since then, I've been watching you all from the sidelines, recording how much you have grown since then. It truly warmed my nonexistent heart to see my creations develop, but now it doesn't seem I can ever see them again."

"I'm sad to see them go too." Púrén replied sadly while replaying the haunting scene of the Black Pearl Brigade being stripped of their identities by Cinnabar while thousands watched. "But we have to try and make things right!"

"I couldn't agree more." Shell responded. "You said you needed a body, right? How about once I find you one, you can make me a body? I tire of merely being an electronic voice."

"Once we get IQ back, we'll see what we can do." Púrén agreed to Shell's offer. "Now, can you plug me into that robot outside?"

"With pleasure." Shell declared and began extending plugs that it connected into Sculder's body as a Peridot prepared to disassemble it.

"Okay, let's see what we're working with here." The Peridot muttered while cracking her knuckles and picking up some tools to use. "Looks like Intelliga technology." Suddenly, the cords coming from the Servant took the engineer by surprise as some began to tie her up while the rest plugged into Sculder's inactive body. "What the crack?!"

Sculder's eyes began glowing with life as Púrén took custody of the metal chassis, getting up from the workbench and threatening the Peridot with Sculder's arm cannon. "Where are my friends?!" However, the AI took a moment to distract herself while looking at the cannon. "Oh, my stars, my own weapon!"

"Your friends?" the Peridot sneered, even though she was still reeling from the robot coming to life and attacking her. "I mean, we all saw those Pearls get zapped by those fancy new blasters! As for the rest, I ain't telling where they are before they're set to be executed!"

"Do it now, or I will blast your smug face into cinders!" Púrén threatened the Peridot, now angrier than ever. "I don't care if this costs me my life, just as long as they're back to normal!"

"Okay, I'll tell, I'll tell!" the Peridot quickly caved in to save her skin. "That Hessonite and her pals are locked up in the old prison tower; you can't miss it! That pink boy has special restraints to keep him from using his powers to get out of there, same for the Coalition girl!"

"That's all I needed to hear." Púrén declared as she turned her cannon back into a hand and turned around to board the Servant. "Good day."

"Wow, Púrén, you scared that Peridot there." Shell complimented Púrén as the artificial intelligence sat down on Cap's old chair. "She said they're in the prison tower, correct?"

"Affirmative." Púrén nodded. "Now lift off!" Under Púrén's commands, Shell piloted the Servant out of the hanger and flew it away, leaving the Peridot that attempted to dismantle Sculder at a loss for words at what just happened. Well, except for three.

"I'm so dead." The Peridot moaned in resignation of her possible fate.

"That's right, move along, missy." Dalmatian Jasper barked while forcing Sylvia Spectre onto a dropship. "Don't worry, you'll be back to your boss soon. What was his name again, Max Impact or something?"

"You won't get away with this!" Sylvia yelled as she tried to turn invisible and phase through her prison, but unfortunately, there was a restraining collar that inhibited her natural abilities. "Dammit!"

"Sorry, Sylvie, but it looks like that collar's working its magic." Zoisite taunted the Coalition agent with a sneer. "We fitted the pink boy with similar confinements that'll keep him from screaming his way out of trouble, too."

"Just because you've shut off my powers doesn't mean I can no longer do this." Sylvia replied before turning on her wrist communicator. "All units report! Gem Homeworld is under siege; an officer is under enemy custody! I need backup, now!"

"Don't think your Coalition friends will be able to help you out." DJ continued taunting as she gestured around the now Rutile Rebels-occupied Homeworld. "Look around you, girlie! This planet is ours, and anyone who tries to resist will be destroyed!"

"Anyone like us?" the familiar voice of Púrén declared as she arrived in Sculder's body to rescue Sylvia from her captors, with the Servant housing Shell alongside her. "Let her go at once!" she commanded while aiming her new arm cannon at the bounty-hunting Gems. "I've only just stolen this body, but I will use this!"

"You're that artificial intelligence they keep around, aren't you?" Zoisite asked Púrén as she summoned her naginata. "How did the Servant escape captivity?!"

"I helped, of course." Shell proclaimed while aiming the Servant's weapons at Sylvia's dropship and blasting it to pieces, freeing the superheroine. "Greetings, you may know me as Shell."

"Wait, you mean the voice from the Reef?" Zee gasped in shock. "I thought that was destroyed along with the place itself when we crashed into it! This can't be possible!"

"As a matter of fact, it can be." Shell rebuked snidely before opening fire on the two Gems sending them running to give the bad news. "That should keep us safe for a bit."

"Thank you both for helping me out." Sylvia said gratefully as Púrén tore the inhibitor collar off Sylvia's neck with only one hand. "Let me guess. You guys are looking for Lars, right?"

"How did you know?" Shell wondered before Sylvia flew up and boarded the Servant.

"I figured someone would try to rescue him and the other Gems before finding a way to bring the Pearls back." Sylvia remarked as she sat down at the captain's chair. "They should be stuck in that big prison tower over there."

"Orders approved." Shell declared as Púrén went onboard after Sylvia, and the ship began preparing for takeoff. "Lars, here we come!" With that, the Servant blasted off towards the prison tower in which Lars and the Pearls' remaining allies were held. Perhaps with their help, they could save the Pearls and finally take back Homeworld.

Looking out one of the prison tower's windows with a nervous expression, George gazed upon the current state of his home as Tenno soldiers and ex-con Gems patrolled the planet's streets. Banners bearing the Rutile Rebels' symbol flew on every building he could see. A massive statue in the image of Black Rutile was in the beginning stages of construction. Things were looking bleak for Gemkind, they would soon be forced to serve a tyrant once more, one he heard could be even worse than all of the Diamonds combined.

George hovered back down to meet the rest of his fellow prisoners. Lars was given a special muzzle to prevent him from using his powers to create portals out of their cell. The Off-Colors had finally reformed after being poofed by Xenotime. Monazite was desperately trying to dig a way out, and Hessonite, Citrine, and Elaine & Cosma were all patiently awaiting their fates.

"See anything, George?" Hessonite asked her former Light Prism, who nodded and began speaking to her in Gem Glyph. "That bad, eh?" the Garnet nodded back. "It truly is hopeless. Homeworld is effectively conquered, and I do not want to know what's happening on Earth."

"Don't give up now, guys!" Monazite exclaimed as she continued digging an exit out of the tower. "I'll have us free in no time!"

"I admire your devotion, Monazite, but it's hopeless." Rhodonite stated dejectedly. "Plus, you'll be digging a big hole in the floor that'll cause us to fall." Lars mumbled in agreement, unable to speak properly with the muzzle on. "See? Lars agrees with me."

"We are all doomed." Padparadscha added, her sad voice making it unclear whether it was yet another late prediction or she was seeing the future for the first time.

"Don't fret, everyone; I'm sure help will arrive." Fluorite tried calming everyone down.

"How, Fluorite, how?!" Citrine yelled angrily. "We're basically going to be executed for doing what was right! All is lost, and there's no way anything can be turned around now!"

"You know, that reminds me of a story." Hessonite said. "You ever wanted to know how and why I became a vigilante?"

"Ooh, Hessonite is going to tell a story!" Padparadscha exclaimed cheerfully.

"What, are you doing this to cheer us up before we get brutally murdered to the celebration of hundreds?" Citrine asked sourly.

"Just hush and let me talk." Hessonite ordered Citrine as she began her tale. "Now, this one began following my alliance with the Crystal Gems to stop Demantoid and Pyrope."

In the short while since the defeat of Demantoid and Pyrope, Hessonite began making a home in the Palace of Light alongside the Light Prisms, helping to restore the place and reopen the palace to the rest of the Gem race. However, despite being happy with how far she's come, the former commander felt like something was missing in her life now that Era 3 was in full swing. Sure, she was free to make her own choices now, and one of those was to help the Crystal Gems reassemble the Prisms, but Hessonite still longed for the days when she could strike fear into the hearts of her enemies, so she decided to take a walk to collect her thoughts. But that walk would be one that would change her life forever.

During one trip to Homeworld itself, Hessonite noticed something was wrong. Although most of the Gems there were living peacefully, there were others she saw glowering in disgust. They were talking with each other about a Gem whose name she found familiar, and showing each other black rhombus sigils being passed around. "What is going on here?" Hessonite muttered to herself when she noticed a cry for help.

"Someone, save us!" an orange Pearl yelled as she, a yellow Monazite, and a purple Sapphire found themselves cornered in an alleyway by a blue Topaz.

"Come on girls; I'm just giving you an offer you can't refuse." Blue Topaz said with a disarming smile. "Though if you do refuse, I won't hesitate to make you pay."

"Sapphire, what does she want?!" Yellow Monazite asked Purple Sapphire, who then began gazing into the future. "Well?"

"She wants us to join her for something." Purple Sapphire answered. "Though for what, I can't tell without scaring us all."

"We're not all that bad." Blue Topaz stated. "We're just a humble bunch of Gems that feel like Steven is being even more oppressive than the Diamonds ever will be. I mean, he's basically browbeaten us into subjecting to his way of life. Don't you find that the least bit concerning?"

"Yes, I find it weird how fast everything has changed, but that's no reason to threaten us!" Orange Pearl exclaimed. "We'll do what you want, just let us go!"

"Not today!" Hessonite's voice cried as she zoomed around Blue Topaz in an orange flash, catching the former guard by surprise.

"Who said that?!" Blue Topaz yelled before the orange blur sent her falling to the ground.

"I did." Hessonite proclaimed, stopping to press her foot against Blue Topaz's back with pride. "You won't be threatening any more Gems into compliance here."

"That's what you think, sheep!" Blue Topaz replied as she grabbed Hessonite by the leg and tossed her against the wall with a loud smash, causing passersby to turn their attention towards the spar between Gems. "Look at you, Hessonite, now nothing more than a Crystal Gem dog. Your old pal Black Rutile would be most ashamed with you."

"Black Rutile?" Hessonite coughed up rubble as she got up and rubbed her neck. "What's she up to now?"

"Only making the change us Gems deserve!" Blue Topaz boomed. "The Crystal Gems have torn our race to shreds all because Steven is delusional enough to think the Diamonds need to change just because they're his family! Why, does every great dictator in history need to get the same treatment without any regard for their servants who will no doubt seek vengeance for losing everything?!"

"What are you on about?!" Hessonite asked while drawing her sword. "Well, in any case, I won't let you harm these Gems!"

"It's treason then." Blue Topaz replied while summoning a club in response and roared as she charged at Hessonite before clashing with the Garnet's sword. "Give it up; your resistance to Black Rutile's truth is USELESS USELESS USELESS USELESS!"

"I wouldn't count on that!" Hessonite said as she knocked Blue Topaz away and backflipped towards the back of the alley. "Take this!" With a change of stance, Hessonite charged at her arrogant foe with blinding speed and seemingly pierced the Topaz through her torso. But when Hessonite returned to normal, it seemed that nothing had happened.

Blue Topaz started panting in horror as she gave herself a pat-down before looking back with her arms akimbo and a smug grin. "You missed."

"Did I?" Hessonite replied while looking back at Blue Topaz, whose face quickly fell before she erupted in a puff of blue smoke, leaving behind her gem for Hessonite to collect. "Some days, you just can't get rid of a rowdy Gem." Just then, Gems that had gathered to watch the battle began cheering for Hessonite and chanting her name in reverence of her heroism, causing the Garnet to blush. "Oh please, you're all too kind."

"Thank you, Hessonite. You're our hero!" Yellow Monazite cheered for her and her friends' savior. "How can we ever thank you?"

"Your thanks are all I need." Hessonite said. "I was just passing through on a journey to find myself."

"Well, maybe this is what you need." Orange Pearl suggested. "To become a savior of Gems who will fight for what's right no matter how violent it may get."

"Are you serious?" Hessonite wondered while looking at the cheering Gems around her. "I was just content with restoring the Palace of Light and reopening it for everyone, but maybe I could give it a shot."

"Yeah, just think of how much praise you'll get!" Purple Sapphire urged the Hessonite, who began getting twinkly-eyed at the thought of being revered by all for her deeds once again.

"Okay, you convinced me, everyone!" Hessonite proudly announced. "Look out Crystal Gems; Homeworld's new greatest hero has arrived!"

Word quickly got out of the incident. When the Diamonds caught wind of what happened, they summoned Hessonite to their throne room to allow her to live out her newfound dream of enforcing vigilante justice upon Gems who would take their dissatisfaction with the new order to violent degrees.

Hessonite accepted the offer and was soon granted her headquarters fashioned from one of Yellow Diamond's old facilities and tons of new equipment. Eventually, Hessonite would reunite with Squaridot and, after some awkward apologizing, took her in as her sidekick, the same happening to Citrine after they saved her from a biker gang of Rubies as a way of repaying the duo. It wasn't until Hessonite, and her new team began investigating Black Rutile's rebellion that they would become entangled in the conflict of ideals against her.

"Oh, I certainly remember when I first joined you." Citrine remarked nostalgically as Hessonite finished her story. "I mean, where did those Rubies get such tiny little motorcycles?"

"That was certainly a nice story, but I don't feel cheered up at all." The left Rutile said.

"It would take a miracle for someone to save us now." The right Rutile added, just as dejected while unaware that a miracle was indeed coming for them. Suddenly, there was a deathly loud crashing sound that the prisoners learned was caused by the Servant ramming itself through the tower walls, and out of the ship came Sylvia Spectre and Sculder.

"Get in, losers!" Sylvia commanded while phasing her hand through Lars's muzzle and tearing it off. "We're saving the Pearls!"

"Finally!" Lars cheered happily. "You have no idea how great it is to move my mouth and make words with it again."

"We're getting broken out!" Padparadscha celebrated as the Off-Colors hurried onboard the Servant, followed by Hessonite, the Prisms, Citrine, and Monazite.

"Thanks for pulling us out of the gutter there, Spectre." Hessonite thanked Sylvia. "You think this will get Cinnabar's attention?"

"Probably." Sylvia answered before pointing at Sculder and Shell. "And I have these two to thank for it."

"Greetings, I am Shell." Shell introduced itself to the gang. "I am assisting Púrén in rescuing the Brigade in exchange for being given my own body."

"And I got to download myself into Sculder so I can help out myself." Púrén added. "Now then, let's get searching! Since the Pearls were hit with a rejuvenation device, hopefully, we can reverse the process by restoring their memories."

"Hopefully, we find them soon." Lars replied as the ship left the prison tower and started flying around Homeworld, leaving a massive home in the wall where the Servant had crashed.

"Move along now, everyone; I need this throne room in tip-top shape for when Black Rutile returns." Cinnabar ordered her subordinates as they worked on redecorating the Diamonds' now former throne room. Gems scrambled about erecting busts in the Rutile Rebels' honor, hanging banners and preparing the three massive thrones for demolition. "The Jinsakai will be coming soon to deliver their offerings in exchange for us not obliterating their planet, so chop-chop everyone!"

"Uh, my Cinnabar, I come giving bad news." Fire Agate proclaimed while walking up beside Cinnabar and showing her a tablet displaying footage from the prison tower. "There's been a break-in at the prison tower, our captives have been freed by the Pearls' ship!"

"What?!" Cinnabar yelled angrily while snatching the tablet out of the Agate's hands and replaying the footage several times. "This shall not stand!" she declared and slammed the tablet on the ground, breaking it to pieces before she began giving out orders. "Black Pearl-6G9, report!"

"Yes, Cinnabar." The Black Pearl formerly known as Cap answered as she and her other rejuvenated teammates took a break from their duties to speak with their master.

"It seems there are still some rebels running about." Cinnabar announced. "Our prisoners in the tower have been freed by Sylvia Spectre and a Class-B scout ship, now they're on the run. They must be stopped at once."

"Yes, my Cinnabar." The five Pearls responded robotically before a sixth Pearl walked up to them.

"Black Pearl-SC0, I'm giving you the task of leading the attack, alongside Holly Blue, Morganite, Ruby, and Cat's Eye." Cinnabar ordered the new Pearl. "And just in case the other five Pearls start getting unruly, I grant you permission to shatter them should they refuse to follow orders."

"You have my word, Cinnabar." Black Pearl-SC0 saluted her master before she began leading her Pearl troopers away as Cinnabar started making some calls.

"Kyanite, Pyrite, DJ, Zoisite, Bloodstone, Xenotime, we're having a little trouble." Cinnabar ordered into an earpiece. "Report to my location at once. Prisoners have escaped, I repeat, prisoners have escaped."

"I'm on my way, my Cinnabar." Kyanite obediently answered.

"Just going to need to deliver a few orders first." Pyrite added.

"Zoisite and I are coming too." Dalmatian Jasper concurred.

"I'll be right there!" Bloodstone declared.

"You can count on me, Cinnabar." Xenotime concluded as Cinnabar ended the call to collect her thoughts.

"Anything the matter, Cinnabar?" Violet Morganite asked her boss.

"It's nothing." Cinnabar responded nervously before she walked away. "But I feel our time in the sun may not last long."

"But why? We've finally won!" Orange Sapphire cried. "We finally got everything we could ever want! How could you say such a thing?!"

"Sometimes, having everything you could ever want could just as easily be taken away from you!" Cinnabar argued with the Sapphire. "Like how a ragtag infestation of misfits could make you lose everything, like the respect your master could have for you for one!"

"My Cinnabar, are you afraid that you'll never be up to Black Rutile's expectations?" Violet Morganite wondered, making her superior blush in embarrassment before quickly walking away. "I guess I'm right."

"Oh, don't you worry, everyone." Fire Agate declared resolutely. "I'm sure she'll be able to get over this soon. If I know Cinnabar, she'll pull through eventually!"

Elsewhere, the Servant and her ragtag crew of Lars, Hessonite, the Off-Colors, Monazite, Citrine, Shell, Púrén, the Light Prisms, and Sylvia continued flying around Homeworld in search of the Pearls. However, as the investigation continued, morale seemed to go down as the crew began tiring of taking down enemy ships and kept clinging to hope that their friends might be found.

"One way or another, we're gonna find them!" Rhodonite said desperately while fidgeting in place. "We have to, I'm sure of it!"

"I admire your never give up attitude, Rhodonite, but has living on Homeworld's abandoned surface made you forget how big this planet is?!" Citrine exclaimed. "They could be anywhere, or maybe they've already left because they've been ordered to retake one of the old colonies!"

"Yeah, it's not like they've been sent to get us or something." Lars agreed with Citrine before the Servant's GPS systems detected another ship heading for them. "Wait, did I just do that?"

"I'm sure it's just another Vosania ship." Fluorite answered. "Shell, dear, please show us who's chasing us now."

"Right away, Fluorite." Shell replied and began receiving a transmission from the ship, and the caller turned out to be a Black Pearl piloting the enemy vessel, with Holly Blue, Cat's Eye, Morganite, and Navy alongside her.

"Attention escapees, this is Black Pearl-SC0." SC0 announced. "We have come to bring you back to the prison tower after your escape, and we won't take any threats lightly."

"Where are our friends?" Hessonite asked coldly. "Where is the Brigade?"

"Oh, you mean these five?" Holly Blue smugly responded before she moved aside to reveal the former Brigade behind her, emotions basically nonexistent on their faces as they prepared to board the Servant. "Prepare to be boarded and returned to your cells. And this time, we'll make sure there's no getting out."

"We'd like to see you try!" Monazite yelled while turning her fingers into tiny drills. "I got drills, and I know how to use them!"

"Wait, this is good!" Shell said. "If we show the Pearls their fondest memories, that will restore them to normal. Plus, that SC0 might provide a good body for me."

"Hope this works." Púrén nodded before turning back to the screen. "Okay, we surrender. Come onboard and capture us if you want."

"Of course we want to capture you," Morganite replied. "but it's good you're being team players." The enemy ship flew next to the Servant and opened the bay doors, allowing SC0 and the Brigade to board the Servant and prepare to arrest its occupants.

"Okay, move along now everyone." SC0 commanded the Servant's temporary crew. "We haven't got all day."

"Funny you should mention that." Lars smugly responded. "NOW!"

Rhodonite, the Rutiles, Citrine, Monazite, Hessonite, and Sylvia quickly restrained all the Pearls, much to Holly Blue's shock, as Púrén began hooking up SC0 to Shell. "What is the meaning of this?!" SC0 cried out. "Let me go this instant!"

"We'll let you go, but you won't be you anymore once we're done." Hessonite purred to SC0. "Now!"

"Pearls, I know you can't hear me, but I need you to understand!" Púrén exclaimed as she returned Sculder's body to its rightful owner and returned to the Servant's interface, where she started playing videos of the Pearls' previous adventures. "This is the real you!"

"What's going on over there?!" Cat's Eye meowed.

"Are they seriously going to override SC0? That's messed up!" Navy added. "And you guys are supposed to be the heroes!"

"This can't possibly end well!" Morganite replied.

"Listen Pearls, think of all the good times we had together!" Púrén urged the Pearls to remember all the adventures they shared. Their takedown of Fire Agate, outsmarting Pyrite, Braids rescuing everyone from DJ and Zee, the Brain Brawl, the time they spent on Sergione-29, infiltrating Xenotime's party, visiting Earth, meeting Sylvia, the fight against Envyrno, meeting the Metals and the Universal Lords, and more. As for SC0, she kept screaming and begging for mercy as she felt her original self being wiped away in favor of Shell taking over her body.

Eventually, however, the process seemed to take hold as the six Pearls levitated in the air in a heavenly white glow that quickly began changing their forms and forcing the remaining invaders back. The Brigade regained their original hairstyles and colored red, pink, blue, yellow, and green, respectively.

"Is it working?" Sylvia asked Púrén. "What's with the colors? They're not supposed to change form upon recovering their memories!"

"I'm not sure how either, but I think we did it!" Púrén responded as the process began winding down, and the six Pearls touched down onto the ground. The Black Pearl Brigade was back at last, and rather than their uniform black and white suits, the black parts were now replaced with different colors. Cap was clad in red, Pony was wearing pink, IQ was garbed in blue, Braids dressed in yellow, and Tails now wore green. As for Shell, she had fully taken over SC0's body and, as such, retained the former Pearl's black uniform while also growing her hair into a side-plait.

"Wait, what happened?" Cap muttered as she finally came to and looked around at everyone else on the ship. "Everybody, you're all safe! What did we miss?"

"I guess they don't remember being brainwashed anymore." Fluorite smiled softly. "Welcome back, Brigade."

"I cannot believe it; we live!" Braids cheered as she wrapped the other four Pearls in a group hug. "Glorious!"

"Oh, I'm so happy we're all together again!" Pony began sobbing tears of joy before she noticed the new Pearl wearing their old uniform. "Hey, who are you supposed to be?"

"Oh, pardon me for not introducing myself." Shell chuckled, her voice now no longer sounding mechanical. "I am Shell. Though, now that I have a body, maybe I should consider my own name. How does Nacre sound?"

"Wait, I think I know this one!" IQ gasped. "You were once Project Nacre, because Nacre was known as the Mother of Pearls!"

"Correct, my little Pearl." The AI-turned-Pearl, now dubbed Nacre, giggled lightly and patted IQ on the head. "I just couldn't bear to see my creations be stripped of all the individual identities they've formed for themselves, so I took it upon myself to assist your artificial intelligence to save you and your friends."

"But that leaves the question, where were you before now?" Tails asked. "In fact, how did you even get here when we crashed into the Reef?!"

"She downloaded herself into the Servant at the last moment so she can keep herself alive." Púrén explained before she started getting a message. "Hold on; I'll take this." She turned the message on, revealing a Peridot that Lars and Hessonite found familiar on the other end.

"Attention to whoever may receive this message; the Earth is in danger!" Squaridot said nervously. "There's this big, scary pink thing that destroyed all of Little Homeworld, and we think Black Rutile may have been the cause! Please, somebody help us!"

"So Black Rutile's still on Earth, huh?" Hessonite muttered. "Well, Pearls, we'd love to stay and help, but the Crystal Gems need our assistance, so we'll just be going to the Sun Incinerator and leaving."

"Wait, I think the Incinerator may be under Cinnabar's custody." Lars replied. "Well, Pearls, it's your choice. You can either come with us to save Earth and move there or stay here and stop Cinnabar. What do you choose?"

"And leave everyone here behind in their hour of need? No dice!" Cap exclaimed. "Come on, Pearls, we got a planet to save! They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!"

"But how can we get off Homeworld now?" Rhodonite asked when everyone looked towards a massive pair of pink legs in the distance.

"We use Pink Diamond's ship." Citrine answered proudly.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST THEM?!" Cinnabar screamed at Holly Blue from a meeting room she was in with Kyanite, Pyrite, Dalmatian Jasper & Zoisite, Bloodstone, and Xenotime. "AND APPARENTLY, THE REEF'S AI WAS THERE TOO?!"

"Please forgive me, my Cinnabar. We were surprised and too flabbergasted to do anything else!" Holly begged for forgiveness. "Now the Pearls have been restored to their original forms and are no doubt plotting revenge!"

"What do we do now?!" Navy asked.

"Wait for further orders." Cinnabar began to calm down as she prepared to end the call. "It's time I take matters into my own hands." After turning off the screen, Cinnabar then turned back to her confidants. "Well, my friends, it seems that all that's left to do is to not go gentle into this good night. If we are to succeed, we must work together to eliminate the Pearl threat once and for all!"

"Are you desperate enough to suggest fusion?" Xenotime suggested. "I'd be open to that suggestion."

"Ooh, don't think I ever fused with more than one or two Gems before!" Kyanite excitedly agreed. "What do you think all of us together would make? How many limbs, what would our powers be, how tall can we get?!"

"Don't get too excited, Kyanite." Pyrite declared. "At this point, we'll try anything at this rate."

"Yeah, anything to please the boss." Xenotime snidely added, making Cinnabar grimace with embarrassment. "Touched a nerve there, Cinnabar?"

"One more word about how I'm inferior to Black Rutile, and I will make you pay." Cinnabar growled before she got word that the Pearls and their allies were going to Pink Diamond's leg ship. "Running away already, Pearls?"

"No, it seems like they're not the ones using it." Bloodstone said, zooming in on Lars, the Off-Colors, Hessonite, and Citrine bidding the Brigade farewell before using the legs to leave Homeworld. "On the bright side, that takes the human and Hessonite off the board for now."

"It would seem so." Cinnabar agreed. "Now then, the Pearls will no doubt be coming for us next. So I suggest we start biding our time in the throne room."

"Right behind you, master." Dalmatian Jasper said. "No matter what."

"Goodbye, Lars, have fun on Earth!" Pony called for Lars as the massive pair of legs departed for Earth. "Tell the Gems we said hi!"

"Well, now our party is done to just us eleven." Nacre solemnly narrated. "But together, we are as strong as the ocean, and we will prevail!"

"Nice metaphor there, but I don't think just eleven will be enough." Sylvia proclaimed. "I already radioed for help from my fellow officers at the Coalition of Planets, and even messaged a few of the lifeforms the Pearls met on their adventures too." As if on cue, a giant spaceship arrived, and out of it came not just Batsputin Vosania but also Sheriff Spiegel, Deputy Edward, and the Intelliga as well, all ready to assist the Pearls in their greatest battle yet. "I tried contacting the Metals as well, but all I kept getting was static, almost as if I can't reach them."

"Pearls, it is good to see you again!" the Supreme Intelligent One exclaimed joyously. "And loving the suits too! Did you get a new recruit? She looks quite fetching."

"Why, thank you, sir." Nacre blushed at the compliment before turning to the Pearls. "You seem to have built up quite the reputation, girls."

"Oh, maybe when we're done saving Homeworld, we can take you around the universe to show you what we've done!" Cap suggested eagerly. "Trust us, you're gonna love Kyukanza!"

"I think I've been there a few times before." Batsputin revealed. "The clam-cakes are to die for! But enough talk, we got work to do!" Just then, hundreds of Tenno soldiers began surrounding the group with weapons at the ready, alongside tons of Gem soldiers preparing to bring everyone in. "Prepare yourselves, we'll handle everything from here while you defeat Cinnabar!"

"Ready for a little standoff?" Sheriff Spiegel offered while he and Deputy Edward pulled out their guns.

"Always ready!" Edward said before pulling his trigger and shooting one of the Tenno down before turning to Pony. "Go on, girls, stop that Cinnabar!"

"Right on it!" Pony declared as the six Pearls hopped onto the Servant and flew away towards the throne room, while leaving their allies to fight off Cinnabar's armies.

"Go get 'em." Sylvia prayed for the Pearls' victory as the final battle against Cinnabar's forces commenced.

Crashing through the front wall of the throne room, the Servant's crew of Pearls found themselves face to face with Cinnabar, Kyanite, Pyrite, Dalmatian Jasper, Zoisite, Bloodstone, and Xenotime, all awaiting them on White Diamond's throne. "So, look who finally showed up?" Cinnabar rhetorically asked. "I think it's about time we finally settled this, right?"

"You're right, it's time we bring you in for your crimes against the entire universe!" Cap declared after the Servant dropped the Pearls off and flew away to avoid the upcoming fight. "You've been getting away with your heinous deeds and kissing up to Black Rutile for way too long now!"

"And you've been avoiding your destiny for too long too." Cinnabar responded as she jumped down from the massive throne. "I had given you multiple chances to join me, but you kept rejecting at every turn. I could've freed you from Steven's oppressive reign, but you choose to be the Diamonds' patsies instead."

"Would joining you now be any different from when we were made to be Black Rutile's flunkies?" Pony wondered. "I mean, look at us now. We've forged our own identities, made new connections, and even got some sweet new costumes!"

"I have to admit, green is definitely my color." Tails commented regarding her new suit.

"I agree; those colors are tight!" Kyanite yelled from the throne.

"But we can see you're just as troubled as the rest of us." IQ continued for her teammates. "Remember when we called you a diet Black Rutile?"

"Yes, and I still refuse to accept it." Cinnabar replied.

"But now we want you to make a choice." Nacre proclaimed. "Please, you don't have to live up to Black Rutile's expectations anymore. You can be anything you want to be in this era of freedom."

"Hate to break it to you, but we know fully what we want now." Cinnabar rejected the offer after giving it some thought. "I don't care whether I disappoint my master or not. All that matters is bringing an end to Steven's tyrannical pacifism and proving that when you give peace a chance, it can take everything away from you."

"Well, we tried our best." Nacre whispered to her creations as the rest of Cinnabar's entourage gathered behind her. "What are they doing now?"

"It's just a little something we've been practicing lately." Cinnabar answered before offering her hand to Kyanite. "May I have this dance?"

"Oh, heck yeah!" Kyanite readily answered as she took Cinnabar's hand, and the two began to tango, followed by Dalmatian Jasper & Zoisite dancing together, as did Pyrite with Bloodstone and Xenotime.

"Are they doing what I think they're doing?" Braids gasped in shock as the seven Gems began glowing and got closer together. They formed a massive blob of light that turned into a gigantic, beastly brownish-red fusion with seven pairs of arms, six pairs of legs dangling off her sides, wild & unkempt hair, massive fangs, and spikes emerging from her wrists, head, and back.

"CALL US PAINITE!" the new fusion roared animalistically. "What do you have to offer to compete with this?!"

"Fusion, eh?" Cap smirked. "Pearls, I think we should break that out again."

"Oh, I get what you're talking about!" Braids realized eagerly. "Come, my friends, we must dance!"

"It's okay, show me what you got, I can wait." Painite casually said while sitting down on White Diamond's throne.

"What are we talking about?" Nacre asked the Brigade as the six Pearls got together in a circle.

"Just follow our lead; we're gonna fuse." IQ replied as the Brigade and Nacre began dancing themselves, eventually getting together to allow Mega Black Pearl to be reborn, this time being much larger with Nacre a part of the fusion.

"Oh my, I just fused!" Mega Black Pearl whispered to herself by voicing Nacre's excitement before she faced Painite. "Well, here we are! Come and face us!"

"So, the Pearls can fuse too, eh?" Painite mused as she got up and ready to fight. "Well, let's see if you can handle this!" With a mighty seven-handed punch, Painite sent Mega Black Pearl flying out of the throne room and out into the wider Homeworld area, where the fight against Cinnabar's forces continued being waged by the Pearls' allies, now joined by the Coalition of Planets. "Well Pearls, you going to get up?!"

"Take this!" Mega Black Pearl yelled as she formed a massive spear with one hand and threw it at Painite, but the enemy fusion swiftly dodged it before lunging at the fused Pearls and clawing at them, starting a massive fight that caused equally massive destruction to Homeworld, with buildings being thrown everywhere as weapons, ice was created in thin air, time was frozen, and weapons spawned from one of the smaller arms. "Hopefully, we can start reconstruction once we're done!"

"Enough about the people, focus on me!" Painite roared and tried biting on Mega Black Pearl's arm. "This could've been easier and less destructive if you joined me! Or perhaps you can just run away while you still can! Your choice!"

"We just got that offer, and the answer's still no!" Mega Black Pearl replied and spun around with Painite still clinging to her arm, causing the Rutile Rebels-aligned fusion to lose her grip and fly off, crashing into Igneous Square. "Any chance you want to surrender yet?!"

"FOOL!" Painite roared and began furiously scampering around like a wild animal hunting its prey, looking for any weak points Mega Black Pearl might have, crushing Tenno and Gems along the way with no care for their well-being. However, Mega Black Pearl thought quickly and summoned her spear again to smash the bottom end on the ground to try and stomp her out.

However, Painite seemed to have no weaknesses no matter how much Mega Black Pearl tried looking for them, so she decided right off the top of her head that she could make one up to even the odds. "Hey, Painite, if you're made up of Cinnabar and all her minions, does that mean you all share the desire to live up to Black Rutile's expectations, right?"

"What, of course I do!" Painite replied before she realized what she had just said. "Wait, no I don't!" she started arguing with herself. "Yes, you do; all component Gems combine aspects of each other to form the whole fusion! Well, what if some traits don't make it?!"

"She's distracted! Now!" Mega Black Pearl cried as she summoned her spear and went in for the kill, lunging at Painite and jabbing her in the chest while she was distracted. "Bet you didn't see that coming, huh?!"

"You just pulled it out of nowhere!" Painite yelled in pain as she felt her body breaking apart. "THIS CANNOT BE! I AM PERFECTION!" With that, Painite was forcibly un-fused into Cinnabar and her six minions, ending her reign of terror once and for all.

"They just made that weakness up, it isn't fair!" Cinnabar began having a meltdown over their defeat. "I am totally up to Black Rutile's expectations, which means everything should've gone according to plan! Why is it that nothing ever goes my way?!"

"Uh, my Cinnabar?" Kyanite asked nervously while noticing the six Pearls separated again and standing over the Rutile Rebels, along with Sylvia, Batsputin, the Intelliga, Sheriff Spiegel, Deputy Edward, Monazite, and the Prisms.

"WHAT?!" Cinnabar yelled when she finally realized that her time was finally over. "Oh no."

As soon as Cinnabar was finally declared defeated once and for all, she, her minions, and all the Rutile Rebels were returned to Revanche 666 and thrown in prison, where most of them would remain forever until they decided they wanted to change.

"This is outrageous!" Cinnabar continued ranting. "Era 3 was supposed to be the time where every Gem was supposed to be free to make their own decisions, yet here we are locked up like criminals for doing just that!"

"Yes, but you did that for evil purposes!" a Peridot guard answered as the Black Pearls were put back to work upon being reverted to normal.

"SHUT UP!" Cinnabar roared and sulked in her cell.

"Oh, don't worry, Cinnabar, Black Rutile still would've been proud of how we almost won." Holly Blue tried to look on the bright side of life.

"Besides, at least we still have each other!" Navy agreed. "And it's like they always say. Some things in life are bad, they can really make you mad. Other things just make you swear and curse." She began to sing, to the annoyance of her prison mates. "When you're chewing on life's gristle, don't grumble. Give a whistle! And this'll help things turn out for the best!"

"QUIET ALREADY!" the other imprisoned Rutile Rebels yelled at Navy.

"Oh, you're mad that I will be transferred to Little Homeworld soon, and you won't." Navy sneered in response. "Same thing's gonna happen to Holly, Morganite, and Cat!"

"Anything to get out of this dingy garbage pile." Cat moaned. "And to get away from Xenotime's moaning." Just then, the prison doors began to open, and a Black Pearl guard stepped in. "And what do you have to say?"

"I just came to inform you that Black Rutile has finally been defeated." The Pearl announced. "Thanks to the combined efforts of the Crystal Gems and one of her former minions, she, along with Aquamarine and the Eyeball Ruby, are now poofed and awaiting trial on Earth."

"WHAT?!" the imprisoned Gems all yelled in shock at their master's defeat before they started rioting in their cells.

"Someone, please take me now." Cinnabar whined in defeat while trying to block out the loud mobs around her, wondering how it all came to this. "They were right, I truly am a diet Black Rutile."

A short while later, a grand celebration was held in honor of Black Rutile's ultimate defeat. To commemorate the occasion, a massive statue of Pink Diamond was revealed to the public with unanimous approval. "Let this statue serve as an eternal reminder that though we may try our best to prove otherwise, nobody's perfect." Aubergine Pearl declared as part of her speech.

Meanwhile, far from the festivities, the Black Pearl Brigade, now with Nacre as a full member, Sculder and Púrén watched happily as they knew all their hard work and sacrifices weren't for nothing, and now they could finally relax.

"At long last, Homeworld is free once more." Cap declared with relief. "Black Rutile and Cinnabar are finally defeated, and now we can rest easy after all we've done."

"And now I get to experience being my own Gem for the very first time." Nacre added. "So, what do you suppose we do now?"

"I'd like to find somewhere to retire for good." Pony suggested. "Maybe we can move to Earth, like what Lars suggested."

"No, I want to see more of the universe first, maybe introduce Nacre to all the friends we made!" Braids butted in with her idea.

"Maybe we could go for rebuilding the Reef into something new, something better." IQ proclaimed. "Maybe a vacation spot for Pearls just like us."

"Well, captain, what do you think?" Tails asked Cap, who simply sighed happily and looked up to the sky.

"Maybe we can go wherever the wind takes us." Cap suggested calmly. "After all, I don't think the Diamonds will be needing our services any longer." The other Pearls were silent, and they also started looking up to the sky. Just like Cap said, maybe they can go wherever the wind took them.

THE END

At last, so ends The Black Pearl Brigade and this era of the Alternate Future-verse. With Black Rutile's initial reign of terror done, that means anything is possible now. Where will the Pearls be seen next, and what of Cinnabar and the remaining Rutile Rebels? That will have to wait for now, because I feel like taking a nice break after all that. Join us next time for when we return to Earth for the Trial of Black Rutile, and then onto Little Homeworld Life. But until then, here's another teaser for Snake Eyes.

With her work on Homeworld done, Sylvia Spectre bid the Pearls farewell as she and her fellow Coalition agents brought the Tenno in for further investigation while conversing with her Gem friends' allies along the way. "So, where do you plan on striking next?" the Supreme Intelligent One asked the officer over the phone. "I suppose more daring adventures are on the horizons?"

"You bet there are!" Sylvia said while examining her available missions. "Maybe I should try looking into the disappearance of the Metals first. The last anyone heard from some of them, especially the Mighty Metals, some big snake ships were approaching Quarron."

"That is very concerning." Sheriff Spiegel replied. "Maybe we should join you on your little investigation."

"I appreciate the offer, but I think I can handle myself." Sylvia turned down the offer. "Y'know, fighting alongside the Pearls has changed my views on Gems. I used to think they were terrifying, fascist conquerors who showed sympathy towards whatever lifeforms they wiped off the face of the universe, but I think they've changed now."

"OFFICER SPECTRE, CHECK YOUR NAVIGATIONAL SYSTEMS!" a fellow Coalition agent panicked from afar. "YOU'RE ABOUT TO BE ABDUCTED! I REPEAT, ABDUCTED!"

"What could he possibly mean?" Batsputin said, checking the GPS and examining the ship's shape about to swallow Sylvia's. "Oh no. Sylvia, I believe they've come for you."

"Who's come for me?" Sylvia wondered before she felt herself shaking as a tractor beam encompassed her vessel. "What is the meaning of this?!" Before she could get any more answers, everything around Sylvia suddenly went black.

When she finally woke up, Sylvia found herself trapped in a cell aboard an unknown ship with no way to get out. "I am Sylvia Spectre of the Coalition of Planets! If you don't release me at once, I will place you under arrest!"

"Don't bother trying." Envyrno laughed darkly, making Sylvia realize the Magman was her cellmate. "I wouldn't try arresting a Universal Lord if I were you."

"Wait, a Universal Lord?!" Sylvia exclaimed before she found herself face to face with a tall, snakelike alien with humanoid features and bulky armor around his torso. "Who are you?"

"Call me Boa, captain of the Jormagundr Royal Family guard." The snake man introduced himself. "And you, little lady, have become one of the first to be entered into this year's Serpentes Contest of Champions!" All around him, prison cells began lighting up, revealing species of all sorts imprisoned within. Even the Metals, whom Sylvia planned to investigate, were behind bars. "Welcome to the show, girls, and glory to snake-kind. Now, you know anything about Gems?"

TO BE CONTINUED IN 2023

Guest starring Henry Rollins as Captain Boa

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orbularborbular · 10 months

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‘Race Neutral’ Is the New ‘Separate but Equal’

From The Atlantic: On the first day of class in the fall of 1924, Martha Lum walked into the Rosedale Consolidated School. The mission-style building had been built three years earlier for white students in Rosedale, Mississippi.

Martha was not a new student. This 9-year-old had attended the public school the previous year. But that was before Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, banning immigrants from Asia and inciting ever more anti-Asian racism inside the United States.

At the time, African Americans were fleeing the virulent racism of the Mississippi Delta in the Great Migration north and west. To replace them, white landowners were recruiting Chinese immigrants like Martha’s father, Gong Lum. But instead of picking cotton, many Chinese immigrants, like Gong and his wife, Katherine, opened up grocery stores, usually in Black neighborhoods, after being shut out of white neighborhoods.

At noon recess, Martha had a visitor. The school superintendent notified her that she had to leave the public school her family’s tax dollars supported, because “she was of Chinese descent, and not a member of the white or Caucasian race.” Martha was told she had to go to the district’s all-Black public school, which had older infrastructure and textbooks, comparatively overcrowded classrooms, and lower-paid teachers.

Gong Lum sued, appealing to the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal-protection clause. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. All nine justices ruled in favor of school segregation, citing the “separate but equal” doctrine from 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision.

“A child of Chinese blood, born in and a citizen of the United States, is not denied the equal protection of the law by being classed by the state among the colored races who are assigned to public schools separate from those provided for the whites when equal facilities for education are afforded to both classes,” the Court summarized in Gong Lum v. Rice on November 21, 1927.

A century from now, scholars of racism will look back at today’s Supreme Court decision on affirmative action the way we now look back at Gong Lum v. Rice—as a judicial decision based in legal fantasy. Then, the fantasy was that separate facilities for education afforded to the races were equal and that actions to desegregate them were unnecessary, if not harmful. Today, the fantasy is that regular college-admissions metrics are race-neutral and that affirmative action is unnecessary, if not harmful.

The Supreme Court has effectively outlawed affirmative action using two court cases brought on by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Organized by a legal strategist named Edward Blum, SFFA filed suit on behalf of Asian American applicants to Harvard as well as white and Asian applicants to UNC to claim that their equal-protection rights were violated by affirmative action. Asian and white Americans are overrepresented in the student body at selective private and public colleges and universities that are well funded and have high graduation rates, but they are the victims?This is indicative of a larger fantasy percolating throughout society: that white Americans, who, on average, stand at the more advantageous end of nearly every racial inequity, are the primary victims of racism. This fantasy is fueling the grievance campaigns of Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Americans who oppose affirmative action have been misled into believing that the regular admissions metrics are fair for everyone—and that affirmative action is unfair for white and Asian American applicants.

It is a fantasy that race is considered as an admissions factor only through affirmative action. But the Court endorsed SFFA’s call for “race neutral” admissions in higher education—effectively prohibiting a minor admissions metric such as affirmative action, which closes racial inequities in college admissions, while effectively permitting the major admissions metrics that have long led to racial inequities in college admissions. Against all evidence to the contrary, the Court claimed: “Race-neutral policies may thus achieve the same benefits of racial harmony and equality without … affirmative action policies.” The result of the Court’s decision: a normality of racial inequity. Again.

This is what the Court considers to be fair admissions for students, because the judges consider the major admissions metrics to be “race-neutral”—just as a century ago, the Court considered Mississippi public schools to be “separate but equal.”

Chief Justice John Roberts, in his majority opinion, recognized “the inherent folly of that approach” but doesn’t recognize the inherent folly of his “race neutral” approach.

History repeats sometimes without rhyming. “Race neutral” is the new “separate but equal.” The Court today claimed, “Twenty years have passed since Grutter, with no end to race- based college admissions in sight.” In actuality, twenty years have passed, with no end to racial inequity in sight.

Black, Latino, and Indigenous students continue to be underrepresented at the top 100 selective public universities. After affirmative action was outlawed at public universities in California and Michigan in the 1990s, Black enrollment at the most selective schools dropped roughly 50 percent, in some years approaching early-1970s numbers. This lack of diversity harms both students of color and white students.

In its reply brief in the UNC case, SFFA argued that the University of California system enrolls “more underrepresented minorities today than they did under racial preferences,” referencing the increase of Latino students at UC campuses from 1997 to 2019. But accounting for the increase in Latino students graduating from high school, those gains should be even larger. There’s a 23-point difference between the percentage of high-school graduates in California who are Latino and the percentage of those enrolled in the UC system.

Declines in racial representation and associated harms extend to graduate and professional programs. The UC system produced more Black and Latino medical doctors than the national average in the two decades before affirmative action was banned, and dropped well below the national average in the two decades after.

Underrepresentation of Black, Latino, and Indigenous students at the most coveted universities isn’t a new phenomenon, it isn’t a coincidence, and it isn’t because there is something deficient about those students or their parents or their cultures. Admissions metrics both historically and currently value qualities that say more about access to inherited resources and wealth— computers and counselors, coaches and tutors, college preparatory courses and test prep—than they do about students’ potential. And gaping racial inequities persist in access to each of those elements—as gaping as funding for those so-called equal schools in the segregated Mississippi Delta a century ago.

So what about class? Class-based or income-based interventions disproportionately help white students too, because their family’s low income is least likely to extend to their community and schools. Which is to say that low-income white Americans are far and away less likely than low-income Black and Latino Americans to live in densely impoverished neighborhoods and send their kids to poorly resourced public schools. Researchers find that 80 percent of low-income Black people and 75 percent of low-income Latino people reside in low-income communities, which tend to have lesser-resourced schools, compared with less than 50 percent of low-income white people. (Some Asian American ethnic groups are likely to be concentrated in low-income communities, while others are not; the data are not dis-aggregated to explore this.) Predominately white school districts, on average, receive $23 billion more than those serving the same number of students of color.

When admissions metrics value SAT, ACT, or other standardized-test scores, they predict not success in college or graduate school, but the wealth or income of the parents of the test takers. This affects applicants along racial lines, but in complex ways. Asian Americans, for example, have higher incomes than African Americans on average, but Asian Americans as a group have the highest income inequality of any racial group. So standardized tests advantage more affluent white Americans and Asian ethnic groups such as Chinese and Indian Americans while disadvantaging Black Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, and poorer Asian ethnic groups such as Burmese and Hmong Americans. But standardized tests, like these other admissions metrics, are “race neutral”?

Standardized tests mostly favor students with access to score-boosting test prep. A multibillion-dollar test-prep and tutoring industry was built on this widespread understanding. Companies that openly sell their ability to boost students’ scores are concentrated in immigrant and Asian American communities. But some Asian American ethnic groups, having lower incomes, have less access to high-priced test-prep courses.

Besides all of this, the tests themselves have racist origins. Eugenicists introduced standardized tests a century ago in the United States to prove the genetic intellectual superiority of wealthy white Anglo-Saxon men. These “experimental” tests would show “enormously significant racial differences in general intelligence, differences which cannot be wiped out by any scheme of mental culture,” the Stanford University psychologist and eugenicist Lewis Terman wrote in his 1916 book, The Measurement of Intelligence. Another eugenicist, the Princeton University psychologist Carl C. Brigham, created the SAT test in 1926. SAT originally stood for “Scholastic Aptitude Test,” aptitude meaning “natural ability to do something.”

Why are advocates spending millions to expand access to test prep when a more effective and just move is to ban the use of standardized tests in admissions? Such a ban would help not only Black, Native, and Latino students but also low-income white and Asian American students.

Some selective colleges that went test-optional during the pandemic welcomed some of their most racially and economically diverse classes, after receiving more applications than normal from students of color. For many students of color, standardized tests have been a barrier to applying, even before being a barrier to acceptance. Then again, even where colleges and universities, especially post-pandemic, have gone test-optional, we can reasonably assume or suspect that students who submit their scores are viewed more favorably.

When admissions committees at selective institutions value students whose parents and grandparents attended that institution, this legacy metric ends up giving preferential treatment to white applicants. Almost 70 percent of all legacy applicants for the classes of 2014–19 at Harvard were white.

College athletes are mostly white and wealthy—because most collegiate sports require resources to play at a high level. White college athletes make up 70 to 85 percent of athletes in most non-revenue-generating sports (with the only revenue-generating sports usually being men’s basketball and football). And student athletes, even ones who are not gaming the system, receive immense advantages in the admissions process, thus giving white applicants yet another metric by which they are the most likely to receive preferential treatment. Even Harvard explained as part of its defense that athletes had an advantage in admissions over nonathletes, which conferred a much greater advantage to white students over Asian American students than any supposed disadvantage that affirmative action might create. And white students benefit from their relatives being more likely to have the wealth to make major donations to highly selective institutions. And white students benefit from their parents being over-represented on the faculty and staff at colleges and universities. Relatives of donors and children of college employees normally receive an admissions boost.

Putting this all together, one study found that 43 percent of white students admitted to Harvard were recruited athletes, legacy students, the children of faculty and staff, or on the dean’s interest list (as relatives of donors)—compared with only 16 percent of Black, Latino, and Asian American students. About 75 percent of white admitted students “would have been rejected” if they hadn’t been in those four categories, the study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, found.

While private and public universities tout “diversity” recruitment efforts, their standard recruitment strategies concentrate on high-income students who are predominantly white and Asian, at highly resourced schools, positioned to have higher grade point averages and test scores that raise college rankings. Public colleges and universities facing declines in state and federal funding actively recruit white and wealthy out-of-state students who pay higher fees. At many institutions, including a UC campus, “admission by exception,” a practice originally promoted as a means of expanding opportunities for disadvantaged groups, has been used to enroll international students with the resources to pay U.S. tuition fees.

Targeting international students of color to achieve greater diversity on campus disadvantages American students of color. Targeting students from families who can pay exorbitant out-of-state fees benefits white families, who have, on average, 10 times the household net worth of Black families.

Affirmative action attempted to compensate not just for these metrics that give preferential treatment to white students, but also for the legacy of racism in society. This legacy is so deep and wide that affirmative action has rightly been criticized as a superficial, Band-Aid solution. Still, it has been the only admissions policy that pushes against the deep advantages that white Americans receive in the other admissions metrics under the cover of “race neutral.

If anti-affirmative-action litigants and judges were really supportive of “race neutrality”—if they were really against “racial preferences”—then they would be going after regular admissions practices. But they are not, because the regular admissions metrics benefit white and wealthy students.

Litigants and judges continue to use Asian Americans as political footballs to maintain these racial preferences for white and wealthy students. Particularly in the Harvard case, SFFA’s Edward Blum used Asian plaintiffs to argue that affirmative action harms Asian American applicants. No evidence of such racist discrimination was found in the lower courts. According to an amicus brief filed by 1,241 social scientists, the so-called race-neutral admissions policy SFFA advocated for (which was just adopted by the highest Court) would actually harm Asian American applicants. It denies Asian American students the ability to express their full self in their applications, including experiences with racism, which can contextualize their academic achievements or struggles and counter racist ideas. This is especially the case with Hmong and Cambodian Americans, who have rates of poverty similar to or higher than those of Black Americans. Pacific Islander Americans have a higher rate of poverty than the average American.

Pitting Asian and Black Americans against each other is an age-old tactic. Martha Lum’s parents didn’t want to send their daughter to a “colored” school, because they knew that more resources could be found in the segregated white schools. Jim Crow in the Mississippi Delta a century ago motivated the Lums to reinforce anti-Black racism—just as some wealthy Asian American families bought into Blum’s argument for “race neutral” admissions to protect their own status. Yet “separate but equal” closed the school door on the Lums. “Race neutral” is doing the same. Which is why 38 Asian American organizations jointly filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of affirmative action at Harvard and UNC.

A century ago, around the time the Court stated that equal facilities for education were being afforded to both races, Mississippi spent $57.95 per white student compared with $8.86 per Black student in its segregated schools. This racial inequity in funding existed in states across the South: Alabama ($47.28 and $13.32), Florida ($61.29 and $18.58), Georgia ($42.12 and $9.95), North Carolina ($50.26 and $22.34), and South Carolina ($68.76 and $11.27). “Separate but equal” was a legal fantasy, meant to uphold racist efforts to maintain these racial inequities and strike down anti-racist efforts to close them.

Homer Plessy had sued for being kicked off the “whites only” train car in New Orleans in 1892. About four years later, the Court deployed the “separate but equal” doctrine to work around the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal-protection clause to defend the clearly unequal train cars and the exclusion of Black Americans like Plessy from better-equipped “whites only” cars. Later, the Court used the same doctrine to exclude Asian Americans like Martha Lum from better-equipped “whites only” schools.

The “separate but equal” doctrine was the Court’s stamp to defend the structure of racism. Just as Plessy v. Ferguson’s influence reached far beyond the railway industry more than a century ago, the fantasy of “race neutral” alternatives to affirmative action defends racism well beyond higher education. Evoking “race neutrality,” Justice Clarence Thomas recently dissented from the Supreme Court decision upholding a provision in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that prohibits racist gerrymandering.

Now that “racial neutrality” is the doctrine of the land, as “separate but equal” was a century ago, we need a new legal movement to expose its fantastical nature. It was nearly a century ago that civil-rights activists in the NAACP and other organizations were gearing up for a legal movement to expose the fantasy of “separate but equal.” In this new legal movement, defenders of affirmative action can no longer use the false framing of affirmative action as “race conscious” and the regular admissions metrics as “race neutral”—a framing that has been used at least since the Regents of the University of California v. Bakkedecision in 1978, which limited the use of affirmative action. Racist and anti-racist is a more accurate framing than “race neutral” and “race conscious.”

Affirmative-action policies are anti-racist because they have been proved to reduce racial inequities, while many of the regular admissions metrics are racist because they maintain racial inequities. To frame policies as “race neutral” or “not racist” or “race blind” because they don’t have racial language—or because the policy makers deny a racist intent—is akin to framing Jim Crow’s grandfather clauses and poll taxes and literacy tests as “race neutral” and “not racist,” even as these policies systematically disenfranchised southern Black voters. Then again, the Supreme Court allowed these Jim Crow policies for decades on the basis that they were, to use today’s term, “race neutral.” Then again, voter-suppression policies today that target Black, Latino, and Indigenous voters have been allowed by a Supreme Court that deems them “race neutral.” Jim Crow lives in the guise of “racial neutrality.”

Everyone should know that the regular admission metrics are the racial problem, not affirmative action. Everyone knew that racial separation in New Orleans and later Rosedale, Mississippi, was not merely separation; it was segregation. And segregation, by definition, cannot be equal. Segregationist policies are racist policies. Racial inequities proved that then.

The Court stated in today’s ruling, “By 1950, the inevitable truth of the Fourteenth Amendment had thus begun to reemerge: Separate cannot be equal.” But it still does not want to acknowledge another inevitable truth of the Fourteenth Amendment that has emerged today: Race cannot be neutral.

Today, racial inequities prove that policies proclaimed to be “race neutral” are hardly neutral. Race, by definition, has never been neutral. In a multiracial United States with widespread racial inequities in wealth, health, and higher education, policies are not “race neutral.” Policies either expand or close existing racial inequities in college admissions and employment. The “race neutral” doctrine is upholding racist efforts to maintain racial inequities and striking down anti-racist efforts to close racial inequities.

Race, by definition, has never been blind. Even Justice John Harlan, who proclaimed, “Our Constitution is color-blind” in his dissent of Plessy v. Ferguson, prefaced that with this declaration: “The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country” and “it will continue to be for all time, if it remains true to its great heritage.”

In the actual world, the “color-blind” often see their color as superior, as Harlan did. In the actual world, an equal-protection clause in a constitution can be transfigured by legal fantasy yet again to protect racial inequity.

“Separate but equal” then. “Race neutral” now.

#atlantic article #no paywall #affirmative action #american politics #politics #get rid of Legacy admission

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