A/N: In case you haven't heard yet, it is my unfortunate duty to announce that Bobbi Kristina Brown is dead at just 22 years old. We must remember, however, that she wasn't just Whitney Houston's daughter; she was also a young woman swept up in the craziness of life many people flourish and eventually die under. Rest easy now, Bobbi; you will not have left us in vain.

In other news, good ol' Roddy Piper is also dead. He came into this world ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum... and he ran out of bubblegum. He shall forever be cherished in the wrestling world and the John Carpenter movie "They Live."

Meanwhile with the Crystal Gems...

Topaz groaned so loudly that everyone within a five-mile radius could hear her. "I can't believe it," she whined. "We spotted another Gem and she just disappeared right as I was going to show you!"

"I don't know what that was about," Jade stated. "But if we ever see her again, I think I have a pretty good idea what I might say then."

"Like what?"

"I'd tell you, but Pearl wouldn't appreciate the expletives."

"Well, I hope we can find her again. It's killing me!"

Jade smiled affectionately at this and ruffled Topaz's hair. "Oh, don't worry. We will and it'll have been worth it."

As the gang considered their options on where to go next, Topaz and Jade found themselves obsessing over the mysterious red Gem they'd seen earlier. Why couldn't they get her out of their head? Was it because of how beautiful she was? Maybe it was just how she was walking among the humans without so much as even a paranoid glance. Whatever the reason, they knew how to deal with it somehow. For now, however, they would just have to socialize with others even if they weren't in the mood to do so.

"I know what we can do while we're here," Pearl suddenly said.

"If this involves shopping, then I'm up for it," Zirconia interjected intriguingly. "Especially where human artifacts are involved."

"Even better! Maybe we can go to an auction and buy a few things we can take home."

"An auction? That sounds like a good idea!"

"Ugh!" Amethyst groaned. "Please tell me we're not gonna do this!"

A couple hours later...

The Crystal Gems had made sure to sit up front in order to get a better look at what they wanted. For this liquidation auction, a decades-old furniture store was giving away many of its vintage chairs, dinner tables, coffee tables, and much much more. None of the Gems, save for Pearl and Zirconia, found any of this particularly exciting; even Rose Quartz, who was normally very curious about what the humans had to offer, didn't seem too fond of this whole thing.

The store owner kept droning on about how saddened he and his fellow employees were to finally be closing their doors after thirty years of business; worse still, the man also thought it would be a good idea to bring up some company called Mann Co. that kept trying to drive away the customers and threatening to send him to court.

"How long is he gonna keep talking?" Amethyst asked as quietly as she could without interrupting the man's rambles.

Tanzanite shrugged her shoulders in response.

Out of the blue, the man stopped speaking and walked off, leaving a younger boy (presumably his son) to take over.

"Alright," the young gentleman began to speak quickly. "Let's get on with the auction now. We've got all this furniture right here." He gestured towards a rather tall and lanky china cabinet that appeared to be over 100 years old, a four-foot-tall mahogany drawer, a minuscule metal desk, and a simplistic folding chair. "Anybody want to buy the china cabinet? Anybody? Anybody?"

Zirconia slowly but eagerly lifted up a sign with the number 9 printed on it.

"Number nine, number nine, number nine," the young gentleman chattered. "How much money do you want to bid?"

Zirconia gulped hard and answered with a wispy breath, "Five hundred dollars..."

"Five hundred dollars!" the young gentleman shouted. "I hear five hundred dollars! Anybody want to bid higher?"

Now Pearl had delicately raised a sign with the number 12 printed on it above her head.

"Alright, number twelve!" the young gentleman shouted once again. "How much money do you want to bid?"

"My good sir, I would like to bid seven hundred dollars for that china cabinet," Pearl spoke up with enough confidence to practically infect everybody else around her.

"Seven hundred dollars!" the young gentleman shouted again. "I've got seven hundred dollars! Who wants to bid for an even higher price?"

This went on for several more minutes with the remaining Crystal Gems reluctantly joining in and contributing to this madness with their own prices. Eventually, a few humans seated right behind them started clamoring out to be recognized with their own bids. For some reason, this group of humans consisted of eight men, an ambiguously-gendered person covered head-to-foot in fire-protective gear and only a couple women; even then, however, there was just something about them that wouldn't sit well with the townsfolk. More so than that, they all seemed like they'd known each other for a while and were, in fact, mostly tolerant of each other.

Out of the blue, one of the women- a rather ancient one, in fact -raised a sign with the number 25 printed on it above her head.

"Okay, number twenty-five!" the young gentleman shouted once more. "How much money do you want to bid?"

A full minute passed before she finally said with utmost clarity and impeccable frigidness, "One thousand dollars."

"Okay! One thousand dollars! Going once, going twice... sold to number twenty-five!"

Pearl sighed in disappointment, Zirconia laid her head back while wondering what happened, and the rest of the Gems smirked out of both relief and chuffation. So much for getting to buy a human artifact. As Jade got up first, she suddenly felt another hand grab her wrist.

"What the...?" the green Gem muttered.

She turned around to face the other human female- a much younger, raven-haired beauty -straight in the eyes. What in the world did she want from her?

"There's something I have to ask you." the human woman said.

"Yeah, what is it?" Jade asked.

"First, you need to promise you'll keep a straight face."

"I gotcha."

"Did you happen to pass by a woman with red skin, looking kinda... thick? She'd make a great Mama Cass impersonater if you know what I mean."

"I don't know who Mama Cass is, but Topaz and I did happen to come across that red woman if that's who you mean."

"Good. Now I know I'm not the only one."

Suddenly, the other woman spoke up. "Miss Pauling, what are you doing? Sit down!"

But she just ignored her.

Jade then asked, "So what is it about her that fascinates you so much?"

She thought about it for a second. "I'm not sure... to be honest. She just looked... alien."

"So?"

"She had a rock on her back. Is she a Gem?"

"Yeah, that's what we are." Jade waved her hand towards the rest of the Crystal Gems. "You know about us?"

"You're Gems. Who wouldn't know about you at this point?"

But before they could continue with their conversation, they caught sight of the bright red Gem again. This time, they fixed their gaze on her long enough to get a better idea of what she looked like. She had several black crescent-shaped markings on her face and a white-hued medium-length bob. By the looks of it, she seemed like a rather intimidating individual who was determined in all the infinite layers of the Underworld to do her job, no questions asked. Any second now, she'd notice that someone was staring at her.

Sure enough, when Jade brought her to the other Gems' attention, the bright red Gem whipped her head around and looked at them with such lividity that it caught Pearl off-guard and threw her to the ground. Could it be...?