As soon as Rose heard the knocking on the door, she went over and asked who it was.
"It's us, Rose!" Pearl yelled from the other side. "We just got word that Zoisite plans to come back and go after us!"
"What? Why?" Rose asked in confusion.
"I think it has to do with the human and his family."
"His name's Greg, you know."
"Whatever. We need to find a way to stop him and we've got to hurry!"
All that time, Aunt Carole had heard everything that was said and she couldn't help but feel that she had everything to lose. She abruptly got up from the dining table and left.
Meanwhile in the Mineralis Dimension...
Atop a gargantuan two-toed creature that appeared to be a camelid with an anteater's head, Zoisite and his Vivianite companion, a young purplish-hued male named Lemhi, were making their way to the Temple of Orthoclase and Hackmanite on the Chalcopyrite-Spodumene border. Zoisite had said something about wanting to pay the oracle of the temple a visit and he decided he wanted to do it now; naturally, Lemhi decided to seek help from one of his master's other slaves, Scolecite, on this and ask for directions to this sacred building.
"So where'd that salmon-colored bastard say we should start off from again?" Zoisite uncertainly asked Lemhi.
"The Zeolite Brothel, Master Zoisite," Lemhi answered. "and then we were to pass by some coniferous trees with giant gem-cones, stake off a whole garden of omnivorous yonic flowers, and lastly Scolecite said to keep a lookout for migrating pneumatic jellyfish. Apparently, it's mating season right now, so I suspect we might see some baby medusae along the way soon."
The white Gem scoffed at this. "Those jellyfish are more trouble than they're worth, if anybody asks." he said. He glanced back at the shrinking Zeolite Brothel as they rode away from there on the humped, tube-mouthed creature. "And to think the goddamn people don't even seem to bat an eye at those gross, blobby creatures..."
"Well, they don't really do much of anything to even warrant giving a crap about them... unless they were somehow provoked."
"Oh, yeah, like I'm the only one who'd try to piss off a bunch of jellyfish. You're unbelievable, Lemhi."
Soon, the Hellenistic bordello became nothing more than a tiny dot in the distance and the two Gems now began to make their way through the conifer-lined fields.
Lemhi wasn't kidding when he had mentioned the giant gem-cones; the opaque crystal strobili were roughly the size of a seal pup and only slightly weighing down the branches they were on. Zoisite stared and stared at these gem-cones, and he might've done so forever and ever if only he didn't have to worry about having the second-highest government position in his nation. Anyway, while his violet-hued slave steadfastly rode the two-toed animal, he let his sick fantasies of his fellow Queen Diamond and bittersweet memories of his former child brides Ruby and Tellurite roam free.
Suddenly, the duo and their ride screeched to a halt to find a young female Rodalquilarite hanging from a noose in one of the trees. The grass-green Gem looked like she had been in that position for hours, and quite frankly it was a miracle that she still hadn't retreated into her gem after all this time.
"Ye Gods!" Lemhi exclaimed. "Master Zoisite, look!"
Zoisite briefly snapped back to reality to see for himself. He couldn't help but notice that the victim's wrists and ankles had been bound and her mouth had a ballgag in it. Moreover, she had been swinging wildly in all directions ever since she was hanged.
"Your goddamn tribe can't leave well enough alone, can it?" the white Gem muttered, assuming Lemhi's tribe had been responsible for the act. He then said, "Alright, Lemhi. Cut her down. I think she's suffered enough."
That, the purplish-hued Gem proceeded to do. He quickly dismounted their furry organic vehicle and then within a matter of minutes, summoned a hatchet from a gem sliver on his chin, and then threw the weapon over his head at the noose around Rodalquilarite's neck. It cut her down within a matter of seconds and she fell back down to earth.
Back on Earth...
July 23, 1991
So I'm back, to the velvet underground
Back to the floor, that I love
To a room with some lace and paper flowers
Back to the gypsy that I was
To the gypsy... that I was
As Fleetwood Mac's "Gypsy" played that morning on the living room radio on the Zimmerman family's favorite station KWPT, the matriarch Carole sat alone inside the bedroom she shared with her husband Jared and- very recently -her aspiring rocker nephew (though he chose to sleep at the foot of their bed like a dog). The very thought of someone coming after them and killing them just for existing was daunting, and it didn't help that he sounded like he'd known Rose and the other members of her group. Now what was she supposed to do?
"Mom?" called Gwen from behind the door. "Are you in there?"
"Just a second, honey." the forty-one-year-old woman called back to her daughter.
Carole waited until she heard her daughter leave and then almost immediately began to cry into her pillow. This couldn't be happening. It had to be a bad dream, right? All she'd have to do was wake up and everything would be back to normal. Unfortunately, her brain had to remind her, this was all too real. Whoever this Zoisite was, he sounded pretty monstrous.
Out of the blue, she heard the door creak open again. This time, it was Rose who had invited herself in.
"What do you want?" Carole asked calmly while just barely obscuring her face into the pillow.
Rose said, "I just wanted to see how you were doing, is all." She sat down besides Carole and looked down. "You're upset about what Zoisite might do, aren't you?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Well, my friends and I are gonna do everything we can to stop him."
"You are?"
"Yeah, but that might be hard..."
Carole lifted her head to take a gander at her guest. "Why? He'll kill us if we don't do something!"
"First of all, he can shoot lasers from his eyes. Second, he can create lightning. Lastly..." Rose trailed off for a bit and sighed deeply.
"Lastly what?"
"...he was once a friend of my dad's."