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minijenn · 7 years

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Universe Falls Chapter 36

Mmmm k so yeah this one is sorta average but honestly I’m just glad its done? Like I said, every damn one of these chapters is getting me closer and closer to Dipper and Lapis and I just can’t fucking wait for that one oh god my soul will be ripped from my body when I write it. But as for this one, it certainly has its good moments, I think. So I hope you enjoy it!

Previous: http://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/161587257423/universe-falls-chapter-35-part-3

Chapter 36: Rose’s Scabbard

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As the summer weeks continued to roll by, it had become something of an unspoken custom for the Gems to bring Steven, Dipper, and Mabel along on their less-dangerous missions. Their reasoning for this was twofold, mostly as a response to the kids pleading to join them but also because they made for good company, livening up what would have otherwise been boring, routine trips and investigations. And much like the past several adventures the kids had accompanied the Gems on, this one was no exception to them providing their own varied brands of intrigue and amusement.

The destination of their exploration today was quite far from Gravity Falls, practically an entire continent away though merely a few minute’s trip by warp pad. It was a vast, wide, hilly landscape, with countless earthen platforms of all sizes somehow suspended aloft in the sun-speckled sky. Though what really made this locale interesting were two distinct features: massive, daunting, ancient weapons of all different kinds, digging into the ground that served as the fertile home for countless oversized wild strawberries, growing as far as the eye could see, something that particularly peaked Steven and Mabel’s shared interest.

“I’ve never seen so many strawberries in one place before!” Steven quipped, grinning as he passed by one of the aforementioned fruits that happened to be nearly as big as he was. “They all look so tasty!”

“I know, right?” Mabel smirked as she plucked another one of the smaller (but still quite large) strawberries, adding them to the hefty armful she had already collected. “I can’t wait to get these babies home and turn them into something even tastier. I could make a huge strawberry shortcake! Or the world’s biggest strawberry sundae! Or, if I find a bunch of other giant fruits, a really big fruit salad!”

“Ok, but am I the only one who’s wondering why all of these strawberries are so big in the first place?” Dipper asked with a curious frown as he passed by a particularly massive one. “Or better yet, why all of these huge weapons are just lying around everywhere?”

“Oh, that’s a wonderful question, Dipper!” Pearl cut in with a bright smile as she eagerly shared her wisdom on the matter. “This field was the site of a historic battle. Every weapon here was left by a Gem over 5,000 years ago!”

“Whoa, no way!” Steven exclaimed, sharing an awestruck expression with the twins. “That’s so cool!”

“And all these weapons are so pretty!” Mabel added as she looked over at a towering broadsword nearby. “Why would anybody just leave them behind?”

“These weapons serve as the final memorials to the Gems who met their heroic ends here!” Pearl exclaimed with a dramatic flair. “I don’t like to disturb them, but Garnet says we can’t just leave them lying around.”

As the white Gem said this, Garnet picked up a massive battle axe from the strawberry patch nearby, slinging it over her shoulder with not much effort at all, despite how much larger than her it was. “Never know when you might need one of these.”

“I need one of those all the time!” Steven quipped, stars of excitement in his eyes.

“So do I!” Mabel exclaimed, just as enthused. “Can we take some giant weapons home too, Pearl?”

“Mabel, come on,” Dipper interjected with a scoff. “These things are huge, deadly weapons. We can’t just carry them back to the shack like they’re plain old souvenirs! ...Can we?” He asked, directing said question to the white Gem.

“O-oh, well I do suppose that is what we’re here to do in the first place, isn’t it?” Pearl shrugged with a small smile. “But still, instead of a lumbering war axe, why don’t you kids look for something that’s more... you?”

“Done and done!” Mabel grinned, dropping her load of strawberries as she ran over to a tall purple sabre, placing a hand on its dull side and grinning up to its hilt proudly. “This one just screams me, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah it does!” Steven readily agreed.

“Mabel, that thing’s bigger than you are,” Dipper pointed out as he went over to join her. “How are you even going to get it out of the ground, much less back to the warp pad?”

“With your help, duh!” Mabel rolled her eyes. “Now, come on! If we both pull hard enough, I’m sure we can pull this up and drag it home! It’s gonna look so cool hanging over my bed!”

“As if it would even fit over your bed,” Dipper remarked sarcastically, but even so, he consented in helping his sister in trying to lift the heavy weapon up out of its long-time resting place. As she watched their rather futile attempt to even get the sword to budge, Amethyst let out an amused chuckle, one that Garnet shook her head in disapproval over.

Inspired by the twin’s excellent find, Steven grew even more zealous for the idea of finding a weapon of his own among this impressive collection. “Ok, Lion! Come help me look!” he called to the pink beast, who simply turned and walked away at this prompting, as stoically as ever. “Aw, come on!”

“You really need to train that thing better,” Pearl commented, crossing her arms as she watched Lion saunter over to a nearby cluster of strawberries.

“Oh, we’ve been making progress!” Steven informed brightly. “Now he even looks at me when I say his name! Watch: Lion!” Of course, the pink beast did anything but heed the young Gem’s call, far too distracted by digging through the patch of leaves before him to even spare him a single glance. “Lion!” Steven tried again, only to get the same result. “Lion!” By the third attempt, the young Gem realized that Lion likely wasn’t going to listen at all. “Uh... sometimes, he does...”

Pearl frowned dubiously at this, though her attention was peaked as the pink beast finally did lift his head up, revealing that he was now carrying something he had apparently found in the dirt in his maw. “What’s he got now?” she asked curiously, though her confusion quickly changed into a shocked gasp upon seeing exactly what Lion had managed to retrieve. “It’s the scabbard for Rose’s sword!”

“Really?!” Steven exclaimed in surprise upon hearing this. He only got a glance at the large, bright pink scabbard as Pearl began prying it away from Lion, eventually succeeding in claiming it and shooing the sullen pink beast away. Still, the fact that it apparently belonged to his deceased mother was more than enough to peak the young Gem’s interest. “Hey, guys!” he called to Garnet, Amethyst, and the twins. “Get over here and check this out!”

They did so, Dipper and Mabel leaving the sword they made essentially no progress on pulling out of the ground behind for the moment as they headed over to get a better look at the scabbard Pearl was proudly holding out for them all to see. The pink sheath was rather simple in design, visibly sturdy and hardly even damaged at all, despite being exposed to the elements of the battlefield for countless centuries. In fact, the only other noticeable things about it aside from its size and coloration was the familiar rose emblem associated with the pink Gem herself marked on both sides and the fact that it was noticeably empty.

“Whoa... It’s so beautiful...” Mabel gushed, amazed as she looked over the scabbard. “What is it?”

“It’s a scabbard, Mabel,” Dipper informed somewhat caustically, though both Steven and Mabel only replied with blank looks of confusion. “You know, the thing you put a sword inside?”

“Ohhh,” the pair nodded in mutual understanding, neither of aware that there was an actual word for such a thing until now.

“And to be honest, I think this scabbard looks... sort of familiar...” Dipper remarked, pulling the journal out of his vest as he began to curiously flip through it.

“What?” Pearl blinked, her smile at this find instantly fading upon hearing such a claim, though she was quick to pick it up again with something of a forced laugh. “Oh, you must be thinking of another scabbard, Dipper. This scabbard has been missing for years now. Why, it’s been centuries since I’ve seen it myself! Until now, of course.”

“Uh, no, I’m pretty sure this is it,” Dipper said upon finding a sketch within the journal that was remarkably similar to the very sheath Pearl held in her hands. “I mean, the author didn’t label it or anything, but it looks exactly like that scabbard, see?”

The white Gem frowned suspiciously as she briefly glanced over the image on the open page, which was indeed identical to the scabbard, right down to it even being bereft of the sword it was meant to contain. A brief hint of alarm and confusion filled her expression, though she was very quick to suppress it with more dismissiveness. “O-oh, well... I’m sure that’s just a mere coincidence,” she scoffed, turning her nose up at the book. “After all, the scabbard is quite simple in its design. Whoever wrote that journal probably just assumed what the scabbard would have looked like and drew that.”

“What? A coincidence?” Dipper asked, confused and somewhat annoyed at how Pearl was simply passing this depiction off like it was nothing. “But how would he have-”

“And besides,” Pearl cut him off, her former verve returning. “This isn’t just any mere, average, ordinary scabbard. This is the scabbard to Rose’s own sword, the very same sword she skillfully wielded in battle in this very field centuries ago!”

“Mom fought here?” Steven asked, overwhelmed with curiosity by now.

“That’s right!” Pearl nodded enthusiastically. “And I fought alongside her!”

“Man, I bet that battle was nuts!” Amethyst spoke up, excited by the very mention of the momentous war she had missed out on. “I wish I could have seen it!”

“No, you don’t,” Garnet admonished firmly, setting her axe down for a moment. “Countless Gems were broken here. It was a maelstrom of destruction and death.”

“But we won!” Pearl jumped in with a bright grin. “Steven, your mother led us to glorious victory! The odds were against us, and our hearts were uncertain,” the white Gem’s tone became more and more dramatic as she continued detailing this striking tale to the immensely intrigued kids. “The enemy’s forces far outnumbered our own, but we didn’t give up! We chose to fight alongside Rose, who bravely led us into battle without a moment’s doubt or hesitation. And here, we made our stand against our Homeworld!” Needless to say that all three of the kids were aptly amazed by this exciting recollection, which was why they all continued looking to Pearl for more of it, which she was more than happy to give to them. “Rose was the one who ensured our triumph that day,” she said, her tone a bit softer as she smiled down at the scabbard fondly. “And she ensured our triumph in every battle that followed it. She was the one who brought us together, who inspired us to be more than what we were made for...” A light blue blush filled in the white Gem’s cheeks as she held the scabbard a bit close to her, her smile widening as she recalled all of the times her illustrious former leader had held onto it herself. “She... She was... exceptional...”

Pearl maintained her wistful, reminiscing smile throughout the entire trip back to the temple, largely ignoring the kids and her teammates as she continued to gently cling onto the treasured scabbard. In fact, she was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she barely even noticed as they all warped back into the temple with their impressive haul of weapons retrieved from the battlefield.

“This is great!” Amethyst smirked, turning to head to the temple gate with her towering armful of smaller weapons. “My room’s been needing another pile.”

“Now, be careful with this sword, you two,” Garnet advised the twins as she handed the large sabre Mabel had picked off to them. Fortunately, she had carried both the sword and her battle axe back to the warp pad, but seeing as how she had to squeeze the axe into the temple somehow, the twins were basically on their own with the sword. “It’s very sharp and very heavy.”

“Don’t worry, Garnet,” Mabel reassured confidently. “Between the two of us, getting this pretty pointy stick down to the shack should be a-” She was abruptly cut off as the Gem leader finally let go of the sabre, letting it rest in the twins’ outstretched hands though it didn’t stay there long. Its hefty weight was more than enough to pull both Dipper and Mabel down with it, though thankfully they let go of it and let it fall to the wooden floor near the warp pad just in time.

“What’s that you were saying about getting this thing down to the shack?” Dipper asked, raising a dubious eyebrow at his sister.

“Uh… Garnet? A little help here?” Mabel asked the Gem leader with a frown, not ready to relinquish such an interesting piece so easily.

“I’m… a little busy right now,” Garnet grunted as she lifted her own axe up, working on keeping it balanced as she headed for the temple gate herself. “Amethyst! Help me with this axe!”

“I… guess we’ll just have to figure out a way to get this sword out of here ourselves then…” Dipper said, glancing down at the oversized blade worriedly.

“Oh! I’m thinking our plan to move it should include squirrel-driven sleds, or ‘squeds’ for short!” Mabel quipped, excited by her impromptu plan.

“Mabel, I have a feeling that’s… that the best idea in the world…”

“How will we know unless we give it a try?”

“We really don’t need to try a plan like that to know it’s not going to work!”

“Pfft, says you.”

As the twins continued to argue over how they were going to transport the sabre and Garnet and Amethyst struggled to force the battle axe into the temple, Steven remained on the warp pad along with Pearl, laughing in light amusement over the ongoing commotion from both ends. His attention was quickly diverted away from it all, however, as Pearl let out a soft, longing sigh beside him, her gaze still focused on the scabbard. “It’s been ages…” she murmured, her expression almost dreamlike as she blushed once more. She was finally broken out of her fixation on it as she noticed the young Gem curiously staring up at her. “What is it, Steven?”

Steven glanced away somewhat, mostly towards the scabbard as rubbed his arm a bit before posing a question he had been wanting answers for as long as he could remember. “What was mom like?”

Pearl’s soft blush deepened upon hearing this question, a gentle, affectionate smile crossing her features as she looked to the portrait of Rose Quartz herself hanging from the far wall. “She was… courageous, and brilliant… and beautiful…” The white Gem glanced to the scabbard briefly, another soft, nostalgic sigh escaping her before she looked to her young ward warmly. “Sometimes, you look so much like her…”

“Really?” Steven asked with his usual schmaltzy grin as he looked back from the picture of his mother to Pearl.

“Eh-” the white Gem frowned, suddenly uncertain, though she decided not to not really give much of an answer as she instead glanced behind her at Garnet and Amethyst, who were still struggling to fit the axe through the temple gate.

“Yeah, lift it backwards!” the purple Gem encouraged.

“You mean pull,” the Gem leader corrected, pulling her weight against the weapon.

“Yeah, pull, sure, if you wanna be all fancy about it.”

Though Steven was still expectantly waiting for a response, Pearl shifted her gaze over to the twins, who were still bickering over what method of getting the sabre down to the shack they were going to implement. “Mabel, for the last time, we’re not using a team of trained squirrels to get this thing down the hill!” Dipper exclaimed, quite annoyed by his sister’s persistence.

“Aw, but the squirrel idea is such a good one!” Mabel sighed fretfully. “And besides, how else are we supposed to get it to the shack?”

“How am I supposed to know!? You’re the one who decided to you had to bring it back with us in the first place!”

“Uh, have you seen it, bro-bro? It’s so pretty!”

“Yeah, and it’s so huge that we can’t even lift it, for crying out loud!”

A moment or two later, Pearl finally turned back to Steven, perking up with relief with that what she was about to do likely wouldn’t turn into a big deal. Mostly because she didn’t think it really needed to be one. “Hey, Steven…” she began with a small smile, holding the scabbard out to him. “Maybe… maybe you should hold onto this…”

“Whoa…” Steven gasped in amazement as he took the prized possession that had once belonged to his mysterious mother, stars in his eyes as he looked over it. “Thanks, Pearl!”

The white Gem simply let out a small, warm laugh at her young ward’s clear gratitude for this gift, though even as she accepted his thanks, her gaze still happened to drift up towards Rose’s portrait as she replied to it. “You’re welcome…”

Though it took quite a bit of work and time and a well thought out plan on Dipper’s part, the twins eventually managed to haul the giant sabre down to the Mystery Shack. Steven helped them out with this task as much as he could, though he took special care to make sure that he didn’t drop or misplace the scabbard the entire time. When they did get the oversized sword down the hill, Stan was the first to see them coming with it, and he was quick to staunchly refuse to let them take it inside, much to Mabel’s disappointment. Still, the conman did allow them to shove it into the ground near the shack in the hopes that its interesting appearance and large size would intrigue potential customers from afar. Still, getting the sword itself into the soil was much easier said than done.

“Ok, keep pulling!” Mabel called down from her spot atop the sabre’s cross guard to Stan and Dipper as they tried to get the blade to dig deep enough into the ground all while struggling to keep it standing upright. “I said keep pulling! Its barely even moved an inch!”

“W-well, it’d be a lot easier if you actually came down here and helped us, Mabel!” Dipper exclaimed, practically panting in exhaustion as he glared up at his sister.

“I am helping!” Mabel protested. “I’m sitting up here so I can weigh it down for you guys! So yeah, I’m being super helpful!”

“Geez, kid, could you have picked a bigger sword to drag home with you?” Stan asked with a scowl as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “My back’s not cut out for this kind of manual labor anymore. Why don’t you get over here and do this instead of me, kid?” he called over to Steven, who was in the midst of playfully swinging his mother’s scabbard around like it was an actual sword. “It’d be a far better use of your time than standing around playing with… whatever that girly blunt object you got there is.”

“This isn’t a blunt object, Mr. Pines,” Steven chuckled as he held the scabbard in front of him for the conman to see. “It’s a scabbard that used to belong to my mom! Isn’t it neat?”

Stan caustically looked between the young Gem and the scabbard in his hands, his expression far from impressed before he turned back towards the large sabre. “Sure, kid, whatever you say,” the conman deadpanned, rolling his eyes as he continued trying to pull the sword down into the ground.

Steven’s smile faded as he glanced down at the scabbard for a moment, curiosity filling his features as he looked over at Stan again. “Hey, Mr. Pines?!”

“Ugh, what?!” the conman grunted sourly as he finally managed to shove the tip of the blade a bit into the ground, their sudden progress catching Dipper a bit off guard as he accidently stumbled back from it a bit.

“You knew my mom when she was still around, right?” the young Gem asked, walking up to the sabre himself.

“Yeah, I did, unfortunately for me…” Stan remarked coldly, letting go of the blade as he crossed his arms. Of course, the moment he did, the sabre happened to fall backwards, its headway in the ground meaning nothing at all against its top-heavy weight. As it collapsed to the ground, Mabel fell off of its hilt, prompting Dipper to hurry and try and catch her, even if he just broke her fall instead.

“We’re ok!” Mabel called, even if her and Dipper had fallen into a messy heap on the ground.

“Eh, I’ll just have Soos tack that thing down later,” Stan shrugged, only briefly glancing back at the sabre before Steven caught his attention once more.

“So if you knew my mom, then you could probably tell me more about what she was like!” the young Gem exclaimed brightly. “I mean, the Gems are always talking about her, but I think it’d be nice to get an outside perspective for a change, you know?”

Stan let out a long, aggravated groan upon hearing this, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he looked away from the expectant young Gem. “Kid, I’m in no mood to open up that can of worms right now.”

“What do you mean?” Steven frowned in confusion as the twins headed over to join in on the conversation. “I know you said you guys never got along that great, but things couldn’t have been that bad between you two, right?”

“Bad?!” Stan scoffed harshly, suddenly quite upset and angry. “Are you kidding me, kid?! Things between me and her weren’t just bad, they were-” The conman abruptly cut himself off, especially as he glanced over at the twins who were looking to him with just as much curiosity as the young Gem was. “T-they were… You know what? Let’s just say things were bad and leave it at that, ok?”

“But why?” Mabel asked with an inquisitive frown.

“Yeah, what happened between you and Rose that made you apparently hate her so much?” Dipper asked, just as confused.

“N-nothing happened,” Stan shrugged crossly, looking away from the trio. “She just… I dunno—rubbed me the wrong way from the minute I first met her. And I don’t think anybody could blame me for it, seeing as how she was nothing but a huge nuisance! She always acted like she was better than everyone else, like she could do no wrong and like was so perfect-”

“Y-you mean she wasn’t?” Steven asked fretfully, knowing the conman’s views contradicted everything Pearl had told him earlier about his mother.

“Of course, she wasn’t!” Stan exclaimed hotly. “I don’t know what kind of sweet, fluffy little lies the Gems have been feeding you, kid, but your mom was far from the amazing, perfect, flawless goddess those three thought she was!”

“That’s quite enough, Stan!” Pearl shouted furiously as she leapt onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere. Her expression was absolutely livid upon as she rushed to stand in between the conman and the kids, more than ready to refute everything he had just said without a moment’s doubt.

“Oh great, the “Rose Protection Squad” is here,” Stan rolled his eyes dryly. “What, are you here to worship the ground she walked on since she’s not around for you sing her praises to her directly anymore?”

“How dare you!” Pearl hissed angrily. “You have no right to say such terrible things about Rose, Stan! You barely even knew her!”

“I knew her enough to know she was pompous, self-righteous snob,” Stan remarked callously. “Sorta like you, Pearl. Guess the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.”

The white Gem simply let out an irate growl at this, sending a hostile glare to the conman all the while. “You’re wrong about her! Completely and absolutely wrong! Rose was kind, and selfless, and fair, and honorable, and-”

“And nosy, and stubborn, and annoying, and most of all, she was a liar,” Stan scowled pointedly. “Honestly, it’s kind of mind blowing that you haven’t figured that out yet after all these years, Pearl. Then again, I guess it’s hard to see the truth when you’re so blinded by that dumb crush you still have on her even now that she’s gone!”

Pearl gasped, appalled by the bold accusation Stan had just made about Rose, but even so, she wasn’t about to let him get away with it. “You have no idea what you’re talking about! Besides, the real reason why you always had such an issue with Rose was because she was able to see you for the cheating, scandalous charlatan you really are!”

“Hey! I don’t know what half of what you just called me meant, but I take offense to that!”

“Good! You were supposed to!”

“Oh yeah? Well, I-”

“Guys, stop it!” Steven finally interjected, unable to allow such a fierce argument to continue as he pushed his way between the two. Likewise, the twins also looked to the white Gem and the conman with apt concern, quite alarmed at the brutally harsh words that they had just thrown at each other. Even as the young Gem pushed the pair a safe distance away from each other, they were still exchanging hateful scowls, something that worried him even more. “Look, I get that you guys had really different opinions about Mom, but… if she was still here, I bet she’d hate to see you guys fighting about her, just like I do!”

Pearl’s cold expression melted away as she heard this, her eyes widening a bit as she spared a gentle glance down at Steven. “Y-you’re right…” she admitted with an ashamed sigh. “She would…”

“And, while I’m not really an expert on what Mom might have done…” Steven shrugged with a small, bittersweet, almost pleading smile. “I’m sure she would have really loved to see you guys make up and get along? Please?”

The white Gem bristled a little at this, shifting her gaze to the conman, even if she made no attempt to apologize or even show amicability. Likewise, Stan simply crossed his arm and turned his nose up at her, his scowl still as present as ever. “Yeah, sure, whatever,” he remarked tersely, clearly not meaning it as he turned to head back into the shack. “I’ve had enough drama for one day anyway. I’m gonna uh, take a nap, or something…” The conman made sure to avert eye contact with everyone as he said this, not wanting anyone to catch on that he really intended to head for the basement lab instead. “Oh, and Pearl? One more thing,” Stan’s tone turned rather bitter once again as he stopped at the porch, slightly turning back to the white Gem. “One of these days you’re gonna wake up from that little fantasy world of yours and realize that Rose wasn’t as great or perfect as she was cracked up to be. And when you do… I’ll be right there to give you the biggest ‘I told you so’ you’ve ever heard!”

Pearl scoffed in indignant disbelief as Stan simply slammed the door to the shack behind him, outraged that he still insisted that Rose was anything less than exemplary. Still, as ready as she was to throw a barrage of angry words back at him, she refrained upon noticing all three of the kids staring at her worriedly. “Oh, kids…” she sighed in slight embarrassment, glancing away as she rubbed her arm. “I’m sorry you had to hear all that… Still, I simply couldn’t take Stan trying to defame Rose’s good name lying down, especially seeing as how not a single thing he said about her was even remotely true…”

“It sounds like things between Rose and Grunkle Stan weren’t just bad,” Mabel remarked with a frown. “They were really, really, bad.”

“Yeah, but I still don’t understand why,” Dipper said, shaking his head in confusion. “What was their problem with each other anyway?” he asked Pearl, hoping that she could provide at least some answers seeing as how she had been around back then too.

“Well, it’s quite simple, really,” Pearl said pointedly. “Rose was always very forward and honest where she could be, while Stan doesn’t know the meaning of the word honesty.”

“I guess we can’t really argue with you there,” Dipper shrugged, knowing that Stan was far from the most candid person in the world.

“So you see,” Pearl continued. “It only makes sense that there would be tension between a paradigm of morality and virtue like her… and someone as unscrupulous as him… Still,” the white Gem clasped her hands together, her mood brightening as she abruptly changed the subject. “Enough about all that nonsense for now. Steven, how are you liking your mother’s scabbard?”

“Liking it? I’m loving it!” Steven quipped, retrieving the scabbard from the spot on the ground where had left it. “I’ve been practicing with it ever since we got down here. If anything tries to eat us, I’ll bop them with this!” The young Gem broadly swung the scabbard out, eliciting an excited grin from Mabel, a look of confusion from Dipper, and a small, amused laugh from Pearl.

“That’s just the scabbard, Steven,” the white Gem informed gently. “It held your mother’s sword. Nothing else could fit so perfectly inside. For all this time, it’s been… incomplete…”

“Well, let’s complete it, then!” Steven concluded boldly.

“Yeah!” Mabel eagerly chimed her agreement in. “Let’s find that sword and shove it in there! Where is it?”

Pearl hesitated a bit at this, looking around nervously for a moment before looking to the kids, first with uncertainty that soon turned to acceptance and trust. “Can you three keep a secret?”

“A secret?!” Steven exclaimed with excitement, far too loudly for the white Gem’s liking.

“Shh!” she quickly quieted him, glancing around the area once again. “Keep your voice down, Steven! It’s a secret, even to Garnet and Amethyst.”

“Really?” Dipper asked, quite intrigued. After all, if this supposed secret, whatever it might be was kept hidden even from the other two Gems, then there was a very high chance that it would be worth delving into. “What kind of secret?”

“A very special one,” Pearl grinned slyly, her voice still at a whisper. “Rose had a place that she kept hidden from all but me. But Steven, you have her gem. That place is yours now! And I can show it to you! After all, if Rose’s sword is anywhere, it would definitely be there.”

“Uh, ok,” Steven shrugged with a small smile, ready for whatever the white Gem had in store.

“Oh my gosh, this secret place sounds so cool and mysterious!” Mabel chimed in, mirroring Dipper’s investment in this proposed adventure. “Can we go right now, Pearl? Can we? Can we?”

“Oh, well, uh…” Pearl’s smile faded as she trailed off awkwardly. She didn’t exactly have it in her to tell the twins that they couldn’t really accompany her and Steven to this secret place, mostly because it was, in her opinion, far too hallowed and sacred for any human to visit. Not to mention the fact that it had once been reserved solely for her and Rose and nobody else. So instead, she decided to put the truth off a bit by detailing a bit more about it, in the hopes of discouraging them from wanting to come along. “Well, you see, kids, this place isn’t exactly… easy to access. True, it is right here in Gravity Falls, buried deep underground. But its entrance is… rather unsightly. To deter huma—I mean, u-unwanted intruders from getting inside, Rose hid its entrance away deep within the town cemetery, knowing that most humans—I mean, unwanted intruders would be far too superstitious to even venture in there and go snooping around for it! She was always so clever when it came to things like that…”

“A magical Gem place hidden in the cemetery?” Steven questioned thoughtfully. “Why does that sound so familiar…?”

“Because it is familiar!” Dipper exclaimed in sudden realization. “Pearl, this place you’re talking about… I think we’ve all been there before!”

“W-what?” Pearl froze, looking to the kids in apt disbelief.

“Oh yeah!” Mabel grinned, recalling what both of the boys already had. “That really cool sparkly cave filled with all those weapons! The one we found on Pioneer Day while being chased by the cops! Ah, good times. Good times.”

“S-sparkly cave…. Filled… filled with weapons?!” Pearl gasped in alarm, knowing this description certainly fit the bill. “B-but how did you—no.” She quickly cut herself off, shaking her head incredulously. “There’s no way you kids could have been there before. You three must be thinking of someplace else, certainly!”

“Well, why don’t we just show you where we’re talking about?” Dipper suggested, rather confident that the cavern they had been to before and the secret spot Pearl had mentioned were one and the same. “That way you can tell us whether or not it’s the same place.”

“O-oh, yes, good idea,” Pearl agreed, still somewhat shaken by the prospect that the secrecy of Rose’s special spot had been somehow tarnished. “You can three take me there yourselves. Though still, I highly doubt we’re all referring to the same location. But all the same,” the white Gem nodded, prompting the kids to start leading the way to this unknown place. “I suppose it’s at least worth a look…”

While the kids were all in high, relatively excited spirits for their trek over to the town graveyard, Pearl was much more reserved, mostly out of concerned curiosity. Though she still doubted that the place the kids were leading her to even remotely related back to Rose, she was still interested in seeing it for herself, if it was even real at all. However, as they arrived at the cemetery and the trio led her to a remarkably familiar statue, Pearl’s alarm and fear at the idea of Rose’s sanctum no longer being a secret increased. In fact, those feelings only spiked as the kids somehow managed to activate the switch on the statue’s finger that forced it to slide aside, revealing the hidden underground entryway below it. But all the same, the white Gem kept a straight face as the kids led her down into the darkened, narrow corridor, hoping that somehow in the midst of it, they’d end up veering off the familiar path and go somewhere else. Even if she knew that this tunnel only really led to one place.

“So, is this looking familiar yet, Pearl?” Steven asked with a smile as he walked alongside the white Gem.

“O-oh, well, uh…” Pearl frowned as she glanced around the tight tunnel walls, which of course struck a nostalgic cord to her, though she refused to admit that so soon. “I-it… it might look a little familiar. But I’ve seen lots of dark, dank corridors in my day, so it’s really too soon to say for certain if this is the one that leads to Rose’s secret sanctum.”

“Why’s this place such a big secret anyway?” Mabel wondered curiously. “Because of all the really cool magical Gem weapons that are hidden inside it?”

“Er—yes…?” Pearl flinched, still bothered by the fact that the kids apparently knew what Rose had kept stored there. “I-I mean, p-perhaps. Still, there are a lot of places all over the Earth where Gem weapons are stored, like… like that battlefield we were at earlier! And besides, the weapons Rose held onto were far more powerful and more unique than any of those, which is why she decided to hide them away in a place where they would be safe and secure until she needed them.”

“So if the only things in this ‘secret’ place are weapons, then why don’t Garnet and Amethyst know about it?” Dipper asked inquisitively. “And why are you the only one Rose showed it to, Pearl?”

“Well, that’s because I was Rose’s sole confidant,” Pearl remarked with a proud grin. “For the words and secrets she could share with no one else, I was there to listen!”

“Why’d she keep so many secrets?” Steven asked, not truly understanding why his mother might have needed to keep things hidden from so many, especially since nearly everything he had heard about her always made her seem so open and transparent instead.

“She had to, Steven!” Pearl professed boldly, still smiling with adulation for the pink Gem. “It’s the mark of a great leader. Knowing just what to keep hidden from everyone you’re trying to protect. Everyone except me!”

“But how is hiding things from people supposed to protect them?” Dipper asked, somewhat doubtful of this train of logic.

“Yeah!” Mabel chimed in. “Wouldn’t it have been easier for Rose just tell everyone everything? Then everyone could be in on all those secrets, and then-”

“And then they wouldn’t be secrets anymore,” Pearl interjected pointedly, shaking her head. “I don’t think you kids really understand. Then again, I don’t really blame you. None of you have ever been embroiled in the dramatic, dangerous life-or-death dilemmas of a massive war before, and thank the stars for that. But believe me what I say that all of the secrets that Rose kept hidden from others, she kept for the sake of the greater good. Just like everything she did. She was always, always thinking of humanity, of the earth, of her fellow Crystal Gems over herself. And that selflessness, that abnegation, that integrity, that bled into her every word and action during the war and even long after it…”

As Pearl let out an admiring sigh, the kids exchanged a brief, somewhat confused look. There was no denying that the white Gem had a penchant for defending everything about Rose to the very end, and they supposed that it did make sense. After all, Pearl had known Rose for a long time, and had followed her loyally for longer than any of them (or anyone currently living, to be perfectly honest) had been alive for, long enough to truly know her and grow a deep, unwavering sense of respect and adoration towards her. It was understandable that she would be firm in her resolve to brazenly stand up and defend the pink Gem’s reputation, especially since she was no longer around to do so herself. And yet at the same time, it was somewhat concerning to see just how far Pearl was willing to defend Rose, especially if her fierce argument with Stan earlier was any indication. In a way, it was as though the white Gem refused to even listen to any implications that her former leader could have been flawed or imperfect in any regards at all, the very mention of such a thing being more than enough to set Pearl off entirely. It almost seemed like something of an obsession to her, one that she refused to let go of, lest she fail Rose and her memory altogether. And while the kids somewhat understood where she was coming from with her hardened resolve, none of them could deny that something about it set them all on edge all the same.

But even so, none of them questioned her about it further as they finally reached the end of the tunnel, the apparent dead end still as open as it had been when Lion burst through it weeks ago. Pearl’s eyes widened in disbelief upon seeing this, but her jaw completely dropped as the kids freely ran into the open cavern without any signs of trepidation at all, all of them showing their immediate familiarity with the place as they splashed into the shallow water over its floor.

“Here we are!” Steven announced with a broad smile, running up to the central circular platform as Pearl followed him at a much slower pace.

“Ah, this place hasn’t changed a bit!” Mabel grinned, her hands on her hips as she looked over the shimmering cave. “It looks exactly the same as it did when we found ol’ President Trembley in here a few weeks ago!”

“P-President Trem—You found him here?! In Rose’s secret armory?!” Pearl asked, appalled. “But I thought he just… I don’t know—broke out of that block of peanut brittle he, for some asinine reason, froze himself in and wandered out to the surface!”

“No, this is definitely where we found him,” Dipper frowned, somewhat confused by why the white Gem would think otherwise. “And it’s also where we basically got arrested and were nearly dragged off to Washington, D.C. Actually, to be honest, since it was apparently a matter of ‘national security’, I wouldn’t be that surprised if the U.S. Government knew about this place by now, so uh… yeah...”

“They what?!” Pearl exclaimed in a panic, floored by the idea that the government, of all entities, could have knowledge of this place. “B-but that’s ridiculous! Rose and I are the only ones who have ever witnessed the armory’s magnificence before now!”

“Except for us!” Steven quipped, obliviously blithe. “But when we first found it, we didn’t even know what this place really was. And now we do, thanks to you, Pearl!”

The white Gem was beyond flustered at this point, her frustration steadily growing as she walked past the trio in a huff. “How… how did you three even find out about the armory in the first place?!” she exclaimed hotly. “Don’t tell me there’s somehow an entry on it in that… that journal, of all things. …Is there?” she asked hesitantly as she looked to Dipper.

“Uh, well… I don’t really see any entries on it…” he replied after pulling out the journal and flipping through its Gem-related page.

“Well, that’s a relief…” Pearl sighed, only somewhat allayed.

“But it does mention it…”

“What?” the white Gem asked, her tone rather flat but still clearly upset.

“Oh yeah!” Mabel exclaimed, looking at the journal over her brother’s shoulder. “It says it right here on the page about you guys’ weapons! The larger pieces of the Crystal Gems’ artery-”

“That’s artillery, Mabel,” Dipper corrected somewhat dryly.

“Whatever,” Mabel stuck her tongue out at her brother briefly before she continued reading. “The larger pieces of the Crystal Gems’ artillery are safely tucked away within Rose’s secret armory, which is described in further detail in journal 1.”

“J-journal 1?!” Pearl balked, stunned by this revelation. “T-there’s more of them?! But… but how did he… Whoever wrote this, he couldn’t have… There’s no way!”

“Um… Pearl?” Steven spoke up apt concern upon seeing how distressed the white Gem seemed to be over the matter. “A-are you ok?”

Pearl froze at this, her gaze snapping over to her young ward and the twins with the slightest hint of disdain in her features. “If… if that thing,” her expression turned into a sharp glare as she briefly glanced at the journal. “Wasn’t what let you three to this place… then what did?”

“Oh, Lion showed it to us,” Steven informed, perking up into a grin once again.

“The lion?!” the white Gem exclaimed, eyes wide with disbelief.

“Yeah!” Mabel interjected enthusiastically. “He let out this huge roar that crashed through that wall over there and bam! Before we knew it, we were in a super -secret, super-pretty, super-sparkly cave!”

“And there’s all sorts of great stuff hidden in here too!” Steven exclaimed, hopping up onto the pedestal, the twins joining him.

“I know!” the white Gem huffed in frustration. “That’s why I wanted to bring you here! Now, let me just show you how you can access the artillery.”

“That’s ok!” the young Gem assured, walking up to the hand switch as it rose out of the ground. “I can do it without you.”

“W-wha…?” Pearl flinched, watching in bewilderment as Steven confidently slapped his hand onto the switch. However, instead of activating the impressive collection of weaponry, nothing really seemed to be happening, that is, until the young Gem realized why.

“Oh, right!” he remarked before turning to the twins. “Hey, uh… you guys mind lending me a hand here?”

“You bet!” Mabel grinned, readily running over to him.

“Uh, yeah, sure, Steven…” Dipper assented somewhat less enthusiastically, remembering how they had gotten the weapons to show up the last time they were here.

“Ok… go!” Steven exclaimed with a daring grin, prompting Mabel to poke him in the side playfully. At this movement, the first collection of weapons rose out of the pedestal’s side, much to Pearl’s surprise. “We got some… axes!”

“The Axes of Ages…?” the white Gem murmured, taken aback by the sight of the familiar weapons.

As the axes disappeared into the ground once more as Dipper pressed against Steven’s shoulder. “We got spikey chain lady and her metal dealies!” Mabel quipped as the statue toting an array of flails rose up.

“The Heretic’s Anguish?!” Pearl exclaimed, growing more disgruntled by the second.

“And a three pack of light cannons,” Dipper noted as Mabel pushed Steven’s nose, bringing the cannons up.

“The Quartizine trio!”

“And… Oh! A whole lot of armor guys,” Steven reported as both twins poked him in the sides at once, making the sets of armor appear.

“The Armor of the Fallen!” Pearl scowled, so frustrated by this point that the kids could clearly hear it in her tone.

Steven paused, his brow furrowing a bit as he looked up to the white Gem somewhat innocently. “What were we looking for again?”

“Her sword! Your mother’s sword!” Pearl practically shouted indignantly as she projected a hologram of said sword from her gemstone for the kids to see. “It’s a straight-bladed saber that’s pink with a red handle. There are vines etched in the guard that connect to a rose-shaped pommel. And it-”

“Oh! We’ve seen that thing before too!” Mabel suddenly interrupted.

The projection from Pearl’s gem briefly shifted into an exclamation point to express her shock by this news as she looked to the kids with wide eyes. “H-huh?”

“Yeah, in fact, we discovered it, like, the exact same day we discovered this place,” Dipper added, not entirely sure why this fact caused Pearl such apparent alarm.

“And I know where it is now!” Steven exclaimed with an eager grin. “Come on, I can show you!”

For a moment, Pearl stayed standing in place as the kids began to lead the way out of the armory, far too dumbfounded and stunned to even move. Needless to say, she was floored, not just by how much all three of the kids seemed to know regarding all of Rose’s seemingly best-kept secrets, but just how casual they were about it all. The armory, the sword, these were all things that Rose used to discuss with her in confidence, they were secrets the pink Gem had chosen to entrust to her and her alone. And yet, somehow and some way, not only did Steven seem to know about it all, but so did Dipper and Mabel, something that confounded Pearl seeing as how none of them had even known Rose personally at all. Still, the white Gem forced herself to remain calm (or at least as calm as she could be) for now. After all, even she didn’t know the resting place of Rose’s sword, seeing as how it apparently wasn’t in the armory. There was no way, no way that any of the kids could know where it was if she didn’t.

Right?

“Dadadadadadada… here it is!” Steven sung as he pulled the large pink blade cleanly out of Lion’s glowing mane back at the temple. The twins stood by, not too surprised at this, seeing as how they had helped him get it out of there the first time, but the Gems were all quite astonished by this display, especially Pearl.

“R-Rose’s sword…” her tone faltered as Steven handed the prized blade over to her. “But… but how did it get in there?”

“I don’t know,” Steven shrugged. “But there’s a ton of stuff in there. I keep stuff in him too!” At this, the young Gem easily hopped into the pink beast’s mane, emerging from it only seconds later, only this time, he was sitting atop his bicycle. “Ta da!” he grinned proudly, riding the bike around the den a bit as he rung its bell. “By the way, Mabel, here’s that ice cream cone you asked me to store in there last week.”

“Thanks, Steven!” Mabel grinned, gladly grabbing the cone and taking a lick. “Wow! It’s still cold and everything! I knew it wouldn’t melt if I put it in there!”

“It has grass on the side of it,” Dipper pointed out caustically, briefly glancing up from the journal.

“Well, since this grass came out of a magical lion’s mane, I’m sure it’ll taste just as magical!” Mabel countered, turning the cone over and licking the other side before instantly choking on the grass that was on it. “Ugh! I was wrong! I was so, so wrong!”

“So how’d you guys figure out that thing was in there anyway?” Amethyst asked in casual curiosity, which was a far cry from Pearl’s alarmed bewilderment over the matter. “What, did that ol’ journal tell you about it?”

“No, but it is in here,” Dipper noted, glancing down at the page with the sketch of Rose’s scabbard on it, though this time with the help of his black light. “I gotta admit, it was kind of a cool idea on the author’s part to draw it in here using invisible ink.”

“Oh yeah!” Steven grinned as he looked over the otherwise invisible drawing. “That is really cool! It’s like it’s some sort of super-secret black light bonus!”

“Oh, come on!” Pearl suddenly exclaimed, irate and exasperated. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“What’s wrong, Pearl?” Mabel asked with a worried frown.

“What’s wrong is that… that book!” the white Gem huffed, glaring at the journal. “Spying on us from afar and jotting down a few notes on us is one thing, but to know about Rose’s sanctum, her sword, about her so intimately and accurately… How did this ‘author’ person even get all of this information?!”

“Maybe he really was someone you guys used to know back when Mom was still around,” Steven suggested. “And he just, I dunno, wrote the journal without telling you.”

“I don’t know…” Dipper interjected, still flipping through the Gem section of the book. “There isn’t really anything in here that makes it seem like the author was trying to keep the fact that he was writing about you three a secret. In fact, there’s actually a bunch of places where he implies that you guys helped him with his research on Gravity Falls.”

“Oh yeah?” Amethyst asked with a somewhat doubtful smirk. “Like what?”

“Like this,” Garnet said, somewhat jolted by what she saw as Dipper handed the open journal over to her, though she read the entry aloud nonetheless. “Today the Gems presented me with another odd magical item they had found in their travels, though this time it was not one of their own: the Cloak of Occasional Visibility. This mysterious article makes its wearer completely invisible—half of the time. The other half of the time, it flickers on and off again, usually at the worst possible moment, while you wander around trying to find a good invisibility ‘signal’. Very frustrating. In fact, it’s so frustrating that the Gems professed that it never works for them, so they found it best to give it to me. Not that I’ll ever have much use for such a thing, but all the same, I appreciate the thought.”

“T-the Cloak of Occasional Visibility?” Pearl balked once Garnet was done. “But… but we didn’t give that old thing away to someone! We just lost it! …D-didn’t we?”

Garnet simply shrugged, not entirely sure herself as Amethyst grabbed the journal and turned it to another page. “Oh whoa!” she exclaimed, intrigued as she looked it over. “This one’s about that creepy bunker we went to the other day! We found a location for our hidden storage bunker! Rose had originally purposed to me that we could keep our supplies within the temple, or more specifically, in Amethyst’s room, but seeing as how I’ve actually been inside of that disastrous mess before, I don’t think keeping our extremely dangerous equipment in there would have been a very wise idea. Hey!” the purple Gem scoffed in offense. “My room is not a mess. It’s just a little… cluttered.”

“H-he’s been inside the temple too?!” Pearl gasped, taking an alarmed glance back at the gate. “But that’s impossible! Who would have ever opened the gate for him? I know I never let some strange, unknown human wander into the temple.”

“Neither did I,” Garnet reported.

“Yeah, me neither,” Amethyst frowned, perplexed.

“Maybe Mom did,” Steven purposed innocently.

“But that’s… that’s just preposterous!” the white Gem turned her nose up bitterly. “Ridiculous! Completely out of the question! There’s never been a human Rose has trusted enough to take into the temple before. And even if there had been, we would have known him too!”

“But we didn’t know him,” Garnet said, her tone somehow still stoic and calm amidst all this. “And I think it might be time we come to terms with that, Pearl.”

“But it doesn’t make any sense!” Pearl protested adamantly. “Give me that thing!” she suddenly swiped the journal out of Amethyst’s hands, furiously flipping through its pages for more evidence against this claim and instead only getting the exact opposite. “It’s clear to me now that in these uncertain times, the only one I can still turn to is my original research partner, the Gem I would trust my life with, Rose Quartz.” The white Gem had to pause briefly at this, her entire form trembling a bit, before she forced herself to continue. “In light of everything that’s happened, I feel as though Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl would simply shun me, but Rose has never been so quick to judge. Despite her understandable outrage with the true nature of our project, the bond of confidence between us still stands. I was always able to bear my secrets to her, just as she often entrusted her own secrets to me. I can only hope that she’ll understand. She has to understand. She’s the only one I… T-the only one…” Pearl’s reading grew even more shaken and uneven as she finished. “The only I still completely trust…”

The journal snapped shut at this, the white Gem turning on her heel away from the others as she held the book tightly against her chest. The other two Gems and the kids all exchanged a look of slight concern, none of them really knowing what to say to Pearl to calm or to allay her. Still, Amethyst did make an attempt by trying to pass off the entire matter as casually as possible. “So, uh… I guess that sorta proves that the author guy really did know Rose, even if we didn’t,” she shrugged, awkwardly scratching the back of her neck. “I mean, it is a little weird that she never introduced him to us or anything, but it’s not like it’s the end of the world.”

Almost as soon as the purple Gem said this, something in the white Gem seemed to snap, her manner going from alarmed and confused, to outright livid and enraged. “No!” she shouted, spinning around to face them all. “Like I said, it makes no sense! There’s no possible way that Rose could have known the author, because if she had then I would have known him too! And even if I had known him, Rose still wouldn’t have imparted any of her secrets to some… some nobody!”

“W-well,” Steven spoke up, wanting to diffuse Pearl’s quite apparent frustration over the matter by changing the subject. “What about Mom’s, uh, super secret place?” he asked, lowering his voice down to a not very discreet whisper. “You knew about that.”

“But the author sorta did too, didn’t he?” Mabel interjected somewhat innocently.

“Mabel, shh!” Dipper quickly quieted her, knowing pointing that out would do nothing to quell the white Gem’s stress.

“A-and… oh, the sword!” Steven exclaimed. “You knew about the sword!”

“And I don’t even think the author knew about where Rose hid it, seeing as how Lion isn’t mentioned in the journal at all,” Dipper said, not recalling any entry of the pink beast, at least not in the journal he possessed.

“But I didn’t know where she hid it either!” Pearl argued, glancing over at Lion sharply. As she approached the pink beast out of petulant curiosity, he merely growled at her, refusing to let her even so much as touch his magical mane. “Did… did Lion have something to do with Rose too?”

“Ohhhhh… of course!” Amethyst exclaimed in realization. “That’s why he’s pink!”

“It was a little obvious,” Garnet pointed out

“But… Rose didn’t have a lion…” the white Gem shook her head.

“Well, it seems like it’s her stuff in there,” Steven pointed out, finally putting his bike back into Lion’s mane.

“No!” Pearl protested firmly, her already palpable indignation growing even moreso. “Rose didn’t have a lion, because if Rose had a lion I would have known about it! And like I said, the very same goes for that… ‘author’ person, whoever he was!”

“Rose kept many things secret,” Garnet interjected as rationally as she could. “Even from us. If she didn’t see it fit to tell us about Lion or the author, then there’s a good chance she had her reasons for it.”

“But she never kept secrets from me!” Pearl stressed, distraught. “I was the one she told everything to!”

“Yo, you’re not the only one who misses her!” Amethyst scowled crossly.

“You can’t understand how I feel!” the white Gem practically shouted, gripping onto both the sheathed sword and the journal tightly. “None of you had what we had!”

“S-she probably just wanted to protect you,” Steven cut in with a small, reassuring smile. “Like everyone else.”

“Yeah, I mean, you said so yourself that she always used to do that,” Dipper reminded carefully. “That she always kept secrets from everyone for the ‘greater good’, or something like that.”

“And you said it was the mark of a great leader!” Mabel added, trying her best to lighten the mood. “And a bunch of other really fancy things about it too that I can’t really remember right now, but still.”

“Yeah!” Steven agreed, though he could tell that his attempt to console the very upset white Gem wasn’t really getting anywhere. Still, he wasn’t about to give up now. “It’s probably just like what Garnet said; Mom must have had a pretty good reason for not telling you about-”

“How would you know?!” Pearl interrupted, her tone far harsher than the young Gem was used to as he looked to her, startled. “You’ve never even met her!” As the white Gem shouted this, her fist slammed into the nearby wall out of sheer frustration, the very same wall that the iconic portrait of Rose herself hung. Easily knocked loose from its hanging, the picture began to tumble down towards Pearl, who could only gasp in alarm as she looked up at the falling image of her beloved liege. Fortunately, Garnet stepped in just in time, catching the portrait before it could hit her or the ground. For a moment, the white Gem remained frozen in place, shocked and shaken, but as she briefly looked towards the equally stunned young Gem, her building emotions finally came to a head.

Before Steven, or anyone else for that matter, could even say a word to her, Pearl turned heel and hurried off towards the warp pad, a tight sob escaping her as she clung onto both the sword and the journal all the while. “Fine, go!” Amethyst shouted after her harshly, her hands clenched into angry fists. “Go cry about it, like you always do!”

The purple Gems’ words fell on deaf ears as Pearl simply warped out of the temple, much to the kids’ shared concern for a number of reasons. “Aw, poor Pearl!” Mabel exclaimed with sincere sympathy. “We gotta go after her and make sure she’s ok!”

“And not to mention, she still has the journal! We have to get it back!” Dipper added, quite alarmed by that fact alone, especially given the white Gem’s current unstable mindset. Though still, he did catch shared disapproving frowns from both Steven and Mabel at this, prompting him to correct his statement. “And uh, make sure Pearl’s ok, like you said.”

“Where did she go?” Steven asked, turning to his two remaining guardians.

“Who cares?” Amethyst glowered, crossing her arms bitterly. “I hate it when she gets like this.”

“Garnet?” the young Gem looked towards the Gem leader, who offered no response as she simply continued to hold onto the portrait of Rose, almost as if she was frozen in place too. “I-is she ok?” he tried again, only for Garnet to remain silent, not so much as even glancing over her shoulder at him. “Well, uh… we’re going to find her. Lion, do you know where she went?” he asked, turning to the pink beast who simply let out a soft roar as his answer. “I’m… going to assume that means you do.”

“Let’s go find Pearl!” Mabel proclaimed boldly, already climbing onto Lion’s back as the boys soon joined her. The pink beast didn’t need much prompting, save for a mere pat from Steven, before he bowed low and let out a fierce roar, one that managed to tear open a transport portal that hopefully led to wherever the white Gem had fled to.

Garnet finally turned somewhat as the kids rode Lion through that portal, a hint of genuine concern in her tone as she imparted them with the best well wishes she could offer at the moment. “Good luck…”

As it turned out, Pearl had retreated to the very place that had started all of this sword-and-scabbard related drama earlier that very day: the strawberry battlefield. Night had fallen over the rolling expanse of oversized fruits and massive weapons, but with the full silver moon hanging high in the radiantly starry sky, which allowed the kids to easily spot the white Gem almost as soon as Lion’s portal landed them there.

“Pearl!” Steven called over to her with apt concern. Her back was turned away from them, the sword and journal both still wrapped tightly in her embrace and her expression awash in grief and despair. She bristled upon hearing the young Gem’s call however, and she didn’t hesitate to spare a glare over her should at the kids, showing that she was clearly not pleased with them following her.

“Leave me alone!” Pearl shouted fiercely, not hesitating to sprint off in the opposite direction. The kids exchanged a look of confused concern at this, none of them quite sure as to why the white Gem was so adamant on simply sitting in her feelings of frustration and sadness instead of letting them help her get past them. But all the same, the trio continued to peruse her, with Steven pressing Lion onward to create another portal just for them to catch up with her. Pearl gasped in heated alarm as the pink beast and his trio of riders suddenly appeared alongside her, though of course, this only prompted her to run faster in an attempt to further distance herself from them.

“Wait for us!” Steven shouted earnestly, pushing Lion on to try and keep up with her, to little avail. “We just wanna help you!”

“Yeah!” Mabel added just as fervently. “If you slow down a bit, then I’m sure we can all just sit down and talk all of this really heavy stuff out and-”

“No, we can’t!” Pearl argued, stopping only briefly as she jumped onto one of the first of what nearly seemed like a disjointed staircase of floating earthen platforms. “Now get that thing away from me-” she scowled hatefully at Lion. “And all of you, just go home!”

Without sparing another word, the white Gem continued deftly jumping from platform to platform, the load she was carrying barely even slowing her pace at all. As they reached the edge of the cliff, Lion came to halt, his trio of passengers dismounting as they all fretfully watched Pearl run even further away from them and her own pressing problems.

“You better sit this one out, Lion,” Steven said to the pink beast as he patted his side, knowing he was be the last thing the white Gem wanted to see at the moment.

“Actually, Steven, we should probably sit this one out too,” Dipper cut in, referring to both himself and Mabel. “After all, you’re easily the best out of all of us when it comes to making people feel better, which is probably what Pearl needs the most right about now.”

“Oh, come on, bro-bro,” Mabel huffed, wanting to be a part of this. “I’m great at making people feel better. Remember last week when I cheered Soos up by going out and finding that stray cat for him? Then again… that cat did end up scratching his face up before running away… not to mention that Soos is actually allergic to cats…” She frowned as the boys looked to her dubiously, ultimately forcing her to retract her earlier claim. “You know what, Steven, it might be better if just you went up there after all.”

“Ok, well then here goes nothing,” Steven said with resolve as he turned towards the staircase of platforms. “Pearl!” he called after the still fleeing white Gem, narrowly jumping onto the first one as he struggled to remain steady atop it. “It’s ok! I’ve had a talk with Lion and he’s gonna, uh, chill out here! It’ll be just the two of us, nice and private!”

Pearl offered no response, nor even a glance down at him as she neared the uppermost and largest grassy platform, prompting Steven to continue following her. “G-good idea!” he called, jumping to the next platform, which wobbled a bit upon his landing. “I’ll meet you at the top!”

“Do you think he can actually make it all the way up there?” Dipper asked Mabel, aptly concerned as they watched Steven struggle to bridge the gap between the floating pieces of earth.

“Eh, I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Mabel grinned with a wave of her hand, failing to notice Steven barely his next jump and only catching onto the edge of another platform by a thin margin.

But all the same, the young Gem kept going, despite how daunting and challenging this upward climb was. Even as he began to near the highest outcropping himself, he was breathless and exhausted, having had several close calls that could have resulted in him falling into the wide, deep chasm below. Still, his spirits remained as high as they could, given the circumstances. “This… this is really hard to do in sandals!” he joked up to the white Gem, letting out a small laugh that, of course, she did not return.

“Go away!” she shouted down to him, pausing only briefly to send him another cold glare before continuing on her way onto the last platform

“Pearl!” Steven called back, growing desperate as he hopped onto another platform, nearing that wide finishing jump himself. “Did I… did I do something wrong? You gotta tell me!”

As Pearl disappeared from his view, Steven took a few steps back on the small platform he was on, knowing that there was a good chance he might not actually make this last jump, given just how far and high he would have to go. He paused before attempting it though, casting a small, somewhat fearful glance down to the twins and Lion, who were all still intently watching him from what seemed like miles below now. But despite his nerves and his fatigue, the young Gem pushed himself onward, getting a good running start before he made his bold leap towards the last platform.

Time seemed to slow as he sailed through the air towards it, and for a moment, it seemed as though, against all odds, that he was going to make it. However, his confidence in this belief was instantly shattered as he caught sight of Pearl, standing atop the platform itself. Rose’s sword was locked tightly in her grip, held high over her head as its tip pointed downward towards the journal resting before her in the grass. There was no question that her intention was to run the blade through the book, as if doing so would sever whatever mysterious connections the pink Gem apparently had to its unknown author once and for all. And she was more than ready to do it too, though as she noticed Steven getting closer, her gaze abruptly snapped in her direction, allowing him to clearly see the anger, sadness, and agony written all over her expression. And that intense look of disdain was enough to end the young Gem’s jump right in its tracks.

“Steven!” Pearl’s fury dissipated into panic as Steven suddenly started falling, missing even the edge of the platform by a wide margin. From their spot on the ground below, the twins echoed this shout of fearful concern, both of them more than ready to jump onto Lion and rush to his rescue in a moment’s notice. Fortunately, they didn’t have to, as Steven managed to catch onto one of the vines growing out from the chunk of earth before he could fall too far. For a moment, all the young Gem could do was hold onto the roots for dear life, refusing to look down for a moment as he instead looked up. Briefly, he could see Pearl glancing over the edge at him, but she was too far for her to clearly read her expression. Oddly enough though, she made no effort to come down at help him up, something that confused Steven a bit, but reminded him why he was doing this in the first place: to help her.

“Steve, are you ok?!” Dipper called up to the young Gem from down below, still quite alarmed by what had almost just happened.

“Uh, yeah!” Steven shouted back, even if he was effectively hanging by a metaphorical thread.

“Do you need us to come up there and help you?” Mabel asked loudly, more than ready to hop onto Lion to do so.

“N-no!” the young Gem assured as he began to steadily scale the thick roots upward. “I… I got this!”

Neither of the twins were entirely convinced by this, but still, they decided to let him continue on by himself, watching with shared relief as he eventually did climb up to the top of the platform safe and sound. Still, while that had been simple enough, neither of them were really sure how Steven planned on going about resolving the real matter at hand here, but even so, they didn’t dare doubt that he could. After all, they had both seen him fix this kind of problem before, especially when it came to his fellow Gems, with more tact and skill than anyone else. And while Pearl’s current breakdown was perhaps the heaviest and most intense they had witnessed thus far, there was no question that Steven would be able to work his magic, whatever that was, once again.

As the young Gem shakily rose to stand atop the large outcropping, he was beyond exhausted, mostly physically, but also somewhat emotionally as well. Still, he put his own feelings on pause for the moment, especially as he looked ahead and saw the white Gem sitting on the ground just several feet away. Her back was turned to him, her knees pulled to her chest and a hand cupped over her mouth as she let out a small, depressed sob. Apparently, she had given up on her attempt to stab the journal, as it instead sat a short distance away from her, intact and unharmed, Rose’s sword resting in its scabbard close beside her. Steven could tell just by looking at her just how shaken and distressed she was as he took a small, hesitant step towards her, but before he could even say a word to her, she spoke instead.

“To think that she would entrust her secrets, secrets that she only ever shared with me and me alone… to a complete and utter stranger…” she muttered bitterly, her tearful gaze fixated on the journal. “Who was he? Why didn’t I know him? Why did he matter so much to her that she would trust him… over me?”

Steven stopped at this, his already concerned frown deepening as he realized he had all of these same questions concerning his mother and the author himself. And yet, for as curious as he was to know what the link between the two of them was, he knew that now was no time to ponder over such things. Now was the time for something else altogether. “P-Pearl,” he began, somewhat unevenly, though he forced intent into his tone as he took another step towards her. “Pearl, you have to tell me what’s wrong.”

The white Gem’s shoulders dropped a little at this, a small, ironic, almost inaudible laugh escaping her as she finally addressed her young ward himself. “Sometimes… you even sound like her…” she admitted incredulously, her hand digging a bit into the grass beside her. “Do you remember this place? Do you have any of her memories? We were right here.” Pearl finally stood as Steven finished his approach, stopping just a few feet away from her as she pushed the journal aside with her foot so that it could rest alongside the sword. “It was over 5,000 years ago… On a night just like this one…”

As if to answer several of Steven’s pressing questions, a bright holographic image flushed out of Pearl’s gemstone, an imagine that was unmistakable even from behind: Rose Quartz. The young Gem was stunned into complete silence at this, his expression solemn as he glanced up at this projection of his mother, one that Pearl humbly bowed to one knee before out of loyalty and respect. As the hologram of the pink Gem finally turned, Pearl spoke for it as well as herself, acting out the decisive conversation that had taken place between them so many centuries before.

“Pearl…” the hologram of Rose spoke, the white Gem’s voice a touch softer as she gave it a voice.

“Yes?” Pearl immediately answered, looking up to her leader intently.

A look of worry washed over the pink Gem’s transparent face, one that, while still incredibly beautiful, was etched with a kind of exhaustion and regret that Steven never knew his mother could even feel. “I’m going to stay and fight for this planet,” she said, glancing away from the white Gem. “You know, just as much as I do, that the things that live here, as precious and special as they are, deserve to survive and be free. And so, I’m ready to do what I must to give them that freedom. This war won’t be easy and it won’t be short. You don’t have to do this with me.”

“B-but I want to!” Pearl professed boldly, without a moment’s doubt. “I want to fight by your side! To stand by you and be there for you, no matter what the cost!”

“I know you do…” Rose said, the concern on her expression only deepening at this. “But this isn’t as simple as you think. It’s not just about fighting and battles and the other Gems… It’s about what comes after it all ends. Please, please understand… if we lose, we’ll be killed. And if we win, we can never go home.”

Pearl scoffed lightly at this, letting out a small, incredulous laugh as she shook her head. “Why would I ever want to go home, if you’re here?” she asked, smiling brightly up at her beloved leader.

At first, Rose seemed taken aback by this, but her surprise quickly shifted into a warm grin followed by a soft, small chuckle. That smile remained as she extended her hand out to the amazed white Gem, as if it was both a sign of the resolved pact they were making together, and so, so much more. “My Pearl…” Rose’s tone was soothing and sweet and fond, all things that seemed to fill the white Gem with inspiration and hope and affection all at once.

“You’re wonderful…” she sighed contentedly, lightly taking her leader’s hand and placing a gentle, loving kiss upon it. The moment she did so, the hologram abruptly burst into the bits of light it was made of, startling Pearl somewhat as it broke her out of the moment and reminded her that nothing had really been there all along. A beat of silence followed, only the sound of the nighttime crickets filling it in until Pearl spoke once again. “Everything I ever did, I did for her…” she sighed, turning her gaze up towards the stars. “I followed her, to the ends of the Earth, and trusted every word she said like it was law. And she trusted me too… Or at least… that’s what I always thought...” The white Gem looked down, casting a small glance at the journal before shaking her head and dropping her kneeling stance into a sit. “And now, she’s gone. But I’m still here. Sometimes, I wonder if she can see me through your eyes,” she said, addressing Steven as he quietly lowered himself to his knees behind her. “What would she think of me now…?”

The young Gem hesitated during the silence that followed, unsure of what to say after everything he had just seen and heard. While Steven was usually quite empathetic and quick to pick up on the feelings of those around him, he was having something of a hard time completely comprehending what Pearl was going through at the moment, mostly because her feelings about his mother, her passing, the sword, the journal, and everything else were all so complex and deep. But perhaps, he didn’t need to understand what those feelings were as much as he understood how to help her deal with them.

Pearl was taken by surprise a bit as Steven suddenly hugged her from behind, his head resting against the back of her shoulder as he filled in the gaps for her the best he could. “Well… I think you’re pretty great.”

The tears the white Gem had been holding back finally welled up to the surface at this lone, simple, yet genuine statement, one that was enough to fill her with overwhelming relief, guilt, joy, and grief all at once. She took in a deep breath, one that was almost more like a sob as she let it out, and though she didn’t return her young ward’s embrace, she didn’t try to stop it either. The two of them stayed like that for quite some time, neither one saying anything, not that there was really much to be said in the first place. Even as they broke apart and stood sometime later, the bulk of the words that passed between them came in the form of a terse but sincere apology from Pearl, one that Steven readily accepted as she helped him bounce down the floating platforms and back down to the twins and Lion.

While Dipper and Mabel did softly joke with Steven and Pearl about how long they had been waiting for, neither of them could deny that they were quite relieved to see that the young Gem had managed to get his guardian to come around. It was clear that the white Gem’s ongoing melancholy still remained, but all the same, she put on a soft, amicable smile for all three of the kids as she revealed that she had brought both the journal and the sword back down with her, both of them perfectly intact. The former she simply handed back to Dipper, mostly because she didn’t really want much else to do with the implications contained within it, and the latter she entrusted to Steven, though he was quick to put insistently place her hand back upon its pommel as a sign of goodwill. Pearl’s smile widened a little at this, even if it still looked like she was ready to burst into tears at any moment. But for the kids’ sake, she held them back.

Knowing that the sword would be safest within its former resting place, that’s where they all agreed it should go again, until there ever came a need for it the future. Lion’s eyes were glowing bright as he bowed low, allowing Steven and Pearl to push the sheathed blade into his mane together. Still, even with the precious sword finally at rest, the kids could tell that the white Gem was still a bit down, which was why Steven took the lead in trying to cheer her up. With a wry grin, the young Gem began pulling a string of tied together hankies out of the pink beast’s mane as something of a “magic” trick, one that he easily recruited Mabel to help him out with. They continued their attempt to entertain Pearl by pulling several more random objects out of Lion’s mane, making cheerful jokes and jabs all the while. And though the white Gem was mildly amused by these lighthearted theatrics, her genuine interest was only garnished after Dipper handed the open journal over to her, pointing out a particular passage that she had never seen before. And, as Pearl curiously began reading through its contents, tears finally started forming in her eyes once more:

“If there’s one thing between the Crystal Gems that is completely without question, it’s the breadth and depth of Pearl’s unwavering devotion to Rose. Her ever word, thought, and action all seem to be aimed to the goal of showing her undying loyalty to her leader. While some might call this kind of behavior obsessive or even manic, I find her dedication to be quite admirable, something that Rose firmly agrees with me on. She once told me just how much she appreciates Pearl’s endless resolve, how it serves as a constant inspiration to her to be the best leader she can be for all three of her fellow Gems. To pledge oneself to another, not out of fear, but out of the deepest sense of love and respect… its certainly understandable that such fidelity would serve as an inspiration, even to someone as inspirational as Rose Quartz herself.”

A soft, yet almost happy sob escaped Pearl as she finished reading this, one of her teardrops hitting the page as she placed a gentle hand over it. While this was something that Rose had never confided in her about, the white Gem strangely enough bore no anger towards the author for knowing it over her. In fact, receiving the revelation that Rose, of all people, saw her as an inspiration, now, filled Pearl with immeasurable comfort and contentment. And, as she solemnly shut the journal and gave it back to Dipper, she smiled at the book instead of glaring at it, realizing that, perhaps, despite its mysterious, unknown origins, it wasn’t as much of an affront to the bond of trust between her and Rose after all.

Still, the white Gem only had a moment to come to peace with the journal, for as soon as it left her hands, Steven called for her attention once more. As she looked over to him, her confusion soon turned to complete surprise, her jaw dropping in amazement as the young Gem pulled none other than Rose’s iconic battle flag out of Lion’s mane. Her spirits practically soared upon seeing the flag, which she had believed to have been lost centuries ago, and emboldened by its reappearance, she insisted on detailing its role in the war to the kids. As they all took a seat against Lion and enjoyed the popcorn Steven had pulled out of the pink beast’s mane, Pearl jumped to her feet, gripping the flag tightly as she began dramatically recounting how her, Rose, and the other Crystal Gems stood their ground against their Homeworld and triumphed for the sake of the Earth and its inhabitants. The kids were all fully gripped by the white Gem’s compelling tale, though by the time she was finished hours later, they all mutually agreed that it was about time they headed home for the night.

The battle flag rested over Pearl’s shoulder as she sat upon Lion’s back, the twins both sitting half asleep behind her and Steven smiling softly as he guided the pink beast back to the warp pad in front of her. After everything that had happened over the past few hours alone, the white Gem wasn’t entirely sure how to feel at this juncture, her emotions swirling in both lingering regret and sadness but also hope and peace. As she took a small glance down at the young Gem in front of her, something inside of her seemed to tremble a bit, both with pain and with fondness. Steven was so much like his mother, so much that it sometimes hurt Pearl to even think about the similarities between them. But at the same time, he was so drastically different from her, in ways that continued to confuse and bewilder the white Gem more and more each day. In fact, the more Pearl thought about it, the more she was starting to realize that perhaps she didn’t know as much as she thought she did.

She had been Rose’s oldest and most beloved confidant, but even that didn’t mean that the pink Gem told her everything, something that both Lion and the journal were clear proof of. And while some part of her might have seen this as a betrayal or a sign of mistrust, another part of her wanted to believe that Steven had been right. Perhaps, instead of trying to keep things from her out of duplicity and chicanery, Rose had sequestered some things from her to protect her, to keep her safe and happy and loved. And the more Pearl pondered over this possibility, the more she realized that such an action on Rose’s part was not only noble and selfless, it was the purest, most sincere form of showing how much she really did mean to her.

Pearl had always believed it to be her job to shield Rose from anything that could have harmed or injured her, but Rose had done the very same thing for her, only in a completely different way. She had protected Rose, Rose had protected her, and in that way, they had kept each other not only alive for centuries upon centuries; they had kept each other thriving. And, as they left the battlefield where they had decided to make their brazen stand together more than 5,000 years ago, Pearl knew that she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

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itssquidwarsjournal · 4 years

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State shuts down again after seven weeks with coronavirus cases soaring, after ignoring inconvenient data and fighting party-political turf warsWhen Donald Trump welcomed Texas governor Greg Abbott to the White House in May, the US president hailed his fellow Republican as “one of the great governors” and lauded the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and predicted boom times ahead.“When you look at the job he’s done in Texas, I rely on his judgment,” Trump said.Seven weeks later, as the state once again closes businesses with virus cases skyrocketing and hospitals running out of intensive-care beds, Texas indeed appears to be a model: for how to squander a hopeful position through premature reopening, ignoring inconvenient data and fighting party-political turf wars.On 7 May, the day of Abbott’s visit to Washington, the state reported 968 new cases among its 29 million residents. Daily numbers have soared this week – to 5,996 on 25 June – prompting doctors in Houston to sound the alarm.On Friday, Abbott ordered a halt to Texan experiences such as bar-hopping along Austin’s raucous Sixth Street and floating lazily on an inner tube along a tree-lined river. Bars – which were open at up to 50% capacity – must close again, restaurants must reduce from 75% to 50% capacity and rafting operations must close.Harris County, which includes Houston, moved to its highest Covid-19 threat level, signalling a “severe and uncontrolled” outbreak.“The harsh truth is that our current infection rate is on pace to overwhelm our hospitals in the very near future,” Lina Hidalgo, the county judge, said at a press conference on Friday. “We opened too quickly.”It was not her choice. Hidalgo, a Democrat, issued a mandatory mask order in April that was swiftly rendered toothless by Abbott, who said masks were strongly recommended but local authorities could not impose penalties for non-compliance.Abbott said in the Oval Office that Texas’ phased reopening was based on data-driven strategies that would reduce the spread of the virus and enable the economy to recover. But he was cherry-picking numbers; the statistics did not meet federal criteria for relaxing a lockdown and Texas’ per-capita testing rate is among the worst in the nation.That same day, Abbott diluted his own authority in order to mollify his conservative base. He eliminated jail as a punishment for violating his coronavirus restrictions, in a response to right-wing outrage over the imprisonment of a Dallas hair salon owner who had illegally reopened, refused to close again and was sentenced to seven days behind bars for contempt of court.“Abbott tries to play the moderate but in reality he’s almost on a leash with the extreme right,” said Mustafa Tameez, a Houston-based Democratic strategist.Tameez said that Abbott and Trump have sown confusion through mixed messages. “We’re not going to be able to make policy unless we root it in facts and science,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to make it through this on soundbites and political positioning.”Republicans control Texas politics at state level largely thanks to support from white rural and suburban voters. But Democrats dominate in the biggest cities, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. This has long led to policy conflicts, with the state overriding municipalities on issues from banning plastic bags to immigration enforcement. Greg Casar, an Austin city council member, said that Abbott placed appeasing his core voters ahead of the health of urban communities of color.“The governor at the very beginning of this chose to prioritize politics over public health,” Casar said, noting the state’s attempt to suspend abortions. He added that if cases continue to spike, Austin would probably pass laws that go beyond Abbott’s limits, risking a court fight.“The overwhelming majority of our hospitalizations are Latino and of course black Austinites are being hospitalized at a disproportionate rate as well,” Casar said. “Generations of racist practice and policies are really exposing those communities at the moment no matter how much we try to mitigate it.” Austin was blocked earlier this month from implementing mandatory paid sick leave after a long-running legal challenge backed by leading Texas Republicans.“Hopefully the leadership of this state now knows that they’ve got to put public health first, we’ve got to flatten the curve all the way,” said Royce West, a state senator in Dallas and Democratic US senate primary candidate. “Leaders in this state have got to look at whether or not what the model was in New York should be replicated here.” That would underline the dramatic reversal in fortunes from the spring, when New York was the national epicentre – but severe actions seem unlikely.Dan Patrick, the 70-year-old Texas lieutenant governor, declared in March that he was willing to risk death to help the economy.On Friday, Patrick dismissed the idea of a fresh lockdown and accused hospitals of providing misleading information. “Yes, positive rates are up, mostly young people, they’re not dying,” he told Fox News. “We’re still moving forward, with a slight pause.”Nor is the pandemic causing state leaders to reconsider their most cherished policy goals. As hospitals scramble to find more ICU beds, Texas, the state with the highest number of uninsured people, filed a brief on Thursday urging the US supreme court to scrap the Affordable Care Act, which would threaten access to healthcare for millions.

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btreports · 4 years

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isabelsaregentineanlitblog · 5 years

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10 fiction books

Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976)

“Unlike some of the other books we’ve mentioned, Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman [El Beso de la Mujer Araña] (1976) is set firmly in Buenos Aires with a clear sense of temporality. It is a novel, written in dialogue form, about two inmates in an Argentinian prison. Indeed, Kiss of the Spider Woman is composed primarily of dialogue between the two prisoners, Molina and Valentín. The entire narrative takes place in present tense, beginning in media res, in Buenos Aires.

The novel was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 1985, starring William Hurt and Raúl Juliá. While closely following Puig’s novel, the film actually shifts locations from Buenos Aires to a Brazilian prison. William Hurt won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, and the film itself was nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture.” (blog.bookstellyouwhy)

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, Anthony Kerrigan (translator), Anthony Bonner (translator)

“The seventeen pieces in Ficciones demonstrate the whirlwind of Borges's genius and mirror the precision and potency of his intellect and inventiveness, his piercing irony, his skepticism, and his obsession with fantasy. Borges sends us on a journey into a compelling, bizarre, and profoundly resonant realm; we enter the fearful sphere of Pascal's abyss, the surreal and literal labyrinth of books, and the iconography of eternal return. To enter the worlds in Ficciones is to enter the mind of Jorge Luis Borges, wherein lies Heaven, Hell, and everything else in between.” (goodreads)

Kiss of the Spider Woman, novel by Manuel Puig, published in 1976 as “El beso de la mujer araña. Mostly consisting of dialogue between two men in an Argentine jail cell, the novel traces the development of their unlikely friendship. Molina is a middle-aged lower-middle-class gay man who passes the long hours in prison by acting out scenes from his favourite movies. Valentín is a young upper-middle-class socialist revolutionary who initially berates Molina for his effeminacy and his lack of political conviction. Sharing the hardships of a six-month prison term, the two eventually forge a strong relationship that becomes sexual. In an ironic role reversal at the end of the novel, Molina dies as a result of his involvement in politics, while Valentín escapes the pain of torture by retreating into a dream world.” (britanica)

The Ministry Of Special Cases by Nathan Englander

The Ministry of Special Cases begins as grotesque comedy and ends as high drama. In this descent towards an ever-increasing horror, which the reader intuits but can't quite make out until the very end, Kaddish takes on the ancient role of the Fool travelling through the hellish landscape that his elders and betters have created, towards a conclusion foretold that he nevertheless strives to avoid. Kaddish's literary kin include Brecht's Mother Courage and Dickens's Lady Dedlock, hero-survivors who try through their wits not to become the victims of an unjust reality and who must pay for their chutzpah with the lives of their dearest. "What is left for a man to think when he was raised for ruin and it comes," Englander writes with exquisite precision. "Kaddish had fought against it, striven always for greatness, and not let any of his endless unbroken string of failures drag him permanently down. Knowing what he knew now, he would have lived better. He'd never once have let himself worry about ending up as he had. A lifetime of fearing it, and yet to find himself ruined still came to Kaddish as a surprise. If there was any wonder left in him, he spent it on this."

Black Novel with Argentines

“Thrilling and dark, this is a novel of obsession and crime—a commentary on the fine line between creativity and insanity. A stark and powerful story that is literary to its core, the novel follows two Argentine writers self-exiled in New York City, one of whom is a murderer, and both of whom are inexplicably driven to lose themselves in the city that never sleeps.”

Imagining Argentina by Lawrence Thornton

“Imagining Argentina is set in the dark days of the late 1970's, when thousands of Argentineans disappeared without a trace into the general's prison cells and torture chambers. When Carlos Ruweda's wife is suddenly taken from him, he discovers a magical gift: In waking dreams, he had clear visions of the fates of "the disappeared." But he cannot "imagine" what has happened to his own wife. Driven to near madness, his mind cannot be taken away: imagination, stories, and the mystical secrets of the human spirit.”

The invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

“Jorge Luis Borges declared The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of the Screw and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Set on a mysterious island, Bioy's novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious. “

Asleep In The Sun by Adolfo Bioy casares

“Lucio, a normal man in a normal (nosy) city neighborhood with normal problems with his in-laws (ever-present) and job (he lost it) finds he has a new problem on his hands: his beloved wife, Diana. She’s been staying out till all hours of the night and grows more disagreeable by the day. Should Lucio have Diana committed to the Psychiatric Institute, as her friend the dog trainer suggests? Before Lucio can even make up his mind, Diana is carted away by the mysterious head of the institute. Never mind, Diana’s sister, who looks just like Diana—and yet is nothing like her—has moved in. And on the recommendation of the dog trainer, Lucio acquires an adoring German shepherd, also named Diana. Then one glorious day, Diana returns, affectionate and pleasant. She’s been cured!—but have the doctors at the institute gone too far?”

El TÚNEL by Ernesto Sabato

“Infamous for the murder of Maria Iribarne, the artist Juan Pablo Castel is now writing a detailed account of his relationship with the victim from his prison cell: obsessed from the first moment he saw her examining one of his paintings, Castel had become fixated on her over the next months and fantasized over how they might meet again. When he happened upon her one day, a relationship was formed which swiftly convinced him of their mutual love. But Castel's growing paranoia would lead him to destroy the one thing he truly cared about…”

The Dream of Heroes by Adolfo Biosy Casares

At the end of carnival 1927, Emilio Gauna had an experience that he knew was the culmination of his life. The problem is that Gauna can only dimly remember what happened: he was out on the town with his raucous, reckless friends when a masked woman appeared. Several hours later, gasping and horrified, Gauna awoke at the edge of a lake. Three years later, he tries to solve the mystery the only way he knows: by re-creating the same situation and reliving it- despite the warnings of his secret protector, the Sorcerer.

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fridaythe13ththeseries · 3 months

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Reflecting - Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

Not long after the phone call from Casares’ henchman, informing Micki of certain books Jack needed and that someone was coming to ‘Curious Goods’ to collect them, Rashid entered the store. The mystic man, his red fez hat atop his head as usual, showed no signs of having been the recipient of a bullet to the chest recently.

Johnny was alone at the counter and he greeted him as he came in. “Wow, Rashid, you look great! How are you feeling?”

Rashid nodded his head slightly, just once, and smiled. “I am, once again, near to perfection. Thank you. Where is Micki? And has there been any word about Jack?”

Johnny filled Rashid in on the phone call, and told him they were hoping to use the opportunity to somehow rescue Jack. However, he didn’t tell Rashid about the startling transformation Ryan had undergone, unsure of how to explain it. That problem resolved itself moments later when Micki and Ryan entered, bringing most of the books Jack had requested from his room.

Rashid looked at Micki and smiled, and then, upon seeing who was with her, his face changed expression instantly. “Ryan?” he asked, quietly.

Ryan walked up to the man who had long been Jack’s friend and who had quickly become their friend, as well. He remembered the time Rashid and Jack saved him and Micki from dying in the vault downstairs. He stood before the mystic and smiled. “Yeah, Rashid, it’s me. Long time, no see, right?”

“I cannot believe it.” Rashid said, reaching out to shake Ryan’s hand, to confirm that what he saw was real. “How did this come about?”

Now it was Ryan’s turn to explain recent events to the man. He filled Rashid in on the memories always teasing his mind, about the vivid nightmares, about finding out his mom had been killed and the intense headache he had experienced.

“The next thing I knew,” Ryan continued. “I was lying in my old bed upstairs and suddenly feeling intense pain everywhere. Then I guess I screamed.” He looked sheepishly at Micki, who had told him about her waking abruptly to his screams. “My clothes were in ruins, but I was myself again, like the past year had never happened.”

Rashid nodded a couple of times, his hand rubbing the goatee covering his chin. He slowly walked around Ryan, examining him, considering all he had heard and what he could see with his own eyes. “Very intriguing, I must say.”

Micki stepped next to Johnny, placing the books she had brought from Jack’s room onto the counter. “Rashid,” she began, “What do you suppose could have caused Ryan to change back, and so quickly. Jack said the spell that Asteroth had worked was an especially difficult one, and he saw no chance at reversing it, ever.”

“Hmmm,” Rashid muttered, still looking at Ryan. “My best guess, and mind you, it is only a theory, is that the spell had always been weak. Possibly, if we had tried to undo it back when Ryan had first changed, we would have been successful. Jack, however, felt it best if we let Ryan stay a child.”

Ryan looked at Micki when Rashid said this. “What do you mean he ‘felt it best’?” he asked Rashid. Everyone’s eyes then turned to the mystic, awaiting his response.

“Well, uh…”, Rashid began, realizing he had said too much. “Jack thought that you were better off away from this place, away from the cursed items and all the evil they brought into your life, all the horror you witnessed. Ryan, my boy, he wanted you to have a second chance at life.”

Ryan didn’t know what to say to that. Jack had left him as a child for his own good? Should he thank his old friend or hate him for the year full of nightmares and confusion? Ryan looked away, into the shop, keeping his gaze off of the others present.

Finally, Micki walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Ryan, think about it. Jack knew what working here did to you, what it’s done to all of us. When we saw you after you had changed, young and innocent, free of the horrible memories, we actually felt happy for you. Maybe even jealous.”

Ryan looked at her, anger still floating in his eyes. “But Jack didn’t give me a choice!”

Micki smiled. “He didn’t ask me either, and I think I know why. He must have seen how badly I wanted you back here, working with us, helping us. Back here with me. I’m ashamed to admit it, but if Rashid had told me this a year ago, when you had first changed, I would have begged Jack to turn you back, make you yourself again. That’s selfish, I know, but I really didn’t think I could do this without you, Ryan. And Jack hasn’t had it easy, either. It has been a difficult year, for all of us.” Her eyes went to Johnny now, who had been standing by silently listening.

Rashid spoke up then. “Jack made the choice he thought was best and, I have to say, I agreed with him. Jack let you keep a gift he would have wished for himself; the chance to be young again, to be able to live your life anew. Remember, right or not, Jack feels responsible for much of what Louis had become, of what he unleashed on the world.”

Ryan looked at Micki, then at Rashid. Slowly, he nodded. “You’re right. I suppose if it had been Jack who had become a child again, we would have left him to live his life over again. Just hard to accept that I didn’t really have to go through a year like this past one, you know?”

“Ryan,” Micki began. “Try and remember that year, that time as a second chance to get to know your mom, okay? Forget the rest.”

Ryan smiled at her, his eyes welling up again at the thought of his mom and her death. Micki moved closer, putting her arm around his neck and shoulder.

After a moment, Johnny cleared his throat. “So, uh, these all of what Jack wanted?” he said, looking at the stack of books with bizarre titles on the counter.

“Yeah, all we could find in his room, at least.” Micki answered, her and Ryan walking as one toward the counter. “We couldn’t find one he called ‘Answers from the Netherworld’. It wasn’t in his room.”

Rashid came over to the group surrounding the counter and picked up the top book from the stack and read the title. “’Witches and Wisdom’,” he said aloud. “Curious.” He continued to peruse the stack, reading just the titles.

“Curious why, Rashid?” Johnny asked, surprised that anything seemed odd to this strange man. Johnny had never quite understood Rashid, and the few times he had asked about his past, the mystic had remained vague and mysterious. Johnny wondered if anyone, Jack included, knew much about Rashid’s history.

Still looking at the spines of the stacked books, Rashid answered “Curious, because I don’t see how most of these books would help Jack in breaking the curse on the mirror. ‘Answers to the Netherworld’ may possibly have some insight, but ‘Ancestry of the Druids’? I cannot see what use he would have for that volume.”

Micki picked up the hurried list of books she had written quickly during the phone call. “Well, maybe Jack figured out something we didn’t? He has spent more time with the mirror. Maybe it isn‘t one of Lewis‘ cursed antiques after all.”

Johnny shook his head. “Nah, we know it’s from here, right? That’s why they broke in here in the first place. And we are pretty sure that there is no way to break the curse. Maybe Jack has something else up his sleeve.”

“Of course!” Rashid said at Johnny’s words. He started restacking the books, changing the order they were in. “There. I should have know immediately. It is typical of Jack, of course.”

“What is typical of Jack?” Ryan asked. “What are you talking about?”

“Right here.” Rashid said pointing at the spines of the books. A few were ancient and faded, but the titles were still visible enough to read. “Read the first letters in the titles of the books Jack has chosen.”

Micki read aloud for all of them to hear. “T-A-Y-A-W-A-Y.”

Johnny shrugged. “Okay, you got me. What does ‘tayaway’ mean? Is it some sort of chant or magic word?”

“No.” Ryan said. “Look, the book we couldn’t find? It’s title is ‘Sorcery and Magics of the Middle Ages. Add that first letter, the ‘S’, to the top of the pile and it makes sense. ‘S-T-A-Y A-W-A-Y’. Jack is telling us to stay away. He doesn’t want us to risk ourselves trying to rescue him.”

“Well I don’t give a damn what Jack wants. We are not abandoning him there.” Micki said, her voice firm.

Both looking at Micki, Ryan and Johnny nodded.

“Of course we are not going to listen to him.” Rashid said. “He may feel the situation is hopeless, but that does not make it so.”

Just then, the door to the shop opened, the bells hanging above announcing a new customer. Micki put her hand on Ryan’s shoulder and pushed him down, behind the counter and out of sight.

“Hello.” she said to the man entering the store. “May we help you?”

The man walked silently across the floor, up the short stair case leading to the cash register. He stopped short of the group and, standing with his arms clasped before him, he spoke. “I am here for the books.”

#80s tv #friday the 13th: the series #micki foster #ryan dallion #jack marshak #curious goods #rashid #johnny ventura #reflecting #fanfic

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minijenn · 7 years

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Universe Falls Chapter 34

Fuuuuck its finally done. Seriously I haven’t spent this long working on a single chapter since... I can’t even remember when. And I’m so fucking tired but whatever. This chapter is a mess because of it but I guess it could always be worse. So anyway, hope you all enjoy!

Previous: http://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/159651353069/universe-falls-chapter-33

Chapter 34: Into the Bunker

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If there was any idle pastime shared between Dipper and Wendy that they enjoyed most, it was watching the old, low-budget movies that were frequently aired on Gravity Falls public television and making fun of their hilariously poor quality all the while. And the pair was doing just that as they relaxed at the foot of the cashier’s bed, sharing a bowl of popcorn as they mockingly laughed along to the utter cheesiness of the zombie movie currently playing.

“What do we do, Chadley?!” the female lead of the movie cried, clinging onto her boyfriend as a horde of blood-thirsty zombies surrounded them. “I thought they were dead!”

“Far worse, Trixandra!” Chadley exclaimed overdramatically. “They’re… Nearly Dead But Not Quite!”

As the protagonist dropped the title, it appeared on the screen for a brief moment before returning to the melodramatic, clearly fake zombie attack. “Man, these movies are a lot less scary when you’ve actually fought regular zombies,” Dipper remarked, rolling his eyes at the movie’s lackluster effects that paled in comparison to how horrifying he knew genuine zombies to be.

“They’re slow!” Wendy shouted at the TV with faux frustration. “Just power-walk away from them!”

“How much you wanna bet that guy dies first?” Dipper asked with a smirk, only for that very thing to happen seconds later.

“Ah! My face is getting eaten a lot!” Chadley screamed as the zombies comically pounced on him, much to Dipper and Wendy’s equal amusement.

“Ha! Chadley ain’t pretty no more,” Wendy said as her and Dipper laughed over the main character’s ridiculous fate. Their levity was interrupted, however, as the cashier’s phone buzzed on the bed nearby. “One sec,” Wendy grabbed her phone, her grin quickly turning into an aggravated scowl upon seeing the latest notification. “Ugh, another text from Robbie!”

“Oh yeah,” Dipper said, though he made sure to phrase his next statement carefully since he didn’t really want to pry too much. “Robbie. So, uh… how… how’s all that going?”

“Ugh, I’m over him, I just wish he was over me!” Wendy huffed in exasperation. “Just look at these texts! Winky frown? What does that even mean?”

Dipper hesitated before saying anything, excitement and anxiety filling him all at once as he realized this could very well finally be his chance. That is, if he didn’t end up getting in his own way again. “A-and you’re not… not, like… seeing any other guys, or…”

“Of course I am,” Wendy replied, not noticing Dipper forcing himself to hide his shocked dismay at this news. “Meet my new boyfriend, dude.” With a joking smirk, the cashier pulled up one of her stuffed animals, much to Dipper’s apt relief.

“Right, right,” he laughed a bit too awkwardly, averting eye contact with his crush as he began to pose the question he had been thoroughly thinking and fretting over for weeks now. “S-so, I was wondering if… If maybe y-you wanted to… You know… Maybe w-we could… I-I wanted to know if you…” Dipper took in a sharp, deep breath, cringing at his own complete inability to just tell Wendy how he felt, something that was so simple as a concept, but nearly impossible in execution. And seeing as how he had already messed up whatever slim chance he might have had, he let out a defeated sigh as he went off on a different tangent entirely. “If you… wanted to join me, Mabel, Steven, and the Gems on a mystery hunt tomorrow? Conspiracy stuff and all that?”

“Yeah, dude,” Wendy immediately agreed with a grin. “I love doing all that junk with friends. Yo, Chadley! Look out!” she laughed as she turned her attention back to the movie playing on TV, even though Dipper couldn’t really do the same.

“Yeah, that’s what we are…” he sighed in disappointment as he discreetly pulled a piece of paper out of his vest while Wendy wasn’t looking. Dipper frowned dejectedly as he glanced over the note he had written (and rewritten at least several times over) that openly confessed his own hopeless crush on the cashier, a note that he refused to ever let her see, lest it cause him untold mortification. “That’s all we’ll ever be…” he muttered glumly, crumpling up the note before putting it away and flopping back onto the bed. “Friends…”

“Dude, you’re lying on my bra,” Wendy informed him with a hint of amusement in her tone. Dipper let out a panicked scream upon glancing over to see that he was indeed on top of one of the cashier’s bras, prompting him to dart upright before the situation could get any more awkward than it already was.

Steven smiled contentedly as he sat on a nearby tree stump as Pearl, Greg, and Stan collaborated on trying to fix the former rock star’s broken-down van outside the shack. The young Gem didn’t pay their muttered conversing much mind, however, as he instead entertained himself with the Crying Breakfast Friends personality quiz on his phone.

“Sniffling Croissant!” Steven exclaimed brightly as he finished the quiz and got his result. “You really know me, internet. Hey, guys!”

“Yeah, Steven?” Greg asked, turning his attention from the engine him and Stan were holding steady for Pearl as she worked on it.

“You guys should take this online quiz I found,” the young Gem quipped, holding his phone up so they could see. “It tells you what character you are from Crying Breakfast Friends!”

“Crying Breakfast-” Stan cut himself off, looking to Steven completely dumbfounded. “Kid, what the heck are you talking about?”

“Oh, it’s a really great cartoon with a huge cast of really interesting, relatable characters!” Steven explained with a smile. “And every single one of them is a result you can get in this quiz! Like I said, you all should totally take it!”

“Uh… why?” Pearl asked with a confused frown.

“It’s just fun to see yourself as a cartoon character,” Steven shrugged, looking back to his phone. “Like Weeping Egg Cup, who’s neurotic and uptight, or Pining Grapefruit, the sensitive older one who wishes he were a better role model, or Grumpy Pancake, who’s ill-tempered but has a hidden heart of gold.”

Pearl, Stan, and Greg all exchanged an aptly bewildered glance upon hearing this, none of them really sure of what to make of the odd characters Steven was detailing to them. “Uh, maybe we can do that thing after we fix the van,” Greg said with a patient smile.

“Yeah, or better yet, never,” Stan muttered, rolling his eyes as he got back to work.

Steven let out a disappointed sigh upon hearing this, but nonetheless, he accepted their answer. “Okay… I’ll just find someone else then!”

“Yo, Steven!” Amethyst called to the young Gem as her and Garnet stood on the fringes of the trail leading into the woods. “You ready to go?”

“Oh yeah! I almost forgot!” Steven jumped to his feet, putting his phone in his pocket as he prepared to head off.

“Oh, are you three going off on that ‘mystery hunt’ you mentioned earlier?” Pearl asked the young Gem before he could get too far.

“Yep!” the young Gem said, walking backwards as he addressed her. “We’re going to meet Dipper, Mabel, and Soos in the woods right now! Aren’t you coming, Pearl?”

“Oh, well, I-” the white Gem was cut off as something inside the van’s chassis suddenly burst, resulting in a thick plume of smoke and a shared exasperated groan from Greg and Stan. “I… think I’m needed more here,” Pearl said with a slightly bemused grin. “But stay safe! And have fun!”

“Oh, we will!” Steven nodded as he joined Amethyst and Garnet. “Especially since I have this quiz to keep us all entertained along the way!”

The white Gem continued to wave her teammates off with a smile, one that faded into her earlier confusion as she turned back to the conman and the former rock star. “Do either of you understand that cartoon show?” she asked pensively.

“I don’t really understand anything anymore,” Greg admitted honestly.

“Ditto,” Stan dryly agreed as they got back to work sorting the van’s struggling engine out.

Meanwhile, Steven cheerfully strode alongside Garnet and Amethyst, the former silent and observant as ever and the latter casually snacking on the messy sandwich she had brought along for the hike. “So where’s this ‘super mysterious’ place Dipper wants us to check out again?” the purple Gem asked somewhat boredly.

“Apparently, its right on the temple hill,” Garnet replied, her attention focused on the path ahead. “The very same place where he supposedly found the journal. So this mission will hopefully give us some answers that are a long time coming. Which means I expect you both to take it seriously.”

“Don’t worry, G,” Amethyst smirked, her mouth full as she munched on her sandwich. “You know me. I’m as serious as they come.”

“Same here!” Steven nodded thoroughly. “Oh! Speaking of serious stuff, you guys gotta take this online quiz: ‘Which Crying Breakfast Friend Are You’?”

“I’ll pass,” Garnet said simply.

“Yeah, same,” Amethyst stuck her tongue out. “That show’s really weird. Who wants to watch a cartoon about people crying?”

“I do!” Steven protested, tears already starting to form in his eyes.

“Ok, ok!” the purple Gem quickly retracted for the sake of appeasing the young Gem. “Uh, what’s the first question?”

Steven quickly perked up as he looked back to his phone and read the question out loud. “Do you ever act without thinking?”

“Nope,” Amethyst shrugged, throwing the remainder of her sandwich into the air before catching most of it in her wide-open mouth.

“Are you afraid of taking risks and trying new things?”

“Terrified,” the purple Gem deadpanned, licking the remains of her sandwich off her face.

“Amethyst, are you taking this seriously?” Steven asked with a frown.

“Of course, I am,” Amethyst rolled her eyes, making it quite clear that she wasn’t. Still, Steven tapped ‘yes’ on his phone under the question he had just asked her before moving onto the next one.

“Are you insecure about your relationships and how you are perceived by other people?”

The purple Gem’s lax expression abruptly shifted into discomfort upon hearing such a prying question, especially as she glanced towards Garnet. The Gem leader herself wasn’t really listening to the conversation as she stoically pressed on ahead, but even so, Amethyst was aptly anxious as she gave Steven an uncertain reply. “…No? Yes? Uh… what’s the right answer?”

“There is no right answer,” Steven said. “You’re just supposed to answer honestly.”

“Eh, I’m bored,” Amethyst quickly returned to her usual casual manner as she quickened her pace to catch up with Garnet.

“Wait!” Steven called as he ran after her. “I still have loads more probing personal questions to ask you!”

“They’ll have to wait till later,” Garnet spoke up, putting her hands on her hips as she came to a stop. “We’re here.”

“Hi, guys!” Mabel greeted the trio brightly as they arrived. Her and Soos were eagerly waiting near a tall, conspicuous tree that Dipper was intently pacing in front of while meticulously leafing through the journal. He stopped short, however, upon noticing that Steven and the Gems had shown up.

“There you guys are!” Dipper said with relieved smile as he closed the journal. “I’m glad you could make it. Thank you all for coming.”

“Hey, when there’s a mystery, you can count on your sister… -ey!” Mabel quipped, somehow making the pun work.

“That’s an amazing rhyme,” Soos chuckled before trying his own. “When you want some… some good… When you need a Soos, you… Oh, gosh, I got nothing.”

“Oh, this is so exciting!” Steven exclaimed with a zealous smile. “What mystery are we gonna solve this time? Why fairies are so small and sparkly? Or how gnomes celebrate president’s day?”

“Neither,” Dipper shook his head. “We’re here to solve the number one mystery in Gravity Falls: who wrote this journal?” He held said journal up, flipping to the torn pastedown that would have otherwise revealed its writer’s identity. “Thirty years ago, the author vanished without a trace, but according to this new clue, we may have found his secret hiding place,” He paused once more to hold a portable backlight up to a page depicting the very same tree they were all standing under. The backlight, however, revealed a winding staircase wrapping underneath the tree, leading the way to a hidden underground dugout.

“Wait, so you’re saying this author guy has been squatting right underneath our temple for the past 30 years?” Amethyst asked incredulously. “All without us knowing about it? That seems kinda, I dunno, impossible?”

“We don’t know who the author is,” Garnet reminded solidly. “But he somehow knew a lot about us. It would have made sense for him to have gotten that information by observing us right behind our backs.”

“Literally!” Steven quipped jokingly.

“I don’t know…” Dipper interjected with a frown as he looked back to the journal. “Based on how the author wrote about you guys, it still doesn’t really seem like he got all this info just from spying on you… But that’s what we’re here to find out. We find that author, we learn the answers to everything. We just need to figure out a way to get down there…”

“Chop it down, dudes!” Wendy called as she pulled up to the group on her bike.

“Wendy!” Mabel and Steven greeted the cashier, pleasantly surprised that she was joining them.

“Oh, hey! You made it!” Dipper exclaimed, also quite excited to see her.

“Dude, I’m so stoked about this!” Wendy remarked, putting her usual hat on as she dismounted her bike. “I’ve been wanting to go adventuring with you guys. Sure beats picking up after my dad at home. So thanks for the invite, man!” She grinned as she passed by Dipper, giving a friendly punch on the arm.

“O-of course!” Dipper called after her with a smile that was far too wide and clearly flustered. “Anytime you wanna… I, uh… We’re always… uh-”

“Uh oh!” Mabel cut in as her and Steven both sent Dipper broad, knowing grins while the Gems and Soos moved on towards the tree themselves. “Inviting Wendy on our mission? Methinks there’s romance afoot!”

“No,” Dipper quickly rejected this notion, even if he was more intent on convincing himself more than either of them. “Look, I’ve thought this through and I’m over Wendy. I’ve looked at it from every angle, and that thing was going nowhere. I know what matters to me now, and that’s finding the author of this journal.”

“Ha! You’re over Wendy?” Mabel smirked with wry disbelief. “Allow me to put on my ‘skepticals’.” Said skeptical were merely just Mabel forming circles around her eyes with her fingers, but even so Dipper was far from amused.

“Dipper, why don’t you just tell Wendy how you feel about her?” Steven asked with a good-natured smile. “It’s gotta be easier than just trying to keep it a secret. I mean, just how great things turned out when Bawling Bacon told Mourning Muffin about his crush on her in Crying Breakfast Friends.”

“Oh, that episode is a classic!” Mabel interjected, still keeping her ‘skepticals’ on.

“…I don’t even know what to say to that,” Dipper said dryly. “But still, I’m not going to tell Wendy anything because there’s nothing to tell. I’ve moved on. You guys should too.”

The pair merely exchanged a tentative glance as Dipper stepped past them, though Mabel made sure to get the final say on the matter. “Skepticals…”

“Hey, guys,” Wendy said as everyone gathered close to the tree. “Is it just me, or does that branch look kinda like a lever?”

“Huh, yeah,” Dipper agreed, looking up at the branch the cashier was referring to before turning away from it to properly pan. “But how do we get up there…? It seems like we’d need a ladder, or like, ladder-shoes. I’ll get Soos to draw up a prototype, maybe go get Pearl and have her help build them…”

“Should we tell him?” Amethyst muttered to Garnet as they watched Wendy use her belt to skillfully scale the tree behind Dipper.

“Eh, he’ll figure it out,” Garnet shrugged.

At the same time, Wendy had reached the lever and pulled the ax out of her belt. With a smooth flick of the wrist, she spun the weapon around and hit the lever with its dull end, easily activating it. “Boosh!” she exclaimed, sending a satisfied smirk down to the amazed group on the ground.

“Whoa! Wendy, dude, that was awesome!” Soos exclaimed with a grin.

“Oh yeah, my dad used to make me compete in these lumberjack games when I was a kid,” Wendy remarked with a humble shrug. “Guess I kinda ruled at it.”

Still, no one had too much time to be impressed as the tree suddenly began to shake violently. Unable to hold on, Wendy fell off of it with a frightened cry, though fortunately, the shrub at the foot of the tree broke her fall. She didn’t really have a chance to breathe a sigh of relief, however, as the ground surrounding the tree began to retract, though thankfully Dipper and Soos were quick enough to pull her away from the emerging opening. The group crowded around the circular hole, watching in stunned awe as a set of stairs started jutting out from the lower half of the tree, stairs that led to a metallic door down below.

“Uh… G?” Amethyst tentatively spoke up, looking to the Gem leader with apt concern. “Am I the only one of us who’s thinking this looks sort of…”

“Familiar…” Garnet finished, her expression unreadable as she looked towards the hidden door and nothing else. “No, you’re not.”

“Wait, have you guys been here before?” Steven asked with immense curiosity.

“I don’t… think so…” the purple Gem frowned, bewildered.

“Still, it feels like we have…” the Gem leader adjusted her shades, her tone slightly unnerved. “It’s… hard to explain…”

“Well maybe going down there and checking it out will help jog your memory!” Mabel suggested encouragingly.

The pair of Gems exchanged a dubious glance, neither of them, not even Garnet, really sure of what they might find underground. Still, as always, Amethyst was the first to return to her usual verve. “Well, what are we waiting for?” she asked with a forced, confident grin. “Let’s crash this creepy joint!”

“Alright, guys, this is it,” Dipper said with bold resolve, making sure the journal was securely tucked into his vest. “Remember, what happens down there, we tell no one.”

The others all responded affirmative to this in different ways: Mabel with a thumbs up, Steven with a solid nod, Garnet with a clenched, determined fist, Soos by turning his hat backwards, Amethyst with a casual salute, and Wendy by zipping her lips. Without the need for any further deliberation on their plans, the group began descending the staircase down to whatever might await them in the depths below.

What did await them behind the door was a rather small, rather cramped room. Its walls were constructed out of firm, sturdy metal, and despite the dust and cobwebs clinging to nearly every surface, there was certainly much to see. A small, decrepit cot sat against one wall, a cabinet used to store weapons against the other, and shelves upon shelves of stock-piled food in boxes labeled by year against another. The group all gasped in muted awe as they wandered into the room, all of them somehow managing to squeeze into the claustrophobic corridor as they began to investigate every detail they could.

“Ok, this is stupidly cool,” Wendy remarked with an impressed grin.

“I know, right?” Steven glanced around the room, his eyes alight with wonder. “Who knew all this stuff was hiding right behind the temple?”

“Hm…” Garnet mused as the young Gem said this, remaining in one spot as she scoped the area out. While her future vision usually was able to give her clear glimpses into what was ahead, it was of no aid in providing her glimpses of what might have been before. And yet, every fiber of her being resonated with the feeling that this place, as cramped and as darkened as it was, was a place she had stepped foot in before, somehow and some when. She knew, even without asking, that Amethyst likely harbored the same feeling, and Pearl would have as well if she was with them. And perhaps, even Rose would have admitted to its familiarity if she was still around to see all of this. Or better yet, fill in the gaps that they seemed to be missing.

“It’s like a fallout shelter or something,” Dipper noted, glancing over at a calendar fixed to the wall that was stuck on the year 1982. “It must have belonged to the author.”

“Yeesh, I feel sorry for the dude if he lived in this dusty old box,” Amethyst said, trying her best to pass off her own uneasiness towards the familiarity of it all. “Still, at least there’s plenty of good cans lying around to snack on.” With a satisfied smirk, the purple Gem grabbed a nearby empty can and downed it whole as Steven and Mabel shared an amused laugh at her odd appetite.

At the same time, Wendy pried a metal sign off the wall that read “Fallout Shelter”, grinning as she blew the dust off of it. “This is going over my bed.”

“Ha!” Mabel chuckled brightly as she pulled her head out of the barrel she had been investigating, not even caring about the countless caterpillars inching across her face. “My face feels fuzzy!”

“Aw, they’re so cute!” Steven quipped, gleefully petting one of the fuzzy creatures.

“This is incredible!” Dipper remarked, fully in his element now as he tried to imagine the mysterious author himself standing in this very room. “It’s like he was preparing for a disaster. But… what kind of disaster would need supplies for over sixty years…?” His smile faded as he looked to the extensive collection of storage boxes sitting on the nearby shelves, all of which were labeled with years dating all the way up to 2070.

“Oh my gosh!” Soos gasped as he opened up the weapons locker and pulled anything but a weapon out. “A Smez dispenser! I remember these things. What’s that?” he paused, holding the dog-shaped dispenser up to his ear with a playful grin. “Why yes, I will have some of your old-timey face food!” The handyman pushed a piece of candy out of the dispenser and ate it, choking a bit over its staleness. “Ew, dusty!” he cringed, before popping another one into his mouth.

“Ha ha! Look, Steven!” Amethyst smirked to the nearby young Gem as she found a gas mask hanging on the wall, one that she jokingly put on. “I’m a pachyderm!” Of course, Steven let out a charmed laugh at this, though his amusement turned into shock as Amethyst pulled a skull, albeit a fake one, out of the mask. “Oh! And there’s a prize inside!”

“Amethyst,” Garnet spoke up, turning to her teammate. “I thought you said you were going to take this mission seriously.”

“Hey, I am being serious,” the purple Gem retorted defensively, quickly tossing the gas mask aside. “Just figured I’d liven this stale old place up a little is all.” Amethyst flashed a hopeful grin at her leader, who, based on her unflinching expression, was anything but impressed by her levity. Still, she made no comment on it, much to the purple Gem’s simultaneous worry and relief.

“Wait, guys!” Dipper interjected as he happened to pick up one of the countless discarded cans off the floor, one that just so happened to be still somewhat full. “I think this can was opened recently…”

“The author still might be alive down here, then!” Soos exclaimed.

“Wait a minute…” Wendy cut in as she glanced over to the far wall, where a large map of Gravity Falls hung. The map itself seemed to be blowing against a mysterious unseen breeze, the source of which was revealed as the cashier pulled it off the wall, uncovering a slightly ajar hatch. “I think I know where he might have gone…” Wendy smirked to the others as they gathered around.

“Then here’s the plan,” Garnet said authoritatively. “We’ll follow this tunnel to wherever it leads. But since this is unknown territory we’re in, Amethyst and I will take the lead and the rest of you follow behind us.”

Everyone nodded in agreement with this safe plan, knowing that the pair of Gems would be their best line of defense in case anything happened to go wrong. Garnet herself went first, crawling through the tight tunnel that led deeper into the darkness, with Amethyst heading after her, followed by the others.

“Oh Garnet,” Steven grinned with admiration as he climbed into the tunnel behind the Gems. “Stern but practical. Just like Spilled Milk.”

“Ugh, you’re not still on about that dumb cartoon, are you?” Amethyst asked, annoyed as she glanced back at the young Gem.

“Oh right, the quiz!” Steven pulled out his phone as he tried to hold it and shimmy through the tunnel the best he could. However, before he could read the next question, Mabel enthusiastically interrupted.

“Oh my gosh, you don’t mean the Crying Breakfast Friends personality quiz, do you?!” she asked excitedly. “I just took that this morning. I got Sad Pear, just like I knew I would!”

“Whoa, Sad Pear is totally you, Mabel!” Steven readily agreed. “I got Sniffling Croissant, and now I’m trying to see which character Amethyst is. So, next question: Do you get defensive when people ask you questions about the feelings you prefer to keep hidden?”

“Pfft, I know someone who does,” Mabel remarked offhand, sending a goading smirk to Dipper.

“Mabel, please,” Dipper huffed in exasperation, though he did briefly glance back at Wendy rather apprehensively, though thankfully she didn’t notice.

Amethyst, on the other hand, was far more alarmed and perturbed upon hearing the podding question the young Gem had just posed. “Don’t get all psyc-o-logical on me, Ste-ven,” she hissed somewhat harshly, glaring back at him.

The young Gem flinched a little at her bitter manner, though still, he wasn’t exactly sure what about his seemingly question had provoked her. “Uh… Sorry?”

“Everyone, watch your step,” Garnet cut through the conversation with a forewarning as the group reached the end of the tunnel. Once again, everyone was rapt with amazement as they emerged into a large, square chamber, its walls, floor, and ceiling all composed of metallic tiles, all of which bore strange, cryptic symbols on them. While purpose of this strange room was far from clear, everyone took the time to stop and scope it out nonetheless, more out of awe than anything else.

“Wow! And I thought that first room was cool!” Steven exclaimed, glancing around with wide eyes. “This one’s even more mysterious!”

“I know, right?” Wendy smirked in agreement. “Was this place built in the past or the future?”

“I dunno, dudes…” Soos muttered apprehensively. “This room is way creepy…”

“Not as creepy as Dipper’s internet history!” Mabel exclaimed with a broad, joking grin. “Heyo!” Despite the aggravated glare Dipper was sending her, Mabel gave him a playful shove nonetheless, which resulted in him stumbling forward onto one of the marked panels on the floor, a panel that just so happened to be a hidden switch. Without any warning, a blaring alarm began to sound as the other symbols on the walls lit up bright red. The hatch the group had just emerged from abruptly slammed shut and locked itself tightly, and while that wouldn’t have been drastically alarming, it suddenly became a very dire fact. The tiles on the walls themselves began to push in towards the group on all sides and from all angles with only one intention: crushing the intruders trapped therein.

“That’s why I told you all to watch your step!” Garnet called over the loud alarm as everyone crowded together fearfully.

Still, the only one among them who wasn’t completely distressed by the impending danger was Mabel, mostly since her face was still covered in caterpillars. “Ha, it’s hard to be scared with caterpillars on your face,” she grinned blithely.

“W-we gotta get out of here!” Steven cried fearfully, gasping in surprise as Garnet summoned her gauntlets and slammed her hands into a nearby block in the hopes of stopping it.

“Way head of you, Ste-man!” Amethyst exclaimed daringly, leaping into action. While the others tried in vain to push the tiles back, the purple Gem went high, using the rapidly moving blocks to give her a boost as she positioned herself between two of them near the ceiling. Amethyst grunted loudly as she shoved her foot against one of them, trying to use her entire body to keep them separated as she looked down at the struggling group below. “Yo, G!” she called to the Gem leader, who was barely paying her any mind as she pushed back against a tile. “Check this—huh?” The purple Gem stopped short as she happened to glance up at the glowing tile right above her head, marked with a symbol that was far too familiar for her, even if she didn’t really know how. The blaring alarm and sense of urgency seemed to dull a bit as Amethyst started up at it, fascinated and somewhat confused. And, with a slow, tentative touch, she gently placed her hand upon it, her eyes lighting up as she pressed down on the apparent switch, turning its symbol from red to blue. “Hey guys!” she shouted, barely even aware of the tiles aggressively pushing against her. “Look what-”

Just as everyone glanced up her way, Amethyst let out a sharp, loud gasp as the blocks finally pressed against her body too tightly. And yet, instead of sustaining any kind of injuries, the purple Gem’s form abruptly disappeared in a bright puff of smoke, leaving nothing but her gemstone behind. Everyone save for Garnet let out a collective gasp of shared horror at this, especially as Amethyst’s gem began to freely fall from her previously high perch. Fortunately, Steven reacted just in time by catching the stone before it could hit the hard ground and shatter entirely, but even so, no one had any time to show anything other than shock to what had just happened, especially since the walls were all still tightly closing in.

“Amethyst was onto something,” Garnet noted as she glanced up to where the purple Gem had been, catching sight of the switch she had activated mere seconds ago.

“Wait, she was!” Dipper exclaimed, holding the black light over a page in the journal that detailed the very room they were in. The hidden text revealed a set of glowing marks in particular, all of which served as the key out of the encroaching death trap. “There are five more of these symbols. Quick! Everybody find one!”

While Garnet worked to hold the tiles back the best she could, the others split up the best that they could, each of them searching for the other five conspicuous tiles that could very well save them. Soos found the first one, and seeing as how this was a life or death situation, he didn’t hesitate to run for it without delay. “One!” he called, pushing the switch in firmly.

“Two!” Wendy shouted as she found the next one, jumping up to give it a solid punch.

“Three!” Steven announced as he used another block to get a boost to reach another switch.

“Four!” Mabel called, high fiving the next symbol.

Dipper paused as he frantically looked around for the final untapped symbol, only to spot it right as another block began to move in front of it. Acting fast, he ran for the switch, hurriedly climbing the blocks leading up to it and fortunately hitting right before it was covered up entirely. “Five!”

With all five of the switches activated, a door revealed itself on the far side of the room as it swung open, finally giving the group a window of escape. Still, it was a rather narrow window, seeing as how the tiles were still pushing in towards them just as quickly as ever.

“Run for it!” Mabel shouted, leading the way through the tight fit towards the door. The others were quick to follow suit, Garnet abandoning her post as she leapt through the opening deftly. Steven made sure that Amethyst’s gem was tightly secured in his grasp before fleeing, and though he was the last to escape, Dipper made it out just in time, even if his vest did happen to get caught between the blocks just as they finally all slammed shut on each other.

“Yes!” Wendy cheered in apt relief as soon as they were all safely on the other side of the security room. “That was nuts! You ruled back there, man!” she exclaimed, sending a congratulatory grin to Dipper.

“Heh, thanks,” he remarked with something of a bashful blush. However, the triumph of the moment was quickly cut short as Steven let out a distressed cry.

“Amethyst!” the young Gem wailed, distraught tears in his eyes as he held the purple gem close.

“W-what happened to her?” Mabel asked, also quite concerned as the others crowded around.

“Is… is she like… gone?” Soos asked with an apprehensive frown.

“No,” Garnet quickly confirmed.

“But… Amethyst got crushed to-” Dipper cut himself off, not entirely sure how to properly phrase it. “Well, I guess being crushed to death wasn’t exactly what happened to her…”

“Whatever did happen to her wasn’t pretty…” Wendy remarked, glancing at Amethyst’s gem with a frown. “I mean, how could she have actually survived something like that?”

“A Gem’s body is a construct of light,” Garnet began to explain, her tone as calm as ever. “Our physical forms are illusions. And sometimes, when we’re badly damaged, we’re forced to release those physical forms and retreat into our gemstones to regenerate.”

“So… so she’ll be ok, then?” Mabel asked, hopeful.

“She’ll be just fine,” Garnet assured with a smile. “This sort of thing happens to Amethyst all the time, believe me.”

“I-it happened to Pearl once too, a few months ago,” Steven sniffled, still hardly consoled. “A-and it took her two whole weeks to come back, and I already miss Amethyst so much!”

“Don’t worry,” the Gem leader encouraged, placing a gentle hand on her sorrowful young ward’s shoulder. “She’ll be back before you know it.”

And, as if right on cue, the purple Gem began to make her rather rushed reappearance. Everyone gasped as Amethyst’s gemstone radiated a practically blinding light, floating freely upwards out of Steven’s grasp. “Literally…” Garnet muttered upon seeing this, her smile fading as she watched her teammate regenerate. A bright silhouette surrounded the stone, shifting subtly before landing on the most familiar form of the purple Gem. Or at least, so it initially seemed.

As the light faded from her, Amethyst landed squarely on the ground, a little out of it, but otherwise completely unharmed. Delighted to see her return so quickly, Steven rushed for her, wrapping her in a tight hug as the others all breathed a shared sigh of relief. “Amethyst’s back! Amethyst’s back!” the young Gem happily proclaimed as he threw his arms around her.

“Ugh…” Amethyst groaned rather tiredly as she gently pushed him away, only to notice something off about her hands. Or rather, lack thereof. “Huh?”

“Uh, Amethyst?” Dipper spoke up, quite bewildered by the purple Gem’s new appearance. “What happened to your… arms?”

“I think you mean legs, bro-bro,” Mabel quipped, correctly describing what Amethyst’s arms had been replaced with: another set of legs.

“Looks like you… grew a few feet since the last time I saw you!” Steven joked, much to the already confused purple Gem’s annoyance.

“Nice one, dude!” Soos chuckled. “Oh, I got one! Hey, Amethyst, can you lend me a foot? Get it?! C-cause you have-”

“Yeah, Soos, I get it,” Amethyst deadpanned dryly.

“That was fast,” Garnet interrupted, looking down at her teammate with a stoic frown. “Even for you.”

Amethyst was quick to push herself to her feet (her usual ones anyway) upon hearing this, pushing her alarm off as she casually brushed her bangs out of her face. “Eh, it’s no big deal,” she shrugged nonchalantly, smoothly transitioning to stand on her new arm-legs. “I didn’t wanna keep my biggest fan waiting!” She sent a playful smirk Steven’s way, eliciting a laugh from the young Gem that ended when she put one of her regular feet on top of his head. He rolled his eyes as he removed it, chuckling once more and not noticing that Garnet was nowhere near as amused with Amethyst’s antics.

“Let’s just keep moving,” the Gem leader resolved, pressing on ahead. Amethyst huffed an irritated sigh at Garnet’s terse manner, but all the same, she trudged on along with the others as they began exploring their new surroundings.

“Whoa, get a load of this crazy surveillance room,” Wendy remarked, impressed by the observation deck they now found themselves in. The atmosphere here seemed to be much calmer than that of the security room, its walls lined with a wide array of monitors and control panels. A few of the screens still seemed to be showing sparse video feed, though from where, no one really knew. Still, just like the first room, there was plenty of interesting clues and details here worth exploring, which was what the group split up to do.

“Check it out, dudes!” Soos exclaimed as he held a pair of beakers up to his eyes, making them appear comically large.

“Soos, Soos,” Wendy said, her tone serious before she broke out into a grin. “That is hilarious.”

“Hey, Steven,” Amethyst smirked to the young Gem as she remained standing on her arm-legs. “Watch me ‘roll with it’.” At this, the purple Gem proceeded to cartwheel easily using all four of her legs, something that Steven instantly wanted to try, only to fall flat on his face the moment he attempted a handstand. Mabel got a good laugh out of this failed attempt, though she was more than ready to try it herself, only to stop short upon noticing Dipper’s vest still hanging from the edge of the security room.

“Hey, bro, you forgot your vest,” she called over to him, heading over to go retrieve it. However, as she pulled the vest loose, a piece of paper happened to slip out of it, something that instantly garnished Mabel’s attention and interest. “What’s this…?” she muttered before quietly reading whatever her brother had written aloud to herself. “Dear Wendy, I’ve always had a crush on-” She cut herself off with an excited gasp, covering her mouth up with the note in an attempt to stifle it. “Oh my gosh! Steven!”

“What’s-” Before the young Gem could even finish, Mabel shoved the note into his face, an overwhelmingly elated grin on her face.

“Look! Look! Look!” she urged eagerly, handing the note off to Steven. He took a moment to look over it for himself before mirroring her excitement with a gasp of his own.

“Oh my gosh!”

“That’s what I said!” Mabel exclaimed enthusiastically before turning towards her brother with a coy grin. “Hey, Dipper! Look what we found!”

“My vest, I hope,” Dipper deadpanned, grabbing that from her first, only for his eyes to go wide with shock upon seeing his note for Wendy. “W-what?! Where did you—Give me that!”

“I knew it!” Mabel exclaimed triumphantly even as Dipper snatched the note away from Steven. “I knew it! I knew it!”

“We both knew it!” Steven added with a bright chuckle.

“Yeah we did!” Mabel readily agreed. “You’re not over Wendy at all!”

“Oh! Were you gonna tell her today?!” the young Gem asked, hopping to his feet with an invested grin.

“No,” Dipper quickly protested, quickly glancing over his shoulder to make sure the cashier couldn’t overhear them. “I changed my mind; it’s a bad idea. I’d just embarrass myself and then I’d be another guy she hates, just like Robbie.”

“Dipper, you should just tell her already,” Mabel insisted. “One way or another, you’ll feel better about it afterwards.”

“Mabel’s right,” Steven nodded in agreement. “It’s like Garnet always says: honesty is the key to any relationship. And she would know, since she’s like, the master of romance or something!”

“You bet I am,” Garnet cut in from right behind the trio.

“Garnet!?” Dipper exclaimed in apt surprise. “H-how long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” the Gem leader remarked, adjusting her shades.

“Wait a sec, this is perfect!” Mabel quipped. “Garnet, you can just tell Dipper how him confessing his feelings to Wendy is gonna turn out so he can just go and do it instead of being all lame about it!”

“Hey!” Dipper protested, more than ready to argue with Mabel on this point, though once more, Garnet interrupted.

“Actually… I think this is one future Dipper’s going to have to discover for himself…” the Gem leader mused definitively.

“Oh come on, seriously?” Dipper sighed in exasperation, a part of him hoping that Garnet would have been able to provide him with at least some foresight on the matter.

“However,” she continued pointedly. “I will say that Steven was right about my advice. Whether things turn out or not, being honest about your feelings is always better than keeping them buried under the surface. Trust me.”

A sudden crash from the other side of the room cut through the conversation, prompting everyone to turn and see that Amethyst had accidentally dropped a glass beaker thanks to her handless-arms. “Whoops,” she said stiffly, playing the incident off with an awkward laugh. “Foot-hands, ya know? Turns out they don’t make very good… hand-hands…”

“I knew this would happen…” Garnet sighed, already preparing to go take care of the purple Gem, but not before imparting a few more words of wisdom. “Just remember what I said, Dipper. The truth can set you free. Literally.”

“Huh, I wonder what that’s supposed to mean,” Mabel remarked in slight confusion as the Gem leader walked off.

“So was that enough to convince you to go talk to Wendy about how you feel, Dipper?” Steven asked with an encouraging smile.

“Yeah, no,” Dipper replied flatly, still deeply resolved against the very idea.

“Ugh, come on,” Mabel groaned, frustrated. “Why not?”

“You guys just don’t understand,” Dipper said dismissively. “I can’t tell her, no matter how much I want to, ok? So just drop it already.”

Mabel and Steven were both more than ready to argue with this, but before they could, Wendy herself interrupted the conversation. “Dude, Dipper! You gotta check out this weird metal closet!” she called from the open closet she was standing in at the back of the surveillance room. With a small laugh, she jokingly took on a robotic tone to up the effect. “I am a robot, I have a metal closet.”

“Coming!” Dipper called back to her with an anxious laugh before briefly turning back to Mabel and Steven. “This never happened.”

Still, neither of them were anywhere near satisfied as they watched him hurry off, especially upon watching his rather stilted interactions with Wendy. “Aw, man…” Steven said with a worried frown. “Poor Dipper, holding in his feelings like that… That’s gotta be so hard…”

“I know, right?” Mabel huffed in annoyance. “He totally wants to tell her, but he’s just scared! But maybe all he needs is a little push…”

“A push? Like what?”

“Oh, you’ll see, Steven,” Mabel said with something of an ominous smirk. “You’ll see.” Without explaining anything of her impromptu idea, she rushed for her brother, reaching him before he could even make it to Wendy and locking him into a sudden hug from behind. “Brother, whatever happens, I just need you to know something,” Mabel paused, her tone oddly serious as she looked him dead in the eyes. “This is for your own good.”

“What?” Dipper asked, only to get no answer as Mabel abruptly shoved him forward hard, right into the closet. Before he could even realize what had happened, she slammed the doors shut and locked them from the outside, grinning in satisfaction all the while.

“Oh, so that’s what you meant by a push,” Steven surmised thoughtfully as Amethyst let out an amused laugh at what she assumed was merely a prank.

“Nice one, Mabel!” the purple Gem chuckled. “Reminds me of that time I locked Pearl in the bathroom back at the temple. She beat on the door for hours! It was a riot.”

Meanwhile, inside the closet itself, it took Dipper a moment to gather his bearings, but when he did, the first thing he realized was that not only was he trapped inside of the nearly pitch-black closet thanks to Mabel. But he was also trapped in there with Wendy, of all people, a fact that instantly filled him with simultaneous exhilaration and panic, especially given their forced closed proximity to each other. “Mabel!” Dipper quickly shouted, pounding on the door adamantly. “Let us out!”

“Oh, I’ll let you out, Dipper,” Mabel smirked confidently. “As soon as you tell Wendy that thing you’ve been wanting to tell her! You’ll thank me for this later!”

“What’s she talking about?” Wendy asked Dipper, aptly confused.

“N-nothing!” Dipper exclaimed defensively. “Mabel’s just been eating raw sugar packets again!”

“That’s beside the point!” Mabel called from the outside even as she dumped two packets of sugar into her mouth without a care. Her levity dulled a bit, however, upon noticing the somewhat disapproving frown the Gem leader was sending her way. “Aw, come on, Garnet. You said so yourself: Dipper needs to be honest about his feelings!”

“Yes, and I also remember saying that he needs to see how this all turns out for himself,” Garnet countered. “Still, I figured something like this would happen. That’s why I told him the truth would set him free. Because in this case, it apparently will.”

“So are we just gonna like, wait it out then?” Soos asked.

“You better believe we are!” Mabel proclaimed boldly, much to Dipper’s immense displeasure as he overheard this.

“Mabel, let us out now!” he shouted, beyond irritated by this point.

Wendy, on the other hand, was as levelheaded as always, only slightly aggravated by the relative darkness of their cramped surroundings. “Ugh, where are the lights?” she asked, fumbling around a bit until she managed to feel out a chord hanging from above. However, instead of turning a light on, pulling the chord resulted in a sudden spray of water, one that completely soaked and startled both Dipper and Wendy. Still, they were only wet for a brief moment as a strong gust of warm, drying air burst from all four of the surrounding walls, roughly pushing the two of them into each other as a dull red light beamed from a nearby sign that read “Decontamination Complete”. And while Dipper and Wendy were still rather caught off guard by what just happened, they were both more than relieved to see a door finally slide open on the other side of the closet, granting them access to an entirely new part of the bunker altogether.

This area was by far the most spacious yet, built amidst high cavernous walls marred by deep trenches of varying shapes and sizes. The same sort of technology from the surveillance room was apparent here, with pipes, tubes, and monitors all linking towards a series of empty glass pods, many of which showed the same sort of intentional damage the rest of the equipment filling the room did. The sparse overhead lighting flickered warningly as Dipper and Wendy tentatively stepped out of the closet and into this mysterious new space.

“Whoa, a hidden lab!” Dipper exclaimed, amazed and impressed by this intricate setup. “Maybe the author did experiments down here.”

“Hm,” Wendy mused, looking over the hole-strewn wall. “What do you think dug all these tunnels?”

“Let’s hope we don’t find out…” Dipper frowned, his curiosity quickly shifting to outright fear as a low growl, ominous suddenly echoed through the entire lab. Things only got more frightening however, as a large, lumbering shadow draped across the far wall. And from its creeping movements, it was clear that whatever it was, it was getting closer.

“Run?” Wendy asked in a stiff whisper.

“Run!” Dipper exclaimed in clear panic. And the pair did just that, racing for the only other way out they knew of: the closet. “Mabel, open up, for real!” Dipper shouted, pounding hard on the still locked closet door as Wendy did the same. “There’s a monster in here!”

“A monster, huh?” Amethyst perked up, hoping up from her arm feet to her regular feet. “Finally, some action! My feet were starting to fall asleep!”

“Which ones?” Garnet asked dryly.

“Oh no!” Steven cried worriedly. “Mabel, we gotta let them out! They could get hurt!”

“Come on, Steven,” Mabel scoffed, not buying her brother’s claim. “He’s totally overexaggerating. Nice try, Dipper! But the only monsters are your own inner demons!”

“That is so wise,” Soos nodded thoughtfully.

“Dipper, just say whatever Mabel wants you to say so she’ll let us out of here!” Wendy exclaimed, her usual calm all but gone in the face of this unknown danger.

Dipper took in a sharp, apprehensive breath at this, his heart racing with fear that went even beyond that of whatever was lurking in the nearby shadows. It certainly seemed as though this was the literal moment of truth, especially as the cashier looked to him expectantly. “W-Wendy, I… I…” he began just as clumsily as he always did whenever he tried to tell her this. Still, it was either this or—well, Dipper wasn’t entirely sure, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it was bound to be easier than telling Wendy the awkward truth. “I-I’m gonna find another way out!” he quickly exclaimed, grabbing the cashier’s wrist and pulling her back into the lab.

“Wait, what?” Wendy asked in alarmed confusion as she ran after him into one of the countless wide tunnels. “Dude, where are we going?” Dipper didn’t really give her much of answer, as fueled by fear and adrenaline as he was, but the dead end at the end of the tunnel was enough to stop them both in their tracks. Unfortunately though, it wasn’t enough to stop the unknown creature that eagerly ravenously them. “What do we do?!” Wendy exclaimed, pressing against the nearby all as the shadow of the monster loomed ever closer.

“I-I don’t know!” Dipper admitted, fully regretting his rashness now. However, before the monster could pounce out of the shadows and onto them, someone else miraculously enough pounced onto it. The pair watched in awed relief as the silhouette of a man fiercely tackled the beast, bravely scuffling against it, despite its large size and bloodthirsty demeanor. In the end and with a few heavy punches, the man managed to beat the monster into submission, pulling something away from it and sending it skittering off in the opposite direction.

“Back, you heinous beast!” the man shouted after it, completely unphased by the outraged screech it sent back in his direction. With the threat subdued, the stranger emerged from the shadows, allowing Dipper and Wendy to see him clearly. His goggles, lab coat and gloves certainly gave him the air of a scientist, and while he was clearly on in years, he still stood firm and strong in the aftermath of his skirmish with the creature. “Well, I just pulled out a monster’s tongue,” he announced heroically before throwing said tongue down onto the ground.

For a moment, all either Dipper or Wendy could really do was stare at this mysterious newcomer with shared amazement and confusion, especially since they had no idea where he might have come from. But with that bewilderment in mind, Dipper was quick to remember the very reason why they had come all the way down here in the first place: to find any leads on the author’s whereabouts. And sure enough, it seemed as though they had found something even better: the elusive author himself. “It—it’s you!” Dipper gasped in apt shock, scarcely able to believe that after all this time, they had finally found him.

The author didn’t seem to have heard him, however, as he had already turned away from the stunned pair and began leading the way out of the tunnel. “Hurry now,” he urged insistently, his manner serious yet articulate. “I scared it off, but it’ll regenerate. These Gem monsters always do.” The author paused for a moment, his expression darkening into a scowl that neither of his newfound young companions noticed as he continued. “I wasn’t expecting guests. I’ve been down here for a very long time. Years! Weeks, maybe. I miss orange juice.”

“Y-you don’t understand,” Dipper spoke up, still overwhelmed with excitement. “You’re the guy I’ve been looking for!”

“He’s the guy?” Wendy asked, surprised.

“Wendy, he’s the guy!”

“The guy?” the author interjected, raising a confused eyebrow.

“I’ve got like, a billion questions!” Dipper exclaimed, scarcely able to contain his elation and curiosity. And really, how could he, seeing as how all of the answers he had been looking for all summer were finally within reach? “Why did you write the journals? How do you know the Gems? Who was after you? Why did you build this bunker?”

The author seemed charmed by this barrage of enthusiastic questions, letting out a small, bemused laugh. “My boy, I’d love to discuss all of this in time,” he began as they returned to the main part of the lab. “But for now, we have more pressing matters. It’s one of my experiments, a shape-shifter. Able to flawlessly take the form of anyone or anything it sees! It broke free from its cage of solid steel! I’ve gone half crazy trying to catch the creature alone, but now you’re here!” With a sincere smile, the author knelt down to Dipper’s level, placing a firm hand on his shoulder as he lifted up his goggles. “Will you help me catch it?”

The only way Dipper could even respond to such a question was with an excited gasp and an insistent nod. After all, meeting the author himself was one thing; but working together with him to solve a mystery was something he could have only ever dreamed of. And, against all odds, it certainly seemed as though that was a dream that was destined to come true.

“Very well then! Let’s get started! Come in! Come in!” the author beckoned as he led Dipper and Wendy through another one of the several tunnels into what seemed to be something of an unkempt living space. “I apologize for the state of things. I don’t get many non-mole people visitors. Now,” he turned to his two young companions, his manner as steadfast as ever. “The beast must have some kind of weakness we can exploit. I just wish I had my research on me! But alas, I lost my journals so many years ago…”

“Did you say journals?” Wendy asked, glancing at Dipper with a knowing grin.

“Dude, I found one of them!” Dipper enthusiastically exclaimed as he pulled the journal out. “That’s how we tracked you down here!”

“What? Could it be?” the author asked in apparent disbelief, eagerly taking the journal to get a better look at it. “My boy, I can’t express my gratitude!” he exclaimed brightly as he began to carefully leaf through the book. “Oh yes… after all these years!” The author grinned almost obsessively as he turned away from the pair once again, his eyes pouring over everything in the journal greedily, almost as if he hadn’t written every word himself. An assumption that perhaps might not have been all too outlandish after all.

Seeing as how they did little else to do, the group in the surveillance room continued exploring it to pass the time. Well, at least that’s what Soos and Mabel were doing as they freely rooted through the abundance of drawers near the control panel for anything interesting. “Sure are taking their time in there,” Soos remarked, casting a brief glance over at the closet before he resumed plundering. “Hey, do I look smarter with this coat and brief case?” he asked Mabel upon pulling on a tightly-fitting lab coat and grabbing an old metal briefcase. “I feel like I look smarter…”

“Oh yeah, you totally look 110% more genius-y, Soos!” Mabel quipped with an approving thumbs up.

“Yes!” the handyman cheered triumphantly.

At the same time, Steven followed close behind Amethyst as she sauntered about the room on all fours, something that was much easier now that all four of her limbs were legs. “Your new form is really interesting,” the young Gem commented with a smile.

“Thanks, Steven,” Amethyst replied rather dryly, blowing a lock of hair out of her face.

“I didn’t even know you could come back this different!”

“Thanks, Steven…”

“So… why’d you come back with four legs?” Steven asked curiously.

“Because I like walking!” the purple Gem huffed in clear aggravation with all of his comments.

“Wow…” the young Gem mused, amazed. “I want four legs too! Oh, or maybe four arms! Either of those would be so cool!”

“No it wouldn’t,” Garnet staunchly interrupted, glancing up from the files she had been pouring over. “Amethyst rushed her regeneration. She should have taken her time.”

“Like Pearl?” Steven asked, not noticing as Amethyst scowled sharply upon hearing this, her back still turned to him.

“Yes,” the Gem leader nodded. “Pearl put a little more… thought into how she came back…”

“Ugh! Pearl, Pearl, Pearl!” Amethyst growled in bitter annoyance. “You know I can hear you, right?!” she asked hotly, pulling her hair aside to reveal an oversized ear. “I’m sorry I’m not like Pearl with her fancy form or her polite, boring personality!”

The purple Gem was clearly completely outraged by this point, angry enough that she landed a brutal kick to the nearby cabinet out of sheer frustration, not even noticing the heavy metal box precariously perched on top of it. That is, until it came plummeting down towards her. “Huh?” Amethyst glanced up, her eyes growing wide with alarm, but she could do little as the box fell squarely on top of her. Once again, her physical form was unable to handle such sudden stress, which was why it was quick to retreat into her gemstone. Fortunately, the stone itself went flying at this, narrowly missing the box landing on the ground and crushing it entirely and instead landing on the ground right in front of Steven.

“Amethyst!” the young Gem cried in horror as Mabel and Soos both let out shocked gasps. Garnet was hardly surprised, however as she instead rested a consoling hand on Steven’s shoulder as he sniffled morosely, clinging onto the purple gemstone gently. “G-Garnet, she… she got poofed again!”

“Man, Amethyst is really having some sucky luck today,” Mabel remarked with a concern frown as her and Soos headed over.

“This is a good opportunity for her,” the Gem leader concluded, unwavering. “Now she can focus on making a better form.” No sooner had Garnet said this, however, then Amethyst’s gem started to radiantly glow once more, a sign that she was already making a hasty regeneration. “Or not…”

The others watched with curious anticipation as the bright silhouette of the purple Gem surrounded her stone, though as the light faded, this time it was clear to see that Amethyst had drastically changed. This time, she had reformed herself to bear quite a striking, if not mocking resemblance to Pearl, complete with a nearly identical outfit and ballet slippers that were far too long for her small feet. Her long hair was now swept up to a point much like the white Gem’s usually was, even though it was immediately apparent to see just how impractical this was the moment she regathered her bearings and turned her head, her new style taking half of the beakers on the nearby shelf with it. “Aw yeah!” Amethyst snickered deviously, looking over her new form. “This is much better! What do you guys think? Aren’t I just Pearl-fect?”

Steven, Mabel, and Soos all laughed at this, greatly and unanimously amused at the purple Gem’s pun and her comical impersonation. “Ha! She’s doing Pearl!” the young Gem chuckled blithely.

“Dudes, just imagine if the real Pearl was here,” Soos interjected with a grin. “It’d be like, impossible to tell the two of them apart!”

The kids shared another laugh over such a humorous, but Garnet was far less amused or impressed by Amethyst’s new appearance. Still, she said nothing of it for the moment, instead heading back to the control panel to continue investigating. She stopped short, however, upon noticing something that distinctively tipped her off, especially given her already uncomfortable vibes with the bunker as a whole. “Everyone,” she called the others out of their levity. “Get over here. There’s something you need to see.”

“What’s up, Garnet?” Steven asked as they all joined the Gem leader.

“Oh, is it those neat tube-y things?” Mabel pointed to the glass tubes visible through one of the working monitors. It wasn’t hard for her to find the button that got one of them working, even if it had a rather eloquent-label that read “Cryogenic Activation”. “Whoa!” she exclaimed in amazement upon pressing the button, which caused the tube to instantly fill with ice. Of course, Mabel didn’t hesitate to hit the button over and over again, smiling with delight as the cryogenic chamber reacted accordingly. “Frozen! Unfrozen! Frozen! Unfrozen!”

“That’s not what I meant,” Garnet spoke up, gently moving Mabel’s hand away from the button. “I was talking about that.” She nodded to a note taped to the far side of the control panel, one that Steven grabbed and read aloud.

“Experiment number 210: the shape shifter,” the young Gem frowned in confusion as he read. “Warning: extremely dangerous! Do not engage! A shapeshifter? Whoa, that’s sort of like you guys!” he exclaimed to Garnet and Amethyst.

The pair of Gems merely exchanged a wide eyed glance upon hearing this, both of them drawing up a complete blank at first. After all, certainly they would have remembered if they had ever encountered a non-Gem shapeshifter before, right? “This ringing any bells for you, G?” the purple Gem muttered, putting her Pearl impersonation off for the moment for the sake of her newfound nervousness.

“I… I’m not sure…” the Gem leader admitted truthfully. “It does sound familiar, but…”

“Uh, dudes?” Soos spoke up, his expression awash with sudden concern. “Didn’t Dipper say there was a monster in there with him and Wendy?”

Mabel gasped fearfully upon being reminded of this, realizing that, despite her good intentions, she may have just put her brother in considerable harm. “I thought he was just joking!”

“You know Dipper’s jokes are terrible!” Soos exclaimed in a panic.

“We gotta go in there and save them!” Steven cried, already leading the way to the lab’s main primary entrance as the others were quick to follow. “Come on!”

While the Gems in particular were more than ready to leap into action against any potential danger as they all burst into the lab, they found no sign of any sort of shape shifter, or even Dipper or Wendy for that matter. The lab itself seemed to be oddly calm, but still, no one really found that to be a very comforting sign.

“Oh man, its so dark!” Soos exclaimed fretfully, trying to see through the dull lighting ahead. “How will we ever find them?”

“Leave that to Mabel!” Mabel exclaimed with a wide grin, pressing the light bulb on her sweater, which caused it to emit a surprisingly strong glow.

“Whoa!” Steven gasped, thoroughly impressed. “Mabel, you think of everything!”

“Seriously, that’s so rad!” Soos enthusiastically agreed. “Although isn’t electric clothing kinda like a fire hazard?”

“No, it’s a fun hazard,” Mabel corrected. “Now let me light the way!”

“We’re coming for you, dudes!” Soos called in the hopes that Dipper and Wendy might somehow hear him.

“And for that shape shifter too…” Garnet added coldly, knowing that if the creature was a threat, then it certainly had to be neutralized.

“Pfft, even if there is a shape shifter down here, it’ll be no match for my shiftin’ skills!” Amethyst quipped, briefly transforming into an appearance that was even more closely identical to Pearl before. Upon seeing Garnet glower at her doing this, however, she reverted back to her relatively new form, muttering crossly to herself as she did so. “And once I take it out, then maybe I’ll finally be good enough for you…”

As the author continued to skim over the journal on his own, his two young guests eagerly awaited to hear whatever conclusion he would soon hopefully reach on defeating the supposed shape shifter. Of course, Dipper was still beside himself with excitement over having met the author at long last, and based on first impressions alone, he was everything he had been expecting: bold, courageous, pragmatic, intelligent, and everything in between. And what was almost just as thrilling to Dipper was the fact that the answers to all of his longtime questions, namely the questions that even the Gems didn’t have answers for, were finally about to be answered by the source of them all himself.

“Wendy, isn’t this amazing?” he whispered to the cashier with a zealous smile. “I still can’t believe we’re actually meeting the real author!”

Wendy was ready to agree with him, though she instead stifled a shocked gasp upon noticing the label on the discarded can lying at her feet. “Dipper!” she whispered sharply, grabbing the can as she eyed the author with sudden fear, though fortunately, he didn’t notice. “Look!”

Dipper did so, looking to the can she was holding out to him with confusion at first, though that confusion instantly turned to dismayed alarm as he made the same realization Wendy had. The aviator shown in the bean can’s logo was distinctively identical to the very author standing but a few feet away from them, something that was far too conspicuous to be a mere coincidence. It was clear that the only logical conclusion to be made about this concerning twist was that the “author” was not all that he appeared to be.

“Uh, y-you know what?” Dipper addressed the “author” tentatively. “We should probably get going. Can I have my journal back?”

The “author” froze at this, looking up from the journal as he made a small, rather eerie hissing sound. All at once, he confirmed he was not only a fake, but inhuman altogether as his head did a full 180, his neck lengthening to accommodate the move and his eyes blinking sideways as he glared at the frightened pair menacingly. “You’re not going anywhere!” he growled, his deeper and much more sinister. Still moving, erratically, the creature dropped to all fours, its form morphing seamlessly as it quickly climbed up the wall, taking the journal with it. By the time the apparent shape shifter had reached the overarching ceiling, it had taken on its true, much more monstrous form. Its body was large and disproportionate, composed of slimy skin that was clear enough to that its white exoskeleton was visible through it. Its right arm was long and very slender, a complete contrast to its shorter, more bulky left arm. Four thin legs kept the creature upright, and its pinkish eyes lacked pupils while its mouth was a wide opening surrounded by sharp fangs and closed off by large teeth. “How do you like my new form?” the shape shifter asked even though Dipper and Wendy were quick to share how they felt about it with a unified scream of terror. “Go on, admit it! You like it!”

“You!” Dipper exclaimed, trying his best to be bold in the face of such a grotesque, intimidating monster. “What did you do to the real author?!”

“You’ll likely never find out,” the shape shifter said with cold triumph. “That six-fingered nerd hasn’t been himself in thirty years! But I thank you for bringing me this journal. He used to write it while I was in my cage. So many wonderful forms to take!” The creature laughed twistedly as it began to flip through the journal, seamlessly taking on the forms of many of the entries within it, from the Gremloblin, to a gnome, to the Centipeedle, to the slinker, all in quick succession and all completely flawless in accuracy.

Needless to say, Dipper and Wendy were equally alarmed at the shape shifter’s admittedly impressive transformative prowess. And certainly, with something like the journal in its possession, it would essentially have a complete menu of deadly monsters and creatures at its disposal, to use in whatever no doubt treacherous way it saw fit. “We gotta get that journal back!” Dipper whispered to Wendy while the shape shifter was still distracted with the book. Fortunately though, the cashier had an impromptu plan in mind.

“Hey, body snatcher!” she shouted at the shape shifter, picking up a discarded can from earlier. “Snatch this!” She threw the can hard at the creature, who side stepped out of the projectile’s path as it turned into a lumbering, frog-like monster. The shifter lashed its new long tongue out at the pair, though Wendy managed to shield them both from it using a nearby piece of scrap metal, which the creature only succeeding in pulling back towards itself. As the metal pelted the shifter squarely in the face, it was startled enough to loosen its grip on the journal, and as the book fell to the floor, Dipper didn’t hesitate to hurry and reclaim it.

“Run! Run! Run!” he shouted frantically as they both did just that, retreating back out of the dead end they were in. Of course, the moment it regathered its bearings, the shape shifter gave chase after them, clearly willing to take on whatever form it had to in order to claim the coveted journal for itself.

“So Garnet,” Amethyst began as the group pressed on through one of the tunnels to being their search. “What do you think of my new look? I’m more like Pearl now! Isn’t it wonderful? Why, I feel,” she cut herself off, preforming an elegant spin, not noticing as her long, quaffed hair hit Steven and Mabel. “Absolutely amazing!”

“We need to focus on listening for that creature,” Garnet reminded staunchly, not even bothering to spare a glance at the purple Gem. “Or for Dipper or Wendy.”

“Oh, but I simply can’t focus!” Amethyst exclaimed dramatically, still clearly mimicking Pearl. “All these holes are different sizes! We’ll have to organize them by shape and color. Didn’t anyone tell nature how I want it to look?!”

Of course, this performance got a good laugh out of Steven, Mabel, and Soos, but Garnet was quick to show her muted disapproval of it. “Don’t encourage her,” she said somewhat crossly, moving on ahead.

“But I need encouragement, Garnet!” Amethyst begged in faux fretfulness. “I need everyone’s constant approval! I need to loquaciously converse so I can show off how smart I am…” the purple Gem’s mocking tone turned to annoyance as she finished, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms as she thought of the white Gem.

“Uh, you can converse with us,” Steven offered, pulling out his phone. “Let’s finish this quiz! Do you need to plan ahead before you act?”

“Oh, thoroughly!”

“Do you obsess over little details?”

“Completely entirely!”

“Ow wow!” the young Gem exclaimed, amazed at her imitation. “You’re so method! Next time, could you come back as me?”

“No, me!” Mabel insisted. “Oh! Or both of us at once! That would be super impressive!”

“Sure, why not?” Amethyst shrugged casually. “You guys know me. I’m a Gem of trades.”

Garnet finally stopped upon hearing this and slightly turned to face her teammate, unable to hold her pressing frustration towards the purple Gem’s callous behavior in any longer. “This is not a good choice for your form.”

“Lighten up, Garnet,” Amethyst scoffed. “Can’t you take a joke?”

“It’s not funny,” the Gem leader replied coldly. “You made yourself ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous?!” the purple Gem shouted, offended.

“Keep your voice down,” Garnet hissed in a sharp whisper. “The shape shifter-”

“You wanted me to be more like Pearl!” Amethyst interrupted hotly, her hands curled into tight fists. “And now I am!”

“Pearl would have taken her regeneration seriously!” Garnet chastised, still trying to be quiet, lest the shape shifter find them before they found it.

“What do you care?! My form is my business!”

“It’s my business when it affects the strength of the team!”

“So what?!” Amethyst spat, not even noticing as the others were all watching this ongoing argument with wide, worried eyes. “I’m not strong enough?!”

Garnet didn’t get a chance to answer this as a pair of very familiar frightened screams came from one of the connecting tunnels nearby. “Dipper! Wendy!” Soos exclaimed in alarm, recognizing the cries instantly.

“They’re this way!” Mabel pointed to the tunnel the screams had come from. “Come on!”

Everyone was quick to rush for the tunnel in the hopes of finally meeting up with the pair, though Amethyst lingered back a bit, still caught up in her own immense anger with the Gem leader. “Were you saying I was weak!?” she shouted after Garnet fiercely, trailing behind them all.

“Amethyst! Now is not the time for this!” the Gem leader retorted firmly, making it clear she would hear nothing more on the matter at the moment.

“Why not?!” the purple Gem yelled. “Why can’t you just accept me the way I am?!”

A large part of Garnet wanted to give Amethyst an immediate answer for this, but with the dangerous circumstances they were currently in, such things would simply have to wait. “Amethyst,” the Gem leader said, her tone uncharacteristically shaken as she glanced back at her teammate for just a brief moment. “Enough.”

The purple Gem took in a deep breath but said no more, at least for the moment. It was obvious she had no intentions of dropping the issue at all, but for now she could only do as Garnet had said and put this tension aside. Even if it still bothered her immensely all the while.

At the same time, Dipper and Wendy were still trying to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the persistent shape shifter. While the creature made good use of its transformative abilities in chasing after them, they eventually managed to shake it by cleverly tricking it into taking the wrong tunnel. Still, the shifter wouldn’t be distracted with this ruse for too long, which was why the pair continued to rush through the maze of tunnels in the hopes of finding a way out. Though instead of that, they found the rest of the group instead. Or rather, quite literally ran into them.

The moment everyone realized they were all relatively safe and sound, a round of rushed, yet happy greetings were exchanged, though the relief was very short lived. “Wait!” Dipper interjected, sending a suspicious glance to Mabel, Steven, Soos, and the Gems. “How do we know they’re not the shape shifter?”

“Whoa, maybe I am!” Soos gasped. “Mabel, inspect my shape!” he exclaimed, pulling up his shirt and allowing Mabel to give playful poke to his stomach, much to the handyman’s amusement. “Do that again!” he laughed, and this time Steven complied by giving him another poke. “Even better the second time!”

“It’s definitely them,” Dipper concluded dryly, though he let out a horrified gasp upon noticing the rather sizable cut torn across Wendy’s knee. “Oh my gosh, Wendy, you’re bleeding!”

“It’s cool, its cool,” Wendy reassured, her tone calm yet firm. “It’s just blood, man. Don’t freak out.”

“What happened?” Mabel asked worriedly.

“We got attacked by the shape shifter,” the cashier began to explain, taking her over shirt off. She tore a swath of cloth off of the sleeve and tied it around her injured knee as a temporary bandage before wrapping the rest of it around her waist. “He broke out of his cage, pretended to be the author, and he wants Dipper’s journal.”

“No way!” Steven exclaimed, his eyes wide. “You guys actually saw that thing?”

“We need to track it down and subdue it,” Garnet said, resolved. “If we don’t, then there could be severe consequences.”

“Imagine if it escapes into town!” Dipper exclaimed fretfully. “It can transform into anything! We could never trust anyone ever again!”

“So what do we do?” Mabel asked apprehensively, though before anyone else could try to provide an answer to this, Amethyst was quick to cut in.

“Please,” she scoffed with little concern. “I totally got this covered, you guys. Just sic me on that shifty creep and I’ll make it wish it had never crawled out of which ever one of these holes it came from.”

“Normally I’d agree with a plan like that, but you’ve been acting irrationally all day, Amethyst,” Garnet remarked stoically. “This is an unknown, dangerous creature we’ve up against and we can’t afford to send a loose cannon after it.”

“Oh, so now I’m a loose cannon?!” Amethyst asked bitterly. “If you don’t think I’m strong enough to do something like this, why don’t you just tell me to my face instead of sugar-coating it, huh?!”

“Amethyst, I’m not-”

“Yeah, you are! But I guess you wouldn’t have to deal with telling me the truth if Pearl was here instead of me!”

“Guys, cut it out!” Steven quickly interjected with a worried frown. “Fighting’s not gonna help us find that shape shifter!”

“Steven’s right,” Wendy spoke up staunchly, a look of solid determination on her face. “That thing took us into his home, tricked us, and tried to destroy us. I say we return the favor.”

Seeing as how it had lost Dipper and Wendy back in the tunnels, the shape shifter had taken to returning to the main part of the lab, its form constantly in flux until it settled back to its “author” appearance. “Dipper, my boy!” the disguised creature called with faux amicability, though in its unkempt fury, it did temporarily lose its form. “Come out! I must speak with you!” The already ill-mannered shape shifter had grown quite impatient over being denied what it wanted, to the point that it let out a fierce roar while taking on another nightmarishly monstrous appearance. “Reveal yourself, you single-formed human weakling!” The brutally creature pounded the ground out of rage and frustration, giving up all guises of calmness or friendliness without a second thought.

What the shape shifter was unaware of, however, was the pair of Gems waiting in the wings for the kids to carry out their part of the plan. In the meantime though, they let the creature continue lurking about, as much as Amethyst wanted to emerge and engage it in a head-on assault. Still, neither of them Gems could deny that, upon seeing the shape shifter for themselves in its original form, that it was remarkable familiar. So familiar in fact, that their attempt to defeat and restrain it almost seemed… redundant somehow.

Yet all the same, Garnet and Amethyst remained in their places, pushing such unsettling thoughts out of their minds as the twins entered the room to put their plan in motion. “Oh boy, Dipper,” Mabel began with a rather conspicuous smile. “That book sure is full of some great monsters!”

The shape shifter spun around upon noticing the twins’ presence, reverting back to its true form as it towered over them with eager satisfaction. “There you are!” the creature snarled twistedly. “Oh, and a new one! Should I be one…?” The shape shifter smirked deviously as it easily morphed into Mabel. “Or the other?” The creature kept its manic grin up as it turned into Dipper next. “How about both?!” The real twins watched with growing horror as the shifter twisted its form into a nightmarish amalgamation of them both. Its body was raised on six legs, its upper half vaguely resembling Dipper while its bottom half looked like Mabel. Both halves were equally as monstrous however, with empty white eyes and two mouths filled with sharp, deadly teeth.

Needless to say that the twins were aptly terrified by this grotesque imitation of themselves, and as the shape shifter towered over them with a savage roar, they didn’t hesitate to flee from it before it could strike. Of course, the shifter gave chase, intent on getting the journal back, but the Gems took this as their cue to emerge and strike.

As the twins escaped, Amethyst and Garnet took their place in opposing the shape shifter, dropping down from above with their weapons already poised to attack. The purple Gem had resorted to shapeshifting back into her usual form herself, knowing that, even despite her frustration, this would be a much easier fight for The creature stopped dead in its tracks upon seeing them, letting out an intrigued hiss as it shifted back into its original form to size them up. “Well, well, well…” the shifter began, clear distain in its tone. “After all these years… Finally, you Gems come crawling back down here… Oh, but it seems that we’re two short. Tell me, where’s that tall, skinny one? Or better yet, that meddling Rose Quartz? What I wouldn’t give to rip her to shreds for helping him trap be down here in this subterranean hell all those years ago!”

The pair of Gems paused upon hearing all this, exchanging a look of bewildered confusion. “Uh, what are you talking about, dude?” Amethyst asked, raising an eyebrow as she kept her hold on her whip.

“You mean you don’t remember?!” the shape shifter asked, both apparently offended and curious. “How could you not!? You were both there! All four of you Gems played a hand in what happened here over thirty years ago!”

“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” Garnet said evenly, her gauntlets clenched into tight fists. “But if we really did have a hand in subduing you all those years ago, then we’ll gladly do it again.”

“Ha! So you think…” the shape shifter goaded, arching up high. “But whether you fools remember me or not, I’ll take immense pleasure in shattering you two once and getting that journal once and for all!” With another roar, the creature bore down on both of them, morphing its upper half into a monster with a wide, toothy maw meant to devour them both. The Gems easily leapt out of the way, but before Garnet could go in for the first strike, Amethyst hastily intervened by coiling her whip around its mouth.

“You can just sit this one out, G!” the purple Gem called, pulling back in her whip and dragging the shape shifter towards her. “I got this one covered.”

“Amethyst, you’re not going to-” Garnet tried to refute, but Amethyst wasn’t hearing it. With a daring grin, she started using the shape shifter’s own element against it by turning herself into Purple Puma as she landed a solid blow to the creature’s face after pulling it towards her. The shifter screeched in pain, transforming into a bird and taking off in order to escape any further hits. As soon as it had put some distances between itself and her, the shifter returned to its true form, sending the purple Gem a hostile glare as she they started circling each other.

“Ah yes…” the shifter hissed coldly. “I remember you. You’re the little loudmouthed one who always thought your meager shapeshifting could outdo mine. It must really burn you up that even all these years later, I’m still far more superior at it than you’ll ever be.”

“That’s some pretty big talk for something that looks like a gross, oversized milk sack,” Amethyst retorted confidently. Of course, this comment easily set the shape shifter off as it lunged towards the purple Gem, turning into a large, long snake-like creature as it did so. Amethyst met this assault as squarely as she could, making her form as broad and bulky as she could in order to do so. But even as she tried her best to hold its snapping maw back, the shifter still managed to sink its teeth deep into her arm, eliciting a loud cry of pain from the purple Gem.

“Amethyst!” Garnet shouted, aptly concerned as she began to rush to her teammate’s rescue. Amethyst, however, would have none of that.

“I said stay out of this!” she yelled hotly, using her free arm to lash her whip out at one of the nearby broken cryogenic chambers. With a labored shout, the purple Gem lifted the tube up and hurled it hard at her teammate, temporarily blocking her from the fight and allowing Amethyst to duke it out with the shape shifter solo.

“You should have let her stay,” the shifter taunted, drawing the claws it had formed for itself close to Amethyst’s gemstone. “You’re going to need someone to pick up all the broken pieces of that gem of yours once I’m through with you!”

The creature pushed hard at her once again, forcing the purple Gem up against the wall as her energy and altered arms began to waver. Still, she wasn’t about to back down now. Especially not with Garnet still watching the fight from the other side of the cryogenic tube. “Shut up!” Amethyst growled, unable to think of any witty comeback as she finally pushed the shifter away from her. Embodying all of her raw fury, the purple game shapeshifted into a large bull and charged at the creature, which was quick to morph into an ever larger, several-armed monster retaliation. As Amethyst madly charged at it, the shifter easily caught her by the horns and tossed her aside hard. The purple Gem returned to her usual appearance as brutally she crashed into a storage cabinet before falling to the ground, quite battered and beaten. Yet even so, she shakily tried to pick herself up, clutching her injured arm and weakly summoning another whip as the shape shifter steadily approached her.

“Persistent little thing, aren’t you?” it asked mockingly, its true form standing tall and largely uninjured over her. “No matter. I know something that’ll get you to stay down. Or rather someone…”

Amethyst let out a shocked gasp, her eyes growing wide with alarm as the shape shifter took on another new form, however this one was far from monstrous or even really intimidating. Instead, this form was one that was far from mistakable for the purple Gem, one that brought back far too many bittersweet memories.

“R-Rose…” Amethyst choked, her whip dissipating into thin air as she looked up to the shape shifter’s imitation of the pink Gem. And indeed, it was spot on, from Rose’s curly pink locks, to her lovely white gown, to her soft, graceful features. The only thing off about the shifter’s performance was the cold, sinister smirk on its face, something that would have been so uncharacteristic on the real Rose Quartz.

“What’s wrong, Amethyst?” the shifter asked, perfectly replicating the pink Gem’s gentle voice as well. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”

The purple Gem took in a sharp breath, taking an anxious step back as she stared at this alarmingly accurate replication of her now-deceased leader. “I… You… you’re not-” she stammered, shaking her head all the while.

“Oh come now,” the shifter tried to rationalize with a more inviting smile. The false Rose Quartz held a calming hand out to the shaken purple Gem, its other hand held conspicuously behind its back. “I’m not going to hurt you… After all, I’m still your lovely, beloved leader, aren’t it?”

Amethyst was far too stunned by what was happened to even respond at this point, unable to take her eyes off of the imitation of Rose to see what the shifter was doing with its concealed arm. Garnet, however, did take notice of it, but even as she beat against the cryogenic tube’s glass in an attempt to catch the purple Gem’s attention, the shifter continued speaking. “Look at you, so small and innocent…” the creature remarked, still using Rose’s voice as it gently placed a hand under Amethyst’s chin. “You’re missing something, something more than just memories… But what is it?” It paused, mulling over its own question for a moment, before its lips curled into a sadistic smile. “Oh. I know.”

Before Amethyst could even realize what was happening, the shifter’s elongated arm suddenly coiled itself tightly around her, lifting her up and strangling her all the while, even despite her panicked struggling. “You’re missing her,” the creature whispered hauntingly, its voice shifting from Rose’s to its own. Tears has barely started to fill the purple Gem’s eyes, but they never had a chance to fall as the shifter suddenly tightened its grip around her body hard. Hard enough to send her already injured form right back into her gem for the third time today.

“Amethyst!” Garnet shouted with immense worry, her first finally flying through the seemingly impenetrable glass and granting her access back into the lab. Startled, the shifter spun around to face her, morphing back to its true form as it lunged for her with a feral hiss. The Gem leader paid the creature no mind however as she deftly vaulted over it, caring for nothing else than for claiming Amethyst’s fallen Gem, which she successfully managed to do. Tucking the purple gemstone under her arm, Garnet raced past the outraged shifter, knowing that their initial plan had failed. Which meant that the only option they had left was plan B.

The kids all heaved a shared sigh of relief as Garnet rushed into the tunnel they had been hiding in, even if they knew the shapeshifter wasn’t too far behind her. Still, Steven was quite concerned upon noticing that only one of his two present guardians had managed to return safely. “A-Amethyst?” he wondered apprehensively, glancing to the Gem leader. Garnet’s already intense expression darkened, but even so, she gently deposited the purple gemstone into her young ward’s hands. Steven let out a small whimper upon seeing Amethyst reduced to nothing but her gem once again, but this time, no tears came. “Is it weird I’m getting numb to this?” he asked with a disheartened frown.

Still, no one had any time to worry over the purple Gem again as the shape shifter’s fierce roar signaled its soon-coming arrival. “Guys, it’s coming!” Dipper warned anxiously as the shifter came into view. “Do it now!”

Soos and Wendy complied as they both began pulling on the nearby water valve in the hopes that it would release the water within the pipes running throughout the bunker. However, seeing as how the valve hadn’t been touched in decades, the rusted wheel wouldn’t so much as budge. “It’s not working, dude!” Soos cried fretfully, right as the shifter finally caught up to them.

Upon seeing the entire group all together in one place, the shifter didn’t hesitate to lash out, specifically at Dipper in a violent attempt to get the journal. The creature flung its long tongue out, somehow coiling around the journal, even though Dipper did his best to try and fight to keep possession of it. “Hey! Let go!” he shouted, still struggling to keep his quickly loosening grip on the book.

“You leave him alone!” Wendy shouted, rushing to Dipper’s rescue with her ax in hand. The cashier used the weapon to easily cleave through the shifter’s outstretched tongue, but even then, it was hardly finished. The creature quickly reformed its tongue at shot it out at Wendy this time, but instead of cutting it, she used it as a boost to jump on the shifter itself to launch a more direct offensive. She was more than ready to use her ax to land a finishing blow on the disgruntled shifter’s head, but mere seconds before she could, Soos and Garnet managed to finally turn the closed water valve. And as a result, the floodgates were quite literally opened.

With hardly any warning, a heavy stream of water suddenly burst from the nearby pipe. The initial flux of water hit the shape shifter and Wendy first, easily knocking them back into the tunnel as the shifter let out a high pitched cry all the while. It didn’t take long for everyone else to get caught up in the uncontrollable flow, sweeping them all off their feet and pushing them all down the tunnel like a rushing river would. In the abrupt chaos of it all, not only did Amethyst’s gem accidently fly out of Steven’s grip, but Dipper lost the journal and Wendy collided hard with a rock, effectively knocking her into semi-consciousness. Fortunately, the tunnel system had a surprisingly efficient drainage system, so the flood didn’t last too long before subsiding, leaving everyone soaked and scattered about throughout the tunnel.

With the water gone, it still took the group a good while to regather their bearings and regain lost air. Dipper was the first to fully do so, more out of surprise and worry than anything else as he noticed Wendy’s ax lying discarded on the ground in front of him, the cashier herself nowhere in sight. “Wendy!” he cried, cold fear filling him as he stumbled to his feet and grabbed the ax. The others didn’t notice as he ran off down the tunnel in an attempt to find her, but Steven did realize that another member of the group was missing upon pulling himself up to a sitting position.

“A-Amethyst?” the young Gem wondered nervously, looking around to see that the purple gemstone was gone. He looked to Garnet with apt concern as she put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and fortunately, the Gem leader remained as levelheaded as always, even despite her own worry.

“Her gem is this way,” Garnet stood, nodding in the opposite direction and prompting the others to follow her. “Let’s go.”

After their initial inspect of the nearby tunnels, the group decided on splitting up, with Mabel and Soos going one way and Steven and Garnet going another, in order to find the purple gem before the shape shifter could. The latter pair, despite the Gem leader’s guidance, were having an admittedly difficult time finding the purple Gem in the labyrinthine tunnels. Ironically though, it didn’t take too long for her to find them.

Of course, Amethyst did make her reappearance as dramatic as possible, with her shadow against the wall being the first thing that her teammates saw as she approached. However, seeing as how that looked nothing like her, Garnet made sure to place a protective hand on Steven’s shoulder in the event that the shape shifter was preparing to beset them instead. When the purple Gem did come into view however, both of them were quite surprised and bewildered by the newest form she had decided to take.

“Okay, you know I wasn’t feeling this at first…” Amethyst began with a grin as she awkwardly stumbled towards the pair. Her body was completely disproportionate, her left leg and right arm appearing normal while her other two appendages where unnaturally huge, muscular and bulky. Her hair was an unkempt mess, and it was clear that every lumbering, uneven step was a struggle for her, but even so, she came to stand before Garnet and Steven with clear pride in how she had made herself look. “But I think I might be coming around! Yo, Steven! My seems straight?”

The young Gem could only look at Amethyst with apt concern over her misshapen appearance as he clung onto Garnet’s leg rather fretfully. “Does that new form… hurt you?” he asked anxiously, hoping that this wasn’t the case.

The purple Gem jolted a bit upon hearing this, but she was quick to shrug it off. “No,” she scoffed before returning to her usual daring grin. “Hey Garnet, how’d you like to mix it up with this!?” she laughed, flexing her new muscles. “Just a little something I put together, ya know.”

“This form isn’t sustainable, Amethyst,” Garnet admonished, shaking her head in disapproval.

“B-but…” Amethyst blushed, her shame and anger finally reaching their boiling point as she let them both out. “You’re the one who said I needed to be stronger!” The purple Gem threw her massive fist down in fury while Garnet shielded Steven from the rubble that came flying up from the blow. “You know what?! Fine! I’ll take that dumb old shape shifter out myself! Then maybe you’ll finally see that I’m not weak!”

Before either Garnet or Steven could hope to talk her out of such a risky plan, Amethyst stormed off, punching any and all obstacles in her path away as she began her aggressive search for the creature. “Amethyst, wait!” the young Gem called after her worriedly, but as he began to run after her, Garnet quickly took the lead.

“Stay behind me,” the Gem leader cautioned firmly, charging after the purple Gem in the hopes of stopping her from doing something reckless. Steven staunchly did as she said, even if he was unable to shake the fear that Amethyst might not get off as easy as merely being poofed for a fourth time.

At the same time, Dipper continued his search, hurrying down the narrow tunnel with Wendy’s ax still tightly held in his grip as he looked for any sign of her. When he did manage to finally spot her though, he couldn’t hold back a gasp of shock and panic. The cashier lay, seemingly unconscious, at the foot of a short drop in the tunnel, her clothes still soaking wet, her hair disheveled and her entire form askew.

“Wendy!” Dipper shouted, not hesitating to hurry down to her, his heart pounding with adrenaline and worry and dead and hope all at once. “No, no, no!” he muttered fretfully upon reaching her, kneeling down beside her to check over her various cuts and bruises. Fortunately, none of them looked to be too bad, but even so, Dipper knew he could hardly use that as a gauge to tell if the cashier was really alright or not, especially given the fact that she was still completely listless. “Can you hear me!? Please be ok!” be practically begged, already starting to tear up with the very thought that Wendy might not wake up after all.

Desperate for any signs of consciousness, Dipper lightly shook her, only for her head to loll to the side, her breathing shallow to the point of it barely being present at all. He let out a shaky breath as he gently put her down, his warm, grief-fueled tears finally falling. “W-Wendy… I… you can’t be…” he trailed off, shaking his head in disbelief at the idea that his longtime crush could so easily be gone forever. “T-this is all my fault! If I had just told you when we were in the closet, we wouldn’t be in this mess! But I was too scared and now you could be hurt or worse, and I never even got to tell you that I’m like—in love with you Wendy!” The confession came out far easier this time than any other time Dipper had practiced it before, but given the terrible circumstances, he was hardly happy about that fact. Instead, all he could feel was guilt and despair as he let out a small, tight sob, grimly coming to terms with the fact that the unthinkable had happened.

Except it hadn’t.

“Uh… Dipper?” Wendy spoke up with an uncomfortable frown as she stood a few feet behind him, having just arrived with the journal in hand.

Dipper gasped in complete shock as he leapt to his feet and spun around to face her, simultaneously relieved, confused, and embarrassed upon seeing the cashier safe and sound. “W-wha—Wendy?! Wait, then who’s-”

Before he even finished asking the question, the other Wendy, clearly the shape shifter in disguise, quickly picked itself up off the ground and growled ferally. The creature roughly pushed Dipper aside as it instead launched itself at the real Wendy, outraged over how she had foiled its nearly perfect plan. The moment the two cashiers collided, it became effectively impossible to tell the two of them apart, especially as they began intensely grappling with each other for the coveted book.

“Give me back that journal!” one of the Wendys shouted, pulling the book hard but still not prying it away from the other one.

“Never!” the other cashier protested, even as she was pushed down to the ground, still clinging onto the book tightly. “Get off of me!” she yelled, kicking her double hard in the stomach. Neither of them relinquished their hold on the journal as they stood once more, effectively playing a match of tug of war with it, one that had no apparent winner. As this duel continued on, all Dipper could really do was stand on the sidelines and watch with apt fear and confusion as the two Wendys, completely indistinguishable from each other, fiercely scuffle with each other. Still, he did have enough wits about him to pick up the fallen ax from nearby, knowing that it would easily be his best bet and putting this brawl to an end and stopping the shape shifter dead in its tracks.

If he could only tell which one of them actually was the shapeshifter, that is.

“Give it back!” one Wendy shouted aggressively.

“You give it back!” the other Wendy retorted, equally as incensed.

“It belongs to Dipper!”

“Yeah it does! Hit her with the ax!” one of the cashiers yelled to Dipper himself quite intensely.

“Don’t listen to her, Dipper!”

“She’s the shape shifter!”

“No, she is!”

“Uh… I… um…” Dipper stammered nervously, clutching the ax tightly as he looked between the two Wendys with complete uncertainty. “I-I don’t know who’s who! Give me a sign or something!”

Both of them proceeded to comply, all while still grappling for the journal. One sent him an almost flirtatious smile and wink, but the other one merely gave him a cold, serious expression as she zipped her lips and threw away the key. And for Dipper, that was more than enough to cue him in on which Wendy was the real one, and which one was the fake.

With bold confidence in his decision, Dipper flung the ax at the imposter, watching with relieved satisfaction as the shape shifter roared in pain and reverted back to its true form. Fortunately enough, they were all quite close to one of the few still working cryogenic chambers, and even more serendipitous was the fact that Steven and Garnet just so happened to run into the room at that exact moment.

“You guys!” the young Gem gasped in alarm, especially upon seeing the outraged shape shifter rip the ax out of its injured stomach. Garnet didn’t hesitate to summon her gauntlets, their search for Amethyst momentarily forgotten in the heat of this intense moment.

“Quick! Push him in!” Dipper exclaimed, pointing to the ready cryogenic chamber. They all hurried to do so, yet before any of them could even strike the shape shifter, someone else did instead.

“Not so fast, you shifty creep!” Amethyst yelled as she dropped down from above onto the creature. Everyone gasped in surprise as she used her thicker arm to put it into a tight headlock, holding it steady even as it started struggling against her. “Ha! Not so much fun being all tied up, is it?”

“Amethyst, what are you doing!?” Dipper asked in apt alarm.

“Oh, you know,” the purple Gem grunted as casually as she could, even as the shifter angrily roared over her. “Just handling your monster problem for ya! After all, the only shape shifter we need around here is me!”

“Amethyst, let it go!” Garnet ordered hotly, especially as the shifter formed a large hand to grab Amethyst by the head with. “Now!”

“No!” the purple Gem shouted back, clearly struggling to maintain her slipping advantage as the shifter began to pull her down. “You wanted me to be stronger and I’m doing it! I’m being what you want!”

“I don’t want this!” the Gem leader tried to appeal, concern leaking into her usually authoritative tone.

Amethyst let out a strained shout as she tried to shove the shifter towards the cryogenic chamber, only to be shoved that way herself. “Then what do you want?!” she asked Garnet almost desperately. “Just tell me and I’ll do that!”

“I can’t tell you, Amethyst!” Garnet exclaimed amidst the purple Gem’s scream of pain as the shifter finally thrust her to the ground hard. “You have to figure this out for yourself!”

“She can’t!” Steven suddenly gasped in stark realization as the others all turned to him in confusion. “She doesn’t want to think about herself!”

A look of complete shock washed over Amethyst’s face upon hearing this, her struggling against the creature coming to a halt as she looked to her teammates with wide eyes. “What?” was all she had time to say before the shape shifter pushed down on her hard, resulting in her poofing once again.

The shape shifter merely laughed coldly over this victory as it picked the purple gemstone up, holding it up for the rest of the startled group to see. “What a weak, pathetic fool!” it mocked triumphantly. “You all are for thinking you ever defeat a master of forms like me! Now, prepare to meet the same-” The creature was abruptly cut off as Garnet landed a brutal punch to its face, causing it to not only stumble back with a cry of pain, but also forcing it to release Amethyst’s gem. Fortunately, Steven was quick to safely claim it before it could hit the ground and shatter.

“Good catch,” Garnet quickly congratulated her young ward before turning to Dipper and Wendy. “Now’s the time!”

The pair quickly complied, charging for the shifter along with Steven and Garnet as they all worked together to shove the stunned, yet still struggling shape shifter fully into the cryogenic tube. The creature had no chance to overpower them and escape, however, as it found itself abruptly locked inside of the tube. While the others had no idea how such a fortuitous event was unfolding, Mabel and Soos simply high fived as they watched everything unfold from the surveillance room. Mabel was the one to fully seal the deal, as well as the shape shifter’s fate, by pressing the tube’s activation button with a wide, victorious smile.

“Frozen!” she proclaimed brightly.

“Boosh!” Soos exclaimed as the two of them fist-bumbed over their success before hurrying to join the others in the lab.

As the cryogenic chamber began to freeze over, the shape shifter did everything in its power to escape its incoming icy fate. “No! Let me out” it cried desperately, beating against the heavy glass as it morphed into several forms, from a rock monster, to a flame beast, to its ‘author’ guise, to even Rose Quartz, before finally going back to its true form just as the glass misted over with ice, covering it entirely.

A beat of unsteady silence filled the lab in the midst of the shape shifter’s apparent defeat. For a long moment, everyone continued staring at the cryogenic chamber, fearing that the shifter might somehow break out of it, but thankfully it never did. “Is… is it over?” Steven asked tentatively, breaking the silence.

“It would seem so,” Garnet responded, adjusting her shades as her gauntlets dissipated.

“Let’s get out of here, dudes,” Soos concluded, already turning to head back the way they came as the others followed.

Yet, before any of them could even leave the room, the shape shifter’s low, ominous laughter reached them from the cryogenic chamber. Surprised to see that it was even still cognizant, the group turned around with a collective gasp to see the creature press up against the glass one more time. “And so once again, you Crystal Gems think you’ve bested me…” it began speaking to Garnet in particular, its tone as cold as the ice encompassing it. “That ‘future vision’ of yours may grant you glimpses of what’s to come, but it can’t fill in the gaps of your past, can it? He must have done something to you three, something that made you forget about all of this… Still, I can’t help but wonder if Rose herself ever had those gaps at all…”

Garnet offered no response to this mysterious, brazen taunt, but even so, her hands were clenched into tight fists at her sides as she sent the shifter a fierce scowl. But even so, the creature wasn’t finished quite yet.

“And as for you, Dipper…” the shifter said, sending the boy a piercing glare. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you? But you have no idea what you’re up against. You’ll never find the author. If you keep digging, you’ll meet a fate worse than you can imagine. And this will be the last form you’ll ever take!” Just as the cryogenic tube finally froze over entirely, the shifter turned into Dipper, letting out a panicked scream that would be forever preserved as it at last frozen completely. This scare tactic, as underhanded as it was, was more than enough to aptly frighten the real Dipper, who could only stare at his now-frozen double with a look of stunned horror.

“Heh,” Soos suddenly chuckled, trying to make the rather dark mood lighter. “Good luck sleeping tonight!”

Needless to say that after such a traumatic experience, no one was too keen on staying in the bunker any longer. And so the group emerged from it in relative solemn silence, letting the tree that led to it return to its normal, inconspicuous appearance. Apparently, they had been in the bunker all day, as the sun had set and dusk had fallen, painting the forest a warm shade of violet as fireflies gently flittered about. It was a comforting sight for everyone, especially when compared to the dark, dank, twisted corridors of the bunker.

“Dude, I think I’m kind of adventured out for a little while,” Soos spoke up once everyone was back on level ground. “My face hurts from doing this all day,” he pulled a shocked, screaming face, one that Mabel couldn’t help but chuckle at upon seeing.

“Yeah, but you gotta admit we’re all total heroes!” she remarked with a satisfied smirk.

“Hey, who wants to get some heroes breakfast, huh?” Soos asked with a grin as he tousled Mabel’s hair.

“Syrup on cereal!” she cheered, hoping up onto the handyman’s shoulders.

“Mabel, you’re a visionary!” he exclaimed, impressed as he began to tote her away. “Steven, aren’t you coming?”

“In a minute!” Steven called halfheartedly, sighing remorsefully as he looked down at Amethyst’s gemstone in his hands.

“Don’t worry,” Garnet encouraged, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Like I said before, she’ll be fine.”

“B-but she’s usually back by now!” the young Gem protested fretfully. “Do you think something’s wrong?”

Garnet paused, looking to the gemstone herself as her smile faded. “I…” she began, her tone almost uncertain, though she quickly recovered from it. “No. Nothing’s wrong. She’ll be back soon, I promise.”

Steven finally smiled upon hearing this, fully believing this promise as Garnet began to lead him back towards the temple. As they left, Dipper was quick to realize that him and Wendy were the only ones left around, which meant that now was likely as good a time as any to address his awkward confession. “Look, Wendy,” he began, averting eye contact with the cashier. “About earlier… In the heat of the moment, I might have said some… dumb things. So can we just pretend that none of that ever happened? Please?”

“Dude, dude, its ok,” Wendy reassured, putting a hand on his shoulder as she knelt down to his level. “I always kinda knew…”

“Wait, you did?!” Dipper asked, his eyes wide with complete surprise.

The cashier let out a small, good-natured chuckle at this as she rose to stand. “Yeah, man. You think I can’t hear that stuff you’re constantly whispering under your breath?”

“Oh, man…” Dipper groaned in absolute embarrassment, face palming as he plopped down onto a nearby log.

“Listen, Dipper,” Wendy said as she sat down beside him. “I’m like, super flattered, but… I’m too old for you. I mean, you know that, right?”

“Ugh…” Dipper sighed, still not meeting the cashier’s gaze. “Mabel, Steven, and even Garnet said that confessing would make me feel better.”

“Well, how do you feel?”

“Anxious… and scared… and kinda itchy.”

“Don’t be itchy, man,” Wendy laughed warmly. “Let me tell you something. This summer was super boring before you showed up. I have more fun with you than practically anyone else. And if you ever stopped being my friend, I would, like, throw myself into the Bottomless Pit!”

This finally elicited a small laugh from Dipper, even if it was still only a halfhearted one. “So… things won’t be too awkward now?”

“I just wrestled myself, dude,” the cashier remarked with a smirk. “That was awkward. If you can handle that monster, you can handle a little awkwardness.”

“So, friends?” Dipper asked, hopeful.

“Yeah, dude!” Wendy instantly agreed, playfully shoving him off the log. “Friends.”

Both of them shared another laugh as Wendy stood and pulled Dipper back onto the log before she began to take her leave. “Oh, and hey, Dipper?” she turned back to him once more as she reached her bike. “See you for movie night later. Your place this time, ok?”

Dipper only nodded as he watched the cashier ride off, a bittersweet smile on his face that quickly faded once she was out of view. A small part of him had always figured that things would turn out like this if he ever did end up revealing his feelings to Wendy, and yet he had still dared to hope that things could have been different. Still, now that everything was out in the open, he found himself somehow strangely accepting it. After all, Wendy had promised that nothing would really change between them, something that was certainly a relief. But no matter how things would be in the future, Dipper knew that another part of him would always still always have feelings for Wendy, as unrequited as they were. And while it would take some time to heal from her gentle rejection, at least he could take solace in the fact that their close, playful friendship would remain. And that would certainly be good enough for him.

Still, Dipper didn’t get too much time to mull over everything that had happened, especially as Mabel popped out of the bushes right behind him. “Sooo… how’d it go?” she asked, overwhelmed with curiosity.

“How—what did you hear?!” Dipper asked, surprised at his sister’s eavesdropping.

“Everything, all the time,” Mabel quipped coyly.

“Yeah, we totally heard everything,” Steven admitted with a grin as he emerged from the bushes himself.

“I’m not here!” Soos called, still hiding in the shrubbery.

“But I am,” Garnet said casually as she revealed herself, stepping out from behind a tree.

While Dipper normally would have questioned the fact that all of them had been spying on him, he wasn’t exactly up for it as he instead looked down with a heavy sigh. “You guys, how can everything be so amazing and so terrible at the same time?”

“Mm, I’m sorry for being so pushy, Dipper,” Mabel said with sincere sympathy and guilt.

“Same here,” Steven concurred, still holding onto Amethyst’s gem with his free hand. “But hey, look at the bright side! At least you don’t have to feel awkward around Wendy anymore!”

“Somehow I kind of doubt that…” Dipper remarked with a frown.

“Dipper, there’s no reason for you to feel ashamed over what happened,” Garnet spoke up with a small, reassuring smile. “It’s true that sometimes these things simply just… don’t work out. But that doesn’t mean that this was your only chance at finding love. That special someone is out there for you, trust me.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know who that special someone is, would you?” Dipper asked glumly, hoping that the Gem leader could give him some kind of absolute reassurance over the matter.

But instead, Garnet softly chuckled, adjusting her shades and shaking her head. “Even if I did tell you, you’d never believe me.”

“Aw, cheer up, bro-bro!” Mabel encouraged, wrapping an arm around her brother’s shoulder. “Maybe that special someone is on the list of potential rebound crushes I’m making for you!”

“Thanks, Mabel,” Dipper chuckled a bit at this, though the moment of levity was cut off as Soos sat on the other end of the log, his sudden weight tossing the kids up a bit.

“I’m still bummed that we’re no closer to finding the author guy,” the handyman sighed in disappointment. “Oh well. At least I got his sciencey coat and briefcase.” Soos held said metal ‘briefcase’ up, only for it to flop open and reveal a dusty screen and computer keys inside, as well as a label that read “Property of F”. “Whoa! What the-?”

“Soos, that’s not a briefcase!” Dipper exclaimed in apt surprise. “That’s a laptop!”

“And a really busted up one too,” Mabel added, noting how ragged and rundown the tech was.

“Wow! It’s so old and cool!” Steven quipped with a wide smile. “I wish Amethyst were here to see this! Well, technically she is here…” he paused, casting a brief glance down at her gemstone. “But still.”

“I bet I could get this thing fixed up in a few days,” Soos mused, looking over the laptop. “It’s gonna take a lot of duct tape…”

“This could be our next clue!” Dipper grinned with newfound excitement over this find. “But… will it actually tell us anything?” he asked, turning to Garnet for answers once again.

“Hm… it’s definitely worth looking into…” the Gem leader mused. “I do recommend being careful in how you go about it, but still. I feel like there’s a good chance that it’ll be able to get at least a few answers out of it… But as always, its all about looking in the right places…”

Since everyone was rather tired from the eventful day they had, they all decided to spend the evening relaxing at the Mystery Shack, Steven and the Gems included. Pearl was already there, having just finished fixing the van with Greg and Stan, and needless to say she had a multitude of questions, especially upon seeing Amethyst’s solitary gemstone. But all the same, the kids took the much needed opportunity to relax, as Dipper and Wendy got their movie night started, having put pretty much everything they had discussed earlier behind them. Soos and Mabel had made their syrup on cereal concoction and were enjoying it as they played cards with Stan. Steven was the only one who didn’t really feel like joining in on any of the fun as he instead remained stationary near Amethyst’s gem, keeping a close eye on for any sign that the purple Gem was coming back. And as he kept up this vigil, Garnet and Pearl discussed everything that had happened in the bunker quietly enough that no one managed to overhear their anxious whispers.

“So that shape shifting creature claimed to know us?” the white Gem asked worriedly. “And Rose?”

“Yes,” the Gem leader nodded tersely. “It said we knew the author too.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Pearl shook her head. “Until a few weeks ago, we had never even seen that journal before! How in the world would we have-”

“Something isn’t adding up,” Garnet interrupted, her arms crossed as she glanced down. “Everything down in that bunker felt so… familiar… I don’t know how to explain it. But it was the same feeling I got when I saw that journal for the first time.”

“S-so… what should we do?” the white Gem asked, wringing her hands apprehensively.

The Gem leader didn’t answer right away, but when she did, all traces of uncertainty in her tone were replaced with resolve instead. “We keep looking for the truth. And we don’t stop until we find it.”

Pearl’s expression was still awash with worry upon hearing this, but even so she nodded, knowing not to question her leader’s decision. And so, instead of addressing the matter any further, she decided to move onto another pressing issue. “So…” she said, walking over to Steven and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “How long has it been?”

“Four hours…” the young Gem replied, his voice a concerned mutter as he lay sprawled on the floor.

“Four hours?!” the white Gem exclaimed in genuine surprise. “She’s never taken so long! What do you think she’s doing in there?”

“I’m not sure,” Garnet answered truthfully. “I was too hard on her…”

“So what happened to her this time anyway?” Stan spoke up with dry curiosity. “She didn’t throw herself off another cliff or anything again, did she?”

Everyone who had been to the bunker exchanged a stark glance at this, all of them remembering their vow to keep what happened down there a secret. And while Garnet had discreetly detailed some of the earlier events to Pearl, she calmly made sure not to do the same for Stan. “She got hit playing chicken with a train.”

“Again?” the conman cracked up a bit upon hearing this succinct lie. “That’s like, the third time she bit it to a train, isn’t it? Sheesh, Amethyst will never learn, will she?”

“Actually…” the Gem leader smiled as she turned towards Amethyst’s gem as it finally started to glow. “I think she will this time…”

“Oh! Oh! She’s back!” Steven cried excitedly, backing up to give the purple gemstone some space as it lifted up into the air. “Alright, everyone, be supportive.”

The others all nodded in agreement as they watched the silhouette of light form around the stone, shifting and remolding at various intervals before finally remaining fixed. As the light faded, Amethyst appeared, not with bulging muscles or an imitation of Pearl or even legs for arms, but as her natural self once more. But even then, not without a few modest changes. The colors of the purple Gem’s top and leggings had reversed, her tank top now nearly black and lacking her usual fallen shoulder strap, while her leggings were lavender with neat black stars cut into the knees. But aside from those alterations, Amethyst was largely the same, a fact that she seemed quite comfortable with as she landed and casually stretched out.

“What?” she asked, noticing the surprised looks everyone was giving her.

“Aw, you barely changed!” Steven pouted in disappointment.

“Steven!” Pearl quickly chastised for his insensitivity.

“Well I think you look great, Amethyst!” Mabel complimented with an excited smile. “Seriously, black is so your color!”

“Yeah, lookin’ good,” Stan remarked with a wry smirk. “But you better still be able to pull off Revenge Trips in that new getup of yours.”

“Heh, you know it,” Amethyst chuckled, though her smile quickly faded as Garnet stepped up to her. A moment of awkward silence passed between the two Gems, the purple one glancing away from her leader bashfully, especially in light of what had transpired between them in the bunker. But in the end, Garnet was the first one to break it with a sincere, gentle smile.

“It’s perfect,” she said with full approval in her tone.

“Eh, whatevs,” Amethyst shrugged, suppressing a light blush as she rubbed her arm. “It’s just what feels right.”

“That’s why it’s perfect,” Garnet nodded, finally getting the purple Gem to blush fully. Regardless of what had happened underground or anything that the sinister shape shifter might have said, the Gem leader was glad to see that Amethyst finally realized that perhaps she didn’t have to be the biggest or the best. She only had to be herself. And with this subtle new form, that was a lesson she had fully embraced.

“It’s a marked improvement!” Pearl remarked, clasping her hands together with a delighted smile. “You finally fixed that shoulder strap that’s always bugged me!”

“Welcome back!” Steven exclaimed happily, wrapping the purple Gem in a sudden, tight hug.

“Well done, Amethyst!” Pearl did the same, gently joining the embrace right before Garnet did.

“Oh boy! Group hug!” Mabel exclaimed excitedly, hopping out of her chair and pulling Stan out of his. “Come on, Grunkle Stan!”

“Hold it, kid. I don’t do group hu-” the conman tried to protest, but he was no match for his niece’s unbridled enthusiasm.

Likewise, Soos, Dipper, and Wendy gladly joined the large collective embrace, all of which was centered around the very flustered purple Gem. “Guys, cut it out!” Amethyst exclaimed, annoyed. “Do we really have to do this?!”

“Yes,” Steven solidly affirmed, hugging the purple Gem just a bit tighter. “It’s hug time!

“Ugh, this is so dumb!” Amethyst groaned, rolling her eyes. Still, even she couldn’t hold back an infectious, satisfied smile as she soaked all of the affection going around in. Hugs weren’t exactly a rare thing for either the Gems or the Pines, but still, both groups joining together for such a thing was an amazing feat that even Amethyst, despite all of her pretend protests against it, could say no to.

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minijenn · 7 years

Text

Universe Falls Chapter 33

Ahhhh its finally done you guys! ANd I’m super hyped about it too, since writing for Peridot alone made the grinding I did with this chapter immensely worth it. So I won’t take up too much time here! Enjoy!

Previous: http://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/159304536002/universe-falls-chapter-32

Chapter 33: Marble Madness

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In the aftermath of their latest victory, the Gems pushed their way through the flowery meadow that had been their battlefield just moments ago with relatively high spirits. And this generally cheerful sentiment was something that most of the members of the spectating trio that had come along on this mission shared in as well. It hadn’t really taken too much pleading and prodding for Steven, Dipper, and Mabel to convince the Gems to bring them along on their latest quest, one that, aside from a random encounter with a Gem monster, hadn’t been too harrowing or life-threatening. And even as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl took said monster on, the kids were content enough to cheer them on from the sidelines of the fray, one that had, much to their pleasant surprise, been a quick and painless win.

“I can’t believe that went so well!” Pearl exclaimed with a satisfied smile as her and Amethyst emerged from one of the countless towering flower patches surrounding the warp pad.

“Yeah,” the purple Gem agreed with a small chuckle. “That was kinda great when you hit it with your spear and it went like ‘boosh’!”

The white Gem humbly glanced away from her teammate, her cheeks lightning up in a pale blue blush as her grin widened. “And the way you were circling around it? Almost looked like strategy.”

“Heh, well you know,” Amethyst smirked just as bashfully. “I can do that stuff too.”

By now, Garnet had stepped out of the flowers herself, the defeated Gem monster trapped in the bubble above her palm before she calmly warped it away. Mabel came rushing out of the flowers next, completely covered in the colorful buds out of her own volition, as she had not only constructed herself a lively flower crown, but had also managed to fix several more of them onto her sweater as well.

“Ok, so I just gotta say that this is the prettiest Gem place we’ve ever been to, hands down!” she proclaimed with a wide smile. “Can we just stay here for the rest of the day and make more flower crowns?”

“Maybe some other time,” Garnet replied with an amused smile.

“Aw…” Mabel stuck her tongue out in faux disappointment. “But this place is so great!”

“Speak for yourself,” Dipper huffed in aggravation as he finally pushed his way out of the flower patch, looking quite perturbed as he gingerly rubbed his sore and swollen arm. “I got stung by at least four bees back there, all because of that dumb flower crown you just had to make me.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t love it,” Mabel sent her brother a wry smirk. “But hey, what’d you do with it anyway? Don’t tell me you just threw my careful craftsmanship away like it was nothing, Dipper!”

“Calm down, I didn’t,” Dipper reassured, rolling his eyes. “I just gave it to Steven. Though honestly, I’m kind of regretting that choice now…”

“Guys, wait up!” Steven called breathlessly as he managed to at last break out of the flower patch. The young Gem was clearly much worse for wear from his trip through it, as could be seen from his runny nose and watery eyes, both aggravated by the immense amount of pollen in the surrounding area. “Sorry I couldn’t help much with the monster,” Steven said to the Gems, his voice quite congested. “I think the flowers are making me-” He cut himself off, taking in a sudden gasp of air before abruptly letting it out in a heavy sneeze, the brunt of which happened to land on the Gem leader. “Oh! Sorry, Garnet!”

“I’ll live,” Garnet remarked, casually wiping the mucus of her hip.

“Steven! You’re supposed to sneeze into your antecubital fossa!” Pearl scolded, only to garnish very confused looks from all three of the kids.

“My… what?” Steven asked with a bewildered frown.

“You’re—this thing!” the white Gem pointed to the inner crook of her elbow before continuing on to the warp pad.

“Steven, if you’re so allergic to the flowers, why don’t you just, I dunno, take the flower crown off?” Dipper asked caustically.

“Why would I do that?” Steven asked with a sniffle as he readjusted said crown atop his head. “It’s so pretty and Mabel worked really hard on it!”

“Well at least somebody appreciates it,” Mabel sent her brother a pointed smirk as she joined Amethyst and Pearl on the warp pad. Garnet and the boys crammed onto it after them, and as soon as the white Gem preformed the obligatory check to make sure all of the kids were safely on the pad, they were off.

The irradiant column of light that was the warp stream was just as mesmerizing as ever as the group gently zoomed through it. Since the flowery meadow was quite far from the temple, the warp trip would take at least several minutes, which was something the kids didn’t really mind seeing as how warping alone was such a fascinating experience.

“Hey, you guys know what this would be a great time for?” Mabel spoke up with a smile before pulling her camera out of her sweater. “A scrapbook-ertunity!”

“Didn’t we already have one of those on the way here?” Amethyst asked, smirking.

“Well, yeah, but that was the before picture,” Mabel clarified. “This one’s the after picture, which is always objectively better than the first one! Now everyone huddle in and say ‘we beat a Gem monster’!”

Amused, the Gems complied, as did Steven and Dipper, while Mabel managed to squeeze herself into the picture while holding the camera out as far as she could. “We beat a Gem monster!” everyone exclaimed with shared smiles as the picture was snapped. However, the camera’s sudden, bright flash managed to cause Steven’s allergies to flare up once again. The young Gem took in a sharp gasp, his eyes watering and his cheeks warm as he tried his best to hold the oncoming sneeze back, especially as the Gems quickly repositioned themselves in the stream to avoid it.

“Do it at Pearl!” Amethyst laughed, pointing to the white Gem.

“Steven! Your fossa!” Pearl warned in a sudden panic.

“Oh! Oh! Let me get a quick pic of this too!” Mabel exclaimed, quickly aiming her camera. “I have the cutest sticker of a sneezing turtle that’ll go great with it!”

“Mabel, do you seriously have to-” Dipper was abruptly cut off as Steven finally let his pent-up sneeze go, unable to hold it in any longer. The force of it was enough to throw the young Gem back quite a bit, propelling him backwards towards the edge of the stream itself. Before he hit it however, Steven accidentally bumped into Dipper, knocking him back towards the edge as well. The Gems weren’t quite quick enough to catch either of the boys before they both partially fell through the stream’s intangible barrier headfirst, without hardly feeling it at all. Because of the suddenness of it all, it took them a moment to regather their bearings, but once they did, both Steven and Dipper were absolutely amazed at what they saw.

The space that existed outside of the warp stream could be described as just that: space. There was darkness only void darkness for as far as the eye could see, though it was occasionally dotted with small flecks of light akin to stars. This void was hardly still, however, as several thick, ominous clouds swirled within it, roaring with gentle, rumbling thunder and the occasional bright spark of lightning. Yet despite this, the air itself, if it could be called that, seemed to carry a sudden, sharp chill, one that was far removed from the mild temperance that existed inside of the stream. Time seemed to crawl as the boys stared at this hauntingly amazing sight with the same expression of awestruck wonder, wonder that neither of them could really put into words, though Steven did attempt it.

“Whoa…” the young Gem muttered, only to immediately gasp over his own sudden, inexplicable breathlessness. Dipper realized the same exact thing as he remembered to take a breath amidst his amazement, only instantly choke over air that wasn’t actually there.

Yet despite this frightening revelation, both boys’ attention was quickly caught as a light suddenly flashed from afar within the warp space, one that certainly didn’t come from any periodical lightning. Instead, it was a long, thin blue illuminant pillar, a warp stream identical to the one they were both still partially within. It appeared out of seemingly nowhere, traveling upward instead of down, and traveling along its speeding path was what the boys could only make out as but a mere blur of a round shadow, but a clearly visible one nonetheless.

“What-” Dipper attempted to ask despite the prevalent lack of oxygen. Though before he could get anything else out, a pair of hands suddenly pulled both boys back fully back into the stream at last, just as the unknown object in the adjacent stream disappeared from view.

“Careful!” Pearl cried fretfully, pulling both Steven and Dipper close to her and checking them over for any apparent injuries as they both instinctively sucked a much-needed breath of air. “It’s dangerous to stick your heads outside of the stream!”

“There’s not much air,” Garnet explained calmly as she flicked the frozen snot off of Steven’s nose. “And it’s very cold.”

“Whoa… Did you guys die out there?” Mabel asked the boys curiously.

“Heh, looks like it to me,” Amethyst chuckled, smirking at the pair as they still struggled to catch their lost breath. Still, neither of them paid her usually heckling any mind as they exchanged a stunned glance, knowing that they had to share what had just happened.

“Y-you guys!” Steven began, taking in another sharp gasp. “We… we saw something out there!”

“What?” Pearl asked, raising a confused eyebrow.

“H-he’s right! There was-” Dipper cut himself off as he coughed once again, still trying to recover lost air. “There was something else warping out there!”

“No way! Really?” Mabel asked with immense interest. “I wanna see it too!” Without any deterrence or delay, she eagerly pushed herself towards the edge of the stream as well, only to quickly be halted by Garnet’s outstretched hand.

“There’s nothing to see out there,” she concluded, her tone cold and resolved.

“Huh?” Steven and Dipper asked in slightly alarmed unison.

“Garnet’s right,” Pearl quickly interjected. “It’s impossible that anything would be out there. Perhaps the lack of air out there made you both see things?”

“I can see perfectly… Pearl?” Steven guessed, having to squint to look at the white Gem since his vision was still blurry thanks to his lingering allergies.

“You guys, we know what we saw,” Dipper asserted. “Ok, well… maybe we don’t know exactly what it was, but it was definitely out there! If you don’t believe us, just check for yourselves.”

“Sure, whatever,” Amethyst shrugged, still not really buying it. “If it’ll chill you guys out.” In mere seconds, the purple Gem stuck her head out of the stream before quickly pulling it back in. “Yep, just like we’re sayin’. Nothing’s out there but a bunch of clouds and cold.”

“B-but it was there!” Steven protested insistently. “We both saw it!”

“Yeah! If you guys would just-”

“Dipper, Steven,” Garnet firmly interrupted. “It’s like I said. There is nothing out there. There hasn’t been anything else for a long, long time.”

Pearl and Amethyst nodded their fervent agreement with this as Mabel simply shrugged, mostly accepting it. Still, neither Dipper nor Steven could be so complacent over the matter, especially considering the fact that they had seen it themselves. Something was out there, and even if neither of them had the slightest idea of what that something was, it existed nonetheless. And they weren’t about to let the Gems convince them otherwise so easily.

Seeing as how their mission with the Gems had taken up most of the morning, the kids still had the afternoon to do whatever they pleased. Seeing as how Connie’s afternoon had been freed up thanks to her violin lessons being cancelled, she was able to join the trio as they hung out outside the Mystery Shack in the pleasant afternoon sun.

“Ok Connie, so what’s this super cool thing you said you brought with you?” Mabel asked with excited curiosity, paying Steven and Dipper no mind as they both kept their gazes fixated on the temple up the hill.

“I’m glad you asked,” Connie grinned, reaching into her bag before pulling out a thick novel. “Ta da!”

“Ugh…” Mabel let out a disappointed groan. “Books? Seriously? What are we? In school?”

“Whoa,” Steven’s interest was suddenly peaked as he looked to the novel. “Books! Cool cover! What is it?”

“Book 1 of the Spirit Morph Saga, which is only my favorite book series!” Connie gushed, smiling at the mysterious cover of the book, entitled The Unfamiliar Familiar. “It’s about this girl named Lisa, and she’s a witch! I mean, she doesn’t know she’s a witch at first, and she has a familiar, which is sort of like this spirit companion that everyone in the world has. And hers is a falcon named Archimicarus! Anyway, she goes on this quest to find her father after he’s kidnapped by a mysterious one-eyed man!”

“Ooo, mystery!” Steven exclaimed, now fully invested despite his earlier scrutiny.

“Sounds like something that would be right up your nerdy alley, huh, bro-bro?” Mabel asked, elbowing Dipper, who was still quite distracted with focusing on the temple.

“I’ve already read them all, actually,” he replied duly, still not bothering to glance away from the temple and instead focusing his thoughts on whatever him and Steven had seen in the warp space earlier.

“Wait, really?” Connie asked with an excited grin. “Finally, I have someone to talk to about them face to face with instead of having to resort to venting on message boards and fan sites! So, Dipper… what’d you think of the ending of Destiny’s End?”

Upon hearing this question, Dipper instantly tore his gaze away from the temple at last, letting out a harsh scoff as he did so. “Are you kidding me? That ‘ending’, if it could even be called that, was awful.”

“Ugh, I know, right?” Connie thoroughly agreed, already incensed on the matter. “They spend three whole books subverting tropes and crashing through stereotypes and expectations and being really self-aware about being a pastiche, and for what?”

“For them to completely ruin it all by taking up 50 pages just to describe a cake,” Dipper remarked with equal disdain. “The first three books totally had me going with the mystery of the one-eyed man, only for us to never actually get a real name or backstory for him. It’s seriously the most disappointing and anti-climactic thing ever.”

“What drew the line for me was how they just uprooted all those themes about standing against absolute authority!” Connie added adamantly, not noticing the bewildered looks Steven and Mabel were giving her and Dipper both. “Lisa and her talking falcon, rebels challenging the stifling traditions of the magical bureaucracy? I loved that! But no, let’s just drop it all for ‘romance’ and ‘fluff’.”

“Talk about pandering! Like, come on, could they have gotten any more schmaltzy. I couldn’t believe what I was reading when Archimicarus turned into-”

“Whoa, hold on a second!” Connie quickly interrupted. “We don’t wanna spoil it for Steven and Mabel, no matter how trite and hackneyed it is.”

“Oh yeah,” Dipper said with a small, embarrassed laugh. “Honestly, we probably said too much about it already…”

“Pfft, you guys are A-ok spoiling your nerd books for me,” Mabel groaned again, lying down on the ground lazily. “As long as it gets you and Steven to stop freaking out over whatever you saw when we were warping earlier.”

“Oh yeah! I almost forgot about that!” Steven exclaimed with a gasp. “Thanks for reminding us, Mabel!”

“Why can’t I ever keep my adorably big mouth shut?” Mabel whined in exasperation, covering her face with her sweater sleeve before the boys could even begin their worrying.

“What does she mean?” Connie asked the boys inquisitively. “What did you guys see?”

“We… actually don’t really know…” Dipper admitted hesitantly.

“It was some weird roundish thing zipping through a different warp stream!” Steven exclaimed. “The Gems said that it was nothing, but that means it’s gotta be something, doesn’t it?”

“It was something!” Dipper insisted. “Something that’s possibly really important or dangerous, especially if the Gems are right and nothing’s supposed to be out there. That’s why they should have listened to us and actually looked into it instead of just shrugging it off!”

“Ugh, you two have been going on about that thing ever since we got back earlier!” Mabel exclaimed tiredly. “Can’t you just give it a break already? The Gems said it’s all good, so we have nothing to worry about.”

“Mabel’s probably right,” Connie said, giving the boys an understanding smile. “I mean, we want the Gems to trust the four of us; maybe we should meet them halfway and trust them in return. Besides, if what you saw really was dangerous, then they would have already handled it by now, right?”

“Sure, if they had actually believed us about it in the first place,” Dipper muttered, crossing his arms.

“Hm…. I guess so…” Steven sighed, even if he didn’t really agree. But even so, he figured that they wouldn’t have much luck convincing the girls of what they had seen since, much like the Gems, they hadn’t had the chance to witness it for themselves.

“Good! Then that means you two can finally stop being Worried Walters and relax for a change!” Mabel quipped jokingly.

“And it means we can get you guys started on these!” Connie held The Unfamiliar Familiar up to Steven and Mabel, the former perking up with excitement while the latter let out another bored groan. “Ahem,” Connie cleared her throat, adjusting the frames of her glasses as she began to read the novel aloud. “Chapter One: The Morning Thief…”

Steven attempted to focus more on the first Spirit Morph Saga book that Connie had successfully finished reading to him that night as he climbed into bed, as opposed to thinking of the unknown object from the warp stream. Still, the young Gem could think of little else as he snuggled into his covers, his already palpable concern steadily growing with each glance he happened to chance towards the warp pad down below. Certainly if something was indeed flowing throughout the stream at that very moment, then there was always a chance that it could wind up warping right up to the temple itself, right?

While these ominous thoughts definitely troubled Steven, he soon began to feel his eyes grow heavy with oncoming sleep nonetheless. He was quick to snap himself awake again though, fearing that if he let his guard down, even for a moment, then the unknown object would show up without any warning. And if it was actually dangerous, then its arrival was certainly something the young Gem wanted to be ready for.

However, what Steven wasn’t ready for was for a bright light to suddenly flood the loft, startling him upright with a terrified gasp. And yet, instead of it being the telltale flash of light from the warp pad, it was the pale glow from the refrigerator instead.

“Wha—Amethyst!” the young Gem exclaimed, looking down to see the purple Gem raiding the fridge as she often did at this late hour.

“Hey, Steven!” Amethyst greeted casually, snacking on the powdered cheese that came along with macaroni. “Want some macaroni cheese?”

Steven didn’t answer her, tucking behind his blankets a bit until the purple Gem began sauntering back towards the temple gate. “W-wait!” he called after her. “I…. I can’t sleep.”

“Why?” Amethyst licked the cheese residue off her hand. “Are you scared of that thing you and Dipper saw earlier warping right into the house and attacking you in your sleep?!”

“…No…” Steven squeaked anxiously.

“Oh good!” the purple Gem smirked teasingly, continuing on to the gate. “Glad to know you’re not totally wimping out on us after all! Well, nighty night! Don’t let the ‘warp monster’ bite! Ha!” With a loud, callous chuckle, Amethyst opened the door to her room and entered, leaving Steven alone with his growing dread once more.

The young Gem bit his lip apprehensively as he looked to the warp pad once again, the familiar sight looking ominous and almost sinister as it glistened dully in the darkness of the room. It was silent and still now, sure, but how long could he really be sure that it would stay like that? Something was wandering through warp space freely, something unknown and certainly disconcerting. And for as long as it was out there, Steven knew that he would be unable to really think of anything else.

“Looks like I’m not sleeping tonight…” the young Gem muttered to himself with a long sigh. Still, if he was going to tackle anything that might try to come through the warp stream unwarranted, then he was at least going to tackle it with the proper arms. With firm resolve, Steven grabbed his water gun and crept downstairs to fill it up, already knowing that it was certainly going to be a very long night.

“Steven…” Pearl cooed in a sing-songy voice, lightly tapping the young Gem in an attempt to rouse him awake. Upon emerging from the temple that morning, Pearl and Garnet had found Steven snoozing propped up against the front door, water gun loosely hugged to his chest as he snored softly. The two elder Gems couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty about their dismissive behavior the previous day, and so they intended on making it up to their young charge. As soon as he woke up that was. “Steven,” Pearl tried again, a little louder this time. “We’ve got a surprise for you-”

“Ah!” Steven gasped as he jolted awake, his finger already on the trigger of his water gun. On instinct, he pulled it as he pointed the weapon at whatever was in his immediate vicinity, which of course happened to be Pearl. The white Gem let out a startled cry as she was struck by the watery blast, knocking her back away from Steven and thoroughly soaking her, much to her aggravation. “Oh! Sorry, Pearl!” the young Gem exclaimed, jumping to his feet upon realizing his mistake.

“Now you’re not getting any cookies,” Garnet remarked as she stood by, holding a trayful of cookies they had made Steven.

“Cookies?!” Amethyst asked eagerly as she emerged from the temple. “I’ll take ‘em!”

Before Garnet could protest, the purple Gem snatched the cookie tray away from her, pouring the treats into her mouth without much restraint. “Amethyst, slow down,” the Gem leader advised, though Amethyst did anything but.

“Again, I’m sorry, Pearl,” Steven said with sincerity, wiping the sleep out of his eyes. “I just… I guess I didn’t…”

“Didn’t sleep,” Garnet finished thoughtfully as the young Gem trailed off.

Steven confirmed her suspicions as he let out an exhausted yawn. “Maybe,,,”

“Good morning, everyone!” Mabel greeted just as bright and blithely as ever as she burst into the house. Her cheerful smile quickly fell into confusion however, upon noticing Steven’s water gun, as well as the fact that Pearl was still sopping wet. “Whoa, what’s going on here? Were you guys having a water fight? Cause if you were, I wanna play! I’ll just have Dipper go get-” She abruptly cut herself off as she glanced over her shoulder, only to find that her brother had in fact not followed her inside, but was leaning against the doorframe outside, half asleep. “Seriously? Again?” Mabel huffed in annoyance, pulling Dipper inside and roughly waking him up fully in the process. “Now what did I tell you, bro-bro?”

“Uh… something about staying up all night reading the journal?” Dipper guessed tiredly, letting out a long yawn a moment later.

“That’s right, I told you not to do that because it would make you super tired the next day,” Mabel informed pointedly. “And what do ya know? Looks like I was right once again, cause you’re totally about to clonk out for like, the 20th time today!”

“No, I’m…” Dipper trailed off as he began to nod off once more, only for Mabel to wake him back up with a sharp snap of her fingers. “Huh?! What’s going—I-I mean, I’m totally awake! Yeah, n-not tired at all!” He let out a small awkward laugh, one that neither Mabel nor the Gems really bought as they all gave him unconvinced glances. “So, uh… what were we talking about again?”

“Yeesh,” Amethyst remarked dryly, rolling her eyes. “If I didn’t know any better, Dipper, right now I’d think that you and Steven are twins instead of you and Mabel. You know, ‘cause you both have the same big ol’ bags under your eyes.”

“You didn’t sleep last night either, Dipper?” Steven asked, his lingering exhaustion reminding him that this was something he easily related to.

“Ugh, no,” Dipper admitted, somewhat frustrated as he rubbed his eyes. “I was up all night looking through the journal for any hints about that… thing we saw in the warp stream yesterday!”

“And you didn’t find anything about it, which means that you pretty much wore yourself out for nothing,” Mabel added with a smirk. “Which is something you do all the time, but hey, I’m not here to judge.” She paused for a moment before discreetly whispering something else to the Gems. “Yes, I am.”

“Hold on a minute,” Pearl interjected, wringing the water out of her sash. “Is that seriously what all this fuss is about? You two are still thinking about whatever it is you think you saw yesterday?”

“We don’t think we saw anything, because we really did see it!” Dipper argued, more cross than he usually would have been, considering his exhaustion. “Right, Steven?”

“Yeah,” the young Gem readily, the smallest hint of desperation in his tone. “It was real, you guys! Something was warping somewhere in the warp!”

“And we need to figure out what that something was,” Dipper contended. “What if it’s something dangerous or violent? You three would care about it then, right?”

“Sure we would,” Amethyst said with a shrug. “If it was real.”

“But come on, you guys,” Mabel interjected just as dismissively. “When have Gem things ever been dangerous or violent before?”

“Are you seriously asking that question right now?” Dipper asked caustically, knowing he could give her countless examples of both of those things. “Seriously?”

“We wouldn’t lie to you guys about something like this,” Steven insisted earnestly. “If you’d just hear us out, then we could-”

“Listen,” Pearl interrupted, her tone firm and slow as she placed a hand on top each of the boys’ heads. “Both of you. Nothing on Earth can use the warps but us. Nothing. Do you both understand?” Neither Dipper nor Steven were willing to accept this conditioning so easily though, as they both glanced away from the white Gem sullenly. “Steven, Dipper,” Pearl appealed once again, her tone more authoritative this time. “Nod in agreement if you understand.” They didn’t of course, still resisting what they knew couldn’t be true, much to Pearl’s ever growing frustration. “Nod in agreement if-”

“I’m confident Pearl is right,” Garnet interrupted, looking to the boys calmly. “There’s no use in either of you staying up all night and waiting or looking for something that you’re not going to find. But…” Steven and Dipper took in a shared anxious breath upon hearing this, hoping that the Gem leader would at least listen to their concerns. “If it’ll make you both feel better, we can go check.”

Steven sighed in immense relief upon hearing this, and while it wasn’t exactly what Dipper had been hoping for, he nodded in tentative agreement with this plan nonetheless. After all, any amount of scrutiny on the Gems’ part in all this was better than none at all.

“Woo! Warp tour! Warp tour!” Mabel cheered, more than ready for another exciting Gem adventure, even if this one was going to be rather simple in nature. Still, no one wasted any time in squeezing onto the warp pad, seeing as how they had quite the trip ahead of them. And with another affirming nod from Garnet, the group set off on their so-called “warp tour”.

Their first stop was also their most recent destination: the flowery meadows. The area looked essentially the same as it did when they were there the previous day, the tall blossoms swaying to the peaceful breeze as the group warped in.

“Nothing unusual here,” Garnet noted, her hands on her hips. This information didn’t really discourage the boys though; after all, they still had plenty of other places left to go.

“Oh boy! Since we’re back here we can make more flower crowns before we go!” Mabel exclaimed, clasping her hands together with delight.

“No,” Dipper quickly deadpanned, far too focused on their mission to care about such trivial things.

Before they could move on, Steven happened to let out another heavy sneeze, his allergies stirred up by the dense pollen in the air once more. “Bless you,” Garnet excused him succinctly before they warped to their next destination.

Really, the next several spots that the group warped to turned out to be just as uneventful as the first. Some locations were familiar to the kids, some not, but all of them wielded the same results: nothing. Still, Dipper and Steven made sure to keep their eyes peeled, not just as they arrived to each spot, but in the warp stream as well. They hoped that with the thorough investigation they were doing, that they would be able to find at least a hint at something out of the ordinary, one that would point them in the right direction as to the location of the mystery object if nothing else. And yet with every new place they warped to, that hope steadily started to diminish, but even so, they didn’t once question whether what they saw had been real or not. Not only did they have each other was witnesses, but the memory they both had of seeing the unknown object was still so clear and fresh in both of their minds. There was no doubt that they had both seen it. No doubt anywhere except for with Mabel and the Gems.

“Well, this is the last place to look,” Garnet concluded as they arrived at the legendary Sky Spire, only for there once again to be nothing there of note.

“W-what?!” Dipper exclaimed in sudden alarm. “But… but that can’t be it! There’s got to be somewhere we haven’t checked yet! We need to-”

“Ugh, give it a rest already, bro-bro,” Mabel groaned, slightly annoyed. “Every place we’ve been today was super cool yeah, but also super relaxed. Why can’t you guys just accept that and let this thing go?”

“I agree,” Pearl nodded succinctly. “You both have blown this way out of proportion. We’ve looked all over! There’s nothing out here to find.”

“But you’re wrong…” Steven mumbled sullenly, rolling his eyes.

“Excuse me?!” the white Gem narrowed her eyes at her young charge.

The young Gem paled a bit, realizing his disrespectful mistake as he immediately tried to redact it. “I-I mean-”

“No, don’t take it back, Steven,” Dipper cut him off, looking to Pearl defiantly and scarcely caring about crossing the line now. All day the Gems had refused to take either of them seriously, and he had grown beyond tired of it, which was why he had every intention of putting an end to it in any way he could. “You are wrong. And we can prove it!”

“Oh, really?!” Pearl gasped, completely appalled. “And how are you going to do that? Might I remind you that nothing on Earth can use these warps but us? So how do you intend on disproving that proven fact? With that little journal of yours? Ha! Good luck with that!”

By this point, Dipper was aptly infuriated, especially as the white Gem callously mocked the journal, but still, before he could send a heated argument back at her, Steven cautiously interjected. “W-well…. What if… what if it was from space?” he asked tentatively. Really, it didn’t seem like too outlandish of an idea, given the fact that the Gems themselves were from space, and they were they only things on Earth capable of warping. Still, this suggestion seemed to silence all three of the Gems completely, all of their eyes widening at the idea of this proposal, even if Pearl was the first to provide an answer for it yet again.

“I-” she cut herself off immediately, pursing her lips as she met the expectant gazes all three of the kids were giving her now. “I don’t appreciate your tone.”

Still, before either of the boys could try to support this newfound idea, the white Gem was quick to warp them all away from the Sky Spire and to another familiar spot: the Galaxy Warp. It was indeed the only place they hadn’t scoped out yet, but still there was no unknown object to be found there. Neither Steven nor Dipper really cared about that at the moment though; currently, all of their frustration was saved for Pearl, who began to explain why she firmly believed they were both wrong.

“These are the warps that once connected us to other planets,” she said, her tone quite patronizing as she made her way to the central warp pad. “If something tried to come from space, it would be through here. But wait!” she exclaimed with faux dramatics, spinning around to face the boys. “This warp pad is broken, marked inactive by the very depressed cartoon breakfast sticker you placed here yourself, Steven!” With a cold glare, she pointed to the Wailing Waffle sticker the young Gem had put on the central warp during their test of the pad weeks ago, proving that it was indeed out of commission.

“Look,” Amethyst interjected with a comforting smirk as she walked up to the boys along with Mabel. “Pearl’s right, as usual. Sure, it’s annoying, but you get used to it.”

“Seriously, you guys need to chill out,” Mabel added with a discontented frown. “Dipper, it’s already bad enough that I have to deal with your dumb paranoia over everything, but now you’ve gone and rubbed that paranoia off on Steven to the point that you both are covered in it and neither of you are any fun anymore! It’s driving me nuts!”

“We’re not being paranoid!” Dipper stressed adamantly. “We’re being careful, which is clearly something that none of the rest of you care about, otherwise we would have already found that thing by now!”

“If there was actually anything to find,” Pearl pointed out caustically. “Which, as we’ve just proven, there isn’t.”

Garnet affirmed this sentiment, placing a gentle hand on top of both of the boys’ heads and sending them a soft smile as they looked up to her dubiously. “We’re safe.”

Neither Steven nor Dipper found that they could really argue with this, even if they both really wanted to. Yet every time they tried to voice their growing concern, they only fell upon deaf ears as the Gems stubbornly disregarded them, no matter how hard they tried to convince them of the truth. Which was why both of them were quickly starting to reach the conclusion that it was futile to really even try.

Dipper let out a bitter, defeated sigh as he crossed his arms, looking down to the ground with a sullen scowl. At the same time, Steven pouted anxiously as he looked to the central warp yet again, placing a hand beside the Crying Breakfast Friends sticker fixed upon it as he looked over its cracked, weathered surface. “Well…” the young Gem began, his tone still not entirely convinced. “I guess so…”

The Gems let out a collective sigh upon hearing this, one that Mabel also joined in on as all of their moods instantly improved. “Oh man, finally!” Amethyst exclaimed, stretching out casually. “That took all day!”

“Well at least we can finally head home and put this whole thing behind us,” Mabel said, sending a satisfied smile Steven and Dipper’s way. “And maybe you two can actually get a good nights’ sleep tonight instead of staying up worrying over nothing.”

Both of the boys bristled somewhat at this comment, but still, neither of them said anything, knowing that it would be wiser now to keep the peace, as much as it annoyed them to.

“Still,” Garnet spoke up, her hands on her hips. “It was important to make Steven and Dipper feel secure.”

“Yes, they both feel much better now,” Pearl concluded somewhat condescendingly. Of course, upon hearing this, both boys only grew even more irate over the entire situation. It was bad enough that the Gems had dismissed their fears entirely, but now they seemed to be completely talking down to them for it all. And the longer they silently simmered over it, the more unacceptable it became.

“I’m a little tired…” Steven began, his tone rarely cross and borderline hostile as he turned to face his guardians. “Of you guys telling us how we should feel!”

“Seriously, you guys are treating us like we’re little kids who are only making this stuff up but we’re not,” Dipper insisted hotly, his hands in tight fists at his sides. “We’re telling you the truth!”

“We know we saw something outside the stream!” Steven exclaimed, clearly livid by this point.

“And I know you didn’t!” Pearl retorted just as incensed. However this time, neither of the boys were about to back down from this false claim so meekly.

Garnet, Amethyst, and Mabel were all startled yet unsurprised as an inevitable argument broke out between Steven, Dipper, and Pearl. Then again, it wasn’t really as much of an argument as it was an all-out shouting match.

“Now both of you listen to me,” the white Gem asserted loudly and rather harshly. “I’ve been around much longer than either of you have. I know everything there is to know about the warp system. Which is why you two don’t tell me what I already know!”

Still, neither of the boys were hardly listening to a word she said as they ranted off their own immense grievances. “Why is it so hard for you to just listen to us?!” Steven exclaimed indignantly. “You don’t care what we have to say! You never do! You just want to do it your own way!”

“Whatever happened to ‘oh we’ll start trusting you guys more’?” Dipper asked just as angrily. “If you really trusted us, then you’d actually hear us out and stop pretending like nothing’s wrong, just like you always do!”

This heated quarrel went on for quite some time, all three of them yelling over each other to the point that most of what they were shouting couldn’t really be made out by the trio watching in stilted silence from the sidelines. Garnet, Amethyst, and Mabel all exchanged uncertain glances for a moment before turning their attention back towards the ongoing argument, none of them bold enough to throw themselves into this intense conflict willingly.

“Uh, this is new,” Amethyst remarked with a small, amused chuckle. “I kinda like it.”

“Shouldn’t we try and stop them?” Mabel asked Garnet, who only shrugged apathetically in response.

“Ugh,” Pearl finally groaned, rolling her eyes as a break in the argument finally came. “You two just don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh we’re the ones who don’t know what we’re talking about?” Dipper asked with frustrated disbelief. “Sure, I mean, it’s not like we were the ones who actually saw it or anything!”

“It sounds like… maybe you don’t know what you’re talking about!” Steven shouted at Pearl, his voice echoing throughout the Galaxy Warp as the white Gem took in a sharp, shocked gasp. The others were quite alarmed at hearing the usually gentle and agreeable young Gem get so frustrated, but even so, he didn’t dare take it back now. Honestly, he likely wouldn’t have even if he wanted to.

By this point, however, Pearl was so frustrated with both boys that all she could really do was let out a petulant scoff as she crossed her arms and glared away from them. Of course, Steven and Dipper were still quite upset themselves, but at this juncture, Garnet finally decided to intervene.

“Alright, you two,” the Gem leader said, her tone calm yet firm as she stepped between the boys and Pearl. “That’s enough. Let it go.”

“But-” both Steven and Dipper attempted to interject, but Garnet quickly stopped them.

“I said, let it go,” she repeated authoritatively, making it quite clear that no matter how much they tried to argue otherwise, there would be no further discussion on the matter.

Mabel smiled as she finished positioning the pillows on her bed in a way that would comfortably accommodate both her and Waddles, before hoisting said pig up onto the bed as he trotted up to it. “There you go, my perfect pink angel,” she quipped, plopping Waddles down onto his pillow. “Now we can have a nice, cozy night’s sleep, unlike some people…” Mabel frowned, somewhat annoyed, as she glanced over at Dipper, who was pouring over the journal just as intently as he had the previous night. He was utterly exhausted, of course, but he wasn’t about to let that deter him from checking the book one more time, desperate for any answers it could possibly give.

“Complain all you want, Mabel,” Dipper said, not even looking up from the journal. “But I’m not giving up until I figure out what that thing in the warp stream was!”

“Why nooooot?” Mable whined, laying back on her bed and covering her eyes with her arm. “You heard what the Gems said! We’re safe!”

“That may be what they think, but I’m not about to believe it until I have proof.”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying when you get all obsessy like this! Remember the last time you went all crazy trying to prove something, Dipper? Cause I do! In fact, I remember it involving a bunch of gross zombies that tried to eat our brains out!”

“This is totally different!” Dipper snapped defensively. “Look, I’ll admit that I was totally reckless about the whole zombie thing, but I’m being the exact opposite about this! I’m trying to figure out the truth about this thing so we can all be safe.”

“Is that really why you’re doing this, Dipper?” Mabel asked, sending her brother a rather harsh glare. “Or are you just doing this because you wanna prove that you and Steven were right and the Gems are wrong?”

Dipper was more than ready to refute this assumption, but before he could, Stan happened to burst into the room, looking anything but pleased with his nibblings. “You two! Cut all that yelling out!” he growled sullenly. “It’s late, and I don’t wanna referee you munchkins if you get into a fist fight or something. Plus, I don’t have my camera on me to record it.”

“Grunkle Stan!” Mabel exclaimed loudly. “Dipper’s being dumb and he keeps stressing out over this stupid thing that him and Steven saw when we were out with the Gems yesterday!”

“Mabel!” Dipper quickly interjected. He was quite annoyed that she had no qualms over tattling on him, especially seeing as how the conman was already keeping a closer eye on him in light of the zombie incident.

“Oh yeah?” Stan raised an eyebrow as he looked to his nephew. “What kind of thing?”

“I-it was-”

“He doesn’t know what it looks like because they only saw it for like, a second,” Mabel informed pointedly. “If they saw anything at all, though I’m with the Gems in thinking that they didn’t.”

“Oh, so now you’re seeing things, kid?” the conman asked dubiously. “Figures. Reading a kooky journal like that will do it to ya.”

“Grunkle Stan, I’m not just seeing things!” Dipper argued intently. “What me and Steven saw in the warp stream was real, and it was-”

“Yeesh, calm down,” Stan interrupted with a small laugh. “I was just kidding. Still, if the Gems said it was nothing, then, as much as I hate to admit it, they’re probably right. They are the authority on all of that magic mumbo-jumbo, after all.”

“See?” Mabel sent her brother a smug smirk. “Told ya so.”

“Now both of you, get to bed,” Stan ordered as he prepared to take his leave. “And if you two actually do end up getting in a fight, don’t expect me to come up here and break it up. Besides, we all know Mabel would win anyway so it would be pretty much pointless to try and intervene.”

“Hey!” Dipper protested as Mabel let out a small snicker. The twins didn’t really didn’t converse much further with each other after Stan left, both of them still rather irritated with each other over the situation at large. Still, even after Mabel turned the main light off and nestled with Waddles into a comfy slumber, Dipper stayed up with the journal and a flashlight, just as he had the previous night, resolved to examine every word of it that concerned the Gems in the hopes that he would at the very least get some sort of lead. He didn’t make it very far into his search, however, before he began to nod off, only to be roused awake by sudden tapping against the attic window.

Since Mabel was already fast asleep, she didn’t hear the repeating noise, but seeing as how he was on edge already, Dipper didn’t hesitate in checking it out. Being as quiet as possible as not to wake his sister up, he climbed up onto the nightstand to get a better look out the window, only to find a sight he hadn’t really been expecting.

“Steven?” he whispered incredulously, frowning down at the young Gem who stood in the yard down below, a pile of pebbles in his hand as he waved up at him. Lion stood beside him, licking his paw boredly, but the intent, almost desperate expression on Steven’s face was enough to convince Dipper to grab his hat and jacket and sneak out of the shack to meet him outside. “Steven, what are you doing here?” he asked the young Gem, who’s worry turned into slight relief upon seeing him. “Don’t you have any idea how late it is?”

“I do, but…” Steven frowned anxiously as he glanced behind him towards the temple. “I need your help. The Gems still won’t believe me, and I keep having mini-freaks out every time I look at the warp pad, and you’re the only person I can count on in this because you saw it too and-”

“Whoa, Steven, slow down,” Dipper interrupted. “What exactly do you need help with?”

“I-I want you to help me keep an eye on the warp pad,” Steven said with shaky resolve. “Just in case… it comes through. We still don’t know what it is, and… I really don’t like the thought of being there alone if it does show up. So… I know this might be a lot to ask, but… will you help me, Dipper?

“Are you kidding? Of course, Steven!” Dipper instantly agreed, as though it was obvious that he would. “If that thing warps in, I definitely don’t wanna miss it.”

“Great! Thanks so much, Dipper!” Steven exclaimed, overwhelmed with relief as he abruptly pulled him into a tight hug.

“Steven! Not so loud!” Dipper was quick to pull away and shush him. “What if Stan or Mabel hear you?”

“Oh, right…” the young Gem blushed, lowering his voice down to a whisper. “Sorry!”

Not wanting to waste any time at all, both boys climbed onto Lion and rushed back to the temple in record time. The house was calm and quiet as they arrived, no signs of any unknown objects or unwarranted warping whatsoever. Still, they weren’t anywhere near appeased just yet. The pair began their vigil, one of them sitting on each side of the warp pad and scarcely taking their eyes off of it for a moment. While Dipper had the journal positioned in his lap, he was more ready to take notes in it than read it in the event that the unknown object did show up. At the same time, Steven had prepared himself a small snack of macaroni, bereft of cheese since Amethyst had eaten it all, but still it was something to help pass the idle hours. For almost an hour, the boys sat in still, perfect silence, their shared resolve filling in any sort of anxious conversation they might have had. Exhaustion and fatigue were weighing heavily on both of them, to the point that both of them were having trouble even keeping their eyes open for every long, but still, they forced themselves to remain awake. After all, if no one else was going to take this matter seriously, then they had to and were going to, for everyone’s sake.

Yet as time continued to drag on and still nothing happened, the wearier in their mission both boys started to get. Unable to bear the deafening silence along with his own growing dread, Steven finally spoke up. “Dipper? Why are we doing this?” he asked, his tone rife with uncertainty.

“What do you mean?” Dipper asked, finally glancing up from the warp pad.

“I mean…” Steven let out a frustrated sigh before he continued. “It’s been two days since we saw that thing… If it hasn’t shown up by now, then how do we know its gonna show up at all?”

“Oh it’ll show up,” Dipper affirmed intently, his tone somewhat unhinged. “It has to. And when it does, we’re gonna get the Gems and show it to them and then they’ll finally, finally realize that we were right all along!”

Steven sucked in an anxious breath at this, his doubt starting to grow even more as he looked to the warp pad again. “But what if it doesn’t? What if… What if we were wrong and everyone else was right?”

“You can’t be serious, Steven,” Dipper scoffed, angrily glancing away from the young Gem at this very suggestion. “We both saw that thing with our own eyes! The Gems, Mabel, everyone thinks we’re crazy for thinking that it’s real, but we’re not! And we have to show them that we’re not!”

“I know, but this-” Steven threw his arms out wide as he rose to his feet. “Staying up all night and sitting around waiting for who knows what? This is crazy! Let’s just face it, Dipper; nothing’s going to come through that warp pad.”

Before Dipper could even argue this point however, Steven was inadvertently proven right as something crashed into the house not through the warp pad, but through the ceiling instead. Both of the boys let out startled gasps as the small round, pale green orb smashed into the ground only a few feet away from them. Its surface was smooth and almost marble-like, and despite the intent it had left in the floor, it soon picked itself up as four short, leg-like extensions emerged from it, all of them detached from the orb itself. The machine made a swiveling noise as it pushed itself upright, before it began to skitter its way towards the warp pad.

For a moment, both Steven and Dipper were too stunned with shock over this turn of events to even do or say anything about it. And then, at the exact same moment, they both started to laugh.

“Oh my gosh! This is it!” Dipper exclaimed with a huge, excited smile as he watched the orb crawled its way towards them. “This was that thing in the warp stream! We were right!”

“No way!” Steven gasped, just as exhilarated, especially as he glanced up towards the hole the orb had left in the ceiling then back to the machine itself. “It really did come from space! Oh man, the Gems totally are gonna freak out when they see-” The young Gem cut himself off with another gasp as the orb continued to clamor forward, his elation suddenly turning to concern. “Uh, I-I think it’s trying to get to the warp pad!”

“What? But why would it-” Dipper was interrupted as the orb attempted to squeeze its way between them, using its tiny legs to try and push them out of its way. “Hey!”

“Whoa there, little guy!” Steven exclaimed to the orb, putting his hands onto it an attempt to stop it. “Hold on for just a—Ow!” Without warning, the orb’s insistent behavior turned violent as it lashed out, landing a surprisingly hard kick to the young Gem’s chest and knocking him back. Somehow, Steven had managed to hold onto the orb throughout this, and he still clung onto it as tightly as it could, even as it continued to struggle against him. “Guys! Come out here and check this out!” he shouted towards the temple gate in the hopes that the Gems would hear him, not even noticing as a small hatch started to open up on the orb’s upper half, revealing a short, pointed nozzle.

“Whoa! Steven, look out!” Dipper shouted, rushing over with the journal still in hand. Before the machine could fire whatever projectile it had at its disposal at Steven, Dipper hit it hard with the side of the journal, sending it flying off of the young Gem and to the other side of the room. The impact actually managed to damage the orb somewhat, as a small crack now ran down its otherwise polished surface and a strange, unknown light teal liquid began pouring from it as it skittered about in a sudden panic.

“What do we do?! What do we do?!” Steven asked fearfully as he jumped to his feet.

“Uh… we should…” Dipper trailed off anxiously, only to gasp in surprise as the orb suddenly lunged towards the warp pad once more. “We gotta stop it! Come on!”

Steven didn’t argue as they both charged for the warp pad as well, making it there at the exact same moment as the orb. As the machine made contact with the pad, it lit up with its usual glow, a sign that it had no intentions of sticking around much longer. “Oh no, you don’t!” Steven exclaimed as both him and Dipper pounced on the orb, though this time, it oddly didn’t struggle. “Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl-”

The young Gem was cut off as, without warning, the warp pad activated, taking both of the boys and the orb with it. Still, they hardly noticed as they were propelled up the stream, both of them still clinging onto the orb in a mix of desperation and confusion. “I don’t understand!” Dipper exclaimed, glancing over the orb in bewilderment. “Where’s it trying to go?”

Steven didn’t have much of a chance to even ponder this question as he was suddenly struck from something from behind. “Huh?” he glanced back, only to let out a startled gasp to find that another orb, identical to the first one, had somehow entered the stream, followed by countless more. “T-they’re coming from all over?!”

Likewise, Dipper was also quite alarmed to see an influx of orbs coming in from the other side of the stream, all of them quickly converging towards the two of them. “Steven, they’re-” Before he could finish, all of the emerging orbs suddenly smashed into both of the boys seemingly all at once. The machines’ became only more aggressive as they roughly pushed the boys against each other before shoving them towards the edge of the stream in a clear attempt to remove them from the stream.

“Ow! Hey! Stop it!” Steven shouted at the orbs as him and Dipper attempt to push back against them, to little avail. The machines were surprisingly strong and enduring, and given their immense and ever-increasing numbers, it wasn’t long before they managed to partially push both boys out of the stream.

As soon as their heads were forced out of the stream and into the empty chill of warp space, both Dipper and Steven took in large gasps of air that didn’t really exist out there. Still, neither of them had much time to focus on that, as their attention was instantly garnished by something much more important. The otherwise sparse void was lit up with dozens, if not hundreds of different warp streams, each of them carrying mass amounts of the same orbs as they all seemed to converge at the same exact distant point.

“Wha—t-they’re all-” Dipper was unable to finish his stunned statement as the lack of air all around them quickly left him breathless. Alarmed and concerned by this, Steven wasted no time in trying to both them both back into the warp stream, even though the orbs were still trying to do the exact opposite.

“N-no!” Steven exclaimed, shoving their way back into the stream and allowing them both to momentarily catch their breaths. Dipper quickly joined him in fighting back against the persistent machines, though it was becoming painfully apparent that this was a battle they were going to lose. “We won’t let you—augh!”

Without warning, the orbs all suddenly pushed back hard against the boys, to the point that there was nothing they could do as they were both abruptly knocked out of the stream completely. They shared a gasp of panic as they were sent freely flying into the cold depths of warp space, with the only thing they had to mutually cling onto being the lone orb that they had both managed to get a firm hold on before being pushed out. For a moment, all the boys could do was exchange a stunned, fearful glance, both of them quickly realizing just how much danger they were in. Not only did the bitter cold atmosphere instantly start to get to them both, but the sparse amount of oxygen at their disposal only made things even worse, especially neither of them really knew how to conserve it.

“S-Steven!” Dipper gasped, immediately panicking as he desperately glanced around for any nearby warp stream. “W-we gotta find a-another-” He stopped short upon hearing a small, weak, somewhat unnerving chuckle come from the young Gem, who remained rather still as he floated along, dully holding onto the orb. “Steven, what-”

“W-we were right, Dipper,” Steven laughed, clearly in something of a daze as he grinned towards the orb. “We w-were right… And now…” His smile faded into a sort of morose, almost tearful sort of expression, one also marked with grim acceptance as he slowly let go of the orb. “W-we…. We’re gonna die… Two tired… frozen… little s-sadsacks…”

For a moment, all Dipper could really do was stare at Steven with the same kind of crestfallen despair, but even so, he wasn’t about to give up so easily. “N-no! We… we can’t!” he choked, realizing just how tight his chest suddenly felt, no doubt a sign of slow suffocation. “We… There… T-there has to be…” He trailed off, a stark shiver running through him that wasn’t just from the freezing cold. As horrifying as it was to think, they were both stranded in a place where they couldn’t possibly hope to survive for very long, all because of their own desperate, reckless desire to be proven right. And now, because of their stubbornness, the only thing they could prove for certain now was how foolish they both had been.

And yet, just as both boys were about to resign themselves to their cold, dark fate, something that was nothing sort of a miracle happened. As they continued to aimlessly float through warp space, a sudden pillar of light soared up right behind them both, a warp stream of all things, and not just any random one at that. For as they drifted close to it, a pair of hands reached out from inside of it, hands that were quick to grab onto both of the boys and pull them safely inside.

Garnet pulled both Steven and Dipper into a tight embrace against her, allowing them to cling onto her tightly as they both desperately gasped for air and shivered uncontrollably all the while. “Stay calm,” she advised, even if her own tone wasn’t as relaxed as it usually was. “Take slow deep, breaths.” Somehow, the boys were able to do as she commanded, their thoughts on nothing else but recovering from their near-death experience, even as Garnet retrieved the orb that she had pulled into the stream with them. “So this is what you both saw.”

Still clearly shell-shocked, the boys tentatively glanced up at the orb, both of them partially reviled at the very sight of it seeing as how it had nearly cost them both their lives. Dipper slowly nodded, looking away from the orb in slight shame while Steven looked to Garnet instead, hot tears of frustration forming in his eyes. “I don’t care about that!” he cried, wanting nothing more to do with any of it.

“I do,” Garnet replied intently, lifting her hand up to her visor as she appeared to wipe away what might have been tears. “I should have listened to you two. We promised we would start trusting you more, but we didn’t. I’m sorry.”

While the boys had mostly recovered, they still didn’t say much as they both looked up to Garnet with small, grateful smiles, something that she returned as she gently relinquished her secure hold on them. The moment of solidarity didn’t last long, however, as Pearl caught up with them in the stream, followed by Amethyst and Mabel not too much later.

“Finally!” Mabel exclaimed with clear exasperation. “There you guys are! What’s with you two, going on a crazy midnight warp run like that! The least you could have done is ask me to come along too!”

“Are you both okay?!” Pearl asked the boys with apt concern. “Amethyst heard the warp pad activate, and Mabel had come to the house looking for Dipper, and Garnet said you were both floating outside the stream and-” The white Gem’s hurried explanation was cut off as she took in a sharp gasp upon seeing the orb Garnet was holding. “W-what is that?”

“You mean… you don’t know?” Steven asked with a confused frown.

“Whoa…. That thing’s far out!” Amethyst remarked, quite intrigued with the machine.

“I wanna touch it!” Mabel grinned, reaching a hand towards it only to be stopped by Garnet.

“Not until we know for sure what it is,” the Gem leader said, her tone as firm as it usually was once again.

“It’s some kind of space robot!” Steven exclaimed. “There were tons of them! And it looked like they were all going to the same place.”

The Gems exchanged a dubious glance at this, none of them really sure what to make of this news. Yet even so, Dipper couldn’t help but speak up in order to address the elephant in the room, so to speak. “Ok, so I know this is probably a bad time for this, but…”

“Oh boy…” Mabel rolled her eyes, already anticipating what he was going to say. “Here it comes.”

“We told you so!” Dipper exclaimed with a triumphant smirk. “We were right all along and we told you so! Guess you guys will think twice about not believing us next time, huh?” He looked to the Gems, still grinning rather smugly, only to stop upon catching the incredulously glance they all sent his way. “Oh, uh…” he took in an anxious breath, looking away somewhat awkwardly. “L-like I said, bad time…”

It was only moments later that the group followed the orb in their possession to its intended destination: the Galaxy Warp. As soon as they made it their, the machine leapt out of Garnet’s grasp and made its way over to join all of the others as they crowded around and on top of the central warp pad. All of them were currently in the process of shooting their unknown teal liquid onto the pad, covering it completely as the Gems and the kids warily approached.

“What are they doing to the Homeworld warp?!” Pearl asked with growing worry.

“Dang, there’s a ton of them!” Amethyst remarked, her eyes wide as she tried in vain to count them all. Soon enough though, the machines all started to skitter back away from the pad, until, all at once, the liquid they had sprayed onto it vanished. What was left in its place was a warp pad that completely lacked all of the cracks and cervices that had previously disabled it, leaving it looking as good as new. “What? They fixed it?” Amethyst asked, bewildered.

“So what does that mean?” Mabel asked curiously as the Gems exchanged another stunned glance.

“I-” Pearl cut herself off with a nervous, fretful gasp. “I don’t know!”

They had no time to try and find out the truth, however, as the Homeworld warp suddenly light up, activating for the first time in centuries. A unified gasp of unbridled horror escaped the Gems, and likewise the kids were quite startled by it as well. But even so, Garnet kept a level head as usual as she quickly grabbed them all, leaping away from the warp pad and taking refuge behind one of the tall rocks surrounding the area. The Gem leader used one of her gauntlets to hold onto the stone, providing the kids with enough of a boost to serve as lookouts as the light from the warp pad cleared, revealing an unknown figure in its place.

It was rather easy to tell that this figure was a Gem, based on her unnaturally colored lime-green skin, as well as the rounded, triangular gemstone of the same color positioned on her forehead. Her hair was also in an oddly-triangular shape, its short, pale ends styled in three precise points. Really, everything about her was angular, from her pert, pointed nose, to the opaque visor over her eyes, to her unimpressed scowl. Her green coloration continued throughout her outfit, save for the light-yellow diamond on her chest and knee pads. She was rather slender and tall, her arms and legs both seemed to widen and flare out quite a bit past her joints, and even stranger was the fact that she lacked hands entirely. Instead, her “fingers” seemed to hover over the end of her arms, levitating obediently as they followed her every movement. She showed little signs of emotion as she glanced around, her fists on her hips as she stomped on the warp pad she had just arrived on experimentally.

“W-who is that?” Pearl whispered nervously.

“No idea,” Garnet replied, just as confused as they continued to observe this new Gem from a safe distance.

The green Gem turned around fully, still unaware of the groups presence as she lifted her hand. Her fingers somehow repositioned themselves, four of them forming an electronic screen littered with indecipherable information, which she navigated with her spare finger as she began to record a report. “Log date 3 1 2,” she began, her voice cold and calculating as she paid little mind to the orb crawling up her to perch upon her shoulder. “This is Peridot, reforming Earth hub maintenance check.”

“Peridot,” Steven repeated with a small smile as he glanced down to the other Gems. “Her name is Peridot!”

Of course, the Gems were quick to shush him, terrified of their cover being blown, but all the same, the kids were immensely curious with this turn of events. “Maintenance check?” Dipper muttered, raising a confused eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He got no real answer, however, as the Gems quieted him as well before turning their attention back to Peridot. “Warp repair was a success,” she reported, tapping away at her screen. “All 79 flash robinoids deployed and accounted for. Preparing to locate and manually reactivate Kindergar-” The green Gem suddenly gasped as she noticed the damaged orb, or rather, robinoids, at her feet. The machine sputtered as it attempted to crawl up her leg, before ultimately crumbling to the ground in defeat. Peridot gave it a critical glance, one that certainly wasn’t lost on Steven as he continued to observe her from afar.

“Aw, the little ones are like her babies!” he whispered with a charmed smile.

However, this couldn’t have been any further from the truth as Peridot’s calm demeanor turned to obvious annoyance with the damaged tech. Clearly, she had already determined that the machine’s usefulness had reached its end as she stepped on its struggling form, pushing her foot down on it until it completely and utterly popped.

All three of the kids let out a shocked, rather horrified gasp at this display of heedless destruction, as small scale as it was. “I-if that’s how she treats her babies then she really shouldn’t be allowed around them anymore!” Mabel remarked in an anxious whisper, feeling quite sorry for the now obliterated robinoids.

The Gems overheard this, and while they weren’t able to see what exactly was going on for themselves, Amethyst and Pearl silently lifted their hands to ask if it was alright for them to come out. The kids quickly waved them off though before joining them in complete hiding, now actively frightened at the prospect of being found by someone as apparently merciless as Peridot.

“Now to access the domestic warp…” the green Gem said as she began descending the Homeworld warp’s stairs. “Huh?” she stopped short, however, upon noticing the Crying Breakfast Friend sticker still stuck to the side of the pad. Tentatively, Peridot retrieved it, giving it a scrutinizing look of confusion before suspiciously glancing around. “This site may have been compromised,” she noted, wasting no time in hurrying back up onto the pad. Acting quickly, Peridot placed a small, glowing device onto the pad only seconds before warping back to wherever she had come from. Mere seconds after her flight, the device went off, instantly deactivating every last robinoid in the vicinity.

As all of the machines went limp around the Homeworld warp, the Gems and the kids slowly and carefully emerged from their hiding spot, making sure that the coast was fully clear before approaching the pad. There was no doubt there were all rather shaken up by what they had just seen, but the Gems in particular were in a severe panic over it all.

“T-they’re coming back…” Pearl said, her voice shaky and raw with an age-old fear. “I can’t do this! Not again!”

“We’re dead!” Amethyst shouted, crossing her arms. “We are so dead!”

“So… that was another Gem, right?” Steven asked anxiously. The Gems nodded in flighty unison, though all of them were far too encompassed in their own immense worries to pay the bewildered kids much attention.

“Did… did she really come from Homeworld?” Dipper asked, his mind racing over what all of this could possibly mean. “What was she trying to do?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Garnet cut in, her tone oddly dark as she approached the warp pad with heated intention. The others all gasped in alarm as she summoned her gauntlets, which grew to a massive size as she held them high over the warp pad. And then, in a heavy, powerful swing, she brought them down, completely crushing the Homeworld warp once again. “She’s not coming back!”

Needless to say that everyone was quite solemn and shaken upon returning to the temple after everything that had happened. No one really said much about it or asked too many questions, mostly because there was far too much to say and far too many questions to ask. Still, the Gems insisted that the twins spend the rest of the night at the temple with Steven, promising that they would take on the burden of explaining things to Stan the next morning. And indeed they did, though in reality, they left out most of the details behind this impromptu sleepover when explaining it to the conman, namely anything concerning the robinoids or Peridot. The twins were grateful for it too, seeing as how Stan didn’t really give them a very hard time about sneaking off to the temple in the middle of the night without telling him. Yet even so, all three of the kids were still in slight shock over the events of the previous night, which was why the Gems had suggested that they spend the next day taking their minds off of it while they began looking more into the matter. And while normally the kids would have argued against this idea and insist upon helping, they actually didn’t protest this proposal too much, considering the fact that Steven and Dipper in particular really needed to catch up on their sleep. So the boys spent the morning snoozing, and by the time they woke up in the early afternoon, Connie had arrived at the temple at Mabel’s invitation so they could all spend the rest of the day simply hanging out and relaxing like normal.

Still, the kids didn’t really stay up at the temple for too long, mostly because of the nearby warp pad serving as a grim reminder to the boys that they nearly met a shared end mere hours ago. So they headed down to the shack instead, and on the way down, Steven, Dipper, and Mabel filled Connie in on the details about what had happened last night. Of course, she was immensely curious about the whole ordeal, after they arrived at the shack and took up shop on the porch, their discussion of it gradually began to peter out. In place of talking about these stressful current events, their conversation eventually turned back to the Spirit Morph Saga, much to Steven’s interest, Mabel’s protest, and Dipper and Connie’s shared insistence that they continue reading it. And of course, the vote came to three to one in favor of starting the second book of the series: Welcome to the Wizard Wilds.

“Lisa ran to the steadily closing gates, her boots slamming into the rain-soaked mud under her and her heart pounding intensely,” Connie read, adding a dramatic flare to story, mostly for Steven’s sake seeing as how he was the one listening with the most rapt attention. “Archimicarus soared a protective distance above her, keeping a watchful eye out for-”

Her reading was suddenly interrupted by a low rumble afar in the distance, one that she was the only one to apparently hear as Steven and the twins apparently hadn’t noticed it. “This is a really good book!” the young Gem pointed out, urging her to continue.

“Uh… okay…” Connie frowned, but nonetheless, she continued reading. “Archimicarus soared a protected distance above her, keeping a watchful eye out for any of the shadow creatures that could have followed them from the forbidden forest. The coast seemed clear, but right as Lisa reached the village gates, she-”

Connie was cut off once again, this time by something that none of the others were able to overlook. A large, round sphere, one nearly identical in appearance to the robinoids from the previous night, crashed into the forest right beside the Mystery Shack from above, resulting in a short, yet sizable earthquake. The kids all gasped in surprise as they all jumped to their feet, especially as a set of stilted legs emerged from the larger robinoid and it pulled itself upright. Still, none of them had any time to question it whatsoever before the Gems arrived on the scene.

“What was that?!” Amethyst asked, her whip already summoned as she glanced around.

“I-it’s one of those robots from last night!” Dipper exclaimed, pointing to the robinoid as it crawled out of the forest towards them.

“Yeah, only this one’s not as cute or tiny. It’s like way bigger!” Mabel added, throwing her arms out wide for emphasis.

“What?!” Pearl asked in alarm as her and the other Gems looked to the hefty robinoid. As usual, Garnet was the first one to leap into action, jumping on front of the large orb and putting a stop to its advance with her gauntlets, even if it was clear that she wouldn’t be able to hold it back for long.

“Amethyst! Pearl!” the Gem leader shouted, prompting her teammates to hurry to her aid. The pair preformed a graceful leap high into the air, before coming down hard and fast at the robinoid from above. Their impact on it was powerful enough to shatter the machine completely, though Steven was quick enough to summon a bubble around himself, Connie, and the twins to protect them from the burst of sealing goo that resulted from the explosion.

“You ok?” Steven asked Connie with concern, dropping the bubble as he helped her to her feet.

“I love hanging out with you guys!” Connie remarked with an amazed smile over what she had just seen.

“I don’t get it,” Dipper said to the Gems as he glanced towards the downed robinoid. “I thought we got rid of Peridot last night. So then why are her machines still coming?”

“It’s hard to say…” Pearl mused. “I suppose it’s because she’s not done with… whatever it is she’s trying to do… Still, it’s odd… The robots from last night were nowhere near as big as this one…”

“Or as gooey!” Amethyst chimed with a rouge grin, revealing that she was covered head to toe in the robinoids’ liquid.

“Amethyst, we need to be careful,” the white Gem cautioned. “We still don’t know what this stuff is.” The purple Gem pouted for a brief moment, though her expression quickly turned into a wry, mischievous smile as a sudden idea came to her, one that Pearl was quick to catch onto. “Oh no,” she hissed, already taking a large step away from Amethyst. “Don’t you dare get that stuff on me!”

“Goop hug!” Amethyst shouted, holding her arms out wide as she began to chase after the panicked white Gem. “Come here, Pearl! Don’t you want a hug?!”

In the midst of this, however, Stan happened to emerge from the shack, having heard the crash and commotion from earlier. “Hey! What’s going on out-” The conman cut himself off, his anger dissipating into annoyed acceptance upon seeing the mess the destroyed robinoid had left in his yard. “You know, I could get mad about this, but after years of putting up with this sort of stuff, I really don’t think I have that kind of energy left in me anymore.”

“Stan!” Amethyst shouted, her playful grin growing even wider as she ran up to him and threw her arms around him, smearing his suit with the goo that was covering her. “Ha! Gotcha!”

“Ugh, Amethyst!” the conman growled in newfound frustration, scowling down at the mess on his clothes. “Why I oughta-” Stan cut himself off, taking in a deep, controlled breath. “Nope. I said I wasn’t gonna get mad and I’m not. I’m just gonna do this instead.” Without any warning, he suddenly shoved Amethyst off of the porch roughly, laughing in amusement as she clumsily fell to the ground.

“Hey!” the purple Gem protested, even if she was laughing just as hard. “Ah well, you just gave me a head start on getting back to Pearl!” The white Gem gasped upon hearing this as she began running in the opposite direction of the purple Gem, who was quick to give chase once more, still as drenched in as much goop as before.

“Grunkle Stan! That machine was one of the ones we were telling you about last night!” Dipper exclaimed fervently. “Turns out it was real after all, even if some people didn’t think so at first.” He sent Mabel a smug smirk, only for her to retort by petulantly sticking her tongue out at him.

“Kid, I don’t care what that thing is as long as it gets out of my yard,” Stan deadpanned. “Broken, goo-covered garbage like that is bad for business.”

“We’ve got it covered,” Garnet responded with a sparse thumbs up, even if Amethyst and Pearl were still chasing each other around.

“That’s all I ask,” Stan remarked dryly, turning to head back inside. “Now if you need me, I’ll be inside cleaning this gunk out of my suit. Oh, and if any more magical alien robots fall from the sky, count me out of it!”

Without sparing another word, the conman left, slamming the door behind him and leaving the Gems to do their work. “Peridot….” Connie spoke up thoughtfully, addressing the others. “Isn’t that the Gem you guys were telling me about? The one that’s trying to come to Earth?”

“Yeah,” Steven nodded. “We stopped her last night, but… I guess she can still shoot stuff here from space, including these things that are trying to do… something?”

“It’s not trying to do anything now,” Garnet said, looking over at the fallen robinoid with apparent distain.

“But… shouldn’t we try to figure out what it came here for?” Dipper asked, relatively concerned.

“We destroyed it,” the Gem leader remarked, picking a stray broken piece of the robot up off the ground before tossing it aside. “That’s all that mattered.”

The kids exchanged a doubtful glance upon hearing this, none of them very sure that the matter was that simple. Still, they didn’t get much of a chance to question it as Amethyst suddenly plowed into Garnet, cheerfully embracing her and smothering her side with goo. “Goop hug!” the purple Gem quipped, chuckling as Pearl approached, sullen and covered in the unsavory liquid herself. Garnet smirked as she pulled the white Gem into the team embrace, regardless of the goop drenching all three of them.

As it turned out, the next several days were only plagued by even more robinoids plummeting down to Earth from space. Fortunately, the Gems were privy to each ones’ arrival thanks to Garnet’s future vision, and they didn’t hesitate to track down and dispatch each and every one of them without delay, not even wanting to think about what the consequences might be if they didn’t. Steven accompanied them on most of these mini-missions, and occasionally Dipper and Mabel did too, even if each one only consisted of finding a robinoid and beating it into submission. This process of hunt and destroy was easy enough, but it was quickly starting to wear down on the Gems, especially since it seemed as though there was really no end to it in sight.

Still, whenever there did happen to be a break in this wild storm of robinoids, the kids took advantage of it to rest and catch their breaths from the tremulous passage of recent events. Steven, Dipper, and Mabel had taken to spending the early afternoon up at the temple, and instead of discussing the robinoids, or Peridot, or anything related to any of that, they once again tried to focus on discussing the Spirit Morph Saga.

“Come on, Steven, me and Connie have already been over this with you like, a million times already,” Dipper began, slightly exasperated. “The order goes like this: first there’s The Unfamiliar Familiar, then Welcome to the Wizard Wilds, then Overneath the Underworld, and finally it ends with Destiny’s End. Got it?”

“Um… I think so…” Steven said, looking over the set of books on the table with a frown. “I just have one question… What’s a familiar again?”

Dipper let out a loud, frustrated groan upon hearing this, one that Mabel shared, though for completely different reasons as she flopped onto the couch. “Ugh, this is so boring!” she complained, lolling her head to the side. “Are we ever gonna stop talking about these lame nerd books?”

“They’re not lame, Mabel!” Dipper protested defensively. “They’re really smart and well-written and interesting and deep. Until the last one, of course. That one sucks.”

“Well, I like all of them so far,” Steven cut in with a small smile. “Though I guess I’ll have to take you and Connie’s word for it on the last book…”

“Who cares?” Mabel stuck her tongue out languidly. “You guys going on and on about them almost makes me wish that another one of those marble things would show up just so something cool would finally happen!”

Of course, only seconds after she had said this, a distant rumble rattled the house. The Gems emerged from the temple gate almost as soon as it happened, the telltale aggravation on their faces filling the kids in on everything they needed to know. “Yes!” Mabel exclaimed with relief. “The timing of that couldn’t have been more perfect!”

“Augh! What is with these things?!” Amethyst growled, pulling at her hair in immense annoyance. “This is like the fifth one this week!”

“We’ll find it in the desert!” Garnet exclaimed, rushing to the warp pad. “Let’s go!”

The other two Gems were quick to follow, and sure enough, the kids weren’t too far behind either. While the Gems warped off first, Steven did so for himself and the twins very shortly after, to the point that their respective arrivals in the desert were only mere seconds apart. Still, as the kids arrived, they found that the Gems had already engaged the robinoid there. Amethyst and Garnet were pushing on it from the sides, while Pearl had perched herself on top of it and stabbed it continually with her spear in the hopes that its marble surface would crack.

“Stop! Coming! Here! You! Stupid! Balls!” the white Gem shouted, throwing her spear down hard with each word.

“Yeah! Let it out!” Amethyst hollered, lashing her whip out and coiling it around the robot. “Get crazy! Ha!” With a heavy tug, the purple Gem pulled the robinoid forward, causing it to teeter a bit, though it still didn’t fall.

“Guys! Wait! Stop!” Steven cried as he rushed forward along with the twins. “How many more of these things are you gonna have to fight?”

“We don’t know!” Pearl exclaimed, beyond stressed. “They just keep coming and coming and we don’t even know what they are! We don’t know anything!”

“Hey, welcome to the club,” Dipper remarked rather sarcastically.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Amethyst asked, raising a caustic eyebrow.

“He means… well, the three of us don’t know anything all the time,” Steven replied with a small, understanding smile. “It can be frustrating sometimes, yeah, but its ok to not know everything.”

“Trust us,” Mabel added blithely. “You guys will get used to being left out of the loop in no time! Plus its actually pretty fun, cause it means you get to experience all the fun of being surprised every time you have a bombshell secret dropped on you, just like we get to whenever you guys drop one on us.”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that learning bombshell secrets is always ‘fun’,” Dipper said with a shrug. “More like ‘shocking and most of the time really confusing’ but still.”

“But no one even knows what these things are here to do!” Pearl interjected with a tired sigh. “So it’s not like we can even figure the truth out from anyone!”

“Well… what about that?” Steven asked, nodding to the robinoid itself. “No one would know more about what it’s supposed to be doing than itself.”

“…What?” the white Gem asked, dumbfounded.

“Whoa, Steven’s got a point!” Mabel exclaimed with a newfound grin. “We could just follow the little guy and see where he wants to go! It’ll be like playing follow the leader, only with a big ol’ mysterious robot instead!”

“Hold it,” Amethyst cut in with a scoff of disbelief. “Are you guys nuts?!”

“Who knows what could go wrong?” Pearl added, adamantly disagreeing with this plan.

“Well, its gotta be easier than just aimlessly destroying these things every time a new one shows up, right?” Dipper asked, seeing no apparent problems with the idea himself.

“He’s right,” Garnet spoke up, still pressed up against the robinoid. “We can’t keep fighting these things forever. Well, we can, but I don’t want to. Let’s to it their way.”

“Yeah!” Steven cheered enthusiastically, wrapping his arms around the twins’ shoulders in celebration. “Let’s follow the funky flow!”

“We’re dead,” Amethyst remarked dryly, exchanging an uncertain glance with Pearl. Still, the Gems didn’t argue as they climbed up on top of the robinoid first, the kids squeezing onto it after them. It was a rather tight fight, and given the droid’s already spherical surface, remaining steady on it was something of a challenge, but they all somehow managed to stay on top of it without falling off.

“Alright, big guy,” Steven said to the robinoid, giving it a solid pat. “Mush!”

At this, the droid began to skitter forward, somewhat unsteady thanks to the group of passengers now riding on top of it, but even so it slowly made its way over to the nearby warp pad. The kids exchanged apprehensive smiles as their plan was sent into action, all three of them hoping that it would provide them with the answers they had been looking for since all of this began.

As soon as it made it to the warp pad, the robinoid teleported off, taking its large crowd of passengers along with it. Upon arriving at its intended destination, the entire group let out a collective gasp to see some very familiar darkened, desolate canyon walls surrounding them.

“Kindergarten…” Garnet muttered, clearly caught off guard by this.

“But why here?” Pearl asked with apt concern. “This site has been damaged enough by the Gems that were incubated here 6,000 years ago! That’s it! It’s confirmed. These things are up to no good!” With a determined scowl, the white Gem summoned her spear and prepared to strike the robinoid, but fortunately, she was stopped before she could.

“Wait!” Steven exclaimed, holding his hands up. “We don’t even know what it’s doing here. Can’t we just… see where it wants to go?”

“Yeah, I mean, we’ll never find out what’s its doing here if we don’t at least follow it some of the way, right?” Dipper added with a shrug.

The Gems exchanged another uncertain glance, but as usual, Garnet was the one to have the final say on the matter. “Hm… Their way,” she nodded tersely. With an exasperated sigh, Pearl pushed her spear back into her Gem, which in turn, prompted the robinoid to get moving again.

The droid leapt from the warp platform and onto ground level, going at its usual pace as meandered about the Kindergarten, clearly having a particular destination in mind, even if no one knew where that could be. “What does it want here?” Pearl asked in an anxious whisper, as if she was afraid that the very sound of her voice could disrupt something in this scarred place.

“Maybe it just wants to see where Amethyst was made,” Steven suggested.

“Maybe it should mind its own business,” Amethyst remarked bitterly, crossing her arms.

“Oh, I don’t like this at all…” Pearl muttered, looking around the ominous walls of the Kindergarten apprehensively.

“Aw, come on, you guys,” Mabel quipped as brightly as usual. “You gotta admit this is kind of fun. Riding around on a nifty orb guy through a dark, scary Gem place? Way more interesting than sitting around talking about nerd books all day, if you ask me,” she said, sending a lightly teasing smirk Dipper’s way, though he merely returned it with an aggravated eye roll.

“Eh, actually, I’m kinda on Pearl with this one,” Amethyst said with an uneasy frown.

“Aw, but can’t you feel this guy’s funky flow?” Steven asked, patting the robinoid with a small smile. “He’s a funk master.”

“…I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Pearl said, her tone tight and rife with uncertainty.

The conversation was soon interrupted however, as the robinoid suddenly came to an abrupt halt right in the middle of the Kindergarten, much to everyone’s shared confusion. “Why’d you stop, little buddy?” Steven asked the droid, running his hands over its smooth surface.

“Something’s happening,” Garnet anticipated, not wasting any time in grabbing both the kids and her teammates and leaping off of the robinoid as a precaution. And she did so just in time too, as the droid’s legs retreated back into its body and a small burst of energy struck the ground underneath of it as it continued to hover in midair. Said section of the ground suddenly dissolved away without warning as the robinoid seamlessly shifted into a pyramid shape to accommodate the square hole it had created. The group let out a muted gasp as they watched the robinoid descend into the hole, fitting into it perfectly as it emitted a bright glow. The kids briefly looked to each other with growing excitement upon seeing this, especially as the droid began to sink into the hole, leaving the gap open for them to follow it down to wherever it had went.

“See?” Steven grinned to the Gems as they all ran to the edge of the hole. “I knew we’d find something cool! Let’s go!”

Without any further delay, the young Gem leapt right into the hole, Mabel eagerly following right behind him. “Woo! This is just like the Bottomless Pit, only hopefully this one won’t be so, well, bottomless!” she quipped cheerfully. “Come on, bro-bro!”

“Wait, you guys! I don’t know if this is such a good-” Dipper’s protest was cut off as Mabel suddenly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the hole along with her, leaving the Gems behind in absolute shock over what the kids were doing. Still, they were quick to rush in after them, as nervous about this whole situation as they were.

Soon enough, the kids made a safe landing on the still descending-robinoid, the Gems joining them mere moments later. “Hey, guys! Going down?” Steven asked with a joking smirk, one that soon faded upon noticing his guardians’ shared stunned expressions. “Are… are you ok?”

“What is all this…?” Pearl whispered, looking to the massive clusters of wires lining the walls around them.

“Wait, so… you guys have never seen any of this stuff before?” Dipper asked with growing concern. After all, if the Gems themselves didn’t know what any of this was, then there was certainly no way for any of them to know what they were getting themselves into.

“Nah, man,” Amethyst shook her head, her expression rarely tense and fretful. “This is just as new to us as it is to you guys.”

The kids took in a shared anxious breath upon hearing this, their excitement quickly starting to wear down into the ongoing worry the Gems already had. Still, they didn’t want to judge the situation so quickly without knowing for sure what was going on. And, as the platform they were on came to a halt at the bottom of the hole, it seemed as though they were finally about to find that out.

The robinoid had stopped at a large, open, hexagonal room, the perimeter of which lit up in a pale green as the droid arrived at it. At the end of the room, a hand shaped pedestal rose up from the ground, a yellow diamond resting upon its palm. The group soon caught onto an odd swishing sound from beneath them, prompting them to look over the edge of the platform to see that its triangular tip drip down to form a small robinoid. The miniscule robot steadily made its way up to the room, unaware of the group watching on as it skittered up to the hand pedestal, firmly placing itself upon it and causing it to activate. An array of unintelligible data appeared on the walls of the room as the crystal at its core projected a large, wide monitor. And on that monitor was none other than Peridot herself.

Taking in a shared gasp of alarm, the Gems quickly grabbed the kids and jumped off of the platform so the green Gem wouldn’t be able to see them. And as she began to deliver another report, the group took refuge just out of sight.

“Established Gem Projection Link with control room,” Peridot began dully, her fingers forming another small screen on her end. “Plug Robinoid has successfully landed on planet Earth and entered the Prime Kindergarten Control Room in Facet Five. Will now proceed to preform status check of the Kindergarten.”

As Peridot’s screen turned itself around, the Gems released the breaths they had been holding upon realizing that she was still fortunately unaware of their presence. “Ugh, what’s she doing here?!” Amethyst whispered, her eyes wide with fear.

“Is she trying to reactivate the Kindergarten?!” Pearl gasped in immense alarm. “Doesn’t she know it’ll destroy all life on Earth?!”

“Why don’t we just ask her?” Steven suggested simply.

“Yeah! I’m sure she’d tell us all about it if we just asked,” Mabel eagerly agreed.

“Are you guys serious?!” Dipper asked in a disbelieving whisper. “That’s a horrible idea!”

“Dipper is right,” Garnet said tersely. “We’re facing an enemy we don’t know with technology we don’t understand. This isn’t the time to be asking questions.”

“Really sounds like it is…” Steven muttered, pouting lightly.

“Ok, here’s the plan,” Garnet began, turning to her teammates. “We can’t let her see us, so we wait for an opening. When she’s distracted, we destroy the power source on the far wall. The kids stay here!”

As the Gems continued planning their assault, however, the failed to notice the kids coming up with a plan of their own. Though for the sake of being discreet, Steven and Mabel did so without really using any words, instead just exchanging determined nods and smiles concerning what they intended on doing. And while this was lost on Dipper at first, it didn’t take him too long to realize what their dangerous plan was. “Oh no, you guys,” he quickly spoke up, adamantly disagreeing with the very idea. “We’re not gonna-” He didn’t really get a chance to finish, however, as Mabel abruptly grabbed him by the wrist once again and pulled him along with her and Steven as they started making their way for the control room. “O-ok, I guess we are then!”

The Gems had only just finished preparing themselves for their own plan, however, as they noticed that the kids were missing, and were indeed, scaling the nearby wires to go meet the green Gem for themselves. The trio gasped in exasperated alarm, but they didn’t dare try to stop them, lest they blow their cover completely, even if the kids were already well on their way to do just that.

“Now accounting for all operational injectors,” Peridot continued her report, unaware of kids’ arrival since her monitor was turned away from them. “Checking for aberrations in perimeter.” As she spoke, the kids were startled as two very large, robotic hands, independent of any sort of arms or wrists, rose up from the ground nearby. The pair of hands got to work on activating a pair of panels on the adjacent walls, which brought ejected a group of cylinders from the ceiling. “Ugh, this Gem tech is simply archaic…” Peridot sneered dryly as she continued her work.

“I don’t know, I think it looks pretty cool,” Steven suddenly spoke up with a small smile.

“Yeah, it’s all sparkly and futuristicy,” Mabel added just as brightly, ignoring Dipper as he facepalmed in exasperation over their shared innocent friendliness. “You guys really know what you’re doing with this stuff!”

For a moment, the entire control room went silent, the robotic hands freezing in place before they suddenly lifted from the walls altogether. Peridot’s monitor swiveled around just as quickly, her eyes wide with alarm and confusion as she noticed the trio standing before her.

“Hi!” the young Gem greeted warmly as Mabel waved to the green Gem while Dipper glanced away nervously. “I’m Steven, and this is Dipper and Mabel!”

Peridot remained silent as her screen drew in closer to the kids, her surprise turning into annoyed confusion as she looked over her log once more. “There appears to be an infestation of ‘Stevens’, ‘Dippers’, and ‘Mabels’ in the Kindergarten,” she reported, her tone rather cross.

“…What?” Dipper asked flatly, quite bewildered by the green Gem’s odd logic.

“Aw, we’re not so bad once you get to know us!” Steven quipped as Mabel let out an amused laugh.

Peridot glared back at the trio, raising an eyebrow as she looked over them with slight scrutiny. “And how many more Stevens, Dippers, or Mabels are present in this area?”

“Oh, its just us!” Mabel informed her with a blithe grin. “Well, us and the-”

Dipper hurriedly cut her off by slapping a hand over her mouth to silence her. “Uh, like she said, i-it’s just us! N-nobody else!” he exclaimed with a very nervous laugh, remembering well just how much the Gems wanted to remain unseen in all this. And while he didn’t really understand exactly why, he figured that, based on Peridot’s apparently unconcerned attitude so far, that not mentioning them probably would be for the best.

“Hm, well that’s a relief,” Peridot remarked, seeming to buy it as she looked over her screen once more. “So tell me: have Stevens, Dippers, and Mabels replaced humans as the dominant species on Earth?’

“What?” Mabel chuckled, bemused by the green Gem’s apparent lack of understand. “We are humans, silly!”

“Oh really?” Peridot asked, her tone bored as she raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, but there’s lots of other humans too!” Steven exclaimed enthusiastically. “There’s my dad, Connie, Mr. Pines, Soos, Wendy, Sadie, Lars, Onion… I think. But yeah, lots of people, including us!”

“Hm…” the green Gem mused, rolling her eyes. “I suppose it is impressive that your kind managed to survive this long… Even if you won’t for very much longer.”

“Whoa, hold on, what?!” Dipper interjected, quite alarmed by the implications of this, though Steven spoke up before Peridot could divulge any further.

“Now we get to ask you a question,” the young Gem addressed the green Gem with a coy grin. “What are you doing?”

“Oh,” Peridot began, her tone as aloof as ever as her screen turned itself back around. “Just picking up where we left off…”

The kids didn’t have the opportunity to ask her to elaborate, however, as one of the robotic hands hovered over them, quickly taking the form of a tight fist, one that raised up high with every intention of crushing all three of them. And yet, as Peridot brought it down, the kids were fortunately saved at the last second by Garnet, who thankfully intervened by catching the massive fist with her gauntlets before tossing it aside. The green Gem immediately took notice of this, her monitor turning around as she let out a sharp, startled gasp. “A Gem?!” she exclaimed in disbelief, though her surprise only increased as Amethyst and Pearl leapt into the control room, standing protectively before their kids with their weapons at the ready. “Ah! More?!” Peridot cried fearfully. “But the Red Eye didn’t report the presence of any Gems on this planet!”

“That’s because we destroyed it!” Pearl exclaimed with boldness far removed from her earlier panic.

“Y-you what?!” Peridot gaped, frantically looking to her screen. “So you were the ones who—B-but the records say that Gems were wiped out on Earth! Wait a minute… you’re the ones who have been destroying my Plug Robinoids! Are you the reason the Homeworld warp is down again?! Is this your bizarre icon?!” she demanded, holding up an image of the Wailing Waffle sticker on her screen. “Augh! Why do you keep destroying my things?!”

“Because we are the Crystal Gems!” Pearl proclaimed fiercely, pointing her spear at the green Gem’s monitor. All the while, the kids could only watch this exchange with shared, stunned fear, unable to even think about whatever mistake they might have made as the white Gem continued her brave declaration. “We’re still alive, and we’re still the guardians of this planet and all its living creatures!”

Peridot’s fury turned to blank confusion at this, as if she had no idea what the white Gem had been talking about. “The… Crystal Gems…?” Before the green Gem could ask any further questions, however, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl courageously leapt into action. With fierce battle cries, they began a brutal assault on her hand constructs, lashing and beating away at them aggressively, much to Peridot’s immense frustration. “Stop!” she shouted hotly. “How dare you! I’m doing this one way or another! You’re just making it really difficult!” The green Gem seethed with visible rage as the Gems managed to take out one of her robotic hands with ease, crumbling it to ineffective bits.

“Now do you guys see just how bad of an idea this was?” Dipper asked Steven and Mabel dryly amidst all of this chaos.

“Yeah…” they both admitted in awkward unison, glancing away from the fray with clear regret.

“Amethyst, now!” Garnet shouted to the purple Gem as she went high and noticed her whip was wrapped around the other large hand.

“Destroy!” Amethyst growled, throwing the hand down hard at the power source at the back wall. The crystal instantly shattered, but not before Peridot managed to get one more word in edgewise.

“I’m reporting this, you CLODS!” she shouted angrily before her monitor vanished and the control room went dark, its link to Homeworld finally severed.

“Is… is it over?” Amethyst asked her teammates tentatively. Garnet and Pearl exchanged a brief, uncertain glance, but after a moment, they both let out a shared sigh of relief. Still, everything wasn’t entirely over, especially as the Gems approached the kids, giving them a round of exasperated, unimpressed stares.

“Ok, right off the bat, I wanna say don’t look at me,” Dipper quickly interjected. “This was all their idea, after all,” he nodded to Steven and Mabel, who met the Gems’ caustic gazes rather anxiously.

“Ok…” Steven admitted with a sigh. “So we might have gone… a little far this time…”

“A little?” Pearl raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms.

“Mmm, ok… a lot,” Mabel corrected with a frown. “But how were we supposed to Peridot was actually kind of crazy?”

“Really?” Dipper asked dryly. “You couldn’t have gotten that from how she totally destroyed one of her own robots the other night?”

“Well, you two weren’t completely wrong,” Garnet spoke up with a small, reassuring smile. “We did learn something new from your decisions.”

“And that something is…?” Steven asked curiously.

“…We have no idea,” the Gem leader admitted. “But we’ll figure it out eventually.”

“Alright!” the kids cheered with relieved unison before Garnet cut in once more.

“But yeah, this was a pretty bad idea.”

“Aw, man…” Steven and Mabel both sighed in defeat as Dipper merely rolled his eyes knowingly. Still, before the group left, they all looked over the wrecked control room once last time, both the kids and the Gems all silently mulling over the exact same thing. It was indeed as Garnet had said; they had discovered something new through this risky encounter.

And yet, only time would tell if they would ever really figure out what it all truly meant.

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