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minijenn · 7 years ago

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Universe Falls Chapter 39

ALAS IT IS FINALLY COMPLETE MY NEWEST MAGNUM OPUS FUCK YES Seriously though this chapter is probably one of the best things I’ve ever written and you all are about to suffer the feels from it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Enjoy!

Previous: http://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/163300955939/universe-falls-chapter-38

Chapter 39: Dipper and Lapis

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Summer evenings in Gravity Falls were known for being picturesque, with warm, crisp air, gently-chirping crickets in the distance, and deep, dusky skies dotted with arriving stars. As peacefully perfect as this particular evening was, both the Pines and the Gems had no qualms about enjoying it. At the behest of the kids, everyone had casually gathered down at the shack to simply hang out and relax without real worries or pressure whatsoever. Stan and Amethyst reclined on the couch on the porch, knocking back cans of Pitt Cola (with Stan drinking the cola and Amethyst devouring the cans) as Pearl sat by them, mildly amused by their antics. Garnet opted to stand, leaning against one of the porch’s posts as she stargazed with a soft smile on her face. The kids were largely doing the same thing, with Steven and Mabel propped against Lion, the former loosely strumming on his ukulele while the other cuddled Waddles against her sweater. Dipper sat a short distance away from them, not particularly keen on cozying up to the intimidating pink beast, but taking in the calm beauty of the evening all the same.

As Steven finished strumming through another gentle tune, he decided to give both his instrument and his fingers a rest as he let out a contented sigh. “This is so nice,” he said to the collective group. “All of us, just hanging out and relaxing, without having to worry about any Gem monsters or paranormal creatures.”

“Yeah, like crazy golf ball people,” Mabel noted with a reminiscing grin.

“Or brain-hungry zombies,” Stan interjected dryly, passing another empty can over to Amethyst.

“Or jerky shapeshifters,” the purple Gem said with apt disdain as she swallowed the can whole.

“Or rampaging Gem robots,” Pearl added, cringing in slight revulsion at Amethyst’s odd appetite.

“Or awkward dinner parties,” Garnet finished stoically.

“Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that things can get pretty intense around here…” Dipper remarked with something of a wry smirk. “But hey, at least we only have to deal with that sort of stuff some of the time, instead of all the time.”

“For now,” Garnet muttered before she could really stop herself.

Of course, the vagueness of her statement was more than enough to peak Dipper’s interest, especially since the Gem leader was quick to glance away almost anxiously as soon as she said it. “What do you mean ‘for now’?” he asked with a curious frown.

“I-I… I just-” Garnet stammered with rare uncertainty, though she was quick to catch herself, her usually cool manner returning as she adjusted her shades. “Nothing. It… it’s nothing.”

By now, both Steven and Mabel were almost as intrigued by the Gem leader’s newfound apprehension as Dipper was, and while all three of them wanted to press her for more information, Stan spoke up first. “What’s the matter, shades?” he asked Garnet sardonically. “Does your ‘future sight’ thing see some sort of monster attack or alien invasion coming up or something? Ha!”

As the conman let out an amused chuckle, Garnet took in a sharp breath, one that only her teammates noticed as they exchanged a confused and worried glance. “Hey, uh, G?” Amethyst asked a bit anxiously. “You… you don’t actually see either of those things actually happening, right?”

Garnet still looked somewhat taken aback, but all the same, she was quick to play it off. “No,” she said firmly, not bothering to say another word on the matter.

“Oh, t-thank goodness!” Pearl exclaimed, allayed. “It’s certainly a relief to know that we won’t be beset by a monster anytime soon, or that Homeworld might-” The white Gem abruptly cut herself off, slapping a hand over her own mouth as she briefly looked over at the kids with wide eyes.

“Homeworld?” Steven asked with a frown. “W-what might Homeworld do?”

“Nothing,” Garnet readily asserted. “Just like I said.”

“Well you guys sure aren’t making it seem like it’s nothing,” Dipper said somewhat suspiciously. “What would happen if Homeworld invaded Earth anyway? You know, just… hypothetically speaking?”

“Ooo, would we get to meet a bunch of cool new Gems?” Mabel chimed in enthusiastically. “Oh, but then again, the last new Gem we met was Peridot, and she’s kind of a jerk so… yeah, maybe all those new Gems wouldn’t be so cool if they’re anything like her…”

“It wouldn’t be cool at all,” Pearl said, clearly unnerved by the thought alone. “If Homeworld Gems were to come back to Earth… they would-”

“It doesn’t matter what they would do,” Garnet interrupted staunchly. “The Galaxy Warp is broken. Peridot’s gotten the message that she’s not welcome here. Homeworld isn’t coming back.”

“Ok…” Dipper said, not entirely convinced as he leaned forward a bit. “But what if they do come back someday?”

“They’re not,” Garnet reiterated unflinchingly.

“But what if-”

“They’re not coming back,” the Gem leader repeated, her tone turning a bit more rigid this time. “We don’t need to think in terms of what ifs, because it’s not going to happen.”

“But how do you know that?” Dipper asked persistently, starting to get frustrated with the Gems’ continued refusal to be honest about such serious matters. “Garnet, I know you can kind of see the future, but what if this is something beyond what your future vision can see? Shouldn’t we at least try to be prepared for it?”

“Dipper, we don’t need to be prepared for a possible Homeworld invasion, because something like that is not going to happen again,” Pearl insisted rather stubbornly, failing to mention the true reason why the idea of Homeworld returning was so abhorrent to all three of the Gems. “They have absolutely no reason to ever come to this planet again. So that means we don’t have to talk about that possibility anymore, hypothetical or otherwise.”

“But-” Dipper tried to protest once more, only to be cut off by Stan this time.

“Geez, kid, can’t you take a hint?” the conman asked, exasperated. “Whoever these ‘Homeworld’ people are, it’s pretty clear they’re not coming around these parts again, so can’t you just shut your trap about it already?”

“Seriously, dude,” Amethyst added, reclining back in her seat. “You worry too much. No Homeworld chumps are gonna step up on our terf as long as we’re around.”

“Sounds like you guys are just in denial if you ask me…” Dipper muttered petulantly, crossing his arms as he glared away from the Gems.

“Nah, bro-bro, it sounds to me like you’re just being paranoid, as usual,” Mabel interjected, rolling her eyes. “You know, I thought you got all of that junk out of your system a few days ago. Maybe you and Steven need to fuse again to give you a refresher course in how to chill out.”

“Yeah!” Steven agreed enthusiastically. “I’m up for giving Stepper another go if you are, Dipper. It’ll be fun!”

“Steven, we don’t need Stepper,” Dipper said, shaking his head dismissively. “What we need is to take this whole Homeworld thing seriously for once! And as usual, it seems like I’m the only person who’s doing that.”

“We are taking this seriously,” Garnet said stiffly. “And we’re serious about the fact that no Homeworld Gems are coming to Earth. We have nothing to worry about.”

“Yeah, Garnet’s right,” Amethyst concluded casually. “Now can we finally drop all this Homeworld junk and just chill like we were before? All this arguing and drama is starting to bum me out.”

“Ditto,” Stan agreed with a shrug.

“For once, I agree with you both,” Pearl said, more than eager to leave this tense discussion behind. “After all, there’s no need to ruin such a lovely evening with such troublesome thoughts, right?”

Everyone else nodded in soft agreement with this, save for Dipper, who simply let out a disgruntled sigh as he stood and turned to head inside without trying to argue with the Gems any further, knowing that, like always, it would be a futile battle. “Hey, where are you going?” Mabel asked her brother as he wordlessly bypassed the Gems on his way to the door.

“To bed,” Dipper replied tersely, not even bothering to glance back.

“Already?” Steven frowned. “But it’s still pretty early.”

“Oh well,” Dipper shrugged somewhat crossly as he reached the door. “Guess I’m just really tired all of the sudden…” He sighed as he went inside, not adding that what he was really tired of went far beyond mere physical exhaustion.

Steven and Mabel exchanged a rather worried glance as they watched Dipper leave, both of them partially wanting to follow him and make sure he was alright, but at the same time, knowing that doing so would get them nowhere. At the same time, even the Gems themselves looked a bit guilty, Garnet in particular feeling as though she had been a bit too dismissive towards Dipper over the Homeworld issue. But at the same time, the trio had their reasons for being so dodgy on the subject, most of them pertaining to saving the kids from fear and worry that was simply not theirs to bear. And perhaps, also pertaining to their own fears and worries over what might unfold if their Homeworld ever truly did decide to interfere with the planet Earth once again.

Despite going inside for the night, the last thing Dipper did was sleep, though not for a lack of trying. Too irked to really dive into the journal for what would no doubt be a futile search for clues, he instead opted to lie down, though his abundance of perplexed thoughts allowed him very little rest. Even as the group outside disbanded for the night hours later and Mabel came in to go to bed herself, Dipper was still wide awake, even if he pretended that he was so he wouldn’t have to discuss what had happened with the Gems earlier.

Still, that didn’t change the fact that he was frustrated. Beyond frustrated, really. He was angry. Once again, the Gems were choosing to ignore what was right in front of them, just as they had when Peridot’s robinoids first started appearing. However, this time, it was even more infuriating, largely because the issue was much more serious and grave. Dipper couldn’t exactly profess that he knew a lot about Homeworld; mostly all the information he had about it was composed of what few bits and pieces the Gems and the journal provided, which admittedly wasn’t that much. But the huge gaps in his knowledge really gave him all the more reason to worry. What if Peridot, who had more than enough reason to be provoked after Stepper took out her attack robinoids, decided to act on her anger and actually come to Earth herself, just as she had hinted at upon her latest defeat? There would be no telling what kind of technology or weaponry they be up against if she did, and chances were that she likely wouldn’t come alone either. No doubt the threat such an invasion might introduce would be massive, but the only ones who had any chance of standing up to it were in staunch denial over it ever happening. While Dipper knew that Homeworld in general was a touchy subject for the Gems, what he couldn’t understand was why they refused to even talk about it at all. In a strange way, it almost seemed as though they were afraid, afraid of Homeworld, afraid of Gems from it coming to Earth, and afraid of even facing the possibility of such a thing happening, no matter how large or small that possibility might be.

But even despite their apparent fear, the Gems still knew about the danger Homeworld could potentially pose. And even with that knowledge in hand, they refused to impart it, still clinging onto their secrets as tightly as ever, despite their promise to be more open. While Dipper had gotten more than used to their secrecy by now, that didn’t mean it still didn’t immensely aggravate him. Even after everything that had happened this summer, the Gems still viewed him and Steven and Mabel as too innocent and naive to know the truth, whatever that truth was. They thought they couldn’t handle it, but Dipper knew he could handle it, no matter how dark and sinister it might be. He wanted to know, needed to know, for more than just his insatiable curiosity. If a powerful extraterrestrial threat really was coming, then he wanted to be ready for it, or at least as ready as he could be. And he figured that the only way to be prepared for it would be to arm himself with the knowledge of exactly what they might be dealing with.

At this thought, Dipper found his gaze slowly turn towards the journal sitting on the nearby nightstand, the six-fingered hand on its cover dully shining in the moonlight coming in through the upper window. There was no question that the unknown author had a vast knowledge of the Gems and Gemkind, and while there was little in the third journal pertaining to Homeworld, perhaps the other two missing books would contain such coveted information. Of course, Dipper didn’t have the faintest idea about where the first two journals might be hidden, and while the best source of information would be the author himself, both his identity and whereabouts where still a complete and utter mystery. But all the same, that didn’t mean that Dipper couldn’t continue searching for the answers for those mysteries until he finally found them.

Even though Stan had grounded both him and Mabel from mystery hunting, he didn’t ground them from mystery researching, which was why Dipper figured he wouldn’t get in too much trouble for feeding his boundless curiosity. Moving quietly as not to wake Mabel up, he slid out of bed and grabbed the journal, quickly putting his hat, jacket, and shoes on before slipping out of the attic and onto the platform on the roof. The nearly full moon outside provided ample light for him to read by, both normally and via black light, and Dipper fully intended to utilize both kinds of light to conduct his investigation with.

“Ok, journal,” he said to the book with unshakable resolve. “If the Gems won’t talk about Homeworld, then maybe you can point me to someone who will.”

Fully prepared to spend the entire night reading between the journal’s lines, Dipper pulled the book open. However, before he could even tell what page he was on, a sudden roar afar in the distance, one that grew louder with each passing second caught his attention. Confused, he looked up towards the sky, easily spotting what, upon a first glance appeared to be a shooting star, soaring rapidly through the night. And yet, several things were off about this supposed star, from its mild brightness, to its odd speed, to its increasing size, to its downward descent, to the continued noise as it drew closer and closer. Dipper gasped in alarm, hopping to his feet as the ‘star’ got even brighter, briefly lighting up the sky before it finally crashed down to the Earth several miles away, but still close enough to create a noticeable, audible explosion.

“Whoa…” Dipper breathed, his eyes wide as the light from the blast faded back into nighttime darkness, even as a stream of smoke began rising from wherever the ‘star’ had landed. From where he was standing, he guessed that wherever was somewhere near the lake, maybe even around the waterfall. A good distance away, but not so far that he couldn’t go check it out without being back by sunrise, something that he was more than ready to do, especially seeing as how the mystery object had come from space. For all he knew, it could have very well been another one of Peridot’s robots, or maybe even something else from Homeworld altogether. But regardless of what it was, Dipper knew that it was worth looking into, and that he was going to be the one to do just that.

Acting quickly, Dipper gathered the journal and hurried back into the attic, putting the book back in its spot before hurrying over to try and rouse Mabel from her slumber. “Mabel,” he shook her, keeping his voice in a whisper so Stan wouldn’t hear. After all, they were still grounded from doing things like this, but at the moment, Dipper could hardly care, especially considering just how big this could be. “Mabel, wake up. I just saw something come from space and crash down near the lake. We’ve gotta go check it out!”

Of course, Mabel was still mostly asleep, and even despite her brother’s insistent urging, that was something that likely wasn’t going to change anytime soon. “Mm… cake…” she muttered with a groggy smile, having only partially heard Dipper.

“Ugh, Mabel, come on!” Dipper exclaimed a bit louder, shaking her by the shoulder again. “We have to hurry before whatever that thing is disappears or runs away or-”

“I’ll be right over, brooo,” Mabel mumbled somewhat incoherently, eyes still closed as she rolled over. “Just give me a… hour… or two… or ten…”

“Mabel!” Dipper groaned in exasperation, not too keen on having to wait for Mabel to genuinely wake up. “Fine. I guess I’m on my own then. What else is new?”

As annoyed as he was, Dipper didn’t waste any more time in hurrying out of the attic and downstairs. Fortunately, Stan was nowhere to be found, but seeing as how he was likely fast asleep himself, Dipper made sure to take the upmost care to be as discreet and quiet as possible in slipping out of the shack and back outside. Of course, he didn’t really get very far down the path that led towards the lake before coming to an abrupt realization. The lake was all the way on the other end of town, meaning that it was a relatively short trip by car, but a rather lengthy and exhausting one on foot. Seeing as how time was always on the essence when it came to things like this, Dipper knew that he’d have to find a faster method of getting there, and as he happened to glance over to the temple, he came up with the perfect idea for such a method.

On nice nights like tonight, Lion had the tendency to sleep outside, right under the house’s porch. And fortunately enough, the pink beast was peacefully snoozing right in his favorite spot, or at least he was until he picked up on someone quietly approaching him. In a flash, Lion was on his feet, his sharp teeth bared and a threatening growl rumbling from him as he glared sharply at Dipper, who stepped back a bit fearfully upon getting such a harsh reception.

“Uh… h-hey, Lion,” Dipper began with a rather forced grin of greeting, even as the pink beast continued to growl at him. “So, um… I know you and me aren’t exactly the best of friends-” Lion cut him off with a hostile snarl, prompting him to put his hands up defensively, lest the pink beast suddenly lunge at him without warning. “Ok, so we aren’t really friends at all, but how about we just forget about that for a minute? I need you to give me a ride over to the lake, alright?”

Of course, Lion was quick to stubbornly turn his nose up at this request, letting out a gruff snort as he swiftly turned back to his sleeping spot. “Ok, that’s fine,” Dipper shrugged, feigning apathy. “I figured you’d say no, so I went back to the shack before coming up here and brought you a little… incentive…” He smirked as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a still mostly frozen Lion Licker, something that immediately caught the pink beast’s interest. “Aha! Steven mentioned that these are your favorite and it looks like he was right,” Dipper smirked in satisfaction, though he was quick to pull the treat back before Lion could snatch it out of his hand. “Whoa, hold on a second. You want this? Then you give me a ride to the lake, got it?”

While it was clear that he wasn’t pleased with this condition, Lion begrudgingly complied, lowering himself to allow Dipper to climb onto his back and scowling all the while. Of course, just because the pink beast was being agreeable didn’t mean he had any intentions of being amicable, which was why he suddenly took off running without giving Dipper much warning at all. Though he nearly fell off of his ride’s back, he managed to get a firm hold, steadying himself well enough as Lion rushed through the darkened woods as something of a shortcut to the lake.

“Ok,” Dipper said with resolve, talking more to himself than Lion as they drew ever closer to the lake. “So we’re just gonna go see what that thing that fell from the sky was, and if it seems dangerous, then we’ll go get the Gems.” He paused for a moment, looking to the smoke still rising from the supposed crash site a bit apprehensively, realizing the potential problems with this plan. “But… knowing them… they probably won’t believe me again…” He sighed, disgruntled, as he recalled the robinoids situation and noted that the plume of smoke wasn’t coming from the lake itself. It was coming from the top of the waterfall. “W-well, maybe… maybe I won’t need the Gems at all. I mean, I’ve dealt with stuff like this before. I can totally handle whatever this thing is. Right?” He glanced down at Lion, who offered no response as he began running up the steep hill that lead to the top of the falls, his expression still set in a gruff, frustrated glare. “…Right…” Dipper concluded somewhat diffidently, tightening his hold on the pink beast’s mane just a bit. “G-good talk, Lion. Good talk.”

Upon finally reaching their destination, Lion came to an abrupt halt, one that essentially threw Dipper off his back and roughly landed him a few feet away. “Ow! Lion, what-” he quickly cut himself off upon turning to see the pink beast staring down at him with a demanding growl, only really caring about one thing at the conclusion of their bargain. “Ok, ok, here! Take it!” Dipper pulled the Lion Licker out of his pocket once more and tossed it over to the pink beast, who was more than happy to pounce for it and devour it aggressively. Dipper simply rolled his eyes at Lion’s wild behavior before turning towards the crash site and instantly being set on edge even more upon what lay before him.

Whatever had crashed to earth had done so hard, hard enough to knock down several trees in the vicinity and to create a rather sizable crater in the ground just a few feet away from both the river and the cliff’s edge. The round hole’s edges were still steaming, though they also seemed to be somehow oddly wet, based on the sheen they put off in the still potent moonlight. The unknown projectile was seemingly nowhere to be found, something that alarmed Dipper even more and prompted him to grab a nearby stick to defend himself as he slowly approached the crater. Upon a closer look, he realized that the crash had created not just an indentation, but an opening that likely lead down into the waterfall cave down below. Thinking that whatever had fallen from the sky was currently down there, Dipper leaned in a bit closer to the hole in an attempt to get a better look, only for his foot to slip up on the wet edge of the opening. Unable to catch himself in time, he lurched forward on accident, inadvertently falling into the hole and plummeting down into the cave far below with a fearful cry. However, before he could make a no-doubt very painful impact with the ground cave’s hard ground, something happened to catch him instead, that something being, conveniently enough, water.

As Dipper opened his eyes and gasped in surprise over being unharmed from his fall, his relief instantly turned to panic as he took in a mouthful of water instead of air. Not knowing what else to do, he immediately swam upward, breaching the surface of the water in seconds, only to realize something was wrong as he caught his breath. Instead of landing in the waterfall pool like he initially thought he had, he was suspended in what appeared to be a small, contained bubble of water, one that was just large enough to accommodate him as it hovered just a few feet above the stony ground. Confused and unnerved by this apparent trap, Dipper began struggling to release himself from it, though his attempts were soon halted as an oddly familiar voice spoke out from the shadows of the cave.

“Dipper?”

“Huh?” Dipper froze in alarm, looking for the source of this feminine voice, who sounded to be just as startled as he was. “W-who’s there?! Show yourself! I’m warning you, I have a—well, I had a stick…” He frowned, glancing to the ground here his rather weak weapon of defense had fallen.

However, he quickly realized he didn’t need it at all as a blue, bare foot slowly stepped into the moonlight pouring into the cave from above. The concealed figure seemed to hesitate a bit, almost as if they didn’t want to reveal themselves, but sure enough, they emerged from the shadows, revealing a Gem that Dipper thought he’d never really see again.

“Lapis?!” he exclaimed, his jaw dropping in shock at the sight of the equally stunned blue Gem. Lapis Lazuli stood, her eyes wide and her expression awash in immense surprise. She looked exactly the same as she had when she had departed Earth for Homeworld weeks ago, though something about her seemed different, even upon a first glance, though exactly what that something was, it was hard to tell.

For a moment, the only thing either of them could do was stare at each other incredulously, almost as if neither of them could believe such a strange and sudden meeting was taking place. And all things considered, it really was quite hard to believe, which was why neither of them really knew what to say or how to react at first. But all the same, when this stilted, almost awkward silence was finally broken, Dipper was the one to do so, though mostly in reference to how he was still trapped in the cushion of water Lapis had apparently caught him in.

“Uh… do you mind…?”

“Oh, right,” Lapis was quick to comply, lowering her lifted hand as the water bubble lowered and disbanded along with it, leaving Dipper not just free to move his limbs again but also soaking wet. “S-sorry. I thought you were… never mind…”

Dipper frowned in confusion at this, and while he had countless questions he wanted to pose to Lapis in the wake of her mysterious appearance, he decided to work his way into them gradually, not wanting to overwhelm the apparently startled blue Gem. “So, um… long time, no see, huh?” he asked with something of an awkward, but still inviting smile.

“It hasn’t been a long time since the last time we saw each other,” Lapis shook her head, not understanding the common phrase. “It was just a few weeks ago, remember?”

“Uh… right…” Dipper raised an eyebrow, remembering that the blue Gem had a tendency to be rather literal. He was prepared to cut to the chase and ask her about her unexpected arrival, she beat him to it.

“Dipper, what are you doing here?” she asked, her tone rather unreadable as she looked to him intently.

“What am I-” Dipper cut himself off, bewildered as he met the blue Gem’s questioning gaze evenly. “No offense, Lapis, but I think the better question would be what are you doing here? I thought you flew back to Homeworld after Steven healed your gem.”

Lapis flinched at this, her eyes growing even wider as she took in a soft, but sharp breath before quickly glancing away. “I… I did,” she began, shakily at first, though she quickly steeled herself a moment later. “I did go back. But… let’s just say that Homeworld… wasn’t like I remember it being…”

“What do you mean?” Dipper asked, his interest peaking as his preexisting curiosity about Homeworld took over. However, it seemed as though the blue Gem had no intentions of discussing the matter further as she folded her arms and turned away from him. “Lapis?”

“Dipper… you should go…” she said with an anxious sigh, not even bothering to glance back at him.

“No!” Dipper protested, frustrated at the idea that Lapis, much like the Crystal Gems, might deny him the truth as well. He was quick to retract his bold manner, however, as the blue Gem looked back to him with apt surprise. “I-I mean… I thought you wanted to go back to Homeworld more than anything else. Heck, you even stole the lake just so you could get there. So… I just want to know what happened when you got back to Homeworld that would make you want to leave it so quickly.”

By now, Lapis had turned to face him, clearly taken aback by his insistence over the matter but still not providing much of an answer. Instead, she let out a small, almost sad sigh as she walked past him to take a seat on the edge of the outcropping overlooking the waterfall pool. Not really knowing what else to do, Dipper followed suit, sitting down beside her and listening both curiously and somewhat worriedly as she provided him with a few more details.

“You’re right. I wanted to go back, more than anything… I just…” Lapis paused, sighing again as she looked down into the water below. “W-when I got back to Homeworld… I-I realized that I just… didn’t belong there anymore. I was trapped in that mirror for thousands of years, and so many things changed while I was gone. It was like… it was like it wasn’t even the same planet anymore. It didn’t even feel like I was home…”

Upon hearing all this, all of Dipper’s inquiries concerning Homeworld were instantly put aside in favor of deep, genuine sympathy for Lapis. After all, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like, to have one’s expectations and hopes set so high, only for them to so completely and utterly crushed. And while the blue Gem seemed to be holding back just how upset over the matter she really was, the melancholy and dejection that she was showing was more than enough to convey it. “Oh man… Lapis… I-I’m so sorry things didn’t work out…” he said with sincere condolence.

“It… it’s fine…” Lapis shook her head, her eyes shut in morose contemplation. “It’s not like it’s really your fault anyway. And despite… everything that happened, I’m still really grateful to you, Steven, and Mabel. If it wasn’t for you guys… well, I’d probably still be stuck in that mirror right now.”

The blue Gem let out a small, somewhat bitter laugh at this, one that Dipper didn’t join in on as he continued to look to her, concerned. “So, uh… if you don’t mind me asking…” he began tentatively. “Why did you decide to come back to Earth?”

“I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go,” Lapis shrugged, a hint of disdain for the planet in her tone. “But believe me, I don’t plan on staying here for too long. I just needed a place to… to, uh… clear my head for a few hours. And when I’m done, then… I guess I'll just go and keep on flying until I can’t anymore.”

“A few hours?” Dipper repeated, somewhat dismayed at this news. “Are you sure you don’t want to stick around just a little longer than that?”

“Why would I want to be here any longer?” the blue Gem asked tiredly. “It’s not like I’ve had too many happy memories on this planet, after all…”

“R-right…” Dipper frowned, looking away awkwardly. “Well, it’s just… the last time any of us saw you, you were trapped in a mirror or trying to make off with the waterfall. So it’s not like we really got to hang out or anything between us trying to hide you from the Gems and you almost drowning us.”

“Oh yeah…” Lapis said somewhat guiltily. “Sorry about that… But… y-you’d really want me to stay, even after… you know?”

“Well, yeah,” Dipper shrugged with a small smile. “I mean, you came all the way back here, so why not relax at least for a few days? If Homeworld was really as bad as you said it was, then I’d say you deserve a chance to take your mind off it. And if nothing else, then it’ll give you some time to figure out what you’re going to do from here, right?”

Lapis hesitated at this, conflict filling her features as she met Dipper’s hopeful, almost imploring gaze. And while she might have originally inclined to say no, there was really no way she could do so after seeing that. “Ok…” she sighed relentingly, though there was the faintest hint of a smile on her face as she did so. “I… I’ll stay. B-but only for a few days. And… and I’m just going to stay right here in this cave, i-if that’s ok.”

“Lapis, that’s fine,” Dipper said with something of an amused chuckle. “You can totally hang out here if you want to. It’s not really like anyone’s gonna bother you if you’re hiding out behind a giant wall of water,” he smirked, nodding to the backside of the falls pouring over the cave opening.

“Well, that’s a relief…” Lapis noted, still somewhat apprehensive with her choice. “I guess I’ll have to do something about that other hole though…” She frowned as she glanced up to the gaping opening high above them.

“Well, don’t close it up too quickly,” Dipper remarked, still grinning slightly. “You’ll need it open for when I bring Steven and Mabel down here tomorrow. Knowing those two, they’ll probably lose it with excitement over seeing you again and-”

“Whoa, hold on,” Lapis interjected, alarm flashing over her expression as she quickly rose to stand. “Dipper, listen to me. You can’t tell anyone else I’m here on Earth. Not Steven, not Mabel, and especially not those Crystal Gems.”

Needless to say that Dipper was somewhat surprised by the severely serious insistence in the blue Gem’s tone, and while he understood her reasoning for not wanting the Crystal Gems to know about her return, the other half of her request was rather confusing. “W-why not?” he asked tentatively, standing as well.

“Oh… w-well… I… I just want to law low for a while, you know?” Lapis ventured with a shrug, trying her best to be as convincing as possible. “A-and… you said so yourself: Steven and Mabel would be pretty excited to see me again, right? If that’s true, then… then I don’t want them to be disappointed when they find out I’m leaving in a few days…”

“Yeah, I’m sure they’d be the only ones disappointed by that…” Dipper said, crossing his arms as he sent the blue Gem a somewhat crestfallen glance.

“A-and you too, Dipper!” Lapis exclaimed, suddenly flustered by her own tactlessness. “I don’t want you to be disappointed either. To be honest, I was kind of hoping that no one would find out I was here at all…”

“Well, I’m sorry for finding you on accident then?”

“N-no! That’s not what I-” the blue Gem cut herself off, letting out a sigh to steady herself. “Look,” she said, her tone imploring and sincere as she placed a hand on Dipper’s shoulder. “I just… don’t want anyone else knowing I’m here, ok? I'm hoping that all this can stay between the two of us. “You can do that for me… can’t you, Dipper?”

Dipper didn’t answer right away, but instead looked to Lapis in apt disbelief over the fact that she was deciding to entrust him, and him alone, with such a massive secret. After all, the fact that Lapis had returned to Earth, not just from anywhere, but from Homeworld of all places, was not only monumental, but exceedingly relevant given recent events. He was already quite beside himself that he had been the one to stumble upon her alone, without Steven, Mabel, the Gems, or anyone else. But the fact that she wanted him to remain silent about such an incredible, serendipitous discovery was rather disappointing to Dipper, especially since Lapis could finally lead to some tangible answers about Homeworld and what it was up to. Yet at the same time, he realized that, perhaps hiding the blue Gem’s return from everyone, especially the Gems, could be, in a strange way, cathartic. After all, the Gems kept so many secrets, even still, from him, Steven, and Mabel. Perhaps, Dipper reasoned, it was time he started keeping a secret of his own.

“Yes,” he finally said after a prolonged silence, his tone confident and assuring. “Yes, I can.”

“Do you promise?” Lapis asked, wanting to make sure he was sincere.

“Lapis, why-”

“Dipper, do you promise?” the blue Gem repeated, much more adamantly this time.

“I-I promise,” he affirmed, knowing it was the least he could do for Lapis after everything she had apparently been through.

Lapis finally genuinely smiled upon hearing this, her hand slipping off Dipper’s shoulder as she breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” she said, truly grateful. “I knew I could count on you, Dipper.”

“O-of course,” Dipper nodded, still a bit on edge from Lapis’ heavy insistence on him swearing to secrecy. While he wanted to press her for more details on that, as well as her journey to Homeworld and back again, his curious questions were instantly forgotten as he happened to glance up at the opening over the cave, only to see the first hints of dawn lighting up the sky. “Oh, man, the sun’s rising already!?” he exclaimed in sudden alarm. “I gotta get back to the shack before Mabel and Grunkle Stan realize I’m gone! Lapis, do you mind maybe giving me a lift back up?”

“Oh, sure,” Lapis complied, easily creating a platform of solid water, one that started rising upward the moment Dipper tentatively stepped onto it. “Bye, Dipper,” she called out after him with a small, cordial smile and wave as she watched him leave.

“Bye, Lapis!” Dipper shouted back more enthusiastically as the water platform lifted him up through the way he had fallen. “I’ll be back to see you again later, I promise!”

Lapis said something in response to this, but Dipper wasn’t able to clearly make it up as the platform landed him safely on top of the cliff once more. But all the same, he couldn’t help but smile a bit as he began to make the long trek back towards the shack, strangely excited about getting to see the mysterious, yet amicable blue Gem again as well as being the only one she trusted with the knowledge of her return. And as far as Dipper was concerned, that was a trust that he had no intentions of betraying.

Fortunately, Dipper managed to make it back to the shack just as the sun finished rising, though no thanks to Lion, who had left the waterfall cliff almost as soon as he finished devouring his Lion Licker. But all the same, he managed to sneak back into the house undetected, knowing that Stan wouldn’t be up for another hour or so, and crept upstairs to the attic without being heard or spotted. The only thing he hadn’t accounted for in his stealthy return became apparent as soon as he shut the attic door behind him only to find Mabel, already up, fully-dressed, and staring at him incredulously as he walked into the room.

“M-Mabel!” Dipper exclaimed in surprise, pressing his back against the door he had just come in through. “Um, w-what are you doing up this early?”

“Uh, news flash, I’m always up this early, bro-bro,” Mabel remarked, raising an eyebrow as she walked over to him, Waddles trotting not too far behind after her. “Right after sunrise is the best time to work on knitting new sweaters, since pretty much nobody else is awake. But…” a sly smile crossed her face, her tone growing suspicious as she leaned in a bit closer to Dipper. “I think the better question, dear brother of mine, is why are you up so early? And more importantly, where did you run off to last night? What, did you have a hot, midnight date or something? Ha!”

“W-wha—no!” Dipper quickly protested, already quite nervous under his sister’s scrutiny, no matter how insincere it was. “I-I didn’t go anywhere last night, I swear! I was just… I was just getting back from a-an… early morning run! Y-yeah, uh… just a plain-old, totally normal, morning run. There’s nothing weird or suspicious about that at all, r-right?”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Dipper!” Mabel proclaimed with a wry, knowing smirk. “You? Going on a ‘morning run’? That’s super suspicious if you ask me. Even if you are sweaty enough to look like you’ve been out running, if I know anything about you, it’s that you hate anything that has to do with physical exercise because you’re a nerd who would rather spend time with books then spend time outside.”

“Hey!” Dipper objected, offended by this claim, though Mabel promptly ignored him.

“So spill it, brother!” she demanded overdramatically. “What kind of sneaky shenanigans were you getting up to last night?”

“U-uh… well, I… I was… it…” Dipper stammered aimlessly, already internally panicking over the fact that Mabel was onto him and panicking even more that he couldn’t come up with anything clever enough to appease her curiosity. Thankfully, however, before he really had to come up with an impromptu lie concerning his whereabouts the previous night, the conversation was abruptly interrupted as Steven poked his head into the attic just at the right time.

“Did somebody say sneaky shenanigans?” he asked with an eager grin. “I didn’t know it was already time for us to get started so early. Usually we wait for some magical Gem thing or paranormal weirdness to kick things off, don’t we?”

“We do, but it seems like Dipper's way ahead of us on that, seeing as how snuck out super late last night,” Mabel informed, sending her anxious brother a coy grin.

“Whoa, really?” Steven asked, impressed and intrigued. “Dipper, that's so awesome! And potentially dangerous, but in a really cool way! Where did you sneak off to?”

“Ugh, nowhere, Steven,” Dipper said, glaring over at Mabel as he did so. “Like I keep telling Mabel, I didn't go anywhere last night. She's just overexaggerating, as usual.”

“No, I'm not!” Mabel insisted adamantly. “I remember you trying to wake me up last night to get me to come along with you to check out some kind of cake or something.” She paused for a moment, briefly pondering what she had just said. “Or maybe you said lake instead... I dunno, the details are kinda hazy since I was mostly asleep and everything.”

“The lake?” Steven repeated in confusion as Dipper froze up in alarm. “What was over at the lake?”

“It... it was... uh... nothing!” Dipper quickly filled in, playing the matter off with false disappointment. “I thought I saw something out that way, so I decided to go check it out. Turned out it was just... it was... uh...” He hesitated, not even wanting to imply that Lapis was in the vicinity whatsoever, even if he did think that Steven and Mabel deserved to know, at the very least. But regardless, he had promised the blue Gem that he wouldn't say anything, and he was going to keep that promise, no matter what. “I-it was just a bunch of tourists setting off some illegal fireworks! Heh, yeah... that works...”

“Fireworks, huh?” Mabel frowned skeptically, not fully convinced of this claim but buying it for the moment as she began to make her way to the door along with Steven. “Whatever you say, bro-bro. But you better hope that Grunkle Stan doesn't find out about your little midnight run over to the lake since we're still grounded from mystery hunting.”

“You better not tell him, Mabel!” Dipper exclaimed hotly, knowing that the last thing he wanted was to have to worry about Stan in all this.

“Don't worry, Dippin-Dots,” Mabel assured with a sly wink as she led the way out of the room. “Your super sneaky secret is safe with me.”

“Well, we're off to go make some pancake omelets!” Steven proclaimed cheerfully. “Since you're already up, Dipper, you're more than welcome to join us!”

“Uh... I think I'll pass,” Dipper said, heading over to the nightstand to reclaim the journal. “I have some, uh... stuff I need to take care of.”

“What kind of stuff?” Mabel asked dubiously.

“Just... stuff-stuff, ok?!” Dipper exclaimed, exasperated. “Can you guys cut it out with the third degree already? It's not like me sneaking out last night is even that big of a deal, so let's just drop it, ok?”

“Yeesh, ok, Mr. Grumpy-Pants,” Mabel scoffed, crossing her arms. “We're just gonna go have fun, like normal people who aren't acting like suspicious weirdos. See you when you decide to stop being all mysterious or whatever.”

Without any further ado, Mabel and Steven finally took their leave, allowing Dipper to let out a long-held back sigh of relief over not having to keep up appearances in front of them any longer. But what he didn't know was that the pair was still discussing the matter as they made their way downstairs.

“Steven, please tell me I'm not the only one who noticed how weird Dipper was acting back there,” Mabel implored, both worried and annoyed with her brother's odd behavior. “And by that I mean weirder than he usually acts.”

“Yeah, he did seem a little... on edge, now that you mention it...” Steven frowned, more genuinely concerned. “Do you think something’s wrong?”

“Maybe…” Mabel noted pensively as they arrived in the kitchen and began setting out their cooking supplies. “But then again, it’s not like Dipper’s never acted all skittish and nervous like this before. Still… I kinda can’t help but think there’s something he’s not telling us…”

“Really?” the young Gem wondered. “Like what?”

Mabel was more than ready to rattle off a lengthy list of possible ideas, but before she could, both her and Steven were caught off guard upon hearing the shack’s front door creak open. Seeing as how it was still too early for either Soos or Wendy to be coming in for their shifts, both of them were rather confused at this, and so they unanimously decided to go check it out, only to find Dipper trying to slip outside once again.

“Where are you going?” Mabel asked, startling Dipper as he hadn’t noticed them come in to see him. He let out a frightened gasp, instantly shutting the door as he spun around to face the curious pair.

“N-nowhere!” he exclaimed, quite panicked over being found out once again. He was quickly starting to realize that if he intended keeping this secret, he would have to start being more careful, especially around Mabel and Steven, seeing as how they were already onto him.

“Uh, it kinda looks like you were heading somewhere…” the young Gem mused, somewhat bewildered as he nodded to the backpack Dipper was wearing.

“Oh… uh… I-I was… I was just going into town to run some errands for Grunkle Stan!” Dipper came up with something off the top of his head, knowing that he couldn’t very well just tell them he was heading back to the lake to check in on Lapis.

“Oh, well can we come with you?” Steven offered with a newfound smile.

“No!” Dipper protested far too adamantly, though he was quick to reign it back in. “I-I mean… I’m just gonna be running around town for a few hours, doing um… errand-type stuff… nothing special. It’ll probably be really boring, so you guys probably wouldn’t want to come along anyway.”

“Are you sure?” Mabel asked, a little more concerned as she took a step closer to him.

“Positive,” Dipper nodded with complete certainty. “Well, uh, I guess I better get going then. See you guys later!” Not wasting anymore time, he hurried out the door, hardly sparing a second glance back at the very confused and troubled pair he had left behind.

“Well, I think that proves it,” Mabel concluded, folding her arms as soon as Dipper was gone. “Something is definitely up with him. And it’s up to us to figure out what that something is!”

“Ok, but… how are we gonna do that?” Steven asked curiously.

“By playing Dipper at his own super-secret sneaky game,” Mabel proclaimed with confidence in her newfound plan. “Just you wait, Steven, in a few days, we’ll have this case cracked wide open!”

“Like an egg!” Steven added enthusiastically before taking a tentative glance behind him to see smoke pouring out of the kitchen. “Uh, speaking of eggs, I think ours are burning!” The pair gasped in shared alarm as they rushed to take care of their cooking disaster, though as soon as they were finished, they already began plotting out their course of action. Regardless of whatever unknown, mysterious secret Dipper seemed to be keeping from them, they were both resolved to get to the bottom of it, no matter what they had to do.

While Dipper had originally intended to make his second trip to go see Lapis later in the day, he had figured he would try to slip out while Steven and Mabel were distracted, a plan that had clearly backfired as they had blatantly noticed him leave. Still, he was resolved to keep the truth under wraps, as much as he did want to reveal it to the two of them, if no one else. But regardless of what he wanted, he knew that he couldn’t let the blue Gem down in this matter, especially after she had put her trust in him to safeguard her secret in the first place.

Speaking of Lapis, the first thing Dipper noticed upon making it back to the top of the waterfall cliff was that the blue Gem had kept to her word in covering the hole she had created the previous night. A rather sizable bolder lay over it, making it look like nothing had ever been there, but still, a very small gap in the ground was still visible, one that was just enough for Dipper to use to get Lapis’ attention.

“Lapis!” he called, directly into the gap as not to garnish too much attention if there were indeed any prying eyes nearby. “It’s me: Dipper! Can I come down?”

Lapis didn’t respond verbally, but a moment or two later, the boulder did move aside, a long, strong arm composed of water holding it up just long enough to allow Dipper to slip underneath it and into the opening. While he was in a freefall for a moment or two, the blue Gem caught him with a snort, literal waterslide this time, landing him safely on the cave floor. It wasn’t much of a smooth landing however, as he ended up slipping off of the slide and hitting the floor back first, though he fortunately wasn’t hurt from the rather rough fall, even if Lapis thought otherwise as she hurried over to him.

“Oh! Sorry!” she apologized, flustered as she reached out a hand to help him up. “I didn’t know you were going to just… jump in like that, so... um… yeah… s-sorry…”

“It’s ok,” Dipper said with a small chuckle as he stood once more. “Next time I guess I should give you a little more warning before diving right in, huh?”

“Next time…” Lapis repeated, her brow furrowing as she looked to him intently. “You… weren’t kidding about coming back…”

“Uh, no, I wasn’t,” Dipper confirmed, somewhat confused as to why the blue Gem seemed to be taken aback by this. “You seemed… kind of shaken up last night, so I just wanted to check in and make sure you’re alright. I-if that’s ok…”

“Y-you… you wanted to…” Lapis trailed off, pausing for a moment, almost as if she was having a hard time processing such an idea. However, she didn’t let her apparent surprise show for too long as she quickly regained her composure. “You didn’t have to do that. I’m fine, really.”

“Are you sure?” Dipper asked, not entirely convinced. “Because I feel like it would get at least a little lonely hiding out in a cave all by yourself like this.”

The blue Gem finally cracked a smile, albeit a somewhat bitter one at this. “I’m used to being alone. And to be honest… I don’t mind it. Everything’s less distracting when there’s nobody else around.”

“I… sorta know what you mean by that,” Dipper admitted with a small, somewhat embarrassed grin. “Steven and Mabel are always talking about how I should ‘get out more’ and ‘meet new people’, but… that’s just not me, you know?”

“I kind of do, actually,” Lapis nodded in understanding, her smile taking on a hint of amusement. “That’s actually one of the first things I noticed about you when I was still trapped in the mirror. Steven and Mabel were so excited to talk to me and make jokes and everything, but you, Dipper… you weren’t so into it… And, after going so long without anyone to really talk to… well, that sort of bothered me, I guess…”

“So is that why you basically kept mocking me while you were in there?” Dipper asked with something of a knowing smirk.

“Yeah, kinda,” Lapis said, chuckling a bit. “Give me a break. When you’ve spent centuries trapped inside mirror, you have to find ways to entertain yourself somehow. And believe me, seeing you get so worked up over nothing gave me plenty of entertainment.”

Both of them let out a shared, genuine laugh over this, making it clear that neither of them bore any hard feelings over the matter whatsoever. “So, I know you just said you like being alone,” Dipper began after the bout of levity had faded. “But do you mind if I hang out here for a few hours? Mabel and Steven got on my case when I left earlier and I don’t really feel like going back right now and having them hound me with a ton of questions I don’t really have answers for.”

“You know what?” Lapis asked, still grinning gently as she placed her hands on her hips. “I don’t think I’d mind that at all.”

From that point onward, the ongoing conversation between the two continued, though it remained on a mostly casual level, with Dipper detailing to Lapis how Steven, Mabel, and himself had been during her absence. He did notice that the blue Gem was rather hesitant to talk much about her own wellbeing, and that she was even more hesitant to mention Homeworld in anything but a cursory manner. And while he was still hoping that Lapis could provide him with at least a few answers concerning the planet he knew so little about, he figured he could gradually ease into the topic later, whenever the blue Gem seemed a bit more comfortable with discussing it. But for now, Dipper was content with sitting at the edge of the waterfall pool as Lapis stood upon its surface below the outcropping, her hands outstretched as she made good on her promise to give him a proper demonstration of her aquatic abilities. As curious about Gem powers as ever, Dipper leaned forward a bit, watching with apt fascination as Lapis gracefully manipulated the water around her with mastery and ease. Unable to resist the urge to document something new, he eventually found himself pulling the journal out of his backpack, and as the blue Gem continued displaying her impressive power, he began carving out an entirely new entry on her, just as the mysterious author likely would have done before him.

Meanwhile, Lapis let out a contented sigh as she essentially turned the waterfall pool into a small, elegant fountain. Simply making use of her hydrokinesis in such a peaceful, simplistic way was rather therapeutic for her, especially considering all she had been through lately. As she glanced back up at Dipper, however, her light smile faded into a confused frown as she saw that his attention was less devoted to her demonstration, and more to the unknown book he seemed to be intently writing in. Curious, Lapis called upon her aquatic wings, only needing them for a single flap to get her back up to the outcropping. Dipper was so engrossed in jotting down notes about the blue Gem, that he didn't even notice her step up behind him and watch over his shoulder for a moment before making her interest known.

“What are you doing?”

“L-Lapis!” Dipper gasped, startled by the interruption enough to nearly drop the journal into the waterfall pool on accident, though he managed to catch it and hide it behind his back just in time. “I-I wasn't doing anything! I was just, uh... watching you use your powers! Like I said I wanted to!”

Lapis raised a dubious eyebrow at this rather lame excuse, before discreetly creating a tendril of water from the pool to snatch the mysterious book away from Dipper, much to his protest. All the same, the blue Gem was far too intrigued now to really listen as she pulled the journal over to herself and began to curiously flip through its pages. “What's all this?”

“I-it... it's...” Dipper stammered, unsure of how to really explain the journal to the blue Gem. However, he was quick to remember that Lapis wasn't one of the Crystal Gems, which meant that she wouldn’t have any real reason to be upset with its contents as they had been and still somewhat seemed to be. Or at least he hoped she wouldn’t be. “It's... a journal I found in the woods a while back. It’s filled with a bunch of notes on all of the weird, supernatural things that live here in Gravity Falls.”

“I've never seen creatures like these before...” Lapis noted, intrigued as she flipped between pages of gnomes and ghosts and leprecorns. “Are all of these real?”

“Oh, yeah, all of them,” Dipper nodded, rather relieved that the blue Gem was more interested than offended by the book. “In fact, we've even ran into a few of them this summer.”

“So you wrote all this then?” Lapis asked, looking to him with a small, impressed smile.

“Me? Oh, no, of course not!” Dipper said with a slight, incredulous laugh, almost flattered by the thought, as impossible as it was. “Well, at least not most of it. I still don't know who wrote the first half, but, um... I have been keeping a few pages of my own in the back, j-just for fun. But you probably wouldn't want to see any of-” He cut himself off as he noticed the blue Gem eagerly flip directly towards the end of the book. “And... you're going to look at them anyway...” He sighed, glancing away in apprehension as Lapis began leafing through his pages. As he had feared, the blue Gem let out a small chuckle a moment later, though to his surprise, it wasn't one of mockery, but rather of genuine enjoyment.

“Dipper, these are really good!” she exclaimed warmly, holding up the page he had written on the dinosaur cavern. “You must have worked pretty hard on them.”

“I-I... uh... it... it was no big deal...” Dipper shrugged rather humbly, even if he was glad for the compliment. “But thanks.”

“I can't believe you've actually seen all of these things...” Lapis mused, clearly fascinated by the journal's content. “I don't even know what most of them are, much less all of this stuff you've written about them all.”

“Well... I could tell more about them...” Dipper offered, surprised, but elated that the blue Gem seemed to be so invested in all this. “I-I mean, if you wanted me to, that is...”

“Sure, why not?” Lapis grinned, taking a seat on the outcropping beside him. However, before she handed the journal back, she happened to turn it to one more page, the one that Dipper had been working on moments ago. And of course, the sight of a sketch depicting herself was more than enough to peak the blue Gem's interest even more. “Is that... me?”

“No!” Dipper quickly denied, grabbing the journal back from her and slamming it shut. Of course, he only became more flustered as he glanced over at Lapis, who met his embarrassed gaze with surprise and inquiry that he couldn't really ignore. “Yes...” He relented with a sigh, turning to the half-finished entry again. “There's a lot of Gem stuff in here, so I just thought it'd be cool if there was a page on you too... I'm sorry I didn't ask you first. I can just tear if out if you-”

“No,” Lapis stopped him before his hand could even touch the page. “You should keep it.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah,” the blue Gem nodded with a smile. “I'm glad you thought I was important enough to have a page in there too.” A beat of silence passed at this, one that made Dipper want to question Lapis on what exactly she meant by that vague, almost depreciating statement, but before he could, she continued. “Now, are you gonna show me what else is in this journal, or not?”

Excited for the opportunity Lapis was giving him, Dipper didn't hesitate to comply, flipping open to the beginning of his pages, as those seemed to be the ones the blue Gem had the most interest in. Hours passed as he detailed the summer escapades the journal detailed to her, using the book only as base guide as he told her the stories he had lived through, of the Gobblewonker, the light cannons, the Summerween Trickster, the Gideon-bot, the zombie outbreak, the bunker, and more. Lapis showed her genuine intrigue by asking questions at all the right intervals, questions that Dipper was more than happy to answer. After all, it wasn't that often that he came across someone who would actually listen to him when it came to his paranormal findings, much less take what he had to say about them seriously.

But Lapis seemed to not only show interest in it all; she showed support for Dipper being so passionate about it. In a way, his excitement over the mysteries he had solved thus far fascinated the blue Gem even more than the mysteries themselves. His enthusiasm for what he loved made her begin to care for it too, even if she knew only a fraction of what he did about any of it. But all the same, she was perfectly content to listen to him fervently reveal his riveting findings to her for as long as he could. After all, the further her thoughts drifted away from her own pressing problems, the better off she would be.

Of course, considering how much there was just so tell and the fact that Dipper had to head back to the shack eventually, he wasn’t able to finish recounting everything from the journal to Lapis. However, before he left the cave, they both decided that the only thing better than talking about mysteries was to find one for themselves, which was why they began planning out a mystery hunt of their own for the next day. Sneaking under Mabel and Steven’s radar was a fair bit easier for Dipper this time, largely since the young Gem was away on a mission with his guardians and he only had his sister’s probing questions to contend with. Still, he managed to slip past her sturdy wall of suspicion without tipping her off, and sure enough, he made it back to the waterfall cave undetected for the third time. Lapis seemed a touch more upbeat upon Dipper’s arrival today as opposed to their previous two meetings, even if her usual pensive manner still largely remained. However, she still refused to leave the hidden sanctuary that was her cave, for reasons she refused to really disclose, even for the sake of a mystery hunt. But, as luck would have it, the journal detailed that the cave contained a hidden tunnel that led all the way through the mountainside, a tunnel that they easily rooted out thanks to Lapis’ water powers. And so, without any further delay or hesitation, the pair set off, more than ready to spend the day sharing they very first mystery together.

“So, what exactly are we looking for again?” Lapis asked as they began to make their way through the tunnel system. The passage was narrow and damp, but most of all, it was pitch dark, meaning that the only light they had to go by was from Dipper’s flashlight, which was really only adequate at best, but still just enough to guide them through the caves.

“I don’t really know,” Dipper shrugged as he led the way. “I’ve never really explored these caves before. I guess we should just keep an eye open for anything that’s weird or out of the ordinary. Which probably shouldn’t be that hard since that sort of stuff usually runs into us first.”

“Oh,” Lapis nodded, not entirely sure how this whole mystery hunt thing was supposed to work, but willing to try it for Dipper’s sake all the same.

“To be honest, I’m actually not supposed to be doing this,” Dipper admitted somewhat sheepishly. “Me and Mabel are grounded from mystery hunting, so if anyone found out about this, I’d probably get in a ton of trouble.”

“Well, don’t worry,” the blue Gem assured playfully. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

“Thanks,” Dipper said with an amused smile, one that soon turned to a thoughtful frown. “Uh… speaking of secrets… I’ve been wondering… The other night, when you made me promise not to tell anyone you were here, you seemed really serious about it… And I just wanted to know what was up with that.”

“Nothing,” Lapis answered tersely, averting his gaze. “Nothing was up with that. I already told you, I’m fine.”

Based on the blue Gem’s overtly anxious tone, Dipper could tell that she was anything but fine, and this time, he wasn’t about to drop the matter so easily. “Does it have to do with why you left Homeworld?” he asked, hoping to finally get the answers that had been evading him for so long.

“No,” Lapis shook her head adamantly as she pressed on ahead. “Dipper, I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Why not?!” Dipper exclaimed in sudden frustration, frustration that went beyond just the blue Gem’s refusal to be honest with him. “All I want, all I’ve ever wanted is to know the truth, which is something that nobody wants to give me, not even you! What happened really on Homeworld that made you want to leave it so badly?!”

“I can’t tell you…” the blue Gem muttered, holding her arms almost morosely.

“Why? Because you think I’m ‘too young’ to handle it?” Dipper asked rather bitterly. “Because I��ve heard that one too many times to count.”

“No,” Lapis clarified, finally turning back around to face him. Her expression was shaken, nervous, and fearful, but above all else, it was completely sincere. “Dipper, I want to tell you what happened, I do, but… It was just… I’m not… I-”

The blue Gem cut herself off with a startled gasp as something suddenly bumped into her leg from behind. Their argument halted, both Dipper and Lapis turned to see hundreds of small, spherical lights beginning to glow amidst the darkness of the tunnel, lights that seemed to skitter across the walls and the floor as a chorus of gentle, chirping sounds began to echo through the cave. After exchanging a bewildered glance with Lapis, Dipper shined his flashlight over at the wall to see what the source of this strange, otherworldly light really was. Amazingly, the glow seemed to be coming from the wide, watching eyes of a massive horde of odd, round, rock-like creatures. Their hardened bodies were small, just a little over the size of a hand, but smooth, save for the array of iridescent crystals that seemed to jut out of each of their bodies. They emitted a pitchy, yet harmonious tune as the light they were emitting grew stronger, every single one of them looking curiously to the pair that had intruded upon their territory.

“What are these things?” Lapis asked in quiet awe, picking the petite creature that had bumped into her leg up to get a closer look at it.

“I think I’ve seen these things in the journal before…” Dipper noted, his frustration replaced with fascination as he pulled the book out and flipped it open. “Oh, here they are. ‘Geodites: These creatures resemble living geodes. They make high-pitched chirping and humming sounds, and amble about on clanking crystal legs. Considering their odd, pack-mentality and their aforementioned crystalline appendages, I'm inclined to believe that these Geodites are Gem in origin'.”

“Wait, these things are Gems?” Lapis frowned in confusion as she looked to the Geodite in her hand, knowing it looked nothing like the rest of her kind. “But how?”

“They must be more of those corrupted Gem monsters,” Dipper concluded, putting the journal away.

“Corrupted?” the blue Gem repeated, not knowing what he meant by that until she happened to recall one of the few very significant things she had borne witness to during her time trapped in the mirror. “The light…” she gasped almost inaudibly, her eyes wide with alarm as she started putting the pieces together after centuries of wondering. Fortunately though, her shock was just quiet enough that Dipper didn't really hear her as he stepped forward to get a better look at the collection of Geodites before them.

“It's weird though...” he mused, picking one of the tiny creatures up, noticing how it didn't struggle against him and instead only continued to chirpy almost happily. “Usually whenever any of us run into things like these, they try to attack us the minute they see us. But these guys seem totally harmless.”

Still bewildered by the concept of corruption alone, Lapis didn't really have much to say to this as she looked back to the Geodite she was holding again almost sympathetically, despite the cheerful tune the creature was singing. However, she only had a moment to mull over its disturbing fate before a low rumbling began to rattle the tunnel, one that only grew louder and closer with each passing second. The Geodites' bright song seemed to grow even moreso, its volume rising as something drew nearer, though exactly what that something was, neither Dipper nor Lapis had any clue. It soon showed itself however, as the crystals on its orb-like body lit up, revealing that it was yet another Geodite, only this one was massive compared to all the others as it towered even over the pair invading its territory. Its manner was much or aggressive and violent when compared to the other Geodites as well, as it let out a low, irate roar, one that the other rock-like creatures sang along with merrily as it began to attack.

“There's a bigger one?!” Dipper asked in apt surprise, already more than eager to update the author's notes in the journal on the Geodites with this new information. However, before he could even get his camera out of his bag to snap a photo of it, the oversized Geodite reared up on its crystal legs before coming down with the intention of crushing him.

“Look out!” Lapis warned, acting quickly and pushing both Dipper and herself out of the way just before the large Geodite slammed down. Neither of them had much time to catch their breath, however, as the creature swiveled around, glaring at them both viciously before mindlessly charging at them. “Come on!” the blue Gem urged, grabbing Dipper by the wrist and pulling him to his feet before taking off in the other direction. This tactic quickly proved to be a bust, however, as the smaller Geodites hurried to congregate around their only real method of escape, essentially trapping them in with the largest rock creature.

“O-ok, I take back what I said about these things being harmless,” Dipper remarked somewhat fearfully, especially as they both turned to see the large Geodite race towards them again. This time, however, Lapis managed to hold it back, making use of the water clinging to the walls of the cave to create a liquid barrier that the Geodite ran smack into. Still, as it got back up and regathered its bearings, it became clear that this wall of water wouldn't hold for too long as it charged into it over and over again in the hopes of breaking it.

“How do we stop it?!” Lapis asked, struggling to maintain her aquatic barrier, which was quickly starting to wear thin against the monster's persistence.

“I don't know!” Dipper professed, anxiously flipping through the journal. “There's nothing in here about big Geodites; just the tiny ones!”

Before Lapis could even respond to this, the Geodite suddenly crashed through her wall of water, completely dispelling it, but it didn't stop there. The creature kept going, running at an alarming speed, until it plowed right into the blue Gem, knocking her back into the nearby wall hard enough to send her into a daze.

“Lapis!” Dipper exclaimed in worried alarm, ready to run over to her to see if she was alright, but the Geodite was intent on reaching her first to finish what it had started. As out of it as she was from the harsh blow she had suffered, the blue Gem was really in no position to defend herself from the furious creature, which was why Dipper decided to do that for her.

“Hey!” he shouted to the large Geodite, picking up one of the smaller ones straggling nearby. “Leave her alone!” Without any sort of fear or hesitation, he threw the miniature Geodite at its massive counterpart, watching with both satisfaction and alarm as it hit its mark and created a large, powerful spark. This was enough to not just send a good portion of the nearby Geodites skittering away in fear at the sudden, bright light, but it also shattered the projectile rock entirely and created a rather sizable chip in the larger creature's side. “Oh my gosh! That's it!” Dipper exclaimed in surprised realization over this discover. “Lapis, I know how to beat this thing! We need to-” He was abruptly cut off before he could finish, as the outraged large Geodite retaliated for the injury it had received by lashing out at Dipper, kicking him down hard with one of its crystalline appendages. Lapis, who had just finished recovering from her own listlessness, let out a frightened gasp at this, her fear rising as the Geodite pinned Dipper down by his vest, its massive, much stronger form standing over him threateningly.

“Dipper!” the blue Gem cried, still struggling to pull herself up and stand steady amidst her ongoing dizziness. Still, she was already commanding the water around her to form into a large hand, one that was more than ready to brutally beat the Geodite aside in an instant until it was halted right before she could bring it down.

“Lapis, wait!” Dipper called, trying and failing to wrest himself free from the crystal arm holding him down. Despite the Geodite hitting him rather hard, he seemed mostly unharmed, aside from a few scrapes and bruises, but all the same, he knew he wouldn't remain largely uninjured if Lapis launched her purposed attack. “Hit it with the smaller Geodites! They're the only things that'll put a dent in it!”

Lapis complied with a terse nod, her water hand already moving to implement this plan by scooping up as many of the tiny Geodites as it could hold. The larger creature didn't seem to take notice of this as it hissed savagely at Dipper, holding up a longer, very sharp crystal leg up and taking aim right at him. He let out a fearful gasp as he closed his eyes and braced himself for a no-doubt incredibly painful blow, but miraculously enough, it never came. Instead, a fierce shout rose up from the blue Gem as she thrust her arms forward, her hand of water turning into a canon that fired the smaller Geodites off at the larger one at a rapid rate. As the massive Geodite reared back in a roar of pain, Lapis took the opportunity to rescue Dipper from its grip with another aquatic tendril, one that gently yet securely pulled him safely over to her. Even as the Geodite turned to face its attacker with an intense, furious screech, the blue Gem did not relent, aggressively launching the smaller creatures at the monster until it finally imploded from its severe injuries. Lapis created a veil of water over herself and Dipper to shield them from the resulting raining shrapnel, and with their leader destroyed, the remaining Geodites quickly scurried off deeper into the cave, leaving the pair relative darkness, but peaceful safety, once more.

“Whoa, Lapis, that was amazing!” Dipper exclaimed, aptly impressed by blue Gem’s incredible show of power. “You completely destroyed that thing! I’ve never seen anything like that before!”

“Heh, yeah, well…” Lapis trailed off with a small humble smile. “I couldn’t have done it without you figuring out how to beat it. Guess I wasn’t wrong when I was still in the mirror and I told you that you were clever.”

The pair shared a warm laugh over this, but as it eventually died out, it was replaced with something of an awkward silence the excitement from their victory faded and the recollection of their argument before it returned. And while neither of them really wanted to address it after the mortal danger they had both just been in together, but all the same, Dipper stepped up to speak up about it first.

“Um… Lapis?” he began rather tentatively, hoping not to reopen any wounds. “I… I’m sorry about earlier. It’s just… I’m so tired of nobody being honest with me. But, you’ve been through so much and I guess I just sort of… forgot about that. If you don’t want to talk about Homeworld, then… then that’s fine with me.”

Lapis took pause upon hearing this, her expression surprised at first, then almost slightly ashamed as she averted his comforting smile. “Dipper, I… Y-you need to…” she trailed off, clearly wanting to say more, but lacking the courage to say it. “Thank you…” she said, her gaze drifting downward dejectedly. Dipper frowned as he noticed her clear melancholy, realizing that it was an emotion Lapis was probably well acquainted with, even if she didn’t really deserve to be. Which was why he wanted to show her something a little lighter for a change.

“Hey, uh, you know, we did just beat back a huge, rampaging Gem monster,” Dipper said casually enough. “We should celebrate.”

“Celebrate?” Lapis raised an eyebrow. “How?”

“Well, we could… um… hm…” he paused, unsure of what they could really do considering the blue Gem’s refusal to leave the cave. “Oh wait! I know!” Lapis watched curiously as Dipper reached into his backpack, pulling out his camera, an object that blue Gem was completely unfamiliar with. “So, it’s not much, but we could take a few photos to sort of commemorate our first mystery hunt, I guess.”

“Photos?” Lapis frowned, clearly confused by the foreign concept.

“Yeah, you know, like a picture,” Dipper clarified.

“Uh… why?”

“Um… just so we can look back at them and remember what happened. Here, I’ll show you,” Dipper turned the camera on, getting it ready as he motioned for Lapis to come in closer. The blue Gem did so, looking to the camera inquisitively, especially as Dipper turned the lens around to face them. “Ok, so all you have to do is look here, and smile, and in 3, 2, 1…” He snapped the photo before Lapis was really ready for it, and as the flash lit up, the blue Gem let out a startled gasp, blinded by the light for a moment or two as she hurriedly stumbled back, much to Dipper’s surprise.

“Lapis, are you ok?!” he asked with concern as he hurried over to her.

“W-what was that?!” she exclaimed in alarm, rubbing her eyes to clear them.

“It was just the flash,” Dipper said with a small, somewhat amused laugh as he pulled the developed picture out of the camera. “It just makes sure there’s enough light for us to take the picture by. See?” He held the photo up for Lapis to see, only for her to let out a shocked, horrified gasp.

“No,” she shook her head, taking the photo for herself and looking over it frantically. “No, not again!”

“Lapis?” Dipper spoke up, confused by her sudden panic.

“Dipper, that… that machine of yours, it trapped us inside this piece of paper!” Lapis exclaimed, completely distressed. “I don’t know how it did it, but here we are, stuck inside of this thing with no way of getting out, just like the mirror!”

“…What?”

“I can’t do this again!” Lapis shouted, gripping the picture tightly. “And I can’t let you be trapped like I was either! Maybe if I tear it, then we’ll-”

“Whoa, Lapis, wait!” Dipper interjected, taking the picture away from the distraught blue Gem. “We’re not trapped inside this thing. It’s just a picture of us from a few minutes ago. It’s ok.”

“B-but…” Lapis trailed off, looking to the photo again as her dread began to die down and understanding filling in for it. “I-it… its ok…”

“Um… you can have this if you want,” Dipper offered, holding the photo out to her. “Then again… we might wanna take a better one…” He frowned, nodding to the blue Gem’s look of terrified surprise in the picture.

A bit more at ease, but still hesitant, Lapis agreed, though she still kept a wary eye on the camera as they took another picture. The second one turned out a little better, though the blue Gem still flinched at the flash, leading to them taking a third one. Even still, it took a few more tries after that for Lapis to so much as smile, but when she finally did, their photos turned out far better. In fact, the longer their impromptu photo session went, the brighter both of their smiles became, to the point that by the time they were done, they had taken an abundance of genuinely warm, cheerful photos. Dipper ended up taking most of them with him at the end of the day, with Lapis only keeping one of the best ones in the set, with both of them smiling lightly as they squeezed into the frame together. But even without the pictures to serve as physical proof as the time they had spent together, the memories they had inadvertently made were more than enough to suffice.

“Ok, everyone.” Mabel began as she paced before her audience consisting of Steven, Soos, and Wendy. “I’ve gathered you all here today to solve a mystery of mysterious proportions.”

“Oooo, mystery…” Steven echoed for the purpose of adding dramatic effect.

“And that mystery is…” Mabel trailed off, flipping over the chalkboard filled with notes that her and Steven had gathered over the past few days. “Where does Dipper keep disappearing to every day?”

“We’ve been doing a bunch of really scientific research the past few days,” the young Gem continued, joining Mabel in front of the couch. “And by research, I mean we’ve mostly just keeping an eye on Dipper when he is around, which, to be honest, isn’t really that often lately.”

“So have you dudes figured anything out from all that?” Soos asked curiously.

“Not… really…” Mabel admitted. “But we’re getting closer! The other day when he got back, he was all bruised and banged up, which made me think maybe he had joined an underground wresting league-”

“Just like Amethyst!” Steven chimed in brightly.

“-But then I realized that if Dipper tried wrestling, he’d probably end up in a hospital instead of just a little beaten up, so that idea was out. Which is why we asked you guys to help us. We need some fresh ideas about how to finally uncover his deep, dark secret!”

"I don't know, you guys..." Wendy interjected with a frown. "Maybe Dipper hasn't told us what's up for a reason. We should probably just respect his privacy, you know?"

"Hm... yeah, maybe..." Steven mused, not having really considered that before.

"Or..." Mabel cut in, still wanting to continue their mission. "We could figure out what's up with him, and then we can all move on with our lives. Besides, it's not like Dipper to keep secrets like this, especially from me! I just wanna know what it is and why he thinks he can't tell me about it..."

"Aw, don't worry, dude," Soos said with sympathy upon seeing how much the matter apparently upset Mabel. "We'll help you out. I mean, knowing Dipper, he probably just found an alien and he's trying to keep it hidden from the government. Just like in that old movie!"

The others all looked to the handyman incredulously at this, none of them really believing such a spacey suggestion to be anywhere close to accurate. "Uh, well, it’s a good thing we've come up with a plan to follow Dipper the next time he heads out," Steven said a moment later. "Which should probably be pretty soon, according to our calculations." The young Gem grinned as he held up a clipboard filled with random, messy doodles that were all rather unrelated to the matter at hand.

"Which is why we need to be prepared," Mabel said with bold determination. "Dipper's going to be leaving through that door any minute now, and as soon as he goes, we're all gonna go too. We'll have to be super stealthy so he won't know we're onto him, but I think, between the four of us, we can pull this off and figure out what Dipper's been hiding from everyone!"

"Uh, I'm still not sure this is such a good idea, Mabel," Wendy remarked, concerned.

"Oh, it’s a great idea," Mabel assured with a confident grin. "Now, let's watch that door!"

The group did so, turning to the front door of the shack and training their focus upon it intently. However, it wasn't very long into their vigil that they happened to hear the gift shop door open and close, even though the shack was currently closed. "Uh, dudes?" Soos spoke up. "What if Dipper overheard us and decided to go through the gift shop instead?"

"To the gift shop!" Steven exclaimed, already hopping off of the couch along with Soos and Mabel as they hurried into the shop. Wendy followed a bit behind them, and she couldn't help but let out a small, ironic chuckle upon seeing how their stealth mission had backfired on them before it could even really begin.

"Uh, yeah..." The cashier laughed to the trio, who had managed to trap themselves in the doorway as they all tried to squeeze out of it at once. "No offense, but you guys might wanna rework that 'plan' of yours..."

It had been several days since Lapis' return to earth, and for every single one of those days, Dipper had made sure to stop by the waterfall cave and visit her for at least an hour, though usually, his stays were much longer. And over the course of those visits, it was clear to see that a deep bond had started to develop between the pair, one that was quite unlikely, but completely genuine all the same. As it turned out, they both actually had a lot to bond over too, perhaps not in origins or experiences, but in personalities and worldviews. Despite her occasional bouts of despondency, Lapis actually had a rather sarcastic sense of humor, something that Dipper could certainly relate to given his own tendency to be a bit sardonic. It was also quite apparent that they were both more on the introverted side, with neither of them needing much company to get by, but still enjoying the companionship they gave each other nonetheless.

After the danger they faced in their first mystery hunt, Dipper and Lapis had unanimously decided to keep the adventures during their visits to a minimum, in favor of simply hanging out and chatting instead. The blue Gem wasn't too keen on talking about herself or her past, seeing as how a good portion of her past had been spent within the confines of a mirror. So instead, she let Dipper do most of the talking as he told her more about Gravity Falls and the Earth in general, seeing as how she didn't really seem to know much about it at all. Every time he came to see her, he would bring what Lapis had dubbed "human things", such as books, magazines, odd souvenirs from the shack, and more, all of which the blue Gem showed a sincere interest in. As a whole, her curiosity and fascination towards humans in general seemed to grow thanks to Dipper, even if she did still harbor a good deal of resentment towards the planet that had kept her prisoner for so long. Still, she let him tell her about it, glad for his company and for how he managed to keep her mind off of what she couldn't bear to think about.

As undiscovered and peaceful the waterfall cave was, it wasn't long before they both started to grow a bit tired of spending all their time in it. When Dipper suggested a change in venue one evening, Lapis was initially against the idea, still wanting to stay out of sight. However, the longer he implored her to simply go outside, the weaker her resolve became, until it, until she finally agreed. With the blue Gem not wanting to stray too far from the safety of the cave, they only ventured up to the top of the cliff, not too far away from the waterfall as they sat together on its high edge and simply passed the time by stargazing.

"Wow...." Lapis mused in genuine awe as she took in the sight of the immensely starry skies above. "It's amazing that you can see all these stars from here... Back on—uh, b-back home, we'd be lucky to see even half as many stars as this."

Dipper frowned upon hearing this, his curiosity to know more about the mysterious Homeworld returning until he remembered that he was supposed to be letting that go for the blue Gem's sake. "Well, uh, I bet you got to see even more stars when you were flying back there, huh?"

"To be honest, I wasn't really paying much attention to them..." Lapis shrugged. "I think this is the first time I've really ever taken the chance to just sit down and look at them. It's... kind of nice, actually..."

"Yeah... I guess it is..." Dipper said with a small, contented smile, knowing that this was the first time in a while that he had simply just let himself truly relax instead of worrying over mysteries or Gem matters.

A bout of comfortable silence passed between the pair, the nighttime crickets and nearby waterfall filling in for it until Lapis broke it a moment later with a curious inquiry. "How do you map them out here on Earth?"

"Huh?" Dipper looked to her, confused.

"The stars," the blue Gem chuckled. "How do you humans tell them apart? Back home, we used to make these really complex, overcomplicated maps of the stars that were basically impossible to read. But everything here on Earth seems so much simpler, so I just want to know if star reading is simpler here too."

"Oh, well, uh... I don't really know a ton about star charts and astronomy and stuff like that..." Dipper admitted somewhat bashfully. "But... I do know a little about constellations..."

"Constellations? What are those?"

"They're basically like pictures made out of stars," Dipper exclaimed succinctly, even if he knew there was a bit more to it than that. "In a way, they're sorta how we tell the stars apart. Like that one for instance," he pointed one of the more recognizable constellations he knew of out. "See how those stars that are kind of arranged into a question mark with a little triangle behind it? That one's called Leo."

"I... don't see anything like that..." Lapis said, straining her eyes to even come close to spotting what he was talking about.

"Ok, well that one might be a little hard to find at first..." Dipper conceded, quickly searching the skies for another one. "Oh, I know! Look right over there, to where those stars line up to look like a guy holding a bow and arrow. That's Orion."

"I still don't see it..." Lapis frowned. "Is there something I'm just not getting here?"

"No, it's just that they're-" Dipper cut himself off, wanting to make the concept clearer to the blue Gem but not really knowing how. That is, until he happened to spot the constellation that was most familiar to him by far amidst the starry skies. "Uh, w-well, there is one that's usually pretty easy to find…” he began tentatively, already blushing a bit out of embarrassment. "See those stars that are arranged to kind of look a little like a pan?"

"Wait!" Lapis gasped, her eyes widening with realization as an excited smile crossed her features. "I do see that one! What's it called?"

"That one...?" Dipper sighed hesitantly, hoping she wouldn't ask but deciding to answer her all the same. "That one's called the... the Big Dipper..."

"Oh! Just like you!" Lapis exclaimed, immensely curious now. "Then again, you're not very big, no offense," she said with a sly smirk and a wink.

"Heh, yeah, kinda..." Dipper laughed rather awkwardly, glancing away. "Honestly though, it's more like this." Hoping that the blue Gem wouldn't laugh, he slowly took his hat off and lifted his bangs up, revealing the constellation's smaller double on his forehead.

Lapis let out a soft gasp of amazement at this, her intrigued smile widening as she looked between the birthmark and the constellation. "Whoa, they really are the same! How did you end up with that—what did you call it again, constellation?—on your forehead like that?"

"Well, since it’s a birthmark, it's pretty much always been there," Dipper remarked, still a little flustered as he put his hat back on. "It's really not that much of a big deal. And besides, it's kind of embarrassing..."

"Well, I don't think it's embarrassing," Lapis said, completely sincere. "I think it's really special, sort of... well, sort of like you." She paused, sending him a warm, somewhat awkward smile, one that he slowly returned. "So you were named after that constellation then?"

"Uh... not really..." Dipper admitted, rubbing his arm apprehensively. "It's more of a nickname than anything else..."

"So... what's your real name then?"

"O-oh, well, uh... its... it's, um..." Dipper trailed off, not really wanting to share his most well-guarded secret. Then again, Lapis had entrusted him with her own secret, one that was likely even more momentous than his. So, it was only fair that he returned the favor. Still, he made sure to do so discreetly, only whispering his given name to her quietly before looking away in mortification.

"Really?" Lapis asked upon hearing the name, thankfully not repeating it out loud.

"Yeah..." Dipper nodded tersely, still averting her gaze as he looked down to the waterfall instead. "B-but I'm not really a huge fan of being called that, so I don't really tell it to too many people. S-so if you don't mind keeping it between us, then-"

"Don't worry," Lapis assured, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I won't tell anyone. I promise."

Dipper let out a sigh of relief at this, nodding a silent thanks to the blue Gem as she moved her hand and looked back up to the sky again. Another beat of silence came, but once again, Lapis broke through it as a sudden idea came to her. "Do you want to see it?"

"See what?"

"That constellation," she nodded up to it. "The Big Dipper."

"Lapis, I can see it," Dipper said, not fully understanding what she meant.

"No, I mean do you really want to see it?" Lapis asked with a growing grin as she rose to stand, her aquatic wings springing out of the gem on her back.

"Uh... as cool as that sounds, Lapis, I... can't really go up into space to look at stars firsthand," Dipper remarked, still rather confused. "I kind of need air to breathe, you know."

The blue Gem let out a small snort of a laugh at this. "I wasn't talking about taking you all the way up into space! I just thought I'd fly you a little closer to it so you could get a better look."

"Oh, well I guess that'd be ok," Dipper shrugged as he stood as well. "Should I just...?"

"Yeah," Lapis nodded, kneeling down a bit to accommodate him. "Climb on."

Dipper did so, boarding the blue Gem's back somewhat awkwardly. "Ready?" Lapis asked, poised for flight as she looked back to her passenger with a smile. Dipper nodded, not entirely sure what to expect, though unable to let out a fearful cry as Lapis suddenly took off without warning, a single flap of her powerful water wings being more than enough to propel them both upward. His alarm grew even more as he made the mistake of looking back down to the cliff, only to see it grow smaller and smaller as Lapis rocketed straight up with incredible speed. The blue Gem couldn't help but laugh as she glanced back at Dipper, who was gripping her shoulder for dear life with on hand and struggling to keep his hat on amidst the rushing winds with the other. But even so, she kept soaring higher, only slowing her pace as they broke through the clouds and into the open air, miles above the ground.

“Dipper?” Lapis said, still grinning in amusement as she looked up at him again.

“Y-yeah?” Dipper asked shakily, his eyes tightly shut out of fear.

“You can open your eyes now.”

Dipper complied, albeit a bit hesitantly, though as he got his first glimpse of the endless star scape around them, his terror was instantly replaced with complete and absolute amazement. With the cover of clouds obscuring any trace of the earth below them, it was as though the ground itself didn’t even exist, as if nothing at all existed really but the countless stars and sky above them. Lapis’ smile widened as she noticed just how awestruck Dipper was by all of this, but even so, she kept in mind the reason they were up there in the first place.

“Well, there it is,” she said, nodding towards the constellation to point Dipper’s attention over to it. It was still incredibly far away, of course, but despite the fact that they had only gotten a little closer to it respectively, it still seemed so much larger as the stars that composed it stretch across the vast sky ahead.

“Whoa…” Dipper breathed, still completely wonderstruck as he leaned forward a bit. “I… I never realized just how big it was before…”

“Well, I guess that’s why it’s called the ‘Big’ Dipper then, huh?” Lapis smirked, eliciting a small laugh from them both. “Hey, Dipper,” the blue Gem said after the levity had passed, her grin turning wry and daring.

“Yeah, Lapis?” Dipper replied, smiling down at her unsuspectingly.

“Are you ready?”

“…Ready for what?”

“For this!” Without any warning, Lapis shot forward, her wings blowing back swiftly as she covered a long distance in mere seconds. At first, the only thing Dipper could really do as he struggled to hold on was let out another frightened scream, though it didn’t take long for it to turn into a cheer of exhilaration as he cut loose, just as the blue Gem already had. After soaring across a wide stretch of sky, Lapis decided to spice their flight up even more by preforming an impromptu flip, one that she failed to tell Dipper about before trying it. Of course, while his grip on the blue Gem was tight, it wasn’t enough to keep him from falling off her back as she reached the crest of her flip. His excitement quickly switched back into panic as soon as he realized he was essentially in a complete freefall, but fortunately, Lapis managed to catch him again, this time by his hands, far before he could even come close to hitting the ground. After the initial bout of shock over this near-death experience passed, he glanced up to the blue Gem incredulously, only to find that she was laughing hysterically.

“Oh, that was great!” Lapis practically howled with laughter as she flew at a slower pace. “I can’t believe you actually thought I would drop you! The look on your face was hilarious!”

For a moment, Dipper simply stared up at the blue Gem in faux offended disbelief before breaking down into a round of uncontrollable laughter himself, realizing that, in retrospect, it was pretty funny. In fact, the two of them continued to laugh as they glided through the open sky, not just about what had just happened, but in general. Neither of them knew themselves to be very cheerful or jubilant, but at the moment, those things described them both perfectly. In the beauty and simple complexity of the starry night, both of them were having nothing less than the time of their lives without even really meaning to at all.

The pair continued hovering through the night for a while after that, until they eventually found themselves back over the waterfall cliff, which was where they landed once again. Both of them were still in very high spirits as they touched down, it not a little breathless from all of the deep, hearty laughter they had just let out.

As they both sat down on the cliff’s edge once more, Lapis let out a loud, content sigh as she loosely flopped down to lie on her back, her legs still dangling off the edge as she released another small chuckle. “Wow, I can’t even remember the last time I’ve laughed this much,” she paused, her smile fading, but only someone. “Or the last time I’ve laughed in general, really…”

“Honestly, same here,” Dipper remarked with the same sardonic grin as he also laid back. “I guess it’s been a while since I let myself really just relax and have some fun.”

For a moment or two, neither of them said anything as they both directed their gaze back to the skies they had just returned from. Really, there wasn’t a lot either of them needed to say in the aftermath of the incredible time they had just had together, but even so, Lapis spoke up, voicing something that she had been thinking about for quite some time now. “You know, it’s so funny,” she said, her smile turning almost bittersweet. “I’ve met humans before, but I’ve never actually gotten to know one until now… If all of them are like you… well, then I guess I can finally see why those Crystal Gems wanted to save this place so badly…”

“Whoa… Lapis, that… that really means a lot…” Dipper smiled, genuinely touched by the sentiment. “You know, since we’re being real with each other, I… I’m really glad I saw you crash into this cliff the other night. These past few days have so great.”

“Yeah… They have been…” Lapis mused, her smile finally fading entirely. “It’s a shame they’re almost over…”

“What do you mean?” Dipper asked, looking over at her in worried confusion.

“Dipper, I already told you,” the blue Gem sighed, sitting up. “I’m not staying here on Earth forever. In a few days, I’m going to leave, probably sooner rather than later. And… and I know you don’t want to hear this, but… I’m probably not coming back, ever.”

“Wait, you’re still planning on leaving?” Dipper asked, suddenly dismayed as he did the same. “But… but I thought… we… I thought you just said you were having a great time…”

“I am,” Lapis acknowledged rather morosely. “But I can’t stay here, Dipper, you know I can’t. I was trapped on this planet for thousands of years, I don’t want to be here anymore.”

“…Not even for me?”

The blue Gem took pause at this, her eyes widening a bit as she looked to him, regret and concern washing over her expression. “Dipper…”

“Look, this is probably gonna sound really dumb but…” Dipper trailed off, glancing down apprehensively. “It’s been a really long time since I’ve felt like I’ve had someone to just… talk to, you know? I mean, yeah, there’s Steven, and Mabel, and Stan, and the Gems, but… none of them ever seem to really listen like you do, Lapis. When I first showed you the journal, I thought you were just going to laugh at it or shrug it off like everyone else does, but… you didn’t. You actually took it seriously. You took me seriously…”

“W-well, of course I take you seriously…” Lapis remarked, her voice still rather soft and sad. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“See, that’s just it,” Dipper said diffidently. “You actually care about what I have to say, without even having to think twice about it. And… considering that’s something nobody else really does, it’s something I appreciate, a lot… It’s crazy, but I feel like I can talk to you about almost anything, which is something I can’t really say for too many other people. So, I guess I-I just don’t want to go back to keeping it all to myself…”

Lapis’ already guilty frowned deepened upon hearing all this, knowing that Dipper was being completely honest with her about this, and that honesty only making her feel even worse. Her remorse only skyrocketed, however, upon seeing him rub his eyes a bit, almost as if he was struggling to fight back tears, which he admittedly was. “Dipper, I’m sorry…” she sighed, her voice barely even a wavering whisper. “But I can’t stay…”

“But you could,” Dipper persisted, more upset than angry. “Lapis, I know you don’t want to feel trapped here, but you don’t have to be! If you just gave the Earth a chance, then maybe you might even end up liking it someday!”

“I… don’t think that’s possible…” the blue Gem glowered, wrapping her arms around herself as she looked down. “I just don’t belong here… Or anywhere, really…”

“But you could belong here if you just tried to make it work!” Dipper urged, his tone earnest, almost pleading as he felt the tears start to come again, though he managed to suppress them once more. “I could help you! So could Steven and Mabel! We could-”

“Dipper,” Lapis finally cut him off, her tone more hardened and stern this time as she stood up. “Like I said, I’m sorry, but my answer is no. I’m not staying on Earth, and that’s final. And that’s all I’m going to say about it.”

Dipper fell into silence upon hearing this, one of his pressing tears finally falling, though he was quick to wipe it away. The blue Gem met his dejected gaze with faltering resolve, but all the same she maintained her answer, knowing that she couldn’t really stay on Earth, even if she wanted to. And while it took Dipper a moment to come to terms with this, he knew he really had no choice but to accept it, as unhappy as it made him. “Ok…” he finally said, his tone a bit unsteady as he stood as well. “If that’s what you really want, then… then I guess I can’t really change your mind about it, can I?”

Lapis hesitated for a moment, her expression still awash in sorrow and guilt, but all the same, she nodded silently, rubbing her arm as she averted his hurt gaze. Seeing as how there wasn’t much left to say at this point, Dipper started to turn to head home, knowing that morning would likely be coming soon. Still, he refused to leave the blue Gem on such a bitter note. “Um… you’re still going to be here tomorrow, right?”

“Y-yes…” Lapis muttered softly, not wanting to tell him that tomorrow would likely be her last day on the planet. “I will be.”

“So, c-can I stop by again tomorrow?”

“Of… of course,” the blue Gem nodded immediately, knowing that she would forever regret it if she wasn’t able to see him one last time.

“Ok, great,” Dipper said with a forced smile and a thumbs up as he began to take his leave. “See you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah,” Lapis waved him off with a weak smile before turning her gaze back up to the stars. Or more specifically, to the star that represented her former home. “S-see you…” Even so, she ripped her sights away from Homeworld, grief and regret filling her as she watched Dipper leave instead. And as she watched the only thing that really mattered to her on the planet she hated so deeply, the only thing that was making it really, really difficult for her to actually leave it, she realized that perhaps it was finally time she started being honest with him, just as he had been honest with her.

As much as Dipper was discouraged by Lapis’ choice to leave and as much as he dreaded her eventual, inevitable departure, he knew he still had to make good on her promise to go see her the next day, even if he was well aware that it might be the last time he ever would. And because of that possibility, he wasn’t as enthusiastic about heading over to the waterfall cave as he usually was, as the dejected sigh he let out as he made his way to the gift shop’s door inadvertently betrayed. However, his melancholy was abruptly replaced with surprise as he opened the door.

“Gotcha!” Mabel exclaimed as she stood right outside the door, lowering the sunglasses she had put on in an attempt to look more serious. “Looks like you’re busted, bro-bro.”

“Busted!” Steven echoed as he jumped in to stand behind Dipper, blocking any attempts he might make to escape.

“Mabel? Steven?” Dipper flinched, genuinely startled seeing as how their previous attempts to find him out had been the last thing on his mind. “What are you guys doing?”

“We’re finally getting the dirt on you, Dipper!” Steven proclaimed boldly, though he was quick to lower his own shades a moment later. “Don’t worry; we’re not actually gonna throw dirt on you or anything. It’s just an expression I heard on TV once.”

“…What?”

“What Steven means is that we’re finally getting to the bottom of your sneaky shenanigans,” Mabel said, her arms crossed and her expression cold. “No more games, no more excuses, and no more running. You’re not leaving until you tell us where you keep running off to everyday!”

“Wha—n-nowhere!” Dipper quickly exclaimed, still devout about keeping Lapis’ presence unknown. “And even if I was going somewhere, I don’t know why either of you guys care so much anyway. After all, it’s not like I’m constantly on either of you about your business.”

“Dipper, we’re not trying to get into your business,” Steven clarified with a frown. “We’re just starting to worry about you. You’ve barely been around all week-”

“You keep sneaking out super late at night,” Mabel added somewhat petulantly.

“And you won’t even talk to us about what’s going on,” the young Gem finished, genuinely concerned. “All we wanna do is make sure you’re ok.”

Upon hearing all this, Dipper couldn’t help but feel somewhat bad for being so curt with the two of them the past few days, knowing that even despite their persistence and annoyance, it all did come from a place of sincere caring. But no matter how pure their intentions were, he had still made a promise, and that was a promise he was going to do everything in his power to keep. “Look, you guys, I’m… flattered, but you really don’t have any reason to be worried about me,” he reassured as evenly as he could. “Everything is fine, I promise.”

“But it’s not fine!” Mabel exclaimed, suddenly quite upset. “It’s not fine that you keep running off without telling anybody! It’s not fine that I saw you come home this morning all sad and depressed! It’s not fine that nobody knows what’s going on with you! And it’s especially not fine that you’re lying to us, to me!”

“Oh, Mabel…” Dipper sighed guiltily, knowing the last thing he had wanted was to upset her.

“You’ve never kept secrets from me before, Dipper!” Mabel continued, nearly in tears by now. “So what made you start now?! What could be so big and so important to you that you can’t even tell your own sister about it?!”

“Mabel, I-I want to tell you about it…” Dipper trailed off, clueless about what to even say at this juncture.

“Then why don’t you?!” Mabel challenged bitterly, her tears finally falling.

“B-because…” Dipper began both anxiously and remorsefully, hating that he was the one who had made his usually cherry sister so upset. But still, he couldn’t tell her the truth, especially since the truth was beyond what he could really explain properly. “Because… I… I just can’t!”

Mabel let out a gasp at this, almost as if his response had stung her in some way, and in a sense, that’s exactly what it did, something that distressed Dipper even more as he saw her almost pained expression. And, unable to bear that hurt that he had caused her, he did the only thing he could really think of at such an intense juncture; he ran.

Steven was so caught up in the emotional tension of the moment that he didn’t even think to stop Dipper as he rushed past him, hurrying out of the gift shop and out of the shack entirely. Still, when he did realize what was happening, he was quick to run after him, Mabel not too far behind, despite the tears still falling down her cheeks. By the time they had made it out of the house, Dipper had already managed to climb onto Lion and appease him with the offering of another Lion Licker, this time dangled by a stick to motivate the pink beast to move.

“Dipper!” Steven called fretfully as he began running over. “Wait!”

“Sorry, Steven!” Dipper shouted back as Lion lurched forward, taking him with him. “I’ll bring Lion back later, I promise!”

“Dipper!” Mabel cried, running forward almost desperately before she finally came to a stop, a small, miserable sob escaping her. “Please… don’t go…”

As Lion neared the edge of the tree line, Dipper glanced back, ashamed and conflicted as he met Mabel’s pleading, disappointed gaze. He hadn’t been lying when he said he wanted to tell her the truth, he wanted to let her in on everything that had been happened and why he was so adamant about staying silent about it all in the first place. But as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t. He couldn’t let Lapis down like that, especially considering the deep bond of trust and solidarity they had formed over the past several days. What he hadn’t anticipated, however, was that he would end up letting Mabel down instead.

But even so, he said nothing, letting his apologetic silence speak volumes as he rode off, leaving her behind just as Lapis intended on doing to him in the very near future.

For the duration of the ride over to the waterfall cave, Dipper kept up his solemn silence, his guilt over what had just happened between him and Mabel weighing heavy on his heart. He figured that he would get a chance to tell her and Steven about Lapis’ return eventually, probably after the blue Gem was long gone. Hopefully, once she had the whole picture, she would understand exactly why he had been so insistent on keeping it all under wraps and forgive him for his recent evasiveness and duplicity. But for now, Lapis took precedent, especially since her time on Earth and with him was very quickly coming to an end.

However, as Dipper arrived at the top of the cliff, he was quick to notice that something was wrong, even from a distance. Namely, that the boulder Lapis usually had securely covering up the entry hole into the cave was nowhere to be found. And considering how adamant the blue Gem usually was about keeping her hiding place hidden, that gave Dipper more than enough reasons to be alarmed.

“Lapis!” he exclaimed, somewhat panicking as he hopped off Lion and hurried over to the hole. His initial thought was that perhaps she really had left Earth after all, even after promising that she would still be there today. But he knew she wouldn’t have told him that she would still be around, only for her to go without saying a word about it. Would she? “Lapis, are you down there?!” Dipper tried again, peering down into the hole, only to get no response from the blue Gem. He knew it was a risky idea to just dive right into the cave, especially if Lapis was not in fact there after all, but he had to know. And so, he did.

And fortunately, much to his immense relief, an orb of contained water managed to catch him just in time, just as it had the very first night. He was released from it a moment later, and while it took him a moment, he did manage finally spot the blue Gem, standing at the edge of the outcropping overlooking the pool.

“Lapis!” Dipper exclaimed, allayed as he started to run over to her. “I’m so glad you’re still here! I thought you-”

“Dipper,” she abruptly cut him off, her tense, tight tone more than enough to stop him dead in his tracks right behind her. Her back was to him, her hands clenched into tight, anxious fists at her sides as she spoke again, her voice still rife with dread. “There’s something I need to tell you…”

Unsure of what to make of Lapis’ shaken, yet resolved manner, Dipper took a small step forward, saying nothing as he instead listened to what she had to say. “Last night, you said that you felt like you could be completely honest with me, about anything,” she began, letting out a small, sad sigh as she looked over her shoulder at him. “Well… I realized that maybe it’s time I was completely honest with you… You wanted to know what really made me leave Homeworld, didn’t you?”

Dipper let out a small gasp at this, his eyes widening in surprise that Lapis even wanted to talk about this at all. But even so, he simply nodded silently, curiosity and worry filling him all at once as the blue Gem continued. “The truth is… I didn’t leave Homeworld… I escaped.”

“What?” Dipper finally spoke up, his voice even softer than Lapis’ as he took another step to stand beside her. The blue Gem didn’t reply immediately however, as she turned back to the pool, her eyes closing and her arms raising as a large wall of water rose up along with them. When Lapis opened her eyes once more, they were like mirrors, reflective and empty, as she used the aquatic screen she had created to project her memories in a visible form.

“When I first got back to Homeworld, I was so excited to be there,” the blue Gem began, her silhouette touching down in a rather obscured, yet ominous landscape upon the water screen. “I was home. After years and years of waiting and hoping, I was finally back where I really belonged… Or so I thought…”

Several other vague figures walked into the image, all of them in different colors and shapes as they surrounded Lapis, looking to her questioningly. “All the Gems I used to know and work with, my friends… I couldn’t find any of them. And to make matters worse, word soon began to spread about my return. A Lapis Lazuli, who had been reported as missing centuries ago, suddenly showing up back on Homeworld completely out of the blue, and coming from Earth, of all places? It was more than enough to cause plenty of suspicion among the more elite Gems.”

Dipper watched, completely captivated by this tale so far, as the silhouettes of several large, muscular-looking Gems roughly apprehended Lapis. “It wasn’t long before I was apprehended, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong. Still, I was brought in to be interrogated by a technician Gem, one who claimed she had been to Earth recently too…”

“Peridot?!” Dipper exclaimed in sudden shock as he instantly recognized the green, triangular-headed silhouette that was angrily interrogating Lapis on the water screen.

“Wait, you know her?” Lapis asked, her eyes returning to normal for a moment as she looked to him in equal surprise.

“Yeah, she showed up at the Galaxy Warp a few weeks ago,” Dipper informed, still quite bewildered by the coincidence. “She keeps sending these… machines here to do… well, we don’t really know yet, but she’s made it pretty clear that she’s no fan of the Crystal Gems, or of me, Steven, and Mabel.”

“Then it’s true… she really does know you guys…” Lapis muttered, taken aback by this news as her story continued on the water screen. “S-she mentioned you three. She even knew your all names and demanded that I give her more information on you. I swear I didn’t tell her anything, no matter how much she threatened to have me shattered! But then…” the blue Gem hesitated as the profile of a large, ominous orange Gem stepped into view. “She told me that I was going to be her informant, and go with her and her terrible escort back here to Earth, to deal with you three and the Crystal Gems, once and for all.”

The scene changed as Peridot and the orange Gem disappeared, transitioning to Lapis sitting alone in what looked like small jail cell. “I was detained until the mission was ready to leave, locked away as a prisoner once again. I was starting to lose hope, of escaping, of you guys surviving… of everything… Until I realized… I wasn’t alone…” Another obscured silhouette appeared in the empty cell adjacent to the blue Gem, a figure that seemingly bore very little similarities to any of the other Gems seen prior. “It turned out that someone else was being kept in the cell right across from mine. And it wasn’t just another imprisoned Gem either. It was a human.”

“A-a human?!” Dipper cut in, even more surprised by this information than he was with Peridot’s involvement. “What was a human doing on Homeworld?”

“I still don’t know…” Lapis shook her head almost sadly. “I don’t even know how he got there, but what I did know was that he was in just as much trouble as I was, through no fault of his own. Since neither of us really much else to do with our time, we started talking and I guess, in a weird way, became friends. I never really got his name, but… now that I look back… he reminded me a lot of you, Dipper…”

Hearing this only made Dipper’s immense desire to know who this mysterious human, who had somehow managed to make it to the distant, unknown Homeworld, even greater. But all the same, he offered the blue Gem a small, sympathetic smile, one that was quick to fade as her tale of woe continued. “The human was smart, very smart, and he was determined to break out of detainment. And I guess some of that determination rubbed off on me. So, thing led to another, and before we knew it, we were starting to plan our escape, from both imprisonment and from Homeworld altogether. We were going to steal a ship and fly it as far away as possible, though I did promise to drop the human off back here on Earth before we went separate ways. We figured out every little detail and we knew exactly what we were going to do and how. But when the time came for us to put our plan into action… everything went wrong…”

The water screen showed Lapis and her human friend fleeing from a massive horde of outraged Gems, a horde that was quickly starting to catch up with them. “We were discovered almost as soon as we broke ourselves out, and even though we tried to fight back, it was clear that we were going to be overpowered. As clever as the human was, he was no match for the army of warrior Gems that had been sent after us and he was easily captured. And that was when I was forced to choose between risking it all to rescue him… or taking my one final, fleeting chance at freedom…” A look of deep regret washed over the blue Gem’s face as the screen showed her wings sprouting as she flew away, leaving the human to an unknown fate as image abruptly disappeared. “I think you can guess what I chose…”

The wall of water fell slowly as Lapis shut her eyes, her head hanging in shame as she completed her story. “The rest is pretty easy to figure out too. I flew away from Homeworld, and came back here, but not because I wanted to hide. It was because I wanted to warn you.”

“A-about what?” Dipper asked, already quite unnerved after everything he had just heard, though he was caught even more off guard as Lapis knelt down to his level and placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Dipper, listen to me,” she said, her tone intense and shaken all at once as she looked him dead in the eyes. “Peridot is coming to Earth. She’s probably on her way here even as we speak. And she’s not alone. They’re coming, and they’re coming for you, for Steven, and for Mabel. And if they find you… I don’t even know what they might do…”

For a moment, all Dipper could really do was stare at Lapis in complete, dumbfounded disbelief upon hearing this, simply trying to come to grips with what she had just told him. If what she said was true, and she had no reason to lie about this, then a Homeworld invasion, the very thing that he had been fearing for weeks now, was imminent. On one hand, he realized he had been right about the matter all along, but he could hardly come close to celebrating that fact now, especially considering they very real danger they were all soon about to face with this incoming threat. “W-wow…” Dipper finally said after what seemed like ages of silence. “Lapis, that… that’s a lot to take in…”

“I know…” Lapis admitted, standing as she looked away from him guiltily. “I’m sorry I didn’t just tell you the night I got here. I was just… scared… and ashamed… When I saw you, all I could think about was that human I just… left behind… And I didn’t want you to think that I… that I was a coward…”

“A coward? Lapis, are you kidding me?” Dipper asked incredulously. “You broke out of prison and escaped a ton of powerful, violent Gem warriors! That’s anything but cowardly, if you ask me.”

“But it was,” Lapis insisted remorsefully. “I couldn’t save him! I left him to be locked away again, maybe even worse! I left him behind, all because I was too afraid to take him with me! But… that’s a mistake I’m not going to make again. I thought that by coming here, by telling you about all this… I could make up for that… And now I know for sure I can…”

“W-what do you mean?” Dipper asked in confusion as a somewhat odd, almost broken grin crossed the blue Gem’s features.

“I mean that I can save you, Dipper!” Lapis exclaimed boldly, gripping him by the shoulders tightly. “I can take you somewhere safe, way before Peridot even gets here! Somewhere where I can keep you safe from her, or from anyone who might want to hurt you! I-I don’t really know where yet, but we’ll find a place, I promise! Whatever planet we go to, I can keep you fully supplied with as much water as you need, and as far as the air thing goes, well… well I’ll figure something out, but what’s important is that we-”

“Whoa, Lapis, slow down!” Dipper cut in, quite alarmed by what she was implying. “We can’t just leave Earth!”

“W-why not?”

“Well, aside from the whole, me not being able to survive in space thing,” Dipper began somewhat pointedly. “We can’t just leave everybody behind while Peridot comes and does who knows what! What about Steven and Mabel?”

“Oh, they can come too!” Lapis offered earnestly. “All four of us, we can-”

“Lapis, we can’t leave,” Dipper insisted rationally. “We have to stay and tell the Crystal Gems about this. If there’s anyone here on Earth that’s even remotely capable of dealing with whatever Homeworld can dish out, its them. A-and they won’t listen if it’s just me telling them about all this, but I know they’d hear another Gem like you out about it.”

“No,” Lapis refused immediately, her manner turning quite cold. “No, we’re not telling them! Dipper, you don’t understand! Homeworld is so advanced now, much more advanced than it used to be back during the war! I wasn’t able to understand any of it when I was there! There’s no way anything on Earth, not even those Crystal Gems, can stand up to it! Putting up a fight will only lead to devastation!”

“But we have to fight!” Dipper retorted firmly. “Lapis, I know you don’t care about the Earth, but I do! This is my home! It’s where my friends, my family, everything I’ve ever cared about is! And I’m not going to leave it behind just because a bunch of Homeworld Gems are threatening it!”

“But… but if you stay…” Lapis began, almost on the verge of fearful tears. “T-then you might… you… They could…”

“That’s just it: there’s no telling what could happen,” Dipper said, resolved. “But whatever does happen, we can’t just run away from it out of fear. We have to stay and face this, no matter how bad it might be!”

“W-why…?” the blue Gem asked, shaking her head incredulously. “How could you be so… so ready to put yourself through something that might… that might end up…?” Lapis trailed off, unable to even finish such a horrible thought.

“Because I want to protect what’s important. A-and there’s so much here that’s important to me. Mabel, Steven, Grunkle Stan, the Gems, everyone else… They’re all worth staying behind and fighting for!”

“Worth fighting for…” Lapis repeated softly. “B-but… you’re just a human! What could you possibly hope to do against something as powerful and relentless as Homeworld?”

“I-I haven’t really figured that out yet,” Dipper admitted. “But still, I’m still going to do whatever I can. And the good news is, I won’t have to do it alone. O-or, at least I hope I won’t…” he said, looking to Lapis hopefully.

The blue Gem paused at this, looking to him with immense worry and uncertainty before she took a glance up to the dusky skies above through the cave’s hole. “D-Dipper, I…” she sighed, clearly conflicted and not having the faintest idea about how to say or do.

“Lapis, I know you’ve already been through so much because of Homeworld,” Dipper began sympathetically. “And I know you’re afraid of what they might do if they find you again. So I’d totally understand if you wanted to wanted to leave, but—and this is probably gonna sound really selfish, but—I really hope you stay, if for nothing else, then… then at least for me…”

Lapis said nothing to this at first, unable to rip her gaze away from Dipper as she tried to reconcile all of the countless emotions she was feeling at the moment. Fear, dread, guilt, anger, devotion, attachment, and strangely enough, hope. Hope seemed the oddest one to her though, especially given the incredibly hopeless situation they were currently facing. But if there was one thing she didn’t question about that hope, it was where it had come from. She was so impressed and also somewhat proud of that fact that Dipper could speak of standing in the face of such adversity so unflinchingly, almost as if he had no fear towards it at all, even if the hints of terror in his eyes and the anxiety in his voice revealed that he did. But somehow, in a way that Lapis could barely even begin to understand, he was pushing his way past that fear, turning it into something else, something else, something stronger, something that the blue Gem desperately wanted to have too. Her thoughts went back to what he had said, about wanting to protect what was important, what was worth fighting for. Admittedly, there were very few things on or about Earth, the planet that had trapped her for so long, that she saw as worth protecting. But there was indeed one thing on Earth that she had recently come to value as incredibly important, perhaps the only thing on the entire planet, or any planet really, that would convince her to stay behind and risk life and limb for the sole purpose of protecting that thing. And, conveniently enough, that thing was standing right in front of her.

“O-ok…” she whispered quietly, scarcely able to believe that she was agreeing to this. Still, she wasn’t going to back down from this choice; she couldn’t, not in front of him. “I… I’ll stay…”

“W-what?” Dipper asked, rather taken aback by her sudden relenting.

“I said I’m going to stay,” Lapis clarified, a bit louder and more confident this time. “If you’re going to stay here and fight, then I’m going to stay here too, and do whatever I can to protect you. No matter what happens.”

“Lapis, you don’t have to stay,” Dipper shook his head, suddenly feeling bad about how he had pressured her. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m forcing you to-”

“You’re not,” the blue Gem assured, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’m doing this because I want to. This is my problem, a-and I can’t keep running away from it anymore. And because, it’s like you said,” she paused, finally offering him a small, warm smile, one that he slowly returned. “Sometimes you just have to stay and stand up for what’s worth fighting for… A-and for me, Dipper, you’re definitely something that’s worth fighting for.”

Needless to say that Dipper was quite stunned, but deeply touched upon hearing this moving proclamation. In fact, he was so moved by it that he didn’t even think twice about suddenly embracing the blue Gem, immediately taking her by surprise, as she certainly wasn’t used to such open affection. “Thank you, Lapis,” Dipper said with immense gratitude, knowing just how hard this choice likely was for her.

It took Lapis a moment, but she did eventually return the hug, placing a caring hand on top of Dipper’s head as she gave him a fond, gentle smile. “No…” she whispered, knowing that despite all of her fears and worries about what was soon to come, she was making the right choice. “Thank you…”

As the sun sank over Gravity Falls, Steven and Mabel sat on the shack’s porch, equally dejected and discouraged about what had happened earlier with Dipper. Lion had come back some time ago, and despite Steven’s pleading, the pink beast was too tired to take them to where Dipper had ridden him to. And so, the pair had largely given up on ever figuring out what the truth really was, knowing that if Dipper himself wouldn’t tell them, then they likely would never know what it was.

“Don’t worry, Mabel,” Steven attempted to reassure upon hearing her let out another sad sigh. “I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

“Of course, he’ll be back, Steven,” Mabel remarked morosely. “But I’m just worried that when he does come back, he’ll just keep hiding things from us until it gets to the point that we won’t even know anything about him anymore. And I really don’t want that to happen…”

The young Gem sighed himself at this, feeling quite bad himself but still wanting to do what he could to help Mabel feel better, even if he really didn’t have a clue about what to do. “W-well, maybe he’s just not ready to tell us his secret yet.”

“Yeah, sure…” Mabel mused, not really buying this suggestion. “You know, it seems like everybody’s keeping secrets around here anymore. Dipper, the Gems… who’s next, Grunkle Stan?”

Steven was about to reply to this, but before he could, he just so happened to glance over at the tree line to see the subject of their conversation emerge. “Dipper!” he exclaimed, hopping to his feet and running over. Mabel was a bit more hesitant to after their earlier falling out, but she did the same, walking over to meet her brother, but averting his gaze all the while.

“Uh… hey, guys…” Dipper began rather sheepishly, still quite ashamed over what had happened between them. “Look, I’m really sorry about earlier. I didn’t want either of you to think that I was shutting you out or locking you out of the loop or anything like that, especially not you, Mabel.”

Mabel’s rather bitter expression softened a little upon hearing this as she finally did look to him, but she still didn’t say anything as she let him continue. “It’s just… I found something really important the other night, and it was something I couldn’t really tell you guys about. Until… until now.” Dipper paused, tentatively glancing back at the forest behind him before calling over to it. “It’s ok! You can come out now!”

Steven and Mabel both frowned in confusion at this, neither of them having the faintest idea about who he was talking to until a very familiar figure hesitantly stepped out of the woods and into full view. “Lapis?!” they both exclaimed in shocked unison, especially since the blue Gem’s appearance had been the very last thing either of them expecting.

“Um… hi, Steven. Hi, Mabel,” Lapis greeted awkwardly as Dipper gave her a reassuring nod. “L-long time, no-” The blue Gem was abruptly cut off as both Steven and Mabel ran forward, both of them wrapping her in an unexcepted, but overjoyed hug.

“Lapis, it’s so good to see you again!” Steven exclaimed brightly. “And… also kind of confusing. I thought you went back to Homeworld. How’d you end up back here on earth?”

“I-it’s… a long story…” the blue Gem remarked diffidently, knowing she would explain it to them soon enough.

“Wait a second!” Mabel gasped in realization as the hug disbanded. “Dipper! Was this your big huge secret? The fact that Lapis came back and you’ve been going off to hang out with her all by yourself?”

Dipper nodded relentingly, smiling somewhat bashfully as he realized just how ridiculous it all sounded when spoken out loud. Fortunately though, he didn’t have to explain himself as Lapis did that for him. “I-I told him not to tell anyone!” she interjected, flustered.

“Huh? But why?” Steven asked, confused.

“I…. I’ll tell you soon…” the blue Gem said, glancing down nervously.

“We need to go talk to the Gems,” Dipper cut in, knowing they couldn’t really afford to waste a lot of time now. “It’s really serious.”

Steven and Mabel’s shared levity over Lapis’ return was quick to fade into concern upon hearing this, but all the same, the group began to make their way up to the temple. All the while, it was clear that the blue Gem was dreading what would no doubt be an incredible awkward confrontation, but all three of the kids did their part in reassuring her that they would support her throughout it. Needless to say that when the kids showed up at the temple with none other than Lapis Lazuli, of all Gems, the Crystal Gems were completely taken aback with shock and alarm. In fact, a fight nearly broke out as soon as they saw here, but the kids were quick to intervene and confirm that the blue Gem was there to speak with them on even grounds. While the Gems were still clearly distrustful, they relented and decided to listen to what Lapis had to say, even if they kept their guard up all the while.

Lapis managed to keep her manner as cold and unflinching as possible as she explained only half of what she had told Dipper, leaving out most of the details on her captivity and her unknown human ally. But all the same, she told the Gems about Peridot’s plans, sparing no practical point as she revealed that the green Gem intended on coming to Earth any time now, with a full battleship and escort. The lingering tension in the room was instantly broken as the Gems heard this, a collective gasp of shock escaping them as they realized that their worst fears, fears they had tried so hard to push away to even the point of denial, were about to come true. Still, they let Lapis finish, listening intently to everything she said and committing it all to memory, knowing that it would be important information to have in the inevitable, upcoming confrontation.

“And… that’s all I know,” the blue Gem remarked stiffly, bringing her long story to a close. She spared no other words for the Crystal Gems, her disdain for them all still quite clear as she crossed her arms and looked down to her feet, barely even listening as the first round of reactions rose up.

“S-so it’s true…” Pearl muttered, covering her mouth with a trembling hand. “They really are coming… E-even after everything we’ve done, it still wasn’t enough to keep them away…”

“Well, that’s it then!” Amethyst exclaimed hotly, throwing her arms up in bitter defeat. “We’re screwed! We’re completely and totally screwed! What the heck are we gonna do?!”

“I-I don’t know!” Pearl exclaimed, starting to panic. “It’s been thousands of years since we’ve dealt with something like this, and we don’t even have Rose with us anymore! There’s no way we’ll be able to-”

“That’s enough,” Garnet cut in, clearly shaken herself but still managing to mostly keep her cool. “We’ll deal with this as it comes.”

“What?!” Pearl asked in dumbfounded surprise at how calm their leader was over this. “Garnet, we have to-”

“I said,” Garnet growled between clenched teeth as she nodded over to the kids, who were all looking to the Gems in apt concern and alarm. “We’ll deal with it.”

Amethyst and Pearl instantly silenced themselves at this, even if their expressions alone were more than enough to convey their rising terror. At the same time, Garnet stepped over to Lapis, who was still lost in her own thoughts until the Gem leader spoke up and gained her attention. “Lapis,” she began, her tone even, but genuine. “We know you still have hard feelings towards us about your time trapped in the mirror. But still, we thank you for giving us this information, even when you didn’t have to.”

Lapis was clearly somewhat taken aback by this show of gratitude, but she was quick to shrug it off as she looked away bitterly. “Whatever,” she remarked crossly. “I didn’t do it for you.”

“I know,” Garnet acknowledged as she glanced over to Dipper next. For the duration of the meeting, he had only really stood silently alongside Steven and Mabel, watching the blue Gem rather worriedly as she relayed her intel. However, his concern was interrupted as Garnet approached him, putting a steady hand on his shoulder. “Dipper, thank you for making sure this information got to us,” she said, adjusting her shades. “It turns out, you were right all along. We’re sorry for not taking your concerns about Homeworld seriously. That’s a mistake we’ll try our hardest not to make again.”

“Y-you’re welcome…” Dipper nodded, his voice rather small as he realized that he had finally earned the Gems’ respect. Only it had happened in the last way he ever could have wanted it to.

“Well, I think it’s time we called it a night,” Garnet announced as she put her hands on her hips. “Steven, it’s time for you to go to bed. Amethyst, Pearl… I-I need to talk to you inside the temple.”

The other Gems nodded quickly, already on their feet and rushing for the temple gate. Garnet followed after, not saying anything else as her hands clenched into tight, very lightly shaking fists at her sides. But even so, the Gems departed, all three of them knowing they had much to do and so very little time to do any of it.

“Lapis, you’re welcome to stay here at the temple for the night if you want to,” Steven offered the blue Gem with an inviting smile.

“Uh… thank you, Steven, but… I’d rather not…” Lapis frowned, not really wanting to be in such a close vicinity to the Crystal Gems.

“Well, hey, why don’t you stay down at the shack with us instead!?” Mabel exclaimed brightly. “It could be like a really cool, magical Gem sleepover! I could make cookies and we could sing karaoke, and-”

“Mabel, I-I don’t really know if Lapis is up for all that…” Dipper cut in, glancing worriedly at the blue Gem.

“I-its ok,” Lapis assured with a small, somewhat forced smile. “Mabel, I think I’ll take you up on that offer to stay with you guys… just because…”

“Alright!” Mabel cheered excitedly, already grabbing the blue Gem by the hand and pulling her out the door. “This is gonna be so much fun!”

“Y-yeah…” Lapis said halfheartedly, glancing back at Dipper who only gave her a somewhat amused shrug as Steven cheerfully waved them all off for the night. “Fun…”

Fortunately when the trio arrived at the shack, Stan was nowhere to be found, as had become somewhat customary at night anymore. Still, the twins didn’t think much of it as they showed Lapis around, with Mabel being much more enthusiastic over her presence, while Dipper remained rather solemn as he kept in mind the reason why the blue Gem was there in general.

Still, Lapis tried her best to remain as upbeat as she could, not really wanting to upset either of the twins, especially not Dipper, in light of what was coming. Which was why it wasn’t too long before the blue Gem slipped away as soon as the twins went to bed, flying up to the roof, where she perched to find a moment’s peace. She paid the natural beauty of the evening no mind as she shut her eyes and let out a long sigh, hugging her knees to her chest as she forced her thoughts to be silent for a change. After all, there would be plenty of time to worry over what was coming in the next few days. For now, she just wanted to let her mind finally have some much-deserved rest, something that it admittedly hadn’t seen in years.

Her mediation was soon broken, however, as she heard soft footsteps approach her from behind. She didn’t even have to open her eyes to know that Dipper had taken a seat down beside her, but oddly he didn’t say anything, instead only letting out a soft, tired sigh instead. The two of them sat in silence like that for a while, neither of them really sure of what to say at this point, as there was just so much that really could be said. Still, when this silence was broken, Dipper was the one to do it.

“I know none of this is easy for you,” he began rather tentatively. “But for what it’s worth, I’m really glad you decided to stay.”

“I had to,” Lapis said, her tone sad and small. “I couldn’t just leave you behind like… like I did with him…”

“You did what you had to,” Dipper concluded, glancing over at her. “Just think, if you hadn’t escaped from Homeworld, none of us would have any idea about what’s coming.”

Lapis finally opened her eyes at this as she looked at him with dread and concern. “How are you so calm about all this?” she asked intently. “All I can think about is how terrified I am about what’s about to happen. So… why aren’t you?”

“To tell you the truth, I-I am pretty terrified…” Dipper admitted, rubbing his arm. “I mean, this is a full-on alien invasion we’re talking about here. It’s probably going to be the most dangerous thing we’ve had around here yet. But… I know it’s coming and that we have to face it, no matter how dangerous it is. And I guess, in a weird way, that’s sorta what’s getting me through it all…”

Lapis couldn’t help but frown at this answer, her former guilt returning as she realized that the only reason he really had to face any of this was because of her. Perhaps if she had been more insistent with him on taking him off planet, then they could be galaxies away from this oncoming threat by now. But then she remembered what he had told her, about fighting for what mattered. She had promised him that she was going to stay, that she was going to stand by him no matter what happened. A promise, that by all accounts, she refused to let herself break. “You know, if there’s one good thing to come out of any of this… it’s that I got to spend more time with you. I think that’s what I’m going to miss the most if… if, well, something happens…”

“Don’t worry,” Dipper said with a small, warm smile. “Once all of this blows over—and it will, I know it—then we’ll even more time to hang out together. But since we won’t have to worry about Homeworld invasions or anything like that, then it’ll be even better.”

Lapis hesitated in answering this, knowing that his optimism about the situation was much too hopeful, almost to the point of being unrealistic. Still, if he believed that there was even the smallest change that they would get through this alive and unscathed, then she was inclined to believe it too. “Yeah… Even better…” she said, finally smiling as she looked to the starry sky once more. Lapis knew well that the danger they were about to face was severe, even life-threatening, but even so, she was resolved to face it, just as Dipper was. She would face it, stand up to it, fight back against it, regardless of how hard or perilous it might be, if for nothing else than the young human sitting by her side. For him, she would risk whatever she had to give, stand against whoever she had to, and put herself through anything at all, no matter what the cost to herself might be. Because she knew that, perhaps above anything else she had seen on planet Earth, he was, without question worth protecting.

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