Marco looked at the crooked water tower and frowned. The cupcake spray painted on the side seemed familiar. He blinked and an image of jagged teeth and a spiked tongue flashed in his mind. Was there a horror movie about a walking wooden water tower terrorizing a city?

His mind seemed to be playing tricks on him lately so who knew.

"They really cleaned this place up," Dipper commented. Mabel agreed, Star nodded, and Marco had the feeling of being out of the loop again because the city looked like a mess. A lot of the houses they 'd passed on the way here looked like they'd been pillaged for food. He'd assumed it was due to recent events, but maybe not…

There was an adult washing off a giant red triangle from his building and it filled Marco with an unknown anger. How dare they disrespect him like that!

Marco's eyes widened slightly; where did that come from? He should really get some more sleep. He'd started hearing voices in his head.

Well, more like one voice that sounded like a hundred. It had started in his sleep but had recently started hearing him in the day as well.

Star looked at Marco worriedly. She'd been dreading this moment ever since she'd been convinced to come back to this town. What if this place reopened his memories? The last thing she wanted was for Marco to be in pain. There may be a wedge driving them apart, and they may not have been acting like a couple, but she still cared for him deeply. She cared for him more than she'd ever cared for anyone else.

She had no idea what she would do if she lost him. It took so long for the stars to finally align and for them to admit their feelings for one another.

Dipper and Mabel led the way back to the Mystery Shack. Apparently, they had been able to salvage enough of the house that had been transformed into the massive-monster-fighting-robot-machine-thing that they had used when they'd gone on the offensive against Bill.

Star caught Marco staring at some of the street signs and frowned. Maybe this wasn't the best idea after all…

Dipper stared at the Dusk 2 Dawn. It was in rough shape and was one of the many buildings that hadn't been restored. Taking a closer look, there was a yellow paper taped to the door that marked the convenience store to be demolished in the following week and replaced with a new building.

He'd often dreamt of Ma and Pa, the two ghosts that had haunted his teenager friends when they'd snuck into the convenience store, only to save him when Bill had control over Gravity Falls. He'd always hoped that they'd somehow made it out of there alive. If people were tearing the building down, it either meant that they had sacrificed themselves for Dipper, or they had moved on sometime afterwards.

Or they disappeared when the realm of magic was destroyed.

Dipper wasn't exactly sure how the realm had worked, and what exactly was under its influence. Either way, a tear slid down his face. Mabel gave him a concerned glance, but he nodded slightly to let her know he was fine.

Well, as fine as one could be these days.

All too soon, they were coming up on the Mystery Shack. Dipper started to become anxious; what if it had been abandoned? Or vandalized? So much had changed. What if a mewman house had appeared within the same space as the house? Dipper wasn't sure if he could handle the place where he'd spent his summer in shambles.

Well, more than the usual amount anyways. How Stan had managed to keep the health inspectors from shutting the place down was beyond Dipper.

Mabel gasped and he looked up. There it was. The Mystery Shack. Memories came flooding into his head. It looked slightly abandoned, but that wasn't unusual.

"Let's approach quietly," Dipper whispered, "We need to make sure that it's safe before we enter."

He was being cautious, but he wanted nothing more than to run up the patio and inside. They could finally be reunited with Gruncle Stan and their Great Uncle Ford. They would know how to reverse this big mess if they hadn't already started fixing it. They could finally be getting somewhere.

Dipper and Mabel took the lead and they tip-toed their way towards the front door. They crouched right beside it and Dipper could hear someone moving around inside. He prayed that whoever it was, they were friendly.

Suddenly, the door slammed open.

(Line Break)

Cubert couldn't help but stare. Growing up, he had always admired the grandiose castle that had dominated the city. It was a sign of the power of his people and had become a symbol of everything he wanted to be. To work in the Butterfly Castle as a royal knight had been his dream for as long as he could remember.

And to see it now broke his heart.

The once beautiful salmon bricks were now covered in ash and soot, there was a gaping hole in the wall that encircled the castle, and the tower to his left had collapsed. It brought tears to his eyes, to see the castle desecrated.

Those damn humans did this, he thought. They didn't have to do this; they didn't have to hunt him and his friends down like sport.

Humans were vile creatures.

Cubert's heart turned black as he walked away. He couldn't stand there too long or the humans could get suspicious. He was still wearing the clothes that he'd found with Marco, but that would only do so much. He wasn't sure if he could hide the spite in his voice if he had to actually talk to any of them.

After all, he knew that Queen Moon wasn't there. There was no way a lady of her stature would stay in such a mess. No, she must be off in some luxurious hideaway that was probably made for just this occasion. Moon had a knack of being prepared for anything and was a natural leader. Cubert recognized that he wasn't the smartest mewman ever born, but with a queen as great as her he didn't have to think for himself much. Any problems would be handled by her in the best way possible. He would follow her orders to the end of the world if it came to it.

As an act of defiance, Cubert had stopped eating all human food. The only thing he would eat were things that had been on his home planet. How things such as corn came to be on this planet was beyond him, but he chose not to think about it and chalk it up a weird coincidence. However, with such limited options, Cubert was constantly in a state of hunger.

Another reason to find Queen Moon. She would have plenty of food for him to eat and he would never starve again.

According to Marco, she had been at the castle before it was invaded, so she couldn't be too far away. All Cubert had to do was search every nook and cranny until he found her.

Easy.

But first, he needed to rest. The journey here had been long and confusing. Marco told him a bunch of ways to find 'Los Angeles', but none of them had made since until he told him to walk with the sun on his left in the morning and to his right in the evening. Keep near the hard, gray lines on the earth and eventually some of the green signs would say 'Los Angeles'. From there, all he had to do was follow the signs

Alleys had both become his friend and his greatest enemy. On the one hand, most people ignored the alcove and it provided Cubert with a safe spot to bunker down for the night. If he was lucky, there would be an empty dumpster or something else that he could sleep in that would protect him from the elements. The nights were chilly enough and they became exponentially worse if he'd been rained on.

But on the other hand, if he did come across anyone in an alley, there was a great chance his life was in danger for his life. Like when he'd first found Marco. He was one of the few humans he'd come across that had recognized that he was a mewman and didn't try to kill him. Cubert wanted to believe that humans were good people, he really did. The cities he'd walked through had taken his breath away and they had invented things that had never ever even been imagined on Mewni. But it was hard to look up to the people who were hunting him down.

There were places to stay besides the alley, of course, but they weren't nearly as safe. Houses of any type were off-limits. Just the other day, hidden besides a pile of rubble, he watched as people turned innocent houses into traps, hoping to catch travelers and shake them down of anything valuable. It was despicable.

Any shops or business buildings were a bad idea as well. They were constantly raided for supplies.

He glanced above him; the sky had been gray for a few hours. An alley was his best bet. Sighing in exhaustion, Cubert started the search for an alley that looked like the world had forgotten it.

(Line Break)

Cubert woke instantly. It took a few seconds for senses to come back to him. He wasn't on Mewni; he was on Earth. In the town of Los Angeles. Sleeping under a pile of cardboard boxes. And something had changed. Something had awoken him.

There!

Footsteps!

They were faint, possibly at the entrance of the alley that he was in. He'd learned his lesson from other times and this alley did have another exit that he could escape to, but if he exposed himself now, they would see him.

And sometimes humans had weapons of terrible power. Cubert had only seen them used once, but it was seared into his mind. Two days ago, when Cubert was still on his way to find Queen Moon and the Butterfly Castle, he came across a gas station (a refueling station for the best invention that he'd yet to come across). It looked as abandoned as the others, but that didn't mean much anymore. Traps had been set up in almost every building along the highway.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, a young man, no older than himself, came sprinting out of the gas station. Even from a distance, the fear and frenzy in his eyes was blatant. Cubert was just about to lend a hand, prejudice be damned, when another man exited the gas station. He calmly raised a long slender cylinder and tucked it into his shoulder. After a moment of silence, thunder exploded from the man by the gas station. The man running for his life was knocked off of his feet and his body laid on the ground.

Unmoving.

Cubert hadn't even seen anything in the air; it was instantaneous. He stood rooted to his spot in the trees and watched as the dead man was dragged back towards the gas station. He'd only gotten off the road because he had to… relieve himself. He'd stayed in the tree line from then on.

If the people at the entrance of the alley had those weapons, it didn't matter if Cubert could outrun them because no one was faster than the lightning that thing unleashed.

The footsteps got closer and Cubert hoped they wouldn't hear his heart hammering in his chest. He was so close to finding Queen Moon. If he died here than every hurdle he'd jumped would've been in vain and he would just be another unnamed casualty.

"I thought I remembered seeing that freak in this alley," someone said. The voice was fairly high pitched so Cubert assumed it must be a young boy. Still, it was best not to show himself.

But he was a mewman!

A knight in training!

And here he was cowering by untrained civilians… it was embarrassing how far he'd fallen in the days since the collision of the two worlds.

The group that had apparently been following him stopped right next to his hiding spot. Cubert got a glimpse of their legs through a hole in one of the cardboard boxes around his head. There were three of them. What if his leg had been uncovered while he had been asleep? What if they figured out where he was?"

Suddenly, they ran away! Their footsteps echoed in the alleyway as Cubert breathed a sigh of relief, but what scared them away?

"You can come out now," A voice called, "Those goons won't be coming back anymore and I wouldn't harm a fellow mewman."

Fellow mewman? Cubert rushed out of his hiding spot to see the strange man, and he was in fact a mewman. There was no denying it with his outfit.

"You saved my life!" Cubert gushed, running over and hugging him, "How did you know where I was though?"

"Those dirty humans are much better at finding mewmans than we are, but we can follow the humans without much trouble, so they follow mewmans and we follow them." He explained, "Then we scare them off and rescue the victim."

Cubert squirmed at being called a victim, but the joy of finally seeing another mewman made up for any embarrassment.

"Is it just you or...?"

"No there are many more of us," He reassured, much to Cubert's relief, "Ever since the castle was desecrated, we've had to move into less obvious buildings; it's probably why you haven't seen many mewmans since you've arrived."

"You're the first mewman I've seen at all, actually," Cubert admitted. Then, a thought struck him. "Do you know where Queen Moon is? I came here to find her; she'll know how to fix all this."

"Unfortunately," the man shook his head, "None of us have seen Moon or her husband since the castle fell…"

It felt like the air was knocked out of his lungs. He'd travelled all this way, all this way, for nothing. He should've stayed where he'd been. Now he was deep in hostile territory with no goal. He knew that he wasn't smart to undo whatever made the two worlds collide; thinking was Queen Moon's best attribute.

"However, we are currently united under the best warrior Mewni has ever seen and we have been sending out search parties every night looking for her or any other mewmans. If you are willing, we'd love to have you join us."

"How could I refuse?"

Cubert grabbed the man's outstretched hand, "I'm Cubert."

"I'm Jovi."

Jovi lead the way across town until they reached an old warehouse near a giant red bridge. He looked around to make sure the coast was clear before knocking three times in quick succession, waited a second, and then knocked twice. Some sort of code, Cubert guessed.

After a moment, the door unlocked and opened.

"Take him to the boss," Jovi said to one of the guards inside, "I'll see you around, Cubert."

After a little wave, Cubert was all alone with the guard. He jerked his head to his left and they walked down a small corridor before arriving at another locked door. The man knocked the same coded knock, and after another minute the door opened again.

"Go on in, kid," the man grunted. Everything felt sketchy to Cubert. This wasn't how he imagined the mewmans would operate. He was used to their overemotional personalities, not this monotone dud. Even the warehouse seemed bland in comparison to who Mewmans used to live. Where were all the colors? The building was a solid gray on the inside. This wasn't a type of place that Cubert thought Queen Moon would agree on.

Still… if these people were looking for the Queen, then he would do his best to help them. Plus, they did save his life; he was honor bound to at least hear them out.

There was a big desk and a few chairs in the room. Cubert was shocked when he saw who was sitting behind the desk, in charge. She waved her hand to one of the other chairs.

"Please, have a seat," Mina said. Cubert stared at her. This was Mina, a former solarian warrior. And she was the one who raged war on the monsters on mewni. Cubert himself had only become one of the solarian warriors in the final battle because Queen Moon had joined the cause, and where she went, he would follow. He hadn't enjoyed it, but he'd put his faith in his queen.

But Mina, she'd loved it. She didn't even try to hide the glee on her face. She enjoyed killing those she deemed beneath her. It was sickening. Why Queen Moon decided to team up with her didn't make sense to him, but once again, she was his queen and he would follow her orders till the day he died.

He took the seat and she studied him.

"Cubert, right?" A smile spread across her face, "You were with us before the realm of magic was destroyed by that cursed princess."

"The realm of magic is gone?" That was news to Cubert. If he remembered correctly, it was what gave the Butterfly family their legitimacy as a royal bloodline. With that gone, was Queen Moon still Queen Moon?

Of course, she was, he decided. Magic or no magic, she was the only one smart enough to get them out of this mess.

"Star Butterfly destroyed it in attempt to stop me," Mina spit the words before regaining her composure, "But that's in the past. Things have changed and we are fighting for our lives here."

"I was told you were looking for Queen Moon," Cubert decided to get right to the point and Mina nodded, "I want to help. Marco told me she w-"

"Marco told you?" She cut in, "Where was he?"

"Uhhh, north of here? I'm not familiar with this planet."

Mina was silent for a moment. She appeared deep in thought. Cubert shuffled his feet twice before she seemed to make her mind up.

"Was Star with him?" She asked.

"I didn't see her, but he was scavenging food for a group of people."

"Then she is with him," Mina looked Cubert in the eyes, "I was at Butterfly Castle when it was raided and Star was the last person I saw with Queen Moon. I believe that if anyone knows where the queen is, it is her. Do you have any idea of where they might be now?"

"Wait, that doesn't make sense, why would Star leave if she knew where her mother was?"

"Because Star is a traitor. She destroyed the realm of magic to stop Queen Moon and I. If we find her, we can interrogate her. Finding Queen Moon is our number one priority, after all."

Mina kept pressing the one button that would make Cubert talk.

"Marco said they were headed to someplace called Gravity Falls," he admitted, "But I have no idea where that is."

Mina smiled and it reminded him of a shark.

"Leave that to me."

AN: So so so sorry about the long wait. This chapter was really hard for me to write because I'm holding myself back from getting to the big climax too soon and I need to make sure that everything makes sense getting there because there are a lot of pieces in this game of chess. I also had a few days where my mental health went all over the place and I didn't even open up the chapter for days at a time. Having all online classes at a new college means you spend a lot of time alone in your dorm… not a great combo for me.

Mina has officially been introduced in this story! I've hinted at her a few times so far, but this is the first chapter she's mentioned by name. She might be a little ooc, but only because I'm making her a little smarter. She'll have a lot of schemes up her sleeve…

What do you guys think of Cubert? I really wanted to have a one shot of someone who wasn't a main character just to widen the story up a little bit and I realized that I could also use him to fill up one of my bigger plot holes that I'd realized while writing. I have more plans for him in the future as well and hopefully you guys all enjoy this side plot with him and a certain strong amphibian…

I hope I'm able to get the next chapter out soon-ish, but I'm spending the next few days on a 'mini-vacation' with some old friends to get me off campus (one of the few upsides of having all online classes). Hope you guys are all doing well!