A/N: Thanks to a whole bunch of guys for following and favoriting this story! I really appreciate it. I'd also like reviews, but well I'll accept this. Now to reply to the reviewers!

/TheGoldenDragwolf: Thank you so much! I like it too, and I'm glad you do.

/Guest: You're very welcome! ya know, I'd love to discuss these chapters with you, personally, so if you could create an account and review, that would be lovely!

Aaaaand with that said, here's Chapter Forty-One, with yet another perspective! I hope you enjoy!

Note: This chapter was also set either Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

A Triangle in the Stars
Chapter Forty-One: Trouble at Sea

Ford was holding tight onto the edge of the boat. Things had gotten incredibly stormy, more than it had been, incredibly dangerous, extremely fast. He almost thought it was Bill's doing, but his phone had alarmed him that a serious storm was scheduled to pass by this area. However, he didn't think it would be this severe. He shot a worried look over at his brother and at Peridot, who, inexplicably only to him, managed to hold firm to the rocking boat without even holding onto anything.

Meanwhile, the Gem seemed frightened, hugging herself as she paced. She wasn't used to this. What was this? it seemed extremely bad. She brought up her screen to look it up, but a thunderclap freaked her out more and made her "drop" it. Stan, steering, sped up the craft, "Hold on tight, guys...!"

Ford didn't need to be told twice. He was already holding on. The waves kept pushing the boat back, however, each one farther than the last. Peridot looked around fearfully, wondering what she could do. The rain was soaking the boat and everything and everyone on it. She soon yelled over the storm, "What can I do?!"

"Be our lookout! if you see anything in the water that could potentially hurt the ship or us, tell me immediately!" Ford's brother answered, eyes narrowed.

She saluted, the Diamond salute, not realizing that wasn't how things worked here, and nodded, "Yes, sir!"

And she took to doing just that, and it wasn't hard to see at all. She was made with that capability, after all. She didn't mind her wet hair hanging on and past her shoulders. She was honestly too distracted.

The scientist kept holding on, wearing a straight face. He was lucky all those years in the portal made him resistant to puking. He didn't want to lose what he'd eaten. The waves kept rocking the boat, and one of them tipped it just a tiny bit. He freaked out, "Oh my god..."

Peridot let out a squeak. She knew she herself would be okay though, but these two.. humans.. wouldn't be! so she shouted, "These waves are the dangerous obstacles!"

Stan frowned then, looking at the compass. The one thing that wasn't going completely haywire. He sped up the ship, just a little bit more, until something flitted past them, causing a wave to crash onto the ship.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" barked Stan, unable to hear anything except the horrible storm.

"I.. I don't know..." Ford shivered, horribly drenched, more than he had been. But that was the least of his problems. Of all their problems.

Peridot saw it, however. Or her. Both of them. She hoped they didn't see her. Probably not though. They both looked too concentrated, too distracted. The green Gem took a deep breath once they got far enough away, and yelled, "We can't keep going like this! we have to turn this vehicle around! these waves are going to be your deaths if you don't!"

Ford silently agreed, squeezing the edge of the boat more. Though Bill Cipher would be loose another day... if they died, and if the ship sank, there would be no one, and nothing, to stop him.

Permanently.

He sighed.

Stan sighed too, wanting to protest, but ended up turning the boat around. He started to bring them out of the storm—following those crazy waves of the Gems who passed them. It was a lot easier to turn back than to keep going, and they soon left the vicious storm behind. They entered an area of soft, gentle, though still pouring, rain. Peridot sat behind the safe just then, hiding. She felt no relief. Ford raised an eyebrow at this. What was she doing that for?

"Ford," Stan began, unknowingly cutting through his thoughts, "you're the new lookout. Peridot, you're on bucket duty. Get down into the lower levels of the ship and bail out water. There'll be some buckets down there."

Ford nodded, snapping his attention off this, "Alright."

He got up, and took off his glasses, rubbing them clean and dry before he donned them again. It was rather pointless. They just got kinda wet again, but it was better than before. The scientist wandered the boat, keeping close attention to the slightly calm waters and their surroundings.

Peridot muttered, and got up, still crouched down. The Gem looked around, and soon saw a hatchet that probably led down to the lower levels Stan mentioned. She walked over, and opened it, frowning, and said this vague warning before she traveled down it, "Don't follow those waves..."

And then Ford was left slightly confused, but still focused on his new task. What did she mean by that..? aside from the literal sense?

But Stan was, unknowingly. And he kept going, not seeming to have heard. Or, more accurately, did not understand. Ford frowned softly, looking at these waves carefully. He looked over at his brother, worriedly, and sighed, deciding to heed Peridot's warning, even if he didn't understand it yet. His experiences in Gravity Falls taught him never to take a warning with a grain of salt, no matter how nonsensical such admonitions may be or may look. So he instructed, hands now behind his back, "Take a turn, Stanley."

Peridot climbed down the ladder, and her feet splashed in some water, about knee-deep, when she touched down. She frowned softly, and looked around for the "buckets" Stan mentioned. The Gem found them, and smiled, going to retrieve them. And so she started to scoop up the water, using one finger for each bucket to make things go faster, and dump them out of the boat. She felt a little relieved now. At least here she wouldn't be seen. But eventually she'd have to go back up to report to one of those semi-clones.

Yes. Peridot still had trouble wrapping her mind around the whole "brother" thing, which Ford thankfully at least tried to explain more specifically during the safer, more relaxing parts of the trip. But her thoughts soon drifted back onto her worries. She shuddered at the prospect of getting spotted by those Gems.

Stanley frowned, "But what if that was Bill?"

He did slow down just a little, knowing it was a bad idea to get too far from their destination—they just needed to stay out of the storm. Ford frowned softly as well. He hummed, "It does seem a little strange, the storm... and I almost thought for a while that Cipher might have done this... but I had received a warning about it, and the weather systems aren't quite apt to pick up on chaotic phenomena, and so quickly. However, I honestly didn't think it would have been that bad..."

He looked back. The storm was still raging. It looked oddly sublime. And incredibly strange, since all you had to do was backtrack a few yards and you'd be stuck in it again. But that was how the weather worked anyway. It could be incredibly sunny in one area, and a few inches away it could be raining like crazy. It wasn't something that occurred just in Gravity Falls. Stan sighed and stopped the ship, "Then what do we do? stay here?"

"i guess that's what we'll have to do..." Ford bowed his head. "I'm not risking our lives..."

Even though facing Bill definitely would be risking their lives. But he was more or less talking about before they got to face Bill. Peridot soon came back up, not tired at all, and announced, "I did it! I removed all the water from the lower levels."

Stan didn't seem to hear her. He was staring at the stormy area. He said, "The storm isn't that bad anymore..."

It seemed to be letting up, to him.

"Really..?" Ford frowned, still looking at it. It still looked awfully bad to him, where the waves were concerned. Peridot sighed, and looked where they were both looking. She was on Ford's side. The rain may have let up, but the waves hadn't.

"Okay, maybe not. But I think we should go..." Stan seemed antsy to get this over with.

"And I don't think we should..." the scientist stated, frowning a little.

"Yeah, let's just stay here!" Peridot suggested, getting over the fact that she was ignored. It happened almost all the time on Homeworld, in fact. Why was she reacting any differently here?

"Fine. But if Bill destroys the world because you guys were afraid of some rain, it's not my fault!" Stan quipped.

Ford scrunched up his face, "Some rain? some rain?! did you feel those waves, Stanley? they were going to flip us over! and we wouldn't be able to stop Bill if the quantum destabilizer was lost at sea!"

Peridot then added, grimacing, "Or if you guys got sha—I mean, dead."

She didn't know who Bill was at all, but, judging by how these two often talked about him, she wanted to stop him too. But they couldn't because of the storm. Stan considered their words, and nodded. He frowned, "Well... we're not doing anyone any good just sitting here like this! can't we just navigate around the storm?"

His brother put a hand on his chin, "Maybe we could do that..."

The unnaturally tall Gem was on it, and brought up her screen, trying to look for a way around it. She hummed. Ford stared at her, hoping she'd find some route they could take. Stan turned off the engine with a sigh. And Stan was both right and wrong to turn off the engine. Peridot frowned, "The storm surrounds the region we need to reach. We can't bypass it."

Ford sighed, "I was afraid of that."

And then his stomach growled slightly. He was afraid of that too. And they didn't even stock up. He saw no need to do so. But he was again proven wrong. He sat down, still eyeing the storm, and then stuffed his hands into his face.

"We could dock somewhere close to it and just walk the rest of the way there, right?" Stan suggested.

Ford nodded, "Yes. That's exactly what I had in mind. We're going to have to stop for some food though."

Peridot smiled slightly, putting away her screen, "We could go back to that place! it's relatively close to where you want to go."

And the old man paled slightly. He didn't like that place—Ocean Town. It was too creepy. Even more than Gravity Falls was. Because, in Gravity Falls, at least the townsfolk were lively.

"Yes, but couldn't we find somewhere... closer?" Stan didn't want to walk that far.

Ford brought his hands out from his face and looked out across the sea some more. He saw a little strip of land. And then smiled a little. Maybe there'd be some restaurants in there. He pointed to it, "We could park over there."

Peridot glanced at it, and frowned. That was the same place the Gems had gone—she remembered. The crazy waves they created led straight there. She made her little sounds of disapproval, before she uttered, "Uhh, maybe we shouldn't..."

"I agree with Stanford. We should keep making progress," Stan smiled, and started up the engine again. "Two to one, we win."

"There's dangerous stuff over there though!" the green Gem warned once again, growing incredibly antsy. Her still wet hair was becoming frazzled somehow. Ford glanced over at her, and grew a little uneasy. But they had their weapons. And he was hungry. They couldn't just sit there and wait for the storm to let up, and he wasn't willing to go back to Ocean Town.

"Like what? we face dangerous stuff all the time, my nerdy bro and I. And we're about to face something so dangerous it could destroy the multiverse. So nothing over there could be more dangerous than that," Stan argued, with a sigh.

"It's dangerous to me!" she yelped, and then added as an afterthought, "and to you! your weapons will not be enough! just find someplace else, please!"

Ford remained quiet, pursing his lips and alternating his gaze between his brother and Peridot. He didn't know which side to support anymore.

"Give me a solid reason. What are you so afraid of?" he was considering it again.

Peridot took a deep breath to calm herself down, and replied, "There are others like me—Gems. I ran away from my home planet. Now they're after me..."

She sat down brokenly, hugging her knees again and staring down at the floor. Ford's eyes were wide. If it wasn't still raining, he'd have gotten out his Journal and written this down. But those were skewed priorities. He had to get himself more concerned over the fact that Peridot, and by extension he and his brother, was in danger, than the fact that there were more like her. It wasn't hard, however. Stan was a little shocked. He asked, "Then... why don't you face them? and how, exactly, do you know they're there?"

"Because they'll capture me... and I know they're there because I saw them... when that one large wave came up on the ship..." Peridot answered, eyes wide.

Ford frowned, eyebrow rising, "And you didn't tell us..?"

"I didn't want to worry you any more than you already were!" the Gem defended herself. "And they didn't see us, so that's a good sign."

The scientist's frown stayed, but he nodded. His stomach growled again, slightly louder, but still unnoticeable to everyone else on the boat.

"Well, we could go onto the land, and you could stay here with the ship, couldn't you? and then, once we eliminated Bill, we'd come back. All you'd have to do is stay put," the ex-thief offered.

"I'd go along with that.. but there's a tiny problem..." the green alien frowned.

"And that is..?" Ford's eyebrow rose higher.

"They may capture and interrogate you guys," she answered. "Tactic number one of searching for a fugitive is catching and interrogating anyone if they exhibit even a speck of suspicious activity, which, might I add, is highly subjective." That didn't seem too bad, until the Gem said, "And they hate organic life too..."

And if this Jasper was any like the others, she'd waste no time in trying to kill these two if she caught them and they yielded no answers. And, possibly, even if they did. Peridot had no idea about the other Gem though, but she assumed she was the same way. Stan's brother's eyes were wide.

"Well... that settles it... let's just sit here until that storm clears up," Stan turned off the engine again. "Poindexter, wanna teach Peridot to play Poker?"

Ford frowned. He was getting hungry. But he supposed this would distract him from it. Besides, Gems could move. And they were probably at Ocean Town after all this time. So he nodded, a smile touching his lips, "Of course."

Peridot was grateful for this. No one here was in danger anymore. But now she was confused, and she stared at them with slightly wide eyes and raised eyebrows. She then asked, "What's a 'poker'?"

She was sure it wasn't what she thought it was, though.

"We have much to discuss," Stan said, deadly serious, staring at her now as he slowly pulled out a deck of cards. Thankfully, the rain here had calmed down to the point of sprinkles, so these cardboard papers were safe from ruin, but the storm behind them raged on. Peridot looked at these cards, and tilted her head, still hopelessly confused. She almost thought they lost their minds. What could those pieces of paper do?

Ford's smile slowly evolved into a grin, for once dropping the serious attitude. They were going to have fun playing Poker. They needed a break like this anyway...

A/N: And here it is! I hope you enjoyed it! Ace had Stan, and I had Ford and Peridot! wooo, so exciting, isn't it? here you get a little more insight on why Peridot fled Homeworld. But it's still not explicit. However, if you squint your eyes and look deeper, you'll catch it. XP And I'm not giving any more hints. Also, there's a sort of parallel here, traced all the way back to Chapter Ten. I'll see if you can spot it.

Anyway, leave a lengthy review, and I'll see you next Wednesday or Thursday with the next one!