Mabel couldn't help but sing "I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore" at the top of her lungs when it came on the radio. Because of her crooning, it felt a lot like any other car trip to Dipper – at least, when he let himself forget everything else. He was in the back behind the passenger seat as Winter drove the blue Charger through the woods toward town. A gentle rain continued to fall, painting a shine on the road ahead. It wasn't the weather, nor her singing, nor even his own anxieties that currently had all his attention, though; it was the blue-eyed woman herself. With the way she gripped the wheel and the icy silence that clung to her like a cloak, he could tell something wasn't right – though he didn't know quite how to ask what. Since Mabel was lost to the music, however, it was up to him. At last he squirmed up enough courage to shout her down. "Is everything okay up there, Winter?"

"Huh?" She looked over at the blue-eyed woman and examined her demeanor, quickly realizing there was a problem. "Oh, wow. Someone looks awkward," she noted, turning down the volume. "What's up, yo?"

"I..." Her face screwed up with hesitation as she trailed off.

Mabel crossed her arms and frowned a bit. "Hey hey hey look, we get that you're the strong, silent type and all, but don't be bottlin' up your mopey-mope. We gotcha back, right Dip?"

"Right," he confirmed with a thumbs up. "Besides, I don't think I've ever seen you tense before. It's kinda weird."

Lips pursed, Winter drove on in silence until Mabel gave her a poke. Then another. A third made her crack. "I don't like that I can't call Summer because she's underground."

"Ohhhhh, I see now." Mabel faced forward and nodded sagely. "Yeah, it sucks when you're apart and you don't exactly wanna be. Sometimes Dipper drives me up the friggin' wall, but I like having him around."

"Mm. I think what happened in the woods is still bothering her, but I... I don't know how to talk to her about it. Sometimes we feel so far apart. She keeps most of her troubling thoughts to herself. We both do."

"Try asking her what's wrong over and over and over until she says something or tries to punch you!" Mabel suggested cheerfully, bouncing in her seat. "Tackle the problem head on! None of that personal space business either, hug her! Hug her until she gets mad!"

Dipper shook his head with a sigh. "Just because it works for you doesn't mean it'll work for them. Look, everyone needs their space. Ask her once, then whatever happens, respect it. Maybe she'll want to talk, maybe not. If she doesn't, at least you gave her the chance. You can always try again later."

Winter nodded at his advice. "Perhaps. We both have a tendency to suppress our thoughts. It takes a little prying to open us up."

"Right, right. I dunno, I don't think I'm the best guy to ask about this. I like to keep my feelings on the down low too, you know. Except it's pretty hard when you have someone like Mabel around all the time."

She cracked a massive smile back at him before looking up at Winter. "You bet your butt it is. That's why having a twin is so great. You've always got someone around to pick you up."

"I suppose, but I don't tend to be very emotional. Come to think of it, both of us tend to be quiet."

"Yeah, you guys have a lot of conversations without words, huh," Dipper replied. Winter mentioning her lack of emotion brought up a thought. "Wait, that reminds me: was all the stuff you said about your past true, it just happened on an alien world?"

"That's right. Everything we said is true, it just didn't happen on Earth."

Mabel had grown tired of the sullen atmosphere. "Hey! What is your home world like? Is it like ours? Ooo, ooo, is the grass purple? Is the sky green? Is there water? Are there animals? Ohmygosh wait are the animals cute?!"

Winter allowed herself a smile, relaxing her iron hold on the wheel as she settled back in the seat. "A lot of things are the same. We have cars and cities. Trains. No planes, though. Many members of my species can fly. A few have telekinesis. Fewer still are capable of both."

Dipper listened attentively until she finished and made a thoughtful noise. "Huh. Must be nice, though, having an entire race that can just make stuff from other stuff no problem. I bet you guys never have wars or anything." In an instant Winter's demeanor became sullen, so sullen that it made both kids uncomfortable. "...what did I say? What did—I'm sorry! I'll shut up until we get to the lake!"

Melancholy was etched on her face. "It's fine, but you're wrong. There are only five of us who have the power to change matter, including myself and Summer. The ability is incredibly rare. Besides, we still have political differences – so yes, I'm familiar with war."

"Oh, forget that sad stuff. Hey, you're not super alone, then, right? I'm a little confused," Mabel said, rubbing her chin adorably. "'Cause, I mean... you've gotta have friends back home. Don't you?"

Winter smiled again – but this time she almost beamed. "We do now. At any rate, our worlds are fairly similar. Although... the air here smells a bit strange. I've read about pollution. I hope your atmosphere isn't going to kill us."

Here their talk ended, as they'd reached their destination – good thing too, as Winter's last statement made both Mabel and Dipper laugh nervously. She parked the car further back than usual to keep it out of sight and emerged first, glancing up at the rain. Unlike the kids, she didn't bother with an umbrella. "Okay, okay—shoot, what page is it... got it!" Dipper said, fumbling to hold both the journal and his umbrella and walk all at once. "Island head beast. It's massive! But it flies somehow... you know, now that I think about it, I guess it probably would take magic to lift. It tried to eat our boat when we rowed out there to investigate the last time."

"With us in it, too!" Mabel added happily. "I shoulda brought Bear-O. Doesn't feel right without him."

"Ew. No," he replied, shuddering with the thought. "Hate that thing." He cleared his throat and switched back to the more important topic at hand. "Since it tried to eat us, I assume it feeds on humans so it's probably dangerous. Figured we should check it out first."

They stood on the shore and looked out across the water at the small islands. Beyond the striking of raindrops on the surface and a few frogs, the area was quiet. Almost peaceful. "Which one is it?" Winter asked, glancing down at the boy.

"That one right there, with the trees in the center and the weird boulders on the shore." Dipper put the journal into his vest and checked the beach for a means of transport. "So, we wanna paddle or fly? I don't think anyone is around, we could get away with it."

"Mm. We won't go too high." Winter grabbed them with her power and lifted, smiling at their reaction. "Sorry. Summer is right, this is rather fun." She proceeded over the water, so low the toes of her black sneakers dragged along the surface.

The kids had to hold their umbrellas in front to deflect the rain; Dipper wasn't too pleased with this, hemming and hawing about not getting too close to the island because he couldn't see where they were going. "Hey, uh, shouldn't we be higher up?" he asked as they slowed to a stop. Once his umbrella was out of the way, he gulped at the lack of distance. "This thing can float. We... wow, we're way too close."

Mabel tilted her head. "Um, didn't it already know we were coming in the boat from way farther away than this?"

Winter ran a check of her magical radar and frowned. There were lots of faint little sparks in the usual places – including the cloud of fairies behind and to their left – but nothing where the island sat. "I don't notice anything in the water. Perhaps we need to attract its attention." She kicked at the lake, causing a bloom of ripples, then backed off with the kids. Nothing happened. "Mm. Not enough?"

"Maybe it feels vibrations or some junk?" Mabel offered, eyes darting around. "So, like, it felt people coming by the rowing motions? Oh! It's kinda like a huge Venus fly trap! That eats peop—I don't like this train of thought anymore." She drew up and hugged herself, staring at the island.

Winter's brow creased momentarily. Suddenly, she sent them away with a wave, hovering them back to the shore. "Hey! What are you doing?!" Dipper demanded, flailing a bit. "Winter? Winter!"

"Relax." She popped a little wooden boat out of a piece of driftwood and set them in it, since by now they were writhing with her power's tingling. "Stay there, I'm going for a swim."

"Are you insane?!" he screeched. Their scramble to the bow as they watched her dive in nearly capsized the vessel. "Winter Weiss, get back here this instant!" they both screamed.

"Swim" wasn't quite the word for what she was doing; projecting a bubble of sparkling power around herself, she more or less flew underwater in circles around the island. Her phone's light was just bright enough to reveal the mass wasn't attached to the lake bed – in fact, its base was simply a tangle of roots which contained a few human skeletons in various states of completion. The whole stringy structure moved gently with the current, but the island itself stayed put. Just as she was about to head back up, however, a fiery spark shot through her brain which stopped her cold. "Flight magic?" she whispered. The whole thing slowly rose to the surface with a tremendous bellow, two glowing eyes opening on its rocky bulk as it went. She followed, slipping back into the air with hardly a ripple left behind.

And after looking around, she quickly realized what had woke it up. Mabel and Dipper were paddling like mad with their hands toward her – at least until the creature started to rise. As she watched, they screamed and tried to turn the boat away. "I told you to stay back. What were you doing?" she asked after flying over to them.

"We were trying to help you!" the girl said between gasps of air. "We thought you were just gonna end up right in its mouth and we started to freak the heck out."

All three looked back at the creature, looming above the water as it rotated to face them. Bits of soil and rock fell as it turned, along with a deluge of water. As it lumbered through the air, Winter magically grabbed the boat and took off for the beach. "I felt it emit a flight spark," she said loudly. "If it has the power to lift that much weight I don't want you two anywhere near it."

"What about our flashlights?" Dipper yelled back, holding down his hat. "We could shrink it! Capture it for study!"

Winter shook her head. "One magical object exposed to the power of another? It's far too risky. Especially with a creature that already eats humans."

"She's got a point, Dipper!"

He glanced over at Mabel and frowned. "All right, we'll sit this one out. Last time we tried to fight it kinda went sideways anyway. Uh, see you back on the beach! Be careful."

With one last invisible shove, Winter sent the boat toward shore and then whirled to face her immense foe. It charged with all the speed of a tidal wave of molasses, booming indecipherable gibberish as it approached. Its speaking granted her one clue, however: each time it opened its gaping maw, she could detect another spark beyond its teeth. She decided it was only logical to go look for it. Before it got too close, however, she quickly sent a text to Dipper to ease their troubles about what they were about to see.

I know what it looks like, but I'll be fine. Wait there.

When the beast spread its jaws to consume her, she didn't try to escape. After avoiding its stony teeth, Winter found an awful, dripping chamber, half earthen and half glistening gray flesh, full of what felt like saliva. A tongue of muscular gravel fought to swallow her, but she avoided it by darting around the roof of its mouth and using her phone to see. The spark's shout was plainly apparent now. "I hear you!" she called over the terrific gnashing. "I heard you fly, and I hear you crying."

Everything fell silent and stopped moving – including the creature itself, based on the shuddering creaks that came from all around. She alighted on its tongue and gazed at its epic teeth. "You're changing stone to flesh. I'm familiar with this process. Why do you feed on human life?" The wispy answer caused her frown to deepen. "To become human again? Who were you before?" Her head tilted at the reply. "Your names are lost. Trust me, I know that feeling well." She closed her eyes with a sigh as the magic kept speaking. "Which world are you from, I wonder?" Another light grabbed her attention, reddish and brilliant, coming from the creature's throat.

A huge red glimmer emerged, shining like a ruby in the darkness. Surrounding it was the vaguest, glowing cloud – like the pit's magic, but far less developed. It traced hoops around her excitedly. "From this one – you remember? So you're one of the changed. What? Of course you didn't want to hurt anyone. I—I understand, trust me. Let me offer you another way. Where is your flying friend?" She looked away as a cyan pulse traced vein-shaped paths through the stony flesh and faded. "Oh, I see you better now. Listen, I know a place where you can be safe. Where you can wait until my sister and I can figure things out. And you won't have to hurt anyone else. What do you say?"

The whole mass emitted a terrible shake, and that was answer enough.

Winter nodded, wearing the faintest of smiles. "Very well. Extract yourselves and come along. I can protect myself from the debris. I'll take you back."

With one last bellow, the island fell apart around her, a rain of teeth and rocks and trees and eyes. The cyan pulse manifested again, coagulating into a sparkle as its physical shell crumbled. The dust combined with the saliva on her skin and clothes in a clingy, unpleasant mixture, but a towering spray of water kicked up by the falling junk served to wash most of it away. Sparks in tow, she flew back toward the beach and found Mabel in the midst of a sobbing fit, barely able to hold her umbrella upright. Dipper was trying fruitlessly to calm her down. "What happened?" she asked upon landing, the points of light in orbit around her torso.

"It ate you!" Mabel yelled, infuriated. "You just floated there and let it eat you! You'll be fine? You're nuts! You're freakin' nuts! Why in the heck would you do that?! You don't know what's in there!"

Stunned by her anger, Winter actually looked off guard for once. "But I-"

"Mabel, calm down! She's okay!"

Dipper's plea fell on deaf ears. "Yeah, she's okay this time! You can't just go flying around thinking you're a superhero even if you kind of are one and pick fights with stuff a hundred times your size! You're gonna get killed! Then what are we supposed to do, go back and tell Summer 'hey, sorry, we kinda watched your sister get murdered and didn't really do anything! Our bad!'" she ranted, free arm waving. "'Cause... 'cause..." Her rage had found its limit, leaving her exhausted. She hunched over and tried to catch her breath.

"Mabel?" Winter asked gently, stooping down. The frightened sparkles hid behind her back.

"Wh-what if you die and it's our fault and she gets mad at us?" Their combined stares made her tense up. "Do you realize how scary she is? When she loses her cool, people get seriously wrecked!"

Winter straightened and sighed. "She would rather kill herself then hurt either of you."

"How do you know?! You said you don't even know what she's thinking sometimes!"

Mabel's final outburst echoed off the trees and water for ages, emphasized even more by the lack of response from Winter. Head bowed, the blue-eyed woman walked past them toward the car with the magic following close behind. The kids turned and watched her go. "Wow, Mabel, what the heck," Dipper murmured.

"I d-dunno." A few awkward moments passed as they watched Winter move down the beach through the rain. The sparkles' glow turned the drops into falling jewels for an instant. "Oh... man. I told her not to bottle. I bottled, Dipper. I bottled hard."

"I noticed." He adjusted his hat with a frown. "Come on. Let's just get out of here. Maybe we should go home and check on Stan and Summer, huh? Get out of the rain?"

A smile adorned her face again; sad and shaky, it broke his heart into a thousand pieces. "Hee, I guess I was the one that needed to vent, not you. I better go say sorry."

Wendy had decided several minutes ago that dead trees made for poor shelter, but their options for cover were limited in the graveyard. The drizzle simply wouldn't go away. "Hey, what time is it?" she asked Soos, who was crouched by her right side.

"Like, ten." He glanced down at his watch to confirm. "Yeah, little after ten. Ready to go?"

"May as well. Don't think it's gonna stop raining anytime soon. Pretty sure everybody is asleep by now, too." She nodded and waved for him to follow. "All right, which statue is it again?"

He pointed his flashlight ahead. "The big angel over there." Except there was more than one such monument. "Uh. That one. Or is it that one? Uh oh."

She rolled her jade eyes with a sigh. "Terrific. Walking around fondling statues ain't how I expected to spend my evening, man."

But as they drifted through the headstones on squishy-sounding footsteps, Soos' flashlight beam revealed a hole in the ground next to one of the angelic memorials. "Hey, dude! The dead are rising! Check out the open grave!"

"Soos, I swear to god, I am in no mood for jo—hold on..." she said, trailing off as they got closer to the opening. "Stairs? What—oh, crap, someone beat us to it! What do we do?"

Instinctively, they went around the other side of the statue to hide while Soos produced his new phone. "Call for backup!" He dialed Summer first, only for the call to fail. "I guess red is still underground. Oh well, Winter next." But before he could, the phone's screen suddenly went dark. "...um." He tapped at it a few times. "Okay, good news and bad news. The bad news is I don't think this thing likes rainwater. The good news is we can still use yours!"

"Yeah, uh, about that," she said, chuckling nervously and patting at her jeans. "I... forgot mine. That's why I had to ask you what time it was. Sorry. I've been kinda stressed out."

"Oh. Huh." He scratched under his cap in search of an idea. "We may need a new plan."

"They said the chamber has an alarm system that warns the Sheriff. He shoulda been here by now, right?" Her eyes lit up. "There's no point in standin' around, he'll catch us before we even get in the door. Besides, if he's not on the way he might already be in there. What have we got to lose?"

Soos nodded a little. "Sure, I guess that makes sense. 'Kay, ladies first!"

"What a gentleman. Let's rock." She dashed around and entered the passageway, thankful to get out of the rain. After pausing so Soos and his light could catch up, they moved down the corridor. "Hope there aren't any other traps," she muttered, kicking some of the spent darts aside. The tunnel at the end presented another problem; she could see no way back up for the handyman if they slid down. "Can you make it back, man? I've only got one hatchet to climb with."

He moved over to the hole and poked his head in. It became clear that the tunnel wasn't quite round enough to accommodate him as he poked around. "Honestly, dude, I'm a little too generous to fit, if you get me," he said, pulling out and retreating. "Tell you what; I'll keep watch and yell down if anyone's coming. You do the spider-lumberjack thing, see what we got goin' on, and come back. We'll go from there."

She nodded at him, drawing her hatchet. "Fair enough. Okay, be right back. Watch my six." He tossed her his flashlight and issued a salute. "Thanks."

Traversing the tube wasn't much of an issue, at least in the flatter spots. Whenever she faced a drop, she'd jam her weapon into the soil and climb. Once at the bottom, however, another source of light became discernible – as did voices. Wendy killed the flashlight and crawled forward, lying prone in the opening to the chamber. Three people in hooded crimson robes were visible, talking to someone else around a corner.

"What the..." she breathed, inching nearer. She stowed her hatchet to avoid making noise and got to her feet, using the objects and bookshelves as cover to close more of the distance. While their hushed words still defied her ears, the tenor of one voice was clear enough: Preston Northwest, whose speech came from around a tall shelf. Bits and pieces of the conversation began to make it through.

"I don't like using that thing on kids," one of the hooded figures said. Definitely a he – and vaguely familiar too, Wendy realized. "You gotta get us some more help. We're losing ground."

"I know, I know. I always assumed it would get to her someday, but..." She heard him clear his throat. "Winter and Summer Weiss may well be the key. Are we clear on the 'do not provoke' list?"

"We'll make sure Ivan gets the details. All the funky stuff we found on patrol last night got stored down here like you wanted, but at this rate we're gonna need a bigger hole."

This was a different voice, one Wendy also knew right away. "The weird little newspaper reporter guy?" she mouthed to herself. "What the fu-" As she edged up, trying to get a better vantage point, her knee bumped into and knocked over a globe. It bounced noisily several times on the stone floor. "Oh boy."

Their lanterns were pointed at her in a flash, bright enough to blind. Before her eyes could adjust, they were around her, standing in a semi-circle so she couldn't escape without having to push past. The hooded ones were all different sizes. One was quite rotund. "Easy now," Preston warned the others. "She's on the list."

"What list?" Wendy asked angrily. "Who are you?" Their hoods bore a bright red symbol – an eye with an 'x' through it. Each time she stooped to look under one, its bearer would shy away to hide their face. "Answer me!"

"How'd she know about this place?" the big one asked.

"I came to talk to my mom and I found a hole in the friggin' ground with stairs," she lied, hugging herself as the adrenaline began to flow. "What is this place, man?"

"Poor, poor child. It's going to be just fine, I promise," Toby said, his tone only agitating her further. The large man drew a strange device from beneath his garment. It looked vaguely like a gun, with glass tubing for a barrel and another glass item above the grip.

"Are you insane?" Preston hissed. "Put that away!"

"She can't know about us," he countered. Wendy was able to place his voice now – Bud Gleeful. That forced a new chill down her spine. "Besides, it won't hurt a bit! Not like this is her first rodeo, so to speak."

"That was then, this is now! You're going to get us all killed!"

"Wait, what are you talking about?" she asked, stepping once toward the portly man. Being accosted by a red-clad cult with a brass death ray would be a hard experience to forget, yet her mind had no such memory. "I don't remem-"

"Of course you don't, honey bear. That's the point! Now let me just set this to... say, an hour. That should do nicely – oh, and don't worry. We'll getcha home nice and safe." After turning a dial on the device, he pointed it at her forehead. "Hold her steady, fellas."

Horror flooded her mind, searing her heart with an icy blade. They'd robbed her, stolen from the one place that should have been safe. Should always have been safe. Now nothing made sense. Instinct took over as she wrenched her arm from Toby and the other figure while Bud tried to aim. "No! Get that thing away from me!"

He ignored her while giving a further order. "Dang it, I said hold her! If I aim wrong she's gonna be a vege—I mean... nothing bad will happen! I didn't say anything about comas!"

That was the final straw. She meant to draw her hatchet and kill them all, right then and there, but something else knocked them back as she raised her hand. Scattered across the chamber floor, they were still – breathing, but out cold. Wendy had no idea what had happened. She didn't stay to find out. After snatching the flashlight out of her pocket and diving back into the tunnel, she climbed like a girl possessed, desperate to get away.

And then she reached for her hatchet to scale a steep wall and found her hand was tingling furiously. Not with the fiery jabs of numbness. No, this was a sensation she had only felt once before – the cold, cheerful velvet of whatever power Winter used to help her fly with Soos and the kids, back on the night everything changed. It ran around her fingers, danced between her knuckles and pulsed with the beating of her heart.

Her brain stepped in, throwing out consciousness in favor of instinct to make sure she'd keep going. And go she did, traveling the rest of the way so fast she fell out of the tunnel and rolled a few feet. "Hey, hey! Uh, you don't sound so good," Soos greeted, helping her up. He flinched when she yanked her arm away. "What's up?"

"Is your phone w-working?"

He blinked at her breathy, terrified voice. "Hadn't checked. Why? I'm starting to freak out, dude. What happened?"

She lacked the strength for anything but terse demands. "Let's get out of here and try it. If it is, call Winter," she said, staring at her hand. The tingle was fading, but still there.

"Why, dude?"

Caught between that physical feeling and the one made by wondering just what else she should have remembered but didn't, Wendy was on the verge of tears. "Because my fucking life is falling apart."