It was morning time at the Wu residence, Sasha and Grime were having their breakfast and were sitting on the couch in the living room awaiting the arrival. The toad commander was gorging on some pancakes like some kind of animal which was something the Wu family were getting uncomfortable with while Sasha was drinking some orange juice while looking out the window for Dipper.
"Uh….You want a napkin?" Mr Wu asked Grime.
"Why? Do I have some crumbs on my face?" Grime asked.
"Oh yeah, quite a lot." Marcy replied.
"Then hand it here." Marcy handed Grime a napkin which he used to wipe off the crumbs off his face. "Thank you." He then went back to gorging the pancakes like an animal.
"You have interesting friends." Mrs Wu remarked to her daughter.
"Uh huh, I sure do." Marcy said. "Hey Sash, you sure we should separate the shards? I mean, who could be after them?"
"Anyone." Sasha replied. "Someone could be after them. Maybe the government themselves or worst, a remaining soldier from Andrias' army. Separating them will make it harder for them to not find them. Marcy, I'm relying a lot of my trust on you to make sure that this doesn't get stolen."
"With her, it'll probably break." Grime said.
"Grime!" Sasha exclaimed.
"What?! It's Marcy Wu!"
"Grime, you're overthinking it." Marcy assured him. "I'll be perfectly careful with…." Just as Marcy stood up, she accidentally knocked over a tray that was on the coffee table. But thankfully, the tray was empty. "Whoops!"
"Well, least there was no one's breakfast on it." Mrs Wu said.
About twenty minutes later, Dipper had arrived and was waiting for Sasha and Grime outside. He looked tired like he didn't get any sleep whatsoever from all the mourning and crying he did.
Sasha, Marcy and Grime were standing on the porch saying their goodbyes to one another. Grime offered Marcy a handshake. "Marcy, it's been fun working with you. Sorry for betraying you that one time."
Marcy blew a raspberry. "Nah! Water under the bridge, Grime. We're cool."
"Plus, I'm sorry for ruining the dinner party with my choco lava cake." Grime said.
"I probably got sick from the chocolaty goodness but, it was fun." Marcy assured him.
"Well, I've been holding my hand out for a long time." Grime said.
"Nah." Marcy hugged Grime, causing him some surprise. But when she pulled out, she discovered she was covered in his mucus. "Eww."
"Yeah, sorry." Grime said before walking to Dipper.
Sasha had a sad look on her face as she looked to her best friend. "I can't believe this place will be your new home."
"I know." Marcy said. "But, least I'll have Luz with me. So, things will be okay. Plus, you'll be in a relationship with Anne. Hey, two days is Valentine's Day."
Sasha blushed. "Yeah. That will be fun."
"But I guess a positive of not being in LA is no longer being around Darryl." Marcy said.
Sasha groaned. "Oh my god! Why Darryl?!" The two shared a laugh with each other before giving a goodbye hug. "We'll see each other again as soon as we find a way back to the Demon Realm."
"I hope so." Marcy said.
Grime approached Dipper whom had a passport out. "This is your passport." Dipper said while handing it to the toad. "I know this image doesn't look like you but…" Grime looked at the picture which looked to be a man in his late forties with a mixture of blonde and brunette hair and some face stubble. "…You can just say you put on weight. Plus….A disguise." He gave Grime a disguise which was a black and grey beard with a black and grey headpiece. A dark green shirt, some jeans and brown shoes.
"Was Joel Baker the best you could do?" Grime asked
"It was either that or Troy Miller." Dipper replied. "But that would just remind me of my high school bully."
Then Sasha approached the two where she saw Grime putting his warhammer in a suitcase. "Okay, how will we get our weapons past airport security?"
"This briefcase was specifically designed by me to make it through those CT scanners without it picking up on weapons." Dipper replied.
"Wait, we'd essentially be committing smuggling offences." Sasha said.
Dipper sighed. "And my Grunkle would be proud of me."
A few minutes later, Marcy was upstairs in her bedroom watching Sasha and Grime getting in the car to pick up Hunter, Willow and Gus from the Noceda residence. She and Sasha gave one last wave before the car departed.
Once Sasha left, Marcy wiped away a tear over not being able to see one of her besties for a good while or Anne for that matter. She gave a sad smile. "We'll see each other again." But then, she suddenly turned determined. "Okay Marcy, no time for sitting on your butt all day feeling sad, you got to help your pals get back home!"
And in a short amount of time, Marcy hid the green shard in a box, pulled out a pen, her new journal her parents gave her to make some notes, a book on multiverses, a book on inter dimensional travelling, her laptop and a bag of potato chips that she placed down on her desk to start her research on how to get her pals home.
She opened up the web and began watching a video by Neil DeMoat Dyson on the theory of the multiverse and whether it exists or not. As she watched the video, she took a potato chip and ate it. "Okay, okay, what sort of knowledge have you got for me Neil?" As Marcy continued her research she realised she forgotten something. "Huh, I forgot something about the Demon Realm. Belos saved me from a falling rock. Why did he do that? Eh, probably accident. He is an old frail old man. Oh, and I'm thirsty might as well get a drink." Marcy got off her chair and turned around to see something she thought she'd never see.
It was herself, only she was in her Darcy suit. It grinned at the terrified teen as she began to pant in fear. "Miss me?" It asked.
At the Noceda residence, Luz and her witch friends were all having breakfast awaiting the arrival of Dipper. Hunter, Gus and Willow were all dressed up in either Luz or Camila's clothing, ready to go, while Luz and Amity were still in their pyjamas. The ones who didn't have long hair to hide their ears instead opted for beanies.
They were all eating some bacon on toast which everyone enjoyed. "So question Vee, does Human Realm food affect you?" Gus asked the Basilisk.
"Not really." Vee replied. "I never had the Demon Realm food before. The only thing I ate was sucking the magic out of rats."
"That's terrible." Willow said.
"But I guess the best thing here, I can't suck the magic out of anything that's alive." Vee said. "But, I do need some magic."
"Shame we can't get back to the Demon Realm to get Hexes Hold'Em cards." What Willow said made Luz sigh with sadness, something that Amity noticed.
She stroked her girlfriend's hand in an effort to cheer her up a bit. Luckily, Luz did give a small smile over her girlfriend's affection.
Even though her friends were stuck here, she was somewhat happy to have her girlfriend to help her through her guilt.
While Hunter was eating his breakfast, a cautious Flapjack landed on his shoulder, something that Hunter noticed. "You okay Flapjack? You seem kind of cautious." Flapjack tweeted. "You sure?" Flapjack tweeted. "Okay." He then noticed a bit of wood not his beak. "What's with the wood on your beak? Have you been eating wood shavings?" Flapjack shook his head. "Come on Flap." He gave Flapjack a bit of his bacon. "You could have told me you were just a bit hungry."
Willow smiled at Hunter and Flapjack's interaction. "You're quite close to your Palisman." She remarked.
"Yeah." Hunter replied. "Flapjack, if you can believe it, was actually my first friend. I interacted with many of the Coven Scouts and Heads but I never considered them my friends because I considered them more like subordinates. But Flapjack, he arrived and….my time at the Emperor's Coven was more bearable."
"Aww, that's sweet." Willow remarked. "What was your want?"
"What do you mean?" Hunter asked.
"Well, in order for a Palisman to become bonded with their owner for life, they need to exclaim their deep and profound want." Willow said. "I wanted to be strong and wise so I could protect everyone I love and Clover bonded to me." Clover nuzzled their owner's cheek, causing her to laugh.
"Well, they made the right choice." Hunter remarked.
"What did you say to get Flapjack to bond with you?"
"I don't know." Hunter replied. "He just became bonded to me. All I did when we first met was talk to Luz since we were rescuing Palismen."
"That was the night we met." Luz remarked. "Though you tried to kill me."
Hunter chuckled. "Don't remind me. That's in the past. I now have chosen my own new path. To stay well away from my uncle and protect my new friends and family." It was then he thought back to Pacifica and began to grow sad. "And I'm going to try harder at that." Willow and Luz in that moment could tell that Pacifica's death was still hurting Hunter since she was probably the closest he ever had to what he would call a family. There was Dipper sure, but he wasn't as close to him as he was to her.
Some time later, Dipper had arrived ready to take Hunter, Willow and Gus to their respective locations. He had allowed the three to say their goodbyes first to Luz and Amity.
Willow was the first to say her temporary goodbye. "Amity…"
"Willow, I'm so sorry that we didn't have more time to fix things." Amity said with regret. "I regret everything I…"
"Amity." Willow interjected. "It's okay. I've always forgave you for everything. But we can try and stay in touch. Vee was telling me about something called….FaceTime. Apparently some kind of computer takes your face and we talk to each other from one corner of the world to the other."
"Well, they don't take your face but…It's complicated." Luz said.
Amity and Willow shared a hug before Willow moved on to Luz. "Luz, you have made my life better because of your presence. Remember that. Don't hate yourself for something you had no control of." Luz and Amity shared the hug with Willow before she went toward the car.
Gus was the next to say goodbye to the two. "Hey, even if you two don't find a way back home, I'll find a way."
"Thanks Gus." Luz said. "You've been a little brother I never had."
Gus smiled at Luz. "Thanks Luz."
"Hey Gus, I'll see you later." Amity said. "Don't know for how long."
"Probably not too long." Gus said. "But at least we'll have some Human Realm adventures." Gus and the girlfriends shared a hug before he jumped into the car with Willow and Grime.
Then, it was Hunter who said his goodbye. "You two were a pain in my neck in the beginning. But after all we've been through, I'm proud to call you both my friends."
"Yeah, you are, Hunter." Luz agreed.
"But I have one more question Hunter, between you and me, who was the better fighter?" Amity asked smugly.
Hunter playfully narrowed his eyes at Amity. "This is a nice moment Blight, don't ruin it." He gave them both some friendly shoulder pats but they weren't having that and just hugged him.
Hunter was at first confused and shocked before he returned their hugs. But during that hug, he remembered the first hug he ever got and that was from Pacifica, his surrogate sister. Tears fell from his eyes as he continued to mourn for her.
Later, he was in the car. Tightly fit together with Willow, Gus and a disguised Grime in the back while Sasha was in the front seat. The former Golden Guard looked at Grime with a befuddled look.
"Yes, I'm wearing fake facial hair." Grime responded. "But at least it's more real than a fake moustache."
"Huh?" Dipper responded.
"Oh yeah, he wore a fake moustache to hide from the Coven." Grime explained.
"Ah. And you never got caught?"
"Nope." Hunter said.
"Either that disguise worked or the Coven was really dumb." Dipper remarked as he continued to drive his car to the airport.
Upstairs in Luz's room, the Human Witch sat on her bed looking guilty with herself for a large number of things. One of them being not there when the Boiling Isles needed her the most and the other was for failing to save Pacifica who died from a severe stab wound.
In that moment, she began to hate herself for what she had done and everything that her friends could be going through. None of them had been to the Human Realm and she doesn't know if they'll survive, even in the care of people she trusts.
But that train of thought was interrupted when Amity emerged from her closet, dressed in a purple skirt and dress which managed to fir her as well as a black headband. She gave a twirl before posing.
"Well Luz, what do you think?"
Luz blushed at Amity and nodded her head. "You're gorgeous Hermosa." She quickly went back to her train of thought which gave her girlfriend a worried look.
She approached Luz and got down on her knee to look her dead in her beautiful hazel eyes. "That was never your fault. Okay? Don't blame yourself for what happened. Could you try that for me?"
Tears fell from Luz's eyes as she continued to think of Pacifica's death but she quickly composed herself as there was a more important matter at play.
"Okay Amity, I'll try."
Amity kissed Luz on her forehead before she realised something. "Hey, you know Willow, Gus, Grime and Hunter have never been in those strange flying griffins before."
"You mean, a plane?" Luz asked before shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know. Maybe they're handling it well."
But in actuality, on the flight from Connecticut to L.A, the first time flyers were having some reactions to this terrifying new experience. Hunter and Willow were holding on to each other by wrapping each others in their arms.
"I hate those vibrations." Hunter whispered.
"So do I." Willow said before realising that she and Hunter were holding on to each other. She blushed and coughed. "Is it wrong to say that when I'm holding on to you, I feel safe?"
Hunter looked to his friend and blushed as well. "I honestly feel the same with you." The two shared a smile before they quickly went back to terrified.
On the seat behind them, Gus was holding on to Dipper's arm while the author just casually drank a soda like it was nothing.
"How do you get used to this?" Gus asked. "This is terrifying!"
An air stewardess looked at the young boy in distress and cooed. "Aww, are you a first time flyer?"
"Not in this capacity!" Gus replied.
"He'll be fine." Dipper said. "This was how my sister reacted."
And on the pair of seats behind them two, Sasha was casually reading a book while Grime was gripping to the arms on his seat tightly. He took a deep breaths as a way to calm down. "You're okay Grimothy. You've been flying. This is just a new kind that you'll probably need to get used to." He looked outside the window and sighed, still thinking of his guilt.
In that moment, Grime began to hear a ticking noise. The same ticking he heard last night at the Wu house. A few seats beside him and Sasha, he could see the same man whom was standing in the rain outside the Wu home, was now sitting on one of the passenger seats. He had his golden pocket watch out as he sinisterly stared at Grime.
The toad commander stared at the man in fear over what their true intentions could be. Then, Sasha suddenly got in front of his vision.
"Yo Grimesy, you okay?" Sasha asked. "You seem spooked."
The toad commander looked over Sasha's head to see the guy again, but he was now replaced by another passenger, whom was reading Dipper's latest book in disgust.
"Uh, who even writes garbage like this?" He said in disgust.
Grime gave a sigh of relief over this possibly being an hallucination. "I'm fine. I thought I saw someone I know." He continued to look out the window while still gripping to the arm chairs in fear over his guilt, the mysterious man and flying.