"Dib!" Kipo cried, before Dib could say something probably sarcastic. "I need-There's something chasing us, I need to go!"

"Chasing you?" Dib repeated. "You seemed fine a couple hours ago!"

"Yeah, well-HUH?" Kipo suddenly cut herself off when she was suddenly raised, levitating into the air. "What the-?"

"Kipo, you're a ghost!" Dib cried, and Kipo glared at him.

"I'm not dead!" she argued, and then thought about that. "Well, I hope not. Just say whatever you're going to say, Dib! Hurry up!"

"Don't just-! Fine," Dib huffed, reluctantly agreeing. Was he really in a position to argue? "Six wanted you to know that you're NOT stuck in that world forever, and you can come out at any time!"

"Really?" Kipo asked, relieved despite her panic. "How?"

"Um..." Dib thought hard to try and remember what Six said. "Er... the shadow... that Lutch, or Luz, or however you pronounce it, she can move the shadow again! It's, um, like a door you close, you just have to open it up again!"

After that explanation, Dib stepped back, shaking his head. "She, uh... said you would understand."

Kipo, thankfully, did. "Oh, yeah!" she said. "Hey, that does make sense!"

"It what?"

Kipo fixed Dib with a determined look. "Alright, tell Six I got her message! As soon as we pick up the blue haired girl, we'll be coming right back!"

"Blue haired girl?" Dib's brow furrowed; he was obviously trying to remember if he knew a person like that.

"I'll explain everything later," Kipo promised. "When we get back, specifically, because I don't think we can talk like this anymore, Dib. This world is very dangerous, and I can't afford to talk anymore."

"Huh? Oh, ok," Dib said, not sounding either concerned nor intrigued in the slightest. "Alright then."

"Alright," Kipo said, and then she gave him a smile. "Also, thanks Dib. We all really appreciate this."

"You better," Dib snorted. "I am literally lying down my life over here; I'm being hunted down by a monster for you guys. You BETTER be grateful."

But by the time Dib got all that out, Kipo was gone, replaced by the dark forest surrounding them, and the towering mountain above him.

The first thing Kipo became aware of when the white plane melted away were hands on her back. For a minute, she panicked and writhed around, and fell to the ground with an oof!

"Oh, Kipo, are you back?" Luz said, sticking her face in Kipo's. And while it was sudden and a breach of personal space, Kipo found it relieving. "Man, that was weird! You'd just stopped, in the middle of the path, and then it looked like you turned around and just started TALKING to the weird monsters chasing us! It was a little embarrassing at first, because it looked like you were pleading with them and they just... weren't listening, but eventually you mentioned that guy you were talking to last time, and we realized what you were doing, so we picked you up and dragged you along! It would have been funny if it wasn't so terrifying!"

Kipo blinked, and halfway through Luz's rant, tuned her out. Not exactly on purpose, but Kipo was feeling disoriented and her head was like cotton, and she had no clue where she was. Underneath her, there were... planks of wood, and when she looked down at it, she saw train tracks. And not only train tracks, but train tracks suspended far, FAR above the ground, hundreds of feet below them.

Kipo's eyes went wide.

"Wh-What?" Kipo scrambled to her feet, unintentionally cutting Luz off. "Where are we? What happened? Did we out run them?"

"Huh?" Luz asked, before understanding seemed to catch up to her. "Oh, right, I forgot to mention that. Well, we didn't exactly out run them... You see, when you stopped in the middle of the road-."

Kipo winced, but Luz just continued on.

"When you stopped in the middle of the road, the monsters had pretty much caught up to us, so I used a shadow and Kris used their sword, and we literally cut those guys in half!" Luz explained excitedly. "But then, there were two more of them, coming in from really far away. So, then we picked you up, you know that already, and we ran away. And then we found the rollercoaster ride, and we hid in a car until the monster's passed, and we've been following the tracks ever since! They lead right to the castle, see?"

Kipo followed the tracks with her eyes, and yeah, they were right. It did.

"Oh," Kipo said. "Perfect."

"Yep," Luz said. "So now we just... follow it."

Alice took this time to interject. "Kipo, what were you talking to that person about?"

"Oh, right!" Suddenly, Kipo's eyes became wide and she turned to Luz excitedly. "Luz! There's a way out of here, Six just said. All you have to do is go to the shadow and take it down!"

It seemed to take a minute for it to sink in, but eventually understanding in the form of a big grin stretched across her face. "So we're NOT stuck here? Yes! All our problems are instantly solved, hurrah!"

"Well, let's not get that ahead of ourselves yet..." Kipo winced, but her concerned look didn't stick around for long, and soon enough she was smiling, too. "But yeah. It seems that both of our 'mistakes' turned out well for us, huh?"

"Yeah!" Luz cheered. "So now we're completely even! Even Steven!"

"Right!" Kipo agreed, smiling. "Now all that's left is to get to the castle, get the blue haired girl, and get out of here."

Kipo turned, giving her friends a determined look, and Luz gave her a determined nod back. Kris gave her a thumbs up, but Alice... Kipo tilted her head, studying the girl. Alice didn't say anything, and she was staring down at the ground below them, seemingly not paying attention.

Kipo pondered that, but for the time being, she turned around, towards the castle.

"Well, it's a plan," she told them. "Let's hurry, before we get off track yet again."

"Yeah," Luz agreed as Kris started moving, and then it seemed to dawn on her just how much they've been forcibly taken off track. "Oh... y-yeah, yeah, definitely."

Luz frowned, but she didn't dwell on it for too long. She shrugged, got Alice's attention, and then the four of them were on their way.

As they walked, the castle in front of them slowly got bigger and bigger, ever expanding until it loomed over them like a monster, and suddenly, Kipo's plan wasn't feeling to concrete anymore. The castle itself was a threat, and one Kipo couldn't even begin to comprehend. Whenever she looked up at the shadowy maw, it felt like something was staring back.

So Kipo didn't look at it, instead turning to Alice, hoping that helping her friend would get her mind off of... that.

"Hey, Alice... is something wrong?" Kipo asked, making sure to keep her voice low as to not broadcast Alice's troubles.

Alice, for a moment, looked startled. "Huh? Oh, Kipo, hello..." Alice seemed to hesitate for a second while Kipo waited patiently. "Well, I suppose there is something on my mind..."

"I thought so," Kipo told her. "You looked troubled."

"Oh, did I? I'm sorry..."

"No, no, it's alright, I swear!" Kipo quickly amended her mistake, waving her hands at Alice's forlorn expression. "I just... if it's something bad, I'm here, you know? I could also help."

Alice blinked, and then gave Kipo a smile. "Oh, thank you, Kipo."

Kipo beamed, and Alice gave her a small smile back before she was frowning again.

"I guess..." Alice paused, looking up at the dark, endless sky above them and sighed. There weren't any stars, Kipo noticed briefly. "I guess I just wish that this all made a little more sense. The things the cat, Maggie, said... they don't make any sense."

Kipo frowned. "Yeah, you're right... she said there was 'no reason', but everything has a reason! Killing for sport is a reason! Killing because you're bored or lonely is a reason!"

Alice nodded in agreement. "Yes, I know. And Maggie seemed to know, too. It seemed like she found fun and enjoyment in what she was doing, but that wasn't the reason she was doing it."

"Which makes no sense," Kipo grumbled. Seriously, what was 'no reason'?!

"Yes, that's true..." Alice said. Her frowned deepened as she seemed to think even harder. "Hazel had said that 'there were more like him'."

"Did he?" Kipo asked curiously. "Did he mean that Maggie and the others were like him?"

Suddenly, Kipo was reminded of something Luz had told her. Luz said that she and Kris had cut Napoleon and Chief in half, and then two more of them appeared, so did that mean...?

"I assumed so," Alice replied, interrupting Kipo's string of thought. "So, when you asked Maggie why she was doing all of this, I'd hoped for an answer to all of this, but instead, it's an even bigger riddle that makes no sense."

Kipo hummed sympathetically. "Yeah... but, hey, Hazel had also mentioned the princess in that castle, right? It seems they're all connected, so maybe we'll find a clue in that castle."

Alice didn't look convinced. "You think so?"

"It's plausible."

Despite her doubt, Alice smiled softly. "Alright then."

The castle seemed to twist before them, folding into itself until it seemed like it was reaching over them, ready to wrap them up at any moment. Kipo squinted at it. Of course, the logic part of her brain knew that wasn't possible... well, what does logic know here, literally anything was possible, if this world has taught her anything.

Eventually, Luz decided they were close enough, and stopped in the middle of the tracks, turning around to everyone else. "Alright!" she started. "From what I can see, there's two options in front of us. ONE, is that we go in through the front door."

Luz waved to the front of the castle, where there indeed was a large front door, complete with large metal spikes sticking ominously out from it. Where they supposed to be defense, or were they there to look scary?

"Of course, that option is, one: very obvious, two: boring, three: NOT COOL AT ALL, and four," Luz took a dramatic breath. "It's not cool enough, unlike option two, where we climb up the castle and sneak in! There are no cons to that option!"

"Well... I guess that is pretty cool..." Kipo agreed reluctantly, staring up at the castle. Even with her special eyesight, she couldn't find any holds to grab on to. "But it looks pretty difficult... how many of you all know how to rock climb?"

Kipo gazed over to the other three, who didn't answer. Eventually, Luz shook her head, and stepped forward.

"I-It's fine!" Luz told them. "How hard can it be? Besides, I'll help everyone with my magic, so we can...Oh."

While she was talking, Luz stepped forward, and observed the castle, but what she saw made her pause, and trail off. Curiously, Kipo stepped forward as well, and immediately saw what seemed to concern Luz.

"Oh." Turns out, there WAS a handhold on the castle, but on top of the, there were about a million wicked sharp spikes covering it. Kipo poked one with her finger, and then immediately drew back, hissing in pain. "Ouch! Those are... well, it's too dangerous to climb. Sorry, Luz."

Luz sighed, and then shrugged. "Yeah... Let's go, I guess."

Kipo patted Luz's back sympathetically.

Thankfully, it seemed getting down from the rollercoaster was just as easy as getting on it, considering the fact that it seemed to appear out of nowhere. They soon found stairs ("like the ones for maintained at other amusement parks!" Luz noted cheerfully, ignoring that fact that this was the only one they'd seen ever, considering how long the 'rollercoaster' was.) and ventured down them carefully, as they were old and swaying dangerously, and it seemed to take all their strength to hold the fours weight. Kipo gripped them tightly, but they thankfully held, and they made it to the bottom unharmed. Unfortunately, as soon as they got down, they were immediately faced with a new problem.

"A hall of mirrors, huh?" Luz asked, sounding slightly apprehensive. "There's probably a monster in there... and it's all dark, too, huh? That's creepy."

"Hm," Kipo hummed, staring over at the thing in front of her and wondering the same thing Luz was. "I... suppose we'll have to find out, won't we? I'll lead, since I'm the only one who can see."

Nobody argued with Kipo on that, instead all lining up behind her, like duckling's following their mother. Kipo blinked at the, and then shrugged it off, stepping forward, over the threshold of the hall of mirrors. Almost immediately, things went dark, and in Kipo's vision, a million other Kipo's cropped up. Then a million Luz's. Then a million Kris', and a million Alice's. Shaking her head, Kipo reached behind her to grab Luz's had, who luckily only panicked for a second before realizing what she needed to do. Before long, the four of them were on long train, heading further into the building.

Dib sighed, but Mabel either didn't notice, or blatantly ignored him as she continued on with begging him to 'glitterize' his jacket. At this point, Dib doubted she would stop even if he DID say yes.

Thankfully, Six looked just as annoyed as he was, so now they finally had something to complain about together.

"Just say yes so she stops," Six told him, and Dib glared at her. Well, they ALMOST agreed on something.

"Absolutely not," he huffed. "Do you know how important this thing is?"

"Not?"

Dib's face scrunched up. "Shut up."

Six glared back at him. "If you don't, our only option is to wait for Ms Luz and her friends."

Dib groaned. "Great, first, I was fighting off a monster for them, and now, I'm fighting off a monster for them AND listening to this."

Dib shook his head in dismay, but as soon as he finished talking, Mabel (thankfully) did too. Now, she looked interested.

"A monster?" she repeated, snickering. "So, you're a paranormal dork, too, huh? No wonder you don't want to be glitterized. But I WON'T GIVE UP-"

Dib sighed again.