Kipo had been knocked out... again. At this point, it might actually become a habit, and an annoying one at that. Kipo's brow furrowed and she squeezed her eyes shut tighter. She still had a headache... everything hurt... she hadn't even remotely recovered from before, and the newest transformation hadn't helped with any of that.

...Kipo wondered if she should just bite the bullet, and ask Luz if she knew any healing magic.

Suddenly, the thing that had roused her before forced itself into her attention again. A bright flashing that made Kipo flashed and turn away from the bright light breaking through the darkness of her eyelids. But when she finally cracked them open... the room she was in was dark. The flashing had disappeared.

"Wha...?" Kipo blinked blearily, looking around her surroundings, feeling very out of place. Where... was she?

Firstly, Kipo patted the ground underneath her. Solid ground... that made sense, but her back was starting to really feel all these awkward surfaces she found herself sleeping on.

Kipo looked around the room again, her eyes finally adjusting. It was a small room, and also an old one. She could feel the dust particles moving in the air around her, and there were a bunch of cracks and spiderwebs on the walls. The ceiling and floor were grey, and situated around the room, there was a table that Kipo had been laying next to (it looked about ready to fall on top of her) and, all around her... coat racks. Kipo blinked, counting twenty, all standing around her like she was in a coat rack forest. It was... it wasn't quite creepy or unnerving, but it certainly did throw Kipo for a loop. She didn't know what to think about that.

Also, straight across from her was a door, with soft, and almost useless, light leaking in from the bottom. The door looked frail, and Kipo was almost certain it wasn't the one that led outside. Which meant she'd been moved, and that her friends were behind that door.

Kipo started towards it, and then paused. Actually, before she did that...

She sucked in a deep breath through her nose, and nearly choked. There was a smell in the air, a faint one, but one that made Kipo gag nonetheless. It was the old scent of rot, not a strong as it used to be, but still...

Kipo resolved to breathe through her mouth, and turned her attention to another sense.

When she focused, she could hear voices. There was Luz, happily chattering away, Kipo was relieved to hear, and then another voice, one much softer, but with a very overt curiousness. And despite never having heard it before, Kipo knew instantly who it was. Without another thought, she hurried towards the door, grasping the handle.

But she didn't get any further, because the bright light that had woken her up was once again making itself known. Kipo paused.

It was coming from her pocket. Kipo didn't react for a second, too stunned to move, before suddenly shoving her hands into her pocket, her fingers closing around the crystal...

Snow. Or at least Kipo thought it was snow, at first, before she recognized it as static, like the kind of static when the TV can't get a proper signal. It... was all around her, in her face, her eyes, her ears... and it was giving her a massive headache. But before she had too much time to consider that, the image changed, and Kipo was now with the blue haired girl again, this time outside, on some kind of balcony, staring out at the landscape spread out before her. Kipo only saw the moon, though, before it disappeared, and she was once again in the room, feeling confused at puzzled.

Kipo stared the crystal in her palm. 'What the heck was that?' she thought, tilting her head. Poor connection? That was what it felt like, but that didn't make sense. Or maybe it did? Kipo didn't know anything about these crystals, so perhaps it would be better to ask Luz.

With that, Kipo dropped the crystal back in her pocket and opened the door. But what was behind it completely drove the question from her mind.

"Ow!"

The sharp cry of pain drew Anne's attention when it had previously been driven away by boredom. She jogged over without any urgency.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked, leaning down to Dib, who was rubbing his hand and looking irritated.

"Fine," he huffed, carefully studying it. "I'm not burned or anything, at least."

"Yeah, that's good," Anne agreed, looking around at their lack of medical supplies. Maybe she should ask Fei Fei to bring some next time she showed up. "How goes it?"

Dib grumbled something she couldn't hear, but before she could ask him to repeat himself, Six spoke up, spitting out a blue crystal.

"Well, we're close," she said, and Anne turned to her.

"We are?" Both Dib and Anne asked, Dib skeptically, and Anne excitedly.

Six nodded. "You had seen something, didn't you?"

"Well... yeah," Dib shrugged. "But there was only static, like on TV."

Anne's face momentarily changed to confusion. 'TV static?' she thought, puzzled, before Six continued.

"The fact that you're seeing anything at all is good," Six explained. "Because it means that we're making the stone work. Miss Kipo's stone works with the God's Blessing, and the Gods show her what they want her to see. Because this one doesn't have that, we must supply that power ourselves. Or, perhaps more accurately, myself."

Anne and Dib stared at her. Dib's brow was furrowed, suspicious. "Ok... but how long until we can connect with Kipo?" Dib asked.

"Soon," Six promised. "it's because Miss Kipo doesn't know that we're trying to connect with her that is the problem. After this, it will be easier."

"Oh." Dib stared down the crystal in his hand. There were a bunch of scratches on it, made from another crystal, and when he tilted it just right... it looked like a mathematical equation, but a nonsense one. Magic, Six had called it, and Dib had laughed, not believing her at first.

Well, he still didn't believe her, but whatever. It was working, it seemed.

"Let's try again," Dib decided, and he turned to Anne. "Go back to guarding. Remember the safe word we agreed on!"

"Yeah, yeah." Anne rolled her eyes. She always got huffy when Dib brought up the copycat monster. Dib had, at first, tried to lecture her, but after a while, he gave up, unable to argue with the truly stupid argument of "Eh, we can take 'em". Anne just didn't understand.

Dib turned back to the crystal as Anne left, but out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Anne flopped down, and took out a book Fei Fei had gotten her from the library. He sighed.

Kipo froze like a deep in headlights. The long hallway stretched out before her, crowded on each side by creepy stuffed animals all watching her, and at the end of the hall... a giant red rabbit, a little taller than Kipo. But this rabbit wasn't like the mutes in her home world... this rabbit wasn't real, it was... a costume, standing in front of the door with Kipo's friends voices behind it.

It wasn't moving, and, as they stared at each other, Kipo eventually found her voice in her bone-dry throat.

"Who-?" Kipo suddenly broke off, coughing. Tears sprung to her eyes as she forced herself to remain eye contact with the creature. It's dark black eyes with little pinpricks of white didn't move, they stayed trained on her. "Who are you?!"

The rabbit didn't move, didn't speak, and Kipo raised her hands, transforming them, there was something off about the thing in front of her...

But Kipo didn't get to dwell on it, because suddenly, the door behind the creature cracked open, and a blonde head poked out.

"Oh, Hazel, you're here," the girl said, in a slight accept. Her voice was soft. She stepped out from behind the rabbit, and the rabbit looked down to her in a surprisingly non-creepy, normal way.

"Ah, yeah, sorry, I..." the rabbit replied in, yet again, an unnervingly normal voice, a middle-aged male voice. The rabbit gestured over to Kipo, and the girl brightened.

"Oh, you're awake." The girl gave Kipo a nice smile, but Kipo was too surprised to give her one back. "I'm glad. Your companions will be, too."

For a couple seconds, Kipo didn't know how to reply, but slowly, she lowered her hands awkwardly. "O-Oh. Ok."

The girl didn't seem put off by Kipo's nervousness. Perhaps she was expecting it. "I'm Alice," she greeted, curtseying. "And this is my friend, Hazel. He takes care of me here."

Kipo and Hazel stared at each other, not saying anything for a good long while. Eventually, Kipo nodded stiffly, choosing instead to speak with Alice. There was something about Hazel...

"It's nice to meet you," she said politely. Despite herself, she was starting to relax. "Er... thank you, for taking care of me, when I was passed out."

"Ah, yes of course!" Alice's smile brightened. "Are you better now?"

'Not really.' "A little bit," Kipo told her. "Um... may I..."

"Oh, right, you probably want to see your friends." Alice tugged on Hazel's arm (it moved like fabric, not skin, Kipo noticed), and he finally moved towards the door. He had to bend down slightly to get out.

"They're just out here," Alice told her, following him. Kipo nodded, and Alice made to move, before she paused. "Oh, Kipo..."

Kipo paused as well. "Oh, yeah?"

Alice tilted her head. "I don't mean to offend, but why is your skin pink?"

"Ah... well..." Kipo tried not to let her thoughts show on her face. "Er... just ask Luz, she'll explain it."

In fact, she'd probably be overjoyed to 'explain' it.

"Ah, ok," Alice turned back to the door. "I will!"

"Ok." Kipo looed around, suddenly all too aware of all the eyes pressing in on her. "I'll be there... in just a minute."

"Of course. Take your time."

Kipo nodded, and then waited until the door clicked shut behind Alice before she started moving, picking up one of the stuffed animals, a pink and orange giraffe, off the self. She didn't know why, but something told her that she didn't want Hazel catching her doing this...

The first thing Kipo noticed about the giraffe was that it was wet, and she nearly dropped it in her surprise. When cold liquid squeezed out from the giraffe and down her palm, her first thought was blood... but the liquid was clear, like water, only slightly sticky.

Kipo's brow furrowed, and she slowly put the stuffed animal back. Ok... weird, but not incriminating, probably. Kipo didn't know what that was, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

Unnerved, but for different reasons this time, Kipo turned away from the odd giraffe, and quickly walked over to the door, opening it and walking through, not noticing when one of the cute button eyes of the giraffe popped off, and far more realistic eyeball blinked out from behind it.

Dib frowned. "Didn't you say we were getting closer? It's not working at all now."

Six frowned, leaning forward into the crystal. "I see.... Well, there's nothing we can do except keep trying."

"Really?" Dib really didn't think that sounded like a good plan. "There's nothing else we can do? Why not? What's with this thing?"

Six shook her head. "There are a million things that could be wrong, but most likely, they just don't know what's going on, and are not answering your call."

"Oh." Dib huffed grumpily. "Great. And there's no other better way to contact them."

Six glanced at the solid rock in front of them. Dib had heard second hand what happened here, but he was still startled every time he looked around and saw that the mountain had no shadow.

"There is not."

Dib grumbled, but he continued calling anyway. He brushed his thumb over the nonsense math on the stone, feeling the indents under his skin. If only he could understand it...

Kipo was made very aware of their presence before she could even finish opening the door.

"KIPO!"

"Luz-ow!"

She was suddenly thrown backwards as a purple and silver blur slammed into her midsection, and in the back of her mind, Kipo thought about how effective an attack it could be. But it wasn't an attack, and that much was made clear when Kipo found herself on the ground, Luz wrapped tightly around her and practically squeezing Kipo's life out of her.

"Ah... hey, Luz," Kipo wheezed, patting her on the back lightly. Still, even that effort was straining her. "Yeah, it's nice to see you-."

"Hey, don't change your expression..." Luz suddenly interrupted, voice suddenly serious. She was whispering into Kipo's ear, and Kipo forced her face to remain neutral. "Please be careful here, that rabbit looks dangerous, we probably need to get out of here as fast as possible!"

Kipo felt her brow furrow before she fixed it, and she looked away from the giant rabbit standing in the corner. Right, don't be suspicious... but before she could stand up again, Luz continued.

"He looks like he's from that one video game, you know?"

Kipo decided to ignore that, and she stood up, Luz following soon after.

"Yeah... well, I'm fine now, if you were wondering," Kipo started awkwardly, before getting hit with a sudden dizzying spell. "Well, mostly..."

Luz looked concerned. "You're still not alright, Kipo? Do you... need to rest more?"

Kipo heard the catch in that. Luz clearly didn't want to stay here, and neither did Kipo but...

"Well, unless you have a spell that'll make me feel better..." Kipo said, mostly joking. Luz, though, looked disheartened.

"Oh, sorry, but Six said that medical spells are really complicated and almost always go wrong," Luz explained sadly, but then she brightened. "But Kris might have something, right?"

Luz turned to Kris, looking hopeful, and to Kipo's surprise, they took something out of their pocket, tossing it to Kipo, who caught it.

Confused, Kipo looked down at the small candy in her hand before it eating.

Almost immediately, she felt like herself again.

"Huh?" Kipo exclaimed. "I suddenly feel fine again?!"

"Great!" Luz cheered, but Kipo couldn't agree, standing worriedly at the blue candy wrapped. What the heck was in that thing?!

Luz clapped her hands, drawing Kipo's attention away. "Ok, so now that Kipo's better, we can-."

Before Luz could finish, she was cut off but the light flashing from Kipo's pocket again. She sighed, bring out the crystal again, making special care not to touch it with her skin.

"It's been doing this ever since I woke up," Kipo explained at Luz's questioning look. "I don't know why."

"Well, you probably need to answer it," Luz guessed, and Kipo titled her head.

'Answer... it...?' she wondered. 'Like a phone?'

Still confused, Kipo raised the crystal to her ear, and was surprised when she saw Dib appear right in front of her.

Well, at the very least, Dib looked just as surprised.