Mira paused as her words sunk in, but as she looked around to each and everyone of the gathered people in the room, she couldn't seem to handle the weight of her own words.

She shook her head. "B-But they're probably fine! They're all pretty smart, I think, so they probably figured out away out of there. They're probably just taking longer to get back because of the flooding caves! I... we'll just have to wait for them."

Inwardly, Kipo groaned. Suddenly, for the first time, she was regretting letting go of that crystal. It was pretty inconvenient, but it had it's uses. ANY kind of communication would be nice, actually.

Again, Mira paused, and let her words sink in again. However, before the pressure made her buckle again, she sat down, turning to Kipo.

"Ah, well... that's what happened here," Mira said, sounding a little embarrassed. Apparently, she hadn't considered the affect her own words would have on herself. Now, Kipo was a little worried to tell her own side of the story. Nevertheless, Mira urged her on. "Anyway, Kipo, if you don't mind..."

Sighing, Kipo stood up. Already, she wanted to sit down again, but forced herself to stay standing. She had a long explanation in front of her.

Kipo started from the beginning, when she, Anne and Fei Fei first left to find the rest of the people for their town. First, they had found Kris, and altogether, they had escaped the arena, and started off to help rid the town of monsters. As she spoke, Kipo frowned. Hm... she'd completely forgotten about that, but she supposed it's nice that they managed to help them. Hopefully.

Well, she wasn't going back to check.

As Kipo spoke, she noticed Coraline listening closely. Since she'd been stuck behind the portal, she hadn't seen any of this. She'd been alone this entire time, probably longer than Kipo had been before she'd found Wirt. Kipo winced. Perhaps she should keep that in mind as they moved forward.

Kipo continued on with her tale, detailing how they met Luz, and then how they got stuck in the other world. As she explained that part, Kipo's face went red, and she tried to explain quickly. To her relief, no one said anything.

"-And then..." Kipo frowned as she thought back. "And then we found the moon."

This part got a reaction from the others.

"The moon is missing?" Mira asked, startled.

"How?" Tulip asked. She sounded skeptical, and Kipo couldn't blame her. "You'd think that's something we would notice, right?"

"There was one night where I was trying to find the moon," Mabel spoke up. "...But I just thought it wasn't out that night. I hadn't really checked again."

"I..." Kai spoke up, before he paused. "Actually, I wouldn't know."

"I know it sounds weird," Kipo told them. "But in the three days it took to get back, I made sure to keep an eye on the sky as we went back. Luz was right, there really was no moon."

"...But you found it," Mira asked, and Kipo nodded.

"Yeah... I suppose so," she said, and in the back of her mind, something itched, but she ignored it. "Anyway, through the portal there was... a new place. It was... I don't know how to describe it."

Luz helpfully jumped in. "It was an abandoned amusement park! They had a water ride, and a roller coaster, and-."

"Huh? Wait, hold on," Kipo interrupted. "We don't know that it's an old amusement park yet."

"We don't?" Luz sounded very surprised. "Um... why not?"

"Well, it wouldn't make any sense," Kipo pointed out. "Everything else in this world is... vaguely middle age-ish. An amusement park would be far too technologically advance for this era."

"Then what was all that?" Coraline asked her. "What else would it be?"

"I..." Kipo hesitated. That was a fair point. "I honestly don't know. Something about that place bothers me, it doesn't fit in with the rest of the world here."

"Then it's probably not a part of this world," Anne noted. "Maybe it's like a pocket dimension?"

"A pocket dimension?" Mabel asked, delighted. "That sounds adorable. What is it?"

"Oh, it's basically like a dimension that too close or easily accessible to our own to be considered its own dimension," Anne explained easily, and Kipo was surprised. Anne looked smug. "Yeah, I'm pretty knowledgeable in 'dimension-y' stuff. Got a C in math but an A++ in quantum psychics."

"I don't think that's even considered a real science," Coraline pointed out sardonically, but in good nature. "It's basically sci fi."

"Er... yeah, okay, I don't have a grade in quantum physics," Anne admitted. "But if I did, it'd be high, is all I'm saying."

"Quantum physics..." Luz repeated. "You mean like in D&D?"

Anne frowned, and seemed prepared to go into another whole rant, but Kipo decided to continue before she could.

"Anyway...!" She interrupted loudly. "We'll put aside... whatever that is for now, though it's probably important, so we should remember it. But anyway-."

"The moon's probably important," Tulip spoke up, and Kipo glanced to her. Tulip looked embarrassed. "Er... sorry for interrupting, but I just think the moon would be important to note. After all, what's our world's moon doing in another dimension?"

Kipo blinked. Yeah... Yeah, that was a good point, actually, and while it made sense, it also made this a lot more confusing. These two places that didn't fit together at all... connected by something like that. Strange, but Kipo shook her head.

"No, you're right," she told Tulip, who looked relieved. "But we'll have to put this away for now. We should discuss it later."

Tulip nodded, and Kipo continued on with her story. She told them about how they met Hazel... and Alice. Luz, Kipo noticed, got quieter in this part, but Kipo continued on, telling them about their adventures in the other world, or pocket dimension, or whatever it was, and as she spoke, she could see Anne, Fei Fei, Mira, Tulip and Kai getting more and more nervous. After all, Alice HAD been a part of their group, and clearly one of them, but she wasn't here. Of course, they had to know something was going to happen, and they were right. Still, when Kipo told them about her eventually fate, they still looked to their stomach, even though they knew it was coming.

"No... he just took her?" Anne gasped.

"She offered to go with him," Luz corrected miserably. "If she hadn't... I don't think we could have gotten out of there."

"We definitely wouldn't have," Kipo said. "But still..."

"But we still don't know she's... you know," Mira pointed out. "She still could be out there! This guy, Hazel... he seemed to really love her, is all."

"He didn't when Alice first tried to leave him," Coraline muttered darkly. "I don't think he really loves her."

"I think all those... stuffed animals were people that had been living there before," Kipo told them, reminding them of the organs stuffed into the plushies. "I don't know for sure if Hazel wants to do that with her, or if he is going to hurt her some other way, but that doesn't change the fact that every moment she's with him, she's in danger."

"Then we should go try and get her, right?" Fei Fei asked, but Kipo shook her head.

"We... I'm getting to that," Kipo sighed. "Just wait."

With that, Kipo continued her tale: The odd encounter in the castle, Coraline's introduction, and their escape from their other world, back into this world.

"...When we came back, we... found Dib gone," Kipo finished. "And the portal was gone. Luz couldn't even open it, because it had completely disappeared. We can't walk through a rock wall."

"Then is there another portal?" Mira asked her. "Did it go somewhere else?"

Six craned her head up from where she had been resting it. Kipo blinked at her. She thought Six had been asleep.

"Well..." Six said slowly. "Hypothetically-."

"Wait, hold on," Anne said, holding up a hand. "Kipo, what happened to Dib?"

Kipo opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She felt like she was going to collapse, and she fought the urge to bury her face in her hands. Still, she couldn't help but fall back into her chair.

"Mabel..." she said tiredly. "Can you tell them?"

Mabel winced, and Kipo felt a sharp stab of guilt, but Mabel stood up anyway.

"Y-Yeah, I can," she said shakily. "I guess..."

After she stood up, Mabel didn't speak for a good long minute. The other's waited patiently for her, and eventually, Mabel seemed to find it within her to speak.

"Um... Dib and I had been with Six at the entrance to the portal for... some reason," Mabel said haltingly. Beside her, Six rolled her eyes.

"We were communicating with Miss Kipo and her group inside the portal with the crystals," Six explained. She almost seemed ready to go back to sleep, before she thought better of it. "You might as well sit down, Miss Mabel, I feel like I have a better insight into this than you do."

Mabel looked relieved as she sat down, and Six stood up straighter. Beside her, Luz was frowning, watching her friend closely, but Six didn't seem to notice.

"For all those that don't know: Mr Dib was more than a little paranoid," Six told them. "He was always convinced that there was something waiting for him in the shadows, and was certain that there was... something waiting in the woods for him, based on all the traps he had set up. And the one monster he was obsessed with, this so called 'Imposter' made him even distrust the people around him.

"In any case, there was a point when this became too much for him, and when I was trying to teach both him and Miss Mabel how to open the portal, if need be, he hadn't been there. This was important, so I went to go look for him. However, without my knowledge, he had already come back, and was attempting to speak with Kipo again, for some reason."

"I'd made him suspicious," Mabel mumbled. "I forgot the passcode, I think. Or something like that."

Six only glanced at her. "Hm. Well, it doesn't matter. Anyway, when he tried to talk to Kipo, apparently he saw something that spooked him, and he ran away. Miss Mabel informed me of what happened, but when I went to collect him, I had apparently startled him into his own trap, and off the edge of the cliff. Yes, it was unfortunate, but also rather stupid as well."

Luz started, and opened her mouth, but Six continued before she could say anything.

"After that, it was on Mabel to open the portal," Six continued. "Just in case, because Mr Dib had taken our only form of communication with him. It was just in time, thankfully, and if not, Miss Kipo, Miss Luz, Mux Kris and Miss Coraline probably wouldn't be alive right now."

Six looked over at Mabel as she said so, and despite her miserable mood, Mabel seemed to brighten up at that. Luz's frown deepened. Meanwhile, Kipo tried to think back, wondering what Six meant. 'What he saw'... what could she mean back that...?

Suddenly, Kipo gasped, her eyes widening in horror. Everyone around the table looked to her, but Kipo barely noticed. The horrible realization was... it had taken a hold of her.

"Kipo, what's wrong?" Mira asked, concerned, and Kipo gulped.

"The wire monster..." she whispered, and she saw Luz and Kris jolt as they realized what she meant. Still, she said it louder, for everyone else. "The wire monster... in the maze, there was a monster chasing us. I threw the crystal back at it, to give us more time... is that why Dib died? Because he saw the wire monster, and thought that was me?!"

'Did he die because of me!?'

The group sat in stunned silence after Kipo's confession. No one seemed to know what to say. Kipo could feel their attention on her, but her eyes were staring down at the table in front of her as she the thought of what she had done weighed on, bowing down her head under the pressure. He was dead... Dib was dead, and Kipo couldn't apologize to him for what she had done to him-.

Suddenly, Six scoffed at the silence. "Geez... pick up your head, Miss Kipo. Mr Dib's paranoia was a result of his own overactive imagination. You had nothing to do with it, I assure you. It's likely that he would have found another reason to run away screaming if that hadn't happened. Really, this is all a cautionary tale for you all: make sure you don't lose your head in all this. Hold them up high and march forward, because if you look back, all you'll do is trip and fall, like they had done."

The room refocused their attention on Six, who seemed to sit straighter up as if saying 'see? This is how you do it.' And despite Six's... less than nice words, they all could see that she had a point. Besides Kipo, Mira drew herself up, taking a deep breath.

"Six... She's right," Mira announced. "We'll moved forward. We have to. We don't have another choice. We have to get out of here! There's only thirteen of us of the... the sixteen that started here. We have to admit it: this world is picking up off one by one, and if we stay here and dwell, there won't be any of us left! Adam, Dib, that girl, Alice... We can't forget them, but ignoring what they mean will just make this harder. We have to face the fact that their dead, and if we don't do something, we'll be dead, too, soon."

Mira paused, glancing around the room, but this time, she didn't buckle. She stared at each of the people around the table in turn. When she was done, she stopped at Six, staring out at her.

"Of course, we're not just going to forget aboutthem, all those that we've lost," Mira declared passionately. "But if there isstill thirteen of us left, then every single one of us are getting out of thisplace, no matter what."