Just as they said, Norman, Wirt and Dipper gathered in the community hall, all carrying separate bags. Wirt had the smallest, basically a handbag, Norman had a medium one, and Dipper had a huge one that looked like it dwarfed him. Wirt didn't know how, as they were all dripping wet, and that bag looked like it weighed a ton. Was Dipper secretly really strong?

"We're making an entire ocean in here," Norman muttered, and Wirt followed his gaze down to their feet, where he saw that Norman was right. There was a puddle underneath them that was about a meter across, and two inches deep. Wirt tried to get out of it, but all his did was make the puddle bigger.

Welp. Sorry to whoever was cleaning this up in the morning.

"Do we all got the right supplies?" Dipper asked the other two, setting his bag on the table. "I got candles, a book and pen, a knife, just in case, a net, maps, and a couple books-" Dipper paused and glanced down at his bag, and then sighed. "That are probably soaked through right now, and some other things... that are also important."

Wirt saw a glimpse of Dipper's vial of holy water and his cross before Dipper closed his bag, and swung it back on. It really did seem to be wearing him down.

"What about you guys?" Dipper asked, and Norman put his bag down next.

"I got some spare clothes, some food, some water... yeah." Shrugging, Norman put his bag back on. Dipper nodded.

"Right, good idea," he said. "I... didn't think of that. What'd you get, Wirt?"

Wirt stayed quiet for a long time. "Something important."

"...What is it?" Norman encouraged him, and Wirt winced.

"It's... ah, er-," Wirt sighed. "...A notebook."

Dipper and Norman stared at him.

"...We're going to be in a boat, Wirt," Dipper told him.

"Yeah, we're going to be in a boat, Wirt," Norman repeated. Wirt went red.

"Well... yeah, but... it never hurts to be prepared?" Wirt tried, but he didn't have much hope. "I'm always stuck having to remember my... poems... in my head, but now I'm prepared!"

Dipper and Norman shared a mockingly disappointed look.

"What ever you say, Wirt," Norman said.

"What ever you say," Dipper said. Wirt groaned.

"We should move on," Wirt told them, and Dipper and Norman laughed.

"Yeah, yeah..." Dipper reluctantly agreed. "Anyway, so we're all ready to go, right?"

"..." Norman frowned. "No... I feel like we're forgetting something."

"Hm... I also feel that..." Wirt noted. The three took a second to observe their supplies.

"...I can't think of anything," Dipper eventually said, and the other two had to agree with him.

"...I guess we should get going then, right?" Norman asked, and Wirt nodded. "Alright. Dipper, lead the way to the boat then.

"On it," Dipper told him, taking out the map. "Here we go?"

Norman and Wirt nodded, and the three of them started out into the pouring rain, towards the just barely visible mountain: a big, shadowy beacon in this dark, foggy world.

As soon as they spotted the entrance to the tunnels, they ran for it, and any chance to get out of the pounding rain, no matter how small. But as their feet splashed into the ankle-deep river, they quickly realized that somehow this cave was more wet than outside of it.

Dipper groaned as they got in. "Oh, come on!"

Norman didn't look too happy about the water either, but all he did was press his mouth into an annoyed thin line. "Is there any way we can somehow still use that map, Dipper?"

"We don't need to," Dipper told him. "I remember the way. And by the way... Adam and Ash are still here, right?"

Norman blinked, before he seemed to suddenly remember that the ghosts were invisible to everyone else. "Yeah, no, they're still here."

Dipper's eyes looked around the cave. "Okay. Here, the boat is over this way."

Wirt and Norman exchanged a look, and together they followed Dipper through the tunnels as the water got deeper and deeper, but it was only when the water was up to Dipper and Norman's waist that Wirt decided to say something.

"Um, how far away from the boat are we?" he called out to Dipper. He was taller than both Dipper and Norman were, but even for him it wouldn't take long for the water to become too big of a problem.

"...Far," Dipper eventually grumbled back. He was going slower now, feeling out the path in front of them with his foot. "We might have to swim some. Is that alright?"

Wirt sighed, and Norman shrugged.

"At least the ceilings high," he noted, looking up. After a while, he spoke again. "Oh."

Dipper and Wirt glanced at him.

"What is it?" Dipper asked.

"Ash just told me that he and Adam can't feel the water," Norman told them. "Also, if you're wondering, only Ash can float. Adam can't. And Adam is less transparent than Ash is."

Dipper looked intrigued. "Really. Why?"

Norman shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe because Ash had been dead longer? That might mean something."

"That sounds right," Wirt agreed, and Dipper nodded.

"I guess... I wish I could see them, though," he said wistfully. "You're lucky Norman."

Norman made a face that Wirt could just barely make out in the dark. "Not really."

Dipper didn't respond to that, instead looking up at the lightly glowing blue crystals high above them. They looked pretty, Wirt noted, but they didn't give off much light. Kipo took one of those crystals, didn't she? Didn't they have special powers?

Wirt reached Dipper's conclusion just as Dipper said something.

"Maybe those crystals would help us," Dipper said. "They let Kipo see things that weren't there, didn't they?"

Norman glanced up, too. "...Ash says that the gods are angry at us, so it wouldn't work."

"What does that have to do with it?"

"They work by the power of the gods, or they have the power of the gods," Norman explained. "Either way, if the gods are mad, they won't work. Well, either that, or they'll show you something bad."

"Something bad?" Dipper repeated, somehow sounding even more curious. "Huh. Well, I think it's worth trying anyway."

"Is it?" Wirt asked, but he'd already accepted that he wasn't going to be listened to anyway.

"We just have to smart about it," Dipper decided, and yep, he hadn't listened at all to Wirt, huh? Wirt frowned at him.

"Do you think you can outsmart gods?" Wirt asked him, and Dipper shook his head quickly.

"No, no, not outsmart, just, I don't know, barter," Dipper told him, but there was a mischievous glint in his eye, but then he took on a much more serious tone. "Come on, Wirt, we owe it to Adam, right? Don't you want to see him again? I... sometimes I still feel guilty, we talked a lot before, about his adventures, but I never really... I mean, not that our talks weren't nice, but sometimes I look back and wish it could've been different. Better different. Adam's nice, and I can't do really anything more for him now... but talking would be nice, don't you think?"

Never before had Wirt felt Adam's invisible presence more. He had to stop himself from saying something too quickly, something stupid, because even though he couldn't see Adam, he was here. Wirt couldn't hear or see him... but he was aware of Adam listening and looking all the same.

"Yeah..." he said slowly, carefully. And then he hesitated. Yes, he agreed with what Dipper was saying, but was it really worth an unknown risk?

'...Well, yeah, actually, it is,' Wirt thought about a couple seconds, feeling guilty. Of course he wanted to talk to Adam, no matter the cost. If nothing else, he wanted to apologize to Adam's face for all this, because it was kind of Wirt's fault he was dead, right? Wirt was the one in trouble, after all.

After a moment, Wirt realized Dipper was waiting for an answer. After a quick glance to Norman, who shrugged, Wirt sighed, and nodded his head at Dipper, not trusting himself to speak. Dipper smiled back at him, but Norman quickly put a damper on his celebration.

"Adam says you shouldn't," Norman told them, his face impassive. "He says that it really isn't worth it. Ash disagrees with him, by the way. He was convinced by your speech, Dipper."

"It wasn't a speech," Dipper corrected. "And, Adam, this could be better for our travels, too. If something happens to Norman, which it probably won't, but just in case, me and Wirt would be blind out there."

Norman looked a little miffed at Dipper's point, but he continued on nonetheless. "But doesn't Wirt know where the house is, too?"

Dipper glanced at Wirt for support, which Wirt reluctantly provided.

"I don't know the way through the tunnels, though," Wirt pointed out, and then shrank. "But, um, after that I should be fine, I guess."

Dipper gave him a look, and even though Wirt couldn't see him, he was sure Adam was giving him one too. He shrugged weakly.

Eventually, Dipper took that as a point for himself. "See? We need it. Plus, there's a chance that nothing will happen, so you don't need to worry that much."

"Adam says he's going to anyway," Norman retorted. Dipper rolled his eyes.

"Fine, he can," he said, before pausing. Wirt nearly bumped into him. "Hm... feels like there's a ledge here. I think we'll have to swim from now on. Everyone ready?"

Inwardly, Wirt groaned. He was exhausted, his limbs were all stone cold lead at this point (he couldn't feel his fingers) and his head was pounding. Outwardly, Wirt nodded.

"Okay," Dipper said, turning back around. "The boat is closer now, so you don't have to worry too much."

After that, the three didn't get much of a chance to talk, instead focusing on moving staying afloat in the water. Wirt couldn't even touch the floor here, a fact that made him feel panicky, and bile rise to the back of his throat, but he forced it down. He focused instead on making his tired limbs paddle forward, following Dipper through the tunnels. For his part, Dipper's head bobbed up and down in the water, sometimes completely submerging. Every time he did, Wirt held his breath, but Dipper always came back up, eventually, gasping and wheezing as he pulled air back into his tired lungs.

Behind him, Wirt could hear Norman, too, who sounded just as tired as Dipper was. Wirt could hear Norman's gasps and heavy breathing, but sometimes he went quiet back there, and Wirt tensed. But, like Dipper, the noises came back, and Wirt breathed a silent breath of relief.

It seemed to take forever, with hours and hours on end of swimming through this never-ending dark tunnel while Wirt silently hoped that his friends, and himself, too, would be alright after all this. After all, he knew that if something did happen, there would be nothing he could do for them.

Suddenly, something brushed against Wirt's leg, and he let out a yell, flailing his arms around wildly before going under the water. For a moment, Wirt panicked, beating his arms wildly before he finally managed to break the surface again, gasping for air.

"The-There's-There's-!" Wirt tried to warn his friends, but his teeth were chattering so hard that he couldn't get a word out. He was... really cold, he realized for the first time. He just hadn't noticed before, because he couldn't feel anything anymore. That probably wasn't good, he noted.

"Wha-What-W-What-?" Dipper tried to ask him, but he was just as cold, and Wirt watched as his face melted into horror as he realized it. Dipper quickly shook his head.

"Hu-Hurr-Hurry," Dipper warned them, forcing out the word, and he didn't wait for an answer as he turned around and picked up the pace, but only just barely. Wirt worried on whether or not they'd actually be able to get there in time. Only Dipper really knew, it seemed.

After that, silence doused the three like a wet blanket, forcing them forward as fast as they could. Once, whatever had brushed against Wirt's leg did it again, but this time, he forced himself to ignore it. Funny what his need to survive did to his fear. It felt like he was facing off against all over again.

Wirt wondered if Ash or Adam knew what that was.

Suddenly, Dipper waved to something wildly, and he somehow sped up even more. For a moment, Wirt was confused, before he heard Dipper move out of the water, into something else.

'The boat!' Wirt's brain supplied helpfully, and inwardly, he cheered, finding maniac strength to force himself forward, accidently smacking himself in the face with it before climbing aboard alongside Dipper, who was fiddling around with his bag. Wirt didn't know how he did it, because almost immediately, he collapsed on right on the floor of the tiny wooden rowboat. This felt like heaven, although that might just be because Wirt couldn't feel his aching limbs, or the terrible piercing cold seeping into his skin.

"H-Here," Dipper suddenly told him, and a warmth that Wirt couldn't feel was forced into his face. "T-T-Take t-this."

Wirt stared at the candle for a long time, before finally lifting his practically dead hand, and forced open his fingers to grip the candle. The flame flickered on top of it.

"D-Don't d-d-drop it," Dipper warned him, before turning around to Norman, who Wirt hadn't realized had gotten in the boat. "N-Norman."

Norman took the candle quickly, but just like Wirt, he couldn't seem to feel it either. Norman sighed.

Meanwhile, Dipper looked like he was lighting every single candle he'd brought and dumping them into the middle of the boat. Wirt frowned.

"I-Isn't this boat wooden?" he asked Dipper, and Wirt was relived to find out that he wasn't stuttering as much as he was before. Not only that, but his fingers were in incredible pain! That was a good thing, of course."

"I-I don't c-care," Dipper replied to him, but he gathered up his candles without lighting them anyway. Suddenly, something seemed to occur to him. "W-Wait, here."

Dipper dug around in his bag again, and brought out metal plates, handing them to Wirt and Norman. "D-Don't burn yourselves."

'Too late,' Wirt thought, but he took the metal plate anyway, placing his candle on it. His fingertips really, really hurt.

The three of them sat in silence for a while, until Norman spoke up.

"W-We n-n-need to g-go soon," Norman told them, but no one replied.