"Permission?" Norman repeated, his brow furrowing. "What-?"

"I mean pray," Dipper explained quickly. "I mean, these come from the power of the... 'gods', so we might as well ask them for help."

Norman frowned as he thought that over. "I suppose... do you think you can convince them?"

"Not me," Dipper told him. He looked over to Wirt. "Wirt... if you're up for this, I think you should try."

Hearing his name snapped Wirt out of his thoughts. He met Norman and Dipper's gaze. "Me?"

Dipper nodded encouragingly. "You're a poet, you have a way with words. Just try it."

Wirt went red. "I-er... You really think that?"

Dipper nodded, and Wirt almost moved his hand up to rub at the back of his neck before a jolt of pain made him think twice. "Oh..."

"I've heard some," Dipper told him. "You speak out loud sometimes."

Wirt froze. "Wha-?"

"Don't worry about that," Norman quickly interrupted. "Dipper's point is that you're good, so go for it."

"You think so, too, Norman?"

"Wirt, I'm starting to think you're now just fishing for compliments," Dipper said, still in a nice voice, but with a more warning tone starting to set in. "Just go already."

Wirt gulped. "Uh, alright... I guess."

His mind still felt foggy, but Wirt supposed he should try what they said.

"Um... I'm asking for them to help with the crystals, right...?" Wirt asked.

Dipper and Norman exchanged a look Wirt couldn't decipher in his current state.

"Yeah."

"That's right."

Wirt blinked. "Okay," he said, and he held up the crystal, perched precariously on his bandaged hands. He racked his brain for something to say. "Hm... You're the river behind us, the walls that surround us, and the tiny boat that saved us. You're everywhere, here, there, all powerful and all knowing. Us, we're just a little bug, lost in a storm, who needs a guiding light. We're not asking for your hand, just a little pinky finger to help. Won't you heed these little ants?"

When Wirt finished, Dipper and Norman stared at him strangely.

"Uh... that was a little weird... are you Christian, Wirt?" Dipper asked him, tilting his head.

Wirt blinked. "What? Oh... well, I might have just copied that from something I'd said before, I don't know."

Norman shook his head, and held up the crystal. "Whatever it was... did it work?"

Dipper grabbed at his crystal, too, and then frowned. "No, it didn't seem too... Hey, uh, god, what he was saying was true... we don't need a lot of help, this is fine. It'd be really appreciated, and we'd be in your debt! We'd do whatever you want us to!"

Norman gave Dipper a worried look, which was ignored.

After Dipper finished, they waited, but for a while, nothing happened, and eventually, Norman drew back, sighing.

"Sorry, Dipper, it doesn't look like it'll work-."

Suddenly, he was cut off by a sudden blinding white light that seemed to explode from their crystals. The white light enveloped everything around them, the water, the boat, and the walls of the cave, until a vast white nothingness stretched out from every side, leaving them in what looked like another plane of existence, with nothing in there except Dipper, Norman and Wirt.

Dipper stood up quickly, and then quickly sat down again as a boat they couldn't see rocked violently beneath them.

"...Wow," Norman eventually said, clutching his own crystal. He reached over where he thought the side of the boat down, and reached down. Eventually, his fingers touched the cold water, still running underneath them even though they couldn't see it. "I wonder..."

As Norman trailed off, Dipper looked around curiously.

"...I don't understand," he mused. "Did the god do this? I still don't see the ghosts."

"Maybe we're dead now?" Wirt offered, but no one responded to him. No, the only thing that responded to him was the sudden sound of static, which got Dipper and Norman's attention, too.

"Uh... god?" Dipper tried, and to all of their surprise, someone answered. Out from the static came an almost robotic voice, a male one that sounded weary and tried... but also powerful.

"You have all asked for my help and I responded..." the voice told them, and even Dipper was looking a little weary now. "I have been kind to you. Make sure you remember that. Do not think I will forget your promise, though."

Norman glanced to Dipper, who leaned forward.

"What do you want us to do?" Dipper asked the voice, who sighed.

"You'll know in time," the voice told him. "But know that if you refuse me, the consequences will be swift. Broken promises will not tolerated. And don't think I can't see what you're trying to do, child. I see it, and it will not work."

Wirt saw a hint of worry on Dipper's face before he quickly hid it. There was a hint of hesitation before he replied. "Alright," he said. "I-I understand. We all do."

"Good," the voice said, and with that, the white disappeared, leaving the three back in the boat, where the only light they had was their meager candlelight. Wirt blinked, and then groaned, shaking his head. The suddenness of the change gave them a headache.

"Norman! What was that all about?! Who were you talking to?!"

Wirt's head snapped up, and then he did a double take as two faces, one unfamiliar, and the other far too familiar, peered at him. After a second, they took a step back as well, realizing for the first time that Wirt was looking back.

"It worked," Dipper realized, and the two glanced at him.

"So... you can see us now," one of the figures, Adam, Wirt realized with a wince, said. He glanced at Wirt, and then glanced away.

"You said you promised something," the other ghost, a young boy with spikey black hair, Ash probably, pointed out. He sounded worried. "What'd you promise?"

Dipper blinked. He still didn't seem past that he could actually see them now. He shook his head. "I...I don't know. He said we'd find out."

Ash frowned, and his eyes darted around. Maybe. Wirt couldn't really see him all that well in the dark. Norman was right, he really was faded, like the stereotypical ghost while Adam looked much more solid, like he really was there. If Wirt didn't look too closely, his eyes easily passed right over him.

"They're against you, you know," Ash told him. His voice was now scarcely more than a whisper. "You can't trust them!"

Dipper looked properly chagrined. "Yeah... yeah, I'm starting to suspect that."

Ash crossed his arms, sitting back... kind of. Wirt had to squint, but it didn't really look like he was sitting on the rowboat seat, but sitting a few inches above it. Wirt wondered how that'd feel. He probably didn't want to find out.

Dipper hummed, also sitting back and observing the boy. Somehow, it felt like a first meeting, even though they'd technically been travelling together for so long, and Adam had been a part of their group before.

Neither Dipper nor Wirt looked at him much, but when Wirt did glance at him, he looked despondent and dejected. Wirt looked away again.

"Um, where are we?" Norman suddenly interrupted, and they all turned to him, before drawing their attention to their surroundings. The only thing around was cave walls that looked nearly identical to every other cave wall they'd passed before.

"It was hard to keep track where we were going when all... well, whatever that was that happened... happened," Dipper noted. "Uh... Adam, do you know where we are?"

Adam looked like he was ready to tell it to Norman before he remembered Dipper could see him now.

"I have no clue, this place is impossible to navigate like this," Adam told them. "Usually you just go through it by remember what turns you have and haven't done, but I couldn't do that when that was happening either."

"Oh..." Dipper sounded disappointed. "And there's no landmarks or anything like that?"

"Not here," Adam told him. "But maybe if there's one around here."

"Guess we should look around, then," Norman said. He picked up a paddle. "Here, Dipper."

Dipper stared at it. "Actually, Adam... can you grab onto the paddle."

Adam looked alarmed. "Huh? P-Probably not?"

A couple minutes later, Adam was rowing with Norman, and they both had matching looks of annoyance aimed at Dipper, who didn't seem to notice. Instead, he was leaning out of the boat, searching the walls for any sign of where they were.

"So, you really don't feel tired at all?" Dipper was asking him, and Adam shrugged.

"Not, not at all," Adam replied, rolling his shoulders. "Man, not that you guys can see me, being like this isn't so bad! I don't get sleepy or tired or hungry or cold anymore! It feels like I just got the best glitch in a game."

"Oh, yeah, your game theory," Dipper remembered. "Do you still think that?"

Adam suddenly grew quiet, and his expression changed to a more thoughtful one. "Well... I dunno," he said after a minute. "I'll be honest, I have no clue what's going on. I still want to believe that, even more now, because then I'm not really dead, right? But.... Well, I don't know. None of you are gamers, so I don't know why you'd be playing, but... well, I don't know."

Dipper sighed. "Yeah, you're right. This doesn't like the type of game I'd play, and only really you, Mira, Kai and Tulip are gamers, so I'd have no clue how we would get here."

"Rub it in, why don't you," Adam grumbled. Dipper rolled his eyes.

"It's not that," he chastised Adam teasingly. "Anyway, it's not like any of us really have any idea what's going on. It's the scientific process: all theories are equal and valid until completely disproven."

"I never cared about that, I'm a gamer."

Dipper rolled his eyes, but he didn't respond. Eventually, Norman spoke up.

"I'm tired, Dipper," he said.

"It's not my turn yet," Dipper told him quickly. Norman shook his head at him, before turning to Wirt.

"Wirt... are you okay?" he asked. "How are your hands?"

Wirt didn't look at them. "When do you think I will be able to feel them again?"

"You still don't?" Norman sounded worried. "I... er... don't know what that means."

"If he can't feel it, that's a good thing, right?" Adam asked, but Norman shook his head.

"No, it can't be..." Norman mused. "He must still be in shock."

"How long does this last?" Dipper wondered. "Also... does it actually work like that?"

"Well, somethings happening," Norman snapped. He tilted his head at Wirt's hands. "...He needs urgent care."

"How are we suppose to get him that?" Adam asked. "We've never seen a doctor here..."

Suddenly, he turned to Ash, who looked thoughtful. "Usually magic worked for that type of stuff."

"Magic?" Dipper repeated, frowning.

"Yep," Ash told them, nodding. "You don't even need to know any spells, it just heals you."

"...So, like a video game?" Adam guessed, and Ash shrugged.

"Never played those," he said. "But if we can find some magic fog, we can heal him!"

Adam's head snapped up. "Magic fog? What does it look like? Is it pink? And sparkly?"

Ash looked confused. "Um... yes? That's what it looks like."

Adam groaned. "Oh. So that's what it was. Great. Wait, doesn't that kill you?"

"...Only if you breath in too much," Ash replied. "Um... did you-."

"Almost," Adam grumbled. "Almost."

"And you didn't realize-?"

"No, I did not associate the dangerous fog trying to kill me with magic," Adam huffed. "Anyway... we just need some of that, and he'll be fine."

Ash nodded. "That's right. But we'll need a lot, because I can't do anything with it like this."

Ash waved his hands to the air around them, and Wirt's brain refused to think too hard about that. Dipper, Adam and Wirt glanced around.

"Magic... is all around us?" he asked, frowning. "Wha-?"

"If it's a lot you need, I don't think you need to worry," Adam interrupted him. "I can get you that. Don't worry, Wirt, you'll... probably be fine."

"Oh... good."

"We just have to get there first," Norman said, and Dipper snapped out of his 'there was magic heRE THE WHOLE TIME!?' look off his face to focus.

"R..Right, right," he said. "Adam, do you-?"

"As a matter off fact, yes," Adam replied before he could finish. He leaned over the boat, pointing to something along the wall. "There. Norman, make the boat go more right, there's a tunnel right over there, and then there's a really small opening that goes up to the plains. The house is just a little bit from there."

"Finally," Dipper sighed. "That took way longer than an hour and a half."

"Well, I didn't think all that would happen, so, yeah, I guess I was a little off," Adam huffed. As Norman guided the boat closer to a little ray of light in the side of the tunnel way, Adam reached out, and took a hold off the rock wall, steadying the boat as the current threatened to drag them away. "Alright, get up there."

"Well, if you insist," Dipper muttered, and he helped himself over the side of the boat, splashing down into the water below. He yelped at the cold; the water came well up to his waist.

"Geez," he huffed, and then splashed up their tunnel out of the water. The tunnel was smaller than it looked, he had to crawl as he went through.

Norman went out next, and immediately turned to help Wirt out, who appreciated it. His hands were starting to ich, and he couldn't help but think that one wrong move would be painful.

Adam and Ash followed them, Wirt noted that while Adam had to hunker down to fit, Ash didn't have such problems, Wirt could see his shoulder clipping through the cave walls as they went.

"I wonder if you'll be able to see the other ghosts," Norman wondered, and Dipper glanced back at him.

"Other ghosts?"

"Yeah," Norman said. "Before Anne and Fei Fei found me, I was kind of wandering around a lot of towns, and I couldn't find one without finding way more ghosts than people. Usually it's the other way around, since most people just pass on, but not in this world. That mountain was the only place I'd ever seen without any ghosts. I wonder why."

And with that, they emerged into the cave.