Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

The Long Way Up

Kipo couldn't speak. She was standing up, completely out of her seat, and her eyes glued to the blank screen that Gale had switched off a long time ago. The last thing Kipo saw... was Anne dying, and Fei Fei taking the flower.

"I...I..." Kipo fell back into her seat, and Gale peered at her. "I did this..."

"You did the best you could," Gale told her, surprisingly gentle. Kipo glanced up, started. "In the end, you succeeded in getting a flower.

Kipo's frown deepened. "I wouldn't... I wouldn't call this a success. Why do my friends keep dying? What is it with this world?"

"People can bever understand death," Gale hummed. "Perhaps mistakes were made, perhaps not. Sometimes, in order to achieve a goal, this is what must happen."

Kipo looked at him sharply. "Anne wasn't a sacrifice-."

"That's not what I was saying," Gale said in reply. "I'm only telling you that usually, death has no meaning. Dying this way gives Anne's death meaning. Do you understand?"

"..." Kipo didn't know what to say, so Gale continued.

"Kipo, we can't stop here," Gale told her. "You saw Anne's death, right? If we stopped here, that would make it pointless, like all the others. We have to survive, Kipo."

"I... Yeah, I know," Kipo admitted, quietly. She didn't really want to think about it, whether what Gale was saying was right or not. Anne's death... Kipo couldn't let it be in vain. "You're right. I think. I just... Just give me a moment please."

"If you insist," Gale nodded as Kipo dropped her head in her hands. Her shoulders shook as the weight of the realization that Anne was gone. Just like that... just like Adam, and Wirt and Dipper and Norman and Dib and Alice... Kipo hardly got to know any of them, but every single one felt like a scar, and it ached when she moved.

"I won't let anyone else die," Kipo quietly promised them. "I won't let your deaths be in vain! I'll save everyone!"

Those words gave her power, but Kipo still didn't move for a long time. True to his word, Gale didn't say anything against it, instead waiting for her to be ready to face the new challenge again. It was a little shocking and a little strange, but Kipo was grateful for it.

"We'll go to Kris and Mabel next," Gale told her when Kipo was able to face him again. Kipo blinked at him.

"I thought you usually let me choose," she pointed out, and see winced as her voice came out raw and stiff. Her throat burned, and her voice wavered, even though she was certain in what she was saying.

"I assumed you would choose this one... unless you were going to chose the group of three...?" Gale trailed off, but it came of more like a warning than a question. Kipo shook her head hastily.

"No, no, I'll help you," Kipo agreed quickly. She suddenly frowned, staring down at the table. "This time... This time I won't let anyone else die."

"Let's get started, then," Gale said, and the screen lit up again. Kipo stared down at it intensely.

She could only hope she was ready this time.

Mabel and Kris haven't spoken in a while, which for Kris, wasn't unusual, as one day they had decided to never speak again and to break reality so everyone around them understood what they were saying anyway, at least until Kipo came along and questioned that system, so Kris had to find another way to communicate. Luckily, they figured out sign language just in time to be able to talk.

The universe was very nice to Kris. Conveniently.

Mabel, on the other hand, was not quiet, and when she WAS being quiet, it was either because she was sleeping, sad, or doing something suspicious (unrelated, but Dipper called that the three silent S'. He'd never say that though, because that was a Mabel thing to say). Unfortunately, for Kris, this time it was suspicious.