Hello! Welcome, welcome! FourthWallBreaker here with the next installment in Maria's Adventures!

Lucky for you folks I've got the first 19 chapters ready to roll on this one! I'll be posting three times a week for the next three weeks or so, and then I'm gonna drop down to once a week after chapter 9 hits the public. It's gonna be a bit of a slow start until then, so bear with me!

We've got some Puppet AU Pines to rescue.

Chapter 1 – Unexpected Arrivals

Twin suns beat down on a desert landscape, not even a cloud in the sky to block the light or bring down even a drop of rain on the inhabitants of the planet below. People living outside of the bio-domes were forced to scavenge for survival, living off the strange Plants from Earth that kept them alive for as long as anyone could remember. These strange power plants, sentient as they were, were as willing to help as some humans were willing to suck them dry, although deaths of Plants were few and far between now.

This planet is Gunsmoke, a desert wasteland with an atmosphere. It should be impossible that anything would be able to survive on this world above the surface, and yet, even in these impossible conditions, there are people who are able to scrape together everything that they need in order to survive. And, now that Earth and Gunsmoke are working together, conditions are slowly improving, with oases being created across the planet in the form of bio-domes, taking the edge off an otherwise deadly world.

Near two small bio-domes a few miles out from a city called December, a two-story wooden house sits in near-perfect condition. Few people know it's exact location, and those who do tell stories of strange fruits and stranger hosts. The people of December know that the occupants of the house prefer their privacy, but occasionally, one of them will make the trip to the city to play with the children, trade for any needed supplies, and ask for the latest news. All are given readily – usually with donuts involved.

All in all, things are pretty peaceful on the planet – even with the chaos that comes with terraforming a planet and the constant rumors of outlaws trying – and failing – to find as famous a name as the mysterious legend known as Vash the Stampede, who disappeared without a trace and is said to still wander the deserts without a care in the world.

However, on this particular day, this so-called legend is in a bit more of a hurry than he usually is….

Change in POV

"Maria!"

A mostly brown-haired young woman with gray hair at her temples who was wearing jeans, red shirt and an orange jacket – and was in the process of stepping out of a glass dome that housed a number of strange-looking trees with even stranger fruits – looked over at the sound of a young man's voice.

"Vash? What's—" Maria's bright blue eyes widened as her eyebrows shot up, and she ran to the front door of the wooden cabin and threw it open, letting a blond-and-black-haired, geranium-red-coat-wearing blur barrel inside and up to the second floor, carrying two large, black bundles over his shoulders.

"What's going on, Vash? Is there something happening back in town?" Maria ran up the stairs after Vash as another blond-haired young man with a black lightning bolt streak in his hair looked out from the kitchen.

"Nothing in town!" Vash threw the door to the guest bedroom open and ran inside, still carrying the two bundles over his shoulders. "These guys were a quarter mile from the house!"

Maria came screeching to a halt at the entrance to the bedroom. "Guys?" She quickly moved inside the room, her eyebrows practically leaping off her head as Vash dropped two figures on the bed. "Whoa! That's some heavy-duty gear!"

"They're also severely dehydrated." Vash started pulling off one of the men's boots. "They might have heat stroke!"

Maria's surprise shifted to a frown that didn't look like it belonged on the face of a seemingly ageless young woman. "Right." She looked down the stairs. "Knives! Get some cold water and rags – stat!"

There came a thudding noise from the kitchen below.

Maria joined Vash in stripping the boots and clothes off the two men he had dragged in. "Man, these guys have some really prepared for something." She started pulling at one of the men's coats. The man himself had a lot of muscle in his arms, and an eye patch that she wasn't planning on pulling off anytime soon. There was a burn scar running across his eyes that looked old, and it made Maria feel like there was something familiar about it.

Clunk.

Vash let out a whistle as he started pulling off the other man's black trench coat, revealing a number of weapons from grenades to a rifle and a couple of shot guns that didn't look like they used bullets. "Man, these guys are armed to the teeth and then some! It's like they're a two-man army."

"And they're probably attached to all of them at least a little." Maria finished pulling the coat off the man with the eye patch and started peeling off the belts that were covered in rifles and an assortment of other weapons, being careful in case she accidentally set any of them off. "They're not going to be able to move for a while, so it'd probably be all right if we left them in the room where they can see them. They look like they've been through a lot."

Vash nodded in agreement. He looked worried, but he also didn't look like he was about to press for questions concerning the scars and the weapons the two men had on them.

Maria finished yanking off the man's pants, leaving his boxers on. "I think that's as stripped as we're going to get them."

The man with short, white-blond hair and black lightning-bolt streak appeared in the doorway, carrying a bucket of water with two soaked rags hanging over one side. "Severe dehydration?"

"Yeah." Maria dropped the pants on the floor, wrinkling her nose at the smell. "We've got to get them cooled down asap, and force water down their throats if we have to."

"A little help, Knives?" Vash pulled on the other man's pants, frowning. "Man, these things are sweaty."

Knives put down the bucket and assisted his brother in peeling off the pants.

"Black is not a wise choice." Knives frowned disapprovingly. "These two were horribly unprepared."

Vash paled a little, now seeing what the two men looked like underneath all the layers. "Unprepared for the desert, maybe, but they've definitely been through a lot…."

"Hopefully they won't try to do anything when they wake up." Maria frowned at the sweaty clothes that were scattered all over the floor. "I'm going to have to get these things washed."

Knives looked over the man that he and Vash had just pulled the pants off of. "Interesting. This one has six fingers on both hands."

Maria looked up sharply when she heard that, staring at Knives with widened eyes. "Six fingers? Wait - let me see." She quickly moved over to the other side of the bed and inspected the other man's hands. She looked up at the man's face and zeroed in on the rounded-edge glasses, the scruffy square jaw, the slowly-graying hair that still somehow looked mostly brown...

Something in Maria's mind recognized the face and the six fingers.

The author of the Journals...

Maria sucked in a breath sharply. "No way..."

"You know something." Knives wasn't asking. He rarely ever did.

"Maybe." Maria pulled back, looking between the two guests – well, patients now, and guests later. If he's…then… She frowned. "I know of a counterpart to this one." She motioned to the six-fingered man. "I met him the summer before the World Collision happened."

Vash and Knives exchanged looks. They'd only heard Maria reference an event with that name a few rare times. Considering that it had happened centuries ago, it wasn't usually brought up except as stories.

Talking about what had happened before the World Collision was even more rare.

"I did hear news of his alternate selves, and some of the things they went through." Maria lowered her hand, looking troubled. Now she knew why the scar across the other man's eyes looked familiar. "And these two…they went through a lot more than the counterpart I met did – or the other alternate versions, even. I'd hoped that it was just some fan's false dream, but…."

"How bad is it going to be when they wake up?" Vash's eyes flicked to the man with the eye patch.

"Hopefully, one of them will listen to reason, but we won't be able to know for sure until then." Maria folded her arms across her chest, her eyebrows coming together. "We should probably take turns keeping an eye on them, and Knives, if they wake up when you're in here, you shouldn't ask them any questions about where they were before at all. That could set them off in a bad way."

Knives' eyes narrowed at that. "You humans have such weak psyches if that is true."

Maria and Vash both frowned.

"Don't push their buttons," Maria said shortly. "Asking for their origin story is going to shut them off from us. Don't ask."

Knives' eyes narrowed even further. "Very well, then."

Maria gave a nod. "I'll go put something together for lunch. Vash, you can keep an eye on them for the first few hours."

Vash gave a salute. "You got it!" He grabbed the chair from the desk and sat down at the foot of the bed.

Knives rolled his eyes. "I'll be in my greenhouse." He stepped out without another word.

Maria placed a hand on Vash's shoulder. "I'll bring lunch up to you."

Vash looked over and gave a smile. "Thanks, auntie."

Maria half-smiled. "Anytime, nephew." She turned and walked out of the room, then down to the first floor and into the kitchen, where she started grabbing bread, cheese, and sliced ham from the fridge. "Today feels like a good day for grilled cheese, I think. Let's see…."

It didn't take Maria too long to get the three sandwiches put together, and after she dropped one off in the guest room with Vash, she took the other one out to the other bio-dome sitting behind the house and slipped inside.

This bio-dome, unlike the other one that looked like a miniature orchard, had more of the appearance of a jungle that had been partially tamed and trapped in a greenhouse. Strange plants that definitely were not from Earth or Gunsmoke grew up along the glass and twined around shelves of collected materials. Only a desk near the entrance was completely cleared off and free from the growing plant life.

Knives was waiting for her a few feet inside the door. "What can you tell me about our two guests that won't make you dance around your words."

Maria put the plate on the desk, not really looking Knives directly in the eye. "Why do you want to know about them?"

"What they were doing in the desert unprepared?"

Maria paused. "They probably didn't know how hot the climate was when they got here, and they weren't able to find a city before they collapsed. Vash finding them was a godsend."

"How could they not know that? It's impossible not to know that this planet is dangerous to the average human – especially when they are unprepared."

"Not if they're inter-dimensional travelers who aren't World Jumpers." Maria's gaze moved from Knives to the various plants that he kept in his greenhouse – both from Earth and from other worlds in the solar systems that humans had populated over the years. "They probably weren't aware of where it was that they were ending up."

"Is that even possible?"

"If they don't have knowledge on where they're headed? Very possible." Maria reached under her jacket and pulled out a red and white baseball cap with a blue, sawblade-like shape on the front. She looked at the design with a nostalgic expression. "They could have done a blind dimension jump, or they could have overshot their initial destination. We won't know for sure until they wake up." The hat disappeared under her jacket.

Knives hummed at that. "Which won't be for some time. Do you suspect that they are like you?"

"I highly doubt it. Their circumstances are far different from mine, but I don't think it'd be a good idea if I went into the details now."

Knives frowned. "You don't want to tell me."

"I want them to be able to trust us enough that they'll give us a basic idea on their own, and that's not going to happen for a long while. I doubt we'll get the whole story before they leave. The only thing we can hope for is that they'll at least trust us enough to let us get them back on their feet, and maybe help them get to wherever it is that they'll want to go next."

"Do you have an idea as to what they will be asking for?"

Maria inclined her head. "I might have an idea, but I'd like to hear it from them first. Plus, I don't know whether or not they've heard of people who can do what I can, so I'd rather not tell them everything about me until I know that they're at least willing to listen and possibly trust us."

Knives inclined his own head, then gave a slight nod. "I see. And our secret?"

Maria rubbed the back of her head. "I'm not sure what we're going to do about that. The two of them have been traveling for a while – I can tell because of all the scars and weapons they were carrying – but I don't know how they'd react if they heard about…well, you guys. Especially considering the experiences they've probably had. If we do end up telling them, we probably won't be telling them everything."

"You believe these people can be trusted with it."

"One of them has six fingers on both hands and has more than likely been called a freak for a good deal of his life by people who don't know any better. And they've probably seen a good deal of things that could boggle an average human's mind. If they were to learn about you guys, I think they'd be able to handle the news pretty well – for the most part. I wouldn't suggest poking around in their heads while they're unconscious to see if they would or not, though."

"What makes you say that?"

Maria fixed Knives with a disapproving expression. "Let's just say that there are some things that have been done to them that makes them highly adverse to someone invading their minds. They won't like you for it, especially if you do it without permission."

Knives raised an eyebrow. "I suppose Vash's 'the mind is a sanctuary' policy will come into play here more than the other times?"

"You got that right." Maria paused. "By the way, having six fingers is considered to be an anomaly among humans. It doesn't appear often, but it can get a lot of attention when it does show up. I can only think of a few instances where I've seen someone who has that many fingers, and only once where I've actually interacted with someone – our guest's counterpart."

"I imagine that it has its advantages." Knives tapped his chin thoughtfully. "An extra finger or two can make all the difference in certain situations."

"Don't turn your interactions with him into a science experiment; heaven knows just what he's been through, and I don't want to trigger any bad memories."

Knives shook his head. "Of course I won't. As they are guests, they will receive the hospitality that they require. I won't ask such questions of them unless they are fine with it."

"Good." Maria gave a curt nod. "I'm going to go and tend to my Berry trees; it looks like they should be able to give us a good harvest this month, and we're definitely going to need some of them if we're going to help get their strength back up."

Knives gave a slight nod in reply, turning to attend to his greenhouse. "Yes, yes. I'll be back in the house in time for dinner."

Maria nodded again, then slipped out and made her way to the other bio-dome, the ground under her feet shifting from sand to stone as she made her way over to the glass dome she had been stepping out of when Vash had come back with their unexpected guests.

"I should probably check in with Chaos and see how well the Guild's doing later," Maria murmured to herself as she knelt in front of one of the trees. "He's got to have his paws full with Pika's clan and leading the Guild in our place." Grabbing a large basket that was almost as tall as she was from its spot next to the house, she started plucking what looked like little blue oranges off the branches. "Maybe I should call Wildfire, too, and let her know that I might be away for a while. If those two showed up on my doorstep, there's no way that it could be a coincidence."

It didn't take Maria too long to work her way through the berry trees, picking off everything from the blue oranges to pink, heart-shaped fruits and blue strawberries. Harvest finished, she hefted the stuffed basket effortlessly over one shoulder and carried it inside the house, where she dropped it in the kitchen.

"Okay, now what else – oh, right!"

Moments later, Maria was carrying another basket into a room hidden under the stairs leading to the second floor, her nose crinkling as she dropped the basket of sweaty dark clothes in front of a washing machine that looked oddly out-of-place in a wooden house in the middle of the desert. "Man, when was the last time those two took a shower? I'm probably going to have to send these things through the wash multiple times before the smell's gone." She paused. "I should probably check these things for hidden pockets…wouldn't want who-knows-what getting ruined."

A meticulous search revealed that there weren't any hidden pockets, although the black trench coat the six-fingered man had been wearing had two journals and a strange collection of writing utensils – including a quill pen, of all things – and tools that were clearly out of this world, if the strange-looking screwdriver was anything to go by.

Maria bundled the dark clothes into the washing machine and set it to work before dunking her hands in the sink that Vash usually used for his own clothes. "Yuck, that stuff was soaked through. They were definitely unprepared for the desert if they were sweating that much." She flicked the water off her hands and gathered up the items she'd removed from the clothes before taking them back upstairs to the guest room.

Vash looked up as she came in, raising an eyebrow. "What's all that?"

"Found them in their clothes." Maria carefully placed the pile of items on the desk, making sure the tools she had picked up weren't jostled around too much. "It looks like one of them might be keeping a record of where they've been. I don't think it'd be a good idea if we looked through it."

Vash nodded. "Definitely not. That is their privacy we're talking about." He frowned. "You talked to Knives."

"I did." Maria picked up the empty plate that had once had Vash's lunch. "Do you want to know things, too?"

Vash shook his head. "No. I'm not gonna pry. Is he going to?"

"I don't think he will for now." Maria sighed irritably and ran her fingers through her hair. "I really wish he knew that there are just some questions you don't ask strangers. I'm glad that he at least knows enough to hold off from asking them, though."

"He's really curious about the man with six fingers." Vash paused. "And with all the guns they have…."

Maria's mouth shifted into a straight line. "If they are dangerous, I can call in a few favors and make sure that they don't hurt anyone else nearby. But we won't know for sure until they wake up."

Vash nodded. "Yeah. Just looking at them, though…they look more beat up than humans should be."

Maria looked at the two men lying on the bed, stripped down to their underclothes, and gave a nod. "Yeah. It makes you wonder just how much they've been through that could cause that kind of damage."

"And what's going to happen when they wake up." Vash's frown deepened. "I wonder what they've been through, and what they were doing out in the middle of nowhere."

"Well, my guess is that they might have been running from something, or trying to get somewhere, maybe." Maria paused. "They might not have known where it was that they ended up, and that would definitely explain the fact that they were unprepared."

"So…interplanetary?"

Maria shook her head. "It's bigger than that."

Vash groaned and put his head in his hands. "Of course it is." He looked up. "So, what? We've got a couple World Jumpers on our hands?"

"I doubt it; people can become inter-dimensional travelers without taking up the title. We aren't going to know for sure until they wake up, though." Maria tapped the empty plate against her leg. "I'll take over up here for the overnight hours. Knives can keep an eye on them tomorrow morning until noon."

Vash gave a thumbs-up. "Sounds good! What are you planning on doing until then?"

"Well, first I'm going to call Wildfire. If anybody's going to want to know that I'm going to be gone for a while, it's probably going to be her. She can get the message through to the others."

Vash frowned. "You really think that—"

"Considering where these guys come from? It's highly likely." Maria sighed and shook her head. "I'd never thought that I would ever end up going to their world, to be honest. It just...seemed too far out of reach. And then these guys show up and I'm proven completely wrong." She gave a dry laugh. "Wildfire's really going to think that I attract the worst kind of trouble now."

"Since when haven't we?" Vash muttered.

Maria sighed and nodded in agreement. "It certainly does feel that way, doesn't it?"

Vash hummed. "Tell Wildfire I say 'hi.' And that Wolfwood's, Livio's, and Millie's kids are still keeping that orphanage running."

Maria gave a small smile in response. "Will do." She slipped out of the room and walked down the hall to her room and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Her left hand instantly went to her ear as a frown appeared on her face.

"Come on, pick up pick up pick up…."

Beep!

::Hey, kid, it's been a while – what's up? Other than how old we are::

The voice on the other end sounded older than Maria remembered it being from centuries past – no longer a young woman, but not quite an old one, either.

"I might be going away for a while." Maria paused. "We've got a couple inter-dimensionally displaced guests who didn't know how bad the desert is."

::Anybody we know personally?:: The other voice was much more alert, now.

"No, but one of them is a counterpart to someone we helped a long time ago. He's got six fingers, Wildfire. On both his hands."

::Six fingers? Wait – the only guy I've even heard about that might be dimensionally displaced is that Gravity Falls guy. And you've got two guests?::

"Yeah. The six-fingered man and someone else who looks pretty similar to him."

Wildfire knew what it was that Maria was referring to, even without the girl saying much else. ::Which alternate reality?::

Maria paused for a moment, then let out a reluctant sigh. "The fandom's name for their reality is 'Blind Faith'."

::…Scrap::