Chapter Text
Deep in the forests of Oregon, more specifically inside an abandoned factory, ten mysterious people hiding their faces with hoods were gathered around a circle.
“The prophecy has not been fulfilled” said one of the hooded men.
“Our God has not arrived,” commented one,with obvious disappointment.
“This happened due to the interference of the pine tree, the shooting star, the six fingers and the symbol of Fez,” explained the leader of that group.
“Does that mean that the prophecy that prophesied his arrival is a lie?” Asked the youngest of the group, with the voice of a teenager.
“No, it was foreseen that this could happen, we have all had to go through a long journey to get here,” the leader of the group answered. “It is the duty of us, the guardians of the pyramid, to help our God return and fulfill his destiny, and free our world and mankind from eternal slavery.”
The light from the single spotlight illuminated a triangle with a single eye drawn on the ground, surrounded by a wheel that was made up of ten different symbols.
Bill Cipher's Wheel.
-X-
My name is Dipper Pines or at least that's how I'm known. I'm a thirteen-year-old teenager and I have a twin sister named Mabel.
Like last year, my parents have decided to send me to a boring town called Gravity Falls, somewhere in Oregon. Or,well, that’s the first impressioncaused by a town whose motto is "nothing to see here!" But that is totally false. My sister and I know better.
“Dipper, smile!” Mabel said, shooting him with all the flash on the camera. “This photo is going to be called… Dipper before returning to Gravity Falls. You've taken good care of that hat Broseph" Mabel said after a sigh and then elbowed her twin brother. "Everyone is going to be surprised to see how much you've grown." The brunette raised her hand a couple of centimeters above her, to show that her brother had already managed to surpass his height.
“Mabel, one of these days I'm going to go blind,” Dipper commented and then laughed and grinned.
In a matter of minutes the siblings were about to get on the bus that would take them to that town in Oregon. The siblings did not want to make the trip without Waddles, Mabel's pet pig, so Dipper began to ask the driver questions while Mabel passed by, hiding the pig inside her clothes. The driver managed to see her walk past with what appeared to be a big belly, but thinking that she was a teenager in a predicament, he decided not to give his opinion and let her go.
Once the siblings were able to settle into their seats, Mabel quickly began to review her photo album, placing the photo she took of Dipper before getting on the bus and then starting to listen to music, while the five minutes younger Pines directed his gaze to the window
(As I said, Gravity Falls represented the biggest change in my life, a town full of mysteries. There I learned to fight and never give up, the true meaning of friendship, among many things, you could say that I found myself. I think that Mabel also got a lot out of that trip) Dipper looked at his sister (What new surprises bring us this summer?) He adjusted the lumberjack hat to his head.
-X-
It was a beautiful morning in Gravity Falls, that town that appeared to be very quiet, but if you stopped to look closely, you would be surprised by the things that could happen out the corner of your eye.
At the bus station you could see five people anxiously waiting for the arrival of their friends, whom they had not seen again for around ten months.
Soos, the new "Mr. Mystery" now wore the same suit that Mr. Stan Pines used to wear, adapted to his size. His girlfriend, Melody, was a pretty nice girl wearing her usual shorts and summer blouse. Wendy, the coolest woman that anyone will ever meet, had her standard flannel shirt with a tank top underneath it and shorts. Candy was now wearing a black skirt above her knees and a tank top. Her hair had also changed, cut shorter, while her friend Grenda was wearing her hair longer, and wore jeans and a buttoned blouse. The two girls closest to Mabel couldn't stop counting the days until her friend would return to town.
“Do you think I should say hello to Dipper or Mabel first?” Soos asked, confused.
“Dude, just hug them both.” The redhead smiled at her new boss as she maintained a relaxed expression.
“Ugh, you saved my life, dog,” Soos responded, overcoming his small crisis.
Grenda was eager to see her friend, and at that moment her phone rang. When she saw who was calling, she sighed. "Marius not now, Mabel is about to arrive." Grenda hung up the cell phone after saying that while the boy only managed to say "in Übereinstimmung "
“Shh, here they come!” Candy shouted when she saw the bus arrive.
The wait seemed eternal, almost no one came to Gravity Falls so early in the summer, so the bus doors opened and no one got off, until a little pig ran out and launched itself at Soos.
“Waddles it’s you!” Soos said laughing, picking up the pig.
“Waddles take it easy” commented the young Pines, getting off the bus with both hands placed inside the pockets of his blue jacket. He also wore dark blue pants with several pockets, a pair of wide-soled white sneakers, and an orange T-shirt
Mabelo followed him from behind, wearing a blue skirt, a pink headband and a sweater that had the phrase "I'm Back" written on it.
“Ugh… Give me a hand with this suitcase Dipper,” Mabel said and then forgot about her suitcase and jumped to hug her friends.
“Mabel!” Candy and Grenda shouted excitedly, hugging her friend.
"Girls!" Mabel answered, hugging them both.
Dipper smiled as he saw his sister hug his friends, but soon felt an arm wrap around his neck.
"But look at you, you've grown a little," Wendy commented, hugging Dipper by his neck and then letting go of him. "Welcome back, dude."
“Thank you Wendy,” Dipper replied, somewhat embarrassed due to his former crush on the redhead.
“Dipper, Mabel!” Soos took Waddles off of him and went over to hug both siblings.
“Soos... not so tight...” Dipper commented as he was clearly choking.
“He's... adorable…” Mabel said, struggling to withstand the pressure of the hug.
“Imagine how I will hug Mr. Pines when he returns” Soos answered excitedly as he distanced herself from the teenagers. “I've even been practicing!”
(It's true, the first time we arrived it was my Grunkle Stan who welcomed us and of course my parents believe that he is here to welcome me again. But the truth is that Grunkle Stan is with our Grunkle Ford. They are on paranormal adventures all over the world. They also promised to come, but it will probably take them a little longer to get here, luckily Grunkle Ford made a voice modifier that makes Soos or anyone who uses it sound exactly like Grunkle Stan)
FLASHBACK
Soos was on the phone using Ford's voice modifier.
"Eh yes, it's me Stan, Soos is like a son to me! Ow!" Said Soos after receiving a smack on the head from Wendy. "I mean, if I will receive Dipper and Mabel! Don't worry Dipper and Mabel's dad! I mean - I'm old and grumpy!"
Soos hung up and while Melody and Wendy shook their heads with their palms on their foreheads, he gave a thumbs up in approval of his own performance.
END OF FLASHBACK
“You're lucky our parents believed you.” Dipper looked slightly angry at Soos, their trip had truly been at risk with that questionable performance.
“What are you talking about, dude? That performance was fantastic.” Soos really seemed very convinced by what he was saying.
“Okay, I'm dying to see how you handled Mystery Shack,” Mabel said, taking Soos by the wrist and pulling him forward.
At that moment Mabel and Dipper noticed Melody.
“Wow, you're Soos' girlfriend, you're pretty cute,” Mabel commented and Dipper nodded in approval.
“Thank you,” Melody replied after laughing for a moment. “You two are as cool as Soos had told me.”
“What are we waiting for? I also want to see how you managed the Shack in Grunkle Stan's absence,” Dipper said, as always with his hands stuck in the pockets of his jacket.
“But first we have another surprise for you” Soos replied, leaving both brothers confused.
-X-
The group took the brothers to the town's central square, where Mayor Tyler and quite a few well-known people from the town watched.
In the square everyone was excited by the arrival of the young Pines.
“And here are the "non-heroes" from when "nothing happened", you understand? Please come up to the stage!” Tyler said, making quotes with his fingers referring to the events of Weirdmaggedon.
The Pines siblings laughed and went up on stage to see the whole town.
They were able to see several familiar faces. Gideon had dressed like a normal boy for a change, holding a red skateboard and accompanied by his two former inmate henchmen. Pacifica and her family were also in the square. Surprisingly, they were wearing less elegant clothes, making it clear that they were no longer as economically powerful as before. They seemed more like a normal family, although trying to fake being elegant. Dipper and Mabel noticed Pacifica's smile, and in truth they were also happy to see her.
There was also Susan Wentworth, Wendy's friends and more. Curiously, there were a couple of boys who stood out from the crowd, a somewhat dark-skinned boy who wore a vest and a white shirt with black pants who seemed to be of a similar age to Dipper and Mabel, while the boy next to him who was taller seemed to be a little older than Wendy. The older boy was wearing a jacket and a white polo shirt, as well as black jeans. He seemed quite serious, but he had a smile that didn't inspire any confidence in Dipper.
(Who are they?) Dipper wondered, but soon his sister hugged him around the neck and smiled again.
“How does it feel to come back after almost a year?” Toby asked, bringing his microphone closer to the twins.
"We are very excited!" They both answered animatedly.
“I hope you guys have a great time, back in the most boring town in the world,” He said, winking at everyone who laughed at Tayler's sarcastic comment.
“Where are Stan and Ford?” Asked Durland who was next to Sheriff Blubs.
“They haven't been able to arrive yet, but they will arrive soon, I'm sure,” Dipper said, taking the microphone.
“And I'll throw a big welcome party! Party! Party! Party!" Mabel said, raising her fist over and over again
“Fascinating,” said Tad Strange.
“Oh I missed that guy,” Mabel commented, still celebrating.
Dipper also imitated the action, celebrating with the rest, but out of the corner of his eye he looked again at the place where the pair of boys he saw a moment ago were. But, whoever they were, they had already left.
-X-
When they arrived at the mystery shack, the Twins admired it with great nostalgia, with Waddles being the first to enter, jumping happily.
“It's great... I can't believe it's been ten months already,” Dipper said, while Mabel ran ahead of him, circling the Shack.
“Are you just going to stand there all day? Let's explore, man!" Wendy said, giving Dipper a push and smiling at him.
The brunette smiled back and headed towards the shack with enthusiasm.
Dipper and Mabel arrived at what used to be their room. Though it was still empty ,it also filled them with nostalgia.
“Wow it's been so long.” Dipper looked at the empty room and could remember himself lying down, reading a book while Mabel jumped excitedly on her bed.
“Come on broseph, let's start enjoying, before the end of summer comes,” Mabel commented, leaving her suitcase and running down the stairs.
(Even so, it will be strange to be in Gravity Falls without a mystery to try to solve in my free time) Dipper thought, leaving his things and then going down to the entrance.
There he saw Soos and Mabel, who were doing impromptu dances at the entrance of the store while Melody laughed, Dipper noticed that Wendy was already getting ready to leave.
“Do you have to leave so soon?” Young Pines asked, approaching the redhead quickly.
“Yeah, sorry, dude. Now I have another summer job, and I'm trying to save up... and I don't earn enough income from this place.” Wendy whispered that last part to Dipper, looking askance at Soos.
“I heard that, oh I've learned so much from you Mr. Pines,” Soos had a photo from a father and son commercial where he had the photo of Mr. Stan's face attached to the father in that commercial and Soos's face attached to the son's. “Where is the giant mirror I bought?” He asked, now imitating Grunkle Stan's way of reneging.
Dipper and Wendy both laughed when they saw the strange attitude Soos had taken.
“I'm helping Lazy Susan with her restaurant, whenever you want you can go there if you want to eat some good, slightly burnt pancakes.” Wendy took Dipper's hat that was previously hers and returned the hat with the pine tree symbol to its original owner. “I think that while you're here you won't need to remember me, plus we may need you to be the pine tree,” Wendy laughed, leaving the store, as well as the brunette confused by that last sentence.
When the young boy felt his old cap on his head, he felt strangely bad, his confidence declined a little and he was beginning to feel that this trip would be really boring. And if that were the case, he wouldn't be able to spend as much time with the redhead as he expected. At that moment Soos approached Dipper with some posters.
“Dipper, how about you do me a favor and start putting up posters? Maybe you'll find another journal,” Soos commented, laughing as he gave the posters to the young teen.
Dipper laughed. “I don't think so, Soos…” Dipper's mood only began to decline even more. Maybe the excitement of Gravity Falls was in all the mysteries that surrounded him, but Dipper had already solved them all.
Later, while he was putting up the posters, Dipper arrived at the tree that doubled as the entrance to the bunker and the secret hiding place of Journal 3. He entered the bunker for a moment, just to read old papers, but soon left there and walked to the place where Bill's statue had been left
There it was, in his last pose before being petrified, a creature like Bill Cipher should never be released again.
“That statue is interesting right?” A mysterious voice asked, startling him.
Dipper turned to see the owner of that voice, who turned out to be the young boy who had caught his attention in the crowd.
“A little, yes... You're not from town, are you?” Dipper asked, looking at the teenager suspiciously.
“I'm from here. Why do you think that? You are the one who’s an out of towner,” The boy answered.
“It's true, I came on vacation, still, what are you doing here?”
“This statue catches my attention, it almost seems to be alive, don't you think?” The mysterious boy commented. “I guess that's what they call art.”
“How long have you lived in Gravity Falls?” There was something very suspicious about that teenager.
“My whole life,” he answered naturally.
“Last summer my sister and I came here for a whole summer but I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen you.” Dipper's distrust was only increasing.
"Well that's normal. My brother and I weren't in town last summer, we were on a family trip. Anyway, nice to meet you Pine Tree, I mean Pines." The boy turned his back on Dipper and disappeared into the bushes
When young Pines heard him call him "Pine Tree", he wondered if that was just a mistake or a provocation. Either way, there was definitely something he didn't like about that guy.
Dipper was about to run after him, but several paranormal creatures suddenly burst from the forest.
“Run away, quickly! Run manly!” One of the manotaur shouted.
“Hey! What's going on?" Dipper asked.
“It's a pleasent surprise to see you again, but now we must flee, young Dipper,” said the Multi bear.
Several gnomes and other creatures began to flee and the multi-bear decided to join the escape, but Dipper decided to follow the path to find out that he had chased away the magical creatures. This was what he was looking for, mystery and adventure. He didn't know it but he was smiling, he was too excited to help it.
In front of him several one-eyed bats had created a valley of petrified magical creatures.
“Why are there still so many?” Dipper asked in surprise, and then climbed a tree and jumped on one, grabbing it by the wings. (Stay cool, right Wendy?) Dipper thought, remembering the words that the redhead dedicated to him in that last note while he pulled the creature's wings and began to petrify to the others.
Dipper was finally having fun as he petrified several of the bats. However in the end the bat he was on ended up petrified and Dipper fell to the ground, seeing himself surrounded by all the winged monsters that still remained.
“Uh-oh” said Dipper, who out of instinct looked for the journal in his jacket but remembered too late that they had thrown the three journals into the bottomless pit. (Damn...) Dipper grunted and closed his eyes waiting for his imminent end.
Suddenly he felt someone grab him by the waist so that his body immediately took off from the ground.
"What?" Dipper asked when he saw that he wasn't petrified yet.
“Mabel and her grappling hook to the rescue” Mabel cried excitedly, releasing her brother onto a tree branch.
“Thanks Mabel, there must be a way to counter those bats…” He tried to think.
“Hmmm... Their look petrifies right? How about a mirror?” Mabel asked while she held her grappling Hook firmly, watching attentively the behavior that the creatures were taking.
“It's crazy, where are we going to get one?!”
“Have you seen the latest attraction Soos bought for the mystery shack?” Mabel reminded him.
“Did you bring the golf cart?” Dipper asked.
Both siblings came down from the tree being chased by the bats, they evaded the creatures and got into the golf cart, fleeing at high speed from the forest, closey pursued by the bats, who petrified several creatures in their path.
“Schmebulock” The gnome said before being petrified.
Dipper and Mabel looked at him and then raised their shoulders. They both continued their retreat until they finally reached the shack, where they got off the cart, managing to avoid a petrifying beam.
“I hope this works, I can't avoid the feeling of Deja vu,” Dipper muttered, taking one side of the mirror from behind and putting it in position.
“Trust me,” Mabel answered, helping him. “This will work…”
“Yeah... the deja vu continues” Dipper answered, raising the mirror next to Mabel, in front of the bats and then they both stood in front of the mirror, the one-eyed creatures shot their gaze at Dipper and Mabel. They both jumped to the side, leaving the mirror in front of the bats that fell to the ground petrified as they received their own attack.
“Yeah!” Both twins shouted, giving each other a victorious high five.
"What happened here, dogs?" Soos asked, looking at the petrified creatures and Dipper and Mabel. “Oh well, the usual”
Both twins laughed.
-X-
After a few hours the Pines twins were talking at the entrance to the mystery shack.
“Why did you go to that place without me?” Mabel asked slightly insulted.
“I'm sorry, I think I was nostalgic for some adventure and mystery in my life,” Dipper answered as he leaned back a little, resting his elbows on the steps at the entrance.
“Dipper, I like adventures and mysteries as much as you. Please, remember that you can always count on me.” The brunette smiled at her brother.
“I will never forget it again. Awkward sibling hug?” The young Pines opened his arms waiting to be reciprocated by his sister.
“Awkward sibling hug” The brunette hugged her brother.
“Pad, pad” They both said, patting each other on the back.
-X-
At an airport in some foreign country.
“I practically had to strip naked to go through that stupid machine,” Stan commented in outrage.
“Those poor children will never get over that trauma,” Ford replied, looking at his brother with disgust.
“Very funny, Sixer,” Stan replied as he adjusted his belt.
“There is an anomaly near Gravity Falls, I have to contain whatever is happening. But it's strange... I'm almost positive we closed the rift before leaving for the high seas," Ford said, looking worried. "Besides, the children are already there and you know what they are like..."
“I know, but you can handle it, remember we are Pines.” Stan answered, resting his hand on his brother's shoulder, while he smiled in gratitude for the support.
“Yes... you're right... how unusual it is to say that about you.” With that, Ford walked ahead of his brother.
“Nerd…” Stan growled, walking after his brother.
-X-
That night Mabel was already pasting her posters of trendy bands, while Dipper used ribbons and a mural, on the wall next to her bed.
"What are you doing Dipper?" Asked the brunette, looking askance at her brother after admiring her already decorated wall.
"I thought it would be a summer without mysteries, but I was wrong, the first question is... Who is that boy" Dipper said, pasting a drawing he made of the boy.
"He looks niiice!" Mabel purred, and Dipper just lifted her hair so that it covered her face.
Mabel pasted a photo of Dipper and her on top of the petrified creatures in her summer scrapbook while Dipper wrote on a sheet of his diary the first page talking about one-eyed bats and their weaknesses.
(First day in Gravity Falls, same lesson as last year: if you’re in trouble the best person you can have by your side is your sister.) It was Dipper's last thought before going to sleep.
“Vkphexorfn uhwxuqhg wr qrupdo diwhu d ihz krxuv”
“Pdbeh kh lv d idq ri wkh sbudplgv”
(First day in Gravity Falls, same lesson as last year: if you’re in trouble the best person you can have by your side is your sister.) It was Dipper's last thought before going to sleep.
“Vkphexorfn uhwxuqhg wr qrupdo diwhu d ihz krxuv”
“Pdbeh kh lv d idq ri wkh sbudplgv”