Looking up at the Mystery Shack sign, as Wendy stood next to me, made me realize that it was for the best.
Wendy smiled at me, "You don't have to worry. I'm sure Dipper can take care of himself."
"I know... but still... we've never been apart before... it's kind of weird..." I admitted.
I walked inside, where Will was sitting by the fish tank.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
Will smiled at me, pointing at something in the tank, "Say hello to Ariel."
"Ariel?" I repeated, confused.
Will tapped on the glass, "Hi, little axie."
" 'Little axie'? Will... did you get...?" I trailed off.
Will nodded, letting me see the small axolotl in the fish tank, "It's adorable!"
"Okay, it is cute... but still... why?" I asked.
Will sighed, "Alex."
"Oh. Okay, then," I sighed.
Will smiled, "You know... since the shack IS under new management, I was wondering if... we could have a small clothes store near by?"
"You know... since we don't need Grunkle Ford's lab, we can use that as the clothes store..." I admitted.
Will nodded, typing in the code, before going down the stairs to the lab. I frowned, watching him go, not sure if I should follow or not. He came back up the steps a few minutes later, letting the vending machine door stay open.
Ava walked towards the fish tank, cooing at the creature inside, "What is it?"
"It's an axolotl," Will smiled.
Ava touched the glass with her left hand, "Hi!"
"She is way too cute!" I squealed.
Will nodded, looking around at the shack, before waving his hand by the door, putting a bell above it. I nodded at it in approval, before looking back at the five year old. Will stared at the window, noticing a pink haired woman there. He bit his lip, looking back at me, before looking back at the woman, and nodding slowly. The woman smiled, before going through the door, causing the bell to ring.
I gasped happily, looking towards the woman, "Oh my gosh! Hi! Are you here to get something? I mean, we aren't open right now, but if you want something, then..." I trailed off, noticing the woman's annoyance.
"Hello, William, it's been a while, hasn't it?" The woman asked, smiling at him.
I frowned, "Will..."
"It's okay, Mabel. She's just a friend." Will reassured me, before looking back at the woman, "I believe it's been a few years... How's everyone there doing, since... Gold's not around?"
I was confused, "What are you talking about?"
"This is Mabel Pines, the twin sister of the amazing Mason 'Dipper' Pines, I believe. Hello, Mabel, it's nice to meet you face to face for once," The woman smiled, looking at me.
I bit my lip, "Who are you?"
"I'm a friend of Gold's. Well... kind of his ex, but it doesn't really matter at the moment. Anyway... I see you made it out alright..." The woman smiled.
I frowned, "... made it out alright...?"
"Well... it wasn't that long ago, right?" The woman asked, looking over at Will.
Will laughed, " 'Nica, it's been around 15 years... since... that..."
15 years? Since what? I mean, I was 13, 15 years ago, but... why does that matter? Or... oh. Ohhh.
"You're talking about... Code W, right?" I asked, cautiously.
The woman looked confused, before Will nodded at her, then she looked at me, "Yeah... how'd you know?"
"Well... I kind of caused it, and..." I looked down.
She smiled, "I knew that. I just didn't know you'd remember. What else?"
"Well..." I bit my lip.
Will smiled at me, "Go get your sweater. She'll probably understand if she sees it. I'll hold her back if she tries anything, I promise."
I nodded, trusting him, as I walked up the stairs to my old attic bedroom and took out a box from under the old bed. It was full of things from my first summer. What had been added to the box, was my pink sweater with a shooting star on it. I carried the sweater, which was folded nicely by Will, down the stairs. Once I got to where Will and the woman were waiting, I put my head down and unfolded the sweater, letting her see the symbol on it.
She glared at Will, "Where are the others?"
"Dipper left with Bill... Ford's out of town... and the rest... well, that's not important," Will sighed.
I looked up, letting my sweater be around my arms, "... who are you? Can you tell me your name?"
"Mabel... you remember the one I told you about? The one I liked the most, besides Gold?" Will asked.
I nodded, "Yeah... why?"
"This is her," Will smiled.
I smiled, "Oh. Uh... hello, Pyronica."
"Just 'Nica is fine. It's mostly his and Bill's fault, but... whatever. I don't really care," She shrugged.
Ava looked up at her, "Hi!"
"Seriously?" She looked over at Will.
Will blushed from embarrassment, "Sorry... Ava, sweetheart, can you leave Daddy's friend alone?"
Ava nodded, going up the stairs to her room.
I laughed, "She's really cute."
"Yes, she is," Will smiled.
She sighed, "Whatever. I just wanted to tell you something. Aurora is worried about you guys, but I have no idea why. So... she told me to tell you that... could I speak in... our language?"
"What do you mean? Wait... you guys have a different language? Is it, like, a secret?" I asked, excitedly.
Will laughed, "Yes, and... it kind of is. You won't be able to understand what we're saying anyway, since you don't know what to look for, so it'll just sound like gibberish to you."
"Okay..." I looked down.
She sighed, "She told me that... elihw a rof eveh eb ll'ehs ...os, enog si drofnatS ...ecnis, ereh ot revilO htiw gniveal s'ehS (She's leaving with Oliver to here, since... Stanford is gone, so... she'll be here for a while)."
Will was right. I only heard gibberish. I didn't know what was being said.
"...llits tub ,avA naht redlo raey a s'eh ,naem I ?revilO htiw ...ereh gnimoc s'ehS (She's coming here... with Oliver? I mean, he's a year older than Ava, but still...)" Will frowned.
"So, you two probably need to prepare. She doesn't know that both her parents have left, so... you'll probably need to tell her where they went, but besides that... that's all. So, I'll go now." She turned around, before she looked back at Will, "Oh, and Will? Why are you still hanging around with that mortal scum? You know how much dirt they are..."
Will looked down, not seeing my horrified face, before he sighed, ".reh tuoba taht ekil I ...yaw siht neeb syawla s'ehS .ecin yerv s'ehS .tnereffid s'lebaM (Mabel's different. She's very nice. She's always been this way... I like that about her)."
"I know, but still... you know what's going to happen eventually," She glared at me, before leaving.
I frowned, looking at Will, "Blue... what's going on?"
"Nothing... just... they don't really like humans that much, I'm sure you could tell..." Will frowned, looking up at me.
I nodded, "I can tell... Are you in trouble because of it?"
"If I wasn't related to Bill? Definitely, but... I'm not in trouble because of that. They're all scared of him, so they wouldn't dare do anything bad to me." Will smiled, "That also applies to you and Dipper."
I was confused, "Why me? I mean, I understand for Dipper, but... me? Why?"
"Because if they did something to you, then I'll be upset, and because I'd be upset, it would make him mad... and..." Will grimaced, "It's not pretty."
I nodded, "I know... he almost killed me 15 years ago, 'just for the heck of it', as he said."
"Wait... why?" Will asked.
I sighed, "We made him really mad..."
"How'd you do that?" Will asked.
I bit my lip, "Well... we were trying to save Ford... which we succeeded in doing, then... we tried the zodiac..."
"It didn't work, I assume?" Will asked.
I nodded, "It almost worked... but Stan and Ford got in a fight during it, and... me and Dipper tried to make them stop fighting, but... Bill showed up, and then..."
"And then...?" He asked, gesturing for me to continue.
I took a huge breath in, "He made the circle catch on fire, before he turned the rest of the Zodiac Ten into posters. Robbie, Wendy, Pacifica, Gideon, McGucket, and Soos... then he... grabbed Stan and Ford, and asked if 'someone' -I think he was talking to Ford - 'wanted to see what happens to their friends when they don't get along'... I think that's when the posters happened, and then... Dipper and I were in a cage... Both of us shouted at him, and I kinda made him mad, and then I sprayed his eye with spray paint."
"I'm sure he was very mad about that," Will laughed.
I frowned, "He was really mad. We got out of the cage while he was distracted, and then... he just got really mad, and... he looked absolutely terrifying, and... Ford and Stan got put into a cage and... he chased us... saying really horrifying things..."
"I don't want to know what," Will sighed.
I nodded, "He ended up catching us and then... took us to where Stan and Ford were, and warned Ford that time was up and that... he was going to kill one of us just for the heck of it."
"Geez..." Will bit his lip.
I sighed, "That's how I almost died."
"Oh... so... what happened?" Will asked.
I looked down, "Before he could kill me... Ford surrendered, but it was Stan, he just shaved and wore Ford's clothes... After he went into Stan's head, Ford erased all of Stan's memories... and we assumed, Bill went with it..."
"Wow. That's... sad," Will frowned.
I nodded, "Yeah... so imagine how sad I was once I found out that Ford had to erase all his memories..."
"I assume he regained his memories?" Will asked.
I smiled, "He did."
"... but... energy can't be created or destroyed, so... where did he go?" Will asked.
I grinned, taking his hand, "Follow me."
"What about Ava? We can't leave her alone," Will frowned.
I sighed, "I'll call up Pacifica for a favor. Once she's here, we can go."
Will reluctantly followed me through the forest. I stopped at a clearing. Nothing was there, but there was a lot of moss.
Will looked down at the moss, before looking at me, "Something was here once, but... it's gone now. It scared the creatures once it was there, and once it left."
I took out my old phone, before showing him a picture of the statue, "That was here when we left. It was gone when we got back the next summer."
"Wow. The fact the statue was gone scared you, I assume?" Will asked.
I shook my head, "I wasn't exactly scared. Dipper and Ford were more of the ones scared, not me."
"I see... so when we showed up..." Will trailed off.
I smiled, "I wasn't really thinking. I was just thinking that there were these poor boys outside in the heat of the summer... I started thinking when Ford said who it was, though..."
"I'd assume so. I mean, you thought he was dead, and I was confused as to how Gold knew him, but... I know why now. I was kind of really nervous and scared back then, you know..." Will sighed.
I nodded, "I know... anyway, the statue was were he probably went then..."
"Yeah... and all the energy that he had was stored into the statue, so it wouldn't be destroyed... and stay within the laws of this world," Will smiled.
I sighed, "Newton's laws..."
"Yeah, Sr. Issac Newton's laws. More specifically, the first," Will grinned.
I bit my lip, "Matter can't be created or destroyed, right?"
"Yeah. That's the law," Will laughed, "Too bad that Gold doesn't really listen to laws."
