A/N: I know I have about 3 or 4 fanfics that need to be updated, but I've been itching to do a Gravity Falls fic for a few weeks! With any luck, I'll be doing a better job of keeping this thing updated (Not making any promises though).

Anyways, as stated in the summary, this will be a MaBill fic, and is set after the events of "Weirdmageddon II". I gave this story a T rating mostly for mild language and some adult themes/humor (No lemons, obviously).

DISCLAIMER: Gravity Falls is property of Alex Hirsch and Disney. I own nothing except the laptop I am typing this story on. All OCs are mine unless stated otherwise.

…..

Prologue: The Aftermath

"Dipper! We did it!" Mabel cheered as she tackled her brother to the ground.

Dipper ignored the pain Mabel's hugs were causing to his already sore limbs and hugged her back. Waddles ran up to them and licked Dipper's cheek. The boy was too elated to push either of them off.

A few feet away, Ford was sitting up from the ground, his arms feeling limp from having them frozen in an upward position for the last few days. "What happened?" he asked dazed. "Where's Bill?"

"We defeated him!" Stan proclaimed as he bent down to help his brother up. "He had you frozen as a golden statue. Blasting that triangle out of existence must've turned you back to normal!"

Ford looked all around him. The skies were blue once again, and the riff was no longer in sight. He looked all around to see the citizens of Gravity Falls either just waking up or reuniting with their loved ones. He saw Soos in the distance, hugging his grandmother. Wendy was hugging her younger brothers while Manly Dan had them all in a tight bear hug. The town looked mostly torn up and littered with rubble. It would take a lot of work to fix everything up, but for now, everyone was at peace.

Ford looked up at his own brother. His normally perfect suit looked tattered and his signature fez was missing. He had a few scratches and a black eye, but he didn't seem that much in pain (unless he was hiding it). He then looked over at the twins and Waddles. Both of them looked like they've been to Hell and back. Their clothes were covered in dirt and were sporting bumps and bruises of their own. Next to Dipper was a big gun similar to the one he had already built to take down Bill, but failed to do.

"Stan? Where did that gun come from?"

The other brother looked perplexed. "You don't recognize it? We found the blueprint for it hidden in your work room. It had your handwriting and everything."

Ford could only shake his head. Surely he would remember something like that. Unless he purposefully erased it from his mind so Bill wouldn't know about it, which was the most likely reason.

"Anyway, Dipper and I spent the last few days building it, and Mabel and the rest concocted a plan to take back the town, distract Bill and used the gun on him and his demon friends."

Ford looked at the twins, proud of their accomplishment. For the first time in so long, he was seeing his family stick together in a big way. Seeing how happy Dipper and Mabel were reminded him when he and Stan were their age. His heart ached knowing how many years he spent apart from his own brother. The feeling in his arms and legs were starting to return, so he gently pushed away from his brother and stood up on his own.

"Stanley," he began, rubbing the back of his neck, "I'm sorry for getting angry at you about rebuilding the portal."

"You don't have to be sorry," Stan defended. "I should be the one apologizing. If I hadn't built that portal, none of this would've happened."

"I think we are both responsible for that," Ford looked behind him to see the twins reuniting with Candy, Grenda and Pacifica. "My trying to separate the kids apart started this whole mess. I thought Mabel was holding Dipper back from achieving his dreams." He turned to face his brother again. "Just as I thought you were holding me back."

Stan looked away for a moment, the memories of being thrown out of his family fresh in his mind. "I'm sorry for ruining your chances of getting into West Coast Tech. I had been wanting to tell you that for a long time. I just didn't want to be separated from you."

Ford could only nod a thanks, not knowing what else to say. There was so much Ford wanted to apologize for, but he didn't know where to start. Quickly an idea struck him. "I guess I broke our deal," he said.

Stan looked back at him confused. "Come again?"

"Remember when I came back, we made a deal that you would close the shack and move away after the summer was over?"

Stan let out an aggravated breath. "You bring this up now?! Geesh! The least you could do is wait until the kids are back home before you try to kick me out!"

"Will you let me finish, you big idiot!" Ford argued back, but quickly composed himself before he continued. "You said you would if I didn't put the kids in danger! And unless you were dozing off through the entire Weirdmageddon, it's clear that I broke our deal."

Stan's eyebrows slowly rose up as the realization came upon him. "You mean…"

Ford nodded. "You're allowed to stay and keep the Mystery Shack open. It might take me a minute to find a new job anyways, and the bills have to be paid. But I still want my name back."

The other man could help but smile. "Brother, I would be happy to stay. Hey, you don't even have to retool the resume. We can run the shack together!"

His twin looked at him surprised. "You want me to run the shack with you?"

"Of course I do! Because just like those two," he pointed in Dipper and Mabel's direction, "You and I are the perfect team."

Ford smiled back at him, happy to have his brother back. The two then walked over to where the twins were.

Dipper was the first to notice his great-uncles. When he saw that Ford was back, he ran up to him and gave him a big hug. "Grunkle Ford! I thought I was never going to see you again!"

"I didn't think I was going to make it either," Ford admitted as he knelt down to the boy with teary eyes. "I am very proud of you Dipper."

The young boy smiled at him. "Thanks, Grunkle Ford, but it wasn't just me." He turned back to where Mabel was standing a little ways off. She had a tiny frown on her face and she seemed to be avoiding Ford's gaze. "Come on, Mabel," his brother coaxed gently.

Mabel took nervous steps towards them until she was standing next to her brother.

Ford gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Mabel, I'm sorry I made Dipper not tell you about the rift. None of this would've happened if I just kept to myself and let you two stay together. You taught me a very valuable lesson about family. And for that, I am proud of you as well."

Mabel looked up at him, a tiny smile spreading on her face as well. Without a word, the young girl wrapped her arms around Ford's neck in a tight hug. The older man hugged her back, pulling Dipper in as well. Stan knelt down on the other side, hugging his niece, nephew and brother. For the first time in years, Stan felt like a Pines again. Like he was part of the family once more. Everything was perfect.

…..

"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO- Ooompf!"

The triangle landed front first onto a grey floorboard. The pain of the battle he just fought hit him quickly afterwards. He hadn't felt this much aches since he inhabited Dipper's body. The fact he was feeling any pain at all was a bad sign for him.

On weak arms, he pushed himself up to find he was no longer in the real world. He found himself in the TV room that mirrored the one in the Mystery Shack. The only difference was that everything was void of color.

Whatever invention those kids had ahold of, it had managed to send him back into the dreamscape. Anger rose within him. How had those twins outsmarted him a third time!? He was an all-powerful dream demon! He was thousands of years old! How could he have been defeated by two twelve year olds!? There was no way they could've made that weapon unless they had one of the journals, which he had burned all of-

The demon's thoughts screeched to a halt. Sixer must have started another journal and kept it hidden from him. He even has the memory extracting tool that could've easily hidden it when he tried to read Sixer's mind.

"That clever bastard," the demon sneered.

With a snap of his fingers, the TV in the living room turned on. Bill sat down to watch the people of Gravity Falls celebrating their victory. Question Mark was with his grandmother, all of the Reds were reunited, and even Lil' Gideon managed to find his family. He watched in disgust as the boy gave his mother and father apologetic hugs. It wasn't even that long ago the boy was working for him, making sure that Pine Tree was kept far away from Shooting Star as much as possible. As one would guess, the fake psychic couldn't even manage to do that.

With another snap of his fingers, the screen changed from the Gleeful family to the Pines family. Anger filled him again as he saw the four twins hugging and re-bonding with each other. How dare they take away everything he had worked so long for? How dare they get their happy ending while he's left to rot away in the boring grey dreamscape? That world was in his grasp, and they took it away from him!

"Hey everyone!" The Mayor's voice was heard in the television set, "Let's hear it for the Pines family!"

The crowd cheered as the clan took notice of it all. Both uncles hoisted the Mystery Twins onto their shoulders and paraded down the streets of town. Bill's rage went from simmer to boiling when the townspeople began to chant, "Pines! Pines! Pines!"

The town might as well have been mocking him with those chants. Not able to take it anymore, the demon rose from his seat, turning red and black in the process, and shot a blue fireball at the television set.

To Bill's horror, nothing happened.

Instead of blowing up into a fit of sparks and smoke, the fireball merely hit the screen and slowly poofed away like a cloud of cigarette smoke. He shot another fireball, but the same thing happened. Frustrated, he kept shooting fireball after fireball at the TV set. He shot at every object he saw until he heard one explosion. When it didn't come, the demon collapsed to his knees, letting out an anguished cry.

His powers were gone. Whatever was in that gun had weakened his magic severely. The TV room was blanketed in a blue, misty fog from his attempts at destroying something. He didn't know whether his powers were gone for good, or just dulled until the effects of the gun wore off. From the way his magic was working, it could take years before he was back to full strength. Bill didn't have time for that. He needed to seek his revenge on that dreaded Pines family as soon as possible.

"Mabel? Are you okay?"

At the sound of Pine Tree's voice, Bill looked up at the TV. The cheering townspeople were gone, and the town square was replaced with the attic of the Mystery Shack. The twins were on their respective sides of the room, each packing their suitcases. Pine Tree had most if not all of his belongings tidied up while Shooting Star's side was a slightly disorganized pile of knitted sweaters and teen magazines. She was sitting on her bed, gloomily looking at her Mabel puppet.

"Do you think he's really gone?" the young girl asked.

"Bill? Or course he is," the boy joined his sister on the other side of the room. "You saw that gun blasting him away. The other times we defeated him, it never ended like that."

"I know, but…" Shooting Star trailed off, closing her and turning her face away from her brother. "I can't help but feel like he's still watching us. Like he's plotting another revenge scheme on us. What if he follows us back to Piedmont and tries to hurt Mom and Dad?"

Pine Tree gave an uncertain look as well. Bill could tell the thought hadn't occurred to him. If the demon wasn't weak, that's exactly what he would be doing. Although even if he was all-powerful, he wouldn't be able to enter the real world unless he could possess a body. He couldn't even leave Gravity Falls when he was in the real world. That was the one thing that bugged him, and he still didn't know the answer to that particular riddle.

The young boy's features sobered up and he turned his sister to look at him. "I am never going to let that happen. I firmly believe that Bill is gone for good. But if it's true that he's still out there, I will never let him lay a hand on you. I made that mistake last time, and I won't ever make it again. Whenever you're in trouble, I will always be there to save you."

"You promise?" the girl sniffled.

He opened his arms for a hug. "I promise."

She smiled and hugged him back.

Aggravated, Bill stalked away from the television set. Those kids were the bane of his existence. No matter what they did, they somehow managed to get a step ahead of him. And they knew it too! Their arrogance had them believing the demon was dead and gone for good.

"This is…" the demon trailed off as something clicked in his brain. "…perfect."

If his triangle form had a mouth, it would be grinning across its form. The kids thought he was gone. If Bill were to attack them, they wouldn't be expecting it! But with his condition, it would take him forever to recuperate; which was enough time to come up with the perfect revenge scheme.

"I've waited thousands of years to take over the world; a few more measly years will go by quick," he assured himself as he walked back into the TV room and watched as the twins had finished packing their bags and started playing with their homemade mini-golf course. He watched as Shooting Star got a hole-in-one and started jumping around the room in victory.

"Pine Tree won't be able to protect you forever," he told the tiny image in a sinister tone. "Once I have my powers back, the both of you will be finished!"

When he snapped his fingers again, the television set turned off and the image of the Mystery Twins disappeared.

…..

A/N: Wow! That prologue came out longer than I expected it to. Not a bad thing of course. Hopefully this was a good enough set up for things to come. I also really wanted to write a make-up scene between the Stan twins. Maybe we'll get one in the finale? (Fingers crossed)

Anywho, thanks for reading and leave a review if you like!