Chapter 1: Many Happy (and not so happy) Returns
A/N: I do not own Gravity Falls, not the characters.
The flash of light faded, but everything was a blur. Then everything turned steady again, and a dark, hooded figure was standing in the middle of the open portal. The mysterious figure moved forward, his steps slow and heavy. He stopped near Journal #1, rested his hand – his six fingered hand – on the cover, grabbed it and put it in the pocket of his long coat.
"What-" asked Dipper, shocked. "Who is this?"
"The author of the Journals," answered Stan. "My brother." At this point the Author removed the hood from his face and revealed curly, brown hair and broken glasses, but beside that, he looked quite similar to Stan.
"Stanley!" cried Stan and got up. "I'm so-"
"Thirty years." Said the Author quietly. "What took you so long?"
Stanford's smile disappeared. "McGucket left, and I was trying to fix the portal, but-"
"I left instructions! Besides, we built the portal together!" He paused and sighed. "I've been chasing and fighting Bill for so many years, and then one day he disappeared. I tried to find him – I thought he came back and he – that you were –" his voice broke, as if he was on the edge of bursting into tears.
"Grunkle Stan?" asked Mabel. "What's going on?"
Stanley raised a brow at his brother. "Grunkle?"
Stanford sighed. "You better sit. We have a lot to talk about."
A few hours earlier Fiddleford was running, getting as far as he could from the town. The road sign set in front of him read "Now leaving Gravity Falls, Oregon". "Finally," he murmured. He was exhausted.
"Where d'you think you're going, Glasses?" dang it. He was so close. Why now?
"Y'know, considering what's happening in the Shack right now, I expected you to be there. Don't wanna miss the reunion, don't you?"
Reunion? Thought McGucket. What's he talking about?
"That's right," said Bill. "He's back."
No way. "You're lying!" he snapped.
"Oh, but you know I'm not." He paused. When he spoke again, he sounded sadistic. "Too bad he'll never see you again."
"What?" Blue flames wrapped around McGucket's body as Bill made him float. The pain was unbearable. He couldn't breathe.
Just before he fainted, McGucket could hear Bill murmur something about "the other nine", but then everything went black,
and they both vanished in a flash of light.