Note: This story takes place in the Transcendence AU. Information about this AU can be found on the FAQ section. This particular one is based on a prompt/proposal from last November, and took me that long to finish. I hope it's enjoyed.
Gideon Gleeful, former child psychic and very nearly the ruler of Gravity Falls, Oregon, stormed down the sidewalk in yet another city.
The Transcendence had been a blessing for inmates of the Gravity Falls Maximum Security Prison. The rush of magic, the physical quakes being at ground zero had caused had disrupted everything into a mass of chaos and panic even to the point of leveling the walls of the prison, making it almost laughably easy for Gideon and his band of followers to escape in the confusion...even if they'd had to flee Gravity Falls itself.
It was one of the rare times Gideon cursed his fame and charm. Everyone in Gravity Falls knew Lil' Gideon, and he hadn't changed enough in the short time he'd been in jail that they wouldn't still know him, so he still couldn't return to the center of his fame and reclaim his proper place. Not yet, not while they'd still been turned against him by the Pines family rather than obeying him like they were meant to, when they'd just lock him back up rather than listen to him and obey his commands.
He was supposed to be the most magical person or creature of Gravity Falls, spreading his rule to the surrounding areas piece by piece, using his charm and spells to rule the mouth-breathing fools with an iron fist, and he'd been so close to having Gravity Falls firmly under his foot, but then...Dipper.
Dipper Pines kept the first and third Journals from him, keeping him away from the secrets to ultimate power. Dipper Pines kept Mabel, his Queen, away from him. Dipper Pines caused The Transcendence, making what magic Gideon had less than nothing compared to what was in the world today.
So now Gideon had to get by with what he could of his personality and personal charms, scraping up magic as he went, followed by the small band of devoted followers he was gathering day by day that was a fraction of the size of the following he should have had, and it was all because of Dipper Pines and The Damn Transcendence.
Dipper was supposed to have died during The Transcendence, and that would've served him right, but Gideon's contact in Gravity Falls (who he hadn't heard from in years and something needed done about that, no one stopped working for Gideon) had said Mabel had moved back to Gravity Falls and talked to the air while using Dipper's name all the time, and the rest of the town seemed to agree that Dipper was still with them, somehow or other. Unseen, unheard, unfelt, but somehow still there.
So somehow Dipper got away from it all scot-free, while Gideon had to stay on the run with his followers. It just. Wasn't. Fair!
At least prison (and all his subsequent incarcerations, along with a good dose of vanity) had improved on his already superior looks and his ability to captivate an audience, along with giving him his most devoted followers, his core elite of bodyguards, each of whom was more than willing to get their hands dirty for their precious Lil' Gideon, even if he wasn't so lil' anymore. They didn't come close to evening the scales, but they were weapons Gideon was skilled in exploiting and quite willing to use.
And they were useful weapons to go with his honed skills. Already his following had tripled, despite having to start from scratch and keep on the move, though the numbers were still pathetic compared to the hundreds who'd followed him with unquestioning awe and adoration in Gravity Falls.
Curse it all, Gravity Falls had been the perfect place to begin his conquest and gain all that was meant to be his, and he'd never found anyplace even close to it since he'd been driven out, and it was all because of those damn Pines!
Still scowling, Gideon slipped into the run down theater he'd been looking for. One of his followers said there was someone here preaching things similar to the preaching Gideon himself liked to use to convince his followers to come to him, and Gideon wanted a look at the competition.
Maybe he could even get a few new followers for himself out of this, if he played his cards right, or at least more fools to give them money and support for their cause (namely, Gideon and his lifestyle) if they weren't passionate enough to be convinced to devote themselves to him. After all, no one worked a crowd like lil' ol' him.
Two hours later found Gideon sitting in the tiny, badly lit back room of the theater, drinking surprisingly good wine with the show's preacher, Anthony Lampros.
Somehow, Anthony had picked him out of the crowd, recognized Gideon as a kindred spirit, and then gotten into Gideon's good books by recognizing him as Gideon Gleeful, former child psychic.
One of the few things Gideon didn't lie to himself about was his fame and lack thereof outside Gravity Falls. He'd left to keep from being recognized, when all was said and done. So for Anthony to have recognized him...
Well, it was a stroke to the lil' ol' ego, there, was what it was. This was someone who was preaching about the Transcendence, and for once he'd obviously done his homework about the place it had all begun, unlike most of the fools he'd met over the years.
Their ignorance was almost funny, at times. Even when they were raving fanatics who'd made up their information from whole cloth.
(Those were the most fun to rile up and steal their followers from when they'd been broken and taken away, to rot in prison or eaten by the things they'd been goaded into calling up they'd no chance of controlling and been too blind to understand the dangers to themselves until too late.)
In their admittedly short acquaintanceship, Anthony had already given the impression of someone who'd gained everything thanks to the Transcendence, and in a way, that was true.
After all, he'd based his entire following and career around hating the Transcendence and searching to find a way to reverse everything it had done.
Gideon wasn't about to point out the particular hypocrisy in wanting rid of the thing that gave you power, though. After all, he'd been cursing the Transcendence not even two hours ago. Finding magic may have been easier now, but what did that matter when the sheep could get their hands on it too?
What did whatever benefits he could pull from the Transcendence matter when Dipper and Mabel Pines were walking around free and clear despite everything they'd done?
The splintery walls of the backstage room they were drinking in were covered in drawings and papers, almost all of them dealing with magic, from summoning circles to the creatures that had emerged after the Transcendence to cleansing herbs and spell work, banishment and exorcism. For someone who hated magic so fervently, Anthony certainly was knowledgeable about every aspect of it, from light to dark.
Anthony noticed Gideon's wandering eye and smirked. "You're thinking how strange it is I have this much information on magic, yes?" he said. "When I just spent the last two hours preaching against it?"
Gideon shrugged, taking a sip of his wine. He smiled, a hard little curve of lips that gave away nothing. "We all have our little hypocrisies, bless ya heart," he murmured, playing his cards close. He'd met too many little men over these past few years to believe this one was going to be any different – not just yet, at least. A little smarter, maybe, but otherwise no different.
"And that's the problem!" Anthony exclaimed, smacking his hand flat against the table and the papers scattered across it before gesturing to the papers pinned to the walls around them. "No matter what we do, it's everywhere now, and no one can see what it's doing to them, or care when we try to show them. They preach against it, and then use it behind their follower's backs! We've searched and searched, but all our searches have come to the same conclusion – no amount of prayer is going to be enough to undo what demons have done. To rid ourselves of magic and the supernatural, to undo what the Transcendence has done, we have to embrace the hypocrisy and use magic!"
Gideon only just avoided rolling his eyes.
"You doubt our sincerity, I can tell," Anthony said, tugging over a piece of paper. "And think I'm just blowing hot air. But we have a plan."
"Well, if ya'll have a plan, then I'll wish ya'll luck with that," Gideon said, starting to rise.
"It comes with revenge on the Pines family for causing the Transcendence," Anthony added, looking up at Gideon with hooded eyes, "And should there be other considerations..."
Gideon froze. His eyes slowly rose to meet Anthony's, and the man grinned.
"They caused the Transcendence," he said, "and they're the reason you had to leave Gravity Falls, am I correct?"
Gideon scowled, and Anthony spoke faster. "We need more people, and we need to take everything to Gravity Falls if we want a chance at success. That's where the Transcendence happened, and that's the only place where we can reverse it. But we need someone who knows the town, or we'll be stopped before we can begin. The fools actually welcome the Transcendence and all the sinful things that came with it, they'll try and protect them. And the Pines family is at the forefront of that."
Gideon still waited, half out of his chair, and Anthony leaned over the table eagerly. "We both want the Transcendence undone, don't we? Since it's too wild, to unpredictable to benefit – ahem – mankind," he said, and both understood just what he meant by 'mankind', "and those who've gone so far as to ally themselves with it should be punished, shouldn't they?"
Sitting back down, Gideon leaned over the table, matching Anthony's slow grin. "Ah'm listening," he said.
Five years and three months later, Gideon stood on the hill outside Gravity Falls, staring down into the valley that cupped his hometown.
From up here, it looked the same as it had before he'd left, before the Transcendence had happened, as if it was unchanged and unchangeable.
Well, not for much longer, Gideon thought gleefully.
Behind him, the combined forced of his followers and The Grand Anti Transcendence Alliance, nearly a thousand strong, waited for his word.
A third of their members were perched on electric and telephone poles or up trees, cutters ready and waiting, while the rest spread around the edge of the valley.
Anthony lead the larger group, waiting for Gideon's group to make their move before beginning their own. If they did this right, then it would all be in place before anyone in town had a single idea that anything was wrong.
Amazing, really, how despite the town now having internet and more, they still depended on a few key lines to communicate with the world outside their valley.
The people of Gravity Falls had always been fools.
This was the time to act. Magic was tricky, as evil things often were, but their calculations said plainly that not only did they need to do this at the place where it all happened, but at roughly the same time as it had happened. The Transcendence had happened in late summer, and so they were poised outside the town in late summer, ready to begin.
He held up the cell phone, pulling up Anthony. "You ready on your end?" he asked.
He could almost see Anthony nod. "And on yours?"
"We're starting...now," Gideon said, and the snap of the cutters echoed as telephone and internet lines alike were cut, falling through the trees to land with thuds onto the dirt, sounding remarkably like things dying in mid air and falling limply to the ground.
Around the perimeter of the town The Grand Anti-Transcendence Alliance chanted in unison, raising their arms, and a barrier sprung into being, slowly stretching towards the sky.
It shimmered with an unhealthy shine, like an oil slick over water, stretching over their heads and under their feet until all of Gravity Falls and the surrounding land was closed within the bubble.
And now nothing magical would be able to escape Gravity Falls and the retribution that they deserved or be able to enter and aid their devilish brethren.
Gideon grinned as he got in the car that would take them down into town, mind already buzzing with what was to come.
Gravity Falls had earned everything that was about to come down on them, and it was long, long overdue.