A/N: So this is a request from Barbacar! I've split it into three chapters (which I'll post all at once) just so it's more clear where I have POV shifts/time lapses. Here's the original request:

Basically it's a bit of slight canon divergence at one point

the idea is that at the end of NWHS, when Mabel lets the portal activate, it sucks her in. Dipper and the others are freaking out when Ford steps out of the portal, carrying Mabel who he sets down gently. Whatever was on the other side, it was apparently enough to make her pass out. Dipper finds out that Ford is the author and Stan's brother, and the events and drama of Tale Of Two Stans carry out basically the same way. Afterwards, though, Ford carries a sleeping Mabel up to bed and tucks her in. That's when Mabel wakes up. She was asleep for the explanation to who he is, but she gives him a big hug and says something to the effect of "I don't know who you are, but you're my hero." To which Ford replies with something to the effect of "Yes, and it would seem like you're mine."

"Grunkle Stan, I trust you."

And with a flash of cerulean light, she was gone.

Stan screamed, a loud, resounding, "No!" and he reached out toward her as memories of a familiar scene flashed before him.

All his fault. The only person in the whole world that mattered to him, the only person who was able to put a smile on his face, disappearing in a flash of blue light, consumed by a portal to another dimension. All his fault.

The old man could practically feel Dipper losing any last bit of trust he might have still had in his grunkle. He screamed and cried and tried to rush toward his sister, but suddenly everything crashed down, the blinding light fading to a soft glow.

The portal was a wreck of metal plates and wires, a mechanical mess left behind from the explosion of light. As the last of the blue glow died down into darkness, a tall figure emerged from the rubble, cloaked in a long, heavy coat, his face hidden behind a thick scarf and a large pair of goggles.

But no one was paying attention to the figure approaching them; what everyone was concerned with was the small girl he held in his arms.

Dipper, Stan, and Soos all cried, "Mabel!" when they saw that she had made it to the correct side of the portal before it closed. But she didn't respond.

She was unconscious.

"Put her down!" Dipper shouted, running forward and facing the stranger boldly. "What did you do to her?!"

The stranger knelt down and gently laid the girl on the floor. She was unscathed, and from beneath her sweater the steady rise and fall of her chest became evident.

She was alive.

"You... You saved her?" Dipper fell to his knees and wrapped his sister in his arms, holding her close, then looked back up at the stranger. "Who are you?"

"The author of the journals," Stan answered softly, setting a hand on Dipper's shoulder. "My brother."