Author's Note: Thought this was an interesting premise. Not sure how consistently I'll be able to update, but here we go!

Something Wicked

Chapter 01: Speak of the Devil

Dipper watched the Oregon scenery pass by as he took the bus back to Gravity Falls. The now seventeen year old was excited to be returning for another summer before his final year of High School.

Not much had changed with Gravity Falls in four years which was nice. The town was like a stable constant in Dipper's life as he faced the uncertainty of his future. Ford's offer still stood. Dipper's promise to see Mabel through their high school years was nearing completion.

Once he graduated he had some choices to make. For one, figure out where he wanted to go to school. His grades had granted him access to almost any school he wished, so now it was just a matter of what he wanted to do with himself.

His fingers idly tapped his knee cap as he thought.. Gravity Falls would be a nice distraction from it all. A return to form for Dipper. After all, he worked with Ford during the summers. He needed to think about if he wanted to go with Ford full time once he graduated or continue his education. It was a conundrum.

The sensation of two fingers "walking" up his shoulder removed him from his inner musings.

Mabel blinked back at him and smiled wide. Her teeth now free of braces. She had been so excited to get them off last year, and she could not wait to show all her friends in Gravity Falls the fruits of all those years of being restrained by metal dental wear.

Though, now that he thought about it, nothing really held Mabel back, ever.

"What's up?" he asked.

"You just have that, "I'm concentrating super hard instead of getting excited to be back at Gravity Falls," look again. You've been doing it a lot more lately."

She held up a compact mirror to prove it to him. His own, neutral facial expression greeted him back.

"Hm, yeah, guess I do," he said. "Any suggestions, Doctor Mabel?"

"Hm, regular doses of hanging out with Wendy after work and doing nerdy research things with great uncle Ford. Boxing lessons with Grunkle Stan. Oh! And of course, hanging out with me! Plus whatever else you wanna do! The world is our oyster!"

He smiled.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll be sure to do all those things."

"You better, Doctor's orders!"

Gravity Falls' bus stop came into view and the bus pulled into the stop with only one unnervingly long squeal of the breaks and a jolt to a stop.

Dipper steadied himself and reached for his luggage just as the driver began his usual spiel.

"Alright folks, we've arrived at Gravity Falls, Oregon. Be sure to remove all personal effects as you leave the bus and thank you for riding with Speedy Beaver."

Mabel was already down the aisle with her things. Some of which took a tumble as she hurried toward the exit. Shaking his head good naturally Dipper picked up the things she had dropped in her haste and put them with his own luggage. Looking forward Dipper smiled. It looked like they had a welcoming party and with a new little addition.

Bundled in Melody's arms was a baby swaddled in a blanket. A teal beanie with a question mark symbol on it fit cozily on the babe's head.

He exited the bus just as Melody asked Mabel if she wanted to hold the child.

Gushing the brunette dropped all of her luggage right on the around and formed her arms in a shape to more easily cradle the baby once they were in her arms.

The bus pulled away just as Dipper sat his own luggage on the ground and got a better look at the baby. Soos came up beside him with a contented smile.

"Hey, dudes, isn't she, like, the greatest?"

"She's perfect!" Mabel gushed as quietly as possible so as not to wake the slumbering child. "What's her name?"

"Mel," Soos said, smiling. "We thought, well, it would be cool to name her after her mom."

"Certainly makes her name easy to remember," Melody quipped with a smile. Mabel nodded her head and gently stroked the back of the child's tiny hand in wonder.

"Hey, what are we, chopped liver?" Mabel carefully returned Mel to her mother and spun around to see Grunkle Stan standing with his hands on his hips. Great uncle Ford stood next to him with a smile.

"Of course you aren't chopped liver! You're my Grunkles!" the teen threw herself at the duo and gave them both a hug.

Dipper watched the scene with a fond smile.

"What's up, Dipper?" startled Dipper looked over to see Wendy standing next to him. He smiled, a light blush dusting his cheeks. Childhood crushes were still hard to get over it seemed.

"Oh, hey, Wendy. Nothing much, just glad to be back."

"Good to have you back," she smiled. Removing his own signature Pine Tree hat, Wendy traded it back for her original hat. A ritual they had begun every summer since. They would exchange hats again at the end of summer when he left for his final year of high school.

"Hey, quit flirtin', kid, and come see us, we ain't getting any younger. In fact, I think Ford over here is about to keel over any second!"

Snorting at Stan's comment Dipper walked over to his Grunkles and promptly got put into a headlock by Stan.

"You check out that gym I told ya about?" Stan asked, releasing Dipper and patting him on the back roughly.

"Yeah, it's great, Grunkle Stan," Dipper said, flexing his arm which was starting to show the fruits of his labor. It had definitely gotten the attention of several of his schoolmates back home. He had been asked out on more than one occasion.

He had taken up boxing lessons after a particularly rough beat down during freshman year of high school.

"Atta boy," Grunkle Stan grinned patting his shoulders roughly once more before sending him over to Ford. .

"Hello, Dipper, it is good to see you," the man said with a smile. Dipper smiled up at him. Though he had grown significantly taller since his first trip to Gravity Falls he was still shorter than his Grunkles. Not by a large margin, but he knew he was not quite done growing.

"Good to see you too, and it's great to be back in Gravity Falls," the brown-haired teen said.

"I've been working on some new research. If you are interested the papers are down in the lab, though I image today you'll want to rest from your trip and catch up with everyone."

"That sounds great. I'll check out the papers first thing in the morning."

With a nod the welcoming party and the twins made their way back to the Shack. A new section had been built on to accommodate the larger amount of people that now stayed in the building.

Heading upstairs the two dropped their things off in the same room they had stayed in during their first trip to Gravity Falls. Then the duo made their way back downstairs and continued to catch up with everyone.

Time flew and before long Dipper's cell phone screen red out 11:46. Yawning he stood up and stretched, satisfied when he heard several pops he rested his arms at his side and smiled at the others.

"Well, I'm pretty beat, think I'm going to turn in for the night."

Most of his friends and family wished him a good-night, or in the case of Grunkle Stan, a grunt of acknowledgement.

Once upstairs Dipper made his bed and laid down on it with a contented sigh. He knew he had thought it a thousand times before, but it really was good to be back. Especially back around the friends he had here. Not that he did not have friends back home, but the friends here had literally fought alongside him, risking life and limb to save their dimension from Bill and his henchmaniacs.

Huh, that was funny…

He had not thought about Bill or Weirdmageddon in a long time. Not since those initial nightmares had finally been put to rest several years ago. Life had been peaceful since then, but Gravity Falls was no less weird. Odd creatures still cropped up, but Bill, of course, never made an appearance.

He took a shuttering breath and took comfort in his next thought.

The memory gun took care of that.

Dipper pulled the covers up and around himself before settling into a more comfortable position.

His eyes started to grow heavy and he yawned.

"Aw, you almost looks cute when you sleep, Pine Tree...for an ugly human that is…"

Huh?

His eyes snapped open and he gasped. The transition between reality and his own mindscape was always indistinguishable to him. That was, until Bill showed up.

"Bill?!"

Chapter 01: Speak of the Devil End