Greetings, prospective readers! Welcome to the relaunch of my very first Gravity Falls creation. The original version had a few flaws that needed ironing out, and I've also had a change of heart about how I want to go about things here, and by use of multiple artifacts, I can create additional threats for Dipper to face. Anyways, about this little project. After reading a story for Gravity Falls entitled Smoke and Scales, I decided to make a dragon Dipper story of my own, but I wanted to do something different with it as well, and thanks to Fire Emblem Fates, I have that something. And yes, that does mean that Dipper's superpowers are going to be very heavily based off of Corrin's, but he'll have other dragon powers and elements as well. Oh, and if anyone's wondering what Teen Dipper's voice sounds like, imagine Sora's voice from Kingdom Hearts III. Speaking of which, might do a KH-Gravity Falls crossover one day… Dipper and Mabel seem like the Keyblade-wielding type… all right, enough babbling, let us begin!

Chapter I: The Dragon Ring

Heroes aren't often born for greatness. They are mostly chosen or, and most likely, become one through sheer dumb luck. Whether that luck was bad or good, no one can say. What matters is that the hero defeats the villain, saves the damsel in distress, and saves the world, right? Well, most of it, anyway. But when you picture a hero, you would more than likely imagine an overly-exaggerated image of a muscular man with a huge chin dressed in shining armor riding a gallant white steed. You would never imagine that heroes come in various shapes, sizes, and ages. I should know. I'm a hero, right along side my twin sister.

Oh, but, where are my manners? My girlfriend would be ashamed of me. My name is Mason Pines, but you can call me Dipper. Everybody does, because of the birthmark on my forehead, which looks just like the Big Dipper. Kinda weird, right?

Now, I'm sure you all have a lot of questions about me and what's going on with this whole hero business. So, why don't we start from the beginning? My parents were on their way to an important business meeting when they were killed in a car crash. Truth be told, it still hurts thinking about it, even though it happened quite some time ago. Apparently, our parents had decided that if something should happen to them, that we would be sent to live with our great-uncle, Stanford Pines, in Gravity Falls. So, after the funeral, they packed us up and shipped us up north to Oregon. As it turned out, our great-uncle, or "Grunkle," had turned his house into a tourist trap called "The Mystery Shack." Honestly, the real mystery was why anyone actually paid money for the tours or buy let alone afford anything from the ridiculously overpriced gift shop. And to top it off, despite our recent tragedy, Mabel and I had to work there, alongside a girl about my age named Wendy Corduroy, daughter of the local lumberjack Manly Dan, and Soos, the Shack's handyman and Grunkle Stan's henchman, who I honestly thought was some kinda gopher person or a man-child of some kind, but in truth was actually a pretty awesome, completely human, guy. That being said, I wasn't sure if Stan thought that working in the Shack would help us keep our minds off our parents. Mabel was quick to recover, but truth be told, I was still having a hard time coming to terms with the loss. In any case, for a few days it looked like it was going to be the same boring routine all year long, day in and day out. And it might've been, too. But then, one fateful day, I found something that would change my life forever... something not of this world.

The journal.

I remember that day as though it were only yesterday. Grunkle Stan had volunteered me to go and hammer up some signs advertising the Mystery Shack in the spooky part of the Gravity Falls forest. Now, every other time I had been in the woods up until this point in pursuit of finding a quiet place to think and work through my emotions, I had felt as though someone was watching me, despite the fact that as far as I could tell, nobody was anywhere near me. Not helping my worries any was the fact that mosquitoes had attempted to tell me to "beware" by spelling out word with their bites, only to end up spelling "bewarb," as Grunkle Stan pointed out to me before explaining that the supposed monsters lurking within the woods was just local legend drummed up by guys like him in order to sell overpriced merchandise to total idiots.

As I was hammering up signs in the forest, I came across on particular tree that seemed to be made of metal. After activating the mechanism inside, a secret containment unit opened, and inside it was a very dusty old book marked with a three. Not long afterwards, I had to rescue my sister from what I'd thought was a zombie, but instead it was a bunch of Gnomes. Only a few days later, Mabel and I tried to capture a photo of a local lake monster known as the Gobblewonker in order to win a thousand bucks, only to learn that the beast was a mech constructed and operated by a crazy old prospector guy called Old Man McGucket. Admittedly, that little misadventure was the most fun I'd had since our parents died, and fishing with Grunkle Stan, Mabel, and Soos afterwards felt pretty good too.

But, there was something else too. During our escape from the Gobblewonker mech, Mabel, Soos, and I took refuge in this cave hidden behind the Lake Gravity Falls waterfall. I didn't really have much time to look around the last time I was in it, but when we had a chance, Mabel, Soos, and I decided that we were gonna check out what was within that cavern.

And that, friends, is where our story begins…

…

Within the dark recesses of a cave concealed behind a waterfall, a large boat that looked as though it had recently undergone some heavy repairs pulled in and stopped literally inches from the shoreline. Hopping off the boat were three people. Soos, a portly man with brown hair and beady eyes who looked either like a large hairless mutant gopher or a man-child of some kind wearing a green t-shirt with a large black question mark on the front and the word "Staff" on the back, khaki shorts, and brown loafers, Mabel Pines, a young girl of around fifteen with long brown hair and brown eyes who was wearing a red hand-knitted sweater with a kitten playing soccer on the front, blue jeans, and black shoes, and Mason "Dipper" Pines, Mabel's twin brother who had a mop of brown hair and eyes exactly like Mabel's, and who was wearing a blue and white trucker hat with a pine tree on the front, a black zip-up hoodie with an orange shirt and a necklace underneath, khaki pants, and black and white sneakers.

As he and his companions' feet hit the wet sand of the caves' interior, Dipper pulled out a battered old book with a gold six-fingered hand marked with a big black three on the front and started to shift through its pages.

"All right, guys, let's see what the journal tells us about this place…" said Dipper as he flipped through the pages of his trusty journal before he stopped on the page he was looking for. "Ah-ha!" the teenager cried before reading aloud. "'The townsfolk speak of a cave behind the Lake Gravity Falls waterfall. I must investigate this cave at a later date, or as soon as I can get a boat to safely travel the lake's surface. No telling what could be underneath the lake.' Wait, what's this crossed out?" Dipper muttered squinting his eyes as he tried to read the crossed out part. "'I wish I still had the boat my brother and I spent our childhoods working on before he cost me my dream school. Truth be told, sometimes I wonder whatever happened to the… Stan o' War?'"

"Wait… isn't Grunkle Stan's boat called the Stan o' War?" asked Mabel, raising an eyebrow.

Dipper shrugged. "Probably just a coincidence. I mean, what are the odds a con man like Grunkle Stan has a connection with the Author, let alone is actually related to him?" he asked.

"Well, my new fanfiction has him being the Author of the Journals and having a secret headquarters for a super-secret government agency or a secret society in the Mystery Shack's basement," said Soos with a shrug.

"Whatever, we'll figure that out another time," said Dipper dismissively before adventuring forward and looking through the journal as he walked hoping the book's information on the cave didn't stop at that one brief passage. Unfortunately, however, it did. "Okay, so we're going into uncharted territory… that's not at all worrisome," Dipper said before slamming the book shut and putting it back inside his hoodie, his voice indicating that he was in fact worried despite what he'd just said as he and his companions ventured into the cave.

Through twists, turns, and tunnels the trio traveled until they finally reached what seemed to be the farthest depths of the cave.

Hovering above a small golden pedestal on the far end of a stone walkway was what appeared to be a shimmering silver ring of some kind. Even from this distance, the trio could feel the raw power emanating from the ring.

"It's beautiful…" whispered Mabel her eyes lighting up at the sight of the artifact.

"Wonder how much we could get on the internet auction websites for that thing?" wondered Soos.

"No, guys, we're not selling that thing, and honestly, I doubt we'd get that much for it anyway. That artifact belongs in a museum," Dipper said sternly before making his way towards the platform where the artifact was at. Upon reaching reaching the artifact, Dipper noticed that the artifact's aura began flickering slightly, almost as though it was being drawn towards Dipper somehow.

"All right, let's see here…" said Dipper, reaching for the artifact and taking no notice of the artifact's flickering as it increased drastically the closer Dipper's fingers got towards it.

The moment Dipper grabbed the artifact, however, nothing happened.

"Huh, well that was disappointing," muttered Dipper as he examined the ring. It was shaped into a dragon, with what seemed to be a single sapphire molded into the shape of a rather realistic reptilian eye. As Dipper looked at the ring, he felt an urge to try it on. Thinking nothing of it, Dipper put the ring on his left ring finger.

As soon as the ring was on Dipper's finger, he knew that he had made a tremendous mistake.

All at once, Dipper felt a raw surge of sheer, overwhelming power leap from the artifact upon his ring finger and directly into his body, causing his eyes to glow an unearthly shade of blue as the ring changed and altered his body on the genetic level, thus causing him to scream loudly as though in unbearable pain as energy began crackling around him in what seemed to be bolts of electricity as his feet left the ground.

"DIPPER!" screamed Mabel as she began to run towards her brother, a look of sheer terror on her face.

"DUDE!" Soos screamed as he too began to run towards Dipper, only for the both of them to get blasted backward by a powerful blast of energy.

Dipper, meanwhile, couldn't stop himself from screaming, completely unable get the ring off of his finger or stop the flow of overwhelming power into his body. After what seemed like an eternity, the madness that had been unleashed finally come to an abrupt and sudden end as Dipper's body fell to the ground, unconscious as energy crackled on his body and his horrified sister and handyman watched in a mixture of shock and awe.

"Dipper?" asked Mabel as she cautiously approached her brother's motionless, mutated body. As she and Soos reached Dipper's body, Mabel reached down and checked her brother's pulse, and breathed a sigh of relief when she found it.

"Come on, Soos, help me get him out of here!" said Mabel as she grabbed ahold of Dipper's underarm, taking care not to touch the wings that had grown on his back.

"On it, Hambone," said Soos as he grabbed ahold of Dipper's legs, and the two of them began to carry Dipper's unconscious form out of the cave and back to the boat.

And so it begins! If you liked what you saw here, then be sure to fav, follow, and review, and I'll see you guys next time for Chapter Two!