CHAPTER TWO


Wendy heard bird song.

Grass bristled against the back of her neck, and dew dried against her forehead. As her eyes fluttered open, she was struck with the strange sense of déjà vu. She stared up at the overcast sky, with gnarled branches encroaching upon the darkening atmosphere. For a moment, she just lay there and watched as the clouds swirled slightly into a shape reminiscent of a hurricane. The bushes nearby rustled, but when the teen looked their way she spotted nothing. Placing both hands on the ground, she stumbled into a stand.

A small bark caught her attention, and she approached the center of the forest clearing, intent on discovering the creator of the sound. A tabby kitten lay where the ground dipped into a slight dent in the earth. The kitten rolled back and forth, before looking up at her with brightly intelligent eyes. It leaped to its feet and yipped happily, causing her to laugh and bend to one knee. She reached out and scratched its head lightly, causing the creature to purr endearingly and rub itself against her legs.

"Gee little guy…your pretty far from home…aren't you?"

As she said this, she noticed the pattern upon its forehead. Brushing apart its fur to see it better, Wendy stared at the big dipper mark with growing confusion. The discovery disturbed the feline, however, and the puppy whimpered before squirming out of her grasp. It retreated into a nearby log, and she scrambled after it.

"Dipper! Wait!"

She jumped to her feet and felt rain splash against her back as she followed the cat.

"I'm not gonna hurt you!"

Wendy reached the log and fell to her knees as she uselessly peered inside. There was no reply after she called out again, so she sat there and continued calling for the cat, uncaring to the mounting tempest which would soon drench her. She stared inside, calling out her best friend's name again and again. The hair on the back of her neck pricked as she received a low growl as her only response. Her stomach twisted as her eyes adjusted to the dark, and she spotted what lay crouched inside the dead tree.

A gray tiger leaped forwards and pinned her to the quickly dying grass. Unable to speak, or even breathe, she stared into its green glowing eyes. She could see unnamable dreads and unsought dreams swimming in those eyes. She could see long-lost cities, crashing meteorites, and swirling cosmos. The beast opened its mouth and roared until the entire world began to shake with it. The ground crumbled beneath her, and horrible, high-pitched laughter filled the air as the eye of the storm became sheer darkness. A horribly deep voice filled the air, one which felt terrifyingly familiar but still a lifetime ago.

"The Age of Ice has finally come to an end…"

Wendy snapped awake.

Her wide eyes stared at the glimpse of sunlight which peaked into her room from her tiny window. Just staring at the sunlight healed her of the nightmarish images which now dwelled within her. She felt like a little child who had stumbled upon her parents burying a body in the back yard. Something had been shown to her, something which she did NOT want to see. Something which did not belong had been jammed into her head, and now she felt ready to vomit.

Instead, she stopped gripping the blankets and tried to take slow breaths. Her vision was still bleeding into the darkness, as the shadows which filled the room mimicked the tiger and the tree branches which tore into the sky like hooked claws. It felt like her heart had begun attempting to break out of her chest by pounding against the flesh and bones which protected it.

Finally catching her breath, she glanced over at her alarm clock to find that she was awake half an hour early. Knowing full well that she would be unable to fall back asleep after this, Wendy eased her way out of the bed. She got dressed faster than usual and exited the house with a sickened stomach.

It had been two weeks since the twins had returned, and although they had hung out a little, Dipper spent most of his time with Ford, while Mabel spent the majority of hers with Pacifica. As such, Wendy had cherished the times when she got to uncover something with the twins (who had not ceased their search of mysterious entities and technology), or even just enjoy a conversation with them. She had started going to work earlier as a result, and lost quite a bit of sleep the previous night, watching a corny horror movie with Dipper.

So she fumbled with the lock for a few moments, the earliness of the hour contributing to her state of alert exhaustion. Finally finished, she slipped the bike lock into her pocket, and took one last look at her house, before peddling towards her place of work.

The forest seemed unsettling to say the least this morning. The darkness caused the movements of forest animals to be seen as full-blown attacks by her sleep deprived mind, and visions of her nightmare returned frequently without warning. Wendy considered it a miracle when she made it to The Shack in one piece and had she not dropped the lock due to sleepiness, she wouldn't have still been outside when two voices came rambling up the path.

"I don't see why we have to keep this a secret…"

That was Dipper's voice. She finished locking the bicycle up as quickly as possible and ducked behind the edge of the house.

"It's for her own good, Dipper."

Ford. Wendy sighed and glared at the two shapes which moved through the fog side by side. What's he trying to do now? Make Dipper start keeping secrets like him? She felt her blood boil with this concept, and half considered marching around the corner to confront the old man. Of course, he can give Stan the choice of removing his business, and firing me. Probably not a good idea.

"But what if-"

"Dipper my boy, there are certain things which only the smartest people should know."

How very fascistic of you.

"Like for instance, if all the townsfolk knew that there was a giant spaceship beneath this valley, do you think it would make their lives better?"

"Probably not…still…"

"Of course not! People panic when they interact with what they don't understand. It's best that you and I keep this matter to ourselves…until we know the legitimacy of it."

She heard Dipper let out a defeated sigh, before agreeing. The screen door opened and closed as they entered The Shack without another word.

Wendy felt her stomach churn and wondered how Dipper could agree to conceal something which sounded extremely important. Was he hiding this from his own sister? Who was the "she" they referred to?

"GOTCHYA!"

Wendy let out a scream as two hands clamped down on her shoulders and turned to find a laughing Pacifica.

"Yeesh, I didn't think you'd be so easy to scare."

Wendy glared at the giggling blonde, and leaned against the Shack, "Paz, don't scare someone this early in the morning!"

"-pfff-but it's so much *hmpff* funnier that way!"

Wendy sighed and rubbed her forehead, "Why are you here so early?"

Paz shrugged as she strolled past Wendy, "Couldn't sleep. You?"

Wendy frowned as she followed, "I work here for a living. I HAVE to show up on time."

Despite the snarky reply, Wendy didn't blame Pacifica for wanting to spend as much time as possible out of the house. Over the past two weeks, her parents had grown more and more constrictive. One time she and Mabel had been forced to restrain Dipper before he tackled Preston. Wendy herself had continually felt the urge to strike the millionaires grow exponentially. Every time she saw that awful look on Pacifica's face, she felt the need to whisk her away to someplace where she wouldn't have to live up to her parent's standards, one where she could be free of this terrible anxiety.

Wendy tried not to show this, however. She knew that the blonde was resilient, and could endure strength, but not pity. Her ego was fragile enough as it was. So she bided her time, hoping that eventually the Northwest parents would either realize that their daughter was miserable acting the way they wanted or much more likely, would get rolled over my a steam roller.

The cashier girl was so wrapped up in these thoughts as she entered The Shack that Mabel surprised her by charging out of the kitchen with armfuls of snacks. She wore a red cap and a gray sweater, giving her friends a brace-filled beam as she screeched to a halt in front of them.

"Guys! Guys! I have the tickets, let's go, go, go!"

Wendy and Pacifica exchanged looks, before both giving Mabel a quizzical look.

The enthusiastic brunette rolled her eyes and reached into her sweater. She quickly produced a map and tossed it at Pacifica (who promptly fumbled with it, and held it at length from her body with a red face).

Mabel put her arms on both of their shoulders and swiveled them towards the exit as she explained, "The county fair! C'mon we're gonna miss all the best rides!"

Wendy sighed with a smile, and began poking holes in her plan, "First of all…we're not going to miss anything, the sun is barely up."

Mabel elaborated with a slightly faltering smile, "Those lines, though…"

"Second off, the county fair barely has any rides."

"They'll have more this year…probably."

Pacifica interrupted before Wendy could make the point, once again, that she had a career and had to stay at The Shack all day.

"Were you carrying this map in your bra?!"

Mabel, for perhaps the first time Wendy had ever seen, looked embarrassed.

She paid excellent attention to the ceiling fan as she responded in a small voice, "It's within the bounds of the imagination…"

Pacifica shoved the map into Wendy's hands, before demanding logical motivation behind this insane choice. "WHY?!"

Wendy giggled and pulled Mabel aside as Pacifica exited The Shack and muttered something about cleaning her hand with a spicket.

"Mabel…is there a reason why you bought all those snacks and were so adamant about us visiting the fair?"

The brunette sighed leaned upon the counter with an unenergetic "Splurrrg."

Wendy sat down beside her and pushed her face up, "C'mon, tell me what the problem is and I'll fix it."

Mabel looked at her for a long moment, before glancing the way of the basement. Wendy caught the hint.

"You think Dipper will come."

She nodded glumly, and Wendy felt a tad ticked off at Dipper. Here his sister was desperate to enjoy time with him, and he didn't trust her enough to share whatever he and Ford had discovered. He could be so oblivious sometimes.

"And you'll get to spend the whole day with him…"

Again, she nodded.

Wendy glanced outside and then smirked. "Okay, let me go tell Pacifica and I'm sure we can finagle him into it."

She exited The Shack, located Pacifica, and informed her as to Mabel's plan. As the blonde considered spending her day at the fair, it occurred to Wendy that the three of them all wanted to spend time with a person who did not consider himself very socially adept in the first place.

Paz raised a humorous eyebrow, "Do we get to use our feminine wiles?"

Wendy gave her a look which silenced that idea and then blew it into a million pieces, before returning inside The Shack.

The blonde grinned like a gremlin, and tittered as she followed, "All though I suppose it's boyish wiles for you."

Wendy turned her way as the door swung open and they entered, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Pacifica looked to Mabel for help, "C'mon Mabes, you know as well as I do that Wendy isn't exactly Madame Dainty."

Wendy gave her a glare worthy of her massive father, "AND? What's the matter with not wearing make-up?"

Mabel spoke up tentatively, "WELL…it's not just that you don't wear makeup. You don't really clean yourself very often, you wear boy clothes, and you uh…you're pretty confrontational."

Her voice waded off into quiet when Wendy cast a scowl her way. Pacifica was about to make a wisecrack regarding Wendy's belching habits when inspiration struck. "Wait a second…that's it!"

"What is?" Wendy questioned harshly.

Pacifica moved to her side like a ghoul which had just spotted a graveyard full of fresh corpses, "We're going to give you a MAKEOVER."

Mabel clapped her hands excitedly as Wendy glanced between the two insanely smiling thirteen-year-olds, and gulped.

*0*

Wendy did not like this idea.

Pacifica had explained that if they dressed her up, then Dipper would be unable to say no to visit the fair. For the most part, however, it seemed like the blonde just wanted to mess around with her. Wendy didn't know why the blonde was so okay with the idea that Dipper was this enchanted with a girl besides her. The only explanation she could come up with was that Pacifica cared more about making Wendy uncomfortable and roping Dipper into visiting the fair, than she did whether or not dressing up Wendy would cause Dipper to fall head over heels for her.

Which was far more logical than this plan would give credit for.

Wendy had been okay with this idea, at first, uneasy with it, but a little bit interested.

That is until Mabel decided that she needed a dress. Of course, Wendy didn't own any and did not intend on buying any.

"That's fine, we'll just steal one from my mom." Suggested Pacifica in a surprisingly composed tone.

That was when she had begun to dislike the idea. Unfortunately, neither of her companions would be swayed on the subject. After Stan had been convinced to give her the day off (and she was pretty sure he had just given in out of amusement and curiosity), she really didn't have many reasons not to go through with the plan.

First Pacifica had to sneak them in, which was originally going to rely on hiding them in the trunk of her limo. Wendy hadn't liked that idea. She hadn't liked it much more when Mabel wrapped her arms around the two of them and fired her grappling hook at the roof of the mansion. They had been lunched over the metal gate, with Pacifica losing a shoe and her tearing the pant leg of her jeans on one of the metal spikes.

"Well…" Said Mabel as they landed in a hedge maze, "Now you really do need to change your clothes!"

Wendy had not been amused.

It took them half an hour to exit the hedge maze, apparently Pacifica hadn't even known that her parents owned one. Then it had been a matter of avoiding the dozens of servants who worked at the house. They made it all the way up the spiral staircase to the six floor, only to find that Priscilla's room was locked.

Wendy gave Pacifica a death glare, refusing to go to jail for home invasion when she was only a sixteen-year-old. Then Mabel had removed a hair pin from her pocket and begun picking the lock.

"Wait how do you know how to-"

Mabel glanced up at Wendy smugly, "Dipper and I took courses in this kind of stuff. Lock picking, how to look inconspicuous, hacking, disarming traps, etc. You know…just the basic stuff a teen would need."

She stood and smiled as the door swung open.

Swinging her arms as though a magician, she stuck the hairpin into her hair and spoke, "Ladies…"

Wendy clapped as Mabel took a few mock bows, and Pacifica told them both to shush as she tip-toed into the room. Opening the closet, her eyes skimmed over the sea of dresses.

"Now…what color fits you best?"

Mabel and Pacifica spent the next twenty minutes arguing over what color best matched her eyes, her hair, and her complexion. Fed up with the argument, Wendy snatched up a light green dress and stalked into the bathroom. She had some trouble putting on the dress, mostly because she hadn't worn one in years, but refused to give Pacifica and Mabel the satisfaction of admitting that. Instead, she struggled to adjust and re-adjust, and then exited with an expectant look.

"Well uh…what do you think?"

Pacifica stared at her with wide eyes as Mabel beamed and showered praise. Wendy's face turned red as the brunette began dancing around her and telling her how pretty she looked. Pacifica gave her an impressed look, which made Wendy wonder if she really did look as good as Mabel claimed. You knew that you had done something right when you could impress someone as collected as Pacifica.

"Alright…now we get to the make-up."

Wendy felt her palms grow sweaty and forced the two teenage girls to promise that they wouldn't make her look silly before complying and sitting down on the bed.

She spent the next half an hour, sitting as they squabbled over how much of what was required, and covered her face in various paints, as though her face was a blank canvas. They retrieved bits of jewelry, and when they discovered that Wendy did not have punctured ear lobes, Pacifica sighed and retrieved some clip on earrings. Half way through she began to protest, feeling exhausted from not being able to move and from all the days rushing around.

"I still don't get why you can't just dress up…" She addressed Pacifica bitterly.

The blonde rolled her eyes and spoke tritely, "He's already seen me in a dress Corduroy. Just stay still…we're almost done."

Wendy was about to retort when she felt Mabel begin to entangle her fingers with her hair. Jumping slightly, she received glares from both of the girls and returned to mimicking a statue.

"Stay still so I can braid your hair!" Mabel insisted as she splashed water on the long hair and combed through it austerely.

Wendy sighed and endured until they heard footsteps coming up the staircase. Mabel gripped her arm and pulled her towards the window. Pacifica followed with a horrified look on her face.

"My parents aren't supposed to be back until dinner time…" She whispered as Mabel aimed her grappling hook at a redwood nearby. Then the brunette latched her arms around the two of them and leaped out the window sill as she fired. The air swept past Wendy, with her dress billowing as Pacifica called Mabel a variety of words equivalent with insane. They smashed through branches, and Wendy hissed in pain as she landed on her back.

Catching her breath, she had the distinct urge to fall asleep but was jolted into the waking world when Mabel jumped down from the tree and landed inches from her splayed fingers.

Pacifica helped Wendy to a stand, and looked her up and down with a smile, "Excellent. The dress is unharmed."

Wendy grumbled and moved towards town, "Let's just get back to The Shack."

*0*

Wendy felt uncomfortable in the dress. Not only did cause walking to become more difficult, and made her feel warmer than she usually did but just wearing it made her feel silly. Although she would never have admitted it, she was happy that they were in the woods, and not moving through the town, for fear that one of her friends would see her and laugh.

Mabel babbled on about everything which moved in and out of her head while Pacifica kept commenting upon Wendy's appearance to make her uncomfortable. Wendy quickly realized why she and Paz didn't have many conversations.

Because the blonde was exceptionally good at being annoying.

She was smart, confident, and hardworking (a harder worker than Wendy). But by god, when she struck gold in the land of teasing, she just kept digging. It became apparent within the first five minutes of their journey that Pacifica had not lost her touch since being a bully. Still, Wendy had to put up with it, as the blonde had come up with this plan in the first place and supplied the dress.

That didn't make it any less annoying when Pacifica pretended to lament the fact that they hadn't bathed her feet to remove the stink. It will all be worth it, she kept telling herself. Unfortunately, the more she reflected upon Dipper's secret keeping, the more she felt the need to reveal it to Pacifica and Mabel. A dead tree chose to interrupt, however. Just as she turned back towards the thirteen-year-olds, she tripped over a log fell forward. Rolling through leaves, she came to a stop with a groan.

Hearing her companions descend the slope, Wendy sat up and spat out dirt. "Well, that was a lot of work for nothing…"

Pacifica and Mabel came to a halt beside her, and both recoiled slightly upon seeing what the fall had done to her once perfect visage.

"It's that bad isn't it?"

Wendy could feel dirt clinging to her skin, and felt the ache of light bruises. The make-up was no doubt smeared across the forest floor. One of the clips on earring was missing, and she had skinned her knee. Just talking caused her to taste the cherry fakeness of the lip gloss and the iron bite of seeping blood.

They glanced at each for a moment, before both nodding slowly.

Sighing heavily, Wendy forced herself to her feet and felt her knee hiss with pain. She shuffled towards home, and Mabel called out.

"Wh-where are you going?"

"Home Mabel. The plan is ruined, I shouldn't have agreed to it in the first place. This whole idea was a silly mess. I didn't get very much sleep anyway…so I am going home."

She despised the harshness which crept into her voice but felt done with everything about the day. First a stomach-churning nightmare, then her best friend turns out to trust an old man he barely knows more than her. Then she gets all dressed up, endures all the uncomfortable makeup and the jibes, just so that she can spend her time with said backstabbing friend, only to trip over a log. All the hard work had gone to waste, and she now hurt in a million and one places. She felt like crying but was too old and too hardboiled for that. So instead, she felt like flopping down on her bed, listening to some good music as she almost cried.

"Wendy?"

She looked up at the voice and found Dipper staring at her from the top of the hill. It took a second to recognize him, with massive goggles blocking his eyes and a black and silver knapsack over his shoulder. He stared at her through the green glass lenses of his goggles and adjusted the massive sci-fi rifle which hung from a neck strap. Tossing off the gear, he sprinted downhill. He stopped just before crashing into her, and his eyes searched her for a long moment.

"You need to a first aid. C'mon there's one in The Shack."

He took her hand and pulled her towards The Shack as she found herself protesting, "But doesn't Ford need you?"

Dipper swatted the worry aside and pulled her past the astonished Pacifica and Mabel. "We already defeated the giant wasp colony. He'll be fine."

He glanced back at her as he pushed aside branches, and she blushed at his next words. "The important thing is that we get you patched up."

He grinned at seeing her face go red and then located the reason why she was out of breath trying to keep up with him. Slowing down, he bent and stared at her skinned knee.

"Sorry about the dress…I would be going faster but-"

"No, I like it. I'm not going to make you run on your hurt leg anyway."

She frowned as he stood, "Well then what are you-"

In an instant, his arms had wrapped around her back and legs, and she squeaked lightly as he lifted her off of the ground. Taking a moment to catch his breath, her prince in shining armor charged off in the direction of his great uncle's abode. She felt she should protest as he was practically falling over under her weight.

But something incredibly strange, yet incredibly pleasant about being carried. She could feel the muscle in his arms, and it became clear that they were no long the quote-on-quote "noodle" arms of last summer. She had always prided herself on self-sufficiency, but it felt almost, touching that someone would care this much about her. It helped that his scent was strangely attractive and that the noises he made were quite amusing.

Finally, they reached the sagging building, and despite how much she wanted to stay in his arms, Wendy told him to let her down. He was about to fall over with exhaustion after all. He ran inside as she sat on the front porch, catching herself when she began to play with her hair. This dress is having weird psychological repercussions upon my psyche.

He returned, still wearing a smile, and flipped open the First Aid.

"Now Wendy Corduroy, this is the third time this week you've been to my office, is there something wrong with you, young lady?" She giggled at the silly voice, and for a moment, the aches and pains seemed unimportant.

He began to wrap a bandage around her elbow as she responded, "Oh I'm sorry sir, but I have fallen in love with Waddles, and now I keep falling head over heels."

Dipper chuckled, and shook his head, "Now I'll have to duel him for your hand lady Corduroy."

She giggled harder this time, "You *hee-hee* really need to be a voice actor, I can hardly recognize you when you do those voices."

He smiled up at her, and again everything felt right.

And again it was interrupted.

Ford called Dipper on his walkie-talkie and explained that there were still a dozen giant wasps left in the woods. Dipper sighed, and wrapped a pink band-aid around her thumb, before telling her that he would be back soon. Before he left, however, Wendy made him promise that he would spend the next weekend camping with her, Mabel, and Pacifica. He had agreed with a small smile, which gave the impression that he missed hanging with them as much as they had with him.

She watched him go with a growing tightness in her stomach. Oh, she had definitely fallen now. The only thing to decide now was how far she would fall before she grabbed at the wall to keep from going splat.


Thank you all for your patience and your wonderful reviews. Hopefully this went well.

Everything in the dream sequence has a meaning by the way. I'd love to hear your interpetations in your reviews. :)