Chapter 2

Dipper's Room

After Dipper had just got done discussing everything with Mabel, he scooted her out of his room under the guise of them both having homework to get done. He gave her a few moments to clear away while he pretended to to get back to his Algebra work, once he was certain she was gone he fired up his computer and hit the net. He was researching creatures that are supposed to be able to turn people to stone.

"Hmm. We know the eyebats. Uhmm there's gorgons, but we would've had more victims and they're know for going after extreme beauties and I know I'm no hunk. Hmm." He scratches his head under the hat, "There are legends say that some vampires are able to do it," he taps the keys a few more times, "Uhmm, well there's some stuff about gargoyles..." He went on like this for a good half hour before he again hears foot falls coming down the hall towards his room.

"Hey Dippingsauce, I just thought of a question," Mabel said as she stuck her head back through his doorway, "If it's not you that was turned to stone then who was it?"

"Oh, I hadn't thought about that. Let's see, well, do you remember the first dance Grunkle Stan hosted at the Shack?" he asked and then waited for her to shake her head in affirmative, "Remember how we found the copier earlier? How I had made a long drawn out plan on how to ask Wendy to dance? Remember how I got stuck working the ticket table?"

Again there was another nod of Mabel's head, "Yeah, but you didn't mind that at first cause Wendy was there, but oh yeah she came in shortly after friends arrived. After that I lost track cause I met Grenda and Candy and then Pacifica and I started our feud over being the queen of the party."

"Well after she went in I tried to shut down the table to follow her in, but Stan caught me and wouldn't let me leave. When I finally got in I ended up creating a copy I named Tyrone. By the time I got back down stairs Robbie was already talking to her. To make a long story short...", He stopped as he realized he left himself open for a reply from Mabel that frequently was used by one of the favorite movie directors. He shook his head as he knew what was coming.

"Too Late," she said sticking her tongue out at her brother.

"I created nearly a dozen clones in order to try and help me work through my list to ask Wendy to dance before they turned on me, when I realized I didn't need the list. I thought I dissolved all of them though. I can only guess that one of them got away…", with that Dipper slaps himself in the head, "Oh, man how can I be so stupid. Two of them stole Robbie's bike and I don't remember them ever coming back."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. So you stole Robbie's bike?", she asked surprised to here her brother had committed a crime, "Also how did one of your copies survive this long?"

"Uhmm, I guess in a way I did." He said just realizing the fact himself, "As for how they could have survived, well I'm not sure. They had my memories up until the point in time that I copied them, maybe between them they figured out a place to get food, shelter, and supplies.", he scratched his jaw for a moment, "Hell, they could've easily gotten into the Dusk to Dawn or found one of the caves. The only other idea I've got is that maybe the statue is the Shapeshifter. I didn't want him to get loose after the whole Weirdmageddon hullabaloo, so I checked on him before we left and he was still frozen.."

"Heh, you said hullabaloo. Bro, this has got to be getting to you. You're starting to talk like McGucket,. Hehe," Mabel giggled a lil as she sat down in his desk chair and started to spin around. "So really it seems like it's most likely a photocopied clone of you that they have to add to the Hall of Mysteries."

"Yeah," He said wistfully as he remembers feeling bad as Tyrone was dissolving. 'Man I miss him,' he thought for a moment before he continued, "I wish we were up there, I'd really like to get a good look at this statue and the hat Dan found."

"So, bro-bro, what are you doing at 9?", Mabel asked with a mischievous smile as she saw him start to blush, "I'm not deaf, nor dumb. I heard you tell someone 'Sure, around 9 o'clock', and I'm pretty sure you were probably talking to Wendy at that point since you said for the person to tell Soos to do something."

He walked over to the picture frame on his desk and took a long look at the object of his affection and best friend over the summer. 'You mean a lot to me, man.', he remembers her saying before she took his hat and gave him hers. He smiled at the thought as he absentmindedly adjusted her hat. 'I wonder what she wants to talk about, she still sounded worried when I was talking to her earlier. I hope she's doing ok?'

"Bro, bro, bro, HEY DIPPER!", Mabel finally yells to get his attention after having been talking to him for a couple of minutes while even waving her hands in his face.

He jumped back after she yelled in his ear and finally responded, "Sheesh, Mabel, no need to yell.", he then rubbed his ear like it was sore.

"Sorry broseph," Mabel apologized, "but I've asked you a like a bazillon times who you're going be talking to at 9 and you still haven't answered. Your eyes went glassy and you looked like some had zapped you with the memory gun there for a moment."

"Sorry I was just trying to figure this stuff out," Dipper fibbed to her, not wishing to get more teasing from his sister about Wendy. "I'm just gonna call Wendy tonight to see if she's found out anything from her friends.", and with that he motioned for her to get out of his desk chair.

"You're still hung up on her, aren't you?", Mabel asked even though she knew the answer. 'He just can't move on like I've learned to do.' she thought.

"Look Mabel, I need to get back to my homework and you probably need too also. We'll talk about this more tomorrow," and with that he pulled his Algebra book back in front of him and seemingly dived tight back into his homework. He heard her mumble something and left his room. He felt bad about kicking her out but his mind was already trying to piece together all the information he had learned today and there was still the pending call later tonight that had him a lil worried.

Mabel's Room

To anyone who only vaguely knew Mabel a look at her room now compared to the way it was before she had went up to her Grunkle Stan's home, there would be no noticeable difference. There was her piles of craft supplies all around her desk, her teen magazines strewn about, and even a few romance novels on her night stand. The biggest difference is the lack of anything Unicorn related and the fact there was only one Several Timez poster on her wall. In place of most of the unicorns it seems she has come to be fixated on llamas. Her summer scrap book is laying out in the open, almost prominently displayed, in the middle of her bed surrounded by some of her stuffed animals. That collection had shrunk also though you couldn't tell it by looking at them, but after her admission she had in the lair of the Society of the Blind Eye she decided to donate the stuffed animals she loved less than the others to a local charity.

"Stupid Dipper, who does he think he's fooling? He knows that I know him almost better than he knows himself.", She muttering to herself as she heads into her room, "Like he really needs to 'Buckle Down' to get his homework done." even though she is alone she still does the air quote motions as she mentioned buckling down. "He did most of it on the bus. I was there. He just doesn't want my in there asking about Wenders. I bet they were freaking out when they saw that statue of him."

She walks over and sits down on her bed. She starts absentmindedly thumbing through her scrapbook till she got to the page marked '[Failed] Summer Romances'. She looks over the pics and wonders why she even bothered. As she looks at each pics something in her subconscious kept nagging around the edge of her thoughts but never seemingly able to reach her conscious thoughts. Even now at school she seems to have an easier time talking and dealing with her female friends. The guys in her grade really seem to be worried more about video games or sports. The two guys who have tried to ask her out were both jocks who really had more muscles than brains and really there was something about them that reminded her of Gideon, maybe it was some sort of smarmy self centered attitudes.

"I may as well go ahead and get this work done before dinner," she said to no one in particular.

Dipper's Room

Dinner had been good. Dad had made tacos. Neither of the twins mentioned any of the info they had gotten earlier from there friends. After eating it was Mabel's turn to do dishes so Dipper had come back up to his room and started going through the 3 ring binder he had put the photocopied collection of pages he had from Journal #3. So far he was still getting information on the same species he had found online earlier. He took out his phone to check the time and realized he had been reading the journal for nearly an hour and it was almost 9. He waited a few minutes for the clock to hit 9 and finally hit the first number he had put into his speed dial.

It was answered on the second ring. "Is this you, doofus?", Wendy asked as she answered.

"Yeah. Are you ok? You sounded bad earlier.", He asked with real concern in his voice.

"Yeah, man. I'm better. I was worried I had lost my boy. I really didn't want to think it was you that dad had brought into the shack. I mean, man, it looked a lot like you. But then I walked up to the statue and saw your birthmark. I know you don't like people to see it, so I was pretty sure that it wasn't a carving. That's a detail only someone close to you would know. I started freaking out man. I, I," she started stammering. The coolest, calmest person Dipper knew started breaking down again, "I thought I'd lost you. I didn't know what to do. It took both dad and Soos to keep me from going out into the woods and finding out who or what did this to you, dork. Dad didn't mention the hat until after I mentioned I had seen some unique sign that told me it was you. They finally settled me down enough to agree to let Soos try calling you. Even then I was afraid I'd hear the ring-tone coming out of the jacket the statue is wearing. He tried three times before he decided to try Mabel's cell." She was now almost rambling and Dipper thought it would be best to let his friend get everything out before he tried to respond, "You don't know how happy I was that Soos reached her only for it to suddenly stop when we heard her running looking for you. When you yelled worrying about me, it was the sweetest sound I had heard in I don't know how long, man."

"It was just as good hearing your voice too, Wendy. I've been so bored down here. I miss Gravity Falls and hanging out with you whenever I can. I've been hitting used book stores and dvd resale shops and buying all B & C grade movies I could find to have ready for the next movie night we get to have.", Dipper started telling her in the calmest, most soothing way he can.

"No, you don't get it man, I really thought I lost you. I've been cool with just missing you because I knew you'd be coming back some day, I really thought I wasn't gonna have you back and there would've been nothing I could've done to prevent it or even been there when you needed me. I don't know what I've done if that had happened.", Wendy was starting to sound like she was about to break down again, "I meant what I said to you as you were about to get on the bus, dork. You really mean a lot to me, a whole lot."

'Is she saying what I think she is saying?' Dipper thought to himself. 'I really can't be hearing this right. I mean she knows I love her, but she also knows I'm happy to just be friends and to just be around her.'

"Dipper, the next time you're up here, man, I want you to tell me again what you said at the bunker. I'm not promising the answer will be different but I'm also not saying it'll be the same." Wendy actually felt a warm flush come over her as she said those words and knowing her young friend she added, "And no I don't hear it over the phone, so please wait till you see me, I want it to be in person. Ok?"

"O-ok." Dipper said with a slight stammer and a crack in his voice, "I promise I will ask you the next time I'm up there."

"Well, now that that's out of the way, let's catch up a lil man." Wendy said trying to calm her nerves and the rest of her down, "What have you been up to, staying out of trouble?"

"Of course I am, I don't have you and Stan down here to influence me to do wrong." He says with a lil bit of a chuckle in his voice, "It doesn't help this area has nearly zero supernatural happenings. Like I said earlier I have about two dozen dvd's to bring up for our movie nights. And Mabel and I may have an idea as to who that statue is...", this last came out with a slight hesitation.

"Wait. What.", Wendy rushed to ask, "Who, what is it? It, it had your birthmark."

"Well I think it may be a clone of me...", as Dipper started to explain, he paused to take a deep breath.

"A what?", Wendy asked incredulously.

"A clone, well technically a photocopy.", Dipper said with a hint of sadness in his voice, "Remember the party Grunkle Stan through shortly after Mabel and I arrived in Gravity Falls. Well he wanted me and Mabel to copy some fliers to advertise it and asked us to just use his old copier. Well it was a hunk of junk but we still tried it. It accidentally went off with my arm on the screen and the next thing we knew a sheet of paper popped out with a copy of my arm on it, nothing unusual there but then my arm pulled itself off of the paper and started coming towards us. Thanks to a spilled Pitt cola we found out they were highly soluble. And really thought nothing about it until later."

"Ok, yeah I remember that night. We got stuck working the ticket table, until you covered for me so I could go in and dance some. Also I think Robbie's bike got stolen at that party.", Wendy thought back onto that night, "Wait you didn't have anything to do with that, did you?"

"Uhmm, guilty in a way. Let me continue." He asked as he started pacing in his room again, worried that she would feel less of him after he was done, "After you went in I tried to head in myself but Stan stopped me. After a lil bit I remembered the copier and decided to try and see if it would work out on a full scale copy of me. It worked perfectly the only differences I could tell was was he seemed slightly faded and had no tree on his hat. I ended up naming him Tyrone."

"Ok. I guess I'm following so far, but I have a question. Why was it so important that you got into the party, man? I mean it was ok, but definitely not worth getting in trouble with Stan over. Or was it something else...", she suddenly she cut off as it came to her, in a whisper she asked, "or someone else?"

"Yeah, I was trying to get in to the party in order to ask you to dance. I was already heads over heels for you then.", he felt himself blush as he was telling her this, unbeknownst to him though so was wendy, "But as usual I was over thinking things, I had a list I was trying to follow and as the evening wore on it seemingly got tougher and I ended up creating more copies, two of which stole Robbie's bike and never came back. So yeah, in a way I stole his bike. But my plans kept getting more complicated and then suddenly we ran into each other and just started talking and I realized I didn't need the plan I had made. After I told the others they turned on and tried to lock me in a closet. I ended up escaping and dissolving them, only for you to leave with Robbie."

"Aw, man. If you had just asked I would've danced with you. Even back then you had already become one of my boys.", she said thinking back.

"I, I wish I had known. Man why was I such an idiot!" He said as he stopped pacing and slammed his hand against his forehead.

"So you're thinking that the statue is one of your clones who got turned to stone? Whoa that means you literally fought yourself just to have a chance at dancing with me, man I don't know what to say." Wendy said with her cheeks feeling more flush. "For a lil bit after we talked earlier I was wondering if it may have been the Shapeshifter."

"I checked on him before we left, he was still a freezer pop."

"Well just to be safe I'll take a trip out to the bunker and check on it. And don't worry, I'll see if I can get Soos to come with me.", she said as she realized that he would be as worried about her as she was about him earlier.

"Ok, in my old room taped to the top drawer is an envelope containing the four emblems you need to open the inner door." he said knowing he wouldn't be able to change her mind if he tried, "Please be careful. Remember you mean a lot to me." He added paraphrasing what she told him before he left Gravity Falls.

"You too!", she said with a smile on her face that he felt like he could see over the phone.

Well here we are at the end of Chapter 2. Now that the background is finally done I'm gonna start building up the action and mysteries. As of writing this I've watch the finale a total of 12 times and it still tears me up. I'm really gonna miss this show something fierce. The last three series that hit me this hard was Kim Possible, Phineas & Ferb, and Night Court.

Please review. I'm always open to constructive and helpful criticism, though if you're gonna troll please move on.

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