Chapter 3

Agate Crystal

"Mmmm, you sure you don't want some, Dipper?" Mabel sked as we headed back to the Mystery Shack, walking along the long driveway. After the rink we had hit the small convince store that had finally took the old Dusk 2 Dawn location. The ghosts were gone but it still freaked me out to be inside once more. Mabel had gotten herself the new Sweet 'n' Tart Tube, which was just a tube of sour gel and was working on it as we walked.

"I'm good," I said, glad she was smiling again. It didn't take her long to get back to herself after she went back to skating with everyone.

As we got closer to the shack I could make out Soos sitting on the porch sofa.

"Dudes, I wouldn't go in there," Soos warned as we stepped onto the porch.

"Arh! I just found another one!" Stan's voice yelled loud enough we could hear him through the closed door. A door slammed a wall as he yelled, "I can't stand your angels watching me in the bathroom!"

Abuelita's voice could be heard yelling back but I couldn't make out what she said.

"Is Ford in that as well?" I asked, wanting to show him the journal.

"He's hiding in the basement, but I wouldn't go in there yet."

"It's been that bad?"

Mabel poked her head into the door, making it easier to hear Stan yell, "Well if your creepy angels make it into the museum, they're going in the trash!"

"A tit e voya tirar a la basura!"

"What was that!?"

Mabel slowly closed the door, already expecting words we weren't supposed to repeat. "Abuelita does love her angels."

"Have you fixed that hole I made last year?" I looked at Soos, already expecting his answer. It was bad enough that I fell through from under the house to the basement.

"Yeah dude," Soos let out a laugh. "Squirrels were trying to make the basement their home. You wanna drink?"

"Sure." I sat next to Soos as he reached over to the other side of the couch and pulled out three Pitt Colas. He handed one to me and one to Mabel as she took the space between us. "So what'd we miss?"

"Dude, Lazy Susan got engaged," Soos started with.

I almost lost my sip of drink, covering my mouth to catch the drips running down my chin.

"Aw! Who? Do we know 'em?" Mabel asked, a large smile on her face.

"Ivan, dude."

"Who?" I asked, the name not familiar.

"Ivan Wexler, oh right dude!" Soos smacked himself on the forehead. "McGucket fixed his memory. He went by Toot-Toot McBumbersnazzle, you know. The dude from the Blind Eye."

"Oh, the guy with all the tattoos on his head!" I realized.

"His real name's Ivan Wexler?" Mabel asked.

Soos nodded his head as he added, "He sang her a love song as a Christmas present, it was a little weird but she liked it."

"Did anyone record it? I'm so looking that up," Mabel smiled.

Soos let out a laugh. "Dude! Dude, you'll never believe it. The Oregon Ducks played here right after thanksgiving."

"Yeah, I heard about that," I added, remembering the news. I wasn't a big fan but Travis is so all I heard about till Christmas was him mad he couldn't go and see them in the town I had spent the summer in. "Nothing… weird happened to them, right?"

"No, but dude, I got them to sign my hat. I have to show it to you when we can go inside," Soos said before taking a sip of his drink.

In the silence I noticed something not coming from within the shack. "Hey guys, you hear that?" I asked.

"No, what dude?"

"They're done!" Mabel jumped to her feet. She rushed inside, letting the screen door close itself with a bang behind her.

"You'll have to show me the hat later," I said, taking a sip from my drink before jumping off the sofa. I hurried into the shack and rushed to the snack machine. A1BC3. The horrors of if someone had ever been indecisive trying to get their snacks popped into my head as the air compression released, opening the door behind. I pulled it open and rushed down the stairs, pulling the snack machine behind me shut. After punching in the code for the elevator, I headed down to the second floor and found Ford writing something at his desk.

I glanced around his privet study, the room feeling barren without all the Bill artwork. I was glad we burned all of it before we left last summer but now the room felt empty. Well, all but one wall which now held photos and notes taped to it. He needed a corkboard. Made stringing ideas together a lot easier.

"Great Uncle Ford?" I asked, worried I'd startle him.

Ford stopped writing a moment before turning to look at me. His appearance still made me second guess myself. He'd gotten a new pair of glasses after a, what'd he call it? A fetmiforotte attacked them up in the Artic. Don't know what it is but he said he had pictures. Couldn't wait to see them. But that wasn't the biggest change. He'd grown a beard. It wasn't long, I could still see the top of his turtle neck sweater.

"Dipper! Are they done yet?" Ford asked, capping his pen.

"I think so, at least until Stan finds another angel," I offered with half a smile.

"I might just make my bed down here then," Ford laughed. "I'm glad you're here, though." Ford stood up and walked over to the trunk under the wall of notes. He knelt down and opened it up so he could rummage through the contents.

I stepped closer, curious what was inside. Most of what I could see was just his cloths. I could make out some sort of pendant and a hand sized tooth in a plastic box but nothing too noteworthy till he pulled out what looked like a wooden box.

"This comes from a dimension where music was out-lawed for giving people ideas of free thought," Ford explained, turning to hold the box out to me. It was about the size of two Sibling Brother books stacked on top of each other. I took it in my hands and lifted open the lid to find a thin layer of glass protecting the inner workings of the music box. "We found it at Dundas Harbour while we were looking for the Jonuna, which is another story I think you'll enjoy. It looks like it was thrown to their incinerator but found a natural portal between dimensions instead."

I closed the lid and looked the box over. Sure enough, the back and bottom looked a bit charred. I turned the crank and opened it back up to hear a tune I couldn't recognize. I looked up at Ford and asked, "Any idea what the song is?"

Ford shook his head. "I didn't stay in that dimension too long. I had already learned what could happen if I ran into a parallel me so I didn't want to risk it."

"Still, it's a cool gift. Thanks," I offered as I shut the box. I reached to put it in my pocket only to remember the journal. "Oh yeah. Me and Mabel found this," I said, pulling the journal out as I swapped what sat in the pocket. "I think it also came from another dimension."

Ford took the journal, poking a figure at the rock on the cover. "Agate?"

"A gate?"

"No, agate, one word. It's the rock they put on the cover," Ford explained. "It's supposed to give strength and courage to find out the truth and accept circumstances." He looked at me and added, "Back in high school I'd gotten into a rock club. I never gave too much on crystals actually having effects on the body but some have proven true."

I kept my mouth closed as he looked back at the book. He flicked open the clasp and turned to the first page only for his eyes to widen in surprise. He flipped through the pages, skimming over what was written. He stopped on a page, mouthing out the words he read. After a moment he asked, "How far have you read?"

"All I did was skim a few pages," I admitted.

"And how much do you know about the multiverse?" Ford asked, flipping a few more pages.

I wiggled my hand as I shrugged. "The basics, I guess. Mostly just from TV, though."

Ford closed the journal and looked straight at me. "To start out, time is not a line. It isn't straight, it doesn't flow from point A to point B. It's more like a tree. Events branch off of it, creating their own tree and it repeats over and over again until there are infinite realities. If you can think it, there's a reality where it's either happened or is happening."

My mind flashed back to when Wendy and I had driven through those weirdness bubbles. The bird people, the very detailed world, the sausage people, it all could exist out there, somewhere.

Ford opened the journal back up and said, "This is from a dimension I'm glad I never found. One of the few only outcomes where she survived."

"She? You mean Sue?" I asked. "You know her?"

Ford nodded his head. "Of her. Thankfully I've never met her in person." He reached to his desk and picked up a black light flash light. Shinning it on the book, he found what I already did, UV writing. "She finds pleasure in destroying dimensions. She found that out when she destroyed the two-dimensional reality she and Bill were born in. Their dimension where the Bill we know came from, she died in her own destruction. In the reality connected to this journal, she and Bill both survived."

"So us having the journal could mean she's already destroyed that Earth," I realized.

"There could be a number of reasons it ended up here," Ford admitted as he clicked off the flash light. With a sign he added, "Though that is the most plausible." He closed the journal, not bothering to clasp it shut, and handed it to me. "Go through it. Find out if there's anything we might be able to use."

"Yes sir." I gave him a smile, glad to be of some use this summer.

76 QWW!Z !7PW 7'V 9 !4*W ZE:3734: Q4:2466W*, 7* 9 9:P 9* W9!8 I4:!. 4* V8 4I* 7 I0!P 0!4*W, 64 ZWW 6{W ZE* 9297* 7' 273W 9*86{7*2 RE6 !7QW WV9*Z 9 Q7*9! #{9J6W:.

AN: For those of you who wish to copy down my code and, oh, I don't know, use an internet decoder, here's a way to do so. On Windows (don't know if it works similar on Mac's, Apple has always hated me so whenever I go into an Apple store and start messing with the demo products, they always stop working. It's kinda fun. Mobile readers, you're just screwed, like I am whenever I read someone else's story and there's code but the app won't let you copy anything so you still have to scrounge around for a piece of scrap paper to scribble it down): Ctrl+U or right click over the story and click on the thing that says "View Page Source". Scroll down till you find the story part in all the code written here and find the one line of code you need, you know, the one I wrote important secrets in. Here you can copy to your hearts content. Of course copying this chapter's code and putting it into the decoders I know isn't going to help you all that much cause you kinda need something… else. Though I will give you a hint: It is cannon to the show as far as I know.