We Need a Time Anomaly!

Chapter 3: Into the Catalyst!

The Twins' silhouettes fell against the navy blue blanket they used to make a makeshift indoor fort. They sat facing each other with their glowing gas lamp placed in between them. Mabel had tapped a big, glittery piece of paper on the outside that read Tent Twin.

When they got home Mabel knew it couldn't wait any longer. At dinner Stan had been unusually quiet and solemn. He even avoided eye contact with them and clearly didn't want to talk. Dipper and Mabel fell silent too with concern. The empty chair next to Stan made everyone feel uncomfortable. They all knew that a certain twin brother should be sitting there, and his absence did nothing but sting.

When it looked like Stan had eaten all he was going to, Dipper jumped up and volunteered himself and Mabel to do the dishes and clean up. Stan looked at them skeptically, but Mabel went up to him and shared their understanding of the situation and told him to just take it easy and sleep on in. Stan smiled sadly at her and picked her up in a hug. Then he bounded around the table and picked Dipper up too. Stan's laugh was the first sliver of genuine happiness since this whole portal fiasco, and the pair couldn't be happier to see their Grunkle happy.

As Dipper and Mabel cleared the table and washed the dishes, they talked about their concern for the older set.

"They just….I want them to get along," Dipper was saying.

Mabel picked up clean dishes in a stack and brought them over to the cabinet.

"They will, Dipper. I don't believe for a second that they don't love each other anymore." Mabel said confidently.

"But Mabel, after ten years Great Uncle Ford still didn't forgive Stan. Now it's been thirty years, and Stan was the one who pushed him through the portal to begin with."

"Ford's the one who branded his own brother." Mabel stated. "They've both done bad things." She took a deep breath.

"I've got something I need to talk to you about Dipper."

"Alright Mabel, how are we going to fix this?" Dipper asked his sister in the comfort of their own fort.

He wouldn't admit it, but he liked the little tent they had made. Nothing spectacular, but it released some of the tension because of how it made him feel like a kid again.

"You know that basin thing from the outdoor museum?"

Dipper nodded, and Mabel braced herself.

"It's connected to time travel Dipper! If we can figure out how the work it, then we can go back and stop Stan from messing up Ford's project. I'm sure if that never happened then they would've stayed close."

After she got it out, Mabel wasn't even afraid of backlash. In fact, she's only grown more confidant in her plan.

Dipper stared at her for a minute.

"Mabel, I'm sure that would do the trick. But we don't know anything about this form of time travel."

Dipper said, clearly alluding to the time measuring tape thingies that Blendin Blandin had used.

"Dipper please!" Mabel said. She clasped her hands together and put on her puppy dog look.

Dipper looked away with his it's-probably-not-a-good-idea face. But then Dipper surprised her.

"Okay Mabel. We'll go to the temple and check things out. But I am in no way agreeing to time travel just yet. This could be dangerous."

He nodded at his twin, and she nodded back. It was risky, since this form of time travel is foreign to them. But they both remembered that it's what got Soos feeling better on his birthday, and even helped him let go of baggage and move on. Maybe they really could pull it off.

Down in the basement, the author of the journals, Stanford Pines, sat alone in the dim lighting. He gave out mentally, but wasn't tired enough to sleep, so instead he sat here in his old lab and thought about the state of things. It was…..strange, being is a house with a family, but not truly being with them. He never planned to go upstairs. As long as Stanley and the kids were here it was not truly his house. He didn't have the solitude that he'd loved so much when he first came to Gravity Falls. But at the same time, it made him feel sad. He hadn't truly been with a family in four decades (three of which were Stanley's fault). But he remembered back in his early days of research and the journals. He missed having a family. He forgot what it was like to eat at a full table, or have conversations in passing around the house. Perhaps he could have that now…

"But no! I don't deserve that…" He said aloud and dropped his head in his hands. "Not after I shut Stan out, no after I burned him for life…."

He looked down at one of his hands. With the thumb and index of the other he touched his sixth finger.

"…High six?" He remembered.

For some reason there was a tropical area in Gravity Falls Oregon. The mystery twins stood in front of the entrance to a cave that would eventually lead to the temple. They'd been able to walk here, although it was over a long distance. Away from the cave there was a strong, gushing river and right now they stood on white sand. All around them were coconut and banana trees. Mabel had picked up a fallen coconut and was now holding it in her hand.

"For our victory drink!" She sang.

Dipper adjusted his hat. "Alright Mabel, let's do this."

The temple was not very exciting. Most of it was just hallways with that fancy design they was in the journal. Dipper could not find a map of any kind.

"Use the light trick thingy!" Mabel said.

"I already tried that back at the shack. Nothing's there."

They walked for a long time without finding anything. Eventually, Dipper turned to Mabel and recommended they turn back.

"I just think that if we go see that guy from the street display-the one who knew all about the basin- then we'd have better luck!" Dipper tried to talk reason into his furious girl counterpart.

"Dipper! We didn't come all this way for nothing!" She said, fuming. "We just have to keep trying!"

Marcus started to hear voices coming from somewhere within the temple. He took one final photo of hieroglyphics before he started following in. It got louder and louder and soon he was looking out of a hidden and easy to miss doorway. There he saw…..fluffy haired girl? His eyes widened in shock. That was a bold little girl who wanted to get a better looked at the basin…and proceeded to climb on top of him to do so. She was arguing with someone who looked exactly like her but with short hair and a hat on. And she was holding a coconut…? He also, startlingly, took into account that she did in fact have a weapon on her. A holster-like pouch was at her left hip –pink and decorated with clouds-that held a grappling hook.

He approached them, and since they didn't hear it footsteps in his heavy hiking boot, he raised up his hands and said "Whoa there friends."

They stopped their bickering and looked at him. Then they both broke out into their own reactions. The fluffy haired girl ran up to him screaming and waving her arms with a big friendly smile on her face, while at the same time her brother broke out into a fit of questions and something involving unbelievable timing. He watch the twins go on and on until it became apparent that they wouldn't stop.

"Guys? GUYS?" He called over them. When they both did, he started inquiring.

"Alright, so what are you guys doing here?" He asked in a friendly manor.

"The magic basin!" the girl said.

The boy was clicking a pen and holding a strong book with a hand design on the front.

"Okay, you're gonna think we're crazy, but we're looking for a means of time travel." He said.

Marcus raised his eyebrow at a pleasant surprise. "Good thing for you, I know the place."

As it turned out, Marcus's father was an explorer who came to Gravity Falls. He studied this place for a long time but eventually had to leave.

"He said he never could return back." Marcus said with a shrug. "So I took up his research. I work for that museum you came. I tell the stories of all the object we display."

"That's really cool Marcus!" Dipper said excitedly. "We should go adventuring together once all of this is over."

"And what exactly is 'all of this?'" Marcus asked him. Dipper and Mabel glanced at each other before they simultaneously agreed that they needed to tell Marcus the truth.

"We have two great uncles…" Dipper started.

"Who won't stop fighting and we need to fix the past!" Mabel blurted out.

Marcus nodded his head in understanding. "Family troubles. I get it, I have a brother I don't get along with. We're just too different."

"Why don't you go back in time and change it?" Mabel asked.

Marcus chuckled. "See, the thing is, I did a lot of things out of spite, and they made we who I am today." He looked down. "I don't like that we fight, but I like where I am now." Marcus smiled down at the twins. He was quite taller than them, probably right in-between their height and Wendy's.

Eventually they came into a very large and spacious room. In the center of it was an ancient looking bathtub made of stone. Dipper and Mabel both made questionable faces at it and looked at Marcus.

"I know it's stupid." He said matter-of-factly. He placed his lantern on a stone slab next to it.

"Alright, get in. I know how to send you back." Mabel and Dipper hopped over the side.

"And you're sure you can send us back to the right time?" Dipper asked cautiously.

"Yep. If you guys do end up in the wrong time, just call out to me and I'll bring you right back."

"You can watch us?" Mabel asked.

Marcus nodded his head. "Once you transport back I can watch you guys in the water. That's the design of this place, to have one person back working it manually. Kind of guaranteed escape if anything goes wrong."

Marcus settled behind the slab, which seemed to function like a control table.

"Alright, do you know what time you guys are going back to?"

Mabel and Dipper looked at each other with their mouths hanging open.

"Don't remember huh? Well, luckily there are a few different ways to do this."

He pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil set.

"Mabel," He said, pointing at her. "If you can draw some images accurately then we can use those as the reference."

Mabel gave him two thumbs up and took the paper and pencils. Dipper hopped out of the tub to give her room to work and went to stand beside Marcus.

"You your dad keep a journal of all his research?"

Marcus shook his head. "Nope, we keep it all up here," he said as he tapped his head.

"Really? You're able to keep all that information memorized?" Dipper asked in amazement.

"Yep. But I take it your pretty braining too right?"

Finally, Mabel was done with the pictures. Dipper noticed that she only drew happy moments of the Stan twins' lives. Dipper was back in the tub with Mabel and Marcus was getting things in order. There was a silver plate on the side of the tub. Marcus removed in and water started fill up rapidly.

"ARGGG!" Dipper and Mabel both flinched at first, but then they realized the water somehow wasn't soaking their clothes or getting them wet.

When the tub was appropriately filled, Marcus called out "You guys ready?"

"Yeah!" they shouted in unison.

Marcus worked at the stone table and soon the tub began to rumble. Marcus raised his voice over it.

"Alright guys, close your eyes, hold your breathes, and wait five seconds. Then you'll be back!"

Dipper and Mabel eagerly held hands, took a deep breath at the same time, and then submerged themselves in water.

A/N: Okay, so a timing traveling bathtub? I know, I know, pretty weird Idea. I just wanted something light and ridiculous to keep the good old Gravity Falls feeling. Sorry about having an OC, but it felt needed to keep the story going. Also sorry about this chapter being this long, I didn't anticipate that I would need this much build up to this form of time travel. Anyway, now that all the explaining is done, we can get into the actual act of time traveling in the next chapter! I promise, I'll get right into it!