NOTICE: I WILL BE CHANGING THE NAME OF THE STORY TO "THE RESURRECTED". I WILL ALSO EDIT THE SUMMARY.
Heya. After a full summer, I've finally managed to release a chapter. I am so sorry for taking so long.
I've also changed things in chapter 2, so you may want to reread that if you haven't already. Some of the plot details have changed.
Enjoyyyyyy
"So you just want to make peace with the pixies?" Dipper asked Jeff the gnome.
"Yep. Ever since Shmebulock" he jabbed a finger at the elder gnome, "ticked one of them off they've been pranking us nonstop! And now they're using us as expendable soldiers in their secret world domination plan!" Suddenly, Jeff gasped, covering his mouth, glancing at the pixie leader sitting across from him in fear. "I've said too much."
"Damn right!" Jessica, (what was with these names?) the leader of the pixies, sneered at Jeff and Dipper, exposing razor sharp teeth. "You humans have no business in our conflict! I don't even know why I'm still here!"
"Because," Dipper said, exasperated, "you keep attacking the human residents. We can't keep letting you do that."
"So what? It's not our problem. And it's not our fault that the old geezer here decided to pull such a stupid stunt," Jessica waved a small piece of parchment in Dipper's face. "Right here, it violates Section 22 of the Gnome-Pixie Treaty."
"But Jessica," the gnome leader argued, "to be fair, Shmebulock is kinda...disturbed."
Shmebulock hissed in response.
"That's true," Jessica admitted. "But still, you shouldn't have-"
"Okay okay, this is probably going to take forever with Dipdop negotiating, so imma take charge now."
Mabel finally spoke up, being bored out of mind for listening to the two races argue back and forth for a whole hour. She sat down in between the Jeff and Jessica, and pulled out her phone.
"Music makes everything better."
Five rounds of Don't Start Unbelieving later, and the gnome and pixie leaders were shaking hands as Dipper looked on in disbelief.
"Mabel, thanks to you, our two races are once again at peace. How can we ever thank you?" Jeff asked.
"Hmmm, let's see...RAVE!"
Dipper sighed in exasperation and glanced at his watch. "Mabel,we have to be at the Shack in a few minutes to help restock. Can you make this quick?"
"Hmph. Party pooper!" Mabel grumbled. "But okay. I just need some fairy dust."
"...What for?"
"That's a secret!"
Jessica sighed, and snapped her fingers. A nearby pixie handed her a bag full of a golden powder. She handed it to Mabel. "Take pixie dust instead, trust me, it's better."
"Oooooh!" Mabel exclaimed, poking at the bag.
"Come on, Mabel!" Dipper called, starting to walk away. Mabel waved to the creatures and began to follow him.
Jeff called back to them. "Be careful out there, kiddos! There's been some freaky stuff going on lately!"
Dipper froze, and turned back to the gnome. "What...do you mean?"
"You're talking about those freaks, right?" Jessica asked. "I don't like them at all. They have the scent of nightmares."
"There's been some strange people around lately," Jeff clarified. "Really creepy. Cloaks, hoods, typical cult. Not the first one we've seen."
"Yeah…" Dipper muttered, remembering the Blind Eye.
"Well, if we find any creeps, the Mystery Twins will be sure to stop them!" Mabel stated cheerfully. "Promise!"
"Mabel, you're an angel. Are you sure you don't want to be my wife?"
"Don't push it."
"Where have you kids been?" Stan grunted, handing the kids boxes of merchandise to shelf.
Dipper shrugged. "Organising a peace treaty between the gnomes and pixies."
Mabel grinned. "Someone's mad that they didn't get to be the hero!"
"Mabel!"
"Kids kids, stop arguing and start reshelving!" Stan pushed the twins to opposite sides of the shop. "Soos is doing tours right now, so don't make a fuss."
"Hey Grunkle Stan, where's Great Uncle Ford?" Dipper asked. He hadn't seen his other Grunkle for the whole day.
"In the basement, where else? Something about circles, new theory, some weirdos crawling around? Not that I care." Stan replied, sounding exasperated.
Weirdos?...
"Yeah, you're into that kind of stuff, right kiddo?"
"Uh…"
Stan sighed. "Tell you what, kid. Go drag him out of his hole. It's his house, might as well work for it. You can finish reshelving later."
Dipper hesitated. "Are you sure it's a good idea to interrupt his work…"
"Kid, if you don't bring him up, you can use that time to clean the porta-porta instead."
"I'm going, I'm going!" Dipper exclaimed, running to the vending machine. He quickly punched in the code and took the elevator down.
The basement was a lot messier than before. Papers were scattered everywhere in the dark room, some pinned to the walls, some left carelessly on the floor. Dipper could see his Great Uncle hunched over a desk on the other end of the room.
"Great Uncle Ford?..." Dipper called quietly. Ford's head jerked up and sharply turned towards him. Dipper noticed the bags under his eyes. His face seemed a little more hollow than before.
"Dipper? It's good to see you, as always, but I'm afraid I'm a little busy right now..." Ford said, rubbing his eyes.
Dipper shrugged. "Grunkle Stan told me to bring you up to see the sun."
"What?! I can't, not now!" Ford exclaimed.
"Grunkle Ford, no offense, but staying in a dark room all day isn't exactly doing wonders to your appearance," Dipper reasoned. "You really should come up."
"Mmm," was Ford's only reply. Completely ignoring what Dipper had said, he motioned for his nephew to come closer. "I'm on a breakthrough here, take a look at this."
Sighing, Dipper approached his uncle and viewed the reason for his stubbornness. Spread out on the desk was a collection of photos, the biggest a picture of what was known as the Zodiac. Surrounding it were photos of cave paintings with various scenes. One depicted what looked like a warzone. Another showed a burning field. All were quite violent, and all of them had at least one symbol from the Zodiac.
"Cave paintings I found during our travels," Ford explained. "they were scattered across the world. Dipper, do you know what this means?"
Dipper shook his head.
"It means there were other Zodiac members before us! Other Pine Trees, Shooting Stars, Sixers…"
"Wait a minute," It finally clicked. "You mean like, reincarnation?"
"Exactly!"
"That's cool Grunkle Ford, but what does that have to do with...well, anything?"
Ford pointed to a small photo in the corner. There were strange symbols painted discreetly beside the burning field. "The numbers are some kind of code. I haven't been able to decipher them though. I've found ten of them in all. It could be some prophecy, or warning, or something along these lines. Either way, I'm not going to leave this basement till-"
A sudden crash was heard from upstairs, immediately followed by screams and shouting. Dipper and Ford met each other's eyes for a moment, and ran to the elevator.
What they found upstairs was a burning shack.
The windows had been shattered, broken glass everywhere. Some of the furniture was broken as well, if not set on fire. Flames billowed around them, swallowing everything like a hungry monster. Dipper's eyes widened in shock.
"Holy…"
A burst of white shown to his left. Grunkle Stan held a fire extinguisher. Mabel was by his side, holding him tightly.
"Mabel! Grunkle Stan" Dipper shouted, stepping around the flames and broken glass to his sister and Grunkle.
"Dipper! What happened?! Did you and Ford do this?!" Mabel shouted back.
"No!"
"I figured it was one of your shenanigans, Stanley," Ford muttered, inspecting the damage his poor shack had been inflicted to.
"Please, it's not always my fault, Poindexter," Stan snapped back. "Soos and Wendy are evacuating the tourists. We'd better move too, unless any of you want to be turned into BBQ."
"Alright then, let's go-"
A snap was heard behind the group, jerking their attention to the entrance. A tall shadow loomed over the doorway, a crushed chair leg under their foot. They were wearing a black hoodie and jeans, with a familiar heart symbol on the front…
Dipper couldn't speak, frozen in shock. He heard Mabel gasp, being the first one to speak.
"Robbie?!"
And thus, a cliffhanger.
Once again, I'm sorry for not updating for so long. I'll do my best to release chapters ASAP.
Until then! -salutes-