Dipper was in his secret room and had Fiddleford running some numbers when a flash of light had him seeing stars and he smelled smoke.

"You're on fire, Blendin." Dipper said. Blendin patted out the small flame on his sleeve and sat down next to him.

"I don't get why they never fixed that." He said as he smothered another stray flame. "Oh well."

"So what did you find out?" Dipper asked while turning to look at the time traveler.

"All of the quantum computers are temporal locked to our time. I can't bring back any equipment unless it's authorized and that is usually just a firearm and the computer on my arm. It's more of a terminal that's quantum and temporally entangled to the main system."

Blendin said.

"And your meeting with GTB?" Dipper asked.

"Not so good. I was able to speak to him alone, and he seemed very adamant about not waking him up early. It was odd; he said events were already in motion… and that even if he wanted to interfere he couldn't."

"Did he say he could fix Billeah?" Dipper asked.

"That's the thing, He did say he might be able to help, but he couldn't at this exact moment in time. I couldn't tell if he meant… the time I was in… or your time… or what." Blendin said.

"You really need to retake that time-travel grammar course." Dipper said.

"I know." Blendin said and let out a sigh of defeat. "Oh, but I did get this for you!"

Blendin reached into his fanny pack and pulled out an old textbook and handed it to Dipper.

"It's not temporally locked, it's a few hundred years old but I thought it might get you started."

"It's… a math book." Dipper said. He flipped through the pages and skimmed the instructions that were given.

The language was English, but… the dialog and terms were foreign. It's like reading something from the Middle Ages, you know the words, but you need to concentrate to understand how they're being used. Most of what was shown were theories that were in their infancies in his time and others had solved some of the most problematic fundamentals of quantum theory.

"I didn't know if it would help… just; try not to do too much damage with it please?" Blendin asked.

"You don't know what this means. I can take my research five hundred years ahead with this!" Dipper said excitedly. "Fiddleford! Get the book scanner ready!"

"You… p..promised this is all in house. No papers or exposure to the outside world with this stuff. I… I checked. No one related to you makes any of these discoveries. You…" Blendin

winced and Dipper looked up. "Sorry… can't tell you."

"None of this will get outside. I have an automated assembly line in Portland I can send some Dipper clones to man when we build the new systems. I hope it's going to be powerful enough. I need to run some numbers." Dipper said. "Oh, how can I contact you without

tearing apart the timeline?"

"I downloaded every copy of the Oregonian till it shuts down. Just put an add in the classifieds looking for a Blendjet 5000 hot tub, I've already bookmarked all the times you call me, I'll

just jump to each one in order when I have the time. We don't want to get our timelines crossed, and then it would get really confusing." Blendin said.

"Did you come up with that?" Dipper asked. Blendin looked nervous.

"I… I thought you did." Blendin said. "I had the idea for the ads, and I searched my name and found a bunch of ads for Blendjet 5000s with no contact info from Gravity Falls. I looked it up

and there's no product like it. I thought you came up with the name."

"Nope," Dipper said with a smile. "You know what that means right?"

"I… created a paradox… again." Blendin said, disheartened. Dipper laughed and patted his friend on the shoulder.

"It happens to the best of us. We'll use it so your head doesn't blow up ok?" Dipper said.

"But then… where did it come from? Why was it even there to begin with?" Blendin lamented. "I'm going to be up all night now."

"Just think of it as fate, a pre-ordained event that was destined to happen." Dipper said with a chuckle. "Hey, you did great. Go get some rest and try not to think too hard about it."

Blendin nodded, pulled his time-tape, and vanished in a flash of light. Dipper set the book on his book scanner and Fiddleford danced a jig as the pages were fed into the computer.

"Hoo boy, you know what I can do with all this mathin?" He chuckled.

"I'm sure you can perform miracles." Dipper said and patted the block of peanut brittle.

Dipper moved in front of Billeah and put his hand on the amber.

"Just a little bit longer." He said. Dipper pulled up a chair and sat it in front of her. Quietly he whispered the spell he memorized and slumped down in the chair.

"Thought I was through with this crap when Wendy left." Pacifica mumbled and sat down next to Mabel. She went to go see Dipper in the lab but he was in his chair and unresponsive. She made sure he had a pillow under him to keep his neck from getting stiff and covered him with a blanket. She hated knowing he was frolicking with Billeah, but he needed to see her and she'd already said it was okay. She was not going to go back on her word because she's jealous of some girl entombed in amber.

Mabel was knitting something and looked up at Pacifica, barely recognizing her. After Candy's suicide, they had to take her to the hospital to deal with her mental breakdown. She's now going to therapy three times a week and was doped out of her mind to give her time to cope with the loss of Tyrone and Candy. Pacifica was afraid her bouncy sister-in-law would not be bouncing back from this.

Gideon was flipping through the channels, it seemed like he wasn't even paying any attention to them.

"That's really annoying," Pacifica said. Gideon stopped and set the remote down.

"When are we going to do something? It's been two weeks!" Gideon lamented. "I mean, come on… I thought Dipper would be a white hot ball of burning fury after Rick's latest attack. We

need to go on the offensive and start taking down his circle."

"You of all people should be worried about Dipper losing his temper." Pacifica said. "We need to be smart about this and not barrel through guns blazing; you're the one who escalated things

anyways!"

"How many times do I have to apologize?" Gideon said.

"You… killed someone! Two people!" Pacifica snapped. "I honestly want to throw you out and turn you in, but my husband insists that we harbor you until he's done with you."

"Nice to know I'm needed." Gideon said.

"Where's Dippingsauce?" Mabel said with a drawl. Pacifica was amazed at how fast she could knit while under such heavy medication. It probably was all muscle memory.

"He's visiting with your cousin." Pacifica said pleasantly. "What'cha makin?"

"Booty." Mabel said and snorted a laugh. "Ha! I said booty. I mean.. booties… for tiny feet for tiny babies."

"When is she going to be off the meds? It's really creeping me out." Gideon said as he started flipping through channels again.

"You wouldn't understand what she's going through." Pacifica snapped. "You've killed three people and seem quite content, not the least bit affected by it."

"The first time I know I was crazy and I accepted that and moved past it. The second time was because it needed to be done. I'm able to sleep just fine at night." Gideon said.

Dipper laid against the pine tree in Billeah's mindscape and watched her run through the grass while chasing a butterfly. She turned and smiled at him, pulling back a strand of hair that

blew into her face. She ran up to him and threw herself on him. He caught her with a grunt and held her to his chest.

"It felt like forever." Billeah said.

"Not too long, but I had to see you. Candy…" He started, He wanted to tell her what was happening outside, and she had every right to know. "Rick got to Candy. Mabel's a mess over it."

"Is she alright?" Billeah asked. Dipper shook his head no. Billeah quietly nodded and interlocked her fingers with his.

"I don't know what to do… I've got a few good leads on how to fix you, but it seems so far away. Blendin came through and got me jump started on a system that can open your overmind." Dipper said.

"I'm scared of that. I hardly remember what that was like anymore, will I still be me? Will I be Bill? I... I don't want to lose you." Billeah said. "I wish I could just give it all up and be me. Even if I have to watch you and Pacifica and keep my feelings to myself, I'll do that."

"I know… I know. If there was any way to do that I would help you in a heartbeat." Dipper said.

"This helps." Billeah said, and drew Dipper's face to hers.

Pacifica checked her watch, it had been four hours.

"Keep an eye on her; I need to get out of here." She said with a huff.

"'Kay" Gideon said, flipping the channels. Pacifica gave Mabel a hug, grabbed her purse and headed to the garage.

Pacifica blasted the radio as she drove the streets of Gravity Falls. She drove past the malt shop she and Dipper went to as kids. She didn't know where she was going, she just felt suffocated in that house. Without knowing why, she found herself staring at the sign of the Mystery Shack.

She got out and walked into the empty shop. Robbie was at the register, and looked up at her.

"Hey Pacifica." He said.

"Hey Robbie, I just came down to check on things." She said, and gave the zombie a hug.

"Yeah… things are good. We sold a T-shirt last week." Robbie said.

"That's great! You're doing a great job." Pacifica said.

"Yeah, it's been really busy. Lots of people were looking around at stuff. Wendy brought over Lee. He's the one who bought the T-shirt." Robbie said.

"Wendy… was here?" Pacifica asked. "Why?"

"She… left something upstairs." He said. "She came by to get it."

"Do you remember what it was?" Pacifica asked, her curiosity peaked.

"I… don't remember. She never said."

"Thank you, Robbie."

"Not a problem." He said. His face went slack and unfocused. Pacifica made her way to the back and looked around to see what it was Wendy may have taken.

She checked all the rooms and didn't see anything out of place. She wished Dipper was there; his freakish memory would pick up on the slightest change to any room. She pulled out her phone and took photos of everything. Maybe he'd be able to see what was taken. Whatever it was, it was probably important.

"Thanks again, Robbie." She said as she left the shack. Robbie waved to her and resumed his post.

Pacifica drove back to the house and went inside. She rejoined Gideon who still had not picked a show and Mabel whose inhumanly fast fingers appeared to be tied in a knot with yarn.

"I tried to untangle them, but they were freakishly tied, She would have bit me if I used scissors." Gideon said when Pacifica glanced down at them.

"They're not turning purple, so she'll be ok." Pacifica said and sat down next to her sister-in-law. Mabel seemed to be nodding off so Pacifica laid her head on her shoulder and stroked her hair.

"Has Dipper come out yet?" She asked. Gideon nodded.

"Yeah, he asked for you and said he'd be back. He wanted to run an errand." Gideon said.

"Okay." Pacifica said. She couldn't shake this sense of dread that was pressing all around her. She hoped he's okay.

"Hey." Dipper said. Pacifica jerked awake. Her neck was stiff from passing out in so uncomfortable a place. Dipper smiled at her and ran his fingers through her hair. "You fell asleep."

"Where have you been?" Pacifica asked.

"Just out, I needed to ship some contracts." He said.

Mabel stirred and looked up at Dipper.

"Hey Brobro." She said and gave him a hug. He hugged her back. Mabel pulled away with a confused look on her face. "Bro? Dipper?"

"Yeah?" he said and smiled. Mabel shoved him away and pulled her legs to her chest.

"He's gone! He's gone! Where is my brother!" she screamed and hyperventilated.

"Mabel, what's wrong?" Pacifica asked. "Dipper's here, he's right here!"

"No! He's not here! Where is he? WHERE IS HE!" she screamed.

"She needs some stronger sedatives." Dipper said. "Go call her doctor. I'll take her to her room"

"We can have Gideon do that, she's still upset over Tyrone. She must be getting you two confused." Pacifica said.

"Gideon? Yeah, okay." Dipper said. Pacifica's thumbs flew across her phone as she texted Gideon. He was downstairs in an instant and helping Mabel up to her room.

"I emailed her doctor; he'll stop by in the morning to check on her. I already texted Gideon the instructions." Pacifica said. She let out a sigh as Dipper sat next to her. Pacifica laid her head on Dipper's shoulder and put his hand on her belly. He gently rubbed it back and forth.

"I'm scared. I just feel like something's wrong." Pacifica said. "I can't get it out of my head."

"Everything's fine, sweetie." Dipper said.

"I went to the shack this evening. I just… needed to get out. I'm sorry, I felt a little jealous." Pacifica said. "And… I stopped by to see Robbie."

"Should I be worried?" Dipper said. She looked at him, expecting his sly smile, but was met with an almost stony look.

"What? No!" Pacifica said, sitting up. "Why would you think that?"

Dipper shrugged.

"Anyway, Mr. Paranoid, I found out that Wendy was there last week and told Robbie she left something the shack."

"She said that, huh?" Dipper said.

"Yeah, and she waltzed right in and took something. I have pictures of the whole place." Pacifica said and handed Dipper her phone. "Take a look and see if anything's out of place."

Dipper took the phone and swiped through the photos.

"This place is a dump… why didn't we ever renovate it?" Dipper asked. "It's like a bottomless money pit."

"You wanted to keep it opened." Pacifica said. "And keep it as close as possible to what the Stans wanted it to be."

"Yeah… nostalgia does that to people. I don't see anything missing." He said and handed the phone back to Pacifica. "She probably left a flannel shirt or some crampons there."

Pacifica got up and stretched her back.

"I'm tired. You wanna come up and rub my back? It's really stiff, and the babies are really being feisty." Pacifica said.

"Yeah, I'll be up later. I have some reports I need to work on." Dipper said.

"Alright. Don't be too long." She bent down and give Dipper a kiss. Was it her imagination, or did he pull away from her?

She walked to the stairs and looked down at her husband as he opened his laptop and started typing frantically. What happened in there? Where did he go? Why was he acting so cold? She felt anxiety grip her chest. Did something happen with him and Billeah?

Cold water shocked Dipper awake.

"Where am I?" Dipper said with a sputter. He couldn't see anything, something was over his eye.

"Open your mouth, lover." Someone said. Before Dipper could say anything, his jaw was forced opened and something shoved into his mouth. It tasted like… a cheeseburger. "Chew it!"

Dipper swallowed the bite and another was shoved in.

"I should let you choke on this." Said the voice, it sounded familiar… defiantly female. "But we're going to be hanging out for some time."

Dipper tried to say something, but another bite of food was shoved into his opening mouth. He nearly choked on the hard bacon that was in the burger.

His mind felt clouded as he swallowed, and could barely hold his head up.

"Looks like your recipe works." The voice said, it sounded distorted as Dipper's mind slipped into inky blackness