That dark long hair hung limp across his lowered face, a sheath to cover his mistakes. Flanked by two of the best warriors in this dimension, Mason still maintained a semblance of a wild animal. Now cornered, now desperate.
"I have seen this before, several times." His breathing was slow, controlled and his voice raspy. "The phantom collects Dippers, or at least he collects those that fit the mold." Mason stopped and touched his sliced cheek. The blood, now dried had run through his dark beard to stain his shirt and jacket. He didn't show any intention of wanting to continue.
"Do not stop." Ford had no patience for games. "You have lost our trust and I tell you the truth when I say that we will stop at nothing to solve this mystery." There was a slow metallic scrape as Ford unsheathed one of his own blades. Mason flinched at the sound. The threat worked.
"Look all I want is my revenge, that's all! This mystery is none of my concern, I don't care who he is as long as I can kill him." He shook his head and strands of hair parted long enough for Dipper to connect. An angry mirror looked back.
"Pacifica was taken because of you," it was difficult to keep his voice steady, "so solving this mystery better become your concern or I swear I'll make it so." He poked Mason's shoulder with a blade. Mason swatted it away, a deadly mosquito.
"Ok, ok. Those other Dippers, well they were all taken by that servant, he even took... me." Dipper and Ford exchanged looks. "They always came in pairs and they were always searching for the same thing, a need to solve the mystery of the phantom's identity." Mason sighed deeply. "I've watched too many of them come and die, the phantom needs to be stopped. He needs to die!"
"All the other Dippers were killed?" Ford asked.
"No, just their companions their Wendys, Pacificas, and Mabels. It was them that the phantom's minions overwhelmed while the Dippers were whisked away by the servant. I've watched Soos die so many times that I know now exactly what it takes to kill him." Mason fidgeted on the stool. "I don't want to know that. I never wanted to know that..." His voice broke.
They were silent for a moment. Ford sheathed his blade and grabbed his drink. Dipper walked up to the side window and looked out at the woods, lost in thought. The sun had risen well above the mountains now and the pristine sky promised a beautiful fall day. He thought of all the people the phantom had led to their deaths, and of all those who had died violently as collateral in the phantom's plans. Yet things didn't make sense; a nagging thought told him there was much more to Mason's story.
"Does it always happen the same way?" Ford finally asked.
"Yes, even with me. My double was captured first as we entered Gravity Falls, but it is different now." That got their attention.
"Different, how?" Dipper turned back to Mason.
"For one thing, there is only one of you." Mason pointed to Dipper.
"What do you mean, what about you, don't you count?" Dipper asked skeptical of Mason's assessment of the situation.
"No, I don't." He shook his head and looked at Dipper. "There were always two Dippers of the same age; never different ages and both had their companions with them. Now there is only you, and also the other Dippers were not warriors. The TC does not exist anywhere outside of this dimension."
"What?" Dipper looked at Ford. "Did you know this?"
"No, but this changes many things." Dipper watched as Ford's eyes drifted out of focus, his grunkle's mind processed the new information and began to work out new ideas.
"I've spent a couple of months watching you two come and go and I have to admit, you two have no equals in the other dimensions." Mason laughed. "Well, except for me, I had to learn how to fight to survive on my Earth after the phantom ravaged it." Dipper noticed an arrogant note in Mason's voice. So the man thinks he can compare himself to me?
"Well that explains it!" Ford's outburst startled them and then he began to pace up and down the store. "It all makes sense now, there can only be one; this dimension is dimension zero! The main hub, like a wagon wheel, this dimension is at the centre and all others are spokes radiating from it. It holds all realities and the multi-verse itself together!" He smiled, began to pace faster and used his hands to explain. "That's why Bill wanted it and that's why the TC is headquartered here! If the phantom is building a universal portal this is where he would do it, this dimension is the access point to everything." There was so much joy in his eyes. "I now know why there is so much weirdness in Gravity Falls; the town must be at the centre of the multi-dimensional cosmos." Ford hurried off to parts unknown; they heard him talk to himself and rummage through stuff in random rooms of the shack. At that Mason began to get up off the stool, but stopped as Dipper's blade whistled through the air and halted just short of removing his face.
"No." Mason reluctantly sat back down. "I'm not done with you."
"What more do you want from me?" Mason sounded tired.
"What happened to the others?"
"What others?"
"The other Dippers, what happened to them?" Dipper had three questions, this was number one. Mason fidgeted on the stool and kept his head low; it was a while before he said anything.
"Why do you want to know that?"
"You're still hiding something, what is it?" Dipper was weary of Mason's deception.
Then they both jumped as a loud crash disturbed the tension. Somewhere in the shack Ford had gotten too enthusiastic about his search.
"I'm ok, nothing to worry about, everything is fine!" Ford shouted from somewhere in the back of the house.
"So..." Dipper returned his attention to Mason.
"I'd rather not tell you, I doubt you'll like the answer." This time Mason looked right at Dipper. His eyes held those of the sixteen year-old Dipper, and waited.
"Perhaps you're right; I don't really need to know that." Dipper smiled and turned to slowly move away. He watched from the corner of his eye as Mason began to get up off of the stool and that's when he swung back and kicked it out from under him. Mason tried to grab hold of the counter but Dipper slammed the flat side of a blade on his hand and Mason landed hard on the floor. He lay sprawled on his back and moaned. His eyes focused on Dipper with shock and fear.
"You think you can challenge or even compare yourself to me?! I can kill you in ways you haven't even thought of!" Dipper bent down and raged at Mason, with the tip of his sword imbedded in Mason's left arm. There was a moment that stretched between them while blood pooled on the floor. A second later Mason twisted his arm from under the blade and in one swift move rotated his body and pushed himself up to his feet. His right hand reached inside his coat and pulled out a revolver from a hidden holster, while his left released a short spring-loaded blade. Both weapons were intercepted by Dipper's blades but Mason managed to pull the trigger and a bullet whistled passed Dipper's right ear. The next few seconds were a frenzy of bullets and sword thrusts, as both men dodged and parried with their weapons. Eventually Mason's revolver ran dry and the two stood face to face mere inches from each other.
The barrel of Mason's empty revolver was firmly pressed against Dipper's left temple; his finger kept pulling the trigger.
"You're out." Dipper said matter of fact. Mason grinned.
The edge of Dipper's right-hand blade rested steadily across Mason's throat.
Their other blades were pressed between them and slowly ground their edges against each other. The store suffered bullet holes, broken glass and the crimson of blood spray over several items. One of the slugs grazed Dipper's forearm which dripped blood to the floor directly into the pool of Mason's own blood. With every drop a tiny lightening bolt arched over the pool with an electric fizz.
"What in hell is going on here?!" Ford ran into the store with both blade and pistol drawn. He froze in the door way. "Have you two gone mad? You'll kill us all! Step away from each other!"
Mason slowly lifted the pistol away from Dipper's head and with a steady hand holstered it; Dipper did not remove his blade.
"What happened to the others?" The question passed between them like a deadly snake.
"They..." Mason still hesitated and Dipper encouraged him with pressure on the blade against his throat. "I... did things I'm not proud of."
"Tell me than why you survived?" The second question. "After the phantom captured you, why didn't he just do with you what he did with the others?"
"I made a deal with him." Mason's eyes lowered away from Dipper's and his demeanor changed.
"Why would he make a deal with you?"
"I don't know." Truth?
"What kind of deal was it?"
"That I would steer the others to him..." Mason's body slackened and he lowered his blade.
"You did what?! Why?" Dipper began to see the whole picture.
"He promised me something." Dipper removed his sword from Mason's throat and watched the man fall apart before his eyes.
"What could he possibly promise you that would make you betray so many to their deaths?" Dipper couldn't hide his disgust.
"Look, I don't have what you have, I'm not a superman." His voice had an edge of resentment in it. "Yes, I can travel between dimensions but any moron with a Dimensional Translator can do that. What I can't do is time-travel. So that's what he did, he promised to bring me back; back to when the others were alive, back to a time when my Wendy was alive." Suddenly Mason laughed manically and tears ran down his cheeks. "I led them to their deaths and then I watched... as they died!" He looked a shell of a man, broken, defeated, lost. His mind had seen the deaths of so many that it finally cracked. Dipper wanted to feel pity for the man, but revulsion was all he had.
"You know he can only send you back in time, but he can't make you any younger?" Ford pointed out.
"And that's the worst of it; I've always known that so I..." Mason stopped, his head dropped and shambled over to the stool, picked it up and slumped on it.
Ford and Dipper moved over to the main door, far enough that Mason would not hear them, but close enough to stop him if he acted out.
"What do we do now?" Dipper had an image of his friends being killed by the lizard-man. "We can't bring him with us to the spaceship, there is no way we can trust him! I'm not even sure if all he'd told us is the truth."
"No, no of course not." Ford glanced at Mason but looked preoccupied with something.
"Ford what's going on?" Dipper had seen this look before, it usually meant serious trouble. Ford turned his back to Mason and pulled an unusual device from his coat pocket. Numbers flashed across a small screen and a countdown slipped down towards zero.
"He at least told this one truth, this dimension is dimension zero." Ford held up the timer. "Unfortunately the portal the phantom has opened here is running out of time. It has begun to destabilize and soon the gravity coupling will disintegrate and cracks will open up in our reality." Dipper's mouth fell open.
"How much time do we have?"
"We only have three hours of relative time left, after that... I don't know."
"So what do we do? There isn't enough time to hike all the way to the ship! Do we risk jumping it?"
"I think this drama has not yet fully played itself out, we might have to wait and see what happens." Ford didn't sound very comfortable with this idea and neither did Dipper, but there was nothing more they could do.
As the two of them deliberated over the timer and their situation, they both missed Mason's actions. He stood with his feet firmly planted and methodically reloaded his revolver from an ammunition belt around his hips. Bullet after bullet slipped into the chambers with a satisfying click. Four, click. Five, click. Six, click, slide. When done, he tested the trigger mechanism and holstered the weapon. He flexed his hands and cracked his knuckles, lowered his body, squared his shoulders and rushed at the two men before him. His aim was the door and the freedom that lay beyond. The force of his charge knocked Ford into Dipper and threw them both against the wall. The door burst open with such violence that a hinge was ripped out of the wall.
Mason soared over the front porch and into the bright sunlight. He spun round in the dirt and searched for Wendy, but instead there before him, on an old rickety fence post was a hat. It sat perfectly on top of the post, as if it belonged there. Wendy. As comprehension downed on him, he accepted that the servant had taken her as well. He walked up to the hat and gently took it off the post, closed his eyes and sighed deeply. He then turned around and grudgingly returned to the Mystery Shack.
Both Ford and Dipper waited for him on the porch. He needed them after all; the Emperor had broken his promise.
"You'll want to know the rest of the story, it gets even better." He was about to break his own promise.
"Ok, as you probably figured it out, what I told you in the Monastery was a lie." They sat out on the porch with drinks in their hands and talked. Whatever was to come, it seemed they had time for this. "There was no Leanne in my world and I didn't have to kill my Wendy, she was killed by one of the Emperor's soldiers and I was taken just like the others. The Emperor planned all of this just so I could insinuate myself into your group and bring you here."
"You lied so much to us, what makes you think we're going to believe you now?" Dipper asked.
"Because, now I'm telling you the truth." Mason sounded exasperated.
"Yeah, right." Dipper scoffed. "Why now? What's changed?" Mason ran a hand through his unruly hair and bit his upper lip apprehensively.
"I need your help." Mason looked at them expectantly.
"To do what, kill the phantom? Is that even the truth?" Ford sat quietly and watched Dipper drill Mason.
"No, I don't think anybody could actually kill the Emperor. I need your help to rescue Wendy, and in turn I'll help you rescue Pacifica." He stroked the hat tenderly. "The Emperor promised to leave her to me; she was supposed to wait here. But he broke that promise and she's gone."
"He promised her to you, how?" This had gotten ridiculous. How could one being control so many?
"When I gave Leanne the serum, it brought her memory back, but did not remove the programming." Mason pulled out a small glass vile with a golden liquid. "The Emperor's scientists gave me this to counteract the memory block, but the programming remained."
"I thought you said the programming was to kill me and Pacifica? That was that a lie wasn't it?" Dipper corrected himself.
"Yes that was a lie. Her programming was to wait for me, and once I extricated myself from you I was to pick her up and we'd be off to my dimension. But she's obviously not here, which means the servant took her."
"Maybe she just grew tired of your lies and bullshit and left on her own." Dipper leaned back in his chair and stared Mason down.
"Look, you really don't have a clue who you're dealing with; you need me as much as I need you." Mason leaned back and shook his head. "Lord Vilis Inpuratus, Emperor of the Multi-Verse truly is Emperor of the multi-verse; he is in control of everything!" Mason's earnestness surprised Dipper. "All this time you two thought you were working for the TC? Well guess what, you were actually working for him."
"That's not possible; I would have known something like that." Ford spoke up.
"No you wouldn't. His empire spans hundreds of thousands of years, billions upon billions of worlds and an almost infinite amount of beings. What makes you think that someone this powerful would let you in on the secret?"
"Then why the anomalies, why the uncontrolled portals?" Ford showed his frustration. "And why this?" He took out the timer and tossed it to Mason.
"What is this?"
"That timer is counting down to when the portal this Emperor has set up in Gravity Falls becomes so unstable that it will destroy this world and the multi-verse with it."
"What? That's not possible." Mason's shocked expression was priceless, it made Dipper smile. "I've seen the future, I know that the gates are stable and open all the time! They exist throughout the whole of the multi-verse; almost every world has one and they're all connected."
"That is absolutely correct my dear fellow." All three of them reacted the same way, on their feet and weapons drawn. The servant stood in the middle of the open field with his head cocked to one side and a big grin on his face. "Hello there, Pines family. Don't you think that perhaps it's time you finally met your Emperor?" He began to stride towards them. "I will generously provide the transportation."
"I don't think so; we're not going anywhere with you!" Dipper stepped down from the porch and prepared to fight.
"But you don't understand you see you don't have a choice. In a matter of minutes this dimension and all the others will cease to exist, but not if you come with me." He did not stop his approach.
"Dipper, as much as I hate to say this, he's right." Ford came down and placed his hand on Dipper's shoulder. "We are running out of time, whatever the phant... the Emperor is planning; we probably need to be there."
"That's the spirit Ford, nothing like pure intellect to give us some common sense. Now Mr. Mason would you be so kind as to join us." The servant stopped in front of Dipper and Ford then pointed at a place next to Ford.
"I have one question for you." Mason took his time. "What did you do with the town's people?"
"Ah, I'm glad you noticed. This is a very auspicious time in the rule of our glorious Emperor Vilis Inpuratus, so he has gathered them all to bear witness to his glory. They will observe the true beginning of his omnipotent and eternal rule." The servant, with his strange voice, gushed so much emotion that Dipper felt sick.
The instant Mason was within range, the scenery changed and they ended up deep inside the Trilazzxx Beta's spaceship. The power was on and the ship hummed gently. In front of them was a massive portal, its size was overwhelming and its colours were a rainbow of the most exotic Dipper had ever seen. It swirled hypnotically with occasional bursts of electricity across its massive event horizon. The light that emanated from it lit up a scene as rich and beautiful as it was the bizarre.
"Welcome to the coronation of our Emperor!" With raised hands, the servant spoke with a voice that resonated throughout every corner of the cavernous interior. From their position directly in front of the portal, Dipper watched as burst of thunderous applause and euphoria erupted from the countless multitudes of the most extraordinary beings encompassing the portal. While most stood on the same level as Dipper, others completely covered a number of large balconies that floated above the crowds. There were yet others who glided through the cavern on gossamer wings or hovered with the use of technology. Dipper staggered backwards trying to absorb the scene, that's when the servant turned to him and spoke with the outmost reverence. "Welcome Master Pines..."