Chapter Twelve: Falling Stars
"Wa-wa-wait!" Dipper stuttered, hardly daring to believe what he'd just heard. He and Mabel were at the Mystery Shack on an off day to visit Soos, their brand new winter attire thrown around the room; coming from California, neither was used to the heavy coats, gloves and scarves, and it was nice to be able to move again.
"Huh." Ford's voice came from the speaker phone as Stan's voice chuckled in the background. They would be arriving tomorrow for the holiday, and considering certain circumstances, had decided to call ahead of time, just to make sure everything was okay. "He's taking it better than you thought."
"Calm down there, slick." Stan called. "I said the journals are still at the shack."
"Where are they?" Dipper cut him off excitedly. "I thought you took them with you!"
"We left them with Soos." Ford explained. "If not for ideas for the shack, than just for safe keeping."
"Oh yeah, sorry, dude." Soos said, scratching the back of his neck. "I forgot all about those books. They should still be in my room if you -" Dipper bolted off excitedly into another room before Soos could finish talking.
"Dipper?" Stan asked. He must have heard the cutoff and the pounding of sneakers on wood.
"He went to go find them." Mabel reported.
"He is like me." Ford said in a musing way. "Mabel, are you still here?"
"Yeah Grunkle Ford, I'm here." Mabel said, and at that moment she head her brother yelp, a series of crashes and a yell of 'I'm okay!'. "I'm pretty sure Dipper just fell down the stairs."
"Should of gotten those things carpeted." Ford muttered, clearly to himself, but both Soos and Mabel could hear him clearly.
"By the way," Stan started, sounding like he'd just been reminded of something. "Soos, have you been down in the basement at all?"
"Uh, no sir." Soos said. "I always felt like whatever that was down there was your business and I could never remember the code anyway."
"How's the Shack?" Stan asked.
"Great, Mr. Pines!" Soos beamed, all trace of his previous nervousness gone. "I really went all out with it. New base, fresh paint, everything! Wait till ya see it!"
Stan chuckled. "Alright, alright, sheesh. I'll definitely stop by to take a look." That might not have been the kindest way of saying it, but there was that unmistakeable fondness in his voice that all three of them, including Dipper, had missed. "Mabel, you holdin' up okay?"
Mabel's fond, nostalgic grin disappeared, replaced with a fearful, tiered look and she was glade they couldn't see it. "I...I'm okay."
"It don't sound like it." Again, maybe not the best choice of words, but the gentleness in Ford's tone was enough to tell Mabel that she was safe. None of them would allow harm to come to her, especially Dipper. "We know Bill's been telling you lies. What's he been telling you?"
Mabel contemplate this. She loved her Grunkles dearly, but this was really something that should stay between her and Dipper. There really was no reason to worry them. At least, that's what she told herself. "I...can't tell you right now."
Ford gave a brief hum, clearly having expected this to go differently. Thankfully, though, he said "Alright, we'll find out soon enough. Just don't listen to anything he tells you."
Again, the similarities between Ford and Dipper were striking; she'd heard it from her brother, same words, same tone, when she first told him about it around a month ago. Mabel gave a heavy, tiered sigh. "Okay, I won't." Now eager for a new topic, Mabel continued. "So...How's the inn?"
"Oh, it's very nice. We'll be leaving after breakfast, so we should be seeing you kids around noon tomorrow." Ford said.
"Can't wait." Mabel said with a grin.
"Well, we need to go." Ford said.
"We'll see ya tomorrow, pumpkin." Stan put in.
"Okay, bye. Bye from Dipper, too." Mabel said.
"Bye, Mr. Pineses." Soos said.
"See ya in a couple days, Soos." Stan said. The phone hang up from the other side, and Mabel clicked the speaker phone off.
"They're here! They're all here!" Dipper's voice came from the other room and they saw him just reappearing from the other room. In his hands was a stack of familiar books. He carefully set the stack down on the floor and began redressing in his winter clothes. "Mabel, I've gotta get home and put these in a safe place. See ya at dinner, kay?"
"Okay." Mabel said. "Oh, and Stan and Ford said they'd -" but she was cut off by the slamming of the front door after Dipper bolted out into a gust of icy wind, his coat barely even zipped. Their mom would be livid. "See ya tomorrow." she finished, honestly more annoyed than anything else.
"Hey, you guys gonna introduce Chris and those kids to them?" Soos asked, and Mabel thought about this for a moment.
"They do have something to do with this, so I guess we should." Mabel told him.
"Ya know, I don't think they ever told us exactly what they were going to do." Soos said. "Want me to call them over here to get things straight?"
"No." Mabel said, peering out the window to the snowfall. She was pretty sure that Chris, the younger Stan and Chloe had grown up in Gravity Falls back in their time so they were probably more used to snow than she was. The snow might not have been sticking yet, but still. "We'll get the whole story tomorrow when they meet Grunkle Stan and Ford."
Mabel was back in her room, once again in a world of gray. She took in a breath, forcing herself to calm down. Bill appeared in a flash on light.
"Hey there, Shooting Star." he greeted, twirling his cane in his hands. "I hear ol' Fez and Sixer are coming home." Mabel ignored him, as par Dipper and Ford's warnings. Bill continued. "Aw, come on. No news for your ol buddy Bill? And after I made you that wish-granting bubble, too. Well, I guess I really shouldn't be surprised there. I mean, you are pretty used to being an ingrate." Mabel clinched her fists and turned away. Bill floated into her line of sight once more, and she turned away again. "Not in the mood to talk? That's fine. But remember this: Shooting stars are the most beautiful when they fall." He was silent. Mabel glanced at him with irritation before she rolled her eyes.
There was a loud flicking sound, like the snapping of fingers, and Mabel awoke with a hard flinch and a gasp. It was still night, and she shrank further under her blanket, partly from the cold and partly from fear. She didn't fall back asleep.
The earlier part of that morning was spent in a tired daze for her. She vaguely noticed her parents attempts to talk to her, or when Chris, Stan and Chloe showed up, as Dipper and her had requested last night. Dipper, in a familiar way, searched the pages of the third journal for something to cheer her up. He eventually managed the get a smile out of her as they reminisced about the gnomes, height-altering crystals and escaping dinosaurs in the old mines.
Mabel's smile grew when, apparently hearing that he was being talked about, Waddles leaped off his spot on the couch and trotted up to Mabel, so that he and Dipper flanked her. He rested his hoof on her lap and pressed his snout to her face in a sort of kiss. She laughed, and hugged the pig with one arm, Dipper with the other. No one seemed to notice the doorbell ringing until a familiar voice reached their ears.
"Hey, Joey. Howya been?"
"Uncle Stan." Joe's voice came. "And you must be Ford."
"Guilty as charged." Ford's voice came.
Waddles' ears perked up and he began excitedly charging to the living room. When he showed no sighs of stopping, Stan held his hands out in front of himself defensively, Waddles coming right at him. "Waddles, no. Down! Sit! Stay! Oof!" The pig tackled Stan and began licking him happily. Stan, however, was far from. "Rugh! Stop it! Down boy, bad pig!"
"Stan! Ford!" the kids yelled, running after Waddles. Stan was relieved when Waddles finally hopped off of him, only to have the wind knocked out of him a moment later when Mabel clung to him. Stan smiled and returned the hug with a familiar, "Hey there, kiddo." Ford and Dipper said nothing, but were clearly delighted to see each other by the wide smiles on their faces. After a moment, the kids released their Grunkles only to switch.
"Mabel," Ford said as he released her from their hug. Meanwhile, as opposed to a hug, Dipper found himself in a combination of a head-lock and a noogie from Stan. "How are you?" His smile slowly faded as he took in her tired expression and the slight darkness under her eyes. What was going on? This wasn't the bubbly little girl he'd seen off at the bus stop two years ago. "Bill?"
"Bill." Dipper answered for Mabel, the playful exchange between him and Stan now over. Stan looked on with an aggravated expression. Not only was that Bill back, but he was, once again, going after his family. Apparently, the guy never learned.
"Stan," Kristen said. "Ford, there are a few people you need to meet in the living room." When the adults got to the living room, Stan and Ford were intrigued to find a pair of very familiar looking kids sitting on the couch. At the end was an older girl who was petting Waddles, who was now snoozing on her lap. The younger kids looked so much like Dipper and Mabel when they were younger.
"Hello." The younger girl grinned and waved at them, making her look even more like Mabel. The boy glanced up at them silently and the older girl, despite her relaxed posture, watched them keenly.
"Uncle Stan, Uncle Ford." Joe said, gesturing to the kids. "Meet Chrystal, Stan and Chloe; your great-great nieces and nephew."
"Time-travel?" Ford guessed, not missing a beat and his bother gave himself a little smile, touched that Dipper would name his kid after him.
"Yep." Chris answered, and she proceeded to retell their story. At some point during in the story, Kristen got up to bring two mugs of hot coffee for the older Pines twins, which they took gratefully. After the story concluded, the elder Stan smirked at Dipper and nudged him. "Hehe. Looks like you and Wendy finally tied the knot, eh?"
"No." Chloe said, sounding absent. "Him and Aunt –"
"CHLOE!" Chris and the younger Stan's hands flew over her mouth so forcefully, she all but fell over.
"You wanna risk our existence?" Chris yelled.
"So what are you guys supposed to do anyway?" Dipper asked.
"Actually, Dad only needed one of us to go." Chris said. "Stan – our Stan – said that he started this, so he had to try to fix it, and I came back to protect him."
"I was just bored." Chloe chirped happily, still constricted in her cousins' arms. The older Stan and Ford exchanged troubled looks at her wide grin. It only highlighted the difference between the Mabel slumped in a chair, putting effort into giving a small smile, and the happy child they both remembered who never had to try to smile. The brothers seemed to have the same thought at this; Bill would pay dearly.
"We don't really know if there's anything we can do." Chris said, "but we're here if you need us."
"Well, Stanley and I will be here for a couple of days. We need to defeat him in that time." Ford said. "I have an idea of how to it, but it would be taking a huge risk, so it'll be plan B."
"So what's plan A?" Dipper asked.
"Are you sure about this?" Dipper whispered, his tone more unsure than scared. It was night and he, Stan, Ford and Chris were in Mabel's room, where she was sleeping. Dipper was holding the third journal, the page with the incantation to enter the mindscape open. "We never went over this with her."
"I hate to keep this from her," Ford started. "but if she knew about it, she would never be able to fall asleep, and it looks like she needed it anyway." He turned to Chris, who was sitting on the far side of the room. "You'll keep watch out here, right?"
"Sure thing." Chris said, stifling a yawn.
"I don't like it either, kid." Stan said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But think what'll happen to her if we let Bill keep pickin' on her like he's been." He and Ford placed their hands on her forehead, leaving a small space for Dipper's. "Now you commin' or what?"
Dipper sighed in defeat, and placed his hand on the free spot on his sister's forehead. He began reading the incantation. "Videntus omnium. Magister mentium. Magnesium ad hominem. Magnum opus. Habeas corpus! Inceptus Nolanus overratus! Magister mentium! Magister mentium! Magister mentium!"
One by one, their eyes went blue. Once the incantation was complete, a blue light flashed, blinding Chris. When her vision returned, Dipper and the Pines brothers were unconscious.
I'm doing a sweep-through of the existing chapters so far. Anyone who wants, tell me about areas you feel are lacking, like descriptions, and please point out all the typos you can. I know there's a lot of them. Oh, and please PM me about them; no use clogging up the review section. Review.
4-18-5-1-13-19 1-14-4 18-5-1-12-9-20-25
18-5-1-12-9-20-25 1-14-4 4-18-5-1-13-19
23-9-18-9-19 20-8-5 20-18-21-5 12-9-12-5
6-15-18 3-9-16-8-5-18-19 18-5-7-9-13-5
Hint: Match the numbers to letters