Chapter 25 – Before Halloween

There was a week before the day of spooks and ghouls hit Gravity Falls, and already people were over-decorated for it. The Mystery Shacks were no different, considering that Stanley had a flare for scaring people.

And now that he had his brother, things were getting a lot more interesting.

Stanley grinned at Crescent as they finished setting up the animatronic xenomorph that Fiddleford and Stanford had put together. The cylindrical-headed, humanoid alien monster sat on the porch roof, peering over the awning at anyone who came up to the front door.

"Okay, so they said this thing's gonna have an actual second mouth that's gonna pop out at the kids when they come up to the door." Stanley patted the animatronic's head. "With the lights we got set under this, it should really spook 'em! An' the haunted house attractions inside are only gonna get better from here, with all the stuff that Stanford's got up his sleeves. Oh, man, no one's gonna be able ta keep their heads on straight when they finish getting a tour!" He laughed loudly, then started climbing back down to the ground.

Crescent chuckled from where he stood holding the ladder, but it wasn't as strong of a laugh as his counterpart's.

"Come on, let's get—"

"Hey, Crescent? Stanley?"

Stanley cut himself off and blinked when he saw Maria approaching. Crescent turned as well, looking somewhat confused.

The look of concerned worry on Maria's face caused them both to frown.

"What's with that look?" Stanley asked. "Somethin' happen or—"

"No, I just – I'd like to ask Crescent about…something about Sixer."

Crescent frowned while Maria's eyebrows came together worriedly. "Sixer? You know you could just…ask him, right?"

"I want an outside opinion before I go asking him about what I'm trying to solve," Maria replied.

"Solve what?" Stanley frowned. "If it's somethin' ya need a Ford's help for, why don't you—"

"I want to know why his emotions are sealed off."

Stanley cut himself off as Maria looked at them both. While he looked surprised, Crescent's expression shifted away from curiosity. He frowned, almost looking angry at first, before he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Kid, yer not gonna like the answer," Crescent said.

"I don't expect myself to."

To be honest, Maria didn't really want to think about the circumstances that caused Sixer to stop letting his emotions be known. But, she knew she'd have to understand them if she was going to be able to do anything to help reverse the problem.

Crescent glanced over at Stanley, who rolled his eyes and nodded. He motioned at Crescent to start talking.

"Well, it happened after a bounty hunter came in with another Ford; claimed that he'd seen a bounty out and wanted the reward. That's what, uh, got the whole hunting Fords thing started. So when another Cipher came ta get the guy who got dropped off…Ford reacted or somethin,' I guess. Cause then you know who snatched him up an' he was warnin' Ford against tryin' ta do somethin,' said we were all less than nothin' an' he shouldn't be questioning orders or anythin'."

Maria sucked in a breath sharply through her teeth, her expression paling.

Crescent saw the look and nodded. "Then he sent Ford off ta get another him an' when he came back we threw him in a cell. I tried ta get Ford ta…well, ya know, hold on ta somethin' an' not give up, but he just…went blank."

Crescent demonstrated by waving a hand over his face, his expression going from a worried sort of look to an expression similar to Sixer's – emotionally blank, eyes hollow.

After a couple seconds, he blinked rapidly and shook his head, shaking off the expression. But by then, the look of horror on Maria's face had really sunk in.

"That's low," Maria said. "That's really, really low. Of all the things that I was expecting – that was just—" She covered her mouth with one hand as she mulled over Crescent's words again. "How long ago was that?"

"…I think he had two tails?" Crescent scratched his head. "Or maybe – nah, it was two. He got three when the whole 'invading other dimensions' thing started, and his tail split into two when we got a visiting demon."

"…that's 400 years," Maria said faintly.

Four hundred years of not allowing himself to feel any emotion whatsoever.

"That's insane." Maria shook her head. "I kept my emotions limited for an amount of time that doesn't even come to a quarter of that time, and letting everything come back was…that was painful."

Crescent raised an eyebrow. "You seriously pulled the same thing that Sixer did?"

"The Dark Arms – fighting against them was a warzone of multiple dimensions." Maria ran a hand through her hair. "I couldn't deal with – with what was going on, since they'd used me to start the chaos in the first place. Not to mention they'd…they'd gotten rid of my parents. Blasted them to ash, right in front of me, and I wasn't able to do anything to save them. I can't travel back in time – I've talked to people who can, just to see."

Maria's hand dropped from her head as she sighed loudly. "The Continuum Shift I activated in order to reverse the Dark Arms' damage keeps people from being able to travel back in time and see if there's anything that can be done about my parents. The damage the Dark Arms dealt was permanent – is permanent, to me. I can't…I can't stop them before they get started. It's impossible."

She covered her face with one hand and sighed again, but the sound was shaky. She could feel her eyes watering.

"...that's gonna have a hell of a kick when Sixer brings them back," Maria muttered.

"Bring them back?" Stanley repeated. "What, that's what you're gonna be focusin' on now?"

"I – yeah. Yeah." Maria lowered her hand from her face. "So long as Sixer's like this, he's stuck, I think. I need to convince him somehow that it's safe for him to be human, to act human, to show his true thoughts and feelings about one thing or another. If I...if I can't, I don't…I don't know how far he's gonna be able to get."

The look on Crescent's face was sympathetic – but only for a moment. He pulled it back into a frown a moment later. "You're tackling somethin' that's gonna be almost impossible ta pull off, you know that. He's not gonna pull down those barriers very easily, 'specially if he's used ta them bein' up."

"I know." Maria nodded. "Wildfire, she – as soon as I came home, she tried to get me to relax. It…wasn't exactly easy."

Maria could still remember that conversation – about how she had changed from who she used to be.

"It took a whack to the head and momentary loss of all my memories to really let me get back into balance with myself, but I don't want to do that to Sixer. Recovering those memories is…well, it's gonna hurt, and I don't want him to go through that hurt again. That would be stupid and harmful and – just, just no. I've experienced amnesia twice, it wasn't exactly fun getting some things back."

Crescent winced while Stanley frowned.

"Well, what are you gonna do, then?" Stanley asked. "He's your problem remember?" He nodded across the clearing to where Sixer was sitting on Alex's porch, watching the three of them talk from a distance.

Maria frowned at the question. "That's really the problem here. I need to convince him to let his barriers down – I don't want to tell him to let them down because that would mean altering his mind without his permission."

"You could get it from him," Crescent said.

"He'd basically tell me I could do whatever I want with him," Maria replied with an irritated tone. "And I don't want to go that route. He's not less than me, he's equal to me. That's a thought that's been difficult to get across to him."

Judging by the look of surprise on Crescent's face, Maria guessed that he had a difficult time accepting that idea as well. Which, honestly, was really sad.

"At least I've gotten him to accept the fact that I'm not going to get him to do the things Cipher had him do, and that I'm not using him as a punching bag. Among other things." She bared her teeth in frustration and shook her head sharply. "But what would be next? And why is it I get the feeling that things are going faster than they really should be?"

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Stanley replied. "If they're gettin' better faster than you think they should, blame Gravity Falls. Or somethin' in it. I'm sure Stanford or somebody has done some study about Gravity Falls that talks about the general atmosphere of the place."

"I hope that doesn't lead me in the direction of the Unified Theory of Weirdness, because I highly doubt that would be the source of it," Maria replied pointedly. "A magnet does not a healing item from several centuries of mental damage make."

That in and of itself wouldn't be able to make much sense.

"But I do agree – it might be something about the aura of this place that's doing something, or maybe there's some other factor getting involved that I'm not aware of at the moment. But if it's giving me a chance to get Sixer's emotions back before next August, I'll take it. But I need to keep pushing him."

"Well, push him," Stanley replied. "What do you think's gonna get those emotions out in the open?"

"Maybe the question is, what made her drop the barrier?" Crescent replied, looking at Stanley and nodding to Maria.

Maria blinked at the question. "What made – what, you mean besides the fact that I literally lost my memory and the barrier went with that?"

"…yeah, I guess." Crescent scratched the back of his head, frowning. "If ya didn't get amnesia, what'd make it drop?"

Maria frowned. Then she folded her arms across her chest and rested her chin on one hand in thought. "What would have made it drop…?"

It took her a moment of delving through her memories before she started coming back with murmured answers.

"The barrier didn't drop when I got home because as soon as I got dropped there after the Shift there was trouble that was starting to brew. I managed to kick it off with the help of everyone else, but I didn't let my barrier down then. I didn't let it down when I found Matthew in the Marvel/DC realm either, but I think I came close…I never felt like the world was safe enough for me to slow down and grieve for what had happened before, that was the—"

Maria cut herself off and blinked. "That's it. Sixer doesn't feel it's safe to drop the barrier – he doesn't even register that it is. Thinking that he's not someone who can be treated like an equal probably plays a part in it too but – okay. Okay. I think I know now what I should have been doing from be beginning."

Maria nodded to herself, and Crescent and Stanley exchanged looks.

"Care to enlighten us?" Stanley asked.

"Hm?" Maria looked up and blinked before realization crossed her face. "Oh. Pft. I need to show him more affection than I have been. Which means I have to let my inhibitions go a little and actually hug the poor guy."

Stanley and Crescent stared at Maria with doubting expressions.

"You really think that's gonna work," Stanley said.

"I have to start somewhere," Maria replied. "And I should have started a long time ago."

"Two months does not feel like a long time," Crescent said flatly.

"Figure of speech." Maria waved off the deadpan look. "Thanks for giving me the help. I really needed someone to talk to to figure this out, and knowing the circumstances for all this really helped, Cress."

Crescent blinked at that. He looked…a little befuddled. "Uh…your welcome? That's how it goes, right?"

Maria nodded at him with an encouraging grin. "I'll leave you guys to making that haunted house, then. Might want to make sure that the xenomorph up there doesn't list and fall off the awning."

Stanley looked back and bit back a curse when he saw that the inactive animatronic was leaning to one side. "Of all the – come on!" He ran back towards the ladder, Crescent on his heels.

Maria watched the two of them run to catch the xenomorph replica, then turned and made her way over to Sixer. His ears perked up as she approached, like someone standing at attention.

Her smile faded a little when she saw that. Maria really wished that Sixer wouldn't do that when he saw her get close.

She quickened her pace slightly and sat down on the porch next to Sixer. His tails shifted away from her slightly in response – likely instinctual, so that she wouldn't end up sitting on them by accident.

"Hey." Maria looked at Sixer with a gentle smile, which he didn't return. He only blinked back with what looked like muted confusion. "You doing okay, Sixer?"

He blinked at the question, and Maria – against her cautious judgement – reached over and put a hand against his back. Sixer stiffened a little under her touch in response, but his expression didn't glaze over. "I'm…I'm fine, Guildmaster."

That answer was one he'd given her every single time she'd asked him that, but the hesitation – that was new.

Maria frowned. "Got something on your mind, or is there something going on?"

Sixer blinked at the question, then shook his head. "I don't understand what is happening here." He nodded over to the decoration project that Crescent and Stanley were undertaking. Stanford stepped out onto the porch as the two got the xenomorph finally settled into place on the roof. He looked around before stepping off and turning around to look up at the animatronic.

"You mean, why they're decorating?"

Sixer nodded.

Maria stared at him. "Did you forget about Halloween, Sixer?"

"Hallow-ween?" Sixer tried out the word, frowning.

"It's a celebration that takes place on the last day of October. The idea came from a tradition in other countries that this is when the spirits of the dead are most likely to roam among the living, and so people had to scare them off. It's turned into an easy day for people to scare each other and get candy from their neighbors." Maria pulled her hand away from Sixer's back and leaned against one of the wooden supports on the porch. "Gravity Falls has an extra day to celebrate it in the middle of summer, but Summerween has its own brand of traditions that the people here have started."

The Candy Monster that Soos had eaten back in 2012 had been a problem then, but Maria didn't know if that was going to be a problem next June, when Summerween came around again. She decided against asking about it now.

Sixer nodded a little, but said nothing. His gaze moved away from the animatronic as Stanford raised a remote and pointed it at the monstrous thing on the porch roof. "Guildmaster, will we be required to participate in this?"

"If you don't feel up to it, no." Maria shook her head. "Not everyone gets into the Halloween spirit, so to speak, even if it's a pretty big thing around here – likely because of all the stuff that happens in Gravity Falls already." She chuckled. "We'll probably just hide in one of the Shacks if you're not up to dealing with people on the 31st. It's okay."

Sixer looked at Maria with that blank expression of his. For a second, Maria almost thought he was going to show an emotion, but when he looked away from her and down at his feet instead, she got the feeling that she was just fooling herself.

She wanted him to heal, but she knew he wouldn't be able to heal that quickly. Unfortunately.

"I'll leave it up to you, but I'm probably not gonna be going out trick-or-treating to get candy or anything like that," Maria added. "So, really, it's either handing out candy to kids who come up or just not interact with them and wait in one of the Shacks until the night's over. If that makes any sense."

Sixer's gaze moved around the clearing, Maria's eyes following as they looked at each of the Shacks in turn. Stanford, Stanley, and Crescent were going all out with making a haunted house, but Alex's Shack was mostly untouched other than a few cobwebs and hanging spiders and bats. The Monster Falls Shack hadn't been altered too much, although the addition of gargoyles sitting on the edge of the porch roof was an interesting choice.

And as for Mizar's home…well, it was starting to look like an abandoned library more than anything else. Maria had to wonder what that looked like inside.

They sat quietly like that for a little while before Sixer said anything.

"I…"

Maria turned her gaze away from Stanley and Stanford as they high-fived under the moving animatronic xenomorph. "Hm?"

Sixer blinked at the sound, then turned his gaze a little to look at Maria. "It would be…acceptable, if I said I did not feel 'up to' any task pertaining to this event?"

Maria blinked in surprise. Was Sixer actually thinking?

"Yeah, that won't be a problem." Maria scooted back over and put a hand on Sixer's back again. He didn't stiffen up this time – likely because he saw it coming – and Maria took that as an encouraging sign.

"Do you mind if I ask why you're not feeling up to anything involving Halloween?"

Sixer blinked at the question, then shook his head. "I…understand very little about it. It is not likely that I will be capable of assisting at the capacity that would be required."

Maria's encouraged expression faded a little. Ah; Sixer was still thinking about how he could be useful. She really wished that he wouldn't.

"Well, if that's how you feel about it, that's all right," Maria replied. Her core warmed up for a moment, and the heat slipped out and crawled through her arm before being released through the hand on Sixer's back.

The warmth caused him to shift a little, blinking in surprise.

"It's been a while since I've participated in Halloween myself, so I'm gonna be mostly watching and handing out candy," Maria added. "I bet Alex would be okay with helping out here, rather than being in any of the other Shacks. I mean, the decorations are cool and all but they'd probably expect us to get involved in the 'scaring kids half to death' routine and I'm not feeling up for that."

As much as scaring kids was fun – to a point – Maria had other things on her mind to worry about right now.

Besides, what scared her in the past might not be something kids wanted to see.

Sixer nodded quietly, not offering a verbal response. Something told Maria this was the end of that conversation.

"Come on." Maria patted Sixer lightly on the back, then removed her hand and pushed herself to her feet. "Let's head in and see if Alex is okay with me helping him doing the handing out the candy thing."