A/N: This is my attempt at a Lovecraftian chapter. If your a fan of H.P. Lovecraft I hope you enjoy the Lovecraft Easter eggs I sprinkled in. Enjoy.

Chapter 25

Escape the Ordinary

Dipper and Ford landed in the Arctic in a survey plane that was built for the extreme climate. It was going to be the last time she left the ground till summer so they brought back more than enough supplies to last them till summer. Ford had only hired a few laborers to excavate the ruins enough to see them in whole. Ford was overly paranoid about someone stealing his find. Dipper wanted to immediately go see the ruins, but Ford wouldn't let him. "Dipper you need to acclimatize first," Ford argued.

"Ah come on Grunkle Ford I've been waiting for this for six years!" Dipper pleaded.

"No, it's too dangerous," At the word Dipper remembered what he had promised Pacifica. 'I promise I'll never ever skip on any kind of safety precaution because I want to come back to the woman I love,' The words reverberated in his head.

"How long do I have to wait?" Dipper conceded.

Ford was shock it was that easy. "Two weeks, and you'll be used to the temperature and the lack of oxygen up here."

Dipper went to his bunk and dropped his bag.

Two weeks later. Dipper and Ford descended into the dark ruins hanging by a single rope attached to a wench at the top. Ford was regaling Dipper with the stories of every little find. Unfortunately Dipper noticed that aside from the structure and the strange reliefs Ford hadn't actually found anything else of real note. Eventually they made it to the bottom.

"We're here," Ford said ominously.

Dipper turned to see two massive doors they were at least fifty feet tall, yet they had to climb up some scaffolding to get to the base of the doors, which were balanced so perfectly Ford could push one open with one hand. Dipper was amazed. They entered the structure and Dipper was amazed the room was just as big as the doors and looked like it was hundreds and hundreds of feet deep. Dipper looked around and found a bunch of small doors about human height at the top of the room near the ceiling.

"Why are there such normal sized doors in such a massive chamber?" Dipper questioned.

"I've been trying to figure that out myself. They just lead to a network of tunnels that seem to run out of this complex. I haven't been able to follow them to their source yet."

Dipper examined the chamber again. "A room this massive must have been made for equally massive beings. Right?" Dipper asked trying to get a grasp on it all.

"That's what you're here to find out isn't it?" Ford said with a smile. Dipper smiled determined to figure out the secret of this place. "Come on I'll show you the strange reliefs," Ford said walking toward the other side of the chamber. Dipper followed.

They walked through another pair of doors, through a massive antechamber, and into a chamber that seemed twice as large as the entry chamber. There along the walls were strange reliefs. "This is them," Ford said ushering his nephew toward the artwork. As he studied the reliefs he thought to himself. 'Wish I would have paid more attention to Pacifica's art stuff.'

After about a month of studying the reliefs trying to make heads or tails of the designs Dipper turned on to his head looking at the reliefs. His skin crawled and his spine tingled it was like everything in him was telling him to run, yet he smiled. "What are you doing?" Ford asked looking at his great nephew who was in an awkward pose.

"They're upside down," Dipper said remembering Mabel turning upside down to inspect a relief back in Gravity Falls their first summer there. Ford looked to the ceiling and noticed the giant stone structures hanging from the ceiling were actually alters if place upside down. Dipper looked around the chamber like he was seeing it for the first time. "This is like an ancient castle and this is like the throne room," Dipper had learned just about every inch of the ruins in his little time there and it all made since. Like why the doors had a step up to them and why the small doors were at the base of the ceiling.

"Dipper you're brilliant!" Ford exclaimed, "I would have never imagined that this entire structure was upside down," he finished.

"It is for us at least," Dipper added.

He looked back at the reliefs, and turned his head back upside down. It was a depiction of some kind of battle. There were bat like creatures clad in some type of armor wielding something that looked like a gun of some sort fighting a horde of creatures that resembled a mass of tentacles. Dipper shivered. He didn't know if it was because he was cold or from what he was looking at. A loud bang was heard from another portion of the ruins. "The excavators!" Ford shouted and took off toward the newest excavation.

Dipper arrived a minute after the old man did. The diggers were yelling about some wall giving way. Dipper scurried up the pile of rubble that had just collapsed. As the dust settled he could see a room full of more reliefs except these weren't depictions of scenes like in the throne room, as they have taken to calling it, these looked like writing. "There is something familiar about these letters," Ford said coming up behind Dipper.

Dipper tilted his head and bent over. "I recognize this language," he said.

"You do?! From where?" Ford pursued.

"There was some book one of our professors had borrowed from some college on the east coast. He was trying to decipher it. He quit a couple weeks after getting it. Rumor has it he went mad trying to read it," Dipper explained.

Dipper spun around looking down the dark corridor that lay on the other side of the newly discovered chamber. "What?" Ford asked.

"I thought I heard squeaking," Dipper said his eyes shifting from one side of the room to another.

He decides to investigate. Dipper walked into the chamber and found a brazier. Ford followed his great nephews lead. Dipper used his pyromancy to light the brazier. "Dipper, did you do that?" Ford asked.

"Yeah I've been practicing. I once used it to scare a bunch of frat boys hitting on Pacifica," Dipper felt his heart sadden just a little at the thought of his fiancée.

"That's fantastic I used to be a pyromancer myself before I had this metal plate installed," Ford said knocking on his skull.

Dipper and Ford's attention both shot down the corridor. "You heard it too right?" Dipper asked Ford looking serious now.

He nodded as his only response. Ford then produced the plasma rifle from his time on the other side of the portal. "Follow me," Ford said. Dipper did so not wanting to be anywhere in between that plasma rifle and its target.

Ford and Dipper moved down the corridor it seemed to go on and on, but suddenly they heard a noise. Not the squeak that they were pursuing more like running water. "There shouldn't be any running water here. It's all frozen." Ford explained.

Dipper thought. "How deep are we?" He asked.

"I'm unsure. We've been walking down for at least an hour. We should be about sea level." Ford explained.

Dipper tried think of an explanation, but couldn't think of any reason there would be liquid water here.

They continued to follow the squeaking. When suddenly the squeaking started becoming louder. Dipper and Ford stopped. Ford raised the weapon. Dipper could hear it charging. The squeaking still approaching, but they couldn't see anything Dipper decided to make a large fire ball in front of them trying to make a little light, but they still couldn't see anything. Dipper felt drained after conjuring a fireball that large and fell to his knees. The source of the noise felt like it would upon them at any moment. 'Is this it? Is this how I die?' Dipper's thoughts drifted to the woman he loved. Dipper was broken out of his thought when Ford fired the plasma rifle launching a plasmatic mass down the corridor he grabbed Dipper and rolled to the edge of the cave like corridor they were in. The squeaking became frantic and then they felt a breeze and an unholy stench accompanied by the sound of flapping wings. Dipper was petrified all he could think about was the reliefs carved into the stone walls of the giant bat like creatures. Ford laughed "It's just ordinary bats," he determined.

"Ordinary bats? There is nothing up here for them to eat!" Dipper shouted at the old man like he was crazy.

Soon the entire colony of bats had flown by and probably out into the ruins. "Well we ought to be getting back," Ford said.

"No, I'm going to find out where they came from they have to have some kind of food source." Dipper started marching in the direction the bats flew from. Ford decided to sate Dipper's curiosity and followed.

The two walked for another half hour before coming upon a dead end room in the cave. Ford produced a small light source that was extremely dim but Dipper and Ford's eyes had adjusted to the dark so it was like the entire room was illuminated. Dipper saw on the floor of the cavern a giant group of bones far too big to be anything aside from a whale. "What is this?" Dipper asked.

"I don't know," Ford replied.

Dipper moved to inspect the bones he tried lifting one. They were unbelievably light for their size. Ford examined the cavern. "Dipper do you see an exit aside from the way we came?" Ford asked.

Dipper looked around. "No it's a dead end. If those bats came from in here there would be a mountain of guano." Dipper was overcome with fear 'Those weren't bats that flew by us.' He thought as his mind raced with possibilities. Ford grabbed the young man's shoulder

"Dipper, get a hold of yourself!" Ford commanded, "Look we're not in any danger, and look what you've discovered," he said gesturing toward the bones. 'He's right,' Dipper thought.

"Yeah, look at what I discovered," Dipper said.

"You're going to be famous kid," Ford told him, "Now let's get back to camp and talk about this find."

Dipper and Ford began the long walk back. Once they returned to camp it was late, but he couldn't tell considering Dipper hadn't seen the sun in what felt like months. The excavation crew had placed bets on whether or not they were dead. "Guess what men. You might actually get paid. My great nephew made a huge discovery that is sure to get us funding," Ford explained. The diggers cheered.

"Wait you're actually going to go public with this place?' Dipper asked.

"I am now. This discovery will get you anywhere in the science community Dipper. I won't be around much longer I'm old, and I want you to have all the opportunities that I did. So this is my gift to you."

Dipper was touched by his Grunkle's words. "Thanks great uncle Ford," Dipper said softly.

"Yep got to make sure you can take care of that prissy fiancée of yours," Ford said trying to change the mood.

"Sounds like you've been talking to Grunkle Stan too much," Dipper joked.

As winter continued Ford and Dipper documented everything they could in preparation for the coming media and scientific circus that was going to explode come summer when they announced their findings. Dipper found his thoughts being pulled back to Pacifica more and more. He cursed not being able to talk to her directly. The only communication they had was a satellite connection that made data dumps three times a day two upload cycles and one download cycle. Dipper was lucky if he could get a video uploaded in a week. So he didn't try but once then he switched to text communication only since it was a much smaller format. He told Pacifica about his find and expressed how much he missed her face. He could still see it every time he closed his eyes, but he was scared he would forget. Pacifica sent him a small picture of herself from their time in Spain. Dipper was overjoyed to have it.

Eventually spring came and the winter winds started to die down. Ford and Dipper had recorded and documented all their research and secured their evidence. "We're going to have to hire a paleontologist to look at these bones," Dipper said.

"They won't know what they are," Ford countered.

"I know but if we don't share our evidence then people won't believe it's real. Right now we get to say what it is, and I'm saying it's some sort of giant bat species. They match a fruit bat skeleton perfectly except for the size," Dipper explained.

"I believe you I've seen all the evidence and it makes sense. At some point in Earth's early history there was a species of giant sentient bats," Ford confessed.

"What about those masses of tentacles they were fighting in the reliefs?" Dipper asked.

Ford paused. "I'm not sure about those. There is one being that matches that description but…" Ford stopped.

"But what?" Dipper asked.

"Well it's never been proven it's just a fantasy. It was some sort of ancient entity that coveted all knowledge. Just a myth," Ford dismissed.

"I guess it'll stay that way until we get proof huh?" Dipper said connecting the dots.

"I'm afraid so son. See the world isn't ready for what we know. The world will reject us and may even do so given our evidence, but luckily scientists know we don't know everything. Well except for psychologist who think that what they know is truth." Ford said rolling his eyes at the thought of psychologist.

"A little Socrates huh? I like it. It's a good general rule," Dipper said.

He and Ford shared a smile.