A/N: This is so angsty. And dark. This was requested by Nova Bucker and I hope this has enough guilt because gee whiz. Oh, 'Chapter 19: Supernatural' was also inspired by a piece of Markmak's fan art. Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls, as you can see it would be very bad for everybody.

"And you'll leave the twins alone and never ever harm Ford again."

"Sure thing, Fez." Bill cackled.

"Stanley! No!"

Stanford, bleeding from a cut it the head, was holding the twins protectively. Dipper was groggy from a concussion and Mabel was limping with a fierce scowl on her face and grappling hook in hand.

Bill had waltzed in, deciding to end the Pines once and for all. Stanford, Dipper, and Mabel were the only ones at home and had defended the Mystery Shack. Then Stanley had gotten back from Lazy Susan's diner.

The sight of his family surrounded by sinister blue flames bravely making a last stand, caused Stanley to intervene.

He may not have been on good terms with his brother but that was mostly Stanford's doing. Not his. And then the twins. He'd do anything to protect them, to give them the chance he and his brother never had.

So now Stanley was making a deal.

"What do you want in return?"

"I just need some help with my little project, a loan if you will."

"A loan?"

"I just need to borrow something of yours."

"You'll give it back right?"

"Of course."

"No! Stan, don't do it!" Ford pleaded with his brother, "There isn't anything you have to prove!"

Stanley turned and his eyes narrowed, "This isn't about proving anything, Sixer! This is about saving your butts!"

Stanley closed his eyes tight, held out his hand, and shook the dream demons flaming arm. Bill began cackling and pulled Stan forward and Bill disappeared.

They knew where he went when Stanley opened his eyes.

"Hullo, Sixer! Good to see ya again!" Stanley said with bright yellow eyes and his pupils in slits.

Stanford gasped, "Give him back!"

BillStan's eyes narrowed, "Why do you care? Ha! You were going to kick him out of his home? How could you possibly care, Sixer?"

Dipper through the fog of his concussion looked at his Grunkle in horror, "Y- you were going to kick Grunkle Stan out?"

Mabel looked betrayed, "What?!"

"That doesn't matter! Let him go!"

The scientist could see the idea forming in the demon's brain that he had something valuable. Something he could use for control.

"You know what? I've just thought of something better!" The ghostly blue flames that seemed to be vulnerable to nothing, disappeared with a wave of his hand.

BillStan conjured a container, the name of which that Dipper was too groggy to read and one that caused the usually cheery Mabel's eyes to widen in horror.

Stanford came to the same conclusion a millisecond before his great niece.

"No! Don't!"

BillStan drank the whatever-it-was in one gulp before wiping his mouth and laughing with wide eyes.

"You can have your body back, Fez!"

Bill disappeared again and Stanley collapsed, normal again, but something was so so wrong.

"Stanley!"

"Poindexter?"

And then Stanley burst into blue flames. Mabel sobbed and tried to help, running for a bucket to get water with. Dipper couldn't move, he closed his eyes and spoke having complete faith in his idol, the author that he could save his Grunkle, "Please help Grunkle Stan! Please help him! Grunkle Ford, please!"

Stanford was frozen though, all he could see was his twin being forced to drink lighter fluid and then burning, burning, burning. All he could hear was his brother's desperate cries for help.

Then Mabel threw water on Stanley and it only made it worse, the flames spreading and consuming whatever the fluid had touched.

Then it was over and all that was left was a pile of ash on the floor.

Stanford collapsed by it and he would not move again, not even if the world depended on it.

The shock wore off after several never-ending hours. Dipper, even in his incoherent state, was the one to take charge.

He wrapped Mabel's scratches and carefully scooped his Grunkle's ashes into a jar to be buried the next day.

Dipper and Mabel slept in their bedroom one of the parts of the mostly ruined shack that had been spared.

The two ended up sleeping the same bed, even though Dipper could finally sleep without danger of his concussion- nightmares plagued them both.

Stanford didn't sleep at all. He kept vigilance over his twin's ashes, as if afraid they would be stolen away.

Dipper and Mabel pretended not to notice the next day when Ford was paying the construction crew and haggling over every little penny, that he was carrying a jar of ash with him.

They pretended not to notice that he carried it everywhere. That he refused to bury it. They pretended not to notice when he cried and apologized over and over to the jar of ash.

However, when they woke one morning and sat down at breakfast with haggard faces and Stanford gently oh-so-carefully placed the jar at Stanley's usual spot at the table and asked it if 'he wanted some pancakes,' Mabel lost it and began crying with her face buried in her hands.

This greatly upset Ford and he kept asking her what was wrong and after no answers were forthcoming, he inquired of the jar if 'perhaps you know what's wrong, Stanley. You do know her better than I do.'

Mabel left the room in tears.

Soon after, the shack was finally fixed Wendy and Soos returned to work, saddened at the fact that their old boss was gone.

"Dudes, why is the other Mr. Pines carrying a jar of dirt?"

Dipper didn't answer but Mabel spoke, "Because he's gone cukoo-cuckoo bananas."

All three gave her a look of shock and Mabel shrugged before saying, "Why not? It's true."

They had been avoiding that fact for so long that now it was out in the open they didn't know what to do with it.

At the end of the summer, Dipper and Mabel returned home. They never returned to Gravity Falls and the twins spent several years in therapy.

Ford degenerated into madness. He kept long drawn out conversations with his jar of ash, most of them ending in tearful exclamations of, "I'm sorry! It was my fault!"

He treated the jar like it was the most precious object in the world, people called him mad. The Mystery Shack closed, and many many years later Stanford Pines was buried in a unknown graveyard, the town left behind the jar.

The jar gave them shivery feelings and a sense of foreboding.

It was left in the shack to rot, many gave a snarl of '-and good riddance!'

If anyone were to enter the shack, now a part of local legend- a place of hauntings and murders- a place where teenagers dared you to go, you would find a jar of ash sitting forlornly in the corner...

with a pair of cracked glasses and a dull torn fez.

In the present dimension, the wind rustled through the trees and a lonely pair of goggles rested on the ground. If one had been nearby they might have seen the hunched figure that shook with quiet sobs.