Pacifica did the spell carefully, slowly. Augury was one of the more difficult schools of magic. Creating a solitary magic window was easy enough. But making one that followed a group of people around was a different matter. Her chanting was slow, but powerful. Each word was carefully chosen. Each twitch of her fingers, each blink of her eye, everything worked in concert. When it was done, the green glow that had covered her body faded. All that was left was her, and the small empty box that she had at her feet. She tapped the box, and a screen appeared at its front. On the screen, Pacifica could see Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy. They had made their way onto a boat, and were untying it from the dock.
"What happens?" asked Pacifica. She was alone in her room. Her stuffed animals leered at her in the darkness, their eyes aglow from the soft light of the magical screen. "What spell did you cast, Pine girl?" The group began to steer the boat towards the cave. Dipper opened the Three book, and Pacifica gasped. "Such power," she said to herself. She wished that she could hear what was being said, but that was beyond her. The boat slowly approached the caves. "The Gobblewonker," muttered Pacifica. "Maybe it tried to harm them. Maybe…" Pacifica felt cold panic flood her bones. She stood up, knocking the box over. The magical screen shorted out, and the room faded into darkness. She ran from the room, throwing the door open. She bounded down the stairs, and threw open the front door. She sprinted across the lawn, cursing its immense length. Any second now the Pine girl was going to make the mistake. She was going to cast the spell that would put all of them at risk. Pacifica finally got past the lawn, and found her car. She ran to it, and reached into her purse. She pulled out her lipstick. She climbed onto the hood of the car, and with her lipstick wrote, "DO NOT LET THEM ENTER THE CAVE!" on her windshield. She closed her eyes, and began to chant. Her body glowed green, and she touched the words. They flashed. The spell had been cast. Pacifica sighed. "Now we wait," she said. She sat there for a moment, thinking of how absurd she would look if anyone came outside. A minute passed. Maybe her hunch had been wrong. Maybe-
"Good," said Gideon. "Now off with you." Pacifica opened a drawer, found some clean clothes, and walked out of Gideon's room. Evil Gideon, as she sometimes thought of him, lived in a small apartment complex about fifteen minutes outside of town. It was a pain in the ass coming to see him, but she didn't have much of a choice. She hadn't really wanted to date him, but at the same time she couldn't turn him down. He had a direct link to the Master, and she didn't want to compromise that relationship. Why would she? The master had promised her so much. She was already a talented witch, but she only possessed a few books of spells. If she had access to other books, such as the Three, her power would increase tenfold. As she made her way across the parking lot, a flash of pink caught her eye. She gasped, and dropped the clothes she had been holding on the ground. Someone had written something on her windshield. She ran to her car, and stopped. She thought maybe one of her many haters had found her car and had messed with it. But it was a message. A message… in her own handwriting.
"Do not let them enter the cave," she read aloud. She shook her head. How could this have happened? Had she sleepwalked? Had she been possesed? And what did it mean? She knelt down, and picked up the clothes she had dropped. She tossed them in the backseat of her car, and opened the driver side door. She got in, closed the door behind her, and shut her eyes. All was quiet. She was concentrating immensely hard. An idea suddenly came to her. She opened her eyes, murmured an arcane phrase, and waved her hand. The lipstick flashed green. "Magic is involved," said Pacifica. "My magic. Why?" She shut her eyes again. "Don't let them enter the caves. Caves. McGucket. The Gobblewonker." She opened her eyes. "They're going to try and save McGucket. The Gobblewonker is guarding McGucket. So the Gobblewonker attacked them. And if they were about to be killed, what spell…" she trailed off. "The reversal of fortune." She jammed the key into the ignition so hard she thought it might break. She turned it, put the car in reverse, and pulled out of the parking lot. Her tires squealed as she peeled out of the apartment complex, and onto the main road. She remembered the first time she had heard of the reversal of fortune. She had been exploring the back of her Grandfather's library, and had found some ancient spellbooks. She could not have been older than fifteen. She had been reading one bound in black leather. The spells were ones she had all seen before, until she got to the very back of the book.
'The reversal of fortune,' the book had read, 'is a spell so dangerous I hesitate to write about it here. Although incredibly useful, if performed incorrectly it could spell the doom of whatever dimension the caster happens to inhabit. In short, the reversal is a time spell. It takes the caster back to the morning of the day the spell was cast. The danger from the reversal comes if one does not leave clues that one cast it. If a time-impervious spell is not cast, the caster will forget they cast the spell in the first place. This causes an infinite, unbreakable time loop that dooms every living being to repeat the same day for all eternity.' She had not bothered to learn that spell. She thought it too dangerous. The idea of having to repeat the same day over and over, never ceasing, was too terrible to comprehend. It would be like some sort of hell. Pacifica pulled up to the Docks, and was shocked to see that the police had beat her to the punch. Gideon had not expected anyone to notice Fiddleford's disappearance to be noticed for at least another day. She put the car in neutral, and closed her eyes again. The police would not allow anyone to rent a boat while there was an ongoing investigation. Therefore, the Pines would have had to find another way of getting to the caves.
Pacifica parked in the nearby pool parking lot, and got out of the car. How else could they get there. She was about to close her eyes again, when raised voices caught her attention.
"Do you remember the pool being that crowded?" It was the Pines boy.
"Oh my God! Deja vu again!" This time it was the Corduroy girl who spoke. "This is starting to get really, really annoying." Pacifica ducked behind a nearby car. The trio was crossing across the front of the pool, walking past the gate that separated the swimming public from the rest of the world. Carefully, Pacifica tailed them. The group went past the pool, and into a wooded clearing. Pacifica sped up, and ducked into some bushes as she entered the forest. Mabel turned around.
"You okay?" Dipper asked.
"Yeah," said Mabel. "I just thought I saw something." The trio began to walk along a dirt path. Pacifica followed them, her brain going a mile a minute. She could think of nothing, until she heard the sound of running water. They were going towards a boat. Acting purely on instinct, Pacifica pointed at the ground under the trio's feet, and muttered a curse. There was a rumble, and the ground began to sink underneath them like quicksand.
"What the hell is going on!?" screamed Wendy.
"I don't know!" said Dipper. "Just grab on to something!" As the group struggled, Pacifica weaved her way through the bushes. Branches and brambles grabbed at her dirty clothes. She finally found the boat, and breathed a sigh of relief. She was close to stopping all this. She began to mutter, and raised her hands. There was a sound of metal clanging against metal, and the boat began to take on water. It slowly sunk until it hit the bottom of the riverbed. Pacifica jumped and clapped her hands together with glee. She could feel it. Everything was going back to normal. That strange, oily feeling was vanishing. The world was clicking back into place. She heard angry voices approaching, and realized the group had found a way out of her quicksand trap. She weaved her way deeper into the forest, until she had completely disappeared.
"I can't believe it!" said Wendy. "What the hell happened?"
"Here's your problem," said Mabel. "There's a big hole in the side of the boat. A crazy big one."
"Yeah," said Dipper. "It looks like a shark took a chunk out of it." Wendy shook her head.
"Someone did this on purpose," she said. "Someone knows we're trying to find McGucket."
"Who?" asked Mabel.
"It could be anybody," said Dipper. "We still don't know much about what's going on. And until our memory comes back, we're just going to have to deal with that."
"Damn," said Wendy. "There's no way we can reach McGucket now."
"We'll come back to him," said Dipper. "Once the cops leave, we'll have free reign of the lake." He pulled his notepad out of his pocket, and began to flip through it. "All right, well if we can't get McGucket, then next is Robbie."
"You know, I've been thinking about that," said Wendy. "I know you and Mabel think he's changed, but honestly, you don't know him as well as I do." Mabel narrowed her eyes at Wendy. "It's just, well, I he kind of freaked out in high school. I don't know. He started having some weird personal problems, and then one day he just stopped showing up." Wendy shrugged. "Before he left, he was a wreck. It was weird. He wore a balaclava over his face all the time. He spoke in a weird, deep voice. It was really off putting."
"Well he's different now," said Mabel. She crossed her arms. "Whatever weirdness he had in high school is completely gone."
"Are you sure?" asked Dipper. Mabel huffed.
"Honestly Dipper, I'm a little surprised at you," Mabel said. "I didn't say one word about Wendy helping us out. But just because I like Robbie, you-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Dipper. "Take a chill pill Maves. It's nothing like that."
"Whatever," said Mabel. "Let's just skip Robbie then." Wendy and Dipper looked at each other. Wendy shrugged.
"Okay…" said Dipper. "Well, that just leaves Grenda."
"Well she's my friend, so she's obviously out," said Mabel.
"Mabel, stop being unreasonable," said Dipper. Mabel opened her mouth to retort, but Wendy spoke.
"I actually really like the idea of Grenda on the team," Wendy said. "Have you seen her lately? She's huge! And no offense Dipper, but we could really use some muscle on the team."
"No offense taken," said Dipper. "All right, Grenda's house it is." Dipper and Wendy began to walk back towards the car, but Mabel didn't move. Dipper sighed. "Go on ahead," he said to Wendy. Wendy nodded, and began to walk back up the path. Dipper walked over to his sister.
"Don't talk to me," Mabel said.
"Sure," said Dipper. "If that's the way you want to play it, you can hang out here in the forest by yourself. No skin off my back." Dipper turned to walked away, but Mabel grabbed his arm.
"Fine," she said. "Let's talk." "Okay," said Dipper. "Why don't you like any of my boyfriends?" asked Mabel.
"I don't know why you think that!" said Dipper. "And what does that have to do with anything? Robbie isn't even your boyfriend!"
"No, he isn't," said Mabel. "But he did ask me out." Dipper's jaw dropped.
"Really?" he asked.
"Yes really!" shouted Mabel. "I'm an attractive girl. Why wouldn't he ask me out?"
"But- you can't- I mean…" Dipper scratched his head. "Well, I don't know what to say. I'm with Wendy, so I can't tell you not to be with anybody. But Mabel, me and Wendy just feel right. You and Robbie don't even know each other. With everything that's going on, you really want to throw dating on top of it?"
"Yes!" said Mabel. "I'd like to have a little fun during my summer vacation! And if Robbie can help with that, then why shouldn't I see him?"
"I don't know," said Dipper. "I don't know Mabel." Dipper put a hand on his sister's shoulder. "Look, I didn't like any of your boyfriends because they were all assholes. It had nothing to do with the fact that they were dating you. They just weren't very good people."
"I guess I do have kind of a bad track record with my ex's," said Mabel. "But Robbie isn't like that!"
"But he was Mabel," said Dipper. "He was for a long time."
"He's not anymore," said Mabel. "Please Dipper, give him a chance." Dipper took his hand off Mabel's shoulder.
"Fine," said Dipper. "But I'm not sure we should tell him about all this. Not because I don't trust him, but because if he gets dragged in, you and him are never going to be happy together." Mabel nodded.
"All right. No need to tell him," she said.
"Are we cool?" asked Dipper. Mabel smiled, and slugged her brother on the shoulder.
"We cool, fool," she said. They looped arms, and began to walk back up the path.
A brief note: Well, this update took a little longer than expected… all joking aside though, it's great to be back. I paused the story during a hectic part of my life, and I didn't want to continue until I had caught up with season two of Gravity Falls. I am happy to say I am caught up, and I'd like to start working on this story again. If anyone is still reading, please let me know! Thanks, and enjoy this very, very delayed chapter.