I'm baaaack! And I'm still twenty-ish chapters ahead of you guys - starting the second-to-last arc for this story tonight, in fact! As of this point in time, we're looking at 75 chapters total or so, but I can't guarantee that there's gonna be more or less until I know for sure!

Shadescribe - Well, the anime's a pretty obscure one, I guess, since it came out in the mid-90s. Belle isn't a fairy, though - she's something...different. As for Maria and her fire powers, I doubt she's gonna have to push herself to do that. She's home, there's nothing going on, so what would be the point of showing off that much? Stanford would definitely burst something trying to figure her powers out, though. XD As for the portal...well, we'll have to wait and see, won't we? :)

Here we go!

Chapter 35 – Night Talks

Maria's POV

A awoke feeling like something had just lunged at the back of my neck.

"Gah!" I gripped at my chest, metal gloves scraping against my armor as I took in a few deep, uneasy breaths.

I closed my eyes for a moment and caught sight of a red-eyed Wily before shaking my head and forcing my eyes back open.

"No way am I going to sleep after that," I muttered between gasps. I shook my head again, then climbed out of the lower bunk and snuck out of the room I shared with Liz. I grabbed my backpack on the way out.

If I couldn't sleep, I might as well find something to do online, right?

I made my way downstairs and into the kitchen. I was about to flip on the light switch when I saw movement from one of the other entryways into the kitchen.

I activated my infared vision and caught sight of a familiar shape standing defensively in the doorway.

"Ford?" I asked, blinking rapidly to deactivate my infared.

The figure standing in the doorway paused. "Maria? What are you doing awake?"

"Can't sleep," I replied blandly. I hefted my backpack. "I thought I'd do something to distract me, maybe drink some hot chocolate. Do you want some?"

Stanford paused at the question. "That…doesn't seem like a bad idea, actually."

I nodded, then flicked on the kitchen light and moved to put my backpack on one of the kitchen chairs while Stanford blinked rapidly in order to adjust to the sudden flash of light.

"I hope I don't seem harsh in asking this, but…do you even require rest or sustenance?" Stanford asked as I went to the pantry and started looking for the hot chocolate mix.

"Technically, I guess you could call it recharge," I replied as I grabbed the tub of cocoa mix out of the pantry and shut the door. "I need that, at least, but I don't actually need to eat or breathe. Joshua and I can both go up to Cybertron without a problem. As for eating…." I smirked as I remembered something that had happened earlier that year, then reached up into the cupboard and grabbed two mugs. "Joshua decided to fast for all of Lent just to prove that he could and it really drove his parents nuts." I chuckled a little at the memory.

"All of Lent?" Stanford raised an eyebrow.

"Uh-huh. Even the Sundays. He didn't even lose any of the contents of his stomach when he started eating again Easter Sunday, either, which is pretty incredible. For humans, at least." I chuckled as I found one of the larger measuring cups and filled it with water from the sink. "I guess we can get our energy from sunlight, too, so I'm definitely planning on taking advantage of that if I end up going somewhere where there isn't much food or something like that. I still like being able to eat, though. It's an old habit from when I was human before, and I like how things taste."

Stanford considered that for a moment, then nodded. "I suppose there is an appeal in continuing to eat and drink. It would also prevent others from being suspicious about your actions, as well."

"Exactly." I nodded as I slipped the measuring cup into the microwave and set the timer for a couple minutes in order to get the water warmed up, then found a spoon for the cocoa and dropped appropriate amounts of the chocolate mix into the mugs. "That's the reason Joshua stopped after Lent, actually. As far as most people know, though, we're still human." My smile faded slightly. "Word is starting to get out that we're not, though – it doesn't exactly help that I'm considered a fictional and real-life character here." My face scrunched up a little. "Makes for some really weird situations at school, let me tell you. We get visitors from all over the place who just go nuts if they catch sight of even one of us."

"You're sought after that much?" Stanford raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. We're pretty much superhero celebrities – the only ones around here, actually. So it's kinda hard to hide when you're the only ones who can, say, melt the snow off the parking lot in the middle of winter and get paid for it instead of the school having to call for a plow instead?"

The microwave beeped, and I pulled the water out without even flinching at the hot glass handle under my fingers as I poured the water into the two mugs.

"I suppose that does make it rather difficult to hide your identity," Stanford agreed. "And…no one's tried to come after you or your loved ones?"

I shook my head. "Normally, you'd expect something like that to happen from watching cartoons and things, but it hasn't. Kinda weird, but I'm not complaining."

"Hmm." Stanford raised an eyebrow. "Indeed. Normally, I'd have thought that villains of some kind would start making themselves known and make life difficult for you. You truly must be fortunate here if that's the case."

I hummed and nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It's pretty nice, considering that I've got to pop in and out to different worlds and help them out now. It means that I don't have to worry about things here." I spun the two spoons in the mugs, mixing the chocolate into the water and turning the water a deep chocolate brown. "You want milk in yours? It'll cool it off a little if you don't want to scald your tongue."

Stanford considered that for a moment, then nodded slightly. I promptly went to the refrigerator and fished out a gallon of milk before pouring a little into one of the mugs and mixing that in.

"Okay. There we go." I gently nudged the mug with the milk in it over to Stanford, who took it up in his hands and took a sip from it. Then I took my own and took a swig from it, causing Stanford to stare at me.

"You can handle near-boiling temperatures," he said.

"I can generate near-volcanic temperatures if and when I find the need to." I shrugged. "I can handle hot stuff like this no problem." I sat down at the table and pulled my laptop out of my backpack and opened it up.

Stanford moved to sit down next to me, holding the mug in one six-fingered hand. "What sort of device is that? I've seen you make use of it a few times, but it didn't occur to me to ask before."

I blinked in surprise. I hadn't been expecting him to start asking questions, considering the reason that he happened to be in our dimension in the first place. "It's a computer. This specific type of computer is a laptop, because it's small and portable and it is possible to just…well, put it in your lap and work on it there from anywhere. They can get pretty warm, though."

"That is a computer." Stanford stared at me, then snorted and shook his head. "Impossible. There is no way that such a small device would be able to do anything that a computer is capable of."

"The year's going to be 2012."

Stanford stared at me blankly.

"When you get back," I added. "It'll be 2012. Right now, in this dimension, it's 2016. You've been gone from your dimension for thirty years. Don't you think that it would be possible that technology would have advanced in that amount of time?"

"Well, er – yes, I suppose, but it's impossible that computers would be capable of becoming that compact, much less be accessible in the home for average people to use!"

"Obviously, you didn't hear about Steve Jobs," I muttered. When Stanford shot me a confused look, I explained, "He and a buddy of his made and sold personal computers out of their garage. They kinda started off the whole thing. Their company, Apple, is all over the technological market now, with phones, touch screen tablets, and watches that can interact with them. Jobs died of cancer a few years ago, but the company he left behind is still going pretty strong."

Stanford's eyes widened at that. "Made computers in his garage?"

"Yup. In Pao Alto, California."

Stanford actually winced at that. I frowned in confusion for a moment before I remembered why.

"Oh, yeah…Fiddleford was working on something like that when you called him up." I winced, remembering that there were some uneasy memories attached to that name – mostly revolving around the portal. "Sorry about—"

"It's fine." Stanford shook his head. "It's just…I hadn't thought that something like this would become so easily accessible." He nodded to the laptop. "What is it that you're intending to work on?" He took a sip from his mug of hot chocolate.

"More like what errors am I intending to correct," I responded, pulling up Tumblr on the monitor. "I've probably got – huh. Only 5 asks? I would have thought that post would have gotten me more attention that that. I'll have to check on the reblogs and see what kinds of things people are saying on there, then."

"This is concerning my presence?" Stanford guessed.

"Yeah." I nodded a little. "Like I said earlier, though, I don't intend to answer too many of them. I can probably just leave them alone for a couple days and everyone will think that I deleted the asks or something like that." My nose scrunched up a little bit. "I'd rather not think about that right now, though. Especially not after…." I shook my head, refusing to think about the nightmare that I'd just had. "I need some music to take my mind off this."

I switched over from Tumblr to YouTube and, after considering my options for a moment, pulled up an audio recording of a song that I'd run into earlier that year. Strings started playing an interesting rhythm before a piano stepped in for the first few opening beats.

"This is an anthem for the homesick…"

I grabbed my mug and took another swig of hot chocolate, sighing a little as the liquid slipped down my throat. "There we go." I closed my eyes for a moment as I listened to the song, smiling a little and bobbing a little to the beat.

"A song for the heartsick, for the standbys,

Living life in the shadow of a good-bye…."

"I haven't heard this song before," Stanford commented, causing me to open my eyes.

"It's a recent one," I replied. "The group's got some pretty good tunes; I just happen to like this one the most because it resonates with me for some reason. I don't think it's a theme for me, but I do like it a lot."

"Theme?"

"A song that resonates with your soul somehow. There's a dimension that helps people find theirs – it's called Axiom Nexus. I've only been there once, but I'd kinda like to go back there again, see if I might have another theme that I've picked up." I smiled a little. "I'd kinda like to see how Max is doing, too. She's the one who helped me find my first theme."

Stanford hummed, sounding intrigued. "Do you think that I might have a theme?"

"Everyone does. It's just a matter of finding a song that fits some part of you somehow."

"I'll carry you home. No you're not alone…"

Stanford hummed again. "Sounds like an interesting place. It's a shame that I haven't traveled there."

I hummed in response to that. "Yeah, I guess. I don't know how much of a break you would have gotten there, though – I only saw the carnival that they happen to play music at; I don't know what the rest of their dimension looks like, and I don't really need to go there in order to help solve any problems, so I probably shouldn't."

"You know we've all got battle scars…."

"Considering my present position in the multiverse, I doubt that I'll ever have time for rest," Stanford commented. "This dimension…it is quite surprising how insistent you all are that I let my guard down."

"Well, there isn't anything happening here that could cause you to worry." I paused. "Well, nothing like what you've been facing already. It's pretty quiet here."

"Other than the Cybertronians you have on your back stoop."

I looked over at him at that, wondering if he was looking out the window into our backyard for a moment. When I saw that he wasn't – and that there weren't a pair of glowing blue optics outside our window – I nodded slightly and smirked. "Yeah, that's true. But any problems they have now are on their planet, not ours. Not unless Joshua ends up uncovering something that could end up getting attention attracted to Earth again, but I doubt that anything like that's going to happen anytime soon."

"Perhaps," Stanford agreed. He paused, considering something. "Two days ago, when we spoke with…Stanley, you stiffened when you heard mention of their plans for the day. Why?"

I sighed. Of course he was going to ask about that. "Sock Opera. It's the name of one of the episodes in the second season, before you show up. The kids…they found Fiddleford's prototype portable computer. Dipper spent a good deal of the episode trying to get into it while Mabel was attempting to put together a puppet show to impress someone – that girl had way too many crushes." I shook my head. "Anyway, Dipper…may have inadvertently made a deal with Bill out of desperation to get a hint involving the laptop."

Stanford stiffened. "He what?!"

"Shh!" I pointed upstairs, trying to keep Stanford's voice down. "The kid didn't know what would happen; he managed to possess a sock puppet and warn Mabel about the monster in his body and she got Bill out before he could do any permanent damage. That was in the cartoon, though; I don't know whether or not Dipper would have accepted a deal from Bill in your universe if he already knows you're the author of the journals."

Stanford didn't look any less relaxed. "I need to speak with Stanley about this. Can you open another window?"

"I should think so, yeah." I got up from my chair and closed the laptop, causing the last few notes of the song to be cut off abruptly. I moved back from the table a little, took in a breath, and focused on Stanford's home dimension.

A flicker of blue hovered in the air in the kitchen for a moment, then bloomed open, turning into a flat, glassy surface that cleared up moments later…into the dark, cave-walled room that was the hidden basement.

And Stanley was sitting at a desk right in front of us, glaring at a machine readout and gnawing on the eraser of a pencil. He noticed the blue color and turned around; an expression of surprise showing up on his face.

"Has it been a week already for you guys?" Stanley asked.

"Just a day," I replied. "Almost two. Why? How long's it been for you?"

"Few hours; kids are in bed after all the running around they did today. Mabel's absolutely nuts about that puppet show she's been workin' on." Stanley grinned, an eager light in his eyes. "You really should see the kid's work when you get back, Poindexter; she's a real genius."

"As…interesting…as that would be, I'm a little more worried about Dipper," Stanford replied. "What's he been up to, other than this puppet show?"

"Dipper?" Stanley blinked a couple times. "He's been goin' nuts over this rickety ol' computer he and Soos found a few days ago. Dunno where they got it, though, but they have been avoiding the woods for the last couple days. Can't complain about that." He frowned. "He's trying to figure out who made it."

Stanford paused at that, frowning.

"…hey, wasn't that Maria kid wearing different-colored armor before?"

"I was," I replied. "But that was kinda a one-time thing. This is what I normally look like." I tapped my chest, smirking a little before letting that fade. "Say, Mr. Pines—"

"You can call me Stan, kid, I don't mind."

I nodded a little. "Stan, do you remember what happened before Gideon stole the house?"

Stanford shot me an odd look at that.

"…how'd you know about that, kid?" Stan asked, frowning suspiciously.

"You're a cartoon in this dimension, but that's not important now." I waved off the odd look I was getting from both sides of the window. "You were sleeping right before Gideon managed to get the deed to the house, right? Do you remember what happened while you were asleep?"

"While I was – wait." Stan frowned, tapping his chin. "Vaguely. I remember what sounded like synthetic boy band music in my head, an' talkin ta Dipper about how anythin' can happen in dreams."

"Do you remember anything yellow?" I pressed.

"Yellow? That's a weird question….I think so? There was this yellow triangle poppin' in an' out."

Stanford stiffened.

"I said they met him in 'Dreamscapers,' I just didn't say how," I said to Stanford. I looked back at Stan. "That triangle is a dangerous being that wants to get into your dimension, and he'll do it by any means necessary. There's also a chance that he'll go after and possess Dipper in the next few days if he doesn't let up about that laptop."

Stan's eyes widened at that. "Possess – not on my watch!" His eyes narrowed into a glare. "What do we gotta do to prevent that from happenin'?"

"That's the thing – I don't know if we can."

Stanford and Stan both stared at me.

"Certain events have to happen in such a way," I continued, ducking my head a little under their stares. "Dipper thinks that Bill Cipher is a being he can easily beat, and that isn't true. He's going to have to learn sometime that the triangle is dangerous, and simply telling him that is only going to make him actually do that. The place where the laptop was found? He was going out and trying to do research on Dr. Pines on purpose, specifically after you told him to not go looking for things. He had a run-in with a shape-shifting monster in a bunker in the woods – that's where he found the laptop."

"He what?" Stan's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"The Shapeshifter?!" Stanford repeated in alarm. "I thought that –"

"He broke out of one of the cyro tubes, but they managed to trick him into the other one," I replied. "The kids are okay, just horribly shaken up. I don't think they're ever going to go back there."

Stanford stared at me with an expression of amazement.

"So if we tell Dipper not to make a deal with Cipher, he very well may end up doing it anyway, but at this point, I'm not entirely sure. But back to the point I was trying to make – there are certain parts of a world's story that have to happen, no matter what. If you want the kids to know that Cipher is dangerous, they have to learn that for themselves. That being said, if you see Dipper acting in a way that he doesn't normally, or if you see something wrong with his eyes, either you or Mabel pull him into a tickle fest and everything should work out all right. Especially if Dipper is losing sleep over the laptop."

"…kid, are you sure it's a good idea to just let him do that?" Stan asked.

"I don't want to change the course of your world's story even more than I already have," I replied. "Just the fact that I'm getting involved with trying to get Dr. Pines home is already changing a lot; the fact that you know about the dangers of turning the portal on is another change, as well."

"Yeah. I didn't know about the invisible ink thing. Speaking of which – Poindexter! Next time you're going to give warnings to anybody, write it so that they can read it without having to go look for a damn blacklight!"

Stanford looked affronted and was probably about to respond, but I jumped in before he could start up an argument.

"Considering that I know what Dr. Pines was going through at least somewhat and you don't, I'm going to let some of that slide since I think you'll remember he greeted you by pointing a crossbow in your face and then shining a flashlight in your eyes," I said quickly, getting a sharp look from Stanford.

"Yeah, he – wait." I could see the gears turning in Stan's head. "The eyes thing. Did that triangle do something?"

Stanford's expression hardened, and I got the feeling that he wasn't going to answer so easily.

"Let's just say that demon's got a close tie to everything that's happened in Gravity Falls since before the town was founded and leave it at that," I replied. "I'll leave everything else for Dr. Pines to say when he's ready." My mouth twitched a little. "We're planning on trying to get him home tomorrow for us, by the way. His device is finished and ready to go."

"Really?" Stan's expression brightened. "That's great! That's gonna be in a few hours, right?"

"That's the plan. It's probably going to be tomorrow morning for us, so I don't know if you're going to be awake at that time or not."

Stan waved me off. "Meh, I'm used to staying up late most nights. That won't be a problem for me." He grinned. "I'll see you in person in a few hours then, Ford."

"That's the hope," I murmured to myself. "That's the hope."

Heh heh heh. Maria, you're changing events left and right. She is right, though - some events have to happen for the sake of a world's story, and she's not going to get anymore involved than getting Ford home if she can help it. And interesting experimentation with time between dimensions on top of that! No guarantee it's gonna remain consistent, though, especially if Ford's gonna get home before the end of the summer.

I'll see you guys the next time I post with the next chapter!