Stan didn't feel like the past thirty years had changed who he was that much. Sure he had committed a bunch of crimes, but he'd been stealing and lying since he could walk and talk.

When you were the only person you spent a considerable amount of time bonding with, you learn how to squash your feelings of emptiness. You learn to get over what you've been through. But, it was a like a geyser that had been building up steam for decades, ready to just burst and pour boiling water over everything around Stan.

Unfortunately, it seemed Ford was in a similar situation.

"Now how's about a little thanks for saving you from what appears to be a... I don't know, Sci-fi sideburn dimension?" Stan watched Ford, his emotions were torn. He was happy to see Ford again, but his brother had come up with the brilliant plan of punching Stan the moment he saw him.

Ford's already upset face grew even angrier. "Sci-fi sideburn dimension?" He formed every word carefully, like he was trying to grip the fact that he had heard them being spoken in that order.

"Sci-fi sideburn dimension?!" Ford repeated, clenching his hands into shaky fists. "You think I was in a Sci-fi sideburn dimension! You think that the past thirty years have been fun?!"

Stan took a small step back, dropping his arms to his own sides. He tried to open his mouth to speak, but it was as if his jawbones had been welded shut. There was an animalistic gleam in Ford's eyes. No doubt that it was thirty... No, forty years of sorrow and pain, welling up inside of him. And the floodgates were being opened.

"Do you know what my life has been like?" Ford asked, beginning to breathe rapidly. "Can you even begin to imagine the blood soaked battlefields I've fought upon? The horrifying creatures I've encountered, many of which have attempted to make me their dinner?" Ford was staring intently at Stan, as if he could transmit these memories right into his mind.

"Do you know," he asked, beginning to shake slightly. "How many people I have seen die? How many I have killed, sometimes with my bare hands?!" He held said hands up, displaying his fingers which were shaking harder than the rest of him.

"I have been betrayed, kidnapped, enslaved, incarcerated, and so many other things!" Ford's voice was loud, but no where near as loud as he could go. It was slowly climbing in volume, but Stan didn't even think about anyone else hearing Ford.

"I have had people die for me!" Ford practically yelled. "I watched my best friend get tortured into insanity in a blood stained prison, while all I could do was listen to her screams! Then, I had to execute her. I had to kill the one person I could trust!" Ford's eyes bore into Stan, who could only stare at him.

"Now," Ford said with a tiny laugh that sounded almost completely broken. "You write off what I've been through like I was on vacation. You seriously expect me to thank you after you trapped me in there?!"

There was almost complete silence in the room, the only sound Stan could hear was his own breathing. His eyes flicked slightly between Ford and the portal, which had been shaken off of it's stand, pieces of it lying on the ground, broken and charred. There was still the shape of the basic structure, but there was no way it would ever operate the same way again. If at all.

Sort of like Ford.

Ford's face curled into an even angrier sneer at Stan's silence, he folded his arms tightly against his chest, and Stan finally registered the gigantic gun strapped to his back. The likelihood that everything Ford had said was true...

"So no, Stanley. I'm not going to thank you." Ford concluded, taking a deep breath in and out. Then he spat out, "Instead, you should thank me for only using my fist, and not my pistol."

Another miniature eternity passed, Stan breathed rhythmically with Ford. He now wanted to hug Ford again, to apologize over and over for what Stan, in his foolishness, had done.

"Hi, Mabel here..." Ford's eyes snapped over to the girl, who was standing next to Dipper, a shocked look on their almost identical faces. "What... Who... I have a lot of questions."

"Stan, you didn't tell me there were children here." Ford said quietly, adjusting his glasses. Stan nodded at him, still a bit fearful of the things Ford had said. .

Ford stepped over towards Mabel and Dipper cautiously, like at any moment they might explode in his face. Or that he wouldn't scare them.

"I'm sorry for my outburst," Ford said, kneeling down to bring himself almost eye level with Mabel. "If I had known..."

Mabel nodded, and stared at the hand Ford extended towards her. She timidly placed her own inside of his and let him shake it.

Fighting a sinking feeling, Mabel cracked him a smile and exclaimed (although slightly forced) "A six fingered handshake. That's a full finger friendlier than normal!"

Ford flashed her a small smile as well, he cautiously said, "Thank you... Mabel. Your name is Mabel right?"

"Yup!" Mabel's smile grew less nervous, and she gave Ford's hand a last firm shake before putting both of her's in her hips and exclaimed, "Mabel Pines!"

Ford's eyes widened, he stood up slowly and looked back at Stan. "Mabel Pines? Are you Stan's, or Sherman's?"

"Yes!" Mabel said, blinking happily up at Ford, who reeled back, a look of disgust crossing his features.

"We're Sherman's grandchildren, but we're living with Stan for the summer." Dipper clarified. "And you... You're the Author of the Journals."

Ford breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes. I am." He said and held his own hand out to Dipper, who was a bit more cautious about shaking it than Mabel.

"It's an honor to meet you, sir." Dipper said in a hushed voice, and a bit of fear sneaked in. "I don't... I don't know what to say."

Ford released his hand, and folded his arms behind his back. "You can start with your name." He suggested, and Dipper immediately snapped to attention. "Dipper Pines sir." He said.

Ford nodded, then something seemed to click inside of his mind. "Oh no." He said deeply, "This is bad..."

"What?" Mabel asked, glancing between Stan and Ford. "How is this bad? We have two Grunkles now!"

Ford sighed, and looked down at Mabel with tired, and sad eyes. "It is not that you have another uncle," he said slowly, his eyes scanning both children. "It is who your uncle is."

Mabel squinted at Ford, "I don't get it." She said calmly.

"I have made many enemies in my day," Ford explained, looking over at Stan, who was still just watching them. "But one in particular. A being of chaos."

Dipper nodded, and Ford continued. "He desires to enter into our world, and morph reality to his will. He tortured for pleasure, and kills if he wants..." Ford motioned towards the portal, and added, "He convinced me to build this portal. You see, he wants our universe because it is an apostrophe-backslash."

"A say what now?" Mabel said, sitting cross legged on the floor, staring up at Ford.

"An apostrophe-backslash," Ford repeated. "A universe that is sealed from all the others. No one knows how many of them there are, but we live inside of one of them. They are the most stable universes, because they aren't having themselves being ripped open constantly."

Dipper joined Mabel on the ground, along with Soos, and the three of them watched Ford begin to pace, like he was a lecturer, mainly because he was.

"This being is also a collector," Ford said, facing his 'students', "He finds the odd, strange, outcasts, and any other beings weird enough to add to his collection of Henchmaniacs." He held his hands out towards them, and spread his fingers out wide, "And guess who he's been trying to obtain."

Mabel gasped slightly, Soos and Dipper's jaws hung a bit open, and Stan... Stan finally found his voice.

"Ford?"

Ford looked over at his brother and dropped his hands. "Yes Stan?" He asked, and his voice was calm, commanding, yet utterly broken.

"I didn't mean it." Stan said quietly, "I didn't mean any of it."

Ford nodded, but his eyes didn't seem to accept Stan's some-what of an apology. He bit his lip, and turned back to the kids.

"We will have to begin training right away." Ford said, holding his hand out Mabel to help her stand up. "The energy the portal created must have ripped a hole in out dimension, and if anything got ahold of it, the being could come through."

Mabel grabbed his hand, and Dipper scrambled to his feet. "What do we do?" He asked, his eyes filled with fear, but also excitement.

"We train, and we hope that the Axolotl is on our side." Ford said calmly, "Now. Do you like guns or knives better... Oh wait, I'll just train you in both."

This would be interesting. How would Stan explain this to their parents?

Ello-hey. It's me.

This Ford has seen some stuff. And as you can tell, he didn't exactly like Stan insulting it in front of him.

"I haven't been in this dimension for a while, it's okay to give children weapons, right?"

Thanks TFD for the prompt, I'll get to working on it right away! I actually have had a similar idea and I'll just morph the two of them together.

Thanks guys!

-BrilliantLight