Fear. So this is what they meant when they said that you could smell the stuff. Ford could smell it, see it, feel it oozing off of the miserable alien in front of him. It was like the creature had been born in fear, lived in fear, and would probably even die in fear. Pathetic.

The grey alien, with its dog/fish-like face, was afraid. And with good reason. On his exposed shoulders was his mark. The mark of the triangle. Bill's mark. That was something that was not tolerated. It meant something, something horrible. Ford glared down from his chair at the pathetic creature, who was shaking in front of him. Ford crossed his right booted leg over his left, bringing his black-covered ankle to on top of his knee. He let his left hand fall to the top of his higher foot, and his right fell naturally to his giant Quantum Destabilizer.

"Please... Sir... I'll do anything..." The creature was repeating, bringing his handcuffed hands up in front of his face and lacing his fingers together, like he was praying. Ford scoffed, his eyes glaring at the alien. "Please..."

"You worked with Cipher." Ford stated coldly, the only emotion that he was showing was anger. "Explain yourself."

The creature gulped, dropping his hands down to his bent knees on the ground. He seemed to gather the tiniest bit of resolve, but his eyes kept drifting to the Quantum Destabilizer. "He... He was going to kill my family sir... I am eternally sorry... I... I'll do anything!" Ford hissed, his blue eyes scanning the alien, like he was looking for some semblance of value.

"It appears you have done enough," Ford said, dropping his right foot to the floor again. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his silver kneepads. The creature whimpered and shrank back as far as he could while he was kneeling. He and Ford were the only people in the room, which wasn't very large for the main deck of a ship, but it did what it needed to do.

The creature glanced behind the human, at the tiny pinpricks of light contrast to the blackness of the rest of the Multiverse. A small sound from Ford snapped his attention back to where it had been.

"And you helped Cipher, with full knowledge of his plans?" Ford asked, glaring at the alien, who nodded sadly, his fear doubling with every second that passed. "And you did nothing to sabotage them? You just did what you were told?" Another terrified nod went in Ford's direction, and this 'poor' soul's fate was sealed. "Then you know what the sentence is." Ford hissed, standing up and stepping towards the creature.

"Please! No!" The dog/fish-man cried, scrambling as far away from Ford as he could, which wasn't far enough. Ford casually strode towards him. "I... I'm sorry! Please! Have mercy!"

"There is no mercy for unmerciful." Ford hissed.

In the hall outside, several blue-dressed guards winced as the sound of a shot echoed around them. A strangled cry followed a second later and then... heavy silence. The two just outside of the command deck stood perfectly still as the silver doors opened, and the captain strode out of the room, the smell of smoke following him. He glanced at them, then said quietly, "Call a clean-up crew, there's been a mess."

The two of them nodded, and watched as he continued to stride through the hall, his Quantum Destabilizer strapped to his back. There were two people you learned to never tick off in the Multiverse. Bill Cipher, and Stanford Pines.

Stan blinked his eyes open. At first, all he could see was the imprint that the last bright flash had left in his eyes, then he could start to see the human walking through the portal. Ford. His brother was finally there, after all this time, the dumb portal had finally worked.

He shakily got to his feet. He had to look strong for his brother, he had to put up a facade of being okay. He had to see Ford more clearly, he had to wrap his arms around his brother and tell him how much he'd missed him. He had to tell Ford about Dipper and Mabel, he had to show him so much. He had to hear Ford's 'thank you'...

He stepped towards his brother, and Ford took his mask off, his blue eyes cold and hollow. If Stan didn't know better, he'd think that there was a huge gash on his left cheek. If Stan didn't know better, he'd say that he could see dried alien blood on his brother's hand. If Stan had known better...

"Finally, after all these long years of waiting!" Stan called out, making sure not to stumble as he got closer to his brother. "You're actually here! Bro-"

Ford took two long strides towards Stan, and, without Stan even having the time to react, he grabbed his right shoulder and spun him around with a jerk, placing something cold against the front of his neck. Stan had been in this situation before, so long ago... His brother was only one small movement away from slitting his throat.

Stan's mind froze. He literally couldn't think. All he could do was glance down at a longish jagged knife that Ford was pressing against his neck. Then Mabel screamed.

"Grunkle Stan!" the girl cried out. "Let go of him, you big meanie!" Stan's only thought after that was that Mabel was about to get herself hurt. Brilliant. This was a perfect first impression Ford. Just 10 out of 10. Good job. You're going to traumatize the kids.

The knife pressed a little more into Stan's neck, and he hoped, really hoped, that it didn't draw blood. Ford seemed to stiffen behind Stan, then he hissed, "I sense Cipher."

"Well, you've gone nuts," Stan muttered. Probably not the best thing to say to someone who literally a weapon poised next to a vital part of your body, but Stan didn't really care about stuff like that right then. "Now do what your niece said and let me go! I'm sorry!" Stan casually crossed his fingers, hoping that Ford didn't notice. Just let him go Ford...

"Niece?" Ford mumbled, glancing at the girl, whose face was torn between wanting to save her uncle, and not wanting to get attacked by her other one. "I was unaware..." He made a guttural growl, and Stan really hoped that he wasn't about to something really stupid. "Stanley, why is there a child here? Have you lost your mind!?"

"I'll let you know when you let me go!" Stan exclaimed, tilting his head ever so slightly to the left, but stopped once the metal pressed against it became a bit too uncomfortable. "Now do you really want fratricide on your record?"

Stan was relieved to feel his brother take his hand, which he had kept on his shoulder, off of him. The knife vanished as well, and Stan nearly fell forward when Ford stopped holding him up. He stumbled towards the kids, and Mabel dashed up to him and placed her hands on his arms. "Grunkle Stan are you okay!?" She asked, "Are you bleeding? Who is that?"

Stan was half surprised to see Dipper cross over to him as well, a look of genuine concern on his face. He swallowed deeply, then glanced back at Ford, who was glaring at the three of them with his arms crossed, the knife in his right hand hanging half limply against his side. "Well, that maniac is the Author of the Journals," Stan explained, and Dipper's eyes widened and glanced between his uncles. "My brother."

"No way man!" Mabel exclaimed, crossing her arms after pulling out her grappling hook. She held it so she looked exactly like a miniature version of Ford, and she yelled at her uncle, "You were going to kill your own brother! That's messed up!"

Ford did his best to not treat this situation like the ridiculous one it was. "Believe me, I have done much worse. And, for your information, I never intended on killing him." He and Mabel shared a heated staring contest, then he added, "Although I would have made him wish I had."

"Just who do you think you are!?" Mabel yelled, and Stan had to hide his face behind his hands in order to not let his family see him laughing, from both humor and shock. Ford glanced at Stan, then back at his niece. "I'm Stanford Pines. The Stanford Pines."

"Well, 'the Stanford Pines', you don't just get to walk out of portals and try to murder my uncle!" Mabel said, and then something seemed to click in her mind and she dropped her hands to her sides, "Wait. Stanford Pines? But... But Grunkle Stan is Stanford!"

"Kid, don't make my brother want to kill me more than he already does..." Stan whispered to her while Ford glanced between the two of them in confusion. "I'll explain everything later."

Ford ground his teeth together for a moment, then he uncrossed his arms just like her and pointed his left pointer finger towards Mabel. "You know what Stanley, I like this kid." A small smile crossed over his face, but it looked strange, like he was someone who wasn't used to smiling (which he wasn't), "And I have been looking for an apprentice... And if she's my niece it could become a family business..."

Stan gave his brother a look of utter shock and horrified confusion. "Apprentice? Family business? What 'business'?"

If you had asked twenty-something-year-old Ford what he expected to do later in life, he would definitely not say he wanted to be a gangster/outlaw/mafia-leader. Yet there he was, only a handful of years into his forties, being one of the most dangerous and feared beings in the entire Multiverse. Even though he was technically a 'good guy' he was not a 'kind' man.

It was like he had something to prove. Anytime any whisper of Cipher activity came around Pines would always jump right on into action. Planet/universe/dimension getting overtaken and destroyed? Pines was on the case. Cipher was breathing? Pines would try to stop that. Something remotely dangerous was happening? Pines was there. Had someone you needed to have a trial and/or execution for? Pines was the first one to sign up.

He isolated himself from everyone. Which no one really minded. He terrified the nieve rookies, and more experienced knew what protocol was. You don't make friends in this line of work. Just the very thought of your own bloodstained hands... it was enough to make you never want to talk to another person again.

But their work was necessary. If someone didn't do what they were doing... What state would the Multiverse be in? If someone didn't stand up to that insane, two-dimensional, demon triangle what would happen? No. This was something that must be done, for the greater good. Who cared how they accomplished that...

Stan, Soos, and the kids watched Ford silently. Well, they were more of just listening to him, honestly, with all the sounds coming from the other side of the gift shop door... They didn't really feel a desire to see whatever was happening.

Ford had ordered them to stay in the basement, but after about ten minutes of boredom, they'd decided to come up anyway. Now the four of them were too terrifed to even move their heads. The sounds of pained screams, gunshots, and miniature explosions filled the air.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, their surroundings went all quiet. They heard one last blast, and a muffled "Ugh!" closely followed by a dull thud, then the world was completely still.

Until the door opened, and Ford walked in. He placed two sci-fi looking triangle-barreled blasters on his belt, then his head snapped up and he saw the four other occupants of the toy littered gift shop. His expression turned sour, but that quickly faded into his normal stoicism. He stepped towards his family (and Soos... unless you could him as Ford's surrogate nephew?) and he pointed a finger at the other three males.

"Congratulations, you three are now my cleanup crew." He said, like this was a good thing. "Stanley, you go get the shovel. Rodent, go get a mop. Boy..." He addressed Dipper, and seemed to think of something for him to do. "Can you loot corpses?"

"What?" Dipper asked, shaking his head jerkily. "Co- Corpses? What..." His uncle chuckled. "A nieve one I see. Niece and Nieve, works perfectly." He motioned for the three of them to go outside, which they did after taking just one look at his guns. Mabel was about to follow then, but Ford placed his hands on her shoulders, shaking his head and vocalizing a negative. "This way Apprentice. I need to get you measured for a training uniform."

"Apprentice? Uniform?" Mabel asked as Ford began to push her slowly into the messy dining room. "Yes. You're my Apprentice now." Ford said, like this clarified everything. "Don't you remember me telling you that? Krazden, have children gotten stupider since I was stuck in the Multiverse?"

Mabel didn't understand what her newest Grunkle was saying, or what he meant, or how his brain worked. But she didn't think she liked it.

You don't just get to kill people Ford!

I sort of wanted to see how Stan and the guys would react to like an... intense mafia Ford. Like, this guy... Man, you don't want to get on this Ford's bad side. Come to think of it, you don't want to get on any Ford's bad side. I should probably run now...

Sorry I haven't updated in... about a week! The horror! I've been working on my new fic, Gravitivity Falls, I'm sure you (probably) recognize that name. Well, its a fic now! And I rip peoples' hearts out with it! Yay!

Well, I don't really have much to say. Um... I hope I didn't traumatize you too much with this. Stay (for the most part) happy, healthy, safe and sane! Have a wonderful day!

-BrilliantLight