Mabel Pines was at a loss. A complete and utter loss. The type of loss she hadn't felt since Dipper left her. Her twin was gone. Missing. Possibly dead. No! she told herself. Be positive. You're great at that. He probably just got lost in the woods. Then got eaten by the hide-behind! She was curled up in her cupboard, hiding in her sweater and sobbing gently. Suddenly, heard a metallic knock on her door. Looking up, she saw Ford pulling the door open, his cybernetic hand clutching the handle. He handed a her a jug of Mabel JuiceTM.

"Here," he said softly. "Stan said that you live it, so I thought I'd cheer you up."

Mabel reached out and gently took the jug from her grunkle's hands. "Thanks Grunkle Ford…" she mumbled.

"He's out looking for him, you know," Ford stated. "I would be too, but I'm still getting used to this thing." He gestured at his left hand.

Mabel placed the jug down and slunk back into her sweater, the sounds of her tears muffled.

"Mabel," Ford began. "I'm sorry."

"What?" Mabel looked up in surprise, her eyes barely poking over her turtleneck.

"I'm so sorry for all this. For everything," Ford winced, his joints aching as he sat down fully. "If I had just let Dipper lead a normal life, we wouldn't be here."

Mabel squinted, "he wanted to live here."

"Yes, but here is dangerous."

Mabel finally pulled her head fully out of her sweater, her hair still caught in the back of it. "He knows how to handle dangerous though. He doesn't know how to deal with bullying."

Ford sighed, clearly not surprised about Dipper getting bullied (Mabel and discovered that Dipper and Ford told each other things they would end be comfortable sharing with their own twins. It kinda hurt when she found out). "I know a fair bit about bullies."

"But before we came to the Falls it was only getting worse! And it wasn't like it was going to get any better." She bit her lip and looked Ford in the eye for the first time. "He's happy here. He was always sad and miserable at home. And I tried to take it away from him… I'm a horrible person," she said, curling into the foetal position.

"No, no, no!" Ford said quickly, panicking at the escalating situation. "Don't say that Mabel. You are one of the the nicest people I have ever met." He hesitated for a second. "Dipper still has this image… that I'm this perfect adventurer. But he's wrong. I've made some huge mistakes, but everyone has. So don't blame yourself for a mistake, just strive to fix it. You helped me fix Weirdmageddon, my biggest mistake."

"But I—"

"No. All four of us have made deals with Bi – him. You're not alone."

Mabel opened her mouth to reply, but she stopped as the Mystery Shack shook on it's foundations.

"Ahh!" Stan screamed from the basement. "Why am I even down here?"

Ford grimaced, his eyebrows knitting together. "Come on," he said. "Let's deal with this."

Stanford Pines was a very intelligent man. With the amount of PhD's he had, it was kind of a requirement. Many people had a similar first impression of him: a curious owl who was far too smart for his own good. Lots saw him as an arrogant arsehole who looked down on those he believed to be lesser than himself. And for the longest time, that was true. He was selfish and incredibly full of himself. He'd never had anything that forced him to reconsider.

And then he met his great nephew.

He'd been cold to Dipper at first, but otherwise nice. He had drastically underestimated the boy's intellect on their first few meetings and pushed him away, even though he just wanted to spend time with him. At the time, Ford had thought that anyone who tried to get close to him was only going to betray him. That's what Bill had done and it's what he thought Stan had done. But after a rather eventful game of D,DnmD, he began to reconsider. He went on to put more trust in Dippe than he had in anyone before (other than Bill, obviously). He'd told himself that – other than Fiddleford and possibly Jheselbraum- Dipper was the only person he could truly trust. It was made expressly clear when Dipper had nearly gotten himself killed twice in one day to save him, once on in the UFO and once during Weirdmageddon. After that, he realised that Dipper was wiser at thirteen than he was a fifty-eight (now fifty-nine). Dipper was wise enough not to throw himself off a roof onto a witch's magic broomstick, for example.

Ford – sadly – didn't share his nephew's common sense.

His metal hand clutched the staff tightly, not straining in the slightest. Maybe there were some upsides to this after all.

The witch on top looked back and shouted, "get off you insufferable twit!" She swung the staff around, wind whipping through her hair.

Ford grunted, pulling his weight to one side. The staff jolted to the right, the Raven at it's head smashing into an oncoming building. The two smashed through the window, the glass shattering behind them. Ford's gun clattered to the floor unnoticed. He looked up slowly, grimacing. He was in a bathroom, a men's one to be exact. He grabbed at the sink and pulled himself up. The witch was somewhat slower, and Ford's qucik recovery time allowed him to get the jump on her. He tackled her to the floor, but wasn't ready for what the witch had in store for him. She immediately reached under the sink and pulled the curved pipe out from under it. After getting smashed in the face with the pipe, Ford rolled out of the way as the witch attempted to attack his stomach. Eventually, he got slow and the witch was on top of him, the pipe pressing into his throat. Ford quickly reached out and tugged at her hair. She yelped and dropped the pipe, but got to her feet quickly. Ford let out a battle cry as he charged at the woman, both smashing through the wall next to the sink. Now on the ground, Ford caught a glimpse of his gun under a stall in arm's reach.

But unfortunately, so did the witch.

The two went for it simultaneously, but the elderly scientist's strength betrayed him. The witch was once again on top of him, this time pointing a gun at his face. He desperately put pressure on her arms, preventing her from lining up her shot, but it was futile. He was getting old and he had been through the wringer in the past few days. The witch was clearly younger than himself. As firearm closed in on his face, Ford prepared himself for his grim fate. He was al OST happy Dipper wasn't here, he wouldn't be able to take it.

Suddenly the pressure was released from his hands and the witch dropped to the floor. Ford pushed her off his body and grabbed the gun, pointing it at the doorway. Mabel stood strongly, breathing heavily with stun gun in hand. He lowered his weapon slowly.

"Thank you," he said, his breaths heavy and laboured. He glanced at the witch. "Let's take her back to the Shack. Maybe then we can get some answers."

Hello once again, it's me; ya boy. I hope you liked the bathroom fight, I worked really hard on it (the original version was about twice as long, but I cut it down). I feel like I should address this, as there are a lot of Mabel haters who think I agree with them and Mabel lovers who probably want my head: neither Dipper or Mabel are right in their argument. They each have a point, but are each wrong at the same time. I'm not going to take a side, I'm going to make sure they reconcile properly. Next chapter is the part one finale! I've already written the first draft, it should be out by Monday (I live in the UK, so if you're in the states, that will be slightly different). Anyway, thanks for reading and please leave a review. If it's a criticism, make it constructive please. Nobody likes hate comments and nobody listens to them, so if you have any suggestions that could improve this story, I shall be happy to hear them.