He'd done it. Finally, after all these years of not being able, he'd actually restarted the portal. He'd been helped (oh, how he had been helped) by Dipper and Mabel. Seeing the two of them, how they would sacrifice everything just for their family, seeing how they were what he had once had, seeing them with the Journals... It gave him that confidence he should have had years, and years, ago.

He'd collected all three Journals (for some reason they seemed to be in use more than they had been for the past thirty years), used them to rebuild the portal, turned the giant of a machine on, and let the machinery do the rest of the work. He knew he had to tell the kids about his twin, knew that he'd have to tell them that he'd never been completely honest with them... but he hadn't been strong enough. He'd backed out at the last second.

But this time he wasn't backing out. He would do this. This was what his entire life had led up to. Fixing his mistakes. Even if it took getting arrested, losing Dipper's trust in him, and watching Mabel cry in order to get it done.

Mabel clung onto the shutdown switch's shaft, tears floating above her head. He yelled from his trapped position on the other side of the room, "Mabel! Listen! I know I've done some bad things... But this one... It's not... I've done my best... I've done what I need for my family! Please! It'll all be okay! You... You just gotta... trust me!" She had to trust him. Oh please, just trust him. He knew that he didn't have much for her to trust in, but please may it be enough.

That's when she lifted her arms, and claimed that she did trust him.

The room, where everything was topsy-turvy, was engulfed in the brightest light he had ever encountered. He could feel his very molecules being scattered temporarily, as gravity threw itself into complete disarry. It felt like a billion years, and no time at all that they were like that. He forced his eyes to open though, against his will, and he saw his niece floating in front of him, her hair flowing behind her. He blinked over to her brother, whose hat was floating above his head. Dipper and Mabel... Was he going to lose them?

Then, with a jerk, he fell to the ground. He shoved his thin body up onto his knees after a moment of simply breathing. He didn't look the way he expected, but it was happening. Finally, after years and years of indecision, he had done it. He had brought his brother back. In fact, he could see him already. There he was, stepping out of the portal, dressed entirely in black. His brother's frame was fuller than his own was, but that had always been true.

"Who... who is that?" Dipper's voice drifted into his ears as his brother bent down and picked up the very first Journal. He bit his lip as he watched his brother, and then said, "The... My... My brother." After he said that, the figure stepped towards them, reaching up and taking off the black mask that obscurred his face. The two of them stared at each other, then he shoved himself to his feet, and took his own steps towards his lookalike.

"I... I'm so sorry... It's been so..." before he could finish his sentence, the very first sentence that he had ever said to him in thirty years, he saw his brother's... six-fingered fist? crash into his face.

"This was an insanely risky move, restarting the portal." his 'brother' said, glaring at him, with a small sneer on his face. "Didn't you read my warnings?" All he could think of saying was, "You're... You're not Stanley..."


Ford was upset. After all this time he had thought that Stan would never find all the Journals, and if he had, he never expected him to be stupid enough to actually restart the portal. But no, like Ford so often was when it came to others, he was wrong. Stan restarted the portal, and brought Ford back at the most inopportune time. Right before he destroyed Bill. Could Stan have been more annoying?!

Stanley had thinned out over the years. He was also in a... lab coat? and he was wearing glasses very similar to Ford's. But what he looked like didn't matter. He looked exactly like Ford, and as long as he wasn't Sherman, he just had to be Stanley. Ford glared at his brother, and dashed forward, swinging his fist into his brother's face.

He began to lecture his brother, who, for some strange reason, didn't complain about Ford's punch. Then his eyes widened, and he said quietly, "You're... You're not Stanley..."

"Of course I'm not Stanley!" He practically yelled, sweeping his hand out in front of his doppleganger. "You're Stanley!" He glared at the other man, who bit his lip, a terrified expression crossing his thin features. Instead of saying anything though, he simply raised his left hand, and spread his fingers out wide. Ford was just about to snap that that didn't mean anything, but then he counted the number of fingers on the man's hand.

Six. Six perfectly shaped fingers. This man... was himself.

A new pit developed in his stomach. This man was another version of Stanford. This man was himself. Stanley... hadn't gotten him back. Stanley wasn't even there. They both expected each other to be Stan. But this man was Ford.

"What were you thinking?!" he yelled, actually yelled, causing the other version of him to step back slightly. "You know about Bill! You know what he wants to do! What, besides him, possessed you to do this?!" The other Ford looked scared for a second more, then his face turned hard, and he snapped, "I dunno. Maybe I wanted to see my brother again? I sort of felt bad after trapping him in that... place. Wouldn't you have tried to get him back?"

He couldn't believe this. This was something he expected out of Stan, never himself. He was absolutely sure that if he had been the one to stay in his dimension, no matter where Stanley was, he'd deconstruct the portal and go on with his life. He hissed alien swear words under his breath, and then snapped, "No. I wouldn't have."

"And that's what I did. Until... until now." the other Ford crossed his arms, glaring at Ford with the same intensity that he himself had. "I finally decided to man up and bring my brother back from that hell-hole."

"It's called the Nightmare-"

Before Ford could finish correcting the other version of him, a girl's voice called out from his right, "Hi! Yeah, uh, Mabel here... What on earth is going on here!?" He looked over at the girl, dressed in a pink sweater and standing next to a young boy and a rather rodent-like man, and his anger towards the other Ford doubled. "You brought children here?!" he yelled, snapping his attention back to the alternate version of him. "You truly have lost your mind!"

"Those are my niece and nephew," the other Ford said, looking over at the children, the two kids glanced between the two old men, and the rodent-man seemed about ready to faint. "Mabel..." He bit his lip, and were those... tears? collecting in his eyes. He stepped over to the kids, and knelt in front of the girl. "Oh Mabel... Dipper... I'm so sorry..."

"It's okay Grunkle Ford," Mabel said, holding her arms out, "Now we know that you didn't destroy the world!" 'Grunkle' Ford chuckled, but it held sadness, and a hiccup. He leaned forwards and wrapped his arms around her, and she wrapped hers around him. She looked over at her brother, and said, "Come on Dipper! Join the hug-fest!"

The two children, and the man, all hugged 'Grunkle' Ford, and Stanford felt awkward for a moment. And was that... jealosy creeping up in him? It was threatening to destroy his anger, seeing the four of them so sad, but that didn't account for the other Ford's stupidity.


"So... you just left him in there? You didn't even try to save him?"

Ford was luck he'd had thirty years of learning how to bury guilt, or he'd have been completely crushed by Dipper's comment. He looked over at the alternate version of him, whose face was stoic and his eyes harsh and cold. Nights of writing lists about why he should or shouldn't get Stanley back surfaced in his memory, and she closed his eyes and nodded. "It... It was too dangerous. I couldn't leave here, I couldn't just leave him in there, but I also couldn't get him back..."

"So what?!" Mabel asked, throwing her arms in the air. "If Dipper was on the other side I'd get him back!" She glared at her uncle for a moment, during which he squeezed his eyes shut and looked like he might start crying. And if there was one thing Stanford Pines didn't do, it was cry. "Grunkle Ford... You did try to get him back though... You just did... Right?"

Ford swallowed deeply, doing his best to not look at the man standing off to the side. He could feel his family, and the other Ford's, judgemental eyes resting on him. "I... I tried stabilizing the portal... But... I was preoccupied..." He looked down at his fingers, then unconciously rubbed his left arm, over the place where a hidden scar was kept.

For the first time since his story started the other Ford said, "By the muse?" The two of them looked into each other's eyes, and Ford nodded. "Yes. It got worse." Mabel looked between the two of them in confusion, then asked, "Whose 'the muse'? What got worse?"

"It doesn't matter." the Fords said at the same time. Dipper and Mabel shared a look, and said, "Okay..." Dipper shifted nervously, then asked, "What made you change your mind?" Ford sighed, deflating a bit and looking sadly at the two children. "You two. I saw what you two have... and I wanted it back. I wanted to be able to sacrifice everything, literally everything, for my family.

"So I did."


Ford, and Grunkle Ford, as that was how they'd decided to differentiate themselves, stood next to each other in the hall. Grunkle Ford had given Ford some of his spare outfits, ones that he would never wear, but still fit his style, and Ford had taken them with barely a hint of gratitude. The two of them glanced at each other, and then Ford said, "Wow. We look like dad."

Grunkle Ford chuckled, "Yeah, we do. At least I'm not wearing that awful suit he gave me." the two of them chuckled, and Ford said, "I'm going to guess that abomination never filled out its purpose?" Grunkle Ford nodded, then shook his head at the ground. "Never. I gave up even trying to talk to women when I hit forty. Mabel set me up with a local waitress... but all she ever talked about was greasy food and cats."

The two of them laughed again, then Grunkle Ford looked to the ground sadly. "I... I... Stanley..." he squeezed his eyes shut, and Ford said firmly, "Yes. About Stan. It's too dangerous to try to restart the portal again. An action like that would be foolhearty. I suggest destroying the portal before any futher damage can be inflicted." He looked at the other version of himself, and the thinner Ford sighed. "I... I understand."

"Here's the deal, we'll have to destroy this together. I don't know what changes you've made, and the sooner we get it out of here the sooner you can't change your mind." Ford glared at the mirror, at the wall behind them. "We'll contain any remaining damage, and hope that Bill doesn't have an outlet to get into this dimension." He sighed, then said, "I'm sorry, but there's no way you can even try to get Stan back."

Grunkle Ford was quiet for a moment, then anger settled inside of him. Then, without warning, he turned to face Ford, an upset look on his face. "Fine." he hissed, "I'll help you with this, on one condition." Ford looked at him, and leaned back as Grunkle Ford stuck a finger in his face, "You stay away from my kids. They're the only family I have left you hear me!?" He breathed in and out deeply, then added, "You just keep away from my family. You've taken enough of them already."

And with that he stormed away.


Hello everyone!

I have a favorite AU now. It's definitely, definitely, the Reverse Portal AU. I just... Ugh! It's amazing. I was looking at it on busket's tumblr, and found a comment by olorfulcattails, about if Canon Ford ended up in RP Falls. And that got by fanfic senses a-tingling. So... Next chapter will be the Stanley version. That should be fun...

All the yelling, and confusion. Fords being angry at each other, and the kids being like, "Mommy, daddy, please stop fighting." Although I'm pretty sure that's how it is normally as well.

I hope you guys liked this. See ya later!

-BrilliantLight