If anybody asks, no, I'm not done writing this yet. But I'm close. 3-4 chapters at least. We're looking at a total of 27-28, depending on how I manage to wrap things up.

Chapter 4 - Unwanted Visitors

Later that day, Maria was going over her final checklist in the living room to prep for her intended plans when a loud horn went off outside the house.

"The heck?" Maria frowned, looking up from her journal. "Stanley, are you giving any tours today? I thought you were taking the first half of September off."

"I am." Stanley frowned at Maria from across the room in his yellow armchair. The clearly human, gray-haired old man in a sleeveless undershirt and boxers didn't look like he wanted to get up. "So whoever they are, they're gonna be in fer a real disappointment when they come up an' find the closed sign."

Sixer got up from where he'd been sitting next to Maria and looked out a window. He'd barely moved the curtain before pulling back abruptly. "The government agents are back. Stanford has already gone out to speak with them."

"Has he?" Suddenly, Stanley was a bit more alert. He turned off the TV and heaved himself to his feet. "Is it just those two?"

"No; there's a third. A woman."

Maria blinked. "Huh. Must be a higher-up if they're back here. Think they're here about what happened at the end of August?"

"More than likely," Stanley muttered in a growl. "We're lucky that Andrew an' that freaky bookish brother of his are downstairs. Wouldn't want ta know what they'd think of 'em."

"Yeah, having the demons meet them would probably be a bad idea," Maria agreed. She rose from the couch and moved over to the window next to Sixer. "I don't think that Stanford will need any help."

She pulled the curtain aside and saw Stanford standing with his back to the porch, gun raised, while the three agents stood in defensive positions.

Maria groaned and dropped the curtain. "Looks like we got a stand-off."

Stanley groaned and walked over to the door. "Of course it is. Can't go for five damn seconds around here without something goin' wrong. Hang on."

"Stanley—"

But Stanley was already out the door and walking towards the stand-off. He left the door open behind him. "What seems to be the trouble, officers?"

Trigger and Powers exchanged looks, not lowering their weapons. The woman with them – auburn hair, crisp suit – frowned at Stanley over her glasses like a cranky librarian.

"You two."

Trigger and Powers stiffened.

"You did not inform me that Stanford Pines had a living twin."

"Th-the records said he'd died over thirty years ago from a car accident!" Trigger protested.

"Stanley Pines was also a notorious criminal with a record a mile long and just as wide," the woman snapped in reply. "Identity theft should be added again to his record, and remind me to dig them up again and add everything from the Stanford Pines file to his."

Stanley shrugged. Maria couldn't see his face from where she was, but she got the sense that he was grinning. "Aw, yer too kind."

"Don't consider this a curtesy to your brother; he is still under investigation for creating a weapon that could have wiped out the entire west coast," the woman snapped. "Those power outages three years ago, not to mention the influx of energy that we recorded from this area, both point to him."

Maria and Sixer exchanged looks.

"They don't know about Weirdmageddon," Sixer noted.

"Something tells me we'd be better off if they didn't," Maria replied. "We don't want them knowing that demons can warp reality to the point of destroying the universe. They could want to either destroy us or force us to use that information as a weapon for them."

Sixer looked worried. "I would rather not have either option."

"You and me both."

Meanwhile, the conversation on the lawn had moved on.

"We are not leaving Gravity Falls until you give us the information you clearly have hidden here," the woman said. "I can get a warrant to search your home and take away any contraband you may have hiding there, as well as your research."

Stanley laughed uneasily.

Stanford didn't lower his gun, didn't take his gaze off Trigger and Powers. "The research I have is far too dangerous. You don't know what you're asking for."

"We are asking for information on—"

"You want to use my knowledge as a weapon. I can't allow that; not when it nearly tore apart this universe and has been used to tear apart countless others."

Sixer stiffened. Maria looked over at him, but he shook his head. He was fine; Stanford's reference to his past wasn't going to faze him that much.

The woman sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I understand that you are attempting to keep something you worked very hard on close to your chest. But my interest is in ensuring that this does not happen again."

"Then we are aligned in our goals on that," Stanford admitted, "but you don't have the capabilities to keep this knowledge from falling into the wrong hands. No doubt your superiors will get greedy and unleash eldritch horrors across our universe."

The three agents stared.

"You have got to be kidding me," Trigger said.

"He does not appear to be joking," Powers said in his flat tone of a voice.

"I appreciate that to his crazed persona," Sixer muttered. When Maria raised an eyebrow at him, Sixer shook his head a little. "Cipher did something."

"Ah." Maria nodded.

"You do not want to know what else wanted my knowledge," Stanford said. "It's better off if you forget this whole endeavor and leave us in peace. I cannot guarantee that you will keep your sanity for long in this place."

"Because what you did is still affecting this place?" the woman asked.

"Because there are creatures that live in these woods that will make you lose your sanity if you find them."

"I find that difficult to believe."

Trigger stiffened suddenly. "Agent Tesla, ma'am, there was a boy who summoned zombies three years ago."

"Something about the air here is making you think that. You likely came across something that caused you to hallucinate."

"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't." Stanley folded his arms across his chest. "The point is, we can handle whatever tries ta make off with the research."

Something creaked in the house.

Sixer turned sharply, ears up. "We have an intruder."

Maria turned and followed his gaze and caught sight of another suited man stepping in from the gift shop, staring at them with wide eyes.

"Hi." Maria walked forward. "You don't have a warrant to be in here. So how about we step out and join your friends, huh?"

The agent started reaching for the gun at his hip, and Sixer lunged past Maria and tackled him to the floor. The agent cried out in pain as Sixer's knee collided with the gun and the agent's hand.

That was going to at least sprain his fingers, if not break one or two of them.

A low growl settled in Sixer's throat.

"Easy, Six." Maria closed the distance and stood next to the two of them as Stanford and Stanley approached the open doorway behind them. "We don't wanna scare him too much."

"He trespassed," Sixer growled in reply. The man shuddered as Sixer kept his glare on him.

"What the hell—" Trigger was cut off suddenly with a dull thud and a grunt of surprise. Someone had probably elbowed him in the gut.

Maria turned to look at the agents on the porch with a raised eyebrow as Sixer forcefully pulled the agent to his feet. "So. Not going to look for the research without a warrant, huh?"

"And who are you?" the woman agent – didn't Trigger call her Tesla? – asked coldly.

"A friend of the Pines." Maria shrugged. "Really, you should have thought a little more carefully about trying to sneak in."

Trigger and Powers were both looking at the agent in Sixer's grip rather furiously. Either they were playing at being angry, they were angry he'd been caught, or they were angry that the agent had tried to sneak off and break into the house without permission from the higher-ups.

Tesla looked like she was starting to get on her last shred of patience. "I am looking for your name."

Maria picked up the impatience that normally came with dealing with children – it was coming off the woman very clearly for someone who wasn't an aura adept. "Maria. And that's all you're getting." She folded her arms across her chest as Tesla's eye twitched. "Don't give me that; I don't have to give you my full name. You didn't ask for it."

Trigger put a hand on Tesla's shoulder before she could say anything more. "Look. We are here to keep whatever knowledge you have from falling into the wrong hands. Or being used again, since that seems to happen a lot."

Sixer snorted and exchanged a look with Maria. He wasn't about to say anything unless someone else mentioned the problem with that thought first.

"I doubt that you would be able to stop him with more ease than we have," Stanford replied grimly.

"Him?" Tesla frowned. "There is someone else involved in this?"

Sixer looked at Maria again.

"There was," Stanford replied. "Twice. And he won't be causing any trouble any longer."

"How can you be sure of that?"

"Because we killed him."

Tesla looked at Sixer. Her eyes moved, taking in his appearance. "Did you?"

"Yes. He owed a debt."

And that was all that really needed to be said.

Tesla frowned. "Coming from a man who dresses like a furry, I find that hard to believe."

Sixer blinked in confusion. He was about to ask a question when Stanford took over.

"We saw his family end him themselves. If you want more eyewitnesses, every adult in this building is capable of confirming that."

Tesla frowned at Stanford, then looked around at the rest of the group present. "You are all being terribly difficult. If you would let me have a look at your research, this could be over with very quickly."

"And we aren't about to let you do that, especially considering how dangerous this information truly is," Stanford replied briskly.

Trigger glared accusingly. "You have a weapon in your basement that causes gravitational anomalies and—"

"I destroyed that."

Stanford's curt tone cut Trigger off.

"I built it when I was young and naïve. I am not about to let that exist when someone could walk in and cause the world to end," Stanford said. "Do not expect me to say this again. We will not hand over research of any kind, if there is a threat that you will attempt to use it as a weapon yourselves and end this universe as we know it."

Tesla was about to protest when Powers put a hand on her shoulder.

"I have reason to believe he is being serious," Powers said. "I may not be able to detect humor, but that doesn't mean I don't know what a man looks like when he isn't trying to be funny."

Tesla frowned at the dark-haired agent behind her. "Agent Powers, I am your superior on this mission. We will not be leaving until we find what we came here for."

"Good luck with that." Stanley raised an eyebrow. "Now, I believe one a' yer folks trespassed on us, an' we can kick ya off the property cause you don't got a warrant."

The man in Sixer's grip wriggled, trying to get away, but Sixer only tightened his six-fingered hold.

Tesla looked like she was on the end of her rope. "All right. Fine. But you can expect that we will be back for that warrant."

Maria looked over at Sixer. He met her gaze and, after a moment, let the agent go. The man stumbled out of his grip and nearly hit the floor before regaining his balance.

And, just like that, the four agents walked out the door, climbed into their black SUV, and left.

Sixer kept up a visibly stiff stance until the car was out of sight. "So there is a chance they will come back. What will we do then?"

"Hope they run inta Journal an' figure out that we can handle things out here just fine," Stanley replied.

"We'll see," Stanford replied. "I'm surprised they didn't ask anything about the doubles that Trigger and Powers saw here last year."

"Considering their reaction to Sixer, I bet it was they thought that what they'd seen before was an illusion or something." Maria shrugged. "Or a hallucination, I guess."

"Perhaps." Stanford frowned. "The best we can do for now is prepare for the worst when it comes to that. I'm sure we will be able to handle that well enough."

"Yeah; those government bozos don't know who they're dealin' with!" Stanley grinned, but then his look faltered a little. "Well, half of us, anyway. If they got my record, I'm gonna be in trouble."

"I'll think of something." Stanford waved off Stanley's worried expression. "And besides, we have your counterparts here as well – if need be, I should assume that we will be able to give them enough of a run-around to decide to leave us alone. I would rather not get any form of a criminal record in this dimension."

Stanley gave his twin an odd look. He looked like he was about to ask, then shook his head. "You know what, nevermind. Not worth the trouble." He turned to Maria and Sixer. "So, when are you two headin' out?"

"Pretty soon, I think." Maria looked down and noticed she was still holding onto the journal she had been writing in earlier. "I was just going over some final checks to make sure that I wasn't going to stray too far from the plan or anything like that."

Sixer's tails twitched a little. "And?"

"Well, I'd say I'm pretty much good to go, but I don't think we should head out until tomorrow at the earliest. Maybe the end of the week at the latest, depending on when you feel ready." Maria looked at Sixer. "How do you feel about this?"

"You mean…the possibility of finding a solution to our situation or…traveling with you?" Sixer tilted his head slightly.

Maria shrugged. "A little of both, I guess?"

Sixer considered. "…I do admit, I am a little cautious about leaving my family and going out in the multiverse again. The chance that there will be people who will recognize me is…." He shook his head. "As much as I would like to see our souls whole again, the dangers make me a little concerned. I find it likely that we will be able to find a solution, but…."

Maria nodded. "Yeah. Running into people can sometimes be a hazard. But I've got allies who are willing to stand at our backs, remember?" She gave him a grin. "And if anyone does try to sneak up on us and you recognize them, you can let me know and we can handle it."

Sixer blinked a couple times, then nodded a little.

"I'm willing to wait a couple days to do some last-minute prep if we need to, but then we should get going. I don't want to have to wait longer than we already have in order to solve this."

"All right."