Hey! It's been a while. I hope you're all doing well. So here's the next chapter. It's a bit long with a lot of stuff in it. I hope you like it!

ENJOY! XD

"Stan! Stan!" A middle aged man who was beginning to grey ran into the shop. He fixed his glasses as his grin reached across his squared face.

"Come back again folks!" Stan smiled at a crowd of people leaving the tourist trap. He then turned around to look at excited man. It was as if Stan was looking in a mirror. "What Ford?"

"I think I have a theory about my sixth finger."

Stan touched the bridge of his nose. "Ford we've been through this. You're not a freak of nature. You don't have to prove it to me. So what? You have an extra finger on each hand."

"Stan, I'm not trying to prove anything to you. If anything, I'm trying to prove it to myself." Ford's shoulders slouched a bit and Stan's heart broke at his saddened state. "I need to know that I'm not a freak. I need scientific evidence so that others will accept me as a person."

Stan walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Ford listen to me-"

"Hey Mr. Pines. Do you-?"

"Not now Soos," Stan barked. "The Shack is closed. Go home." The large man nodded and left the room. Stan then looked back at Ford. "Bro, look. Who gives two shakes of a tiger's tail about what other's think about your extra fingers. If anyone makes fun of you, I'll give them a left hook."

"It's two shakes of a lamb's tail, Stan," Ford corrected as he smiled gratefully. "But thank you."

Stan smiled and walked into the back room but stopped and sighed in acceptance. "Tell me your theory or whatever while I create new attractions."

Ford's face lit up as he ran after his brother. The two entered the back room, cluttered with body parts of previously taken apart animal models. Ford's face then scrunched in distaste at the room. "I really don't like how you scam these people with fake attractions."

"You have a better idea to keep the Shack running while you do your research?"

"How about real attractions?" Ford suggested. "There are so many amazing creatures that are in this town. For real!"

"Tried that once," Stan took the arms of a gecko and put it on the torso of fish. "Toby Determined wasn't so screwed up before that day."

"Oh," Ford nodded.

"So what's this theory you came up with?" Stan changed the subject.

"Well. Actually, you inspired this theory with your attractions," Ford smiled.

Stan stopped what he was doing and turned in shock. "Um, what?"

"Yep," Ford smiled proudly at Stan.

"Wow. I sparked some sort of intellectual genius? This I've got to hear." Stan put down the glue and gave Ford his full attention.

"I was thinking about why I have the extra fingers. Why did I get this? Why didn't you since we're twins? Why only me? What are the scientific reasons behind it? So I read up on Darwin and his theory just as I was walking through the Shack, an idea popped in my head. What if I'm a mutant?"

"A what?" Stan scrunched his face in confusion.

"A mutant," Ford repeated. "Basically an ugly version of evolving. What if my six fingers is an evolutionary step in the human experience? What if this," Ford held up his hands. "is the beginning of next evolutionary step?"

"So what? You think we're going to have a total of twelve fingers in the future?"

"Maybe," Ford agreed. "Or maybe it goes further than that. What if it goes beyond that? What if every fantastic beast here in Gravity Falls is an evolutionary step of their species?"

"Right," Stan scoffed. "The gnomes were once dwarfs, the Gobblewonker is a mutant eel, and the unicorn is a mutant horse."

"Yes!" Ford nodded excited. "What if that's true but something about this town has advanced it to where we can see it?"

"Ok, ok," Stan nodded. "I don't quite understand this completely but say this is true. If this theory of yours is true and your hands are the next evol-evol-step, wouldn't there be others out there like you?"

Ford's eyes went wide. "Stan! You're a genius!"

"Uh, I am?"

"Yes! If this theory of mine is true, then there would be others out there. But where are they?"

"Maybe they're hiding. Like all the creatures here in Gravity Falls," Stan shrugged.

"Yes, yes!" Ford hugged Stan. "I have so much research to do. I need to test my blood, start another journal, get the…"

Stan watched as his brother excitedly walk away and descend into the basement through the secret door behind the vending machine. Stan shook his head as he spoke to himself. "You do realize that I have no real idea what you're talking about but I'm glad I made you happy." Stan chuckled as he went back to his fake attractions. "Secret mutant humans. Please. And I'm an important person."

"97, 98, 99, 100. Ready or not here I come!" Candance quickly turned around and darted her eyes back and forth trying to catch any movement. She took a couple of steps forward and giggled. "Hehehehehehehe! I'm going to find you." She walked towards the tree and jumped around it. "Gotcha!" Her face dropped when she realized there was no one there. Candance then looked up the tree and saw a pair of shoes. "There you are. Found you!"

Candance began to climb the tree. Once up to the branch the pair of shoes were hanging from, her face contorted to confusion once again. "What! A dummy? You guys are so busted when I find you and I WILL FIND YOU!"

She climbed down the tree and searched the entire backyard, then the garage and then the entire house. At this point, Candance was furious and panicking. "Phineas! Ferb! This isn't funny. Where are you?" She searched the backyard but still didn't find anything. Her heart began to race as she thought she wouldn't find them. "Oh man. What am I going to tell mom and dad? What am I going to tell Tadashi?"

"Tell me what?"

Candance jumped three feet in the air as she spun to face the older brother of Hiro. Once over her shock, her shoulders slumped. "I'm so sorry! I lost your brother and mine! We're playing hide and seek and I've search everywhere for about an hour and I can't find them. I'm a terrible sister."

Tadashi looked at Candance gently. He smiled as he put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure they're around here somewhere. Let's look again."

The two walked the perimeter of the yard again. Within minutes, Tadashi stopped and looked toward the house peculiarly. "Hey Candance."

"Yeah?"

"Do you usually have a distortion in your backyard?"

"What do you mean?" Candance tilted her head in confusion. "Distortion?"

Tadashi placed her in front of him and pointed toward the house. Candance looked carefully and did see several spots that looked like a piece of glass walking in front of the house. "Do you think that's them?"

"Yep," Tadashi nodded. "Candance found you three. You can come out now."

In a few moments, Phineas, Ferb, and Hiro appeared in front Candance and Tadashi. "Good work sis," Phineas ran up to her and hung on her hand.

"Thanks!" Candance smiled proudly but then went into annoyance. "What thing did you build this time?"

"We built a cloaking device," Phineas stated.

Tadashi's eye went wide in amazement. "Cloaking device huh? As in Star Trek?"

"What's Star Trek?" Phineas asked.

"A show I think you'll like when you're older," Tadashi chuckled.

"Ok," Candance shrugged. "So what did it do?"

"It made us invisible!" the redhead said excitedly. "Ferb and I thought how much more fun hide and seek would be if we were invisible so we built these bracelets that could disguise us based on our surroundings. See?"

Phineas pointed to his green haired brother as he walked in front of the tree and twisted the bracelet and quickly disappeared. He then walked over to the fence and twisted it again to blend in.

"Amazing!" Tadashi exclaimed. "Nice work." Tadashi patted the red head on the shoulder. "You and your brother are very talented. However," Tadashi motioned for the two of them to come closer. "You scared your sister. She was worried about you two. Maybe next time tell her what you're doing so she has some idea of what's going to happen."

Phineas and Ferb bowed their heads. "We're sorry Candance. We didn't know."

Candance smiled and hugged them. "Hey. You keep doing what you do but keep me in the loop." The three hugged each other with giant smiles on their faces.

Tadashi walked over to Hiro. "And you. You shouldn't scare anyone like that."

"Sorry," Hiro lowered his head.

"But Dipper was right about them," Tadashi nodded. "Those two are amazing. I can see great things for the two of them in the future. For you as well."

"Hey. Maybe you'll be our science teacher someday," Hiro smiled excitedly.

Tadashi laughed at Hiro's idea. "Yeah, maybe."

"Dagur sir," a man groveled on the floor. "The cavern collapsed and destroyed a good portion of our supplies."

"And," Dagur sat in his chair rubbing his temple with his left hand and playing with a knife in his right.

"And we're going to be behind schedule by two months."

"What!" Dagur hollered. "This is-this can't-you'd better-I can't-" Dagur was so angry that he couldn't finish his sentences. His face was red, his fists clutched so tight his knuckles were white and his nails were drawing blood. He then stopped walking and fuming enough to calmly speak. "He's not going to like this."

"We tried everything sir. My men are digging the cavern out to try and save the supplies and they're not going to rest until it's done and…" the man continued to babble on and on about what they were doing to make the situation better.

Dagur rolled his eyes and smiled sweetly in the corner. "Elsa. Would you do the honor of shutting this moron up?"

From the corner, Elsa walked into the blue tinted light of the iced room. Her blue eyes looked at Dagur as she nodded in compliance. She then shifted her gaze to the man still talking, not even noticing her advance. She lifted her hand but then hesitated; her eye's glinting in self-doubt. This man doesn't deserve this does he? But he failed Dagur. He failed him. He must be punished. She took a deep breath and focused on the man.

From her hand, a blue stream of light and ice flew directly at the man. He screamed in pain and within seconds was a frozen statue; his last stance being one of fear. She lowered her hand and looked at the new ice sculpture she created. She knew that she did Dagur and her guardian proud but somewhere in the back of her mind, something didn't feel right.

"Thank you dear," Dagur smirked.

"Don't call me dear," Elsa spat.

"I'll call you whatever I want! Your work is done. Go away."

Elsa raised her hand in anger but then lowered it in fear. Conceal it. Don't feel it. You're better off that way. She took a deep breath and walked out of the room and down several tunnels to get her mind off of what she just felt.

"Why does this feel wrong?" Elsa muttered to herself. "I made him happy right? I did what was necessary? The right thing."

"I don't like that they use you as an executioner," Eret said breaking her thoughts.

"I'm not an executioner," Elsa defended. "I just take the problematic people out of the equation."

Eret cocked an eyebrow and starred at her in disbelief. "You're a pretty executioner."

Elsa looked away from Eret. "That's not true," she whispered.

"Which part?" Eret asked.

"Both," Elsa snapped. "I'm a freak of nature. If he hadn't saved me from my family, they would have killed me because of my horrendous abilities and form."

"Elsa," Eret tried to put his hand on her shoulder only to have her flinch away.

"Stay away from me," Elsa cried. "I'm dangerous."

"You're only dangerous because he tells you that you are. You're still young enough for him to manipulate you. You don't have to listen him."

"Then why don't you leave?" Elsa asked. "You always talk about how horrible he is and that what he is doing is wrong."

"Yes that's true," Eret agreed. "But I don't leave because of you."

"What do you mean?"

"You need a friend, Elsa. Someone you can trust and turn to. Someone who there when you need someone to talk to. I see you as a younger sister who needs protecting."

Elsa looked at Eret in surprise. She felt as if something was lifted from her chest and that she could stand up straighter. Her heart fluttered in delight at his words, which part of her understood but the other not quite understanding. She didn't know how to react, how to feel about Eret's statement. "I didn't know you felt that way. Thank you Eret." Elsa decided to go with her impulse and ran up to Eret, hugged him tightly.

Eret in return wrapped his arms around Elsa and smiled into her shoulder, satisfied that he made her happy. His smile then fell as he felt Elsa's body shaking against his. "Elsa. Are you alright?"

"You see me as a sister," Elsa choked out through her tears. "I guess in my heart I've always wanted a family. A sister or something but I guess brother is just as good."

"Elsa. I'm sure you have family out there who are missing you and if you went home to them, they will love you."

"But you don't know that. They could be afraid of me. He said that my parents abandoned me because I was a freak. Why would they love me now?"

"I don't have all the answers Elsa," Eret looked her in the eye. "But I do know one thing. You'll never be happy until you know for sure. Until you see for yourself."

"I can't go now," Elsa shook her head and twirled her platinum blonde braid. "He would be very angry."

"When you're ready," Eret smiled.

Merida slowly got out of bed, carefully removing the blankets so that they made as little sound as possible so that she didn't wake Astrid. Once out of the bed, Merida tip toed towards the door, only to stop when Astrid seemed to cry out. Merida looked in Astrid's direction to see if she was awake but saw that Astrid was just dreaming. I wonder what she's dreaming about to make her cry out like that?

She quickly shook the thought from her mind and focused on the current mission: getting to her mother. It was one of the few nights that her mother stayed at the school instead at home with her dad and triplet siblings. Merida made it to the door and opened it just enough so that she could squeeze through without pouring too much light into the dark room.

"Alright. In the hall," Merida whispered to herself. With a sigh of relief, she began to walk down the hallway and out to the main building. She climbed up to the third story and knocked on the door. "Mum? I know you're up. Can I come in?"

"Merida?" Elinor could be heard behind the door as she unlocked it. The door opened to reveal Elinor in a green robe, her dark brown hair loose down her back.

"You should be in bed."

"Can I come in?" Merida repeated.

"Yes, of course," Elinor nodded as she opened the door wider. Once Merida was inside, Elinor asked, "What prompts this surprise visit. You don't usually visit me."

"Dad said I had to talk to you about what Grandmum is planning," Merida crossed her arms.

Elinor's eyes went wide in surprise followed by her face falling in sadness. "Oh. I see." She slowly closed the door. From behind, Merida could see her mother take a deep breath. "You might want to sit down dear."

Merida's angry stance softened a bit at her mother's reaction to the subject. "Mum? Is everything ok?"

Elinor turned around and smiled weakly at Merida. "Dear, you know that I mean well right?"

"I'd like to think so," Merida nodded.

"And well, if I could help you, I would but-"

"But what?" Merida asked.

"Do you know how your father and I met?" Elinor changed the subject.

"Umm yeah," Merida said. "You met Dad at a fancy party put together by Grandmum."

"That's not quite the whole story," Elinor smiled. "That's how Victoria's story starts but it actually starts many years before that."

"Ok. So how did ye and Dad meet?"

"I met him at a rest stop in the middle of New Dunbroch. I was backpacking across the country by myself because I wanted to go on adventures. I ended up at the rest stop and there I met your father. He was a member of a cross country biker gang."

"Wait what?" Merida shook her head in confusion. "You were backpacking and dad was a biker?"

"Yep," Elinor smiled. "I remember feeling free of everything. No one judged me. No societal standards to follow. I could just be myself. Anyway. As I was gathering my things to continue my trek, I tripped and fell face first into Fergus. I thought he was going to scold me for being such a clumsy woman but instead he asked if I was ok. I told him that I was and we went our separate ways. I started to walk down the road but that's when I realized that I hadn't just tripped."

"What do ye mean?" Merida was getting invested in her mother's tale.

"I had twisted my ankle. I got maybe half a mile from the rest stop before I couldn't take another step. I had taken my shoe off to see how bad it was when I heard a motorcycle come up behind me. I looked to see that it was Fergus and his gang. Your father pulled over and helped me. He offered to give me a lift to the next town so that I didn't hurt my ankle anymore. I agreed. Before I knew it, I had become a part of the biker gang, a part of his life and he a part of mine. We traveled the country together, made friends, made great memories."

"Then how did you become this 'etiquette is everything' kind of a person if you lived such a wonderful life?" Merida asked.

"My mum. She found me and told me that I had to quite my foolish and selfish ways and become a proper lady. Become someone worthy of the family name and title. When she found out that I was in love with Fergus, she threw a huge fit. She went on and on about how I had to marry a proper man and not some dirty biker. I was so upset, I ran to Fergus and poured my heart, soul, and my anxieties to him."

"Then what?"

"When I went to see him the next day, he asked me to marry him. I told him that I would gladly marry him but my family would never accept him because of his background. He then proceeded to tell me that he was marrying me and not my family and that they could think whatever they wanted of him. Then Fergus told me that he had spoken with my mum and she had agreed to the proposal."

"What?" Merida exclaimed. "How?"

"Apparently, he went to her the night I had broken down. He told her that he would abandon his carefree ways, his lifestyle, to continue to be a part of my life. He told her that he would find a job that would be worthy of my family."

"And that's how ye and Dad got married," Merida finished.

"Yes, Merida," Elinor nodded. "Your father gave up everything that he enjoyed doing just to make me happy and I feel as if I have yet to repay him."

"That's a lovely story but what does that have to do with what Grandmum is planning?"

Elinor sat down next to Merida and took Merida's hands in her own. "Because she's going to try and avoid the drama she had with me."

"How is she going to do that?"

"Merida," Elinor's hand gently caressed her face. "She is putting together your betrothal."

"What!" Merida exclaimed. "She caun't do that! It's my life."

"I know, I know," Elinor shook her head. "That's why I've been hard on you. I'm trying to prepare you somewhat for what she has planned but at the same time allow you to live your life."

"Telling me what to do and what not to do is letting me live my life?" Merida shook her head. "Telling me that what I enjoy doing isn't right?"

"Merida, please."

"You have to stop it mum. Please!" Merida begged. "Betrothal? Marriage? I'm-I'm not ready. I don't think I'll ever be."

"I know Merida," Elinor placed a hand on her shoulder. "If I could stop her, I would but she's already planned it."

"What?!"

"She has a suitor ready for you," Elinor bowed her head.

"When were you going to tell me?" Merida's eyes were brimming with tears.

"After this school year was over. I figured I'd give you a few more months before you're forced into this."

"It's the 21st century mum. She can't do this. I don't care what she says. She can't make me!"

"You talk to her," Elinor suggested. "Maybe she'll change her mind."

"I might just do that," Merida nodded. "I swear to ye mum, this isn't going to happen."

Let me know what you think! I love hearing your thoughts and opinions. XD