Piedmont, California
North America
Earth (46'\)
Piedmont High

"What—" Radcliffe pointed at the young, one armed boy standing in front of her— "the bloody hell."

"I should probably explain," Dipper said as he reattached his hand and sat down. He didn't trust her. Then again, he didn't trust anyone these days. But he was getting desperate. He couldn't live like this for any longer, it was like his last traumas were eating away at his sanity bit by bit. "It all started when we first went to Gravity Falls…"

"… then Gideon tried to kill us with his giant robot,"

"I got possessed by…"

"Then he tried to end the world,"

"Then I killed her,"

"And now he's dead," Dipper concluded his tale.

Radcliffe looked at her patient with sympathy. He'd been on the verge of tears during certain parts of his story. It was ridiculous, all of it. But she believed him. Every last word of it. It wasn't just that he had a robot hand or that all the evidence lined up, no, it was because no one was that good of an actor. She knew the eyes of an innocent child, and they weren't it. Dipper had the eyes you could commonly see on war veteran's faces, just constantly darting around and on guard. Dipper had just said it all so earnestly that Radcliffe hadn't for a second thought that he was talking out of his arse. "I'm sorry," she said.

Dipper asked in an accusatory tone, "You don't believe me, do you?"

"I do," Radcliffe smiled, "so, tell me if I'm wrong: the trauma originated from getting possessed, Weirdmageddon and killing Aida."

"Killing her was more—" Dipper rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly—"guilt, more than anything else," he cleared his throat. "The other two… yeah."

"So which one was worse?" asked Radcliffe, genuinely curious.

"Getting possessed," Dipper said immediately. "I know that the literal end of time should really be worse, but I just can't bring myself to believe it. That time just felt more… personal. I mean, he was going to throw my body off the water tower then go after Mabel. I mean, who does that?"

Radcliffe sighed. "Let's start with that then. How did you react to the immediate trauma?"

Dipper bit his lip. "I hid in the Mystery Shack's hidden trapdoor for two days straight."

"And how did you spend those two days?"

"Crying. Lots of crying and shaking and taking deep breaths and…" Dipper paused for a moment, "and just lots of… thinking. I'd ruined Mabel's play and I'd brought it on myself."

"So do you blame yourself for Weirdmageddon too?"

Dipper nodded sheepishly.

"You mentioned that the remains of his… his body is still there. Essentially his corpse. Have you ever been to it?"

"Yeah," Dipper's voice wavered, "once. I just went there and let it all out. I was there for about twenty minutes. Haven't been back since."

"I think you should be going at least every few days when you're in Gravity Falls."

"I don't want—" Dipper cut himself off— "I can't. I can't and I won't and I don't want to." He placed his head in his hands, clearly embarrassed. "I'm sorry. We're here talking about my issues and I just dumped all this information on you and it's not fair, I should've given you some time to process it and I – I – I – uuugghhh!"

"Well you're the patient and you have a lot of pent up issues. Issues that you suppress but they get through sometimes. And when they do, you don't know how to handle them, leading to trust and anger issues."

"… wow," Dipper said. "You got all that just from me rambling for ten seconds?"

"I'm a psychiatrist and not a medic for a reason you know."

Dipper thought for a moment, then asked, "why?"

"Because mental wounds are much harder to heal that physical ones," Radcliffe smiled, "and not enough people appreciate that these day, even those idiot teachers that give the presentations on how important it is. They don't care because they don't know what it's like. They bury their heads in the sand and pretend like it's not a problem, but if they developed those issues they would be telling people to pay attention. They say they understand but they don't, because they don't care. I mean, obviously family and stuff do, but teachers? Hell no. And even family members, they say they understand but they just—"

"—don't," Dipper finished. "You sound like you get it."

"That's because I do, Dipper. I've been where you are now, thinking that everyone in the world's out to get me. I know what it's like and how hard it is, that's why I take my job so seriously. I was on the other side of this conversation when I was your age and I got through it. I still flashes of it occasionally though. You'll never be able to heal it completely, but you can heal it enough."

"You do understand, don't you?"

"I understand what you're going through, not what the trauma was like. They're different things."

They sat in silence for a few moments (it was one of those times where both parties were just staring at the ground and it was pure awkward), before Dipper said, "I fall asleep in class because I never get any at home, I – I just keep getting these horrible nightmares, but then I have them in school, so it's kinda like people think I'm that weird quiet kid, which I kinda am, but that's not all I am but that's all I feel like I am sometimes because there's this stereotype that the quiet kid always has, like… weapons in his house and kinda fucked up, and I really am and like, I have a gun on me at all times, so it's like… what?"

"I'm going to say five words," Radcliffe pulled a sheet of paper from her desk, "and you're going to say the first word that comes to your mind, got it?"

Dipper nodded slowly.

"Gun."

"Shot."

"Heart."

"Target."

Radcliffe tried again, "Star?"

"Mabel."

"Brick?"

"Weapon," Dipper replied with conviction.

"Tree."

"What?" Dipper asked.

Radcliffe repeated, "tree."

"… me."

Radcliffe sighed, then said, "our time's almost up."

Gravity Falls, Oregon

North America

Earth (46'\)

The Mystery Shack

Ford looked at the diviner and poked it. He had absolutely no idea what it did but what he had found out was that whatever it could be used for, it wasn't good and that it could be stopped by a slightly modified version of the unicorn spell. And he knew that things stopped by unicorn hair were never good. That always meant something terrible. The most annoying part however, was that the spell needed an accompanying incantation to function, which he didn't know. He opened his drawer and pulled a small silver disc out from it. It was a device he had created to amplify spells, essentially a miniaturised version of what Stonehenge was meant to do. Ford smirked. He loved discovering hidden truths behind important world events, it was like realising that there was one more season to your favourite show that you hadn't known even existed.

Then he made his decision.

He had to put it in the vault.

Dipper stuffed his lunch into his bag as he ran down the stairs. He was feeling better than he had in a very long time. His sessions with Dr Radcliffe ya sheen helping a lot and he hadn't felt this good since before going to Gravity Falls. He was finally beginning to feel like his old self again. Of course, he was probably overstating it, they had – in reality – barely made a dent in it. Of course the trauma wasn't gone completely, that was a given. He liked who he was now, he was everything his twelve year-old self wanted to be. Brave, confident and tough. Willing to make the hard call even when no one else was. There were things that he didn't like however and his PTSD was one of them. Weirdmageddon was so integral to who he was today it was almost funny and he felt horrible to know that he was glad that it happened. He was ashamed to admit it but he had enjoyed himself, at least when they were in the Shack. Not when he was on his own. He hated the incessant nightmares and panic attacks. He wanted to eat nachos again, but ever since the possession incident he couldn't even be in the same room as them. The smell alone was enough to send him into an agonising flashback (Bill had smelled very similar to a bowl of nachos after he'd gained physical form) and be out of it for the rest of the day.

"Kids!" shouted Helen from downstairs. "You're going to miss the bus!"

"I know, I know." Suddenly, Dipper tripped on the the last step and hit the floor, his gun coming out of his vest pocket.

Helen sighed. "Mason, you're not taking that to school."

Dipper flinched at the use of his real name. "Sorry, it's just I…" he searched for the right word. "I just don't feel safe without it."

"You have got to be—" Helen then had a thought it wouldn't change anything to take it off him. He could already cave someone's chest in with his bare hands and he would only use it in self defence (in stun mode no less)—"keep it. You never know."

Dipper gave a genuine smile, a sight that was rather rare these days and said, "thanks."

Suddenly Mabel fell (literally) down the stairs, tumbling down them faster than a zebra running from a cheetah. "Ow," she mumbled as she picked herself up, "I think I broke my everything bone."

"That's not a thing Mabel." Dipper reached out a hand, which his sister gladly took as she stood up.

Mabel said as they walked out the door, "you're just a big 'ol killjoy Dipper! Come on, where's my happy bro-bro?"

Dipper's face stayed frozen in the same stoic expression that seemed to be on his face 24/7 theses days.

"Ugh," moaned Mabel, "we've got the big trip today! Why aren't you excited?"

"I've been to another dimension. To the past and the literal void of nothingness. I've been inside Grunkle Stan's mind and let's not forget the literal end of time. Oh, did I mention I've been in an actual UFO?"

"So maybe you're not actually excited, but you could at least pretend to be for the people that want to enjoy themselves. Like me!"

"Fine," Dipper smirked.

"We're going to Washington, Dipper!" Mabel leaned over and put her arm around Dipper's shoulders. "DC, the place where people become presidents, guys become spies, people imaginate things and DREAMS COME TRUE!"

"How much coffee have you had today? Also, the place where people become spies is Virginia. It's the FBI headquarters that's in DC."

"You see what I mean?" Mabel joked as she climbed up the steps to the bus and handed the driver a dollar. "Killjoy! You're boooooooorrrrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnngggggg."

"Yeah yeah," Dipper smiled as he paid his fare and sat down next to Mabel – in the very front seat – and pulled out his phone.

"You excited for the trip?" Lance asked as he walked by.

"Yeah," said Dipper sarcastically.

Ford walked into the Gravity Falls town hall and walked over to the front desk, then cleared his throat.

The secretary looked up at him, "hello, how may I help you?" She asked, her fake, slightly too wide smile screaming 'just kill me now.'

"I need to put this in the vault," Ford held the diviner up.

"Sure, can I just get your identification please?"

Ford slid his driver's license across the counter and the woman took the rock from his hands. "We just need you to file a quick report and talk to the mayor about it, okay?" she tilted her head (which was supposed to be a nice gesture, but just ended in her looking like a psychopath), "okay."

Ford sighed in exasperation. This was going to take a while.

Washington DC
North America
Earth (46'\)
Piedmont High School Bus 618

Dipper sat on the bus once more, albeit a somewhat less gross one. Key word somewhat. He was sitting next to Mabel right at the back of the bus on his way to Washington DC. They had been on the bus for absolutely ages now. They were getting close , he could feel it. They were travelling – very slowly – across a low hanging bridge over what looked to be a rather deep river.

"Dipper?" Mabel held out her hand. "Thumb war?"

Dipper smiled, "okay." He put his hand in hers and prepared.

"One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war," they said in unison, before Dipper immediately squished Mabel's thumb onto her hand.

"Hey, no fair!" she moaned. "You used your ro – right hand. You can't use the stronger one!"

"Mabel, we're ambidextrous."

"Yeah, but you have an advantage with the—" she leaned in and lowered her voice—"robot hand. Also, you're stronger anyway!"

"I'll use my left hand then."

They said again, "one, two—" suddenly an explosion echoed in the distance. The building that had been blown up started to collapse in spectacular fashion. At the same time, a car travelling next to the bus veered to the right (presumably shocked by the explosion) and sent the bus off the edge of the bridge. Dipper grabbed Mabel as the bus careened into the water.

After the screaming had died down, Dipper got up and rubbed his head. The water was beginning to rise. "I'll get the door," he said. "You help them." A few people were having panic attacks in the back, something the twins were all to familiar with. As he got to the door, he pulled on to no avail. The bus abruptly rolled over and he clung to a bar to avoid falling.

"We're all gonna die! I put so much effort into my makeup this morning only for me to—"

"Pull yourself together!" Mabel slapped her friend across the face, hard. "We're not pushover people. We're not gonna die!"

"The water is at our necks," Chris shivered. "We're done."

"Dipper'll get the door! Everyone take a breath!"

Dipper took quick and rapid breath for a few seconds. Anyone would think he was hyperventilating, but he was lowering the Co2 in his blood so he could hold his breath for longer. The water reached the ceiling as the bus settled on the floor. Discreetly, Dipper activated his shield and pressed it against the door. The pine tree symbol in the middle glowed a bright blue. The door began to sizzle, before the shield got through. Dipper kicked the door open and motioned for everyone to follow him.

Mabel broke through the water and took a heaving breath as everyone else surfaced. "That was fun. I told you we'd be okay. Dipper got through the—" Mabel looked around in horror. Many people had seen fear in her eyes before (it wasn't exactly uncommon), whether it was mentioning triangles and trying t9 shake her hand. This time however, it was like nothing anyone had ever seen. It was an expression of pure terror.

Dipper burst through the surface of the water clutching another boy. "Lance!" he shouted as he slapped his friend's face. "Come on, we need to get to land."

As they were swimming, Mabel looked at Dipper and said, "what was that building that exploded?"

"The FBI headquarters," Dipper muttered with a grim expression on his face.