Chapter 3

The wind whipped past as Dipper and Towty made their way down the mountainside towards the city of Kathmandu. Dipper was riding a very modified motorbike, with a side car for Towty's body to sit in, over terrain that looked like it should be destroying the vehicle. If you looked carefully however you would notice that the wheels weren't interacting with the ground quite how you would expect. Every so often the wheels would shimmer oddly and, perhaps strangest of all, the wheels didn't seem to be connected to the chassis at all.

The blue glow that softly illuminated the insides of the wheel housings was the answer to the mystery. This motorbike was in fact floating, the visible wheels were simply holograms so as not to attract too much attention, which meant that Dipper could take routes that no one else could.

A highly advanced computer system, some of which had been gifted to Dipper by Old Man McGucket, was the core of the vehicle. It scanned the ground ahead and automatically adjusted the positioning of the bike in the air, it could also exert control on the steering in emergency situations though Dipper hadn't needed that function yet. It also functioned as navigation and communication with access to the internet, satellites and whatever phone services it could detect.

"Call Sampson," said Dipper using said communication, he waited a moment for the call to connect before continuing, "I need transport for myself and research materials."

"Certainly Mr Pines," came a crisp yet cheery man's voice, "I believe you were nearing the Austrian border last we heard from you. How much farther afield have you managed to get?"

"I'll need collecting from Kathmandu, Nepal," said Dipper shortly, "I'm returning to America, drop me off in Portland, Oregon."

"I'll start routing a plane immediately," replied Sampson without a hint of hesitation, "Oh, you'll be happy to know that we've signed another deal with the government."

Dipper wondered to himself for a moment, he wasn't aware of any major projects that should have been at the stage that they could be marketed, a few seconds later he thought of something and touched the brim of his hat.

Dipper's current hat was a wide brimmed leather affair, excellent for use in tough conditions. His previous hat, the one given to him by Wendy at the end of his first summer in Gravity Falls, had been put safely away when Dipper had set out on his adventures. While experimenting in the field to try and improve his hat, Dipper had discovered a highly effective method of turning a material hydrophobic.

"Is the coating that popular?" asked Dipper curiously.

"Nothing gets past you, Mr Pines," chuckled Sampson, "yes, once they caught scent of it they pretty much ignored anything else we had available in favour of securing 2 years exclusivity on the coating, they want it adapted for application on everything from clothing to vehicles."

Dipper had learnt a lot from his Gruncle Ford and from Old Man McGucket, both in life lessons and intellectually. The first thing that Dipper had really come up with himself was an incredibly efficient battery, something that the machinery inside the crashed spaceship in Gravity Falls had helped inspire. Upon seeing its success Ford had immediately gone through the process of patenting with Dipper. This first invention of his was the foundation that he had built the last four years of adventuring, researching, and tinkering from.

Using some of his less occult research notes as a basis, Dipper had attracted some forward-thinking scientists and set up Pines Research and Discovery. He funnelled new findings, or sometimes simply whole blueprints, back to the lab while he was out in the field and PRD put these discoveries into motion. Sampson was a talented businessman who had spotted PRD when it was in its very initial stages and saw the opportunity of a lifetime. He fought tooth and claw to get a position in the company and to be honest Dipper was both impressed and thankful that he did. Sampson fell into the role of interfacing with potential clients, negotiations were one of his specialties after all, though he also ended up acting almost as a secretary for any of Dipper's needs. Sampson was competent to the point that Dipper had never actually hired a secretary in the end.

"Alright Mr Pines, a plane is now on route, taking into account a stop for refuelling it should be available for you to board around 9:00am tomorrow. I'll send your details and exemptions ahead to the airport in just a moment."

"Thank you, Sampson," replied Dipper curving the motorbike around a boulder as he ended the call.

With the conversation over, quietness returned to landscape of Nepal as Dipper's motorbike was electric. It was powered by a brace of his patented batteries and had both solar panels and a miniature wind turbine built in to help keep it charged, all in all it barely whirred while active. This was actually quite unnerving for Dipper when he first started using it, he'd learnt to ride on standard motorbikes after all, and this was one of the reasons he would often play music as he travelled. But not this time, today Dipper was simply soaking in the calmness of nature. He wasn't sure if 'natural energy' was a thing or if it would do anything about his Curse if it was, but the scenery was making him feel better so there was that.

Dipper pondered how he was going to spend the night since his plane wouldn't arrive till the next day. He could always camp, given that his adventures often took him into the wilderness for long periods of time Dipper had put together a highly customised set of camping equipment that he could use just about anywhere. But now that he thought about it for a bit, there was that sect of monks that he had visited in Kathmandu when he had passed through it the first time. That had been just a brief stop as he travelled on to Mt Everest, but the conversations on metaphysics and out of body experiences that he'd had there had been, ironically for a Buddhist sect, most enlightening.

"Yes, they were very welcoming," he said to himself as Towty's body barked happily in its side car, "I'm sure they'd put me up for the night."

As Dipper crested one last rise the city of Kathmandu appeared before him in all its glory. With a beep the bike displayed the nearest route back to an official road, now that he was getting closer to civilisation, he should probably start acting like this was just a normal motorbike again. With the press of a button, a cap formed over the side car and covered Towty's body from view and Dipper rapidly made his way towards the city.

Mabel took a deep breath as she looked around the old bedroom in the Mystery Shack. The sloped walls, the triangular window, the old fortune telling machine sat in the corner, everything looked just like she remembered. Stan and Ford's old bedrooms had been repurposed for Soos and Melody, and Abuelita. When the two brothers did visit, which was fairly often, they would stay down in Ford's lab (though Stan would sometimes just sleep on the couch).

Dipper and Mabel's old room had never been touched, Soos was determined that there would always be room for his two friends whenever they returned to Gravity Falls. Mabel had already been in the room when she first arrived but that was just a brief entrance so that she could throw her luggage on Dipper's bed before she went back to catching up with Soos and Melody.

Now, however, it was the end of the day and Mabel could relax. Which she did by crossing the room, spinning round and collapsing backwards onto her bed. Her feet only stuck over the edge a little bit, something she was perfectly fine with, though her brother would likely have more of a problem as he was already a head taller than her last time she saw him.

Dipper…

"I knew I should have brought Waddles along," frowned Mabel, "he would make for excellent conversation right now."

Admittedly it turned out that this all stemmed from a malicious misunderstanding but by the gods her friend and her brother were idiots, adorable idiots but idiots nonetheless. With a sigh Mabel covered her face with her arm.

"I'm the idiot," she said, her voice rather muffled by her sweater-clad arm, "I knew that Pacifica wasn't the best with normal behaviour, Balls and Galas sure, but she was still learning about normal people stuff. And Dipper? Well, I've always had the social smarts between us," Mabel flopped over onto her front, "why didn't I just stick my nose in when I first thought something was odd like I usually do, they could have been together for almost four years by now," with a gasp Mabel pushed herself up on her arms as her eyes widened, "I could potentially have had a sister by now!?"

With a scream that was rapidly muffled, Mabel let go with her arms and faceplanted into her pillow where she proceeded to unleash muffled obscenities towards Preston Northwest.

About thirty seconds later Mabel had to surface for air and she flipped over onto her back panting. As her breathing slowly returned to normal Mabel noticed… the room really was too quiet. The majority of her memories about this room involved Dipper being there too, or Waddles, or even some of her friends visiting. She couldn't actually remember a time when she'd been properly alone here.

Mabel pulled out her phone, there were a couple of notifications about stuff at college but nothing that really caught her attention. Instead, she opened her contacts and scrolled down to one aptly named 'Bro-Bro'. Mabel hesitated for a moment; she had come to an agreement with Dipper before he set off on his adventures that she would not call him in case that put him in danger. And, to be fair to him, Dipper had made sure to call her at least once a week for the last four years. He often forgot to check in with their parents that frequently and, as she was discovering now, Dipper had had very little contact with Gravity Falls. But her brother had always kept in close contact with her… until now. The last she had heard from Dipper was about a month ago and to be honest, while she had tried not to think about what that meant, she was actually rather worried about her brother.

With a deep breath Mabel clicked call and held the phone up to her ear. She then let out a sigh of relief when the call connected after just a few rings, and she heard a familiar voice.

"Hey Mabel," came a rather sheepish voice over the phone.

"Is everything alright? I didn't call at a bad time did I?" asked Mabel with concern, "it's just that I haven't heard from you in a while."

"No, that's my fault sorry, things are mostly alright," said Dipper slowly, "the last month has been rather strange, but I've not really been in any danger… I think… right now I'm sat in an airport waiting for my morning flight to be ready."

"Ooo, had enough of the Alps now?" asked Mabel, already perking up again, though then she frowned and looked closely at the time on the clock beside her bed, "wait, morning flight? Where are you?"

"Yeah, so I may have overshot the Alps by a little bit…"

"How much is a little bit?" Mabel asked, she was actually unsure as to how far her brother could have travelled.

"Well, I can say that Everest is lovely this time of year… apart from the yetis."

"Everest? As in Mt Everest?"

There was a ding as a couple of photos arrived in Mabel's messages showing some generic shots of gorgeous mountainside with the last one including the iconic peak of Mt Everest.

"Holy crap Bro-Bro, look at you being all international," crowed Mabel, "and what was that about yetis?"

"…I don't want to talk about that right now," said Dipper a bit darkly, "How about you? How's things at college?"

"Oh, college is fine, my friends want to actually meet my mysterious brother at some point," chuckled Mabel, "but guess what? A college trip got cancelled so I'm spending some time in Gravity Falls!"

There was an uncomfortable silence over the phone though Mabel didn't notice as she was getting into the flow of talking with her brother again.

"I'd almost forgotten how much I love it here," she continued, "the forests, the town, the people, it's so good to see Soos and Melody again. Our Gruncles aren't in town right now but I did see Pacifica today, we went mini-golfing and caught up which was fantastic. Ah, I think the only thing that could make this impromptu holiday better would be if you were here as well."

"… About that," said Dipper awkwardly.

"… Are you serious?" asked Mabel disbelievingly.

"Yeah, talk about timing," laughed Dipper ruefully, "my flight is to Portland and should get in around lunchtime tomorrow, then it should take me a couple of hours to drive down."

"Oh my god, you'll be here in time for dinner?!" Mabel felt like she was about to explode, she hadn't seen her brother in person very often for the last few years.

"Yes I will, but temper your expectations, I'm expecting the jet lag to hit me like a bitch."

"Hahaha, I'll try not to give you too much of headache," snickered Mabel, "Hmm, might be a bit of problem when you get here. I have to admit our old room is already feeling pretty full with just me here, you might have to sleep on the couch."

"That shouldn't be an issue," sighed Dipper, "I won't be staying at the Mystery Shack, at least for the moment."

"You aren't staying here?!" Mabel almost shouted but managed to catch her voice at the last second and dropped to a stage whisper, "What am I supposed to tell Soos?"

"I'll make sure to say hi to Soos before I leave," Dipper reassured his sister, "but for the moment could you keep it a secret that I'm visiting Gravity Falls?"

"A secret?" frowned Mabel, "me being here is just a coincidence, why are you coming back now? Is everything alright?"

"To be honest, no. Things aren't alright, I've been Cursed," said Dipper, "I need to get back into the Crawlspace to find the things I need to identify what the Curse does."

"Mystery Curse huh," said Mabel thoughtfully, "So that's why you're avoiding people?"

"At least until I know it's not dangerous."

"Can… can I come see you though?"

There was a long pause and Mabel began to prepare for disappointment.

"Yes, but…"

"WOOHOO!"

"I said but!" Dipper rolled his eyes, not that his sister could see that, "you have to promise that you'll wait till I'm satisfied I've made things safe, no tackling me for a hug straight off the bat."

"Ok, I promise, I promise," said Mabel beaming, "and I promise to keep you a secret too."

"Thanks Mabel I… ah, gotta go Sis, it's time for my flight."

"Ok, see you soon, goodbye!" Mabel managed to say in the few seconds before the call ended.

Mabel lay on the bed staring at the ceiling with an enormous grin on her face, she actually couldn't believe how great this trip was turning out to be and it was still only the first day she was here. She had already had a wonderful time with Pacifica and now her brother was turning up as well, add in a few others and it was just like back in their teenage years.

Speaking of Dipper and Pacifica.

"Oh I'll keep you a secret, Bro-Bro," said Mabel as she steepled her fingers and an evil looking smile appeared on her face, "until the opportune moment…"

Dipper gazed out of the window of the small private plane Sampson had organised for him. Ever since the call with Mabel, Dipper had been completely silent. Eventually he looked away from the cloudy landscape and reached into one of his many pockets to retrieve one of his journals. Dipper's journals were blue in colour with a golden image of a pine tree on the front and this one in particular had the number 1 on it.

Dipper opened it on the very first page and looked at the inside cover which was blank. After a long moment Dipper reached out with his right hand and traced a circle on the page while muttering something under his breath.

A circle of mysterious characters faded into view on the page and there was a dim glow shining out of the sleeve of Dipper's right arm. As soon as they had appeared the runic symbols faded away again except that this time the inside cover was no longer blank.

Now there was a photograph stuck to it, one showing three teenagers outside the Mystery Shack. It was from Mabel and Dipper's 16th birthday and was of the twins along with Pacifica. Dipper just looked at the picture with a blank look on his face for several minutes before he reached out to gently touch the Pacifica in the image.

"… Not seen you look at that in a long time," said Towty slowly, he'd seen Dipper in a similar mood a few times before and generally just gave him some space when he was like this.

"It brings up painful memories," whispered Dipper, "but I can never bring myself to get rid of it. Guess I couldn't resist looking one more time given where we're headed."

"Gravity Falls?" asked Towty curiously, "is that where the photo is from? What's this place like anyway?"

"Gravity Falls is a smallish town hidden away in the forests of Oregon," explained Dipper, "and for some reason it has the highest concentration of weirdness that I've ever seen. You can barely walk ten feet without tripping over some mythical creature or terrifying anomaly. Though that's just par for the course in Gravity Falls. What we want is the place known as the Crawlspace, its sort of like a black-market for the weird denizens of Gravity Falls, if we're going to have any luck with this Curse then that's the place to start."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh, that's cool," said Towty dismissively, "So who's the girl in the picture?"

Dipper groaned loudly as he slumped back in his chair, he almost thought he'd gotten away with it unmentioned.

"That… well, one of them is Mabel Pines, my twin sister," said Dipper before continuing to pre-emptively cut off Towty, "but I know you mean the other person. That is Pacifica Northwest, she's a very old… friend of me and Mabel."

"You love her?"

Towty had expected Dipper to go red in the face as he tended to do whenever anything romantic came up about him. But no, there was basically no reaction from Dipper at all, he just kept staring at the photo.

"Yes," said Dipper slowly, "I've tried to forget her, but I just can't get her out of my head. Which is a problem because it hurts to think about her."

"So you have a childhood sweetheart that you still have feelings for," said Towty matter-of-factly, "I'm assuming that she's the main reason we've never been to Gravity Falls then? Something bad happen between you?"

"Yeah," sighed Dipper, "running away from all of that was the main thing that finally kickstarted my solo adventures. And before you ask any other personal questions, yes, I am aware that this could have been a simple misunderstanding. I can be rather clueless when it comes to feelings but I'm not that stupid. The problem is that by the point I realised that, well, I'd basically abandoned her for several years. What was I supposed to do? Just rock up in Gravity Falls and say 'Hi Pacifica, long time no see, sorry I've not been in touch, do you want to get dinner later?'."

"Yeah, I see your point on that," said Towty as he pondered this new information about his partner, "wait a minute, this is why you never responded to any of the people who've been interested in you over the years?!"

"What?! Pshshhh, no way," spluttered Dipper, "I just wasn't in the mood for stuff like that."

"Not in the mood," said Towty flatly, "if I remember correctly, you've had five women and one guy make advances on you over the last three years, and only three of them had been people you ended up helping and/or rescuing. The remaining times happened at a bar and in a park, and in all of those times you 'weren't in the mood'?"

"Y-yes, exactly," said Dipper covering his face with his hat, "And why do you remember all that anyway?"

"Oh come on, I'm a disembodied consciousness that can't get more than 20ft from you, watching your life like a tv show is my sole piece of entertainment."

When Towty didn't say anything else for a few minutes Dipper lifted his hat back up and took one last look at the photograph. Then he waved his right hand over it and muttered something else unintelligible, and the photograph disappeared once again to leave a blank inside cover. Dipper was just putting the journal safely away again when Towty started to chuckle.

"What is it now?" asked Dipper tiredly but Towty just kept laughing, getting louder and louder till it was belly aching guffaws.

"AHahahhHAHAHahh," Towty gasped for metaphorical air, "Ah… hah… I just… I just realised… Pshahahaha… You… You're Pining!..."

Dipper groaned like he'd just been punched in the kidneys, rolled over in his seat as he covered himself with his hat once more, and did not talk to Towty for the rest of the flight.