The summer sun beamed down on the empty shores of the Glass Shard Beach. As one could tell by its name, the beach doesn't really see a lot of visitors like the other beaches in New Jersey. Making it the perfect playground for a pair of twin brothers, age 12, and their cousin, age 16. The three kids from the sleepy nearby town ran across the sands of the beach while giggling and laughing. They were going on a quest for adventure and today's weather was just perfect.

"Wait up!" One of the twin brothers called after his brother and cousin.

"Heh! Yeah, you should keep up," the other brother retorted with a sly smirk. Being the more athletic of the two, he ran ahead of the two.

"Be nice to your brother," their cousin scolded the second brother. She slowed down for a moment to let the first brother catch up to her. "Come on, before he gets too far away."

"I...I can keep up!" the slower brother said a bit breathlessly. Soon the trio reached something that piqued their curiosity and their thirst for adventure. They walked up to a boarded-up cave and examined the inside of it by peeking through the two-by-fours. "Whoa!"

"Neato!" said the athletic brother.

"Mysterious, boarded-up cave!" The first brother said, taking a step back from the cave

The teenage girl looked at the "No Trespassing" signs and started to become a little nervous. "Uh, boys, I don't think we should be here."

"But think of what we could find in there," the smart brother said with excitement, taking out his flashlight. "It might be filled with lost prehistoric life forms! Or mesoamerican gold!"

"Uh, ladies first, hippy." the strong brother playfully gestured for his cousins to lead the way.

The young girl playfully punched him in the arm, which he returned as they laughed together. She looked around for a moment before noticing a rusty old crowbar laying on the ground next to the cave. Waking, she picked it up and came back over to the cave. Shoving it in between the boards before she started yanking them out and breaking them until she made a sizable opening for them to fit through.

Letting out a huff, she tossed the crowbar aside and looked at the boys with a smile. "Still wanna do this," she asked with a knowing smile.

The smart brother shined his flashlight into the cave. "Whoa, it's so creepy in here!" The twin remarked.

"Hey, don't worry, bro," the stronger twins said with a confident smile. "Wherever we go, we go together. Don't forget to leave our names so they know who owns the place."

The smart brother grinned as he pulled out a permanent marker from his pocket. The three of them wrote their names on the wall before they started walking deeper into the cave. Proudly chanting their last name in unison. "Pines! Pines! Pines! Pines!"

But who were these three adventurous kids? Only needed to look at the writing on the wall to know.

Stanley, Stanford, and Veronica Pines.

{Play Stranger Things theme by Kyle Dixon Michael Stein}

The intro begins by fading in a scene of the road sign that said: "Welcome to Gravity Falls, Oregon."

We then see a view of the town of Gravity Falls, with the strangely shaped canyons in the background, and the sun going down between the two land formations. As the sun was setting, the day turned to a blue night. However, a sinister red light comes from over the horizon. Shining between the canyon.

The next scene is of a large, dinosaur footprint in the ground. It then changed to show the trees of the forest at night, and a pair of glowing eyes staring at the viewer before the camera switched to a wider shot and showed many more eyes staring at the viewer. The next scene was a far back show of two men dumping a body into the lake, and as that body sank down it was swallowed by a massive creature.

PATRICK

The teenage Pines is shown in a freeze shot of him walking in the woods with a lantern and his crowbar in hand. Behind him, Bill's eye in the sky looked down at him.

DIPPER

The male twin is looking down at the journal with a flashlight. Not noticing that there was a Pteranodon staring down at him, ready to eat him.

MABEL

The female twin is the final one to be seen, and it showed her wearing a sweater that lit up because it was plugged into an outlet. But in another, farther away shot showed Gideon's hand controlling her like she was a marionette.

The finale of the intro shows the Mystery Shack as the sun goes down behind it and the trees of the forest. When the sun went down and the night came, and just like the beginning, the red light appeared, but then a blue light shined from inside the Mystery Shack.

Then the screen went black and the title of the story appeared in a flash of light.

WEIRDER THINGS

It then disappeared, before the chapter title appeared.

Chapter Thirty-Two:

Veronica and the Two Stans

In the time that he's lived with his cousins and uncle in the small little town of Gravity Falls, Patrick Pines has uncovered many secrets about the town. He's seen many strange creatures and met many strange people. Facing danger, uncovering the undiscovered, and seeing the weird has become a daily routine for him as they search for their ultimate goal; finding the author of all three Journals that chronicled the strange goings-on in Gravity Falls.

And now they've come to the end of their journey. They found him, and it was a secret they were far from ready to learn.

The author was Stan's twin brother.

Patrick was staring at the second Stan before him and everyone in total shock. Very much lost for words like everyone else. Nothing felt real anymore. It was all too surreal to be true. But it was real. Stan had a brother. A twin brother who was the long-elusive author of the journals. The very same man he and the Mystery Team have been looking for all summer. This couldn't have been possible. It wasn't real. This had to be another lie by Stan or his grandmother to deceive them. But was it?

His thoughts interrupted when Veronica took a step towards Stan's brother, staring with tears in her eyes and her hands over her mouth. "It worked...Oh Lord, it really worked..." Veronica charged forward with her arms out. Crashing into the man and hugging him tightly. This surprised the man as he stunned back a bit as Veronica cried over his shoulder.

He pulled away and looked at her with wide eyes. "Veronica? Is that really you," he asked with wide eyes in shock. Veronica smiled at him with tears running down her face and nodded her head.

"Yes. You're home," she said.

"Finally! After all these long years of waiting, you're actually here!" Stan exclaimed, smiling widely at the man as tears of joy started forming in his eyes. Holding his arms out for a hug as he walked towards the man and Veronica. The man let go of Veronica and turned to face Stan. "Brother!"

But surprisingly, the brother of Stan didn't look too thrilled to see him and punched him straight in the face.

"Oh! Ow! What the fuck?!" Stan hissed in pain as he held his cheek that was hit. "What was that for?!" He snapped angrily and in confusion.

"This was an insanely risky move: restarting the portal! Didn't you read my warnings?!" The author furiously asked Stan in disbelief, before turning to Veronica. "Did you help him? How could you do that after knowing what it could do?!"

"We had to!" Veronica said, looking sad and upset. "We had no other options! It was the only way to bring you back!"

"Warnings, schmarnings, I'd say," Stan ridiculed with a wave of his hand before crossing his arms. "How's about maybe a thanks for saving you from what appears to be, I don't know, some kind of sci-fi sideburn dimension?"

With the destroyed machine behind him, the author's eyes narrowed at Stan. Failing to control his anger. "Thank you? You really think I'm gonna thank you after what you DID THIRTY YEARS AGO?!" He boomed incredulously.

"What I did? Why you ungrateful..." With his fists clenched, Stan tried to punch him but the man ducked. Stan lunged at his brother again, but he dodged the attack again, grabbed Stan by his hands, and pinned them behind his back. Despite how much stronger his brother had become, the conman wasn't going to give up that easily. "Don't expect me to go easy on you, just because you're... family."

"That's ENOUGH!" Veronica yelled and bashed a metal piece of debris over Stan's brother's head and then Stan himself.

"OW!" Both of them yelled and Stan's brother released him as the two held their own head on where they were hit. They then turned to Veronica who glared at the two. "What'd I do!?" They both said.

"Zip it!" She ordered the two loudly, "If I hear another one of you bitching about what happened, I'll make you sit in the corner."

"What are we, five?" Stan asked incredulously, appalled that she was treating him and his brother like little kids.

"Hey, hi." The trio of elderly people turned to see Mabel was the one that spoke. Drawing their attention to see Patrick, the young twins, Wendy, and Soos watching them. "Mabel here. Quick question: WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?!"

"Stan, Veronica, you didn't tell me there were children down here," Stan's brother adjusted his glasses, referring to the twins and the two teenagers. He then gestured to Soos. "And some sort of...large, hairless gopher?

Completely unfazed by the comment, Soos chuckled. "Heh heh. I get that a lot."

"They're your family, poindexter," Stan remarked.

Veronica dropped the debris and walked over to the kids. "Allow me," she said with a very happy smile. She walked behind Dipper and Mabel, placing her hands on their heads. "These two twins are Mabel and Mason, but he goes by Dipper. They're Shermie's grandkids." Veronica then walked over to Patrick and placed a hand on his shoulder. "And this is my grandson, Patrick."

"I-I have a niece and nephews?" Stan's brother asked with a soft, warm smile, as his spirits seemed to be lifted completely. He then walked up to Patrick as Veronica backed away. Patrick was hesitant at first, but when the man shook his hand, he stared at him in wonder. "Greetings. Do kids still say greetings? I haven't been in this dimension for a really long time."

"You hopped dimensions," Patrick asked in wonder.

"Babe, look at his hands," Wendy whispered with a smile. Somewhat touched by the scene she was witnessing as the redhead placed her hat back in her head

Patrick looked down and was amazed two see the sixth finger on the man's hand. "You're just like me," he said with a smile. Feeling oddly happy to see someone just like him. Letting go of Stan's twin's hand, he sat down on a piece of debris and pulled off his right shoe and sock to show he had a sixth toe.

"So it would seem," the man said with fascination, picking up Patrick's foot to examine it. It was weird to let the author touch his foot, but Patrick let him.

"Whoa, you two should do a six-joint handshake!" Mabel said with a bright smile. "It'll be a full finger friendlier than normal!"

The man let go of Patrick's foot and laughed. "Heha, I like this kid. She's weird," he said while pointing at her.

A few feet away, Dipper was in silence at first while staring at the author of the journals in total astonishment and disbelief. "I-I can't believe it," he said after regaining his ability to speak. "You're the author of the journals!" He exclaimed with unconstrained glee.

"You've read my journals," asked the author with an impressed smile, pulling out Journal #1.

"More like he obsessed over them," Patrick said as he put back on his sock and shoe.

"I haven't just obsessed over them; I've lived them!" Dipper exclaimed before going off on a gleeful rant. Packing in circles as he fanboyed over finally being able to meet the author of the book that's been leading him on one of the greatest mystery adventures he's ever been on. "I've been waiting for so long to meet you, I-I don't know what to say, I have so many questions, I..." Dipper's sentence trailed off and he started breathing heavily. Overwhelmed by his own excitement, the young boy struggled to breathe properly while working out what he wanted to say. "Oooooohhh I think I'm gonna throw up." Mabel ran over and began patting him on the back as the young boy supported himself on a rock. One hand clenching his chest, he briefly gagged. "Hmmph! No-no, false alarm. Hmmph! Just gotta ride it out!"

The author slipped the journal back into his coat. "Listen, there'll be time for introductions later," he said before glaring at Stan and Veronica. "But first, tell me, Veronica: are there any security breaches? Does anyone else know about this portal?"

"No one other than Wendy and Soos knows about this lab, but my agency's turned against me! I've been labeled as a rogue agent and now the entire U.S. government knows and they're right outside!" She exclaimed, pointing at the window of the other room.

"What?!" The author exclaimed and ran over to the window, with Stan and Veronica behind him. The man looked through the glass and saw Agent Powers giving orders to his men as they swamped the shack and flooded inside.

Veronica dug into her pocket and fished out her earpiece before putting it in her ear. Placing two fingers on it, she listened in on their radio.

"Fan out! We're not going anywhere till we find the Director, Stan Pines, and those kids!" Powers yelled.

Rubbing her forehead, Veronica sighed a breath of relief. "It's okay. We've got a while before they find this room. We just need to lay low and think of a plan," she said, before turning to Stan. "You did close the vending machine when we came down, right?"

"Of course I did," Stan said with confidence. But then he started to doubt himself. "Wait, or was it the front door?"

The author facepalmed before pulling out one of the journals and started writing down in it. Walking right past the Pines kids. This gave Mabel an idea and she said, "Well, it looks like we're stuck down here for a while. Who wants to tell us their entire mysterious backstory?"

"Yes, I have some questions about this myself, Stanley," said the author, still writing.

"Uh, what?" asked Wendy, just as confused as the others.

"Stanley?" Dipper asked with a raised bow. "Who's Stanley?"

The author stopped writing to look at them for a moment with a strange look. "What do you mean who's Stanley? It's him!" He said before pointing to Stan. "Your uncle!...Well, your other uncle."

Dipper, Mabel, and Patrick looked a little angrily at Stan. "But your name is Stanford," Mabel said to her uncle.

Veronica stepped forward with her arms held up to calm them down. "Now kids..."

"Wait, you took my name?!" The author, Stanford exclaimed after snapping his head towards Stan, completely caught off guard upon hearing this. "What have you been doing all these years, you knucklehead?!"

"Alright, everyone! SHUT THE HELL UP!" Patrick's anger exploded. Everyone looked at him with wide eyes. "Okay, this is bullshit! All day we've been trying to believe that you couldn't be involved in all of this craziness, and then you continued to lie to us?! Your own grandkids?!" Patrick yelled at Stan and Veronica with some tears of anger in his eyes, making the two flinch upon hearing this. All the lies, all the secrets, discoveries, nearly dying by a machine that turned out to be a portal had built up his anger more and more over the course of the day. Learning that Stan really was lying about his name and identity was the final straw.

He took a moment to rub his eyes and glared at them, still angry. "I want no more lies, Stan and Veronica! I want the truth, and I mean the whole truth! What the hell is going on?!"

"Yeah! What's the deal with this portal?" Dipper asked with a frown. Stepping in to stand on the left of his cousin. "Why did you keep this a secret?"

"What does the government have to do with all this?" Wendy demanded, standing next to her boyfriend on his right side. "Why do they think it's a weapon?"

"And what happened between the three of you?" Added Mabel, standing next to her brother.

Soos ran over to join in. "I hope all this aligns exactly with my fanfic, Stan. If not, I will be very disappointed," he said, angrily crossing his arms.

"Shut up, Soos," Wendy said.

Seeing everyone glaring at them and knowing that they weren't going to get out of it by lying, Veronica sighed in defeat. She couldn't do this anymore. She couldn't keep lying to her family and hurting them. "Stan, it's over, we have to come clean," she said to her cousin, before looking at her family and their friends.

Understanding what she was saying, Stan faced everyone. "Okay okay okay, I have a lot of explaining to do. And...And you kids should know the truth. It all started... a lifetime ago... nineteen sixty-something. Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey..."

During the 1960s, the town of Glass Shard Beach was a small beach town in New Jersey that wasn't really known for anything except for its famous glass shard water toffee. It was also the hometown of Stanford, Stanley, and Veronica Pines. The twins lived with their mother and father in the Lead Paint District in the family pawnshop. The Stans' father was Filbrick Pines. He was a strict man that was tough as a cinderblock and not easily impressed. Even when the Atomic Age brought about the start of giant corn being grown, he was impressed. Their mother, Caryn Pines was a pathological liar, which served her well as a phone psychic, as she'd overprice her services and lied to her customers.

As for the brothers themselves, the two couldn't have been any more different than what Dipper and Mabel were. Stanford was the nerdier one and had the biggest brains of any kid his age. However, his abnormally high IQ wasn't the only oddity about him. Stanford was born with a rare birth defect called Polydactyly, which gave him the six fingers on each hand that made him known around town. This abnormality is what led to his obsession with science fiction, mysteries, and weirdness. Stanley on the other hand wasn't interested in mysteries or anomalies, and his academic performance was just barely average. Where he lacked in book smarts, he more than made up for in street-smarts. He was rambunctious and a troublemaker.

And then there was the boys' cousin just a few blocks down the street, Veronica Pines. Much like her own grandson, she was a smart, independent, idealistic, and beautiful young woman. Even though she grew out of her "hippy phase", Veronica wasn't a person to turn away from a soul in need, and never was she one to turn a blind eye to injustice. Always ready to stand and protect those that have been wronged, especially when it comes to her family.

She loved her cousins as if they were her own brothers, and no matter how different the three of them were, they were inseparable and were the perfect team. Every day, they'd wander the beach, looking for adventure.

One particular day, the cousins were exploring a previously undiscovered cave on the far end of the beach. As they explored the damp, darkening caverns, they happened across something that was absolutely incredible.

"Whoooaa…" The three exclaimed as they shined their lights at an old, battered boat shipwrecked on the rocks.

"Amazing! An actual shipwrecked sailboat!" Veronica exclaimed with a big smile.

"It's possibly haunted by pirate ghosts!" Stanford rhapsodize.

"This is the greatest thing I've ever seen!" Stan proclaimed, equally as amazed. "And I've once seen a dead rat floatin' in a bucket!"

"Ew! That's disgusting!" Veronica cringed as she punched Stan in the shoulder. "The hell's wrong with you?!" She then looked back at the ship again and walked towards it. She thought for a moment before an idea popped into her head. "You know, it would be a shame to let this boat apart in this cave. Never letting it set sail on the ocean again."

The twins got what she was saying and instantly smiled.

With the twins' shirts hanging off the masts like flags, the three kids started pushing and pulling the ruined boat out of the cave and down the beach. They are all badly sunburned, but that didn't matter to them, as Stanford and Stan started chanting together. "Kings of New Jersey! Kings of New Jersey! Kings of New Jersey!" Working late into the afternoon on their new pet project, they gathered any stray materials they came across on the beach to help them patch up the destroyed boat. Hardly even noticing that the hours were passing by or noticing their sunburns.

Veronica came walking back with an armful of wooden planks. For the beach, she was wearing shorts and a tank top and had just as bad a sunburn as the boys. When she reached the boat, she dropped it all on the ground as the boys were kneeling in front of the boat. Stanford had just finished painting the vessel's new moniker and proudly presented it. "I dub thee: the Stan O' War!"

Looking at it with a musing expression, Veronica grabbed a smaller brush and wrote on the boat in perfect cursive. Making the boat "Veronica's Stan O' War!"

"Hey!" The boy protested.

"What? You two really didn't think that you were going to leave me out of this," she asked playfully. However, their chance to argue and/or celebrate the christening was cut short when Stanford was hit in the back of the head by a small rock.

"Ow! What the heck?" Stanford exclaimed, rubbing the back of his injured head. The three of them turned their heads to glare at three children standing on a nearby hill. Leading the kids was the notorious local bully Crampelter.

"Well, well, if it ain't the loser twins and their loser cousin. Nice boat. Ya get it at the dump? Heheheheheheheh!" He laughed at them triumphantly before high-fiving his two friends.

"You would know, Crampelter! Get lost!" Stan yelled at the bully.

"Listen, dorks, and listen good," Crampelter began, pointing at Ford. "You're a six-fingered freak," who glanced down in embarrassment as he tried to hide his hand. "You're just a... dumber, sweatier version o' him, and you're just a dumb girl." As he continued on, Veronica started looking at the rocks on the ground around her. "And you're lucky you have each other because neither of you will ever make any friends!"

Suddenly a rock was thrown at his face and hit him square in the nose. He screamed in pain as blood started pooling from his nostrils.

"You wanna say that again, Crampelter?" Veronica said in a threatening tone. Tossing up and down another rock in her hand. The bullies looked at her frighteningly and quickly ran away on their bikes. "Creep."

However, Stanford didn't feel better at all. In light of everything Crampelter said, the most he could really do was look at his six-fingered hand. He knew that the bully was right, and he clenched his fist.

"Ford, are you okay?" Veronica asked worriedly as she checked his head, using her nickname for him.

"He's fine," Stan reassured as he kneeled down next to his brother. "Don't let those idiots get to you."

"But I am a freak," Stanford admitted morosely. "I just wonder if there's anywhere in the world where weirdos like me fit in."

Stan wrapped his arm around his shoulder. "Hey, chin up, buddy. Look," he said as he, Ford, and Veronica looked out at the sea as the sun started to set. "One of these days, we're gonna sail away from this dumb town. We'll hunt for treasure, get all the girls, and be an unstoppable team of adventurers."

"You really mean it?" Stanford asked with a small smile.

"He's right," Veronica boldly proclaimed. "We're family, and no matter what, we'll always be together for each other. High six?" She offered her hand out to her cousin, with Stanley doing the same

"High six!" Stanford laughed and "High sixing" his brother and cousin.

For Stanford and Stanley, those were the wonderful years of their lives. And they were the best years of their lives. Those bullies may have been right about the two not making many friends, but when push comes to shove, you only really need two. Even though Veronica wasn't there for everything and she eventually graduated from high school with flying colors, the Stan twins were inseparable companions.

Stanford would consistently remain at the top of all of their classes, with grades higher than everyone could have imagined. Stanley wasn't as great academically and would become more of a class clown and tough guy. But no matter what, they were always by each other's side. Whether it be in class, failing attempts at romance, or working together on their boat, which they renamed back to the Stan O' War, they were a packaged deal.

Stanford's brains only seemed to get more impressive every year, which worked out great for Stan. Sure, he had gotten in more than his fair share of trouble, but when your brother's the smartest kid in school, you've always got a leg up on the competition. And as for Stanford, when your brother is the toughest kid in school, he always had someone to go to for protection. The future was looking bright for the two.

However, one fateful day would change everything for the boys. One that would break their bond seemingly forever.

It all started one day in their senior year of high school when the boys were sitting in study hall as usual. Stanford had just won the school's science fair with his invention of the first ever perpetual motion machine and was studying how to better improve on the device. Stanley was casually eating Toffee Peanuts, not giving a care in the world. However, their past time was cut short when the PA blared with an announcement from the office. "Pines twins to the principal's office. Pines twins to the principal's office."

"Ah, great, what is it this time?" Stan remarked, already pushing himself out of his seat.

The two brothers arrived at the office and were about to go into the principal's office. However, they were stopped by the secretary at her desk. "Not you; him," she said, motioning to Stanford.

The two Stans exchanged rather confused glances at this. It was extremely rare for Stanford to be called into the office for something wrong. Stan gave him a reassuring grunt and took a sweat outside of the office. This prompted Stanford to head inside on his own. When he walked in, he was surprised to see that his parents were there and sat in the chair between them. Anxiously waiting for the principal to start explaining what was going on.

"Now, Mr. Pines, I'd like to speak with you very frankly if I may," the principal began.

"Very frankly is the only way I speak," Filbrick remarked coldly.

"Well, sir you have two sons: one of them is incredibly gifted, the other one is standing outside of this room, and his name's Stanley," the principal explained matter-of-factly.

Stanford couldn't help but frown upon hearing this. He was used to being called the 'good' twin and Stanley being labeled as the 'bad' twin. Before he could protest the principal's claim, his mother cut in. "What are you saying," asked Caryn.

"I'm saying your son, Stanford, is a GENIUS!" The principal exclaimed with a wide grin as he stood up from his chair. "All his teachers are going bananas over his science fair experiment!" He then pulled out a pamphlet and handed it to Stanford. The smart twin looked at it and saw it was for an incredibly prestigious school. "Ya ever heard of West Coast Tech? Best college in the country. Their graduates turn science fiction into science FACT! The admissions team is visiting tomorrow to check out Stanford's experiment. Your son may be a future millionaire, Mr. Pines."

Upon hearing this, Filbrick's stoic expression lifted into what was possibly the first genuinely pleased and proud smile he's ever had. "I'm impressed," he said, something that amazed Stanford as he was now thinking of going to this school and finding a place where not only would he be able to use his brains for good, but to be somewhere he could finally belong.

"But what about our little free spirit, Stanley?" Ma asked with concern for her other son's future.

Unbeknownst to anyone inside the office, Stan was eavesdropping on the other side of the door. Listening to what the principal had to say about him. "That clown?" the principal scoffed apathetically. "At this rate, he'll be lucky to graduate high school. Look, there's a saltwater taffy store on the dock. And somebody's gotta get paid to scrape the barnacles off of it. It's either that or the coal mines. Stanford's goin' places. But hey, look on the bright side: at least you'll have one son here in New Jersey forever."

Suffice to say that proved to be quite the blow to not just his self-confidence, but Stan's hopes for the future as well. As he sank down to sit against the door, his mind started fearing the possibility that Ford might actually act upon this opportunity and actually jump at the chance to leave him behind and move on to bigger and better things.

True, Ford had never voiced the desire to really leave Glass Shard Beach outside of their plans to set sail on the Stan O' War someday, but still, it was a fear that Stan just couldn't stand. In fact, it was a worry he had always secretly harbored. First it was Veronica, but that was because her family moved away to another town. But his own brother? Just the thought of that filled Stanley with loneliness.

That afternoon, the twins were back on the beach. Sitting together on their favorite swing set as they watched the crisp warmth of the setting sun. "Heh. Joke's on them if they think you wanna go to some stuffy college on the other side of the country," Stan remarked with a slight hint of bitterness in his tone. He then pointed over to the Stan O' War, which was nearing completion after years of repairs. "Once we get the Stan O' War complete, it's gonna be beaches, babes, and international treasure hunting for us."

Stanford however, looked hesitant at their pet project before looking back at the pamphlet. "Look, Stan, I can't pass up a chance like this," he said honestly, even though he knew that Stanley wasn't a fan of the idea. "This school has cutting edge programs and multi-dimensional paradigm theory."

"Beep boop. I am a nerd robot," Stan mocked, making robot poses. "That's you. That's what you sound like.

"Heheh," Stanford chuckled briefly despite the teasing. "Ah, well, if the college board isn't impressed with my experiment tomorrow, then okay, I'll do the treasure-hunting thing."

"...And if they are?"

"Well then, I guess you better come visit me on the other side of the country." Stanford grinned warmly as he gave his brother a light punch on Stan's arm before standing up and walking away towards home.

Stan lingered on the swings for a bit after that, not sharing the same happiness as his brother. He wanted to be happy for his brother. He really did. But without Stanford, Stan was just half of a dynamic duo. He couldn't make it without him. Stan wouldn't have a chance to make a name for himself, much less any money. He was going to be stuck in Glass Shard Beach forever. And now, thanks to that college, he was gonna lose his brother forever.

And that infuriated him.

Unable to go home to hear more of his parents praising his brother for his next successful future, Stan hit the chicken wings hard that night. After buying a bucket of BBQ-flavored wings, Stanley went back to the school and entered the surprisingly unlocked and unguarded gym.

He walked through the science experiments, pacing down the rows of tables with science contraptions displaced while bitterly intoxicating himself on the chicken wings. Stan stops at Ford's experiment, and as he stared at the machine that was going to take his brother away from him, the more the strong twin started to become angrier. Throughout his life, Stanley has seen fortune favor Stanford more than it did him. In the past, he would have just played it off. But now he had come to a complete realization.

Ford really was the good twin and Stan was the bad twin.

Throwing his bucket of wings on the floor and with his face covered in sauce, Stan pointed at the motion machine. "This is all your fault, ya dumb machine!" He yelled, slamming his fist down onto the table, only for a small piece of the machine to come off. A small plume of smoke raised up from the interior as a result. A tell-tale sign that Stanley had broken it somehow.

"Oh no," Stan gasped, instantly regretting his mistake. "Oh no no, what did I do?" He frantically looked over the machine to see what went wrong and if there was a way he could fix it.

He then noticed the piece that came off. Not having any idea if that would fix the machine, Stan wiped his hands on his shirt and put the piece back on. He looked at it again and saw that the machine looked to be running as it should be. "There. Alright. Good as new. Probably."

Believing that it was fixed, Stan hurriedly put the tarp back on, hoping that Stanford wouldn't notice. He then picked up the bucket and the chicken wings that fell out of it before promptly leaving. However, unbeknownst to him was that he had left one chicken wing bone on the ground.

But that was only the beginning of his problems.

The next day, Stanford had arrived at the gym just on time in his back suit and tie. He was ready and eager to meet the West Coast Tech admission board. As the group of stoic men and women approached his table, he took a deep breath, knowing his entire future was depending on this moment. However, he was more than confident he was on his way down a path towards greatness.

"Alright, kid. Show us what ya got," the head of the advisees said in a rather cold tone.

"Okay! Well, what would you say if I told you that the future of technology was beneath this sheet?" Stanford asked the committee before he pulled the tarp off his experiment.

However, the board members looked at him as apathetically as before. "I'd say that we wasted a car trip."

"What?" Ford flinched, before looking at his machine. To his horror, his machine had stopped moving. "B-But it was stable yesterday! A fuse must have blown or something."

"Kid, a perpetual motion machine has one job: to not stop," the head advisee said, crossing Stanford's name off of a list of candidates. "I don't think you're West Coast Tech material."

Stanford gasped at this, truly dumbfounded in disbelief as the college board members walked away. Taking his one chance for any real success with them. "No, wait! Don't go! I worked so hard!" He pleaded desperately as he began to hurry after them. However, he stopped short when he happened to step on something lying on the floor. Looking down, he saw a single chicken wing bone. Picking it up, Stanford looked over the wing bone for a moment and felt a sticky substance on it smelt like BBQ.

At that moment Stanford knew who had just ruined everything for him. As there was only one person in town that loved BBQ chicken wings.

Back at home, Stan was sitting upside down on the living room couch, playing with a paddleball. "One-paddle-paddle-paddle, two-paddle-paddle. Man, that Jackie-O, what a fox," he said before the door fiercely opened and slammed shut. Not even a second later, Stanford came marching up to the TV, standing between it and Stan with a look of seething rage. "Hey, what's the word, Sixer?"

"Can you explain what this was doing next to my broken project?!" Stanford growled as he held the chicken bone up.

The jig was up for Stan and he quite awkwardly stood up, unsure of how to really explain it all without making his brother more upset. "Ho-okay. I might have...accidentally been, horsing around-"

"This was no accident, Stan; you did this!" Ford snapped furiously. "You did this because you couldn't handle me going to college on my own!"

"Look, this was a mistake!" Stan said earnestly. He then tried to make his brother look on the bright side. "Although if you think about it, maybe there's a silver lining. Huh? Treasure hunting?"

Stanford stared at his brother in disbelief and shock that he had the audacity to even make such a callous request before he exploded in anger. "Are you kidding me? Why would I want to do anything with the person who sabotaged my entire future?!" Ford yelled as he shoved Stan onto the couch. Stan was about to retaliate when their father picked up his son by his shirt, far from pleased over everything that he'd just overheard.

"You did what, you knucklehead?!" Filbrick hissed as he glared into Stanley's eyes.

Caryn came out of a room with her newborn baby, Shermy bundled up and crying in her arms. "Stanley? What's goin' on in here?"

"Wait, no, I can explain; it was a mistake!" Stan begged as his father roughly dragged him downstairs.

"The only mistake I see here is you, you little bastard!" Filbrick yelled as he threw Stan hard outside onto the curb. "Your brother was gonna be our ticket out of this shit-hole of a town! All you ever do is lie and cheat right on your brother's coattails. Well, this time your fuck up cost our family potential millions! And until you make us a fortune, you aren't welcome in this household!"

He threw a duffel bag at his disowned son without the slightest bit of empathy or pity before slamming the door on him. Solidifying his decision.

"What?! Wait, no!" Stanley cried out as he scrambled to pick himself off the ground. "Stanford, tell him he's bein' crazy!" He looked up at the second-story window and saw his brother staring down at him with a look of shame and betrayal. "Stanford? Don't leave me hangin'. High six?" Stanley looked at his brother pleadingly.

Stanford looked at his West Coast Tech pamphlet and slowly turned away, closing his curtains behind him.

That at moment, Stanley realized that his worst nightmare had come true. He had just lost everything in the span of 5 minutes. He was on the verge of tears when the young man came to the realization that his own brother had still chosen everything else over him. He really was alone now. His grief turned to anger as he gripped the bag his father had packed for him in anticipation of kicking him out. Another sign of just how little he meant to his own family.

"You know what?! Fuck you, Stanford! Fuck you, dad! Fuck all of you!" He shouted as loud as he could at his family. "I can make it on my own! I don't need you! I don't need anyone! I'll make millions and you'll rue the day you turned your back on me!"

Stan turned and got into his car, speeding away from his former home as fast as he could. However, as he sped away, he couldn't help but glance back at everything he was leaving behind, knowing that despite his father, his brother, and the guilt he could just as easily place on everyone else, he had only himself to blame for everything.

"Thanks to one dumb mistake I had no brother, no home, no nothing. But I had a plan to fix everything."

When Stan finished the first part of the story, he and Stanford had their backs to each other. Looking away from each other as they were too upset to even share a glance. Veronica looked at both of them and sighed, knowing that it would be like this. Patrick, the twins, Wendy and Soos were standing around and listening to Stan's origin story.

Mabel, heartbroken by the tragic story, tried to say something to mend the wounds the two brothers left on each other. "Oh! This story's so sad! I know what you two little broken teacups need: to hug it out! Hug it out! Hug train's comin' in the station. HUGAPOLOOZA! TWO THOUSAND!" She shouted.

"Knock it off, Mabel!" Veronica scolded her before looking away with a frown. "Lord knows I've tried to get them to talk to each other again."

"Alright, so what about you?" Patrick said to his grandmother with a suspicious look. "I thought you were a historian. Why did you get into the Office of Paranormal Investigations?"

The old woman sighed and started her story. "Being a historian was my cover. Originally, I was a police officer for New Jersey."

"You were?!" Dipper asked in shock.

"They called my Veronica the Viper, and I was one of the best members on the force," she said proudly as she remembered all the bank robbers, killers, rapists, and criminals she's taken down in the past. "No matter who the perp was and no matter what they think they could do, I always take down the bad guy."

"...You are everything I want to be," Wendy admitted with a whisper as she stared at her boyfriend's grandmother with sparkling eyes.

"Awe thanks, sweetheart," Veronica said before her tone turned serious. "But I wouldn't be with the NJSP for long. We were on the tail of a robber named Barry Lang, until something happened that would put everything I knew about the universe into question."

"FREEZE!" New Jersey Officer Veronica Pines shouted at the top of her lungs. "NJSP! FREEZE!" She shouted again as she chased after Barry Lang, a known bank robber that's hit more than seven banks all over the state in the last few weeks. This time the police were ready for him and set a trap to cut his escape to his car and force him to go on foot. She chased after him, as the other officers had dropped out already. All of them lacked the stamina and physical fitness she had to keep up on foot. It pissed her all more because it was supposed to be her night off. That anger made her even more determined to catch Barry.

"Freeze means stop running! Stop or I will shoot!" Veronica skidded to a halt as she pulled out her pistol and took aim at Barry's legs. However, Barry shot her a glance and mounted the guard rail of a bridge. Thinking he was about to jump and commit suicide, Veronica quickly ran towards him. "Wait! Don't!"

Barry jumped off the bridge and landed on the roof of a car. The car skidded to a stop, launching the robber off of it and onto the ground. Sprinting over to the railings, Veronica sighed in relief when she spotted Barry was still alive and looked to be unharmed. Her smile slipped when he started running away again. This chase just got harder.

"Fuck!" She shouted in anger, but wasn't giving up. With no quick way down from the bridge, the way to continue the pursuit was to follow Lang's example. Looking back to see an open-air bus about to pass under the bridge, Veronica timed herself with it. "I can't believe I'm about to do this…"

Time her jump perfectly, Veronica jumped off the bridge with a scream and landed with a heavy thud on in the aisle, causing several tourists to scream in surprise and fear.

"Heh, it just be raining girls in Jersey City, huh boys," Veronica joked as she got back on her feet and dashed down the stairs of the bus and then hopped off it while it was still moving. She started chasing after Barry again.

However, she stopped when she realized that the distance was too great and unless she had her cruiser with her, there was no way she was catching up to Barry. So, she improvised. Just as a mail truck was passing by, she jumped onto the back of it as it headed down the same street Barry had run down. She clutched on tight and took a moment to catch her breath.

Stopping for a moment to catch his breath, Barry looked back down the street to see if any cops were following him. Believing that he was home free and they had given up the chase, he started walking triumphantly. Unfortunately, he's never faced Veronica "the Viper" Pines.

Waiting until her ride was about to pass the unsuspecting crook, Veronica leaped off the back and dashed forward. Ramming into him with a shoulder tackle, and shoving Barry against a stone wall. She then grabbed her badge and flashed it in front of the robber's face.

"You see this?! NJSP! Meaning I'll knock your ass down if you don't stay still!" Veronica growled and reached for a pair of cuffs.

"Johnny Law sends a little Jenny Law to arrest Old Barry Lang, huh?" Barry said with a mocking smile.

"Yeah, well Jenny Law ain't now delicate daisy either, punk," Veronica muttered. Her eyes widened when Barry twisted out of her grip and pulled out a gun. Reacting instantly, Veronica slapped the weapon aside, grabbing the offending arm with both hands and slamming it into the wall. Forcing Barry to drop the gun before she shoved him back against the wall. "Alright, mister you're going down!"

Her efforts to slap the cuffs on him were once again foiled when Barry planted both legs against the wall and kicked with overwhelming strength, pushing the two of them back. Veronica attempted to subdue him again, but Barry simply ran up the wall and flipped over the officer. Breaking her grip.

"Damnit!" She growled in anger as Barry took off running again, dashing into the street heedless of oncoming traffic. Even with her lungs burning and her legs getting sore, Veronica sprinted off after him.

Barry came to a stop when one of the cars came to a sudden halt in front of him, almost hitting and killing him. He quickly rushed around to the other side and opened the driver-side door, pulling out the old woman from the seat and tossing her down on the asphalt before getting into the car.

Veronica opened fire on the car, but Barry stepped on the gas and drove out of there. Cursing under her breath, Veronica looked around and saw another car pulling up before stopping. Quickly rushing over to the driver, she knocked on the window before the driver rolled it down. "Police! I need to commandeer your vehicle," she said.

A moment later, Veronica was speeding down the road in a station wagon, hot on the tall of Barry's vehicle. "This is officer Pines. I'm in a commandeered vehicle and in hot pursuit of the suspect heading on the road out of town. Request immediate assistance," she said into her radio. But the radio was having problems and she couldn't hear what was being said on the other side. "Damn thing never works."

The two cars raced down the sheet and that's when Veronica realized what Barry was doing. He was heading for the board of town. She and her department wouldn't be able to follow him and he'd go into hiding. They'd have to wait again for him to strike another bank. However, that wasn't going to happen. Veronica Pines always gets her man.

Rolling down the window, Veronica took aim and pulled the trigger. Firing at the back left wheel and destroying it. Barry's car swerved on the road before it filled and rolled over a few turns before shrieking to a stop on its back.

The officer slammed on the brakes and stared at the wreckage for a moment, before getting out of the car to inspect the damage. At the same, Barry came crawling out from under the car. Veronica raised her gun and aimed at him. "Looks like Jenny Law caught up with Old Barry Lang," she said, using his own mockery against him.

Barry breathed heavily before raising his hands to the air in surrender.

And then it happened.

From out of the skies above, an intense bright light shined down on Barry from the sky. As the winds started to pick up around them, Veronica looked up to see where the light was coming from, thinking that it was from a helicopter. She couldn't have been more wrong.

Hovering approximately 15 to 20 above the two was a large flying saucer. It was completely silent, with the exception of a low humming sound. The alien craft seemed to have its sights set on Barry. A moment later, Barry started being lifted off the ground and pulled up towards the craft.

"Ah! No! No! Help me!" Barry cried out in terror as he kicked in and swung his arms around in a desperate attempt to free himself from the tractor beam. But his efforts were futile, and even Veronica couldn't do anything to save him. She opened fire with her revolver, but each bullet bounced off the metal hull of the hovering craft.

Frozen to the spot in terror, Veronica watched helplessly as the back robber was pulled up into the base of the hovering craft. The officer's eyes met his for a second, wild and desperately pleading for help, before he disappeared from sight and the light from the ship disappeared.

Then the UFO shot up into the darkened skies above.

Needless to say, Veronica couldn't believe what she had just just witnessed and neither did her colleagues. When the rest of the police department caught up with her, they began a full sweep of the area to try and find the missing man. But they never found anything about a flying saucer and any trace of the robber. Then, a week later, they found Barry Lang.

Or...what was left of him.

Barry Lang, age 34, was subjected to a horrible mutilation, the likes of which had never been seen before and wouldn't have been seen since. The details of the case were so disturbing that police would hide it from the public domain. Rumor has it that the coroner threw up when they saw the cadaver. Veronica was one of the officers to discover Lang, and it deeply disturbed her. Not only for being unable to save the man from a horrible and painful death. What distorted her the most was the clear lack of sympathy or consideration for the utter pain and suffering they put on Lang. It really makes one wonder and feel disturbed about how extraterrestrials might view humanity.

Two weeks would pass by without further incident, but the report of Veronica's experience with the flying saucer and Barry's abduction was somehow leaked to the press. It turned into a media circus that caused Veronica and her department a great deal of embarrassment. Despite being an outstanding officer with an almost spotless record and rewards, she found falling out of favor with her superiors and being alienated. In the beginning, she was alienated for being a woman, but now it was worse. With her career effectively ruined, Veronica eventually left the police force.

On the day that she had handed in her badge and gun, it was raining outside when she arrived home. Opening her apartment door with her keys, she trudged inside with a box of her personal things. She set the box down on the kitchen counter and was about to start pulling out the contents within them when she felt a presence.

Whirling around, Veronica pulled out her 1911 handgun and aimed it at the intruder. An older man in a black suit with a black fedora on his head was sitting on her couch in the living room.

"I'm surprised that you were able to tell I was here," the man in black said with his mouth in the line. Almost as if he was impressed.

"Well, it comes with being a cop," she said with a glare. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm like you. A crackpot. An insane person." The man picked up a tea cup with tea he'd made for himself from her pantry. "I'm here to talk to you."

"Yeah? About what?" Veronica walked over to the table and dragged out a chair. Sitting down on it, she listened to what he had to say.

"Have you ever heard of the Roswell Incident in 1947?"

Veronica lightly shrugged. "I'd heard rumors about it. The army said it was a weather balloon while conspiracy theorists said it was a flying saucer…" She trailed off for a moment when she realized what the man's true intentions were for breaking into her home. "That's what this is about, isn't it? So what, are you here to threaten me about keeping quiet about what I saw?"

"Something like that," the man said before taking off his hat. Relieving his bald head. "Do you truly believe in what you saw that night?"

"I know what I saw," she said with a firm tone. "That thing...That was no balloon or whatever people think it was. That was an alien ship and those things killed that man."

The man nodded with a small smile. "Good. And that's why I'm here...to offer you a job."

This baffled Veronica. "What?"

"That incident in Roswell was just the start for our nation's government. We started to realize that all the myths and legends about ghosts, monsters, and strange phenomenons are real. There are strange things that are not just in the darkest forest of our world, but outside in space as well, and in the ocean's depths. Things that our society isn't ready to know about. And it was from that incident that we were created."

"My organization is known as the Office of Paranormal Investigation," explained the man in black. "We specialize in the study of and covering up various paranormal, supernatural, and other mysterious phenomenons that are unexplained by modern science. Something like your UFO encounter."

"And you want me to be a part of your organization?" Veronica asked, lowering her gun as she took in this information. "So was all this a job interview?"

"I understand it's an odd way to do so and that you have a lot of questions. I've read your file. You were a good cop and I do believe that you would fit in with our organization. That is...if you choose to join us," the man in black said, giving the ultimate choice to the former police officer.

Veronica did have to admit, the job did sound very strange. Being a cop was her dream job and she loved it. However, with her career as an officer now in the toilet and her reputation was ruined. Being labeled as a nut for what she saw, there wasn't any other place she could go. But then she thought about what happened to Barry Lang. If she joined OPI, maybe she can help prevent deaths like Barry's from ever happening again.

With a heavy sigh, she placed the gun on the table. "Alright. Where do I sign?"

"So, that's how you joined the Office," Patrick asked.

"He made it sound better than it really was," Veronica said with her arms crossed and shook her head. "The reality was that OPI was the lowest of the low on the government hierarchy. We're paid really well, but mostly it was seen as a dumping ground for the crackpots of the government. The only good thing was that we had total control of our operations. And we used that to our advantage to study and cover up things that went bump in the night."

"Okay, so what about the fake IDs," asked Dipper with a raised eyebrow. "If you were investigating the paranormal, why were you trying to hide his identity?

"What? I didn't give him those. He got those on his own," Veronica said, pointing her thumb at her cousin.

"Huh?"

"She's right," Stan said, picking up where he left off in his life story. "After I was thrown out, I had decided I wasn't gonna show my face at home until I made something of myself. Unfortunately, the treasure-hunting business was slow going. Apparently gold was some kind of... rare metal. Luckily I struck a different kind of gold... in sales."

"How did that work out?" Wendy asked, making Stan wince and rub the back of his head.

"Hi! I'm Stan Pines of Stan Co. Enterprises," Stan said in his commercial. After he had made a decent amount of money, he began advertising his products on late-night infomercial spots. "Are you sick of this always happening to you?" A pitcher of juice was thrown at him from off-screen, hitting him in the face and getting juice all over him. "Then you need the Shammy of the future!" Stan began to wipe himself off, then the commercial skipped ahead to show him completely clean as he proudly held up the shammy. "Made with the same material astronauts use to clean up cranberry stains on the moon! That's the Sham Total! It's a total sham."

Watching the TV in her new office, Veronica saw the commercial and stared at her cousin with a deadpan look in her eyes. She then face-palmed. "Oh my God."

"I had made my mark, all right. Unfortunately, so did the Shammies. Apparently the cheap dye I used to color them only made stains worse. Customers went crazy about that. Fortunately, they were using Stan Co. brand pitchforks, so they fell apart quickly. I was officially banned from New Jersey. And so, with a new name, Steve Pinington was ready to take on Pennsylvania."

"Hi! I'm Steve Pinington!" Stan said in another commercial. This time with a mustache. He pulled up his sleeve and pulled at a Band-aid on his arm. "Are you sick of bandages that are hard to remove? Then what you need is the Rip Off! The Rip Off won't give you rashes, I repeat: it won't give you rashes."

"It gave ya rashes," Patrick said, already anticipating what went wrong with that product.

"Yep. So, I traveled the whole country, sometimes outside of it, always one step ahead of the law, looking for something that would be my big break," Stan explained.

"Whoa. So that explains all the fake IDs," Mabel said in realization, sitting with everyone on a large metal beam as if it were a bench.

"I did everything I could to keep him out of trouble and out of jail. Although, I couldn't do anything for him if he was out of the country," Veronica added as she crossed her arms. She would have, but considering that Stan got arrested in Cuba in the wake of the missile crisis, there was little she could do for him.

"But why didn't you just hire Mr. Pines into some government job," Soos asked, sitting with the teenagers and kids.

"I tried, but he insisted that he had to make the millions himself," Veronica said. "I did everything to keep in contact with him, even when my agency was working with Stanford on his research into the paranormal."

"Wait, you worked for the U.S. government," Dipper asked Stanford with a surprised look on his face. He was far more curious about the author's than Stan and Veronica; this gave him the chance to learn more. "Did you end up going to your dream school?"

Ford looked away with a deadpan expression. "Not exactly," he muttered.

"Alright, I know Backupsmore wasn't anyone's first choice, but what we lack in prestige, we make up for in mostly bug-free dorms! I'm sure your families are proud, more or less," said the speaker at the podium to the audience in the auditorium of Backupsmore University. And along with the many other students was Stanford. Unable to go to his dream school, he had to go to Backupmore University. To say that it was far from being anything close to a prestigious college would have been an understatement.

Stanford could have gone to other high-ranking universities like Harvard or Oxford. But with his family's financial position, it just wasn't possible. And given that his chances for getting into an ivy league school like West Coast Tech had all been ruined, he had no other choice when it came to his higher education. Luckily Backupsmore was able to offer him a decent academic scholarship that would allow him to advance his future somehow.

As he listened to the welcoming ceremony, Stanford looked at a picture of his family. For the entire summer, after his brother was kicked out, Stanford's mind had been filled with "what ifs". He wondered if things were different. If things had played out differently. Would he be in WCT? Would he still have Stan with him? But most of all, he wondered what if things between them hadn't fallen apart like they did.

The hard truth was he didn't know. Stan made his choice to take away his chance for a secured and successful future out of spite, and now Stanford was making his choice to stand alone and forge his own path.

But just like Stan and Veronica's paths, he wasn't an easy one. In a place like Backupsmore, Ford had to work twice as hard. Luckily, that's what he does best. Giving up on having a social life, Stanford would work day and night for hours on end, which made him great strides. He went from undergrad to Ph.D. three years ahead of schedule! Him writing a thesis that was nationally ranked was just the icing on the cake for the university to award him with an enormous grant for my own scientific research.

After so much time, effort, and work, it was a dream come true. Now he had the means to finally go out and explore literally anything his heart desired. But what to study? There were so many options available to him that it was practically overwhelming. Then one day, as he was pondering over what to do for his research, he looked at his own six-fingered hands. His whole life, he'd been teased for those extra fingers. But that's when he started thinking about anomalies: things that were odd, unusual, statistically improbable. That is when he decided to make that the focus of his studies. All that was needed was for him to pick a base of operations to conduct his research.

And according to his investigations, there was one place with a higher concentration of these things than anywhere else. A small lumber town in roadkill country, Oregon.

Gravity Falls.

And so, with his grant in his pocket and excitement in his heart, Stanford set out on the long, cross-country drive to Oregon, ready to begin his journey exploring the unknown. When he arrived at the town, his initial impressions were underwhelming. It was just a simple lumberjack town nestled in a cozy little valley, deep within miles and miles of pine forests with average, unassuming people.

With his grant money, he purchased a plot of land in the forest from the Northwest Realty company. What he had left would be more than enough to cover his investigation of the strange properties of this town.

Of course, he didn't have to look very far. The day after he arrived, a giant, wooden hand emerged from the depths of the forest and grabbed his car. Dragging it into the woods, where it was never seen again. A normal person would have been distraught or outraged at the loss of their vehicle, but Stanford felt more excitement fill his heart.

However, this would also bring the attention of the OPI to Gravity Falls.

After his new home was finished and Stanford had moved in, he got ready to go out in the woods and start exploring his new surroundings. He knew that he wasn't going to be able to restrict his findings to a small notebook. So, he decided to start chronicling his discoveries in a journal.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH! THE JOURNALS!" Dipper screamed out loud with the biggest smile he's ever had on his face, interrupting the story. He noticed that everyone was staring at him strangely and his face turned sheepish. "Sorry, sorry," he said, clearing his throat. "Just got excited there... About the journals... Keep-keep talking."

"I began to keep a journal..." Ford began again.

"AAAAAAAAA-!" Dippers' screamed was interrupted when Patrick punched him in the arm. "OW!"

"Just going to ignore that."

Just when he was finished drawing the 1 on what was to be his first journal, there was a sudden knocking at his door. Leaving the journal on the table, Stanford walked over to the door and opened it. Who he saw surprised him.

Standing on the other side was Veronica. The agent of the Office of Paranormal Investigation had her hair in a bun with some gray strain while wearing a black suit with black sunglasses covering her eyes. But when she saw that it was Stanford that lived in the house she was sent to investigate, she took off those glasses and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Ford?"

"Veronica?" Stanford asked with wide eyes.

With a smile spreading across her lips, Veronica suddenly jumped into Ford's arms and hugged him tightly. "Ford! It's so good to see you again!" She exclaimed as her cousin hugged her back. But then the agent pulled away and looked at him with a raised brow. "Wait, you're the amateur paranormal investigator?"

"You knew that I was here?" Ford asked, a little surprised.

"Kind of…" Veronica said a little sheepishly before clearing her throat and trying to appear more professional. "Listen, I need to talk to you about your research. Mind if we talk inside?" Stanford nodded and allowed her to walk in before closing the door behind her.

"You want me to do what?" Stanford asked in shock, looking appalled with what Veronica requested him to do.

"I need you to stop your investigation," she said. The two were sitting together at the kitchen table after Ford poured her a cup of coffee. "The Office of Paranormal Investigations was made aware of several anomalous activities in and around this town and when my bosses learned that there was an amateur paranormal investigator in town, well, let's just say that the government doesn't like to compete."

"B-But I just got here!" Ford protested, standing up from his seat and holding up his new journal. "This was supposed to be my chance to study the unknown and really make my mark."

"I'm sorry, Ford. I really am. But I've been given strict orders to make sure that you don't get in our way," Veronica said apologetically. She really didn't want to have to do this, knowing full well just how much this research meant to him.

Stanford slumped down in his chair with a look of defeat. This couldn't be happening. After he had worked so hard in college and had just bought his new home to be his base of operations, he was now being forced into giving it all up because of a government organization he didn't even know existed. He couldn't be mad at his cousin. After all, she was just doing her job.

Suddenly, at that moment, Ford had an idea.

"Then what if I worked for your agency?" He asked.

This took Veronica by surprise. "What?"

"Think about it, J. Robert Oppenheimer was hired by the government for the Manhattan Project, so why not do the same for me? With me, you and the Office of Paranormal Investigations will be able to gain as much knowledge about the weird things about this town than you would with just any researcher. You need me, Veronica," Stanford said with determination.

Veronica stared at him for a moment before smiling. "Think you can convince my boss to hire you," she asked rhetorically, and with confidence in her cousin.

And he did. Veronica was placed in charge of the team that was assigned to investigate Gravity Falls, which was mainly just herself and Ford. With backing from the government agency, Stanford was able to document all the countless anomalies they came across and studied the unique oddities of Gravity Falls in depth. There were anomalies everywhere. And the more they looked, the more they saw. From the Eye-Bats, to the large population of gnomes dwelling deep in the forests, to a certain alien shapeshifter. They even looked into oddities such as the famous "floating cliffs" of town. It was finally a place where Stanford felt at home.

Meanwhile, however, out on the open road, his brother wasn't having the time of his life. Parked on the side of the road in a now busted up, old car, Stan sat inside it as he picked up what was to be his new, "sophisticated" new business strategy. Lottery tickets.

Holding up the card, he began scratching some circles off with a coin. "Come on, owl…" he muttered to himself as he revealed an owl from the scratched-off circle. He then scratched off another circle to reveal another owl. "Owl…" With his hopes high, he scratched again, only for it to be a football player with an omelet. "Football player with an omelet!? Gah!" Stan crumpled the card up and threw it against the window, only to have it bounce off and hit him in the head.

If you were to ask him over the phone how he was doing, he'd say he was in great shape. That living on his own was everything he had hoped it be and the best part was: he didn't need help from anybody.

But it was a lie. Stan's life was in a complete and total rut. He owed plenty of dangerous people money he didn't have and the things he was selling, people weren't buying. He had tried his hand in various other get-rich-quick schemes from betting on horse races, to trying his hand at the lottery, to money laundering scams. He even got involved with the mobs and the cartels, until eventually pissing them off. Living out in his car was far from glamorous and he barely made enough money for food or anything really.

Stan did need somebody. He needed his brother, Stanford. The only person in the world he could ever talk to. The only problem was that Stanford didn't need him. And he didn't want him. But Stan had to try.

Opening the door, he stepped out of the car and walked over to a nearby payphone. He dialed Ford's number and waited nervously for him to pick up the phone. "Hello? This is Stanford Pines," his brother answered.

Unable to say anything to him, Stan quickly hung up and sighed. Sliding his back against the payphone. He started walking back to his car when the payphone started to ring, startling the conman. Stan looked around to see if there was anyone else. But who would be calling a payphone? Walking over to it, he picked up the phone and put it to his ear.

"Er...Help?" He asked.

"Hey, Stanley."

Stan was surprised to hear Veronica's voice. However, he didn't mind at all. Even if he couldn't talk to his brother, there was always his cousin.

Back at the house, Ford was getting the measurements of one of the gnomes he was interviewing. "Fascinating, what did you say your name was?" He asked the small, humanoid creature.

"Shmebulock... Senior," the gnome answered.

As Ford started writing down the information in his journal, he overheard Veronica laughing in the background and looked to see her on the phone. He knew that she was talking with his brother, Stanley, and it made him frown and look back at his notes.

Nearly six years had come and gone since Stanford arrived in Gravity Falls and started working with his cousin. Together, they've made great advancements in their research and discoveries. However, it wasn't just the anomalies that made it a wonderful time to be in the town. Especially for Veronica.

You see, it was during those six years that she would meet a young farmhand named Ernest. As she investigated the strange things in town, she and Ernest would run into each other on more than one occasion and before long, the two would fall in love. Ernest would eventually ask Veronica to marry him, which she was more than happy to accept, but told him he was taking her last name. He was more than happy to agree, so long as they were together.

Ford couldn't have been more than happier to see his cousin find love in her life and was ecstatic when his first niece Nora was born. However, even with Veronica's new family and his immense success in Gravity Falls, there was still something nagging him in the back of his head.

Where did it all come from? Why was Gravity Falls such a hotspot for the strange and supernatural in the first place? And what was causing all of them?

That's when he theorized that the answer must come from outside of our world. A dimension of weirdness leaking into ours. Stanford went to the Office of Paranormal Investigations and proposed that the only way to understand Gravity Falls would be to build a gateway: a portal to the source of its weirdness. And fortunately, the researcher had happened to come up with the blueprints for such a machine. Apparently having drawn them up on his own in record time, even for him.

The Office of Paranormal Investigation was more than happy to assist their lead scientist with this project, code naming it Project Janus, after the Roman god of gates.

But even with the government's funding and resources, Ford couldn't make it alone. So, he decided to call up an old college friend of his during his time at Backupsmore. Fiddleford McGucket.

Fiddleford was a young but brilliant mechanic who was capable of creating technological wonders. After college, he'd settled down in Palo Alto with his longtime sweetheart to raise their young son. Fiddleford was in the middle of trying to make personal computers in his garage when he got the call to help build the trans-universal poly-dimensional meta-vortex. He excitedly agreed to help his friend with his great project.

Deciding to build it right underneath Ford's house, he, Veronica, and Fiddleford got to work on constructing the portal. Many long nights were spent perfecting the machine, with the blueprints providing a guide for what was to Stanford's crowning achievement of his studies. Soon, all of their questions about the source of this town's anomalies will be answered.

Little did they know of what really lied beyond that gate.

When the machine was finally completed and operational, it was time for the three to begin test trials before presenting the portal to the higher-ups. Before they could go through it, they first had to use a dummy to test if it was stable.

Veronica stood in the other room watching from behind the glass. The machine roared to life as the radiant wall of glowing energy formed. Once the portal was stable, she called out to the men over an intercom. "Alright boys, you're clear."

Stanford and McGucket approached the safety line in front of the machine, carrying the dummy to the portal. As they stared into the portal, the lead scientist said, "Ready, and…"

Together, they released the dummy as the portal's artificial gravity field pulled it towards its central glow.

And then, disaster!

The rope that tied the dummy down ended up wrapping around McGucket's leg. The mechanic let out a fearful cry as he was pulled towards the portal, startling Ford and Veronica.

"Fiddleford!" Stanford exclaimed and grabbed onto the rope tightly. Stopping Fiddleford, who was almost completely within the portal itself.

"What's happening out there!" Veronica yelled, before quickly rushing into the portal room. She grabbed the remainder of the rope behind Ford and the two started pulling him back, but McGucket's head was still in the portal.

"We got ya, buddy!" Ford shouted to his best friend.

Together, the Pines give a mighty pull, yanking the mechanic out of the portal with the dummy back into their dimension.

"Fiddleford!" Veronica exclaimed as she quickly crawled over to him. Fiddleford stared up at the ceiling with a look of utter shell shock. His eyes were huge and his pupils were dilated as he frantically breathed hurriedly. "Fiddleford, can you hear me?"

"What is it? Is it working?" Ford asked anxiously, ignoring his best friend's panic attack as his curiosity was unable to be contained. "What did you see?!"

"He's in shock. I'm calling for an ambulance," Veronica said, standing up to do just that. However, she was stopped when McGucket yelled out loud.

The two Pines watched as the mechanic started twitching wildly as if he wasn't in full control of his body as he started speaking in a jumble of nonsense that none of them could understand. "VOTMZRIG IVSKRX OORY."

"Fiddleford?" Ford asked worriedly.

McGucket sat up in an almost robotic manner with the thousand-yard stare in his eyes. "When Gravity Falls and earth becomes sky, fear the beast with just one eye," he muttered, baffling the other two in the room.

"Fiddleford, get a hold of yourself, you're not making any sense," Ford urged, placing his hand on McGucket's shoulder.

Finally snapping back to his senses, Stanford's best friend from college jerked his arm away from him as he sent a resentful glare at the researcher. "This machine is dangerous," he shuddered in a cold tone. "You'll bring about the end of the world with this. A hell on earth! Destroy it before it destroys us all!"

"End of the world?" Veronica exclaimed, quite alarmed by this.

"W-Wha - I can't destroy this!" Stanford countered intently. "This is my life's work!"

"You didn't see what I saw inside there!" Fiddleford shouted in his face before he stared off into nothing as his body shook. "The horror...the horror that awaits beyond this dimension. I fear we've unleashed a grave danger on the world. One I'd just as soon forget. I quit! And I urge you and the Office to do the same, Agent Pines."

With that, Fiddleford McGucket stood up and left, leaving his former friend behind. Wanting nothing more than to put as much distance between himself and Project Janus as much as possible.

Stanford sat there for a moment in despair, anger, and betrayal until he glanced at his cousin. The agent was looking at him in shock, along with a hint of suspicion and wariness. There was a moment of tense silence before Veronica finally spoke up.

"F-Ford…" she began apprehensively. "What did Fiddleford mean this portal could destroy the world?"

"I...I don't know," Ford insisted, somewhat shaken himself. "Fiddleford doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Oh, really? Then tell me, Stanford, what is one the other side of that portal?" Veronica asked in a harsh and serious tone. Her using his full name only made her sound more serious.

"I...It's exactly what I said it would be!" Ford protested as he stood up, growing frustrated with his cousin's doubting him. "It's the dimension where all of Gravity Falls' anomalies come from!"

"But how do you know?!" Veronica asked, raising her voice. "Do you really know for sure what you've built down here, Stanford?"

"What are you trying to say?!" Ford snapped angrily. "This is what we've been working towards! How could I not know?! I made this to better mankind, not to destroy us! It's a tool to gain knowledge, not a doomsday device! I know it!"

"Stanford…" Veronica walked up to her cousin as she glared into his eyes with growing distrust. "You're my cousin...but tell me; isn't it possible that this machine is far more dangerous than you had originally intended? Isn't it possible that even though it could be used for good, someone could turn this machine into a weapon to cause apocalyptic destruction on a planet-wide scale that could potentially wipe out everything on this planet? I know that you didn't get those blueprints on your own. Someone helped you make them. So isn't it possible that that person's goal was never knowledge, but to bring about the end of the world?!"

She walked straight up to him, staring into his eyes as Ford's resolve started to break down. "Tell me, Stanford: Isn't. It. Possible?"

Ford was prepared to answer, but all that came out of his mouth was silence. Hesitation filled him as he looked past Veronica and to the portal instead. Even if he had an answer for her, his silence was all Veronica needed to know.

"Alright then," she sighed sadly in a soft voice. It pained her to do what she had to do, but it had to be done. "As of this moment, your employment with the Office of Paranormal Investigations is terminated, Stanford."

"W-What?" Ford asked, caught off guard.

"If this machine could destroy the planet, the Office can no longer support you and your research into it," Veronica explained in a firm tone. "That includes the radioactive material needed to power it."

Shaking his head in grief over what he was losing, Ford begged his cousin. "Veronica...no, you...you can't…"

"I...I'm sorry Ford," Veronica said simply, before turning to leave the distraught researcher behind.

Now alone once again with nothing but his machine, Ford couldn't think of anything to say to try and stop his own cousin from leaving him. Soon, his despair was replaced with anger at the thought that the one person he thought he was closest to abandoning him took over. "Fine! I'll do it without you! I don't need you! I don't need anyone!" He shouted hotly after her.

Almost as soon as the researcher had made his proclamation, however, he suddenly started to hear whispering sounds echoing off the walls of the underground room. "What? Who said that?" He asked, hoping that someone was just messing with him. But when no one answered and the whispers continued, Ford started to become scared and back into the wall, nervously scanning his surroundings. His hand placed against his head before looking into the reflective surface of the wall.

A few weeks would pass and Veronica moved her family to their new home in the suburbs of California. Sitting on her pouch, she watched her daughter Nora playing with her father. Both of them were laughing and giggling happily together. It wasn't an easy move, but Veronica couldn't stay in Gravity Falls. Not after how badly the fall out with her cousin had been. The little lumberjack town was still technically under observation from OPI, but those six years of research had provided all the data her organization needed to cover up most of the anomalies. Strangely enough, they hardly picked up any anomalies at all.

So with the strange things going on in Gravity Falls under wraps, Veronica was able to spend quality time with her family.

She was about to take another sip of her lemonade when the phone started ringing. It was her work telephone. Placing her drink on the table, Veronica quickly got up and rushed inside to her office.

Picking up the phone, she placed it to her ear. "Pines here."

"Veronica!" Ford's voice exclaimed from the other end of the line. "Oh thank God, you picked up."

"Ford? Ford, is that you?" She asked, surprised to hear his voice again.

"Veronica, I need your help," said the researcher, his voice sounding panicked as he breathed frantically. "There's not much time left...Veronica, you were...Veronica, I'm in over my head...I feel like I'm losing my sanity."

"Ford, calm down," Veronica said, becoming more concerned by just how utterly afraid he sounded. "Just tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it."

After a moment to take a deep breath, Ford started again. "I...I need your help. I need someone I could trust...Can you still reach him?"

"Who?" Veronica asked.

"...Stanley."

The past few years of Stanley's life hadn't gotten any better for him. All of his plans to make a fortune for himself had failed completely. Amounting in a rough, wild string of scams, arrests, escapes, and thousands of near-death experiences. Now he was no longer concerned about making that fortune he so desperately wanted. Now he was solely focused on staying alive, especially after making his fair share of dangerous foes and rivals that want him dead.

Stan was now living in a busted-up apartment all alone. He sat on his bed, looking glum. His Stan Co. productions shoved in a corner of the room. Stan found himself running out of options as well as hope that his life would ever get better.

Was there any real point in struggle anymore? On the run for an entire decade now and not once has he progressed in life, Stan started to wonder if there was even a tiny bit of hope for him at all. He wondered if everyone's life would have been better if he was never born. Needless to say that Stan has contemplated suicide on more than one occasion, but whenever he did, his long-lasting stubbornness and fighting will wouldn't allow him to quit. The voice inside his head, which sounded like his brother and cousin, kept telling him to never give up. To stand tall against whatever life threw at him, no matter what.

However, as Stan sat on his bed, he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold out. Especially with all the mobs and cartel thugs out for his head.

Suddenly there was a knock at his door, making him flinch in fright. "J-Just give me a few more days, Rico!" Stan shouted as he quickly grabbed his gun from under the pillow. "I'll pay your goons back, I swear!"

Fortunately, instead of a murderous cartel boss, a letter slipped through the door slot. With the gun still in his hands, Stan cautiously stood up and walked up to the door, peeping through the peephole. He saw the mailman walking away from the door before looking down at the letter. The envelope was signed 'From Veronica.'

Picking it up, Stan opened the envelope and pulled out the letter.

Dear Stanley,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and not in too much trouble. I'm sorry that I haven't kept in touch with you as much as we used to, but I'm writing to you now because of something that has come up. Your brother, Ford, is in trouble. I don't know all the details yet, but he called me asking to get in touch with you. He needs you to come to his home in Gravity Falls as quickly as possible. I'll be going there myself to see what's going on. I know that you both left on bad terms, but he's still your brother. Please come!

-Veronica

P.S. Here's his address: 618 Gopher R.D. Gravity Falls, OR.

It didn't take Stan more than 5 seconds to decide. He wanted to see his brother in the hope that he'd forgiven him, or maybe that by helping him, Stanford would be able to forgive him. With nowhere else to go, Stan packed everything back into his car and drove to Gravity Falls.

Winter in Gravity Falls was known for being absolutely brutal and this one was no exception. When Veronica reached the backwoods town, it was completely buried by snow. Parking in front of the shack, she opened the door and stepped out into the freezing blizzard with her heavy jacket on. She was almost surprised to see how much the house had changed. There was now a barbed wire fence surrounding the property, with all the windows and doors boarded up. There was even a STAY OUT sign posted in front.

Veronica started walking towards the house when she heard the sound of footsteps in the snow behind her. Turning around, she saw a figure approaching from the cover of the blizzard before stopping a few feet away from her.

Stanley pulled off his hood. "Veronica?" He asked, haven't seen her in years.

"Stanley?" Veronica looked at her cousin surprised.

"Heh, hey…" Stan rubbed the back of his head as he looked away. "How's it going? How's Ernest and Nora?"

"They're fine, but what about you? You look like you're about to die," she said.

Stan looked offended. "Geez, thanks. That's what I needed to hear," he said sarcastically. Veronica surprised him with a hug, which he returned before the two turned and walked towards the house.

Walking up to the door, they stopped in front of it and Stan raised his fist to knock. However, when he didn't, Veronica became concerned.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"I haven't seen my brother in over ten years. What if this was a mistake and he doesn't want to see me?" He asked nervously.

"It's okay. He's family and your brother. He won't bite," she said, instilling much-needed confidence in him.

Stan nodded and knocked on the door.

The door suddenly swung open and Ford came out to point a crossbow at Stan's chest. "Who is it?! Have you come to steal my eyes?!"

There was a moment of silence between the three ruined brothers and cousin. Both Veronica and Stanley looked blankly at Stanford as if he's gone nuts. Which wasn't too far off it seemed.

"Well, I can always count on you for a warm welcome," Stan remarked.

"Ford, put the crossbow down. It's just us," Veronica said cautiously, raising her hand to claim him down.

"Veronica," Ford sighed in relief before turning to Stanley. "Stanley...I didn't…" He wasn't sure his brother would come, but the researcher shook his head to get back on track. "Did anyone follow you two? Anyone at all?"

"Eh, hello to you, too, pal," Stan stated sarcastically. Suddenly Ford grabbed him and pulled him inside the house. The researcher pulled out a flashlight and shined it right into his brother's eyes, making his pupils dilate.

Stanley pushed him away. "Ah! Hey! What is this?" He asked in annoyance.

"Sorry, I just had to make sure you weren't…" Ford trailed off as a brief look of fear crossed his face before he quickly shook his head. "Uh, it's nothing. Come in, come in."

He motioned for them to follow him into the living. However, the inside of the house looked to be in a state of disrepair, with all the light turned off and notes strewn about the floor haphazardly.

"Ford, what's going on? What happened to this place?" Veronica asked, more worried about her cousin than the house.

Ford was a changed man. Barely recognizable compared to the confident, rational young researcher he had been only days beforehand. Now he looked like an obsessed individual, and he was so determined that it looked as though it was detrimental to his health. He appeared to not have been sleeping, judging by the dark circles under his eyes.

"Veronica, you were right," Ford said in a tremble, walking over to his desk and stared down at his first journal. The book was opened to the page with the blueprints. "Fiddleford was right. The machine….It's too dangerous…."

"Whoa, whoa, wait! Is anyone gonna explain what the hell's going on here?" Stan asked, also worried about Stanford's mental state. "You're acting like Mom after her tenth cup of coffee. And what machine?"

"Listen, there isn't much time." Ford turned around, holding Journal #1 tightly in his hand. "I've made huge mistakes and I don't know who I can trust anymore," he explained, turning the head of a skeleton away from him. As if someone could watch him from it.

"Hey, uh, easy there. Let's talk this through, okay?" Stan offered, concerned for his twins as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"We're here for you," Veronica assured.

Ford shook his head and turned to the two. "Veronica, we need to get down into the basement," he told her before turning to his brother. "Stanley, I have something to show you. Something you won't believe.

"Look, I've been around the world, okay? Whatever it is, I'll understand," Stan remarked dryly.

"There is nothing about this I understand," Stan said. He was standing with Veronica and Stanford in the underground room where the portal was, staring at the thing in disbelief.

"This is Project Janus," Veronica said, bitterly glaring at it.

"It's a trans-universal gateway, a punched hole through a weak spot in our dimension. I created it to unlock the mysteries of the universe," Ford explained before scowling. "But it could just as easily be harnessed for terrible destruction. That's why I shut it down and hid my journals, which explained how to operate it."

"How come you didn't tell me you were going to hide the journals?" Veronica asked, a little upset that her cousin wouldn't trust her with that knowledge.

"Because if the government knew where the journals were, I fear they would try and replicate the machine," explained Ford. He then pulled out the first journal. "I need you to erase everything that the Office has on this project's existence. That just leaves only this journal left. And you are the only person I can trust to take it, Stanley."

With an almost pleading look, he handed the journal to Stan. "I have something to ask of you: you remember our plans to sail around the world on a boat?" He asked with an expression of deep sincerity.

Stan smiled, hope filling his heart for the first time in years at the mention of their long-lost childhood dream.

But that feeling wouldn't last.

"Take this book, get on a boat, and sail as far away as ya can!" Ford urgently demanded, crushing Stan's dream all too quickly as he turned and walked away. "To the edge of the Earth! Bury it where no one can find it!"

As Stanley stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face, Veronica marched up to her cousin with an appalled look on her face. "Ford, you can't be-"

"That's it?!" Stanley suddenly shouted harshly. Veronica turned to see him glaring at his brother in absolute disbelief. "That's why I'm here!? You finally wanna see me after ten years, and it's to tell me to get as far away from you as possible!?"

"Stan, wait, I'm sure he…"

"Stanley, you don't understand what I'm up against!" Ford interrupted Veronica as he tried to rationalize his decision. "What I've been through!"

"No, no. You don't understand what I've been through!" Stan countered fiercely. "I've been to prison in three different countries! I once had to chew my way out of the trunk of a car! You think you've got problems? I've got a goddamn mullet, Stanford! Meanwhile, where have you been? Living it up in your fancy house in the woods! Selfishly hoarding your college money, because you only care about your fucking self."

"Stanley, stop it!" Veronica pleaded, pulling him back.

"I'm selfish?" Ford scoffed, completely insulted by the accusation. "I'm selfish, Stanley? How can you say that after costing me my dream school?! I'm giving you a chance to do the first worthwhile thing in your life and you won't even listen!"

"Well, listen to this: you want me to get rid of this book? Fine!" Stan yelled, taking a lighter and striking it as he prepared to burn Journal #1. "I'll get rid of it right now!"

"No!" Ford shouted, grabbing onto the journal. "You don't understand!"

"You said you wanted me to have it so I'll do what I want with it!" Stan yanked the book back from him. Veronica was standing there, unable to do anything.

"My research!" Ford, exclaimed. Unable to bear the thought of seeing everything he worked so hard go up in flames, Stanford tackled Stan to the ground.

"Boys, stop it!" Veronica cried as the brother started fighting each other on the ground. As the two started punching and kicking each other for the journal she reached in between them and yanked the journal out of their hands. "That's enough out of-"

POW!

That was the sound of her being suddenly punched in the face by Stanley, who did it out of reflex when she snatched the journal away from him. The agent fell down on the ground, with the journal landed a few feet away from her.

"Veronica!" He exclaimed in shock at seeing what he did.

"You son of a bitch!" Ford yelled at him and kicked him off. He then stood up and ran for the journal, not bothering to see if his cousin was okay. But before he could reach it, Stanley tripped him before taking the journal and running back towards the lab with Ford chasing after him. "Stanley, give it back!"

The two brothers broke through the door and Ford pushed him onto some of the buttons on a panel. "You want it back, you're gonna have to try harder than that!" Stan yelled.

Of course, neither of them noticed that their fighting had caused them to activate the portal. In the other room, Veronica started to slowly regain consciousness as the machine began to roar to life. Her right eye turned purple from the punch.

"You left me behind, you jerk!" Stan shouted as he tried to pull the journal away from Ford. "It was supposed to be us forever, you ruined my life!"

"You ruined your own life!" Ford shot back, kicking him in the chest.

It made him let go of the journal, but it also caused him to knock Stanley right into the side of the control panel, and into the red hot symbol emblazoned on it. Stan let out a god-awful scream of pain as the symbol burned through his jacket and onto his back. Branding him with it before he collapsed to the ground, clutching his shoulder.

"Stanley!" Ford cried fearfully and concerned as he watched his brother writhing in pain. "Oh my God! I'm so sorry! Are you alr-"

Stan punched Ford in the face, causing him to stumble backward and trip over the lever. Veronica stood up to see the machine had activated and Stan slowly making his way towards his brother. Both of them not noticing the sparks emitting from the portal.

"Stanford, the portal!" Veronica cried out, but she was drowned out by the sound of the machine and the anger of the twins.

"Some brother you turned out to be," Stan growled as years of frustration and fury towards Stanford came boiling to the surface. "You care more about your dumb mysteries than your family? Well then YOU CAN HAVE 'EM."

Stan shoved the journal back into Stanford's arms with a hard push, not realizing that he had just pushed him over the yellow and black line on the ground. Ford's back never did touch the ground, as his body started to levitate into the air, and he started getting sucked towards the portal.

"Whoa, whoa, hey, what's going on?" Stan exclaimed.

"Stanford!" Veronica screamed as she ran forward a bit.

"Stanley! Veronica, help me!" Ford shouted desperately as he struggled to try and move away from the portal and the horrors that awaited him.

"Oh, no, what do we do?!" Stan exclaimed, as he and Veronica were powerless to stop what was about to happen.

"Stanley! Veronica! Do something!" Ford begged. Knowing that he only had seconds left, he threw Journal #1 at Stan, who caught it. "STANLEY!"

In a blinding flash of light, the portal swallowed him completely, whisking him away to whatever nightmares awaited on the other side. The flash of white engulfed everything and the force of the energy burst knocked Stan and Veronica off their feet. When the light faded, the two cousins were lying on the floor together. The conman and agent sat up at the same time. However, there were only two things that they noticed: The portal shutting itself off from the great explosion of power and a pair of glasses falling to the floor.

Stanford Pines was gone.

"Stanford?" Stan asked quietly. "Veronica, what just…"

"He's..." she struggled to speak as the realization of what just happened hit her. She started to tremble and sob. "He's gone."

That was enough to snap Stan out of his initial shell-shock. "No. No! No, nononononono!" He yelled, running up to the portal and started pounding his fists on it. "Stanford, come back! I-I DIDN'T MEAN IT!" The last bit of energy faded from the portal as Stan ran to the lever and tried to pull it to no avail. "I just got him back! I can't lose him again! Ah, come on!"

Veronica ran into the control room to try and see if she could try and reactivate the machine. But the twin's fighting had damaged most of the controls. And then another, more horrible realization hit her.

She didn't know how to work the portal. Ford never taught her how.

As hot tears of frustration, anger, disappear, and hopelessness filled every fiber of her body, Veronica bashed her fists on the controls and collapsed on her knees. Sobbing as Stan's voice echoed throughout the underground.

"STANFORD!"

For the second time in his life, Stan had lost his twin. And this time, he might have lost him for good. In spite of the risks she knew the machine possessed to the world, Veronica tried to help out as best as she could. They didn't know if Stanford was dead or alive in some distant galaxy, but they knew his journal must have the answer to getting him back.

The problem was that the answer was incomplete. The information on how to operate the portal was shattered across the other three journals. Together, they fixed the damages to the portal, but without the other two journals, it was hopeless. Even with the notes they had and Veronica's knowledge, she couldn't figure out how to get it to run and they didn't have the coordinates for whatever dimension Ford ended up in.

Needing to return home, Veronica left Stan in the house. He wanted to stay and try and work out how the machine worked. She agreed, but told him that she'd be back again to help. When she returned to the office, she tried finding anything within the files of Project Janus that could help them. Anything else was burnt and destroyed.

Several weeks would pass, and Stan still wasn't able to get the machine to work. His nights were sleepless, lost in worries and anxiety and remorse over how he basically banished his own brother to a hellish dimension, from what Veronica told him.

He tried to not lose hope that he would get the machine to work, but with each passing week, he started to think it was hopeless. Finally, as the snow in Gravity Falls started to melt, Stan ran out of food. He had no choice but to go into town.

Stan walked down the streets of Gravity Falls with his head hanging and his coat hood up. He wasn't worried about being recognized by his enemies, who he'd all but forgotten. With the cursed windmill acting as the lighthouse, Stan made his way towards the Dusk 2 Dawn. He went inside and walked down the aisle. Not bothering to look at anyone.

After grabbing a loaf of bread, he brought it over to the cash register and placed it on the counter. "Just the bread, then, there, stranger?" The elderly woman at the counter asked with a warm smile. "That'll be 99 cents.

Stan nodded and dug a hand in his pocket, searching for some cash. However, all he was able to pull out was a packet of sugar, a paper clip, and a peso. Nowhere near enough to buy anything, let alone a loaf of bread.

"Hey, that's no stranger!" Said a woman. Stan looked and saw a young 'Lazy' Susan Wentworth pointing at him. "That must be the mysterious science guy that lives in the woods!"

This brought the attention of everyone in the store, as a curious crowd started to gather around Stan, who was trying his best to pull his hood tighter over his head. "Uh, n-no, no. You've got the wrong guy," he said, knowing that they were mistaking him for his brother.

"I've heard strange stories about that old shack," said a young Toby Determined.

"Yeah!" said Daryl Blubs. "Mysterious lights and spooky experiments."

"Gosh, I'd pay anything to see what kind of shenanigans you get up to in there," the clerk's husband said, putting an arm around his wife

"Oh, me too! Do you ever give any tours?" asked Susan.

"No. Really I-" Stan stopped and looked down at the pile of junk in his hand. That's when an idea came to him. It was a risky one, given the portal right under the house, and his cousin would kill him if she ever found out, but he needed the money and he needed it badly. He sighed. "Yes, I do give tours! Ten... nah-no... fifteen bucks a person!" He exclaimed.

There was a pause before the crowd cheered and held up their money. Stan's eyes stared at the dollars in wonder, not remembering the last time he had seen so much money. Much less money that was being given to him.

"Sir!" Susan spoke up with an excited smile. "What did you say your name was, you man of mystery?

"Oh, uh, Stan...ford," he said, somewhat uncertain at first. His cousin would have definitely killed him if she found out. Sure, Stan has taken up a lot of false names in the past, but the one that belonged to his brother? He never even once considered it. But with no other option, he took it. "Stanford Pines."

Stan led the eager crowd of townsfolk back to Ford's house, entering through the foyer, which would later become the gift shop. The room was packed with his brother's collection of inventions and various notes. "Step right up, folks, uh, to a world of... enchantment, or whatever," Stan said, somewhat uncertain about how to tour. He grabbed the first thing he saw, a box with a dial and two antennae on it, and showed it to the crowd. "Behold, the um, nerdy science box.:

Susan leaned down to get a closer look at it, only to get a sudden spark of electricity directly into her eye. "Ah! My eye!" She cried, as her eye when lazy and shut entirely

"Uh, I can assure you, that is in no way permanent!" Stan quickly promised, not knowing that it would be.

"I paid fifteen dollars for this!?" Susan complained as the rest of the crowd began to mumble in disapproval.

"Uhh…" Stan had to think fast if he was going to salvage this in any way he could. Fortunately, that was what he was good at. He grabbed the skeleton and some clothing. "You're lucky you weren't part of the last tour group, um…" He turned around and showed them the skeleton, which he had dressed as a tourist. "They never made it out aliiiivve. Heheh. Right?

There was another pause before the crowd started laughing again. Stan let out a small sigh of relief, realizing that this could work. This could just be the break that he's been looking for.

After finishing the tour with no more issues, Stan walked back into the living room with the money from the tour in hand. This was the most money he's ever made for himself in the time since he was kicked out and it made him all the prouder.

"Made some pretty good money, Stanford."

Stan let out a startled scream and looked up to see Veronica sitting at Ford's desk. "Veronica, don't scare me like that?" He complained, before noticing that she was staring at him with a dead serious look.

"You mind telling me just what were you trying to do, Stan?" She inquired, standing up and walking towards him. "Lying about who you are is one thing, but using your own brother's name?"

"I know, I know but just listen to me. I have a plan," Stan said, wanting to explain to her his idea. "I can't leave my bro's house until we figure out how to save him, right? But his mortgage still needs to be paid somehow and I'm assuming it's in his name. So, why don't I take his name and turn his house into a tourist trap!"

Veronica was expecting him to say he'd take on Ford's identity, but she wasn't expecting the last part at all. "What?"

"It's the perfect cover. We are twins after all, and so people already think that I'm Stanford. And you've already destroyed all the evidence about this machine, right?"

"Yeah, but…"

"Then all you have to do is keep the government off my back and I'll take care of the machine. So, what do you say?" Stan asked with a hopeful look.

Veronica stared at him for a moment before turning away and walking over to the desk and leaned on it. Staring down at some of the notes. "I was just promoted a few days ago," she said with a somber tone in her voice. "Making me the Director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations. Any director of a government agency would have followed protocol to the absolute T and have that portal down in the basement dismantled all the way down to the last knut and bolt, and have each part be scattered across the country."

Stan's hope for his cousin's help started to disappear.

"But I'm not like other directors that have come before," she said, turning around and staring into his eyes. "He's not just your brother, but my cousin too. And it's just like Ford told us. That machine down in the basement could have the power to destroy the world. But I highly doubt that'll stop you."

She took a deep breath. What she was about to do was insane, and could lead to her being labeled as a rogue agent and be accused of treason. "And if turning it on really means we can get him back...I think I can live with that."

"And that's how it all started. With Veronica's help, we had the perfect cover-up. For once in my life, people were actually buying what I was selling. And so the Murder Hut was born! Later renamed the Mystery Shack. Finally I found something I was good at. For once being a liar and a cheat paid off. The old me was dead, and I'd faked a car crash to prove it. By day I was Stanford Pines: Mr. Mystery. But by night I was down in the basement, trying to bring the real Stanford back," Stan said, bringing the story to a bitter and somber end.

"We couldn't risk anyone learning the truth and sabotaging our mission, so we lied to everyone: the Office, the town, our family, my own husband and daughter, your parents, even your kids. I'm sorry I couldn't be more truthful with all of you. I knew that you were going to continue this journey, even if we told you to stop," Veronica said, before looking at the destroyed portal. "I just didn't want you to suffer as we did."

Patrick looked sincerely sad and guilty once the story was done and everything was explained. He now understood why his uncle and grandmother did what they did. Honestly, he would have done the same if Shawn were still alive, and he would have done it for Dipper and Mabel. "So...all this time you were just trying to save your brother," he said, before looking up with a shameful expression, realizing just how close he was to ruining everything for Stan and Veronica. For thirty long years, they've waited for this moment and he was going to end it all. "Grunkle Stan...Grandma...I-I'm so sorry."

"That's okay, kid," Stan said with the same tone.

"No, it's not!" Patrick insisted. "I could have shut off the machine and ruined everything for you two. I-I should have trusted you more. If I had pushed that button, your brother wouldn't be standing here right now."

Stan placed his hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, Patrick. I don't blame you. You stuck to your gut and did what you thought was right. I probably wouldn't have believed me either."

"I heard talking! It was coming from downstairs!" Veronica gasped when she heard Agent Powers shouting from above them. Everyone looked up with fear in their eyes.

"Oh crap, it's too late, the agents are comin' for us!" The elderly government agent exclaimed.

"What do we do?!" Mabel cried, standing up.

"Aw, man. I was so spellbound by your dramatic tale I forgot all about those dudes," Soos complained.

"Wait, forget," Dipper asked as his brain started to work out something. His eyes lit up and he gasped when an idea popped into his head. Taking off his backpack, he started to dig through it. "That's it! I think I know a way we might be able to defeat those agents!" Taking out his arm, he pulled the memory-erasing gun out of a bag.

He showed the gun to Ford, who smiled and grabbed it. "Of course! I don't know how you got a hold of one of these but, this is perfect!" He ran into the control room with everyone following behind. Ford went over to where there was a pair of viewing glasses for what looked to be for a periscope. He reached in and pulled out some wires and started plugging them into the gun. "If I can just amplify the signal to a radio headset frequency..." He looked through the periscope to see the agents running into the shack. He then turned to the others. "There. Now everyone PLUG YOUR EARS! GET DOWN! NOW!"

Veronica threw her earpiece away as everyone including Ford crouched down on the ground and plugged their ears.

Outside, Agent Trigger ran out of the ruined Mystery Shack and called to Agent Powers. "Sir! Looks like there's a hidden door behind the vending machine!" He reported, pointing back inside the house.

"Excellent!" Powers said with a slight grin. "Get me Washington on Line 1! I've been practicing sounds of excitement for this very occasion." Suddenly, the ground started to shake and a weird sound could be heard getting louder. "Hey, do you hear that?"

Behind him, the totem pole's eyes started to glow blue and the sound of something charging up could be heard. Then, the pole sent out a loud sound wave pulse through the shack and yard. All the agents with a radio headset yelled out in pain when the sound was sent into their ears, making them drop everything to cover their ears in pain.

When it was all over, Powers and Trigger were on one of their knees. Powers opened his eyes and took his hands off his ears. "What? Where am I?" he asked, looking around after his memory of their mission was erased. "Why am I standing in front of some sort of goofy fun knick-knack house?"

Veronica then came onto the porch with a stern look on her face. "What the hell are you idiots doing here?!" She said loudly in her authority voice with a stack of papers in hand.

The two agents quickly stood up. "M-Ma'am! You're under arrest for..." Powers paused as he tried to figure out why she needed to be arrested. But nothing came to mind. "What were we arresting her for?"

"I...I can't remember," said Trigger.

"Oh, arresting a sweet little ol' granny for something you can't remember," Veronica said in a mocking old woman's voice with a fake trembling before glaring at the agents. "Listen, you boneheads, I've just been sent with the latest intel from Washington. According to this..."

She flipped the papers and saw that in her haste to get her agency away from the Shack, the old woman had picked up some of Mabel's drawings.

"...very real report, the power surges in Gravity Falls were actually due to radiation from an unreported meteor shower. In other words, your actions just made our agency the biggest laughing shock of the CIA! But I'm willing to make this big mistake disappear if you hand over all the intel you have regarding this little wild goose chase."

"Uh, everything about this case is contained on this drive, ma'am," said an embarrassed Powers and Trigger handed over a flash drive labeled "PINES" to their director.

The granny agent took the flash drive. Her face then turned to anger again, and yelled, "Now get out of here or YOU'RE FIRED!"

The two agents quickly saluted. "Uhh, yes ma'am. Apologies, ma'am." Powers turned to the other agents and whistled, getting their attention. All the while nursing the headache he was feeling. "False alarm, everyone!" He told them with a motion of his other hand that told them to pack it up and move out. Then he and Trigger started walking back to their car, but not before Powers tripped on the way. Slamming back into the door. They then got in and drove off. The helicopters took off, the cops and SWATs got back in their cars and took off.

When there was a single government agent left, Veronica gave Gompers the flash drive, and the goat ran away with it in his mouth.

Ford then came out and patted Veronica on the back, earning a smile. Then the twins came running out to Veronica and Ford. "Great uncle Stanford and Graunt Veronica, that was amazing!" Mable gushed as Patrick walked over to join them. Stan, Soos, and Wendy stayed near the front door, but the other Stan twin didn't look too happy.

"Let's not go crazy; it was serviceable," Stan grumbled.

Veronica and Ford chuckled. "Thank you, kids, but please, call me Ford," he said, feeling a little embarrassed by all the praises.

Dipper started scratching the back of his head. "Sure! Thanks, Great Uncle Ford," he said before asking a question. "So, uh, would you mind if I ask you a couple of billion questions about Gravity Falls?" He pulled out a pen and notepad, clicking the pen with mad excitement.

"Um, well I-uh..." Ford trailed off while feeling a little flustered and embarrassed.

Then Veronica stepped in and said to the kids, "Actually kids, it's been a long day and the three of us have a lot to talk about. Why don't you hit the hay, huh?"

"But, it's the author!" Dipper protested and pointed at Ford. He then continued clicking the pen rapidly. "I've been waiting so long to ask questions about-"

"Gimme that shit!" Patrick snapped, angrily snatching the pen out of Dipper and throwing it into the forest. After nights of his reading and listening to his cousin click the damn thing, he was going to get him to use a pencil from now on.

Letting out a sigh to calm himself, Patrick then turned his body to the left and looked at Stan.

"I just have one question for all of you," he said, looking at Veronica, Stan, and Ford. "You told us everything in that story, right? Nothing was left out? And all of it was the truth?"

"Of course," Stan said, a little hurt that Patrick would think he was keeping something important after just spilling out everything to him and the kids.

"Everything that we didn't want you kids to know we've told you in the story," Veronica said, placing a hand on her grandson's cheek. "I'm tired of keeping you in the dark Patrick, and I'm not going to start again."

Everyone looked at Ford.

He looked away for a moment, before looking back at Patrick. "Yes, that's...everything."

Wendy sighed in the back. "Man, talk about a crazy day," she said, before walking over and kissing Patrick quickly. "I've got to get home and see if everyone's ok. I'll see you tomorrow, Patty-cakes."

Patrick smiled and pulled her in for a deep kiss. When he pulled back he looked her in the eyes and said, "Thank you for everything, red."

Wendy then started walking away with Soos following her. The two walked in silence at first, before Soos looked back to see the Pines entering back into the house with a concerned expression.

"So whaddya think, Wen," he asked his coworker.

This took Wendy aback a slight bit. "What do you mean, dude," Wendy asked for clarification.

"Well, aren't you worried about what this could mean for the Pines? I mean Patrick, Dipper, and Mabel have been trying to find the author all summer, but now that they've found him and it's Mr. Pines' brother," Soos said, twirling his pointer fingers around each other. "It just l think things are changing way too fast and it'll hurt them."

At first, she was silent, before Wendy replied. "I can't say that I know everything will change, but I am worried about what this could do for Patrick and the twins," she admitted, looking up at the sky as the sun was starting to set and the moon rising. "We'll just have to wait and see."

That night, as owls hooted outside of the destroyed Mystery Shack, Patrick stepped out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth and taking a shower. He now walked to Dipper and Mabel's room to go to sleep. With Ford now staying with them, he had to give up his bedroom and go back to sleeping in the attic with the twins. He didn't like it, but it is what it is. Ford's been away for a long time. He deserves to sleep in his bedroom again.

But when he placed his hand on the doorknob and was about to turn it, Patrick heard voices and he looked down the stairs.

At the bottom, on the first floor, Stan, Veronica, and Ford were looking at themselves in the mirror. "Look at us. When did we become so old?" Stan said.

"You two really take after Uncle Filbrick," said Veronica in a teasing manner, while standing in between the two twins.

"Ugh, gross," Ford said with a joking smile. The author had traded out his worn, ragged portal gear for a tan coat, a red turtleneck with a black belt that slung across his chest, black pants, and large brown boots coated in dirt.

The three of them broke out into a small bout of laughter for a short moment.

"So, what're you going to do, Veronica?" Stan asked, looking at her reflection. "I don't think you'd be going back to OPI after today."

Veronica's smile dropped and she frowned a little. "No, I'm going to be retiring," she said, looking a little sad. "There's no reason for me to try and keep Gravity Falls a secret anymore. I'll likely take a trip to Patrick's home to see my daughter. Try to make amends for not being there for most of her life."

Ford stared at his reflection for a moment. Should he go too? Should he try to connect with his family? No. His family wouldn't understand the situation at stake now. Family only got in the way of what's important. He sighed and turned to his brother and cousin.

"Okay, Stanley, here's the deal. You can stay here for the rest of the summer to watch the kids. I'll stay down in the basement and try to contain any remaining damage," he then looked down at the ground and frowned. "But when the summer's over, you give me my house back, you give me my name back, and this Mystery Shack junk is over forever. You got it?" Ford turned to glare at Stan.

"Ford!" Veronica snapped before Stan placed a hand on her shoulder. Stopping her.

"You really aren't gonna thank me, are you?" Stan asked with an upset look. When Ford looked at him again with a glare, Stan knew that was his answer and he pointed his finger at his twin's chest. "Fine. On one condition: you stay away from the kids; I don't want them in danger. Cause as far as I'm concerned, they're the only family I have left."

Patrick opened the door and dashed into the attic when Stan turned to walk up the stairs. Closing the door. He didn't see Stan stop, started to look back, and then kept walking. He waited for when his Grunkle was past the room, before cracking open the room and listening for if Veronica and Ford were going to start talking.

With an upset expression, Ford turned to walk away when Veronica spoke up to stop him. "You just can't stop, can you?" He turned his head to see Veronica looking sadly at him with disappointment. "You just can't stop pushing yourself away from your family. From people who love you and keep you safe. Stan didn't ruin your life when he ruined that science project. Look around at what you've built here. The things that you've discovered and seen..."

"I think about what I could have done at that school. I think about the years I've spent on the other side," Ford said coldly. "I've seen things I would've rather not have seen. I was trapped in that hell because of him-"

"And he pulled you out of that hell. Do you know why? Because he's your brother." Veronica stared at her cousin with a single tear running down her face. She walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Stanford, you still have time."

Ford didn't answer her and walked towards the entrance of the lab. Seeing that she'd failed to bring the two brothers together, the old woman hung her head low. It was clear to her now that the camaraderie and the companionship they had in each other was now lost to the sands of time.

Having watched the entire conversation, Patrick closed the door slowly. His heart was now heavy and his mind in conflict. He looked down with a sigh. "What a mess," the young man whispered.

"So, what were they talking about?" He turned his head to see Mabel and Dipper in their pajamas looking at him with a bit of concern and curiosity. "I think Grunkle Ford said they're gonna buy us puppies made of ice cream. Might be wishful thinking, though," said the young girl.

Patrick put up a weak fake smile and ruffled her hair a little. "No, Veronica's retiring from the agency, Ford told Stan he can stay until the summer ends, and Stan wants him to stay away from us," he explained, lumbering over to his old bed before sitting down. Patrick sighed, looking down at the ground before turning to the twins. "Did I ever tell you why I wanted to find the author?"

"...Because you wanted to unlock all of the mysteries," Dipper asked but it was more of a guess.

Patrick's eyes looked away and he shook his head. Staring at his hands, he said, "I know that most of the summer I was hesitant to go on all these crazy adventures, but that night, when I saw the hidden messages on the portal page, something in me just... I told myself that if we found the author, it would be the endgame for us. That the nightmares and strangeness would end...Now...Now I don't even know how far down the rabbit hole we really are."

Dipper looked at him with an understanding expression. "I know what you mean. I honestly don't know how to feel about all of this. I wanted to meet the author, but..." He trailed off.

"Yeah," said Mabel as she walked over to her bed and sat on it. "I liked the way things were here before. Just us, Stan, Veronica, and the occasional goblin-monster."

Dipper then shrugged and smiled. "Eh, I'm sure they'll work things out," he said to assure his sister and cousin. "Right, Patrick."

Patrick wasn't even sure if he should give his honest opinion, but he didn't want to lie. After a long pause, he pulled back the cover and climbed into his bed. "Get some sleep you two. We've got a busy day repairing the shack tomorrow," he said, before laying down on his back. Tucking his arms under his head and pillow.

However, there was something on Mabel's mind that she had to ask her cousin. "...Patrick...you don't think we'll turn out like Stan, Ford, and Veronica, do you," she asked.

Patrick turned his head quickly when she asked that and sat up. Looking at his cousin at the sudden change in subject. "What're you talking about?"

Mabel lied back down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. "I mean, they used to be best friends, but then they got all stupid. Can you promise me you two won't get stupid?" She asked desperately, turning on her side to look between her brother and cousin.

"I'm not stupider than you, dum-dum," Dipper said teasingly, laying on his back with his arm behind his head.

Patrick scoffed a little. "I don't know. You can be pretty stupid," he said. But he didn't want to end the night like that. He didn't want Mabel to go uneasy and without the comfort she needed right now. So, he stood up and walked over to Mabel, gently picked her up with one arm, pulled back the cover, and placed her back down.

"It's going to be okay, Mabel." He said, pulling the covers over her. and tucking her in. "I don't know if Stan, Ford, and Veronica will work it out, but I'm not going to let anything split us apart. I promise, Mabel." He then kissed her on the forehead. Mabel smiled and snuggled into bed.

Patrick then turned to Dipper and pulled the covers over him. "Same to you, Dipper," he said, before kissing him on the head too.

"Thanks, Patrick," said Dipper, before turning off the lantern and closing his eyes.

Now, all that's left is Patrick himself. He was the last one out of bed, and he was the last one that needed to be reassured. But there was no one that was going to help him. It was just him alone that was still standing awake in the room. So, he walked over to his bed and crawled under the covers. There were so many thoughts going through his head. So many doubts.

He just stared up nervously at the ceiling. Wondering if the past could soon repeat itself in the present, no matter how much they try to avoid it. Could he protect them from the uncertain future that laid ahead of them?

All he knew was that things were going to get weirder.

We're finally here. This is the moment we've all been waiting for. Ford has arrived and we now have the backstory of the twins and Veronica. This was definitely one of the most difficult chapters to make, as it was the one that I really had to think and plan for. First I did all the present scenes a while back. All I had to do were the past scenes and those were the hardest to do. Fortunately, I had years to really think about it.

We've finally gotten the backstory of Veronica Pines. It's not much different from J's from Men in Black, but then again OPI is kind of like MIB. However, Barry's kidnapping and his murder were inspired by the alien abduction of Air Force sergeant Jonathan P. Lovette in 1956, along with other sources of inspiration. Just like how the Stans were just like Dipper and Mabel when they were younger, Veronica was just like Patrick.

The end is so close now and I'm so excited. With only 5 more episodes before Weirdmageddon and the end of Weirder Things, I'm absolutely pumped. However, now it is time to work on my other stories. And with Amphibia returning in a few more days, it seems fitting that I next that story next before moving onto Heroes of Tomorrow.

Thank you very much for reading. "Weirder Things" will return. Please be sure to Favorite and Follow if you like the story and review it so that I know that I'm doing good and what to improve. If you have any questions or discussions, you'd have for me, then please in a Review or a PM me.

Thank you for reading and, in parting, I wish you all love, peace, health, God's blessing, and to have a wonderful day.