Hey everyone! sorry that this chapter is a bit shorter, I've been a bit busy in the procreate app working on the cover art for this story along with trying to find a new job. Thank you guys for reading, favoriting, and reviewing my story! it means a lot, always appreciate honest feedback and suggestions. Have a good one!

-RansomChick

Chapter 4: All Things Relative

Tuesday, June 24th, 2014, 12:04 am

After a small moment of both parties being equally shocked, Mabel decided to break the silence,

"Pacifica? What are you doing here and how are you twelve?"

"Um, first of all, I'm almost fourteen, thank you very much. And I could ask you the same question, how are you like seventy?"

"Okay rude. Look, how about Dipper and I-"

"Mason." Dipper interjected, "And no I don't think that will work Mabel."

"Tsk, you didn't even know what I was gonna say, mAsOn."

"Yes, I did. You were gonna suggest that we use the 'Age Regressor', push reverse and age her back to her normal self," he explained, leaving older Mabel silent and pouty, "But I don't think that this is our Pacifica."

"I think I'd know if it was our Pacifica."

As they continued going back and forth, Pacifica took a moment to ponder what he had meant, then realized that Dipper was right, she and Robbie didn't belong here. Especially since older Mabel's first thought was to age her up to her 'normal' self. Had they accidentally time-traveled to some distant part of the future? Were they on another timeline? She couldn't think about it since they were giving her a huge headache. Pacifica interrupted their bickering,

"GUYS, can you stop arguing for like two seconds? It's giving me a headache. Let's talk about what's going on after Robbie and I have taken something that helps us feel less disoriented?"

"Of course, here, you two take these pills. They're a cure-all that I found while on the planet of Gromflom Prime."

"The planet what now?"

30 minutes later-

The four of them had moved into the smaller adjoining room next to the one they were just in, it took a little while for Robbie and Pacifica to feel less disoriented, they had been given some overly sweet tasting tea by Mabel, which they thanked her for, (even though neither could finish)and sat together at a table next to a bookshelf and some sort of control panel that she guessed was used to manage the portal. Pacifica had no idea how long she and Robbie were out, and she knew that they had to be back soon, she snuck a glance at older Dipper's watch and it read that it was 12:38 am, for her and Robbie, it still felt like the afternoon, but for the Pines twins, it must've felt too early to do anything, then again, after Mabel's tea there was no telling. for a while they engaged in small talk, not so subtly conveying that each were scoping one another out to try and see what differentiated the others from what they knew to be true.

Pacifica felt displaced as she sensed older Dipper studying both her and her companion, it was established that Dipper had no idea who Robbie was, especially considering that he hadn't even been to Gravity Falls until he was in his early 20s, which made both Pacifica and Robbie physically jolt,

If this wasn't their Dipper, who was he? Where were they? And most importantly how could they get home?

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Mabel was able to place who Robbie was, she knew him to be the proprietor of the funeral home, Stacey Valentino's son, and the father of a kid named Greg that their nephews knew, Robbie explained to them that his father's name was Greg, he didn't know any Stacey Valentino, and definitely didn't have a kid.

"Really? Hm, then I guess that rules out the possibility of the two of you being from another timeline." The older man observed.

It was difficult for Pacifica to wrap her head around the fact that being from another timeline was on the table, logically it made sense, what else could happen when you enter into a world that has a lot of similarities from the one you know, especially if the biggest one was that you already existed. Pacifica had just never been in this kind of situation before, and although she had slightly gotten used to paranormal adventures and activity, she was not in the position to call it a part of her everyday life. She couldn't imagine what was going through Robbie's head right now and could tell that he was freaking out.

Pacifica decided to take a more logical approach as she knew that as much as she wanted to panic, it wouldn't help her. If they weren't in a different timeline, what other logical explanation was there? As she tried to come up with any other explanation, older Dipper was already on top of that question, what he had come up with wasn't something that they had expected,

"I think the two of you are from an alternate universe."

It took Pacifica and Robbie a moment to fully process what older Dipperhad put on the table, even though they weren't completely surprised by what he said as it made sense, they didn't know what that meant for them in terms of getting home. After establishing that they were indeed a part of another universe by scanning both Robbie and Pacifica's structural code, Dipper tried to think about what he and Mabel could do to help them get back home, which they found to be dimension C-137, the only thing was that there wasn't any way to tell where exactly that was out of all the infinite universes, it was just the name. From what Dipper had explained to the two of them, having just the name of where they needed to go wasn't enough, when traveling the universe, there was no such thing as certainty, it was a fat chance of getting in the same dimension twice after entering the same coordinates both times. At that moment, Pacifica remembered the device she had collected from the table next to the portal before she and Robbie had fallen here, it was a metal grey gun-like controller with a black dial that seemed to also operate as a button, and what looked to be a glowing green core at the barrel. She wasn't sure what it did but assumed that it was either a memory gun or had something to do with how they got here. She wasn't sure but decided to let older Dipper know of its existence so that they might be able to find out if it could help them get home.

"Wait, older Dipper, do you think this could help you figure out where we're from? Or even help us get home?"

"Wha- how do you have one of these?"

"What do you mean? What is it?"

"Pacifica, this may very well be yours and Robbie's way home!"

"What you have here is an interdimensional transporter that allows access into the threshold of planes we never even knew existed or thought possible! Although it is probably not up to date with the latest model, this will help you on your way home."

"What? Can you explain what that thing she picked up is in normal terms? And how will it help us get home?

"Well Robbie, this here is a portal gun, or at least an early version of one. I spent years trying to find a way to gain access to one during my travels, in order to find my way home. It should help you on your way, by taking you to different dimensions until you are able to find your way home."

"Does it operate on batteries or anything? And are you positive that there's no way we can figure out how to enter coordinates to our home dimension on the dial or something, so we can get home ASAP?"

"No, it seems to operate by taking juice from the core on the barrel, I'll try and study it for a bit to see how long it would last you, and see what's in it so that you guys have some extra. And unfortunately with a model as old as this you're gonna have to travel the old-fashioned way."

After Older Dipper finished answering Pacifica's question, Robbie stood up pushing the chair he had been sitting on, back, making the legs of his chair scrape against the floor, as he walked briskly out of the room to go upstairs, outside, and scream.

It took Robbie a couple of minutes of crying and screaming before his voice went hoarse and he ended up on the ground, a bit away from the shack, the outdoors looked just the same as the Gravity Falls he had grown up in, and Robbie could hear the wind rustling some tall pine trees near the shack, see the constellations in the sky, and feel the light breeze against his face as he felt the last of his salty tears stream down his face. He breathed in the fresh air, trying to escape how overwhelmed he felt about everything that had been going on around him, his emotions and his thoughts were all over the place, and he couldn't catch a break even though he tried to keep up. Still reeling from what had transpired in the last couple of hours, Robbie ruminated on his thoughts,

Fight Tad because he's in the cult? Fall in something? Wake up to strangers who are the Pines twins but old? A Different timeline. Not a different timeline? We got here through a Portal? In a Different Dimension, with no way home.

Robbie felt very overcome by the conscious knowledge of what had been going on around him and what he had experienced, it was eating him alive, and he didn't know how to process or get through it. Although he had been through an actual apocalypse, he didn't think that anything this life-changing would find him again this soon.

All I wanted to do was help my little sister out. Now I don't know when we'll get home, if ever. God, I miss Tambry…

As much as his subconscious pushed him to, Robbie did his best not to blame Pacifica for the conundrum they were in now. He knew his friend didn't do any of this on purpose but it was hard to let it go, and he couldn't imagine what could've happened if they had landed in a different dimension. The mere thought of it being a possibility made him cringe inwardly.

Almost as if it was on cue, he felt Pacifica standing behind him, and knew that she had heard him sniffling. Robbie wished that he had his journal, it was the one thing that helped him when he felt overwhelmed by his emotions because he could write freely whatever he was thinking no matter what it was, sometimes he ended up writing poetry. It would've been easier than having to open up about it, not that she ever pushed him to talk about it when he didn't want to, sometimes he just felt like she would understand.

"Hey." Pacifica broke the silence, acknowledging that he knew she was there before she spoke.

"…Hey."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Ok"

They sat in silence for what seemed to be five minutes, each breath Robbie took in, he used to calm himself from the frenzy of activities that had transpired, while Pacifica just waited for him to decide to say something. She knew that Robbie wasn't super keen on paranormal activity, even though a fair amount had happened to and around him, it wasn't that he hated adventure or anything, he just preferred normal activity over adrenaline rushes fueled by near-death experiences. Finally he spoke,

"Why couldn't you have just listened to me?"

"..."

"We could be back at home instead of lost in the multiverse, I could be with Tambry! And we should be home. We don't even know where we are, or what's going to happen, I'm not even sure when we'll get home or what's going on back there while we're gone. But now, we're in this situation because you couldn't listen to me."

Pacifica was in a corner, she wished that she could reverse the situation that they were in, and knew that if she had just gone along with their original plan, none of this would've happened, everything Robbie had said was warranted, not to mention what he must be feeling. She wanted to muster up an apology but her pride won out, and instead Pacifica felt as if she had to defend herself, It wasn't on purpose she justified, he doesn't get to push me around for a simple mistake.

"It's not my fault Robbie. I had no idea that there would be an interdimensional portal in there, much less that we would somehow end up in there! And the actual reason we ended up here is because you had to fight him."

Robbie tensed up, he knew that neither of them could've expected an interdimensional portal to be there, he wasn't so stupid as to blame her for that, what he had meant when he said that it was her fault, was that her curiosity had been the one to turn their lives upside down, he didn't expect her to retaliate but wasn't surprised.

"Oh, you really wanna go there?"

"Yeah why not?"

"Fine Pacifica let's go there. If it hadn't been for your obsession with your parents we wouldn't have even been in there to begin with! You keep on insisting that you want to be opposite of them and that you don't care about anything that they do, but you do care about what they do. You're obsessed with everything they do so that you can do the opposite, and I'm honestly not sure if it's because you want to be a good person or because you want to spite them. It's selfish to everyone around you and it makes you just as terrible as they are."

Pacifica staggered, how could the person she considered family, someone she trusted with her deepest darkest secrets, say that the real reason they were in this conundrum was because of her need for closure, was what he said true? She knew that she could be selfish, and sure she some obsessive tendencies when it came to her parents, but Robbie knew why, and she had trusted him to be patient with her while she slowly grew out of the person she used to be, even when it was messy.

Robbie could tell by the look on Pacifica's face that he had made a grave mistake, something broke inside of her and he could feel her put up walls against him, she was as distressed as he was about how they ended up here, especially since it had affected him so much, and felt bad for how she let curiosity rule over. They both knew that Pacifica never meant to cause any harm, and that if it was him, he would've probably done the same thing. He had crossed a line, she didn't know if she could trust him, he wanted to take itt back, it wasn't like he meant what he said, but it was out there, moreover every time she looked at him, he could detect her distrust as well as her disappointment, and it made him feel awful,

"Wait, Pacifica, I'm sorry for raising my voice at you. I shouldn't take out my confusing emotions on you, and I never should've called you selfish or told you that you're like your parents. Cause you're not, I knew that from when we started to get along, and I hope you can forgive me for that, it was uncalled for."

"Robbie, you don't have to apologize, I mean you were right. It is my fault, I'm the reason that we're stuck in some other dimension. So, I'm sorry for not listening to you… and yeah… that was uncalled for. "

"..."

"…But, I forgive you."

"Thanks Paz."

"Whatever Robbie." She said with a half smile.

"C'mon, let's go"

Robbie extended his arm to help Pacifica up, as they had to walk back to the shack so that they could rest for tomorrow, where they would try to prepare, and get supplies for their future travels. She took his hand, and they both went to face what could come next.

Once they got back, older Mabel had set up a bedspread for both of them in the spare room upstairs. She had explained to Robbie and Pacifica that if the two of them ended up staying longer than a week, they might have to end up sleeping in the living room downstairs, due to the fact that their great nephews would be coming for the summer.

After older Mabel gave them some extra pillows as well as some water, she left them to their own devices. Pacifica set down her backpack and saw the sweater that Mabel had given her during Weirdmaggedon.

I can't wait to get home… I kinda miss everyone.

They were going to have to stay here until older Dipper figured out what was inside of the portal fluid as well as some supplies that they might need on their journey into the unknown.

It took an hour until she was comfortable enough to wind down, the crickets outside were chirping harmoniously, slowly lulling her to sleep. She could hear older Mabel snoring downstairs. Pacifica also felt that Robbie wasn't awake. It was still hard for her to wrap her head around the fact that he had said that, it continued to nag at her,

why would let something like that slip out unless it had some sort of truth to it?

She slowly pushed away all resentful thoughts, sure she forgave him but it didn't mean she was going to forget, he was like an older brother to her and she'd hurt him too, but if she continued to center in on it, their relationship would suffer.

I guess it'll just take some time

And after that thought, she drifted to sleep.

Apologies for the abrupt end! There will be a new update soon, ALSO! There are going to be a lot of Rick and Morty references, SVTFOE, and possibly TOH

Thanks for reading!