Gravity Falls had suffered through many accidents and natural disasters of a smaller scale. Earthquakes frequented the town as tremors, and mild shakes occasionally disrupted the peace. Storms of harsher nature weren't common, as mountainous regions proved difficult terrain to allow persistent storms. For the town history, among the worst of the accident was the 'great tossup of twenty-twelve', when the town had what could only be described as an earthquake so powerful, vehicles and buildings alike seemed to fall into the sky, followed by a strange sweep of mania.
This newest disaster, while not natural, would easily take the top-spot in destruction.
"The sheriff's department and disaster response teams all dispatched are still struggling to recover order to Gravity Falls," local reporter Shandra Jimenez hastily spoke on the television, "As you can see, the destruction from the earlier today still is not been cleaned up."
Behind the reporter, the crews of men and women from the local hospital and police forces worked in tandem to raise entire collapsed floors and roofs of buildings. Huge logs and trees remained imbedded into the quaint buildings of the town. There was only a single crane in town able to lift these logs, and another two being borrowed from the Corduroy mill and then one final one being hauled about from the Northwest's donation. Even with the four cranes gingerly moving around the logs, the damage was impressive and deep. More than enough buildings lay entirely in ruins, not to mention the collapse that still existed by the junk yard.
"Gravity Falls still debates their next options. The money required to rent and borrow logging equipment is a high one, but according to local word," Shandra nudged her head to the left and the camera panned to a large crowd of miserable townsfolk stuck in the rain, "People have nowhere to go."
The camera panned back to her. "With jobs crushed and homes in ruin, people turn to local families for support, but with the money the town sunk into failed conventions and disastrous celebrations, people are starting to wonder if Gravity Falls is going to remain on the map for much longer. Wow," she said, scratching her shapely chin, "That's pretty dark, Larry. Like, I'm honored I got to say that on air, but, really? A little melodramatic?" she stared to the left of the camera, and her eyes, full of suspicion and doubt suddenly darkened. "No. Wait, really? The town could actually – But, but I'm not financially savvy enough to move away! I can't – I still have–" she paused, and blinked, a muffled voice speaking to her. "Wait, what do you mean we're out of batteries? What about the power in town–"
The television in the living room shut down, along with several lights nearby. The rest, including several recently-installed ones, remained lit. The living room in the Mystery Manor required light second most, only to a single bedroom nearby.
As the television turned off, four quiet figures could be seen. One sat on the chair, holding his eyes tightly shut as wraps and bandages slowly wove around his arms. Mabel stood before him, holding her hands on his shoulders.
With the help of Wendy and Arline, the trio of ladies had finally found their best solution to what had happened to Dipper's hands: a restorative balm. It had been found in one of the three journals, and it was the closest thing they had to the perfect healing ointment and anti-biotic.
"You okay, bro?" Mabel asked as she clenched his shoulders tightly with her fingers. He winced and shook his head, unable to speak. Dipper had barely spoke a word since they arrived at the Mystery Manor.
"He's strong enough to stand still," Arline grunted as she shifted her own arms, which had their own large patches and wrappings cover them. A warrior true and true, Arline had been patched up, and then gotten right back on her feet. There was a make-shift cast around her broken right arm, and an impressive amount of bandaging that had been done to her shoulder and back.
Wendy, who knew quite a lot of stitchwork, had been busy nonstop. She had remained silent, staring intently at the coverings on Dipper's arms. She glanced over to Arline, and reached over to adjusted a small strap that held a patch together on her back shoulder.
The martial artist groaned and hissed. "Careful," she begged Wendy, "Those are still fresh."
"Keep it tight, or it could be infected. We didn't have Dipper's super-balm when I stitched you up," Wendy quietly said as she held her hands back on the wrapping for Dipper.
Mabel stared into her brothers face, watching intently as he clenched his eyes closed. It had been a long, long afternoon.
Right after the explosion and near total cave in back underground of the magically adjusted pit, Mabel and Arline had frantically climbed out, hearing the scuffle up above. When they had finally found the edge, they could hear fire and screaming, but were unable to reach until they heard Graupners final fall. As the silence resounded in the caves, they had heard movement.
That was when Wendy arrived with McGucket, leading her, Soos, Candy, Grenda, and Pacifica into the mines. The five helped Arline and Mabel up, and then heard the rattling of chains in the other room.
Mabel had run in the instant she saw her brother sitting still against a wall with his wide, empty eyes.
Then they heard Pacifica, and saw Yuki.
Dragging the two wounded and one critical back to the Mystery Manor was hard. Yuki had to be carried by Grenda and Pacifica, who refused to let go of him. Dipper was aided by a combination of Soos and Wendy, while Mabel nearly carried a still-bleeding Arline to the surface. Once there, the cars awaited, and then they found a shocked Grunkle Stan waiting. Waddles had refused to leave Mabel's side, still next to her leg, pacing nervously around her while occasionally rubbing alongside. She never quite gave him the satisfaction of saying hello back, but Waddles persistently checked on everyone present with a nudge of his small, squashed nose.
Arline lowered her hands and sighed. "Done. His arms are wrapped. Wendy?" Arline asked, giving her a chance to look at her handiwork.
Wendy gave it a look and blinked. "Wow. Solid. You've done this before," Wendy nodded and continued working on Dipper's other hand.
"Play with fire and get..." Arline trailed off. Dipper blinked open his eyes and stared at her. "Sorry," she quietly said, looking down.
"Wendy," Dipper finally said after hours of silence. The redhead jumped a little and let go. "You've been done for a while."
"Oh!" she stood up suddenly, even more red in the cheeks than usual. "I, uh, yeah dude, just wanted to make sure that..." Wendy closed her eyes and spun away quickly, leaving the room without another sound.
Arline sighed. "Well, you scared her off," she said candidly to Dipper.
"She doesn't scare easily either," Mabel acknowledged, giving Dipper a significant look over, "Did you become a doppelganger while I was away?" she joked. Dipper turned and stared at his sister, a harsh glare. Trying to keep things light as possible, Mabel asked, "What? She can see weird stuff, remember?"
"I remember," Dipper bit out.
Mabel looked to her master. When they had gotten to the house, Dipper had briefly explained what happened with his hands, and Arline had been the one who told him about the properties of those black flames. They scarred forever, short of finding the correct counter curse. Aside from eating away at almost anything given the time the fire could, the demon-fire, as Arline put it, was past horrible. Mabel had recently asked Arline if Dipper would be okay.
Arline still hadn't gotten back to her with an answer.
As the two women shared a look, Dipper watched. "So, I'm never going to use my hands again?"
"We don't know that," Arline said to him quickly.
"Yeah!" Mabel cheered, coming closer to her brother. "I bet there's a dozen and three ways we can fix your right up! Magic and stuff, super medicine, uh... super magic medicine..."
Dipper shook his head and looked back to Arline. "No bull. How are my hands?" His tone had changed. They were not dead, but pleading. Mabel swallowed hard and looked at those hands as Arline sighed.
"You will be able to use them, but, uh... they will never stop being in pain if you continue to," Arline quietly admitted, holding her hands on the arm rests as support while she delivered the news.
Dipper sealed his eyes again and clenched his fists. The moment he started to move them, he let out a shuddering groan. It was like fire ants sat on his hands, and as he moved them, they bit into his arms and hands. He could feel the flames again.
"Dipper, don't move them!" Mabel scolded him. "You already hurt enough, stupid!"
"I'm not stupid," Dipper muttered while his eyes were closed.
Despite herself, Mabel felt a well of emotion emerge. "Coming from the guy who ran off without his sister!" she said, her voice raising in intensity and emotion. Arline looked to her student, studying her carefully. Mabel cried out, "Why didn't you hold off until we showed up!?"
Dipper didn't seem to answer her question. His eyes slowly opened, peering into a distant spot. He could smell all those terrible things that Blackfire had destroyed, back in those tunnels. He saw them all, and traced it all back. Dipper looked to Mabel, and told her "He was going to give me the tome for Wendy. Then he burnt it. It's my fault, Mabel."
Mabel bit on her lip and let her head drop. Her own sisterly anger would have to wait, or she would just have to discard it entirely. At that moment, Dipper seemed incapable of hearing them for criticism, as he was drowning in his own. Mabel then reached out with her own hands again and placed them on his arm, past the points of burns. Dipper flinched and turned to her.
"We're here now," Mabel quietly said. Dipper finally focused onto her and nodded.
Footsteps echoed at the hallway. Dipper glanced over with Arline while Mabel remained glued onto her brother. In the splotched light, Grunkle Stan appeared. His wrinkled face seemed scarred in the light. His eyes were darkly filled with thoughts. He held his fez in his hands while avoiding eye contact with the twins.
"Stan?" Arline asked.
Clutching his hat and clearing his throat, Stanley Pines finally said, "I... I think you two should talk to Yuki now."
Dipper pulled himself up in a rush, ignoring the whimpers his sister had while watching him struggle through pain. "What? What is it?"
Stan stared at him and sighed. "I don't think he's going to be awake much longer."
"You mean he's finally going to be able to rest, right?" Mabel asked, stepping next to Dipper. Even in the fragile state, Dipper stood at attention, seemingly able to block out the pain in his hands.
When Stan took a bit too long, clearing his throat twice with little to add, Dipper spoke. "Grunkle Stan? What's happening?" he asked clearly.
Stan shook his head and in a hoarse voice barely above a whisper muttered, "He's not going to be around soon."
The twins stared at their Grand Uncle. The man was on the verge of tears. It was beyond surreal to see such a grizzled veteran of so much hardship at a loss for words. It had happened once before, but the twins attempted to avoid the topic with him still, even three years later. Stan had, after finding Yuki's burnt body admitted to having been too hard on him, and tried desperately to tend for his wounds with Pacifica and Wendy. Upon hearing that it was by protecting Dipper that Yuki had been hurt, Stan had nearly fallen to the ground.
Now, before the twins, he seemed even more pale and broken-hearted than he had before.
"We're going to see him," Dipper quietly said. Mabel nodded, not needing another word to add. Stan stepped aside, letting them pass.
Leaving Arline in the living room, the Twins took to the hallway and started to pass the others. Candy and Grenda stood by Soos. The girls had been cut and bruised, but the harm done to them most was lying burnt in a bedroom ahead. They leaned against the wall, staring at the twins with swollen, red eyes. They clearly had been weeping recently.
Soos was a mess, plain and simple. His nose dripped and his cheeks and eyes had gone red. He held his crumpled hat in his hand, rubbing it across his face as a make-shift handkerchief. As he saw the twins he opened his mouth as to speak, but recoiled whatever would have been said. His tongue, like Stans, had been tied awfully tight. Unlike Stan, however, he wore his heart on his sleeve.
Standing out on the threshold of the bedroom entrance, Wendy leaned against the doorway molding. She peered in deeply with unwavering eyes. Staring into the dark room, the twins could have sworn there was more than just sadness. Wendy spotted the twins coming, looked specifically towards Dipper, and then moved aside and away. She said nothing, letting them approach.
Stepping into the door of Yuki's room seemed heavier than all the earth's gravity combined. There, with Pacifica next to him, Yuki remained: scarred and dying.
"Yuki," Mable rushed in, going to place herself across from Pacifica. Dipper stepped in slowly, keeping his eyes on the floor. He had seen what had happened to Yuki's face. He didn't want to look again. As they stepped in, Waddles crept by the door, keeping a sorrowful watch on Mabel and Dipper each.
"Hi guys," Yuki's voice trembled and ached. Mabel wanted to reach out and hold onto one of his hands, but seemed incapable. Almost all of him had been bandaged.
"You sound so much better," Mabel forced herself to say, and looked at him fully.
His one soft warm skin had almost entirely been burnt. Where it was still exposed, his skin now resembled seared tree bark. His left eye was now entirely covered by a wad of gauze, and half of his scalp was covered as well. Mabel could still remember what he looked like underneath the covering. Just the thought of it created rolling tears down her face.
"You're funny," Yuki grinned at her and coughed loudly. Pacifica, holding onto his right side, and primarily unharmed hand, gave a sniff, her lips trembling. "Sorry," Yuki said, turning to Pacifica, "And here I said... I'd stop making you cry..."
Pacifica wiped her eyes and shook her head. "I'm not crying."
"You're a better liar than Mabel," Yuki told her, and paused, breathing heavily, "But... not that good." He gave a small chuckled and coughed some more.
"Yuki, you need to rest," Mabel said.
"He can't," Pacifica said, her red eyes finally peeled away from Mabel, "There's too much pain. We can't give him any of our pain-killers since he's got a different biology than us."
"The Panacea worked," Dipper pointed out.
"You got any more of those magical pills!?" Pacifica snapped at him, shooting him a glare of such intensity it was a shock the trails of tears didn't evaporated off her face. Dipper stared back, moved and stunned. "I didn't think so," she snapped back, and adjusted her sitting.
"Don't be mad at him," Yuki asked her.
"I will be," she declared.
"It wasn't his-"
"It was!" Pacifica turned and pointed to Dipper, who's gaze faltered and turned towards the ground. "If he hadn't done all that stupid bull, you wouldn't have had to jump in his way for him!" she shouted, and began to sob. "It's all... it's all his-"
"Blame won't help," Yuki reached over to her slowly with his closest hand to her, grabbing her hand. "It won't make... the pain better." Pacifica stopped just in time to hold his hand, blinking rapidly as her make-up ran down her face. "In the end... I made my choices."
To his words, Pacifica sniffed and nodded. Yuki smiled to her, touching her tear-stained cheeks with his thumb. Then he turned to Dipper. Violet eye met brown eyes as the two stared at one another. Dipper wasn't sure for a second what he was going to do. The male twin knew one thing: he deserved punishment. He had screwed up, and if anyone deserved to deliver the execution, it was Yuki.
Yuki then smiled and said, "I'm glad you're ambulatory."
Dipper scoffed, feeling a loss of control in his darkened heart. "You should hate me," he said. Yuki shook his head. "You should!" Dipper said again, stepping to the end of the bed, "Look at what happened to you because of me!"
"Nah. Water... under the bridge," Yuki grinned.
Mabel gasped and laughed. "You just used a metaphor!" she cheered with a watery laugh.
"Yeah. Pretty 'cool', huh?" Yuki asked her and Pacifica. Mabel nodded and laughed, while Pacifica smiled. "She had been teaching me," Yuki admitted, nudging his head to her. A pause settled in while Yuki strained and swallowed whatever pain was in his throat. After his strained groans, he looked to the twins.
"You're going to be okay," Dipper said suddenly. "You have to be." Yuki stared at them. His one eye uncovered, he finally looked up. With a heavy sigh, he leaned back and shook his head. "Yes, you will," Dipper forcefully said.
"I will," Yuki nodded.
"Huh?" the two girls said.
"I will be fine. My... species..." Yuki coughed and cringed as some of his blood fell from his lips. Pacifica instantly leaned forward and wiped it away with her sleeve. "My species heals slowly. When we sustain damage like this... without perishing, our body enters a long state of healing."
"You– you didn't say that to Wendy!" Pacifica said, shouting at her boyfriend, "You're not going to die!?"
Yuki eyed her with a pained look. "That is because the period... of healing is... longer than... a human life expectancy," Yuki groaned as a tear fell down his face.
Mabel closed her eyes and shook her head. Dipper stared as his mouth dropped open. The average human life expectancy was over seventy-five years. Yuki would be gone for longer than that.
"That's why you wanted to see them," Pacifica sniffed, "And me. You're not dying."
"Not yet," Yuki shook his head.
"No," Dipper gulped and felt his fingers tremble, the desire to clench his hands becoming overwhelming as he realized what would happen, "But when he is back and awake, we'll probably be..." Dipper couldn't find it in himself to finish the statement. He already saw the face of death once today, and he didn't need reminder.
"Also," Yuki looked at Dipper specifically, trained on the boy, "I want to explain myself."
"You... you don't have to," Dipper shook his head and shrugged, "I don't care."
"Yes, you do," Yuki grinned, "I know you better than... than you think."
"It's why you saved me," Dipper smiled, the corners of his mouth shaking.
"And why... I worked with Graupner," Yuki admitted.
"What?" Dipper asked.
Mabel whined, "Yuki-"
Mabel's words were cut out by a loud 'shh' from Pacifica. The blond stared at the twins with fury, and then turned towards Yuki, softly rubbing his hand.
Yuki nodded and continued. "I met Graupner when I attended a false advertisement," Yuki admitted, frowning and shaking his head. "I was naive. And somewhat stupid, especially for not leaving."
"You're new here," Dipper shrugged.
"But he promised a deal with me that would help my situation," Yuki blinked and looked to the ceiling. "I told him I couldn't care less about his deals, as he promised me a way home."
"He... he offered you a way home?" Mabel asked, leaning onto the bed, "And you said no!?"
"Why?!" Dipper demanded, "Then why did you help him?"
"He then turned to you two," Yuki said and closed his eye tightly, "And warned me what he would do to them if he could. He threatened you. I nearly attacked him, but he said he was willing to offer protection for protection."
"Wait... protection-
"For protection?" Mabel and Dipper said.
"Stop second guessing everything he says!" Pacifica snapped at them, and then gave a loud sniff.
"He had said that if I helped him with a small side-project, he would help me... specifically, promised not to hurt either of you two anymore. He would... abstain from targeting either of you unless... his life was in danger," Yuki said and shook his head as he looked to Dipper, "and I should have told you that," he said sadly as his voice begged Dipper, "I should have told you... that the moment it happened."
Dipper nodded. He was furious still. Yuki had become the twins' closest friends. They both clearly wanted, more than anything else, to scold and reprimand him for being so... so damned naive. What else could they do to him at this point? Yuki however smiled after looking to the two of them.
"Still thinking the... same things," he laughed, and ended coughing again. "I was dumb."
"You've never been dumb," Pacifica said softly.
Dipper snorted. "Maybe a little dumb," he laughed, and Yuki snorted with him.
Pacifica then lunged at him and drew her hand across his face with the fastest and loudest slap Dipper had ever seen, let alone experienced. He stepped back as Yuki gasped, watching from his perch as Pacifica breathed heavily, her hair in a mess. "How dare you!" she breathed, fire bursting from her nostrils.
"Pacifica," Yuki struggled, "He was jesting with me–"
"This isn't a time to be funny!" she shouted. As she saw the three watching her, including the stricken Dipper, she rounded on him, and he stepped back until he was against the wall with her bearing down on him. "Yuki is the sweetest, nicest, kindest, most sincere person we've ever met!" she said, breathing heavily into Dipper's face. "You ever stop and think the number of times he gave things up for you? Huh!? He's sacrificed for you not once, not twice, but three times!"
"Three?" Mabel asked, and stared at Yuki. "Oh no, Yuki, why?" To which, Yuki blushed and looked away.
Pacifica explained with great volume, facing Dipper, as she took step after step, "One: he left his people to ensure that Gravity Falls returned to Earth," Pacifica lifted a single finger, "Two: he dived in front of you so you wouldn't be killed by fire," she lifted the second finger, "And three," her face was inches from Dipper now, "He killed for you."
As if the twins had forgotten the events from earlier, both Dipper and Mabel blinked and stared at Yuki. His face was scrunched up as he looked away. Shame crept into his cheeks in the form of a dark crimson flush. Pacifica spun from Dipper and walked to her harmed boyfriend.
"This world," Yuki finally broke the silence, "Is... harsher... than I could have imagined. I found people I would call my new family," he said with a gentile smile. "I... I couldn't let myself be taken from you, as much as I couldn't let you be harmed," Yuki said with finality, and sighed, "But... I think we won't be seeing each other much more."
"Yuki," Mabel leaned closer to him as her brother approached her side, "You never know. We could be teleported into the future."
"Or we find a cure for your injuries earlier?" Pacifica suggested.
"Maybe. But optimism is hard for me right now," Yuuki said and closed his eyes. He remained still. Pacifica gave his shoulder a gentle touch, and he fluttered his eyes open. "I'm... falling asleep..." he said, his eyes fluttering.
"No," Pacifica shook her head faster and faster, and grabbed onto his hand, "Stay with us! With me! Just a little while long," she begged Yuki, who looked at her tryingly with a smile. Pacifica turned to the twins. "Dipper," she said loudly, "You have spells in your book, right? Stuff that can cure these things!?" she demanded.
Dipper pursed his lip and shook his head. "They're cursed wounds," Dipper repeated from Arline, "Just like mine. They won't go away easily."
"No!" Pacifica shrieked, and held onto Yuki's shoulders, hugging him as she cried. "No!"
"Pacifica," Yuki quietly muttered, his words so soft they could be mistaken for an elderly whisper, "You must... keep learning... what you wish... to know. Zander," Yuki said with a grin, "He saw... you as I did. Different... from your roots. Better."
To that, Pacifica blushed and nodded, giving him enough room to turn to the twins.
"Let your friends know that... that everything... I treasure it," he said with a smile. His eyes fixed on Dipper. "I'm sorry… we won't be able to finish our… second campaign of Strongholds and Serpents like we wanted to."
Dipper contained his first watery sob as he nodded and clenched his jaw. "Maybe when you wake up, if I'm still alive, we can do another round of chess?" Dipper asked.
"Yes," Yuki nodded, "that would be great. No more handicap for either of us," he chuckled as Dipper laughed, tears running down the male twins eyes. Yuki smiled and looked to Mabel. She held her lip so tightly, yet it trembled uncontrollably. To her wavering bravery, Yuki gulped. To Mabel, he said, "I... I admit, I sometimes think myself superior to everyone here. I'm much older. I have had more experience than anyone here with many things. And still, I am a novice. I think I have learned… more about what it means to be human… from you, more than any other person, Mabel," Yuki said, and he smiled.
The most innocent, happy, genuine smile that a seemingly dying man could make was the last straw that undid Mabel's interior mental barricade. Her face fell apart and she wept. Falling onto his chest as she cried, bawling like a child, she gripped him tightly.
She began to blubber away with words and sentences never to be finished. "You're so nice – why can't we – I'm going to miss – ohh, Yuuukiiii-"
"I'm lucky," Yuki said as he smiled and leaned back into his pillow, "So lucky for this. For you all. Just… Just imagine what... what would have happened if you two had never stayed in Gravity Falls, huh? Had you… just left," he muttered softly, his eyelids fluttering, "Imagine... what..."
Yuki's eye fell back and he closed his lid shut.
Pacifica slowly, with a horribly shaking arm and hand, reached out and gently prodded Yuki's arm. This time, he made no movement. He was still.
Mabel stood up from Yuki and raced to her brother, burying herself into his chest as she continued to cry. Dipper, stunned for words and thoughts alike, stared at Pacifica as she pushed herself forward and kissed Yuki's closed eye and settle back next to him. With a shaken body and trembling lips, Pacifica fought to speak coherently.
"You need– just... if you... please," she finally closed her eyes and lowered her head to the side of the bed, "Leave."
What else could Dipper or Mabel tell her. Without another word, the two left the room, leaving the mourning teenager alone to her now catatonic boyfriend. The blond fell forward, and cupped her hands around the motionless figure, crying into the blankets. Then the doors closed shut, and the twins were in the hallway. Waddles gave the smallest oink and nudged Mabel as they stepped outside.
No words of finality were needed to be shared between the twins and their friends and family around them. The looks among their faces were cue enough to what had happened. The best friends of Mabel slowly left the hallway, moving towards the living room. Soos stared at them, as did Wendy. The Handyman opened and closed his mouth, barely able to create full sounds, let alone coherent words and sentences. Giving Soos finality, Dipper shook his head, and passed by his friend. Soos let out the smallest of sobs, and pressed his hat into his eyes. Wendy closed her eyes and left the hallway quickly. Stanley looked up to the ceiling, and pointedly removed his glasses, cleaning them. When he realized that no one was looking his way, too left, screwing his eyes tightly closed.
Little more could be said. The twins watched as all those who had waited for their exit slowly left them be, standing outside a room where once a proud, sturdy teenager now wept into bedsheets. Mabel turned to her brother, who's eyes shone with a terrible emptiness. For once, in a very, very long time, Mabel couldn't tell what he was thinking, if he was at all. She raised her hand, wanting to lift it to his shoulder. Her hands swept through air as Dipper suddenly turned and walked down the hall, silently. She was left to herself as she watched him go, and time himself to the porch.
Mabel fell against the wall, and felt the infectious emptiness grow within her too. It consumed her stomach and soul alike, eating away at her greatest asset: her heart. She cupped her hands to her face and let her palm feel her face. Her hands here toughened now, yet her face was gentle and smooth to the touch. Was she, like her hands, merely hardened on the outside?
Dipper had let himself fall onto the seat on the porch. He stared at the dark rain before him, just out of reach. Night had fallen and the storm continued. In a distant memory, he remembered when he and his sister were out in the woods, looking for a Doppelganger in the kind of weather he currently watched. Dipper gasped and put his face into his hands. There was a suddenly realization that had him slump. Even then, in the days when they just struggled for their life against supernatural monsters...
Those were simple times.
Now things were... multifaceted. Complicated. Hard. It hadn't been enough for Dipper to survive. He may be living and breathing, but he had lost something terrible.
As he held his face, the pressure burned into his hands, and Dipper hissed and shot up. Staring at the wraps around his hands, Dipper glowered at what was once his functional hands. Now? Could he ever use them again without pain?
The door next to him swung open, and a golden-haired woman stumbled out, and caught herself on the closest support to the overhang. Once upright, Arline stared into the rain. Her hair was a mess, and like Dipper, she sported various bandages. The ones on her shoulder were still present, and her arm was in a sling. Dipper stared at her until she sighed and noticed him with a small jump.
"Dipper," she said.
Dipper made no effort to reply, instead staring out into the dark woods. Arline followed his gaze and sighed. The creaks against the old wood under her steps felt distant and almost false. It was like he was watching the world before him through a television, or as a play. He had been slipping from being himself as himself, to watching himself since he had let Yuki sleep. At some point did he realize that Arline had come to sit next to him.
Leaning back with a pained sigh, Arline said nothing. She, like Dipper, stared out into the woods with heavy, tired eyes that spoke volumes of their pain. He watched her for a quick moment, studying her expression. She looked worn and tired, something he was not used to seeing in her. Her eyes spoke volumes about her state. Pain flooded the blue orbs in her head, only serving to remind Dipper of his own. He looked away and stared into the rain.
That single look brought questions to mind. Dipper realized, with indignation, that he still didn't know much about Arline. He was sure he knew what kind of person she was; but what she had done, who she wanted to be, what her goals where? He knew nothing about. Crinkling his nose, Dipper mentally remarked on what had happened. She had challenged Steindorf to a duel, and lost. Had she let them go, or let them cooperate, would any of this have happened?
He felt a bubbling feeling, sticky and tar-like, churn in his stomach. It reached his throat. Was that hatred? If Arline was, in some way responsible, should he hold her accountable? Not to mention her knowledge of the guardsman of the forest! She could have, no, should have told them about her affiliation with the Guardsman. That could have come into handy, at minimum.
Dipper felt his lip twitch. He needed to speak, to let some of those feelings escape him before they worsened. "What is the Guardsman?" Dipper managed; his hollow voice contained by restrained anger.
Arline looked to him. Her eyes looked to his every detail before she looked back to the woods, giving her answer a thought. With a deep breath, she admitted, "Honestly, I'm not sure. I know what he can be like, but what he is, I don't know."
"Tell me what you know," Dipper told her.
"Dipper, are you sure you want-"
"Yes."
Dipper's tone demanded answers. Maybe he didn't have the authority to demand anything from Arline. He certainly wasn't in a position of truly forcing her to say anything. Still, his tone drove into her a burning desire to talk.
She watched him, and spoke. "He's old. Very, very old. We're talking about the kind of old that makes America as a nation look young at heart. He's wise. Powerful. Kind of, uh, headstrong," she shrugged, "And he's good."
"Kay. Specifically?" Dipper requested.
"Nothing," Arline sighed.
"I doubt that," Dipper grumbled.
"Really," Arline sighed, "I... it's hard to explain."
"Try."
"Well," Arline glanced to Dipper, perhaps reminding herself of patience, "You heard me and the Steindorf. He killed my family, or made that happen. I'm alive because the Guardsman saved me right as it was happening. He got there just in time to save me; took me away from the building, and went back for my brother. My parents," she swallowed loudly, her eyes shimmering, "Were already gone. When he came back, he said he couldn't find my brother. Later, he told me that if he was gone like that, he was as good as dead."
Dipper watched her now. Pain and anger were only obstacles in his way of knowing more, and so he left those from his mind as he listened. She looked sore from the re-telling, like it was a wound that she needed to treat.
Arline continued after a stabilizing breath. "You know, they had found me hiding. Those mercs. I couldn't do anything about it at first. I knew I was going to die, so then I lashed out. Then he showed up," Arline admitted, "And single handedly took care of every single of the eight men armed to the teeth, making it look like nothing."
"From that day on," Arline looked to Dipper, "He cared for me. Later, he decided he would train me. He explained to me the dangers of the Warlock, Omir Steindorf Senior. Then, he faked his death. Shortly afterwards, Omir Steindorf Junior took over the company, and I thought I had to move on." She looked to Dipper, her eyes heavy and restraining their own deep feelings. She explained to Dipper, "The Guardsman brought the Paths to me... and yet," she shook her head, looking troubled, "There were always more questions. Who was he? His name? I only addressed him as 'Master' and 'Sir'. Why did he save me? I was no better than the rest of my family. And-"
"Why didn't he go save your family if he could have killed those men," Dipper added, turning from Arline.
She paused, and turned to Dipper. A wash of understanding filled her gaze. "He is a good person," Arline reassured him, bolstering her voice, "But he can't save everyone."
"Great, well," Dipper snorted and felt a horrible weight in his stomach, "It sounds like he's more than capable of doing things, and just doesn't because of 'reasons'," he snapped, giving his last word air quotations with his fingers. He hissed as the digits seethed. Dipper huffed, "Great guy."
"Dipper, it's more complicated than that," Arline said quietly.
"Really? Was he just hanging around above the pit, watching you fight Steindorf?" he asked Arline, who bit her lip. "Did he just let you get trashed around like a ragdoll? Did he just let me lose my hands because he likes watching!?"
Arline opened her mouth to speak, and the door swiped open again. Wendy stepped out, and at the sight of Arline, she paused.
"Uh..."
"Wendy?" Arline asked as she watched the younger teen.
"Just, you know," Wendy said, crossing her arms as she stared at the two, "Getting... air... and stuff."
"Yeah," Dipper nodded, turning from the two.
Arline stared between Wendy and Dipper for a solid moment, and slowly stood. "I'll, uh, be inside," she said, departing. Wendy watched Arline leave, keeping tabs on the woman the entire time. As soon as the door closed, she peered at Dipper, who glanced over his shoulder. The two met in their gaze, yet found themselves unable to speak.
(PAGE BREAK)
Inside, Arline walked past Mabel, who was leaning on a wall. With a heavy sigh, Arline leaned next to Mabel and let out a shuddering moan as she winced. "Damn shoulder," the martial artist mumbled.
"It will be better, right?" Mabel asked, looking to Arline.
"Yeah. Eventually. Mostly meat was damaged. That heals better than bone," Arline nodded, gingerly massaging the inflicted region. Arline simmered in her pain for a moment, winding down an internal dialogue behind her eyes. Mabel watched her and eventually understood. The mind of Mabel was a heated mess of turbulent sadness and bitterness. What would she respond to? Which parts of her heart spoke true, and which would mislead her?
"Mabel," Arline spoke up quietly. Mabel turned to her master, staring at the woman. Arline's posture was defeated and broken; her head hung and her hand held snugly over her wounded arm and shoulder. "I... I want you know that I understand if you don't trust me anymore."
Mabel's mouth fell open. Not from shock, nor from bewilderment. What could she say to something like that? As much as she was the great and truthful person she was with a heart of gold, Mabel had to confess, at minimum to herself, that she had developed mistrust for her great master. There had already been one secret that she withheld from the twins. Then, as Mabel recalled vividly, all the facts that she had forgotten to mention: being trained by a scary shadow-man, being enemies with Omir Steindorf, having a tortured past...
"You're more mysterious than I thought," Mabel shrugged, "That's all."
"You're being nice," Arline looked to Mabel with sad, tired eyes, "I know you're hurt."
"Well, duh," Mabel scoffed. "Of course, I am."
"Yeah. Well," Arline trailed off, and swallowed harshly, "I just wanted to explain, no, uh,-"
Arline cut off. The two of them could hear voices in the living room. Grunkle Stan was speaking to Candy and Grenda, and then it seemed Soos. Mabel honed in on their topic- sending them home. Mabel felt herself sink slightly against the wall as she listened. Grunkle Stan was gone. The husk of a man that remained was cold and devoid. A man who she had seen once, three years ago, after realizing what his brother had become.
"Mabel?"
Mabel whipped her head to Arline, and blinked away forming tears. "Yeah?" she asked to her master.
"I wanted to tell you about what I was brought here to do. To really do," Arline explained. Mabel sealed her lips tight, and nodded. "Just after June started, my master, the Guardsman, contacted me and told me to stop the apprentice to the man we both called the Warlock. Graupner Kinley was my target."
"So, you coming to vacation was just a ruse," Mabel nodded. With a small hic, Mabel looked away. "Dipper was right. You were hiding more."
"Yeah. I knew that there was always a greater power," Arline mumbled, her hand dropping aside. "I didn't know that Omir and the original Warlock were the same though."
Mabel fought back a frown. She wasn't happy, sure. That didn't mean things could be resolved. She switched tracks, hoping to find more steadiness in another topic. Sadly, her brained was glued to a question that burned in her mind. Mable asked, "Why didn't you let Mister Steindorf and the Warlock go?"
Arline's eyes darkened. "You know why, Mabel."
"I don't," Mabel replied, "I know why you didn't want to work with them. I get that. But when we agreed to just separate, why did you try fighting them?"
Arline let her head rest on the wall behind her, and she tightly closed her eyes. There was a shame in the creases of her face, made all the more prominent with the lighting of the hallways. Arline quietly stated, "I have spent more than a decade thinking about what I would do to the man who hurt my family."
Mabel shook her head gently. "I… I guess that's fair. I can understand–"
"No," Arline's eyes opened as she firmly told Mabel, "No, you do not understand."
Mabel felt a tightness under her ribs, one that she often only felt from Dipper. Annoyance. Having recoiled slightly at Arline's words, Mabel grumbled, "Sorry, gosh. Not like I've thought I lost my brother before, or anything."
Arline tightened her lips, restraining them from movement. It looked like she had greatly regretted her outburst. She looked to Mabel, swallowing loudly before saying, "Sorry. I'm sorry, Mabel. I… I've recently come to the idea that I'm not a very good teacher."
Mabel, from her pout, looked back. "What? Why? Do you think I'm that bad of a student?"
"No!" Arline proclaimed, pushing herself from the wall, "No, of course not, Mabel."
"Then why-"
"Because look at my priorities, Mabel," Arline told her with a cracking voice, "I made the choice to chase vengeance. I made the choice to teach someone everything I knew, but only for the money!"
If Mabel's heart had been glass, the shattering would have spliced and cut through her body at this point. "You… only did it because of dad's money?"
"At-at first, Mabel," Arline assured her, "But I care about you now. I have for a year! You're like my little sister, and all I can keep thinking of is how not to screw this up!"
Mabel shouted and let out a primal, exasperated sigh. "Why do people hide so many secrets!?" Mabel cringed, clawing at her face suddenly.
"Mabel," Arline turned to her.
Mabel stepped away and stared at the door they had long since closed, where Pacifica still remained. Mabel cried out, "As far as I'm concerned, it's because people weren't telling the truth that this got so bad in the first place! Because stupid, stupid secrets!"
"Mabel, I'm so sorry," Arline said, tears falling from her eyes, "It's just complicated! I had responsibilities that–"
"Yeah? Tell that to Grunkle Stan," Mabel hissed. Arline pointedly looked away. Mabel heard another tug in her heart. "Wait..." Mabel blinked and looked at her master closer, taking a step further away, "You... you did tell him. You told him, about stuff, but not us? Not Dipper, not me?"
A long pause separated Mabel and Arline. Had there been a hope of trust and reconciliation, it was slowly dissipating. Arline explained, "He showed me the machine underground. The portal. He said that it was because of that machine that he was more protective than ever of you two. I... wanted to make it fair. I told him the things I knew, and he took them into account."
Mabel was seething now, growing hot and uncomfortable. She didn't want to be next to Arline now. Not in the same room, heck, the same hallway. As her trusted master... as her once-trusted master, Mabel decided that she was going to need a break from her for a moment. Mabel mumbled, "I'm going to my room," and moved past Arline.
"Mabel, please," Arline spun and reached out for her pupil. Mabel snatched her hand away and glared back. "Mabel," Arline's voice cracked as she saw the anger in the loving human being before her.
"Did he ever tell you the story!? Huh!?" Mabel barked at her master. When Arline merely stared, Mabel nodded. "Figured. More secrets. Well, let me fill you in, 'master'," Mabel stated with enough venom for Arline to wither and seal her eyes just from the impact.
"You don't have-" Arline started, but was cut away.
"Grunkle Stan had a brother," Mabel started, "And he had been taken away from everyone. Poof – Vanished from this universe. Then he did so much to get him back – breaking laws and physics and math to make sure he could come back!" Mabel shouted and stomped her foot. "And what happened? Grunkle Ford didn't tell us the whole truth! He left out parts of his story, and they came back to get us all in the end! The world was nearly..." Mabel made a spastic explosive movement with her arms, "Taken over, and stuff!" Mabel spouted.
"And you know what the worst part about it all is?" Mabel asked, looking into Arline's face with challenge. "If he had just told us in the beginning, he may have still been here with us! Instead, he... he ended up... stabbing us in the..."
Mable had enough. It was one thing to remember one loss, it was enough to pile those buried feelings of a person she never got to fully know with the loss of another she would never come to know. She spun on her foot, and marched away, her arms and fists so tightly rigid that she could have snapped stone with them. Arline's voice echoed behind her as she ascended the stairs, but she didn't cease.
She didn't care for her any more.
(PAGE BREAK!)
In the time between Wendy's appearance outside and Mabel's departure upstairs, nothing had been said. Wendy stood with her hands in her pockets, watching the rain with Dipper. Words seemed impossible, banned from their many uses as they were incapable of truly describing the depth of their pains.
More so, amongst current company, Dipper felt a horrid, sinking, well in his mind. It wasn't enough that he felt like his hands were both dry and cracked but also constantly felt a searing heat. There was a terrible regret that crowned his mind. He could see that old tome, seared into ashes, scattered across the floor. Someone, at some point, had kicked it aside in the rush to rescue Yuki and Dipper. It hadn't really mattered, Dipper supposed, since it couldn't be restored. It might as well be kicked, for all good it would do them. Still, Dipper knew one thing: the best hope for Wendy had been destroyed.
All in a moment of pettiness.
Several times Dipper had a chance to turn to her and look at her. Wendy's back was bathed in the light emitting from the screen door behind her. Even as her front washed in shadow and darkness, Dipper could see the reflections of those beautiful eyes looking into the falling rain. Once, what could have been yesterday and yet seemed so long ago, Dipper would have been staring with a longing.
Now... there was just the memory of how broken they both were.
"You're staring again," Wendy smirked, glancing to Dipper before he could look away.
"Sorry," he murmured and shifted his seat to turn away.
Wendy shrugged. "You know, I don't mind," she told him and turned. "I mean, I've never really minded your attention. Ever. So, you know, you can chill dude."
"Yeah," Dipper smiled to himself, and risked a look back to her. His mind had prayed that looking upon her wonderful face would remind him of happiness; the object of his life. Yet his hopes were dashed on the starkness of reality. His small smile faded and he looked down to the planks of wood below him. "Just... bad timing," Dipper quietly said.
"Well, welcome to the world, right? she said and walked over, sitting next to him. Dipper glanced over to her. It still shocked him that he was as tall as her. The two caught another glance, and Wendy looked away. Dipper dared himself to sit up straight. He... did he grown since coming to town again? He seemed... taller than her? Dipper saw she was hunched over. He wasn't sure if it was the curse of the wraith keeping her from growing, or he would become taller than her one day.
"So," Wendy spoke up, and Dipper jumped slightly, "What are we going to do?"
Dipper leaned forward, his elbows touching his knees as he put his hands onto his chin. Though it felt like his chin burned into his skin, he needed the support. His only answer was the one he despised admitting to anyone. "I... don't know."
"I'm kind of leaning towards revenge, myself," Wendy said quietly, nodding to herself. "We get back at these bastards."
Dipper snorted. "Yeah. Assuming they're alive." Wendy glanced to him, cocking an eyebrow. Dipper said grimly, "You didn't see that cave-in. Tons of rock and dirt buried the Guardsman and the Sorcerer."
Wendy growled and clutched a fist into her other palm. "Well... great, but something has to be done," she grumbled. Dipper shrugged, catching Wendy's attention. "What do you mean? You... you don't want to do anything?" she asked.
Dipper scoffed and turned away. "Of course, I do," he said to her, "But, I mean, what exactly am I going to do anymore?" he asked, holding up his hands.
Wendy studied his hands, and then looked to his eyes. It was only his past experiences with her, and her strange vision-like abilities, that reminded him that she could probably read more into him than he wanted. If it wasn't the supernatural, it was Wendy merely knowing Dipper too well. She could tell that, in his heart, he had already given up. Dipper lowered his hands, letting them fall aside. Each touch against legs shot searing pain into his hands. He winced with each moment.
"I can't... what can I do now? I'll never be able to keep up with my sister," Dipper mentioned and closed his eyes, seeing the future of him and Mabel side-by-side a now distant and ruined dream, "Anytime I'm around, I'd slow people down."
"You're not broken," Wendy said.
"I'm worse. I'm burned," Dipper said, feeling the weight of his words sinking in, "I'm still here, but I can't be fixed. Nothing can be done-"
"At least, you know, you can... change," Wendy muttered.
Dipper turned and stared at her. "What?" he asked.
"Well, I mean, scars like that, you know? You grow past 'em. Sure it's a cursed scar, but Dipper, you're going to keep... growing," Wendy shrugged at the last word, "You'll be able to change and adapt to this. You're smart, like that."
Dipper snorted and turned away. "Oh. I get it. So, I have a chance to grow past my wounds, and that makes it better... how?" he asked, not looking to her.
"Well, I didn't say it was better," Wendy admitted with a tightening in her jaw as she looked at him. "I just said it, it's a silver lining."
"Not really," Dipper said with a shake of his head. Wendy sighed and tapped her shoe on the wood below her. "What?" Dipper whipped to her.
"Nothing," Wendy shrugged. Dipper tilted his head and raised his eyebrows. A dozen lies could have been sold to him, and that was not one of them. Wendy relented after a tense moment. "I mean, I just think that you're... look, it's not good, okay?" she asked him, leaning closer to him, "None of this is good, or anything like that. But at least you have a chance to recover."
"Oh, right," Dipper nodded and leaned back. Something in his mind felt... offended. A sticky pitch-like heat had begun to rise into his neck and brain, infecting him as it did. "So, my best friend is gone for the next hundred years or so and is otherwise dead for the rest of my life, I've lost the use of my hands probably forever, and this is something I need to be thankful for?"
Wendy blinked, and shook her head. "No, no, Dipper-"
"Because from where I'm sitting, that's a load of bull!" Dipper snapped and raised his voice to an octave yet unused towards Wendy.
She gasped and leaned back as Dipper panted, glaring at her. "Dude, you have more than your hands. At least you have your family, still," Wendy quietly added crossing her arms.
"Yeah? At least you can do everything, and anything, you want without consequence!" he retorted, standing up and pointing to her arms, "I can't even do that! Cross my freakin' arms!"
"Well, you can sleep, eat, drink, right?" she asked him desperately, a new voice rising in Wendy that Dipper had also not heard before. It was... forced. Her tone was almost her normal voice, yet it shook with restraint. Dipper realized she was holding back. Yet his mind couldn't care at the moment what she wanted to withhold. He was offended at her need to remind him of the 'fairness of life'.
"So, this has become 'my curse is worse than your curse'?" Dipper asked her, feet from her now, "Well, cool! I'm sorry I can't suffer like you do, and understand what–" he raised his fingers for air-quotes, "–real pain is like, okay? I only got my hands basically removed! That's pretty bad, got it!? So please, keep your self-pity to yourself!"
Dipper breathed heavily, his breaths coming to slow down. Each moment between intake and breath was a pause as the din of pouring rain hailed around them. Dipper stared at her, daring her to make another word. Daring her to make a sound.
She did not. Wendy didn't even need to breath. Her mouth was sealed as she stared at him. Those tired eyes dug deep into his fury, and found the root of his emotions. Too late, Dipper's rational mind and sense found a base to what he had said. He blinked. What had he said to her? Why would he have ever said that to her? He tried to reach out. Fumbling over sounds and words, Dipper begged his brain to apologize, but his lips just wouldn't move but for a few inches as his hand just shook at his side.
Wendy stepped back from him and turned back towards the door, opening it, and walking inside.
Dipper had gone much, much too far.
Why had he lashed out on her, of all people? She could have been one of the few people who understood him. Understood his pain; to lose something important to him like his own two hands, and never really have a chance to get them back? She hadn't been mocking him or trying to remind him of the dim future. She wanted to bolster him.
All he had seen was the negativity of himself reflected onto her. Dipper scowled. The world spun and rocked back and forth. He was lightheaded now. The shouting and realization brought to stark focus what he had done. He had just shouted at Wendy, the Wendy he had crushed on for two full summers.
The burning, sticking, boiling fury that could be called 'despair' finally reached the tipping point.
Dipper spun out of his seat and jumped into the rain. He charged forward.
There was no restraint, no second thought, no planning. He was charging into the woods without a sound. The first layer of the trees met him with whip-like cuts and incisions across his arms and face, but it only served as fuel. Rage drove him to flee, to run, to chase, to do something; anything.
Where was he going?
It didn't matter. He would just keep going until he ran out of places to run, or became too tired to run anymore.
Why was he running?
Dipper felt no need to ask himself that question. Had there been a chance for sane thought inside his torn and conflicted brain, he may have considered the huge danger he was putting himself into. The number of horrible monsters and anomalies that took to the forest at night could easily overwhelm him.
However, he was not thinking.
He could only pant and growl as he ran. Blood rushed to his burnt fingers and hands, and he could feel new life in them, a life that he wished had not been there. The sting of burned flesh coursed into his brain, only propelling him forward. The further and harder he ran, the more pain delivered to him in small bursts. His heartbeat itself was a reminder of the sting of mortal wounds.
Minutes seemed to stretch into half hours.
Had he been running for full hours?
At one point a dire root caught his foot and Dipper flew forward, slamming his entire stomach into soaking mud. Sliding and cutting into his chest and shoulders with loose rock and stone, Dipper came to a stop. Fury still pumped in his veins, and so he crawled up, and dragged himself hastily towards the root. Standing as he did, he began to stomp and kick at the root as thunder crashed overhead.
"Is this fair!?" he shouted at the root as he stomped. "Is this right!? Huh!? he screamed, his words losing their sense as mood and emotion bled through his voice, "Is this what we get for trying to help others!?"
He finally snapped the root out with his foot, but kicked far too hard. The goot flew forward, and Dipper flew backwards, slamming into the mud on his back. Laying on the soaking, cold, earth with his hands burning nearly as bad as when the wrapping first started, Dipper looked up to the pitch-black sky. Lightning crashed overhead, and finally he let it all out.
In one horrible, primal, bellowing scream, Dipper let all the air in his lungs out.
Then the lungs contracted and he began to cough. Rain had fallen into his mouth, and he spat it out in desperation, climbing up as best her could without getting his hands filthy. Turning to one side, he slipped and fell down a small slope. It led through several thick bushes, and Dipper fell out into a glade.
He landed on several hard objects with sunk into the ground as he lay atop them. Dipper blinked away the raindrops and turned his gaze to the ground. There were gems strew about, just lying in the weeds. He had been her once before. Quickly he stood up, as best he could, and looked around. Even in the darkness of the night and rainstorm, Dipper could make out the strange pulse-like counter-clockwise ring of light that flowed through all the gems and crystals of the glade.
There, in the center, was the four mundane boulders. Inside, as Dipper knew, would be that black stone. The Heart of the Forest.
Stepping forward, Dipper knew someone would be near. He just needed to provoke their appearance.
BOOM.
Landing before him from, as far as Dipper could tell, nowhere, a huge golem made entirely of stone and boulder landed, splashing rock, mud, and grass above Dipper's head.
"You!" the boulder golem shouted. "The brother to the thief!"
"Hi to you too," Dipper grumbled, and looked past the golem. The three others, one being comprised of mud, one of vines, and one of tree logs, all stared at Dipper as they approached.
"Ohh!" the golem made of trees waved at him. "I suppose you aren't here to keep your offer on 'massages', are you?" the tree-golem asked hopefully.
Dipper growled, and turned to the stone Golem. "I'm looking for the Guardsman." Four golems each did a double take and scanned him before looking to one another. Dipper snorted and nodded. "I'm guessing he's your boss too."
The vine golem asked, "How do you-"
"Let's cut to the chase," Dipper said, stepping closer to the stone golem, "I'm in a hurry. I know he's protecting the stone, and I want to know if he's alive. So, either show me him, or I'm taking the stone."
Dippers threat was not kindly taken. The wood and vine golem recoiled as if they had heard the worlds most terrible gossip. The Mud golem, particularly slippering with the rain, shook its head. But it was the stone golem, who had begun to regrow its moss, that looked like he would explode into lava.
"You... you villainous child!" the stone golem scolded Dipper, pointing to him with one large rock-made hand, "You have not only stolen the rock once, but now you come back to insult our honor by telling us in person!?" Dipper grinned, enjoying the reaction he got from the stone golem, who gasped and roared. "Do not mock me, you insignificant child!"
"Then get out of the way, or this time I'll make sure that stone-"
A hand reached out and patted Dipper's shoulder. Stepping next to him, wearing the same black cloak, a humanoid figure strode forward. "Please," the figure said in the cold, deep voice, "Watchers, I will be fine. Resume your posts."
At the words of the Guardsman, the four Golems nodded and turned away, marching from Dipper and the Guardsman.
After watching the four leave, the Guardsman finally turned to face Dipper. The teen hadn't let his eyes leave the black cloaked figure since he arrived. Dipper saw a silent sigh puffed from under the hood, and after a pause, the Guards faced Dipper fully, sizing the boy up.
"So, I hear you stole the stone from this spot originally. Well, I can forgive you since you were nice and put it back," he told Dipper, "But let's get one thing clear," the guards took a smooth, gliding step forward, now towering over Dipper, "I am the Guardsman. You try to take that from me, and I will be the one you deal with, not them."
Well, we've hit the dark part of Season two. Based on how a lot of people reacted to the last update (WOW) I'm shocked everyone seemed to like it.
At least there was a reaction above mere tolerance. Which is really nice.
Alas, we still have more of that. Also some cool stuff- you guys will finally be seeing the differences in canon story and my story fleshed out next update. Yup! By next update you will know what officially changes once Stanford returns to Gravity Falls.
Anyway guys, I'm really happy that you're all enjoying it. You guys keep coming up with cool predictions (hehehe, there's a doozy of a reveal coming soon, and no one has come close to predicting it :D), and I especially wanted to thank my readers and reviewers who remained without profiles. I always thank those who review me with standard profiles, and I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your thoughts and input. If you want to hear back from me personally, please get a profile, and we'll chat. :)
So, before I sign off...
R.I.P. Uki-Dohth.
-EZB