Disclaimer: I do not own GF
~~0~~0~~0~~
Dipper straightened his bag out in the trunk, making sure everything fit and nothing was sticking out. Grabbing the lid, he tried to slam it down to close the trunk, only to have it pop back open.
Frowning, Dipper slammed the lid down harder, trying to get it to catch.
Once again, it simply popped right back up.
So he tried it again, putting his entire weight into slamming it close.
Smiling when it stayed, Dipper turned on his heel to get into the El Diablo, only to hear the tell-tale sound of the trunk clicking back open.
"Oh for the love of-"
"Dipper! Hurry it up and close the trunk! We don't have all day!" Grunkle Stan snapped from his seat at the wheel, window rolled down and wrinkly face leaned out to glare at him.
"It won't stay!" Dipper protested.
He heard Mabel roll her own window down.
"Yeah, because you have NOODLE ARMS!" She laughed, before descending into a small cough.
Stan spared her a single, slightly worried glance before turning his attention back onto Dipper.
"Dipper, get the trunk closed."
Dipper, once more tried to close it only for it to pop right back open. "I'm trying Grunkle Stan! Really!"
Grumbling in irritation under his breath, Stan stepped out of his car and made his way to Dipper's side. The older man peered down at the almost thirteen-year-old. "If I close this on the first try without any problems, you will be shamed forever."
Dipper pouted.
Stan shoved the lid down and took a step back.
Both of them, old man and young boy, stared at the trunk, a sly smirk working it's way onto Stan's face while a look of disappointment and anger worked it's way onto Dipper's.
The trunk stayed.
"Haha!" Stan laughed. "Look's like you'll be forever shamed, kid!"
"That's no fair! It's probably rigged or something!"
"Life's not fair. Now get in the car. Mabel! Make sure to shame your brother!"
Dipper scowled as he yanked the back door open and slipped inside, taking a few tries to get the seat belt around him and buckled.
"Shame, shame, shame!" Mabel teased with a grin, her voice a bit hoarse from the allergies she'd been having recently.
"oh, shut up." Dipper grumbled, taking one last glance at the forest when she and Stan weren't looking.
Sure, he'd only be gone for three days; two of them driving and only one of them actually staying in Piedmont, but that didn't mean he would miss the forest less. Or Bill, for that matter.
Gods, Dipper only met him a little over two or three weeks ago, but he felt as if he'd known the god for years. Time sure was a funny thing, especially when you were in good company.
And, if he was being honest with himself, Bill one of the best people he'd ever met.
Stan yanked the stick shift around a bit before driving down the dirt road that lead to their house, and onto the dirt road connecting to the main street. The El Diablo bumped around a bit as always, shaky and feeling like it was going to fall apart any second. As usual, the smell of gas burning easily leaked into the car, covering the stench of mothballs and rotting food quite nicely.
As much as Dipper hated the smell of gas burning, he preferred it over the stink of whatever was growing in the car any day.
"Shame, shame, shame!" Mabel continued next to him, poking his knee every time.
Dipper gave her a playful, but still annoyed scowl and leaned against the window. "Mabel, stop it!" He complained.
"'Mabel, stop it!'" She mocked with a giggle, though still stopped her poking.
Stan finally pulled out onto the main road, car jarred as it bumped along cracked stone, feeling like it was hitting every pothole in the road. As per usual, Stan drove haphazardly, though luckily he stayed in the correct lane for once, opting instead to weave terribly within their lane instead as well as drive at least thirty miles over the speed limit.
How the old man hadn't been arrested yet was beyond Dipper, though the boy suspected foul play. It wasn't exactly hard to see how many rules of the road Stan was breaking.
The guy didn't even wear a seat belt!
"Dip, do you think Waddles will be okay without us?"
"He is every year, Mabel."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes! Do you doubt Wendy or something?"
"...No, but if he's not okay, I'm blaming you for jinxing it!"
Dipper groaned and smacked his head onto the window.
"What is this, Pick-on-Dipper day?" He complained.
Mabel's voice was completely serious. "Yes."
Dipper gave a great sigh through his nose, half-way wishing he was with Bill right now instead.
Stan gave a sharp turn to the left and Dipper watched as the You are now leaving Gravity Falls! Sign pass by, as vandalized and worn as ever.
"Hey, bro-bro I'm bored. We should play a game!"
"Don't make any annoying sounds!" Stan shouted from the front.
Mabel coughed and crossed her arms. "Darn it!"
Dipper smiled at the two's banter. "What game did you have in mind?"
Mabel tapped her finger on her chin, pulling her best serious thinking face on, causing Dipper to burst out laughing.
"How about...I spy!"
Dipper rolled his eyes. "Mabel, that's not going to-"
"I'll go first. Um, I spy something...Old! And gross!"
Dipper laughed harder and louder at that. "Grunkle Stan!" He cackled.
Mabel nodded profoundly, while Stan grumbled something under his breath about annoying nephews and niece before fiddling with the radio.
"Oh, Oh! Play Sev'ral Timez!" Mabel begged.
In the mirror, Dipper watched as Stan pulled a horrified and disgusted face. "That is never going to happen."
He stopped it on some old rock station, playing some old rock song that Dipper didn't recognize.
"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"No."
"Pretty, pretty please?"
"Adding more pretties isn't going to work."
Though Mabel shot him a clear pout, her eyes sparkled in mischief. "Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top?"
"I hate cherries. And the answer is still no."
Crossing her arms in frustration, the sweater-clad girl leaned back in her seat. "But that's no fair!"
"Life's not fair." Dipper quipped from before.
"Hey! Don't go stealing my lines, kid! You gotta go get you're own!"
"...But I thought you said stealing was okay?" The brunet asked with a smirk.
"Only if the original owner is not around. Yesh, kid. That's just plain common sense."
Dipper frowned, but said nothing in return.
Next to him, Mabel hummed as she took out her knitting needles and started on her newest sweater, the yellow just as offensive and bright in his peripherals as it was normally.
The car fell silent as Stan turned and pulled out onto another deserted road.
A Purple Floyd song came on, somehow matching the click-clack of Mabel's needles perfectly.
The car wobbled underneath him.
Dipper leaned on the window, resting his forehead on the cool glass. The silence was a bit unnerving in the car and he longed to break it somehow, but didn't have the skill. Talking to other's had never been his forte beyond telling random customers were things in the shop were located, and normally his family.
However, recently, Dipper had come to the conclusion that sometimes the people in your family were the hardest people to talk to.
The thought wasn't a pleasant one. In fact, it made him a bit sick to his stomach. He had always been able to strike up a conversation with Mabel and Grunkle Stan- well, maybe not always Stan, but definitely Mabel.
So what changed?
Dipper bit his lip as a new, darker thought entered his mind, unwelcoming and burdening him with whole new worries.
What if nothing changed at all?
What if he was simply becoming more aware of his situation?
And what sort of situation would that be?
Dipper had no clue.
He bit his lip and threw those thoughts away to the back of his mind.
He was just being a worry-wart. Paranoid. That's all.
Nothing to worry about.
Nothing at all.
The boy watched the trees and sky pass with boredom. Outside the forest, there wasn't much to see.
He wondered what Bill was doing, where he was.
Thoughts of Bill turned into remembrance of what the god told him last time...
Ace Moonlighter.
Goddess of Identity.
Besides that, he didn't know much about the goddess who killed their parents. Bill hadn't given much information up as he really didn't know what she was up to, for obvious reasons.
Dipper couldn't blame the god- he was trapped after all- but that didn't mean that his lack of knowledge didn't frustrate him.
Ace Moonlighter...
He couldn't recall reading it in the gods encyclopedia, the one with the Latin name that he couldn't remember. Most likely he had skipped over her page, if he ever reached it at all.
At the time, he was looking up Bill. He didn't expect to need it again afterwords.
Dipper let out a silent sigh, fogging up the window slightly. Underneath him, the car bumped and jerked once again and Dipper felt himself be yanked to the right against his seat belt, hard, the strap cutting into his shoulder and neck at Stan's awful driving.
Grumbling and rubbing his neck when Stan straightened out the car again, the brunet shot his Grunkle a glare he didn't notice before turning back to the window.
As soon as they got back to Gravity Falls, he was going to have to hunt down that book again and check it out. Mabel could-
Dipper's eyes widened and flashed towards his sister, who was now humming lightly under her breath as she knit, a focused but joyful expression on her soft face.
He still hadn't told Mabel.
Then again, how was he supposed to tell her?
"Hey Mabes. Guess what Bill, the god you don't trust whatsoever told me? That he knows the person who killed our parents! Her name's Ace Moonlighter and somehow, we'll get her and find out why she did it. You in?"
Dipper shook his head slightly.
No, that was terrible.
So how was he supposed to tell her? It wasn't like he had a choice in the matter, after all. He had to tell her, right?
Right?
Dipper's blood froze at the turn his thoughts were taking. No, he had to tell her. Mabel still didn't know anything.
And unlike him, Mabel actually cried every year.
His frozen blood was quickly thawed out by white-hot justice fueled rage.
His family was torn apart literally because of one god.
Mabel had a right to know. He'd have to tell her. It wasn't an option, never has and never will be.
So why did he consider the opposite in the first place?
~~0~~0~~0~~
His hand slipped into her's easily, an automatic gesture created after so many years.
Dipper didn't know whether it was because he wanted to support her, he needed support himself, or if it was a strange mix of the two. Whatever the case was, the two twins leaned heavily on one another as they walked down the too-familiar dirt pathways to the too-familiar tree where the too-familiar stones sat.
Behind them, El Diablo rumbled mutely, a hollow sound that stretched to the cloudy sky above.
Even a care was able to sound sad on this day, their anniversary.
An anniversary that shouldn't even exist.
Dipper didn't know who was leading who, if either of them were leading at all as they walked past the winding graves. The ground beneath their feet was hard, dry, and cracked from lack of rain, grass yellowed and dead all around, making for a depressing scene.
Dipper glanced over at his sister.
Even on days like this, Mabel was able to keep her head up, even if her bright eyes were dulled a bit. Her hair still bounced with every step though, even if those steps weren't as bubbly as before.
Her finished yellow sweater was as offensively bright as it was before, with the front saying, in big black letters; I'M A STAR.
A small smile tugged at the corner of the brunet's lips, unnoticed by his sister next to him who was keeping her eyes glued to the front.
Mabel was still Mabel.
And she always will be.
The two turned to the right, the graves around them thinning out ever so slightly. They passed multiple plots on the way, some more filled than others.
Sooner than what the twins liked, or perhaps later than what they would've liked, their parents graves melted into sight, a dreary gray that mirrored the sky.
Dipper gripped the flowers he had in the hand not hanging on to Mabel tightly, feeling the stem bend and bite into his skin.
Next to him, Mabel shifted her own bundle around, though didn't quite squeeze it as her brother had. She didn't want a handful of thorns, after all.
Dipper sighed.
Mabel coughed.
The distance between them and the two, lonesome graves disappeared all too quick and pretty soon, both twins were standing before the graves once more.
Tomas Pines
1972-2004
A loving husband and father who
was gone much too soon
Their father's grave was a bit worn from the elements and time, polished stone not shimmering as it was before. Stray leaves stuck to the top of the simple grave and a single, long hairline fracture stretched across the top, splitting he A in his name and ending just as it touched the 2 in 2004.
Dipper divided his bouquet of white flowers he had, laying them across the grave somberly.
He felt cold inside.
Next to him, Mabel fumbled with her roses a bit, hissing softly when thorns dug into her skin. Getting her on bouquet properly separated, she shuffled forward slightly to put her own gift down; seven roses, one for each color of the rainbow.
M-Mom and dad need some c-color. D-Don't you think?
Her reasoning struck a chord in Dipper's mind and heart.
Mabel stumbled back from their father's grave, tears bubbling and overflowing, dotting the dry ground beneath them.
Dipper wrapped a shaking arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
Mabel never cried.
Not when she fell out of that tree that one time.
Not when Pacifica Northwest was bullying her.
Mabel never cried.
She saved all her tears for this one day of the year. After all, a person as bright and as cheerful as her didn't have much to give- a joke that Mabel herself said one day after glass got embedded in her feet.
Dipper was the exact opposite.
He cried when he tripped and fell down the stairs.
He cried when he was younger and got bullied.
Compared to his sister, he seemed to cry all the time.
But, as always, Dipper found himself unable to tear up, unable to let out. He stood their, shivering at the coldness from within his own soul, feeling...empty inside.
Madison Pines
1971-2004
A beautiful woman who
loved her family with all her heart
Dipper and Mabel lowered the last of their flowers onto their mother's grave. Arms free, when the two straightened back up, Mabel's arms wrapped around Dipper in a side hug. She sniffed and coughed, liquid still spilling from her dulled eyes.
The sight made his heart break a little.
Dipper wrapped his own arms around her and together, the two of them sunk to the ground slowly, not caring about how sharp and prickly the grass was underneath, holding one another, making sure the other didn't simply shatter under the weight of memories and happenings.
The two were quiet for, in Dipper's opinion, a long while. Both were unable, and maybe even a bit unwilling, to break the somber silence granted a them. The air was still and unmoving, world lifeless and desaturated around them.
In that moment, there was nothing in the world but the two of them and the graves.
It was Mabel who broke the silence first. Like always.
"Hey...mom, dad." she coughed a little, the sound hard and heavy-hitting.
Dipper calmly rubbed her arm in hopefully soothing circles, trying to ground her.
"Hi." He said himself, shy and unsure. After all, he was addressing the long deceased. How were you supposed to talk to those who have died and moved on?
Mabel knew, of course.
"It's great to see you two again! The past year has been pretty good for us, I, um, think. I've learned a lot in school and have gotten really good at making sweaters. I'm, like, a master now! And, uh, I've also started trying some magic too! Just like what you guys did! So has Dipper." She laid her head on his shoulder. "I've been working on enchantments, just simple one's, though and I really, really like it. Candy and Grenda are still my bestest friends and we do a lot together. Still haven't found myself a perfect man, but I'm working on it! And I think that's about it for me, really. Waddles is still the bestest pig in the world, Grunkle Stan is as grouchy as ever, and Wendy and Soos are still cool."
The girl wiped her eyes with the palm of her hand, smearing her tears. Though they weren't flowing quite as fast as before, the small beads of sorrow still trickled down the contours of her face and off her chin.
Dipper took his own, shaky breath, unable to start as always.
"Yeah, t-this year has been pretty...pretty good. Um, I'm getting good at some magic too. Not enchanting, but utility spells, or whatever. They're pretty useful. And, uh, I've been reading a lot like usual...and yeah that's it really." I also made a new friend. He's a god and he told me who killed you.
He didn't say that last part out loud.
Mabel gave him a side-long glance, knowing fully well that Dipper's life dramatically changed over the course of the year, happening in about a month. However, she didn't say anything.
The girl chewed her bottom lip, her mind dampened by the bout of depression and lost, leading to deeper worry for her brother, who never seemed to be around, who hung out in the forest with a strange, immortal god, who seemed so distant...
Another cough rattled her chest. What felt like congestion filled her lungs, wiggling all about in her insides.
She was all too ready for her allergies to be over.
Meanwhile, Dipper gave her a slightly worried glance as her cough slowly died out, rubbing her arm a bit more.
Pressing against one another, the twins simply let themselves be taken away by their own thoughts and memories.
For Mabel, her mind wandered to the past, to the chocolate-chip cookies her father used to bake, to the origami her mother loved to do after meeting someone from work who was particularly talented at the art, to how she and her brother would play outside for hours on end before dragging themselves back into the house on tired legs, getting needed apple juice before falling down in front of the T.V to watch cartoons until they nodded off, only to wake up the next day tucked into bed by their...their parents...
Dipper closed his eyes, falling back into his mind. Like his sister, his thoughts started near the beginning. Warm, sunny days when they begged to have money to buy ice cream, how his mother would ruffle his hair every so often, and the way their father would give him and Mabel piggy-back rides every so often...
But all that was in the far lost past. Something he could never return to, never live through again.
All because of Ace Moonlighter.
Dipper turned his head slightly to the side to peer at Mabel.
He bit his lip.
In all honesty, it was now or never. The words were on the tip of his tongue, begging to be said and explained.
But once again, Dipper was faced with the terrible option he shouldn't even be considering.
Should he tell her or not? Though their parent's death tore out both the twin's hearts, but Dipper knew that Mabel could live out her life without knowing. She had never really been bothered by the reason why or even who did the act in the first place. She was too busy mourning the lost.
Dipper mourned the lost as well, but even all those years ago, back when he was a child, the unanswerable question still remained. Who? Why?
Well, he had a who now. But the why was still unanswered.
Dipper stared at his sister.
The words were on the tip of his tongue.
"M-Mabel. There's...There's something I have to tell you." He stuttered out, his voice softer than a whisper.
Mabel heard him loud and clear though, and heard the slight anxiousness in his tone as well. She turned and stared into Dipper's mocha eyes that mirrored her's perfectly.
"What?" She asked, tilting her head to the side slightly, peering at him.
Dipper's expression was one of worry, but also hardened acceptance. His eyes didn't have the life they normally did.
They were...cold.
"I-I know...who-who killed...mom and dad." He gasped out, sounding out every syllable like he couldn't believe it himself.
Mabel froze.
And felt her world crumble slightly as time seemed to slow down.
Her tongue was heavy in her now dry and arid mouth. Her brain simply stopped, trying to process what she just heard and trying to match up an emotion for a correct reaction.
But what reaction would that be? Did that emotion even exist?
Feelings and worries burst inside her, jumbling and tangling up together in an indescribable mess, piling one on top of the other.
Curiosity.
Sadness.
Anger.
Confusion.
Fear.
And so many other thoughts and feelings she couldn't even name.
The girl stared at her brother, mouth parted slightly, eyes blown wide reflecting her twisted insides in a manor that put an odd expression on her face, one that couldn't be discerned.
"W...Wh-who?" She was somehow able to choke out.
Dipper's mouth pressed down into a grim, thin line, cold eyes stormy with his own stricken emotions.
"She's a-a god. Her name is Ace Moonlighter."
At the sound of god, something in Mabel's mind snapped back into place, flinging her forward. Time sped back up to it's normal, dreary pace and then went even faster.
Mabel wasn't stupid. It didn't take long for her to put the little pieces together and see the big picture.
"How would Bill-" She spat the name out a bit bitterly. "Know that? And you told him?! How can- how can you trust him?"
She untangled herself from her brother and scooted back some to glare at him a bit better. Crossing her arms over her chest, she waited for his answer.
"Because she kills in- in the same way every time. He recognized that."
"It could be a copy-cat." She replied, using her knowledge gained from Ducktective to her advantage.
"Gods wouldn't copy each other. They're much to proud to so something like that."
Mabel made a noise that sounded both annoyed and horrified at the same time. "Well- well how can you trust him, huh? What if he's just telling you this because- because-!"
"Mabel, Bill wouldn't lie! He's one of my best friends and he wouldn't do that!"
Both fell silent at his outburst. Dipper blushed slightly, embarrassed but not knowing why.
Mabel sucked in a deep breath. "Dipper- I don't-" Her mind twirled around for something to say as every issue came to the forefront of her mind, every memory and every realization.
It wasn't a secret that Dipper didn't have many friends. He always hung out with her, Grenda, and Candy at lunch, and they few people he did talk to was for studying purposes and nothing more.
Dipper simply never showed that much interest in making friends beyond her, Wendy, Soos...
And now Bill.
"Sorry." Mabel apologized quickly. "I-I didn't mean to...to-"
"It's fine." He reassured her, small smile playing on his face. "Really. Bill's not bad at all. He's kind weird, but in a funny way."
He shook his head suddenly. "But that's not what this is about. Bill told me the- the god who...who killed mom and dad! Her name's Ace Moonlighter."
Mabel frowned and recoiled slightly, both at the name and the palpable hatred in her brother's voice.
Mabel still didn't know how to feel.
"Dipper...why-why does this matter?"
Her brother stared at her, shocked.
"What do you mean? Don't you want to know who killed mom and dad?"
Mabel shifted around uncomfortably. She supposed knowing was nice in a sense, but the knowledge also dragged her down.
She had been doing fine not knowing.
"You know that's not what I mean!" She replied, instead. She quieted some. "But what are we supposed to do? Get revenge? Ask why?"
"Well, why not?!"
"Dipper! That's not going to work and you know that!"
Mabel blinked at their reversed situations and feelings, the irony not lost on her.
The two of them fell silent in the wake of their brief and backwards argument. Both had so much to say to the other, but no way to communicate what they wanted. So they sat their once more, not touching and silent, eyes glued to the graves before them, making sure to not give the other an even passing glance.
And that was how Grunkle Stan found them fifteen minutes later.
~~0~~0~~0~~
Bill twisted his wrist easily, cracking the squealing baby rabbit's neck easily. The tiny, warm creature went limp in his hand, terrified black and beady eyes staring at nothing.
Wrinkling his nose in slight distaste, he summoned his cane to his hand easily enough, batting away stray bushes and branches with it as he started walking into a particularly thick cluster of trees. Sharp pine needles littered the ground. Coarse and sharp grass crunched under each steady step he walked.
He passed by the trees easily enough, watching the descending sun be blocked out by the tall branches that stretched high above, trying to reach and grab the sky with little luck, forever stuck in want to never have.
Like him, in a way.
Bill didn't let his thoughts drag him away as they normally did, instead opting to focus on a soft face with fluffy hair and wide mocha eyes, paired right next to a familiar goddess dressed to the nines in a peach-covered toga...
Well, she probably looked a lot different now then in the past. Times change, and so do gods with it.
Time: The only true thing he followed.
Bill Cipher rolled his shoulders as he finally saw the tree he was looking for, a pine with blood red bark and, oddly enough, white pine needles.
Slowing to a stop feet before the bark, he reached out with his cane and tapped a small pattern onto the tree before him.
Tap-tiptip-tap
It was a staccato sound, short and sweet.
Tap-tiptip-tap.
Well, maybe not quite sweet. More like a demand, really.
Tap-tiptip-tap.
But what could he say? He was a demanding god; a born leader.
A cackle from high above greeted his taps. Albino pine needles shuffled about above, yet didn't fall as a small and familiar shape dropped down onto the lowest branch before him.
"Hello, Mister Cipher. What brings you to this part of the woods?" The blackbird asked, curiosity in it's monotone voice.
"I have a small job for you. Nothing to hard for someone such as yourself, I would imagine."
The blackbird grinned at him, showing off it's unnatural sharp teeth as it's one, blindingly white eye crinkled. "Flattery will get you everywhere, Mister Cipher. What's the job and what's my payment?"
Bill masked his displeasure easily enough. He hated having to butter up to creatures such as the one in front of him, but for what he was trying to do, he had to be as cordial as possible.
Once again, Bill cursed the seal binding him to the forest and berated himself for not catching those sorcerers sooner and killing them before they finished the seal.
However, time was one thing no one had on their side. Including him.
Bill raised the hand clutching the still-warm baby rabbit. "A message for a rabbit?" He asked, unable to keep the smirk fully out of his voice and off his face.
The blackbird grinned. Taking flight, it dived down, beak splitting into four to display it's black hole of a mouth. In one fell swoop, it sucked the rabbit straight from his hand, whole, and slurped it down.
"Very well. Give me the message and the name and I'll be off!"
This time, Bill couldn't keep his monstrous grin off his face. Reaching into his pocket, the god pulled out a slightly bent envelope. It was stark white, thin, and in every way one looked at it, completely unassuming.
"Give this to Ace Moonlighter."
~~0~~0~~0~~
Sorry it's a bit shorter than normal! But, hey! More plot. Plus foreshadowing and symbolism! Hooray!
Remember how I said that a crossroads of sorts will happen that will determine the mood of this story and how it's going to go?
Yeah, it's coming up soon. Brace yourselves.
Anyways, sad chapter but this one was much easier to write than the last, so that's good.
crabbySeer- Glad to hear it wasn't totally terrible!
random name- Aw~ Thank you so much! Glad you liked it!
The Keeper of Worlds- Thank you~
Guest- Haha, very well. It's related to the show. That's the only hint I'll give~
LuminousMoonRay- Glad to see you're liking it so much. Thank you!
Wildtail of Wind- Yeah, I'm aware that my tenses leave much to be desired. That's my biggest weakness in writing and I simply don't see the problem, even though it's there. I do scan though my chapters before posing, but typos do still slip through, but I'm glad you can enjoy this story nonetheless. Thank you so much! And good luck on that cipher!
Well, anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this kinda sad chapter.
As always, thanks for reading!