Her frown persisted even as the sun began to retreat over the cliffs and trees. Mulling was something Winter did a lot, but her sister never was the type to hold it in for so long. "Are you sure you're all right?" she finally asked.

Summer, on the other end of the sofa, just shrugged. "I'm feeling thoughtful, is all."

"What are you thinking about?"

"It keeps... I..." She swallowed her thoughts in hopes of spitting up something coherent. "I only want three things. Two of them I know I can never have, and I've come to terms with those. But I'm surrounded by the third and it drives me crazy sometimes."

Winter had a good guess, but checked anyway. "What's the third?"

"To be normal."

"Oh." She slumped over until her arms were on her thighs. "I've been there."

Summer dabbed at her eyes again and sighed. "I almost feel ashamed. I should be happy with what I have. I have you. I have a few friends."

"It's human nature," Winter replied, leaning up just enough to look. "To want what you can't have."

"Human nature," she scoffed, folding her arms. "Sister, we're not even close to human."

"I think we're getting closer every day, don't you?"

A staring contest took place, one that Summer quickly lost. "Good one. Which one of us is the optimist, again?" she asked with a grin.

Winter smirked right back. "I have my moments. Now then... what about the graveyard?"

She straightened up with a blank face. "Oh, right. Could it be a trap?"

"Even if it is, I think we can handle it. Maybe we're being sent on a wild goose chase."

Summer rubbed her chin. "I don't know, he certainly acted like he was telling the truth. Unless he was acting."

"It can't hurt to look regardless." Winter peered through a window at the evening sky. "At least... I suppose."

"It's fine. I could use the fresh air." With an obnoxious stretch of her arms, she rose from the couch and wandered into the kitchen.

Winter did the same, but a knock interrupted her before she could stand. "Hmm?" She expected another visitor asking for spiritual advice – a few had shown up throughout the afternoon – and put on her polite face.

That wasn't what she got. Soos and Wendy were behind the door, with the former looking much, much happier to be there. "'Sup dudes," he greeted. "We still goin' to the cemetery?"

She cocked a brow in confusion. "Summer and I are, but what are you doing here?"

"Dipper and Mabel asked us to come along! They were feelin' kinda bad about telling you no, so they asked us instead. We totally volunteered."

"No," Wendy objected. "No, we did not volunteer. I didn't. I got begged into oblivion, that's how I got here."

Soos tsk'd a few times, patting her on the back. "Aw, dude, hambone's right. You gotta face your fears, otherwise they'll control you."

"I have a right to be afraid of stuff like this!"

Summer popped up beside her sister and blinked. "Oh, this is who you were talking to. Hello!"

Winter leaned on the door frame to give her sister space to stand. "Apparently they're going to come with us tonight."

"They are?" She drew back at Wendy's helpless look. "I thought you didn't like ghosts."

She rubbed her face and groaned. "I don't, but good luck explaining that to Mabel."

"Yeah! Super Mystery Brothers!" Soos cheered, though it cut off abruptly as he looked around. "I mean... Super Mystery Sisters and a Bro. Sorry. Don't wanna sound sexist."

"It's all right." Winter looked past them at his truck. "Whose car shall we take?"

Wendy suddenly looked hopeful. "Could we take yours? Never ridden in a Bimmer before."

"You drive, sister," Summer said while departing to get her shoes.

She got a sigh fired at her back in response. "Fine."

The redhead managed a small smile. "Sweet. I hope this isn't my last ride."

They all piled into the red sedan. Since there were vulnerable passengers along for the ride, Winter drove with more care than usual. "This is great, right? We haven't gotten a chance to hang out." Soos fought with the seat belt for a few seconds. "Hey, uh... can you change stuff into food? I forgot my post-lunch snack today. Tummy's seriously rumbling."

"We can, but we're not going to," Winter advised firmly.

"U-understood, ma'am."

Wendy snuggled into the leather and sighed happily. Of course, she lost her smile after remembering where she was headed. "So what are we lookin' for, anyway?"

"I'm sure we'll know when we find it!" Summer chirped with a grin.

Soos bobbed his head along with the music. "Hey, playin' by ear! I like it. Last time I played by ear Mister Pines almost punched me, though." The redhead quietly sighed. "Aw, he didn't mean to. Sometimes his hand just accidentally runs into things for some reason, like my turntables."

"Yeah, man. Yeah."

The twins exchanged a few silent words and frowned. "If something happens, I guess we'll be doing the fighting," Winter murmured.

Summer glanced back and shrugged. "I don't know, Wendy seems like she can defend herself fine."

Wendy poked her head between the front seats. "What did you say?"

"Nothing, just deciding what to have for dinner when we get back!" Her smile was too big to be genuine, but the redhead seemed to buy it and withdrew.

Soos's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. "Dude! Hot dogs! Hamburgers. Uh... hotburgers. There are hotburgers, right?"

Winter let out a long, low breath and decided to stick to driving. It was a fairly muggy evening, but many people were walking around as they made their way through Gravity Falls. Many of them waved to the twins. Summer took great pleasure in waving back, but her sister was too annoyed with the inane conversation coming from the rear seats – most of which was Soos.

"Dude, I heard there's a fair in Iowa where everything's made of butter. Like, they had a statue of a stick of butter made of sticks of butter! Heh! Heh, I'd love to see it one day."

"You, uh, you sure love butter, man," Wendy observed, a little grossed out. "I mean, almost as much as Thompson – and wow, I never thought I'd say that. Hey, you're from Iowa, aren't ya? You guys ever been to the butter... thing?"

"No," Winter replied simply. To her relief, the navigation indicated that only one more left turn stood between her and the cemetery. "We're here." She parked along the sidewalk and stared at it, looming across the street. There were very few lights. "I suppose nobody will bother us if they can't see."

Summer was already halfway out of the car. "I've got flashlights."

They passed through the wrought iron gate and entered a haphazard field of headstones and monuments of all kinds. While the twins secretly used their sixth sense to check for anything out of the ordinary, Soos and Wendy lead the way with Summer's flashlights in hand. The air was so quiet and solemn here, Gravity Falls seemed to exist on another plane behind them.

"Heh, look at the sky," Wendy blurted out, desperate to fill the silence with something. Three large, but narrow clouds, made purple by the encroaching night, clawed paths through the red and vermillion sky. "Man. That's nice."

"Mm." Winter's eyes were elsewhere. "Nothing yet. What about you?" Summer shook her head quietly.

"What are we lookin' for again?" Soos asked, sweeping the beam around. "All I see is creepy."

"I told you, we'll know when we..." Summer fell silent as she realized what she was looking at. There was a large gap in the headstones, one that encompassed nearly the entire right rear corner of the cemetery. "What's over there?" She turned Wendy that way. "Light please."

"Huh?" The glow revealed a grassy, empty spot, unmarred by headstones or plaques. "Oh yeah. I saw that when we buried mom, but dad wouldn't tell me what it was about." Her face became pallid. "I... I got a bad feeling about this."

Soos was unperturbed. "What's the worst that could happen?" he joked, leading them in its direction.

Wendy smacked his arm. "Don't even!"

However, nothing ill occurred as the four entered the empty space. The twins were tense, ready to strike. Wendy's demeanor wasn't much different. Soos was, as always, himself. "Doesn't seem like good space management," he chided. "Someone oughta complain."

"Hmm." Winter split away from them and started to wander, eyes to the grass.

"Mabel told us you were lying about talking to ghosts."

She stopped mid-step and turned to regard Wendy. Faint anger joined anxiety on the redhead's face. An awkward looking Soos was at her side; Summer moved to be with her sister in turn. A mild standoff was underway. "She was right."

The redhead's eyes shone with disdain. "So, what? Did you lie to us too?" she demanded.

"No."

"You can't have it both ways!" Wendy stormed over to them. "You either lied about lying or you lied to my dad! And if you lied to him I swear..."

Neither woman even bothered to flinch. "The power that allows us to do this," Winter began, snapping Wendy's flashlight into a lantern which she dropped in shock, "was following him around at the party. And not just him. We heard it say goodbye. Was it a ghost? I suppose not. Did we lie about what it was doing? No." She moved closer and put a hand on the redhead's shoulder. "The journal is only part of the story. We're looking for the rest."

"Well, this is tense," Summer sighed. "Come to think of it, I wouldn't be surprised if their spirits were using magic to make themselves heard. No wonder everyone was so happy."

Soos was beginning to brainstorm. "Whoa whoa wait. If there was magic in the hospital, where'd it come from? Were the babies magical? Dude... does Wendy have magical relatives? Do I?! Are we all going to Hogwarts?!"

"That's what we're trying to find out," Winter replied, brow raised at his outburst. She restored the flashlight and offered it to Wendy again. "Doesn't seem like there's anything here, though."

Wendy turned it over in her hands several times. "H-how did you—this is insane."

"Hold on." Summer, hand raised, was peering around. "I heard a whisper."

The tension returned. All four of them closed into a group, back to back while straining to hear. Most of the sound was their own breathing. "I thought I killed them all?" Wendy suddenly muttered. "Who...?"

"Dudes? Maybe we should call it a day?" Soos begged, hunched over and trembling.

The twins broke away, walking toward the corner. Wendy and Soos elected to stay where they were. "Killed all of who?" Winter whispered. The closer they got, the colder the air became.

"I don't hear it anymore," the redhead called. "I think we're good."

"It's following us!" Summer called back. "It feels like there's something over here in the corner!"

A minor disagreement about giving chase broke out between Wendy and Soos, but the twins kept walking and paid it no attention. In a few seconds more, the temperature had dropped so much their breaths came out in little clouds. "I doubt this is normal," Winter murmured.

Summer nodded her agreement. "No kidding. Come out, whoever you are."

The others came up alongside them, still bickering, just as a humanoid shape faded into view against the fence. "I cannot believe this," it said. Its voice was distinctly male, bearing an accent that neither woman was familiar with. As they watched it twisted and bent into a balding, thin old man, dressed in a sharp ensemble with a double-breasted jacket and pressed slacks. Round glasses sat on his face. His flesh and the fabric displayed the same faded grayish color – at points it was hard to tell which was which. "I was certain I got you all—oh." He paused, eying the twins for a moment. "Forgive me, you're much too young. I thought I felt that dreadful force again."

"'Sup, dude," Soos waved. "Nice suit. Classic style."

He tugged on his collar smartly. "My thanks. I may be deceased, but that's no reason not to look my best, yes?" His gaze traveled past them and to a lopsided marker beside Wendy. He raised a hand and straightened it with an unseen force, causing the redhead to yelp with terror. "Although I wish the residents of Gravity Falls felt the same about their resting places."

Winter, blinking with surprise at his telekinesis, tossed the small talk aside and walked up to the ghost. "Killed all of who?" she asked again.

He didn't answer right away, content instead to glare at her, then at her sister. "I do feel that force. Who are you?"

"We're asking the questions," Summer denied him with a smile. "Could we at least have your name?"

"Very well. I am Wilhelm Seifert. Doctor Wilhelm Seifert."

"Oh no, it's the friggin' baby murderer," Wendy gagged, turning her back on the spirit.

Hands on his lapels, he glared at the teenager in disgust. "I have an unearned reputation, miss. Whatever you've heard of my regrettable actions is a lie. They were of the utmost necessity."

"Like hell! I wish you were solid," she spat at him, "so I could punch you in the face!"

"How dare you!"

"Enough!" Winter bellowed, stepping between them. "Answer my question, please."

"All of the innocent newborns tainted by that awful spark," he replied. "They would have grown up to become like you and the world would have suffered." His voice suddenly grew haughty. "I saved us all, you see. I understand why they had to incarcerate me. I do. Thankfully, I'd kept my work secret long enough for the portal to be closed."

Summer's jaw nearly hit the ground. "Wait. The children were like us? That's why you killed them?"

The doctor abruptly lost all his pride. Bitter remorse took its place. "Yes. It was our fault they suffered," he admitted, head hung. "A date which shall live in infamy indeed. If only the world knew how many more infamous days it spawned." Once more, he eyed the twins. "And yet, here you are, grown up and bearing the power with great dignity." His brow furrowed. "Hmm. What are your names?"

They shared a glance before responding. "I'm Summer Weiss. This is my sister Winter."

He clapped his hands cheerfully. "Weiss! So good to hear a name from my homeland. Were you born this way?"

"Yes," Winter nodded. "Why?"

Wilhelm looked around in thought. "Then the portal must have been opened again. I knew we would find a way to harness its power." Another glance made him smile. "And the world is still here. I'm glad."

Soos tilted his head. "There's a portal?"

"Of course. Didn't you know?"

"No, we're from Iowa," Summer lied, motioning between herself and her sister. "What portal?"

Wilhelm's face grew dark. "You don't know?" Anger filled his eyes. "Hmm. Perhaps someone else has found our research and is using it for their own ends. Well, there are things that no one should ever know. I cannot trust you with those. Leave me in peace." He disappeared in a wispy cloud, taking the cold fog with him. The four of them just stood there for a while and tried to process the conversation.

"...There's a portal now." Wendy threw her hands up and started back toward the gate. "Screw it all, man. I give up. I'm gonna say hi to mom while I'm here."

"I'm with her," Soos shrugged. "My, uh, my brain kinda hurts. I'll be at the car."

The twins were thankful to be left alone. "I feel about like Wendy does. There's a portal now," Summer moaned. "I mean, besides the one we used."

Winter slapped her forehead. "Are we dealing with a leak somewhere?"

"Who knows. How could he even feel us?" She peeked down at her hands and frowned.

"I don't know." They could see a flashlight off to their right, laying on the ground beside a headstone. The redhead herself was visible as a dim silhouette kneeling before it. "Let's pay our respects," she said, walking that way.

Their arrival a minute later startled Wendy a bit. It was clear she was decompressing from her ghostly encounter just as much as she was paying a visit to her mother's grave. "Oh, uh, hey. What's up?"

"Nothing." Winter nodded at the marker. "This is your mother, I assume?"

"Oh, yeah." Wendy's eyes glittered with sadness. "Car accident. Not so long ago, but it seems like forever," she sighed, rising from her knees. "It... sucks."

"Yes, I bet." Summer, hands clasped, bowed her head briefly. "Whitney? That's a nice name."

She allowed herself a small smile. "Heh. She won a bet with my dad. If I was a boy, he'd get to give me a name starting with D. If I was a girl, she'd give me a name starting with W." For a moment, they all stared quietly at the marker. "I'm sorry about snappin' at you earlier. I just didn't want to think someone was lying to me. Not about that, you know?"

"We understand." Winter's eyes were glued to the headstone, her expression unreadable. "There's something... cathartic about this, isn't there?"

The fancy word made her chuckle. "Cathartic? Glad I paid attention in English class. Yeah, there is." Thinking about why the blue-eyed woman would understand made her heart heavy after a while. "You've been to a funeral too, huh?"

"Kind of," Summer said, just before the tears started to flow. "There were... there were supposed to be..." Unable to continue, she hid her eyes and turned away.

In her stead, Winter attempted to maintain a steely front but lacked the capability. She wiped her eyes. "Quadruplets. We should have been four sisters, not two."

"Oh, man." Wendy plopped her hat back on and gave each woman a tight hug. "Sorry to hear that." Unable to form words without loosing a sob, Summer was limited to an anguished groan. Her sister was absolutely silent. She stepped back to allow them a moment to collect themselves. "Hey, let's change the subject," she encouraged. "What's up with that portal thing?"

"I have no idea," Winter sighed. "This is the first I've heard of it, but it could explain why there's magic here."

Wendy's face twisted with confusion. "It could? Hold up. Where did you guys get your powers, anyway?"

Summer hopped anxiously on her heels. "Like we told him, we were born with them."

"So does that mean there's magic in Iowa?"

"Mm. Never underestimate the strangeness of the world around you," Winter advised with a wry smile.

"Yeah, I oughta know better now, huh." She scratched at her ruddy locks and frowned. "And you guys can feel it?"

"Yes. As you can probably guess, being the only ones of your kind helps you detect when you're suddenly not the only ones of your kind," Summer said. Her eyes drifted around the graveyard. "I wonder if any of those babies made it past him... if they did..."

"Whoa." Wendy's eyes bulged with the image of random citizens of Gravity Falls being able to shift things. She looked at her hands and blinked. "Maybe we are going to Hogwarts. Or Dipper was right and you two are mutants. What if we all are? That's freaky."

Winter's brow furrowed in thought. "No kidding. Would you go check on Soos? I'm not sure he won't try to eat Summer's car."

The image made her burst out laughing. "Pfff, no joke. Guy loves his food. Yeah, sure. I'll leave the flash—wait, you can just make one. Man. You guys are nuts." She departed with a wave, shaking her head.

And she did just that, almost literally weaving a new one out of a few blades of grass. "This is a problem. If there's an open hole between our worlds, this one is in trouble. It's not ready for magic." Silence on Summer's end made her turn and look. "What?"

Her eyes were wide. "We're going to have to tell them we're not from Earth, aren't we?"

"Probably," she acknowledged while starting to walk. "We look enough like them to make it palatable. I'm willing to divulge it if I must." A scowl appeared as she briefly shone the flashlight on her palm. "But there are some things we cannot let anyone know."

"Right." Summer turned her thoughts to another matter. "A date which will live in infamy... I wonder what he meant by that?"

"Why do you think he's haunting you?"

On the twins' sofa was a sniffling, bronze-skinned woman, her brown hair tied back in a simple ponytail. For some reason, she wore a black apron over her clothes. She'd been there for the better part of an hour, having a back-and-forth with Summer. Winter, leaning in the kitchen doorway, was content to lend an ear once in a while, though most of the time her attention was on the laptop in her hand.

"I just feel him!" she sobbed. "I can't explain, it's like... a presence sometimes."

Summer tapped her chin a few times. "Does it feel like he hates you?"

"Well... I don't know. Why wouldn't he? It's my fault he died."

The story tumbled around in her head, forcing a series of various expressions as she tried to pull out the positives. There wasn't much for her to grasp. "I understand he drowned while you were supposed to be watching him, but..."

Their visitor broke down under the weight of those memories. Hunched over and sobbing, her next words were hardly able to escape. "They all hate me... I know they do..."

"We all make mistakes, Nicole." Those words carried so much strength, both Winter and their guest stopped cold to look at her. She blinked at the attention. "Trust us, we know what regret looks like. The next time you sense him nearby, why not ask what he thinks?"

"But I already know what he thinks!"

Summer shook her head gently. "No, you think you know what he thinks. Ask him. If he forgives you, you can forgive you. There's no reason to haul around your anguish forever."

"What if he doesn't?"

She offered a bright smile. "Then give it more time. They're not lying about the 'heals all wounds' business. Even the most bitter emotions will fade."

"R-really?" Hope began to enter Nicole's agonized look. "It hurts so much, though. It's like a cloud I can't see past."

"We know," Winter chimed in, closing and lowering her laptop. "There are two options: you can let it shape you, or you can let it destroy you. That choice is up to you. Don't shy away from making it."

"Wow." Nicole's shoulders slumped. "I needed that."

"There's nothing wrong with a good pep talk," Summer assured. She peeked over at her sister, who nodded at the door. "But it's getting late for us, I'm afraid."

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Sure." Nicole rose and fished in her purse for a moment. Her hand emerged with a crumpled wad of money, which she dropped on the coffee table. "Here. I insist. Thanks for seeing me so late."

"No problem. Goodbye!" Summer waved. After she was gone, Winter took her place on the sofa and opened her laptop again. "I wonder if we're 'mediums' or therapists?"

She replied with a shrug. "I don't see much difference between the two, honestly."

"Fair point." Her breath hitched a few times until the sounds became a sniffle. "I wish I could follow my own advice."

Winter stopped typing and glanced over. "Be patient. We haven't been alive that long."

With a bitter pout, Summer crossed her arms and glared. "...I hate being young beyond my years."

"Mm. We've got a lot of growing to do. I also think we have a right to be proud of our progress." The Wikipedia entry on her screen made her eyes narrow. "Hmm..." For a few silent moments she read.

And in that time her demeanor changed to one that made Summer's hair stand on end. "What?" Her sister was pallid... nervous, almost. It was an emotion she'd never seen her wearing before. "What?"

Winter handed the laptop over and sighed. "I'm reading about my worst nightmare. That phrase Seifert mentioned, I searched for it on—whatever it's called. Look at what I found."

"Huh?" Her eyes took in the almost unending text of a condensed history of World War II from its origins to its end. While the places and the names defied her limited knowledge of the world, one part was easy to understand: numbers, breathtaking in scale and horrific in the brutality they insinuated. Millions of lives lost in the span of a few years, killed by means and methods she'd never heard of until now. It was a hole even deeper than the pit, and she lost several minutes chasing related articles, mostly about the weaponry. "Oh my. I..."

Winter nodded solemnly. "I knew the stakes were high, but if this is what full-scale conflict looks like here... an overreaction to our presence could cause incredible damage."

"Why? Do you think they'd be so afraid they'd try to kill us?"

"Seifert seemed convinced of something terrible, I know that much. And I can tell you the guns we're used to seeing look a lot more deadly than the ones in those photos. Not to mention the flying machines." She released a resigned sigh and curled up on the sofa. "We should learn about what modern warfare means here. Know what we'd be up against."

A knot of ice congealed in Summer's stomach. She tried to fight it off with a nervous smile. "No, no. All we have to do is keep our secrets."

"Secrets have a way of becoming un-kept. I'm hoping for the best, but we need to prepare for the worst." She summoned the other laptop from the coffee table with her telekinesis and began to hunt. "Are you still reading about the war?"

"Unfortunately." At least the rate at which she consumed information had brought her close to the end. Here she found the way the conflict died, in the brilliant flash of two bombs that changed the course of history forever. "Sister... search for," she paused, unsure how to pronounce the first word, "atomic bombs."

Winter did as asked, clicked the first link, and ended up right back on Wikipedia again. The article she found there introduced her to a new level of disgust. "Whole cities?" she exclaimed. "At once?!"

"I wonder if this is what he meant by saving the world. Would they... no, I don't even need to ask. They've already used them on each other." She trembled with anguish. "Shadows imprinted against the walls. Melting eyes. I can't handle—I can't." She finally broke, shutting the laptop and wincing.

"We obviously can't let something like that happen." Emotion forced Winter to her feet, where she paced circles around the couch. "Then again... we know the lengths people will go to in order to keep something quiet. There could be danger."

"They can't hurt us. I'm more worried about Gravity Falls."

Her icy eyes grew somber. "Exactly what I was thinking."

"What do we do now?" Summer asked, tracking her orbit. "If we stop looking, the magic might spread and start a war. If we press on, we might accidentally do the same."

Winter froze in her tracks. "I want to know if there were survivors. I would—I would like very much to meet them, but I can't get an answer until I know how this got here." Her face softened when Summer rose, walked over, and took her by the hands.

"Then we keep looking," she asserted with a smile. "If I'm reading things right, the whole country played a part in the conflict. Maybe Gravity Falls' role in that effort is a good place to start."