The redhead wouldn't last that long, especially after Winter's detour to the lake to retrieve the magic and another to take it to the pit. Wendy had only the strength to explain – lie, really – to her father about her whereabouts with Summer's phone, after which she fell asleep on their couch. The blue-eyed woman realized this was a prime opportunity to have a heart-to-heart with her sister, but struggled with an opening.

Fortunately, she didn't need one. Summer beckoned her to the kitchen. "Are you all right?" she asked lowly. "You seemed really bothered back there."

"I..." Now she struggled for different reasons, but her sister was infinitely patient. "You know why. Our memory was already erased once. I don't particularly like that sort of thing."

Summer nodded once, then left her head down slightly in thought. "I know, but in this case maybe... maybe it's good they don't remember."

"Which is why I didn't take the gun."

"We could have used it on ourselves." She looked up, smiling, but with tears in her eyes. "I sure could use it." Winter responded only with silence. She could almost feel her bristling through the dark. "I know what you're going to say."

Which didn't stop her from saying it, nor from grabbing Summer in a tight hug. "What we've done, and what was done to us, are part of who we are. No matter how bad it seems... I don't think it's right to try and run from who we are."

"Hmm," Summer mumbled, her mind drifting back to their home. "You know, if you'd done what you wanted about Spring and Autumn, you'd be their mother and not their sister."

"Yes, I realized," she said, pulling away. "How very awkward that would have been. I mean, beyond everything else. I wish they were here, but... at least we put them to rest as best we could."

"I agree!" she said, sounding chipper once more. "Oh, the snow must be over their headstones by now. Unless our friend is doing a lot of shoveling..."

"Knowing her, I bet a snowflake hasn't touched those graves." Winter crossed her arms lightly and turned away. "Mabel is afraid of you. I suspect Dipper is too, but he'll never admit it."

Her cheer evaporated in an instant. "I'm not surprised. I just... I never thought I'd have to kill again."

"I wouldn't be too down on myself if I were you. You killed a few soldiers in self-defense. I shattered a country because I wanted revenge."

"Oh, sister. Who wouldn't want revenge?" Now it was Summer doing the hugging. "I'm fine. It just brought back bad memories. They started to scream. I thought my dream was coming true."

"It wouldn't have been your fault."

"It would have been close enough."

They stared at each other for ages before Wendy's snoring ushered them back to a more immediate topic. "Just don't... bottle, please," Winter implored quietly. "Talk to me. Make me talk to you, if you must."

Summer nodded again, wearing a serious smile. "All right. Now then, what about Wendy?"

"Let her sleep while she can. We may as well catch a nap ourselves. Our lecture can wait until morning. Oh, and..." she trailed off with a sigh. "It wouldn't work on us."

"The gun?" Sadness crept into Summer's smile as she allowed the eternal choir in her head to sing a little louder. "I know. There are too many people up here."

For a nanosecond Wendy was caught in the space between sleep and alertness, a place where everything was normal before her brain remembered how to think. The moment she sat up and saw Summer reading a book at the other end of the couch, reality crashed down upon her. "Ah, man." The confused look she got forced an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I just remembered last night." Her eyes went down to her right hand. "It's not tingling."

"That's... good?" Summer honestly had no idea, and her inflection showed it. "I still don't understand why we can't feel it when it's in a human. I didn't feel that soldier's magic either."

Wendy hadn't heard about this. "Huh?"

"Oh." After setting her book aside, she cleared her throat and prepared a condensed version of the event. "After you left here that day, we split up and traveled into the woods to look for weapons from the journals. Mabel and Dipper came with me. We were attacked by soldiers using magic, so I killed most of them. Winter captured one that got away from me and found out she was using magic on us."

Her matter-of-fact explanation left the redhead staggered. "You—you killed them? Good lord, no wonder they freaked out when I asked what happened."

"Hmm." Summer glanced around, thinking. "Oh, did anyone tell you we're aliens? I'm just making sure. You weren't in on that meeting."

This time, Wendy didn't seem quite as surprised. "Nah, but honestly? I kinda figured. I mean, flying? Magical shifty-changy stuff? I didn't think you were from around here – I just didn't wanna bring it up and cause more trouble."

"Thank you. We've got enough of that as it is, I think."

Silence fell as Wendy finished waking up. She squinted at the bright sunshine outside. "So, what am I now?"

Summer's answer was quick and absolute – so quick, and so absolute, that she surprised herself. "You are you."

"But I'm diff-"

She wouldn't hear it, raising her hand for quiet. "No, it was always there. You just didn't know. Now you know. That's all that's really changed."

"Huh. Fair enough." Wendy stared at her hand again. "What is this stuff, then?"

"We gave a basic explanation to Stan and the kids, but I guess I should give a fuller one to-" she hesitated, seeing her sister walk down the hallway. "Or we should, I should say."

"Don't mind me," Winter replied, zipping up the hoodie Mabel had seen her wearing on the day they first met. "Go ahead."

"Okay." After a moment of thought, her smile became an annoyed frown. "You did that on purpose. Stop teasing me."

"I told you you should have gone to that second class," she teased again, grinning wryly as she sat down. "How is your hand?"

She was still holding it close to her stomach, but she tried to smile anyway. "Fine, fine. I can't wait to hear this."

Winter settled into a vaguely studious pose and got to it. "Mm. There are a lot of theories swirling around back home about what magic is, and where it came from. What we know is that it acts as an extension of our will. As for what it is, well, the most popular idea is that it's a result of a parasite that grew alongside our species."

"A parasite?" she asked, brows raised. "Oh boy, that makes me feel a lot better."

She shrugged a little. "It's just a theory. Believe it or not, there are worse ones."

"Riiiiight, let's not go there. How does it work?"

"Good question. Nobody knows."

She stared at Winter hopelessly. "Dude, this isn't doing a whole lot for my confidence."

"I'm being straight with you."

Summer decided it was time to take the edge off. "But there is good news. Magic won't hurt you. It might change a few things, though, depending on how strong it is."

Wendy swallowed and stared, mind racing with terrible possibilities. "Like what?"

"Depends, really. Your appearance might change slightly. Injuries might heal a little faster. The problem is we already know magic and matter don't get along well here, so even a small amount might have... larger effects than we would see with a similar case back home," Summer said with a tiny frown.

"This talk is not helping. It is not helping at all."

Winter turned to look at her. "We're trying to take out as much of the uncertainty as possible. The bottom line is it won't try to hurt you."

Her sister perked up again and interjected happily. "And you can talk to it! Sort of."

"Wh-what?" Wendy's eyes dropped to her hand. "How?"

"You've already done it. When you felt threatened, it reacted to help you. You don't really need words to communicate... I mean, you might need them at first, just because it may be easier for you," Summer explained gently. "Magic is just as alive as you are. It might be scared right now too, actually. It's really like... it's like having a friend that never goes away." Suddenly she looked off, her face going blank. Then her eyes went to Winter. "You were right all along."

"Huh?" Their expressions – somber, yet somehow happy at the same time – stopped her from prying. "Never mind, your business. So are you sayin' I can change stuff into stuff now too?"

Winter shook her head slowly. "No, that sort of ability is limited to an extremely powerful few among our race. Based on what you said it seems you have telekinesis at least. Depending on how strong your magic is, you may be able to lift yourself and fly as we do."

"Dude, that is fuc—sorry. I mean that is freakin' awesome," she replied, finally bearing a genuine grin. "I've always had dreams about flying. Now I might actually be able to do it?"

"It's possible! That's the spirit. Embrace who you are. Like I should have," Summer said, though her cheer vanished by the last sentence.

"Okay. I kinda do feel better now. So it wouldn't like, make me go insane and kill anyone, right?" When they wouldn't answer her right away, she began to panic. "Um. Guys?"

"Too much magic in one person can make them mentally unstable. I doubt you need to worry. If you had enough to show mental side effects, you would probably be unrecognizable," Winter replied.

"But you kind of said you don't know how much this stuff will affect me. Even if it's just a little bit."

Winter opened her mouth but quickly found there was no way around that logic. "Mm. True." The others looked at her hips as her phone began to ring in her hoodie pocket. She deftly plucked it out and put it on speaker. "Hello?"

"Hey! Winter, right?" Stan. A rather anxious-sounding Stan, in fact. "Uh, short notice and all, but could you two come over? Right now?"

Her face screwed up with worry as she stood. Summer and Wendy did the same. "Yes, why?"

"There's a lot more in the journals than I—uh, Mabel, is your brother gonna be okay?"

"He's fine," they heard her say in the background. "He's just a little done right now. Again. You know how he gets."

"Come on, Dipper!" Wendy encouraged loudly. "Get it together, man!"

"I don't think he heard—nope, he did, never mind. That worked. Like, a lot. Thanks!"

Summer found it funny enough to giggle, but Winter was all business. "Very well. We're on our way."

They went in Summer's car – after all, this was a chance to try the garnet red Audi A6 she'd gotten from the conveniently-owned Northwest dealership across town. With her enthusiastic driving they were at the Mystery Shack in no time. Stan and Dipper were on the gift shop porch waiting for them. "Guys! This is insane! The journals are... I don't even know where to start!" the boy said in one breath as they walked up. Then he took a second to stare at Summer's new wheels. "Must be freaking nice, man."

Stan had roughly the same look. "You ain't kiddin'. If that old crate over there weren't Stanley's I'd buy a new ride myself." He ushered them all inside while producing a leaf of paper from inside his blazer. Mabel, already waiting there, waved hello. "All right. I was up late last night lookin' over what we got from the cemetery, and..."

Despite his tone, Wendy couldn't help being distracted by Mabel's sweater. It was a complicated, rainbow construction with "Everything Is Fine" emblazoned across the front. Each letter was a different color. "Dang, man. How long did that take you to make?"

"I cope with needles and yarn. Don't judge me."

"Anyway!" Stan said gruffly, "I found a handwritten note in the margins of this page." He handed it to Winter.

"UV-A 2 C the truth?" she read out loud. "What is this?"

Dipper took over from there, pacing around the room and clicking a pen furiously. "UV-A. Long wave ultraviolet light!"

Mabel offered a little more clarification. "He knows so much about UV rays 'cause mom is afraid the sun wants to kill us."

"It does! It's a glowing ball of cancer!" He had to shake himself back to the point. "Anyway, 2 C... to see the truth. Then I realized, wait, this handwriting looks familiar. It's the same person that wrote the journals! So I grabbed one of those black lights we used at the party, right? There's invisible writing in those things!"

Stan shook his head at the boy's enthusiasm. "Most of which was stupidly creepy – stuff like 'can't sleep' repeated over and over. Journal three had something interesting though: there's a secret bunker in the woods. Probably worth checking out."

"Right. The big thing is this means someone with access to those documents – or, well, that chamber I guess – wrote the journals!" Dipper concluded forcefully. "Ugh! Who could it be?"

"Actually, kid, that might not be the biggest thing," Stan said as he motioned to Winter. "Read the normal text."

"Mm?" She did, eyes darting back and forth. A few references to Apollyon lay within, censored into abject uselessness, but something else caught her eye. "What is Project Bellissima?"

"That ain't the only one. Keep going."

After a second, she found another item near the bottom. "Project Briathos... that seems familiar."

"Oh! Isn't that what Colonel Greer called our magical soldier friend?" Summer wondered out loud. Everyone looked over as Soos entered. "Oh, hello."

He waved a greeting. "'Sup, guys? What'd I miss? Anything serious?"

"Magical soldier fr-" Dipper's heart jumped into his throat. "It all makes sense now. They succeeded. They made—they're making super-soldiers. But how?"

The handyman's face went blank. "I'm gonna go with 'yes' on the serious."

Wendy leaned back against the counter with a sigh. "Dude, I was right the first time. There's more than one portal. How else would it be happening? It's not like someone's breaking in and using ours."

"Then that means—but then there's—we had control of the magic leakage but now we don't and..."

Mabel sensed her brother's building panic and acted quickly, smacking him on the back of the head. "Don't you dare do this again! Let's handle what we can handle, okay? Take a breath."

"Good advice," Winter said with a nod before looking back at Stan. "What else did you find?"

"Some part of Bellissima used Apollyon assets – they were working here. Found a note about a 'basement level 2 facility'. I'm willing to bet whatever's behind that door is what they're talkin' about. I'm ready to crack that sucker if you are," he said, tugging his lapels. "As soon as the kids are a safe distance away and all."

"Like heck!" Mabel snapped. "I'm in it to win it! Uh, on second thought that doesn't really fit – but my point stands! I'm going with you!"

"Wait, what am I supposed to say to your parents if you get killed?!"

"Don't argue with me, old man!"

"I'm in too," Wendy said with a tired smile. "I mean, hey. I'm a magic user now. You might need me."

"Let's roll," Soos agreed, producing a flashlight from his tool belt. "Actually, lemme get a snack first."

Dipper stepped aside so he could get to the vending machine. "Fine. Whatever. At least I'll have something to think about besides the end of the world. Let me get some stuff from our room first."

The items he retrieved turned out to be the black light and two height-altering crystals. After Winter made him and Mabel a new set of flashlights, Stan hung the closed sign on the door outside and moved to the vending machine. A few elevator trips later they stood before the ominous vault, flooding the chamber with all manner of lights. The girl's face twisted at the red writing. "Greeeeeat. Nothing could possibly be wrong in there!"

"Hey, kill your lights. Let's see if anything's hidden on the walls," Dipper said as he switched on the black light. A cursory sweep, beginning from the elevator and moving around the left side of the area, yielded nothing – until he got close to the door. A fluorescent message appeared, scrawled in tiny letters. "'Look at what they've done to her'? Done to who?" No other hidden words were nearby. "I don't get it. Let's go to the other side."

Another message faded in as he walked past the door. This one was on the metal itself. "'Please find some way to give her mercy'," Mabel read. "Anyone else getting a bad feeling about this? 'Cause I sure freaking am."

All eyes went to the door. "Dudes... is there someone in there?" Soos asked, slowly approaching the black handle. "What should we do?"

"We're going in," Stan said. "You kids get behind us. Wendy, that includes you." Along with the handyman and the identical twins, he approached the door. "Ladies, how you wanna do this?"

"I'll remove the door," Summer advised him. "Sister, if anything comes after us..."

"It will be vaporized," she confirmed, her hands suddenly enveloped by sparkling black fire.

"And I'll hit it with my wrench!" Soos added. "It's heavy. Should do the job."

Dipper and Mabel switched back to their regular lights. "Ready!" he called, shining his at the door. "On three! One, two, three!"

The word barely left his lips when Summer snapped her fingers, crushing the door into a decorative paperweight that she snatched out of the air to keep it from making a racket. Winter advanced inside, Stan and Soos shining flashlights through the opening as they walked with her. Nothing emerged. After a few feet of walking, they noticed the room was rectangular, somewhat narrow, and very long. The air's odor was the same as the other chamber – a musty, flat smell of earth. "Seems clear," she said after a few moments, dismissing her flames. "Put some light on the other end."

Wendy wasn't far behind, having put herself between the kids and the unknown as a second line of defense. "Guys, hold up. I hear something."

Everyone froze. A gentle sound became clear, like scratching but with a squishy component. "What is... what the heck?" Dipper whispered. "Is it moles? Is something digging? Do moles even live in Oregon?

"It sounds like someone playing with clay," Mabel surmised, clinging to his side like glue. Her magic flashlight was at the ready.

For Summer and Winter, the noise was much easier to discern – and much harder to deal with given all the memories to which it was attached. Stan finally pointed his light toward the other end of the space, where it dimly illuminated a cage. Movement was visible through the metal wire grid. They longer they stared, the easier it was to see a nude, dirty, squirming woman inside. Something was crawling on her. More than one something. Shiny, white, and skittering, the objects looked and moved like enormous bugs of some kind. A few were stationary; as the twins slowly moved forward, floating to avoid making sound, they could see these creatures lacked eyes.

And they were feeding on her flesh. The noise was their chewing – constant, steady chewing – but the victim's reactions were limited to subtle writhes. No one knew what to do but stand there and look on in horror.

"The bugs are full of magic. I feel it," Summer said at length. "Sister?"

"Yes, so do I. Let's take care of this together. I don't want to miss one."

They both snapped, turning the creatures into various small objects that fell around in the cage. Some escaped and went bouncing on the concrete. Open wounds were now visible on the woman – Mabel retched upon seeing them – but in seconds they closed up and healed over. Despite her injuries disappearing, she started to scream and thrash as if in great pain.

"What the hell is going on?!" Wendy shrieked over the noise. "I thought you helped!"

Winter snapped again, changing the woman into the first object she could think of: a copy of Mabel's pineapple plushie. Quiet returned – complete quiet, because their companions still had no clue what to do or say. "I'm not sure what I just saw."

"That makes all of us," Dipper agreed weakly, hugging Mabel just as hard as she hugged him. "H-how long do you think she's been down here? What were those bugs?" Nobody answered him – the older twins' silence put him off most of all. "Guys? What are you thinking?"

"She's holding a lot of magic," Summer said, mostly to her sister. "It's like all the sparks in Gravity Falls put together."

The feeling was strong enough to differentiate itself from the valley's spectral fog, too; it was brilliant, sharper – and faintly hot, Winter's brain decided. "Yes, but why didn't she use it to escape?" So confused was the blue-eyed woman that she picked the plushie up by hand instead of by magic to examine it.

None of them had an answer. To give herself something to do beside think about what she'd seen, Wendy clicked on her flashlight and started searching the rest of the room. Everyone but the older twins eventually followed her lead. The room extended beyond the cage for a distance; the whole thing turned out to be completely bare save for the enclosure itself. When she finally reached the end and swept the light around, something in the ceiling caught her eye. "Uh, guys?" she said, staring up at some holes in the rock. "Something dug its way in here."

"Huh?" With Dipper in front, the group came over to look at the openings. "Hey, aren't these about the size of those bug things we just saw?"

Summer yanked one of the changed insects over with her mind. "Let's check. Everyone should probably stand back." It unfurled in her ghostly grasp, screeching and wiggling, its pink legs unable to find purchase in midair. She floated it up to one of the holes to compare sizes. "Seems like it." Tired of the awful sound, she flattened it back into a coin and brought it down.

"It sure seems to have the teeth for digging," Stan noted, shuddering at the thought of the four massive fangs that protruded from its mouth. Another thought occurred to him: someone was awfully quiet. "Hey, Mabel. You all right over there?"

She had been staring at the gruesome bug like everyone else. Now her sight stretched on into the darkness. "It—those things were eating her."

"Mabel...?" Dipper said lowly, giving her a squeeze on the arm.

"So, what? Somebody locked her in a cage and left her here with bugs eating her-" Her eye began to twitch as she fell silent.

"Oooooooookay! I think it's time for us to go," the old man stated. He ushered the kids out of the chamber, leaving everyone else behind.

Soos watched them go – at least, until they left the range of his flashlight. "He's got the right idea, dudes. Let's get outta here. And preferably never speak of this again."

"Were it so simple," Winter mumbled grimly. With Summer's help, she gathered up the singing objects and produced a wooden box from a loose fragment of concrete to carry them in. After leaving the vault, which Summer sealed back up on the way, it became clear the Pines had departed the complex entirely, They stared hopelessly at the keypad next to the doors, then at each other to see if anyone knew the code.

Of course, no one did. "Dude, did he just abandon our butts down here?" a displeased Wendy grumbled.

"No way! He'll be back." Soos watched the elevator doors with a smile. "Any second now." A few moments passed. "Yep. Any second now."

"He'd better come back," Summer said, glaring. "I don't think he wants us to blast our way out of here."

A pleasant "ding" prefaced the opening of the elevator, though Stan wasn't inside. Dipper greeted them with a worried smile. "Hey. Sorry about that. Mabel's kinda throwing a fit. Being locked up alone in a small space is like, a top three fear of hers. She got trapped in a closet one time when we were kids. Cried for days, man. Bugs aren't so fun for her either, so, uh, she needs a minute."

"I think we all need a minute," Winter replied. Dipper's eyes glittered with surprise – since when did she act unsettled? – but he let her walk past without asking questions.

Just getting topside again was a godsend, giving them all the chance to catch their breaths and try to purge their minds. Soos closed the vending machine back and wiped his brow. "Guess my nightmares are planned out for the next month," he quipped.

"No joke, man," Wendy said with a nod. "I don't know whether to cry or puke."

Dipper removed his hat while collecting his faculties. "Anyone else wondering how that woman survived down there for that long? I mean, if she's been down there since 1963... then holy crap. If I weren't so terrified I'd give her the ultimate hug." For once, Winter and Summer had nothing to say. "No? Yeah, I don't wanna think about it either. Yeesh."

Stan opened the living room door, startling him. "I'm gonna be as polite as I can – I think Mabel needs a break from this stuff. So, uh, if you wanna do any further investigation, leave us out of it for now. Please. Please."

"How could somebody do such a thing?" they heard her yell. "Not even Gideon would go that f—wait, how much of abuttface do you have to be to make him look good?!"

"All right," Summer replied, not even turning to look.

"Huh. That was easy. Yeah. Uh, thanks." He hesitated long enough for the boy to push past him and leave, then followed him out of sight.

After they'd gone Soos got between the other twins, putting an arm around one shoulder apiece. "You dudes okay? You're kinda quiet, even for you." His response was stone-faced silence from both women. "Oh, sorry. I keep forgetting about personal space."

"It's not you," Winter replied, gently shrugging off the contact. "There are implications about what we've found that I don't like. We should go home and... consider them."

"Oh. Sure. Don't worry, I'll hang out here with the little guys. They'll be in good hands."

Summer cracked a little smile. "Thank you, Soos."

They got no farther than the gift shop porch, however. Like statues they stared off into a fine Oregon morning, motionless and calm, unable to find words for the typhoon whipping through both of their minds. The red-eyed woman moved first, producing her smartphone. "We need to talk to Greer. Now."

Those blue eyes of Winter's were hard enough to pierce diamond. "Yes we do, before I burn down everything that will hold a flame."

As she dialed Preston's number, Wendy opened the door and peeked around. "Oh, you're still here? Hey, uh, can I ride back with you guys? I got a bad feeling I'll lose my cool if I go home and have to deal with my brothers—I mean, geez, I love them to death but..." Their silence finally caught on. "Should I shut up?"

"Yes, you may come with us." Winter blindly tossed the keys over her shoulder. "Unlock the car. We'll be there in a moment."

"Whoa!" The redhead grabbed them out of the air. "Gotcha."

Summer glanced up as Wendy hopped down the steps. "Voicemail. I'm sure he'll call back when he sees my number."

Sighing with exasperation, Winter at last found the will to make her legs move. "Mm. I would hope so," she said, heading off the porch. "I'll drive. You keep trying to reach him."