Twenty years before Mabel, Dipper, and Wendy arrived at Grenda's house on a cool summer afternoon, Stan Pines sat in the darkness. The Mystery Shack was a near empty log cabin at that point, except for the lab that Stan knew slept downstairs. The lab he had found almost by accident. He, of course, had never considered it an accident. He considered it fate. A rare stroke of luck in a life that had been very, very unlucky.
Stan Pines sat in the darkness, and sipped on a glass of whiskey. The only noise in the room was the ice knocking against the side of the glass as Stan drank. He was dressed in his best suit, and his hair was neatly combed. His once muscular frame was starting to sag. His once handsome face was wrinkled, and his hair was grey. He shivered once or twice as a breeze passed through the house. He sipped at his whiskey, and he continued to shiver even after the cold was gone. There was a knock at the door. Stan tried to set the last few sips of his whiskey down, but his shaking hands made it impossible. The glass slipped out of his grip, and landed with a crash on the floor. Stan sighed, but did nothing. He heard the creak of an opening door, and moments later heard the same door click shut. The steady rhythm of footsteps against the wooden floor approached him. They stopped. A figure loomed in the doorway.
"The deal has been made," said the figure.
"How long?" Stan asked.
"Fifteen years," said the figure, "from tomorrow."
"Who?" Stan whispered. The figure did not answer for a long time.
"They are not born yet," he said.
"Will I love them?" asked Stan. His voice was barely audible.
"Of course," the figure said. "You'll have to. It will be what gives them power. At least, part of what gives them power."
"Why do I feel like I'm making a deal with the devil?" Stan said. The figure shrugged.
"Better me than Cipher, right?" the figure asked. Stan shivered.
"I wish you wouldn't say that name," said Stan. He narrowed his eyes. "I know you don't want to hear this, but I never would have signed that contract if I had known I had to fight that thing. It's pure evil."
"I wouldn't have written the contract in the first place if I knew how many would lose their lives because of them," said the figure. "But Stan, it was just a piece of paper. There was no magic in those contracts. You could have left us at any time. You stayed because you wanted to."
"Maybe," said Stan. He put his head in his hands. "Oh God. What have I done? What have we done?" Stan chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "Better you than Cipher? How many deals did we make with him before we realized what he was? How many people suffered because of our stupidity." Stan raised his head. He was crying. "Deals with the devil. Every deal I've ever made has been with the devil."
"Not this one," said the man who was to become the Master. "I promise."
Mabel had dozed off in the car. They had gotten to Grenda's house only to discover that she was off at a weightlifting competition, and wouldn't be back for another two days. Dipper had gone on a rant about wasting precious time, and he and Wendy had argued about something stupid. Mabel didn't care. Honestly, she was sick of it. The previous night weighed heavily in her mind. She kept reliving the vampire attack over and over again. Why had she agreed to this? Because Dipper was a good person? Because, for some crazy reason, her brother felt responsible for the wellbeing of an entire town?
Maybe this was all a mistake. When they had first arrived, Dipper had said something about the mind repressing memories it found too horrible to contemplate. She had dismissed him, but she wished she hadn't. Things were coming back. Terrible, unbelievable things. They played in snippets of her dreams. A floating head. Men made of aliens. A cult that erased peoples minds. Why hadn't they just left when they had the chance?
"I guess I'll see you tonight," said Wendy. Dipper sighed.
"I'm sorry I yelled," he said. "I just really wanted to get something done today. Now the docks are closed off until further notice, and Grenda's gone. We didn't get anyone. It's still just us." Wendy put a hand on Dipper's shoulder.
"We'll get through it," she said. They kissed, and Wendy got out of the car. As she went into the house, Mabel turned towards her brother.
"So, what next?" she asked.
"Sleep," said Dipper. "We have about three hours until sundown. Then we go on patrol again, I guess."
"Do we have to?" asked Mabel. A look of fierce anger passed over Dipper's face. Before Dipper could talk, Mabel shook her head. "Just joking, just joking," she said. Dipper's expression cooled, and he said nothing. He pulled out of Tambry's parents parking space, and started back towards the shack. Mabel closed her eyes again, and drifted off.
As Mabel drifted off to sleep, Stan pulled into the Oaky Way trailer park. He found the trailer he was looking for, a beat up old blue singlewide. He pulled onto the dirt patch that served as a makeshift driveway, and put the car in park. He got out, straightened his tie and fez, and marched up to the front door. He knocked briskly. A booming bark sounded from inside the mobile home.
"Shut up Einstein!" came a voice. The barking stopped. The door latch was slid back, and the door opened. The man that stood before Stan was about the same age as he was. He was mostly bald, with a few patches of white hair sticking haphazardly on his head. He was much shorter than Stan, but also a lot less rotund. He wore thin glasses, a thick woolen robe, and slippers. When he saw Stan, he smiled widely. "My God, Stan Pines! It's been years!"
"How you doin' Marsh?" asked Stan. The two men embraced. A Welsh corgi peered curiously at the two men from inside the trailer.
"I'm doing alright," said Marsh. "A hell of a lot better since I got out of that town." Stan's smile faltered. "Here, why don't you come in?"
"Thanks," said Stan. The two old men walked inside the trailer, and Marsh shut the door behind them. Einstein, the dog, sniffed at Stan curiously. Stan scratched the critter behind its ears, and followed Marsh into a small sitting room. Stan noticed the trailer had only four rooms: a combined kitchen and dining room, the sitting room, a bedroom that was entirely too small, and a door that Stan guessed led to a bathroom. Stan took one of the two chairs available in the sitting room. Marsh carefully sat down in the other.
"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" asked Marsh.
"If I said I just wanted to visit an old friend, would you believe me?" asked Stan. Marsh laughed.
"An old friend? My God Stan, I think we've been a lot of things to each other, but I wouldn't really call being friends one of them," said Marsh.
"Fair enough," said Stan. "I need your help Marsh."
"I thought as much," said Marsh. "I'm afraid I'm not going to do you much good."
"Why not?" asked Stan. "Look, I know you've been out of the game for a while, but-"
"I'm dying," said Marsh. Stan stared blankly at him. "Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Doc says I probably got another month or two left in me."
"No," Stan whispered.
"Yes," said Marsh. "I'm fine with it. I've lived a good life." He tilted his head to the side. "Well, maybe not a good life. But certainly an interesting one." He steadied his head, and looked into Stan's eyes. "I don't regret it. Not one single thing."
"I do," said Stan.
"Of course you do," said Marsh. "How old were you when you signed the contract? Not even thirty, right?"
"I was twenty-five," said Stan. "I was the youngest."
"By damn near a decade," said Marsh. "Then it was Doug, he was thirty-three I think, and Tom was just forty, I was forty-two, and of course-"
"Don't," growled Stan. Marsh fidgeted.
"Sorry," said Marsh. "I forgot about the bad blood."
"Yeah," said Stan. "You did. Because you left as soon as things got bad."
"You really haven't changed," said Marsh. "You're still so uncouth that you would attack a dying man."
"Tell me I'm wrong," said Stan. "Tell me that when things stopped going to plan you just packed up and left."
"You're not wrong," said Marsh. "And you know what? Like I said, I don't regret it." Marsh pet Einstein, who had snuggled up next to him. "These last two decades have been very peaceful, Stan. For the first time in my life, I've been able to sleep at night. No more nightmares. No more fights. No more seeing my friends die. Just good, deep sleep."
"Bully for you," said Stan. "Unlike you, I stuck with it, so the past twenty years of my life have been pretty damn miserable."
"A pity," said Marsh.
"You owe me," said Stan. "I hate to put it that bluntly, but you do. You signed that contract. Maybe it doesn't mean anything to you, but it certainly means a lot to the people that died."
"I don't owe you anything," said Marsh. "But I will help you. Not because I owe you, but because I want to. Because you're my friend, or something like it."
"You… you'll help me?" asked Stan. "Really?"
"Yes," said Marsh. He sat up straighter in his chair, and leaned forward. "So tell me everything."
"It's a long story," said Stan.
"I have time," said Marsh.
As Stan told Marsh his story, Pacifica Northwest snuggled up to the thing that used to be inside Gideon Gleeful. "The Master is most grateful that you took care of our little problem," said Gideon. "You will be rewarded handsomely for it."
"I'm grateful," said Pacifica, "for the Master's infinite wisdom."
"You should be," said Gideon. "Unfortunately, the Master still has worries. He believes that the time-twisting will have… unintended consequences."
"What do you mean?" said Pacifica.
"I am unsure," said Gideon. "The Master tells me everything, but I was not able to decipher his precise meaning. He is worried that multiple timelines could give the Pines boy an escape."
"An escape?" asked Pacifica. "What does that mean?"
"Like I said, I am unsure," said Gideon. "The Master is all knowing, but alas, I am not omnipotent. Some things the Master says are beyond me." Gideon stretched, and pulled Pacifica closer to him. "But it matter's not. The plan is still in motion. The boy will still be crushed. There is no stopping us."
"Praise the Master," said Pacifica.
"Yes," said Gideon. "Praise him." He leaned in, and kissed Pacifica.
Five years after Pacifica and Gideon shared their kiss, a man came to a grave. Snow had been falling all day, but the man could make the markings on the grave out. They read Stan Pines, April 5th 1948-June 18th 2017. The man took a rose out of his overcoat, and laid it at the foot of the grave. He let out a shaky breath.
"I miss you," the man whispered. He lingered for a moment, and then walked off. The snow crunched under his feet. He paused at the cemetery gates. He hadn't visited her grave. He had promised himself he would, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. It just hurt too bad. He opened the gate, and walked to his car. He got in, and started it up. He drove away from the cemetery, and from the town that so haunted him.
Addendum: A brief timeline of events. This timeline will be updated periodically to reflect new things happening in the series, as the story will occasionally be nonlinear, and I don't want any confusion:
1973: Stan Pines, Marsh Thompson, the Master, and several other people sign a mysterious document.
June 7th, 1997: Stan Pines and the Master discuss a strange deal involving two people not yet born. These two people are obviously Mabel and Dipper.
Summer of 2012: Mabel and Dipper defeat the Master, and stop supernatural events from occurring at Gravity Falls.
June 5th, 2017: Mabel and Dipper pines return to Gravity Falls. Chapters 1-12 occur.
June 6th, 2017: Chapters 13-18 occur. June 7th, 2017: Chapters 19-26 our current chapter,occur. It should be noted that an alternate timeline is created. In this second timeline, Dipper is killed by the Gobblewonker, and Mabel uses a spell that accidentally causes the time to become infinitely looped.
June 18th, 2017: Stan Pines dies. 2022: An unknown man visit Stan Pines's grave.
Author's Note: This has been one of my favorites to write. The plot is starting to come together… trust me, things will start making sense. Hope you've been enjoying everything. I'm glad people are still reading.