Dark Memories

SUMMARY: Dipper goes out into the woods to try to find what Ford was hiding from him. But when a discovery is made, Dipper soon regrets his painful decision and it's up to Ford to make sure his great nephew doesn't make a terrible mistake.

MAIN CHARACTERS: Dipper Pines and Stanford Pines

The sun was just barely above the horizon when Dipper Pines stepped out of the Mystery Shack, him squinting against the natural light.

He wore his traditional hunting attire, complete with his hunting hat. Strapped across his back was his hunting rifle and at his side was his handgun. All attached to his belt along with the holster for the handgun was a few bags to carry his game, a container for his lunch and water, a first aid kit, and a pouch with extra ammo. The air was cool against his face, the fall weather officially coming in, the trees already were turning into their red, orange, and yellow colors.

Dipper was used to these woods, him always being out there during the summer, especially when he was twelve. But now the woods felt different, now that fall was here, it feeling more open because there wasn't as much thick leaves shielding woods from the world. Slowly, he walks along the familiar path, spiraling deep into the forest, him occasionally taking his handgun out when there was a crack of a twig, afraid there might be some kind of monster or demon lurking about.

Normally he wasn't allowed out by himself, Ford made sure of it. If Dipper wanted to go hunting he did it with Pacifica in the woods by Northwest Manor, or if he went hunting with Stan they would walk to a completely different part of Gravity Falls and go in the woods there. It was like Ford was trying to hide something, which made Dipper's natural curiosity intensify. That was why he decided to explore the woods that day, to try and find what Ford was hiding.

Every half hour he would rest and drink his water and eat a bit of his food to stay hydrated and keep his energy up. As he rested his hand would subconsciously go to the pine tree pendant that hung from his neck. One morning he woke up and it was there, confusing him.

"Hey, Mabel?" he has asked his sister, concern in his tone.

"Yeah, Dip Dop?" his twin had replied. "What's up?"

"Do you know what this is?" he then showed her the pine tree pendant.

Mabel's face had gone pale. "Well… It was a gift from the pixies to you… they said it would help you…" she had explained.

"Help me with what?" he had demanded, anger bubbling in his voice.

"Cope." She had said lightly.

Dipper had sighed and face palmed himself. "Cope with what!?" he had hissed angrily at her. All she did was simply point at his journal, his heart had dropped realizing that she had read it.

Now Dipper sat on a stump, fiddling with the pendant. It was a pale blue and it seemed to shimmer. It felt warm against his skin and it felt like it was filling him with some kind of calm energy. In a way it was like being by Mabel, all the positivity being illuminated from it. He puts the pendant back under his shirt, it resting above his heart.

Dipper gets up from his stump and beings to walk again in the forest, the air becoming cooler as clouds passed over the sun. He adjusts his hat and continues onward, looking at everything to make sure he wasn't missing anything suspicious.

He then enters a part of the woods he wasn't too familiar with, his chest filling with unease. The path opened up to an extremely small grove, a skylight of tree branches above guiding a beam of the now showing sun onto some kind if rock. Dipper walks up closer to the rock that was in the center… except it wasn't a rock.

The rock was a statue, a triangular shape and it was half buried in the ground. Green moss was crawling up its light grey exterior, it extremely thick on its underside. The triangle looked like a pyramid wearing a top hat and a bow tie, a huge eye in the center with a slit of a pupil. Its one arm was outstretched, like it was going to shake someone's hand, while its other with smothered in the earthy ground.

Dipper's heart beats painfully in his chest, his body feeling hot, and he adjusts his glasses. Why does this look familiar? He felt like the eye was staring at him, into his very being. Shakily, Dipper raises his right hand, almost against his will, and he grasps the stone hand. As soon as his hand clasp against the statue's, a brilliant blue flame engulfed their hands and Dipper's body flares up in temperature.

It felt like his very being was being split apart, his head filling with an intense pressure so high that he thought his head would pop like a balloon. He couldn't let go of the hand of the statue, his hand engulfed with the icy blue colored flame. His head filled with so many images, most of were of himself and a live version of the triangle.

The name's Bill! Bill Cipher!

You're my puppet now, kid!

Hello, Pine Tree! Did ya miss me? C'mon, admit it, you missed me!

Dipper screams loudly, both in fear and in pain, causing whatever birds were in the trees to flee. His vision blurred, seeing red all around him, the color of blood. It seemed that blood was dripping off the tree branches, his body, the statue's, and practically raining from the sky.

Bill!

Dipper heard his younger self saying that name many times. A vision of Ford comes to mind showing a twelve-year-old Dipper and Mabel a drawing of the triangle asking if they had seen that symbol before.

Dipper's been pretty paranoid since Bill turned him into a living sock puppet… his sister's voice echoes.

Bill wasn't always my enemy, Dipper. I used to think he was my friend… Ford's voice then echoes.

A loud sadistic cackle echoes within his mind. The figure standing there was himself, yellow eyes with the black slit pupil, cackling as he was hacking away at bodies of innocent people. Blood spilled to the ground, staining the very earth. A maniacal smile spreads on his features, blood splattered across his face and even on his Big Dipper birthmark on his forehead.

Oh, lookie here! Little Shooting Star is dying! I can save her you know… how about we open back up that deal, Pine Tree?

The image of sister with her hand to a dep wound in her neck enter his mind. She was gurgling blood, trying to breathe through the thick, red liquid.

Dipper screams loudly again, all these images exploding in his head. All the voices… all the insane laughter… all the sounds of blood hitting the floor… Dipper couldn't take it anymore, he wanted to let go and run away.

The flames subside around his and Bill's stone hand. Dipper falls backwards, landing hard on the hunting rifle on his back, his glasses nearly falling off his face. His heart was practically beating out of his chest, his chest tight as tears fell from his face. He breathed heavily, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

I made a deal with Bill… and he possessed me… so many people died… he was killing Mabel to make me make a deal with him…

He closes his eyes, trying to calm his breathing. A vision comes to him of him standing in the middle of his and Mabel's room back at the Mystery Shack, blue flames surround the perimeter of the room, him in the outfit he had always worn when he twelve years old. In front of him was Bill Cipher, the demon looking around trying to find a way to escape.

You idiot, Pine Tree! Bill's voice screams in anger. You're willing to basically kill yourself for your damn FAMILY!? You could've been a god, Pine Tree, to rule the universe! And you're giving it up for them!?

Dipper was calmly staring back. He gave a shrug. That's the one thing I will always do, Cipher. Dipper's voice calmly tells him. My family is the most important thing in this world. Just because you never have had someone that loved you, doesn't mean you have to make everyone feel the way you do. You become a person, or demon in your case, to be worth loving. You choose your own path to gain acceptance, but instead you chose death and destruction.

Bill staggered backwards, the blue flames beginning to take over him. He was being erased, he could feel his life tearing away. His eye widens. NO!" his voice screamed in agony. NO, NO, NO, NO!

Dipper then stepped forward. You messed with my family. His voice darkly says. You tortured my uncles, you tried to kill my sister… and you messed with my extended family, my friends! That was a fatal mistake! The mental image of Dipper then pushes Bill into the flames that were getting closer and closer.

NOW BURN IN HELL!

Dipper opens his eyes with a gasp, a hand to his chest over his heart. He remembered that so vividly… like it was happening again. Under his hand was the lump of the pendant, he took it out and looked at it, the stone sparkling. His speeding heart slowed down to its normal rhythm, him feeling much calmer. He then puts a hand to his head, it was aching terribly.

"Dipper!" voices called in the distance. Dipper shakes his head, noticing that the air was cooler than it was earlier. The once beam of sunlight that shone through the branched skylight was now dim, the sun setting behind the large pine and oak trees. The voices called his name again, and he recognized that they were the voices of his family.

He tries to stand up, but he staggers. He puts a hand to his head and with other pushes up his glasses to be more secure on his face. "Hello…?" he calls out. "Mabel? Grunkle Stan? Great Uncle Ford…?" Another flash goes through him, him seeing people fall before him as blood spilled.

Suddenly arms wrap around him. "Dipper!" Mabel cries out. "You're okay!" More arms wrap around him. "There you are you little rascal!" Stan then says. "You had us very worried, young man!" Ford says as well.

Without even thinking, Dipper screamed and jumped away from them. His hand had went to his handgun in its holster and he pulls it out. He aimed the silver colored gun at them, his hands shaking violently. Dipper pants, his eyes darting around. "Are you him?!" Dipper screams, his voice wavering. "Are you tricking me!? GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

"Dipper!" Ford shouts, his voice stern. "Calm down!"

"We're your family, kid!" Stan then screams, his voice filled with worry.

"Dip'n Dot…" Mabel then says, her tone soft. "Lower the gun… you're okay…!" She raises her hands to show she was no threat.

Dipper points it at her, causing her to gasp, his knuckles turning whiter than bone as it gripped the gun. "Trust no one… trust no one… trust no one…" he kept muttering to himself, that one page from Journal 3 flashing in his mind that he had found his first week in Gravity Falls.

He was suddenly tackled, his gun going off and Ford yelped in pain. The bullet had pierced his shoulder, blood spewing from the wound, turning the brown of his trench coat into a russet color. Dipper's hands were pinned onto the ground, causing him to drop the gun, him screaming and using his legs to try to kick Ford away.

"LET GO OF ME!" Dipper screams furiously, his face red with anger.

"DIPPER CALM DOWN, NOW!" Ford shouts sternly, making Dipper freeze and causing Mabel to jump. "Good… good… look at my pupils… it's me, Ford." Dipper looks at his great uncle's eyes, noting that they were his normal brown that was dominant in the Pines family, and his pupils were rounded.

Slowly Ford let's Dipper go, helping him sit up. Dipper puts his head between his legs, him trying to control his breathing and slow down his heart. He then grips the pendant that had fallen out of his shirt, the cord becoming taut from it. His eyes flutter shut and he collapses to the side.

"Dipper!" he hears Mabel shout, her voice hoarse with emotion.

Hours later Dipper wakes up, him in his bed, the room dark.

He sits up and finds his glasses on the nightstand next to him. He puts them on and turns on the lantern that he had on the nightstand. Once the room was illuminated, Dipper saw that he was alone. Dark thoughts creep back into his mind, all the cackling and insane laughter as people lied before him, limbs sliced off and blood pooling from them.

"Get out of my head…!" Dipper whispered hoarsely. "Get out!"

Pine Tree!

"NO!" the scream rips through him as he finds the spare handgun he had under his bed. He cocks it and made sure the safety was off. He then puts the gun to his head. "GET OUT YOU DEMON! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD!"

Just as he was about to pull the trigger the door to the room opens and there was a shout. Dipper's hand was suddenly hit, the gun flying out of his hand and hitting the wooden floor.

He turns his head and seen Ford, his hand gripped tightly around Dipper's wrist, the old scientist's eyes filled with tears. "Dipper… why… why would you think about doing that!?" Ford demands, his voice hitched with sadness.

Dipper's own eyes filled with tears. "I… I wanted them to go away… I want him to go away!" he cries. "Please make it go away Grunkle Ford…! Please…!"

Ford then pulls his great nephew into a hug. "Everything is going to be okay… you're going to be okay…!" he rasped.

"Grunkle… Ford…?" Dipper whispers.

Ford then pulls away, looking at Dipper. "Dipper… I know how much you think you want to do it… I've been down that road quite a few times…"

Dipper looks up at him. "Then… why didn't you do it…? How are you able to bare what you have seen and done in the past?" he asks him curiously.

Ford gives him a sad look, tears spilling over his eyes. "Because… you're not getting rid of your pain, you're passing it on to someone else…" he says simply. "Stan and I would be driven mad with grief, and Mabel… I don't want to think about what she would do without you…"

Dipper finally gives in and starts to sob. "I'm sorry!" he sobs. "I'm so sorry, Ford… I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to…! I'm sorry…!" he kept crying over and over.

Ford hugs him once again. "I know… I know you are…" he told his nephew. He tries to hush his crying nephew, rubbing his back gently. "You're going to be okay…"

"What… what am I going to do…?" Dipper asks. "I-if the memory gun didn't work…"

"That's why… we're going to get help…" Ford tells him. "You and I… I didn't realize that it would be so bad, so I'm going to take Stan's advice and get us into therapy…"

"I thought you didn't like them." Dipper states.

"I don't really…" Ford admits. "But now in my old age I have learned to swallow my pride to help my family." He then gets up from the edge of the bed and grabs Dipper's gun. "But… the appointment is in a couple of days, so until then, I am confiscating your guns."

"WAIT! WHAT!?" Dipper exclaims. "B-b-but what about hunting!?"

Ford then gives him a sarcastic grin. "You really think I'm going to trust you with a gun after what you just did? You'll get them pack once we get approval from a psychologist that we are both coping better. Although… I think that stone that the pixies made for you is helping, because honestly what you went through could've been a lot worse." He explains as he puts the safety on the gun and sticks it in his trench coat.

Dipper then notices that Ford's left shoulder of the coat was torn and stained with dry blood. White from bandages could be seen from hole in the coat. "I'm sorry I shot you… I didn't mean to!" Dipper sighs sadly.

"I know you didn't mean it…" Ford replies gently. "You were scared and panicked… it's okay, I'm fine." He then offers Dipper a hand. "You hungry? There's still some dinner downstairs we saved for you."

The outstretched hand made Dipper uneasy, reminding him of the deals that he had made with Bill. He swallows his fear and grips his great uncle's hand and was helped out of bed. Dipper was still in his hunting attire, but his hat was off and his brown hair was a mess.

"Yeah, I'm hungry." Dipper admits. They then walked out of the room and was starting to walk down the stairs when Dipper then says, "Great Uncle Ford?"

"Yes, Dipper?"

"Thank you…"

Ford gives his nephew a smile and puts a hand to the boy's shoulder. "You're welcome, Dipper."

The two then descend the stairs and enter the kitchen, both greeted with happy smiles from Stan and Mabel.

You're not getting rid of your pain, you're passing it on to someone else.

And Dipper knew right then and there, as long as he had his family, he could get through this.

I love them so much… and I would do everything again to make sure I see them happy and safe...

A/N:There was so much emotion while writing this! So, now we finally have the chapter that Dipper gets his full memories back, and Ford was right, if Dipper didn;t have that pendant he probably would've hurt himself in the forest while he was alone.

Once again, thank you for reading this! It means a lot!

Also, I've been practicing my drawing, and I've been doodling in the "Gravity Falls" style, so check out m tumblr, JLAndersen01 ( ), to see the art I've been posting or for people who have been asking about sending their own fan art from this series, Beyond the Portal, and Cipher's Reign you can send me a link through there or submit it and I will be making sure that you are tagged, or linked, to get the FULL CREDIT of your amazing work!

~Skye Hendersen~