Chapter Twenty-Three: Stargazing and Pontificating

Dipper's and Wendy's eyes were able to see perfectly in the dark. They didn't need lanterns or flashlights. Their bionics had availed them beyond anything they could have imagined. As they went deeper into the woods, things got less familiar to them. But Dipper was keeping track of where they were in relation to the town. The bionics in his brain allowed him to be a human GPS System. But this part of the woods was unfamiliar to him.

Still, Wendy didn't seem worried and honestly, neither was he. They were immortal and they regenerated from anything. That could seem a bit arrogant. After all, Dipper didn't know whether his regeneration would wear out if he overused it. Would the regeneration itself restore itself with rest if it did wear out? There were tests that he would need to do. He didn't anticipate enjoying testing the extent of his regeneration, especially if he found out there was something he couldn't regenerate from. After all, the only way to do that was to encounter it.

"So, where are we going?" Dipper asked.

"There's a clearing at the edge of the woods. I'm not sure what town it's in or whether it's even in a town, but it's miles away from any settlement." Wendy said.

"It gets pretty hilly out here, so we'll be walking uphill a lot. Get ready to work out a bit." Wendy said. Dipper noticed that they were starting to go uphill. And the hill was getting steeper. They were really hiking now as they got toward the top of the hill.

Dipper didn't mind. His bionic heart and lungs barely felt like they were being worked out at all, proving how much more efficient they really were.

"Okay, let's get there." Dipper said, finally making it to the top of the hill. He was still behind Wendy and his muscles were aching. He could feel his legs burning. He stopped for a few minutes to rest, leaning on a tree to recover the full use of his legs.

He had worked out quite a bit over the years since he first went to Gravity Falls. He learned martial arts and learned how to run properly. But this hiking had been hard, especially toward the end. Now that they were at the top, he felt like he could rest a bit.

"Don't rest too much. We'll be at the clearing soon." Wendy said, continuing to walk. Dipper hurried after her, heading out to the clearing, gasping as he saw the sky.

It was perfectly clear. He could see everything. From the waxing crescent moon to the Milky Way galaxy. Every star seemed to stand out in bright relief from the black sky. Wendy smiled over at him, seeing how impressed he was.

"There was nowhere we could see the sky like this in Piedmont." Dipper said, pointing up eagerly as he saw a shooting star.

"My mom and I used to come here… Before she died." Wendy said. Dipper hesitated.

"Your dad said she ran away." Dipper said, not wanting to start any problems. Wendy chuckled sadly.

"He needs to hold onto that belief. She didn't. She… It's complicated. She was really depressed. She'd just given birth to my youngest brother less than a year ago and she was going through a lot. She was exhausted, she was depressed and… She killed herself." Wendy said. Dipper gasped as he heard her voice hitch. Wendy was crying. Dipper squeezed her hand lightly.

"Dad was the one who found her body." Wendy said.

"All he'll say about it is that he's glad that none of us found it." Wendy said.

"I think he still hasn't fully healed. Honestly, I'm not sure I have. I felt like she abandoned us at first too. I believed him when he said she ran away and in a way, that hurt even more than when I learned she'd killed herself."

"What was she like?" Dipper asked.
"She was strong. She did things her own way. Dad wasn't quite so intense back when she was alive. He really threw himself into his 'manly' demeanor after her death. But before, he actually was a pretty happy guy. I was closest to my mom. She and I looked a lot alike. I'm taller than she was. She was like 5'8". Not short, but not crazy tall and lanky like I was." Wendy said.

"She'd traveled a lot before she married my dad and settling down was a little bit hard for her. She talked a lot about how she traveled the world before she met Dad in Canada. He was there for a lumberjacking contest. She was there to investigate some converging ley lines that were supposed to be in Saskatchewan." Wendy said.

"So she really was a witch." Dipper said. Wendy chuckled.

"Yeah. I was never really sure whether to buy into magic until I met you and Mabel and found out that magic was probably just as rational as freaking triangle men and unicorns and ghosts and Gnomes and all that biz." Wendy laughed. Dipper chuckled with her.

"Well… Before I came to Gravity Falls, I wouldn't have believed in the Supernatural either. But then with Mabel and her gnome boyfriend and Mermando and the Dusk 2 Dawn. Now I'm in training to be a supernatural researcher. An immortal supernatural researcher." Dipper said.

Wendy nodded.

"Well, I guess I'm immortal too. Kind of a bummer. I kinda told myself that maybe I'd see my mom again someday. Whether you believe in Heaven or the Summerlands, or whether you believe in the rather mundane afterlife that Tim Burton showed in Beetlejuice, I don't know what if anything comes next. But if we're really immortal… If Deirdre is really what we'll be someday, then I guess we'll never see the afterlife. We'll just have to make the best of this life." Wendy said.

Dipper nodded.

"Tell me… Did you ever think you and I would… You know… Be together?" Dipper asked. Wendy sighed.

"If I'm being honest? No. You were one of the coolest guys I'd ever met. But you were 13 when I met you. I could've been your babysitter. But hey, no use pretending I didn't develop feelings for you." Wendy said.

"Don't worry about what I did or didn't think about when we were teenagers. Focus on what we have now." Wendy said. Dipper chuckled.

"Y-yeah… Yeah… I just… I still get caught up in overthinking things." Dipper said. Wendy nodded.
"That's okay. You can hold me back when I underthink things." Wendy said. Dipper could feel her starting to relax.

Wendy hardly ever talked about her mother. It was painful for her, even all these years later.

"You know, Ford took me to an alien laboratory back when I first came here. And since then, I've wondered… Did a highly advanced alien race create life on earth? Are we just a science project for some alien kid? Or maybe they were testing their ability to make life on formerly lifeless planets. Scientists don't fully agree on how life began. Some say it was abiogenesis, meaning that non-living matter became living matter.

"The theory on that is the primordial pool, a large pool of proteins and other building blocks of living matter was hit by a lightning bolt and became the first living cells and they just evolved from there. But maybe it was less random than that. Maybe aliens used their technology to make that happen. Maybe they even provided the elements for the primordial ooze. What do you think?" Dipper asked. Wendy laughed.

"I dunno. I didn't get everything that you just said. But maybe some sort of higher being created the first life. I don't know exactly what their role was. How far they went in making it happen.

"I couldn't begin to understand the mind of a god. But maybe something or someone out there wanted to see creatures made in their image." Wendy said.
"I didn't know you were religious." Dipper said. It wasn't an accusation. He just was a little surprised.

"I dunno what I am. My mom taught me a bit about various Pagan faiths. Dad is… Sort of Christian. I'm actually not really sure completely what Dad believes.

"I guess whatever you believe, as long as you're satisfied with that believe and you don't use it to hurt anyone or force it on other people, what does it really matter? I mean, Bill Cipher could alter reality with a thought. Does that make him a god? If the Christian God exists, but can't stop beings like Bill Cipher, does that make him 'not a god'? Is a god a god because people believe they are? I don't know. Anyway, I've got a bit off-topic. I guess I believe that there must be something more powerful than us out there. I don't know what it is or whether it deserves or even wants to be worshiped.

"Whether you want to say it's the Anunnaki, who were extraterrestrial beings who used their technology and magic to create life or whether you want to believe that it really was all random chance, as long as you're not hurting anyone or forcing it on anyone… I guess anything could be the case." Wendy shrugged. Dipper nodded.