Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story
Part Twenty – Four: Prepare For Trouble & Make It Double
Jennifer McGuckett ran out of Ariel's room as the words she had just heard cut her to the core. As tears obstructed her view, she hastily made her way down the stairs and out the front door. The blonde woman of science wasn't quite sure where she was running to, but anywhere had to be better than where she had just been verbally eviscerated by the white haired girl she had created. She replayed the words in her head, as she wasn't sure what had just transpired had been reality. Surely Ariel didn't just lash out at the woman she adored as her mother. It had to have been some sort of nightmare that she would soon wake up from; nothing more than a machination fueled by stress, a lack of proper rest and enough vodka to supply a small Russian village.
Ariel Gleeful had finally reached the page she had been searching for. While she knew that eventually she'd be powerful enough to takeover yet another dimension, the demon also was aware of the fact that she was far from infallible. Her plans had been foiled only once before, but it was one time too many for her to simply brush off. She would summon the spirit of her brother to form the duo whose name was spoken in hushed tones from one end of the multiverse to the other: The Magic Killers. Picking up the hefty book, she walked across the hallway to begin the process of reuniting with the only other being that could possibly begin to understand her. A smile formed on her face as she spied the younger boy sitting at his desk. "Hey, Baron…" the white haired teen said as she leaned up against the door frame. "Hey, sis. What was up with the way you were acting at breakfast? It's got father terribly upset. I've never seen him pour a glass of bourbon before noon. You done got him all riled up, that's for sure…" the young man said with a bit of a twang he inherited from his father. "Oh, that? Never mind all that. Let's just say that it's a game I'm playing with him" she replied as a sly smile formed on her face. "Anyway, I wanted to show you this awesome book that Pacifica totally let me borrow" she said while taking a seat on his bed and motioning for him to join her. "Wowzers! It sure is purdy!" he commented as the large gemstone on the cover caught his attention.
The two spent the next couple of minutes browsing through the yellowed pages of the tome; Ariel hoping that her plan would work. "Check this one out!" she remarked while pointing at a seemingly boring page adorned only with an incantation. "What about it?" the white haired boy asked his sibling as he wondered what could be so captivating about the paragraph. It appeared to be in a foreign language that the ten year old couldn't even begin to identify. "I bet you can't read it…" Ariel teased as a wicked smile formed on her face. If only Baron knew what lay ahead for him. "Interesting… How much you willin' to wager there, sis?" the young man asked. "How about fifty bucks?" she nonchalantly replied. Baron's eyes grew large at the prospect of earning such a large sum of cash. "Where'd you get fifty bucks?! I want fifty bucks!" he swiftly responded. "I… Uh… I found it! Yeah! I totally found it! Anyway… You in or not?" the white haired teenage girl remarked as she continued to egg him on. "Prepare to lose fifty dollars…" the ten year old said as he began thinking about how to say each word. "Voco super te audire vocem meam. Ut hoc liberum animum devium. Ne inveniat in anima est quod ultima requiem. Haec sola supplex rogaret" he read aloud as his room filled with an otherworldly glow. It felt as though a hand grenade had gone off inside the skull of Baron. His heart felt as though it would leap from the confines of his torso and he began to sweat profusely. The body of Baron Gleeful fell to the carped floor of his bedroom with a thud. The smile grew large on the face of Ariel as she knew that her plan had worked. She was now joined by the spirit of her brother. The Magic Killers had once again reunited.
Pacifica Pines had retreated to her bedroom, where she looked to take her mind off of what had happened to her sister at the party. Walking over to her bed, she noticed that the large jewel-encrusted book she sought was nowhere to be found. "Huh… I could have sworn that I left it right here" she remarked while scanning the rest of the room. "Ugh! I really need to clean this place up…" she said to herself. Searching high and low, she failed to locate the tome and now began to wonder if someone had borrowed it without her permission. The young woman could think of only one person who would be interested in what it had to offer. Walking downstairs, she spied her father typing away on his laptop. She decided to approach the situation carefully, as she didn't want to outright accuse her father of stealing from her. "Hey, Dad…" the sapphire and hazel eyed girl said as she walked up to the seated thirty-three year old. "Oh, hey sweetheart…" he replied while still typing away. From what Pacifica could see, it was a rather extensive email, which she deduced was to her Grand Uncle Ford. "Say, you wouldn't have happened to have seen my spellbook anywhere, have you?" she inquired. "Nope. I haven't seen that thing since the day you let me read it. Don't tell me it's missing…" Dipper said as he looked up from the screen; his disposition changing faster than the weather on a summer afternoon in Florida. "No! I-I… I just put it somewhere I can't remember… That's all!" she nervously replied. "I hope that's the case. If that thing is anything like the journal I had, then there's an almost endless list of people who could be after it at any given time for any number of reasons" he said in a stern tone as he pictured the rogues' gallery from his childhood in the theater of his mind. While he didn't want to scare his daughter, he did want her to know just how much responsibility went into possessing such a book. "Dad, you worry too much… You know how messy my room is. It's probably just buried under a mountain of stuff…" Pacifica said in an attempt to assuage her father's fears of it falling into the wrong hands. "Perhaps this would be a good time to clean it up then" the chestnut haired man replied. "That's not the worst idea I've ever heard. I'll get right on it…" the brown and silver haired girl said as she headed back upstairs; both hoping that she'd find the book.
Wendy and Mabel had arrived home shortly before dinner time. As the family of four sat down to eat, the quartet could all feel the tension that filled the room. "So… Um. How did things go?" Dipper asked as he grabbed a large container of mashed potatoes. "We won't really know for about a week or so…" Wendy replied as she grabbed a piece of fried chicken out a red and white striped cardboard bucket. While the thirty-six year old had planned to make steak for dinner, she decided to bring home some fried chicken from a fast food joint instead. "Mabel, honey, I-" Dipper began to say before being cut off by the young woman. "Dad… Thanks and all that, but I'm just gonna try and move on from this. I've done all I can do and thank goodness that nothing really bad happened to me. I'm not going to let this one thing define my whole summer…" the auburn haired girl remarked before biting into her piece of fried chicken. "Alright… So, while you guys were out, I was responding to an email from the Stans…" the brown haired man said in an excited tone. "What'd they have to say?" Wendy asked in a curious tone. "They just docked in New Jersey and should be here tomorrow!" Dipper replied as he tried his best to reign in his elation. For the past few months Stan and Ford had been sailing the Atlantic in search of Atlantis. For Ford, it was of course a purely scientific endeavor; his hope that he would be the first to confirm the location of the long lost civilization. Stan, on the other hand, wanted to find the great riches that his twin brother had often mentioned. Mabel and Pacifica perked up at the news that their Grand-Uncles would soon be back in Gravity Falls. "Nice! This place was starting to feel a little dull without those old codgers around…" Wendy said with a smile.
The now possessed body of Baron Gleeful rose from the floor and looked at the white haired young lady who stood before him. "I-Is it really you? After all this time?" he asked in a hopeful tone. "Indeed, brother. Sorry about the wait. My other vessel met a quite unfortunate demise before I could gather an appropriate vessel for you to inhabit" Ariel replied. Walking over to a mirror, the otherworldly being took in his newfound appearance. "This is the best you could do?" he said in an incredulous tone. "I know it's not ideal, but it will work for our purposes until we can regain our strength" the white haired teen responded. "I suppose it will have to do…" Baron relented. "It's time to hit the books and begin to form our plan of attack. From what I've gathered, this dimension is fairly similar to our home. Still, something here feels different. It's not unlike the sensation I had when we first arrived in Mewn-" she began before being cut off by her sibling. "Don't you dare say the name of that place ever again!" Baron exclaimed while shooting an icy stare at his sister. "I-I'm sorry… I didn't mean to upset you. I almost lost you there is all. I had a bad feeling then and I'm sensing it once more. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't have made it that day" the demon explained. "I understand your reservations, but this is good ol' Gravity Falls, a place we've conquered over a dozen times before. It will be a piece of cake" Baron reassured the white haired girl. "Alright then, let's start…" the young woman said with a smile as she pulled up a chair and the pair began to study the ancient tome.
"Here you go Sixer!" Stan said as he placed a large mug of beer in front of his brother and took a seat beside him. It had been a long and fruitless journey, yet the siblings found solace in the fact that at least they got to spend some more time together on the high seas. "Thanks, Stanley…" he replied before taking a large swig of the golden-hued drink. "Something seems like it's got you down. Anything you wanna talk about bro?" Stan asked before having a sip of his beer. "I just have this bad feeling that I can't shake. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to get back to Gravity Falls and see everyone, but I feel as though it's going to be a working vacation for us…" the red sweater clad man remarked before picking up the mug and downing nearly half of its contents. "Really? How do you figure?" Stan asked. "Dipper's emails have me a little concerned. He mentioned how Pacifica's been reading the book she found in the woods pretty much nonstop. She already learned some spells and he thinks the magic is changing her appearance. If it's the book I'm thinking of, then it's just one big trap; nothing more than a ruse to reel someone in and have them conjure a being from the mindscape into our reality" Ford said in an increasingly frustrated tone before lifting his mug to his lips, swallowing the remaining alcohol and slamming it down to the well-worn table below. "Well, even if that's the case, there's nothing we can do about it right now, so I say we let future Stan and Ford worry about that. For now, we'll celebrate the end of our latest trip and the start of our next!" Stan said in an encouraging tone. "To our next great adventure!" Ford said as the expression changed on his face and he held his empty beer mug up to meet that of his brother's.
Author's Note: Okay, so I know that it's been a minute, but life has been absolutely crazy for me lately. Rest assured that I will continue to update this story and together we will reach a thrilling conclusion to the Shooting Star Falls AU. Your reviews, DM's and FanArt are awesome and they mean a lot to me. I know things are really tough for pretty much everyone around the world at the current moment, so I hope that I'm able to help entertain you for even a few brief moments as we try to get through this thing. Ok, so onto the story. What's next for the demons that possess the bodies of both Ariel and Baron Gleeful? When will Pacifica realize that the spellbook has been stolen and who will she suspect as the thief? Can Mabel truly move on from what happened at the party or was she just putting on a brave front for her family? How will things change when Stan and Ford return to Gravity Falls? How much more can Wendy take? Answers to all of this and more in the next installment of Tales Of The Flame & The Ax. Until then, I wish you all well. -iKLOT
My Playlist For This Chapter:
Foo Fighters – "Arlandria"
The Hu / From Ashes To New – "Yuve Yuve Yu"
Royal Bliss – "Paranoid" (Made me think of Wendy and how she's feeling all the pressure on her as signs all point to impending doom)
FINNEAS – "Let's Fall In Love For The Night"
Jp Saxe Ft. Julia Michaels – "If The World Was Ending"
The Weeknd – "Blinding Lights"
Jet – "Look At What You've Done"
Eminem ft. Juice WRLD – "Monster"
We Came As Romans – "Carry The Weight"
Winnetka Bowling League – "CVS" (Made me think of how Pacifica feels about Trey)
The Black Keys – "Shine A Little Light"
Pacifica Pines' Apocalypse Mix (A.K.A. Siren Songs of the End Times):
The Strokes – "Bad Decisions"
Cage The Elephant – "Black Madonna"
Ashe – "Moral Of The Story"
While She Sleeps – "Anti-Social"
Slipknot – "Nero Forte"
Metallica – "Spit Out The Bone"
Rival Sons – "Shooting Stars"
The Used – "Paradise Lost, A Poem By John Milton"
P.O.D. – "Youth Of The Nation" (Yes I like old school rock too!)
The Official Shooting Star Falls AU Reading Order:
P1). Underage Discoveries On A Reckless Night: A Shooting Star Falls Prequel
1). A Shooting Star Falls
2). Echoes Of A Nearby Future: A Shooting Star Falls Story
3). Scarred Summer: A Shooting Star Falls Story
4). The Dark Days Of Candy Chiu: A Shooting Star Falls Story
5). Forever Memories: A Shooting Star Falls Story
6). Stable Times Or A Wild Ride?: A Shooting Star Falls Story
7). Grenda's Confession: A Shooting Star Falls Story
8). Birthday Weirdness In The Rose City: A Shooting Star Falls Story
9). The Gift Of Forever: A Shooting Star Falls Story
10). Life In Transit: A Shooting Star Falls Story
11). The Moment: A Shooting Star Falls Story
12). Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story