Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story

Part Thirty-Two: Minutes To Midnight

After a meal at Greasy's, the Pines family returned home. Stan and Ford were sitting at the dining room table, passing the time by playing a game of cards as they waited for them to arrive. "Mabel! It's good to see you again!" Ford remarked as he got up from his wooden chair and walked over to the teen girl. "Good to see you too Grand Grunkle Ford!" the redhead said as she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug. "You had us scared there for a second, pumpkin..." Stan said before taking another sip of his Pitt Cola. "I'm sorry Grand Grunkle Stan. I'm better now though!" she replied. The group moved to the living room, where Ford had assembled the weapons he had revealed to Wendy, Dipper and Pacifica the previous night. "Sweet! Laser tag guns!" Mabel said as she went to reach for one of the firearms. Wendy grabbed the forearm of her daughter and stopped her dead in her tracks. "These aren't toys, honey. They're for fighting the Magic Killers" the thirty-six year old woman said in a serious tone.

The afternoon consisted of the family discussing strategy for taking on the interdimensional dream demons. They then went for a short walk in the woods before arriving at a makeshift shooting range that the elder Pines twins had assembled earlier that morning. "Even though we've gone over the fact that these are only to be used as a last resort, it's still important that you know how to use these weapons" Ford said as he stood in front of the group. Wendy picked up the plastic firearm and closely examined it. Much to her surprise, it had more weight to it than she had figured for a what appeared to be nothing more than a piece of plastic. Ford was quick to notice the look on the ginger woman's face. "I weighted them so that they'd be more in line with a traditional gun, seeing as how most of you have experience with them" the elderly man explained. "Makes sense..." Wendy replied. Much to his surprise, the two teenage girls weren't half bad, while their mother seemed like she had never shot a gun before in her life. Wendy let out a sigh and placed the futuristic firearm down. "You alright, honey?" Dipper asked with concern. "I don't like guns. You know that. I haven't even fired one since... well, you know..." the thirty-six year old said in a sullen tone; her husband immediately understanding her. "Wen, it's fine. If you wanna go back to the house, that's oka-" the chestnut haired man began to say before being cut off. "NO. I need to get over this. Claire and I have talked a lot about just this sort of thing. The only way to overcome my fear is face it head on... In a safe and controlled environment, of course" Wendy interjected. Picking up the gun with trembling hands, she aimed at the target and fired. It missed wildly and struck a tree to the left of it, causing a few startled birds to take flight. "C'mon, man! I mean, dude, you got the marksmanship award at the academy. Dad gave me a hunting rifle for my sixth birthday. This should be easy as hell. Focus. Yeah, I've totally got this..." she thought to herself before taking a deep breath and once again aiming at the wooden target. She pulled the trigger and closed her eyes. After a moment she opened them to see that she had hit a perfect bullseye. "Great job Wendy!" Dipper said as he wrapped her up in a hug from behind. A small smirk formed on the freckled face of the former police officer; all the fears and apprehension washing away from her as she continued to look at her perfect shot.

"Tonight we make our move, brother dearest... We just have to lure them to the spot we picked out. It'll be great! It's so deep in the forest that nobody will hear their screams of absolute terror. Then... It's business as usual" the white haired teenager said to her sibling. "I still don't have a good feeling about this. Call it intuition or whatever, but this time just feels different to me" Mason Gleeful said. "I mean, sure, their versions of Pacifica and myself are dead and all, but that will only make it easier to achieve our goals. You worry too much. Things will work out just like they always do..." Mabel said in a dismissive tone. "And if they don't?" Mason shot back. "Well, then I suppose we'll figure it out. We always do..." she replied. "Did you forget about Mewn-" Mason began to respond before being cut off. "Okay! Things almost always work out for us. If on the off chance that you're actually right for once in your life, we'll do what we did then" she relented. The fact that both had come up against a series of foes that they could not defeat were not lost on her, but she always figured that it was because of the fact that it was an entirely new set of dimensions they had tried to take on, rather than the familiar ones from their own home dimensions. "Let's just hope that it doesn't come to that... We barely escaped with our lives" her brother pointed out in a sobering tone as the pair began to mentally prepare themselves for what was about to transpire. A short while later, the pair left the abandoned cabin and set their plan into motion.

The Pines family sat down at the dinner table as the sun began to set; the dining room bathed in its brilliant golden light. Wendy had just taken a sip of water when she heard her phone ring in the living room. One rule that the family had set long ago was to leave all phones, tablets and computers in the living room while eating dinner. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that this was an important call and that she should excuse herself from the table to take it. Walking into the other room, she picked up her phone and saw that it was Tambry calling. "Ugh! I really don't wanna talk to you right now..." she thought to herself as she debated answering it. Letting out a sigh, she chose to receive the call. "Hello?" the ginger woman said. "H-Hey Wendy. Look... I've had some time to think about it and I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I know tha-" Tambry began before her best friend interjected. "It's fine. I know you were just trying to protect me from myself. You just chose a really shitty way to say it..." Wendy said as a small smile broke on her face. She was glad that the two could repair their friendship. "Great! I-I'm glad we could figure things out, but I still need to say it to your face. Meet me at the water tower in an hour?" the purple haired woman asked. Wendy couldn't quite put her finger on it, but Tambry didn't fully sound like herself. She chalked it up to the fact that she was tired from work or nervous or something. "You don't have to. I accept your app-" the thirty-six year old woman said before being cut off by Tambry. "Please... It would mean a lot to me if you did..." she insisted to her best friend. "Alright then. Let me just finish dinner and I'll head up that way. Sound good?" Wendy replied. "Sounds great. See you soon. Please be safe. On your ride up, that is! Be safe on your ride up here! The roads are pretty dangerous this time of day! That's totally what I meant! Okay! See you soon! Bye!" the reporter said before abruptly ending the call.

Wendy walked back into the kitchen and sat back down at the dinner table. Dipper could tell that something was bothering her. "Everything alright?" he asked before reaching for a breadstick. "Yeah. That was Tambry. She apologized for what she said to me. She wants to meet up in a little bit to say it to my face for some reason. I don't know... It just felt kinda weird. Like she was trying to say something else the entire time. Maybe I'm just reading into things too much. I mean, this town does tend to make us paranoid about every little thing..." Wendy said before taking a sip of flavored water. "I can come with you if you want..." her husband replied. "Nah. Like I said, it's probably nothing" she said. "So you and Aunt Tambry are good?" Mabel asked from across the table. "Yeah. It was just a misunderstanding. Besides, she's my best friend. She may say and do some things that really get under my skin sometimes, but at the end of the day we always talk about it and make up" her mother explained. The rest of the dinner was spent discussing how their impromptu target practice had gone. Mabel and Pacifica were a little disappointed with their performance, but Ford quickly reminded them that it was their first time using the weapon and that practice would make perfect. It was moments like these where Dipper could see how his late sister had helped to change their Great Uncle. The man they had met back in the late summer of 2012 would have agreed with them that they were terrible shots and broke down their mechanics step by step to show them where they had messed up. Instead, he now was more positive and encouraging. Wendy watched her husband as he observed the interactions between his daughters and Stanford; happy that everyone seemed to be in a really good place at the moment.

"I didn't buy it..." Mabel Gleeful said after ending the call and pulling the phone away from Tambry's face. "Yeah. It seemed kind of unnatural if you ask me..." Mason agreed as he walked over to the bound reporter and slapped her hard across the face. "I-I did what you asked! Can you please just let me go?!"" the purple haired woman pleaded as tears ran down her red-hot cheeks. "And let you miss all the fun that we're about to have? I'd be a pretty bad host if I were to do that, now wouldn't I?" the white haired teenager said. Tambry was furious with herself for having been duped by the young woman. It had started with the promise of an exclusive interview with Dr. Jennifer McGuckett and now looked to end with her witnessing the death of her best friend. "Why? Why are you doing this? Do you have any idea what kind of hell Wendy has already been through?" Tambry asked; her voice dripping with a mixture of fear and anger. "Well, at the risk of becoming another cliché trope, I'll explain. I feel as though I do owe as much as that to you and well, you are a reporter after all" Mabel said with a chuckle as she sat down on the ground and began to tell the tale of her life. As she went on, Tambry began to understand the twisted mindset of the multidimensional demon and she could see why the young woman and her companion could turn out the way that they did. Still, she thought that there must be a better way for them to achieve their goals than to destroy their world in an unquenchable thirst for power.

Wendy sat down in her trusty sport utility vehicle as she began the drive to the water tower. She wondered why her best friend had chosen such a remote location, but figured that she had been doing a story out that way and that it was a matter of convenience for her. Turning up the radio, she drowned out her nagging thoughts with the sounds of an old rock song. Back at the Pines residence, Dipper had just finished cleaning up the kitchen from their meal. "Something bugging you, kid?" a gravelly voice asked. "Yeah. It's just that Wendy said that Tambry didn't sound like herself. What if one of those demons have inhabited her body and used it to lure Wendy into a trap?" he replied in a worried tone. "If you think that might be the case, you should probably head up there just to make sure that things are on the up and up" Stan said before cracking open a beer. "Tell the girls that I ste-" the chestnut haired man began to say to his Great Uncle before another voice interjected. "Tell us what?" Pacifica inquired as her father turned around to see his children now stood before him. "I was gonna go and make sure that your Mom is alright" he told them. "Can we come too?" Mabel asked. "Sure. The more, the merrier" he replied. "Plus, it's always good to have some back-up..." Stan added. "Stanley's right. Although it's probably nothing, you should be prepared incase this is indeed it. Take the weapons just to be sure..." Ford said. "You want to come with us?" Mabel asked her Grand Uncles. "I think we'll stay behind, Pumpkin. Hold down the fort, ya' know..." Stan replied. "That sounds like a good idea" she said. A few minutes later, the trio were on their way as nightfall overtook Gravity Falls, Oregon.

Author's Note: I finally got some time to finish this chapter! Sorry about the wait. I'll try to have the next one out before the end of the year, but no promises. Thanks for all the awesome reviews, follows, DM's and fanart! You all rock and provide some well needed motivation! Anyway, we're really getting close to the end here, but much like the roads of Gravity Falls there are still a few more twists and turns in the Tales Of The Flame & The Ax. Will Wendy be able to rescue her best friend? Will the Magic Killers plan succeed? And just what will happen when Dipper and the girls are thrown into the mix? Answers to all of these questions and more in the next installment. Until then... -iKLOT

Playlist for this chapter:

Broken Bells - "The High Road"

Catfish And The Bottlemen - "Longshot"

Rezz, Grabbitz - "Someone Else"

Nothing But Thieves - "Real Love Song"

The Killers - "Caution"

Kings Of Leon - "Waste A Moment"

The Killers - "When You Were Young"