A cloud of smoke grew above the blazing flames that spread throughout the interior of the Old West train. The explosion had blown it partially off track, allowing it to lay on its side slightly.

In the near distance, the crowd of train passengers watched with their mouths agape. Most stunned out of everybody were Dipper, Mabel, and Big Giddy as they stood the front line of the crowd, taking in most of the heat of the flames out of everyone who stood by.

"He's… he's gone," Dipper said in disbelief.

"I can't believe it…" Mabel said, echoing his tone.

"Neither can I…" Giddy said, shaking his head.

A brief moment of silence ensued before Giddy's dumbfounded expression suddenly lit up with a wide smile.

"WOOOOOOOO-WE!" Giddy jubilantly whooped, clicking his heels together as he jumped in the air. "I DID IT! I KILLED SHERIFF DEAD-EYE! I WON!"

Dipper and Mabel's eyes darted down to Giddy as he continued to cheer and cackle remorselessly, even breaking out into a little dance in which he wiggled his hips back and forth while kicking his feet.

"Ahhh, a feud that's lasted two years!" Giddy continued as he began to calm down. "Two whole years of bullet rain and chases all around the Pacific Northwest! He always said he'd go out with a bang. WELL, HOW'S THAT FOR A BANG, SHERIFF?! HAHAAAA!"

"You have problems, dude," Dipper said.

"Big time," Mabel agreed.

"Yes. Yes, I do," Giddy nodded.

"Mabel, what have we done?" Dipper asked worriedly. "Our involvement here in the past has led to the ancestors of Ghost-Eyes and Toby getting killed! They might not exist in our present now!"

"Oh my god… this is terrible!" Mabel said with growing horror. "As much as Toby's face makes my skin crawl, I can't imagine going back to our Gravity Falls without it!"

"Not just that. Who knows just how important their future existence is? The changes we may have set in motion might've completely altered our present!"

"Welp, I have no idea what you two are talking about!" Giddy carelessly cut in. "So I think I'll just take my victory in stride and mosey on outta here while I still got the chance. However, you're free to come with me if you like."

"Why would we want anything to do with you after you just killed our only ally?" Dipper asked.

"Not you, boy!" Giddy said, shooting him a look that softened up as he turned to Mabel. "I'm talking to the sweet ol' peach standin' right beside you."

Mabel immediately caught his inviting eyes, to which she sighed exhaustedly. "Why does my beauty continue to curse me?"

"In any case, I don't got my horse right now, so I think I'll just be strollin' off into the sunset instead," Giddy said as he began to casually walk away from the scene.

"Not so fast, Giddy!"

Heads turned in the direction of the call of what sounded like Sheriff Dead-Eye's booming voice. And as if on cue, a figure promptly lept out from the inside of the train's flaming remains. Everyone looked up in awe, watching as Sheriff Dead-Eye himself soared above, his long hair flowing in the wind behind him while he looked to also have something tucked within his arms.

He soon landed effortlessly on his feet with a striking pose in front of everybody. Though he moved with grace, his appearance was nowhere near as graceful. The explosion did not leave him unscathed, as both his skin and clothes were marked heavily by burns. His sleeves had completely burnt off with red-hot embers drifting away from their burning edges. With his sleeves gone, his arms were on full display, showcasing several deep, red burns all around them that almost formed distinct shapes. To Dipper and Mabel, it reminded them of the tattoos that present-day Ghost-Eyes had all over his arms.

Still, despite how messed up he looked, he appeared to have no visible reaction to any of the obvious pain that had to come from such injuries. His otherwise mean-looking face remained completely stoic as he continued to stand before everyone, who marveled at his presence.

Everyone except for Giddy, whose eyes bulged in fearful shock at the sight of him. "What the…?!"

"Sheriff Dead-Eye!" Dipper and Mabel said gladly in unison.

"How are you alive?!" Dipper asked.

"It's not the first time I've been blown up," Dead-Eye said.

Dipper stared at him silently for a brief few seconds. "That… that doesn't answer my-"

"Wait! What about Toby?" Mabel cut off.

"You mean this little cretin?" Dead-Eye asked.

Gesturing down to his tucked arms, Dead-Eye pulled one arm away to reveal Wild West-era Toby Determined- alive and completely unscathed by the explosion from the look of it.

Toby glanced down at himself as he lay cradled like a baby within Dead-Eye's massive arms. "Okay, man, this is weird even for me," he awkwardly admitted. "But hooray! I'm alive! Ha-chacha!"

Dead-Eye went ahead and set Toby safely back down on the ground. After a quick stretch, Toby turned back toward Dead-Eye with beaming gratitude as he cupped his hands together.

"Thank you, Sheriff Dead-Eye! You're the best!" he said.

"I have burns of every degree all over me right now because of you. Get the hell out of my sight," Dead-Eye sternly demanded.

"Hyuck, hyuck, hyuck!" Toby hyuck'd as he cleared it off to the side.

"Sheriff Dead-Eye, that was amazing!" Mabel said, running straight up to him alongside Dipper.

"Yeah, man!" Dipper nodded. "You saved Toby! That was really… heroic of you!"

"And you say you're the baddest of the West!" Mabel poked.

"NO! I AM THE BADDEST!" Dead-Eye suddenly scolded despite her light tone. "I can't let this help my reputation! I have to do something bad to balance things out!"

Without hesitation, Dead-Eye drew his revolver from his holster and ran past the twins toward the crowd of train passengers. He made a beeline specifically for an older gentleman standing beside his wife, pointing his gun right at him threateningly.

"YOU! Give me your money! This is a robbery!" Dead-Eye exclaimed.

However, the man stood unfazed, simply scanning him head-to-toe before giving a cheery smile. "Why, look here, Mary! It's the sheriff who risked his life to save that hideous animal! What a brave hero!"

"Why… that he is, Arthur!" said the man's wife.

"WHAT?! I AIN'T NO HERO!" Dead-Eye insisted. "I'm ROBBING you! You see this gun? Being pointed at your face? I will shoot it if you don't give me your money!"

"Ha-haaaaaa! Now ain't you a jokester?" the man chuckled heartily before turning to his wife. "I love this man, Mary! He's everything everyone says he is! He is truly the goodest boah in the West!"

"W-Wha…?" Dead-Eye stuttered while slowly lowering his weapon.

"Hey, everyone!" Arthur called out, turning toward the crowd of passengers. "Let's give Sheriff Dead-Eye a good ol' round of applause for being the hero this county needs!"

As called, the surrounding crowd of train passengers looked in Dead-Eye's direction and broke out into a series of wide smiles, claps, and cheers. Soon, they even began to chant together.

"Dead-Eye! Dead-Eye! Dead-Eye!"

Dead-Eye watched everyone cheer and chant for him in utter horror as his one eye twitched, to which he soon dropped to his knees dramatically.

"No… NO… NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he belted up to the sky.

From further off to the side, Dipper and Mabel simply stood by watching the series of exchanges ensue before them.

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Oh, surrre. He gets applause after trying to rob a guy, yet I never even got a thanks for stopping the train."

"Beggars can't be choosers," Mabel said.

Dipper paused as he looked at her questionably. "…That's not how that saying works."

The two looked up to see Dead-Eye slowly and shamefully walking back up to them, hunched over in defeat. "I'm a failure," he moped.

"Oh, c'mon, Sheriff! You're no failure!" Mabel insisted. "You did a good thing and the people love you for it! You should be proud of what you've done!"

"Well, I ain't!" Dead-Eye shot back. "I never wanted to be loved! I wanted to feared! Hunted! HATED!"

"Then why did you risk your life to save Toby?" Dipper asked.

"Or tell us to get back when the train was about to explode?" Mabel added. "You could've just… you know… not done those things."

"I don't know! I really don't!" Dead-Eye admitted. "Doing good things just comes so naturally to me! It's like an instinct! And every time I try to do something bad, I just can't! And when I can, I STILL do something good! Like running over that robber with my horse! What's WRONG with me?!"

Mabel put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It's called being a good person."

"Well, I hate it!" Dead-Eye said, rejecting her comfort by pulling away. "I only have one person to blame for all of this."

"Yourself?" Dipper guessed.

"NO, HIM!"

Dead-Eye pointed a strong finger right over the twins' heads, to which they immediately looked over their shoulders in the same direction. Instantly, they caught sight of Big Giddy frozen mid-tiptoe as his wide eyes stared right back at the three. Despite how much time had passed since Dead-Eye jumped out of the train, it seemed like Giddy had barely managed to get away further than a few yards from everybody else.

"You know, the fact that I didn't capitalize on the time I had to get away really is my own doing…" Giddy admitted.

Without being given a second more to consider his next move, Giddy was tackled by Dead-Eye, causing him to squeal on his way down to the ground. Right after impact was made, Dead-Eye gripped Giddy by his ankle and held him upside down with his hand, bringing his head up to his eye level.

"YOUUUU!" Dead-Eye screamed threateningly.

"AHH! SHERIFF DEADEYE!" Giddy screamed fearfully as he began to tremble. "C'mon! Y-You know I was just kidding, right? With the dynamite and… t-the whole shooting at you with my gun and all that? Why don't we just let bygones be bygones?"

"I'll unleash my bygones all over YOUR FACE!" Dead-Eye shouted as he held his fist back readily.

"Actually, we'll be unleashing our bygones on all of y'alls faces!" a voice suddenly entered from behind.

Dipper, Mabel, Dead-Eye, Giddy, and everybody else turned their heads to the side, watching a group of seven horseriders pull up to the scene on their steeds. Thinking back to the Gravity Falls saloon, Dipper and Mabel noted how similarly all of the riders looked to the bandits and outlaws they had seen earlier. They wore bandanas around their faces and a mix of similar dark outfits. The sun beat down behind them, enveloping their front sides in shadows that contributed to the already-threatening aura each of the riders brought as they slowly trotted their way toward them.

However, the front rider stood out the most from the rest. He was a bandit with an intimidatingly brawny upper half. Looking up at his face, aside from his bushy walrus mustache, his most notable trait was his bulging, wild eyes that looked ready to pop out from their sockets. Otherwise, he had the usual bandit getup with a hat, white shirt, vest, chaps, and giant boots. Holding his pants up was a belt with a large front buckle with two inscriptions. The subheading inscription read "THE MOST FEARED OUTLAW IN THE WEST", while the heading inscription right above read the man's name.

"Wild Eyes Joe…" Dead-Eye said, narrowing his eye.

"Wild Eyes Joe?" Dipper and Mabel questioned.

"Wild Eyes Joe?!" Giddy repeated timidly.

"AH! It's Wild Eyes Joe!" Toby cried out from the crowd. "Everybody irrelevant - RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

On cue, he and all of the other train passengers made an immediate break for it, running off aimlessly through the desert away from Joe and his approaching gang. Once they had cleared it, the only ones left at the scene were the twins, Dead-Eye, and Giddy.

"Sheriff Dead-Eye…" Wild Eyes Joe acknowledged as he approached the group. "Quite a surprise seeing you out here."

"And what are you doing here, Joe?" Dead-Eye asked.

"Well, we knew Giddy here was robbin' the train. Had to come by and check and see if he pulled it off." Joe turned his head toward the destroyed train before looking back at Giddy as he still hung upside down in Dead-Eye's grasp. "I can see I have my answer."

"You mean…?" Dead-Eye questioned before holding Giddy back up in front of him. "Giddy… you're working for Wild Eyes Joe?! I thought you were a solo rider!"

"I-I am!" Giddy insisted. "I just… I-I fell into a bad situation!"

"You mean an 'owes me money' situation!" Joe corrected. "Now where is it, Giddy?"

"I almost had it, Joe! Honest!" Giddy told him. "I blew up Sheriff Dead-Eye real good! Just look at him!"

"I don't care about the sheriff, Giddy!" Joe dismissed. "I care about you paying the debt you owe me from our game of Go Fish! And if you don't have my money, there's gonna be big trouble."

"Joe, please! If you just give me a bit more time-"

"I've given you more than enough time!" Joe cut off while drawing his revolver from his holster, aiming it right at Giddy. "I shoulda known better than to trust a child with a train robbery! Now, Imma have to put you down…"

"Hey!" Dead-Eye shouted, suddenly letting go and dropping Giddy back onto the dusty desert ground as he stared down Joe. "No one gets to kill the child but me!"

Joe raised an eyebrow. "You wanna die too, Sheriff?"

"Do your worst. I just took an explosion to the face!"

"Well, you ever taken a bullet to the head?" Joe asked, pointing his revolver at him instead.

Dead-Eye paused. "…Admittedly, I have not."

"Leave him alone, Joe!" Dipper's voice suddenly entered.

Joe and his gang members turned each of their heads to the side as Dipper and Mabel confidently moved up and took places to the left and right of Dead-Eye. The twins gave bold-faced stares right up at Joe, who simply grinned at the sight of them.

"Run away while you still can, kiddies. This don't concern you two," he told them.

"We're not 'kiddies', and actually, this does concern us," Dipper maintained.

"What have you done with Blake, Joe?" Mabel asked directly.

Joe's eyes lit up. "Blake? You talkin' about the pocket watch guy from Gravity Falls?"

"Yeah, he's our friend, and we know you and your gang took him!" Mabel continued. "Now where is he?"

Joe lowered his gun as he simply continued to stare at the two ponderingly. "Y'all are friends with Blake, eh?"

"Boss, maybe they also know about that treasure he was talkin' 'bout," one of Joe's men mentioned from the horse beside him.

"Yeah… maybe they do," Joe nodded, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"Wait… treasure?" Dipper questioned, glancing over at Mabel for support.

"We don't know about any treasure," Mabel said with a shake of her head.

"Y'all must be liars. LIARS!" Joe accused, turning to his gang members. "We can't afford to let 'em loose out there if they know about the treasure too. Hogtie 'em. All of 'em."

"Wait, what?!" Dipper questioned.

As ordered, Joe's accompanying gang members drew their lassos out and tossed them around Dipper, Mabel, and Giddy. The ropes immediately tightened around them before they were each pulled back to be hogtied, one by one.

"Woah!" Dipper yelled.

"Hey!" Mabel screamed.

"No!" Giddy yelped.

A lasso was tossed in Dead-Eye's direction as well. However, he managed to catch the rope, gripping it with both hands and tugging hard on it, pulling one of the gang members right off his horse.

"Ha! It's gonna take more than that to hold me down!" Dead-Eye cackled victoriously.

"Oh, I know," Joe said coldly.

With the snap of Joe's fingers, five different lassos got tossed around Dead-Eye at once, each of them immediately tightening and trapping him where he stood.

"OH, COME ON!" Dead-Eye shouted defeatedly.

The same five men who lassoed him got down from their horses and started to tie their ropes up together. Once the knots were finished, they all worked together to lift him from the ground, walking him over to one of the horses, all while Joe watched over everyone.

"Come on. Let's bring 'em back to Calamity," he said, tugging on the reins of his horse and turning the other way to begin riding off.

"Calamity?! Oh good lord, no! No!" Giddy shouted with growing dread as he was lifted by one of the gang members from the ground.

Despite their continued resistance in their subdued states, Dipper, Mabel, and Giddy were hogtied and brought to different gang member horses. Each was then stowed by their stomachs upon the horse's rear end just above their tails.

As Dipper was laid upon the horse, his face was met with a wave of flies that had already been hovering around the horse's tail beforehand. Along with the flies came a nauseating scent that hit his nose immediately, prompting him to stop all air from coming in and out of his nose.

"Oh god, this is disgusting," he said with revulsion.

"When I said I wanted to ride a horse today, this is NOT what I meant!" Mabel cried out with similar feelings as she was set down on the back of her captor's horse.

Once the four were secured on the back of each gang member's horse, the gang members themselves immediately took hold of their reins and began riding off distantly after Joe.

After about a half-hour-long ride, Wild Eyes Joe and his gang members arrived in Calamity Junction. Their fast-riding horses slowed down to slower trots as they passed the town's welcome signpost.

"Welcome to Calamity Junction", the sign read in fancy western-looking writing. It also had large marks and jagged edges, as well as a single bullet hole by the top corner. Embedded in the sign itself looked to be a knife with its blade piercing through the wood out the other side.

The town itself was ghostly and gave off clear signs of abandonment and lawlessness. Several shops appeared looted and emptied, with shattered windows and scattered bullet holes on the walls and doors. The general store particularly looked like it had collapsed at some point in the past, as its walls and roof had fallen completely, leaving a giant messy pile of unattended wood.

The streets themselves were lonely and did not have any other riders outside of Joe and his gang members as they entered. Still, the town wasn't unoccupied. To the sides of the street on top of shaded building porches, different men stood by, watching the gang studiously as they rode into town. Many of them dawned dark clothing and bandanas over their mouths or even rugged, dirtied cowboy outfits that gave off unkempt and sinister vibes as they stared on with bulging, crazy eyes similar to Joe's. Although they all watched Joe and his gang intently, none of them appeared interested in engaging and simply went about themselves despite their menacing vibes.

Joe and his gang members soon came to a stop on their horses right next to some hitching posts in front of a wall of old shops. Each of them got down from the horses, hitching them to their posts. They then walked over toward the backs of four of the horses and lifted their captured victims- Dipper. Mabel, Giddy, and Dead-Eye.

Dipper, Mabel, and Giddy needed no assistance to remove and carry over their shoulders, but five of the gang members were needed to remove and carry Dead-Eye. With the captives in hand, they all began moving them to a large building on a street corner.

Along the way, Mabel continued to squirm and struggle while being held over her captor's shoulder. Despite her lack of success, the captor himself grew irritated with her attempts.

"Quit struggling, kid!" he scolded.

"Quit carrying me!" Mabel shot back.

Her squirming halted as she looked back over the man's shoulder toward one of Joe's gang members appearing to be trying to move a stubborn black horse by tugging on its lead hard and against its will.

"Hey! You there!" Mabel called out to him angrily. "Leave that horse alone!"

The gang member glanced her way and chuckled. "Shut up, girly!" He turned back to the horse and continued to violently tug on the lead as hard as he could to no success. "Move, ya damn thing!"

He then stormed up to the horse and gave it a swift punch at the side of its rear. In retaliation, the horse jumped and turned its body back, using its back foot to kick the member right in the head. The kick was as violent as could be, resulting in an instant KO as his limp body flew off to the side. The horse itself ran off immediately after, much to the dismay of surrounding gang members.

Mabel, however, was exuberant. "HA! Serves you right! Go, girl! Get outta here!"

Before she could talk even more smack toward the gang members, she was taken inside the building with the others. The building was Calamity Junction's saloon, which appeared to be the liveliest building on the whole block. A few dozen bandits and outlaws stood and sat about, watching as Joe and his men slipped by toward a hallway in the back of the saloon while carrying the twins, Giddy, and Dead-Eye.

Upon reaching the hallway, they hey took a turn through a door that led into an empty, disorderly bedroom. Within the room was a set of chairs, some of them flipped over. As the twins, Giddy, and Dead-Eye were taken inside, the gang members rearranged the chairs and put them upright before forcing each of them down into chairs. As they were held down by some of the men, others got behind and further tied each of them to their chairs.

For Dead-Eye specifically, it took five different knot patterns to secure him down to his seat, much to his amusement.

"Ya know, the fact that it takes five of you to hold me down is really embarrassing for you guys. Just so you know," he remarked.

"I wanna go home!" Giddy shouted, trembling within his chair. "My life wasn't supposed to turn out this way!"

"You and me both, kid," Dead-Eye said.

Joe pulled the last available chair in the room over and set it in front of the twins. He casually sat down in it backward as he looked between them.

"Alright, I ain't got the time for games here," he began, pulling his revolver out and having it ready in hand. "Y'all best tell me everything you know about that treasure or else we're gonna be making a real mess in here."

"We already told you! We don't know anything about any treasure!" Dipper spoke out.

"Gee, between old-timey letters and treasure, there's a lot we're getting accused of knowing about that we don't actually know about," Mabel realized aloud.

"Don't play dumb with me now. If you two are friends with Blake, there ain't no way you two don't know about the treasure," Joe pushed.

"Did we say we were friends with Blake?" Mabel asked disingenuously. "What we meant to say was we're not friends with Blake. Therefore, he has no reason to tell us about any treasure! Why would he if he wasn't our friend? Am I right, guys?"

Dead-Eye shrugged. "Makes perfect sense to me."

"I think I'm getting rope burn," Giddy uncomfortably stated.

"Well, if you ain't his friend, why are you going after him then?" Joe asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because we, uhh… wanted a pocket watch repaired and he's the best one in town to do it!" Dipper said on a whim.

"Oh, yeah?" Joe questioned.

He then dug a hand into his pocket and pulled out what looked to be a gold pocket watch. Or at least the remains of one, as pieces of the watch were scattered among the palm of his hand as he held it out to them.

"Does this look repaired to you?!"

"No, it doesn't. Which is exactly why we need Blake. Why don't you get him to fix it?" Mabel suggested.

"You stupid little girl… BLAKE did this!"

"Oh." She paused for a moment. "Ohhhh…"

"That stammering idiot was supposed to fix 'er up for me a few days ago when I came in" Joe explained. "Had a buyer lined up to sell it to, but when I came in to pick it up, this is what we found after he tried to scam me with a fake! Gone was the money I could've made off this beauty. I was so mad, I was ready to kill him right then and there."

"So why didn't you?" Dipper asked.

"He begged for his life. Said if I let him live, he'd show me where to find something called the Time Pirates' Treasure."

"Time Pirates' Treasure…?" Dipper repeated.

"I've never heard of such a thing, but he insists that it's the greatest treasure ever known. And if it exists, then I want it. So you're gonna tell me - does it exist and where do I go to find it? And your answer better match what Blake told me… or else…"

Click.

Dipper looked at the revolver in Joe's hand, watching as he cocked the hammer threateningly. From their position, he knew there was little they could do, and he had no particular idea of what to say or how to go about their situation so they could make it out alive. He glanced at Mabel, giving her a look that she knew said he was out of ideas.

Taking a few seconds to think, something eventually came to mind for her though. She turned her head back and forth around the room like she was looking out for someone. She then leaned forward a bit in her seat

"Okay. Come closer…" she whispered to Joe.

"Ooh. Secretive, ain't we?" Joe remarked as he leaned his ear over to her. "Well, don't mind if I-"

Ptooey!

As Joe leaned in, Mabel promptly spat a direct shot in his face.

"AGH!" Joe yelped, immediately pulling away as he wiped a hand over his mouth.

"Eat spit, sucka!" Mabel taunted without remorse.

Joe wiped his face again on his sleeve until it was clean of her spit, to which he soon began to growl. "That's it! You've wasted ENOUGH of my time! I'LL KILL YOU NOWWWWW!"

He shot up from his chair, immediately raising his revolver as he aimed it at Mabel's head.

Dipper shot her a look. "Mabel, that was poorly thought out."

"I'm starting to see that," she admitted.

"Wait, boss!" a gang member suddenly intervened, putting a hand on Joe's shoulder. "Don't! We can still use 'em."

"What are you on about?" Joe asked, maintaining his aim.

"Look at all of 'em- two kids, a sheriff, and a well-known outlaw? We can hold 'em all for ransom in the face of the government. Think of how much money they could make us."

Joe stared at the four of them for a moment before slowly lowering his gun the more he thought about it.

"You might be right. Especially if finding this treasure with Blake goes nowhere, having a backup plan may be for the best."

He pondered the idea for a minute more, thinking of all the ins and outs before grinning a bit. Soon enough, he spun his revolver in hand before holstering it again.

"Y'all got lucky with your lives," he told them. "But best not play with them again or it'll be the end of them."

After paying each of them the same threatening stare, he turned around and gestured toward the door for his men, which they all started leaving through.

"Wait, where are you guys going?" Dipper asked.

"What's gonna happen with us?" Mabel also asked.

"Well, I got a treasure to find with Blake before sundown," Joe said, stopping at the doorway to look back at them. "Meanwhile, y'all get cozy. Cause you ain't going anywhere till I get back to ransom y'all off."

"Ransom?!" Dipper questioned.

"You won't get away with this, Joe!" Mabel shouted while jerking her whole body within her chair.

"Ha!" Joe chuckled while gripping the doorknob. "I've been getting away clean for over a decade now. And that sure ain't stopping today because of you folks."

SLAM!

With the door slammed shut, Dipper, Mabel, Giddy, and Dead-Eye were left on their own in the bedroom, tied down to their chairs.

"Ransom?!" Giddy repeated nervously. "I-I don't wanna be held for ransom!"

"To hell with that," Dipper said. "C'mon, guys. We need to get out of here so we can stop them! Start pulling!"

Dipper began trying to pull his arms and legs apart from one another within his tight ropes while jerking around in the chair. Mabel and Giddy soon followed along and did the same. The struggle continued for a good moment, but the only result was the worsening discomfort of rope burn rather than any step closer toward freedom.

After a minute, Dipper turned his head at the other end of the room where Dead-Eye was, watching as he sat completely still without even making the slightest attempt at trying to get loose.

"Sheriff, c'mon! We need you to help us here!" Dipper called out.

"Why would I help? My whole deal is not being a hero," Dead-Eye replied.

"What?! But you've already helped and been a hero multiple times today! Why are you so morally inconsistent?!"

"I don't know, okay?!" Dead-Eye confessed. "Since I was a kid, I've always wanted to be the villain. But the harder I try to be bad, the more good I naturally do. So I'm just not gonna try anymore. I'm gonna just sit here until I either die or Joe sells me to a circus or something."

"But I don't get it. What is it that's so wrong about being good?" Mabel asked.

"It's not that it's wrong. I just get no gratification outta doing good things for others," Dead-Eye continued. "You realize as you get older what completes you and what doesn't. What completes me… is making others miserable. That's why I've let Giddy get away so many times. I coulda killed him any time I wanted before, but if I did, I'd lose the one person in my life who I got to truly make suffer on a regular basis."

"Dead-Eye… I had no idea you felt such a way about me. I'm so… touched," Giddy said with glistening eyes as he looked up at him. "And ENRAGED! All this time, I thought I had been managing to get away from you clean! But you've just been letting me get away?"

"Well, duh. I've shot your hat off like a dozen times," Dead-Eye reminded. "You'd think I would eventually learn how to shoot a few inches lower by now."

Giddy blankly stared at him as he processed his words. "Wow. Just… Wow."

"Anyway, sorry, you two," Dead-Eye said, turning back to the twins. "I may have come all this way, but I'm bowing out now."

"But what about Joe? What about proving to him he isn't the baddest?" Mabel reminded.

"Well, maybe he is the baddest," Dead-Eye sadly accepted as he stared at the floor. "I mean, it surely can't be me after being called a hero so many times. And if I stop him, then that'll just make me even more of a hero. There ain't any winning in my position."

Despite all they had come to learn and see in the day, neither Dipper nor Mabel had a clear understanding of where Dead-Eye stood morally. Despite his apparent desire to be bad, his actions were more rooted in good, whether he liked it or not.

Still, if he took no interest in that role, convincing him to turn over a new leaf completely didn't sound like the most effective route.

Dipper sighed. "Look, Sheriff- Mabelton and I still have a friend who needs saving. So if you don't want to be the hero that stops Wild Eyes Joe, then you don't have to be."

"Yeah, Dippity and I will handle him ourselves," Mabel nodded in agreement.

"But if we're gonna have any chance at doing so, we need to get out of here first," Dipper continued. "We know you don't wanna help people anymore, but like you said, we've already come this far. Can you at least help us this one last time?"

Though it took a moment, Dead-Eye soon looked back up at the twins, glancing between both of their sets of hopeful eyes staring right at him. His mouth shifted back with brief hesitation as he thought over their words.

"Fine," he gave in, to which the twins smiled gratefully. "If I have to do one last act of heroism, it may as well be for you two. As long as you promise not to tell anyone about this!"

"Our lips are sealed," Mabel assured.

Dead-Eye paused. "I don't know what a seal has to do with this but whatever."

RIIIP!

With seemingly no effort, Dead-Eye immediately ripped through his multi-knotted ropes and hogtie with sheer strength as he stood up from his chair and back onto his feet. The twins and Giddy paid him dumbfounded stares as he brushed off his arms from the rope burn.

"What the…?!" Giddy questioned. "It was that easy for you to escape all this time?!"

"Kid, I survived a train explosion. If you think being tied to a weak wooden chair is gonna hold me down, you got another thing coming," Dead-Eye replied.

He walked over to Dipper and Mabel's chairs. Gripping one hand around each of their ropes, he pulled and ripped them clean off without struggle, instantly freeing the two, much to their continued disbelief.

"Wow, uhh… thanks," Dipper said, still having trouble fathoming the sheriff's strength.

"Don't mention it," Dead-Eye nodded. "Seriously, don't or I'll shoot you."

"Already noted," Dipper said as he stood up from his seat. "Now c'mon!"

The three of them quickly made their way up to the door of the room, just about entirely ignoring the fact that Giddy was still tied to his chair behind them.

"Wait! What about me?!" Giddy called out.

"Why would I free you? You're my greatest enemy, Dead-Eye reminded.

"Plus, you literally tried to kill us all earlier," Dipper brought up.

"Also, you're a creep," Mabel added.

"W-Wha…?" Giddy stuttered. "B-But I thought we were all on the same side now!"

"No," Dipper said.

"Not at all," Mabel shook her head.

"Where the hell did you get that idea?" Dead-Eye asked.

"Look, what I did to y'all earlier was just a job! Ain't nothing personal!" Giddy defended. "The truth is- I don't like Wild Eyes Joe any more than y'all do! So, surely I can be some type of help!"

Though none of the three looked particularly convinced, none of them spoke out against the idea further. Instead, Dipper put a hand on the doorknob and twisted it, opening the door slightly to peek outside the room.

Back down the hall was the saloon, and unsurprisingly, it wasn't any less packed than it was before. Looking around the rest of the hall, it didn't look like their options for escape were any more plentiful.

"Well, going through the saloon looks like our only way out of here," Dipper said to the others. "But that means having to pass by all of those other outlaws and members of Joe's gang. And they'll surely recognize us if they see us leaving."

"Aha! So y'all are in need of a distraction then so you can get by unnoticed? Well, IIIII have just the distraction that'll do the trick!" Giddy confidently offered.

Dipper, Mabel, and Dead-Eye once again exchanged hesitant looks with one another.

"What do you guys think?" Dipper asked.

"I say we toss him in the middle of the saloon, then sneak out while they beat the crap outta him," Dead-Eye suggested.

"I am mostly not against that!" Mabel said with a smile.

"AW, COME ON!" Giddy hollered.

Dipper sighed reluctantly. "Alright, Giddy. We'll give you a shot. But this distraction of yours better be worth the trouble."

Giddy's face lit up enthusiastically. "Ain't gonna be no trouble from my end! Trust me. Just let me work my magic!"

In the saloon, Joe's gang members along with various other outlaws and bandits filled every table. Many were rowdily talking or downing drinks at the main bar. An intense game of Go Fish was also taking place at one of the tables. All the while, a one-eyed, scowling piano player sat in the corner uninterestedly playing usual saloon ragtime tunes.

Everyone's attention was kept to their own conversations or other ongoing engagements, which meant no one caught sight of Giddy casually stepping out from the hallway, making his way up onto a small stage set up in the back center of the room. Dipper, Mabel, and Dead-Eye poked their heads out from the hallway, subtly watching out for the planned distraction.

As he stood on the stage, he walked up to the center edge in front of everyone, who still had yet to notice him.

"Howdy there, everybody!" he merrily greeted with an innocent wave.

Every head in the saloon collectively turned at once toward the stage where he stood. Silent confusion was the immediate reaction for a good moment. But it soon passed as Giddy's face became recognizable.

"Big Giddy!" a lone gang member called out.

Eyes narrowed on every outlaw's face and just about every single gun in the saloon was drawn and aimed directly at him, who immediately raised his hands in response.

"Wowee. Quite the welcome party…" he remarked.

"You have some nerve showing up here again," another gang member said. "The only way you walk off that stage alive is if you have Joe's money."

"Heheh…" Giddy awkwardly chuckled. "Well, you see… the funny thing about that is I almost had it but then-"

"Almost?!" the gang member repeated. "You mean you don't have it then?"

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

The sounds of revolver hammers being cocked made their way throughout the saloon, signifying Giddy's life was a mere trigger pull away from being ended at any point.

Dipper, Mabel, and Dead-Eye continued to hang back in the hallway, each with a growing sense of dread the longer they spectated.

Dipper facepalmed. "This was a mistake."

"Told ya we should've just tossed him in and snuck off," Dead-Eye said.

Giddy gulped as he continued to stand on stage silently, mentally choosing his next words. Despite his circumstances, he made sure to keep his cool the best he could. With a good breath in through his nose, he silently exhaled through his mouth.

"Listen, gentlemen…" he began. "We can either do this the easy way…"

Suddenly, he did a full 360-degree twirl on the stage, stopping to face the outlaws again with a banjo in hand and a beaming smile.

"...or the FUN way!"

The outlaws and gang members continued to stare and aim their guns up at Giddy, but now with newfound confusion. Murmurs ensued throughout the saloon until Giddy started strumming and picking a folksy tune.

And to everyone's surprise, it sounded more than decent. In fact, it sounded so good that the collective confusion of the outlaws increased to the point of guns being lowered.

Dipper and Mabel watched Giddy showcase his banjo-playing for everyone, both of them having no less surprise than everyone else in the saloon. When wondering what type of distraction Giddy had in mind, this surely wasn't it. Even if it made too much sense, knowing their Gideon.

Dead-Eye simply raised an eyebrow. "Wait, where the hell was he even keeping that thing?"

"Who cares? His chops are winning them over!" Mabel pointed out.

"Mabel's right," Dipper nodded. "Now's our chance! Let's sneak our way out of here!"

The three of them began to creep out from the hallway, sneaking close to the wall as they walked through the crowded saloon. Despite how easily noticeable they were, everybody seemed too fixated on Giddy's banjo-playing to pay them any mind, making their sneak away as easy as could be as long as they made no effort to stand out.

As Giddy continued playing, he walked up to the edge of the stage to look down upon all the outlaws. "Now, I dedicate this number to my least favorite person in the world - the sheriff of Gravity Falls!"

Dead-Eye stopped in place behind Dipper and Mabel as he heard this, turning his head toward the stage in confusion. "Huh?"

Giddy gleefully pointed to the corner of the room. "Hit it, piano player!"

The scowling piano player in the saloon's corner raised an eyebrow as Giddy called upon him. He looked back at Giddy with slight befuddlement for a brief second before just shrugging his arms acceptingly. After a quick knuckle crack, he tapped his fingers against the keys and began playing along to Giddy's upbeat, fast-paced folk tune.

As Giddy turned his body back toward the crowd, he began bouncing his knees along to his self-imposed tempo. Once ready, he opened his mouth to sing:

Oh, I hate you, and you hate me

We're bound to hate each other for this long eternity!

And if it ain't so wrong, then I'll sing it in a song!

I'd gladly watch your corpse drag down the road tied to a horrrrrse!

"Oh, is that so?"

Giddy turned back around and immediately noticed that Dead-Eye now shared the stage with him. He towered right over him menacingly with a strong look of disapproval. Still, despite not anticipating his sudden presence, Giddy didn't let it interrupt his playing and just kept the tune going.

"Hey, wait, ain't that the sheriff of Gravity Falls?" a bandit questioned from a table, beginning a new wave of questionable looks being sent up toward the stage.

"Why, yes it is!" Giddy replied spontaneously. "Ain't that something? Now I get to tell him just how much I hate him!"

"Well, I think I could hate you more than that!" Dead-Eye wagered.

Giddy shot him a daring look. "I'd like to see you try!"

"I will!" Dead-Eye shouted. "Stand back!"

He walked over to the side of the stage where an unoccupied washtub bass stood. He pressed a foot down on top of the tub as he leaned in and began plucking away at the bass's single string, joining right in under Giddy and the piano player's tune, much to everyone's surprise.

After a deep breath, he turned toward the crowd and opened his mouth:

Try to take me down a peg and I'll take you down from three

You call yourself a threat 'cause you're your own worst enemy

Your toughness is a lie, and I've seen it with my eye

You got no guts or brains and if you do, I'll bring 'em paaaain-sssssss?

With a beaming smile, Giddy shuffled his way over with his banjo to Dead-Eye's washtub bass to join him vocally:

Cause I want you dead

Yes, I want you dead

And if only you could see what's in my head

There's an image of you choking on some lead

But you're here instead

Oh, I want you dead

Dead-Eye - From a speeding bullet

Giddy - Or hit by a train

Dead-Eye - Or hung by the neck

Giddy - Or killed in a wreck

Dead-Eye - Or lit on fire

Giddy - Or stabbed with a wire

Dead-Eye - How about with a knife?

Giddy - Well that's not nice

Dead-Eye - You started it first

Giddy - And you're just the worst

Dead-Eye - No, you

Giddy - No, you

Dead-Eye - No, you!

Giddy - No, you!

Dead-Eye - No, YOU!

Giddy - No, YOU!

Dead-Eye - NO, YOU!

Giddy - NO, YOU!

After getting in one another's faces for their back-and-forth exchange, they suddenly posed back-to-back with one another as they both sang:

No, youuuuuu!

With a last banjo strum and bass string pluck played in unison, the two threw their hands up in the air for one final pose to cap off their number.

"Yeah!" the two of them finished.

They held their pose on the stage for a good minute, breathing and sweating heavily while trying to maintain their performative smiles as best they could.

However, they received no immediate reaction from the crowded saloon. All they received for that long moment were long, emotionless stares and a deafening silence. Dipper and Mabel even stood by about halfway in their path toward the door just staring up at the two while nervously monitoring the saloon's lack of a reception. The longer the silence went on, the more they began to grow fearful and expect the worst.

But just a few seconds after those expectations began, every outlaw in the saloon simultaneously erupted into an enormous applause. Hands holstered their guns and just clapped together instead while others cheered and whistled up at the stage appreciatively.

"That was amazing!" a gang member shouted while clapping.

"I love musical numbers!" another outlaw said. "They're the only things capable of warming my cold, murderous heart!"

"What music?" an elderly outlaw asked as he looked up from his book. "I was readin'! I didn't hear no music!"

Back on stage, Dead-Eye and Giddy's stunned faces soon shifted into genuinely proud smiles rather than performative ones. Taking in their applause, they turned their heads toward one another, and for potentially the first time ever, the urge to kill the other didn't overcome either of them.

"Ya know, kid, even though I hate you with all my guts and have spent the past few years trying to execute you, I gotta admit - you play a mean banjo," Dead-Eye admitted.

"Likewise for you and that there washtub bass, Sheriff," Giddy said with a nod. "I had no idea you could play!"

"Thanks! Neither did I!"

"...Wait, what?"

Dipper and Mabel continued to stand where they did as the applause and cheering continued to go on. Seeing how the performance didn't lead to their cover being blown lifted a weight off of them, as well as allowing them to stand by and admire what they had just seen.

"Wow. That was surprisingly… great," Dipper admitted.

"I know, right? As someone who had a musical theater phase, that sure gets Mabel's stamp of approval!" Mabel agreed before cupping her hands around her mouth. "WOOOOO! YOU GO, BOYS! ENCORE! ENCORE! ENC-"

"Mabel!" Dipper whispered warningly with a glare as he swiftly covered her mouth with his hand.

It was too late though. The moment the two looked up, just about every pair of eyes (minus Dead-Eye) was suddenly fixated upon the both of them, with all former cheering and applause concluded. Dipper pulled his hand away from Mabel and backed up slightly as he met many gang member and outlaw stares with growing anxiety.

However, the focus shifted more off of him and onto Mabel as many of the gang members began to come to the same realization.

"It's a girl!" one of them shouted.

"And she's wearing men's pants!" another one pointed out. "How dare a woman express her freedom of expression in our town!"

"Geez. I know we had a lot of progress to make during this time but this is really starting to put things into perspective," Mabel said somewhat uncomfortably.

"I was afraid this was gonna happen eventually…" Dipper dreaded.

The various gang members and outlaws began to circle the two, trapping them within their position in the saloon with a loss of convenient access to the doors. Defensively, the twins grouped closer together, but most eyes continued to fixate upon Mabel.

"HA! Look at her! She's dressed like a cowboy!" another outlaw mockingly pointed out. "How adorable! Too bad you ain't anywhere near as tough as one."

Mabel narrowed her eyes. "That's what you think."

"That's what all of us think, girly," the outlaw emphasized. "Ain't no such thing as a tough woman 'round these parts."

"Except you're looking at one right now…" Mabel said as she got in the outlaw's face.

The outlaw stood unfazed. "Oh yeah? And what makes you so tough?"

Mabel clenched her fists. "You wanna find out?"

"Mabel, please…" Dipper nervously whispered, reaching a hand out for her shoulder.

The outlaw grinned at her. "Do your worst."

SWIPE!

Before the outlaw could even blink, Mabel reached and swiped his knife out from his sheath, much to his immediate surprise. As she held it in the air, everyone that circled the twins backed up a step, many reaching back for their guns defensively.

However, she soon brought the knife back down onto a nearby wooden table, placing her left hand down next to it. With everyone's full attention, she used the knife to run through multiple rounds of Five Finger Fillet between her bandaged fingers. The tip of the knife slammed straight into the table between each set of fingers, leaving small new slits in the wood that weren't previously there.

Everybody around her watched intently with growing unease as Mabel just kept going without slowing down from her speed. Dipper was particularly stressed, watching her go even faster than she had gone back earlier in the morning. Even more so due to the fact that she was testing the fate of her fingers with a giant knife as opposed to a pencil.

Eventually, after what felt like a minute's worth of Five Finger Fillet, she tossed the knife up in the air, flipping it before grabbing hold of it again. She then drew it straight down, aiming for the top of her hand, only to pull it back at the last second, therefore, piercing the knife straight into the middle of the table and leaving it stuck there.

She stood up straight right back in front of the outlaw who challenged her and grinned.

"So… you were saying?"

SNAP!

Immediately following, the table split in two at the point where she had pierced the knife through, both halves and the knife falling over onto the floor.

"That was intentional!" she added on the spot, not even taking her eyes away from the outlaw she stared down.

A silence took place following her response, as all outlaw eyes just held on her with growing intensity. Dipper's quick glance around at them started to fill him with the assurance that they were probably about to die.

But the outlaw suddenly took a cautious step away from her, appearing somewhat anxious all of a sudden.

"Welp. That's just about the most intimidating thing I've ever seen," he claimed.

"Yeah, I ain't messing with that," another gang member pitched in. "Y'all can skedaddle."

The circle of outlaws had each collectively backed off, clearing a path for the twins to the saloon doors, much to Dipper's surprise.

Mabel smirked. "Thank ya there, partner. And the next time you disrespect a woman, remember that you had a mother! Don't forget to write her!"

She held her stance for a silent beat as the outlaws collectively looked at her and Dipper. After the beat, the two dashed for the saloon doors while they still had the opportunity. However, their run back was somewhat inept, as the high from standing their ground to essentially running for their lives immediately after was a sudden juxtaposition in tone. Still, the saloon doors flung open and closed as soon as they left, leaving all of the various outlaws and members of Joe's gang to their own.

One gang member chewed on Mabel's parting words. "My mother sold me for a buffalo."

"You too?" asked another gang member.

"Ehem!"

Everyone in the saloon turned their attention back up toward the stage, where Giddy and Dead-Eye continued to awkwardly stand with their respective instruments. They eyeballed the crowd for a moment as the vibe settled down from its former intensity.

"So, err… how's about an encore?" Giddy prompted with an uneasy smile.

After busting through the saloon doors, Dipper and Mabel ran out a good distance away, landing themselves in the middle of the dusty, empty streets of Calamity Junction. They took a quick breather as the stressful tension of their prior situation wore off.

"I have no idea how or why that worked," Dipper admitted, turning to Mabel.

"I told you those Knife Game skills made me intimidating!" Mabel proudly reminded. "Now I might just be the most feared cowgirl in the Old West!"

"There is no version of you that exists that I will ever find intimidating," Dipper jabbed with a slight smile.

"Ow, hey! Watch the time knee!"

The distant whiny voice caught both of them off guard with its sudden familiarity. They turned to the side, looking on distantly as the doors of an old barn house down the street started to open up. From the inside, Wild Eyes Joe began to emerge, pulling a rope in one hand as he appeared to be walking toward a nearby horse outside the barn.

However, on the other end of the rope, a heavier man was tied up and being carelessly dragged on the rough desert ground by Joe. The man had goggles and a ruffled bit of short, parted brown hair.

"Wait a second…" Dipper began as he studied the man from the distance. His eyes then lit up. "Mabel, that's Blendin!"

"He's alive!" she said happily.

"Yeah. For now, it seems."

Joe eventually reached his horse, letting go of the rope end and dropping Blendin before walking over to him and picking him up instead. He took a step over to the back of the horse, preparing to stow him.

"No, no! Please!" Blendin begged, shaking his head. "D-Don't lay me on the back of the horse again! It smells so bad!"

"Would you shut the hell up?!" Joe yelled while stowing Blendin on the horse regardless. "God, I'd tie your mouth shut if I had a spare dirt rag."

"Why are you so mean to me?" Blendin asked. "I-I'm literally trying to help you, y-yet you just keep bullying me, hurting me, and calling me really offensive words that would get you executed for saying where I'm from!"

"I don't care where you're from, time traveler. You're only alive because you promised me a treasure. And if I don't get that treasure, you're really gonna wish you were dead."

"I already told you! It's somewhere in the canyons, and I don't know where specifically! You'll have to look around for it!"

"I will. And you're gonna help me. And them friends of yours ain't gonna save you."

Blendin raised an eyebrow. "F-Friends? I have friends?!"

"You sure do!" Mabel called out from the side.

Joe and Blendin's heads looked back to see Dipper and Mabel standing just a few yards away confrontationally.

"Wait… D-Dipper? Mabel?! You're HERE?!" Blendin realized aloud in confusion. However, his confusion immediately turned into gratitude as his face lit up with a wide smile. "I DO have friends!"

"Wait, how did you two…?!" Joe questioned, realizing the twins had somehow escaped their hogties. "Ah, to hell with it." He unhitched his horse from the post beside him and quickly climbed on top of it. "I ain't got time to waste with you kiddies! I got a treasure to find, and y'all ain't gonna get in my way!"

With his reins held tightly in hand, Joe leaned forward on his horse as it began to trot forward at a quickly growing speed toward the twins, who stood right in the way.

Dipper's eyes widened. "Mabel, look out!" he shouted, grabbing her by her shoulders and pulling her along with him as he threw himself backward on the ground out of Joe's path.

The two covered their eyes from the cloud of dust that billowed behind Joe's horse as he sped on by, making his way right down the street without turning back. Stowed on the horse's rear, Blendin's hogtied body continued to lay, uncomfortably jerking up and down with each rapid trot. His face continued to remain filled with panic as he stared back at the twins, who once again began to grow distant in his vision.

"GUYS!" he cried out desperately. "HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The twins pulled themselves back up to their feet, looking on as Joe and Blendin started to clear their line of sight.

"He's getting away!" Mabel exclaimed.

Dipper took a quick glance at their surroundings. While the streets were clear of other gang members and outlaws, many of their hitched horses still stood about. And while he took no pride in horse theft, their range of options in catching up to Blendin again was not wide enough.

"Quick! Get on a horse!" he yelled, dashing towards a nearby hitched steed. He scrambled to climb onto its back, his lack of grace evident in his movements. "Come on! We need to get after them!"

However, his sudden scrambling onto the unaccustomed horse immediately agitated it. As such, it jerked its head back and unhitched itself before bolting forward with a surprised snort.

"Woooah!" Dipper yelped as he lost balance.

Thud!

As the horse sped away, Dipper was left to sprawl unceremoniously in the dirt, staring up at the sky irritatedly.

"Oh yeah. I don't know how to ride a horse," he added sheepishly while sitting up on his rear.

"But I do!"

Suddenly, a triumphant neigh rang out. Right above him, a black horse pulled up with Mabel already mounted on top, a grin splitting her face.

"Hop along, Dippity!" she said, offering a hand out to him from above.

He smiled back at her gratefully, reaching his hand upward and grabbing hers, pulling himself back onto his feet before hauling himself onto the back of her horse.

"Thanks, Mabelton," he said, brushing dust off his clothes. "That didn't take long at all, did it?"

"It never does for me," she passively gloated. "Now hold on tight! Black-Spirit-Beauty-Biscuit here is gonna ride us to victory!"

"Mabel, this is a chase, not a race," he reminded. "Also, you named it already?"

"Am I supposed to wait to name my animals?"

"It's not even your horse."

"She is now," she declared. "HYAH, BLACK-SPIRIT-BEAUTY-BISCUIT!"

With a snort and a powerful rear, Black-Spirit-Beauty-Biscuit launched itself into a gallop, hooves pounding the dusty street as it rocketed the twins out of Calamity Junction in no time.

The wind whipped past Dipper's face as they tore through the deserted town and down a path straight through the open desert landscape. Mabel reined in slightly as they rode, her eyes scanning the horizon.

"There!" Dipper exclaimed, pointing ahead.

With their horse's speed, it didn't take too long before catching onto the dusty trail of Joe's horse in the distance. Luckily, the two continued to speed along the road with Dipper holding onto the back of Mabel's saddle as best he could while they slowly gained ground behind Joe.

Blendin caught immediate sight of the two from the back of the horse as they got closer, eyes lighting up hopefully.

"Mabel! Dipper! Help me!" he pleaded desperately.

"We're coming, Blendin!" Mabel yelled back, urging her horse forward.

Joe glanced over his shoulder for a brief second with a wicked glint in his bulging eyes. "Oh no, you ain't!"

From his side, he drew his revolver, aiming it back at the two and opening fire while riding.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The immediate sight of the gun alone was enough for Mabel to begin swerving the horse to the side to avoid the bullet rain. The gunshots only prompted both of them to duck down and lean further against the horse to avoid the shots.

"He's shooting at us!" Dipper cried, heart hammering in his chest.

"So? Fire back at him!" Mabel told him.

"What? I don't have a gun!"

"Well, one might be really handy about now, don't you think?!" Mabel retorted while continuing to maneuver their mount expertly to avoid Joe's bullets.

Dipper looked ahead. His eyes widened as they neared the entrance to a narrow canyon. An idea sparked in his mind.

"Mabel, listen!" he shouted. "I need you to get me closer to them!"

Mabel raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Get closer to the guy shooting at us?"

"Just trust me!" he insisted. "The same way I trust you to not get us shot!"

Though visibly uncertain, she nodded resolutely at him before turning back ahead. "Alright, Black-Spirit-Beauty-Biscuit! We need some speed! Giddyup!"

On her command, the horse surged ahead with a burst of energy. It didn't take long for them to steadily close the gap between themselves and Joe's horse. But despite the narrowing distance, Joe's shots failed to make any worthy impact, as the twins just continued evading each shot that flew in their direction.

"GAH!" Joe roared frustratedly. "How is she so good at this?"

He held his gun down as he gripped his reins again, leaning forward against the horse and urging it to speed up as he put his full focus back ahead. The entrance to the canyon's narrow passage was near, and Joe's speed did not allow the twins to beat him to it.

"Dang it! He's picking up speed too!" Mabel shouted.

"But look!" Dipper said, pointing ahead at the narrow passage. "That's the canyon they were talking about! He's heading straight for it!"

"Then we should gain some ground on them inside!" Mabel declared with newfound determination.

Both pairs continued off-road, making a beeline straight for the narrowly divided passage between the two canyon walls. Despite the tightened space compared to the open desert, there was more than enough room for both horses to cut through into the passage. The sunlight was blocked by the rocky walls, but just enough daylight lingered overhead to keep them from being enveloped in total darkness. Additionally, the sound of their horses' hooves now bounced off the towering rock walls, echoing and reverbing throughout.

Through the chase, Mabel's prediction began to manifest as her horse once again started to gain to the side of Joe, who was too focused ahead to pay them any mind in the moment of their catch-up.

"Is this close enough?!" Mabel yelled back at Dipper.

"Almost got it!" Dipper called back, fighting to maintain his balance as he started repositioning his legs behind her, turning his body to the side where Joe rode. "Steady... steady..."

While he readied himself, Mabel managed to get close enough to finally get caught within Joe's peripheral again, drawing his attention back toward the two. A simple glance at Dipper and he understood what he was trying to do.

"No!" he shouted, aiming his revolver back in their direction.

But just as he started to squeeze the trigger, Dipper lunged, kicking himself straight off the back of the horse with his arms stretched out toward Joe as he dove across the gap, tackling him right off the steed. The gun flew through the air as they tumbled down a rocky incline, grunting and wailing with each violent roll against the coarse ground. Their tumbling finally came to a halt as the two sprawled on the ground several feet away from one another. Eventually, Joe's revolver clattered down, landing from its mid-air flight in a position evenly distant in the gap between the both of them.

Joe's riderless horse continued trotting for a bit as Blendin screamed in terror. It soon slowed down to a complete stop, to which Blendin's screams soon ended as well. He sat in silence for a moment in confusion as he wheezed, processing everything that had just happened and where he was at the end of it.

"W-Wow! I-I'm okay!" he realized with a growing smile.

However, Joe's horse let out a neigh as it suddenly reared only to kick its legs back, bucking Blendin off.

"OH, GOD DAMMIT!" he shouted as he flung through the air helplessly.

He screamed for a bit before eventually making an impact with the rocky ground again, tumbling over a bit before groaning painfully. Just off to the side, however, Mabel brought Black-Spirit-Beauty-Biscuit to a stop and quickly rushed off of her to come to his aid.

"I got you, Blendin!" she said as he got down behind him and started untying his ropes.

Although grateful for her help, Blendin couldn't help but get immediately distracted by her aged appearance, at least compared to how he remembered her looking the very last time they met.

"Gee, you've sure gotten taller," he remarked.

"I know, right? Puberty!" Mabel said with an innocent smile as she continued pulling his ropes apart.

"Y-Yeah, I get it. I-I'm not unfamiliar with how the body works," Blendin stuttered, visibly uncomfortable after her response.

Back on the side, Dipper and Joe slowly flipped their bodies over on the ground, pushing themselves up on their hands and knees. As their heads looked up, they distantly locked eyes for a second before glancing at the same thing at once - Joe's revolver lying on the ground, equal distance from the both of them.

From the gun, their eyes momentarily glanced back at one another with mutual intention. They scrambled up onto their feet, both launching upward and throwing themselves at the gun at the same time.

But Joe was faster, as he grabbed it first and whipped it around, pointing it right between Dipper's eyes from only a few feet away. Dipper froze in place with his hands held out in front of him cautiously as the cold black hole of the gun barrel stared him down.

"I gotcha now, boy. Ain't nowhere left to run," Joe said, gripping the revolver tightly with both of his hands. His eyes darted to the side toward Mabel, who froze in place behind Blendin with her hands up as she caught his glance. "And don't you even think about taking another step either, girly. This is over. I'll kill you both now and take the time traveler back as my prize."

"Wait!" Dipper shouted, raising his hands up in further surrender. "You can't do that!"

Joe smirked. "Ha! And why is that?"

"You just said it yourself… you know Blake - or Blendin - is a time traveler," Dipper mentioned.

"Yeah. So?"

Dipper raised an eyebrow in slight surprise. "And that doesn't phase you?"

"I've seen a lot in my lifetime, partner. Met a lot of strange folks. Done a lot of messed up things. Seen things no man would ever believe… To put it simply, some pathetic man who claims he traveled through time ain't mean much at all to me. Especially when he's offering me money, which is where my interest truly lies."

"Well, then you should know that through our association with him, that we're time travelers too," Dipper revealed.

Joe still looked unfazed. "And that matters to me why?"

"Because you know we can see the future," Dipper told him, eyes narrowing threateningly. "And from what I can tell, there is no scenario in that future where you win here. Therefore, it would be for the best that you just drop the gun, and walk away… or else…"

Joe stared Dipper on for a moment, taking in his threat. His eyes appeared to deliberate seriously for a moment.

But that didn't last long, as they softened up with amusement soon after as he began to cackle loudly while maintaining his weapon's sight right on Dipper.

"Seriously?" he asked as his laughter calmed down. "Or else what, kid? Was that your little plan? To threaten me with some time crap? Well, maybe instead of worrying me about the future, you should worry about the now… which from the looks of it, involves me pointing this here gun right at that big ol' head of yours."

"It's not that big…" Dipper murmured as he glanced at the ground, somewhat offended.

"Shut up," Joe ordered while cocking the hammer of his revolver readily. "You say you two can see the future? In that case… did you see this coming?"

CLUNK!

Out of nowhere, a giant rock plummeted seemingly from above the canyon wall, slamming onto Joe's head with a sickening thud, sending him sprawling unconscious on the ground, gun flinging out of his hand again. Dipper, Mabel, and Blendin froze, their horrified gazes fixed on his still form as clusters of small rock covered him while the giant rock bounced off to the side. The only sound was the echoing rumble of the rockfall.

"Actually, I did not," Mabel jibed, breaking the silence.

Looking at Joe's body for a moment, Dipper's concern for the sudden rockfall led him to look up at the canyon wall. He expected to see lingering rubble or some cracked chunks in the wall from where the rock may have suddenly detached at that convenient moment. Presumably, the effects of age or weathering, which was his first thought.

But oddly enough, what he seemed to catch was the brief sight of an apparent figure above the canyon wall. Almost like a head that was once looking on from above had suddenly pulled away from his line of sight as soon as he looked in its direction. It was difficult to make out what it could've been given the daylight right above it made it nothing much more than a shadowy figure from below. In that split second though, he could've sworn it was a human-like silhouette.

That made little sense though, even when considering the fact that the circumstances he was already within that led him to his current position made little sense either. Perhaps it was a wild desert animal. A wild hog or javelina, maybe? Heck, they weren't that far from Gravity Falls, so who was to say it wasn't some potential anomaly of some sort? But still, if Joe's gun was still pointed at him and he had to give a definitive guess, another human would be his immediate answer.

"What the…?" he questioned as he continued to stare up at the top of the canyon wall. He looked over his shoulder where his sister stood beside Blendin. "Guys, did either of you see that?"

"Joe getting pancaked?" Mabel asked, her eyes just looking back over at Joe's body. "Kiiiiinda hard to miss that."

"Not that," Dipper shook his head. "At the top of the canyon. I thought I saw someone-"

"Fellas!"

Interrupting his train of thought was the sudden call out of Big Giddy's voice. Everyone turned back around, looking back down the canyon from the direction they had ridden in. Riding in on a horse was Sheriff Dead-Eye with Giddy mounted securely on top of his massive shoulders.

"There you two are!" Dead-Eye called out as he brought his horse to a stop.

"Sheriff Dead-Eye! Giddy!" Mabel shouted gladly as she ran up beside Dipper to greet them. "How'd you guys find us?"

"We actually caught your dust trail going after Joe right after the Calamity locals decided they didn't wanna hear any more of Giddy's singing," Dead-Eye explained as he hopped down from his horse.

"I thought they would appreciate a song about the joys of friendship and loving one another," Giddy added, leaping off of Dead-Eye's shoulders.

"They did not," Dead-Eye stated. "Man, that gang is hateful."

"Well, that gang needs to start looking for new leadership because Wild Eyes Joe is no more," Dipper mentioned, gesturing toward Joe's body to the side.

Dead-Eye's eye glanced over at Joe's sprawled-out body, gasping in shock. "Holy…! You guys killed him?!"

"What? No," Dipper denied. "He was hit in the head by a rock that fell from the top of the canyon."

"Oh," Dead-Eye said, calming slightly. "But he's dead, right?"

"Ughhhh…" Joe lightly groaned as he continued to lay motionlessly.

Dead-Eye sighed disappointedly. "Dammit."

"Dead or not, Joe's been taken down!" Giddy bubbled. "Wooo-we! That means I ain't gotta worry about paying him back no more! I'm a free man!"

"And what about your friend, Blake?" Dead-Eye asked the twins.

"Present and accounted for, Sheriff!" Blendin exclaimed as he happily stepped into the conversation, offering his hand to shake. "And the name's Blendin Blandin!"

"Oh, that's great. I really don't care," Dead-Eye told him dismissively, ignoring his handshake. "Now, please stop talking. I did not miss hearing your voice."

"You know- that would normally offend me, but I'm in too good a mood right now," Blendin said, his spirits still as full as can be as he turned to the twins. "I mean, I-I never thought I'd see you guys again. Yet here you are! Y-You totally must've seen the letter I sent a-and were worried enough to come and rescue me! You guys really are my best friends!"

"Well, uhhh… I don't know if I'd go that far…" Mabel said with obvious uncertainty.

Dipper rubbed his neck awkwardly. "Yeah, um, about that-"

"But wait…" Blendin cut off, his smile slowly fading the more he thought about things. "I just realized… h-how would you guys have even gotten here anyway? You'd need a time tape or a time navigator or something. And the only way you guys could've gotten your hands on that in your time is if a time traveler came to you guys and-"

CLUNK!

Just like Joe, Blendin fell victim to a random rockfall from up the canyon wall with a large rock clunking him right on top of his head, knocking him straight to the ground and out cold. Dipper, Mabel, Dead-Eye, and Giddy simply stared at him in silence with their mouths agape.

"He's not dead, is he?" Dipper asked.

"Ughhhh…" Blendin immediately groaned as he sprawled on the ground.

"Nope. Just very unconscious," Mabel remarked.

Dipper shrugged. "Good enough."

"Hold on... that guy was just talking about time travel," Dead-Eye realized aloud, looking over at the twins. "Does that mean all of you are from the future?"

"You, uhh… don't seem all that fazed by that possibility," Dipper said, looking up at him questionably.

"Kid, I'm the sheriff of Gravity Falls. Do you know how many crazy things I've witnessed in my lifetime?" he asked.

A silence ensued.

"Not many, to be honest, but I still got thirty years till retirement, so there's time," Dead-Eye finished. "But anyway, nah, I don't really care that you two might be from the future. In fact, it kind of makes sense. From the moment I met you two, I thought you were weird."

"Wait, really? How?" Dipper asked.

"The pants gave it away, didn't it?" Mabel asked, gesturing down to her cow print pants.

"Actually, I have no problem with women expressing themselves. I, for one, love my mother," Dead-Eye admitted.

"Awwww! You really are a good one!" Mabel exclaimed.

"Shut up," Dead-Eye told her bluntly, narrowing his eyes. "Anyways, no, it was because of those thingies you two have on your wrists."

The two glanced down at their wrists, realizing their forearms had been exposed the entire time, thus leaving their futuristic time navigators in plain sight among their wrists. Both of them were filled with immediate embarrassment, though in retrospect, it could be considered an accomplishment that no one appeared to make direct notice of them until that point.

"I guess we could've made a greater effort to cover these up…" Dipper admitted.

"Also, you two happen to smell way better than most people around here," Dead-Eye added. "Like… way better."

"I'll say…" Giddy said while leaning in closer to Mabel, batting his eyes flirtatiously.

"Bleh…" she gagged as she leaned away from him disgustedly.

"Well, in any case, we got what we came for," Dipper said, glancing back at Blendin. "And now it's time we head on our way. So, uhh… thank you, Sheriff Dead-Eye, for all of your help."

"Yeah!" Mabel nodded. "For as morally conflicted as you are, we hope that maybe one day you find peace with instinctive heroism in your role as sheriff!"

"Actually, I've decided to stop being a sheriff," Dead-Eye revealed.

"Wait, what?" Mabel asked, her and Dipper's eyes lighting up in slight surprise.

"Yeah, I don't think I'll ever make peace with being a hero. But as it turns out, I'm actually just as instinctive a washtub bass player as I am a hero! So I'm turning in my sheriff badge to become a traveling musical act with Giddy here!"

"Yessiree!" Giddy confirmed with a nod. "We're going on tour all over the world! Or at least that's the eventual goal. Perhaps we'll start county-wide first and see where it goes from there."

"You guys are going to work together?" Dipper questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"But I thought you two were archenemies who hated and wanted to slit each other's throats," Mabel added.

"Oh, yeah. I still hate him," Dead-Eye reaffirmed. "But it brings me great joy to sing songs about wanting to kill him in front of crowds of people."

"The feeling is mutual," Giddy nodded.

"Anyway, we should thank you two as well because if it wasn't for this ludicrous adventure to save your friend, neither of us here would've managed to find our true calling," Dead-Eye said with a grateful smile. "Whichever time and place you two come from, I hope we meet again someday, maybe in some future lifetime in a future generation. And heck, maybe in that lifetime, I'll get to be an actual criminal! And then maybe I'll go to prison!"

Dipper smirked as he scanned Dead-Eye's familiar appearance. "Ya know what? Maybe you will."

"And maybe we'll meet again, my sweet Mabelton, so we can pursue the romance which was long destined for both of us…" Giddy said as he approached her once more.

"Uhh… yeah, I wouldn't count on it," Mabel told him while lightly pushing him back from her personal space.

"Alright, Mabel. You ready to get out of here?" Dipper asked.

"After that comment? Most definitely," Mabel said thankfully as she took refuge by his side.

The two then walked over to the Blendin, both of them pulling his unconscious body up to his feet and throwing each of his arms around their necks to hold him upright. Once he was secure, they both held their wrists with their time navigators out. Each of them saw the exact button they needed to press to time travel away, and as such, they looked at one another readily.

"On three," Dipper prompted. "One…"

"...two…" Mabel continued.

"...three!" they said together.

Beep.

VYOOM!

With the simultaneous press of their navigators, the two of them and Blendin were then coated with intense, blue lights that beamed brightly in Dead-Eye and Giddy's faces, prompting them to shield their eyes. After the moment passed, the lights flashed away with a futuristic hum. Dead-Eye and Giddy unshielded their eyes, looking ahead to see that the three had completely disappeared from their time, leaving them alone with their horses, including Black-Spirit-Beauty-Biscuit, whose ears drooped somewhat sadly to the side following the flash.

"Godspeed, you two!" Dead-Eye shouted ahead at the lingering dust that dissipated where the twins last stood.

"Golly, we've sure had some good times today, haven't we, Dead-Eye?" Giddy prompted as he looked up at him fondly.

"You still blew me up in a train earlier today, you lil' sack of shit."

"Okay, okay… but what matters is you survived! Somehow!"

Giddy paused for a moment to give it further thought.

"Seriously, how the heck did you do that?" he continued. "I'm sorry, I still can't quite fathom that. No one should be able to survive that, and yet you did. Like… how?"

"Well, you see, it's quite simple…" Dead-Eye began. "Actually, wait, how old are you again?"

"Ughhhhhh…"

The two looked to the side on the ground where Wild Eyes Joe groaned again as he suddenly started to rise slightly from where he lay, head spinning as he was barely capable of making sense of anything at that moment.

"Am I dead?" he asked, holding onto the side of his head.

"Not yet, Joe," Dead-Eye said casually with a smile. "Not yet…"

[The Future, 207̃016]

PEW! PEW! PEW!

BOOM! CLATTER! SMASH!

BANG! Thud.

At the bottom of hundreds of towering skyscrapers were the glowing, neon-lit streets of a city that was in the midst of an apparent warfare. Layers of smoke coated over the metallic roads and grew progressively thicker from the many fires emitting from burning vehicles and ground-level buildings. Lasers fired from every direction, but each shot's origin was hardly visible through the thick smoke, making no area safe.

From one direction, several armored Time Police forces began to run through the smoke with various laser rifles or blasters wielded and ready. As they charged, some were immediately hit by green lasers, immediately downing or taking them out.

"HOLD THEM BACK!" a lone Time Police officer ordered before aiming his laser handgun forward and blasting several times.

Across from the officer and the other Time Police forces, human rebel forces charged back at them through the smoke. These forces were outfitted differently compared to the standard Time Police gear. Each individual wore unique outfits, most not even necessarily armored up appropriately to match the Time Police units. Some wore jackets, others wore trenchcoats. Some wore goggles, others wore masks.

The one similarity all of them held was a green symbol that was either stitched into their clothes or tattooed somewhere on their exposed skin. The symbol was almost like a slightly diagonal Roman numeral three with an absent top line, or like a three-legged flipped table.

The firefight continued to ensue between them and the Time Police, with various forces on either side getting shot or neutralized in some fashion. Two Time Police forces took cover behind an unoccupied civilian vehicle, blasting their guns over it. However, a high-tech grenade suddenly landed right beside them. Noticing it immediately, both of them ran away from their cover as the grenade began to beep rapidly.

BOOM!

The grenade went off, creating a giant dirt crater in the middle of the once metallic road as well as decimating the civilian vehicle, sending its firey remains flipping down the smokey street.

VYOOM!

In the middle of the crater, three glowing blue figures began to accumulate. With a flash, Dipper, Mabel, and Blendin's physical beings warped into place, holding the same stances they had when they first warped away from the Wild West.

PEW! PEW! PEW!

The loud and constant laser fire overhead caused the twins to immediately flinch. Lasers from above began to deflect as well, finding their way into the crater and hitting as close as beside their feet.

"What the hell?!" Dipper screamed out over the laser fire. "What's going on here?!"

"I don't know!" Mabel screamed as she looked around frantically. "Where's Lolph and Dundgren?!"

Stomp.

The two immediately turned around, looking straight above the crater. Standing over them on the edge of the crater was a male rebel unit with a green symbol tattooed on his face. He aimed his laser rifle back and forth between the two below with skeptical eyes.

"You two!" he prompted. "Truth or Crib?"

Dipper stared up at him with nothing but confusion. "Uhhh…?"

"Ooh! Is this like the future's version of Truth or Dare?" Mabel asked the rebel with bright spirits. She tapped a finger against her chin as she thought briefly. "I choose… truth!"

"Mabel!" Dipper barked at her obliviousness.

"Truths, huh?" the rebel repeated, narrowing his eyes at the two as he aimed his gun more readily at them. "How unfortunate for you both…"

The twins froze in place as they heard the readying charge of the rebel's laser rifle. Mabel's smile quickly faded as she just stared up at the gun aiming in her direction.

"I don't think I like this game…" she quietly remarked as her pupils shrunk.

PEW!

Right as the rebel was about to pull the trigger, the sound of a firing laser was heard not too far away before it made an immediate impact. The rebel flinched forward for a second as the middle of his torso began to disintegrate into orange particles, spreading down and up the rest of his body until he was no more.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" Dipper and Mabel screamed, dropping their hold of Blendin's body to instinctively embrace one another in reaction to the rebel's erasure.

Taking the place of where the rebel last stood, Lolph suddenly stepped forward from the smoke with a laser rifle of his own in hand. He looked down into the crater, eyes immediately falling on the twins as they looked back up at him while still holding onto one another.

"What the hell took you so long?" he asked. "You two were expected like two minutes ago!"

Dipper raised an eyebrow. "That's too long for you?"

STOMP!

Behind the twins, a giant, red humanoid creature with large horns dropped into the crater. The creature rose about eight feet tall and wore a metal helmet that was akin to a knight mask, shielding its whole face. In its hand, it held some type of battle axe with glowing laser blades.

As it looked to spot the twins, it began to charge at them with the axe well in hand, each step shaking the surrounding ground with terrifying intensity.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHH!" the twins screamed again while continuing to tightly embrace one another.

SHANK!

As the creature raised its battle axe readily, it stopped in place as an energy dagger pierced down the center of its back, slicing the whole creature in half. As the creature's two halves fell in opposite directions, the blade's energy markings spread their way through the creature's sliced remains, disintegrating it into orange particles similar to the rebel.

Just on the other side of the creature was Dundgren, who stood with the energy dagger lit up and attached to his wrist. Shaken, the twins just stared at him as he tapped his wrist and disabled his energy dagger, looking back up the crater straight at Lolph.

"Lolph, send reinforcements to the Time Capital," he commanded. "We're losing a lot of souls out here to these rebels."

"Will do," Lolph nodded. "Also, the Pines twins have returned from their mission."

Dundgren's eye darted downward toward the twins. "About time. Do you two have Blendin?"

The twins' eyes glanced straight down in front of them where Blendin just lay sprawled out in the dirt, still completely knocked out.

"Right here," Mabel gestured. "He… uh… he's not dead. He's just sleeping... I think."

"Works for me," Dundgren accepted with a shrug, walking up to Blendin's body and pulling him up to his feet. "Thank you for your assistance. We'll take things from here while you two are sent back to your timeline."

"Wait, seriously? That's it?" Dipper questioned, narrowing his eyes at him.

"What do you want? A medal?" Dundgren retorted.

"How about an explanation?" Dipper asked, shooting up to his feet frustratedly and looking around as lasers continued to be rapidly shot overhead through the thick smoke. "What the hell is going on over here?! And why did we need to retrieve Blendin for you guys when what we did is something you two could've easily handled in even less time than us?"

"Yeah, and who's the Time Titan? When in the future are we? And how do you play Truth or Crib?!" Mabel frantically asked.

"These questions don't concern you two," Dundgren dismissed. "Your mission is complete. You're done and free to go." While holding Blendin's unconscious arm around his neck, he looked up to Lolph as he began pressing away on his time navigator. "Lolph, send these two back to their timeline. I will deliver Blendin to the Titan."

"Affirmative," Lolph nodded as he held out his own navigator readily.

"Not so fast!" Dipper refused as he grabbed hold of Mabel's wrist, pulling her along with him as he sprinted straight toward Dundgren.

"Hey! What are you…?!" Lolph shouted, reaching a desperate hand out for them.

As a blue light started to envelop Dundgren and Blendin, Dipper gripped onto Dundgren's arm without hesitation. Almost immediately, the light began to spread its way onto both him and Mabel as well, to which Dundgren's eyes suddenly widened.

"How about we all visit the Titan?" Dipper boldly insisted as he shot Dundgren a daring glare.

"Kid, what are you doing?!" Dundgren shouted, trying to pull his arm away. "You're not supposed to-"

VYOOM!

Dundgren was cut off by the completion of the navigator's warping, to which he, Blendin, Dipper, and Mabel suddenly beamed away, leaving no trace behind in the crater they last stood within. Lolph continued to stand over the crater with thoughts now racing anxiously through his mind that had nothing to do with the ensuing firefight surrounding him on the streets.

"Crap… this is bad. This is really, really bad…"

VYOOM!

With a flash, Dipper, Mabel, and Dundgren, along with Blendin's unconscious body, suddenly warped into a room. Their feet stood on some type of flat solid ground, but it all blended together with their surroundings, which were nothing but an endless white void as far as the eye could see.

"What the…?" Mabel questioned as she glanced around at the white void.

"Where are we?" Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Dundgren suddenly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, holding him up in the air aggressively, much to his surprise.

"What is the matter with you?!" Dundgren snapped. "Do you know what you've done? How many codes you've violated from this simple act of stupidity alone?!"

"Hey, let him go!" Mabel bellowed, running up to Dundgren and kicking him swiftly in the crotch, which did nothing but reflect a loud metal bang.

"Kick deflected!" Dundgren's codpiece spoke as it blinked. "Thank you for buying Digi-cod: the smart-"

"DEFLECT THIS!" Mabel cut off.

She took a step back and proceeded to break into a spin kick, throwing her leg around as she tried to hit the codpiece more forcefully. However, her flying ankle was grabbed mid-air as it started coming down. Her head turned back in confusion, to which she noticed Lolph suddenly present, standing over her and holding her back.

"End of the line, Gam Gam," Lolph told her with a glare, throwing her foot back down and pulling her back by her shoulders.

Dundgren turned his attention back to Dipper, narrowing his eyes. "Why do you two insist on being so complicated?"

"Complicated? Us?!" Dipper questioned. "You two are the ones who dragged us into this mess without any type of viable explanation! We just wanna know what's going on, and yet, that makes us complicated?!"

"You don't know what you're doing. You're not supposed to be here!"

"Yeah, well, I'm sure we weren't supposed to be in 1880-whatever, but you guys sure had no problems throwing us there and leaving us to do your job!"

"You don't understand what we're trying to do here. This wasn't part of the…"

Dundgren immediately stopped himself, eyes widening for a second as though he realized what he was about to say.

"You two need to go. Right now," he finished, turning to the side. "Lolph?"

"Already on it," Lolph nodded while tapping buttons on his wrist.

"But why the rush?"

The deep, booming voice that reverbed loudly as it entered the room caused Lolph and Dundgren to immediately freeze in place. Lolph's fingers stopped tapping buttons on his wrist as he gulped fearfully.

From behind them, a mighty being slowly floated downward into the white void. The being was humanoid, but completely covered in heavy armor from head to toe. Covering his head was a black helmet with a rounded top. In the center of it was a small glowing orange "eye" that had the shape of an hourglass symbol. Going down, he had heavily plated black armor with glowing orange accents along with giant, rounded silver pauldrons on each shoulder. Covering parts of the armor was something of a long, torn-up dark cloak that reached just above the ground at his colossal height, which had to be at least twelve feet tall.

The twins looked up at him with growing concern. The face of the helmet was completely expressionless and there was no particular emotion to read from his body language as he stood above them. Yet, for the first time they had ever seen, it looked as though Lolph and Dundgren were truly shaken.

Dundgren cleared his throat as he and Lolph let go of Dipper and Mabel to turn toward the being, both of them standing up completely straight.

"Holy Time Titan," Dundgren greeted.

Time Titan turned his head slightly down from the two toward the twins as they stood together.

"Dundgren. Lolph. What is the meaning of this?" Time Titan asked.

"Well, you see, sir, we-"

"Hi! Hey! Helloooo?" Mabel suddenly intervened, waving her hand up at the Titan from below, attracting everyone's attention. "You there, Mr. Titan Time or whatever? Can you hear me? I feel like you can hear me. Uhhh… my name is Mabel Pines, and this is my brother, Dip-"

"I know who you two are," Time Titan cut off, turning back to Lolph and Dundgren. "What did I tell you about bringing others into this? Blendin's retrieval was your responsibility."

"A-And it's done, holy Titan! Look! We have the prisoner well in hand," Lolph nervously assured as he gestured toward Blendin's body on the ground.

"Yeah, thanks to us," Mabel interjected.

"ZIP IT, KID!" Lolph scolded with clenched fists.

"Wait a second, but you guys told us Time Titan ordered you to hand this job off to us," Dipper brought up. "So why is he saying it was your responsibility and not to involve others?"

"Is that true?" Time Titan asked, staring at Lolph and Dundgren.

"Y-Yes, holy Titan…" Dundgren nervously admitted. "But the only reason we reached out to Dipper and Mabel was to maintain our posts in defending the Time Capital from the Cribs' raid! Their forces are pushing us back down below as we spea-"

Dundgren was cut off suddenly as the ground they stood on suddenly rumbled, reaffirming to the twins that the white void they were within was, in fact, a room somewhere. Along with the rumble sounded like a distant explosion that was muffled by the hidden walls they stood within.

"Precisely my point," Dundgren finished, gesturing a hand below.

"Plus, holy Titan, the Pines twins are capable kids with experience in time travel. We knew they would be okay," Lolph added.

"Are you kidding?!" Dipper snapped with further irritation.

"Yeah, right!" Mabel exclaimed, equally irritated. "We totally could've died back there multiple times! You two didn't give a squat about what could've happened to us!"

"I've heard enough of this nonsense."

Time Titan made a simple upward gesture with his hand in the twins' direction, to which a bubble suddenly formed around them.

"What the…?!" Dipper questioned, pressing his hands against the inside of the bubble to no effect. "What is this? What are you doing to us?"

"Sending you two back to your time. This matter doesn't involve either of you anymore. It never should have in the first place," Time Titan told them before turning back to Lolph and Dundgren. "As for you two, you will reassume your positions in defending the Time Capital from the Cribs."

Dundgren and Lolph's eyes simultaneously lit up as they turned to one another in slight surprise for a moment. Their faces grew immediately serious again as they looked back to the Titan.

"Understood, holy Titan," Dundgren nodded. "Once the Capital is secure, Lolph and I will go back in time and handle any of the new time anomalies left behind in the West and-"

"I don't care about the time anomalies."

Dundgren raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You… You don't?"

"The only thing I care about is Blendin being handed in to me at my feet… alive." He looked down at Blendin's sprawled-out body still resting on the ground. "And what I'm currently looking at doesn't appear very… alive."

"He's… sleeping, as far as we've been told," Lolph said.

"Is that so?"

The Time Titan held his hand out and pointed it in Blendin's direction. In a near instant, a stream of electricity flowed straight out from his hand, surging through Blendin's body. Immediately, Blendin jolted awake with a loud, pained shriek that made the twins flinch.

As the electricity was cut off, Blendin began to pant violently as he gripped his chest, his heart pounding away.

"WHAT THE…?!" he finally questioned, glancing around the white room frantically. "Where am I?! W-Where's my pocket watch shop?!"

"Blendin Blandin… at long last," the Time Titan said as he stared down at him ominously.

Blendin's heart began to sink as he faced the towering Titan above him. "W-What? Who are you?! What is this?!" He looked to his left, catching sight of the twins again as they stood trapped within their bubble. "D-Dipper? Mabel?" He then turned to his right, eyes bulging under his goggles fearfully. "Lolph?! D-DUNGREN?! What the hell is going on?!"

"Your cowboy playtime has come to an end, Blendin," the Titan declared. "We've been searching for you through time and space for years to sentence you for your betrayal against the squadron."

"Y-Years? B-But I've barely been away for a few weeks!"

"And still, you ran. Cowering away instead of facing your sentence head-on."

"W-Why am I so important anyway? Why couldn't you just let me live in peace? I-I wasn't hurting anyone! If anything, people were still hurting me! People are ALWAYS hurting me!"

"Well, the greatest pain still awaits you. For it was YOUR actions that directly spouted the start of the Time War conflict."

Blendin raised an eyebrow. "T-Time War?"

"Time War?" Dipper and Mabel repeated in unison.

"L-Look, I-I don't know who you are o-or what's going on here, but I didn't mean to cause any trouble!" Blendin defended. "I-I just wanted respect! I didn't like being called 'No Friend-in Blendin'! I mean, Dipper and Mabel are my friends!"

"Well, your friends are the ones who brought you back to us in the first place," the Titan revealed, looking back toward the twins. "Isn't that right?"

"Huh?" Blendin looked back to the side where the twins stood. "Y-You guys brought me here? YOU GUYS did this to me?! W-WHY?! I-I SENT YOU A LETTER! I TOLD YOU GUYS NOT TO TELL ANYONE ANYTHING ABOUT ME!"

"No! We didn't!" Mabel denied, shaking her head.

"We didn't even know about the le-"

Beep.

Dipper's mouth continued to speak, but his volume suddenly cut off. Quickly realizing this, he looked up and noticed a large, holographic mute symbol floating in front of their bubble. Mabel opened her mouth to speak but learned right away that the mute affected her too.

Both of them then looked up at the Time Titan, noticing him pressing a finger down on his wrist, much to their dismay. With no other options, they resorted to pounding their fists against the bubble desperately as Blendin continued to look on at them.

"The Time Baby was foolish for ever showing you mercy," the Titan continued, grabbing Blendin's attention again. "Luckily, under my rule, that will never happen again. You will be sent back to the Infinetentiary, where you will be held until we are ready to formally proceed with your execution."

"EXECUTION?!" Blendin repeated in terror.

At that moment, two metal cuffs bound together by a purple string of electricity formed around Blendin's wrists, detaining him. His outfit also phased into a black and white striped prison jumpsuit. His lip quivered in sheer horror as he looked at himself, the Titan's words echoing in his mind. But with his horror came immediate anger as he turned back toward the twins.

"DIPPER! MABEL! WHAT HAVE YOU TWO DONE TO ME?!" he raged as he ran up to their bubble, pounding on it with his cuffed hands. "I-I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS! YOU TWO KNOWINGLY TURNED ME INTO THE TIME POLICE?! YOU BACKSTABBERS! AFTER ALL WE'VE BEEN THROUGH! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

VYOOM!

Without any type of warning, a bright light coated Blendin and warped him away, leaving the twins staring out of their bubble with guilt-ridden faces.

"That's enough of that," the Titan remarked, a finger held above a button on his wrist that he had just pressed before going for another one.

Beep.

The holographic mute symbol in front of Dipper and Mabel's bubble vanished, which both of them instantly noticed.

"What the HELL?!" Dipper shouted up at the Titan. "Why did you mute us?! He thinks all of this is our fault now! We never even wanted anything to do with this!"

"Yeah!" Mabel nodded. "And besides, Blendin's innocent! He was just tricked by Bill! If anything, shouldn't that fall on you guys for not offering him protection against dream demons? This is the future after all. How have you guys not mastered that type of thing yet?"

"Yeah! Blendin wouldn't start a war… knowingly!" Dipper furthered.

"Look, we did not bring you two in for input on how to handle our convicts. You two weren't even meant to be brought in in the first place. But you were, and now your role has been fulfilled. We do not need you any longer."

"But listen to us!" Mabel insisted.

"We're telling the truth!" Dipper furthered.

"And your words remain worthless. This matter is concluded. Children should not be involved with time travel. For your sake, I hope that this is the last time we ever cross paths. Goodbye."

"Wait, no!" Dipper shouted. "You can't-"

VYOOM!

[Present]

VYOOM!

Two figures flashed into the attic of the Mystery Shack, spawning in Dipper and Mabel mid-air a few feet above the floorboards. They fell and landed on their rears with a grunt.

A quick scan of their surroundings and the two were able to verify that they were back in their bedroom. Sat on top of Dipper's bed remained Mabel's collection of scrapbooks that they were prepping to go through earlier. The one they were going through sat open with the various profile shots scattered around messily from after the Time Police first detained them.

Although they had yet to properly investigate the time itself, their bedroom undoubtedly looked exactly as it did when they left it, which was enough reassurance for them at that moment that they were back where they needed to be.

And they had no way of going back.

"AGH! Dammit!" Dipper exclaimed, frustratedly slamming a fist down on the floorboard.

"Dipper, what do we do?" Mabel asked.

"What can we do? It's not like we have access to time travel ourselves."

She gave it some thought. "Well, maybe we could tell Grunkle Ford! Maybe he can figure out something that could help!"

"I don't know if that's a good idea, Mabel. From the sounds of it, the future sounds like a total nightmare right now. I mean, a Time War? Truths? Cribs? That Time Titan guy? There's so much going on that we have zero clue about, and I don't know if it's even worth stringing ourselves into."

"Yeah… you're right," she admitted, slumping over guiltily. "I just wish there was something we could do to help Blendin. He doesn't understand our place in this, and he absolutely doesn't deserve to be executed."

"No, he doesn't," Dipper agreed as he stood back up. "But with how this time travel junk works, I have a feeling this won't be the last we ever hear from him. So believe me, if we ever get the chance to help Blendin again, we're taking it. But for now, I think this one might be out of our hands."

Mabel's eyes glanced over at the many scrapbook photos spread out on Dipper's bed. She leaned over and picked out a lone photo, holding it out in front of her. It was the same side-profile shot of Blendin that Dipper first pointed out earlier in the day when he noticed it, perhaps the only real picture she had of him in her whole scrapbook. She sighed as she looked at it.

"Poor Blendin…" she said remorsefully. "I hope they go easy on him whenever he is…"

PEW! PEW! PEW!

The twins flinched as the sound of lasers momentarily made them believe they were still back in the future. However, as they turned toward their open doorway, they soon realized this wasn't the case.

Ford wielded some type of giant laser cannon that he held over his shoulder like a rocket launcher. Large laser blasts were fired ahead as he backed up into direct view of the door frame. His eyes glanced inside, catching the twins. Despite the fact they were still in their Old West attire, he seemed to pay no attention to it.

"KIDS! SAVE YOURSELVES!" he shouted desperately. "THE ANTS! THERE ARE TOO MANY!"

Coming into view of the doorway was a tidal wave of tiny ants that stacked among one another high enough to whack the laser cannon out of Ford's possession. Immediately as he was disarmed, the flood of ants dogpiled him before working together to quickly drag him across the floor.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!" Ford's scream faded as he was dragged out of view past the twins' open doorway.

Following behind him, another giant wave of ants dragged Stan across the doorway's view. Stan glanced into the room, face lighting up slightly as he looked right at the twins.

"KIDS! YOU'RE OUR ONLY HOPE!" Stan called out. "WE NEED BUG SPRAY! BUY BUG SPRAAAAAAAAAAaaaay!"

As he was dragged off in the same direction as Ford, yet another wave of ants passed the open doorway, this time dragging Soos across.

"HAS ANYONE SEEN ABUELITA?!" he asked, frantically glancing around. "WHERE'S ABUELITA?! ABUELITAAAAAAAaaaaa!"

Not long after him, a final wave of ants passed by dragging Melody.

"GUYS, SERIOUSLY, I LITERALLY JUST GOT HOME! WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING?!" she shouted in utter confusion.

The twins simply watched as each Shack resident got dragged away out of their view by the seas of ants. Neither of them reacted immediately, and a silence ensued as the two just continued to stand in place for a moment, minds numb as can be at that point.

"Missing the Old West yet?" Dipper simply asked.

"A little bit," Mabel nodded without hesitation.

[The Future, 207̃016]

A few thousand miles above an ongoing firefight in the streets of the Time Capital floated a giant satellite in the shape of an infinity sign. It basked in the glow of the fractured blue moon that rested another few thousand miles above it. Floating around the satellite were red beacons that scattered across and flashed like warning signals to anyone capable of getting close.

But before all of the beacons was a glowing neon blue sign for the satellite.

The Infinetentiary.

Inside the structure was a prison that looped around the infinity symbol. The walls were dark and covered in a grid-like pattern. At that point in the apparent evening, every prisoner was confined to their individual grid-block cells. Each grid block cell was shaped just like a block, with nothing more than a toilet, a cold bed, and a small transparent section of the wall that was meant to function as a sort of window to look out into space or even the planet below.

In one cell, Blendin stared out his window longingly as it faced the fractured moon. He sat on top of his bed silently with nothing more to do than just think. Not even about anything specific. Given his sentence, he figured this was the last of his time to think about virtually everything that he could.

But eventually, even thinking started to get too depressing for him. He sighed, turning away from the window and tucking his face into his hands.

"What did I do to deserve this?"

His automated cell door suddenly slid open. With a flinch, his eyes darted straight over to it. Immediately, his dread returned as he saw the two men who stood at the doorway.

"Blendin Blandin," Dundgren sternly said as he stood beside Lolph. "Come with us."

Blendin slouched over with growing apprehension. "Aw, man…"

As directed, he stood up from his bed, walked out of his cell, and joined the two. After Lolph closed his cell door again, the two began to lead Blendin through the prison block's looping halls.

Blendin silently followed behind for several minutes. Though, he had questions running through his mind specifically as to where they were going, as they were entering parts of the Infinetentiary that he had never even been through in all the past time he had spent there. However, he kept them to himself, remembering his position compared to Lolph and Dundgren. Beyond that, he was simply in too much despair at that moment to even care about asking questions anyway.

Eventually, they reached a long corridor with a much darker grid pattern than the rest of the prison. They walked down to the end of it, reaching a door in the corner where the hallway split off to the right. Lolph pressed his hand on the electronic press pad beside the door, prompting it to slide open. He and Dundgren then stepped aside, gesturing for Blendin to go in first.

As he walked inside, he knew immediately that this was not a room he had ever seen in the prison. It was dim, barely lit up by anything at all except the glowing blue moonlight outside the transparent tinted window. The room itself had nothing else in it either. It didn't bear any resemblance to the average grid-block cell, which to him was an immediate indicator that it wasn't a holding space. Not a regular one, that was.

"Close the door behind you, Lolph," Dundgren ordered as he joined Blendin in the room. "We can't afford any potential witnesses."

Lolph walked inside as well and did as told, pressing his hand against the interior press pad and shutting the door, locking themselves firmly in with Blendin.

Blendin sighed, knowing where things looked to be going with acceptance. "L-Look, can we please just get this over with already? I-I don't have it in me to keep waiting in suspense for you guys to kill me. I'm already done."

"We're not going to kill you," Dundgren said.

"Oh, please!" Blendin exclaimed, not buying it for a second. "After you two brought me from my cell to this… secret room with no chance of witnesses? You think I believe this isn't a setup? Besides, you two have always hated me!"

"That part may be true…" Dundgren admitted. "...but that's not the reason why we brought you here."

"The walls of this particular room are insulated enough to block all possible radio signals to our communicators," Lolph explained.

Dundgren nodded. "Therefore, this is the only room in the entire Infinetentiary that Time Titan has no ears within."

Blendin raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what? W-Why does that matter?"

"After Bill destroyed the Time Baby, Lolph and I maintained our positions in the Time Police under Time Titan's new authority when he took over," Dundgren continued. "But we hold no support for the titan's tyranny. We don't believe him to have the best interests of any of the people."

"So what? It's not like Time Baby was exactly a model tyrant either," Blendin said. "You two should know that better than anyone."

"The difference is that we don't believe Time Titan is who he says he is," Lolph claimed. "You've been away, so you don't know, but his coming into power was spontaneous, and his promises have been entirely unfulfilled. Additionally, the Wishing Forge has been dormant; therefore, no time wishes have been produced since he took over."

Blendin's mouth hung open in surprise. "No time wishes…? But what about Globnar?"

"There is no more Globnar," Dundgren revealed. "No reason to invoke it without wishes, that is."

"Here's the thing - just a few months ago, while fighting back a wave of Truth insurrectionists, the two of us discovered a potential solution to this entire conflict. A way to take down the Time Titan internally, put an end to this war, and free the planet from global tyranny," Lolph continued.

"And that's where you come in."

Blendin raised an eyebrow. "M-Me?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, we need you, Blendin," Dundgren told him. "Hence why we sent Dipper and Mabel for your retrieval."

"Wait a second… YOU TWO sent Dipper and Mabel after me?!" Blendin questioned.

"We had to," Dundgren said. "With this solution we found, we believe them to be instrumental to ending the Time War."

"They needed to be aware; to know what was at stake," Lolph added.

"You wanna involve two teenagers from the distant past in our futuristic war? What's wrong with you?! T-This isn't any of their concern!" Blendin argued.

"When this war we're in involves the very fate of time as we know it, I'd argue there isn't a single person in history whom this doesn't concern," Lolph argued back.

Blendin opened his mouth to reply but stopped himself as he took a moment to think over their words. His eyes glanced around ambivalently.

"I just… I-I don't understand. N-None of this makes any sense! Why are they needed? Why am I needed?" Blendin asked.

"That's why we brought you here, Blendin," Dundgren said, walking up to Blendin and putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "We're here to explain everything to you."

BOOM!

The wall behind Blendin was suddenly blown apart, blasting each of the three inward before immediately pulling them back as the room became exposed to the vacuum of space. A siren began to blare throughout the prison while each floating beacon around the Infinetentiary began to flash red lights rapidly.

As Lolph and Dundgren were blasted back against the wall, their suits automatically activated sets of space helmets, which formed and sealed instantly around their heads, protecting them and allowing them to breathe.

"Vacuum avoided!" both of their suits' helmets spoke as they blinked. "Thank you for buying Auto-helm: the smart space helmet!"

"What the hell?!" Lolph questioned, turning to his side. "Dundgren! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Dundgren said, standing up straight as he glanced around. "Where's Blendin?!"

"Oh, don't worry about him. He's just fine," a new voice entered.

Lolph and Dundgren looked up as the smoke had almost instantly cleared. Straight ahead, they saw another man standing with a metal prosthetic arm around Blendin's neck. Thankfully, Blendin's prison jumpsuit appeared to have formed an auto-helmet of his own, protecting him from the elements of space. However, in his captor's other hand, there was a laser blaster pointed right up to the side of Blendin's helmet.

The man wore a metallic mask with a holo display that covered the upper half of his head, leaving just his mouth exposed behind a transparent helmet piece of his own. The rest of his outfit was mismatched as he wore a large dark trench coat over a dirtied white shirt. He wore long cargo pants and had metallic boots. Additionally, he had a neon blue symbol on the shoulder of his trench coat that looked almost like a cursive T with an eye as the loop.

Back outside the station behind them, there was a somewhat distant spaceship with an open cargo ramp pointed toward the hole in the wall, seemingly waiting.

"Though if I were you, I wouldn't make any sudden movements," the man continued as a readying charge-up whir came from his laser blaster. He smirked. "One wrong move and his helmet gets an open window."

Dundgren narrowed his eyes at the man. "Equinox… "

"Lolph… Dundgren… good to see you two again," Equinox replied.

"W-What the…?! What is this?!" Blendin questioned, frantically glancing back and forth between the time police and his captor.

"Let go of the prisoner, Equinox," Lolph calmly ordered.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Equinox said, shaking his head. "You see, I've been looking for this one. I hope you don't mind me borrowing him for a bit."

"Looking for me?!" Blendin interjected. "I-I don't even know who you are!"

"But no worries, you two," Equinox said to the time police. "I'm sure we'll catch up in proper later. But I must be on my way now."

Equinox kicked his feet lightly on the ground, pushing himself back as he let zero gravity take over, floating him and Blendin back outside toward the awaiting ship. The entire time, he kept his sight on Lolph and Dundgren with a ready finger around his laser blaster's trigger. Panicked, Blendin began to kick his legs around desperately to no avail.

"Guys! Come on! Help me!" Blendin called out to Lolph and Dundgren. "Y-You two have guns too! Use them!"

Lolph wanted to reach for his handgun, but his eyes kept on Equinox's trigger finger and instantly hesitated, simply watching as he drifted further away through space.

"Dundgren, what do we do?" he asked quietly.

Dundgren stared up at Blendin and Equinox with the same level of hesitation. "We… we let him go."

"What?!" Lolph questioned, eyes lighting up. "But… we just got him back!"

"I know…"

Blendin's desperation increased as he watched their inaction. "Guys?! GUYS?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! DON'T JUST STAND THERE AND WATCH! HE'S TAKING ME AWAY!"

Dundgren sighed remorsefully. "…but as far as we know… this needs to happen."

Lolph looked on at him with uncertainty. "A-Are you sure?"

Dundgren answered with nothing more than silence, keeping his eyes fixated on Blendin and Equinox as they floated into the back of the ship's cargo bay. As soon as they were inside, the bay's ramp began to retract and close up, much to Blendin's horror.

"I THOUGHT YOU NEEDED ME! I THOUGHT WE WERE COOL!" Blendin fiercely reminded. "GUYS?! GUYS?! GUYYYYYYYS!"

The cargo bay closed and sealed up, shutting off Lolph and Dundgren's view of Equinox and Blendin entirely. As soon as the door was shut, the ship's thrusters began to whir before very suddenly launching the whole ship forward with a burst of speed descending back toward the planet below.

Lolph and Dundgren kicked themselves off the wall behind them and floated their way up to the hole, stopping themselves by grabbing onto the remains of the wall above. From where they floated, they simply stared at the distant ship as it continued to get further away before diving into the planet's atmosphere. All while the prison alarms continued to blare and the surrounding beacons continued to flash.

"Did we do the right thing?" Lolph asked as his worrisome eyes kept staring at the planet below.

"I don't know. Only time will tell," Dundgren said with a face equally as concerned. "But one thing's for certain - the real Time War is about to begin…"

16 + 9 23-5-18-5 8-5-18-5

I did not anticipate it taking two months to get this one out but life happens, especially when these get really long. Rest assured, my motivation to continue this story is still very high. Simply put - if it takes me forever to update, just assume I've gotten really busy, the chapter is really long, or both. Both was the case this time.

Next Episode: "Cause and Effect"

-Absolute Rift

(Pssst… might wanna do this episode's cipher…)