Sorry about the lack of update guys. I was dealing with new work hours, specifically sixteen work hours; been rough. Start the fic.
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Mothman and Dipper arrived at the Northwest Mansion with Mothman perching himself on the stone wall surrounding the grounds. They overlooked the courtyard and they were greeted with a peculiar sight.
Adult Dipper and both Pacificas were in the courtyard fighting some kind of gelatinous blob.
"What am I looking at right now?" Mothman asked.
"That's the thing that's been trying to kill both versions of myself and Pacifica."
"From the future? Like you were telling me on the roof?"
"Exactly! Ready to fly in and take him down!"
"... Well I'm ready to fly you in anyways."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm a composite being, Dipper. I can fly around at high speeds, carry you, but I'm no fighter. I lose too many of my moths I'll lose who I am."
"Wait! Really?"
"I mean... I won't really be dead so long as a single moth survives but I'll essentially be starting over. One moth at a time, complete reset... but if all of them die, I'm gone for good."
"Wow... okay. You can stay back. I still need to get down there though."
"I can still at least do that much for you!"
Mothman picked up Dipper and flew him down to the battlefield. He dropped off Young Dipper next to Adult Pacifica.
"What's going on?" asked Young Dipper.
"Short version is, he healed himself up and took Dipper's journal."
"No he didn't. I still got it right here!"
"Not your journal, YOUR journal!"
"What are you... Oh."
"That's right! That's not the problem though."
"What's the problem?"
"Well, the Shapeshifter had to travel back through time somehow right? He used one of those time travel devices those, like, weird future policemen use. We were wondering where he had stashed it away and then it hit us. He swallowed the thing! So we've been trying to get him to upchuck it!"
The Shapeshifter changed into one of the lightning goblins and tried to make a bolt for Adult Pacifica. The monster almost reached her face but Adult Dipper had activated his whip and grabbed him the ankle with it. A quick yank back and the Shapeshifter found Adult Dipper's brass knuckles waiting for his face.
*POW! *
Young Pacifica was a little closer to the man than he had thought she was and got a really good view of Adult Dipper in action.
'Whoa! Dipper grows up to be really strong!' she thought.
The Shapeshifter landed on the ground turning into a gelatinous mass for second then turned into Edna's monster form and swung out at Adult Pacifica.
She quickly duck a swing from his right claw and jumped when he tried to sweep her legs with his left. She leaned back when he tried to bite her neck avoiding the fangs by inches; he brought both claws down but she stood up perfectly straight and had them pass her harmlessly.
* HARUK!*
He spat a spider web out of his mouth which almost hit Young Dipper. He flinched back and when the spider web hit the ground where he was it turned to stone. "Yipe!"
The Shapeshifter reeled back to fire off another shot, there was no why either of them could dodge this one.
*PLOOT! *
A green glob covered the Shapeshifter's mouth.
The Shapeshifter struggled to get it off his snout but when it proved to be too pointless he jumped back as Adult Dipper tried to land some body blows.
"This is good!" Adult Dipper declared. "We're throwing him off his game! Together we're too much for him!"
"Where's your journal though?" asked Young Dipper.
"He put in some kind of weird pouch thing!"
The Shapeshifter returned to his true form and pulled Adult Dipper's journal out of a pouch in his chest. He flipped through it until he found a page he liked. Tucking it back inside he began to change, starting with his color. He started to change red and then he shot into the sky.
"Oh great, the Boo Hag! I forgot she was in there, the most annoying monster there is!" Adult Pacifica complained.
Adult Dipper raised an eyebrow at her. "More annoying than Jack Frost?"
"Okay, I stand corrected."
Having completed his transformation, the Shapeshifter took flight.
Adult Dipper changed his dial to the laser. "Don't let him get away!"
*BZZZZZZZZZZZT! *
The laser shot into the sky but the Shapeshifter danced around it in the air.
"LIIIIIIGHT!"
"What?"
Mothman jumped off the roof and started to pursue the laser.
"What?! Mothman?! NO!" shouted Adult Dipper.
"That light isn't your friend, man!" shouted Young Dipper.
Adult Dipper turned off the laser only to have the monsters collide in the air causing them to fall to the ground.
The two monsters sat up and shook the cobwebs out of their heads.
One look at Mothman was all the Shapeshifter needed to get a new evil idea.
He quickly changed into a duplicate Mothman as the quartet ran over to them.
"Oh you have to be kidding me!" Adult Dipper grumbled.
Adult Dipper still had his gun out but had no way of knowing which one to shoot. Both monsters raised their arms in surrender but it was Mothman who shot the other monster a very dry look.
"You don't really think they're going to fall for this cliche' trick do you?" asked Mothman.
"Why not?" asked the Shapeshifter.
"Because unlike you I am a composite being!"
Mothman gave his doppelganger a rude look and then dispersed into a flurry of moths.
"Was that supposed to be some kind of power move?"
"No, but this is!"
Adult Dipper jumped in and hit the Shapeshifter in the gut with his brass knuckles. His punch was so hard that something traveled up from the Shapeshifter's stomach and flew out his mouth.
It flew through the air until it landed on the ground in a wet splat landing in front of Young Pacifica.
It looked like a square measuring tape with the infinity symbol on the side.
"Pacifica!" Young Dipper shouted. "Quick! Grab it!"
Young Pacifica flinched away from it. "Gross! That thing is disgusting! I would NEVER touch something like that!"
Adult Pacifica ran over and snatched it up off the ground. "Never say 'never'!"
She ran off to try and keep it from the Shapeshifter.
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" challenged the Shapeshifter.
*CLICK! *
Adult Dipper aimed his gun almost point blank at the Shapeshifter's head.
"And what makes you think we're interested in anything you have to say?"
At first the only response given to the detective was what could be interpreted as a smirk. "Because you have more immediate problems to worry about."
At first Adult Dipper couldn't figure out what he was talking about. Then he smelled smoke.
"Oh shoot! The battery!"
The immediate danger caused enough of a distraction for the Shapeshifter to flip through Dipper's journal and then turn into Bart the unicorn.
Adult Dipper tossed the battery away where it exploded on the ground.
"How can he be so hasty with these new forms, when he had my journal he at least read some of the pages to know what he's dealing with. With yours though, it's like he's just looking at the pictures."
Adult Dipper took his younger self's analysis with a small amount of aggravation given the situation.
"He's had a lot of time to work on this plan, Dipper. No surprise he would pick up speed reading!"
The Shapeshifter was quickly gaining on Adult Pacifica, his horn pointed at her back.
"One way or another, I'm getting dat time machine back!"
The phony unicorn skidded to a stop without warning and brought a hoof up to his neck.
"Is that my voice? Did I get this sucker's accent?! I didn't even mean to do dat!"
Adult Pacifica had gotten considerably closer to the house and started to look for a place to hide the device.
The Shapeshifter finally snapped back to his senses and dug at the ground with his front hoof readying to charge.
"Stay away from her!"
*WHAM! *
A rock slammed into the Shapeshifter's head hard enough that he lost his balance.
Things got a little blurry for a moment but he could just barely make out Young Dipper with his arm extended.
"I hit him! I actually hit him!"
The Shapeshifter looked between Young Dipper and Adult Pacifica like he was making a decision.
"Back to Plan A!"
*PLOOT! *
The unicorn imposter looked down to find his right front hoof covered in a blob of green goop.
"Didn't forget about me now did you."
The Shapeshifter smiled at the detective and changed his right arm into a giant muscly human arm and pulled Dipper's journal out from his mane.
"I could never forget the author of such a book. I will admit though, this reference guide. The old one was a better read!"
'I can't let him get to the page about the Jersey Devil. I can't afford to freeze up if he takes on his form! It could be game over!'
Adult Dipper made a mad grab for his journal with younger self jumping in to lend a hand.
While this was happening, Young Pacifica caught up to her adult self.
"What do we do now?" asked Young Pacifica.
It was at this moment a certain dog. She was yellow, with a red collar and a silver name tag.
For a moment Adult Pacifica was frozen where she stood.
"My dog... I can't believe I actually forgot she was still alive in this time period."
The dog stared blankly ahead.
Young Pacifica ran over and hugged the dog.
"You poor thing, what're you doing out here?"
"She must have heard the commotion and come out."
"With how much our parents over-trained her, it's a good day when she just walks around without being told to do so."
"Wait a minute, our parents said he got only the finest training right?"
"I think I see where you're going with this, but do you think it'll work?"
"Only one way to find out!"
Both Pacificas pointed at the Shapeshifter at the same time and shouted "SIC' EM!"
*"BARK! BARK! BARK! BARK!" *
The dog jumped baring its sharp fangs, tackling the gooped up Shapeshifter.
"AAARGH! SOMEBODY GET IT OFF!"
Adult Pacifica wiped a tear from her eye. "I had no idea how badly I need to see my old dog do something other stare blankly ahead."
"AHA!" Young Dipper held up the journal in the air. "I got it!"
*"YIPE!" *
The Northwest dog flew backwards through the air and hit Adult Pacifica.
The Shapeshifter grinned and held up a piece of paper with his giant hand.
"Not ALL of it!"
He used his horn to pierce the glob on his hoof, freeing himself. Then he started to inflate, growing bigger and bigger.
"I got the page of your most powerful enemy! The..." Despite the fact that he was still growing he took a moment to look at the page just to be sure he got the name right. "Siegfried the dwarf (even though it says he was no longer a dwarf for some reason)!"
"Ugh!" Adult Pacifica made her face of revulsion. "Siegfried was our lamest villain ever! With our careers were a fanfic his case would be what chased away over half the readers! Such unclear motivations!"
Adult Dipper raised an eyebrow at her. "You okay, Sweetheart?"
"I just really didn't like that adventure okay?!"
The Shapeshifter finished changing into Siegfried's monster from, towering above them he let out a mighty roar.
"WHAT EVEN IS THAT?!" Young Pacifica screamed.
Adult Dipper adjusted his dial. "Not a problem!"
This claim earned him the monster's full attention, along with a raised eyebrow of said monster.
"Yeah, you heard me right! Because your weakness stays the same no matter what form you take! I saw it when we were freezing you in tube a few days ago/all those years ago!"
"What're you talking about?!"
"Ice, Stupid! You took the form of a literal fire monster and still got frozen! And I got just the feature on my gun for something like that!"
*KACHINK! *
Adult Dipper fired off an ice ball; the Shapeshifter held up his hand in defense. Ice quickly creeped over his hand, his face growing more horrified with each inch covered.
"And yeah," the detective smirked. "I've got plenty to spare!"
The Shapeshifter looked at his frozen hand, then back at the humans, then back at his hand.
"Nope!"
Given his great size he easily hopped over the wall that surrounds the mansion.
"Shoot! We need to go after him! Now!"
"Dipper!"
He looked up and saw Mothman carrying Adult Pacifica in two of his arms while the kids rode on his back.
"Some Mothman speed might actually help us catch up to him!"
"Uh FYI, you should lower your expectations. Dealing with a LOT of weight here!" announced Mothman.
Adult Pacifica shot the bug a dirty look. "You better not be talking about me!"
Adult Dipper jumped up and grabbed Pacifica's hand.
Gravity Falls Forest...
The Shapeshifter ran, there was no remnants of his plan, no remembrance of revenge. There was only fear now.
He brushed passed the pine trees in a blind panic, he bumped his arm into one of the trees hurting himself. He looked back to see Mothman flying behind him. Adult Dipper was hanging by Pacifica's hand who was hanging off of Mothman's claw; Adult Dipper had his gun out trying to aim with the swaying motions while Young Dipper was perched above shinning a flashlight on the Shapeshifter.
"Pull over and surrender to freezing! This is your final warning!"
Young Dipper turned to Young Pacifica. "This is like a high speed pursuit! Mabel would probably be making some siren noises for fun right about now!"
"Well I'M not Mabel!" Young Pacifica crossed her arms with a pout.
"But it still sounds fun, doesn't it?"
"..."
"Come on, nobody here will judge you. Have a little fun for once."
Young Pacifica darted her eyes around nervously. "T-That's so childish! I would never..."
"We could do it together, would that help?"
"Yeah, okay."
The kids started making siren noises and Adult Dipper failed to suppress a smile on his face.
*KACHINK! *
An ice ball hit the Shapeshifter in the back, ice crept over from the point of impact covering his upper torso.
*KACHINK! *
Another one hit the arm with the iced hand encasing the entire limb in ice.
*KACHINK! *
The other arm got hit. This must have been a particularly good ice ball since the entire arm got coated in the one shot.
At this point the only parts of his body that weren't covered in ice was his head and legs.
He did his best to run but with limited mobility he was more comical than swift.
"Let's wrap this up, huh? The nostalgia has been wonderful but we got lives to get back to!"
*KACHINK! *
Dipper's ice ball hit the Shapeshifter's legs causing him to fall forward. Our heroes landed and Adult Dipper made his way to the front of the monster.
"So this is it. You had countless lifetimes to plot your revenge, and you screwed it up because you were afraid of getting frozen again. That's gotta sting!"
The Shapeshifter gritted his his teeth, closing his eyes in anger until he could take it no more. He grew six more eyes, his mouth opened up like an insect's, and he blood curdling scream.
"Take a Chill Pill!"
*KACHINK! *
One last ice ball hit the Shapeshifter in his mouth freezing his entire head.
"Oh thank God!" Mothman breathed. "I thought this thing was going to go on forever. I'm going home!"
"What? Mothman! What about the author?! You were going to tell me about him remember?" pleaded Young Dipper.
"Sorry kid, crashing through the window, all this flying around, and carrying people? That's way too much excitement for me! I'm headed home! You know where to find me when you want your answers!"
Before Young Dipper could protest Mothman took off into the sky.
"And there goes all my answers!"
"Don't sweat it, kid. You'll see him again, I promise!" Adult Dipper stated as he slammed a fresh battery into his gun. "You know what? I think we chased him back to where we first arrived."
"Wait, are you serious?"
"Yeah, Pacifica. Look around. I mean we're here during the day but it's totally the same place!"
"...You're right."
Adult Pacifica looked to her partner.
"Can we get a puppy now?"
"I—you—Seriously?! AGAIN with this?! NOW?! When are you gonna let this puppy thing go?!"
"When we get a puppy of course!"
The child versions watched this interaction with curious interest. Then Young Pacifica started to grin at Young Dipper.
"Hey Dipper?"
"Don't answer her, Dipper!" warned Adult Dipper.
"I was thinking..." continued Young Pacifica.
"Don't you promise her ANYthing!" snapped Adult Dipper.
"When we're older and living together in an RV traveling the country fighting monsters, do you think we could a puppy to take care of and love together?" Young Pacifica grinned from ear to ear and was practically bouncing on her feet. She was getting a little too close to Young Dipper's face for his liking.
"...Uh... That's... oddly specific."
Adult Pacifica smirked at her partner. "I'm not hearing a 'No'!"
"He's not saying a 'Yes' either and neither am I!"
"What about one of those dog dragon things I was talking about at the beginning of our adventure?" asked Young Dipper.
"Who's side are you on?!" scolded Adult Dipper.
"I guess I'm just my own worst enemy."
A time portal opened up and a squadron of the time patrolmen came out. Before Young Pacifica could react to the new comers, Young Dipper grabbed her by the hand the hand and ran off with her leading her away.
"What's going on?"
"Those are Time Police. They're probably the guys who wipe our memories!"
"Oh no! I'm not ready for that!"
"Me neither! They can't erase what they can't find though!"
Back with the Time Police, they were working on containing the frozen body of the Shapeshifter when Dundgren came over to the adult detectives.
"Fine job you did today. Once again, I wish to apologize about the mix up Detective Pines."
"You're forgiven. This monster can be crafty, need any help locking him up?"
"You've helped us quite enough. The Time Police is in your debt, all that's left is to send you back to your own time."
"...You said you owed us one right?" asked Adult Dipper.
"Oh geez. Here it comes. Okay, let me hear it."
"Well like you said, I'm very nostalgic for this town. I'd love to relive some of it with my partner."
"...Fine. The usual time travel rules still apply though!"
"We will be super secretive!" Adult Dipper promised.
"We promise!" Adult Pacifica saluted.
Dundgren didn't look like he really believed them but he closed his eyes in surrender.
"We'll give you until sundown. At that time the time portal will reopen here to take you both back to your own time period. Don't be late!"
"We won't! I promise!"
The detectives ran off leaving Dundgren alone to help push the Shapeshifter through the portal.
"Come on, everyone. Heave ho."
As the time patrollers worked on transporting the perp, Adult Dipper and Pacifica raced off to find their younger selves.
"Now let's see, if we were ourselves..."
"Which we are."
"Where would we go?"
"... The Mystery Shack!" they both said in unison.
The Mystery Shack...
"Are you sure we'll be safe here?"
"Even Grunkle Stan didn't know about this room until Soos stumbled upon it. It's the best chance we have!"
The two children waited for a moment in the secret room of the Mystery Shack. A moment passed, then another.
"I think we're..."
*SLAM! *
The door was kicked open and the children screamed.
"Ya see? I told you they'd be here, Sweetheart!"
"You were right!"
"Oh!" Young Dipper breathed a sigh of relief. "It's just us."
"Did we walk in on something?" asked Adult Dipper.
He gave his adult self a confused look, then he looked down. The slam of the door had startled Young Dipper and Pacifica into each other's arms.
They immediately separated avoiding each other's gaze, a bright blush on both their faces.
"Alright kids, time for a debriefing. The Time Police are putting the Shapeshifter into custody as we speak. As a thank you, they're letting my Pacifica and myself stay here until sundown so now is the time to tie up loose ends."
"But what about me and Pacifica?" asked Young Dipper. "Can we keep our memories? They haven't come for us."
Adult Dipper frowned. "Oh geez... come with me Little Man. We need to talk in a place more private... away from our Pacificas."
The Dippers left the room leaving the Pacificas alone together.
"Where is everybody else in the Mystery Shack?" asked Pacifica.
"Wendy is out looking for Dipper, Grunkle Stan is out looking for her, and Soos is with Mabel trying to smooth things over with the people down at the gym."
"Well I'm still going to remember all this, right? If they aren't coming for us than that means we can remember everything, right?"
Adult Pacifica knelt down to her. "Oh Sweetie, we aren't going to be able to get out of this that easily."
"But... do you...?"
"No. I don't remember anything about this adventure, I'm sorry but it looks like this is fixed. I don't know how but you are going to forget this adventure with Dipper."
"But... But..."
"This will likely be your last day with him, with full knowledge of how you feel and how you are going to feel for him one day. You can't Cash Money your way out of this one, so do your best to make it count."
Young Pacifica's eyes watered to the point of overflowing, then she ran into the arms of her older self.
"I know," Adult Pacifica comforted. "I know."
**Meanwhile in the copier room...**
"No really it's the perfect plan! We create paper duplicates, they get zapped instead and..."
"Dipper, they won't fall for that."
"Well maybe we could..."
"Dipper, you have to let her go."
"No! We've faced so many things, surely we could..."
"You HAVE to let her go! Don't you see? It's the only way you can KEEP her!"
"But... But... Sigh... I know."
"You do?"
"I've known since I've started having... feelings for... my Pacifica. It... doesn't feel the same way with Wendy. I'm... I don't know; happier?"
"And do you know why you're happier with her? Because you have more in common with her, our brains mesh together with Pacifica better than they ever did with Wendy's. She's an intellectual equal and more physical than she looks... but there's something kind of amazing about that."
Young Dipper suddenly frowned. "And yet... In the future I'm still just friends with her, aren't I?"
"Huh?"
"You both know the other likes you but you're still not romantically together.
"These things take time, Dipper! You can't just cannonball in! Remember the pie chart!"
"...It is an impressive pie chart..."
"Exactly, gotta listen to our head. Unless of course, you have a better..."
"Alright fine, how about if YOU print out a duplicate and have HIM ask Pacifica out and if she shoots him down he can just say he's a clone!"
"...What?"
"From I stand you haven't done any better of a job with your Pacifica than I have with my Wendy!"
"That...That isn't true."
"Isn't it? Remember what Mabel told us? About getting in our own way? What if that's still happening right now?"
"Alright fine!" Adult Dipper made his way over to the photo copier and laid down as much of his body as he could on top of it. "I can't believe the hard time I give myself!"
Adult Dipper copies himself but because he was considerably larger than the child version of himself the Paper Dipper that came out only had the top half of Adult Dipper's body.
Paper Dipper looked down at his half body then up at Regular Dipper. "...This was a bad idea."
"Fair point! Later!"
Adult Dipper pulled out a can of Peach Cola from his coat pocket and dissolved Paper Dipper. Adult Dipper felt a curious stare from his younger self and raised an eyebrow at him.
"What? A man can't be thirsty and buy himself a can of Peach Cola?"
The sound of a door opening turned Adult Dipper's sip into a spit take.
"THEY'RE HOME!" Adult Dipper coughed.
"Shhh!" Young Dipper shushed. The trucked hat child quickly covered the detective's mouth. "He'll hear you! What're we going to do?!"
Adult Dipper moved the hands away and smiled. "Don't worry!" He held up his gun. "I know all the tricks for this! Got to where Grunkle Stan keeps Wax Stan and bring me of the wax from the decapitation hole! I might have the perfect alteration for this!"
Omake
Soos was happily sweeping the shop while Mabel was giving some much overdue attention to Waddles.
Adult Dipper walked past the doorway on the ceiling upside down. With the addition of the wax Adult Dipper was able to apply some goop to the bottom of his shoes and to his hands letting him crawl on the ceiling almost quietly.
Soos turned around for a moment but only saw an empty doorway.
All the dust in the air started to tickle Soos' nose and...
"ACHOO!"
"Gesundheit."
"Thanks dude... wait."
Soos turned around again but there was still nothing.
He shrugged and went back to sweeping.
As soon as his back was turned Adult Dipper crawled by again but now Adult Pacifica was outfitted with goop-balls like her counterpart and also crawled past the doorway.
"I think I need to get a different talking broom, dude. This one's making me weird."
"There's another in the closet but watch out for the invisible wizard Dipper says 'doesn't exist'.
That's it for now. This chapter was originally supposed to be longer but a couple of things stopped me 1.) This chapter wait period has already been too long even by MY standards. And 2.) I also have to keep my uploads to DA in mind because they do have a word limit. I'm very pleased with this chapter, omake is a little weak I admit, but if you enjoyed it too then leave me a review.