Gravity Falls: Once More

by Absolute Rift

Four years after their faithful summer of weird, Dipper and Mabel finally return to the legendary town of Gravity Falls. Despite having new adventures and mysteries to take on, they are still tailed by the challenges that come with navigating teenage life. With friends and enemies, both new and old, the Pines must prepare themselves for whatever awaits them. (S1 done, S2 ongoing)

35. Little Red Riding: Part 3

Dipper and Mabel were pinned to separate trees by their necks with metal-like bars, which held both of them above the ground barely enough to choke them. Standing right in front of them was Valora Corduroy, Wendy's long-lost and presumed-dead mother.

It was an easy correlation to make based on the memory they retained of the picture they had seen of her earlier that day. Despite the fact the night darkness within the woods made it difficult enough to see, she was still recognizable. Aside from the new white streak in her shortened dark brown hair and some new facial scars, she still looked just like the woman in Dan's picture frame, albeit, in a matte white nanosuit rather than red flannel.

To the twins, learning she was alive was both exciting and terrifying. Exciting because of the sheer revelation of finding Wendy's mother was actually alive after all this time. However, it was terrifying when they looked at her now. It was the same woman, but the face was far angrier. And considering she caught them as they spoke of her, they could only wonder how long she might've been following them.

With her arm cannon aimed at them, she cautiously took a few more steps toward them. "So, you wanna tell me who the hell you two are?"

Mabel tried to pull on the bar around her neck in an attempt to give herself breathing room. "I don't... mean to be a stickler or anything, but... don't you think... this way of catching us... is a bit overkill for a... pair of teens?"

Valora narrowed her eyes even more as she aimed her arm cannon more in her direction. "Nice one. You must think you're real smart, huh?"

"Actually, he's the smart one," Mabel replied as she gestured over to Dipper. "He scores fives... on all his AP exams. Meanwhile, I can barely get away with a C... in standard Algebra."

"Mabel, stop trying... to piss her off!" Dipper told her through his own choking.

"I'm not! I'm just... spitting... the truth!" Mabel assured him. Her shortage of oxygen was starting to take a toll on her as her face began to turn purple.

"I couldn't care less about whether or not you're teens. The fact you two are here and know who I am is suspicious enough. So I'll ask you one last time- who are you?"

Dipper's face soon began to turn purple as well. "P-Please! We know... Wendy!"

"She's... our... friend!" Mabel weakly added.

Valora's eyes widened. "Wendy?" she questioned under her breath.

"Mrs. Corduroy... please!" Dipper cried out weakly, outstretching his arm desperately as his eyes started to roll to the back of his head.

Without further thought, Valora retracted her arm cannon and glanced down at her wrist. She pressed a single button, which immediately triggered the bars surrounding the twins' necks to split open, freeing and dropping them on the ground. With their airways clear, the two lay down for a moment as they coughed violently and gasped for air, slowly replenishing the normal color in their faces.

"Phew!" Mabel exclaimed as she threw herself on her back exhaustedly. "I think I was starting to see the light there for a moment."

Dipper began to collect himself up from the ground but paused when he noticed one of the pieces of the bars that had constricted them a moment ago. He picked it up and examined it, taking note of the odd pattern that gave off an illusion of waviness on the metal's actual flat surface.

"What kind of metal even is this?" he asked. "I've never seen a pattern like this before."

"I know, right? Apparently, it's not even a metal," Valora jumped in. "It's some sorta metalized metallic metalloid nonmetal called Metalalodiac. The name's a bit all over the place, but as it is, it's actually got a higher recorded strength than most…"

She came to pause as she looked down at the twins, who simply stared at her wondrously.

"...uh... standard elements…" she finished as she stared back at them curiously for a few seconds. She then cleared her throat and awkwardly smiled at them. "Anyway, I'm sorry about... you know... what just happened."

"I-It's fine…" Dipper mindlessly replied as he and Mabel continued to stare up at her in awe.

Valora admittedly began to get somewhat uncomfortable with the twins just staring up at her. Though she could understand why they looked at her as they did, she still wished to transition away from that part of their encounter.

"I... uh... don't think I got either of your names."

"Mabel Pines."

"Dipper Pines."

"And you're Wendy's mom…" Mabel finally addressed.

Valora gave her a slight smile back. "I guess you've heard about me then."

"Well, not at all before earlier today," Mabel told bluntly.

Valora's smile faded. "Oh."

Dipper was still stuck with his mouth hung open in absolute bewilderment. "Holy crap…" he finally managed to say. "We have so many questions to ask you! Like... what are you?"

"Are you from the future?" Mabel asked eagerly before letting out a gasp. "Is that where you got all these gadgets like that suit and the weird nonmetal metal or whatever?"

"The future…" Dipper repeated, beginning to consider this himself. "Is that where you've been all these years?"

"Uh... look, you two. I can see you're both really curious and that's cool! But, if it's understandable, I didn't really come here for this," she told the two as she started backing away slowly. "So, I think I'm just going to head on my way…"

Dipper's amazement and curiosity immediately turned into severe disappointment. "What? Are you serious? You're just gonna leave us without anything?"

Valora turned back to him and raised an eyebrow. "What exactly am I supposed to share with a pair of teens that I just met?"

"Uh... I don't know. Some sort of explanation?" Dipper suggested, raising an eyebrow at her. "I mean, you're our best friend's mom. You disappeared years ago and no one ever found out what had happened. Now, we find out you're out here and alive after all these years and you're just gonna walk away instead of telling us anything?"

"Just because you two know my daughter doesn't mean I'm obligated to tell you anything. My whole situation never called for your involvement," Valora told him bluntly.

Dipper glanced over at Mabel, whom he expected to be holding an 'I told you so' look on him. However, he saw that she actually appeared somewhat unsure. As if despite her ongoing opposition to their search, she was actually somewhat disappointed herself.

He then turned back toward Valora and narrowed his eyes. "Well, how else did you expect us to react? Would you just hope we'd just shrug this off and forget by tomorrow morning? You know that finding out you're still alive is probably one of the biggest discoveries we might ever make this summer, right? At the very least, you could give us some idea of where you've been all this time." An even more disappointing idea came to mind. "Unless... you left your family at your own will…"

Valora appeared shocked by this suggestion. Mabel was immediately not a fan of the idea either, nor was she a fan of Dipper's tone in assuming it was potentially the case.

"Dipper, that's jumping to conclusions…" she whispered over to him.

"You don't think it's possible?" he asked her. "Think, Mabel. She goes out of her way to protect her own family from strangers outside their house, but can't even be there for her kids as they grow up? Who's to say she didn't just walk out on them?"

"Me," Valora answered, grabbing their attention again. "Because I didn't walk out on them. I had four kids; one of them was born just weeks before. You know what kind of mother I'd be if I decided to drop out so early on in their lives? A pretty damn bad one, I'd say. I loved my family, and I would never dream of walking out of their lives like that."

As Dipper felt a strong sense of genuine sincerity from the look on her face, he felt inclined to believe her. Mabel, on the other hand, already had a growing sense that she had never left her family on purpose. Still, she remained curious.

"So... where'd you go then?" she asked.

Valora thought for a moment, hesitating on whether or not she even wanted to share. "It's a long story…"

"HEY!"

The three were then startled by the sudden, nearby shouting of a deep, masculine voice. Their eyes all darted in the direction of its origin, which looked to be from the Corduroy cabin. As they looked over at it, they saw Manly Dan emerge from the cabin's front door with his three sons standing behind him. He stepped off of his front porch with an axe in hand, glancing around angrily.

"WHO'S OUT THERE?!" he asked threateningly as he looked around, beginning to walk in the direction where the twins and Valora stood in the woods.

Valora's eyes widened upon realizing Dan was walking toward them. She pressed a button on her wrist before quickly grabbing a hold of each of the twins' shoulders. "Hold on!"

Dipper looked up at her hand on his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "Wait, wha-"

VYOOM!

The three suddenly began to glow blue for a brief moment before flashing away without leaving a single trace of their presence behind.

The flash went unseen by any of the Corduroy boys, and Dan simply paused as he continued to glance around angrily. "HELLO?! I ASKED, WHO'S OUT THERE?!"

Still not hearing or seeing anyone, Dan grew skeptical about whether there was anyone even in the area anymore. Marcus, Kevin, and Gus quickly ran up behind him where he stood.

"I'm telling you, dad. We heard voices out there," Gus said. "Like three of them."

"Well, whoever they might've been, it looks like my big manly voice scared 'em off," Dan said. "Now, I gotta figure out where your sister is. It's way past her usual shift, and she still ain't home. None of you boys heard from her at all?"

The boys looked at one another and simultaneously shook their heads at their father, none of them having seen Wendy since the morning either. Dan raised an eyebrow, growing slightly concerned. However, he still tried to keep himself composed.

"Where the hell is she?" he asked as he walked inside and reached for the home phone attached to the wall, dialing a number. "I'm gonna try calling her…"

---

Following a day of various trivial heists that they had taken on, Stan and Wendy had returned to the Mystery Shack that night to prepare for their upcoming jewel store heist.

To Stan's surprise, Ford still had yet to return home after leaving for McGucket's. Which was fine by him, because it meant they still had the Shack to properly prepare for the job without being scolded for leaving in the first place.

On a similar note, Abuelita had fallen asleep sometime in the middle of her soap opera marathon, and therefore, hadn't acknowledged Stan's return so she could resume looking after him as Ford initially tasked her with. Additionally, Soos and Melody were upstairs in their bedroom, but they seemed more focused on trying to crop out an explosion to use as a video effect than they were on Stan and Wendy's arrival.

That left Stan and Wendy alone in the gift shop to prepare for the heist. For the occasion, Stan wore a black suit and tie, whereas Wendy wore a black jacket and black jeans. She stood in front of a mirror viewing her appearance as she put on a black beanie, completing her heist outfit.

At the main counter, Stan placed his old heist briefcase on top and opened it up. Inside was his typical heist gear from back in the day, including a rope, a walkie-talkie, a flashlight, binoculars, gloves, and more. While he knew it was all useful equipment, all he needed at that moment were the gloves, which he took out and put on.

He shut the briefcase and looked to the side, hearing a sort of vibration nearby. He glanced around for a moment before his eyes fell upon Wendy's phone, vibrating on the counter.

"Kid, it looks like you got a call here."

Wendy walked over to the counter and picked up her phone, glancing at the ID. "Oh, it's just my dad," she said with an eye roll before carelessly placing her phone back down and walking off. "Ignore."

Stan's eyes widened in slight shock. "Quite a decision."

"I'm not worried about him," she brushed off with a shrug before smiling enthusiastically. "Besides, we got a jewel store heist ahead of us!"

"Damn right we do!" Stan nodded with equal excitement. "I'm glad to see you're ready to get this done."

"I was born ready! This is going to be our first big take!"

"Just keep in mind that because of that, we got a lot riding on us this time. We hit a lot of places earlier, but they weren't that special. Well, at least, they weren't to you. But anyway, a mistake here and there before wouldn't have ruined us. But for this, we need to be flawless. We need to be ready for everything and anything. One wrong move could trash the whole thing."

"No worries, old man. I already know what's at stake here," Wendy assured as she walked back over to the counter and sat up amongst it. "Trust me, what you're going to see later is the getaway of the century. We got this."

"That's the spirit!" Stan cheered with a smile. "Ya know, kid, in all the time I've known you before today, I never could've imagined you as a potential robbing buddy. But today, you've really proved yourself to be a lot more than the lazy cashier I took you for when I hired ya."

Wendy knew he was right. They never had much of a dynamic in the time she used to work for him. Between her laziness and occasional attempts to intentionally anger him on the job, she never left much room to paint herself in such a positive light in his eyes. Sure, they always had a mutual respect for one another regardless, and there were times when the two really did have to work together for the greater good. But never had they truly shared a bond and respect for one another as they had at that moment.

"Thanks, Mr. Pines," she told him with a grateful smile.

"Don't mention it," Stan nodded. "I just wish I had known about this little skill of yours sooner. Imagine what high-end jobs we could've been doing now had we started robbing years ago. Especially given the criminal experience you had."

"Eh, I wouldn't call myself much of a criminal back then. I'd say the most illegal thing I had ever really done at the time was just stealing snacks with my friends. Hell, what am I saying? I still do that now. But other than that, it was all just typical high school trouble. Nothing too noteworthy."

"But, I thought you said you've had a chase with the cops before?"

"That happened two months ago when I got expelled."

"Woah! So, you did something so bad at school that you got busted by the cops?" Stan questioned, somewhat shocked. "Man, I was just thinking you got caught cheating on a test or that you cussed out a teacher. Didn't think you got expelled for doing something that crazy."

"Yeah, I didn't tell you earlier because I wasn't really in the mood, but it was pretty nuts," she said as she lay down on top of the counter, kicking her legs up.

"What'd you do?"

"Ugh. My college professor for math was a jerk. Sucks at teaching, sucks at grading, sucks at being tolerable... he was just awful. It eventually got to the point where my friends came up with a plan to sneak into the school one night and tear up his class."

"That's an appropriate response," Stan said, mentally imagining himself doing the same with some of his own high school teachers back in the day.

"Right. Anyway, we decide to do it and it all goes well at first. But, as it turned out, there was security watching the place, and they knew we were there. So, at that point, we decided to make a break for it before they could find and catch us."

"But they still managed to nab all of ya, huh?"

"Not all of us. Just me."

Stan's briefly paused as he processed this revelation. "Really?"

"I mean... this is where it becomes kind of difficult to talk about," Wendy said as she stared up at the ceiling, the entire experience starting to become extremely vivid to her again. "You see, we decided to hop the fence, and I was the last one to do so. But, when I got to the top, I didn't jump down. I just... sat there. All because I saw something weird."

"What do you mean?" Stan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It was this... woman. And I'll never know for sure, but... she looked a lot like how I remember my mom," she told him, squinting her eyes as she recalled the face. "She just... stood there and looked right at me. And I looked right at her. And for a moment, we just... stared at one another. I wanted to say something to her, but before I knew it, security had caught up and pulled me down from the fence."

Stan looked to the side and began to think as she went on.

"Anyway, I was cuffed and taken into the office. My dad was called and he came and… it was a big thing. By the end of it, the college just decided to have me removed."

"Just you? Whatever happened to your friends?"

"They got off clean. When I got caught, the admins wanted me to expose them. But of course I'm not gonna snitch on my friends, so... I just told them it was all my idea. They were relentless for a bit, but eventually, they accepted and just had me kicked out. It sucks because that whole night really wasn't my idea, but it is what it is, I guess."

"You... you took the blame... for something your friends made you do?" Stan questioned with a somewhat hesitant look.

"Well, they didn't make me, but... yeah. I took the blame. It's whatever though. They're still my friends, and I care about them, so I took one for the team. And ever since then, my dad's been tougher on me than usual. He gives my brothers so much leverage. Meanwhile, all I get is a lecture every other hour. But there's only so much of that I can take. Dealing with him these past two months has been such a pain, but today, I've just felt... free. I haven't felt this way in a while, and I'm not sure I wanna let it go yet. I've thought about what you said earlier, and maybe college isn't for me. So, maybe when this heist is done and I get my cut, I can just... you know, stay here. Keep living the criminal life with my old boss. Kinda like you said back at the market - America's Most Wanted, am I right?"

Stan knew that Wendy assumed telling him this would make him eager, but the truth was, it made him terrified. Knowing now how Wendy made such a major sacrifice for all of her friends when they were the ones deserving of the blame. All because she cared about them.

That wasn't to say that he didn't think caring for friends was important. But when your "friends" were the ones who came up with such a risky plan with the potential to destroy their futures and the person who ended up getting in trouble for it was the person who had no involvement in coming up with it in the first place, that was a betrayal by Stan's standards.

To think Wendy was alright with taking such a hit for them. To think that her friends had that much of an influence on her.

He wondered what that would mean if the jewel store heist went wrong. What if in a hypothetical scenario, they had to ditch the car and take their escape on foot, and in that process, she ended up getting caught instead of him? Would his influence prompt her to make such a sacrifice for him? Would she take responsibility for the whole crime to save him? She couldn't. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if someone as young and bright as she was ended up taking responsibility for his crimes.

On top of that, he realized that her dad was actually more justified in his recent ways than she believed. No matter the outlook, his daughter had just gotten herself expelled from college for a ridiculous reason, and now he had to send her away from home on her own so she could continue elsewhere. Even though Stan never attended college himself, he knew well about how expensive it was. It didn't occur to him before, but if her father was investing so much in her future only to watch her throw it away because of an immature vengeance on a bad professor, then he had more of a right to be upset than he had originally thought.

And now, Wendy was considering dropping out of college completely to stay in Gravity Falls and live a life of crime. All because of him.

His influence was certainly to blame, but another factor that contributed was Wendy's lack of acceptance of the fact that her father was trying to steer her in the right direction. She viewed his attempts to course-correct her as overbearing and it forced her to reflect her own faults upon him. She was troubled and refused to admit it; instead, turning to crime as a crutch for her facade.

And he knew now that he had to turn Wendy away from the current path he accidentally set her upon before it was too late.

"Of course, first, we actually gotta start making our way toward that title," Wendy finished as she hopped off the counter. "So, c'mon. Let's snag a necklace!"

She walked over to the front door and opened it up. She then took one step out onto the porch before turning back around and noticing that Stan hadn't moved an inch from his spot by the counter.

"You coming?"

Stan stared at her for a moment with a look of hesitation. Soon enough, he sighed. "Kid, we can't do this job."

Wendy raised an eyebrow, thrown off by his words. "W-What do you mean?"

"I mean, we're not doing this," Stan told her as he took his gloves off and set them down on the counter. "I'm calling the heist off."

"What? Why?" she asked as she walked back inside toward him.

"Because you're not ready."

"Not ready? You've been praising my driving and getaways all day! Have you already forgotten about the eleven jobs we cleared today? I have the skill to go to the next level!"

"It isn't about your skill," he told her as he opened up his heist briefcase and put his gloves back inside.

"Then what is it about?" Wendy asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "Is it because I told you how I got caught by the cops? Do you think bringing me along is too risky now? Because you know I'm not perfect? You know, that's a lot to say from a guy who's been to prison multiple times!"

"What?! No! I didn't even say anything like that!" Stan shouted. "I'm just... I'm calling it off for your own good!"

"My own good?"

"Yes! Your own good! Because this ain't you!" Stan told her frankly, which got a confused look out of her. "Look, I empathized with a lot of what you said you go through with your dad. But unlike my dad, yours actually cares about you, kid! You don't see it like that because of how much stress and pressure he's put on you recently, but all of that is because he's trying to help you!"

"Help me? You can't be serious!"

"Yeah! Help you," Stan repeated. "When I messed up as a teen, all my dad did was throw a bag into my arms and tell me to scram! When you messed up, your dad may have gotten angry, but he didn't throw you out. Instead, he decided to go hard on you to make sure you wouldn't make the same mistakes again when you went on your own. This is a mistake, Wendy! I mean, dropping out of school to become a robber with a man so old that he sometimes spends an hour trying to tie his own shoes? I'm not a role model, kid! I'm telling you- this ain't the life you want to make for yourself!"

Wendy stared at him for a moment, processing every word he said. Then, she narrowed her eyes at him as she began to clench her fists tightly.

"First, you tell me happiness comes from the life you make for yourself instead of the one someone makes for you," she reminded him as she began to tear up. "Now, YOU'RE trying to tell me the kind of life that I don't want to live?"

"Kid, you're not listening…" Stan said, walking toward her with his hand reached out.

"No, I'm DONE listening!" she burst, slapping his hand out of the way. "I'm done listening to you, my dad, and everyone else! I'm nineteen! My life is what I decide to make of it! And so, if I say I wanna rob a jewel store, then dammit, I'm gonna rob a jewel store!"

"We're not robbing a jewel store, Wendy!"

"You're right. We aren't," she told him before quickly swiping his heist briefcase from the counter and running out the open door. "BUT, I AM!"

"What?!" Stan shouted, taking a second to process her actions.

As soon as he realized what she was doing, he quickly ran out the door to follow her. But as soon as he stepped onto the porch, she was already getting into her car. Instead of chasing her to the car and possibly starting a scene, he stood in place on the porch.

"HEY! DON'T YOU HIT THAT STORE! YOU CAN'T DO THAT JOB ON YOUR OWN!" he called out to her.

Despite his protests, Wendy shut her car door and started it up. She quickly put the car in reverse and drove at a backward angle until the passenger window aligned with her view of Stan. She cracked it open and looked over at him one more time.

"WATCH ME!"

Against his initial thoughts not to chase her, he made a last-second attempt to run after her. But it was too late, as she stepped on the gas and sped out of the Shack's lot to take on the heist by herself.

"WENDY!" Stan shouted out desperately as he watched her speed off into the distance. "Dammit! What have I done? I've really gotten into that kid's head. She doesn't realize that her dad's just trying to help her. She also doesn't realize that she was just the getaway driver. She doesn't know a thing about actually robbing a place herself..."

---

VYOOM!

A blue light emerged in the middle of a clearing in the woods, projecting an image of three figures. The figures then solidified as the light flashed, revealing the transported figures to be Dipper, Mabel, and Valora. Valora stood tall after the teleportation process, but Dipper and Mabel immediately began to stumble from sudden balance loss as their heads spun.

"Woah, steady!" Valora said as she kept her hands on the twins' shoulders to keep them balanced as they dizzily stumbled. "First teleportations like that usually cause dizziness."

"No kidding…" Mabel said as her eyes spun, to which she immediately fell flat on her face as Valora let her go.

Dipper stumbled into a tree, which he held himself onto to keep himself upright. As he slowly became capable of analyzing his surroundings again, he looked around in utter confusion. "W-What the…? How did you…? Where are we?"

Mabel pulled her head up from the ground as her dizziness began to fade as well. She gasped as she looked around wondrously. "Is this the future? Wow! It looks... just like any normal forest in the present," she realized. "Well, at least, we haven't stripped the entire Earth of its trees yet! Glad to know mankind still isn't completely terrible yet!"

"We're not in the future," Valora told them with a chuckle. "We're just in another part of the forest."

"Wait, so no time travel?" Dipper asked as he walked back over to her. "You just... regularly teleported us here?"

"She can probably travel through time too," Mabel assumed as she stood back up on her feet.

"Actually, I can't," Valora finally admitted. "I'm not a time traveler. At all."

Dipper raised an eyebrow. "Then what are you?"

"I don't know. Like some sorta... dimension-hopper or something?" Valora said as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Whatever the term is for someone who travels the multiverse."

Dipper and Mabel immediately went wide-eyed by this revelation. "The multiverse?"

"No way!" Mabel then shouted in awe.

"I'm surprised. None of this weirds either of you out so far?" Valora asked, impressed that the two hadn't just run away freaking out yet. "Between the teleporting and finding out that your friend's mom is some crazy chick who jumps through dimensions..."

"Eh, we're kind of used to the concept of weird at this point," Dipper said.

Mabel nodded. "Yeah, and something like dimensional travel? Pssh! Been there, done that!"

"Speak for yourself," Dipper said with an eye roll, thinking back to his sister's unintentional trip into the multiverse four years ago.

"Aw, I'm sure Grunkle Ford would love to take you dimension-hopping one day!" Mabel assured him with a nudge to the arm. "If he can come up with a portal that doesn't risk destroying the universe that is…"

"Wait a sec... I knew a Ford…" Valora suddenly realized. "Do you two mean Stanford Pines?"

"Yeah, he's our great uncle," Dipper said.

Valora's eyes widened upon this revelation. The fact that she stood in front of Stanford Pines' great-niece and great-nephew, both of whom she had nearly choked to death just minutes ago.

"Huh... small world. Or is it small other worlds…? Man, I can't believe after all this time, I still haven't nailed down dimensional terminology," she said, shaking her head. "But anyways, I thought I recognized that name! I met him one time during my trips years back!"

"You've met our Grunkle Ford?" Mabel asked, eyes lighting up in surprise.

"That's incredible!" Dipper nodded excitedly.

Valora chuckled. "I can't believe it! You two are his niece and nephew! Wow, he actually found his way back here? I mean, I assume so if you both know him."

"Four years ago, yeah," Dipper nodded, staring at her in continued disbelief.

"Four years…" Valora repeated before looking away for a moment. Her eyes narrowed dejectedly upon another realization as she whispered to herself, "I just came back three years ago... wow…"

"So, you're our friend's lost mom and you've met our great-uncle?" Mabel questioned. "Okay. Now you're definitely obligated to a story."

Valora smiled a bit. "Alright, alright. I'll tell you guys. Though, it's all kind of a long story."

"Well, it's not like we're bound to twenty-one minutes or anything," Dipper shrugged.

"Well, okay," Valora said after a brief moment of hesitation. She then looked around at the clearing they stood in. "First things first, I should probably tell you both that this part of the forest isn't actually some random spot I teleported us to."

Dipper glanced around for a moment. "Huh, I just figured that you had some sorta 'random nearby location' button that you pressed to get away quickly."

"Well, I actually do have a button like that," she said while glancing down at her wrist. "But no, this area is pretty specific. It's where I spent my final evening with my family before everything changed..."

---

[13 Years Ago]

In the same clearing, a tent sat out in the middle, covered in the evening darkness. The moon was covered by dark clouds that began to cluster against the night sky.

The Corduroy family lay inside the tent, eyes shut as they slept. At that moment, however, the ground they lay upon began to rumble slightly. Additionally, a bright beaming light began to flicker through the forest, hitting the tent.

The surrounding activity went unbeknownst to most of the family, with Valora being the only one awake enough to truly acknowledge it.

"One night, about thirteen years ago, our family went out camping- a typical weekend activity of ours. Late into the night while we were sleeping, I was woken by what felt like some mini-earthquake and some crazy bright light flashing through our tent from outside."

After turning back and forth beneath her blankets, trying to ignore the rumbling, Valora eventually sat up. She rubbed her tired eyes before looking straight ahead of her. As her vision adjusted, she spotted the shadowy silhouette of a floating triangle with arms, legs, and a top hat through the tent with the light beaming behind it.

"AH!" she lightly shrieked, jumping back slightly. She panted fearfully as she stared at the floating shadow. Glancing around at the rest of her family, she was surprised that she hadn't managed to wake anybody else.

She analyzed the shadow for a moment as she tried to make out what it was. There was a sense of familiarity she got from looking at it, though she wasn't awake enough to make an immediate connection. Regardless, she could've passed it off as an abnormal tree branch or something in the way of the light. However, the shadow wasn't motionless.

It was hovering.

Her protective mode kicked in with the growing fear of what lurked outside their tent. She slowly crawled on her knees and leaned over to the side to equip her axe. While crouched, she stood on her feet and prepared herself as she put her hand on the tent's zipper.

ZIP!

Upon opening the tent, she cautiously poked her head out and glanced around. Immediately, she found there was no triangular figure hovering in front of the tent, much to her surprise. The bright, almost blinding light still shined through the forest though, prompting her to shield her eyes with her arm.

She crawled back inside the tent and looked to check on the hovering triangular shadow. However, she found that the shadow no longer existed where she had seen it before. She glanced back outside before stepping out and searching the perimeter to see if an animal had actually passed through the area. But once again, there wasn't anything in sight.

As she tried to think about what she had just seen, the bright light began to flicker, which grabbed her attention. Shielding her eyes from the direct sight of the light's intense brightness, she looked in the direction of the woods from which it emerged.

"This light didn't look like anything normal. It was like someone was working on some evil science experiment in the middle of the woods. Looking back, I should've just woken my family so we could get up and move. But instead, I stupidly decided to check it out on my own, thinking I was being 'protective' of them."

She began walking toward the flickering light, continuing to shield her eyes as she did so. It took some time, but she soon found herself tracing the light back to what appeared to be a large wooden shack in the middle of a large open plot of land. At least, that's what it looked like according to her peripheral vision.

At that moment, the bright lights coming from the shack began to grow even more intense as Valora entered the clearing it settled within. At the same time, the ground began to rumble more violently, throwing her off balance.

"Woah!"

"The light started getting brighter and the ground began to shake even harder. Whatever was going on at that moment, I only then knew I had to get away. I tried to go back, but the light was so blinding, and I couldn't keep myself steady on the ground."

As she backed up from the light, she stepped on the grassy edge of a nearby pit located around the border of the house's clearing. Taking a full step directly on the edge, the dirt beneath her foot quickly loosened, causing her to slip down to the ground with her leg hanging over the edge. With one quick fall on her face, the rest of her body hung over the edge and gravity pulled her in, sending her falling down a dark, endless pit as she began to scream for her life.

"And with one wrong step, I tripped into a seemingly bottomless hole that changed my whole life."

---

[Present]

Dipper and Mabel had walked alongside Valora as she told her story. From the original clearing where the Corduroy family tent lay thirteen years ago, they had spent a moderate amount of time walking over toward another clearing, albeit, one much more familiar to them. They first spotted the back porch of the Mystery Shack in the near distance, but much closer toward the back of the clearing was the very hole that started Valora's troubles; and a familiar one, at that.

"The bottomless pit…" Mabel realized as she and her brother stared into the pit in sheer awe at the fact that Valora's history began at that spot.

Valora raised an eyebrow. "You two know what this thing is?"

"Kind of…" Dipper nodded. "I mean... it's complicated. Some of the things that fall in will pop right back out, but other things go God knows where. One time, we fell in there ourselves, but we came back up after a while."

"We killed the time by telling stories," Mabel cheekily added.

"Man, I wish that had been the case for me," Valora said as she stood back and sat against the trunk of a tree. "But I wasn't so lucky. Instead of coming back, I got sent somewhere far, far worse."

---

[13 Years Ago]

"I kept falling through darkness for a long while and just expected to hit the ground at some point. However, instead of hitting the ground, I suddenly fell into zero gravity."

Valora opened her eyes as her heavy falling suddenly turned into weightlessness. The black darkness that once surrounded her had then turned into a spacey field of stars, galaxies, asteroids, and, oddly enough, bubbles. Following her fall, she remained terrified, but confusion began to strike her as she found herself as anything else other than a splat on the ground. Scanning the intergalactic field that surrounded her, she had no idea what to make of it.

"Rather than falling, I was floating. Surrounded by asteroids and giant glowing bubbles in some sort of starfield. It felt like I was in space…"

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

"...although, I think space would've been a huge step up…"

Valora then turned around to find herself slowly enveloped in the large shadow of a figure that rose above her. Looking up at that figure, she identified it to be a glowing yellow triangle with arms, legs, a top hat, a bowtie, and a single eye that looked down at her. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized the figure shared the same silhouette as the one she had seen through the tent.

"WELL, WELL, WELL... WHO DO WE HAVE HERE?" Bill questioned, voice full of amusement. "VALORA HUNTER CORDUROY! BOY, LUCKY ME! OUT OF ALL THE PLACES YOU COULD'VE ENDED UP, YOU LANDED HERE! AIN'T THAT A TREAT?"

"Wendy had told me of a nightmare she had involving a triangle. At the time, I thought she was talking about some horror movie. I didn't think she meant THIS thing..."

"MAN, IT'S SO NICE TO COME FACE-TO-FACE WITH ICE BAG'S MOTHER!" Bill went on as he floated in front of her. "HOW IS SHE DOING ANYWAY? WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER KIDS? HOW ABOUT THAT NEWBORN YOU HAD JUST A FEW WEEKS BACK?"

"What the…?" Valora questioned with a growing panic. "Who are you?! WHAT are you?! And how do you know who I am?!"

"OH, VALORA!" Bill chuckled as he suddenly warped behind Valora, startling her. "I KNOW LOTS OF THINGS! LOTTTTTS OF THIIIIIIIINGS! LIKE YOUR FAMILY, FOR ONE! PARTICULARLY, AND MOST INTERESTINGLY, YOUR 'LITTLE RED…'"

Her eyes widened in pure horror. "What do you want with my Wendy?!"

"SHE INTERESTS ME, VALORA. AND FOR A BUNCH OF REASONS YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND NOR WOULD I CARE TO EXPLAIN TO YOU," Bill told her in a more serious tone compared to his initial introduction. "BUT SHE'S GROWING UP FAST, WOULDN'T YOU AGREE? I'M SURE YOU WOULD. ONLY SIX YEARS OLD AND SHE'S ALREADY ADDICTED TO HORROR MOVIES. SUCH RESPONSIBLE PARENTING, HUH?"

"What? I'm not even the one who allows her to watch horror movies!" Valora said angrily.

"OH, I KNOW!" Bill said as he kicked himself back up. "THAT ALL COMES FROM DADDY, RIGHT? WELL, GOOD ON HIM! HE'S DOING A GOOD JOB CORRUPTING THE LITTLE PUSHOVER! YOU, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE TRYING TO TEACH HER SENSE! AND I CAN'T HAVE A KID WITH SENSE FOR MY FUTURE PLANS TO WORK! SO HOW DO I FIX THAT? BY CLEARING OL' MOMMA OUTTA THE WAY! AIN'T THAT RIGHT, GUYS?"

Looking behind Bill, Valora spotted a bunch of other diverse monsters that sat on a floating asteroid. Barely able to catch sight of them, the monsters included a green creature with 8-balls for eyes, a turquoise keyhole, a similarly one-eyed shape creature like Bill, a red hexagon with a large mustache, a feminine creature covered in pink flames, a large-horned infant-like creature with a pacifier in its stomach, a living set of teeth, a creature composed of multiple connected squares, and one mighty purple behemoth.

They all laughed as they looked on at Valora, who began to grow infuriated by Bill and his threats against her and her family. She narrowed her eyes as she wielded her axe from her pocket, pushing her legs through the surrounding zero-gravity as she lunged at him.

"I'LL CLEAR YOU OUT OF MY WAY!" she shouted furiously as she held her axe in a ready position to swing as she shot herself at him.

However, as she lunged at Bill, he suddenly turned his eye into a working mouth, to which he then proceeded to effortlessly blow a stream of air at her, sending her flying in the opposite direction. She screamed as she flung backward, her axe falling out of her grasp and flinging closely alongside her. Eventually, her backside violently rammed into an orbiting asteroid. Her axe soon followed with the blade running straight into the right side of her long hair against the asteroid. While it had cut off a portion of her hair, the blade trapped most of it as it remained attached underneath where it met the rock, leaving her momentarily stuck as she attempted to pull it out in panic.

"HAHAHA! YOU AMUSE ME, CORDUROY!" Bill laughed as he floated right behind Valora, watching as she struggled to free her hair. "THINKING YOU HAVE ANYWHERE NEAR THE AMOUNT OF POWER THAT I DO HERE! SO CLUELESS! I ALMOST WANNA LEAVE YOU ALIVE JUST TO SEE HOW ELSE YOU'LL HUMOR ME!"

Valora quickly lost her tolerance for Bill's voice and used all her strength to pull the axe from the asteroid. Eventually, the blade tore straight out from the asteroid but unexpectedly flung right out of her hands. As a result, she had thrown the ax straight over her head, sending it quickly flying and piercing straight into Bill's eye before he had a moment to react.

"AAAAGGGHH!" he screamed in pain. His henchmaniacs continued to watch from their asteroid, gasping as they stood witness.

Valora was momentarily surprised to see an unintentional move of hers work in her favor. But in no way did she want to test her luck and simply decided to use the moment to make her escape. Although knowing how vital her ax might be in helping her get through wherever she was, she decided it was best to retrieve it first.

She kicked herself off of the asteroid, sending herself hurling toward Bill's eye. Landing on his tightly closed eye, she spotted the axe's small handle sticking out from in between the two eyelids and wrapped her hands around it. She swiftly tore it out, which caused Bill to let out another agonized scream before she kicked herself off his eye and flew in the direction of a nearby asteroid field.

"GAAAAH!" Bill shouted as he rubbed his injured eye, unable to see a thing. He aimlessly pointed off in the direction he assumed his henchmaniacs sat. "HENCHMANIACS, GET HER! I NEED TIME TO REGENERATE ANOTHER EYE!"

All of the henchmaniacs complied with his request and all lept off their asteroid, flying after Valora as she attempted her escape.

She looked behind her and quickly realized she was being chased down by the various creatures. Knowing well that she was outnumbered and against a bunch of monsters that she had no idea of their capabilities, she hadn't dedicated a thought to the idea of trying to fight back. Instead, as she entered the field of asteroids, she sped herself up by repeatedly kicking herself off every single asteroid that her foot could touch, propelling her floating speed. At the same time, she tried to make sure that her back was constantly covered by the asteroids she passed in an attempt to throw the henchmaniacs off as they got closer.

Still, Bill's cronies all retained some level of competency to track her within the field. However, their task of hunting her down was still made significantly more difficult by her actions. However, Kryptos, with the help of his natural flying ability, found himself closest to catching her, managing to catch up to the point where he was directly behind her.

"DON'T WORRY, GUYS! I GOT HER!" Kryptos shouted as he charged himself at her.

Without even looking back, Valora made the split-second decision to jump off a nearby asteroid, propelling herself downward rather than forward. Conveniently, another asteroid had floated right in front of her right before she redirected herself, which allowed Kryptos to crash directly into it.

"OW…"

Valora glanced behind her as she continued to propel downwards, smirking as she spotted what her course change had done to Kryptos. The rest of the henchmaniacs continued to follow, but not at a distance nearly as close.

Turning her head back down, her eyes quickly bulged as she realized she was heading toward a small wormhole within the void. Panicking as she got closer to it, she began flailing her arms and kicking her feet downward in an attempt to slow herself down. Merely an attempt it was though, as she knew that she had no idea how to control herself within the laws of zero-g.

"Oh no…" she said to herself, growing incredibly fearful as she continued to near the wormhole. At that point, she braced herself, covering her face with her forearms while her momentum maintained.

However, after a moment, she found herself not even being sent anywhere and still remained floating through the same void. She turned her head back, and much to her surprise, she realized that she had actually managed to drift past the wormhole by a mere few inches. Realizing that luck had struck her yet again, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Phew…"

SMACK!

Not paying attention to what was in front of her, Valora's feeling of luck had finally been destroyed as she collided against the solid, rocky surface of a much more massive asteroid. She lay for a moment in slight pain, as the collision sent her tumbling against the rough surface, allowing her to garner plenty of scratches and scrapes against her skin. Soon enough, she pulled herself back onto her feet, taking a moment to acknowledge her small wounds before looking back up above her.

In her immediate surroundings, she couldn't spot any of the henchmaniacs. She knew they still had to be after her though, but she also knew she couldn't keep floating around trying to get away from them. She had already wasted enough of her physical energy at that point.

She needed to hide. And conveniently, with the turn of her head, she spotted what appeared to be a small cavern inside a crater within the asteroid. Quickly, she jumped down into the crater, doing a low gravity roll as she hit the bottom before kicking herself up and running into the dark cavern for shelter.

Settling within the darkness, she still stood close enough to the cavern opening to see what was going on outside. Up above in the part of the asteroid field she had jumped down from, the wormhole she had barely managed to bypass suddenly disappeared. Afterward, several henchmaniacs came down and landed on the surface of the large asteroid, appearing confused as they looked around.

"wHeRe'D sHE gO?" 8-Ball asked, scratching his head while he looked around.

"Great! You freaks lost her!" Pyronica said frustratedly, eyeballing the rest of the henchmaniacs.

"Hey, don't call me a freak, freak!" Keyhole shouted back at her. In response, she snapped her fingers, effortlessly lighting him on fire. "AAAAAHHH!"

"GAH! YOU GUYS ARE USELESS!" Bill scolded upon rejoining his henchmaniacs with his regenerated eye. "DID YOU NOT SEE THE WORMHOLE THAT JUST CLOSED RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU? IF SHE TOUCHED THAT, SHE COULD'VE GONE ANYWHERE!"

"Well, that doesn't exclude all the dimensions that she could've gotten killed in!" Teeth tried to justify.

Kryptos thought for a moment. "MAYBE SHE WAS SENT TO THE APEX ZONE! WE COULD STILL CHECK THERE!"

Bill let out an irritated sigh, showing visible doubt about Kryptos' suggestion. Still, he decided to entertain the possibility and went on to rip a new wormhole open with his hands. "I SWEAR, IF SHE'S NOT THERE, THEN ALL OF YOU ARE GOING TO KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO HAVE AN AXE STUCK IN YOUR EYE!"

Bill then floated into the wormhole, leaving it open for the others. Some let out annoyed sighs as they followed him inside, knowing well that the chances of Valora being in the Apex Zone were incredibly slim.

Keyhole narrowed his eyes as he put out the remains of the flames that Pyronica had set upon him, pouting before entering the portal. "Ya know. Sometimes, Bill's just the worst."

Pyronica carelessly kicked him into the wormhole. "Just follow his orders, ya walkin' lock."

The rest of the henchmaniacs then followed behind, with Zanthar being the last one due to his enormous size. The wormhole immediately shut afterward and they were all gone, allowing Valora to let out another sigh of relief as she was finally left alone.

"Thank God…" she said to herself, slumping back against the wall of the asteroid cavern.

"WHO GOES THERE?!"

"AHH!" Valora screamed as she suddenly found a purple flaming torch being waved right in front of her by a small, furry creature.

The creature looked particularly wartorn; like they had just come from a battlefield. It also had a large beard and a robot arm while also wearing a bandana, an eyepatch, and a bandolier over its right shoulder. One glance and one would assume it's some sort of futuristic pirate guinea pig.

The creature studied her for a brief moment before looking up in surprise.

"A human…? We haven't had a human around here since-"

SCREEEE!

The creature looked up and outside the cavern entrance, noticing a string of eye-bats flying along in the near distance.

"That's not good…" he remarked, watching as the eye-bats were flying closer to their asteroid.

"Um, hey there," Valora greeted, grabbing the creature's attention again. "Look, I've only been here for a few minutes now, and in those same few minutes, I've been through quite a lot, and now, I'm kind of stuck in this weird place between absolute confusion and aching trauma." She then stood up in front of the creature, holding her axe up threateningly to it. "So I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me now whether or not you're going to try to kill me so I know whether or not I should take precautions."

"No, lass! Please!" the creature cried out, holding its hands up innocently. "I ain't here t' hurt ye!"

SCREEEE!

"But I can't speak fer those eye-bats if they lay their eyes on ye..."

"Eye-bats?" Valora repeated as she looked back outside.

The creature then grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her along with him as he moved further into the cavern. "Come on, lass. They be the death o' us if we don't move."

Much to her surprise, despite his short height and almost feeble-looking appearance, she found that he was actually strong enough to pull her along with him through the cavern. Though she hesitated following, as she obviously had no reason to trust him. But his claim that he wouldn't hurt her also came off as the nicest offer she had been given since she had arrived wherever she was. So despite her strong skepticism, she gave in to see where things would lead.

---

Moments later, Valora sat in the back of the cave beside a purple fire. She wasn't alone, however, as she sat beside the fire with three other creatures who looked to have been similarly beaten and torn up at points in the past like the guinea pirate. They also wielded a variety of different weapons and kept ammo on them as well.

One of the creatures was a short pig-like creature with three nostrils and a scar over its eye. Another was a spiny-headed creature with a cloak and an alien-looking harpoon gun. Lastly, there was a taller creature with a long neck and big eyes that also appeared to have one of its arms wrapped in a cast.

To her surprise, they barely paid any attention to her in comparison to how many times she glanced around at them. Since settling by the fire beside them, none of them had spoken a word. They all simply sat around the purple flames keeping warm, whereas the guinea pirate creature stood back by the cavern entrance to watch out for eye-bats.

"Looks like we be in th' clear fer now," he suddenly spoke, breaking the silence. He walked further down into the cavern, joining her and the other creatures by the fire. His eyes immediately turned to her, which was the first time she felt anybody look over at her in the past fifteen minutes. "How are ye feelin', lass?"

"I don't know…" she admitted, looking down as she still tried to process her situation. "I mean, I have no idea where I am or who you are or what you are…"

"Ah, forgive me then," he said as he walked over to a rock beside her and sat down. "Allow me to introduce meself. Name's Guineabeard, I'm a Guinea Pigrate, and you're in the Nightmare Realm."

Even after a moment of processing the information he had given her, she still found nothing to help her confusion. "That... doesn't really help."

"Well, how can we help?" Guineabeard asked.

"Well, first of all, are you deliberately talking with a pirate voice, or is that just your natural accent?"

Guineabeard narrowed his eyes somewhat annoyedly as he sighed. "That be my normal voice, lass. Every Pigrate talks like a pirate…"

"Oh. My bad…" she awkwardly took back. "Alright, well, real question then - what's the Nightmare Realm?"

"It sounds exactly how it be. A place where nightmares live 'n hopes die. Taken o'er long, long ago by a terrifyin' yellow triangle who sounds like an ole-timey huckster. Th' one that it seems like ye barely managed t' escape."

"Oh, that yellow triangle," Valora realized. "I was beginning to think that was some sort of common species around here or something."

"Thankfully not. He goes by th' name Bill Cipher - demon o' dreams 'n lover o' chaos. Him 'n his mates run this ship 'n jus' about all o' their actions are done purely fer amusement. He runs this ship like 'tis his own personal funfair. "

"How did you guys get here?"

"We're asteroid miners where we come from," the pig-like creature spoke up for the first time. "But, our ship fell into a wormhole and wound up here."

"That's right," Guineabeard nodded. "Anythin' that gets lost in th' multiverse gets sent t' th' Nightmare Realm. Which explains how ye got here."

Valora raised an eyebrow. "I fell into an endless hole in the ground…"

"And got lost, didn't ya?" Guineabeard pointed out, which she couldn't really argue with. "Anyway, that's how we be here. We've been stuck here fer ages, usin' large asteroid craters like this one fer shelter as we try t' hide from Bill 'n his minions."

"But we can't remain here forever," the spiny-headed creature spoke up. "And neither can Bill."

"Indeed. The Nightmare Realm is fallin' apart," Guineabeard revealed as he turned back to Valora. "Bein' as lawless as 'tis, it's destined t' collapse at some point in th' future. Fer that reason, Bill is searchin' fer a new dimension t' rule. And he seems t' 'ave taken interest in yer world."

Valora's eyes bulged. "My world?"

"I scanned you when you first came in," the long-necked alien with an arm cast told her, holding up an intricate device of some sort with his other hand. "You come from Dimension 46'\."

"Dimension 46'\... th' same one as the last human…" Guineabeard realized.

"Hang on, so, you've had another human from my dimension that's been here?" Valora asked him.

"Yes. A determined male wit' six-fingers who had allowed Bill into his mind afore, unaware o' his motives. He left us, pledgin' that if he couldn't return home, then in time, he'd return here t' destroy Cipher 'n save us all from th' grasp o' th' Nightmare Realm." He then sighed dejectedly. "That was twenty-one years ago..."

Valora looked on sympathetically. "...and he never returned?"

Guineabeard hesitated for a moment. "No. But we don't know where exactly he went or if he be dead or alive. He said he would go throughout th' multiverse 'til he was prepared. But there are many places one can go in th' multiverse. And many places one can be captured, jailed, enslaved, or scuttled. Whatever his fate may be, we don't know it. But we haven't heard from him since he left. And while we'd be grateful if we learned he was still out there tryin' t' achieve his goals, it's been far too long fer us t' continue t' rely on 'im. Which be unfortunate. A wise scallywag he was, but alas, he was still only a human."

"We'll likely be stuck here forever," the spiny-headed creature said sorrowly. "To die along with the realm itself in years' time."

"What? No, no, no! We can't be stuck here forever!" Valora refused, suddenly standing up before the four. "We need to get out of here! And I don't mean to sound self-centered or anything, but I need to get out of here! I have a family! Four kids! I can't be stuck here to rot in some sort of... wormhole dimension that they have no idea about! They'll think I'm dead!"

"You think you're alone?" the pig-like creature asked as he glanced in her direction.

He then pulled out what appeared to be a small photograph from his robe, holding it up for her to see. Looking at it, she saw it was a picture of him from what looked to be many years ago, alongside a bunch of similar-looking pig creatures of various sizes.

"I haven't seen my family in nearly twenty-five years," he told her. "A wife and seven kids. Three boys, four girls. All without a clue as to what happened to me all that time ago. Hell, at this point, they've probably all forgotten about me. But I still think of them every day. About what I remember them as and what they might've become."

"I had a brother back in my world," the long-neck creature chimed in. "Alongside my mining job, I ran a popular interdimensional taco-selling business with him. Considering I was the one who made the tacos, I have doubts that it's even around nowadays."

"I had a brother too, although, we weren't close at all. In fact, I killed him," the spiny-headed creature also chimed in. Everybody else proceeded to turn in his direction with disturbed looks in response to his addition. "What? We've been over this before! How I caught him with my wife, remember?"

"Err... right…" Guineabeard recalled, nodding his head uncomfortably. "Anyway, as fer me family, they were asteroid miners alongside us as well." He then sighed, looking down at his clenched robot prosthetic arm with grief. "However, they weren't so fortunate amongst our initial escape attempts from Bill…"

Valora's eyes widened at his implication before giving him a remorseful look. "Oh... I'm so sorry…" Her head then turned toward the others. "...for all of you...except, maybe Thorn-Skull over here. You seem to be living it up."

The spiny-headed creature shrugged. "Eh. Can't say I have any regrets."

"Look, I can see you all have already had it way worse than I can even begin to complain about," Valora began. "But that doesn't change anything. I can't just accept the fact that I'm stuck and just stay here for the rest of my life. I mean, this other guy from my dimension that you said came before me twenty-one years ago... you said he left this place! So, what's stopping me or any of us from being able to leave either?"

"Risk is," Guineabeard replied. "Ye see, that human exited th' Nightmare Realm through one o' th' random wormholes that often spawn as a result o' th' realm's instability."

Conveniently, at that very moment, another wormhole suddenly formed a short distance outside of the cavern entrance. Eyes from everyone inside the cavern turned outside, looking on at it as it floated, self-circulating in the air.

"You mean... those wormholes?" Valora asked, recognizing it as a similar one to the one she had almost fallen into a moment ago when escaping from the henchmaniacs.

"Yes," Guineabeard nodded. "Th' trouble wit' them be that they're mighty temporary 'n can send ye anywhere in th' multiverse. Ye could end up in an endless sea o' sharks or in a blank void wit' no oxygen t' breathe."

"Or a dimension ruled by giant spiders that shoot lava instead of webs."

"Or a dimension where everyone and everything has giant cat heads."

"Or a Parallel Earth that looks exactly like yours, except no one actually knows who you are."

"Or maybe, if you're the luckiest lass in th' multiverse, you'll end up bein' sent straight back t' yer own dimension. Though, I can tell ye right now that th' chances o' that are as slim as can be. Th' point be - wit' those wormholes, ye don't know where you'll end up. There's a reason that even Bill himself doesn't dare take such risk either. While there be plenty o' better places t' be outside o' th' Nightmare Realm, there's potential fer far worse in some cases."

"They're also unpredictably unstable," the pig-like creature added. "One time, one of our fellow miner refugees tried to make their own escape through one, but it closed on him before he could even get his entire body through. Half of him remained here and his other half ended up in another random dimension."

Valora thought for a moment as she stared at the wormhole, considering the fact that she could reach it within a minute if she wanted to. "But, it's still a ticket out of here, right?"

Guineabeard looked up at her with growing dread. "Lass, the man before ye was mighty smart…"

"And what? You're saying I'm not?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What? No! I just... there's a lot t' learn when it comes t' navigating the multiverse."

"Then I'll learn."

"Tis not that simple, lass!"

"Look, maybe I'm not some wise guy with a strong passion to kill some dangerous triangle demon, but I'm a mother of four beautiful children. And they're my passion. And I'd rather die trying to get back to them instead of sitting around doing nothing for years until I die along with a rotting dimension."

Guineabeard glared at her momentarily before exchanging looks with the other three refugees, all of them sharing the same amount of dread for her. He then sighed as he turned back and walked toward her.

"You do what you must, lass. We can't control ye," Guineabeard simply said before taking out a device from his pocket and holding it out to her. "Take this fer yer quest. I be sure it'll be useful."

She looked down at the device in his hand, which looked akin to a bracelet or small wristwatch. Taking it from his hands, she held it up in front of her to closely examine it. Looking at the small display screen attached to it, she read the word "translator" as it popped up. She grew confused as she looked on at it, but decided to pocket it anyway, taking his word that it could provide use at some point. Whenever she actually figures it out that is.

"But jus' as we told th' last human... th' chance o' ye ever gettin' back home t' yer family be slim."

"It's still a chance," she said before turning around and walking out of the cavern.

"But I do have one question," Guineabeard called out to her, prompting her to turn around one last time. "If ye do manage t' complete yer journey... 'n somehow along th' way, ye discover how t' help bring us back t' our own homes too... will ye come back fer us? If... no one else does?"

Valora briefly looked on at him, taking in his question, which obviously came off as more of a request. But considering they had been the only ones to take her in and provide any sort of assistance since her arrival into the Nightmare Realm, along with the fact that some of them had their own families like her, she would be lying to say she hadn't developed some sense of compassion for them. Especially considering how much longer they waited or even planned on waiting, she would feel dreadful for not even bothering to come back and help if she had the opportunity to.

"Of course," she told them with a smile. "And if that triangle is still around, then I'll nail him into the damn ground if I have to."

With this response, Guineabeard and the other three miners gave her grateful smiles.

"Praise the Axolotl, lass," Guineabeard said as he and the others waved her goodbye.

She didn't have a clue what those words meant, but remembering that they were all a bunch of various creatures that came from different worlds, she just thought of it as some foreign form of goodbye. She waved back at them before lightly kicking herself off the ground, letting the lack of gravity do the rest of the work in propelling her upward toward the ongoing wormhole.

Despite her courage of wanting to return to her family, her fear of the potential dangers and possibilities that were to come still remained. As Guineabeard told her, the wormhole could take her anywhere. For all she knew, she could jump through and fall straight into an active volcano and that would be the immediate end of her. However, she chose not to think like that and just hoped that wherever she would end up, it would be somewhere where her journey was doable at least.

And so, she closed her eyes and braced herself as she made contact with the wormhole, being immediately sucked in and sent out of the Nightmare Realm. The miners remained in their spot within the cavern, continuing to look on as she warped away. The wormhole itself soon diminished after.

"And I was off…"

---

[Present]

"You met Bill Cipher?" Dipper asked with wide eyes.

"You kids know about him too?" Valora questioned. "Wait, what am I saying? You two are related to Stanford. Of course you'd know."

"Not only that, but he was, like, our biggest enemy during our first summer here," Dipper said. "He entered our other uncle's mind, he tricked me into switching bodies…"

"...bringing us the literal apocalypse is probably worth mentioning," Mabel added.

"I was getting to that…"

"He did all of that?" Valora asked, eyes wide as she processed these revelations. "What did you do?"

"Well, we defeated him back then," Dipper said. "But recently, we found out that he reformed in our Grunkle Stan's mind and is now sharing it with him."

"Now, Ford's trying to figure out how to clear him without damaging Stan's mind or erasing it again like we did the first time," Mabel explained further.

"So Bill's still alive, huh?" Valora said, narrowing her eyes as she looked to the side.

"Speaking of Ford…" Dipper brought up. "How'd you two wind up crossing paths within the large span of the multiverse?"

"Quit jumping ahead, Dipper! Let her continue her story!" Mabel told him as she turned back toward Valora. "What kind of dimension did you end up in? Did you end up somewhere terrifying? Like a dimension full of annoying unicorns? That'd be the worst!"

"Actually, where I ended up was significantly less interesting..." Valora admitted. "At least at first glance. I was sent directly to one of the multiverse's greatest science institutions. An entire dimension based around the study of advanced science and the dynamics of the multiverse, which, as a result, made it one of the more technologically advanced places in the multiverse."

"Ugh, that sounds like one of Dipper's nerd fantasies," Mabel groaned, growing immediately uninterested at the mention of the word study. Dipper narrowed his eyes in her direction.

"I admit, it's not the most exciting place to talk about. But, I think it's worth mentioning considering that it's pretty much how I ended up becoming as knowledgeable about the other dimensions as I am now. I mean, back in high school, I was never crazy about pretty much any subject. Hell, I hardly paid attention to any of my teachers. But, I guess when getting back to your family relies on it, you kind of realize that paying attention is essential."

"So, you did learn," Dipper said.

"For years," she nodded. "Most of my time was spent in that dimension just to learn as much as I possibly could. And as someone who was never a science wiz beforehand, I gotta say that learning so much about it has allowed me to do things I had never thought I'd be able to do. I could construct, I could analyze, I could hypothesize…"

"Agggh! No! Please!" Mabel pleaded as she covered her ears. "You have so many cool credits going for you! Don't wash them down the drain with nerd talk!"

"Mabel!" Dipper snapped at her annoyedly.

"I'm just saying - I learned a lot," Valora summed up with a chuckle at her reaction. "But eventually, I learned enough. With everything I had come to know about other dimensions and the various elements, parts, and pieces that could be obtained from them, I thought up a blueprint for a device that I would design to send me home. At the time, I deemed it a simple portal back to this dimension. But before making it, I'd jump through more wormholes and multiversal leaks to travel across other dimensions to gain parts to build it."

"You stole parts?" Dipper asked.

"Occasionally. I got most of my parts legitimately. But I had to bend the law sometimes to get some things I couldn't get any other way. One of the key things I stole was an interdimensional power core, which I actually got with the help of your great-uncle Stanford."

"Who better than to come to for stealing parts than the multiverse's greatest thief?" Mabel asked with a smile at the thought.

"You're telling me," Valora chuckled. "His wanted poster was everywhere. He got away with much more than you'd think someone could handle."

"And how'd that meeting go?" Dipper asked.

"It wasn't anything too story-worthy, honestly. It was about seven years ago in the Bidding Dimension, which was the easiest place to get an interdimensional power core. Other places within the multiverse hold them under the security of the time police, who typically try to keep balance within the multiverse alongside their time anomaly duties. Interdimensional power cores aren't allowed in the hands of average individuals. The Bidding Dimension, however, was run by corrupt officials who strayed away from time police jurisdiction. Essentially, a dimension that tried to maintain slight rule despite breaking the major laws of the multiverse itself."

"I feel like that could sum up a lot of places in the multiverse," Dipper said. "Feels like whenever Ford talked about it with us, one of the most common words he'd use was 'corrupt'."

"There are a lot of dimensions and each one is different. We rode different paths throughout, so, perhaps he fared worse than I had. However, I'd agree that there are plenty of corrupt spaces across the multiverse. It certainly hasn't gotten any better considering the current state of Time Police Jurisdiction, which has seemed to be locked in a battle over authority for the past four years."

"Time politics… gee, and I thought Earth politics sounded like a hassle," Mabel said while looking over at Dipper.

"Anyway, I crossed paths with Stanford in the Bidding Dimension after losing the nightly bid for the interdimensional power core. We figured out who each other was and that we both came from the same dimension. We told each other our separate histories. I guess he felt bad for me getting separated from my family, so he led me to the storage room where they kept the power core and convinced me to steal it while he got a weapon handle for something he was designing for himself. However, by that point, we were being hunted down by the center's security and so we had to make a quick break for it. Luckily, there was a wormhole outside the center that we decided to jump through. But because of the physics and unpredictability of the wormholes, we ended up getting sent in separate directions and never saw each other again."

"So was that it? Or did you continue to steal parts for your portal home?" Dipper asked.

"Only when I had to," Valora told him. "Stealing parts wasn't really my thing. Mostly because I gained more experience from the work I had done to obtain them legitimately. In other cases, high-ranking officials of certain dimensions would task me with jobs. In exchange for their completion, they'd give me the parts that I needed. The jobs usually included stuff like designing armor and weapons. One time, I designed a set of reproducible battle gear for an army during an ongoing world war on 533\+." She sighed as she thought back to how disturbing the dimension was. "Colonies of tiny people that had no hair on their body except for their giant mustaches. Yes, even the women. But, they were sitting on the goldmine of nanotechnology and provided me with a surplus for my assistance."

Dipper examined her suit, remembering her retracting helmet from earlier. "Let me guess- you used it to design your suit?"

She glanced down at her suit before smirking at him. "Well, the suit wasn't what I needed the nanotech for. At that point in time, I had made adjustments to my initial portal schematic and realized I could design a portable gateway using programmed nanobots. But considering that the number of bots I was given was way more than the amount that I needed, it gave me a better idea of what to do with it."

She then had the nanomechanical suit assemble her blue-visored helmet around her head. At the same time, various nanobots shifted around her arms, rapidly constructing different types of weapons, along with a brief glance at the arm cannon she had threatened them with earlier. Along with that, bots seemed to briefly form a set of thrusters on her back, which seemed to imply the suit had flight capabilities as well.

Eventually, the nanobots stopped shifting around and reset into standard, defenseless positions with her helmet disassembling again.

"That's where the suit came into play," she said with an amused shrug.

"Woah…" the twins said in awe.

"Mhm. The suit ended up merging with the initial portal idea. And instead of a portal, I just installed the interdimensional power core into the suit itself."

"So, similar to how you teleported us all earlier, you can basically teleport yourself across dimensions with the touch of a button?" Dipper asked.

"Just about."

"So by the time the suit was done, you could finally come back home, right?" Mabel asked eagerly.

Valora stared at her for a moment before a frown suddenly grew upon her face. She then turned her head down with sorrow, which provoked looks of concern from the twins.

She sighed. "Yeah. I did go home."

---

[3 Years Ago]

[Dimension 46'\]

VYOOM!

There was a bright blue flash up in the air within the woods of Gravity Falls on a Saturday afternoon. Valora's silhouette was rendered for a moment before she suddenly flashed in, falling from the air and doing a front roll as she hit the ground. She quickly stood back up and analyzed her surroundings. She triggered her helmet to disassemble into nanotech as she looked down at her wrist with frustrated eyes.

"Agggh, dammit! I overshot the jump again, didn't I?" She tapped her finger on a holographic display that projected from her wrist. "I told myself not to tap too fast! Now, I gotta spend thirty minutes waiting in another parallel Earth before I can head back-"

She cut herself off as she read a screen on her holographic display, which projected the name of the dimension she sat in. Her eyes widened as she read 46'\ on the display.

She wasn't actually on another parallel Earth. She was on her Earth.

"I-I'm... I'm home…" she stuttered in disbelief as she began to tremble anxiously. "After all these years, I'm finally back."

She then looked up from her wrist and saw that through the trees, there was a familiar wooden cabin sitting, secluded within the surrounding woods. The familiarity had settled in and she realized almost immediately that she was staring directly at her family's cabin. When traveling around the other parallel Earths that she had accidentally sent herself to, she had already found convenience in warping all around Gravity Falls. However, upon arriving in her own dimension, she found herself most conveniently standing right next to her house.

"Looks like my luck finally came back," she said to herself with a smile.

Without waiting any further, she began walking through the woods toward the cabin. As she walked along, she began to grow a sense of familiarity with the surroundings itself. The feeling of walking through those woods. It hadn't changed a bit. It felt like she had never left.

That feeling quickly went away as she looked back at the cabin and stopped walking. From her current position on the edge of the surrounding woods beside a tree, she spotted someone sitting alone in the red chair on the front porch. Quickly, she identified the man as her husband, Dan, who looked like he had gotten slightly larger since she last remembered. But other than that, he looked just like the man that she married.

"Dan…" she said to herself with an emotional smile. "You wouldn't believe how much I've missed you and the boys and the insanity you all came with. Though, I never thought I'd see you as a man quietly sitting out on the front porch by himself. Hmph. Maybe he's calmed down over the years..."

Honk! Honk!

Valora's eyes then glanced over to the side as she spotted an unfamiliar car pull up to the front of the house. As it passed by, she was barely able to make out the sight of a female driver.

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Dan, I swear to God, if you remarried, I'm going to... do nothing because it's been several years, and I can't blame him..."

"Hey, Dad!" Wendy greeted as she stepped out of the car.

Valora was almost immediately able to identify her daughter from her looks alone. The long red hair as it flowed out from her pine tree cap. Her pale, freckled face. Her green flannel shirt. It was the look of a Corduroy's daughter, and she fit it great.

While seeing Dan again made her slightly emotional, she wasn't prepared for the gut punch when she saw Wendy. The last time she had seen her, she was six years old. Now, she was a full-fledged teenager who knew how to drive.

"Wendy… I can't believe it..." she said to herself tearfully as she looked at her from the distance. "All grown up… Damn, she looks good too. I take all the credit for that."

Dan looked up at Wendy and raised an eyebrow. "What're you doing home so early?"

"Soos wanted to go play a new video game he bought so he closed shop and let me off early for the day," she told him while walking up onto the porch. "You know how it is."

"I see. How's the car?"

"Still working," she said with a smile. "Though, the whole thing about paying for my own gas is starting to take a toll on me. Now I see why you always yell at the newspaper when the prices go up a few cents."

"Yeah, it's... troubling," he quietly nodded as he glanced over to the side, his expression mournful.

Wendy caught his expression and immediately knew something was wrong. "You alright, Dad?"

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Well, for one, you're actually calm for once. That usually means something's up."

Dan sighed. "It's that time of the year again."

"Really?" she asked. "I thought Auntie Dolly only came over for Thanksgiving."

Dan raised an eyebrow. "What? No, Jesus, not that time of the year."

"Oh. Then, what're you talking about then?"

He hesitated to reply at that moment for several reasons. But considering the time frame, he also had no reason not to just be honest and remind her of what the day was about. It was a day that had affected her too after all.

"It's officially been ten years since your mother disappeared."

Valora's eyes widened as she overheard this.

Ten years?! EXACTLY ten years?!

She glanced down at her wrist, projecting the holographic display from before. Quickly, she tapped her way to a screen that displayed the current date of the dimension she was in.

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013

Ten years ago that day, she had been separated from her family.

Ten years ago that day, she had fallen into the Nightmare Realm.

Ten years ago that day, she embarked on her journey to return home.

Ten. Whole. Years.

When she first began her journey home, she had attempted to keep track of every day that went by so she could add it all up as time passed. However, to her, hours flew by like minutes and weeks flew by like days. She remembered a time when she thought that she had gone several hours without sleep, but it had really turned out to be five days.

Time had quickly become a lost idea to her as she traveled the multiverse, to the point where she wouldn't really care to question what day of the week it was unless she was in a situation that called for such knowledge. But she generally stopped keeping track of it pretty early on in her journey. She knew that by the time she stood back in her dimension, it had been years. But to figure out she had finally returned exactly ten years later was mind-boggling to her. Both due to the amount of time and the precision of her timing.

Looking back up at Dan and Wendy, she saw Wendy was still processing this revelation herself. Apparently, she hadn't realized the same until Dan told her. Though, her expression didn't say much even after being reminded of the day's infamy.

"I tried not to let it get to me today, but... I just couldn't help but think about her," Dan said as he stuffed his face in his hands sadly. "And how it's been so long."

Wendy sat on the chair's armrest, glancing over at him sympathetically. "Yeah, ten years is a while now, huh?"

Dan shook his head. "It's hard, you know? Watching all her kids grow up all this time... and she ain't even here to see it."

Wendy gave him a look. "Dad, c'mon. We're your kids too."

"I know, I know," he nodded. "I just meant... you kids still deserve to have a mother in your lives. I mean, I've been doing my best. I can say that much. But even then, some days I'll just wake up, notice that she ain't next to me, and I'll just remember that... well... that I ain't enough."

He leaned forward in his seat and hung his head down somberly. Wendy sat to the side and just looked at him silently.

A tear streamed down Valora's face as she listened in on her husband's words. Dan was never the most modest man as far as she knew, but she knew he had his moments of humility. To hear him speak so low of himself at that moment made her want to pop her head out and just return to her family's lives at that instant. Even if it may have been messy, the urge was there. Just to be there for them again.

She took a few steps out from behind the trees, preparing to make her way over. Her mind raced with how she planned on even beginning to explain her absence.

"But you are enough, Dad."

Valora stopped in place right before walking out into the daylight from under the forest shadows. She took a few brief steps back as her eyes shot back over at her daughter in the near distance.

Wendy looked down at her feet, thinking. "I don't know what happened to Mom, and I doubt I ever will. But that doesn't matter to me anymore."

Dan raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't miss your mother?"

"Of course I do!" Wendy immediately clarified. "I miss her a ton. But... I still have you and the boys and... honestly, that's more than enough for me."

Dan looked on at her for a minute. He wasn't one for tears, but it was getting hard to stop his eyes from becoming misty. However, that was something he wasn't going to allow to get worse. In his head, he began fortifying wooden barricades around his emotions while trying to maintain as strong a demeanor as possible in front of his daughter.

But still, she saw this within him. She smiled tenderly while putting a hand on his giant shoulder.

"I'll always miss Mom, but you've done a great job without her," she told him. "I know it, and the boys know it too. The fact that you've been able to raise the four of us on your own these past ten years without any of us going to jail is, quite frankly, a real miracle. And if you ask me, there's nothing manlier than that."

The barricades he built around his emotions weren't enough to stop the punch to his heart. His face scrunched up tightly as tears began to flow down from his eyes. From beside, she held her arms open for him readily.

Unable to hold back any longer, he turned to her and accepted her embrace. As he hugged her tightly, she could feel the emotion spreading to her as her own eyes got watery. She tightened her eyes shut as she held her father's embrace, allowing him to sob as freely as he did.

"You kids are everything to me," he said between sniffles. "Thank you for believing in me."

Wendy sniffled. "Thank you for being amazing."

Valora distantly watched the two share their embrace as tears streamed down her face as well.

There was a difference between being missed and being needed. And after being away for ten years, she knew she should've figured there wouldn't be much need left for her. The words shared between Dan and Wendy only seemed to prove that further. She was loved and missed and not abhorred, which she was glad to see. But from the looks of it, there simply wasn't any place for her in their lives anymore either. Not without the risk of complicating everything again, at least.

She imagined there had to have been some frustration of not knowing what had happened to her or whether she was dead or alive. How exactly she planned on walking back into all of their lives again after so long had completely escaped her mind throughout her journey. Her entire quest to return home was simply fueled by her want to see her family again. Never had she considered how she'd end up reuniting herself with them or even how she'd explain herself for that matter.

But in the end, she completed her journey home and got exactly what she wanted after so long, and that was to see her family again. Some of them, at least.

Though, as much as she wanted to see her other boys again, she couldn't bear to stick around much longer that day. Despite how right she knew her daughter was about everything, her words were still a punch to the gut to hear. And if that was how she felt, she couldn't imagine the boys felt much different.

Would they have even wanted to see her? Was it even right to come back into their lives? Was it even a good time to do so? Then again, given the circumstances, when would it ever be the right time? She didn't know. Maybe she was making the biggest mistake of her life by walking away now. Or maybe, what she was doing was for the best.

Who knew? She sure didn't. But what she did know was that if she was going to meet them again, if ever, it wasn't going to be today.

Thus, she put up her holographic display and tapped through it while maintaining the last bit of emotional composure she had left in her. With one final glance back at her daughter and husband, she gave a warm smile before tapping on her multiversal teleporter. Her tearful eyes stayed on the two the entire time her body began to glow blue before flashing away without a trail.

---

[Present]

A tear streamed down the side of Valora's face, which she quickly wiped with the back of her hand. It was always the hardest memory for her to think about in such great detail, even despite the few years that have passed since. Still, she tried to stay as strong as she could be despite her emotion visible to the twins.

She cleared her choked-up throat. "After I left, I decided I still had some old favors I owed. I went back to Nightmare Realm to help the refugees get home. When I did, I figured out that the realm had gotten even more unstable in the ten years since I left it. With refugees from various dimensions still scattered throughout, I made it my mission to help people get back to their own dimensions as the realm continued to die. At that point, I felt helping others who needed it was the only purpose I had left. If I couldn't be there for my family, then at least, I could help others be there for theirs." She sighed as she looked back up at the twins, with a slight, yet, poignant smile. "But, yeah... That's my story."

Mabel had her mouth covered with her hands as she looked on at Valora with great remorse. "Oh my God…"

Dipper also looked over at her with a similar amount of sympathy. "Yeah, that's... a lot... I'm so sorry."

Valora sighed. "It's okay. I mean, I still come by to check on them when I can. That's why I'm here now. Usually once a month ever since I first got back. Sometimes more for special occasions like holidays or my kids' graduations. Even if they didn't know it, I still wanted to be there for them."

"Once a month..." Mabel repeated.

"The 23rd of each month," Dipper realized. "That's why you're here today."

Mabel's eyes lit up. "And April 23rd... that was the night…"

"...when she got expelled," Valora finished. "Yeah, I knew where you were going with that. It's what I overheard when I first got caught you guys."

"So you know…" Dipper discerned. "You were there... and she saw you, didn't she?"

"She did."

"And so you're the reason she got stuck on the fence," he pointed out, mentally connecting all of the dots based on all they had learned. "She saw you and recognized your face, but couldn't believe it was you. So she sat there shocked before getting pulled down by security. So in a way, you indirectly got her expelled… and you're indirectly the reason she's moving…"

"Dipper…" Mabel nudged, finding his wording coming off as insincere despite that not being his intention.

"I didn't try to get seen. In fact, I didn't even know it was her until I saw her on the fence," Valora explained. "I already arrived later than I usually did that day. That night at the college, I assumed it was just her friends getting into trouble. Imagine my surprise when I saw her climbing up on that fence too."

"So, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mabel concluded.

"Just about," she nodded as she put her chin in her hands. "She's my daughter. I wouldn't ever try to destroy her future intentionally. I mean, I've already done enough by not being there to see her grow up."

Mabel frowned. "You say that like that's your fault though. I mean, it's not like you actually left them at your own will. It'd probably take an awkward dinner to explain, but I don't see why you can't just come back and... be a mom again. Wendy's grown up, but you still have some boys that aren't. Even then, who's to say Wendy wouldn't want you back either?"

"Yeah! I mean, just yesterday Wendy was arguing with Dan, and she said if you were still around, you'd be a lot less overwhelming to deal with right now with all she's going through. At the very least, she clearly still thinks about you!" Dipper added.

"You can still be a part of your family again, Mrs. Corduroy," Mabel nodded. "We know it's what you'd want, and even if you think you're not needed, I think it's what they'd want too."

"It's not that easy. I've been gone so long. I've missed so much. I wasn't there when I was needed most. So much time I was meant to spend raising my kids. Ten years of birthdays, phases, and other important milestones I never got to see. Now, Wendy's moving away, Marcus is going to college next, Kevin's going to be a senior, and Gus is just starting high school. In one way or another, they've either reached or are reaching the back end of growing up. How can I come in now when there's so little left for me to do? I mean, Gus was only an infant when I vanished, and so he hardly even KNOWS me..."

She began to choke up with tears as she said that aloud, which received sorrowful looks from both of the twins. She trembled slightly as she still tried to keep herself together.

"You two are right. I do wanna go back to them. But I don't wanna risk messing everything up either... Especially after what happened to Wendy..."

She then put her face in her hands as she began to silently weep. The twins continued to look on with remorse, up to the point where Mabel walked over and sat beside her, patting her on the back comfortingly. She then looked up at her brother, who still sat across from them, and narrowed her eyes.

"So, bro, is this mystery solved yet?"

Dipper glanced back and forth between her and Valora, thinking before letting out a guilty sigh. "Yeah. I think we're just about done here."

The morning had started off with the simple goal of trying to figure out how Wendy got expelled from college. But over the course of the day, they had gotten themselves more deeply involved in Corduroy family history, which in turn, led them to the unexpected meeting and rediscovery of Wendy's mother. With the backstory that she had given and the emotions that she shed, they couldn't have gotten any more personal with their situation.

While it hadn't been stated, Dipper already knew that by the time they would part ways with Valora, they'd have to keep their meeting a secret. There was nothing they could tell Wendy or the rest of their family. Nothing they could do with this newfound information other than keep it to themselves, which was a bummer because, despite her long absence, Valora had the potential to happily reunite with her family despite her fears of ruining everything.

But, in the end, he realized that Mabel was right from the moment she said it. That this was a situation that didn't call for them. While they did have a better understanding of Wendy's history and more recent behaviors, there was still little for them to do to change that themselves. The problem Valora faced was one beyond their capabilities and even a solution as simple as reuniting with her family might not even solve all of the emotional trauma her family had endured over the years. On the other hand, maybe that's all that she really needed to do. But it had been thirteen years, and none of them really knew what the fallout of that whole situation might be.

Whether or not it was worth it wasn't there call to make. But perhaps getting themselves involved in all wasn't worth it to begin with after all.

---

The Gravity Falls Jewel Store felt like it couldn't have been an easier score for Wendy. As far as protecting her identity went, she didn't have a ski mask to hide her face, so she resorted to using an old, Halloween bandit mask around her eyes.

After parking her car further down the block, she stealthily made her way around the back of the store. When it came to getting inside, she simply used a bobby pin to try to pick her way through the backdoor lock, only to quickly realize it wasn't even locked for the night in the first place and she just could walk inside. Keeping in mind what Stan had said about the diamond necklace, she then searched around the back of the store for it before finding it in its own glass box placed on a pedestal. Knowing better than to noisily break the glass, she instead managed to locate a set of keys from behind one of the glass counters, with one of them managing to successfully unlock the box.

Swiping the necklace, she found the job to be near effortless, which was how she preferred her work. She then walked out the back door with the necklace in hand, satisfied with her score.

"I told Stan I could take this place on my own!" she said to herself as she held the necklace out in front of her eyes, allowing the moonlight to shine upon its beautifully cut diamonds. "'Can't take it on my own', my ass. This job was a piece of cake."

"FREEZE!"

"PUT YOUR HANDS UP!"

Glancing over to the side, she was startled to see Blubs and Durland standing right before her as their cruiser's headlights shined right in her face. Looking over at them, she spotted that they both held handguns in their hands, both aimed directly at her.

"Woah!" she yelled, dropping the diamond necklace as she raised her hands up fearfully. "Who the hell gave you two guns?!"

Blubs raised an eyebrow before immediately realizing her confusion. "Oh, these ain't guns. They're tasers."

"They just look like guns for extra intimidation," Durland added with a sly smile.

"Our superiors gave them to us for our incompetency earlier today in trying to catch criminals," Blubs explained. "Don't be a fool, though. They can still get ya just as fast as a real gun can."

"So, you two were given tasers for sucking at your job?" Wendy questioned. "What kind of logic is that?!"

"They figured we might be able to do a better job if they gave us something with range," Durland explained further.

"Also, after all the criminals that have gotten away today, this is basically our last chance at catching anyone before we get fired," Blubs awkwardly added. He then put a serious face up as he focused his sights on her again. "So, yeah, we ain't letting you get away."

"I just don't understand. That robbery was slick as can be! How'd you two even find out about it?" Wendy asked.

"Guess you didn't do enough research on the place to know it's outfitted with a nighttime invisible laser security system that sends signals directly to our local station when tripped," Durland told her smugly.

Wendy's confusion immediately turned into annoyance. "Invisible lasers... why not?"

"Anyways, we're going to have to take you in now." Blubs pulled a set of handcuffs out from his belt with a free hand. "And considering you just tried to steal the store's more expensive diamond necklace, I can already tell you that you're going to be in a lot of trouble here, miss."

"Lots of jail time. Maybe even prison," Durland doubled down.

"What?! I can't go to prison!" Wendy said anxiously. "I'm just a kid! Well, I mean, I'm technically a young adult going off age, but I'm still basically a kid! My dad would kill me if he found out about this!"

"Ooooh, lookee here, Durland. The girl's worried about getting in trouble with her dad!" Blubs said with great amusement.

"Well, maybe you should've been a good kid and stayed out of trouble," Durland said, also amused. "Sounds like that's what daddy would've wanted."

Wendy narrowed her eyes as the two burst out laughing while making their way toward her with the handcuffs. She considered running, not believing either of them would make a good shot with their tasers. But still, the consequences that came with resisting an officer, along with whatever she would receive should she get caught, would only worsen things for her, as well as for her dad. So she found herself stuck at a mental crossroads, not knowing whether to resist anyway or just comply.

CRASH!

Everyone's eyes immediately redirected toward the police cruiser, which had suddenly been rammed into by another car. The windows of the car had completely shattered as a result, revealing Stan Pines in the driver's seat as he breathed heavily. He then glanced over at the two cops as they looked back at him.

"Oh no! It's Sheriff Butthead and Deputy Doofus!" he shouted in an obviously fake-scared voice. "I hope they don't catch me in my car full of all the various items I've stolen from all over town today!"

Wendy was shocked to see that Stan had come to her aid. However, she wasn't too sure exactly what he was trying to do by putting himself in an open position for both Blubs and Durland. With a single glance at Stan, the two cops managed to immediately recognize and identify him from the day's events.

"Hey, that's the man who stole the groceries!" Durland realized as he pointed over at Stan.

"And the painting from the Cheapskate Museum!" Blubs added.

"And Mayor Tyler's mini Statue of Liberty made of bottle caps!"

"And all the other things that were stolen all over town!"

"Did neither of you idiots just hear what I just said?" Stan asked, eyes narrowing in slight annoyance.

"But wait, didn't he have an accomplice with him?" Blubs asked, noticing Stan was on his own.

"Pfft! An accomplice?" Stan repeated. "Please! Nobody needs an accomplice to get away from cops as gullible as you morons!"

Blubs narrowed his eyes at Stan as he prepared his taser gun. "Well, one might be helpful right about now, wouldn't it?"

Stan kicked his car door open before stepping out, getting into a position ready to run. "I may be old, but I still got a pair of BARELY working legs! Try to catch me, you sons of bi- AAAAAGGHHH!"

At that moment, Blubs and Durland had simultaneously fired their taser guns at Stan, hitting him directly in his torso. As he screamed, he fell onto the ground, arms and legs jolting around as the electric shocks streamed through his body.

"AAAAGGHH! WHO GAVE THESE IDIOTS TASERS?!" Stan questioned as he attempted to claw away from them, only to be tased yet again for further resistance. "AAAAAAAGGGHHH!"

"You have the right to remain silent!" Blubs shouted as he dropped his taser and ran over to Stan, placing his hands behind his back before putting cuffs around them. With Durland's help, the two promptly pinned him up against his car before inspecting his body for weapons.

With both cops now handling Stan, Wendy was in a position free to escape. However, she continued to stand in place, growing more anxious as she watched Stan get detained, uncertain of what she was supposed to do next.

"Mr. Pines?"

Stan's eyes glanced over at her, struggling to maintain his focus as his mind was on his heated body as it surged with electricity. Still, he realized her presence and tried not to let the pain get the best of him for a moment to acknowledge her.

"I'M DOING THIS FOR YOU, KID! NOW, WHAT'RE YOU WAITING FOR?! GO! RUN!"

Wendy still remained anxious and somewhat terrified of what was happening. A part of her wanted to help Stan, but she realized there was little she could do against armed cops. So as soon as Stan told her to run, she did. Immediately, she turned away from what was happening between the three and began sprinting as fast as she could away from them.

Durland noticed her, glancing over as she turned around the corner of the block. "Blubs! The girl! She's running away!"

"Don't worry about her!" Blubs told him as he held Stan out in front of him. "We just caught an eleven-time robber! It looks like we ain't losing our jobs after all, Durly!"

Durland smiled happily as he threw his hands in the air. "WOOHOO! This day's going in the memory book, Blubs!" he cheered before diving into his pocket and pulling out a camera, which he then flipped around to take a self-portrait of themselves as they held Stan, who remained unamused and in total agony. "Say cheese!"

Snap!

---

Wendy didn't bother looking back as she ran. She had no idea whether she was being chased down by Blubs and Durland, and she wasn't trying to find out. While they weren't the brightest officers in Gravity Falls, that didn't mean they weren't capable of some level of competency. She figured if they upped their game in the slightest way, they'd easily be able to catch her.

But that's what she wanted to avoid.

As she ran, she began to get hit with a sense of deja vu. The fact that she already had this type of run with the police once before was getting to her. Knowing that she was, yet again, running from the cops only two months later as a result of her own dumb decisions. Except that this time, she was on her own. Before, she was alongside her friends, but this time, she was all by herself.

It was not even close to what she had in mind when she considered taking on a life of crime. Was this really a glimpse at what it was like? Committing such selfish actions only to be overwhelmed by the stress of potentially getting caught and thrown in jail for life? Was this seriously what she had told Stan she wanted?

She didn't even know anymore. Her mind was in so many places and she was overwhelmed with anxiety and trauma to the point where she couldn't settle down until she knew she was safe at home.

But the flashbacks continued. The memories still got to her. One moment, she could see where she was going, but then the next, she couldn't. She could hardly tell which point of time she was in as she ran down an alleyway with a chain-link fence that she intended to hop over.

---

"Hurry, Wendy!" Thompson shouted at her from beyond the fence before he ran off into the woods.

"I'm going!" she shouted as she climbed up the school fence. She quickly reached the top, throwing one of her legs over the other side, planning to throw herself back down.

However, as she glanced over the other side of the fence, her eyes fell upon a particular figure through the trees. It was exceptionally dark, but that didn't hinder her ability to see that there was a person who stood behind one of the trees, appearing to look directly at her. She looked back at the person and saw they didn't resemble Robbie, Tambry, Lee, Nate, or Thompson. It didn't look like anybody she immediately recognized, which began to make her grow somewhat disturbed by the fact someone might've been watching her.

Then, despite the distance and darkness, she managed to see their eyes.

Her sparkling jade eyes.

Around those eyes, she began to make out a familiar freckled face.

And then, it clicked.

Her mouth hung open in utter shock at the sudden realization. Her eye twitched as her brain suddenly felt like it had lost its ability to function for a moment before attempting to reboot.

(It can't be… There's no way...)

"Wendy?" Thompson's voice suddenly rang in her head as he ran back over to her on the fence. "What're you doing? Everyone already ran off ahead! C'mon, we gotta move!"

She knew he was looking up at her, but she didn't take a single glance away from the woman's face. She didn't even blink, for she didn't want to risk her suddenly disappearing afterward. She wanted to make sure she was really there.

"Wendy?" Thompson asked her again, concern growing in his voice.

(Thompson will prove she's real...)

"T-Thompson?" she stuttered to him as she kept her eyes focused on the woman. "Do you see what I'm looking at?"

"W-What?" Thompson nervously asked, not knowing what she was talking about in the middle of an already intense situation.

"Through those trees behind you!" she told him, pointing her finger up. "Do you see that?"

There looked to be a flash of some sort just as she pointed at the woman. But before she could take a moment to properly process it, she felt a rough hand wrap around the ankle that hung back over the school side of the fence, pulling her down.

"AAAHH!" she cried as she fell to the ground, suddenly feeling various hands grab ahold of her by her arms in a restraining way. Staring forward through the chain-link fence, all she could see was Thompson, who stared right back at her in horror as she was dragged off.

"NOOOOOO!" he cried out to her as he desperately grabbed onto the chain-link fence and shook it. "WENDYYYY!"

---

"AAAHH!" Wendy screamed as she tripped over the top of the alley's chain-link fence, resulting in her falling to the ground on the side of her arm.

She lay for a moment before pulling herself up on her knees. As she did so, she felt a rough pain on her right forearm going down to her wrist underneath her long black sleeve. She knew it wasn't the pain of a broken bone, but the pain of an open wound caused by such a violent fall onto rough concrete, her forearm taking most of the impact.

At that same moment, it started to rain. She only then noticed the formation of dark rain clouds on an already dark evening as she looked up at the sky. Despite this, she decided to keep pushing on toward home, once again knowing she couldn't settle down until she got there.

---

After another half-hour of running, Wendy finally found herself back at the front door of her house. She was drenched from running through the pouring rain and her arm still hurt. But she didn't care now that she was home.

She dove into her back pocket and pulled out her house key, inserting it into the lock and turning it before opening it up slowly. Being mindful of the fact that it was still late and her family was most likely sleeping, she made sure every action of hers was as quiet as could be as she stepped inside.

After softly closing and locking the door behind her, she crept her way into the kitchen. She flipped the light switch so she could better see around her. Then, she looked down at her right arm as she pulled her sleeve up, revealing the single, large, bloody scrape that ran along her forearm to her wrist. She looked at it in disgust for a moment before brushing it off. It still hurt, but the pain had died down since initially receiving it, and she had greater things on her mind that she felt more inclined to worry about.

She then made her way over to the sink, where she drew her fingers through the blinds of the window in front of it, glancing outside and looking out for any signs of police. She felt confident that if they had followed her, they wouldn't be able to track her path through the dark and rainy woods, but she remained cautious. Their cabin may have been secluded within the forest, but that still made it a logical place to search if found.

"Oh, man! I left my car back in town!" she suddenly realized upon looking outside at the noticeably empty space in front of their house, where her car usually sat. "God dammit... how am I supposed to explain-"

"WENDY!"

Startled, she jumped and quickly turned around to face her dad as he towered menacingly above her. The look on his face was angry and unforgiving, which was immediately a sign that she was busted. She began to tremble anxiously as she stood beneath him.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" he furiously asked. "I'VE BEEN WORRIED SICK! YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?! I'VE BEEN CALLING AND CALLING, BUT YOU NEVER PICK UP YOUR PHONE! I ALWAYS SEE YOU TEXTING AND CALLING YOUR FRIENDS, YET YOU CAN'T EVEN ANSWER YOUR OWN-"

He paused as he suddenly noticed her scraped arm and how blood still continued to run from it. As he processed how bad it was, his anger with her was then put on immediate hold as he crouched down in front of her, pulling her arm forward so he could more closely examine it.

"What the hell happened?" he asked with concern in his eyes as he scanned in the injury. "How'd you get this? What have you been-"

Sniff.

He glanced up at her face and was surprised to see she was on the verge of tears. She tried to avoid eye contact with him for fear that he would notice, but she knew it wasn't working. Seeing her like this only increased his concern for her.

"Wendy?" he asked calmly, prompting her to turn her face toward him and look him in the eye. "What happened?"

At that point, she couldn't contain herself anymore and burst into tears. Reflexively, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tight as she stuffed her face into his shoulder.

"I'm... sorry…" she told him through her tears.

Dan's confusion and concern persisted and only continued to increase as he was still left without a clear answer about what troubled her. "For what?"

She sniffled. "For everything. For getting expelled. For not caring. For calling you overwhelming. For making you worry..."

At that moment, Marcus, Kevin, and Gus stuck their heads into the kitchen, silently watching what was happening between their sister and dad, neither of who were aware of their presence.

Wendy sniffled, calming her sobbing down a bit. "I knew one day I'd eventually have to leave home… but, I didn't want it to be like this."

Manly Dan took in every word of her weeping, allowing himself to grow calmer once he knew she wasn't in trouble the way he was thinking she was. He then put his arm around her, stroking her hair comfortingly.

"Me neither," he said before pulling her away from his shoulder so he could look her in the eye again. "But, I know you can do it. You are the strongest, smartest, and bravest girl I've ever known since your mother. You may have made some bad decisions before, but if I know my little girl, then she'll always come back stronger than them. She always does."

He then pulled her back into a hug, to which she immediately returned it. Though she continued to sob as a means of releasing all of her emotional stress, she did so much more quietly as she stuffed her face back into his shoulder.

To think how wrong she had been for recently thinking of him as nothing more than an overwhelming father figure with little to look back positively on. While Dan may have been a hard dad, he still loved her. And despite her mistakes, he kept loving her and kept being there for her, just as Stan tried to tell her before.

And she realized now that he was right.

She hugged Dan tighter as tears continued to stream from her eyes. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, Wendy," he returned, tightening his own hug. "So much…"

Wendy opened her eyes for a second as she heard this. She then smiled as she glanced over at him gratefully before closing her eyes again and just letting their hug do the rest of the work.

---

Knock. Knock. Knock.

As three consecutive knocks were heard at the front door of the Mystery Shack, Ford was there to walk over and open it up. Standing before him were Blubs and Durland, who both held a scruffy Stan in handcuffs in front of them.

"Hey, Sixer!" he greeted with an awkward smile.

He then glanced back and forth between his brother and himself before realizing there was almost no good excuse for his predicament.

"Uhh... listen, it's been a long night…"

Having already noticed Stan's absence upon his return to the Shack, Ford simply stared back at him without an ounce of amusement, sighing as he crossed his arms disappointedly.

---

The night passed and the next day quickly arrived. After a night of chaos and settlements, in the end, Stan found himself standing outside on the front porch of the Shack. He looked beside him to see Ford sitting at a table set out on the porch with a bunch of various papers spread out amongst it.

He then glanced down at his ankle, which now had a metal bracelet around it with a blinking red light - the final result of all the negotiations made with the officers the previous night.

"Welp. It's certainly not the worst punishment I've ever received," he admitted as he scanned the ankle bracelet. "I committed eleven robberies and drove into an officer's car, and the worst I get is an ankle bracelet that shocks me if I walk fifty meters away from the Shack. Though, it's still kind of a load of crap. All I wanted to do was leave the house, and now I'm literally banned from leaving the house."

Ford tapped a few buttons on his wristwatch before looking up at him. "Well, lucky for you, I've already managed to hack into and gain control over the bracelet functions from the local police and their trackers."

"Already?" Stan asked, stunned by his brother's fast working speed. "Wow, and for a second, I thought I was actually gonna have to wear this thing."

"Actually, you are. Except instead of shocking you whenever you leave a certain distance of the house, I've set it to shock you whenever you leave a certain distance of Meridian," he explained as he gestured toward his watch. "This way, I can personally monitor you and your actions closely."

"Aw, c'mon, Ford! It's not like I actually did anything Bill-like yesterday! Again, all I wanted was to leave the house for a change!"

"And you'll finally have that opportunity now that I've decided to bring you along with me on my future endeavors outside of the Shack," Ford told him. "I previously thought it wouldn't have to come to this, but after yesterday's events, I feel as though it's for the best that I personally keep you from getting into trouble. Even if you didn't do anything that could've come from the thoughts of Bill, you going out into town like that was still a huge risk for anyone who made contact with you. We should consider ourselves lucky, as it could've been worse."

"Well, how about you then? If I'm gonna have to be stuck around you and your wristwatch as long as this demon's in my head, I might as well ask how much longer it'll be till he's out."

"Well, Fiddleford and I actually managed to design a viable schematic for what he calls a Dream Demon Destroyin' Doohickey," Ford answered as he presented the blueprint to him on the table.

"I'll just call it a gun, thank you."

"Anyway, it's not an overly difficult design for us to put together. What we need to do now is gather parts for it. Which, I suppose, will be this weekend's mission. So, we still have some ways left to go, but what's important to note is that progress is being made." He reached out and placed an assuring hand on his brother's shoulder. "Once this weapon is built Stan, I promise you, we're clearing Bill out right away."

"Thanks, Sixer," Stan said with a grateful smile. "But, I swear, I'm gonna punch you in the face if this bracelet ever shocks me without warning."

Ford's look of assurance for Stan then turned into one of slight disdain as he gave a sigh. "I'll make a note of that."

Further away from the porch was another golf hole in the shape of Stan's head, which had been freshly reconstructed by Soos after the previous one's explosion. He, along with Dipper and Melody, stood to the side as Mabel prepared herself with a golf club to test out the course.

As she aimed her golf ball, she glanced back up at Soos hesitantly. "Are you sure it won't explode this time?"

"Positive! Not a firework attached, dude!" he assured, giving her a thumbs-up.

"Alright! Here goes nothing, then!" she settled right before swinging her club and giving the ball a solid whack. It flew toward the hole in Stan's mouth, going in and scoring yet another hole-in-one. "WOO! As if there were any doubts."

However, a few seconds after her score, the head promptly caught fire, seemingly out of nowhere.

"AH!" Mabel screamed as the fire gave her a slight startle, albeit, not as bad as the previous day's explosion. "Soos!"

"Whoops!" Soos awkwardly said as he watched the head set ablaze. "Well, uh, guess the fire machine I added as a replacement for the fireworks didn't really work out all that well either…"

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU NOT TO MAKE THAT COURSE LOOK LIKE MY HEAD!" Stan's disapproving voice yelled at Soos from afar.

"Sorry, Mr. Pines!" Soos called back.

"Where do you even get this kind of stuff from?" Dipper asked him.

"I think I would like to know that too," Melody seconded. "As well as how much it costs…"

Soos' eyes lit up nervously at her curiosity. "Oh, well, you know, something around... uh... HEY LOOK! WENDY'S HERE!"

Everyone's eyes then glanced behind over to the side to see Wendy biking her way into the lot, stopping right in front of the four.

"'Sup, guys," she greeted with a lighthearted smile.

"Wendy!" Mabel eagerly waved.

"Oh, hey, Wendy!" Dipper greeted as he walked up to her alongside his sister. He then glanced down at her bike and raised an eyebrow. "Uh... biking instead of driving today?"

"Eh, driving's cool and all, but I just felt like biking to work today. Mix things up a bit," she said as she took off her helmet and put her pine tree cap back on her head. "Also, I may have left my car parked somewhere else in town last night and have to go get it back after my shift. But, whichever excuse sounds better to you."

Her eyes then shifted over to the side as she noticed the burning Stan head that Soos and Melody were now trying to extinguish. As she looked on at it for a moment, she found herself chuckling.

"Nice to see I came to a ritual," she snickered.

Mabel chuckled. "Right? This is where we worship the great and mighty Mr. Mystery! The First to be specific."

"How does the ceremony go? Do we hold hands in a circle or dig into each other's pockets looking for wallets?" Wendy joked.

Mabel thought for a moment. "Hmm... actually, I think we all just dress up as fake museum attractions and do dances."

"Oh, man. Don't put me in the Sascrotch costume, please."

The two girls then burst out into simultaneous laughter, whereas Dipper stood to the side just casually chuckling in comparison.

He felt slightly awkward upon Wendy's arrival considering the fact they had met her mother in the woods the previous night, and so he wasn't sure how approaching her with that knowledge in mind would be like in future interactions. And considering the emotional state she was in the last time they had seen her, he figured there was a possibility of her coming back to work in a similar fashion. However, it came off as a surprise to him to see her in good enough spirits to be able to joke around so easily. It was a huge contrast to her mood the previous day.

In fact, as he looked at her, he felt that there was some sort of difference in her appearance as well. But, he couldn't understand exactly how because she actually looked just about the same as she always looked that summer, save for some new bandaging that wrapped around her right forearm for some reason.

But looking at her face as she laughed, he definitely felt like something else was different. Something about her face gave off a weird impression. She looked more refreshed. More comfortable. More relaxed. Less stressed. Less sad. Happier. But he couldn't put his finger on how this was possible considering that, once again, she looked practically the same as always.

"Hey Wendy?" he prompted, grabbing her attention as her laughter calmed down. "Did you... do something with your hair?"

Wendy was thrown off slightly by his sudden question, unsure what to make of it right away. Then, she held a bit of her hair in her hand as it flowed freely down her back, examining it. "Might've used a bit more conditioner than usual this morning, but, otherwise…" She shook her head. "Why?"

"I, uh, I don't know," he replied, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "It's just you look kind of... different today."

She raised an eyebrow. "Like... bad different?"

"No, no! Good different!" he reassured her, shaking his hands somewhat flusteredly. "I just... can't really pin it down. But, trust me, it's a good different."

She smiled. "Well, for the first time in a while, I actually feel good. So, that's different."

Both twins glanced at one another as hopeful smiles formed across their faces, both of them thinking the same thing before turning back to Wendy, who then picked up her bike and began walking toward the Shack as she rolled it along.

"Anyway, give me a sec. I'm gonna go lock my bike up," she told the twins before walking off.

As she reached the Shack, she pulled out a chain lock and locked her bike up against a post right beside the front porch. Unbeknownst to her, Stan sat right above on the porch and spotted her as she made her way over.

"You alright, kid?" he asked just as she finished locking up her bike.

She looked up at the porch and finally noticed him. "Oh... Mr. Pines," she awkwardly realized. "Yeah, I'm feeling fine."

"I meant after last night," he specified. "The cops never came knocking at your door, right? Never traced you back down?"

"Well, as far as I'm aware, I got away clean," she said as she walked up onto the porch itself.

"That's good to hear," Stan nodded. "Glad you're alright after all of that."

"Yeah…" she nodded in agreement while rubbing the back of her neck, trying to figure out the appropriate words to acknowledge how their last interaction had gone down. "Look, Mr. Pines, I just wanted to say thanks for saving me back there. I know I didn't listen when you said not to do the job, but even then, you came in and took the punch for me."

"Please. It's not taking a punch for you if it was my fault for getting you into that situation in the first place," he brushed off.

"Well, I mean, it's not like I didn't have a lot on my mind beforehand," she said as she walked up and sat beside him on the porch couch. "I was already kind of messed up."

"Maybe, but I only worsened it with my own selfishness."

"What do you mean?"

He sighed. "Kid, when I saw you driving me through the streets, it was like I saw a part of myself- a thieving little free spirit with dad issues. And I guess when I saw that, a part of me wanted to relive those days for whatever reason. Maybe it was because of the nostalgic feeling of youthful freedom. Maybe it was because I felt like I was being rebellious to my own dad. Or maybe it's because I'm just a terrible person. Hell, I have a demon housed inside my head that's affected my decisions before, so that's not even something to rule out either. Whatever the reason might be, it was still a selfish thing to do in the end and it almost got you into serious trouble. Being as old as I am, I think I've come to learn enough about good to know when someone isn't bad, and you clearly ain't. As I've said before, I'm not a role model, and you should never look up to me. You're young and you're already doing a helluva lot better than I ever was at your age. So, while you have the chance to make something of yourself, take it. But at the same time, don't let that change who you are or what you wanna be. You get what I'm trying to say?"

Wendy took in all of his genuine words for a moment, giving them some serious thought and consideration before giving him a thankful smile. "Yeah, I get it. Thanks, Stan. Believe it or not, you've actually been a help in getting me through probably one of the hardest times in my life. In fact, last night, I talked with my dad, and... well, I think things are going to be alright between us."

Stan smiled. "I'm glad to hear it, kid. Whatever happens, I hope for the best."

Still feeling grateful for what he had said and done to try and help her, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a warm embrace. "You are the worst boss I've ever had."

Stan was thrown off slightly by her sudden hug, but then he smirked as he put a single arm back around her. "Yeah, and you're the laziest employee out there, and I wish I never hired ya."

"Riiiight," Wendy rolled her eyes as she pulled away from him. "As if you don't already outmatch my degree of laziness."

"Eh. You ain't wrong," Stan shrugged in agreement.

"Hey, Wendy!" Mabel suddenly called out as she and Dipper walked up to her on the porch. She then held her cell phone out to her. "Thompson just texted us."

"Apparently, he saw a slice of pizza come to life and crawl under his bed. Says he needs help," Dipper said.

"Wanna go check it out?" Mabel asked her eagerly.

Wendy thought about it, finding the idea of a greasy slice of pizza crawling around the floor of one's bedroom to be absolutely terrifying. However, Thompson was still a good friend, and it would only be wrong not to at least attempt to help him out.

"Eh, why not?" she shrugged as she got up from the couch and stepped off the porch, walking alongside the twins. "I got six days left in town. How else am I gonna spend them? Actually working?"

The three then burst out laughing as they went on their way, leaving the Shack behind. Stan watched as they walked off, still smiling at the thought that Wendy had actually managed to find some peace in her family again. A part of him continued to wish that he had it the way she did with his family growing up, but as he remembered the point he currently stood at in his life, he felt no need to complain.

At the table that Ford sat at, he shuffled through the various papers that lay throughout as he tried to figure out how he was going to go after the parts for the weapon against Bill. However, as he shuffled through the papers, an envelope slipped out from in between and fell onto the floor. He picked it up and held it out into his hand, suddenly growing surprised to see it was an envelope directed toward him as he found his name in handwritten on the front.

"Huh. A handwritten letter directed toward me?" he questioned as he looked on at it. "Odd. I don't think I know anyone who'd send me such a thing. Heck, I thought Mabel told me the other day that handwritten letters were the old-fashioned way of communicating in this day and age."

"Maybe the Mothman finally sent you your money back," Stan said as he cracked open a can of Pitt Cola.

"Unlikely. I've practically accepted that he's a lost cause at this point," Ford replied, tearing a finger into the envelope and opening it up.

"You see? That's why I don't deal financially with monsters."

"Anyway, let's see what we really have here," Ford said as he unfolded the letter inside and held it out in front of him.

Stanford,

The Nightmare Realm is near its end.

New threat from somewhere I haven't yet found.

Lots to say. Not enough time to write. Be prepared.

I've attached modified schematics of the portal you showed me. You may need them at some point.

Glad to know you made it back home to your family.

V

"Valora…" Ford said to himself, remaining wide-eyed as he stared at the letter.

"So who's it from?" Stan asked.

Ford glanced up at him for a brief moment before looking back at the letter and smiling.

"An old friend..."

---

Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy continued walking through the open forest on their way toward Thompson's house. As they walked, Wendy knew it would be somewhat of a distant walk away, and figured it might've been a good time to address things with the twins.

"Also, guys, I'm really sorry for snapping yesterday," she began, grabbing their attention. "You guys probably already figured it out, but life's been kind of tough on me as of late, and I haven't really been open to talking about it. But now, things are starting to get better, so I think maybe it's about time I actually told you guys what's been going on. Ya know, with me getting expelled and junk."

Knowing where she was going with things and given what they already knew, Dipper and Mabel stopped walking and glanced at one another nervously.

"Uh... actually, we don't need to know…" Dipper said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

"You don't have to…" Mabel agreed, shaking her head against the idea.

"Oh, c'mon," Wendy pushed. "Considering how much you guys mean to me, I feel it's only important that I tell you what happened."

"And considering how much you mean to us, we don't feel it's necessary for you to tell us something that's most likely really personal and possibly traumatizing," Mabel told her, before realizing her made-up assumption may have been a bit too on-the-nose. "I mean, not that I know that it is. I'm just taking a wild guess. Heheh."

Wendy raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I mean, I thought you guys might've wanted to know."

"I mean, yeah, maybe before," Dipper nodded. "But, it's not really that important for us to know. Especially, when it revolves around such an infamous moment in your life. While you still have a few days left in town, let's just cherish that time rather than devoting it to talking about the past."

Mabel smiled warmly at him while nodding in agreement with his words. Wendy stared at him, thinking over his words for a moment before giving him a warm smile herself.

"You guys are the best," she said earnestly, stepping forward to lovingly wrap her arms around both of their necks as they continued to walk along, all of them smiling and chuckling with one another.

At the same time as they resumed making their way through the forest, Valora stood up on a distant tree branch, watching the three from above. She remained within the shadows of the forest and kept her distance, ensuring there wouldn't be a chance for her to be seen.

Being the day after her normally scheduled visit to the dimension, she knew it wasn't her time to be there. But considering she never had the chance to check on Wendy the previous night, she had decided to make a quick pitstop back to 46'\ before making her way back to the Nightmare Realm to continue her usual work.

And seeing the wide smile across her daughter's face as she walked alongside the Pines twins was enough to bring a smile to her own. Satisfied and assured that she was alright and in good hands, she considered her job done. Pressing a button on the wrist of her suit, she teleported out of the dimension, to which she would then wait until the next 23rd came around before she would return to see her family again and ensure that they were still okay.

And even after Wendy leaves Gravity Falls, she would still find her and ensure that even her Little Red stays watched.

---

EZOLIZ GSRMPH HSVH HVVM NZYVO YVULIV

XZFGRLFH LU GSRMTH HSV NZB SZEV RM HGLIV

---

Just want to take a moment to thank those of you who have read up to this point. Once again, I can only assume that if you've read this far, you're at least somewhat invested in the story I have to tell because I don't know who would bother sitting through these gigantic chapters otherwise.

Rest assured, there are plenty more to come.

-Absolute Rift

(Chapter updated as of March 18, 2024)