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)

55. Under Wraps: Part 3

"PACIFICA?! PACIFICA?! CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

Dipper was met with no response but the sound of his own voice echoing through the ancient depths that rested well below his current position in the tomb's walkway. His lantern continued to remain the only source of light within the whole tomb, and it still couldn't make even the slightest dent in the murky shadows below. There was no telling how deep the abyss was or what could've possibly been at the bottom.

Nothing even followed the sounds of Pacifica's trailing scream once taken below. Not a thud, not a splash, or even a splatter, thankfully. Her voice simply drifted off until it was nothing but a faded echo.

"Oh, man… What have I done?" Dipper said to himself. "I brought her along! I'm the reason this happened!"

Although the possibility of Pacifica being alive had yet to be extinguished, the uncertainty only filled him with even more fear. He pulled himself away from the hole she had been swiped through, throwing himself on the ground as he tucked his face in his trembling hands.

"This is all my fault. Mabel and Ford were right about this one. I shouldn't have gone on this adventure, I should've listened to Ford, and I sure as hell shouldn't have brought Pacifica into this!"

Looking down at his hands, he almost immediately stopped trembling. He glanced back at the hole with growing prowess before pulling himself back onto his feet.

"Get it together, Dipper! You messed up again. What else is new? What matters now is fixing everything!"

Taking a few steps up to the hole, he kneeled beside it. He unhooked his lantern from his backpack, grabbed it by the handle, and lowered it into the hole. He hoped to be able to puncture the darkness of the abyss, but the act altogether didn't bring any more clarity than he already had. The abyss was dark, that much was clear. But there also looked to be no sign of a feasible way down that wasn't just throwing himself in and plunging to his likely demise.

He stroked his chin quizzically as he pulled the lantern back up. "So how am I gonna get down there then?"

His eyes glanced from the hole to straight ahead. While the hole was one way down, it wasn't the only way. The walkway he stood on acted additionally as a bridge crossing from the corridor up to the antechamber. But the sides of it led to open edges that easily dropped into the depths below.

On one side, the lantern's light still managed to travel over the darkness to the stone wall across from him. In the stone itself was a long, straight crevice that his eyes followed down before it got enveloped in the darkness too. Curiously, he pulled his shovel out from his backpack strap, inspecting the blade's sharp, flat tip.

He had an idea. It was a stupidly risky one, but it was an idea. With it in mind, he rehooked his lantern to his bag before gripping his shovel tightly.

"Well, Dipper, you wanted to be like Ford… Now, you get to be like Ford!"

With a quick jump back, he broke into a sprint from the middle of the walkway up to the edge before leaping straight across the chasm, feet hovering right above the unknown depths. With his shovel charged back, he lunged forward, jamming the blade perfectly between the crevice of the wall as he made contact with it. Once gravity took over, he held onto the shovel for his life as he rode it down the wall into the darkness while his feet uncomfortably slid down the wall for support.

His whole body was tense as could be, biting his teeth down hard while all his mind could focus on was not letting go. As he descended, his backpack's lantern finally brought illumination to previously unseen depths. Not that there was anything to see yet, as it was only the surrounding stone walls that were visible still.

However, that soon changed, as well as the ride down. The shovel eventually made a sudden impact amidst its descent as the crevice Dipper rode came to an end. With the impact, his weight on the handle snapped it right off while the blade continued to stick into the crevice. As such, he soon began to freefall down into the remaining darkness, screaming for his life in the process.

THUD!

The fall wasn't too long, thankfully, but it sure made a loud, reverbing echo as he fell straight on his back, luckily cushioned by his backpack. Despite the cushioning and short fall, a fall was still a fall, and this one still wasn't pleasant. He groaned while pulling himself up on his rear, but his consciousness was perfectly intact. Even though he lost his shovel, it was a significantly minor loss considering he made his way to the bottom essentially unscathed, against all odds, including his own.

"Holy…" He looked back up at the wall he had just fallen from and smirked. "There's no way that should've worked, but hey, I'll take it." Putting a hand down on the floor to get up, he quickly pulled it back in surprise. "Huh?"

He touched the floor again, and to his shock, it no longer felt like the rough ancient stone he felt previously. Instead, it felt more like a type of metal, cold to the touch and no coarse feeling. From what he could see with the lantern, it sure didn't look like the ancient stone from before either.

Looking back up at the wall as well, his eyes glanced back to where his shovel had broken off. As it turned out, where the crevice ended was right above a sudden transition from the stone walls to what looked to be metal panel walls.

He held his lantern up as he inspected his surroundings. From the immediate look of it, there was only one direction to go, and it was through a long, massive tunnel of sorts that was not just coated in darkness, but a type of misty fog that he already stood well within. There was a much more prominent roundness to the tunnel that the rest of the tomb didn't have up to that point. The walls continued to be made up of the same metal panels without the slightest sign of stone or moss or anything tomb-like.

Generally, even though it was still connected to the ancient stone tomb, it looked almost like he had entered an entirely new structure. And somehow, despite looking less ancient, he felt even more uneasy.

"What the hell kind of tomb is this?" he said while slowly beginning to walk into the start of the tunnel.

Suddenly, a brand new noise started to echo its way to him. It was unlike anything he had heard before, sounding something like a deep, hollow chirping or clicking that bellowed somewhere deep in the tunnel. Following the sound was a series of equally very rapid rattles that felt like a vibration with their echoes.

Dipper froze in place, eyes as wide and awake as could be after hearing a sound like that. No part of him wanted to be where he was standing at that moment. The idea of going a step further sounded even worse to him.

But if this was the only direction there was to go, then it was the only way he would be able to find Pacifica. And if there was even the slightest chance she was still alive, he needed to do whatever it took to find her before even thinking about leaving.

Thus, he reattached his lantern once again to his bag before pulling his axe from his other strap. He gripped it firmly with both hands, holding it at the ready for anything he could possibly encounter. He narrowed his eyes as he resumed walking through the tunnel again without even the slightest shudder as his hooked lantern guided him through the misty darkness.

"Don't worry, Pacifica. I'll find you."

---

Stan, Ford, Mabel, and Ryland led Agent Fraid through a pair of glass doors, entering the local Gravity Falls shopping mall. They took a brief stroll past the main entrance, making their way past the first few initial shops, restaurants, and middle kiosks as they took in the atmosphere.

Of course, it wasn't the mall's busiest day, but there were still plenty of local townsfolk of many ages making their way around and doing their usual shopping. Thankfully, nothing stood out about the sight compared to any average shopping mall, which was exactly what they needed at that moment.

"And here we are- Gravity Malls!" Mabel announced. "A normal mall where normal people go and do some normal shopping!" She took a deep whiff of the surrounding air. "Gee, gotta love that normal air, huh? It sure is… normal!"

"Babe, I'm not sure you calling everything normal is really doing what you think it's doing," Ryland discretely told her, glancing over his shoulder at Fraid cautiously.

Mabel immediately let out a gasp as her cheeks flushed pink. "Did you just call me babe?"

"As a reminder, someone is currently listening to you two…" Evan's voice spoke through both of their earpieces.

"Really? Where?" Mabel asked before immediately turning her head and glancing around aimlessly.

"ME!" Evan shouted impatiently. "And don't talk to me while you still have her attention! You'll look crazy! Which is NOT normal!"

Looking immediately back at Fraid, Mabel realized he was right, and she was now being met with her skeptical gaze. She looked back between Ryland and her surroundings, trying to figure out the best way to go about diverting her suspicions. Soon, her eyes fell upon a fancy red convertible parked for a giveaway display in the middle of the mall.

"Uhh… oh yeah, Ryland!" she said, pointing at the convertible. "That car IS red… which is my fourth favorite color! Heheh…"

Ryland was not cued in her attempted diversion but knew what she was doing based on what Evan said to her. He gave her a weak smile before the both of them looked back at Fraid. Except now, Stan and Ford joined her in giving the two silent, questionable stares.

"Hey, so who wants to do some shopping at the mall, ehhh?" Stan asked, breaking the awkward silence.

Fraid raised an eyebrow. "Shopping? The whole reason I'm here is so you people can prove to me just how normal and free of anomalies this town is. Yet so far I have enough notes here on the townspeople alone to warrant a full unit investigation."

"Ah, c'mon, lady! Be real! What isn't an anomaly to you? My scoliosis is more an anomaly than over half the notes you've written," Stan remarked.

"Stanley!" Ford hissed.

"I'm serious, Stanford!" Stan defended. "Her constant eyebrow-raising every five seconds is stranger than like ninety percent of the so-called 'weird' things we've seen today."

"Dammit, Stanley, show some respect!" Ford said as he grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him aside.

Fraid gave an irritable sigh in Ford's direction as she tapped away on her tablet. "I don't know why I listened to you, Mr. Pines. As far as I'm concerned, this whole attempt to prove this town as normal has been a complete and utter failure on your part."

"Agent Fraid, please," Ford begged. "If you would just hear me out-"

"I believe I've heard more than enough," she cut off. "I think I'll be making my way back to base now. Then we're going to come back and turn this town inside out until we get to the bottom of all of this."

Stan, Ford, Mabel, and Ryland were left to stressfully watch as she made her way through the mall. Ford clutched his fists with growing frustration as he tried to think of any sort of new plan to no avail.

"Dammit! This has been a complete disaster," he said frustratedly.

"We can't just let her leave! We have to stop her!" Mabel said.

"But how?" Ryland asked. "She's a government agent. What can we do that won't just get us locked up?"

"Does bribery still work these days?" Stan asked. "I say it's worth a shot. Ford, pull out your wallet."

Ford let out a reluctant sigh before complying and pulling out his wallet. At the same time, Stan pulled out his own wallet and began to sort through it as well. To the side, Mabel and Ryland watched, visibly without much hope in their efforts.

Mabel put a finger up to her earpiece. "Evan, what do we do? The agent's walking away!"

"She doesn't wanna hear us out anymore," Ryland added. "She's gonna return to base with all the notes she has taken!"

"Oh, great…" Evan replied through their earpieces. "Yeah, from what I see, she has plenty of notes here on her tablet."

"Can't you wipe them clean or something?" Mabel asked.

"Well, I CAN, but considering the tablet's directly in her possession, it wouldn't be the smartest idea right now if I'm trying not to get caught."

"So what? We're hopeless then?" Ryland asked.

"Well, is there any way you can get that tablet away from her?"

Mabel glanced back in Fraid's direction, distantly watching her continue to make her way through the mall while typing on her tablet.

"Hmm…"

While she thought, Stan held out a measly few dollars and coins within the palm of his hand, counting them up as he and Ford regrouped with the couple.

"Alright, so pooling my money and Ford's together, it looks like we have six bucks and eighteen cents. Now, it's not much so I'm willing to throw in my fake gold chain, as long as we all collectively agree to say it's real gold. And if that still doesn't work, we'll just push her into the bottomless pit. Sound good?"

Looking off to the side, a plotting grin formed on Mabel's face. "Actually, Grunkle Stan, I have a better idea…"

"Thank God," Ford said.

"What's your plan?" Ryland asked her.

Mabel smirked at him. "Just watch Mabel do what she's able…"

Just off to the side at the nearby food court, a small crowd of people stood in line at a Jen & Berry's Ice Cream stand. Mabel ran up to the line, throwing herself in the middle of it to grab their attention.

"Guys, is it just me, or is that that one super famous celebrity?" she asked them while pointing directly at Agent Fraid in the distance. "You know? From that one super popular movie?"

Lazy Susan stood right next to her, letting out a gasp as she looked over at Fraid. "Why, I think it is!"

"Oh yeah! I recognize her!" said the guy who married a woodpecker right behind her. He turned to the woodpecker on his shoulder. "She was in that one movie! That really good one!"

"My son loved her in that movie!" a woman said behind him.

"My daughter wants to be just like her!" a man beside her said.

"My kids would love autographs!" another woman at the front of the line said.

The commotion started by Mabel's rumor spread quickly and started attracting the attention of other passing townsfolk not even standing in line. Eyes throughout the vicinity curiously glanced over at Agent Fraid as she continued to walk away. At that moment though, everyone felt they knew exactly who she was even though she definitely wasn't that. Notepads seemingly appeared out of thin air, as they were pulled out within everyone's hands and raised into the air with growing excitement.

Agent Fraid continued to casually move through the mall while typing on her tablet. Her attention was so focused on inputting information that she had zero awareness of the fact commotion regarding her apparent celebrity status had spread like wildfire, and that just about all surrounding eyes were now excitedly fixated on her.

An adult man jumped right in front of her path, holding a pen out directly in her face. The action caught Fraid by surprise, causing her to jump back as she held her tablet to her chest.

"What the hell?!" she questioned, startled.

"Can you sign my face?" the man asked, taking a few steps toward her while offering the pen.

"H-Hey! Back up!" Fraid warned, taking a few cautious steps backward.

Suddenly, a woman jumped in behind her, prepping her phone camera for a selfie. "Can I get a picture? It's for my cousin's sister's capybara! She loved you in that vampire movie!"

"Excuse me?!" Fraid questioned, immediately backing up in the opposite direction.

Behind her once again, an excitable younger woman appeared, startling her again. "I wanna be on Broadway! HOW DO I GET TO BE ON BROADWAY?!"

Fraid narrowed her eyes, physically pushing the girl away. "BACK OFF!"

Right behind her, Tad Strange joyfully stood by. "Hello, kind stranger. Lovely day, isn't it?"

"I said, BACK OFF!" Fraid shouted, suddenly pulling out a stun gun and lighting it up threateningly. "ALL OF YOU! I am an agent of the U.S. government! If even one of you touches me, I WILL have you sent to federal prison!"

The sparks of powerful electricity surging from her stun gun caused the growing crowd of townspeople to back up cautiously for a moment. But as eyes continued to look on at her, excited smiles began to reform.

"Hey, look! She's in character!" the woodpecker guy shouted. "From that one movie!"

"Whaaaat? Oh, I love that movie too!" Lazy Susan said exuberantly.

"Tase me like you tased that one person in the movie!" a woman pleaded.

"No, tase me instead!"

"I want to be tased!"

"Tase my grandma!"

As the various comments from the crowd begging to be tased continued, Fraid felt her higher ground start to slip away. She instead started to glance around at everyone with a growing sense of concern as she continued to nervously walk back.

"What is wrong with you people?!" she asked, still holding her stun gun outward. "Is there not one sane citizen residing in this town? Are your waters contaminated? Is there something in your air? What has happened to all of you?!"

In the split second she took to look around, a lady leaned in and swiped her tablet from under her arm.

"I got her tablet!" she announced, holding it up in the air victoriously.

BZZZ!

Without hesitating, Fraid pressed her stun gun to the woman's side for a quick second, causing her to immediately jolt in place before falling backward. The tablet flew out of her hands as a result, getting tossed through the air over the growing crowd of surrounding people.

"NO! MY DATA!" Fraid shouted, reaching a hand up desperately.

As the tablet came soaring back down, it eventually got caught in the hands of a lone individual close to the outside of the crowd. All eyes turned toward the person, who stood by for a moment cloaked in an oversized black trenchcoat, matching fedora, glasses, and a fake handlebar mustache. Unbeknownst to Fraid and the surrounding townsfolk, this person was Mabel in disguise.

"Hey, you!" Fraid shouted, eyes glaring right in Mabel's direction.

Without even looking back at Fraid, Mabel broke into a sprint away from her and the crowd. As such, Fraid climbed up onto a nearby jewelry kiosk, looking off where she ran.

"GET BACK HERE!" she screamed out.

Immediately after, she broke into a sprint far behind Mabel, but not anywhere far enough. As Mabel looked over her shoulder, she verified that Fraid was tailing her. Unluckily for her, Fraid was not a slow runner. Still, neither was she. But that didn't mean she had all the time in the world to run circles with her.

"Evan, I have the tablet!" she alerted as she continued running. "She's chasing me, but doesn't know it's me! What do you need me to do now?"

"Okay, just keep it out of her hands as long as you can!" Evan replied through her earpiece. "I'm remotely uploading a virus to her tablet that'll irreversibly corrupt her data. But if she gets it back, she can easily cancel the process!"

"Why can't I just break this thing in half or throw it under a speeding car instead? Won't that be easier?"

"Destroying the tablet won't reliably destroy the data. If we wanna be safe, you need to just let that upload finish!"

"Alright, fine! Upload shouldn't take too long anyway, right?"

Mabel held up the tablet in front of her, looking at the upload time as popped up on the screen.

(5 minutes remaining… )

Her eyes widened. "Five minutes?! Oh, come on!"

"What? You can't hold her off for that long?" Evan asked.

"Okay, I know you're not here right now and all, but for frame of reference: SHE'S CHASING ME WITH A TASER!"

"Oh, man!" Evan said anxiously. "W-Well, I-I can't help with that! Just do whatever you can, and try not to get caught!"

She looked back over her shoulder again to check on Fraid, who had only continued to slowly gain on her.

"Easier said than done, but… alright!"

"There you are!" another voice suddenly shouted out.

Mabel looked over her other shoulder, catching sight of a large male mall security officer, riding a segway in her direction.

"Mall security!" he announced as he tailed behind her. "You are to return the fake mustache you stole from the Fake Mustache Stand, or you will be turned in to the police!"

Mabel raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? People still use segways?!"

"OUT OF MY WAY, LOWLIFE!" Fraid viciously called out to the security officer.

She just managed to catch up to the officer's segway before jumping up and hijacking it from him, kicking him right off and sending him falling to the ground without any remorse. She then locked her focus back on Mabel as she gripped the segway's handles, putting full force on the acceleration.

Looking back over her shoulder, Mabel's eyes bulged as she caught this, realizing she was gaining on her even faster now.

"Oh, man…" she said to herself nervously. "And she thinks we're the crazy ones?"

"Mabel! You hear me?" Ryland's voice suddenly came in through her earpiece.

"Ryland! I could really use an assist about now!" Mabel pleaded.

"I think I see you. I'm going to head up the escalator you're about to run under. Pass the tablet up to me when you can!"

Mabel looked up ahead, catching sight of a mall escalator traveling to the floor directly above her as she ran. At the bottom of it, she spotted Ryland wearing his own black trench coat and fedora, identical to hers. She watched as he stepped onto it and began slowly ascending upward, with just enough time for her to reach him.

She smirked. "Roger that!"

Although Fraid continued to gain on her with the segway, Mabel was still fast enough to go a bit further. As she prepared to run beside the escalator, she held the tablet in hand readily as she looked up at him from his position midway between floors.

"Go long!" she called out to him before tossing the tablet straight upward like a sideways frisbee.

Ryland reached his hands out over the escalator's handrail, catching the tablet mid-air while continuing to ride upward. Fraid immediately caught the act, focusing her sight on Ryland now as Mabel continued to run off empty-handed.

"NO!" she screamed.

Rather than following up the escalator on the segway normally, she lept off of the segway, throwing her arms over the black handrail belt and riding it upward. She turned her head up toward Ryland, glaring at him with a twitching eye that he caught before quickly turning away to avoid recognition.

"God DAMN, Mabel, you were NOT kidding about her," he said fearfully.

"I know, right?" Mabel's voice came in through his earpiece. "I think Gravity Falls is starting to rub off on her!"

"Yeah, and she looks like she's gonna rub it back off on my face!"

He turned back again, watching as Fraid started to make her way further up the escalator to him by crawling on the handrail belt. He glanced down at the tablet to check how much time was left for Evan's upload.

(2 minutes remaining…)

"We only got two minutes left on this thing, but that's starting to feel like two minutes too long!"

He frantically began running up the rest of the remaining escalator steps, to which he began frantically looking around for his next move.

"Wait, Ryland! I just met back up with Grunkle Stan, and he says he has an idea!" Mabel informed. "He says to head back down here and make your way toward the east mall entrance!"

"Head back down?" Ryland questioned. "I literally just hit the second floor, and now you want me to go back down while she's on my tail?!"

"Let me talk to him…" Stan's voice distantly spoke over the earpiece. "KID, YOU CAN EITHER HEAD BACK DOWN, OR YOU CAN JUMP OUT THE WINDOW FROM THE SECOND FLOOR!"

Ryland sighed. "Hello, Mr. Pines…" he politely greeted with a touch of irritation. "Yes… I'll be right down."

"Good kid."

Ryland ran up to a glass guardrail on the second floor and looked back down at the first floor. Conveniently, right below him was a sort of trampoline playpen made for toddlers, but from his position, it looked very reachable.

"I GOT YOU NOW!" Fraid's voice roared from behind him.

Looking back, he saw that she had just reached the top of the escalator and began making a beeline straight for him as he stood by the glass guardrail.

Briefly startled by her speed, he didn't second-guess himself any further as he immediately climbed over the guardrail with the tablet in hand. He leaped downward, aiming his feet straight for one of the trampolines in the playpen below. Upon making contact with the trampoline, he bounced upward high into the air, doing a sloppy flip before landing on his feet again in a sort of fake grass that covered the rest of the pen. His landing stance wasn't perfect and looked fairly awkward while he also felt intense pressure in his knees, but it was good enough.

"Huh. I probably could've died there if I was even a few inches off."

Quickly glancing around, he caught a directory sign that pointed toward the mall's east entrance, to which he began making his run again.

As Fraid reached the guardrail back above, she gripped it frustratedly while looking down at him. "God DAMN the freaking people of this town..."

Equally without hesitation, she threw herself over the guardrail, falling downward for a moment before bouncing up on the same trampoline and sticking a smoother landing. Immediately following, she dashed right after him yet again, tracking him directly with her rageful eyes.

Of course, Ryland was not unaware of her presence, picking up his speed as much as he could upon realizing she was gaining on him faster than before.

"Mabel! I'm nearing the east entrance!" he frantically alerted. "What am I doing here?!"

"Stan says to just run outside!" Mabel's voice replied.

"And then what?!"

"I don't know! I'm just telling you what he told me!"

"WELL, ASK HIM WHAT'S NEXT!"

"Grunkle Stan, what's next?"

There was a brief silence from her end.

"He says, 'Kid, just do it and stop asking questions.' Sorry, Ryland, I tried."

Ryland sighed. "Well, let's just hope this works then!"

Focusing ahead, Ryland just continued to run straight for one of the sets of glass double doors leading outside of the mall. He couldn't see Mabel, Stan, or Ford anywhere in sight, nor was there any indication of any sort of possible plan set in place to help aid him against Fraid. Still, according to Stan, this was the plan, so he kept his current pace up.

Reaching the doors, he busted straight through them using his shoulder, sending them flying open as he ran outside. Running outside this particular entrance, however, he noticed it led not back into the parking lot, but almost immediately straight into the woods. As such, he parked his feet down almost immediately after running out, stopping himself right before the start of a wall of trees.

Hearing footsteps, he turned behind him, watching as Fraid ramped up her speed as she prepared to lunge right at him coming through the glass doors.

"WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I'M GOING TO STRANGLE- AAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Immediately, a rope was pulled up right beneath Fraid's foot as she stepped past the door, tripping her. She flipped on her back before tumbling further down past Ryland and into the woods, soon falling into an immediate ditch that sent her falling even further in, even rolling down an apparent slope. She screamed and winced in pain with every additional tumble until she rolled out of Ryland's sight.

He continued to stand in place with the tablet in hand right outside the woods, silently staring down in her last-seen direction with great unease.

Mabel, Stan, and Ford soon caught up to him from the inside of the mall, running right beside him and looking down into the forest.

"Where'd she go?" Ford asked.

Ryland silently pointed down below at the visible downward slopes within the forest.

Ford's eyes widened. "Oh, shit…"

"Oh my God, Grunkle Stan, was that your plan?" Mabel asked, looking up at him in slight shock.

"What? No!" Stan denied, shaking his head. "I spilled a mop bucket right back inside! The kid was supposed to run past it while she would slip and fall on her ass! But she ran right past it so that was a failure."

Ryland raised an eyebrow. "Wait, so you guys didn't trip her into falling into the woods?"

"Kid, we're a lot of things. Many of them- not so good. But we ain't sociopaths!" Stan said defensively.

"So… who tripped her then?" Ryland asked.

Stan shrugged. "Beats me."

Mabel glanced over Ryland's shoulder to look down at the tablet, reading off the upload status of the virus.

(Upload complete!)

She smiled. "On the bright side, it looks like the upload finished!" She pulled the earpiece out from her ear, holding the tiny speaker out in front of the four of them. "Evan, are we good?"

"Yes. Her data is completely corrupted and unusable," Evan confirmed, his voice audible enough for the four of them to hear. "I have no idea what on earth you guys did to her, but as long as she doesn't suspect it was you, we should be in the clear."

"Hey, hey! We didn't do anything!" Stan defended.

"Still, perhaps we should go down and check up on her. Make sure she's alright," Ford suggested.

"Aw, please! She'll be fine!" Stan brushed off.

Ford narrowed his eyes at him. "You know, Stanley, it wouldn't be a sign of weakness to shed a little bit of empathy now and then."

"Empathy? For her?" Stan questioned. "She wanted to kill Blondie over there over a tablet! And lest we forget, she literally threatened to come back and destroy our town on the basis that she thought a few of the townsfolk were weird. After all that we worked for today, are we really gonna act like she's the victim?"

"He's not totally wrong," Ryland admitted, despite still not feeling proud of the outcome.

"She'll… probably be fine! I mean, I've fallen through this woods plenty of times, and I've always been okay!" Mabel said reassuringly. "If anything, maybe we could just linger around the area to be sure!"

"I suppose," Ford agreed, looking back down into the woods. "Still, if it wasn't Stan's idea, then I wondered what tripped her back there on that rope."

---

Deep within the forest, Agent Fraid lay face-flat within a thin layer of muddy grass. With a pained groan, she pushed herself back up onto her knees, sitting up straight. Her clothes were covered in dirt streaks and mud, with the occasional rip amid its already disorderly state. She wiped her muddy face off on her shirt sleeve before taking a look around to analyze where she was.

Almost immediately, however, she realized she was surrounded by a bunch of small, bearded creatures with pointy red hats.

"Ah, don't worry, miss! The mud on your face really suits you!" said Jeff the Gnome, who stood in the center of them all.

"AAAAAH!" Fraid shrieked, falling back on her rear before backing up as much as she could away from him.

"Hey, hey! Relax, sweetheart! You're in good hands!" Jeff calmly reassured while slowly approaching her with the rest of his gnomes.

Fraid stared down at him in utter disbelief as she trembled fearfully. "W-What the...? W-W-What ARE you things?!"

"Jeff the Gnome, humble gnome ruler here," Jeff introduced. "These are my buddies. And we, err, heard a little rumor going 'round that you're some sorta celebrity. And, well… I've always wanted to marry a celebrity before! In fact, I always thought I'd make a pretty good celebrity myself. Heck, maybe once we tie the knot and all, you could give me connections! Maybe an agent and all that? Or at the very least, someone who could publish Shmebulock's crime novel series."

"Shmebulock!" Shmebulock said gleefully as he stepped out from the surrounding gnomes with a novel in his hands.

"And of course, I'd still make time to be a loving and supporting husband," Jeff continued. "We'd be like one of those beloved Hollywood power couples, ya know? Everyone wants to be like us, even though maybe in private, we have a lot of deep-rooted issues that need to be worked out. But heck, that could still make for a really good gnome reality TV series. I mean, it would be terrible, but the people would love the drama! So, what do you say? You trying to get hitched or what?"

BZZZZZZZ!

With zero hesitation, Fraid pulled out her stun gun and immediately put it to Jeff's neck, holding it there while it zapped him relentlessly.

"AAAaaAAAAaaaAAaAaaaAaaaAAAAAahHhHHH!" Jeff screamed painfully as his body flinched and jolted around.

After a moment, Fraid finally pulled her stun gun back, ending his brutal zapping. He dropped to his knees as a bit of smoke dissipated around his neck. There he sat, panting heavily for a good bit.

"I really need to get a new hobby…" he said.

Immediately after, his face planted into the dirt, and he passed out. The surrounding gnomes stared down at his unconscious body for a brief few seconds before all of their eyes looked back up at Fraid as she still held her stun gun in hand. Soon enough, they all turned back and immediately began scurrying off through the woods as far as they could, some while fearfully screaming for their lives.

Despite the fact the gnomes had retreated from her presence, Fraid was not much more at ease. She continued to pant as she backed away from the area cautiously. Her eyes wandered at her surroundings deep within the barely lit-up woods she stood within. The more she looked, the more things she began to notice lurking by.

An owl stood perched on a tree branch above. But not just any owl. This one had the head shape, snout, and udders of a cow, but still stared down at her with its big, yellow owl eyes.

In another nearby tree, she thought there were a bunch of birds nesting. But as her eyes focused, she realized they weren't even birds but rather looked like sentient beards, climbing up the trunk of the tree like small bear cubs.

Then, some audible quacks came from nearby. Turning to the side, she noticed the apparent silhouettes of a flock of innocent ducks walking into the area. However, looking more closely at them, she realized that the faces of these ducks were attached to their stomach regions rather than their heads.

She could feel her own stomach churning at the sights of these creatures, face continuously dropping more and more with horror.

"What the hell is this town?!" she said to herself while continuing to back up. "I've never seen anything like this before. When they sent me out here for anomalous investigation, I wasn't expecting anything on a scale of this magnitude!"

Her back soon ran into something, bringing her to an immediate stop. However, she heard a sort of deep, huffing noise follow right after. She flinched as a result, jumping forward as she turned around to face whatever it was while sparking her stun gun readily.

Almost instantly though, she stopped sparking the stun gun, instead letting go and dropping it to the ground as she stood in a state of shock. Her eyes slowly glanced upward until they reached the massive two-horned creature's eyes. It looked back down at her, towering with its incredibly muscular and hairy build while standing on two hooves.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" she screamed at the creature before running off aimlessly through the woods.

The manotaur simply stood in place, watching her run away amidst her freakout. As she got too far out of sight, he let out a deep sigh.

"I told Testosteraur that the goat spit deodorant he found was putrid. I try it for one day, and hardly a creature in these woods wants to be within a half-mile of me," Chutzpar said irritably. "Well, that's it. I'm switching back to ox feet."

---

Deep within the dark and misty metal tunnel, Dipper kept creeping his way through with his axe in hand. It had been a few minutes since he first entered the tunnel, yet he hadn't heard or seen any new signs of Pacifica or any other potential anomalies. There was worry built inside of him that continued to get worse each second he couldn't find her, but considering the structure's scale, he had no clue how much further he'd have to walk before finding her even became a possibility.

"How big is this place?" he said to himself, eyeballing the surrounding tunnel walls as his lantern lit them up. "What could the aliens have built all of this for?"

While inspecting the walls, a certain detail caught his eye. He reached back and pulled his lantern from his backpack, holding it up with one hand while he kept his axe in his other. He walked up to the wall, shining the light up to it closely where he began to see a bunch of familiar extraterrestrial glyphs scattered among it.

To the right of the glyphs, he began to see images that were slightly protruding from the metal itself. However, the designs in the image were somewhat difficult to make out due to what he could only deduce at that moment as an alien art style. If he had to guess, there was some type of squiggly creature in the center, standing on an apparent platform. Beside it was another image of the squiggly creature as it stood on the platform, but surrounding it was a bunch of new squiggly lines. Lastly, there was a third, final image that showcased the surrounding squiggles layered over the creature instead, while it held what looked like its arms up and out.

He stared at the images analytically, mentally trying to make any sort of sense of what they could mean if what he thought they looked like was accurate.

"What exactly does this mean?"

His thought process was cut off, however, as he suddenly heard an apparent nearby thud that shook him up inside. He quickly reattached his lantern so he could properly wield his axe with both hands again. He stood by defensively as he stared in the direction where he knew the noise came from.

"Pacifica? Is that you?" he called out into the dark.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Some slightly heavy footsteps slammed against the metal floor, trudging closely somewhere within the darkness. At the edge of his lantern's falloff light distance, he could finally see something emerge from the shadows. And as it slowly stepped further out into the light, he was able to get a good look at it.

Wrapped from head to toe in what looked to be old, worn, and dirty bandaging, a single humanoid-looking mummy limped toward him. It stood hunched over, meeting his height. Its crooked arms stuck out at him similar to a zombie. The ends of its hands and fingers weren't covered up by the bandages, and as such, Dipper got a peek of the rotten flesh that lay beneath its wrapping. One of its fingers looked purely skeletal even. Worst of all, its face wasn't fully covered either, which allowed him to see its jaw barely hanging onto the top of its mouth as it gave deep grunts and groans.

The atrocious sight was sickening to him, causing him to immediately jump back amidst his startle.

"AAAH!" he screamed.

As the mummy limped up to him, he held his axe back before swinging it like a bat, slicing right through its neck and cutting its head clean off.

The mummy's body twitched a bit as it stood before him, only to slowly fall backward, causing a big metal thud as it hit the ground. Though its legs twitched a few times, it lay motionless, seeming to imply that it had been slain.

Dipper stood over it, panting heavily as he tried to calm himself down from the encounter. But as he eyeballed the body and his uneventful surroundings, he started to take in the circumstances.

"Wait… that's it? That was all it took?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Soon, a smirk grew. "HAHA, yes! I did it! What was Ford talking about? That was a piece of cake! 'It's not an easy mission…' Yeah, right!"

Suddenly, he felt a tug on his right arm and a hand wrapped around his mouth as he was pulled to the ground behind some type of metal barricade that stood in the middle of the tunnel's path.

"Would you keep your stupid voice down?!" Pacifica whispered alarmingly before letting him go.

Despite his immediate distress at the action, Dipper softened up almost as quickly upon realizing it was her. And more importantly, that she looked to be completely okay.

"Pacifica, you're alive!" he said with a wide smile. At the same time, he showed no regard for her prior demand, speaking to her at the same excitable volume as he held before.

"No thanks to you!" she angrily whispered. "What's wrong with you? You're gonna get us killed!"

"Hey, relax! It's okay!" he said assuringly. "I took out the mummy! We're all good now!"

She raised an eyebrow, seemingly unconvinced. "What?"

"Here, look."

He stood back up above the barricade and walked around it. She soon poked her head out as well, looking over the barricade as he pointed down at the ground where the dead mummy lay beside its severed head.

"You see? Cut the guy's head clean off. No trouble at all," he said proudly. "And now that I found you, we can keep moving through this place. Maybe find a way to get back up to the antechamber so we can head toward the treasury again."

However, Pacifica kept staring at the mummy's severed head with a perplexed facial expression. But not just because of how grotesque it was.

"Dipper, wait… That's not the mummy."

"What are you talking about? That's clearly the mummy."

"No, it's not!" she said, shaking her head. "I saw it after it dragged me down here. It was bigger than this!"

At that moment, she heard a loud screech in her ear as a second humanoid mummy suddenly stood right over her shoulder. She let out a terrified scream as she turned toward it, watching as it raised its arm and swiped at her.

However, Dipper jumped right in, quickly running up to it with his axe and effortlessly slicing its arm clean off before it touched her. The mummy screeched again in apparent pain as its bandaged arm fell on top of Pacifica's feet, much to her immediate disgust. As she flinched back away from the arm, she looked back up at Dipper, watching him kick the mummy in the torso before swinging his axe again, slicing its head off as well. The mummy's body quickly dropped, causing another loud metal thud to echo through the tunnel.

Dipper stared at the mummy's body. Despite its lost head, he could tell it was a taller and bulkier mummy than the first one he encountered. Still, it didn't seem any stronger than that one.

"Huh. You were right. That one was a bit bigger," he said with a nod. "Well, he's dealt with now too. Guess there were two in this tomb."

"But that wasn't it either!" Pacifica said. "And it didn't look like these guys!"

Dipper raised an eyebrow. "Well, are you sure? I mean, it was pitch-black darkness down here before I came along..."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I know what I saw! You don't understand! I mean, you were going on about how this place was built by aliens! Well, look at these two freaks! Do they look alien to you?"

He looked back down at the mummy. While he already analyzed their appearances plenty upon first sight, the reminder that the tomb was extraterrestrial made him look over them again with a different mindset.

"Huh… you're right. These guys don't look alien," he realized. "If anything, they're… anatomically human. So then, where's the one you're talking about?"

Pacifica looked to the side nervously. "I don't know. He just-"

She was cut off by the sound of a loud, bellowing chirp, which caused the two of them to freeze. Dipper instantly recognized the noise from earlier when he was first entering the tunnel. Only that time, it sounded distant. This time, it sounded close.

Way too close.

No sound or thud of footsteps followed. Rather instead, a trail of deep, rapid rattles started to vibrate close by. The two turned in the sound's direction, eyes wide as can be while staring into the misty darkness.

Emerging from the shadows into the lantern's light radius was a much bigger creature than either of the two mummies. What looked to be four giant tentacles dragged among the floor, each of them covered with what looked to be the same bandages that covered the mummies. The tentacles connected to a thick body that narrowed as it went up. At the top of it was what looked to be something of a head, which was large, round, and covered entirely in bandaging.

Unlike the bandages on the humanoid mummies, the bandages on this being were not unorderly and did not appear to hang off loosely at any point among its body. They did not look nearly as dirty or worn either, but they did not look dry, as some clear-colored substance appeared to ooze and leak between the wrappings.

However, beneath the bandaging around its head, one could make out a bunch of different-sized red circles illuminating beneath, almost like glowing eyes. While there was no exact facial expression to make out of the being, it moved its head around, pointing it at the two of them almost like it was looking between them.

Pacifica fearfully gulped as she retreated beside Dipper. "That's him."

With wide eyes, he continued to hold his axe up defensively. "Yep… that's much more alien-like…"

With seemingly no warning, the alien mummy suddenly lifted one of its tentacles and forcefully extended it outward toward Dipper. With little time to react, he simply ducked his head down, dodging out of its way. Although the mummy missed, the tip of its tentacle managed to pierce right into the metal ground behind him, making a devastating noise that echoed through the tunnel upon its hard impact.

Dipper stared at the tentacle's impact in horror as he realized just what they were up against. His eyes glanced over at Pacifica, who he could see looking back at him with a similar look of horror at the same realization.

"Pacifica… RUN!"

Not needing further instruction, Pacifica immediately took off running down the opposite end of the tunnel. Dipper rose to his feet soon after and caught up behind, both of them panting heavily as they tried to move as far as they could away from the alien mummy.

As they ran, however, a thought came to Dipper's mind. As it sat with him for a moment, he began to narrow his eyes curiously. He looked over his shoulder, to which he soon came to a complete stop in his run.

"Wait… stop for a second," he said.

"Stop?!" Pacifica questioned as she just kept running. "Are you out of your…?"

Looking ahead, she realized she was being consumed by the darkness once again, to which she parked her feet down and stopped. Peeking back over her shoulder, she remembered Dipper had the light source on him. As such, she immediately retreated from the shadows and regrouped back at his side.

As she rejoined him, she looked back in the direction they ran from. At the edge of the light, the two of them could barely make out the alien mummy in the distance. But as they did, they noticed it wasn't pursuing them. Instead, it seemed to shuffle around back and forth aimlessly, almost like it was confused.

"We lost it already?" Pacifica asked, raising an eyebrow. "But I thought it saw us."

"It did," Dipper nodded.

"So why isn't it chasing us?"

"Pan-dimensional beings."

"Huh?"

"Ford told me about them. They coexist in seven-to-eleven different dimensions at once."

"And… what does that mean?"

Looking back in the distance, they watched as the alien mummy walked straight into one of the tunnel walls at that very moment, unintentionally smacking its head. It took a step back as it recoiled, but only proceeded to make the same step forward, smacking its head yet again.

"It means they have an awful sense of direction," Dipper said.

Pacifica's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Huh. No wonder they managed to crash here."

At that moment, another humanoid mummy screeched behind Pacifica, startling her enough to drop to the floor, raising her hands over her head fearfully.

"AAAAAH! DIPPER!"

"Pacifica!"

Immediately, he came to her aid again, swinging his axe back before slicing the mummy's head off and kicking his body back. He then kneeled and helped pull her back up to her feet, keeping her balanced as she stood on noticeably shaky knees.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"NO! I'M ABSOLUTELY NOT OKAY!" she hissed. "Why are there so many mummies down here?! You said it would be like one or two!"

"I know! That's what I thought! And that was another human-looking one. I don't get it. Why is there an alien mummy and a bunch of humanoid mummies sharing a tomb?"

Looking back up at the tunnel walls again, he spotted the same three-image sequence he momentarily caught before his first mummy encounter. He walked up to it again, studying it closely.

As he analyzed the squiggles around and on the apparent creature within the images, he slowly started to make a connection in his head. Looking at the second image specifically, with all the squiggles surrounding the creature on the platform, he suddenly glanced back down at the humanoid mummy's body on the ground. His eyes lit up with terror.

"Unless this isn't just a tomb… It's a mummification chamber."

"Wait, w-what do you mean?" Pacifica nervously asked.

"These guys!" Dipper said, gesturing down toward the dead mummy. "They don't just look human. They are human! Or they were… till they stumbled upon the alien."

Pacifica's eyes widened. "Stumbled upon?! You mean…?"

Dipper gave her a confirming nod. "Yeah… we're not the first ones down here after all…"

The alien mummy's bellowing chirp was heard again, to which it slithered into view once more as it towered above them. Only this time, it was joined by several other humanoid mummies that limped their way over toward the two.

Although Dipper knew he could easily handle most of the mummies with his axe, being backed up by the alien was no clearance for him to engage. He and Pacifica continued to back away from them again as they mentally started to reevaluate their options.

"Dipper, I wanna get out of here! Like… right now!" Pacifica anxiously pleaded.

"I don't know how to get back up to the antechamber!"

"Don't you carry around a grappling hook or something?!"

"That's Mabel's thing!" He thought for a quick second. "Though, admittedly, I should really learn how to use it too!"

"So what? We're dead then?!"

Pacifica's back soon collided with yet another grotesque humanoid mummy. She let out a shriek yet again, only for Dipper to rush in and quickly behead the mummy with his axe again. He narrowed his eyes with determination.

"No," he told her confidently. "We'll find another way. Come on!"

He grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her along with him as he ran toward the alien mummy instead. With his axe in his other hand, he effortlessly chopped X-patterns through every regular mummy in his way. As Pacifica ran with him, she did her best to jump and squirm around all the severed heads and body parts that flung to the sides as he chopped ahead of her.

As they reached the alien mummy again, Pacifica had no idea what Dipper's plan was. She figured he was making an attempt to engage it, but instead, he ended up running right past it, completely avoiding it. As she looked over her shoulder back at it, she saw it seemingly turn around in confusion. It proceeded to slither forward, only to bump straight into the tunnel wall again. Afterward, it corrected its direction and began to continue after them again, much to her dismay.

She looked back ahead. "Do you have any idea where we're going?"

"At this point, no!" Dipper admitted while letting go of her wrist. "But stick with me. No matter what happens, I'm gonna find us a way out of here!"

Almost immediately after saying this, the two were blocked off by a wall of additional mummies that limped toward them, forcing them to stop in place and back up again.

Pacifica gave him a look. "You sure about that?"

As they backed up again, Dipper considered running back in the opposite direction again. However, just as he started to walk that way, another wave of mummies came slowly pouring in from that side as well, completely surrounding the two of them.

"There's too many!" Pacifica shouted, latching herself to his arm fearfully. "What are we gonna do?!"

Dipper glanced back and forth between both sides of the tunnel hesitantly as the mummies slowly continued caving them in. "I-I don't know! This must have been what Ford was talking about when he told me this tomb was too dangerous. What was I thinking going against his word?"

Pacifica slowly turned her head back toward him, face dropping as she processed exactly what he had just said.

"Wait… you what?" she questioned, pulling away from his arm.

"I… might've talked with him about doing this mission, and he might've told me not to do it because it was too dangerous and I… wasn't ready," he said while avoiding her eye.

"So, let me get this straight- your super smart great-uncle specifically told you that you weren't ready for this whole mummy tomb quest, but you didn't listen, decided to go anyway, and then dragged ME along without even warning me? Are you kidding?!"

"Look, I didn't mean for it to get like this! I just wanted to prove to Ford that I'm capable!"

"Capable of what? Getting yourself killed?!"

A mummy suddenly wrapped its bandages around Dipper's leg, pulling him back and causing him to drop to the floor. He slid against the ground as the mummy continued pulling on him, only for him to quickly draw his axe and slice down on the extended bandages, freeing himself.

"Yeah, maybe I am capable of that!" he admitted.

"I can't believe this," Pacifica said, shaking her head angrily. "All the things I could've done today, and I chose dying in a mummy-infested tomb with an insufferable idiot!"

Despite knowing her anger was justified, Dipper still couldn't help but frown at the comment. "Well, that's totally not hurtful!"

He unexpectedly felt another mummy wrap its bandages around his arm. Before allowing himself to get dragged again, he fought against its grip, pulling his arm back from the mummy's surprisingly intense grip.

"Get off me!"

With his axe in his other hand, he tore through the bandage that held him before using both his hands again to chop the mummy's head off. Before he could take further action, another bandage suddenly wrapped around his neck, tightly tugging him back and forcing him to drop his axe onto the ground.

"DIPPER!" Pacifica worriedly called out.

Despite being strangled in that moment, he narrowed his eyes again with further resolve. "I got this…!"

He pulled on the bandage around his neck as hard as he could with both of his hands. He screamed violently as he did, feeling the pain in his clenched-up knuckles with all of his tension and strength put into the movement. With enough force, he managed to rip the bandages straight off. As he dropped to his feet, he immediately turned around and decked the mummy in the face with the full force of his fist, knocking it straight to the ground.

Despite his success, there was no drive to celebrate as his knuckle throbbed with pulsing pain.

"GAAH! Bare-knuckle punching!" he screamed while gripping his wrist.

"AAAAAAHHH!"

Turning back behind him, he watched as Pacifica had several bandages from different mummies wrapped around her arms, legs, and body as she was helplessly dragged backward.

Dipper kneeled and picked his axe back up, narrowing his eyes angrily as a newfound rage rushed through him.

"LET GO OF HER!"

With a charging scream, he rushed straight toward her, hacking down and across with his axe over and over, chopping off head after head and limb after limb. Every mummy in his path was easily mowed down, eventually killing each of the ones that held Pacifica down.

As she stopped getting dragged, she began pulling and kicking the loosened bandages off of her until she was freed. From there, she sat on the ground, looking up as she witnessed Dipper continue to make quick and easy work of every mummy with each skillful swing of his axe. Even when some mummies briefly caught him off guard, he pulled himself away and put his tactical skills to good use, punting mummies back with his bare hands or elbowing them in the face. Even tugging on their dangling bandages to bring them closer for a clean slice. Sometimes slicing multiple heads and limbs at once.

Her previous anger with him had far from faded, but despite that, she couldn't help but start to gaze up at him with her mouth hanging slightly open as he continued to fight through the mummy horde for her bravely. Each aggressive grunt and shout from him every time he hacked his axe down opened gates in her mind that she'd rather keep closed at that moment.

Eventually, the horde came to an end as Dipper struck his axe diagonally across the last mummy's whole torso, unevenly cutting it in half. He checked his surroundings thoroughly, glancing back and forth several times with his axe held readily. All while sweating buckets and panting exhaustedly.

"Any… Any more?" he called out into the darkness through his panting.

Following his call, the alien mummy soon slithered up to him out of the darkness once again, apparently seeming to stare right down at him with its red eyes glowing through its bandaged head.

Dipper just stared right up at it wearily. "Ahhh, shit."

The alien mummy speedily raised all of its tentacles before lunging each of them at various spots in the ground around him. He dodged inward, doing a roll just before one of them hit him. Instead, each of the tentacles pierced straight into the metal floor around him, creating several loud metal clanks and thuds.

Looking to his immediate right, one of the giant tentacles was still stuck in the ground. In response, he raised his axe and hacked straight down, chopping straight through it.

The action caused the mummy to recoil painfully, to which it let out a sudden loud, hollow clattering noise that shook their surroundings. Dipper's eye twitched at the violet sound thumping through his skull, causing him to press his hands against his ears in reaction.

As the creature's clattering settled down, it swung one of its three remaining tentacles before violently smacking Dipper back like he was hit by a speeding car. His face and body swiftly collided with the tunnel walls like a skipping stone, to which he bounced right off of it before flinging back down to the metal floor across from Pacifica. His axe flew right out of his grasp, clattering down a few feet beside him.

Pacifica gasped at his brutal impact, watching as he lay motionless while sprawled out on the floor on his side.

"DIPPER!" she cried out as she ran to his side. She put her hands on his arm, desperately shaking him back and forth. "Come on, get up! Get up!"

To her surprise and relief, he let out a weak groan. One of his shut eyes barely opened enough to be able to look up at her.

"Pacifica…" he weakly muttered. "Run…"

Before she could even respond, she found herself staggered upon his body suddenly being dragged along the floor. Looking at his legs, she noticed that the alien mummy had wrapped a set of bandages around his legs that extended from one of its tentacles. It then proceeded to start slithering back through the tunnel away from her, making a rattling noise as its tentacles continued to slide against the metal ground.

"No!" Pacifica shouted. "Give him back, you stupid, old, ten-eyed, wannabe-zombie freak!"

If the alien mummy could even hear or understand her, it still disregarded her, as it continued to just slither away with Dipper well within its bandaged hold. Soon, the bandages retracted him into the grasp of the tentacle itself, which then held him up in the air as it continued to move along. As he was carried, he still equipped his backpack on him, which still had his lantern attached. So as the creature went off with him, it took the only source of light along as well.

Pacifica wasn't going to give up yet though. She looked back behind her, glancing down at Dipper's axe as it still lay intact on the ground. Before it got coated in the returning darkness, she quickly bent down and picked it up. Narrowing her eyes, she glanced back down the other side of the tunnel as the light got further and began chasing after the mummy again.

"Hey, ugly!" she called out to it. "Did you hear me? I'm not done talking to you! Don't you dare turn your back on me! Not without dropping the nerd first!"

The mummy still made no visible effort to acknowledge her and simply carried on with Dipper in hand. Pacifica remained unappreciative of this and turned her fast walk into a sprint as she held the axe up readily.

With an intensifying growl, she ran up to the mummy's torso and struck at it with the axe. The strike sent a pained shudder up the mummy's body, to which it tensed up each of its tentacles as it let out another deep, hollow chattering sound that pained Pacifica's ears.

She tried not to let it get the best of her though and tried to keep the pressure up, pulling on the axe to retrieve it from the torso. However, despite how hard she pulled on it, the axe remained embedded within the mummy's flesh.

"Huh?" she questioned, looking up at it in confusion.

Before she could react further, the mummy swung Dipper around in the air before striking her with him like a baseball bat. The hit sent Dipper flying out of its grasp, allowing the two of them to slam into a curve in the tunnel wall together before sliding back down to the floor.

Pacifica lay on her side weakly, feeling an intense pain on the front of her body where the mummy had struck her with Dipper, and an equally bad pain on her back, where she had hit the metal wall and the floor. Looking to her side, she saw an already beaten Dipper somehow look even worse. He let out a quiet, frail groan as he lay on his stomach, his backpack facing the ceiling.

The mummy slowly reapproached them, clicking and chirping away as it did. Pacifica slowly pulled herself back up, looking straight at the alien mummy as it stood above them with Dipper's axe still stuck in its side. This didn't appear to faze it though, as it simply started to extend its tentacle bandages out toward the two of them again. She stared at them with increasing anxiety and a growing acceptance of the end.

However, her eyes then peeked over at Dipper's backpack, seeing the lantern still attached to it. Looking a bit closely at it, she noticed that there were some visible cracks in the lantern's glass from all of its many impacts from getting thrown around the tunnel while still being hooked to the bag. With this in mind, she looked up at the alien mummy's oozing bandages and smirked.

"Didn't like the axe, huh?" she asked. "Well, you need to lighten up!"

She dove her hand to the side, immediately swiping and unhooking Dipper's lantern from his backpack. Immediately after, she chucked the whole lantern as hard as she could at the mummy.

FWOOOSH!

The lantern smashed open upon impact, immediately setting fire to the mummy. The fire itself spread among the entire mummy in a near instant as it traveled quickly with the mummy's combustible ooze seeping out from underneath the mummy's bandages.

The combustion of the alien mummy caused it to start twitching and recoiling its tentacles tensely as it howled and chattered painfully.

The longer the fire sat, the more it continued to burn. As a result, the tunnel began to fill up with smoke as it rose to the ceiling. On the ceiling above sat an apparent fixture that the smoke touched as it rose upward.

The fixture then protruded slightly from above and shined a bright red light. Throughout the rest of the tunnel, the darkness was slowly broken as several more of these ceiling fixtures stuck out and lit up, filling the tunnel with an intense red hue, all while the mummy continued to slowly tread around on its tentacles as the fire killed it.

At the same time that the fixtures stuck, a loud alarm-type noise began to blare through the tunnel while the whole structure began to shake beneath their feet. As the tomb shook, parts of the metal ceiling began to cave in until panels broke off, leading to several rocks and dirt crumbling inward with the loss of support. One of the panels broke off above the mummy, causing a bunch of heavy rock to come pouring down on top of its head in its already weakened state, crushing it while the rest of its body continued to burn.

"What the hell is happening?" Pacifica questioned, standing fearfully as she covered her nose and mouth from the filling smoke.

A sudden metal noise echoed at that moment. She turned around, and her eyes lit up at the sight of a distant exit at the far end of a tunnel, suddenly made visible with the newfound entrance of daylight that barely reached them.

After going so long without seeing daylight, the sight of it again still filled her with disbelief. "Is that a…?'

She cut herself off upon hearing some coughing behind her. As she turned, she saw Dipper slowly rising from the ground on his hands and knees, coughing violently as the smoke surrounded him.

"What the…?" he weakly questioned before breaking into another coughing fit.

Pacifica ran to his side, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him back up. "Dipper, come on!" she urged before coughing herself.

Dipper put a hand on the side of his head as he stood up dizzily. "What did you do?" he asked, coughing again. "What… happen-"

"Who cares?" she cut off. "We need to leave! Come on! An exit just opened up this way!"

She let go of him, allowing him to stand on his own as she pointed off in the distant exit's direction down one side of the tunnel. Still disoriented from the whole experience, he stumbled forward a bit behind her as he looked toward the exit in confusion.

"Wait, how did that…?"

With the tunnel's continuous rumbling, more ceiling panels began to break loose as rocks and dirt continued to fall through around them. At that moment, a panel broke from its hinge right in front of where Pacifica was walking. Rock and rubble made their way down as they were about to fall right on top of her.

Dipper's eyes bulged in panic. "Pacifica, LOOK OUT!"

"What?" she asked, stopping in place before looking straight up above to see the rocks about to pour over her. "AAAAAHH!"

Just before the rocks touched her, Dipper jumped and shoved her ahead out of the way. As he took her former place, a bunch of small, but sizeable rocks came rushing down over his head instead, sending him violently collapsing down against the floor as his pine tree cap flew off of him to the side. Pacifica lay on her stomach for a moment only to quickly turn back toward him as he lay completely unconscious with all the rock and dirt covering him.

"DIPPER!"

She rushed over to him again, tugging on his arm to pull him out from beneath the rocks. Once he was free, she cradled his head on her lap, shaking him profusely to try and get some sort of response out of him.

"No, no, no! Why would you do that?!" she said while anxiously continuing to shake him. "We need to go! Dipper, please!"

Suddenly, a much larger chunk of rock collapsed from the ceiling right beside them, followed by a bunch of smaller chunks of stone. She let out a frightened scream before looking back up and around and realizing that the whole tunnel was dangerously close to collapsing over them. The mummies were out of commission, but they still weren't safe until they were out of there.

Dipper was knocked completely out though, and she had no time to try and resuscitate him in that moment nor rely on somehow waking him. For better or worse, it was up to her to get him out of there alive now.

Thus, against her will, she stood up to her feet and pulled his body along before throwing him over her shoulder. She expected him to be a very serious and tedious weight on her, but as she moved along, she found she was still very mobile.

She raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Wow… He's much lighter than I thought."

Without waiting around further, she began to push forward through the tunnel as fast as she could while holding onto him. One glance at him to check on his condition made her pause though.

Something wasn't right. Something didn't look right.

She took a look back behind her where they had just left and spotted it. His pine tree cap sitting on its lonesome on the floor, surrounded by chunks of falling rock and metal panels.

Of course, 'screw the hat', was the first thing she thought. He could always get another one back at the Shack. But then she remembered what he had told her earlier in the tomb before things went to hell.

That hat was his, then it was Wendy's, and now it was his again. A sort of representation of their friendship it was.

And still, she hated it. But the fact was, that particular hat had meaning to him. And even if it could be replaced, she knew that he was sentimental enough to feel the difference. Whether she liked what the hat meant to him or not, she still knew what she was going to have to do.

"Ugh…"

With a reluctant groan, she quickly speed-walked her way back toward the hat while holding him over her shoulder. The tunnel continued to collapse at an increasing rate to the point she knew well that going back for this stupid hat wasn't even worth it anymore. But still, she pushed on.

With a quick bend of her knees, she swiped it off the ground before making an immediate turn around back down the tunnel toward the exit. While holding the hat in her right hand and Dipper over her left shoulder, she made an effort to stick the hat back on his head. But the awkward angle of it combined with her anxious attempts to put it on him in their current situation made her unsuccessful.

And so even more reluctantly, she instead opted to hold onto it herself and stuck the cap over her head, much to her immediate annoyance.

As the tunnel continued to collapse around them, she simply continued to push as hard and as fast as she could toward to exit with only one thing in mind as she looked back over at him hanging over her shoulder.

"I swear if you die, I'm sooo going to kill you!"

---

A lone hand dug itself into the dirt, pulling on it as Agent Fraid crawled on her hands and knees up at the top of a steep forest slope. Pulling herself right at the top, she stood back up on her feet, grunting and groaning as she finally emerged from the forest, stepping out into the early evening daylight.

She held onto her knees and shut her eyes, panting as she stood tired, dirty, hurt, and unfathomably angry.

"Hello again, Ms. Fraid!"

Her eyes shot open at the sound of Ford Pines' familiar voice. She glanced around frantically, only to suddenly focus her eyes directly ahead.

Immediately, she realized that she had emerged out of the woods into a section of town, with pedestrians and other townsfolk walking and driving by on the open streets. Right across the street from her position was an open coffee shop. Right outside of it at a table, Ford, Stan, Mabel, and Ryland casually sat looking at her.

Ford's eyes widened at her disheveled appearance. "Yeesh. You don't look so well," he remarked before raising his cup. "Would you care to sit down and join us for a normal cup of Joe?"

"He means coffee," Stan said, raising his cup as well.

"I don't drink coffee," Ryland said with a light shrug as he sat empty-handed.

"Mine's a caramel macchiato," Mabel said, raising her noticeably differing coffee cup. "I added so much sugar that it barely tastes like coffee! It's also kind of late, so I guess I'm not sleeping tonight!"

Ford stood up from his seat at the table and pulled out the tablet from his coat, holding it out toward Fraid. "By the way, I think this belongs to you. Saw a bunch of people making a fuss over it at the mall. Figured you may have dropped it at some point or-"

He was cut off by Fraid simply swiping the tablet from his grasp after rushing across the street to him. With it in her possession again, she started to anxiously back away from him and the group while giving them all a stern, wide-eyed stare.

"Y-You… You!" she stuttered. "Stay away from me… Stay. Away."

Ryland raised an eyebrow. "What did we do?"

"I don't know," Stan shrugged. "I didn't even get decaf."

Ford held a hand out to her in concern. "Ms. Fraid, are you o-"

"Shut up, SHUT UP!" she barked. "Don't say anything! Just stay away from me! You people are INSANE!"

"We're insane?" Stan questioned.

"Agent Fraid, please calm down," Ford urged.

"No… No, I will NOT calm down!" she frantically refused. "YOU ALL set me up to this! You tried hiding them all from me because you're WITH them!"

Ford narrowed his eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about. Why don't you just sit down, and we can talk-"

"I'm DONE talking with you," she cut off while backing up in the middle of a crosswalk. "I'm telling you, STAY AWAY FROM ME! I know what I saw… I know what's going on around here. The others are going to hear about this. All of this! And we WILL come for you! You hear me?! All of you are FINISHED! FINISHED!"

"JAYWALKER!" two voices suddenly shouted at once.

Fraid raised an eyebrow as she turned to the side. "Wait, wha-"

Without further warning, Fraid was immediately tackled and pinned to the ground by Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland, who both held her arms crossed behind her back.

"AAAHH! WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT IS THIS?!" she screamed at them.

"You have the right to remain silent!" Blubs said as he whipped out a pair of handcuffs. "Anything you say can and will be used against you."

"Are you NUTS?!" she shouted as her wrists were cuffed. "I'M AN AGENT OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT! I'M LEAGUES ABOVE YOU! YOU CAN'T ARREST ME!"

"That counts as resisting!" Durland added. "Wooo-wee! You just bought yourself more jail time, missy!"

"WHAT?!"

"Sorry, ma'am. You'll have to tell it to the judge," Blubs said while pulling her back up to her feet and walking her toward their nearby police cruiser.

"You idiots are with them too… You have to be. Everyone in this town… They all know!" Fraid mumbled with growing paranoia. "THEY'RE ALL TOGETHER! THEY'RE ALL IN ON IT! THE GNOMES! THE BEARDS! THE GREMLINS! THE BODACIOUS T!"

"Did someone say my naaaaame?" Toby asked, suddenly popping out behind the police cruiser, still sporting his Bodacious T getup.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Fraid viciously screamed as Blubs and Durland stuffed her into the back of the cruiser, shutting the door afterward.

Toby frowned, staring at the ground sadly. "Yeah, I get that reaction a lot…"

"Whew!" Blubs sighed. "Telling you, Durly. It's always the jaywalkers."

"Red means stop. Green means go. I mean, how hard is that to understand?" Durland said.

"You said it," Blubs nodded. "Come on. Let's get her back to the sheriff's office."

The pair took opposite seats at the front of the cruiser, starting it up. Driving off, they immediately ran a red light before throwing their fists out the window and whooping loudly until they drove out of sight.

Back at the coffee shop, Stan, Ford, Mabel, and Ryland simply stared in confusion and slight disturbance.

"What in the hell just happened?" Stan asked.

"Grunkle Ford, should we be worried?" Mabel asked somewhat nervously.

"I don't know," he admitted, shaking his head while looking off distantly. "But I sure don't have a good feeling about all of this."

---

Somewhere in the middle of the forest, Dipper's head rested against an old, short fallen tree trunk that lay in some open grass, surrounded with small heads of mushrooms and other overgrowth. A mix of orange and pink light shined through the forest from behind as the sun set in the distance.

Dipper's eyes slowly and weakly began to reopen with an initial blurry, double-vision. As the images began to focus, he found his eyes opening up widely. Immediately, he spotted Pacifica to his right, sitting on top of the fallen trunk, typing away on her cell phone. Part of him felt relief, but a better part of him felt confusion.

"Pacifica?" he asked as he lifted his head up from the trunk.

She let out a startled gasp, holding her phone up to her chest with a flinch as she looked down at him. Comparatively, relief was the last thing she felt upon seeing him awaken, as her eyes narrowed.

"What… happened…?" he questioned, scratching his head curiously.

Slap!

His face was suddenly met with the swift impact of the palm of her hand.

"Ow!" he yelped. "What the hell…?!"

"What happened?!" she repeated as she shot up from the log angrily. "What happened was you nearly got us both killed at the bottom of some ancient tomb of a walking toilet paper alien!"

The reminder finally hit him while rubbing the side of his face. "Yeah, that sounds about right…"

"Oh, does it? What about the part where you got hit in the head and I had to go and save you all by myself?!"

His eyes widened in surprise. "Oh… wow…"

"By myself, Dipper!"

He rubbed his neck remorsefully. "Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry about tha-"

"You know, I could've left you back there!" she cut off while pacing around in the grass. "I didn't have to save you! I didn't have to come back! But I did!"

"...because you care about me?" he asked with a risky smirk.

Pacifica froze in place, eyes lighting up at him as her face flushed red. "NO! I don't care about you!" she asserted. "I came back because I had to! I mean, was I supposed to tell Mabel I left her brother behind to die in a mummy temple? Yeah, because it's my fault I got her idiot brother killed! Not because of his brilliant idea to go after something he was TOLD not to go after!"

"Look, I'm sorry! Okay?" he finally said as he shot up to his feet as well. "I admit it. It was a dumb idea. You were right. Everyone was right…"

His tone turned somber as he slumped himself back down on top of the log, sighing as he shut his eyes tightly. Pacifica kept her stern glare at him but continued to stand by while watching him sit in his own guilt.

"I overestimated myself by a long shot this time," he admitted. "Thinking I was smart and brave enough to do something Ford struggled to do before and risking my own life and yours in the process. That's not smart. That's not brave. It's dumb. I am an idiot, just like you said."

He slouched over as he rested his arms on the log, head hanging low as he stared at the grass defeatedly. Right above him, Pacifica continued to just stare at him.

As mad as she was and as justified as she knew she was to be so, she still couldn't bear to see him the way he did at that moment. Not after having witnessed him singlehandedly decimate an entire mummy horde on the same day. To her, seeing him depressively sulking just didn't suit him right now.

She sighed. "Look, I didn't actually mean that, okay? I just got so caught up in everything going on. I mean, I had to carry you out of a crumbling tomb after burning a giant freaky alien mummy."

"You don't have to cover yourself up again. Trust me, I know I messed up." He sighed again, turning away from her. "This whole thing was so stupid of me. I'm stupid..."

"Stop," she told him tenderly as she sat down on the log right beside him. "Look, yes, it was stupid. But you're not stupid. In fact, you're actually one of, if not the smartest guy I know. Sure, sometimes you can be really, really stubborn. And naive. And unbearably arrogant."

"Reeeeeally driving that nail in, aren't you?"

"After all that you put me through today, you deserve it," she said, shooting him a look. "Buuut, all of those things just show how determined you are to solve whatever problems come your way. It didn't totally work this time, but more often than not, it does."

She brushed some of the hair from her face back over her ear as she looked away from him a bit shyly.

"And honestly, I think you willing to sacrifice yourself for me back there was pretty brave of you," she softly continued. "Stupid, but brave. You were looking out for me, and I appreciate that." She quickly glanced at the side of his face, only to be struck with further guilt. "Sorry for slapping you, by the way..."

"It's fine. I mean, after everything I've done today, I probably should've seen it coming," he assured as he rubbed a hand over his face again. He then looked over at her and smiled warmly. "But... thanks, Pacifica. You know, even though you can be harsh sometimes, you're still a lot nicer than you make yourself out to be."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You're still stupid," she said, quickly folding her arms as she turned her body away from him.

Dipper's smile instantly faded. "You literally just said-"

"Alright, fine!" she cut off with an eye roll. "You're a really smart guy who has the tendency to be really stupid… a lot."

He chuckled acceptingly. "Fair enough. But, I have to ask- before you got captured, what was up earlier with you getting upset all of a sudden? I know you didn't really care about the whole adventure before but you seemed okay for most of it before that point. Were you really just that uninterested in the whole thing?"

Pacifica hesitated to answer as she thought back to what he was referring to. She could easily play it off as exactly what he said in that she just didn't care about being there at that point, and it had finally gotten to her. Or that she was upset thinking about still having to clean after Mason later. Any simple excuse of that kind to avoid the question and evade making him suspicious.

But a strong part of her didn't feel like just brushing it aside like that. Simply because she didn't brush it aside. How she felt in that earlier moment when he called Wendy the best mattered to her. Because if Wendy was the best, then who was she to him? Was it even close? She didn't need to know that, nor did she even really want to know. But she wanted to at least get it off her chest.

"No, it wasn't that," she said with a reluctant sigh. "It was just… the way you talked about how Wendy would've loved to have come along for this… and then me coming along instead just made me feel like… like I was being compared to her. Knowing how close you two are - switching your stupid hats and everything. Knowing you don't find me as great or as cool as she is. And knowing how if she were still here, you would've just taken her along instead of me, and I would've just stayed home, stuck cleaning up pony goop. I wouldn't have even crossed your mind today."

He raised an eyebrow. "But I thought you didn't even want to come with me in the first place. And that you didn't care about me or what I thought of you anyway?"

"Well, I lied! I do care!" She crossed her arms blushingly while avoiding his glance. "You really think the only reason I saved your stupid life was for Mabel?"

Dipper was admittedly surprised to hear this admission from her. He didn't know what to make of it or how to respond right away and just continued to stare at her as she looked off to the side, seemingly contemplating her emotions.

"I mean, yeah, I admit, maybe I'm still not the best at showing it, but I do care about you guys," she continued. "Mabel is annoying, but she means a lot to me. And you… you're annoying in your own way, but you also… mean a lot to me."

He was rubbing his neck awkwardly as she said that, stopping himself and giving a red-faced smirk as he looked at her. "Really?"

She simply glanced back at him, face also burning red at that moment. Neither of them really seemed to pay notice, as the sunset's light shining behind made it difficult to tell anyway.

"I mean…" he began, flusteredly clearing his throat. "Look, we've come a long way from the kids we used to be. In a lot of ways, we've grown up and learned a lot. But after today, maybe it's clear we both still have ways to go. And maybe there was a time when we weren't exactly friends, but I think we're well past that now. So, of course, you mean a lot to us too. And I'm sorry for making you feel bad. I didn't mean to make you jealous with how I talked about Wendy."

Her eyes widened. "Woah, woah, woah! I was NOT jealous! I just… don't like feeling compared to others! Especially not to a girl who wears flannel."

"Well, regardless, I didn't mean to make you feel that way. I mean, Wendy's great, but… that doesn't mean I don't think you're great in your own way."

She rolled her eyes. "Riiiight. 'Great', but still not cool for you, huh?"

"Well, you did save us both from a collapsing tomb," he said as he put a hand on her shoulder. "I think that's pretty cool."

Despite her continued resistance to his sentimentalism, she couldn't persist any longer once his hand touched her shoulder. She glanced down at it for a moment before looking him back in the eye and giving him an earnest smile, blushing the whole time she did. And as he looked back at her, his smile grew all the same.

The two of them locked eyes for a good while, neither of them making any effort to change the mood. At the same time, it felt like there was a subtle weight that just barely began to edge them toward one another as the moment sank in.

Beep-beep!

"Ms. Northwest!"

The two of them jolted as their moment was abruptly cut off. Both pairs of eyes glanced to the side, looking off to a nearby road where a limousine sat. The driver's window was rolled down as an elderly chauffeur sat eyeballing the two of them.

Upon catching sight of him, Dipper immediately pulled his hand back and awkwardly nudged an inch away from her on the log. Just as awkwardly, Pacifica pointed her knees away from him as she stroked her hair strands back over her ear again, clearing her throat as she did so.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I- uh- called for a ride home while you were still unconscious," she said while rubbing her arm.

"Right, right… that makes sense…" he said while scratching his neck.

She nodded before standing up from the log. "Yeah, so… I guess I'll see you around?"

"Sure." He stood up as well right after her. "But, uh, before you go…"

His lack of immediate response along with his apparently uncertain demeanor had her mentally questioning what he had left to say to her. Still, she looked up at him with all of her anticipation shining brightly through her awaiting eyes.

"...yeah?"

He pointed a finger right above her. "...can I have my hat back?"

She almost didn't understand the question for a moment. But as her eyes darted upward, she caught sight of the blue rim of his pine tree cap, which she soon realized still sat snugly around her head and over her bangs since putting it on back in the tomb. The realization coupled with the internal embarrassment of her former anticipation caused her to blush yet again as her eyes bulged.

"UGH! I'm still wearing this thing?! And you waited until now to tell me?!" she asked, immediately pulling the cap off and disgustedly tossing it back to him.

He caught the cap in his hands, to which he shot her a look for her reaction. "Well, my bad. Here I was thinking you were trying it for style."

"Oh, please. I was only holding onto it for you when I was trying to save your life. I just totally forgot I was even wearing it. Only a dork like you could find a hat like that stylish." She ran a hand through her hair, feeling around her scalp. "Now I have to go get my head checked for lice."

"Yeah, well, don't forget to check for pink eye while you're at it." The joke led to him receiving a quick, unappreciative blow to his shoulder. "Ow! Hey!"

"Thanks for reminding me. You owed me a punch for that earlier stunt."

"Wasn't it supposed to be the face?" he asked as he put his cap back on.

"It was. But I was feeling generous. Consider yourself lucky."

"Sure doesn't feel lucky."

"You'll get over it, bug boy," she said with a smirk before playfully flicking the bill of his cap up. "Don't get eaten by werewolves on your way home."

He scoffed at her parting comment but smiled as he watched her carefully walk across the grassy patch toward her waiting limo. As she reached the rear of it, she opened the backseat door. Glancing back over her shoulder at him, she waved him goodbye with a visible smile despite their distance. As such, he returned the wave and smiled back just before she shut her door. Her chauffeur rolled up his window before driving off down the road, leaving Dipper on his own once again.

He stood lingering around the area for a bit, letting the feeling of emptiness settle in with him as he stared down the road. The feeling wasn't foreign to him, but the last time he felt it so intensely was in almost the exact same circumstances - in the woods at sunset after having a one-on-one with a girl he admired, also following a traumatizing underground adventure.

There was an irony in comparing those circumstances. One of them once felt like the end of his world. But the other one was harder to describe. It felt less dramatic, yet somehow more intense. He didn't fully understand it but figured in time he might. And after a long and stressful day, perhaps that was the one thing to take solace in at that moment.

---

As the sun continued to set, Mabel, Ryland, Stan, and Ford eventually returned to the Mystery Shack. Upon arriving, they had spent time explaining their whole situation to Evan as he sat back at the gift shop counter with his computer.

"…and then Blubs and Durland arrested her and took her to sheriff's office," Mabel finished explaining.

"Well, she's an agent, so that's not gonna last long. She'll be bailed sooner than expected," Evan said. "Luckily though, I've ensured that all of her data today was corrupted and wiped clean from her tablet. When she inevitably returns to base, she'll be coming back with nothing. And that'll be a bad look."

"And they won't send anybody else after this?" Ryland asked.

"I'm gonna be honest… I don't know," Evan admitted, looking down somewhat nervously. "Her frantic behavior as you described going back is likely to raise questions I imagine."

"I just think we all could've done a better job handling that whole situation," Ford said, shaking his head as he mentally recounted the entire day's events.

"Is it too late to bring back the memory gun?" Stan asked.

"Yeah, I mean, surely we can make use of it one more time if it means defending the whole town and all of its weirdness," Mabel suggested with a hopeful smile. "That's not morally conflicting, is it?"

"Don't know if it even matters anymore at this point. Fraid must be on her way back to base by now," Ford said.

Stan looked over at him, noticing the concentrated look on his face as he stared downward. He knew he was clearly thinking of something at that moment.

"So what comes next, bro?" Stan asked.

Ford glanced back between him and the others. "We prepare."

"For what, exactly?" Ryland asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I can't say I know for certain yet," Ford admitted. "But if past experience is anything to go by, I wouldn't expect this to be the last we'll ever have to deal with those agents. Gravity Falls is on their radar, and as long as weird sightings continue to get reported, it'll stay on that radar. Now we just need to be sure we know how to respond to any measures of force they decide to throw our way."

"Wait, Grunkle Ford, isn't McGucket working with the government?" Mabel asked as the memory sprung to mind. "Maybe he can help us get them off our backs."

Ford stroked his chin at the idea. "Well, F is something more of a respected contractor helping out with prototype designs and other inventions, but… it would be worth a phone call."

"How about a visit instead? You don't exactly discuss your plans for an anti-government rebellion over the phone," Stan said. "Trust me, I know from experience."

"Of course you do," Ford said, unsurprised. "But you're right. I'll reach out to him in due time. And Evan, since it seems to be your forte, we'd greatly appreciate you keeping us in the loop for any future signs of government activity relating to Gravity Falls."

"Of course, Mr. Pines," Evan nodded. "If anything comes up, I'll let you know."

"You came through today, little bro," Ryland said with a smirk as he ruffled the top of Evan's hair. "We owe you one for this."

Evan pushed his hand away somewhat irritatedly as he paid him a look. "How about you actually bring me home with you so I don't have to take the bus this time?"

Ryland sighed. "Fine. But you better not get nervous riding on my bike like you always do."

Evan's eyes then lit up excitedly. "Oooh! Can we go get me a tuna sub too?"

"Don't push your luck."

Evan frowned. "Uhhh… hello? Little brother saving the town from the government here!"

Ryland paid him no further mind as he stood up from the counter, prepping to leave for the night. Before doing so, he made sure to walk over to Mabel, putting his hand over hers on the counter and giving her a quick, but tender kiss on the cheek, much to her delight.

"I'll see you, Mabel," he said with a smile before pulling away and exiting the Shack with Evan.

"Okay, see you around, baaaaaabe," she said to him playfully as she kicked her feet around in her seat giddily. "Eeeee! We are, like, soooo official now, guys!"

She seemed to not be fully aware of the fact that her only audience left at that point was just Stan and Ford, each of whom glanced at one another weirdly following her reaction.

Stan let out an unamused sigh. "Teenagers…"

A few seconds later, the three of them heard the sound of the back door opening in the other room, which grabbed their attention.

Entering through the door was Dipper, who exhaustedly rested his back against the door as he shut it. He stayed leaning there for a good moment as he took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled, still coming to terms with all that he had endured that day.

"There you are, Dipper!"

His eyes shot up anxiously, watching as Ford approached him from the living room alongside Mabel and Stan.

"Oh, uh, hey guys…" he nervously greeted.

"I was wondering where you-" Ford began, only to cut himself off as he scanned his brutalized appearance. "Good God, boy! What happened to you?!"

Dipper stared up at him for a moment. "Well, I… uhhh…"

As Mabel looked at him, she recalled their earlier conversation and started to connect the dots in her head. "Wait a minute, you didn't actually…?"

Her response was telling to Ford, who suddenly began to connect those same dots as he looked back at Dipper with growing dread.

"No…" he began. "Dipper, please don't tell me you went and took on that alien tomb."

Dipper knew there was no point in lying to him in his current situation. Between their fight last night and his talk with Mabel that morning, he knew things at that moment looked exactly the way they did, and there was no use running from it.

"I… I did," he admitted while lowering his head guiltily.

Ford and Mabel's faces read immediate shock, but Stan's read amusement.

"Ha! Told ya he would!" he cackled as he turned to Ford. "I bet twenty bucks on that! Pay up, Stanford!"

Ford disregarded his brother's comments and maintained his focus on Dipper, taking a stern step forward as he narrowed his eyes. "So you deliberately went behind my back and took that mission even after I specifically told you that it was too dangerous? Are you mad, boy?! You could've gotten yourself killed down there!"

"I know!" Dipper said, raising his hands defensively. "Believe me, I know. It was very dangerous, and it was very stupid of me to go in anyway, even after everything you said." He sighed. "You were right, Great Uncle Ford. I guess despite all we've done… and all I've done… there are still adventures I'm not cut out for."

Ford just stared at him disappointedly. "Well, you're right there. You're not cut out for that adventure..."

Dipper frowned at his words, even if he knew he was right. Still, he gripped his arm with growing sadness as he hung his head low.

"...Not yet, that is."

His eyes lit up slightly as he looked back up at Ford, whose face suddenly didn't look quite as upset.

"Huh?" he questioned.

"Dipper, in all the time I've known you, I can't count the number of times your skills have impressed me. And at such a young age too. But that's the thing- you're still so young and still have so much to learn. I know you're eager and want to do everything you can as soon as possible. And even past achievements might make certain challenges seem miniscule in comparison. But believe me when I say, it doesn't always get easier. Threats like Bill or even nearly getting sent into space were challenging, but I won't pretend they were the only cases when I thought my life was on the line. The universe we live in is dangerous, and it can get even worse in the space beyond. But just give yourself the time to grow; to learn; to adapt… and trust me, you'll be more ready than I ever was when going into the unknown. And that's what I want for you, son. Not this."

He gestured back to Dipper's roughened appearance, which he glanced down at acknowledgingly.

"You understand?" he finished.

Dipper nodded. "Yeah… I understand, Great Uncle Ford. I'm… sooo sorry. For not listening to you. For nearly getting myself killed. For… everything."

Ford's eyes started to soften as he continued looking at him. "Well… let's just be glad you're still here with us, my boy. Things could always be worse."

"Yeah, like turning into a mummy," Dipper scoffed with a slight smirk. "Well, I think I'm going to go upstairs now, clean up, and then… rethink all of my life's decisions."

As announced, he slipped past them and began going up the staircase toward his and Mabel's room. Back below, Ford, Stan, and Mabel just looked up at him until he was out of sight.

Ford let out a disgruntled sigh. "Teenagers…"

"Now you're getting it," Stan said with a smirk. "But seriously, that's it? No punishment? No nothin'? You're letting him go just like that?"

"What's the need? He didn't listen to me and faced the consequences on his own. He got his punishment, and he's clearly remorseful."

"Yeah, but c'mon, Ford! We're the adults here. We gotta abuse our power every now and then to show these kids who's boss when they mess up!"

"Oh, pleeease," Mabel jumped in. "If you have so much adult power, why don't you take over the living room TV from Abuelita?"

Stan glanced around awkwardly. "Erm… well, you see, even adult power has its limits, sweetie."

"Mhmmmm."

"Never mind that," he brushed aside. "Say, why don't you teach your Grunkle Stan more about those torrents you mentioned?"

The two of them walked aside back into the living room to continue their conversation. While Ford held an amused smile listening to their talk, it disappeared soon after as he went back to staring up at the staircase.

He knew Dipper was a bright kid with a lot of passion and ambition for the weirdness. But his insistence on rebelling against his word today and paying the price afterward left an uneasy feeling within him. Sure, he may have returned home alive today, seemingly without need of a hospital visit. But he knew somewhere out in the multiverse, there may exist a version of their world where perhaps he met his end down in that tomb. Thankful he was for not belonging to that universe, but he somehow found himself able to somewhat empathize with the alternate version of himself who did.

Ultimately, he just hoped that the real pain itself wouldn't ever come to him and that today's rebellion was just a bad moment rather than a sign of what was to come.

---

Upstairs, Dipper opened the door to his room, immediately shutting it behind him. He took off his backpack and carelessly tossed it to the side as he just walked over to his bed and threw himself on top of it, face-down. He lay there tiredly for a good moment, feeling every bruise and aching muscle hit and throb all at once.

As the pain settled down, he shifted onto his backside, staring up at the ceiling for a few seconds before shutting his eyes.

He planned on drifting off right then and there, feeling too exhausted to even move. But something caught his attention. A certain scent lingered as he relaxed, and every casual inhale through his nose brought it right to him.

It was a very familiar scent, to the point where it became distracting. Yet somehow, it was just light enough for him not to be able to pick up on its notes.

His eyes opened up as he sat up and took quicker sniffs around him. He glanced around, trying to deduce where it came from. The room certainly never smelled like that earlier that day nor ever beforehand.

That was when he looked straight up at the brim of his cap. He pulled it off and put his nose up to the inside of it.

Sure enough, there it was.

He couldn't help but smile a bit to himself upon realizing the scent's profile. Additionally, whatever feelings of emptiness he felt beforehand had suddenly vanished. As such, he put his cap right back on his head and wore it even more proudly than he did before as he rested his head back down and shut his eyes once again. The entire time he spent drifting off, all he could think about were those two distinct scent notes.

Champagne and flowers.

---

At the sheriff's office, Agent Fraid sat locked behind a holding cell. With her government-issued tablet confiscated, she was left with nothing to do but sit silently with a cold, vexed stare while facing the cell bars.

Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland soon entered the hallway outside the cell. Blubs approached the cell door with a jingling chain of keys in hand.

"Alright, lady. You're good to go," he said as he unlocked the holding cell, sliding it right open.

She looked up at him in slight confusion. "Huh?"

"You're free to run. Your bail's just been paid."

"By who?"

"Some nice gentleman parked out front," Durland said.

She stood up from her steel bench, paying the two questionable looks as she slowly stepped out of the cell. With one final glance between them, she turned back down the hall and made her way out. Blubs and Durland made no further comments nor advances toward her, simply watching carefully as she walked through the door leaving the office.

Stepping back outside, she made her way down a small flight of stone stairs to reach the sidewalk. Looking up, she realized there was a black government vehicle with her agency's symbol on the side. Standing right outside of it was a man wearing a suit and shades who stood upright, looking right at her.

"Agent Fraid," he acknowledged. "The director wishes to speak with you."

He leaned over and opened the backseat door of the vehicle. She stood somewhat surprised for a moment, but complied with the official, walking up to the vehicle and stepping into the backseat as signaled. The official shut the door right after her and made his way back to the driver's seat, starting the car up and driving down the road.

As Fraid looked ahead at the seat behind her, a screen lit up on the back of the headrest. The agency logo flashed momentarily before transitioning to a screen of a man's silhouette.

"Agent Fraid," a deep, male voice suddenly emerged from the monitor.

"Sir," Fraid replied, straightening up in her seat upon realizing who she was speaking with.

"You're certainly looking well."

Fraid glanced down at her disheveled and dirtied appearance for a brief moment. "It's been a long day."

"Apparently so. We didn't expect to be bailing you from the local sheriff today."

"But sir, how did you know-"

"There were concerns when we stopped receiving your updates," the director cut off. "Especially when you didn't answer our contact attempts past the twentieth hour when you were expected. No matter though. What's important is that you're alive. And so… how was the investigation?"

"This case is bigger than I could've possibly imagined," she said, staring off to the side with anxious eyes. "I've read through every detailed section of this case, including all of the remaining remnants of the 2012 incident. None of those files could've prepared me for the things I've seen today."

"Did you record any evidence?"

"Yes, sir. Although, there was a clear attempt from the locals to try and compromise my recorded research through my tablet."

Fraid then used her fingers to pull off her tiny American flag pin from her suit jacket, holding it out in front of the screen.

"Luckily, my pin cam is still intact, as are all the pictures and footage I shot today," she said before smirking. "We have more than enough evidence to push further with the case."

"Good to hear," said the director. "And what about the Pines family? Are they still a threat?"

"I'd say they're the biggest threat to our whole investigation."

"How unfortunate for them."

"Should we prepare a team to initiate a strike within the hour?"

Her suggestion was met with silence, to which she simply looked on at the monitor with growing uncertainty.

"Not yet," the director eventually replied. "We're going to have your pin cam captures studied and analyzed for further information. In the meantime, we're going to keep close eyes on the Pines and monitor any possible signs for further activity. See if we pick up further spikes in radiation around the Mystery Shack and any resulting power surges."

Fraid nodded. "Understood, sir."

"While we track the Pines over satellite, you and your partners will be assigned to scout around town, gathering more ground intel related to the Pines and their involvement in the town's anomalies."

Fraid raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Sir? Partners?"

"Yes. I've reassigned Agent Powers and Agent Trigger to your section within the next phase of this investigation."

At that moment, the director's image on the screen minimized in size as two new images popped into the ongoing call beside his. In the top image was Agent Powers, whereas Agent Trigger was in the bottom image. Both of them stood within their camera frames looking ahead at the screen.

"Agent Fraid," Powers greeted.

"Ma'am," Trigger nodded.

Fraid sat dumbstruck for a moment as she stared ahead at the screen. Though she knew colleagues in her field, she had worked alone for the greater part of her career. It was a preference of hers that would not have been granted if it wasn't for her track record of competence and proven results. To be told she had been assigned partners, especially agents such as Powers and Trigger, was an unwelcome surprise.

"But sir, respectfully, I don't need partners to assist me in my investigation," she replied.

"And respectfully to you, I believe otherwise," the director insisted. "Especially since our server picked up an attempted breach that got picked up through a remote hacking from a local on your tablet."

Fraid's eyes widened at this revelation. Having her tablet physically swiped from her was one thing, but a remote hacking was another which she did not know of.

"But I-I… I didn't-"

"You didn't know. Clearly," the director cut off. "And were it anyone else, I'd count this as a serious infraction that would strip you of your position. Luckily, you've proven yourself to be one of our most capable operatives. However, I cannot trust you to carry on with the rest of this operation on your own any further. Powers and Trigger have an established record in Gravity Falls from four years ago, and they've been insistent over the last few years to return to this case. So I'm giving them their big break while also getting you some much-needed assistance."

"But, sir-"

"My mind is made, Agent Fraid. You're a lone wolf no more. You can either accept your new partners, or you can withdraw from the whole operation. What is it gonna be?"

It took everything in her power at that moment to resist her urge to punch her screen out. Her fists tensed up at her sides, which luckily wasn't within camera view. Still, she kept her facial expression reserved, though her eyelids dropped slightly with her growing annoyance. She knew that the director himself probably even recognized how irritating the decision was to her. Not that he really cared anyway.

Having to work with partners, especially Powers and Trigger, sounded dreadful to her. But her desire to withdraw from the whole operation was even less than her desire to work in a team.

She sighed as she looked back up at the screen confidently. "We will do our best here, sir."

If she could somehow see her director's face, she imagined he was growing an unpleasant smile right about now.

"Glad to hear it," he said. "We'll see you back at base, Agent."

The director's silhouette profile image soon disappeared with a disconnect chime, leaving her alone in the call with Powers and Trigger. Both of them just continued to sit by with stern faces in their individual calls as they looked on ahead. Powers momentarily glanced to the side before looking back up at Fraid's image in the call.

"I was a lone wolf once too," he told her. "Trust me, you'll get used to it."

Trigger raised an eyebrow. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

Powers kept his stern face up as he soon disconnected from the call without elaborating further. Trigger continued to sit in the call for a moment as he frowned, seemingly offended by his words. A few seconds later, he disconnected as well, ending the call.

As the call came to an end, Fraid's headrest screen turned off. She sighed as her tense body was finally allowed to relax in her seat.

Looking out the window to her right, she watched as they just passed the lot where the Mystery Shack resided. Though nothing was going on with it at that moment, her eyes stayed on the house until they had driven too far out of sight.

She then faced the back of her headrest again, and for the rest of the ride back to base, she would simply stare at her reflection in the blank screen with her eyes narrowed grudgingly. The only thing on her mind was the Pines and how much trouble she was prepared to bring their way once the opportunity arose.

Whenever that was, it couldn't come soon enough.

---

YV ZUIZRW LU GSV KLDVI GIRTTVI

---

Hi. It's been a while, huh? Hope you all have been well. I'm finally back, and I'm really excited to write again and get this season really rolling. If you're a returning reader, thank you for your patience and sticking with this story.

I don't want to inflate the word count with a long note explaining my absence and such since it's really not that important, so I'm going to leave it there. If you have questions, comments, or anything, feel free to review or send a PM and I'll be sure to respond.

-Absolute Rift