Gideon

"ITSHEREITSHEREITSHERE!" Pacifica led me down the hallway, while rubbing my eyes. We had gotten home late the other night after the limo got us back to the Shack after California. Pacifica had seemed pretty jittery, probably because she was tired of had too much coffee, but I guess she's back to her old self now.
"If it's worth waking up at 7 AM for, that will be amazing." I sighed.
"Okay, so I was just opening and closing random doors," she said.
"You become more like your weird boyfriend everyday."
"Yeah, I know, and I found-" Pacifica reached her gloved hand to the doorknob.
"Pacifica, did you sleep in that glove?" I asked.
"Huh?" She looked down at the glove. "Oh, no! I just really like this glove!"
"It's supposed to be 80 degrees today, take it off."
"We're getting off-topic! Anyways, feast your eyes on this!" Pacifica opened the door to a closet filled with boxes of fireworks...most of which were banned in Oregon.
"Wow."
"We're both thinking it-"
"CRAZY ROOFTOP FIREWORKS PARTY!" We both exclaimed.
"There's no way you're setting off those illegal fireworks," we heard Grunkle Stan behind us, and we turned around to see him looking stern, but then he smiled, "Without me."

Pacifica

Later, we were all sitting on the roof, launching illegal fireworks.
"I AM THE GODDESS OF DESTRUCTION!" I screamed, as I lit one on fire and launched it into the sky.
"Do you have a permit for those?" We heard a voice from the ground. I looked down to see Mabel standing there with her arms crossed.
"Do you have a permit for being lame?" I called out, and me and Gideon laughed.
"Whatever." Mabel sighed. "I was looking for Candy. Not like she would be at this pigsty, though. She went missing at your little party."
"Candy?" Gideon asked. "Which one of your friends is that?"
"Ugh! She's the one with black hair and glasses?"
I bit my lip. "No, I think she went home sick."
"All the way from California? Yeah right." Mabel laughed.
"Look, just get off our property. Last time you were here you tried to murder me!" Grunkle Stan got up, and grabbed a match and a firework, and held it threateningly.
"Oh, wow, so scared." Mabel rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'll find out where she went myself. Goodbye."
She turned around to walk away, but then stopped. "Oh? And Pacifica, if I find out you had anything to do with it, you will be dead this time."
It isn't likely she'll find the body, I thought, I dismembered the corpse and buried everything except Candy's head. I shipped the head in a package to her for fun from a P.O. box. Still surprised it hasn't arrived yet.
"We probably should clean this up." Gideon said, a looking around. Stray pieces of the firework packaging lay strewn on the ground, and some of the grass and trees were on fire.
"With water balloons?" I suggested.
"I don't see why not." Grunkle Stan said.

We put away the rest of the fireworks and went downstairs. While Gideon and Grunkle Stan filled up the water balloons, I checked on where the package was. I had put a tracker in the package so I would know exactly where it was. Using the UPS service was too risky.
So far, the package with Candy's head in it was at the Gravity Falls Post Office, awaiting arrival. Perfect.
I didn't even really know why I was sending Candy's head to Mabel. She did deserve it, though. Even if she won't have any solid evidence it was me, she will know it was probably me. And that'll be enough for her to know not to mess with me. Besides, I don't think she cared about Candy that much to make her want to get revenge on me.
"Done!" Gideon called from outside. I quickly shut my laptop and ran out to see a cooler full of water balloons. Gideon threw one at me.
"Hey!" I quickly grabbed one and threw it back at him.
We played with the water balloons for the rest of the morning.
"This is what Saturday's are for, doing dumb things." Grunkle Stan leaned back in the porch chair with a Pitt Cola.
"DUMB THINGS FOREVER!" Me and Gideon cheered, as we jumped onto a large pile of water balloons, soaking us and splashing Grunkle Stan.
"To Grunkle Stan, who's not just a great uncle,"
"The greatest uncle!" Gideon threw a water balloon at him, and we laughed.
"Alright, alright, I tell you it's unnatural for cousins to get along that well." He said.
"We still have plenty of summer left to drive each other crazy!" I pelted more water balloons at Gideon. He tried throwing one, but it landing on the ground without popping.
"Right, plenty of summer left." He sighed. "Kid, um, there's something I gotta tell you. It's...umm, well...it's complicated...I.."
Me and Gideon looked up at Grunkle Stan.
"I'm going to refresh my soda." He said, picking up the empty Pitt Cola can and walking to the side of the house.
"What do you think that was about?" I asked Gideon.
"I'm not sure. Are we out of water balloons?"
"Looks like it."
Suddenly, we heard something snap in the bushes.
"What was that?" I whispered to Gideon. "I hope Mabel isn't back."
"Maybe Grunkle Stan is trying to scare us?" Gideon suggested.
At that moment, several people who looked like government agents ran out and surrounded us. Helicopters flew over. Oh no, did they find out I murdered Candy?
"What the-"
"Kids are secure! Roof team, go!" An agent ordered into a walkie talkie.
We saw more agent breaking into the house, and as it was happening, Grunkle Stan was led out by two agents and handcuffed against the hood of a police car.
"I don't understand! What did I do that warrants this much arresting?" Grunkle Stan asked.
Agent Trigger and Agent Powers came out of a car and walked over.
"The government guys!" Gideon gasped. "I thought you were eaten by zombies."
"We survived, just barely." Agent Trigger said.
"I used Trigger as a human shield. He cried like a baby." Agent Powers added.
"Not in front of the special ops guys!" Agent Trigger protested.
Agent Powers walked over to Grunkle Stan and took out a tablet. "This is security footage of a government waste facility. At o'fourhundred hours last night someone robbed three hundred gallons of toxic waste."
"What? You think that's me?" Grunkle Stan demanded.
"Don't play dumb with us, Southeast." Agent Powers said.
"But I am actually dumb! Last night I was restocking the gift shop, I swear!" He cried, as he was led away.
"No!" I said. "You've got the wrong guy!  Our Grunkle Stan may shoplift the occasional tangerine, but he's not some evil super villain!"
"Listen, we've been watching your family all summer and we've seen some disturbing things. But nothing as dangerous as what your uncle is hiding. Somewhere hidden in this shack is a doomsday device!" Agent Powers said. "Trigger, take the kids. I'll take the old man."
We were led away, and into a government car. I tried wrestling away, but they shoved me and Gideon into the car and shut the door. I pounded on the window.
"Hey! Let us out! Our Grunkle is innocent!" I called.
"I would suggest you stop, unless you want to also be taken to Juvenile Detention instead of Child Services." Agent Trigger said, as he got inside and started the car.
"Why would you take us there?" I asked, and stopped pounding on the window.
"Not both of you, only you, Pacifica. Unless you would to be charged for the murder of Candy Chu, you'll come with us and behave."
I sat down in my seat, sighing.
"Pacifica, what is he talking about?" Gideon asked quietly, as Agent Trigger turned on a TV screen and turned it to a kids channel.
"Nothing." I shook my head quickly.
"Did you murder her?" Gideon whispered.
"Well...."
"Pacifica!"
"Okay, okay! But she was trying to kill me first!"
"We'll talk about this later." Gideon said. "What matters now is we have to clear our uncle's name."
"Yeah." I nodded. "But if he knows I killed someone, he'll still arrest me when we get there!"
"We can worry about that later. If we can get to Grunkle Stan's office, we can use the security tapes to prove he's innocent!"
"But how do we get there?" I asked, looking around. Suddenly I got an idea.
I tried pulling the little pin in the car door up, but it wouldn't unlock. Great! How else am I supposed to get out without using my amulet? "I have a new idea. Follow my lead."
I took off my jacket which I had tied around my waist.
"Pacifica, what are you going to do?"
"Don't worry, trust me, I saw this on a murder mystery show. Besides, my parents can easily clear two murder charges."
"Murder?!"
"Shush! Just stop the car when I start to asphyxiate him, okay?"
Before Gideon could protest, I threw my jacket around the agent's neck and pulled the sleeves, choking him against the seat. He struggled to breathe, clawing at the jacket to pull it away. Gideon leaned forward and used the opportunity to reach for the ignition. As he did, the car jumped up at a pothole, throwing his arm against the steering wheel and spinning the car off the road and into the forest.
"STOPTHECARSTOPTHECAR!!" I yelled, as Gideon fumbled to get the key out of the ignition. The agent had already suffocated, so I pushed Gideon aside and snatched out the key. The car stopped, but not before crashing into a tree, shaking us back against the seats and shrieking.
We took deep breaths of relief.
"Oh my god, Pacifica, we just-"
"Killed someone? Don't worry, we'll be fine."
"But what if-"
"Get out of the car, get out, we need to get out now!"
"What? Why?" Gideon asked, and I pulled him out of the limply-hanging car door. I kept pulling his arm when we were out, running. I stopped when we were a safe distance from the car. I pointed to dark black smoke rising from the trunk, and the car burst into flames.
"Oh."
"Let's go." I turned around and Gideon followed, as I walked out of the forest to the road that would take us back to the Mystery Shack.

"Okay, I'll take them out with a gun I stole from the dead agent!" I said.
"I don't think that's a good idea." Gideon shook his head.
"But what can else can we do?" I said, turning off the gun safety.
"I don't know, sneak past them?"
"But they're everywhere!" I whisper-yelled, pointing to the Shack from behind the bush we were knelt behind. There were numerous agents guarding the Shack and searching it.
"Is there time to call anyone? Maybe your boyfriend will help?"
"Wow, you must be desperate." I teased Gideon. "Look, I'm pretty sure Dipper's solution would be to kill, too. Besides, I don't think we should bring him into this."
"No, but he could use his amulet!" Gideon suggested.
I sighed. "He could use it to knock out those agents..."
"Then call him!"
"Okay, okay." I took out my smartphone and called his number, which was 5th on speed dial. 4th was pizza. I walked behind a tree for some privacy, and held the phone to my ear. "Hi, Dipper." I said.
"Hi, Pacifica. How are you?"
"Not good, actually." I said. "I need your help."
"Is everything okay?"
"Erm... not really. The government thinks that Grunkle Stan stole toxic waste and has some doomsday device. I'm trying to get into the Mystery Shack but it's surrounded by agents, so i need you to help us."
"Don't you have your amulet?"
"Gideon is here."
"I'm not sure... me plus government is bad news..."
"Please!"
"Fine."
"Thank you!"

Stan

"Stanford Southeast, you stand accused of theft of government waste, conspiracy, and possession of illegal weapons. How do you plead to these charges?"
I sat in cement-walled cell in the Gravity Falls Police Station, handcuffed in a chair. Several agents stood in front of me.
Dang kids, I wish Gideon knew how much this would have cost me when he called those agents about Journal 3, I thought.
"Guilti-cent! I mean, inno-guilty!" I burst out. Dang, Stan, why can't you speak straight? "Um, can I have my phone call?"
The agents left the room to let me have my phone call. I quickly dialed a phone number.
"Wendy!" I said, when she picked up.
"Mr. Southeast!" She gasped. "I came to work this morning and I heard you got arrested, I had to go do some rebellious graffiti."
"You care that much about me?"
"No, with my record you were the only one who would hire me."
"Listen, I need you to do something for me."
"UGGGGHHHHH."
"Do you want to keep your job or not?"
"I'm listening."
"You know that vending machine in the gift shop? I need you to guard it with your life. No matter what happens, no matter who talks to you, don't let them touch that machine."
"Why the vending machine?"
"If you don't, I'll tell them you were associated with this crime."
"What did you do anyway?"
"Not important!" I snapped.
"One condition, I want a pay raise."
"Fine, just go already!"
"Okay, okay. See ya."
Wendy hung up.

Now I just had to wait and hope for the best from someone who wasn't, but who else would I have called?

Pacifica

Dipper appeared through the bushes.
"Funny, I thought it would be me being arrested by the government first." He remarked.
"Dipper!" I squealed, and ran over to hug him tightly.
"Shush!" Gideon held his finger to his lips. "We need to get in there."
"Ah, yes." Dipper took a small container out of his pocket, labeled: DANGEROUS, FOR GAS CHAMBER ONLY, USE BY 1941. "We just need to add water to this and it will create a highly poisonous toxic and possibly radioactive gas with a violent reaction to sodium (if of course there happens to be any nearby). All we need to do is add water."
"No way!" I stepped away from him and snatched the vessel. "We need to do this without killing or being noticed, or we'll be in even more trouble with the government! Why do you even have this?!"
"Oh, it was used sometimes by Nazis to kill Jews in gas chambers. I found a hidden store when my family was visiting Germany and me and Mabel were exploring."
"Not okay! You need to find a way to dispose of that." Gideon scolded.
"No way! Mabel would kill me, she lives using this stuff when we torture people."
"You TORTURE people?!"
"It's entertaining!"
"Sadistic!"
"Guys, not is not the time. Put this away." I handed the container back to Dipper. "Just use your amulet to teleport us inside, so we can prove our uncle is innocent and I don't need to go back home."
"DIPPER!"
Mabel teleported next to him.
"Dipper, you will never guess what I found in the package I got!"
"Ugh!" I rubbed my forehead. "Dipper, did you invite her?"
"No, I just told her where I was going in case something happened."
"Why didn't you tell me Gideon was here?" She grabbed his hat and rubbed it against her cheek, taking a long sniff. "I can use this for my Senpai Shrine! I already have a dime that fell out of your shoe!"
Gideon pulled it away from her. "Go away, there's no room for two people I hate."
"Then love me!"
"Shush!"
Mabel peered out of the thick, tall bushes we were behind. "Oh, looks like your uncle has finally gotten in trouble. Took him a while."
"Did you know about this?" I demanded.
"I suspected something of course, this confirms it."
"My great-uncle is innocent!"
"He's only as innocent as you. I got your package today, I opened it and saw what was in there. I even saw the blood starting to drip out."
"What?!" Dipper and Gideon gasped.
"Pacifica murdered Candy." Mabel shrugged casually. "I know because the address written on the box was your handwriting. Who else writes in cursive these days with the i's dotted with hearts?"
"Did you?" Gideon asked.
"That depends. It will be official if I go tell the police."
"You've murdered more people than me!"
"Such accusations!" She cried.
"Shush!"
"Anyways, I'll be lenient if you let me come in. It'll be a fun show."
"No!"
"Pacifica would never kill anyone!" Dipper defended.
"Her family records would say otherwise. I did a little research. How did the Southeasts become so rich? The disappearances of all their business opponents are quite coincidental."
"I am nothing like my parents!" My voice raised.
"Shut up or they'll hear us!" Gideon gritted his teeth.
"I'm not going to let this pig-obsessed serial killer accuse me of murdering her friend!"
"Hey!"
We all turned around to see a soldier wearing a bulletproof vest and holding a gun.
"You are all trespassing on a crime scene. Wait, aren't you the Southeast kids? You're supposed to be with Agent Trigger!"
Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, then did a brief nod, then looked back up at the man. Their eyes glowed blue, and his arms started to hang loosely. His knees buckled and he fell to the ground.
"Did you kill him?"
"You stressed no violence. All we did was make him go to sleep and erase his memory of the last minute."
"Okay, now can we go in? And leave Mabel outside to guard?"
"If my brother is going in, I will."
"I don't know..."
"Please?"
Dipper looked at me, waiting for an answer, and I sighed.
"Sure, whatever."
"Yay! I can find more items for the Senpai Shrine!"
"Oh no." Gideon face palmed.
As Dipper started the teleportation with his amulet, Mabel started rattling off everything in her Senpai Shrine. "I have a dime that was in Gideon's shoe, I have the ticket stub he used to get into the Tent of Telepathy, a pebble he threw at me..."
"Why?" Gideon whispered to me, then blue light shot all around us, blinding me as we were swept away into the Mystery Shack's office.

I stumbled forward as we appeared in the office.
"Ugh, that was terrible." I said. Holding my stomach.
"You'll get used to it." Dipper reassured me.
"Now, if I was Stan, where would I hide the surveillance tapes?" Gideon said, as Mabel asked, "If I was Gideon, where would I hide my underpants?"
"The jackalope!" I pointed to the mounted jackalope head on the wall.
"Isn't it a jackalabbit?" Mabel asked, dumbfounded.
"That can't be right."
"It's more right than your face!"
"Excuse me?!"
"Hey Gideon, have you ever touched this?" Mabel quickly grabbed a pencil, changing the topic.
I rolled my eyes, and pulled the crooked antler on the jackalope, which creaked as I pulled it. The wall segment twisted around to reveal a small tv and shelf of tapes on the other side.
"It's the tapes! And here's the one from this week!" Gideon exclaimed, taking it and pushing it into the tape player. He fast-forwarded to where me and Dipper were in the gift shop, kissing. "Seriously?"
"We had to! She was being adorable!" Dipper blushed. "Fast-forward."
"No, wait, I want to see how far they went!" Mabel cried. "Did you put her hand under her shirt?!"
"Mabel!" We all scolded. Me and Dipper's cheeks were blushing.
"Come on, I'm sure we were all wondering that." Mabel shrugged. "But really,-"
"Just shut up or I'll give Will a break from knife practice."
"Yikes, okay." Mabel huffed. Gideon pressed the fast-forward button, and it went on for a few second until it got to the night we were all at the party.
"See? There's Stan restocking, it's proof!" Gideon cheered.
Mabel laughed, "Oh no, honey, it goes from good to worse."
"Huh?" Gideon turned back from looking at all of us and to the tv, as Stan exited the gift shop. He fast forwarded, but he never came back in. Finally, at 3 AM, a man in a hazmat suit was pushing in steel barrels of radioactive waste.
"Oh no, he didn't." Gideon cringed.
"Don't panic! It could be anyone in that suit!" I said.
"Hot Belgian waffles!" The man in the screen cursed, as one dropped in his foot. "Wait, I'm alone. I can swear for real! Son of a-"
Gideon pressed the fast-forward button. "Yeah, that's him."
"Okay, okay, so he stole some toxic waste. That doesn't mean he's leading a nefarious double life!" I countered.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that." Mabel snickered, pulling a box out from underneath the shelf of tapes. We all bent down to look through the box, which was filled with various IDs and papers.
"What?" Dipper pulled out an ID. "Even I don't have this many."
"Hal Forester? Andrew '8-Ball' Alcatraz? You wouldn't need these unless you were trying to hide your real identity!"
"But why would Stan do that?" I asked, taking out another paper. I turned it around to see it was a newspaper clipping.
My fingers grew cold, and I shoved the paper blindly in Gideon's direction. He looked at me weirdly, and took it. After a quick glance, he sucked in a sharp breath.
"Foul Play suspected in Stan Southeast's death?" He read out. "Fiery car crash, brakes cut...by who?"
I took out another piece of paper, another newspaper article.
"Unnamed grifter at large? But why would they call him unnamed?"
"Unless Stan isn't... Stan?" Me and Gideon gasped at the same time.

Stan

"Alright, Southeast. Playtime is over. Chopper is ready to dust off to Washington. I'll enjoy putting you away."
Agent Powers stood in front of me, with two other agents behind him. I glanced down at my digital wristwatch.
"What? Can't we stuck around for, maybe one minute? Uh, one minute thirty seconds?" I kept glancing down. I hoped it wasn't too obvious and I just looked nervous.
"We're not falling for your games, Southeast. You've been running your whole life. Your time is finally up."
"Bathroom break? Just give me five seconds!"
"Sorry, but you've got a flight to catch."
There was a tiny beep.
"Oh yeah? Well, so do you."
Suddenly, everything started to float up. The effects of gravity lessened in the room and I took the opportunity to hit a stunned Powers with the back of my chair and catch the keys to the hand cuffs, which I used to unlock myself.
"Hey, dang it! Get back here!" Powers yelled. "Men, get him!"
I kicked one of the flying agents in the chest, and used them to push myself to the door, picking up a stray wallet on the way.
When I got into the hallway, I slammed the door shut and quickly locked it. They had keys, but hopefully it would delay them.
Everything fell down. The gravity anomaly was over.

I ran outside, over to a cab, and grabbed all the money from the agent's wallet and handed it to the cab driver without getting inside.
"You know where the Mystery Shack is?" I asked him. He nodded. "Here's a hundred bucks. Drive away from the shack as far as possible. And don't stop when the cops start chasing you!"
He shrugged, and drove away. I ran behind a piece of wreckage and hid. The agents came out of the police station and saw the cab's dust.
"Obviously, follow that cab!" He ordered, and he and the agents ran to their cars.

Gideon

We heard the agents outside of the room disperse, as we all sat on the ground, looking through the boxes.
"I guess those agents were right. But where do we go from here?" I wondered out loud.
"No, they can't be right." Pacifica shook her head. "He's a nice guy. He can't do huge destroy-the-earth crimes."
"There's got to be some explanation here." I sighed, and grabbed another piece of paper. There was a box drawn on it, split into 6 other boxes, with the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F on them. I took out a blacklight and turned it on.
"A1, B, C3, I've never seen a code like this." I said.
Pacifica looked over. "Wait, I have! Gideon, it's the vending machine!"
"What?" I asked her. "That's the stupidest thing ever."
"We should try it." Dipper suggested. "It's our only lead."
"But the agents?"
"They're gone." Mabel said, looking under the door. "It is getting late."
"Fine." I mumbled. "Three against one, let's go get arrested."
"Come on, cuz, try to be more positive." Pacifica got up and opened the door.
We all got up, and I trudged through it into the hall. Mabel was right, there were no agents.
We stepped into the gift shop to see Wemdy standing in front of the vending machine, texting on her phone.
"Wendy?" Pacifica asked.
"Hey guys! Where have you been?" She asked.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I dunno. Stan told me to protect this machine or whatever, so I'm here."
"Wendy, listen, something big is going on here-"
"Yeah, I guessed from all the agents."
I ignored her interruption and kept speaking. "If Stan is hiding some huge, dangerous secret, we need to find out what it is. I need you to step aside."
"Yeah, just let us through so we can prove this is all just a big misunderstanding."
"Yeah, whatever. You kids can get some snacks. I'm hungry too." Wendy stepped to the side of the shop, and I held up the vending machine code and typed it in.
I stood back, and the vending machine swung forward in a cloud of dust. When the dust settled, behind it we go see a staircase leading down.
We all looked at each other, and we all knew what we were going to do.

"So no snacks?"

Go downstairs.

"It looks like something from a horror movie." Wendy said.
"Or a dream." Pacifica added.
"Or a nightmare." I said.
We went into an elevator and pressed the button to go down. The door shut, and with a creak, the elevator moved downwards. After a few seconds, it opened to what looked like a lab.
"Are we dreaming?" Pacifica asked. "Someone wake me up."
"This can't be real." I inhaled.
Dipper looked stunned too, but he didn't speak. And if Mabel was, she wasn't showing it.
"I don't understand, why would your uncle have all this?" Dipper asked Pacifica.
"It's just like that bunker in the woods." I said, looking at all the different machine and buttons and levers. "But why is this under the Mystery Shack?"
"Okay, okay, so he's got some huge gigantic lab! That doesn't mean anything bad! Everyone's got secrets!" Pacifica ran over to a table and picked up a picture of me and her. "It's still Stan, and he loves us!"
"But he wouldn't keep this large of a secret if it wasn't bad!" I said.
"Maybe he has his reasons!" Pacifica fired back. "I think you should be a little more open!"
"I think you should be a little less nice and a little more smart!"
"Smart! I'm plenty smart! If I wanted to, I could hack into nuclear weapon databases and set them off!"
"Are you kidding? All you care about these days is that stupid glove you like so much and your boyfriend!"
"Don't bring him into this!" Pacifica screamed, throwing down the framed picture. The whites of her eyes seemed to glow with anger, and Dipper stepped in between us.
"Don't fight now!" He said. "We have something huge here, and all you two want to do is argue."
"And Pacifica's knight in shining armor steps in! Can you do anything for yourself these days?" I said.
"Maybe if you didn't always want to go solve mysteries, I-"
"Guys!" Mabel screeched. "If you didn't notice, I just found something while you two were bickering."
She held up what she has found, and it silenced us.
"The first journal?" My eyes nearly popped out my sockets. "All this time...all this time...Stan had them?! I can't believe it! Is anything he says real? Why would he have that journal?"
"Well, you're as clueless as me." She shrugged. "And I thought I knew everything."
"Maybe he's the author?" Wendy suggested.
"Or maybe he stole them from the author! Maybe the reason he has all those fake IDs is because he is a master criminal, and this is his master plan!" I snatched Journal 1 from Mabel and took out mine, then turned to the page with some futuristic blueprint on it in both. "Dipper, can I borrow yours?"
He shrugged and gave his to me. I also opened it to the blueprint page, and took out the blacklight I had, and turned it on to reveal words had been written in invisible ink.
"Whoa." Pacifica said.
" 'I was wrong the whole time'," I said, reading the words, " 'This machine was meant to create knowledge but it is too powerful. I was deceived and now it is too late. This device, is fully operational, could tear our universe apart. It must not fall into the wrong hands. If the clock ever reaches zero, our universe is doomed."
"Guys, look!" Wendy pointed up to a clock above us that was counting down, and then pulled back curtains that were hiding what was going to destroy us. A steel triangle-shaped portal.
"So this is what Will was talking about." Mabel said under her breath, smirking.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing." She shook her head.
I flipped through the pages in the journal to a manual override page. "We need to shut it down!"
"Over there!" Pacifica pointed to three keyholes near one of the control panels that already had keys sticking out of them. "We need to turn those!"
Me, Pacifica, and Wendy ran over, and twisted the keys. The door to the portal room opened, and a red button came out from under the cover of a plastic box.
We all ran over to press it, when Mabel stepped in front of us.
"Woah, woah!" She screamed. "You can't just turn this off! He probably worked so hard on this!"
"This could destroy the universe!" I said.
"It might not." She shrugged.
"Did you even hear what I read in the journal?" I tried pushing her out of the way, but she remained still. "Get out of the way!"
"Mabel, you never care about anything. Why now?" Dipper asked.
"Because, I-hey!" I shoved past her and Pacifica and Wendy did, too, into the room. Mabel and Dipper ran in behind us.

I raised my hand over the button.

"This all stops...now!"

I started to move my hand downwards, but before I could press it, I heard a scream.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT BUTTON!"

Grunkle Stan stood in the doorway, sweat all over his body, gasping for air. He was reaching out a shaking hand to us, while my hand hovered over the end of all this. He didn't seem to take note Dipper and Mabel were here, just that we were about to flush away all his devious doings.

"Gideon, just back away."

I remained firm and still, darting my eyes from Dipper and Mabel's expressionless faces to Stan.

"Please don't touch that shut-down switch, you got to trust me!"

"And I should trust you why?!" I demanded. "After you stole radioactive waste? After you lied to us all summer? I don't even know who you are!"

"Look, I know it all seems nuts, but I need that machine to just stay on! If you'd just let me explain-"

His watch beeped.

"Oh no, brace yourselves!" The ground shook and gravity seemed to lose control, as we started to float up. We were all scared to death, however, Mabel and Dipper looked bored with it. They were just watching the drama play out.

"T-minus thirty-five seconds."

I managed to grab hold of a wooden plank, while Pacifica's foot was caught on a wire.
"Pacifica, hurry, shut it down!" I called out. She nodded, and started to climb the wire to the button.
"No, Pacifica, Pacifica, wait! Stop! Ah!" Wendy pushed him away. "Wendy, what are you doing?" He tried to wriggle away. "I gave you an order!"
"Sorry, Mr. Southeast, if that is your real name, but I got a new mission now: protecting these kids!"
"Wendy, you idiot, let me go!"
"Pacifica, press the red button! Shut it down!" I yelled, as she neared the button's platform and grabbed the pole.
"No, you can't!" Stan yelled, as I launched off the support beam and knocked Stan away.
"No, you can't!" He shoved me away. "You gotta trust me!"
"G-Grunkle Sta-an, I-I don't e-even know if y-you're my g-grunkle." Pacifica sniffed, tears levitating off her cheeks. "I-I want to b-believe you but..."
"Then listen to me. Remember this morning when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?"

"T-minus twenty seconds."

The portal flashed, pushing us against the wall. Pacifica clung tight to the pole and raised her hand over the button to press it, but then stopped when Grunkle Stan started speaking again.
"I wanted to say you're going to hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I've cared about, it's all for this family!"
"Pacifica, what if he's lying? This thing could destroy the universe! Listen to your head!"
"Look into my eyes, Pacifica. You really think I'm a bad guy?"
"He's lying! Shut it down, now!"
"Pacifica, please!"

"Ten."

"Nine."

Pacifica looked away from us and raised her hand over the button.

Yes, push it, Pacifica! Push it! Save the universe!

"Grunkle Stan...."

"Six."

"Five."

She gulped in a deep breath and did her best to speak steadily. "-I trust you."

I was stunned, shocked for a moment, as she let herself float up in the air, arms raised.

"PACIFICA?! ARE YOU CRAZY?! WE'RE ALL GONNA-"

"One."

Light flooded from the portal, blinding all of us. We all screamed, one by one. First Pacifica, then me, then Grunkle Stan, then Wendy, them Dipper, even Mabel screamed.

The light quickly faded to a dull blue. Dust settled around us, and I realized we had all fallen onto the ground. The portal was partly-buried in a pile of rubble and live wires.

A man appeared in the blue circle of the portal and walked out, in the eerie silence. As he came out, the portal's blue field flickered out behind him as his boots crunched on the debris pile. His face was covered in a thickly-wrapped scarf, and his coat dusted the ground as he leaned forward to pick up Journal 1, which was just laying there. He placed his fingers on the six-fingered golden hand on the front before placing it inside his coat. His hand fit perfectly.
"What? Who is that?" Pacifica squinted her eyes.

"The author of the journals..."

The man pulled down his scarf and took off his goggles, revealing a likeness eerily close to Stan's.

"My brother."