"You're sure this is going to work? A-are we in the right place? Uh, I mean time?" Blendin voiced his uncertainties for the millionth time since they'd gone back in time thirty years, six months, and eighteen days. They were currently struggling through knee high snow to reach the Mystery Shack. The date was January 18th, 1982, and something huge was about to go down. Something Stan had witnessed before.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Stan tried to sound confident, but he wasn't. He had no idea whether this idea would work, or totally crash and burn. "This is the best time we could have gone back to." Again, Stan tried to push away his nervousness.

"Alright, if you say so." Blendin replied, looking around apprehensively. He'd told Stan about the sentence over his head, and how the TARC would be looking for him non-stop. This jump back in time could very well be the thing that led them to their deaths.

"Trust me, it's gonna be fine." Stan said before taking in a sharp breath. There it was. The Mystery Shack was just thirty metres away. Suddenly Stan was shaking, and only partially from the cold. "We're here."

Blendin looked up at the large wooden cabin directly ahead of them before turning back to Stan. "Alright. You're going to g-go into that building, assuming Stanford lets you in, and try to k-keep him from being sucked into the portal. You are not to engage in any physical contact with your past self, if he is in there. That's crucial to our plan. This entire timeline could be completely annihilated if you do make contact with Past Stan. Any mistake could have us hanged, if the TARC are able to track our time trail." Blendin paused for a second. "You got all that?"

Stan simply nodded, still staring at the cabin.

"Okay then. G-good luck, Stan."

"Uh.. yeah. Thanks." Stan walked towards the building, dreading what he was about to do. He had so many doubts, it was a miracle he was able to continue putting one foot in front of the other. Finally, he'd reached the door. Stan glanced over his shoulder to where he'd come from, searching for Blendin. He was gone, having retreated into the trees at the edge of the property. He was on his own now. Taking a deep breath, Stanley turned around and lifted his hand to knock on the door. Before he had the chance to make contact with it, the door was forcefully swung open and a crossbow was levelled at Stanley's face.

"Who are you?! Why are you here?!" Stanford barked. Boy, did he look rough. Matted brown hair framed his gaunt face, and angry, bloodshot eyes glared at Stanley. His clothing looked like it hadn't been washed in several weeks.

Slowly, Stanley lifted his hand and gently pointed the crossbow down towards the ground. "Take it easy, pal." He told his twin brother (who was thirty years younger than him), his voice quivering.

"Tell me who you are and what your intentions are." Ford growled, unmoving.

"Oh boy." Stan sighed. This was going to be even more difficult than he'd thought. Suddenly his earlier doubts had increased tenfold. "Uhh.."'

"Okay. I'm going to tell you why I'm here, and who I am, I promise. But please, can you put that thing away? I don't want to lose a chunk of my head or something." Stan said, straightening up. Ford looked even more agitated than he had when he'd thrown the door open, but he slowly moved backwards and set the crossbow down, still eying the older man before him warily.

"Information. Now." He reiterated coldly, but motioned for Stanley to come in.

"First of all, my name is Stanley Pines." Stan waited for a response. Ford's eyes widened, and he looked like he wanted to say something, but refrained from doing so. Stanley reluctantly continued. "I'm... well, something terrible is supposed to happen on this day. I came here to try to stop it from occurring."

Ford's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"I'll explain." Stan said quickly. "Please give me the benefit of the doubt. You're going to think I'm crazy, but I, uh.. I'm your twin brother."

Ford hesitated for a moment. "Is this some kind of joke?!" He finally snapped.

"No!" Stan said, trying to defuse what could've been a potentially explosive situation. "Hear me out! I'm from the future, alright?" Stan said slowly, but even to himself, he sounded like a lunatic. "I know things only your brother could possibly know. Like the portal in the basement, for instance." Ford looked like he'd just been socked in the gut. "You've shut it down, right?"

"I..." Ford couldn't formulate a verbal response, so he simply nodded.

"Good. I'm sure you know by now that it needs to stay deactivated?" Another nod.

"How... I mean, why did you come back in time? What's happened in the future?" Ford asked, finally coming out of his shock enough to speak.

"Well, a lot of things happen. None of them are good." Stanley sighed. "It all started here, though, in this place and time. You'd called your brother- me- to come and help you with something. I... he was supposed to take your Journals and scatter them, hiding them so no one would be able to reactivate the portal."

"Yeah. Exactly. That's how it was supposed to go." Stanford nodded quickly.

"But that's not how it happened." Stan said, staring at the ground. He couldn't bring himself to lift his gaze as he retold what had happened next.

"You asked me if I remembered our plans to sail around the world on the Stan O'War. I... thought you'd contacted me to try and accomplish that, but then you told me what your request for me was. I got mad, and yelled at you, and we started fighting over the Journal you'd wanted me to take." Stan shuddered, remembering that terrible day. "Things got out of hand, and-" Stan was cut off by a sharp knocking behind him.

"Stanley!" Ford yelled, running to the door and throwing it open. On the doorstep stood Stanley Pines, thirty years younger.

"Hey there, pal." Past Stan greeted his twin, then noticed the old man standing behind him. "Who's that?"

"Uh..his name is Stan." Ford said slowly and without elaborating.

"Cool." Past Stan grinned. "That's my name, too."

"He knows!" Ford said quickly. Present Stan started to say something, but his brother cut him off. "Uh, Stanley, why don't you stay here a moment? I need to have a private word with.. Stan." Ford looked at his regular twin as he said this, then led Present Stan into another room.

"You told me things got out of hand the last time we tried this?" Ford whispered, and the old man nodded.

"Yeah. There was a fight, and the portal was reactivated. In my time, Bill is able to take control of the rift and enter our dimension." Ford's spine stiffened at the mention of the demon's name, and his eyes grew wide.

"He... oh, no." Ford shook his head. "No, I won't let that happen. I'm going to try again. This time, it'll work. I'm sure of it." He set his jaw before walking back out to the room where Past Stan was still waiting.

"Hey!" Present Stan called, running after his brother. Ford didn't stop.

"I have something to show you, Stanley." Ford told the past version of Stan, ignoring the other one. "Something you won't believe." At the prospect of seeing something amazing, Past Stan's and eyes lit up. Then he followed his brother towards the stairs that led into the basement. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Present Stan had no choice but to follow them.

"There is nothing about this I understand." Past Stan said flatly.

"That's because you're not supposed to understand it." Present Stan muttered angrily under his breath.

"It's a transuniversal gateway." Stanford told his brother, ignoring the sarcastic remark.

"Why did you build it?" Past Stan asked.

"I ... thought it could help people." Ford said, looking to the side for a brief moment. "But I was wrong. He... uhh, I made a mistake." Present Stan could only watch the exchange between the brothers and hope it didn't go the same way the last one had. Maybe Ford is right. Maybe this time will be different, he thought. That idea was destroyed only another minute into the conversation.

"That's it?!" Past Stan's voice broke into the thoughts of his older self. "You finally wanna see me after all these years, and it's to tell me to get as far away from you as possible?!" Present Stan felt his blood turn to ice as he watched what happened next. This scene was far too similar to the one that had occurred thirty years ago.

"Stanley, you don't know what I'm up against! What I've been through!" Ford defended himself, but it didn't calm his brother down.

"No, no! You don't know what I've been through!" Stan retorted.

"Hey, cut it out!" Present Stan tried to stop them, but before he could say another word, the fight became physical, with the two brothers shoving and punching each other. Stan started to rush forward to try and separate them. Just before he was able to grab both men by their collars, he remembered Blendin's warning about making contact with his past self, and he backed away quickly. What do I do?! He wondered, watching in horror as the brothers stumbled into the control room, accidentally pressing numerous buttons in the process. From behind him, a soft blue light filled the dim underground cavern. The portal had started up again.

"No!" Stan yelled.

"You left me behind, you jerk!" A voice called behind him. Stan turned around to see his younger self trying to wrench the Journal out of his brother's hands. Getting defensive, Ford kicked Stan in the chest, hard. As with the last time, this particular motion sent Stan into the side of a desk, where his shoulder was burned. With a scream from Stan, the fight came to a stop, and Ford tried to help his brother up. He hadn't said more than a few words before he was reeling from a punch to the side of the face. He stumbled into a lever on the ground in front of the portal, partially shutting off the the gravity. Present Stan ran to Ford's side and tried to help him up. If he was on his feet, maybe he wouldn't be sucked into the portal.

"You stay out of this!" Past Stan snapped, then tried to push his older self away, but he was too slow. Stan had moved out of the way.

"You still care more about your dumb mysteries than your family?" Past Stan asked, all of his focus now on his brother. "Well then, you can have 'em!"

"Stanford!" Present Stan yelled as his younger self violently pushed his brother towards the portal. The lack of gravity lifted him into the air, and Past Stan's anger turned to shock.

"Woah, woah, what's happening?" He asked frantically.

Present Stan ran and jumped, just missing his brother's outstretched hand. Seeing that he was about to go into the portal, Ford made one last move- throwing the Journal as far away from himself as he could. His glasses flew off his face and landed on the ground. Present Stan had time to think It's happening again... There was a blinding flash of white light... and then Stanford was gone. Stan had failed to stop it, and now his brother was paying the price. Again.

That's the end of it. Sorry to leave you guys on a cliffhanger, but I'll explain the ending.

This is basically my headcanon for what Stan was doing for those few days before Dipper and Mabel found him in the shack. He tried to go back in time and stop the apocalypse from happening in the first place, but he failed, which is why it still happened. Stan from the past did end up saving his brother in the same way that Present-Day Stan had, but it still created the rift, and Bill was able to get it and start his apocalypse.

Stan and Blendin ended up going back to present day Gravity Falls after the failure of their plan, but because Blendin had time traveled, the TARC found his trail and started tracking him. To try and evade them, he went to the Old West, leaving Stan alone in Gravity Falls. This lead to Blendin traveling right into the path of a train, where his time tape was broken. (This was all stated in the canon Journal.) So, he settled there, and sent his letter to Dipper and Mabel.

As for Stan, when they returned to Gravity Falls, he stayed in the shack and that's when he started taking in refugees. Eventually, Dipper and Mabel came to the shack, and I'm sure you all know what happens after that.

I hope you guys enjoyed this story! Thanks for reading! GreyJay13 out!