Gravity Falls: No Strings On Me

Intro & Chapter One

Intro---
Dipper clutched Wendy's lifeless body to himself, trying to find any sign of life in her face as the red skies thundered around them; her face was pale, eyes wide open, blood dripped from the edge of her mouth, her neck bruised and bent at a wrong angle, the three wounds in her torso had soaked her flannel shirt with blood. Dipper looked up, tears streaming down his face, to see a large laughing form rise from behind the cliff in front of him.
"You'll pay for this you son of a--!" Dipper shouted before the creature cut him off.
"Woah, easy on the language, Pine-tree!" Bill remarked, "We're only based on a kids' show."
Dipper set Wendy's body down in the grass, stood up and looked Bill dead in the eye.
"Bring her back right now." Dipper demanded quietly.
"Or what, kid?" Bill chuckled.
Dipper clenched his hands into fists and they ignited with a fire that Dipper was somehow familiar with.
"Your deal with me all those years ago left a bit more behind than a few injuries," Dipper announced as he stepped forward, "And now, I'm going to kill you with it."
Before Bill could react, Dipper poured on the speed and ran forward to the edge of the cliff - and kept running on the air between himself and Bill. With each step, the blue fire dancing along Dipper's knuckles grew brighter and hotter. Dipper used a sudden gust of air to help propel a jump and aim his punch straight at Bill's eye.
Just as Bill began to react and Dipper's burning fist connected with Bill's eye--
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--Dipper woke up in a cold sweat and grabbed at the air in front of him looking for something to punch.
After he had calmed down and checked the time on his phone - it was nearly 3 in the morning, Dipper got out of bed and walked downstairs to the living room. It was January, he and Mabel wouldn't be heading back to Gravity Falls for another five to six months at best, and it would be their fifth trip back.
Unfortunately, Dipper's dreams had started after that first summer and had gotten worse with each recurring visit. While they weren't every night, or even every month, they had fully started after Bill had left Dipper's body during the sock opera incident, but Dipper just shrugged them off in hopes they would go away after they had stopped Weirdmaggedon - they didn't.
Even though he still harbored feelings for her, Dipper and Wendy had never started a relationship, but they still remained best friends for the past five years through the summer visits and chatting over video-chat, texting and just about every other form of social media. He considered calling her a few times because of the dreams, but when they started involving her, something made him hesitate. The only person he could really tell was...
"Dipper?" Mabel's half-asleep voice whispered from the stairs as she came down to the living room.
"Did I wake you walking by your room?" Dipper asked in an apologetic tone as a reply.
"Nah, I was in the bathroom." Mabel answered as she walked through the semi-dark room and sat on the couch next to Dipper, "Did you have another dream?"
"Worse than last time." Dipper answered in reply before explaining everything he could remember.
"As I jumped on the gust of air," Dipper explained as he finished the dream, "I brought my fist down like this and--"
Before Dipper could finish mimicking his motions from the dream, his right fist ignited with small blue flames before sputtering out a moment later. Dipper and Mabel looked at each other with wide eyes, then back at Dipper's hand as he slowly retracted it and looked at it as if it was suddenly covered in snake scales.
"Call the Stans, I'll tell Mom & Dad as best I can," Dipper started as he looked back up at Mabel, "We're going to Gravity Falls a bit early this year."

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(One play through before wind-up sound at 0:45)

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Chapter One---
Dipper adjusted Wendy's old bomber hat on his head as he drove as carefully as he could through the falling snow and unplowed highways of Oregon. They had crossed the state border about a half hour ago, and it seemed like the weather had only gotten worse as they got closer to their destination. Even through the mild panic that had engulfed both twins, Mabel had managed to fall asleep in the passenger seat as Dipper drove.
It was nearly dinnertime when they passed the sign that read, "Welcome to Gravity Falls."
"Mabel, wake up." Dipper semi-whispered as he poked her shoulder through winter gloves.
"Huh, what?" Mabel groaned as her eyes blinked half-open.
"We just passed the town line." Dipper replied with a smile as he pointed to the Gravity Falls water tower covered with snow peeking over the tree line to their left.
Mabel perked up as she looked at the water tower, then looked down the road to see all the familiar buildings of Main Street coming into view. Dipper couldn't help but smile wider as all the amazing memories came flooding back; building the largest water balloon fight the town had ever seen, inadvertently bringing a video game to life - twice, having the Grunkles attempt to teach the twins how to drive, helping a merman back to the ocean, being best man at Soos's wedding, stopping a psychopathic man-child from taking over town with a giant robot version of himself, Wendy--
"DIPPER!!" Mabel shouted pulling Dipper out of his thoughts in time to see that he should be braking for a stop light.
Dipper slammed the brakes in time to stop the car just short of the crosswalk allowing a very alarmed but grateful Lazy Susan to walk across the street. Feeling Mabel's eyes on him, Dipper took a deep breath and spoke to his sister without taking his eyes away from the windshield.
"It's not...the problem," Dipper started, "I got lost in thought."
"What were you thinking about?" Mabel asked as the light changed and Dipper pulled through the intersection and continued through town towards the Mystery Shack.
"Just, all the great times we've had here." Dipper replied as he tried to hide his mild blush.
"Uh-huh." Mabel remarked with a smirk as she crossed her arms.
"Look, she said it wouldn't work out," Dipper started, knowing exactly where Mabel's train of thought was headed, "So I moved on. It's not like a TV show or somebody's fanfiction where things magically work out in the end... and you're still not buying this are you?"
Mabel shook her head "no" in response while retaining her smirk.
"Fine, believe what you like." Dipper replied as they turned down the narrow road leading to the Mystery Shack, "But I'm telling you, it's not gonna work."
As he parked the car not too far from the back porch and hit the release for the trunk, Dipper wasn't sure if he was trying to convince Mabel or himself with his claims a few seconds ago. Putting that particular thought to rest for the moment, Dipper got to work hefting his bags as well as Mabel's.
"You sure you don't need help with that, bud?" A familiar voice asked from the doorway.
Both Dipper and Mabel turned to see Wendy leaning against the doorframe as she wore Dipper's old pine-tree hat - now with a bit more wear along the brim, a fur-lined aviator jacket that had been passed down from her mom's side of the family, and her trademark mud-smeared hiking boots.
"Wendy!" Mabel practically cheered as she flew to the doorway to give the lumberjane a hug.
"How's it going, Unicorn-Slayer?" Wendy joked as she ushered Mabel inside before turning back to Dipper, "Dude, seriously, need a hand?"
"Nah, I got it." Dipper replied with a strained smile as he moved his body to successfully get all the luggage and himself in the door in one go.
"Dang, boot camp seems to agree with you." Wendy remarked as she shut the door to keep anymore heat from escaping the Shack.
"It was only a few months of training, and it was two years ago." Dipper replied with a sheepish grin as he began the trek up to the attic with all of the luggage still in hand.
"Well, did you start benchpressing a mountain every week since then?" Wendy asked as she followed him up the stairs in case he dropped anything.
"Not necessarily a mountain," Dipper replied honestly as he half-kicked in the door to his and Mabel's attic bedroom, "But I did continue working out pretty much every day since. Didn't I already tell you about this?"
"You did, I just never noticed you hulking out up close." Wendy replied as she turned so Dipper wouldn't see her mild blush.
"You don't know the half of hulking out." Dipper whispered to himself as he set all of the luggage down making sure his gloves stayed on.
"Dudes, what's this I hear about Dipper turning into Iron Fist?" Soos asked as he stepped into the twins' bedroom.
"Wait, what?" Wendy asked in alarm as she looked to Soos then Dipper for an explanation.
"Long story, one that Mabel apparently told Soos already." Dipper replied begrudgingly before allowing himself to be pulled into Soos's greeting hug.
"Dang dude, you been bulkin' up." Soos remarked as he pulled away and rubbed his shoulder.
"Uh, sorry man." Dipper replied as he looked at his hand and flexed it as if it was being disobedient.
"Well, I'll...uh...let you two dudes be..." Soos stated awkwardly before leaving the room and heading back downstairs.
"What was that about?" Dipper asked as looked to Wendy.
"Uh, nothing." Wendy replied as she continued to lose her battle with her blush, "Soos is just real busy getting ready for the summer - apparently this is supposed to be a really big year for tourists."
"Oh." Dipper remarked noticing that she was hiding something but respecting her privacy.
"So...Iron Fist?" Wendy asked in search of an explanation.
"Uh, I'll tell you later." Dipper answered without eye contact as he set to work unpacking his luggage, "I'm kinda tired from driving most of the way here after Mabel said we'd switch once we hit the state line."
"Yeah, sure, no problem." Wendy replied as she tried to hide her disappointment, "I'll...uh...I'll see you later, dude."
Dipper watched out of the corner of his eye as Wendy walked out the bedroom door. He wanted to tell her, but the timing didn't feel right. If whatever this was turned out to be dangerous, he didn't want her to be in harm's way; then again, that never stopped much of anything in Gravity Falls.
"I want to tell you, but I can't." Dipper said aloud to the empty room as he sat on his bare mattress and held his hands in gloved hands, "How can I tell you about this?"
Dipper pulled the glove off his left hand expecting it to be sputtering into small blue flames. Instead, Dipper felt spasms building up in his wrist and suddenly his hand was vibrating of its own accord at a hundred miles an hour with sparks of blue lightning arcing from the fingertips to the palm. Dipper grabbed his wrist with the other hand and the shaking seemed to stop with a final spark as Dipper put the glove back on. This had just gotten a lot more complicated, all the more reason not to tell Wendy, at least not yet.
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Out in the woods, beside a statue of a familiar enemy, a figure in a large black cloak knelt in the falling snow.
"All these years, and they still don't know you're here." The figure said as it traced the brick pattern on the statue with a gloved finger, "A pity really, I enjoyed this form. But for now, this life will have to do."
"Oh what fun we'll have together, Pine-tree." The figure cackled as they stood and left leaving the statue of Bill Cipher to sit in the forest in the falling snow, a reminder of the dark days of that summer five years ago and to the dark days that were coming for Gravity Falls.