whatever it takes • gravity falls

the storm

Dipper still didn't trust Grunkle Stan.

Grunkle Stanley.

Dipper trusted logic, facts. Followed his head even when his heart didn't agree. So, when Mabel said she finished dinner and was going down to the basement for the second time, Dipper went with her.

"I want to get a closer look at what the heck is down there," He had told her, which was also true. That portal intrigued him. It was the only other thing besides the journal that their mysterious great uncle, who apparently was a freaking genius, had worked on.

So, they stood side-by-side in the elevator, Dipper clinking his pen manically white Mabel bounced on her toes. Dipper's heart pounded loud in his ears, a nervousness making him feel sweatier than normal.

The elevator doors open and the lab is eerily quiet. There's no lights on and the air is hot stuffy. Dipper and Mabel take simultaneous steps forwards, their steps echoing.

"Kids!" Stan's voice says, eliciting a jump from both Dipper and Mabel and seeming to surround them and making it hard to pinpoint where Stan is. "What are you doing down here?"

"Remember! It's our together-dinner!" Mabel says brightly and Dipper wants to push her because something feels very Wrong. Why is Stan in the darkness? Where even was he?

"Oh, yeah! Sorry, sweetie, I forget. I'll finish up real quick and be upstairs." There's a churning in Dipper's stomach and he feels very much on edge.

There's a loud whirring and all of the lab's machines light up, multicolored stars of light filling the space. The symbols around the mouth of the portal also light up, glowing bright blue and lighting up Stan, who was standing in front of the window to the portal room, giving him an ethereal look.

Dipper leans in close to Mabel's ear with a whisper, "Stan's acting weird."

Stan throws his head back and laughs, something high and and shrill and so unlike him. Dipper stiffens with realization just as Stan turns around to reveal bright yellow eyes.

"Looks like Pine Tree finally got smart," Bill says, not using his Stan voice anymore. Dipper's heart starts beating faster and he's terrified.

"Bill Stan. Bian," Mabel breaths out, eyes narrowing and knees bending as she got into a fighting stance. "We're not scared of you!"

"Oh, but you should be!" Bian's mouth stretched into a smile that's past normal, showing his gums. He takes a jagged step towards the twins, who take a step backwards. "I'm a being of infinite power! I'm feared across the entire multiverse! I'm terrorizing the Pines in every dimension!"

Dipper looked to the ground and picked up the first thing that could be used as a weapon, a short piece of metal pipe. "Get out of our Grunkle's body, Bill!"

Bian kept walking towards them, shoulders hunched and looking off balanced. His limbs were at weird angles that suggested that he didn't really know how to walk. "Why? He's the one that allowed me in! He asked me for help!"

Dipper and Mabel backed up until they were against the wall. Mabel had picked up a book on theoretical physics as her weapon. "Why should we believe you?" Dipper tried to sound confident but feared his nervousness could be heard in his voice.

Bian's smile stretched impossibly wider. He was now close enough to grab them, looming over them with the lights casting harsh shadows over his face. Dipper is reminded how much stronger their Grunkle is than them. He remembers Stan fighting the zombies with only his fists and tales from boxing classes in his youth. "Your Grunkle Stan wants nothing more than family and that was ripped away from him. He was heart broken and vulnerable and the perfect candidate to be conned. Desperate people will do anything to get what they want. Anything."