Back To Gravity Falls: Beware the Beast (Multiverse Crossover)

The Harbinger of Three

Norman didn't have much time to dwell on the thought before Dipper returned, Mabel leaving the table to watch TV in the living room. He did genuinely believe that this Gideon person could be useful, but it was too late to worry about it today. His thoughts were interrupted by Wybie bursting into the room, using his fingers to scribble in the air miming his need for a pen and paper.

Norman was quick enough to find the needed items in the junk drawer and handed them to Wybie with the same urgency the younger boy's expression showed. He wrote a few gnarled sentences down before checking over what his grandmother was telling him over the phone.

"Okay, so just to recap- this Tezzy guy is a patron god of all that stuff you said, but he has nothing really to do with these animal attacks. Could these attacks have been done by something like this?"

The others looked at him in confusion, at a loss of the other half of the conversation. Dipper tried reading the scrawled handwriting for clarity but gave up in an instant.

"Okay, so not him. He's neutral by nature, but what about his opposite? Quetza-whatever? Of course not. That would be too easy, wouldn't it? Sorry, I'm not angry this is just a difficult- wait, what? Wait, hold on. Hold on one second, gram'a." Wybie grabbed Dipper by the shoulder, "She said she just remembered something. She remembers there being an evil dog in the old stories but it wasn't really a dog. It's the twin god of this Quetza guy who is related to this Tezzy guy and that could be what we're after. It's as good a lead as any, these stories always tell of these gods being shapeshifters. It would explain how this thing went unnoticed."

"Get more info, write it down, we can look into it more when you get off the phone. Write down as much as you can about all three, it could easily be another creature posing as them to throw us off track. " Dipper insisted, putting the pad of paper in front of him, "Make sure you can read all that you write. We can rest for the night and pick up in the morning, converge with Wendy again and see if anything else has come up. Sound good?"

The five of them nodded collectively, Coraline watching with an odd silence as her  hand clenched the cards in her pocket. Mabel was quiet, mind racing.

Wirt watched them talking from the couch, a pillow clutched in his hands as he wondered why these kids had to have such a weight on their shoulders. Wondering what happened to kids who got to play outside with friends, or play games all hours of the night, or read scary stories without the fear that those nightmarish creatures truly exist.

They went their seperate directions, some to prepare for a long night and others to change into comfortable clothes. Wirt stayed glued to the couch, pretending to watch TV. In times like this, he missed Beatrice.

Wybie continued taking notes, his grandmother's patience strengthened given their dire situation. She scoured her brain, trying to remember the stories told to her in her youth over fifty years ago and knowing that the finer details could mean the life or death of another person weighed on her like an anvil. She wanted to help, and glad to find herself of use, but dreading what it all could mean.

...

Dipper found Norman sitting alone in the room they all shared, in his pajamas and looking through his idea notebook. His expression was conflicted, eyebrows furrowed and his feet up in the chair he sat.

"Norm, what's the matter?" He asked, wondering why he even bothered to ask given their current situation.

"My parents," he whispered, voice catching from disuse as he cleared his throat. "They haven't checked in one me once. My sister hadn't either. I'm not sure if I'm happy about it or not, seeing as I don't know how I could ever explain all this to them. Disregarding they would probably never believe me anyway, this is a whole other level of crazy."

"Ours haven't contacted us either, they usually just assume we're okay-- having too much fun to contact them first, I guess." Dipper sat beside Norman, leaning his head on the back of the sofa. "We used to leave voicemails, but it just ends up being a game of phone tag so we stopped trying."

"Oh... I'm sorry." Norman finally looked up from his notebook, closing it. He tried for a humorous approach, sarcasm thick in his voice, "I mean, we are having fun, aren't we? Meeting nymphs and gnomes and gods to defeat some unstoppable beast like we're in some Greek epic-- heroes of our own story?"

Dipper choked out a laugh, "You're right about that. Kids dream about being heroes, I guess they don't think about all the hard stuff that makes you one."

Dipper fell silent, exhaling slowly as he looked at Norman with a somber frown, "I appreciate what you did the other day, when I was having that nightmare. As stupid as it sounds, this is far from the worst I've been... When we first left the Falls, every time I saw a yellow triangle I reflexively screamed and shook. It didn't matter if it was a caution sign or a chip on a package, my mind screamed it had to be Bill. Waiting for me, watching my every move, desperate to act in revenge against me. I don't panic anymore, but being in this has given me a weird sense of calm. I guess it's because I know that my sister and I aren't really alone in this anymore."

"I'm glad I met you in the bookstore," Norman smiled, "I had seen you before, but I was a bit scared to talk to you. I'm not exactly what people look for in friends, what with the zombie obsession and seeing-ghosts thing."

"Well, you're my kind of friend." Dipper grinned. Suddenly getting an idea, he rushed out of his chair to give Norman a noogie.

"Dude, dude!" Norman laughed, struggling weakly to get free, "Not the hair! It's messy enough as it is!"

The two eventually quit with their faces red from laughing, Dipper gave Norman a brief hug, "I'm glad I met you too."

Mabel wolf whistled from the doorway, grinning at the two, "Norman and Dipper, sitting in a tree-- Oh crap!" She yelled, interrupted by the sudden need to run away from her furiously blushing brother, screaming at her as he chased her down the stairs.

Norman flushed, alone again in the bedroom as he stared at his feet, "Nah, he doesn't... He couldn't..." He covered his face with his hands, his face heating up and laughed incredulously, "God, this is stupid."

Norman picked up his notebook and pencil and went back to work, doing a short film outline based on their current god-hunt.