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Gravity Falls was a quiet sort of place.

Usually.

Birds chirruped amongst the branches of the tall, looming pine trees. Nary a cloud was in sight, and the shadows cast from the evening sun stretched over the roads lazily. The bus noisily trundling down the road held only a couple of newly teenage passengers, both of which seemed equal parts excited and exhausted. The drive from California to Gravity Falls, Oregon had been a long one, and Dipper rubbed his eyes tiredly as he sat with a journal open on his lap with a slightly chewed pen tucked behind one ear.

"We're almost there, Dip...!" Mabel was practically bouncing in her seat, her hair sticking up in odd places from where she'd fallen asleep. She stared out at the welcoming sign indicating their arrival to Gravity Falls, causing her to bounce even faster, the sleeping pig beside her utterly unbothered by the motion or noise.

"Yes, I know Mabel," Dipper scratched his head beneath Wendy's dog eared hat, unable to keep the grin off of his face.

"What we've been waiting all year for!" she stood up and wobbled as the bus bounced along. "Oh my pretty giddy diddly gosh, we're almost there!"

"Mabel, I know," he laughed at her antics as she leaned over the seat to watch the road drift away behind them. "You've had hourly freakouts for the last five hours."

"How's that replacement journal thingie of yours coming?" Mabel asked distractedly, brushing her long hair from her face.

Dipper glanced down at the poorly illustrated image of the Gremloblin, coupled with a lengthy descriptor of the creature, and furrowed his brows. It wasn't even close to the artistic capacity of his Great Uncle Ford, but he was fairly certain that he'd recorded as much from memory as he possibly could. Ever since the destruction of the original three journals of all things incredible in the sleepy town of Gravity Falls, Dipper had taken it upon himself to rerecord everything that he possibly could. Of course, he didn't have a photographic memory, though he desperately wished that he did, and there were plenty of holes that bothered him.

Then again, returning to Gravity Falls might help fill in some of the blanks on his journal.

"... Bro?"

"What's up, Mabel?"

"You've been grimacing like a constipated gargoyle for, like, a whole minute. You okay?"

"Fine, fine," he laughed and shook his head, closing the book. "Just thinking."

"Well, try not to do that too much," Mabel stood in her seat excitedly. "Because we're friggin' here, baby! Whoo!"

The single bench that served as a bus station slowly rose into view as the bus pulled in, and Dipper noted the beaten up red car that Grunkle Stan drove sitting not too far away. The bus finally came to a rolling stop in front it, and their great uncle Stanley stood with his cane with an eight ball attached to the end, grinning from ear to unshaven ear.

"There ya are, you little rascals," he laughed as Mabel gigglingly hugged him back around the stomach, Waddles running in circles around them. "And here I thought I was finally rid of you nuisances once and for all."

"If only we could be so lucky," Dipper couldn't help but grin, tucking his book away into his backpack.

"Hey, don't think you're getting away so easy!" Grunkle Stan chuckled, pulling Dipper under his arm and giving him a quick noogie. "C'mon, punks; Ford decided that it isn't 'fair' or 'legal' to allow me to cook for anyone but myself, so we've got a special treat for ya back at the Shack. And by that I mean pizza because the canned meat that I cooked sort of, uh, caught fire. Like, a lot."

Mabel whooped and picked up her pig, following Grunkle Stan to his car as the bus ever so slowly pulled away, but something caught Dipper's attention just out of the corner of his eye. There, just a fraction of a second before he could look at it, he snagged a glimpse of something dark and blue rustling in one of the bushes. His heart hammered for a second and he stared at the empty spot. Something had definitely been watching them. More likely than not it was probably just some frightened animal or something. He tried to shake off the uneasy feeling hanging on the back of his neck, and he frowned.

Then again, this was Gravity Falls.

Things were never that simple.

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Dipper stared up at the ceiling, hands behind his head as he thought.

Today had been a memorable day. They got to catch up with their great uncles about their adventures on the ocean. Soos had filled them in about the goings on in Gravity Falls (although it mainly pertained to the Mystery Shack, which he now ran) and told them of the oddities he'd personally added to the Shack's collection. Dipper had even gotten to see Wendy again, his heart jackhammering so loudly that he was afraid that she would hear it, but miraculously she seemed to have not noticed. All in all, it had been a fun evening. And yet, something still bothered him.

"Alright, Dip Dip," he heard Mabel from her bed opposite him, the moonlight pooling in through the window. Waddles was snoring quietly at the foot of Mabel's bed, his little legs sticking up in the air. "What's keeping you up?"

"Who said anything was keeping me up?" he asked distractedly.

"Bro. You've been chewing on that pen for the last ten minutes, I can hear you gnawing."

"It's just..." he thought for a moment. "I thought that I saw something when we got off the bus is all."

"Is that it?" she scoffed, rolling around to face him. "Dip, it was probably just a gnome or something. Or a bear! Or a gnome-bear hybrid because they decided to cross breed! Or a demented cultist! Or cross breed cultists! Or aliens! Or cross breed alien cultists!"

"I'm pretty sure it's not any of those things," Dipper rolled his eyes, rubbing his temples. "But, yeah, it was probably just an animal scared by the bus."

"See?" Mabel cast her hands up in the air, waving them. "The Mabes is always right. I have a seventh sense for this kind of thing."

Dipper paused, glancing over at his sister.

"Wait, don't you mean sixth sense?"

"Dipper," Mabel said seriously. "I have eaten literally so much candy in my lifetime that I can taste colors now. I do mean seventh sense."

Dipper only laughed and threw a pillow at her.

"Good night, Mabel."

"G'night, Dip."

The whole night through, Dipper still couldn't shake the feeling that there was someone, or something, watching.

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Dipper yawned as he trudged down the creaky stairs in shorts and a tee shirt, scratching his head as he descended into the kitchen. Soos had not yet arrived, and from what he had told them the night previously he was almost always there just at sunrise to open up the shop, but for some reason he appeared to be later than usual. The scent of fresh eggs and coffee greeted him, and he was surprised to see his great uncle Ford in his usual tan field coat with elbow patches whistling as he flipped the eggs expertly into the air, letting them land with a loud sizzle.

"Good morning, great uncle Ford," Dipper stifled another yawn, taking a seat at the kitchen table.

"Good morning to you too, Dipper!" Ford caught the flying eggs with an empty plate, adorning it with bacon and toast.

"Wow," Dipper blinked in surprise. "That was... pretty impressive, even for you."

"Well, I don't like to brag," Ford grinned at him behind his too large glasses. "But Stanley is probably the worst cook I've ever met. Somebody had to learn, eh?"

"He's lying," Dipper's great uncle Stanford shuffled into the room in his house slippers and wearing no more than a dirty white shirt with his boxers. "He loves to brag, so I hope you're prepared to listen to this schmuck all summer."

Ford only snorted and passed him a full plate, which Grunkle Stan grinned at and thanked him for.

"Don't listen too much to Stanley, Dipper," Ford warned him with a small smirk. "When you're hippity-hip and coolio, you're coolio. Which on secon thought seems like a redundant statement." he paused, thinking. "That is the right terminology for current youths, am I correct? Coolio?"

Grunkle Stan only laughed, pouring himself some coffee.

"I've been showing him commercials from the nineties," he informed the very confused Dipper, who had yet to touch his breakfast.

"Dark times," Dipper shuddered.

"Dark times indeed," Grunkle Stan nodded once, glancing to Ford. "Be glad that you missed that part in history."

"Well, excuse me," Ford rolled his eyes and took a seat opposite his twin brother. "I was busy saving the world at the time, I didn't have time for youngster lingo."

"That's something I've been meaning to ask you about, great uncle Ford..." Dipper started as Mabel sleepily wandered into the kitchen, dropping into a seat and letting her head clunk against the table. "I have a ton of questions that I never got to ask you about the other dimension that you were in before Grunkle Stan brought you back!"

"Did-did I do that?" Grunkle Stan froze, looking between the two.

It was dead silent in the kitchen for a moment, and even Mabel looked up.

Ever since the incident with Bill Cipher, Grunkle Stan's memory had been... patchy. The memory erasing ray had done a real number on him. He remembered bits and pieces, but sometimes whole chunks of his memory would be missing, and no amount of retelling of tales or scrapbook pictures would help. Dipper hated moments like that, unable to help in any way. He hated feeling helpless to his great uncle's condition.

"It was just before Bill tried destroying the universe," Dipper said at last, breaking the awkward quiet. "You and great uncle Ford wiped him out of existence."

Grunkle Stan only stared at him for a moment.

"... Ha!" he laughed aloud at last, turning to Ford. "Guess you're not the only one who can put 'saved the universe' on his resume, eh?"

"I guess you've got me there," Ford only smiled and shook his head, but Dipper could detect the hidden sadness lingering on his features for just a moment.

"I'm just messin' with ya," Grunkle Stan chuckled. "Pffft. Resume. Like I actually have one of those."

He paused for another second as he glanced down at the nearly sleeping form of Mabel, who hadn't said a word the entire time.

"... Mabel?" he asked at last, taking a sip of his coffee. "You, uh, okay there sweetie?"

Mabel jerked up at the sound of her name, eyes bloodshot.

"What?" she blearily whipped her head around. "Where's the fire?"

"You fell asleep Mabel," Dipper frowned. "Also you have some egg in your hair."

Mabel chewed on her hair for a moment and nodded in agreement, but said nothing.

"Are you alright?" Dipper asked awkwardly. "You look... uh..."

"Terrible," Grunkle Stan finished for him. "What he's tryin' to say is that you look terrible."

"Didn't sleep much," Mabel gave a weak half shrug. It unnerved Dipper, to see someone who was always so full of energy no matter what, someone who had for the past thirteen years of his life been a focal point of radiance and joy just have all the life completely sucked out of her.

"Probably just from being back after so long," Ford patted her kindly on the head. However, Dipper still felt a strong sense of unease the longer that she simply stared down at her breakfast that he couldn't seem to shake off. He eventually tucked it away in the back of his mind, convincing himself that his wiser great uncle was correct.

If only things were that simple.

The sparse few moments of silence were interrupted by the crashing of breaking glass, and everyone froze.

"Waddles!" Mabel shrieked suddenly, tearing out of the room and bounding up the stairs two at a time. Dipper was right behind her, surprised by her sudden burst of speed. He could hear his uncles clambering up the steps behind him, but they made it to the source of the noise long before their uncles did. Waddles seemed to be completely uninjured, but was cowering in the corner of their bedroom, shattered glass from the window all over the floor. In the midst of the glass was a large stone covered with paper and a rubber band. Dipper stole a glance out the window to see if he could find the perpetrator, but found no one.

"What is it?" Ford burst into their bedroom, observing the carnage. "What happened?"

"I-I think somebody threw a rock through our window..." Mabel picked up the heft stone, baffled.

"There's a note attached," Dipper pointed out, pulling the slip of paper out and unfolding it. He read it and reread it just to ensure that he missed nothing, but it remained just as plain as could be.

"What's it say?" Ford peered over his shoulder.

"... Leave Gravity Falls," Dipper said with a slightly shaking voice. "This is your last warning. That's all they wrote."

"Alright!" Grunkle Stan burst in with a rifle in his arms, alarming them all. "Who's the punk that caused property damage?!"

"They must have run off just after throwing his," Ford held up the rock with a frown.

"Who would want us out of Gravity Falls?" Mabel rubbed her eyes again, brows furrowed.

"I'm open to suggestions..." Dipper shrugged.

"Well, Gideon and his family left town," Mabel hypothesized aloud, pacing as she carefully avoided the glass to prevent cutting her bare feet. "I'm pretty sure Robby isn't still mad at us after he finally hooked up with Tambry. Maybe the gnomes came back for revenge?"

Ford hmm'd and held his six fingered hand over his mouth, thinking.

"Those are all valid points. The Gleeful family hasn't been around for nearly a year," he nodded in agreement with Mabel. I haven't met this 'Robby' character, but I'm sure he isn't all that bad."

"Yeah right," Dipper muttered under his breath.

"And I'm positive that it wasn't the gnomes..." Ford continued.

"What' makes you say that?" Dipper blinked. "Is it because you've kept in contact with their leader? Have you been secretly watching their every move with super spy cameras or something? Have you created a temporary truce pact? Does the anti-magic barrier around the Shack prevent them from coming close?"

"No," Ford blinked. "Their arms are super stubby. Have you seen those things? They couldn't lob a rock like this through a second floor window, they'd have to stand on each others shoulders just to reach that height, they'd look ridiculous."

"Not like they haven't tried that before," Dipper shook his head. "They once tried standing on each others shoulders beneath a coat to try making my sister their queen."

"... Gnomes have that level of coordination?" Ford stared at him.

"If you think that's bad," Mabel interjected tiredly. "You should have seen them turn into a giant monster and try squishing us like bugs."
"Mabel," Dipper pulled out his journal and flipped to the pages on gnomes, pen at the ready. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Um, I think so, Dip. But where are we going to get a rubber duck at this hour?"

"No, Mabel," Dipper laughed. "I mean-"

"I know, I know," she chuckled. "Looks like we've got a good ol' fashioned mystery on our hands."

Then again, this was Gravity Falls.

Things were never that simple.

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A/N

I really tried to keep everyone in character for the story.

Just something I whipped up. Might continue if anyone actually likes it.