Chapter 13 - The Celebration

Upon Bill's disappearance, Pacifica and Dipper express to each other their annoyance.

"I seriously hate that guy," she told him, one hand on her hip, "That's literally his third time visiting today. I didn't even want to see him the first time."

Dipper nods in agreement. "Yeah, that was the first spiel of his I could remember today, and I thought even that one dragged on a little long."

Pacifica makes fun of the demon, doing a bad impression, "Hey Pine Tree, I'm the Master of Mind. I'm super excited that you're gonna die!" Dipper continues, in an impression equally terrible.

"Oh yeah Llama, I'm here to tell you five times that there's a darkness on its way, but I can't have you knowing too much! And as always..."

Pacifica joins him for this last one, and they speak in unison. "I'll be watching you..."

They both laugh and look back at each other. Dipper blushes and turns away, apologizing.

"Sorry."

"Don't be," she responds.

He continues, "I'm sorry I forgot everything about earlier. I remember now, but man, that must've been annoying." He mimics his past self, "I dunno, Pacifica, what happened? I can't remember our heart-to-heart conversation!" He pauses, his expression turned to disgust, and begins again, "Man, I can see why you were crying earlier."

She playfully pushes him. "I wasn't... crying! Pssh! Why would I...?" She nervously looks away for a moment, then pulls out some money from her pocket. "Can I pay you to never tell anyone?"

He looks at her with a joking expression of disapproval, "How much are you offering?"

She laughs and jests, "Shut up."

He speaks, "Well, I better get back to the Mystery Shack. You wanna come with?"

"Sure. I sure as heck don't want to go back to my parents. I wonder how they're doing by the way."

Back in Northwest Mansion, Preston and his wife struggle to answer the questions posed by Powers and Trigger. Trying to pat out the sweat with a towel his butler provides, he finally obliges.

"Look," he begins, "I... I couldn't tell you if I wanted to. It's complicated."

"How so?" asks Powers.

"I... Okay," he gathers his wits, "I do recall... a strange triangular man talking to us. He... We, our family, made a deal with him... To secure our position in society... He appeared to me once... But the thing is, I can't remember anything else. All the specifics are just... gone."

"Like your memory was erased...?" Trigger asks in response.

"Exactly," Preston responds, "I recall only the triangular fellow. His name was... Bill, I think, Bill-"

"Cipher," Powers interrupts him, "So the legend is true." He turns to Trigger, "Come on, Trigger, we've gotten all we can from this bunch."

"Agreed." They walk off, and Trigger interrupts the serious moment, "You wanna get something to eat? I mean, I didn't have time for much of a breakfast." The Northwests hear this and laugh lightly.

"We talked about this, Trigger," Power interrupts him, "We aren't a safe 'talking distance' from them yet. To them we're not supposed to be people. We're government agents. Wait 'til we're in the car, then we'll talk."

They get in the car. "Yeah, I could eat." They drive off.

After a short walk, Dipper and Pacifica are back at the Mystery Shack, hand in hand, only to be surprised with balloons, confetti, and Mabel and friends yelling "CONGRATULATIONS!" at them, almost aggressively in Candy and Grenda's cases. The whole thing is followed by a jaw drop by Wendy. Soos applauds the couple quietly in the background. Dipper and Pacifica blush and realize they're holding hands. They pull back in embarrassment, blushing, and face the crowd's praise.

"Yes!" shouts Grenda, "I have inside connections now!", followed by an eerie comment by Candy.

"Now we can get rid of anyone." She giggles soon thereafter, getting rid of the creepy vibe she was giving off.

Mabel pulls Pacifica away, telling her, "Okay, so if you're gonna be with my brother, you're gonna need to know a few things..." She walked off with her and presumably proceeded to tell her some embarrassing facts and stories, pulling out a picture of Dipper in the lamb costume to introduce her to the "Lamby Lamby Dance".

Dipper, amidst the craziness of the celebration, grabs a Pitt Cola and starts to drink. Soon Soos and Wendy approach him. Soos begins.

"Whoa! Congrats, dude! Did you use Mabel's tips or did it just sorta happen by chance?"

This question prompts a brief moment of thought, and after a few seconds, Dipper admits, playing it cool, "It's kinda complicated."

Soos laughs and agrees not to ask further questions, but privately grabs hold of Dipper's shoulder and whispers to him, "Look, I don't wanna storm on your uh... little boyfriend-girlfriend pride parade, but um, are you sure this a good idea, dude? I mean, she... the Northwests are um..."

Dipper interrupts him. "Don't worry, she's not like the rest of them." Soos stops talking, but looks worried, and says nothing else as he walks to the other room with the girls.

Wendy approaches Dipper, still awestruck, and pushes him jokingly, saying, "Dude! Nice job, man! I mean, I wouldn't have expected her, but nice work." She pauses, smiling, "Look at you, Dipper. Movin' on like an adult. If only Robbie were as quick as you when it came to this. That would've saved me a few painful weeks." They laugh, and she fist bumps him before leaving to the other room with everyone else.

Dipper smiles at everyone's support, but hears a strange noise coming from behind the Employees Only sign. He follows it, leading to Stan's room. He opens the door slowly, to witness Stan uttering an incomprehensible incantation, along with saying something about end times and over-something Master of the Mind. Dipper couldn't tell if he was saying "overcome" or "overthrow", so he interrupts him. Stan freaks out for a moment before trying to cover it up. His glasses fall off his face in his panic, but he catches them.

"That wasn't- That- wasn't me! You uh-" He hears the party noises, "So...uh... Apparently you got a girlfriend, is that right?" He struggles to hold back his laughter as he asks this. Dipper nonchalantly replies in the affirmative.

"Actually, yes. And I get your skepticism, Grunkle Stan; even I find it hard to believe."

Suddenly Pacifica walks up to Dipper and grabs hold of his arm. "What's up, 'Sir Dippingsauce'?" She giggles for a moment before explaining, and holds up a card, "Sorry, Mabel showed me your 'ID'." She notices Stan and directs her attention to him briefly. "Oh hey, Stan. Why don't you join the party?"

Stan's jaw drops further than should be humanly possible, and his eyes stare blankly at nothing in particular. Pacifica waves her hand in front of him to make sure if he's okay, but he doesn't budge. She leaves to the other room to enjoy the company of her new friends. "Oh well, suit yourself, old man."

Stan stares at Dipper, dumbfounded. "But, you... and her...? She's..."

"She's rich..." Dipper tries to justify it without having to explain.

"Never mind, I'm sold." He stops worrying immediately upon being reminded. Dipper shrugs and is about to leave, when Stan calls him back for a moment.

"Hey, Dipper," he says, in a voice calmer than usual, "I... I'm proud of you, kid. Nice work."

Dipper stops for a moment as he runs off, turns around, and says these last words to his great uncle. "Thanks. I never thought I'd hear you say that to my face."

"Yeah, but you knew I was thinkin' it all along." He winks, the two smile, and Dipper runs back to the party to once again. Upon his nephew's departure, Stan looks up to the sky and says, nearly inaudibly, "You've already lost, Cipher. The portal's open. You'll be sorry." before following them to join the celebration.

Dipper looked at Pacifica, enjoying herself with his friends and family. When he saw her, he no longer cared about her background, or her family, or the things she'd said and done. The only thing that mattered was her, now. The way her eyes sparkled, the way her hair waved through the air, and her laugh. Her laugh gave the most comforting feeling to Dipper, a reassurance that Pacifica is no longer a 1-dimensional stereotype, but that she was real. And she looked beautiful in that dress. But in all honesty, that didn't matter either. When Dipper looked at her, he saw a sweet, beautiful young woman with a heart of gold so pure even she wouldn't be able to afford it.

Pacifica looked over at Dipper. She thought about her family, then immediately rejected it. Love isn't something you can buy, she reasoned. You have to earn it, and she was glad to have finally accomplished something meaningful: she earned the chance to love and be loved.

To love and be loved. That's all Dipper ever really wanted. And it's what Pacifica realized was the only thing she needed.

When he looked at her, and when she looked at him, he didn't care about the apocalypse, or the author of the journals, or even Bill. All he cared about now was her in his arms. That made it all worth it.

But he should probably care more about the end times and stuff. It's pretty important. Bad stuff is about to go down, and they should really get ready.

Come March 9th, and you'll see. You'll all see.

But until then...

I'll be watching you!