AN: I fixed it.

Meeting the Twins

Stan ran through the door and slammed it shut behind him, barely getting a board across it before he could hear the Ink Demon come up on the other side, close enough that Stan could hear him breathing.

"It seems our little game of chase has come to an end Ink Well… For now…" the Ink Demon Chuckled, causing Stan to shudder as he heard a long deep scratch being carved into the door. "Enjoy your break while you can… no one can escape me here… In the meantime, say hi to my little pets…"

Stan heard the Ink Demon slink off to who knows where and, after waiting a moment to be sure he was really gone, Stan allowed himself to sink to the floor. How did everything become so messed up? He should have known that something was wrong the moment he came to the abandoned studio and his brother wasn't immediately there to greet him. He should have known that restarting the ink machine was a stupid idea. His brother's experiments had already started getting out of hand long ago. It's what lead to the fight that got him kicked from the studio in the first place. But after 30 years of not seeing his brother, Stan's hopes for a happy reunion blinded him to what was right in front of him.

But never in his worst nightmares could he have imagined that it would come to this. His old friends and coworkers turned into ink creatures. The character he had so lovingly created and worked on twisted beyond recognition. Worn in mockery by that true monster that was chasing him through these halls. He knew full well that if the Ink Demon had so desired he could have easily ended Stan's life at any time. With the power, he felt rolling off that unholy creature, Stan doubted something as simple as a wooden door could actually stop it.

No… the Ink Demon was only playing with him. Whether to just prolong the hunt or for some other malicious purpose, Stan didn't even want to know. Not that any of it mattered at the moment. Right now he had to find some other to get out of this blasted studio, and possibly deal with whatever the Ink Demon was hinting at.

He slowly rose to his feet, cracking his back he did so. All this running and fighting for his health cannot be good for his health, not that he's old or anything. He carefully made his way out the room and into the next one. He didn't get very far when he heard something drop and saw a soup can rolling out from around the corner.

"Hello? Someone there?" Stan called, reaching for his ax before remembering that it had broken during his escape. "I know you're in here. Come out and show yourself."

There was no direct response right away, but Stan could hear frantic whispering from around the corner. Just before Stan was about to go around corner himself, two ink creatures came out from around the corner. They looked young kids, a boy and a girl sharing features similar to Bendy and Alice, and the girl was pulling the reluctant boy closer to Stan. Once they got a good look at Stan, they both froze, their pie-cut eyes widening in surprise, confusion, and… fear? Why would two kids he never met be afraid of him? Though… with how crazy and dangerous the studio was, it was probably a good thing for the kids to be afraid of strangers.

"Hey, it's alright," Stan said softly, kneeling down to appear less intimidating. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Hi! I'm Mabel and this is my brother Dipper!" The girl, Mabel, smiled and tried to approach Stan, but Dipper held her back.

"Mabel, you can't just trust anyone in here," Dipper lectured, giving Stan a suspicious glance. "Especially not one that looks like him…"

"Does this… have to do with my brother Ford?" Stan asked carefully, putting the pieces together. The twins both shuddered slightly at Ford's name, igniting a spark of anger in Stan. He was already angry at Ford for what he'd already seen and had been planning to give the nerd a good punch in the jaw. But to do something so terrible to make kids have that kind of response at just his name, Ford deserved a full beat down.

"We… don't like to talk about him…" Mabel said before brightening up. "But it doesn't matter if you look like him or you are his brother, I'm sure you're nothing like him. Come on, let's take you back to our safe house! We can eat and get you cleaned up. I'll even make you a sweater!"

"Mabel! We are not taking him to our safe house!" Dipper said firmly, putting his foot down. "We don't know anything about him! For all we know, he's the one that turned on the Ink Machine and released Bill! We're better off if we just leave him here!"

"Look, I was the one that restarted the Ink Machine," Stan admitted. It was better that they hear it from him now rather than finding out later. "But I swear to you, I had no idea what it was going to do. If I had known that it would release that monster, I would never have done it. I know you have no reason to believe me, but I promise that I'm going to fix this anyway I can and get you out of here."

"Pinky promise?" Mabel asked after the twins thought it over for a few minutes, holding out her hand.

"Pinky promise," Stan replied with a smile, intertwining his finger around hers and getting a dazzling grin in return.

"Fine, you can come with us," Dipper huffed, looking around. "But we better get moving before searchers or worse find us."

"Lead the way," Stan said as he got up. He followed the twins as they lead him back to their safe house. Stan had a lot of questions and he knew he still had a long way to go to earn the kid's trust, but he's was willing to give it a try. He might have just met them, but he already cared about them and he was going to do all he can to keep them safe.