Marius waited for Pacifica by her locker. What Gideon had said before definitely caught Pacifica off guard. Marius knew Pacifica well enough that he wasn't worried about her liking someone like Pines. But at the same time, he felt distant from her. She hadn't told him that Dipper had beaten her in a test, despite the fact that she was the smartest person in the school. She didn't look him in the eyes when she defended Dipper. Was she hiding something? Maybe Dipper Pines was a problem for their relationship. It was too early to be sure, but there is no doubt that something was being hidden.

Marius heard footsteps and turned to see Pacifica walking towards her locker. She looked annoyed. "Hello, Pacifica."

"Hi, Marius. Can I get to my locker?" Marius moved out of the way. When they first started dating, Pacifica used to hold his hand. Now, Marius stood away from Pacifica as she aggressively stuffed folders into her locker. "Bad day, Pacifica?"

"About to get worse. I need to get to cheerleading." The corner of Marius' mouth turned upwards slightly. He may not know Pacifica as well as he used to, but one thing he did know was how envious Pacifica was of Mabel Pines' charisma. That might explain her actions. Suddenly, an idea entered Marius' mind. If Mabel Pines had cheerleading, Dipper Pines would be around school somewhere. Maybe he could figure out what was happening between Pacifica and Dipper.

"Sorry, Pacifica. I need to be somewhere." Pacifica hummed in response. Marius frowned and turned away from Pacifica. He walked down the hall then made a left. He looked back before turning, but Pacifica was gone.

The halls slowly emptied as people left for the evening. Marius looked around the different classes for Dipper Pines. He passed by the physics and math classrooms twice to make sure he hadn't missed Pines. Where would a person like Dipper go? Should he ask Professor Pines? No, that may be too suspicious. Instead, he would need to think like Dipper. If he had a sister that was doing cheer practice, where would you wait?

Marius walked around some more before he realised where Dipper would be. The library! Such an obvious location and yet it flew over his head. Marius entered the library, making sure not to make noise. That was the general rule of libraries. Marius was more athletic and preferred being outdoors, so he only came to the library when Pacifica needed a book. He still could get through an exam, but he would never be as smart as Pacifica.

Dipper Pines was easy to find. He was the only student that wasn't bent over the desk, scribbling on their homework. He was sitting by a window, reading some book. Marius didn't recognise it. Marius watched him reading. Was it possible that he was overreacting? Maybe he was imagining everything. An upstanding, noble family like the Northwests wouldn't dare meddle with the affairs of people like the Pines. And it was even stranger that Pacifica would talk to anyone below her, never mind Dipper Pines. Clearly, Marius was exaggerating his fears.

He took one last look at Dipper, who still hadn't noticed him, then sighed and decided to leave the library. As he was leaving, a large man with strange eyes passed him. He had a scar on his forehead and a scowl. Marius moved away from him, expecting to be punched if he even dared to speak in the man's presence. Marius closed the door of the library and made his way to the school gates.

Marius was just passing the physics room when he heard running footsteps behind him. He turned just as Dipper Pines sprinted past him. "Dipper?" he muttered, confused. Then, a larger silhouette passed him. The large man from before! At first, Marius didn't understand, but the situation became clear when the large man yelled.

"I'm gonna break your bones, child!"

Marius quickly figured out where Dipper was running to. He was purposefully taking the longer route to the school gates to try and shake off the large man. That meant that if Marius took the next right, he could intercept them. Maybe he could help Dipper escape the wrath of the man. Marius dashed forward and quickly made his way to the rendezvous.

He reached the point just as Dipper turned the corner and headed his way. The large man was close behind him. Marius prepared himself and launched forward as Dipper passed him. He hit the man square on and they both fell on the ground. The man groaned and shook his head. "What on earth?" Marius didn't waste any time. He quickly got up and followed Dipper, who stopped momentarily in shock. "Let's go!"

The two ran away from the large man. However, they quickly realised their mistake. In their rush to escape the man, they turned the wrong way. "No time to turn back, we'll have to circle round," Dipper said. Marius nodded and they turned away from the corridor and went towards the field. After a few turns, they slowed down. "We can probably get away if we have Pacifica and Mabel with us." Did he purposefully mention Pacifica first? No, don't overthink it.

"Maybe," Marius replied. "Do you know who he is?"

"No, never seen him before. Seems like he really has it out for me, though."

Marius smirked. "Maybe someone sent him after you."

Dipper chuckled lightly. "I don't know many people who would want to. Apart from your girlfriend, maybe." Marius wasn't sure how to respond to that. But now that Dipper had brought up the topic...

"Dipper Pines, what is your association with Pacifica Northwest?" Dipper turned to look at Marius, confused. Perhaps he could make it clearer. "Are you secretly dating her?"

Dipper stopped walking. "What? No way! What makes you say that? She's your girlfriend."

Marius kept on walking. Dipper moved a little quicker so they were next to each other. "She defended you today." Dipper tilted his head, asking a silent question. "Gideon was making fun of your intellect, and she defended it."

"Maybe that makes sense."

"Why?"

"She wants me to tutor her, so I guess it makes sense for her to defend my intellect." It all clicked at that moment. Pacifica was defending her secret tutor. Of course she was slightly aggressive around the topic of Dipper Pines - she didn't want people knowing that she needed help from a Pines.

"Oh, I see." They were now at the edge of the field, where the cheerleaders were just finishing up. Marius watched and then understood why Pacifica was jealous of Mabel Pines. She was dancing and cartwheeling and having fun with others. Pacifica was standing slightly away from the centre of attention, stretching. "Have you tutored her yet?"

Dipper looked at him. "No, she just told me that she needed my help. She didn't give me a phone number or anything."

"So you're definitely not secretly dating her?"

Dipper laughed. "Of course not! Why would you worry?"

Marius smiled a little. "I don't know. You know how popular she is. She could choose anyone and they would never say no."

Dipper looked back at the field. "Unless that person was me," he responded. "I'm honestly not sure what people see in her."

Marius blinked. "You have eyes, right?"

Dipper shrugged. "I guess, but is looks all you're after in life? From what I know of Pacifica, she's not very kind or trusting." Marius didn't reply. "But maybe that's just me. We all have different problems in life."

Marius watched as the cheerleaders headed back to changing rooms. He couldn't help but wonder what Dipper meant by problems. "Let's go get Pacifica and your sister. We can get away from that man." Dipper nodded and they crossed the field. "Wait." Dipper held out his hand, stopping Marius. "We can't follow them into the girls' changing rooms. The boys' changing rooms are on this side of the field - we'll meet them on the other side."

"Right, yes. Good point."

They entered the changing rooms and began moving through the lockers. Marius looked back at Dipper, who was holding his nose. "Sorry," Dipper said in a nasal voice. "Don't really spend time in here. Does it always stink this much?" Marius smiled and kept on walking. He stopped when he heard the entrance door open. "Who the hell is here at a time like this?" Marius whispered.

The two teenagers tilted their heads forward and jumped back behind the lockers. The man with the scar was at the door. "Boys... are you in here?" They crawled backwards as the voice got louder. "I only want the Pines boy. Give up the Pines and I will let the other boy go free." Marius and Dipper looked at each other. Marius shook his head. I won't just give you away.

Dipper motioned to move the other way, and they both crawled further away from the door. They could go to the field, but that would risk exposure. They would need a distraction.

Marius looked around and found a shoe on the ground. He picked it up. Dipper looked at him and figured out the plan. He held up three fingers. Marius held the shoe slightly higher and waited for the signal.

Dipper put the last finger down and Marius threw the shoe across the room. It hit a locker with a loud clang. The large man immediately appeared by the shoe. What happened next shocked Marius. Instead of running away, Dipper ran at the man and kicked his stomach. The man, more shocked than hurt, stumbled backwards and hit the locker. Before he could get up, Dipper pushed the lockers on top of the man.

Marius stood by the door. What the hell just happened?

The man struggled under the weight, trying to free his arms. Dipper and Marius watched him struggle.

"You won't get away with this, boy! My boss isn't done with you yet!"

"Who is this boss?" Marius asked.

The man's pale eyes widened. "I've said too much!" He groaned and tried to lift himself up, but the lockers were pushing down on him.

"Let's get a teacher in here," Dipper suggested. The two of them left, leaving the man struggling under a pile of empty lockers.

"That was incredible of you. I thought we were going to run, not fight."

"Well, I figured that he would keep chasing us, so we needed to stop him somehow. But right now, let's focus on finding a teacher." Luckily for them, Professor Pines happened to be crossing this way. "Professor Pines!" Marius called. The teacher looked up and saw the two of them. "Dipper, Marius. Strange to see you two here together."

"There's someone chasing Pines! He's stuck in the changing rooms."

"After I used that technique you showed me." What? Professor Pines can do that? The teacher's face turned dark. "Let's go." They ran back to the changing rooms. But when they returned, not only was the man gone, but the lockers were standing as if Dipper had never knocked them down. "What the...?" Dipper crouched down where the man had been and looked around.

"He's gone."

Professor Pines rubbed his chin. "Boys, is this some kind of prank? I need you to be honest."

"No, it's true!" Marius exclaimed. "He was big and had a big beard-"

"-there was a scar on his forehead and he had empty eyes-"

"-no pupils at all-"

"Slow down," the professor said. "This is unbelievable! A man with no pupils chased Dipper around the school? That's impossible. This is Gravity Falls, nothing ever happens!" Dipper and Marius looked at each other, dumbfounded. "Look, maybe you two saw something else, or were exposed to some kind of hallucinatory gas. Whatever you saw was unlikely to be real."

Marius looked at the lockers, which he believed were meant to be on the ground. Is it possible? There's no way. They both saw the same thing. But before Marius could defend himself, Dipper spoke. "You're probably right."

Marius didn't understand what Dipper was trying to achieve, but Dipper has proven himself to be smarter than anyone else Marius knew. "Let's pick up your sister and head home." Dipper looked back at Marius as he and his great-uncle left the changing room. He nodded. Marius nodded back.

Marius sat down on his bed, thinking about what had happened yesterday. He couldn't get it out of his head. He couldn't claim to be good friends with Dipper, but it's clear that there is something interesting happening in the life of Dipper Pines. More importantly, Dipper has proven to Marius that he is a trustworthy person. Whether or not they speak again, Dipper has gained respect from Marius.

Marius' phone lit up. He looked at the message. It was Pacifica. Something strange happened yesterday? Mabel is saying that you and her brother fought off some assassin? Marius was about to reply, but then remembered. Dipper agreed with Professor Pines when he said it was all probably fake. Whatever he had been thinking clearly had some kind of logic.

I do not remember anything of the sort happening.

Marius put the phone down. He understood Dipper's choice of words. Perhaps everyone faced different problems after all.

Okay, so four days, not two! In my defence, I added a bunch of stuff and changed the perspective of this chapter. But Marius is good! I really want to bring out Marius' character a little bit more in this story. He didn't get a lot of time in the show, despite being a part of a canon relationship with Grenda. So yes, you will see more of him.

Another thing, I finished SVTFOE. And I understand why people might be upset with the ending. In my honest opinion, I think it's an alright ending. To me, it ended sort of like a Starco fanfiction, you know what I mean? As if someone watched the actual SVTFOE, fell in love with Starco, and ended the story there. I think it works, but it did get incredibly heavy with the Starco at the end. Oh well.

Hope you liked this chapter. It is different from most of the other chapters but clearly important. Let's just see what happens next. Also, if you think that we are close to the end... NO WAY! We are a long way away from there, so yes. Enjoy the show.

Until next time!