Professor Utonium pressed the code to take down the force field surrounding his house and walked up to the door before putting the field back up again. He entered the house where he was greeted by three floating girls he was proud to call his daughters. It was all the more reason why they had to stay low until him and Ford worked out a master plan to stop the Chaotics once and for all.
"Any luck Professor?" Blossom asked.
Buttercup slapped her tiny hands together, "Yeah! I wanna get out and pulverize those evil dudes for overtaking our world!"
Utonium sighed, "I know you do Buttercup, but not yet. Mr. Pines and I have been working hard on pinpointing a fault within these chaotic lords until then you and your sisters have to stay here."
Buttercup moaned, "Aw, man!" and crossed her arms to pout while floating down.
Bubbles said, "But Professor we're getting tired of staying home all the time."
Blossom nodded, "Yeah, and besides we're letting down those who need us." she hung her head and floated down with Bubbles.
Utonium got on one knee to face the girls, telling them, "I know this is hard for you, girls. It was always your responsibility to protect the city but when something like this happened you couldn't stop it."
Blossom stated sadly, "We failed… "
"Everyone fails, I had quite a few failures in my life but if there's one thing I did right, it was you girls." he gathered them into a family embrace which they happily accepted. "Which is why I'm going to do everything within my power to make sure you girls can succeed and free our world from all this!"
Bubbles gleefully said, "Please do, Daddy!"
Buttercup added, "You can do it!"
Blossom motioned, "We believe in you!"
"Thank you, girls, I needed that. As long as I have your support I believe I can accomplish what needs to be done."
They embraced again with hope rising in their hearts.
Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Stan gathered around the table eating dinner, with the twins noticing their Grunkle briefly glancing at the empty spot next to him time and time again and huffed.
Dipper said, "He told me he would get busy."
Stan grunted, "It's the same excuse every time! That poindexter, doesn't he realize that he's fighting something that can't be won?!"
Mabel and Soos gasped with the 13-year-old admonishing, "Grunkle Stan, you can't mean that?!"
"Look, kid, I know a lost cause when I see one. It was one thing when we stopped that triangle and his weirdness from taking over our world last year but this time we got four power hungry monsters that have control of everything! Let's face it, there's no way we can fix this, we lost…" he hung his head.
Dipper stood up and slammed his hands on the table, startling everyone, "No! We haven't lost yet! Grunkle Ford has been rallying other heroes from their worlds and they want to battle the Chaotics so we can all return to our proper dimensions!"
Stan stood up to loom over the boy, "Kid, you've seen what they can do! They are dangerous and crazy! I think you need to stay here at the Shack from now on and not be involved in my brother's resistance anymore."
Dipper stepped back in alarm, "You can't mean that!"
"I'm sorry, Dipper but it's for the best." he addressed Mabel, "And that goes for you too, young lady. No more running around with those new weirdo friends of yours, especially that crazy pink girl with the poofy hair, something's not right about her."
Mabel said in distress, "Grunkle Stan, no! Not Pinkie! She's the most super-duper-awesomest-amazing-friend I ever had! We're like the same person but from different worlds! And she's pink like Waddles! WE WERE MEANT TO BE BFFS!" she grabbed for his legs and groveled, "DON'T TAKE ME AWAY FROM HER!"
Soos pointed, "Kind of makes you wonder if she's your real twin instead of Dipper."
Dipper snapped, "Soos!"
"Just kidding, dude."
Mabel kept giving Stan the sad eyes until finally he sighed, "Fine, you can still see the crazy random if not creepy girl."
She jumped up in excitement and cheered while her Grunkle groaned and told Dipper.
"You know you better be right about my brother being able to fix this, because I can't wait for the day when we and everyone else goes back to their own dimension."
"Great Uncle Ford hasn't let us down yet, we still have the unicorn magic surrounding the Shack and that help protected us when Bill came back. The only reason he couldn't stop this from happening in the first place was because he was unprepared for Aku and HIM's appearance and the power they had displayed was nothing he ever encountered before."
Soos mentioned, "Hey, dudes, I just realized something, doesn't it seem weird that other chaotic guy, Discord takes a back seat from time to time?"
Mabel tapped her chin in thought, "Yeah, now that you mentioned it, it does seem he doesn't like to be involved…"
Dipper stated, "Twilight told me it's because he's not as powerful as the others, but I don't know about that. Yeah he wasn't part of the takeover of our world but why would Bill even want to be friends with him if he wasn't strong with his magic? I mean he would be better suited as a henchmen rather than Bill's equal."
Mabel voiced, "That is strange."
Her brother continued as he made for doorway, "Well anyway, he has to be stopped just like the others regardless of his power level." on that note, he left the room.
Discord and Fluttershy laid in the grass as he waved his paw to make the fireflies make different shapes and figures. They would have gazed at the stars if not for the fact Aku covered the sky with dark clouds hiding the stars from view.
"Oh! Guess who that is!" the draconequus pointed.
She giggled, "That's Angel!" before she sighed sadly.
He inquired, "You miss him, uh?"
"I know time will have remain the same in Equestria when we get back but still… we've already been here a month… I miss all my animal friends…"
"I'm sorry… it shouldn't have taken this long… but I haven't seen these chaotic fiends in a long time, I had forgotten how destructive and dangerous they really were… I was force to tread cautiously around them and I had to stay in their good graces or bad graces as the case may be."
"It's okay, I want you to stay safe, I can wait as long as I have to if only to make sure you come back to me…" she looked him with her pretty teal eyes.
Discord slightly gapped at the sight, Fluttershy was always this perfect and beautiful pony, but the problem was she never saw herself as that and that's one of the things he found her fascinating other than her resisting him in the labyrinth with her sweet and trusting nature. It still baffled him that this kind and caring mare had ever want to be friends with him in the first place especially since he betrayed her when Tirek came around, her forgiveness in the end was astounding and he promise himself he would never take her for granted ever again.
He said, "Fluttershy I have to know, but what would you do if I don't come back?"
She sat and proclaimed, "I would be devastated of course! I almost lost you when you acted normal and starting disappearing from existence! I don't want to lose one of my dearest friends to those monsters! As strange as this sounds but I can't imagine my life without you, Discord." she got closer to him and held his paw, "So please… be careful and do what you must to survive… whatever that might be, I won't hold it against you…"
He took her in his arms and held her in an embrace, "Oh Fluttershy… Yes… I promise… But you should know that you will always come first… Because I can't live without you either…"
The two hugged each other tightly.
Ford was finishing inspecting the latest inventions when he felt his energy lowering and went back to his office to make a pot of coffee. As he waited for the coffee maker to get done, he sat at his desk and glanced at his family's picture. He couldn't blame his brother for wanting him to be home more often cause truth be told, he rather be home right now. Things were so much simpler before the Chaotics' sudden takeover, Stanley and him were traveling the world looking for strange anomalies and treasure for almost a year until summer came around and Stan wanted to return to Gravity Falls so he could see the kids again. Ford didn't argue given he wanted to see the kids too and it was a good thing too since things could have been so much worst if they weren't there to help protect the town as much as they could.
The fact that Bill was waiting with his revenge sent Ford on edge. During Weirdmageddon, Cipher came that close to killing his great niece with just a snap of his fingers! Who knows what kind of plan he had for his entire family since Stanley and him tricked Bill by pretending to be the other and nearly erased the demon from Stan's mind. Whatever it was, it cannot be good.
Ford's eyes began to droop and slowly he fell asleep with his head landing on the side of his desk.
Stanford soon found himself in a familiar dreamscape. In fact it was the very dreamscape in which he first met Bill Cipher! Ford was immediately on his guard as he searched his surroundings and to his dismay he heard a familiar and demented cackle. He shouted, "Bill! Show yourself!"
Bill regenerated right before him and exclaimed, "Well, well, here we are again just like old times, uh, Sixer?"
Ford demanded, "Stop playing around with me, Cipher! If you're going to destroy me, just get it over with! I'm tired of all this waiting!"
The one-eyed triangle floated around him, "Aw, now where's the fun in that? If there's one thing my old pal, Discord has taught me is that you should toy with your victims first before going in for the kill. And you know what, he was right! Watching you and your family suffer throughout this entire ordeal has been the most enjoyable thing I've seen! You with trying to make a resistance that can defeat me and my comrades has been a laugh! There's no way your group's devices can overcome our power combined!"
"We can try! I will try until my final breath! I will not let my family end up hurt by your evil hands!"
"Funny you should say that… Since you care for your family so much, how would you like a way to keep them protected even after you die naturally from a heart attack at ninety-two? You can't stay alive forever, Fordsy and I'll just keep coming back to do them harm." he taunted while adding, "You know I will…"
Ford scowled, "I should just outright refuse your suggestion, but as I don't have much of choice right now, how do you propose you'll protect my family?"
"In order to protect your family you'll have to give me one of them to me…" if the triangle had a mouth he would be grinning evilly.
"WHAT?! NEVER!" the six-fingered man shook his fist up in the air.
"Hey, hey!" Bill held his hands up in defense, "I'm giving you a golden opportunity, Stanford! Think about it, only one member of your family needs to sacrifice themself for the rest while the others can live peacefully without me breathing down their necks."
"If it's a sacrifice you want, then take me!"
"Oh no-no-no, you're not getting off that easy! Face it, IQ, you've out lived your usefulness to me, that's why I have my eye out for a certain pine tree that is young and full of life…" letting his old pawn fill in the blanks.
Ford muttered, "Pine tree…" thinking it over before his eyes widen in realization and shouted, "NO!"
Bill smugly replied, "Oh yes."
"You stay away from my nephew! I will not make him some sacrificial lamb to you!"
"It's either that or let the rest of your family be tormented for the rest of their miserable lives."
"Get out!"
Bill just shrugged, "All right I'll go, but remember this won't be the last you see of me, and since you're so against sacrifices just have Pine Tree come to me willingly should he decide to give himself up for his family." with another demented laugh, Bill began to disappear.
Ford woke up with a start and panted heavily. Thoughts raced in his head, I can't let him get to Dipper! He looked at his work on the boards, I have to hurry, or else all will be lost…