The party was going as well as could be expected, considering the ordeal everyone had undergone. There was cheering from wall to wall, souls intermingling with one another, a grand room teeming with life and joyousness. Dipper proceeded through the crowd towards the cider fountain, grabbed an empty glass, and filled it up from the spicket towards the top so as not to disturb the now tired Manly Dan who was resting in the base pool.

"Dipper!" he heard his sister yell as she ran across the room to him and proceeded to expel an unnaturally fast sentence from her lungs, "What happened? One minute, my eyes can only see in a woody filter, the next Marius is asking Grenda out, which is awesome in the same way a rainbow-laser-shooting unicorn in a tuxedo would be awesome, but I'm still confused as to where those five minutes of my life went." Mabel then took a breath and continued. "And what was that weird blue fire beard guy? He looked like he came out of some Halloween themed Brawny commercial!"

"That would have been a category ten ghost," Dipper replied.

"And you got him, right?" Mabel asked, "He's not going to put the wood filter over our eyes again? Seeing the world in brown forever would just get boring."

"Actually," Dipper began, "it wasn't me this time. I'll let you guess who got rid of him."

There was a long pause.

"You don't mean...?" Mabel stammered.

"Pacifica busted her own ghost."

"That's...that's amazing," Mabel responded, "Deep down, I guess maybe I knew she had it in her to do something awesome. How did she manage that?"

"She accepted the people her parents wouldn't," Dipper said, grinning, "I think we're really starting to see a new side of her."

"There you are, Dipper," Pacifica said, brushing through the crowd, "I was worried you left after I talked to the clean-up crew. Come on, I want to show you something." She turned and looked at Mabel, and a weird mix of emotions ran through them both before Pacifica blurted out, "I'm kidnapping your brother for a little while. Hope you don't mind." With that, she grabbed him by the hand into the crowd, disappearing from Mabel's view.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Mabel exclaimed. Then she thought of what could possibly be happening between them and smiled. Is this not what she wanted, to possibly make a friend out of Pacifica and for her brother to get his mind off Wendy?

Pacifica dragged Dipper up the stairs to a very musty attic. Something about the cool air and the poor lighting made it seem like the place to still be haunted.

"Is it safe up here?" Dipper asked, "No more ghosts that we're forgetting to exorcize?" Pacifica groaned.

"No," she responded, "I think it's pretty much ghost free. There's another reason I brought you up here." She led him towards a ladder. "This leads to the roof. I was thinking, if you like, we could sit on the roof together and look at the stars. The rain is clearing up, so maybe some of the clouds will, too."

"Well, you kinda forced me up here," Dipper said, laughing, "How can I say no?" He looked over at a box of old toys, one of which had a plastic llama sticking out of it. "Are these your old toys?"

"Yes," she said with a sigh, "That llama used to be one of my favorites. I heard somewhere that they were 'nature's greatest warriors,' whatever that means. Still, I've always had a thing for llamas."

"My sister has a llama sweater."

"Ha, that's kinda funny," she said, "Maybe we're more alike than I thought. But I would imagine your sister has a sweater of everything." She picked up the llama and stuffed it in Dipper's pocket. "And now, it's yours."

"Why's that?" Dipper asked.

"That way," she said, blushing, "you'll have something to remember this night."
"I don't think I'll have trouble remembering this night," Dipper said with another laugh.

"Same here," she giggled back, "but let's talk more on the roof. After you."
Dipper opened the latch to the roof and pushed it open, causing it to creak and fall back with a thump. After climbing up, he helped Pacifica up and closed the door. He looked up and saw that most of the rainclouds had cleared, revealing many bright, glorious constellations with an equally radiant moon. The moonlight spread across the mountain range, giving them a clear view of the nocturnal world of Gravity Falls. The view was almost too much to take in; he began losing his balance and staggered a bit, nearly fainting. Pacifica caught him by the arm and steadied him.

"Gorgeous, isn't it?" Pacifica asked rhetorically. "Come on, let's find a place to sit."

"Aren't you worried about getting wet?"

"You know what?" she responded, shrugging her shoulders, "I would be, but I've already been through mud tonight. I think I can handle some rain water." She sat down, and her face grimaced, "Okay, that's colder than I thought."

"You won't have to suffer alone," Dipper said and sat down next to her. The two of them looked across the sky and wondered how many constellations were visible this time of year. They gazed across the blackness and twinkling for several minutes, both wondering what the other was thinking, the horrific events that had taken place tonight, and what to say next after all the drastic changes the night had brought them, both internally and externally. Pacifica was wondering what tomorrow would be like and what punishment her parents had in store for her, and the thought gave her the same awful sinking feeling in her gut she normally felt when she would hear that awful bell ringing. Dipper's thoughts were on what McGucket was trying to say to him and the fact that he regretted brushing him off.

Pacifica broke the silence.

"Dipper," she began, "I wanted to start by saying that I'm sorry for all the awful things I said to you and your sister. They were completely uncalled for."

"And I'm sorry, too," Dipper said, "for misjudging you and calling you the worst. I guess it didn't occur to me that the reason you were the way you were was because of your parents putting so much pressure on you. What was with that bell your dad was ringing?"

"Please, don't ask," Pacifica said, wincing from the same pain in her gut, "And you don't have to apologize; I want to do the mature thing and not make any excuses for what I said and did, something I don't think my parents can do. To be honest, I don't think I've had any real friends, at least not ones attracted to the fact that I had money or that I was a local celebrity. There was a part of me that was jealous of how close you and your family were, and Mabel did it without any sense of refinement or sensibility. You just accepted her."

"With Mabel, you kind of have to go with the flow," Dipper said.

"Yeah," Pacifica continued in a sullen voice, scrunching her knees up to her chin and wrapping her arms around them, "And I've never been very good at that. With the constant pressure of my parents for status and success, I've had to stick to a constant organized structure in order to feel like I fit in. Little did I realize that with it can come superficiality and artificiality."

"To be honest, I'm kind of the same way," Dipper said, "I'm constantly organizing check lists and plans, which leads me to over-thinking even some of the simplest tasks. I had a crush on this girl and spent an entire night planning some stupid checklist in order to ask her to dance."

"Is that the lumberjack chick that works at your shack?" Pacifica asked, raising an eyebrow, "She's kind of old for you, you know."

"Yeah," Dipper said nervously, "She and I already had the talk about that."

"Hmm," she said, a smile returning to her face, "I think you need to date someone closer to your age. Someone you can relate to. Take it from a girl you can actually talk to."

"I don't know," Dipper said, nervously, "I don't even know if I'm old enough to officially date yet...but that really doesn't stop me from liking girls, I guess. I kinda noticed it started happening to me this summer. Mabel went boy crazy a year or so ago."

"I'm glad you're able to talk about it with me at least," Pacifica continued the train of thought, "I've always had a tough time talking about it, too, believe it or not. It's not an easy subject." There was an awkward pause between them. "But, I'm at least glad you came here tonight, despite the bad circumstances." She subtly scooted closer to him, hoping he wouldn't notice or mind.

"Me too," Dipper said, "Some good came out of it, at least. Otherwise, I don't think you or I would have gotten to know each other. To think, I was about to watch a marathon of Ghost Harassers."

"Ha," Pacifica laughed, shifting to pat a hand on his shoulder, "Lame! All those guys do is yell at air and see if it makes a sound back at them. Come on, now. You and your sister are the real paranormal hunters. You bust monsters all the time and don't even break a sweat doing it."

"It can be entertaining to watch the amateurs," Dipper replied. With that, they both laughed together. She fell over and hugged him, causing him to tense up.

"Thank you," Pacifica said, her head still on his shoulder.

"For what?"

"Believing in me," she responded, still not letting go. He pulled her off of him for a moment.

"You're the one who did all of that yourself," he said, "You overcame your oppressive parents, stood up to the very embodiment of what was cursing your family's name, and saved us all. I think you're the real hero of the night."

"Yeah," she said, "but I think I just needed a little push." She looked out at the stars again, leaning on his other shoulder. "I wonder if we can see the Big Dipper from here. I'm guessing that's how you got your name."

"Actually," he said with some hesitation, "it's because of a birthmark...on my forehead."

"So you're like Harry Potter?" She said, laughing and rolling her eyes, "Come on, show me."

Dipper pressed his bangs down to cover he forehead and said, "No!" Pacifica shook her head, and the two went back to the way they were. Dipper's mind went back to what McGucket was saying. Could the end be a few days from now? Could it be tomorrow?

"What's wrong?" Pacifica asked, looking up and seeing Dipper's face as his mind drifted off. He didn't want to tell her. He didn't want her to worry if she believed him or to sound crazy to her if she didn't. But she continued on. "Okay, I gotta say this: one of the new vows that I'm making to myself and to you and your sister is that you're no longer going to have to worry about any lies or secrets from me. I will be completely transparent with both of you. But what I ask, if we're going to be friends, is that you do the same for me. Now, tell me what's wrong."

Dipper looked her in the eyes. She was pretty intent on hearing what was on his mind, and there seemed to be almost this sense of dread behind her eyes, like everything she thought she had gained tonight was riding on his response.

"You know McGucket, right?"

"That weird smelly hobo who seems to show up on every street corner?"

"Yes," Dipper said, and now his nervousness was causing his gut to ache, "He has his own wealth of paranormal knowledge, and he was trying to tell me something important downstairs. I just brushed him off because I wanted to have fun and relax. But what he was saying sounded like the end of the world."

"You know what, Dipper?" Pacifica said, with that same snark he had come to expect from her, "He could be absolutely right, and the world could very well end tomorrow. But what can anyone of us do about it right now? We're only human. I've already been through an emotional roller coaster tonight, so hearing about the end of the world isn't phasing me. Even if this small speck of dust that's floating through the vast Milky Way does explode tomorrow, I want to go out knowing I had a good night with you. And I'd like to go out doing this." With that she kissed him; it was short, but it was enough to give Dipper a jolt.

"You can come out now, Mabel," Pacifica shouted, "I hope you were entertained." Dipper was still in shock and had nothing to say.

"Aww, but it's so much more fun to spy and squee from the shadows," Mabel sighed, poking her head up from the trap door. She then burst up onto the roof and wrapped her arms around both of their necks. "Are you two and Grendius going to have to have a double wedding now?"

"It's too early to say that, Mabel," Dipper said with what little breath he could muster.

"Lets start with the three of us having a rematch at mini-golf and go from there, hopefully without the stupid golf ball people," Pacifica said, pushing her way out of the headlock. She then backed up, composed herself a bit, and took both of Mabel's hands. "And Mabel, I'm very sorry for all the awful things I said. I really do admire your carefree life; I just had to lash out at it since I couldn't have it for myself."

"Aww," Mabel belted out, "but you CAN have it. You just have to become one with the awesome power of Silly."

"Like this?" Pacifica asked. She then leaned in, licked the back of Mabel's hand, pulled a sticker seemingly out of nowhere that had a cartoon lizard with a poorly drawn crown that read 'I am the lizard king. I can do anything.' across it, and stuck it on the now sticky hand.

Mabel paused for a moment to think until finally saying, "It's a start."
When it was time for the party to end and the Pines family to head home, Pacifica gave Dipper a kiss on his forehead and told him his birthmark was cute. On the drive home in Stan's car, Mabel took the sticker off her hand and placed it in a page of her scrapbook. It was the perfect piece of memorabilia she could have gotten from the Northwest girl she had been rivals with until recently. (Could they still carry on a friendly rivalry?) Dipper took out the toy llama from his pocket and thought of the wonderful young lady he had until recently thought was the worst. He could not wait to see her again and thought of the next time they would meet. Of course, his brain, which always had the tendency to over-think things, made him realize that once the summer was over and autumn closed in, he would have to go back home, and the two of them would have to only speak online. That is, as long as the world didn't end tomorrow.

Pacifica, while prepared for the worst from her parents, only had one day of being banished to her room. She thought this might be because she had also saved the lives of her dad's billionaire friends and because one of the townspeople shared a mutual interest in his favorite show, Firefly; there was something about its main character that captured her father. Either way, this was thankfully a better fate than what she expected, and she took it as a victory. After getting ready for bed, she decided she would do her best to dream of Dipper as some knight that would rescue her from the castle in which she was imprisoned, only to save him from some windigo.

Unfortunately for her, this would not be the case.

When Pacifica opened her eyes, she found herself in a large room with red curtains hanging from each wall. The floor looked to be made of some hard tile with a black and white zig-zag striped pattern. She was sitting on a cushioned chair with two other chairs to her left turned at 90 degree angles so as their occupants could speak to her, one of which was an old little man, while the other was a gorgeous blonde woman with a haunting emotionless face.

"Pacifica," the man said, although his voice sounded like a recording played in reverse, "Bill has welcomed you to the Black Lodge."

"Hello, Pacifica," the woman said, the same reverse effect present in her speech as well, "You are out of place here." She pointed at her, and with that, Pacifica had this feeling of dread worse than she had that night with the lumberjack ghost. There was something very wrong with this woman. "Sometimes, my arms bend back."

"Where," Pacifica stammered, her voice thankfully sounding normal, "or what is this place?"

"Fire walk with me," the man said. Upon uttering that phrase, Pacifica could hear some slow beat jazz music, like one would expect from a film noir. The man got up from his chair and began to dance, off in his own world. The woman still stared at Pacifica, not blinking or breaking her gaze.

"I was once like you," the woman said, "You need to listen to this. It is about your friends. I will return in two years. Meanwhile..." Her voice trailed off as she held her arms upward, as if displaying some object or meaning.

An old woman in black, accompanied by a small boy with a paper mache mask with a long nose entered from the curtains, pushing what looked like a hospital medicine tray, but instead of medical equipment, there was an old cassette player. Something told her to push play. She did, and the light in the room seemed to dissipate, only to be replaced with low strobe lights. The old woman and the boy had both disappeared back into the curtains. With the lights down, it gave her an even more eerie feeling, contorting the curtains into odd shapes, including one that looked like a misshapen face that stared at her the same way the blonde woman continued to stare, still never blinking. Without the light, she could only see the contours of her face and hair. Pacifica thought she could hear two voices echoing from every end of the curtains, one a deep male voice that was violently chanting something in a language she did not recognize, the other a light woman's voice that seemed to be giggling at first and then breaking out into hysterical laughter.

The recording began to play. It sounded like a man's voice she recognized, but he was shouting as if to be heard over the sounds of the chanting and the laughter.

"HI PACIFICA," he said, "WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU TODAY?"

"For starters," she said to the recording sarcastically, "you can tell me what is going on and get me out of here."

There was a long pause in the recording, while the voices went on and on, the blonde woman still staring, peering into Pacifica's soul.

"I HATE TO SAY IT, PACIFICA," he said, "BUT YOUR FRIENDS' GREAT UNCLE IS IN A LOT OF TROUBLE. IT SEEMS HE STOLE SOME GOVERNMENT CHEMICALS!"

"What?" Pacifica exclaimed in shock. There was another pause, the voices seeming to get louder, along with them seemed to grow some other strange din.

"STINGER MISSILES?" the recording seemed to ask, "HOW MUCH FIRE POWER DO YOU THINK I HAVE? YOU'VE SEEN TOO MANY MOVIES, KID!"

With that the tape stopped, she could finally make out the other sound to be moaning and screaming children. It was almost deafening. And as the chants, laughter, and screams escalated. The blonde woman began to violently stand up and move toward Pacifica, wailing horribly.

And with that, the lights returned, the blonde woman was gone, and the little man was standing in the middle of the room, looking at something across from him. Pacifica turned to see what it was and was shocked to find her father floating in the air, along with some strange yellow triangle creature with an eye in its center and small black stick arms and legs, likewise floating next to him. It wore a top hat as well. It would have otherwise reminded her of some 1930's cartoon character, but in this light and next to her father, it's form reminded her of the bell she had come to dread.

"Bill," the little man said, speaking to the triangle. So this was the Bill he had referenced earlier. "I want all of your Garmonbozia." Pacifica knew the word to represent pain and sorrow, but she had no idea how she understood it. It was as if the concept was injected into her subconscious.

The lights went out again, and a wave of panic washed over Pacifica. The "Bill" creature's eye began to glow red, and its body began to increase in size to the point of filling itself from floor to ceiling. It grew a mouth full of jagged, needle-like teeth and began vomiting something that looked like cream corn at first, but as the creature vomited further, it began to turn red and then black, flooding the floor.

Pacifica screamed and ran, darting between the curtains to escape. She found herself in another hall, also filled with red curtains and what looked like Greek marble statues. She found another opening in the curtains and ran through it, only to see another curtain filled hallway. It seemed as if it would never end.

Finally, she saw something at the end of another hall. It was a man wearing jeans and a matching denim jacket. His long, scraggly, gray hair curtained his evil grinning face. He stood up, staring at her through the darkened curtained hallway. After what seemed like forever, he began screaming and sprinted towards her, eyes locked onto her.

Pacifica woke up in a cold sweat. Her mind fell back into place as she realized it was all a dream. The sun streamed through the window, throwing itself across her white desk and the violet carpet. She rubbed her face for a moment, happy to have left whatever world that was. She know, however, what she had to do: research whatever she could in order to stay up to date with what she felt was about to happen.

She dressed and readied herself for the day, sitting at her desk with the laptop opened. She would first search for terms relating to what she had seen in her dreams. She found that the Black Lodge related to the Native American folklore in Washington state, specifically near a town called Twin Peaks. There were spirits that would roam throughout it and would feed on the pain and sorrow of others; it was also a place that the dead would pass through and confront their evil doppelgangers in order to reach spiritual perfection in the White Lodge, which some might refer to as Heaven. She looked into the town's history a little further and found that there was a particular bizarre set of events that occurred in 1990, specifically around the death of Laura Palmer, whose picture looked exactly like the blonde woman from her dreams. The woman's words echoed back to her as she looked at the image.

Pacifica felt a chill down her spine and closed the browser window.

She took a deep breath and reopened her browser, deciding to look at other paranormal phenomena through the west coast of the country. She found a site called the Swollen Eyeball with a blog from a user named Mothman; he went on forever about how he had personally overthrew an alien invasion within his hometown ten years ago. The guy sounded well beyond crazy, so she moved on. She also found an article on a paranormal duo called the Winchester Brothers, who users stated always carried a journal full of information about monsters they believed were plaguing various unsolved cases. She wondered if it was in any way related to Dipper's journal. She also saw something even weirder regarding two desert towns, Night Vale and Desert Bluffs. They seemed to exist within some dimensional loop; maps could not place where they were, satellite cameras blurred their images, and those who did locate the towns would either disappear or come back with some strange stories.

After searching the Internet for hours, something she never thought she would do, a butler brought her some lunch. She asked him his name, thanked him, and gave him as generous a tip as her allowance would let her. Having done this, there was this odd feeling she had wash over her; it was a novel feeling, giving generously. While it may not have been her style before last night, she was glad she gave it a test run.

After eating, she decided to look in on Dipper to see how he was. Her family had bought their own remote service for government satellites, so she decided to take advantage of one of them check in on him.

Okay, she thought, this is a little intrusive. But she wanted to make sure he was okay after last night; that old man's talk about the end of the world was clearly bothering him, and the more she thought about it, the more it bothered her.

What she found, however, was even more upsetting, as she saw that a horde of FBI cars had surrounded the cabin. Finding this unnerving, she zoomed in further to see that Stan was in handcuffs and being put into a car. She panned the camera over to see Dipper and Mabel getting into another car.

This sight upset her so much that she called a "family friend" in the FBI to see if there was anything that could be done. She dialed the number, that nervous feeling growing in her gut again, And waited for the dial tone to end.

"Hi Gordon," she said.

"HI PACIFICA," FBI director Gordon Cole said, "WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU TODAY?" He was hard of hearing and needed to shout in order to hear himself talk.

"This is kind of urgent," Pacifica continued, some frustration in her voice, "I need you to see what you can do to call off your dogs on the family of Dipper Pines. Whatever they did, I'm sure he and his family had good reason."

"I HATE TO SAY IT, PACIFICA," he said, "BUT YOUR FRIENDS' GREAT UNCLE IS IN A LOT OF TROUBLE. IT SEEMS HE STOLE SOME GOVERNMENT CHEMICALS!"

"What?" she asked, not believing what she was hearing. She would sort this out later, but right now, she would have to try and help the Pines family in whatever way she could. "How many zeros on a check would it take to get you to leave them alone?"
"I'M SORRY, SWEETHEART," Gordon said, "BUT YOUR ALLOWANCE DOESN'T COVER WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO BRIBE THESE GUYS OR ME!"

"Then if you're not going to help me help them," she said, "At least get some stinger missiles ready. Something terrible is about to happen, I just know it. My guess is that it's going to be nothing like some stupid Godzilla movie. Something much worse..."

"STINGER MISSILES?" Gordon exclaimed, "HOW MUCH FIRE POWER DO YOU THINK I HAVE? YOU'VE SEEN TOO MANY MOVIES, KID!"

"Whatever, old man," she yelled. She finally caught her breath, thought for a moment, and continued. "If your hands are tied, your hands are tied. I understand. I'm just very concerned about them and think they know more about a coming disaster than even our own government does. Thank you for your time. Goodbye Gordon."

"NICE TALKIN' TO YA! BYE!"

No sooner did she hang up then she noticed on the screen that the FBI car containing Dipper and Mabel had crashed. Dipper looked like he had brief conversation with the now trapped driver before running off through the woods back to the direction of the Mystery Shack. He looked sad, but at least he and Mabel looked to be okay.

"Run," she said, "Run, you clever boy." Her anxiousness, however, was not dying down anytime soon. She paced the room several times before looking out the window. In a nearby tree was a bird, which seemed to look back into the window at her before flying off. She needed to be free. She needed to get out of her cage and fly.

She tied several articles of clothing into a rope, opened the window, and did the cliched thing of escaping through said window. What she did not anticipate was, when she was halfway down the wall of the mansion, her feet seemed to lose their grip, as did everything else around her. For several minutes, she felt lighter than air, floating off the wall above the ground.

"Can this day get any weirder?" she asked rhetorically as she watched various servants and one of the family cars begin the lift off the ground. The clothing rope floated off the table from which it was tied and began floating out the window as well. Pacifica knew she would have nothing to hold onto and tried to push herself back through the air towards the house.

No sooner did she try this then gravity returned. She panicked as she began plummeting to the earth. Fortunately, she was able to grab hold of the lower windowsill before she hit the ground. Her arms felt like they were on fire from the pull, but at least she didn't hit the ground. Mustering the rest of her courage, she climbed down the side of the mansion slowly and hid in the bushes, only to see her parents at the front door.

"What happened, dear?" Preston said to Mrs. Northwest, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Preston," she responded, "Whatever that was, I'm sure Pacifica's little Pines friends had something to do with it. I swear, she is never seeing them again, especially if they cause this much chaos."

"Now, now, dear," Preston said, "There's no need to worry about her. She is still in her room, now come. We need to take shelter in case this happens again." With that, they departed into the house.

"Oh, mom," Pacifica said under her breath with a tone of animosity, "is your first thought really to point the finger at them for all the weirdness this town has always had? No, they're not part of the problem; they're part of the solution." Pacifica then snuck around the bushes and through the front gate, ready to head to the Mystery Shack and help her new friends in whatever way she could. Who knew? Maybe they'd let her be the Daphne of their little Scooby Mystery Gang. And when this was all over, she wanted to believe that she could settle her golf score with Mabel and go on a first date with Dipper. It might have been an unrealistic thought, but it was one to where she could retreat, and that hope kept her going.