This mission was sand, slipping through Dipper's fingers.

Mabel was sitting with her back against a nearby cryogenic tube, a vacant look in her eyes that meant her brain was going haywire. Grunkle Ford was pointing a gun at Dipper's friend and a shapeshifter that looked like Dipper's friend, and Dipper's friend was, well, fighting a shapeshifter that looked just like her.

And Dipper was just standing there, wondering how everything went so wrong.

Every time the first Candy kicked the second one in the chest, every time the second Candy pulled the first's hair, Dipper winced. Candy fought dirty, and the shapeshifter matched that.

He had no idea which Candy was his friend and which was the shapeshifter, but if he didn't put a stop to this soon, he was afraid that Ford would give up and just shoot both of them. Stun gun or no, Dipper couldn't risk that.

One Candy threw the other off of her, and she landed on her feet, skidding back on the stone floor. The first Candy rushed her, but the second Candy moved out of the way, catching the first Candy by the arm and twisting it before kicking her back. The first Candy hit Ford from the side, knocking him to the ground.

"Grunkle Ford!" Dipper started forward.

Someone grabbed the hem of his shirt.

He looked back. Mabel's knuckles were white where she clutched the fabric of his shirt. "Don't," she said, her voice thin. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"But—"

"Please," she whispered. "Protect the Journal. Protect me."

His eyes flicked from her to the Journal in her lap to the fight in the distance. "Okay," he said, crouching down next to her.

"Thank you," she breathed.

"What happened between you and Shifty earlier? What's wrong?"

He listened to the sounds of Candy and Shifty-Candy fighting and yelling as he waited for her to answer.

"I. . ." She hesitated. "I almost lost the Journal. Again. I just don't want anything to happen."

She glanced over Dipper's shoulder. He turned, but nothing was there. Nothing but the opening to a one of the tunnels.

"Did you see something?"

"N-no."

"Dipper! Mabel! Move!"

It was Candy — or maybe Shifty-Candy. Either way, Dipper just barely pulled Mabel to her feet and got out of the way before one of the Candys flew into the cryogenic tube they'd just been in front of. The glass cracked.

Dipper rushed over to the Candy that had just hit the glass, ignoring Mabel's protests. He grabbed her by the arms. "Quick! Are you the real Candy? Say something to prove it!"

Candy looked wildly from him to Mabel. "I — Mabel and I hate each other!" she blurted.

Dipper turned to check. Mabel looked confused and slowly shook her head.

"Dipper!"

The other Candy came up from behind him and helped him hold the first Candy back. "I'm the real Candy!" she said.

"How do I know?"

The first Candy thrashed against their grip.

"I—"

The first Candy tried to knee Dipper in the groin. He moved so that she hit him in the thigh instead, but it still hurt. "What?" he demanded of the second Candy.

"I have a huge crush on you!" she blurted.

There was a split second of silence.

"That's her!" Mabel shouted. "That's the real Candy!"

Dipper grinned at her. "Ha! I knew it!" He released Shifty-Candy and grabbed the real Candy, pulling her to the side. Shifty-Candy shot forward, stumbling in the wake of its momentum.

"Ford! That's Shifty!" Dipper yelled, pointing to Shifty with one hand while holding onto Candy with the other. He wasn't letting her fight Shifty again.

Shifty leapt to its feet and growled, running for Dipper and Candy.

BANG!

The sound washed over Dipper like a shock wave. It felt like it physically knocked him over, but maybe he just lost his balance. Either way, he ended up on the ground with Candy's arm pinned beneath him and his ears ringing.

It took him a moment to pick himself up. Candy got up next to him and said something. "What?" he shouted back. He couldn't hear anything. He was right next to her and he couldn't hear anything. Just this incessant ringing.

Someone gripped his arm. He turned. Mabel again. She looked fuzzy. She was trying to talk to him too, but he still couldn't hear her. "I can't hear!" he yelled. But even his own voice died away in his ears. His vision swam.

Then, slowly, the ringing died. His vision cleared. He could see Mabel looking over his shoulder.

He could hear Mabel scream.

He whirled around to see what she was looking at. There was Ford, leaning against the wall, his gun still in his hands. There was—

There was Shifty, now in his true form, staring down at the bullet hole in his chest.

It seemed to happen in slow motion. Shifty stared down at his chest, then up at Dipper, Candy, and Mabel, then over at Ford.

Then he toppled over.

For a moment, no one moved. Then Ford dropped the gun on the stone floor, and the crack of metal against stone broke the spell. They all ran to Shifty.

Ford reached him first, dropping to his knees. "Shifty — no — I don't—"

Dipper, Mabel, and Candy gathered around Shifty. Mabel gasped and turned away. Dipper couldn't bring himself to do the same. He stared down at Shifty, stared at the pale green blood that spurted from its flayed white skin.

"G-Grunkle Ford," Dipper said. "I thought you were using a stun gun!"

"I — I was — I thought I was—"

"You said you didn't have a real gun!" Mabel shouted, her voice high and cracked.

"I — I brought it — just in case — but I swore I — I swore I was using the—"

"Stanford," Shifty whispered.

They all fell silent.

"Even after all this time." His words were punctuated by heavy breaths. "Even after you abandoned me for so long, I somehow thought you still cared for me."

"Shifty, I — I didn't meant to leave you. Something happened; I — I forgot about everything. You, Stanley, everything." Ford's voice was strained.

"I was going to leave you for dead," Shifty said. He laughed. "But I guess you got me first."

"No — I didn't have the gun — you saw me; I had the stun gun; I have no idea how I ended up with that gun—"

"I have an idea of what happened," Shifty said. "But it doesn't matter. Do you still care about me?"

"Yes," Ford said immediately. "I may have forgotten, but yes — yes, I've always cared about you."

Shifty smiled faintly. "Good." He moaned in pain. "But I have to tell you — I have to tell you something."

Ford leaned in.

"You — you can't keep searching for Stanley. I know what you're trying to do, but — but it won't work. It will only cause you more pain."

"How do you know I'm looking for Stanley?" Ford demanded.

"Why else would you come back down here?" Shifty replied. His voice was getting softer and softer. "But — Stanford — please — stop this. Don't keep looking. Or else—"

"I'm going to keep searching."

Shifty shook his head frantically. "No — or else — or else you'll end up — like this."

His skin bubbled as he transformed one more time. Into a perfect copy of Grunkle Ford.

"No. No, Shifty, turn back, turn back right now—"

"No," Shifty-Ford whispered. His blood had changed from light green to dark red. "No. You have to. . . stop this search. Please."

"Shifty, turn back!" Ford shouted.

Shifty let out one last breath and fell still.

"No," Ford breathed. "No, Shifty, no, stay with me — no—"

"Mabel, don't look," Dipper said. Or maybe he just let out a high-pitched moan. His eyes were locked on Ford — no, no, Shifty, it was Shifty that looked like Ford, it wasn't actually his uncle, his uncle was alive right next to him, not dead on the floor with a bullet wound in his chest—

The pool of blood lapped against Dipper's knee.

"Shifty — turn back — don't die like this, don't die looking like someone else—"

"Dipper."

Candy's voice pierced through the haze that clouded Dipper's thoughts. He managed to pull his gaze up to hers.

"Let's go back to the bunker," she said. "Mabel's already over there."

Dipper looked over and saw Mabel hovering in the doorway between the lab and the bunker. He took a deep breath. "Okay." He glanced to Ford and opened his mouth, but Candy shook her head. So instead they just slipped away.

The three of them passed into the bunker and let out a pent-up breath. Mabel slumped against a computer, looking like a deflated balloon. Watching her collapse reminded Dipper of his own shaky, weak legs, and he sat down on the dusty floor with a thump.

Candy sat down next to him and, after a moment, so did Mabel.

"Mabel, did you look?" Dipper asked in a hushed voice.

She swallowed. "No. Why?"

Dipper looked away.

"He turned into Mr. Pines," Candy said. "Right before he died."

Mabel's eyes widened. "S-so there's—"

"A dead Grunkle Ford out there, yeah," Dipper said.

"And we just left Ford out there?"

"I think he wants to be alone," Candy said.

"Or maybe you just wanted to leave him alone," Mabel shot back.

"Guys," Dipper said. "Let's just. . . talk about something else."

"Like what?" Candy asked.

"I don't know." He glanced up at her. "Maybe your crush on me?"

"Dipper, someone is dead out there," Mabel whispered.

"I know." But he kept looking at Candy. He needed to think about something else, anything else.

"Okay, yeah," Candy said. "I have a crush on you. I've been trying to tell you all day. But you said you already know?"

"I suspected," Dipper said. "But you kept sending me mixed signals. One moment you'd be flirty, the next you'd be all aggressive."

Candy turned pink. "That's just my flirting style, I guess," she mumbled.

He felt a million words press up against his lips, but he kept them back, waiting for her to continue the conversation on her own terms.

"But," she finally said, "you don't like me back. You're in love with Amanda."

"Amanda and I are just emailing," Dipper replied. "But. . . you're right. I don't have feelings for you. And I know what it's like to like someone that doesn't like you back."

"You do?" Mabel asked suddenly.

Dipper and Candy both looked at her.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"But I don't mind you having a crush on me, if that helps. You're a really great friend, and this won't make things weird between us. At least it shouldn't."

Candy looked away. "Thanks, I guess."

"You did good back there," Dipper said. "You're a great fighter. It really helped."

"Did it? Shifty ended up dead."

Mabel let in a sharp breath.

"What happened?" Dipper asked. "We all saw Ford shoot the stun gun before Shifty turned into you. It definitely didn't make that huge noise."

"We ran into Ford while we were fighting," Candy said. "He dropped the stun gun. I guess he just grabbed the wrong one."

"But — Ford didn't mean to do it," Mabel said. "He couldn't have." Her voice shook. "He told me he wouldn't bring a real gun."

Dipper looked to his sister. Her legs were folded beneath her, her arms wrapped around the Journal, clutching it tightly to her chest. Her face was pale, her eyes still wide. Dipper figured he probably looked similar — the mental image of Shifty's broken body — Ford's broken body—

"Dipper?"

The three of them looked up to see Ford standing in the doorway between the lab and the bunker. The bloodstains on his trenchcoat made it seem for a moment that he was the one who had been shot, that he'd risen from the dead. But it was the real Ford, the one who was alive the whole time.

"I know this is," Ford swallowed, "a lot to ask, but. . . do you think you could help me carry Shifty out?"

They all stared at him. "You want to move him?" Mabel asked. "You want to take him out of the bunker?"

"Yes," Ford said. "I want. . . I want him to be in the sun. He's been down here for thirty years, and. . . I know he won't actually see it or feel it, but. . . I want him to be in the sun again. I was thinking I could bury him where the third Journal was hidden."

"You'd have to make the compartment bigger," Mabel said.

"I dunno, Grunkle Ford," Dipper said. "I don't really want to see him again. Why — why would he turn into you before he died?"

"A warning," Ford said gruffly. "He doesn't want me looking for Stanley." His expression was distant. "Why, I don't know. I still can't think of how he knew we were looking."

"I'll do it," Candy said.

They turned to her. "Do what?" Ford asked.

"Help you carry Shifty out."

He blinked. "Oh. Yes. I don't think you. . ."

"I'm strong," Candy protested. "I can do it. I fought him, didn't I?"

"Yes," Ford said. "Yes, you did well. I'm glad we brought you along."

Dipper wasn't sure, but he thought he saw Candy smile slightly.

"Grunkle Ford," Mabel said.

"Hmm?"

"Grunkle Ford, are we. . . are we going to keep looking?"

There was a silence for a moment, one that Dipper could feel settling down on his shoulders like a fresh layer of dust.

"Yes," Ford said. "I am. I can't give up now, even after what happened down here. But you don't have to join me if you don't have to."

Mabel bit her lip. "Where else can we look?"

"We don't have to look anywhere else, I think," Ford said. He crossed into the observation room and pulled something off a shelf. That's right, the laptop! "This should be everything we need, if I can get it working. We'll go home, fix it up, and then we might not need the other Journals at all. But if we get any leads, I still want to follow them."

"I guess," Mabel said. "Yeah. Yeah, we can't give up. Shifty must've just been trying to scare us, right? Nothing that bad will happen to any of us if we just keep looking for Stanley." She fixed Ford with a pointed stare. "Especially if we stop bringing real guns."

Ford held her gaze for a moment and then dropped it, nodding to the floor. Dipper could tell he was truly sorry.

"But we'll keep going," Dipper said. "Right? Mabes, if it was me you were trying to rescue, you wouldn't let something like Shifty's warning stop you, would you?"

"No," Mabel said. "No, I wouldn't."

She stood up and walked over to Ford, putting a hand on his arm. "And now we've seen what Stanley looks like as an old man," she said. "Or what he might look like. Now we have to find him, so we can know for sure." She smiled up at Ford. "Right?"

He smiled back at her, then turned the smile to Dipper. "Right."

Then he took a deep breath. "All right. Dipper, you carry the laptop, and Mabel, keep the Journal. Candy, can you come help me?"

Candy nodded and got to her feet.

"Let's go first," Dipper said to Mabel. "So we don't have to look."

She nodded. "Good idea."

So when Ford and Candy returned with Shifty's body carried between them, the twins didn't turn around. They simply held hands, the laptop and the Journal cradled in their arms, and led the way out of the bunker.

Led the way back out to the sun.