PART 1
The twins return home from Town Hall, data in hand. Before they go inside, Mabel mentions what Bill said about no one in town being who they seem. Dipper conceeds that Bill doesn't lie, just leaves stuff out, and Mabel mentions their first summer, hinting at what happened in this version of events.
Dipper agrees that if Bill said something like that, there must be something big going on, even if the twins have no hint about what it is. Mabel says that maybe they have to solve the mystery on their own, without the help of anyone, even the people in the Shack. Dipper agrees and the two go inside.
They meet Wendy first, Dipper blushing but saying they hadn't looked at anything yet. Stan comes in and the four do nose-goes to see who has to fix the wind gauge, as Soos is in the bathroom. Mabel looses and walks outside as Stan notices the files Dipper has. Dipper mentions the tip he got from Bill and tells Stan he will let him know if they find anything. Stan mentions that since the twins are leaving tomorrow, they could all go fishing again, which Dipper agrees to.
Dipper goes upstairs, shoving the cursed S&S game into a corner, and begins to look at the demographics data. The first chart- job listings- is normal, until the missing week of data. Following that point, the data is all the same, nothing changes. The next chart- people moving in and out of town- is similar to the first: normal, missing week of data, then nothing changes.
Mabel knocks on the window and comes in that way, and Dipper shows her what he found out. They then look at the birth and death data. Before the missing week, everything is normal. Then the missing week happens, and after that, both columns have the same number- zero. No one has died or been born in the time since the missing week of data.
Dipper realizes robots could do anything a person could, and Mabel theorizes someone has been making robot replacements of people who die. Dipper says that's not what he was thinking, and grabs the charges. The two of them go downstairs, power up the charges using the TV, and head into the woods.
Dipper says they need to figure out if the charges actually turn people into robots, and tells Mabel to zap him with them. Mabel refuses, but Dipper is eventually able to convince her. She pulls out the charges, but before she can do anything, the charges start floating. They begin to make a circle shape just in front of Mabel, slowly moving together. The ends of the charges connect, sending out a bolt of electricity.
The bolt goes through Mabel and continues through the woods. Mabel collapses and the charges fall to the ground. Dipper checks on his sister, who's head is pounding, and who says she saw into the beam. She says she 'saw' words, numbers and places that she doesn't know but still somehow understands.
Mabel slowly realizes that she also saw the woods flying by before her. She realizes that it was like she was part of the beam itself. She says that the beam flew through the woods and town until it went into a house and hit Deputy Durland. Dipper pulls Mabel to her feet, grabs the charges, and the two of them get onto her bike to head into town.
At the house Mabel saw when she was part of the beam, they knock on the door. A flustered and nervous Sheriff Blubs opens the door, quickly telling the twins he and Durland were having a sleepover. He asks the twins if they believe in weird things, allowing the twins to come inside. They see Durland looking similar to how Tambry looked, a fourth blue charge floating above the open, glowing compartment in his stomach.
Blubs explains that the two of them were watching cop movies together when the beam of light came through the wall, hitting Durland. Durland then stopped moving for a few minutes, until he said something about memory charges and began floating, putting him where he is now.
Blubs asks what is happening, and the twins explain about what happened to Tambry, saying that the robots aren't even aware that that's what they are. The twins show Blubs the charges and tell him they they may have created the beam of light that hit Durland. Blubs asks to see one of the charges, but just as he touches it, another beam of light comes out, knocking the Sheriff out cold.
Panicking, the twins check on the unconscious Sheriff. Dipper finds what he thinks to be a heartbeat, saying he didn't plan on... getting cut off by the sheriff repeating the same words they heard Tambry say. Blubs begins floating, a fifth charge coming out of a glowing hole in his stomach. Mabel gathers up the three original charges and the two from above the police and the two leave, the officers slowly floating back down to the ground.
The twins head to the gravity Falls Museum, going into the Society of the Blind Eye's secret chambers under the building. Placing the now five charges on a table, the twins realizes just how bad everything is. Mabel at first thinks it's bad because people will realize the cops are missing and come looking for them, but Dipper explains it's even worse than that.
Tambry is a source of gossip and social media, and the cops have authority over the entire town. People will listen to both parties. The twins realize everything is a power play- someone is trying to take over the town. Mabel says there could be a lot more robot-people walking around town before she passes out.
Mabel sees the people of Gravity Falls walking around town, blue/white light trailing behind them. Beyond town is a glowing blur of blue and white, green and orange mixed into the blur. Mabel sees words and phrases in the blur in a non-English language that she is still able to understand. The phrases talk about 'saving them' and 'time running out' before Mabel wakes up, head-butting Dipper.
Dipper tells a scared Mabel she passed out and was speaking in a jittery language. The twins realize that they are sharing one last mystery together before they leave town tomorrow. They try to make plans to visit each other often, but between Dipper's job and Mabel's training, Tuesday is the only day they would be able to meet up.
They realize that if they survive, they would be going home alone. Then they start laughing. They aren't alone- they have each other and together they can survive anything. Dipper grabs the charges and the twins leave the museum and head back to the Shack, thinking of heads of power that could have been replaced by robots. Then the question comes about why anyone would want to take over Gravity Falls in the first place- the only thing of value being Stan's portal, and no one in town remembers that exists.
The twins make it back to the Shack to see Wendy standing on the porch. Mabel heads inside while Dipper tries to handle Wendy asking questions without revealing anything. He at first says it's twins-only, but eventually has to tell her about the police being robots. He says he can't tell her anything else, even though he wants to. Wendy asks if Dipper trusts her, which he says he does, but at this point in time, he can't trust anyone who has lived in the town.
Upset, Wendy leaves, telling Dipper to let her know when he can trust her. Heartbroken, Dipper sits on the couch outside, having lost his chance with the girl of his dreams. Feeling the charges in his pocket, Dipper is determined to have not lost Wendy for nothing. He goes inside, determined to solve the mystery once and for all.
PART 2
The twins go upstairs and begin looking through the demographic data again, considering who could be used for the power play. Power plants are iffy, schools are a no, Shandra Jimenez and the news is high on the list, and then they turn to tourism.
As much as they hate to admit it, people visiting the Mystery Shack, and going to businesses in town afterwards, helps the small town as a whole. And they did find one of the charges in Stan's casket. They unwillingly admit that if there were a power play going on, Stan being part of it is a possibility.
The twins decide to power up the charges and go into town, intending to see who on their lists of suspects is a robot and who isn't. They go into town, meeting Soos in the Gift Shop. Dipper distracts Soos while Mabel goes to power up the charges with the TV. While doing so, the TV goes staticy, and through the static, Mabel hears someone say something about running out of time and abandoning something before she gets shocked by the TV, the charges falling to the ground.
Dipper and Soos run in to check on her. The twins tell Soos about their power play theory, and Soos offers to join them on the mission. Soos mentions getting Wendy invovled as well, and Dipper quickly texts her, apologizing and saying he does trust her.
Dipper starts to pick up the cylinders, the three of them ready to head out, when Stan comes in dressed in fishing gear. Paranoid, Dipper tries to refuse his offer, but Stan is adamant about them going. Dipper asks Soos to take the charges he was hiding from Stan, but before Soos can take them, he gets zapped.
Stan runs to check on Soos as the twins stare in shock. One of their best friends had been a robot the entire time. The twins tell a panicking Stan about the Sheriff and Deputy also being robots, and tell them their theory about a power play. Stan utterly kills that idea by pointing out Soos is one of the least likely people in town to be useful in a takeover like that. Stan calls fishing off and asks the twins what their plan is.
Soos repeats what Tambry and the two police officers said, floating into the air, another charge coming out of his stomach. Dipper realizes that saying saying the word 'plan' activates the ejection process. He tells Stan about their idea to go into town, and the three of them get ready to head out. Stan reaches to grab the charge floating above Soos, but a bolt from Soos' stomach chamber hits Stan.
Stan flies across the room, the charge floating above Soos beginning to spin as the twins check on their Grunkle. Dipper says the word plan, starting the ejection process, confirming Stan is a robot and has been the entire time.
It's not done. The two charges floating above the robots are throwing out bolts of electricity, hitting the five charges that are on the ground. The charges make a circle around the living room, electricity flying everywhere. Mabel hears a voice say initializing evacuation, the circle of charges and electricity becoming even more powerful.
The twins run out of the building, the sphere of power getting even stronger, light pouring out of the building. All of a sudden, the light disappears for a few seconds before coming back twenty time more powerful than before. The glass on the building shatters, the twins are thrown back, and a beam of light comes out of the roof, arching towards town. Small tendrils of light go into town itself before the main beam of light heads into the sky, disappearing.
The twins watch as the seven charges that were inside the building come floating out, heading towards town, hundreds more coming out of where the small beams of light hit. The charges float above town as robot Stan and robot Soos come out of the building, their eyes glowing blue. The two robots head through the woods as the twins hop onto Mabel bike, heading into town.
The twins walk around the now silent town, looking for anyone that is not a robot. They don't find any humans, but they do come across the robot citizens of town, all of which have gathered in the same spot, glowing eyes staring at a certain spot in the sky. Mabel tells Dipper about the voice she heard mention an evacuation. The twins go into a three story office building to observe until whoever ordered the evacuation shows up.
Hours pass. The sun sets and no one has shown up. The robots haven't moved an inch. Mabel questions if everyone that had been replaced by a robot is dead. Dipper tells her the people are still alive somewhere and they have to rescue them. Mabel then asks what they will do if no one comes back. Dipper tells her someone will, even if he doesn't know who.
Another hour passes during which nothing changes, except for it getting even darker and the twins getting hungry. Mabel suggests going to the candy shop across the street. Dipper doesn't want to let the robots out of his sight, having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that the past two weeks have been spent with robots. Mabel convinces him to go outside and get food with her.
The two of them go downstairs and head across the street to the candy shop, the robots still not moving. Mabel quickly starts devouring bags of Gummy Koalas while Dipper checks out a bag of jerky, depressed. Dipper realizes that even if they figure out exactly what happened two and a half years ago, all that is at the end of the mystery is pain.
Admitting to himself that the people if Gravity Falls might actually be dead, Dipper tells Mabel they should leave. Mabel asks him if he really wants to leave, if he doesn't want to solve the mystery and find out why someone replaced the people with robots. He says he does want answers, but also says that he is scared of being hurt again, of finding out that Mabel is right and they can't save everyone. He says life would have been better if they had never come up in the first place. Mabel points out that if they hadn't, Stan would be dead. Dipper points out Stan was a robot at the time, and Mabel says she knows that, before pointing out that if they call it quits now, if there is even the tiniest chance they could save the people, they wouldn't be able to take that chance.
BOOM. The twins rush outside to see an enormous alien spaceship coming in to floating space above the town. A smaller, but still large, ship comes out if the main ship, hovering just above the buildings. An escalator comes down in front of the robots, an alien in astronaut gear walking down it.
The alien begins speaking to the robots, Mabel shocked at her ability to understand his language. The alien tells the robots that, because they are short on time, the robots will go onto the ship before being scanned. The alien tells the robots he will be back soon before heading back into the ship. Mabel translates for Dipper, who just heard a bunch of whistles and clicks, and the two decide to sneak onto the ship with the robots.
The twins head towards the back of the line as the robots step onto the escalator one by one, heading into the ship. Dipper realizes their eyes aren't glowing, so Mabel takes out four blue Gummy Koalas, which the twins put over their eyes. Luckily, the alien couldn't care less about the process, and they are able to get on the ship without being discovered.
The alien retracts the stairs and heads down a corridor, the twins following behind him. They come to a room full of seats and they sit down, the seats strapping them in automatically. The ship takes off, heading towards the mothership. The twins look out a window, processing the fact that they are in space. They notice the blue charges are following behind them before tuning their attention to the mothership. Mabel recognizes the orange and green spirals of the mothership from when she passed out. Dipper asks how they are supposed to get home just before the ship they are currently on docks.
Cryptogram:
Rndb, hljkwlhv, brx fdq fdop grzq. Urerwv glg lqydgh dqg wdnh ryhu wkh zruog, brx zhuh uljkw. Fkloo.
Okay, eighties, you can calm down. Robots did invade and take over the world, you were right. Chill.
