Ford was on his hands and knees, carefully drawing 10 symbols closed in compartments in a wheel. The wooden planks of the floor made bumps in the chalk, and he was desperate for the summoning to work, so he made sure to shade in every possible defect. Fiddleford stood anxiously in the corner. He ran a hand through his blond hair, adjusted his small glasses, and then began to fidget with his hands.

                “Stanferd, I’m not too keen on this,” Fiddleford said, taking a step forward. “Don’t it seem a bit extreme?”

                “What? No, of course not.” Ford said, stepping back for a moment to examine his work. He frowned and stalked over to the desk holding his journal. “Does this look like it goes circle-triangle or triangle-circle to you?”

                He held up the page on which the strange old woman from the fair had carefully drawn the Zodiac. The 10 symbols were neatly evident inside the compartments of the wheel: a shooting star, glasses, ice, tree, fish, question mark, star with eye, six-fingered hand, heart, and llama. Inside the wheel, a triangle, square, and circle all sat neatly on top of each other.

                “Triangle-circle… but Ford, we have no idea what this is goin’ ta do,” Fiddleford said. “It could bring about th’ end of the world, or worse!”

                “I doubt a part-time palm reader knows about a summoning circle that could end the world,” Ford said. “Besides, even if she did, then she wouldn’t be actively giving it out, I suspect that we take Palmala at her word. Just think Fiddleford, ten different anomalies that the world has never seen before! This could be it- if we publish our findings we could-“

                “Stanferd.” Fiddleford interrupted. “If you wanted to be famous, you’ve done enough research to turn Gravity Falls into the hotbed of scientific inquiry, and you would’ve published your work by now. If you wanted money then you could’ve patented any one of your inventions.”

                Ford scoffed and rolled his eyes. “The same goes double for you, besides, we have no idea if this will even do anything.”

                He walked back toward the chalk lines, carefully stepping over them as he began to draw the shapes in the center.

                “…I suppose you’re right.” Fiddleford said, “But we have to be careful.”

“Of course,” Stanford said distractedly, the shapes were much easier to draw than the complicated symbols of the Zodiac, and soon, they were complete.

                Fiddleford looked apprehensively at the completed summoning circle. “We only have two members of the Zodiac. You sure we shouldn’t try and find anyone else?”

                “We can find the other eight later, I don’t particularly want to deal with ten anomalies at once,” Ford said.

                “Fair enough I suppose,” Fiddleford said.

Ford scrambled to his feet, dusted the chalk from his hands, and picked up his journal again. “Here we are… the incantation is rather odd…”

                He gestured for Fiddleford to stand on the compartment that held the glasses. Fiddleford stepped forward, his feet kicking up small clouds of chalk as he stood inside the summoning circle. He half thought that something was going to happen the instant he set foot inside the chalk drawing, but nothing did. Ford took his place on the six-fingered hand, he glanced at Fidds, then cleared his throat and began to read.

                “In fire, you were burned alive.

                By the daemon’s arson crime,

                In life, you lost your hearts and minds

                You have no chance peace to find

                But by Axolotl’s granted wish,

                But by time’s gentle kiss

                Bind your souls to our embrace

                Break the bonds of lying space,

                Meld your being with that of mine,

                Merge our essence with that of thine,

                In the hopes to appease his crime

                A different form a different time.”

                With every word Fiddleford felt more and more uneasy, the chalk began to glow, orange spread out from under his feet, while red twisted around Ford’s. Ford was grinning excitedly as he kept reading.

                “A different form a different time,

                Hear me from this secret sign,

                A

                X

                O

                L

                O

                T

                L            

                No longer shall you burn.

                I invoke the ancient power that you may return!”

                Fiddleford flinched as a sudden wave of energy flooded the room. For a moment the symbols on the floor flashed red, then orange, then a startling blue that hadn’t been present before. He looked away, but clearly, Ford didn’t, as a moment later he heard a strangled shout.

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                “It worked!” Ford squealed, he sounded like a child on Christmas morning.

                “Well hold on now.” A voice he didn’t recognize said. “Weren’t there supposed to be three of ya?”

                “I suppose it can’t be helped…” A second voice said, conspiratorially. “Heya Kiddos!” he said louder with the slightest hint of a Jersey accent. “Name’s Euclid, Euclid Cipher, it's my pleasure!”

                “Stanford Pines. The pleasure is mine.” Ford said, his voice still having that infuriating air of blasé excitement.

                Fiddleford finally turned to look and-

Oh. That wasn’t so bad.

                Two very geometrical… little guys floated in the center of the circle. Euclid had apparently put on his Sunday best for this- er, meeting. He was about the size of a milk carton, he was triangular and a bright, almost glowing red. Two thin solidly black arms jutted out of each side of the triangle three fingers on each hand. Similarly, two legs hung from the base of the structure. He had three eyes, each sitting in a vertical line above the other, not exactly in the middle of his… face? But leaning more toward the left. He was wearing a small black top hat and reminded Fidds of a stuffed animal.

                The other, an orange square with matching limbs but only one, large eye in the center of his body, that took up most of his shoebox-sized form. He wasn’t wearing a hat, but he did have an almost comically sized bandana, it was orange and white, and lovingly handstitched, although somewhat clumsily, perhaps by a child. The square spoke up, strangely, he had an accent that almost matched Fiddleford’s Tennessean one. “An’ I’m Sylvester.”

                “Fiddleford.” He said the creatures didn’t look dangerous, a little odd perhaps, but not for Gravity Falls still, there was something wrong with Sylvester’s voice. Something he couldn’t quite place that made his brain scream run.

                Ford didn’t seem to have this problem. He was staring at the anomalies, the gears in his brain visibly turning. He cleared his throat and stepped forward slightly, his boots kicking up the chalk dust only to reveal that the zodiac had been burned deep into the wooden planks of the floor. “I have some questions if you don’t mind-“

                Euclid cut him off with a chuckle. “Oh, there’s plenty of time for that kiddo, mind answering two of mine first?”

                Ford blinked. “Of course not.”

“Great!” Euclid said, “Question one is… how much do you actually know about the zodiac?”  

“Well, we recently acquired the incantation and zodiac itself from an old fortune teller and were able to figure out that it could be used to summon ten anom- er, non-human entities, by bringing together humans that could represent the symbols on the wheel. From the wording of the incantation, I assumed it has something to do with reincarnation.”

Fiddleford swallowed at Ford’s use of ‘we’ and Euclid and Sylvester shared a look.

“That’s almost a part of it,” Sylvester said, more to Euclid than Ford.

Ford looked slightly nervous but quickly regained his confidence. “…And your second question?”

Euclid turned back to him, all three of his eyes stared hard at Ford. “Where is the Mackerel?”

Fiddleford didn’t know what he expected the triangle to say, but it wasn’t that. Sylvester noticed his confusion and gestured to the symbol of a fish, now branded into the floorboards.

“Pardon me?” Ford asked,

“The third zodiac member,” Euclid tried to explain.

“It's just Fiddleford and me,” Ford said cooly.

Euclid looked… well, he looked something, it was hard to read the expressions of a triangle, but his eyes glanced away from Ford, and he seemed to scrunch up slightly, and flashed slightly darker red. “Hm, I must’ve been mistaken.”

“Howsabout we get somewhere a bit more cozy than this?” Sylvester asked, as his single, large eye looked about the dark and mostly empty room, the only light streaming in from closed windows.

“That sounds like a great idea.” Fidds found himself agreeing, even if the square’s voice felt wrong like he was hearing his own played back to him, he didn’t want to stand here for hours while Ford pestered Euclid with questions. Briefly, he wondered why only Euclid was talking with Ford, while Sylvester seemed to be waiting just as much as he was.

“I suppose we can…” Stanford said thoughtfully.  

                Euclid nodded. Maybe? His eyes flicked up and down, and he moved as if he had nodded, but he didn’t have a neck, or… he was just a floating triangle face. “Do you have a sitting room perhaps?”

                “Er,” Ford said, his house had been basically divided into either Lab Space or Storage Space. When he hired Fiddleford, he cleared out one of the rooms and turned it into a guest bedroom… of sorts. His room could only be defined as an office with a bed in it. “Let’s go to the kitchen, does your species eat- are you two even the same species?”

                “We do and we are,” Euclid replied.

Ford smiled politely and turned toward the kitchen.

---

The cement was cool against his head. It felt sort of nice when the rest of his body felt like it was on fire. For a second he numbly wondered if he had stopped breathing, if the pain in his chest was from broken ribs or lack of oxygen. He forced himself to take a breath, just in case, and found that it was probably both. He knew that he needed to open his eyes. If he went to sleep now, someone might find him, he wasn’t nearly deep enough in the alley to be properly hidden… if he woke up. Wasn’t so sure right now. Didn’t really matter. Probably would be easier if he didn’t.

He thought about it for a second, just letting himself sleep, but there was no way he was going to let himself die- he needed to go home. He still needed to earn the chance to go home. He couldn’t die like this- he couldn’t die without being able to look his Pa in the eyes and tell him that he was wrong, he couldn’t die with his Ma knowing that he was just some screw-up, he couldn’t die not meeting baby Shermie all grown up, he couldn’t die without seeing-

Nah. He could probably go without that last one. Not like he’d want to see him again after everything. Even if... Nevermind. So, he decided that he wasn’t going to die. The hard part was actually… not doing that. Right. He swallowed, his throat hurt. He put his hands palm down against the pavement and pushed. His muscles screamed he coughed and spat blood onto the cement. He peeled his eyes open as he pulled himself into a kneeling position. His vision blurred and he found himself gasping for breath, the sharp pangs in his chest ignored.

Shoot shoot shoot shoot-

                He found himself teetering, he groped out wildly for something to steady himself. Someone placed a firm hand on his shoulder, causing him to flinch. The hand was about the size of a child’s, and… only had three fingers. He wasn’t going to judge, but what?

                “It’s alright Little Fish, just breathe.” A soft voice said from behind him, gently patting his back. “My name is Scalene. I’m here to protect you now.”

“Y-you sound like my Ma.” He said, his voice shaking slightly.

                “My species does not communicate verbally; this was the only significant female voice in your memories that did not have romantic connotations.” She said, “If it bothers you, I can use another one.” 

                “What?” He said it sounded like something Sixer would say.

She patted his shoulder again. “I borrowed her voice so that I wouldn’t remind you of your exes.”

                He hesitated and turned to look at the strange woman. Or… thing. It was a floating triangle with two eyes, but they were like, vertical, one on top of the other. She was blue, and almost glowing in the dark alley. A bow floated above… uh, one of her sides. He stared at her dumbly and found that he didn’t care nearly as much as he thought he should right now.

                “Oh you poor dear, you’re all alone, aren’t you? Where are the other two…” Scalene pulled away from his shoulder and floated around the alley for a moment, looking around.

                “its jus’ me.” He muttered.

She looked at him pensively, then almost sadly, huh, he knew that he was good at reading people, but this thing wasn’t a person.

                “…that’s alright, do you have a place to go? You’re shivering.” She asked.

“My car.” He said, “Down th’ street.”

                “Oh dear.” She said again.

Well, she had his Ma’s voice, but she didn’t talk like her. “I jus’… needa second.”

                “Give me your keys, I’ll bring it closer.” She said.

                He should’ve found that very suspicious, if Scalene was anything except for a floating triangle, he probably would’ve found that incredibly suspicious, he found most human beings incredibly suspicious, but he just had a feeling that he could trust her. Probably because she stole his Ma’s voice. Dang. This was weird. He was probably dreaming, or Juan had put somethin’ on that knife. He dug into his pocket and grabbed his keys, his hands shook and he tossed the key ring in the general direction of the triangle, she caught it. “Can your feet even hit th’ peddles?”

                “I’ll manage.” She said in a clipped way.

                She floated away, and he realized that he hadn’t told her where his car was. Or what it looked like. He coughed up more blood and then wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his worn jacket. After a few minutes, he was surprised to see his car pull in front of the mouth of the alley, then the door swung open of its own accord. Scalene was at his side again.

                “Can you stand?” She asked.

                He grunted and tried to stand up. The triangle pulling upward on his uninjured arm until he staggered to his feet. He stumbled toward the Stanley-Mobile, feeling like an unseen force was pushing him along. Heck, he wouldn’t be surprised if there was one, considering the freaking triangle uh… ghost thing that was following him around. The walk from the alley to his car felt like ten miles. He slumped down into the front seat, cranked the heater on, slammed the door and locked it. Then he passed out.