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minijenn · 8 years ago

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Universe Falls, Chapter 30, Part 1

Woo boy kids here we go! Dreamscaperers is finally here! I honestly had such a blast writing this one, even if it felt like it took forever. But I’m so glad its finally finished and I can share it with you all! So, enjoy!

Previous: http://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/157063740644/universe-falls-chapter-29

Chapter 30, Part 1: Dreamscaperers

19-1-23 8-9-19 15-23-14 4-9-13-5-14-19-9-15-14 2-21-18-14 13-9-19-19-5-19 8-15-13-5 1-14-4 3-1-14'20 18-5-20-21-18-14 19-1-25-19 8-5'19 8-1-16-16-25, 8-5'19 1 12-9-1-18 2-12-1-13-5 20-8-5 1-18-19-15-14 6-15-18 20-8-5 6-9-18-5

It was an unusually gloomy day in Gravity Falls, with the skies hanging dull and overcast and covered in clouds that were more than likely saturated in oncoming rain. A few sparse showers had already fallen that morning, dampening everything just enough that so much as trying to walk outside would result in a rather muddy mess. It was for this reason that Dipper, Mabel, and Steven had taken to the shack’s attic to hang out for the afternoon. Seeing as how the Gems were gone for the day on a mission and the shack was bereft of business, the kids had relatively no obligations, which meant they were free to do whatever they pleased to occupy their time. Including engaging in a rousing, albeit a bit one-sided game of picture charades.

“Ok! It’s done!” Mabel exclaimed, grinning widely as she presented her drawing to the boys. They both looked over it quietly, taking in her rather sloppy and haphazard jumble of images in for a moment before Dipper finally shook his head in defeat.

“Mabel, I have no idea what any of that is,” he admitted with a frown.

“Aw, come on! Just guess something!” Mabel encouraged, tapping her pencil against the page.

“Hm…” Steven mused thoughtfully, looking to the drawings once more. “Is it… a calculator!”

Mabel gasped in excitement, nodding vigorously as she glanced at her own rough sketch of a cow, a cue tip, and a person waving. “Yeah it is! Good job, Steven!”

“Eh, it was kinda obvious,” the young Gem shrugged with a grin.

“Ok, seriously?” Dipper asked with slight disbelief. “How are you guys beating me so badly at this?”

“Oh don’t feel bad, Dipper,” Mabel reassured with a smirk. “Me and Steven just have the same kind of special ‘art sensibilities’, right?”

“Right,” Steven nodded. “I mean, Mabel was able to guess that my drawing was a laptop, so that must mean something!” He held up his own sketch, which was of waves crashing onto the shore and a blouse.

Dipper simply looked between the two of them with slight confusion before reaching an apt conclusion. “I… don’t think either of you guys are really playing this right…”

Before Steven or Mabel could argue their case, their game was suddenly interrupted as Stan called up to them from downstairs. “Kids! Come quick!” Curious to see what the fuss was about, the trio hurried downstairs Stan sitting before the TV wearing only his boxers and an undershirt and a wide grin of amusement. “I need you to laugh at this with me!” he chuckled, nodding to the ad playing on screen, which just so happened to be for the Tent of Telepathy.

“Who’s cute as a button, and always you friend?” Gideon sang in his usual schmaltzy way, putting on a charming smile and a folksy dance. “Lil’ G-I-D to the E-O-N! Wink!” he exclaimed, giving a sly wink to the viewing audience as a voiceover from Bud cheerfully repeated his son’s name: “Lil’ Gideon!”

“Ugh, Gideon,” Dipper groaned in annoyance, rolling his eyes.

“Remember when I wouldn’t date him and he tried to destroy us?” Mabel asked with equal disdain.

“Or the time he forced all my Watermelon Stevens to try and destroy the Gems?” Steven asked with a frown that quickly turned tearful as he recalled the experience. “Oh, Baby Melon, may you rest in peace—er, pieces.”

“He’s always trying to trick me into losing the Mystery Shack,” Stan scowled. “Not to mention how he nearly got me and Amethyst arrested the other night.”

“Uh, actually, I think you and Amethyst nearly got yourselves arrested,” Dipper pointed out.

“Don’t change the subject!” Stan snapped. “That doesn’t change the fact that Gideon’s still a creepy little punk.”

“Seriously though,” Wendy agreed as she stepped into the room with Soos. “One time I caught him stealing my moisturizer.”

“And yet, our mutual hatred for him bonds us together,” the handyman concluded, eliciting agreeing nods from almost everybody. Their collective attention was caught by the television once again, as Gideon’s ad came to an end.

“Come on down to Lil’ Gideon’s Tent of Telepathy!” Bud’s voiceover exclaimed. “Opening soon at this location.” The shot suddenly changed to the Mystery Shack, strangely enough, though it only remained for a second before the Tent of Telepathy fell smack on top of it, crushing the shack completely. Likewise a wrecking ball smashed into the Gem temple in the background, ramming into its face and crumbling it apart instantly.

“Oh my gosh!” Steven gasped in alarmed horror. “The temple! And the Mystery Shack! Oh this is terrible! How did Gideon do that while we were all standing in here?!”

“He didn’t, Steven, it was just an effect,” Dipper deadpanned. “Still… should we be worried about that?”

“Please,” Stan said with an unconcerned wave of his hand. “The only way Gideon’s taking over the shack is by breaking in and stealing my deed.”

The abrupt sound of shattering glass instantly startled the entire group the moment they heard it, even if it came from the other room. “You mean like, right now?” Wendy asked in reference to what Stan had just said.

And certainly and timely enough, Gideon had indeed busted into Stan’s office and was already hard at work trying to decipher the combination to the conman’s tightly locked safe. “38? 41?” the child psychic muttered as he frantically turned the lock. “Oh, heavens to betsy!”

“Gideon!” Stan shouted gruffly, standing in the doorframe of the office with his arms crossed sullenly. The kids, Wendy, and Soos were all piled behind him, eager to watch the confrontation that was about to unfold.

“Well, well, Stanford, my arch-nemesis” Gideon smirked deviously as he stood and faced the conman. “Just like the other night, it seems as though we have entered a dangerous game of cat and mouse. But the question remains: who is the cat and who is the-”

“Soos, broom,” Stan said dryly as the conman handed him a broom.

“Oh no, not the broom!” Gideon cried in alarm, especially as the conman charged at him with it. Of course, this soon turned into a rather comical circular chase, as Stan pursued the child psychic with his broom and got a few good whacks in. Gideon attempt to show his dominance by pausing and letting out a harsh hiss, only for Stan to retaliate with two rough swings of his broom, which was finally enough to force him out of the room. The conman quickly managed to chase Gideon out of the shack altogether, making sure to keep his broom on hand as he stood guard at the door to keep him from sneaking back in.

“And stay out, you chump!” Stan exclaimed harshly.

“You mark my words, Stanford!” Gideon began, his hands curled into tight fists as he glared fiercely at his rival. “One day I’m gonna get that combination! Nobody can stop me! Not you, not those bothersome Crystal Gems, not anyone! And once I get that deed, you’ll never see the Mystery Shack again!”

Stan simply rolled his eyes, not taking the petulant child psychic’s threats seriously. “Good luck, bucko,” he remarked sarcastically before slamming the door, leaving Gideon to seethe out in the lightly-falling rain.

Still, Stan did make sure to go back to his safe and check to make sure Gideon hadn’t tampered with the shack’s deed. And, after checking it seeing that it was safe and sound, the conman secured in back inside the safe once more, making sure it was locked tight and far out of the child psychic’s reach. “Heh,” Stan chuckled to himself as he finished up. “The combo to this safe is in the one place he’ll never find it: my brain.”

With a broad grin of satisfaction, the conman left the room to continue lounging, not even noticing the figure still lurking right outside the window. Gideon’s fury had dissolved into a sinister resolve, for despite how crafty Stan might have thought himself to be, the child psychic had a plan. He always did. “Your brain isn’t as safe as you might think, Stanford Pines!” Gideon exclaimed, his dark smirk growing wider as he pulled the second journal out of his suit. “This is the last straw! It’s time to unlock the journal’s greatest secret…”

Gideon’s smile grew practically manic as he found the page he was looking for. For there, nestled amidst countless codes and cryptograms on the rain splattered parchment, was a wheel, demarcated with ten symbols around it, all of them different: from a tree, to a star, to a sword, to gemstones of several varying cuts and still others. But the wheel itself was not what captivated the child psychic’s interest. Rather, it was the mysterious being inside of the wheel, who, according to the journal at least, supposedly possessed power and knowledge all at once.

Only time would tell if that promise carried any weight.

While Gideon’s break in earlier had been something of an eventful distraction, the quiet, dull pace of the day was quick to return, leaving everyone to spend the rest of the gloomy afternoon congregated around the TV downstairs. While Dipper and Wendy reclined boredly on the floor and lazily fired off Nyarf guns at each other, Steven and Mabel sat together on the other side of Stan’s chair and laughed over the funny videos they were watching on the young Gem’s phone. It didn’t take too long for their noisy merriment to start getting on the conman’s nerves as he tried to watch TV over them, to little avail.

“Ugh, that’s it!” Stan exclaimed, glaring at the pair in frustration and immediately silencing their laughter. “Kid, when the heck are you gonna go home?” he asked Steven impatiently. “You’ve been here all day! Normally I don’t care since you runts usually go running around outside, but being cooped up in here and having to put up with both you and Mabel is more than any sane person can take!”

“Aw, but Mr. Pines, the Gems are on a really dangerous mission today,” Steven began to explain. “And Pearl told me to come spend the day down here instead of being all alone at the temple. She said that you owe her and Garnet for what happened with the cops the other night.”

“Oh what, and Amethyst doesn’t?” the conman deadpanned. “She was part of that just as much as much as-” Stan quickly cut himself off however, as he remembered how he had gone to such great lengths to cover for the purple Gem in the first place. “Uh, I mean… never mind. As for you, kid, I guess you can hang out here for a while. But only until the Gems get back and only as long as you both stop trying to give me a headache.”

“Don’t worry, Grunkle Stan,” Mabel reassured brightly. “We’ll be super quiet.” Of course, only a second after she promised this, her hand slipped, resulting in her accidently hitting the play button on Steven’s phone. The loud song that blared over the speaker was enough to rouse Dipper and Wendy from their relative listlessness as well as prompt Stan to confiscate the phone entirely.

“Hey, my phone!” Steven protested, reaching for it even as Stan held it away from him.

“Obviously you two can’t handle the responsibility of- ” the conman paused as he looked over the phone with a confused frown, unfamiliar with the trending technology. “Whatever this weird noise box is. So until you can, I’ll just hold onto it.” Stan’s bewilderment with the phone soon turned to frustration as he kept slamming his finger against it in a futile attempt to get the blaring music to stop. Eventually though, he gave up and handed the phone back to Steven, but only for a moment. “Just as soon as you turn that racket off, first.”

“Well, Grunkle Stan, if we aren’t allowed to watch TubeTube videos, then can we at least watch a movie that we’ll all enjoy instead of… that?” Mabel asked, nodding to the TV as it played a lackluster old western.

“He put the old in ‘old west’.” The TV advertised. “They call him ‘Grandpa the Kid!’”

“I’m tired during the day,” the elderly cowboy on screen grumbled.

“Hey, I’ll have you know I can relate to this!” Stan argued crossly.

“Mr. Pines, Mabel’s right,” Wendy said dryly. “That old junk is boring.”

“It sure is! Which is why I have the perfect suggestion for what we should watch instead!” Mabel grinned widely, holding up a very colorful VHS tape. “Dream Boy High! ‘Where love is on your permanent record’.”

Of course, the others all booed at such a gaudy, pandering suggestion, save for Steven who looked to the cover of Mabel’s tape with his usual fascination. “I don’t know what you guys are booing about,” the young Gem said with a smile. “This movie looks like it’ll be great! Just look at how cool and colorful these guys are!” He exclaimed, pointing to the two young men on the cover, both decked out in the most flashy neon clothes imaginable.

No one really had a chance to argue against this however, as a sudden crash sounded from the kitchen, with Soos scrambling into the room seconds later with a fearful cry. “Dude, there’s a bat in the kitchen! It tried to touch me with its little bat fingers!”

“Don’t worry, I got this under control,” Stan reassured before casually reclining back into his armchair and shirking the task off. “Dipper, take care of it.”

While Mabel chuckled triumphantly over how she didn’t have to handle this unsavory responsibility, Dipper let out a disgruntled scoff, shooting a disbelieving glance at the conman for it. “What? Why can’t Mabel do it?” he asked petulantly.

“Cause life ain’t fair,” Stan shrugged unsympathetically. “Now go fight a bat so we can watch TV.”

“No way, Grunkle Stan!” Dipper protested firmly as he stood between Stan and the TV. “You’re always making me do dumb chores and I’m tired of it! I’m putting my foot down this time!” To emphasize his point, he slammed his foot down on the carpet, hoping that it would show the conman that he meant business.

“Ooooo!” Mabel, Steven, Soos, and Wendy all gasped, intrigued by turn of events. Stan however, was far less amused.

“I said do it, kid,” he ordered harshly. “Now!”

Despite this severe command, Dipper was still adamant, especially as he crossed his arms and stared Stan down, undaunted. Of course, the conman stared right back, and the others all watched the palpable tension steadily build up between the two of them as the scowls they were trading became progressively more irate. However, Stan won out in the end, as Dipper wasn’t able to hold out under his fierce, almost threatening glare for too very long.

“Ok, I’ll do it!” he finally, very begrudgingly agreed, heaving a defeated sigh as he began to head for the kitchen. Steven and Mabel followed after him, curious to see how this would turn out. “Ugh, stupid chores…” Dipper muttered petulantly as he grabbed a saucepan and spoon lying near the kitchen entry.

“You totally got this, Dipper!” Steven encouraged brightly. “The good thing about bats is that they’re really small, but then again… they can fly… which means they might be kinda hard to catch…”

“Just remember,” Mabel cut in with what she believed was much better advice. “Bats are more afraid of you than you are of them.” Dipper didn’t really take either of their well-intentioned, yet misguided help to heart as he simply took in a deep, resolved breath and charged into the kitchen with pan and spoon in hand. “Or maybe I’m thinking of ducklings…” Mabel mused a moment after her brother left.

This correction came too late of course, for before either Steven or Mabel could even peek in and see how Dipper was faring, they quickly were able to glean that from the abrupt clatter in the kitchen. Aside from the noisy explosion of breaking plates, bat screeches, and Dipper’s own frightened cries, a barrage of kitchenware flew out of the room as the pair outside simply stood by, unsure of what to really do.

“Ducklings are so adorable!” Steven obliviously quipped as though nothing had even happened.

“I know, right?” Mabel readily agreed, playfully mimicking one, much to the young Gem’s amusement. “Quack, quack, quack!”

Of course, as soon as the clamor in the kitchen did calm down a bit, Steven and Mabel did head in to check up on Dipper, who had somehow managed to chase the bat outside though not without getting mildly injured in the process. He assured the pair that it was only a few small cuts and bruises, but it was enough to worry both Steven and Mabel enough to get Soos involved. And so, after rounding up what little first aid supplies Stan had on hand in the shack, the three of them got to work on tending to Dipper’s wounds the best they could, much to his chagrin.

“Ow, ow!” Dipper hissed in pain as Soos dabbed disinfectant over the cut on his arm while blithely humming a song he made up about it.

“You know, Dipper, this would be way faster and easier with my healing spit,” Steven pointed out before giving his hand a generous lick. “This stuff will fix you right up!”

“Uh, n-no thanks, Steven…” Dipper quickly rejected, blocking his hurt arm off with a rather uncomfortable frown. “I’m pretty sure I’ll recover just fine without it.”

“Well, ok,” Steven shrugged, not entirely convinced. “But the offer’s still on the table for if you ever have to chase off another bat or something!”

“Uh… right…” Dipper said, glancing away as Mabel finished bandaging the cut on his forehead. “I just don’t get it though. Why does Grunkle Stan always pick on me? Think about it! The more painful or difficult the chore is, the more likely it is I’ll have to do it! Why doesn’t he pick on you guys like that?”

“Pfft, what are you even talking about, bro-bro?” Mabel shook her head. “Stan’s not hard on you, silly! He just likes showing tough love sometimes!”

“Yeah, like when he tells me and the Gems that we’re ‘annoying’ and that we’re ‘the worst neighbors ever’,” Steven remarked innocently. “Amethyst says that’s just Mr. Pines’ way of joking around with us! Which means he must love joking around with us because he says that sort of stuff so much!”

Dipper gave the young Gem a rather puzzled look upon hearing this, knowing that was most certainly not what it meant but not bothering to try and argue against his stilted logic. “Sure, Steven,” he said somewhat sarcastically. “That’s what it means.”

“Dipper, Stan’s personality is just one of life’s great mysteries,” Soos spoke up. “Like whether or not it’s possible to lick your own elbow.”

“I bet you can’t!” Mabel challenged daringly.

“I bet I can!” Soos exclaimed boldly, already trying to do so, much to Steven and Mabel’s shared amusement.

“Lick it! Lick it! Lick it!” they chanted excitedly, following Soos out of the room and leaving Dipper behind. He let out a frustrated sigh, especially as he happened to glance over at Stan’s picture hanging on the nearby wall. Regardless of what Steven and Mabel had said, Dipper was still convinced that the conman had a generally low opinion of him, though for what reason, he really didn’t understand. Then again, he supposed it did make some sense. Especially seeing as how even from the very beginning of the summer, Dipper had never really hit it off with Stan in the way Mabel had. But then again, was that really any excuse for the conman to treat him with such blatant disrespect?”

“The sink’s clogged!” Stan yelled from the other room. “Dipper! Get in here and fix it!”

Of course, this stoic command only managed to aggravate Dipper even more, as well as give him even more tangible evidence for Stan’s clear contempt for him. Which was why, out of sheer vexation, he grabbed the Nyraf gun lying on the nearby table and fired a suction-cup projectile at the conman’s portrait, watching with muted satisfaction as it struck him right between the eyes.

Somewhere in the middle of the woods, a nearly identical photo of Stan sat, defaced with a red ‘x’ over his eyes and a ring of glowing candles around it. Gideon smirked cunningly as he put his match out, journal 2 resting in his free hand and turned open to the exact page he needed for his treacherous plans.

“You think that combination’s safe in your mind, Stanford?” the child psychic asked rhetorically, running a hand over the summoning spell on the open page. “We’ll see what my new minion has to say about that!” Still using the journal as a guide, Gideon stood before the circle of candles as he began reciting the spell word for word. “Triangulum, entangulum. Vene foris dominus mentum. Vene foris videntis omnium!”

While Gideon believed he would go relatively unnoticed in carrying out his scheme, what he hadn’t counted on was that Mabel, Steven, and Soos had taken to the front lawn of the shack. The kids took immense enjoyment out of watching the handyman’s continued albeit fruitless attempts to lick his elbow, yet despite that, they still cheered him on all the while.

“Lick that elbow! Lick that elbow!” Mabel and Steven cheered in pumped unison, only for Soos to finally sigh in defeat as he stopped straining to reach.

“Like the infinite horizon, it eludes my grasp,” he admitted with a frown as Steven and Mabel simply chuckled. However, the levity was soon cut short as a very familiar laugh sounded from the forest nearby.

“What was that?” Steven asked, looking to the woods curiously.

“Wait…” Mabel paused as the devious chuckle continued. “Is that who I think it is?”

After exchanging an inquisitive glance, the trio decided to go investigate, only to find the source of the laughter in a clearing not too far away. They stayed at the fringe of the clearing however, tucking behind the bushes just out of sight of the child psychic at the center of it. “Ugh, Gideon?” Mabel asked with apt disgust. “What’s he still doing here?”

“Whoa, dudes, looks like something’s up with him,” Soos noted, referring to how the child psychic was doubled over and trembling as he let out a load groan.

“Maybe we should go see if he’s ok?” Steven suggested with his usual stain of empathy.

Mabel was more than prepared to shoot that idea down, but the group was surprised into silence as Gideon collapsed to his knees and let out an indecipherable, admittedly unnerving chant. “Egassem sdrawkcab. egassem sdrawkcab. Egassem sdrawkcab! Egassem sdrawkcab! Egassem sdrawkcab!” With each nonsense word, the child psychic’s voice grew louder, his eyes enveloped in a bright blue glow that completely hid his pupils. In a sudden flash, the entire world seemed to drain of all color, resorting to a dull, grayscale pallet. The clouds in the sky overhead seemed to be flying by at an alarming rate while the rest of the world just seemed to freeze, save for Gideon and the trio eavesdropping on him. All three of them continued watching what was unfolding with unshakable fear, even if they had no idea what they were supposed to really be afraid of.

Out of nowhere, another bright flash dotted the sky before the child psychic and out of it, a triangular shape began to emerge. As it scaled to a medium size, it turned dark with what seemed like a starry spacescape, only for an outline of flames to burst around it seconds later. As a large, singular eye appeared in the center of the triangle, it began to, of all things, laugh. It was a strange, nasally laugh that was somehow both annoying and intimidating all at once, and carried the faintest hint of sadism in it for good measure. Frightened and bewildered by the appearance of this strange new entity, Mabel, Steven, and Soos all made sure to tuck down behind the bush just so they could remain out of its singular-eyed sight. Even Gideon backed up a bit, suddenly unsettled by the creature he had managed to summon based on just its laughter alone. But soon enough, the triangular being made his full appearance known as the flames around him died out and more physical details emerged, including thin black arms and legs, a tall, narrow top hat, and a petite bowtie just below his eye. A deceptively simple and unassuming appearance for a creature that was supposed to be “all knowing”.

“Oh, Gravity Falls! It is good to be back!” the being exclaimed in his pitchy, somewhat echoey voice as he glanced around. “Haven’t seen this old place since that night I shook those four space rocks up years ago! But I’ll spare you the boring details on all that. Spoilers, ya know.” With his hands casually placed on his hips—or rather, his edges, he glided down to float directly before Gideon, who could only gape at him, dumbfounded. “Name’s Bill Cipher,” he introduced himself. “And I take it you’re some kind of living ventriloquist dummy. Ha! Just kidding! I know who you are, Gideon!”

“W-what are you?!” the child psychic asked with apt nervousness. “And h-how did you know my name?”

“Oh, I know lots of things!” Bill exclaimed brightly, though his tone quickly turned dark and deep as a plethora of cryptic images flashed on his otherwise bright yellow form, all of which went by too quickly to make anything of. “LOTS OF THINGS… Hey, look what I can do!” he quipped, his body returning to its normal color as he held his hand out towards a deer that was grazing at the edge of the forest nearby. With a mere flick of his wrist, the doe’s teeth were all seamlessly ripped out of its mouth as they flew towards the demon’s open hand without delay. “Deer teeth!” he handed the collection of teeth to Gideon with a twisted laugh. “For you, kid!”

“Augh!” Gideon cried in disgust, dropping the teeth immediately. “You’re insane!”

“Sure I am, what’s your point?” Bill shrugged, returning the deer’s teeth to its mouth with a simple wave of his hand. “I never did understand why you fleshbags get so worked up about that little tidbit. Then again, you’d hardly be the first.”

As unnerved as Gideon was, his fear was turning more into frustration over Bill’s impudent, rather callous attitude, which seemed to far exceed even his own. Still, as flustered as he was, the child psychic regained his composure and take up a firm stance as he voiced his demands. “Listen to me, demon! I have a job for you,” he said, glaring boldly at Bill all the while. “I need you to enter the mind of Stanford Pines and steal the code to his safe!”

Upon hearing exactly what Gideon’s intentions for summoning this bizarre demon were, Mabel, Soos, and Steven all gasped in shocked unison. After all, if the child psychic had gone to such great lengths, then clearly, he was done playing around. This time, he meant business.

Once again, Bill simply laughed mockingly, clearly not taking Gideon too seriously. “Yeah, sure, I-” he abruptly cut himself off however, his eye reverting to a cold glare as he turned away from the child psychic briefly. “Wait… Stan Pines…” he mused, his form flashing with an image of the conman himself, followed by an unknown, glowing red symbol. His eye went wide with realization before he quickly turned back to Gideon, maintaining his usual casual manner. “You know what, kid? You’ve convinced me. I’m sold! I’ll help you with this, and in return you can help me with something I’ve been working on! Nothing too big, just a… a pet project, ya know? We’ll work out the details later.”

“Deal!” Gideon exclaimed without hesitating, knowing that whatever Bill wanted from him in return from this would be more than worth it to get his hands on the Mystery Shack.

As the child psychic held out his hand to solidify the deal, the demon’s own hand erupted in a bright blue flame, though it oddly didn’t burn Gideon as the two shook on their plans, much to the amazement and slight horror of the trio still watching the exchange from afar.

“Well, time to invade Stan’s mind! This should be fun!” Bill exclaimed with undaunted glee. “Remember: Realityisanillusiontheuniverseisahologramtheclusteriscomingbuygold bye!”

After imparting this fast-spoken, bewildering message, Bill suddenly disappeared in blinding blue flash, similar to the one he had first appeared in. As the light cleared and color returned to the black and white world, Gideon let out a sharp gasp as he opened his eyes, clearing them as if he had just awakened from a dream. But what had just happened was far from just a mere dream, as Mabel, Steven, and Soos could all attest to as they also opened their eyes, completely shocked at what they had just witnessed.

“It worked!” Gideon let out a maniacal laugh as he realized all of his sinister plans were coming together. However, the trio in the bushes all knew they had a serious problem on their hands with this development, which was why they were quick to retreat so they could discuss it out of the child psychic’s earshot.

“Guys, this is really bad,” Mabel said with apt concern. “We can’t let that triangle guy get inside Stan’s mind. Who knows what’ll happen if he does?”

“Dudes, that guy was crazy bonkers creepy!” Soos exclaimed fretfully. “Did you see what he did with those deer teeth? I totally thought I was gonna puke!”

“And the way he just… laughed about it, like it was actually funny,” Steven shuddered with an anxious frown. “It was scary. Even if his little top hat and bow tie were kinda cute. But what can we do to stop him?”

“Oh! Oh! I know!” Mabel exclaimed, her expression alight with a newfound idea. “Who better to call to get rid of crazy evil things like that then the three coolest Gems in Gravity Falls? Well, the only three Gems in Gravity Falls, but still! I’m sure they’d be able to get rid of that triangle guy, no problem!”

“Yeah!” Steven exclaimed with zeal before his smile quickly faded. “Oh, but wait… they’re gone for the day and I don’t know when they’ll be back. And I don’t think we really have a lot of time to wait for them…”

“Dang it!” Mabel exclaimed with a frustrated snap of her fingers. “Well then I guess we’re gonna have to do this ourselves. To the Mystery Shack!”

“To the Mystery Shack!” Soos and Steven repeated boldly after her, before the handyman quickly interjected.

“Uh, actually, can we maybe stop off for snacks first? You can’t fight a crazy triangle demon on an empty stomach, dudes.”

Mabel and Steven looked to each other for a moment upon hearing this request, but in the end, this delay easily won them both over. After all, they certainly had enough time to grab a quick snack before stopping Gideon’s twisted ambitions, right? “To the Big Donut!” the young Gem proclaimed just as vigorously as before.

“To the Big Donut!”

Seeing as how he had been the only one around for the past hour, Dipper had found himself stuck with even more chores to add onto the already lengthy list Stan had rattled off to him. His current task of sweeping up the living room put him rather close proximity to the conman, who was fast asleep on his recliner in front of the TV. Dipper paused, giving Stan a suspicious glance as he mumbled a rather incoherent apology in his sleep.

“What is going on in that guy’s head?” Dipper wondered to himself incredulously as he prepared to leave the room. However, before he could, Mabel, Steven, and Soos burst in in a rather noticeable panic, even despite the snacks they were all toting.

“Dipper! We gotta help Stan!” Mabel cried loudly, though somehow she still didn’t end up waking the snoozing conman.

“Wait, what?” Dipper asked, aptly confused at this sudden plea.

“This evil triangle guy said he’s gonna break into Stan’s mind and steal the combination to his safe!” Soos exclaimed, his mouth full of Burrito Bites. “Also we stopped for snacks on the way here.”

“We watched Gideon summon him or something out in the woods,” Steven explained much more earnestly. “They made like, some kind of deal, I think? It was pretty confusing…”

“Wait,” Dipper interrupted, trying to make sense of everything they were saying. “Triangle guy? Deal? I felt like I’ve seen something like this before in the journal…” he mused, pulling said book out of his vest and tentatively flipping through it before finding the right page. It was by far one of the most ominous ones in the entire journal, transcribed in panicked scribbles as opposed to the author’s usual clean script and marred with what seemed to be several blood splatters. And of course, its content was even more disturbing, as they all quickly gleaned from Dipper reading it aloud. “Beware Bill! The most powerful and dangerous creature I’ve ever encountered. This nightmare in disguise will seduce you with never ending flattery until he gets what he wants. Whatever you do, never let him into your mind. There is no telling what damage Bill might no. Do not summon at all costs.”

This reading was abruptly interrupted as Stan started tossing and turning about in his sleep, a pained expression washing over his face. “Grunkle Stan!” Mabel cried worriedly as the others gasped with equal concern. For before anyone could do anything, the ominous triangular shadow of Bill Cipher himself draped itself upon the wall behind Stan, before sinking down slowly, no doubt into the conman’s mind. In the wake of this, Stan’s movements became even more jerky and erratic as his eyes shot open, though it was clear he was anything but really awake. Rather, his eyes were glowing bright blue as he let out a series of struggling cries.

“Oh no! We’re too late!” Steven exclaimed in dismay. “What do we do?”

Mabel was quick to get the answer to this question as she grabbed the journal from Dipper and read an excerpt from the next page aloud: “It is possible to follow the demon into a person’s mind and prevent his chaos. One must simply recite this incantation.”

“Ugh, this is just great,” Dipper remarked bitterly. “I spend all day cleaning sinks and fighting bats for Stan and now I have to save him from some crazy brain demon?”

“But we gotta help Mr. Pines, Dipper!” Steven urged pleadingly. “If we don’t do something, then who knows what might happen?”

“Gideon might steal the shack!” Mabel exclaimed fretfully. “Or worse!”

The conversation was interrupted once more as Stan let out another scream amidst his restless thrashing, his eyes still blank and glowing. And if that wasn’t enough to prompt the kids into action, then nothing was.

“Fine,” Dipper sighed relentingly, not too fond of putting himself in what would be certain danger for Stan like this. Still, he knew that if he refused, Mabel and Steven would never let him hear the end of it. “Get ready, guys. We’re about to journey into the most horrifying, disturbing place any of us have ever been: our uncle’s mind.”

Despite the determination the kids had for this daring mission, Soos was quick to break through it with an inquisitive, though somewhat unrelated question. “You think I can take these Burrito Bites into Stan’s brain?” he asked, holding the back of snacks up. “Thumbs up? Thumbs down?” The handyman paused for a moment, gaging the kids’ reactions to this proposal, or rather, lack thereof before letting out a small laugh. “You know what, I’m just gonna bring ‘em.”

It took a while to get everything in order, but with the journal to guide them, the kids eventually managed to construct the setup they would need to perform the ritual that would hopefully grant them access into Stan’s mind. The group had constructed a circle of candles surrounding the conman in the living room, one that was admittedly quite similar to the one Gideon had used to summon Bill in the first place. With the lights turned off and the candles burning dimly, the four of them stood around the still-slumbering conman, preparing themselves for the daunting task ahead.

“Ok, guys,” Dipper said with resolve, still holding the journal open to the incantation. “In order to save Stan, we’re gonna have to follow that dream demon into his mind.”

“I wonder what it’ll be like in there…” Steven mused curiously. “Oh! Wouldn’t it be awesome and adorable if there was a tiny version of Mr. Pines in there who will take us on a tour? It’d be just like it is here at the shack!”

“Oh my gosh, that would be the cutest thing ever,” Mabel gushed with a delighted smile. “Especially if tiny Stan sang and danced, just like I’ve always wanted the real Stan to do but he never does because he says its ‘cheesy’!”

“Guys, come on,” Dipper said, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Stop messing around. The sooner we get in there, the sooner we can get out and be done with this whole thing. ”

“I wonder what Stan is thinking right now,” Soos cut in thoughtfully. With a small grin, the handyman pulled the conman’s jaw up and down and comically threw his voice to put words in his boss’ mouth. “‘I love Soos like a son!’”

“Soos! This is serious!” Dipper scolded impatiently.

“‘Sorry!’” Soos exclaimed, still briefly pretending to speak through Stan before exchanging a high five with Mabel out of amusement.

“So if we’re finally done wasting time,” Dipper began pointedly, shooting the others a disapproving glance. “Let’s do this.” As soon as everyone had placed a hand on the conman’s forehead as a point of contact, Dipper began to recite the intended incantation straight from the journal itself. “Videntis Omnium. Magister Mentium. Magnesium Ad Hominem. Magnum Opus. Habeus Corous.” As the spell went on, all of their eyes, and even the gemstone on Steven’s stomach, started to glow the same bright blue as Stan’s, though none of them could really pay too much mind to that as the incantation neared its completion. “Inceptus Nolanus Overratus. Magister Mentium. Magister Mentium! Magister Mantium!”

A very bright, very quick flash illuminated the room, all of the candles abruptly going out in the process. And then, as the light faded as quickly as it had appeared, Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Steven were all but gone.

And instead, they opened their eyes to find themselves in what seemed like another world entirely.

All four of the kids let out muted gasps of awe as they got their first glimpse at the grayscale landscape all around them. Not a speck of tangible color existed and the very atmosphere itself was still and lifeless, though it did flicker briefly every now and then. The most presently noticeable feature was the large duplicate of the Mystery Shack before them, which seemed to float amidst nothingness. Its façade was even more dilapidated and worn down than the real-life version of the building, with pieces crumbling apart and hovering scattered around it and its very structure hewn and stitched together without any form or order. Curious, the gang got up and slowly began to approach it, taking care in their initial steps lest this ethereal world fall apart around them at any slight provocation.

“Whoa… is this really Stan’s mind?” Mabel asked, glancing around with wide eyes.

“I figured there would be more hot old ladies,” Soos remarked.

“And I guess there’s no tiny Mr. Pines in here after all…” Steven said with a disappointed frown that turned to one of confusion as he happened to look to his left and see one of the several battered facets surrounding the mind shack. It was a simple swing set, obviously rusted and bent as vines clung to it and one of its two seats was hanging broken from it, while the other lone seat slowly swayed to a nonexistent breeze. For reasons the young Gem couldn’t quite place, a wave of sudden regret and sympathy washed over him as he looked at the old abandoned swing set, though he was quickly broken out of it as the others moved on without him. Before anyone could really notice he wasn’t keeping up, Steven hurried to catch up with the rest of them as they came to stand before the mind shack.

“Remember everyone,” Mabel said, her tone plucky and serious. “We’ve gotta look out for the triangle guy.”

“Yeah, look out for the triangle guy!” Bill himself quipped as he made his arrival, rising up from the porch of the mind shack.

“It’s him!” Soos exclaimed as the others gasped in surprise. “It’s the guy!”

“You leave our uncle’s brain alone, you isosceles monster!” Mabel warned, her boldness getting the better of her as she charged towards the dream demon in the hopes of catching him. Of course, Bill was more than prepared for such an attack, which was why he allowed Mabel to leap right into him, hardly even caring as she disappeared into his triangular form. The dream demon pulled a stopwatch out of nowhere, and after using it to wait a few seconds, he sent the girl tumbling out of him in the same way she had came. “Gotcha!” Mabel exclaimed triumphantly, only to find that hadn’t caught anything. “Wait, what?”

“Ah, Stan’s family. We meet at last,” Bill remarked casually. “Question Mark, Shooting Star, Pine Tree, I had a hunch I might bump into you!” With an amused look, the dream demon pointed at the group, a laser blasting from his finger in a sudden burst. The blast ended up striking Dipper straight in the chest, startling him a great deal as he let out a horrified scream. However, as the initial panic wore off, he realized that the attack hadn’t really hurt him, though what was quite alarming was the large, gaping round hole that had been cleanly shot through his chest.

“Boop!” Mabel exclaimed with a joking smirk as she stuck her hand through the new hole in her brother’s body just for fun.

“Mabel!” Dipper scolded, pushing her hand away.

“And look who else is joined this party!” Bill exclaimed, disappearing and immediately rematerializing right behind Steven. “Hey there, Rosebud! How are you and those Crystal Chumps doing?”

“You mean… the Gems?” Steven asked uneasily, suddenly perplexed by how the dream demon seemed to know about them. Then again, he had said so himself: he knew lots of things.

“Well, duh!” Bill rolled his eye. “I’d ask how ol’ Quartzy is, but that would be pretty redundant, if you catch my drift.”

“Wait, Quarzty? As in… Rose Quartz?” the young Gem asked, confused by all the nicknames. The dream demon simply “nodded” as he continued to spin his black cane casually. “You… you knew my mom?”

“Sure did! Me and your dear old mom go waaaaay back. She sure was something else, let me tell you!” Bill exclaimed with a small laugh. “Speaking of quartzes, mind if I take a quick peek at that rock on your gut, kid?”

“Oh, my gem?” Steven frowned, tentatively lifting up his shirt to reveal it.

“That’s the one!” the dream demon quipped cheerfully, snapping his fingers. The second he did so, however, the gemstone on Steven’s stomach suddenly disappeared completely, only to reappear over Bill’s open palm a second later.

“Hey! My gem!” the young Gem cried fretfully, looking down to the now empty spot on his stomach, where only an indentation where his gem had once been remained. Likewise, Dipper, Mabel, and Soos all gasped with apt concern, all of them quickly growing tired of the crafty demon’s demented games.

“Relax, Rosebud,” Bill reassured, making sure to keep the pink stone out of anyone’s reach. “I’m just borrowing it for a while. After all, Gems like this are pretty hard to come by anymore. And besides, you won’t even remember its gone after a while!” With a mere flick of his wrist, the gemstone disappeared into thin air, and much to Steven’s dismay, did not make a reappearance in its rightful place on his stomach. “But anyway, enough talking about who knows who and crying over rocks,” the dream demon shrugged, gliding back over the mind. “Instead, let’s chat about how you kids are gonna leave and let me go about my business, hm?”

“Not a chance!” Dipper protested firmly. “What do you want with our uncle’s mind anyway?”

“Oh, just the code to the old man’s safe!” Bill remarked, just as informal as ever. “Inside the shack is a maze of a thousand doors representing your uncle’s memories. Behind one of them is a memory of him inputting the code. I just need to find it and Gideon will pay me handsomely!”

“Not if we stop you!” Mabel challenged.

“Ha! Fat chance!” the dream demon scoffed. “I’m the master of the mind. I even know what you’re thinking about right now!”

“That’s impossible!” Mabel proclaimed confidently. “No one can guess what I’m thinking!”

She was quickly proven wrong, however as Bill snapped his fingers once more, resulting in a very colorful blast of light. When it cleared, two tall young men, both clad in the gaudy neon fashions of the 90s, had appeared among the group, much to Mabel’s absolute delight.

“Ahhhhh!” she squealed with sheer joy as she looked up at the two boys excitedly. “Xyler and Craz from Dream Boy High?! You two are even dreamier in person, if that’s even possible!”

“Whoa, where are we, bro?” Xyler asked, bewildered as he looked around.

“We must be in heaven, cause I just saw an angel!” Craz declared pointing at Mabel with a smile.

Of course, Mabel let out another happy scream as she hugged Craz’s leg tightly. “I’m never letting go of your leg!”

“You’re out of your league, kids,” Bill cut in, satisfied that he had demonstrated just a bit of his power. “Turn around before you see something you might regret. Later, suckers!” With another mocking laugh, the dream demon abruptly crashed through the wall of the mind shack, leaving a triangle hole behind as he hurried inside to begin his treacherous work.

“We’re going in!” Dipper exclaimed, knowing that Bill already had a head start on them. “Uh, Mabel? Can we leave those guys out here?” he nodded to the dream boys. “Looking at them… hurts my eyes.”

“No way!” Mabel protested adamantly, still holding onto Craz’s leg. “They can help us!”

“I think they’re pretty cool,” Steven interjected, smiling at the boys.

“Thanks, bro!” Xyler exclaimed, exchanging a high five with the young Gem.

“Whoa, neat! I’m a bro!” Steven grinned brightly. “Still… I kinda wish I still had my gem… I dunno, I’d just feel a lot… better with it…” he frowned, glancing down to the vacant spot on his stomach.

“Don’t worry, Steven. We can get it back when we stop Bill!” Mabel reassured daringly.

“Alright!” Xyler and Craz cheered in supporting unison. “Arm throne!” Both boys bent down and linked their arms together, creating something of a seat that Mabel was more than happy to leap into, chuckling brightly as she allowed the boys to carry her inside the mind shack.

“Dude! Arm throne!” Soos copied them, holding his own arms out to Dipper. Of course, he turned this offer down seeing as he was still somewhat sullen and self conscious about the gaping hole in his chest, but Steven on the other hand was more than willing to comply.

“Yay! Arm throne!” he exclaimed, hopping into the handyman’s arms. They both laughed as they headed into the mind shack after Mabel and the boys, with Dipper following much more petulantly behind them.

Much like the outside, the interior of the mind shack itself was drained of all colors, as well as disjointed and scrambled in almost every way possible. Floating staircases were everywhere, leading to doors in seemingly every single direction imaginable. Several of the doors were clearly marked, from one that was tightly bolted shut labeled “fears” and another one afar in the distance that had a soft white glow to it entitled “hopes” and still several others. As discombobulating and strange as it all was, no one could deny that this expansive labyrinth was perhaps more than any of them had bargained for.

Yet even so, if there was anyone heedless of the daunting challenged ahead, it was the (admittedly dense) dream boys. “Radical!” Craz exclaimed with a wide grin.

“I also think its radical!” Xyler agreed with just as much zeal.

“This place is so huge!” Steven exclaimed, glancing around in awe. “Where do we even start looking?”

“Our best bet would probably-” Dipper began, though he was abruptly cut off as a bat with, oddly enough, Stan’s face flew past, barking “no refunds” repeatedly. Already quite irritated with this mission and the conman as a whole, Dipper let out a frustrated sigh before he continued. “Like I was saying… our best bet would probably be that door down there that says ‘memories’.” He nodded to the door at the bottom of the nearest set of stairs.

“Oh, good idea, dude!” Soos agreed with a smile. “Though in retrospect, I guess it was sorta obvious.”

Intrepid in their mission, the group headed through the door into a seemingly endless hall of the conman’s memories, all of which were playing out simultaneously in the open doorways lining it. Most of the memories immediately on display were quite recent, ranging from Stan taking on the pterodactyl to rescue Waddles, to Stan giving Soos a task at the shack, to Stan arguing with Pearl over the rocket ship project and still countless more. And somewhere among this plethora of memories, was no doubt the combination for the safe that both all of them and Bill were searching for.

“Whoa, look! All of Stan’s memories!” Soos remarked, amazed.

“Cool! Each one of them is kinda like a little mini-movie!” Steven chuckled, glancing at a door containing the memory of Stan and Amethyst scaring off Summerween trick or treaters. “Or should I say, mini-memory-movies!”

“Great, I’m sure there’s plenty of memories of Stan bossing me around,” Dipper said dryly, crossing his arms. “Can’t wait to see more of that.”

“Come on, Dipper! We gotta find that code before Bill does!” Mabel urged resolutely.

“Mabel is talking!” Craz exclaimed, duly impressed.

“So rad!” Xyler gushed just as enthusiastically.

“Let’s get searching!” Soos declared, prompting the group into action. The hall was indeed as Bill had described it: a maze. But the gang stuck together as they ran through it, keeping an eye out for anything that looked like it could be the memory of the code they were looking for. Since not all of the doors were hanging wide open, they realized they would have to open some of them for themselves, which was a trend Dipper started as he opened up a random door.

The memory inside the door showed a much younger version of Stan, clad in an orange jumpsuit as he sat in a prison cell alongside two very rugged cellmates. “Jorge, Rico,” Stan began with a wide smile, wrapping an arm around each of them. “You’re the best Colombian prison friends a fella could make.”

“Espero que muera,” Rico said to Jorge with clear disdain for the oblivious conman.

“Si,” Jorge agreed simply.

“Nope!” Dipper said, concluding the memory to be useless in their search as he shut the door.

Meanwhile, Soos opened up another nearby door, to find another memory of a young Stan, who was attempting to sell vacuums as a door to door salesman. “Sir, would you like to buy a Stan-Vac vacuum?” he began his pitch with a flashy grin. “Stan-Vac: It sucks more than anything.” Of course, upon hearing this faulty slogan, the customer was quick to slam the door right in the conman’s face. “Gotta work on that…”

“Nope,” Soos shook his head, closing the door.

“Whoa, this one has Amethyst in it!” Steven pointed to the door he had opened. The scene inside of it depicted Stan and Amethyst one of their infamous Revenge Trips, embroiled in what appeared to be a high-speed car chase with the police.

“I thought you said nobody saw you steal those tires!” the conman exclaimed, alarmed as the cops’ sirens blared behind them.

“Hey, how was I supposed to know that place had a security camera!?” the purple retorted casually, clearly unconcerned. “Just do what you always do when the heat shows up. Floor it!”

“I can do better than that,” Stan smirked, shifting his car into gear, pushing it much faster than before. The pair both let out a precocious laugh as they easily outgunned the cops, all while the conman peeked his head out the window and taunted them triumphantly. “Try and catch us now, suckers!”

“Aw, those two always have so much fun together,” Steven said with a warm smile as he closed the door.

“Oh look! It’s Stan on a date!” Mabel cooed curiously, pulling a smaller door open. And indeed, the conman sat across from Lazy Susan on a dinner date, one that clearly wasn’t going well, based on the stilted, awkward conversation they were having.

“So, uh… your eye is weird,” Stan began, his tone uncertain. “Let’s… let’s talk about that.” Lazy Susan merely let out a loud laugh at this, one that the conman joined in much more anxiously as his thoughts narrated over the memory. “Ugh, this is going terrible. I can’t think of anything to say and she… she looks weird up close. Think of a way out!” Of course, Stan’s “way out” was appropriately unorthodox and sudden as he abruptly stood from the table and cried: “Non-specific excuse!” before shoving everything off of the table and running for his car outside.

“Yeesh,” Mabel closed the door, cringing at the awkward display.

As the group forged on ahead to continue their hunt, they happened to pass by a door leading to another hallway simply labeled “Dipper Memories”, which of course, was quick to catch Dipper’s attention. “Look, guys! Memories about me!” he exclaimed, grabbing the doorknob tentatively.

“That doesn’t seem like a good idea, dude,” Soos noted with a frown, nodding to the “keep out” sign on the door.

“Yeah, I doubt we’ll find the combination to the safe in there,” Steven said. “Unless Mr. Pines told it to you, Dipper. But then… I guess we wouldn’t really need to be here if he did, so…”

“Listen, I just wanna know what the old guy really thinks of me,” Dipper said, pulling the door open a little more.

“We already know how Stan feels about us!” Mabel quipped confidently as she began to walk off. “He loves us! We’re great.”

“Yeah, let’s just keep moving,” Soos agreed as him and Steven headed onward with Mabel and her dream boys.

“More moving?” Xyler asked excitedly.

“Yes! I love motion!” Craz quipped brightly.

Dipper started to follow the rest of the group as well for a moment, though as soon as he was sure no one was noticing, he quickly turned and rushed back to the door. True, it didn’t really have much to do with their overall objective, but still. He needed to know the truth for himself.

“Ok, just a quick peek…” he muttered, slowly opening the door and heading inside. Expectedly, this hallway was much more narrow than the main one, and seemingly a bit darker too, as Dipper noted while exploring it. As he walked down it, he could clearly hear Stan bark orders at him from all of the countless open doors, all of which were instances that Dipper also remembered, none of which very fondly. Deciding that any of them would probably do to prove his point, he chose a random door to open, revealing a memory that, to his own recollection, had only happened about a week or so ago.

“No buts!” Stan exclaimed harshly, his tone stern as he pointed to the pile of wood in the lawn. “Now go and chop that firewood already!” As a way of asserting his authority, the conman knocked his nephew on the head with the newspaper he was holding, much to his chagrin. With an aggravated sigh, Dipper turned and headed off to start chopping the wood while Stan took a supervising role as he sat upon the couch on the porch alongside Soos and Amethyst.

“Dude, Stan, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Soos began with a concerned frown. “Why are you so hard on Dipper all the time?”

“Yeah, seriously,” Amethyst agreed casually, munching on an empty soda can. “I mean, yeah the kid’s a nerd, but that’s really no reason to pick on him that much. Even if it is kinda funny.”

Outside of the memory, Dipper simply rolled his eyes upon hearing this, more than used to Amethyst’s callous remarks by now. But even so, he listened intently as Stan began to explain. “Listen, you two. I’m gonna let you in on something.”

“What, about how you wet the bed until you were like, thirteen?” Amethyst asked with a joking smirk. “Because you already let that one slide to me, Stan.”

“N-no! And I never said anything about that!” Stan exclaimed, clearly flustered. “Just… ugh, look. You really wanna know what I think?”

From there, the conman’s voice dropped into a low whisper as he talked to Soos and Amethyst, prompting Dipper to lean in a bit closer to the door so he could make out what Stan was saying. And when he was able to hear what Stan was saying, Dipper just as soon wished he hadn’t. “The kid’s a loser. He’s weak! He’s an utter embarrassment! I just wanna get rid of him.”

Dipper didn’t really need to hear anything else after all this, which was why he slowly shut the door before Stan could say any more hurtful things about him. He let out a dejected sigh as he turned away from it, his head hung as he stared down to the ground in disappointment. Dipper hadn’t really been sure of what he expected to find here, but a small part of him had hoped that it wouldn’t have been something like this. Indeed, his suspicions about Stan’s apparent disdain for him had been all but proven by the conman himself. Still, that hardly prevented the revelation from hurting as much as it did. If anything, hearing it come from Stan only made it hurt even worse. Before, Dipper had merely speculated that the conman simply found him as an easy target for his teasing and orders out of apathy alone and little else. But now he knew that there was much more to it than that. There was ire, contempt, and scorn, all things that, in retrospect, Stan had never hesitated to show towards him before. Which was why Dipper realized that instead of futilely trying to gain the conman’s fickle favor, he might as well show those very things towards the conman in full force.

After all, it was only fair.

None of the others had really noticed Dipper’s absence yet as they continued searching through the maze of doors for the code, though with relatively little luck so far.

“Hello? Code to Stan’s safe?” Mabel called. “Where are you?”

“Opening and closing doors is fun!” Xyler proclaimed, randomly opening and shutting the same door over and over again.

“I can do it also!” Craz quipped with a huge smile, doing the exact same thing.

“Oh, maybe it’s in this one…” Steven mused, opening up a nearby door curiously. While he didn’t find the code, what he did find though peaked his interest quite a bit. “Whoa, look you guys! It’s my dad when he used to work for Mr. Pines!”

The others all gathered around the door inquisitively as they observed a scene in the gift shop play out. Greg sat behind the counter, organizing merchandise as Stan casually leaned against it, rattling off a lengthy list of complaints about only one thing: the Gems.

“And you know what else irks me about those four?” the conman asked, crossing his arms. “Every time they have some sort of disaster or monster up at that temple of theirs’, it always manages to wind up down here somehow. I’m still trying to regrow the grass that fire monster they fought last week burnt up.”

“Aw, come on, Mr. Pines,” Greg said with a small smile. “The Gems really aren’t that bad once you get to know them.”

“Sure, Greg,” Stan deadpanned. “Of course, you’re only saying that because you’re head over heels for one of them.”

“Heh, well I am a little guilty of that…” the former rock star grinned bashfully. “But who knows? I’m sure if you just gave the Gems a chance then maybe you guys could actually get along!”

“Ha! Yeah right! The day I make nice with any of those broads is the day pigs fly.”

“Well, given how weird this town can sometimes be, I wouldn’t say that’s totally impossible…” Greg chuckled, finally eliciting an amused smirk from Stan as well.

“Well what do you know?” Steven said, closing the door and exchanging a smile with Mabel. “Looks like my dad was right after all.”

“Yeah! About both things, kinda,” Mabel shrugged with a laugh.

As they moved on, Soos opened up another door, this one containing a memory of Stan pressing several buttons on the gift shop’s vending machine late at night. Neither of the kids were there with the handyman to see the machine swing aside and reveal that there was a secret staircase hidden behind it.

“If only people knew the truth…” Stan said mysteriously, glancing out from behind the vending machine as he prepared to go down. “That hidden behind this vending machine, I secretly have a-”

“Boring!” Soos exclaimed, carelessly slamming the door shut before the conman could finish.

“Alright, guys,” Mabel said, standing before a small door labeled ‘top secret’. “I have a good feeling about this one.”

She readily swung it open, uncovering a memory not of the safe combination, but rather of Stan in the bathroom, bereft of a shirt as he used his stomach as something of a puppet for his own amusement. “Hey, Mr. Tummy!” he greeted, grinning down at his gut. “‘Hey Mr. Stan,” the conman threw his voice as he made his stomach essentially “talk”. “Are you hungry? ‘Yes!’ Then eat your crackers!”

The group observing this memory all cringed in relative disgust over it, especially as Stan started “feeding” his stomach crackers. “Sweet Sally!” Mabel exclaimed, repulsed as she quickly shut the door.

“Ugh, we’ve been searching forever!” Steven exclaimed, exasperated. “And there are still a ton of doors we haven’t even checked yet! What if Bill finds the memory before we do?”

“Guys, we got this,” Mabel reassured. “If we wanna find Stan’s memory, then we gotta think like Stan. He’s always hiding stuff, right?”

“Yeah!” Soos agreed. “Like how he’s always hiding his arrest warrants under that rug in the gift shop?”

“Soos, that’s it!” Mabel exclaimed brightly. “Look!” She pointed to a rug lying on the ground just a few feet away, one that was nearly identical to the one Stan kept in the gift shop. And sure enough, upon pulling the rug away, the group found one more door hiding underneath it. The gang all exchanged wide smiles of anticipation, all of them hoping that this was at last the elusive memory they had been seeking. And as Mabel opened the door, they were instantly overjoyed to find that it indeed was.

Inside the memory, Stan kissed the precious deed to the Mystery Shack before putting it safely inside the safe. “There ya go,” he said, shutting the door. “And now to input the code. 13, 44, and finally-”

Soos closed the door before Stan could finish but even so, the entire group was immensely relieved and excited to have finally come across it. “Dude! We found it!” the handyman exclaimed cheerfully.

“Yeah!” Steven and Mabel cheered, exchanging a high five.

“But what do we do now?” Xyler and Craz asked in tandem. “Jinx!”

“Um… hm…” Mabel mused, trying to come up with a suitable solution. “Oh! I know! Let’s destroy the memory before Bill can find it!”

“But… if we destroy the memory, then wouldn’t Mr. Pines not be able to remember the code at all?” Steven asked with a frown as Mabel grabbed the ax from a nearby statue of armor.

“Well, yeah, I guess,” Mabel shrugged, struggling to tote the heavy ax over to the door. “But still, anything’s better than Gideon getting ahold of it and stealing the deed!”

“Wait!” Soos suddenly stopped Mabel before she could bring the ax down on the door. “Maybe I should do it! My big fat arms are great at destroying stuff!”

“Oh, okay,” Mabel grinned, seeing no harm in this plan.

However, instead of outright destroying the door using force, the handyman simply reached his hand out towards it silently, focusing on it intently. Mabel and Steven exchanged a confused glance at this, though their bewilderment soon turned to surprise as a blue glow started to surround the door as Soos managed to lift it from the floor without even touching it.

“Whoa… How are you doing that, Soos?” Steven asked in apt amazement as the door hovered beside the handyman.

However, before Soos could answer, oddly enough, another Soos happened to wander onto the scene at that exact moment. “Hey, guys!” the new handyman greeted a bit obliviously. “I just saw a memory of Stan roller skating and wearing short-shorts! Didn’t… didn’t look that bad!” An awkward pause permeated the group, during which Soos finally happened to notice the presence of his doppelganger. “Hey, something weird is goin’ on here, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…”

The other Soos simply laughed as his cover was blown, though it was far from the handyman’s laugh. Instead, it was the telltale mocking, borderline insane laughter of Bill Cipher himself, which made more sense as the dream demon seamlessly shifted from his perfect disguise into his usual triangular form. “Boy, you kids sure are gullible!” he exclaimed, holding onto the door as the group all gaped at him in apt surprise. “I knew you’d lead me straight to the code! It’s funny how dumb you are!”

“Hey, no fair!” Steven exclaimed, dismayed. “You tricked us!”

“Wow, you sure are slow to the punch, kid,” Bill remarked teasingly. “Of course I tricked you! And it was even easier than I thought it would be! Then again, I never thought it would be that hard since you all are a bunch of half-wit mini-meatskins in the first place.”

“Oh yeah? Well, y-you’re… you’re a… a stink face!” Mabel retorted challengingly.

“Awesome comeback, Mabel!” Xyler congratulated with a thumbs up.

“Don’t treat me like a child, Xyler!” Mabel quickly scolded, frustrated.

“Well, as fun as holding my victory right over your heads is, I have a deal to make good on,” Bill said, lifting the door with the code inside up higher. “Later, suckers!” With another triumphant laugh, the dream demon raced off, flying away before any of the kids could hope to stop him.

“Oh no! The code!” Steven gasped in alarm.

“Come on!” Mabel urged, more than ready to chase after the demon for it. “We gotta save Stan!”

“What’s the point?” The other members of the group were all somewhat surprised to hear this question come from Dipper as he finally rejoined them, his expression quite sullen and his hands shoved into the pockets of his vest. “Why should I save him, huh? I work for Stan night and day, and all he does in return is say he wants to get rid of me.”

“Dipper, you know that’s not true,” Mabel was quick to argue.

“Why would Mr. Pines ever say anything like that?” Steven asked, concerned. “You’re his family, Dipper. He loves you!”

“No he doesn’t!” Dipper retorted harshly. “I saw it with my own eyes, you guys. He’s always picked on me and now I know why: Stan hates me!”

The others all gasped at this claim, none of them really able to believe it. “B-but… that can’t be right,” Steven tried to reason, even if Dipper wasn’t having it. “Maybe you just misheard him or something.”

“Or maybe it’s the truth and you guys are just in denial!” Dipper protested bitterly. “Look, if you need proof, then why don’t we all just go back to the door so you can hear what Stan-”

“Dipper, there’s no time!” Mabel interrupted, frustrated that he was even insisting upon something so ridiculous. “It doesn’t matter what you saw or what you heard. If we don’t stop Bill, we’ll lose the shack!”

“No!” Dipper refused, irresolute in his position. “You know what? Not this time. For once this is one of Stan’s problems I’m not gonna fix. If you guys wanna go put yourselves in the line of fire for him, that’s fine. But count me out.”

“W-what?!” Steven asked, quite surprised and dismayed at this turn of events. “But Dipper, we-”

“Fine!” Mabel retorted just as harshly, sending her brother a disapproving glare. “Go ahead and be a selfish old stick in the mud! Come on, you guys. We’ll save Stan ourselves.” Without sparing another word, she promptly headed off to finish this mission, regardless if Dipper came along or not.

“Let’s go, Xyler,” Craz said, eagerly following behind Mabel.

“All right, Craz!”

“Those are our names!”

“Totally righteous!”

“Dipper, you’re a cool dude but… this isn’t cool, dude,” Soos said with a disappointed frown as he also moved on. But even so, Dipper refused to change his stance on the matter, even as Steven lingered behind for a moment.

“Let me guess, Steven,” Dipper began, crossing his arms as he let out an exasperated sigh. “You’re gonna try and convince me that I should help you guys save Stan, right?”

“Uh… well, yeah, actually,” Steven admitted with a shrug. “But only because it’s the right thing to do!”

“Well, forget it,” Dipper shook his head, firm in his resolve. “It doesn’t matter if its right or not. Nothing you can say will make me change my mind about this. Besides, you can’t honestly tell me that Stan saying he wants nothing to do with me is ‘right’ either, can you?”

“Well, no… I can’t…” the young Gem frowned, not really sure of what to say. “And… I guess I can’t really convince you to help us either… But you should at least think twice about this, Dipper. I mean, this is kind of a big deal, in case you haven’t noticed…”

“Oh, believe me, Steven, I’ve thought about it plenty,” Dipper said, glaring away bitterly. “You might as well go join the others. I’ll see you on the outside.”

“But…” Steven started to protest before realizing that this was a losing battle. “Ok… but… you know where to find us if you change your mind.”

“Yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen,” Dipper remarked sardonically as the two of them headed their separate ways.

Steven frowned in disappointment as he started off in the direction that Mabel and Soos had went, rather upset that he hadn’t been able to really change Dipper’s mind as he had hoped. However, his dejection soon turned to surprise as he heard a startlingly familiar voice ring out from one of the memories down a nearby hall.

“I can’t—I wont’t let you do this,” the feminine voice said, her tone hardened and firm. Steven’s jaw dropped as he heard it, knowing that he had heard this very same voice for the first time ever in the video tape he had watched just a few days ago. But still… what place would she have here in Stan’s memories?

“So what? You’re gonna try and stop me, pinky? Is that how this is gonna be?!” Stan asked in angry response. Steven’s curiosity raised even more upon hearing this, especially as he realized that whatever this encounter was, it was likely quite confrontational.

“Yes. I am,” the pink Gem’s voice was solid, the determination in it clear. The young Gem took in an anxious breath as he stood in the threshold of the hall, still unable to see the memory for himself, even if he could clearly hear it. “I’ll do whatever I have must to keep you from reopening it. No matter what the cost.”

“Steven!” Mabel’s call abruptly broke the young Gem out of his intrigue. “Are you coming?”

“Uh, be there in a second!” Steven exclaimed in response, briefly turning back towards the source of the memory. He had missed whatever Stan had said, but he could tell the tension was still very high as Rose spoke again.

“Don’t you understand?! This thing is far too dangerous!” she exclaimed, a hint of remorse and desperation in her tone. “It was a mistake to build it in the first place. We should have never-”

“Steven!?” Mabel called once more, starkly reminding the young Gem of the urgency of the situation. He couldn’t afford to waste time investigating unrelated leads like this. Bill already had the code to the safe, and if they didn’t hurry, then it would be in Gideon’s hands before they knew it.

“Coming!” Steven assured, forcing himself to disregard the memory he had overheard. But even still, as he turned and started to continue on after the others, he couldn’t help but still pick up on bits and pieces of the argument until it was finally out of his earshot. “Gone… machine… not fair… Gems… disaster… your fault…” and finally “portal…” were all the young Gem was really able to make out, leaving him with far more questions than any answers. Despite that, Steven knew that he couldn’t really focus on any of those questions right now, not at such a high-stakes moment as this.

Still, that didn’t stop him from wanting to ask them.

Bill sped through the long hall of memories at a remarkable speed as every door he flew past flung open almost instantly. With the memory of the code in tow, the dream demon was assured in his victory and twistedly excited for what he would get in return from Gideon upon the fulfillment of their deal. And that fulfillment was at hand as Bill’s form suddenly rang like a phone, prompting him to answer the call with a tap of his bowtie.

“Y’ello?” the dream demon greeted casually as Gideon appeared on the screen that formed below his tie.

“Bill! Did you find the memory with the combination yet?” the child psychic asked eagerly.

“Relax, short stack. I got it right here,” Bill assured, pulling the door out of nothing.

“Perfect!” Gideon exclaimed with a triumphant laugh. “Now, give it to me and we’ll finish our bargain.”

“Finally! Its—you got a pen there? It’s 13, 44…” Before the dream demon could list off the last number, the door was suddenly struck with a suction cup projectile, cleanly knocking it out of his hand. “Ah! No, wait!” he cried, scrambling after the memory as it went flying towards another open door. The memory inside of it was Stan presenting the bottomless pit from several weeks ago as he stood before it.

“…and none are more bottomless than the bottomless pit! Which as you can see here is bottomless,” the conman concluded, though he did pause and watch in confusion as the code door happened to fly into the memory before quickly falling into the endless abyss. “Whoo!” Stan exclaimed, looking into the pit. “Whatever that was, its gone forever!”

As the door slammed shut, Mabel let out a victorious laugh as she lowered her Nyarf gun, Soos and the dream boys cheering over her perfect aim. “Ha! Boom!” she remarked, sending the shocked dream demon a coy smirk. “Your move, Bill.”

“Mabel did it!” Xyler and Craz exclaimed, completely stoked.

“H-hey, guys!” Steven greeted breathlessly as he caught up to everyone. “What did I miss?”

“We did it, dude!” Soos grinned widely. “The shack is safe!”

“The deal’s off!” Gideon shouted at Bill, completely infuriated over this turn of events.

“W-wait!” Bill exclaimed in a sudden panic. “No! Wait!”

“I should’ve known this wasn’t gonna work! I’m switchin’ to plan b!” the child psychic growled hotly. At this, the screen instantly turned off and the dream demon’s body began to crumble to pieces like broken glass, much to his alarm. However, it didn’t remain broken for long as it quickly reformed, only this time, it was not its usual bright yellow but instead a deep, warning shade of red.

“YOU!” Bill growled, enraged as he glared at the kids, his eye turning black as his pupil went white. “You can’t even imagine what you just cost me! Do you have any idea what I’m like… WHEN I’M MAD?!” The group was quite taken aback as several cryptic symbols passed through the furious demon’s eye, especially as the ground beneath them started to violently shake. Before any of them could even think of retreating, they found themselves all being lifted up on what was a large, round, stone surface that, oddly enough, was the top of a bust of Stan’s head. The newly-erected “arena” steadily rose high into the air, the black and white scenery of the mind shack disappearing into dark, unnerving, star-speckled space. Yet as startled as the kids all were at this, their relative fear only increased as Bill stared scaling up in size, until he towered over all of them easily.

“So I guess he gets really mad when he gets mad,” Soos remarked as they all cowered together, none of them having any idea about to do to protect themselves from the oncoming onslaught.

“EAT NIGHTMARES!” Bill shouted, his voice low and powerful as lightning crashed all around him, much to the group’s ever growing horror.

Seeing as how he had no reason to linger inside of Stan’s mind any longer, Dipper had taken to looking for a way out, though given how impossibly expansive the mind shack was, he wasn’t really having much luck. “Ugh, how do I get out of this place?” he muttered to himself, becoming increasingly frustrated with each dead-end hall he came across. “Exit? Hello?” he called, trying several doors as he came across them, none of them revealing any sort of reprieve. However, as he opened up another random door, he was met with a familiar sight: the same memory from before of Stan forcing him to chop wood. “Aw, this again?” Dipper asked with an annoyed frown, especially as the conman said his piece again.

“He’s a loser. He’s weak. I just wanna get rid of him,” Stan said just as callously as before, reminding Dipper once again of how little the conman supposedly cared about him. And since he didn’t really want or need such a reminder, he began to close the door to the memory again, only to hear in integral piece of information he hadn’t the first time. “Heh, yeah. Those were all things people said about me when I was a boy.”

“Huh?” Dipper’s attention was immediately caught at this as he opened the door again, confused but interested to hear more.

“It was terrible,” Stan went on, still addressing Soos and Amethyst. “I was the biggest wimp on the playground!”

As if in response to this, another door suddenly opened behind Dipper, revealing Stan as a child, clearly being bullied by his peers as they roughly hit him in the face with a ball. Clearly injured and embarrassed, he ran off in tears, much to the amusement of his bullies.

“So one summer, my pop signs me up for boxing lessons,” Stan continued in the first memory as yet another door opened up. In this one, a still young version of Stan was taking said boxing lessons and clearly losing as his father stoically watched on. “It was even worse than the school yard!” the older conman exclaimed as his younger self tried and failed to land a left hook on his opponent. “Y’know, at the time I thought my pop was trying to torture me.”

Another door soon opened, showing Stan as a teenager waiting in line for the movies. “But wouldn’t you know it? The old man was doing me a favor all along!” In the line right in behind Stan, a shady man walked up to a young woman and started trying to snatch her purse.

“Gimme that bag!” the man exclaimed, attempting to pull it away from her.

“Help! My purse! Help!” the girl cried fearfully, prompting the teenage Stan into action with the lessons he had learned in boxing class years ago.

“Left hook!” he shouted fearlessly, spinning around and landing a brutal uppercut to the thief, knocking him out cold. The surrounding crowd all cheered over his easy triumph while the girl graciously embraced him and gave him a kiss on the cheek as a reward, much to his delight.

“Geez, Stan,” Amethyst remarked with a laugh in the first memory. “You sounded like you were a major loser back in the day. Like, even more than you are now, if that’s even possible.”

The conman shot the purple Gem a quick disapproving glare before shaking her usual teasing off. “Yeah, well that’s exactly why I’m so hard on Dipper,” Stan concluded. “I don’t want him being a loser like I was. I’m trying to toughen him up. So when the world fights, he fights back.”

“Do you think its working?” Soos asked curiously.

Stan simply grinned in response to this and pointed to Dipper, who finally managed to chop the block of wood he had been working on for quite some time now in half. “I-I did it!” he exclaimed with a small, triumphant grin. “Yes!”

“He’s really comin’ along!” Stan remarked in apt satisfaction. “When push comes to shove, I’m actually proud of him. Just don’t ever tell him I said that. His head is big enough as it is.”

“Pfft, you got that right,” Amethyst smirked as her and Soos laughed along with the conman.

Outside of the memory, Dipper couldn’t help but smile warmly upon hearing all of this, his perceptions about Stan and his relationship with him completely shattered in the best of ways. While he had thought the conman’s harsh treatment of him had been out of disdain and abhorrence, it instead came from a place of rare affection and care. It was certainly surprising to learn, but Dipper couldn’t have been any more grateful for the revelation, especially after hearing Stan admit to being proud of him after all. And yet, at the same time, it also made him feel quite guilty for his earlier impudent behavior. A part of him wished he could offer Stan an apology then and there, but since he was in fact inside the conman’s mind, simply placing a hand against the now treasured memory would have to suffice.

However, what Dipper hadn’t counted on were for the walls between the memories and the hall to be so thin. Before he could catch his footing, he stumbled right into the memory itself, and since the door was right beside where Stan, Soos, and Amethyst were sitting, they were all quick to immediately notice his arrival.

“Whoa, kid, what are you doin’ here?” Stan asked, looking between him and the other Dipper inside the memory, who was still in the middle of chopping firewood. “Nice hole in your chest by the way. Let’s fix that up.” By merely pointing his finger at the still-gaping hole in Dipper’s chest, somehow managed to seal it up instantly, much to the boy’s absolute amazement.

“W-what the-?” he asked, checking himself over to see that hole was indeed completely closed, as if Bill had never shot it through him at all. “How did you do that?”

“Word to the wise, kid,” Stan grinned. “We’re in the mind! You can do whatever you can imagine in here!” As a demonstration, the conman held out his hand as a can of Pitt Cola instantaneously materialized in it, one that he cracked open and took a sip out of.

“Huh. Well how about that?” Dipper smiled, knowing just how helpful such advice could be. And it seemed as though the time to use it was very much at hand, especially as several loud booms crashed from the hallway right outside the memory, followed by screams from Soos, Mabel, and Steven. “Oh my gosh, what am I doing!?” Dipper exclaimed, alarmed. “I gotta stop Bill!”

Knowing there was no time to loose, he hurried out of the memory, not bothering to bid Stan farewell seeing as how they would see each other again soon enough. After all, the others would need his help against the dream demon, and armed with his newfound knowledge of the dreamscape, he would certainly have an edge that Bill hopefully wouldn’t be expecting.

“Huh,” Stan noted with an openly proud grin as he watched his nephew run off towards the fray, undaunted by whatever challenges he was about to face. “Fighting back.”

“One nightmare, coming up!” Bill shouted, still hovering high, huge and intimidating over the kids. None of them had the faintest idea of what to do to escape from him or fight back, which was why all they could really do was hope that they could figure out some way out of this incredibly dangerous situation, as impossible as one seemed.

“Nightmare?” Soos frowned. “Hope its not that British dog man I’m always dreaming about…” No sooner had the handyman said this than the very same large British dog man he feared appeared right next to him, much to his absolute horror.

“‘Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello! Who’s crike for a stick in the pudding?” the dog man asked in a very thick cockney accent, poking and prodding at Soos with his cane.

“Ah!” the handyman screamed, trying to shield himself from his nightmare. “It’s everything I’ve ever feared!”

“You!” Bill pointed at Mabel next, firing a round of his nightmare-creating power at her. The effect was immediate as her skin turned an unflattering shade of green and her head became large and malformed.

“My cuteness!” she cried, her voice also deepening and slowing down to match her new rather grotesque appearance. “What did you do to my cuteness?!”

“Mabel!” Steven gasped with apt concern, though he had no time to help either her or Soos as the dream demon moved onto him next.

“Your turn, Rosebud, and boy, do I have a doozy of a nightmare for you!” Bill exclaimed with a hint of sadistic glee in his otherwise angry tone as he snapped his fingers. The young Gem gasped once more as the Gems appeared standing behind him.

“You guys!” Steven grinned in relief as he turned to his guardians. “I’m so glad you’re here! We could really use your… help?” His excited smile faded into confusion as he noticed the hardened, disapproving glances all three of the Gems were giving him. “Guys? What’s-”

“We’re very disappointed in you, Steven,” Garnet interrupted, her already stoic tone even icier than usual.

“W-what?”

“You lost your gem!” Pearl exclaimed with an appalled scoff. “Do you honestly think you can be one of us, a Crystal Gem, without it?”

“W-wha—but wait! I didn’t lose it!” Steven protested, lifting up his shirt to show them. “It was stolen! I-”

“You really think that’s an excuse?” Amethyst asked, crossing her arms. “Face it, Steven. Even if you still had your gem, you still wouldn’t be good enough to be one of us.”

The young Gem’s breath caught at this, tears already welling up in his eyes upon hearing such harsh words from his beloved guardians. “B-but… but I-”

“You’ll never be anywhere near as strong or as brave as your mother was,” Pearl remarked, her tone full of disdain as she glared down at Steven. “She’d be so ashamed of you.”

“Guys…” Steven practically sobbed, crumbling to his knees under the weight of their unrelenting words. Indeed, his greatest fear was coming true right in front of him: the fear that the Gems wanted nothing to do with him. And it was fear that he had no idea how to handle. “P-please… I just… I… ”

“Steven,” Garnet spoke up, standing tall right in front of the doubled over young Gem. Slowly and hesitantly, Steven glanced up at her, tears streaming down his cheeks as he desperately hoped she had at least one kind word for him. But what she did have for him, was anything but kind. “You will never be a true Crystal Gem.”

Steven could no longer hold the rest of his tears back upon hearing this, loud sobs of misery escaping him as he hung his head, ashamed to even make eye contact with any of the Gems as they continued berating him relentlessly. The others were two wrapped up in dealing with their own respective nightmares to help him, which was why Bill was free to laugh at the young Gem’s clear suffering before moving onto the final two members of the group.

“You’re next!” the demon proclaimed, pointing at Xyler and Craz.

“Cool! We’re next!” Craz grinned obliviously as him and Xyler began to dance to an unheard beat. Their partying was short lived, however, as they were both hit by a blast from Bill, knocking them off the platform and causing them both to burn up and dissipate into nothingness.

“My dream boys!” Mabel cried upon seeing this, her voice still low and unpleasant.

“And now to finish you all off!” Bill declared, more than ready to flux his power and wipe them all out easily.

The trio cowered together fearfully at this, knowing of nothing else they could do to save themselves from this certain doom. Steven tearfully looked to the Gems standing behind him, silently pleading for their help, help they refused to give as they merely glared away from him stubbornly. However, while the Gems wouldn’t save them from Bill’s wrath, someone else miraculously came to their rescue instead.

“Hey, Bill!” Dipper shouted fearlessly as he flew in from below, already utilizing the advice Stan had given him earlier. The trio all gasped in shock over his sudden arrival, but no one was more surprised than the demon himself.

“WHAT?!” Bill shouted, startled at the return of the missing member of the group.

“Nice bowtie!” Dipper taunted before enacting what he knew was nothing less than poetic justice. In much of the same way as Bill had done to him, he fired a laser blast from his eyes, shooting a hole cleaning through the dream demon, much to his alarm as he let out an appalled scream. “Just thought I’d return the favor!” Dipper said with a triumphant smirk.

“Dipper!” Steven, Mabel, and Soos all exclaimed with relieved smiles, both of them overjoyed to see that he had changed his mind about helping after all.

“Guys, I just learned you can conjure whatever you can conceive in Grunkle Stan’s mindscape!” Dipper informed them with an excited smile as he glided down to them.

“Huh?” Mabel frowned in confusion as Soos and Steven also looked to him in apt confusion.

“Just think of cool fighting stuff and it’ll happen,” Dipper elaborated more simply. “Like this!” With little effort at all, he fired another laser at the British dog man that had been terrorizing Soos, getting rid of him instantly.

“Heh, he’s dead now,” the handyman grinned with a relived laugh.

“What?!” Bill asked in a heated panic, knowing he was quickly losing his advantage. “Who told you that?! Don’t listen to him!”

“We can do anything?” Mabel grinned, using this new ability to easily return both her appearance and her voice back to normal. “Like have kittens for fists?” At this very suggestion, her fists turned into fluffy pink kitten heads, which she was more than happy to shoot Bill’s way. “P-pow! P-pow!” The dream demon let out another frustrated scream as the kitten fists stuck to him, biting and gnawing violently. Mabel chuckled at this, especially as the kittens still on her fists gave her loving licks on the cheeks. “Well hello, friends!”

“Anything huh?” Soos wondered, lifting his shirt up. “Soos love stomach beam stare!” At this prompt, a rainbow question mark beam fired from the handyman’s stomach, one that was powerful enough to knock Bill right off the platform.

“Oh! I wanna try!” Steven exclaimed, pulling his own shirt up and concentrating for a moment. An excited gasp escaped him as his gem returned to its rightful spot on his stomach, though he had little time to celebrate as he felt a hand fall on his shoulder.

“Steven,” Garnet said, a soft, warm smile on her face. Steven frowned anxiously however as he turned to her and the other Gems, unsure of what they might say to him this time. But instead of voicing any form of disapproval or disdain, the Gem leader merely lowered herself to his level and folded him into a gentle embrace. “Wonderful job.”

“Yes! Well done, Steven!” Pearl exclaimed, clasping her hands together in delight. “We’re so proud of you!”

“Yeah, and sorry about all that junk from before,” Amethyst smirked, rustling his hair affectionately. “You know we’re crazy about you, dude! You’re one of us through and through!”

“R-really?” Steven asked with a hopeful grin.

“Of course,” Garnet affirmed, though her smile soon faded as Bill returned to his spot on the platform. “Don’t worry,” the Gem leader said, summoning her gauntlets as she looked to all of the kids. “We’ll handle him.”

The group exchanged wide, excited smiles as the Gems summoned their weapons and leapt into action, racing for the dream demon. “Whoa! Are you making them do that, Steven?” Mabel asked, impressed.

“Uh, yeah, I think so,” Steven shrugged with a smile as he watched the Gems jump at Bill, their weapons raised. However, as valiant as their attempt was, the dream demon was quick to shoot it down, quite literally.

“Oh, I don’t think so, Crystal Chumps!” Bill exclaimed harshly, thoroughly enraged as he fired off a laser at the trio. The kids gasped in horrified shock as the Gems were vaporized almost instantly from it, not a trace of them remaining. Of course, they hadn’t been the real Crystal Gems, but seeing such a frightening sight was more than enough to catch them all off guard. “And as for all of you! Enough games!” the dream demon growled as he began shooting another powerful laser blast at them all.

“Wait guys!” Steven exclaimed, thinking quickly. “I got this one!” Throwing his arms open wide, the young Gem imagined his shield appearing, large and sturdy, and sure enough, there it was. He had never been able to summon it before so easily in reality, but calling upon it in the dreamscape was more than sufficient, especially as it both blocked the laser blast and reflected it right back at Bill.

“Ah! My eye!” the dream demon cried as the blast hit him squarely in his eye, blinding him momentarily. “Darn it! I hate that stupid shield!”

“Nice one, Steven!” Dipper congratulated with a grin.

“Thanks!” Steven chuckled, bringing his shield down. “I’ve always wanted to make it that big!”

Before Bill could recover and try and counterattack, Mabel was quick to come up with the next strike. “Rise, Xyler! Rise, Craz!” she proclaimed, bringing her arms up. As she did, both dream boys rose from behind the platform, fully revived and jamming out a synth drum and keytar happily.

“No!” Bill shouted, horrified. “Synthesized music! It hurts!”

“And now to imagine your worst nightmare!” Dipper proclaimed boldly. “A portal out of Stan’s mind!”

“Out of Stan’s mi-ind!” Mabel sang to the synth music Xyler and Craz were playing.

“Mabel!” Dipper scolded, knowing this was a serious moment. “Everyone, together!”

The entire group immediately started concentrating their collective efforts in imagining the same exact thing. And soon enough, a large, gaping, swirling vortex appeared right below Bill, one that quickly began sucking him down into it. “No, no, no!” the dream demon cried, struggling against its pull before ending it altogether. “ENOUGH!” All at once, the world turned completely white and still, the portal disappeared, and the kids were startled at how fast it all changed. “You know, I’m impressed with you guys,” Bill remarked, his color returning to its usual yellow as he readjusted his hat. “You’re more clever than you look. Especially the fat one.”

“He’s talking about you,” Soos whispered to Mabel, aside.

“So I’m gonna let you kids off the hook. For now,” Bill said, crossing his arms. “You might come in handy later. In fact, I know at least a few of you definitely will… BUT KNOW THIS.” As the dream demon held his arms up, a glowing blue symbol of a six-fingered hand appeared above him, the very same one that was on the journal. “A darkness approaches. A day will come in the future when everything you care about will change. And when it does, I won’t be the only one you’ll have to worry about…” As he said this, the hand symbol shifted into four diamonds organized together, the bottom-most one crumbling apart a bit. “Until then, I’ll be watching you! I’LL BE WATCHING YOU…” Bill’s voice turned low and ominous as two wheels surrounded him, both of them containing a wide array of various symbols, some familiar, some not, each one lighting up faster and faster until, in a burst of blinding light, the dream demon disappeared.

But hardly for the last time.

“He’s gone!” Dipper exclaimed in apt relief after making sure Bill was nowhere in sight. “We did it!”

The group cheered at this victory, one that had been hard earned. Squaring up against an all-powerful dream demon was certainly one of the greatest challenges they had faced yet, but even so, they had overcome it, much to their shared elation. However, it was short lived as all four of the kids suddenly started to fade out.

“Whoa…” Steven mused, looking over his hand as it grew fainter and fainter. “What’s going on? We’re getting all fade-y.”

“Stan must be waking up,” Dipper concluded, rationalizing that they couldn’t very well remain in the conman’s mind if he was awake.

“Will I ever see you guys again?” Mabel asked with a sad frown as she turned to her dream boys.

“In your dreams,” Craz said with a smooth grin.

“Good one, bro,” Xyler nodded, his tone somewhat solemn over this parting. “Good one.”

The group only had time enough to wave farewell to the dream boys before they faded out from the mindscape completely. When the four of them simultaneously awakened, they found themselves back in the shack’s living room, save and sound and back in reality once more.

“Woo!” Mabel cheered, hugging both Steven and Dipper in celebration. “We did it!”

“W-what?” Stan asked groggily, sitting up in his chair as he fully awakened. “Did what? What are you all doing here? And why was I dreaming of two brightly colored and radical young men?”

“Grunkle Stan, you’re ok!” Dipper exclaimed with apt relief, running over to the conman and embracing him. After all, it was the least he could do after hearing Stan’s surprisingly touching genuine thoughts on him.

“What is this?” Stan asked in confusion, knowing that Dipper usually didn’t indulge in such open affection. “A hug?”

“Nope! It’s a choke hold!” Dipper smirked, playfully pulling Stan into said choke hold loosely. Mabel, Steven, and Soos all laughed in amusement as this went on for a moment or two before Dipper relinquished his hold.

“Heh, not bad, kid,” Stan chuckled, jokingly pulling Dipper’s hat down over his eyes as payback. “Not bad.”

“Aw, this is so nice,” Steven interjected with a warm smile. “Everyone’s happy and getting along! I love it when everything turns out great in the end like this! Just like it always does.”

“I’m just glad Gideon didn’t get into the safe,” Mabel said, also grinning. “I really love this old shack.”

“Group hug!” Soos exclaimed, holding his arms out wide, even though no one else did. “No? I never know the right time!”

All of this levity was soon interrupted however, as a small tremor suddenly shook the entire building, one that everyone could clearly feel nonetheless. “Hey, did you guys hear-” Dipper’s question was left unfinished as a large, abrupt explosion tore through the nearby wall. Everyone was sent flying from it, and while Steven tried his best to shield them all from it with a bubble, it quickly burst as soon as they all landed, scattered across the broken remains of the den.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Pines family,” Gideon smirked as he walked in through the gaping, still-smoking hole in the wall. “Did I wake you?”

“But… but we defeated Bill!” Dipper protested, surprised that the child psychic could still somehow claim success after all that.

“Bill failed me!” Gideon snapped harshly. “So I resorted to plan b: dynamite!”

“What? Bill?” Stan cut in, quite confused. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Spoiler alert, Stanford: I got the deed!” Gideon grinned in twisted triumph as he held the deed up. “The Mystery Shack belongs to me! So get out of my property!” The child psychic didn’t spare another word on any of them as he turned and headed out, speaking over his walkie-talkie as he did so. “Daddy? Bring it around front.”

“Uh… so I wasn’t the only one who didn’t see any of that coming, right?” Steven asked with a bewildered frown.

“D-don’t worry, guys!” Dipper reassured rather anxiously. “It’s just part of the dream! We’re gonna wake up any second now, right? Right?!”

Of course, this hopeful optimism proved pointless as they all glanced out the front door to see Bud steadily driving a large bulldozer straight for the shack. No one wasted time running outside for their own safety at this, especially as the wrecking ball abruptly smashed right into the shack’s sign, much to everyone’s shared panic.

“Someone pinch me, dude…” Soos said fretfully as the sudden violence on the Mystery Shack unfolded right before their very eyes.

None of it felt real for any of them, however, until the shack’s iconic sign came crashing down right in front of them, solidifying that this was far from a dream.

It was a nightmare.

To be continued…

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