Mabel paced around in the gift-shop constantly looking at the vending machine door with a huff and then pacing and then repeating the same actions over again, as if she was waiting for someone to come out of the door.

Dipper, who walked past the doorway of the gift-shop, paused and backtracked as he poked his head into the doorway to see his sister pacing. Even though that was his thing...so something must've been seriously wrong or she was waiting for someone.

The boy stepped into the room completely and walked over to Wendy, leaning over as he quietly started to talk. "What's she pacing for?"

She glanced up from her phone and stopped texting. "I dunno, man. She's been doing it for a couple hours, at least. Besides, isn't pacing like...your thing?"

"That's what i'm saying!!" He exclaimed sort've loud but his sister paid no mind to him.

He glanced at Wendy and she glanced back. Feet on the counter and all, but now she was sitting up slightly straighter than before; attention grabbed.

"Hey, uh, Mabel? What's the..." He moves his index finger around in a circle once. "-pacing about?"

Her direction moved from the vending machine to her brother and friend as she stopped pacing. The tracks of her shoes were on the floor, clearly imprinted.

"Grunkle Ford and I were going to go out on a adventure today!" She whined a little, but not the annoying whine. The whine as in she was disappointed.

"Annddd...did he cancel or..."

"Well...no...not exactly, but he said he would be here first thing in the morning, so I got up right when the sun came out, and i've been waiting all morning!"

Dipper snorted out of amusement. "Mabel, I don't think he meant first thing as soon as he sun came up, but I think it was just a way of saying he would be out there in the morning...just not early like...what, 6AM? Who wants to get up that early in the summer?"

"I do! You always catch the sunrises and you get to drink MabelJuice! The best way to start a morning up!"

"That's not my point. My point is that, he should be here soon then if you've already been waiting since 6. That means it has to be at least 10 right now-"

"10:30." Wendy chimed in and snickered as her friend's face went blank and he sighed.

"Same thing."

Just then, the vending machine opened and smoke came out of it. The opening looked dramatic, and even cool. The smoke kept going and it blew across the floor, reaching some of the gift-shop. A couple people who were in the shop, looked over towards the machine, and so did the teens.

Stanford then stepped out, and at first it looked like he was posing, looking dramatic and heroic...that is, before he coughed and patted his face, which was on fire, and then slammed the door to the machine shut.

"Flammable shaving...hard to master but easy to do." He remarked to himself as he glanced around to notice other people staring, other than just the teens. "Well? Haven't you seen a man with a flame on his face before? Move along." He spoke then was attacked by a tight hug.

"GRUNKLE FORD!!!" Mabel cried as she hugged his waist tighter than ever and smiled as her face pressed against his cozy sweater. "Arewereadytogoonthatadventureorwhat?" She asked quickly, obviously excited.

He gave a small chuckle along with a smile as he glanced at everyone then looked down at his niece and looked at the doorway, throwing his head up once and lightly as a gesture to go to the other room. She quickly caught on and let go, bolting to the other room.

The two walked out and into the hallway, where Mabel jumped up and down with excitement, Waddles walking towards the two and then sitting next to his ecstatic owner.

"What are we gonna do?? Chase a couple intergalactic robbers down? Close a time rift? Wait...no...rifts are bad, I don't want to see those things ever again. Are we going to...ski down Mount Everest? Jump off a cliff and then parachute down to the land of safety?"

Before she could blurt out any more ideas, he put his hand over her mouth quickly and gave a quick 'shh'. He looked around and let go as he gave a small smile. "I did some research in my journals, trying to figure out what would suit you best...since there's nothing new out there that I don't know of." He said this with pride. "And I was thinking cowls would-"

"WAIT! HOLD THE PHONE." She took out her phone and gave it to her uncle and then took it back the second she gave it to him, just to be extra. "Cowl? Like a...cow...owl?"

"Precisely."

"AWW!" She placed her hands on her cheeks and gave a humongous grin...but then it faded slightly. "Though...the stuff I mentioned sounds cooler."

"I also saw a poster about a cowl milking contest and the winner I think...gets treasure and to keep the cowl-"

Her grin picked right back up as her imagination swarmed her mind. "NEVERMIND LET'S GO!" She started to jump up and down excitedly again as her uncle pulled out the familiar portal gun.

"One rule for me!!"

"And...what is the rule?"

"Waddles gets to come." She picked up her pig, who oinked.

He gave a chuckle. "Sure, why not. You just have to keep an eye on him. Okay?"

"PROMISE!" She held out her pinkie and he stared.

Ford finally caught on and wrapped his bigger pinkie around hers as she swore to protect her pig. And with that, the man shot a portal into the wall, let his niece and her pig go first and then walked in behind, closing the portal behind.

Dipper glanced out the doorway after had hearing the sound of something technological, and right as he looked out, the last thing seen was the two-er-three counting waddles, heading into a portal. He frowned slightly.

From out of the hallway, Stan, in his boxers, walked by and stopped in the doorway, looking around. Wendy looked up for one second and grimaced.

He scratched his stomach and looked at his great nephew. "Where's the dork and your sister?"

"They went off to some cool dimension, I bet." He huffed.

Stan stared before he suddenly gave a small smile and a chuckle, getting a weird look from Dipper as if his face was questioning if he was okay. Stan just dragged Dipper closer and said one line that gave him absolute internal panic.

"Guys bonding time!!!"

THEME SONG

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

"So, hows that arm muscle coming along?" Stan plopped down in a chair across from his nephew and cracked open a cold can of Pitt, sliding the boy one as well.

Dipper slid down in his chair ever so slightly. This was not the ideal conversation he would ever want to have. Ever. He sat back up and cracked open his can and took a small sip, getting a look from his uncle as he waited for an answer. The teen glanced at his arms and then back at Stan, then cleared his throat. Maybe if he played along...this "bonding" session would end faster.

"Definitely better than last year...at the beginning." He grabbed his can again.

The old man nodded and then chuckled as he leaned over towards his great-nephew. "Remember when ya couldn't chop a piece of wood? I had you go out in the morning and chop the wood up...sometimes it was pointless and I was just havin' ya do it for the practice. Didn't even need it."

"...Yeah...I guess my arms were definitely like noodles back then..." He gave a small little laugh. In the middle of being embarrassed.

Stan leaned over more and gave him a good ol' harsh slap on the back. "You've come a long ways, kiddo. I'm proud of ya."

Dipper nearly almost spilled his can of soda as he got slapped by this big, strong arm of his uncle's and made a sound that sounded like 'OOMPH' as he got hit. He awkwardly laughed after that as he slid his can back on the table not too long after.

Stan sat back in his chair, leaning back again as he took a big swig from his can. The teen reached for his can again as well but midway, he stopped and froze. His eyes darted around as he leaned to the left and the right.

"Everything alright?" Stan blinked. "Ya havin' another one of your paranoid sessions?"

"Don't call it that." He snapped back.

"Hey, in my defense-"

As he started to speak, Dipper shushed him and looked around again. Stan furrowed his eyebrows but let the kid do his thing. The boy ran to the window and looked around as he then looked at Stan.

"Do you think the unicorn bubble is still on the shack?" He blurted.

"I...think...so..?" The elder answered unsurely. "Nobody's really touched the outside of the shack...well...maybe Soos did."

Dipper started to run to the doorframe. "I have to find him!"

"Or...you could just check the outside of the shack??" Stan got up with his joints crackling.

The brunette's face blushed a bright red as his face turned hot from embarrassment as he nodded. "Good point."

As he was already running, he skidded out the door of the shack and to the side of the wooden house. He squinted and bent down then placed his hand on the side of the house and felt and saw nothing but only a faint outline of where it once was.

"It's...not here." He said to himself quietly as he stood back up and took a step back. "It...it probably just got taken off during the battle last year...perfect." He said with sarcasm as he kicked the dirt.

Stan followed suit and with his Pitt Cola can in his hand, he took a sip of his drink and then looked at the boy. "What's wrong, kid? Bill's over and done with." He paused. "Well. Physically, I guess." He shrugged it off.

"I'm...getting this weird feeling that something is wrong." He muttered as some of the wind brushed against his face.

"This is not the kind of thing i'm fit for helping with, kid. This is more of my...brother's work. I don't think i'll be any use." He gave a snicker at his own self-deprecating joke.

"No...no. You can be. Don't you ever get that gut feeling something's wrong?" He's holding his stomach.

Stan blinked. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Do you?" He ignored the question.

"...Yeah...yeah, I do."

He let go of his stomach and looked up to his uncle. "Do you think you would know the combination to Great Uncle Ford's basement? You know him well enough to probably guess what numbers are important to him." His eyes brightened with hope a little.

The man's eyes widened. "Dipper, as much as I love pranking and minding not-my-own business, I don't think we should-JUST KIDDING LET'S BREAK IN!" He grinned.

The boy grinned back at him. "Great!!" He glanced around then back at Stan. "Promise not to say a word about breaking into the basement?"

"Nah, i'll tell him every single detail and how i know his passcode." Stan replied sarcastically then gave his nephew a knoogie. "Of course I ain't gonna say anything!"

And with that, the two headed inside the shack, a new Pitt Cola in hand, and started to get to work.

COMMERCIAL

Mabel was the first one to hop out of the portal with this huge grin on her face. Her great uncle followed after and shut the gateway behind him. The scenery around the two was rather colorful. The sky was a bright blue and the air smelled like candy. Perfect place for little Miss Mabel.

The teen inhaled and exhaled, hands on hips as she beamed. "Smell that fresh cotton-candy scented air!!" She sniffed again. "And...some other sweets! What is this place?"

"I believe the little town is called SweetsVille...which...is easy to figure out why. It's like that one game...whatsitcalled?"

"Ooh...Candy Kingdom!!!" She grinned. "All we need left are taffy trees, licorice rope swings, gumdrop chairs..." She was listing off sweet inventions while counting off her fingers.

"They don't just have sweets here...well...candy-wise, I suppose. They also make desserts and cakes...etcetera."

"Why do they do a cowl-milking contest then?" She tilted her head. "If they only make that stuff and not...dairy."

"Cowl milk is said to be perfect for making cheesecake due to its creaminess. The people around here tend to get lazy because...well...when you eat that much sweets, then you get overweight. The people of this town are pretty overweight."

"Ohhhh..." She nodded then squinted and gave Ford a look.

"What's with the stare?"

"If this is some trick to try and get me to eat more vegetables...it's not working and it never will!!"

"What? No! That's not why we're here...although that would be a good moral..." He thought about this for a moment.

"TOO LATE FOR MORALS!! WE HAVE A COWL TO MILK!!" Mabel shouted as she was already running off.

"That's erm-Mabel, wait!" He patted his portal gun into his coat and sped up with his niece.

~

Stan stood at the door of the vending machine, Dipper at his side. The teen looked up at his uncle, both cans of soda in his hands. "Look, we have to try being as subtle as possible, which means breaking into the vending machine with stealth and not violence first." He said with his eyebrows furrowed.

The man just snorted with amusement. "You think I don't know how to break into something? I've been banned from pretty much the entire USA. I've handled a break-in before."

"What's the amount of states you're banned in have to do with anything we're talking about? What did you have to break in to?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Forget it." He waved his hand dismissively. "Point is I know how to do this typa stuff."

His nephew shrugged right as Stan cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck, smirk plastered on his face as he took a step forward, hands above the keypad. "Alright you old son-of-a-gun, what did you do with this passcode..."

"Passcodes are typically something important to someone...so-" As Dipper started to trail off into what was going to be a small rant, he was interrupted by his uncle.

"Kid. Trust me. I know what i'm doing." He gave a somewhat trusting smile that came off as sort've mischievous as well.

He blinked and hesitated but sighed and gave a nod as he leaned over and watched the action from behind Stan. His uncle started to type in multiple variations of codes and he had tried everything. The day he came back from the portal, the day the kids left, the day they left for the sea...nothing.

"Did you try your birthday?" The teen blurted out.

The joy of overthinking. He paused and put in the date. 6-15-19-50. A long code, but a promising one. The machine laid silent until a small high-pitched beep rang out throughout the entire shack and gift-shop.

Stan and Dipper glanced at each other as the door popped open and slid open slowly, the smell of dust leaking out. The old man took his can from his nephew and took a long drink...chugging the entire thing and burping loudly afterwards, patting his stomach afterwards with a grin.

As the teen stared, he kept grinning. "Victory drink."

"Gross." He chuckled a little with a small smile.

Dipper bent down and placed his can by the door of the machine and stood back up, walking to the doorframe of the vending machine. He took a deep breath before heading down, not waiting for Stan to follow.

His uncle blinked and crushed his can in his hand then tossed it back, quickly flipping the gift-shop sign to 'CLOSED' just in case, even though it was a pretty slow day at the shop. By the time he was heading down the staircase, Dipper was nowhere in sight. The old man looked around at the dimly lit pathway; every step he took down the stairs made a small creak. 

The farther down he went, the more cold the air got. The farther down he went, the more darker it got. The farther down he went, the more quiet it got. Stan cleared his throat and right as he was about to call for his nephew, he saw him standing right in plain sight, between the doors of the elevator, staring at Stan, ushering for him to get in without a word.

He didn't question anything as he stepped into the elevator, standing right next to the teen in silence as the doors shut. The interior was lit up with a faint green light as the elevator descended. Stan glanced over at Dipper, whose arms were folded as he stared at the door of the elevator intently with his big eyes, the green light illuminating across his face and Stan's as well.

After seconds, which seemed like ages, the elevator slowed to a stop and let out a small 'bing!' as the doors slid open, slightly scraping against the metal wall. Dipper let go of his arms and put them back to his side as he started to fast-walk out of the elevator, glancing around as he walked forward.

"Kid, hold up! I can't move as fast as I used to." Stan joked around, but doesn't get a response.

Instead, what Dipper did, was get on his knees and snatch a box from underneath the desk and drag it out, shuffling through the items inside, mumbling some things to himself. Stan kept walking until he reached his nephew, standing beside him and watching him go through the box.

"What's in there?"

Still no response.

"Kid. What's in there?" He asked a bit more sternly.

Though the voice-raise was a bit unnerving, he still didn't respond; eyebrows furrowed.

"Dipper-Mason-Pines-"

There was that name. His shoulders rose a little and he pulled out a machine that looked like it had a mini solar panel attached to it. He turned around and stood up on both feet, looking up at his uncle.

"Don't say that name." He responded with a frown on his face.

"Fine, whatever. If you would've answered my question when I asked then I wouldn't have had to."

The teen rolled his eyes as he looked down at the machine, tinkering with the few switches at its side and tapping the mini solar panel.

"Hey, I saw that." He didn't get a response again. Stan sighed and rubbed his temples as he repeated the same question he had asked earlier. "What is that?"

"It detects any weird radius around. Anything feeling unnatural." He responded without even looking at his uncle as he kept messing with the machine, finally getting it to boot up as the solar panel started to glow a little. Dipper glanced down at the small screen on the machine that showed a straight green line.

Stanley just slowly nodded as he glanced over at the machine. The 13-year-old looked up at the man and grabbed his arm with his free hand as he stared ahead at the door, not giving any eye contact. As the boy gripped onto his buff arm, Stan could feel him shaking ever so slightly...even if he wasn't showing it. His eyes went wide for a moment as he glanced down at him and he gave him a small, not-so-rough knoogie.

"C'mon, kid, let's get outta here."

Dipper nodded slowly and took a deep breath as he started to walk, still holding onto his uncle's arm, but dragging him behind. The old man gave a sigh but with a small smile as he followed behind. The two headed into the elevator and pressed the first floor button...and with a small 'bing!' the doors closed shut.

COMMERCIAL

"Wow! This place is amazing!!" Mabel grinned as she skipped forward, Waddles following at her feet.

"Erm, I suppose so...although there are much greater dimensions than this one. I suppose when I was your age, I would've enjoyed to see this place." He gave a small chuckle, the thought running around in his head.

They had reached a town made of literal candy. The floor was full of rainbow stripes; hard like a lollipop. The buildings were made of graham crackers and some of the buildings had icing or chocolate on the roof. The people in this town were not made of candy, however. They were just...slightly obese...well...practically everybody. They didn't look miserable. In fact they looked pretty happy with themselves.

There were posters all around on the "lampposts" advertising the milking contest that Ford had mentioned. Mabel skidded to a halt as she stopped in front of a poster, glancing over the information and letting out a sharp gasp as she grabbed her uncle's arm and started to try and drag him.

"WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!!!" She got him to jog as she was running as fast as she could, pulling Stanford behind, Waddles oinking as he ran with them.

When she had finally stopped dragging her uncle and running as fast as she could, they were at a barnyard; a giant long table with a white tablecloth spread across the entire thing with buckets lined across the table in front of every seat at the table. People were already sitting at the table with grins on their faces, as if they had done this thousands of times, ready to win, all confident in themselves.

Mabel, who was panting, smiled and looked up at her guardian eagerly as if she was asking permission to get up there. Stanford chuckled and nodded. That was the entire reason they had come to the entire dimension anyways.

The teen got the biggest grin one could ever see as she raced to the table and skidded to a stop at the chair left open. Ford had tried to grab Waddles to prevent him from following his owner but as soon as she sped off, so did he. So as soon as Mabel stopped suddenly, Waddles bumped into her legs.

People in the audience gasped and pointed and some licked their lips, getting the wrong impression that the little pink animal was for eating. The girl grabbed her companion and placed him at her side as she sat down; eager.

A chubby man with a top hat and a fancy suit started to waddle on out across the front of the stage center, beaming at the applause he was getting and the outcome of his event.

"Welcome, everybody, to the annual cowl-milking-contest of the year!!! For those of you just joining us, our tradition is that every single year we hold a milking contest and the winner with the most milk at the end gets to keep a cowl and possibly even taste the delicious cheesecake we make with all this!! Are you readyyy?"

Mabel stretched; she rolled her neck and cracked her knuckles and the animal-handlers walked onto the stage synchronized as they all had a cage in a hand, containing one cowl in every single one. Mabel was about as ready as anyone could ever be in this situation. Probably a lot more ready than anyone else on this stage. She had milked lots of things before. Goats, cows, dogs...dogs somehow. One time.

The chubby man, likely the mayor, was given an airhorn as everyone had a cage placed in front of them, and as he rose the horn into the air and placed his finger right above the red button, he opened his mouth to speak for the last time before the competition began.

"On your marks...get set..."

Everyone had their hands out, ready to open the cage as fast as they could; the audience watching intently.

"GO!!!" The horn blew a high pitched...well...horn. as all of the contestants opened their cages, grabbing their cowls and starting to get right on the job.

The crowd was going wild and Ford was cheering for his great-niece among the others, grinning. All of the cowls were getting along fine with the others...except for Mabel's cowl who seemed to be a little more stubborn, hissing, somehow. She was trying her hardest to try and get the animal to cooperate, talking to it and reassuring it's safety. As everyone kept cheering, Ford's grin faded as he started to notice this.

The cowl tried flying away, hissing once more. Waddles squealed back and it was that moment where everything went to utter chaos. Waddles had jumped up onto Mabel's lap and hopped onto the table and squealed at the cowl, which hissed again and started to dive right towards him. The pink animal started to run down the long table; people screaming as the milk spilled on them and the people in the audience were roaring with laughter and horrified screams all mixed together.

"WADDLES!!!" The teen had cried out as she started to run after the two.

The cowl continued to chase her companion down the table until they had reached the end. The cowl hissed one final time and swooped up into the air and left as if nothing happened. She could've sworn she saw the thing fluff up as if he was asserting dominance.

Mabel skidded to a stop, staring at the scene in front of her, face getting slightly hot from embarrassment. The table cloth was messed up, half on the table, half on the floor. The milk buckets had fallen to the ground and spilled everywhere and everyone else's cowl's had flown away too; feathers left behind. People stood in shock with their clothes soggy and wet with the white slightly thick liquid on themselves, all of them looking at Waddles...who was now hiding under the table, quivering.

Whispers rose up among tons of people, including the crowd and the contestants on stage.

'Who is that pig's?'

'I say if he doesn't belong to anyone we should roast him up. Its what the little thing deserves.'

'My dress is ruined!! I had church to go to after this!'

'That was the funniest thing i'd seen in my entire life!'

The girl with the sweater gulped as she gave a nervous smile to all the people she walked by who kept muttering. She got down on her knees at the very end of the table and poked her head under the table to see her pig, frightened and not alone anymore. She gave a small reassuring smile and clicked her tongue, getting his attention. He oinked and scrambled out, hopping into her arms.

At this point Ford had shoved his way through to the stage and hopped onto the wooden platform, helping his niece up. "Mabel, are you alright?!" He quickly asked with concern in his eyes and voice.

"No harm done here." She smiled and placed her chin on Waddle's head, calming him down.

"I beg to differ!!! My stage!! My competition!! My milk!! It's all been ruined thanks to you!" The mayor, the fat, chubby, fancy mayor shouted.

As Mabel opened her mouth, likely to apologize, Ford stood up tall and looked at his niece then the man in the eye as if he was trying to somewhat intimidate the guy, who just kept complaining.

"You two are officially banned from CandyLand!!! Out!!" He jabbed a finger forward to point away from the scene.

"...Who needs this competition anyways? Waddles is better than any cowl!!" Mabel exclaimed as she hugged her pink friend, who squealed with delight.

Ford ruffled her hair and shrugged. "Fine by me. Your economy is slowly crumbling...literally. Your houses have bite marks in them and they're literally crumbling. I would try and fix that if I were you."

And with that, the two started to walk away, pride in their stride. Waddles was put down on the floor so that he could join the victory walk as well; and he indeed did. The man and his niece were now out of the town, laughing and talking about the event that had happened earlier on, Mabel reenacting the scene and people's faces along the way; using dramatic storytelling.

When they had reached the outskirts of town, Ford pulled out his portal gun and twirled it a little, just to show off then pointed it forward, looking at Mabel.

"You ready to go, kiddo?"

"Duhhh." She grinned. "I miss home."

"Me too." He chuckled.

He nodded and gave a smile as his thumb pulled the trigger and a portal was blasted into the air and moments right after, two black hands that had been stretched out grab the two by the collar of their shirts and drag them in rather quickly, the portal shutting behind the two automatically. Mabel gasped and yelled for her pig and there was a loud sigh before another arm, a third one, stretched out and shot it's hand forward into where the portal just was, grabbing the pig by the scruff and pulling him back into the plane.

The dimension was black and had stars all around it, twinkling different colors back and forth. Red, blue, green and yellow. Flashing all at the same time with different stars. Some objects floated around aimlessly, going nowhere. The arms let go of all of them and pull back further and further and further until they reach the figure they belonged to...none other than mister Bill Cipher himself.

"We meet again." Stanford stated grimly.

"Seems to be that way, doesn't it?" He replied back, fixing his bowtie with his regular two arms.

"I thought I told you i'm not falling for your tricks again."

Bill just rolled his eye. "I've heard this countless times over and over. 'Oh Bill you're not going to ever get me to make another deal again!' 'I don't trust you!' Believe me, I know. I'm here to warn you for the final time. Hand over the portal gun or everything's going straight to chaos. This is bigger than Weirdmageddon. There will be no destruction-only death."

"...Death..?" Mabel spoke up, holding her pig once again, hugging him tight.

"Yep!!! Thousands, millions, possibly billions. Dead."

The teen stared, mouth agape and grimacing at the thought, glancing down momentarily and then back up at Bill, eyebrow raised. "No tricks?"

"No tricks. No gimmicks, just plain honesty, me to you. I swear it on my actual grave." He put a hand over himself where his heart would be if he had one.

Mabel turned to her Great Uncle and her eyes looked worried, scared, horrified and all at the same time. "Grunkle Ford...I think we should trust Bill on this one..." She said this kind of quietly.

"WHAT?!" He almost gave his full voice when he yelled, making her wince at the response she got.

"...Yeah. We should trust him." She responded, a bit more confidently this time around.

"Trust...this triangle..." He trailed off then spoke normally. "You're telling me that we should trust the monster that tricked us all. You're telling me that we should trust him even though he tricked me into making a death-portal, used your brother as a...a...puppet and tried to take over the entirety of this world?!"

"I can hear you, ya know." Bill hissed back.

"I...I know it doesn't sound like much of a good plan...but my instinct is usually right. I...made the right decision when I trusted Grunkle Stan over Dipper last year...even though it was really hard and sudden. I...I think he can change!"

"Bill? Change?" He snorted in disbelief.

"I'm not gonna stand here and lie about it. Lying at this point is practically useless." The triangle interjected into the conversation, getting their attention, Ford raising an eyebrow. "The world is about to end before your eyes. Everyone's going to die and that includes me. Everything will cease to exist and if you want to stop it, you'd better hand over the gun."

"I think it's only fair if we get to ask whatever questions we want, considering the fact that you want us to just hand over this thing with you giving a vague explanation."

He just shrugged. "Fine by me."

"And no loopholes, either. Got it?"

" Answers. 100% real with no lies. You have my word."

Stanford seemed to relax slightly before he cleared his throat. "Why do you need this gun so badly? I figured, you can get to other dimensions, but I don't see how hopping to one plane or dimension to the other is going to do any good, unless you're planning on facing Sil alone and stopping her."

"Me? Try and stop her alone? Are you CRAZY?!" He laughed momentarily, even if he said this with a bit of panic in his voice, just at the thought. "No. I was going to use the gun to go to your dimension, so that i'm able to have a physical form in the real world. Not as complicated as the first couple attempts I had last year. No puppets, no deal making, just that gun."

Just then, the world began to shake and even though nobody was on a platform or technically or physically standing(it was more like floating but able to control the direction they went), they could feel the vibration and the scene around them was starting to look like it was crumbling. Cracks formed in the "wall" of this place and the stars were now flashing red only.

Bill's pupil shrunk down in size and his "face" became visibly worried. As much as he talked about not caring about things...he seemed to be pretty scared about dying. He looked exactly how Stan had described him last year when he was getting erased inside his head. Completely petrified.

He quickly turned to Stanford and Mabel(and Waddles) again and this time, spoke to them with more urgency. "Portal gun. Now. If you don't, we'll all be doomed. Ceased to exist. Gone. Etcetera."

The cracks in the wall were getting bigger, and flashes of red seeped through them. Mocking, familiar laughter rang out. From the corner of Mabel's eye, something started to move on the "walls" of this dimension. She whipped around to face shapes taking forms of...people. Shadow people. They started to run up the walls, their eyes looking down on the rest, maliciously. The girl gasped and the rest turned around.

The laughter got louder and the shadows kept coming and coming, off the wall and into ripped portals, the eyes blinking fast, slitted pupils inbetween, staring down at them.

"G-Grunkle Ford..." Mabel choked out her words, hugging Waddles tighter, who was squealing in fear.

Stanford was just staring. He was paralyzed. He couldn't move a single bit and his heart was racing off the charts. This was real and it was happening right in front of his face. He had to trust Bill, right? There was nothing else to lose at this point, nothing at all. Trusting Bill was as bad as trusting Sil. It wasn't a good idea, retorted his logical side of his mind. He stood there, silent, and shaking a little as he was unable to move a single muscle.

This was the end.

"GRUNKLE FORD!!!" Mabel yelled to snap him out of it as shadows were racing towards the four.

Finally, he made a move. He tightened his grip on the portal gun and whipped around, shooting a portal in front them. He grabbed his niece's hand and took it tight as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, leaving Bill, alone, to get eaten by the shadows and darkness he had left behind.

~

Dipper stood outside the shack with the machine in his hand. The sun was shining through a couple clouds in the sky, just enough to power the solar panel on it. His face grimaced as he pointed the machine to the shack and started walking around, tapping it lightly on the occasion to give it a better signal. Who knew how old that thing was, anyways.

The machine gave off small beeps, like a heart monitor would do. It also gave off readings in a small line going up and down, also like a heart monitor. So far there was nothing. He tapped it again, this time a little more harsh. There had to be something out here. There had to be.

"I'm...not getting any readings..." He spoke quietly.

"Maybe it's just a bad feelin'. We checked, and there's nothin' out here." Stan gruffly responded and winced when the wind started to pick up a bit more strong than before.

The wind hit the boy's face and the clouds were getting somewhat darker...but not gray. It was turning straight out black. Dipper looked up to face the clouds and he frowned. He looked back down to face his great uncle and he shook his head stubbornly.

"Kid..."

"Something's out here!!! I can feel it!!"

The wind was picking up more and more. The sky was now a shade of gray and it just kept getting darker. The clouds were almost completely black. The machine's beeps started to pick up and get increasingly faster, and louder. The teen's eyes widened as he looked around and moved the machine around as well too, squinting to try and see if he could spot anything.

Nothing.

"We should get inside, kiddo. It feels like a rainstorms comin' or somethin'." He walked towards his nephew and placed a hand on his shoulder, but he just shook it off.

"This is more than a rainstorm." He replied. "The clouds are BLACK for crying outloud!!"

"I can see that! But whatever it is, I don't want to be caught in the middle of it, and i'm pretty sure you don't either, whether you're too stubborn or not to admit it!"

"Oh, so what, we're gonna hide again, like last time?!" He flipped around to face his uncle, eyebrows furrowed. "Like...like...cowards?!"

"WE ALMOST GOT KILLED FIGHTING BACK! At least when we were hiding, we were safe!"

"MABEL AND GRUNKLE FORD ARE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE WE HAVE TO MAKE SURE THEY'RE SAFE!!"

Finally, they stopped fighting when it got so loud, it started to burn in the teen's hands, overheating. The kid hissed and dropped the machine on the dirt and it busted when it made contact to the ground, and ironically, when it hit the ground...the floor started to shake. The two stumbled and stuck to their ground, considering it wasn't a very big earthquake.

A portal was opened in front of Stan and Dipper, and on instinct, the old man yanked his nephew behind him, protectively. And out from the portal stumbled Mabel, holding Ford's hand, tight in her grasp, Waddles in her arm and shadow people chasing them from behind, Bill's screaming in the back.

Faintly, before the portal was shut, Bill's screaming words were heard: "YOU'LL REGRET THIS!!"

As it slammed shut, the screaming and the laughing and the shadow people disappeared out of sight as if they were never there in the first place. Mabel and Ford were out of breath. She put her pig down slowly, and as she did, he squealed and ran inside the shack. The two of them made eye contact with their siblings.

Mabel's eyes watered ever so slightly as she lunged at her twin for a hug, and they indeed, did hug. Stan and Ford watched the two, giving small smiles at them.

"What...what happened?!" Dipper questioned. "The sky went gray and the clouds turned black and-and-there was a mini-earthquake!"

"T-there were shadow monsters and Bill was there and he said something about the world ending!! He asked for the portal gun but...Grunkle Ford didn't give it to him..." She frowned a little. "I thought we should've given it to him. He seemed sincere for once."

"He's not to be trusted." Stanford muttered as he looked at the sky, frowning. "That can't be good..."

"Can somebody fill me in what's happening?!" Stan shouted, honestly confused.

"I don't know what's going on either!" Dipper retorted.

"Yeah, me too!" Mabel shouted back.

As the three of them started arguing, the sky ripped open a hole. A black hole in the sky with multicolored stars in it. Red, green, blue and yellow, all flashing at once. The stars then shifted colors to just plain red and the sky turned pure black; the clouds were no longer visible. Just pitch black and the hole got bigger and bigger. Shadows started to pour out from it and laughter filled the sky. Heard from everywhere.

It was at this horrifying moment where everyone stopped talking and faced the horrific sight in front of them. Shadows that came out had eyes and a malicious grin, some more eyes than others, and it gave the illusion that they were all staring at everyone, giving them the feeling that they were being watched. The wind hit everyone's faces and their hair went wild...more specifically Mabel's, due to the length.

As shadows tumbled out, so did a faint yellow shape that came crashing down as fast as a meteor landing and hit the forest somewhere, causing a loud crash that was faintly heard and a puff of dust.

One final shadow poured out from the sky, and this one had shoulder length hair and appeared female and she was grinning ear to ear as if nothing was wrong. Because in her eyes...nothing was wrong. This was all perfect.

The world was ending, finally, and it was going to work.

This was the end.

This was it.

CRE̯͍̘̗D̯̭̩̠̫̱I̗̰̜͕̠̠͖T̥̦Ș̺͚̫̹

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