Author's Note

Hey everyone!

For everyone who is new to this story, I first started writing it shortly after Not What He Seems first aired. Meaning that A Tale of Two Stans had not come out yet, and I didn't know that Grunkle Stan started going by Ford's name after he disappeared into the portal. One of the downsides of writing during a hiatus, I suppose! Because of this, I referred to Grunkle Stan as Stanford and Grunkle Ford as Stanley. I tried explaining this in a later chapter, mainly because it seemed to late to me to change anything. I just wanted to get rid of any confusion over the Stan-naming issue!

That's about it! I really hope you enjoy my story!

It all happened so fast.

The portal… The explosion… Dipper Pines remembers every second of it. And he probably will for the rest of his life.

He remembered waking up after the explosion angry. How could his grunkle lie to him? How could his twin, Mabel, side with Grunkle Stan? How had everything gone from amazing to terrible in the blink of an eye?

Suddenly, Dipper saw a shadow walk out of the portal. The shadow took hold of one of the journals which lay on the ground, and Dipper stared in shock as he noticed that the shadow had six fingers.

"What?" Dipper asked incredulously. "Who is that?"

Dipper watched as Stan rose up and stared at the shadow in disbelief. "The author of the journals," Stan breathed. "My brother. Stanley Pines."

And with that, the shadow pulled off the bandana covering his face. It was like seeing double. The man with six fingers looked exactly like his Grunkle, only much younger.

'Whoa…" Dipper was in shock, but he was not alone. Mabel and Soos the handyman were staring at Stanley with their mouths agape.

Stanley walked over to Stanford, staring at his brother momentarily before Stanford enveloped him in a bone-crushing hug. Stanley pushed him away, yelling, "How could you? How could you restart the portal?"

"Stanley… I was… I was only doing what I thought was best…"

"Save the excuses. We have to keep it under control."

As Stanley and Stanford walked over to the computer, Dipper turned on his twin. "Mabel!" He yelled, unable to contain his rage any longer. "What was that back there? How can you still trust Stan after all the lies he's fed us? Are you crazy?!"

"Dipper-"Mabel started, but Dipper cut her off again.

"What if something worse had happened? The world almost ended because you didn't have enough sense to shut down the portal!" He turned away, trying to maintain his composure. "I thought it was us against the world. I guess… I guess I can't trust anyone."

Mabel gasped, shock and tears forming in her eyes. She turned away, beginning to cry. Dipper looked at her out of the corner of his eye, his anger beginning to soften. Then his rage returned and he turned his back to her, hands balled into fists at his sides.

Suddenly, a bright light shone from the portal. Energy pulsed out of it, weak at first but growing much stronger.

"Everyone get back!" Stanley yelled. "The portal's reactivated!"

Dipper ran to the basement wall largely shielded by Soos. He shut his eyes, waiting for the world to end, but what he heard was far worse.

"DIPPER!"

His head shot up, as he saw his twin sister being pulled into the portal's gravitational pull. He saw a strange black object reach out and grab Mabel's leg, which terrified her into screaming.

"MABEL!" Dipper lunged forward to try and grab Mabel, but he was stopped by Soos's big, beefy arm.

"Dude, don't do it! We've gotta keep you safe!" Soos yelled over the whirring of the portal.

"Soos, we've gotta get Mabel!" Dipper yelled in desperation.

Suddenly, the portal began to overheat and emit a bright blue light, just like what had happened before. Through the light, Dipper got one last look at his sister's face, frozen in terror, before she disappeared into the portal. The light grew more intense, growing and building until it was sucked into the portal. Dipper looked behind him and saw Stanley with his hand firmly pressed on the emergency shut-off switch. With that, everyone in the room that was in the portal's pull was dropped to the ground, and the portal itself became dark and crashed to the ground.

Dipper knew the portal was destroyed, but all he could see was that bright light and his sister's face, even after he passed out.

…

"Dipper! C'mon, kid, snap out of it!" Stanford's voice slowly found its way through Dipper's subconscious. When he opened his eyes, he saw his great-uncle and Soos standing directly above him, and he saw Stanley standing off to the side.

But to his dismay, the one face he really needed to see was nowhere to be found.

"What-"Slowly Dipper came to remember all that had happened before. "Where's Mabel?"

Stanford sighed, tiredness and sadness creeping through his face. "Look, Dipper… She… Oh God, I'm so sorry, Dipper…"

Dipper stared blankly at the wreckage of the portal, all the color draining from his face. "No…" he murmured, refusing to believe he had lost Mabel. He shot up and ran to what was left of the portal, digging through the rubble for a small shred of hope that Mabel was still here with him.

While he dug, he muttered to himself in a low voice, "No. Nononononononono."

"Kid, it's no use. She's gone." Stanford yelled to get Dipper out of his stupor. "Mabel's gone."

Dipper sat on his knees, staring at the ground while the tears clouded his vision. He wiped them away slowly, turning to look at his Grunkle with rage slowly growing in his chest.

"YOU!" He screamed, lunging at his uncle before Soos grabbed him and held him back. Dipper continued to struggle against Soos's weight, screaming at Stanford. "This is YOUR fault! If you had never built this stupid portal, Mabel would still be here!"

"Hey, kid," Stanford tried to interject, "Listen for a sec-"

"No!" Dipper stopped trying to attack Stanford and shook himself away from Soos's grip. He looked his Grunkle straight in the eye, anger burning white-hot behind his eyes. "She trusted you! She trusted you and look what happened!"

Stan watched Dipper closely and didn't try to stop him. After all, he knew exactly what Dipper was feeling. He had felt the same way thirty years ago when his twin was sucked into that portal.

Dipper breathed heavily, his anger controlling everything he said and did. He turned his attention to Stanley. "You. You were inside that portal, right?"

"Yes, child." Stanley's serious gaze bore through Dipper's rage. "For thirty years."

"Then can't you find some way to get the portal running again so we can get Mabel back?"

"No. That is far too dangerous for both her and us."

Stanford, who had been focusing his attention on the ground, lifted his head to look at Stanley, with fear in his eyes. "Why is it dangerous for her?"

Stanley sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand. "Look, I'm gonna give it to you straight. Yeah, I was in that portal for a long time, but I was well prepared to handle the horrors of the Dreamscape."

"The Dreamscape?" Dipper asked in confusion.

"Yes. That's the place which lies on the other side of the portal. It's brutal in there, kid. I'm a lot stronger than your sister is. I was able to barely survive in there for thirty years, but… I'd give your sister a few hours in there, maybe the rest of the day.

"Look, the point is, I'd prepare myself for the worst, both of you. There's a very real chance that that little girl is already-"

"Don't say it!" Dipper said in a strangled voice. "She's not dead. I know she's not. I know…" This time Dipper didn't bother wiping the tears away when they clouded his vision. They kept coming until they overtook him completely. Dipper collapsed to the cement floor, his body racked with violent sobs.

Stanford watched his nephew with pain in his heart. No twelve-year-old should ever have to see his sister taken away from him. Suddenly, he walked to Stanley, with newfound determination. "Stanley, can't we use the energy from the height-altering crystals and the other gems around town to keep the portal open safely?"

Stanley opened his mouth to refuse, but then he realized there was some sense behind it. He rubbed his stubble and said hesitantly, "Well… I suppose if we found enough… there could be a chance…"

Dipper leapt to his feet and joined the older Pines' twins. He wiped the remaining tears away and there was a small shred of hope slowly growing inside of him. "Really?" He said hopefully. "There could be a chance for us to save her?"

Stanley spoke hesitantly when he responded. "It's a very slim chance, but… yes."

"Then we have to go now!" Dipper rushed to the elevator, waving his hand for the twins and Soos to join him. "We have to get to her!"

"Look, kid…" Stanford said, sighing.

"C'mon!"

All of them hesitated, but they followed Dipper into the elevator.

…

About an hour later Dipper, Stanford, Stanley, and Soos returned, each of them clutching massive armfuls of multicolored crystals. They handed their crystals to Stanley, who brought them to a tall chamber in the back of the control center. Once he had placed them inside, he shut the chamber door and hit a switch on the main control panel. The four circles surrounding where the portal had once been began to glow that same brilliant blue which had engulfed the whole town of Gravity Falls earlier that evening. They sparked a chain reaction, creating a circle in between them that shone with all the colors of the rainbow.

"Wait." Dipper asked, furrowing his brow in confusion. "How is that possible? The portal exploded."

"The portal that exploded was only one piece of the puzzle." Stanley said. "Because we have the other four pieces, the inner piece can be created on its own." He grinned. "Man, it's been so long since I've worked on this kind of tech."

"You like my remodeling, Stan?" Stanford chuckled.

"Nah, it's just very old-school. I could've built this in my sleep, Ford." Stanley laughed, bracing himself as Stanford punched him in the arm.

Dipper watched them in amazement. It was so strange, how similar Stanley and Stanford were to him and Mabel. Dipper turned his head, trying not to think about Mabel.

"Alright, Stanley, I'm ready!" Dipper started toward the portal, but was once again stopped by Soos's huge arm.

"Cool it, dude. There's something you need to know." Soos said cautiously.

Dipper groaned. He knew Soos loved Stanford, but did he always have to get in Dipper's way?

"Yeah." Stanley looked down at Dipper with a hard, serious stare that made Dipper's insides knot. "Dipper, while the portal is running right now, it's not strong enough for too many people to go in. And I know you're not strong enough to go in there alone. So we're gonna send Stanford in there with you. He's the only one strong enough to physically make the journey."

"What?" Dipper yelled. "He's the reason Mabel's in there! We can't trust him to go in there and rescue her!" Dipper gave Stanford, who was looking sadly at him, a glare that could have stricken fear into Manly Dan himself. "Why can't you go, Stanley?"

Stanley sighed and leaned against the control panel. "Kid, the Dreamscape… it does something to people. Something that makes them feel not quite… human. I'm not strong enough to go back in there."

"Wait. If regular people can't survive in the Dreamscape, then how are we supposed to survive long enough to get to Mabel?"

Stanley handed a strange black cloth that had a silky feel to it and a metallic box to both Dipper and Stanford. "That cloak will shield you from most of the Dreamscape's effects. Just don't stay in there too long. And this device-"Stanley pointed at the metal box in Stanford's hand. "It has many functions. The first is for me to communicate with you while you're in there. It also detects human life other than your own. It will help you find your sister."

Stanford looked down at Dipper with a tired smile on his face. "What do you think, kid?" he chuckled. "Can we do this?"

Dipper looked at the ground, uttering little more than a growl out of his mouth.

The two of them went to go into the portal chamber, but Dipper was stopped by Stanley's hand grabbing his arm.

"Listen, Dipper. Be very careful in there. There's a monster that lives beyond that portal. I helped put it and its many minions at bay before I left, but I fear it has grown strong beyond control. That thing that pulled your sister into the portal… That was not merely an optical illusion. The monster may be up to something horrific, and we cannot let it gain strength. Just beware. Please!"

"of course." Dipper's mind was racing. Could this demon be the one that had haunted Gravity Falls and the Pines family all summer, who was known only as Bill Cipher? And if so, what could he be planning and how much power could he have by now? Simply the thought made Dipper shudder.

He stepped into the portal chamber and took his place next to Stanford.

"Are we ready?" Stanley yelled.

Both Dipper and Stanford nodded.

"Be careful, dudes!" Soos said, clutching a bag of chips he had bought while they were looking for the crystals.

Dipper raised his head high, staring at the portal. He examined every aspect of the room they were in and tried to remember it all. He wanted to savor what the ground felt like under his feet, because who knew what the ground in the Dreamscape would be like, if there even was a ground at all.

"Good luck," Stanley said determinedly. He then pulled down the activation switch with all the strength he had left.

Dipper felt his feet leave the ground, and his eyes were flooded with the bright blue light protruding from the portal. He was yanked forward very suddenly, as if someone had tied a string around his waist and pulled hard.

Dipper closed his eyes as he was pulled further into the portal. "I'm coming for you, Mabel," he murmured. "I promise."

And with that, the bright light intensified as he and Stanford were pulled into the Dreamscape and their home, the Mystery Shack, and their friends became nothing but a very distant memory.