"What do you want this time, Bill?" Dipper groaned at the triangular demon who was hovering ten feet above him. "A severed head? My wisdom teeth? The left hand of everyone I know?"

"Geez, Pine Tree, I don't need anything from you!" Bill floated backwards a few feet, so he was past the edge of the cliff above the Ruins and was floating in empty space. "How screwed up IS your life, kid?"

Dipper sighed in exasperation. He was beginning to regret even leaving the house he shared with Stan in the first place so he could have avoided this encounter with the dream demon. "Look, Bill, I don't have time for any of your tricks, okay? I just want to find my sister and get out of here."

Much to Dipper's surprise, Bill began to laugh hysterically, rolling around in midair and clutching where his stomach would be. "Oh, that's a good one, Pine Tree!" Bill cried. "You really think you and Shooting Star are getting out of here! That's rich!"

"If you're not going to help me, then-"

"Look, Pine Tree, even if I wanted to help you, I can't. Diablo took my powers because of my failure in your body." Bill narrowed his eye at Dipper. "I only came here to give you something from Diablo."

Dipper rolled his eyes. "What is it?" He chuckled to himself. "A pinky toe? Some flaming tongues or is it something even more disgusting?"

"Calm down, kid, I just wanted to give you this!" Bill snapped his hand and a DVD appeared in Dipper's lap. It had no writing on it whatsoever except for the words Trial 3 written in big black letters on the front.

"What is this?" Dipper lifted his head only to find that he was talking to himself. The dream demon had disappeared into the night. He looked back at the DVD and wrinkled his forehead in confusion. What could possibly be on this DVD? What did Trial 3 mean? It was all so much for Dipper to comprehend.

"Dipper!"

He turned his head to find Stan, Terrence, and a few large men from the Ruins running toward him. "Dipper! Are you crazy, kid? You freaked us out so much!" Stan looked at Dipper with concern, but Dipper turned his attention back to the DVD.

"Dipper, what is that?" Terrence took the DVD from Dipper's hands and examined it closely. He got a grim look on his face. "Dipper, where did you get this?"

"Bill Cipher gave it to me." Dipper looked at everyone with confusion on his face. "He said it was from Diablo."

Terrence's eyes lit up. "This could be the lead we need!" He yelled. "He's trying to trip us up, but we'll show him! C'mon, back to the lab!" He sped off like a rocket and everyone followed. Dipper could see the hope in their eyes, but he knew that they hoped for escape, while Dipper hoped for something else entirely.

...

"Is the DVD ready for watching?" Terrence asked a scientist back at the lab. He had insisted that the DVD be checked for booby traps or spells or anything that could give up their location before they watched it.

"Yes, sir." The scientist, who had beady brown eyes and greasy black hair, handed the DVD to Terrence. "No booby traps or spells."

"Good. C'mon, guys, sit up front with me." Dipper and Stan followed Terrence to the front of the room, where they stood between two computers to watch. Terrence handed a skinny man the DVD, and he ran to the back and put it into the computer connected to the main projector. The big monitor whirred and turned on, showing a strange room on the screen. In the main room, there were at least ten big machines on tables, each whirring and lighting up in a different way. There were monitors for each of the machines, but they weren't lighting up like the big machines were. There was a microphone in the very front, and there was a huge window that showed a different room behind it. In the other room, there was what Dipper assumed was a dentist's chair, with a dozen restraints hanging limply from it and more monitors behind it. Dipper wondered why it seemed so familiar, but then he realized- it reminded him of torture chambers he had seen in movies.

"This must be the Converter," Terrence breathed, and Dipper gasped. He was staring directly at the machine that had created the Dreamscape, the machine that had murdered hundreds of innocent children and taken their nightmares to produce an alternate dimension.

"Hello, puny humans." A deep, almost distorted sounding voice boomed from the monitor. "I am Diablo, your leader. Recently I heard you exchanged one Pines for two others, one strong and one weak."

Dipper balled his hands into fists. Weak? Him? Sure, he had noodle arms, but he was far from weak!

"So I felt we should show you what you are up against. Alvin!" The demon yelled. "Bring me subject 621 now!"

"Yes sir!" A high pitched voice said meekly. The door to the outer room opened with a creak, and a red circular demon entered, pushing in front of him a twelve year old girl wearing a tattered sweater with a key on it. The girl looked thin, with bruises and cuts on her legs and face. Dipper's eyes widened. This was Mabel! This was his twin sister, who used to look so strong, but now looked weary and battered.

"Why does she look so thin?" Dipper asked shakily. "It's only been two days."

"Time passes differently here," Terrence sighed. "The demons made it so time looks like the days here are as long as the days on Earth to trick us, but really, every six Earth hours is one day here. It's been eight days since you arrived here."

Dipper whimpered slightly. Eight days? Who knew how much they had done to Mabel in eight days?

"Are you ready to proceed, subject 621?" Diablo said evilly.

"Whatever you want, poophead," Mabel spat at him in a hoarse voice.

Dipper smiled to himself. Even through everything they had done to her, Mabel still had her rebelliousness and her spunk.

Diablo growled under his breath. "Alright, Alvin, hook her up." The red demon grabbed Mabel and shoved her in the chair. He tied all the restraints around her and put at least ten sensors on her forehead. He took a syringe filled with black liquid from the table next to the chair and stabbed it into Mabel's arm. She flinched and put her hand on her arm to block out the pain, but she soon fell unconscious and slumped against the chair.

"Alvin! Turn the machine on!" Diablo yelled. Alvin jumped and flipped a few switches behind Mabel, and all the monitors came to life, each showing a different image.

"What you are seeing now are all of subject 621's dreams," Diablo explained. Dipper examined the monitors on the screen. He saw Waddles running around in a grassy field, he saw Mabel, Candy, and Grenda having a slumber party, and much to his disgust, he saw Mermando the mermaid combing Mabel's hair and singing to her.

"Now, I have received word via Bill Cipher that subject 621's brother is within your ranks, humans, so I have selected a dream which I think you will find interesting." Diablo's thin black arm reached out and typed a few things onto the keyboard in front of him. One dream was pulled onto all of the monitors, and what Dipper saw onscreen shocked him.

Dipper saw himself with Mabel on every single one of the monitors. They were standing in their shared room in the Mystery Shack, and dream Mabel said, "Dipper, I'm really sorry about what happened in the portal. I just wanted to do what was right."

Dipper flinched as he remembered what had happened just two- no, eight- days earlier. He was admittedly still bitter about what Mabel had done, but honestly, the issue hadn't crossed his mind since she had been taken.

The Dipper in Mabel's dream smiled at Mabel. "It's okay, Mabel. Really. I guess I was just afraid we were all gonna die. I wanted to protect you. Will you forgive me?"

"Of course, Dipping Sauce," Mabel laughed, punching dream Dipper lightly in the arm. Dream Dipper laughed softly, pulling Mabel in for a hug. The real Mabel smiled in her sleep, and Dipper found himself to be smiling too. He hadn't realized exactly why he had been so angry that day, but Mabel's dream really helped him remember.

Diablo laughed deeply. "Oh, how charming," he said mockingly. "What you may not have realized, humans, is that we have modified the Converter since its last use. Now, everything that happens in the dream happens in real life too, or so the subject is led to believe. But any bodily action that occurs actually happens in real time." He flipped a few switches in front of him. "Now, let's put the Converter to work."

Mabel's dream transformed in front of their eyes. Dream Dipper pulled away, causing all the color in the room to fade to black. A sinister grin pulled across dream Dipper's face which caused dream Mabel to back away in fear.

"You should be sorry, Mabel," Dream Dipper said darkly. "You betrayed me back there. You took his side and abandoned me. You should be ashamed of yourself."

"Dipper, no-" Dream Mabel stuttered. Dipper could see the tears joining the fear in her eyes, and it made his stomach tie up in knots.

Dipper saw a knife materialize in dream Dipper's right hand. "You're dead to me, Mabel. As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a sister anymore."

Real-life Mabel squirmed around in her chair as the events of the dream took place. Her face showed the same fear as dream Mabel's face showed as dream Dipper raised the knife over his head, and both Mabels emitted the same blood-curdling shriek when the knife pierced their stomach. Dipper felt the same amount of pain as he saw himself hurt her. He could almost feel the knife twisting in his gut, he felt the same heartbreak she felt. It must have been one of those twin instincts, he figured.

He felt the most pain, though, when he saw the dark red blossoming on Mabel's sweater. She curled around her wound, whimpering in pain. Dipper felt like his heart was being ripped in two. He wanted more than anything to reach through that screen and take Mabel away from that hell.

"Sir?" Alvin said through the window. "She's bleeding pretty badly. Should we stop the simulation?"

Diablo sighed from behind the camera and said, "Fine. Patch her up and start over."

Alvin surrounded Mabel with a purple fire and lifted her through the restraints. He pushed her unconscious body through the door and down the hall.

"Now do you see what we can do?" Diablo said forcefully. "Stop resisting us and let us do our work, or we do to you what we did to subject 621. Understand?" He laughed. "Adieu, humans." A deep, evil laughter filled the room, and the monitor went black.

Everyone in the room was silent. Dipper stared at the ceiling, trying to keep the tears from leaving his eyes. He was suddenly reminded of an event earlier in the summer, when a beast called the Gremloblin was released in the Mystery Shack. The beast had grabbed Mabel while they were trying to defend the house and was trying to show her her worst nightmare. Dipper remembered feeling so helpless, until he realized he could show the Gremloblin its own worst nightmare by showing it a mirror. What had happened then was like what was happening now, only this time there was no mirror and no escape.

He looked up at Terrence, who, much to Dipper's surprise, was wiping away tears of his own. Terrence broke the silence by saying, "We need a counter-attack. I want a strategy by tomorrow Dreamscape-time."

Terrence leaned down and put a hand on Dipper's shoulder. He wiped away the boy's tears with one thumb. "It's okay, Dipper," he said softly. "I promise we'll get Diablo and save your sister."

Dipper smiled through his tears. He looked up at Stan, who was also crying but didn't bother to wipe away his tears. Dipper walked away from Terrence and grabbed Stan's hand. "Mabel would want me to trust you," Dipper said hoarsely. "So I will."

Stan grinned down at Dipper and tightly embraced him. Dipper had seen a lot of things from his great uncle lately, both good and bad, but he realized that he had just been focusing on the bad. He needed to see the good, like Stan trying to get his brother back and saving him from death just four Dreamscape days ago. Finally deciding to trust again, Dipper sighed happily and hugged Stan back.