Chapter 4

"Hey, Dipper," Ford said huskily as Dipper stepped into the workshop once again.

"Hey, Ford," Dipper replied, looking around. Ford had sure been busy. The walls were covered in journal pages, one after another. "What's all this?"

"Well, I ran out of journal space, and since there's really no need for those journals to be hidden anymore, I thought I'd save us both the trouble," the older man smiled in the same crooked fashion as his nephew. "I thought maybe today you might be able to go out and look for-"

"Actually, Ford, I could use your help with something," Dipper interrupted. "I sort of fell asleep last night and I had this… dream, I guess? I don't really know what to call it. I couldn't see or feel anything, but something was talking to me."

"Something?" Ford raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. This definitely wasn't a person. It was an entity. A dark one. It knew my name, said something about how disappointed it was that Cipher hadn't finished us off… then I woke up."

"And are you sure this wasn't just because you and Wendy were watching horror movies?" Ford asked suspiciously.

"Believe me, Ford. This wasn't a nightmare. It was more like… well, like I was conscious inside my own mind."

"Anything like Cipher's mindscape?" Ford asked, starting to scribble notes on spare pieces of paper he had laying around.

"Sort of, I guess. It had that same general feel to it. But this was a lot more intimidating. Kind of like it was ready to collapse in on me at any moment. Unstable."

"Hmm," Ford muttered, deep in thought. "It's not Cipher. We closed that dimensional tear. This has to be something else. Something new."

"Well, there's one more thing," Dipper confessed, sitting down and running his fingers over his scar the way he tended to do when he got nervous. "Wendy said that when she tried to wake me up… my eyes were silver. It freaked her out pretty bad."

Ford was silent for a few minutes, thinking and running scenarios in his head. "Well, what do you think, Dipper?"

"Well… if this thing is actually inside my mind, and it was able to physically manifest itself in part of my body like that, then I'd say that whatever this is definitely isn't a peaceful spirit. It's also obviously not bound by the same interdimensional limitations that Cipher was, since he couldn't possess the mind unless a deal was made. So this thing is already inside my thoughts and memories. And chances are that it's not leaving without a fight, if it's anything like Cipher was." Dipper rattled off, and Ford was suddenly taken by how much the boy had changed. Here he was, discussing being possessed by an entity like it was nothing, when doing the same just a few years ago would have sent the kid into a full-blown panic. This older Dipper had a much better handle on his emotions and his fear response.

"Well, you've clearly thought a lot about this," Ford said after a moment.

"Yeah. Didn't get much sleep after all that," he admitted.

"Come on, Grunkle Stan, I'm almost done," Mabel begged. "Just a few more minutes!"

"Mabel, I've been sittin' here for hours," Stan adjusted himself in the kitchen chair. "How long does it take to draw an old man?"

"Well, I want to get this one right!" Mabel replied. "It's the first one going up on my wall in my dorm room."

That made Stan smile. "Well, fine," he grumbled. "Just a few more minutes."

Mabel continued sketching. "Hey, Grunkle Stan? You're going to come visit me at UCLA, right?"

"Every month, pumpkin," he replied with a smile. "You're always welcome to come visit me, Ford, and your brother here, too."

"Thanks," Mabel grinned, but it slowly faded. Then she sighed and put down her pencil.

"What is it?" Stan asked, putting a large hand on the top of her head.

"It's just that I've never been so far away from Dipper before," Mabel admitted, looking at the floor. "It's going to be strange. And hard."

Stan thought for a minute. "Yeah, it is hard. For sure. But do you know what? Dipper's a good kid. There won't be a week that goes by where he forgets to call you."

"That's true, I guess," she perked up a little bit. "I'll get used to it eventually. It'll just take some time."

"Well, Mabel, you never really get used to not having your brother around," Stan told her. "It'll always feel like he's missing. But you'll be able to see him anytime you want."

"So, we've ruled out Cipher and any semblance of his mindscape," Dipper counted off on his fingers. "Where does that leave us?"

"Honestly, kid? I have no idea," Ford popped his knuckles, poring over page after page laid out in front of him. "This really doesn't sound like anything we've ever come across before."

"I'll make sure to keep my journal by my bed tonight, so if it happens again I can sketch it out," Dipper replied, patting his blue canvas backpack that was propped near the metal door to the lab. "I should probably get going. It's getting to be afternoon and I promised Wendy I'd grab lunch with her at the diner, if that's okay."

"Yeah, no problem," the old man replied, spreading his fingers and studying them, the way he always did when he was deep in thought. "Come on back when you're done."

Dipper trudged up the path to the diner, still thinking about his bizarre dream. He didn't like the way it had made him feel. When he'd woken up finally, all he'd wanted to do was freak out. But he couldn't, not with Wendy there. He didn't want to scare he any more than he already had.

"Hey, man!" he heard, and turned to see Wendy rushing up the path towards him. She quickly caught up with him, considering her legs were about a mile long, and punched him in the shoulder. "How's it hangin'?

"Not bad," he grinned sheepishly at her. "What'd you do all day?"

"Oh, just worked for minimum wage at some lame tourist trap," she complained good-naturedly. "Just kidding. Soos actually gave me a raise this year and business isn't as slow as it was back then."

"Man, I sort of miss those days," Dipper turned his face up towards the sun and smiled fondly. "I'm sure you don't, though. Having two lame-ass twelve year olds hanging on to your every move can't be fun."

"Are you kidding? You guys were my best friends that summer, and pretty much since then," Wendy laughed, smacking his shoulder. "I've missed you a lot, Dipstick. I meant what I said when you left that first summer. You mean a lot to me, man."

"You mean a lot to me too," he replied, slinging an arm around her shoulder, and she felt a flutter in her stomach. Which pissed her off. She didn't ever really have feelings. Living with four giant lumberjacks had pretty much erased that side of her when she was little.

But being with Dipper was different. In a way she wasn't sure she didn't like.