A/n: So I guess the first time this went up, it was covered in code... I honestly have no clue how that happened, so here is the chapter in legible form!

Chapter 7 - LITTLE BLACK BOX

The forest was calm in this morning. Dew covered the foliage in a glistening shimmer, and Mabel loved it. She skipped along as Dipper walked behind her, journal open to the page showing the entrance to the secret bunker. He began muttering about the dew making his shoes soggy.

"Come on Dip n' dot! Do you have to complain on such a beautiful morning?" Mabel bounded up a rock and looked out into the forest, her eyes peeled for the tree with the lever on it. Dipper shook more dew from his shoe and joined her on top of the rock.

"Walking around in wet shoes is literally the worst, Mabel," Dipper complained as he struggled to find his footing. Mabel offered him a hand and she pulled him up on top of the rock. They both looked off into the distance, Mabel making her hands into a pair of binoculars. She scans the trees when she finally spots the metallic gleam of the false tree.

"Captain! Bunker ahoy!" Mabel announces, pointing in the direction of the tree. Dipper grabs her hand and they both jump down from the rock. They ran up to the tree, looking up at the lever. Wendy wasn't with them this time, but Dipper already had a plan for getting down into the bunker.

"You're up Mabel!" Dipper said as he stepped aside. Mabel sauntered up to the tree. She then quickly reached into her sweater and pulled out a grappling hook. She aimed at the lever, and with expert precision, she fired the gun, casting the hook up and around the lever several times. She pulled down as the staircase to the bunker revealed itself. She retracted the grappling hook and put it safely back in her sweater as she and Dipper began down the stairs.

—

"Alright Mabel," Dipper began as he entered the control room, "the cryotubes are still stable. That shape shifter isn't getting out anytime soon." He walked over to the chair his sister was currently spinning in and abruptly stopped it. Mabel was about to berate her brother when she was suddenly extremely dizzy. She fell off the chair, landing clumsily on the ground.

As she lie there, trying to get her bearings, she noticed something she hadn't seen before. A small black box with a padlock on it. The box was nothing special, just black, a little dented, but other than that, it wasn't very remarkable. Still, Mabel felt drawn towards it, her eyes fixated on it. She reached for the box and stood up, showing it to Dipper.

He looked at it with the same fascination that she had. He held out his hands and she placed the box in them. He then turned the box around, analyzing it from all angles. Dipper narrowed his eyes at the strange object.

"Look familiar?" Mabel asks him as he studies the lock holding the box shut. He flicks it once, a small clang reverberates off the metal of the box. He then purses his lips.

"Yes, but I know I've never seen this thing before," Dipper hands it back to Mabel to look at, "It's like my brain is telling me that I should remember it, but I can't. Let's take it back to the shack, maybe there's something there we can use to open that lock."

—

Mabel was strangely quiet, Dipper had noticed. She wasn't skipping like she was this morning, her entire mood had changed. Dipper realized his mood had changed too. He was anxious to make sure the shape shifter wouldn't cause trouble later. Once they found that box, though, he had this feeling of dread and understanding come over him, but he had no idea why. He had never seen this box before, so he had no reason to dread it, but he also couldn't explain why he felt as though it was familiar. Dipper looked back to his sister, her face reflecting his own.

"Mabel, are you okay?" Dipper asked cautiously. Mabel looked at him, her confusion evident.

"Yeah, I just feel kind of weirdy around this box," Mabel shrugged, holding the box out at arms length, "That and…" Mabel trailed off, but Dipper knew what she was thinking about.

The nightmares.

Dipper had talked to her about the nightmares he had been having. How he assumed it was revealing what had happened the night the got sent back to the beginning of summer. She told him that she had been having a similar dream, but hers started earlier than his.

Her dream always started the same: Bill had just jumped into Stan's head. Dipper pulled her close as they looked on, helpless. Ford typed Stanley Pines into the memory gun and held it up. Right as he pulled the trigger, a blue force field appears around Stan, the shot from the memory gun ricocheting back at Ford, barely missing him. Stan then begins screaming, his eyes glowing bright blue as he is lifted in the air. Suddenly, a portal begins to open up behind their floating Gruncle. The last thing she sees is her Gruncle floating in the force field, then a triangular shape appears beside him.

"Mabel, I promise you, we will figure out what the dreams mean," Dipper assured her. She gives him a small smile and nods. Dipper had added her part of the dream to the journal he had been keeping, both of them adding any details they could remember. They had both agreed that they wouldn't tell Stan until they got Ford back. The did't want to worry him with another problem, especially when they were so close to getting his brother back.

As Dipper and Mabel come up on the mystery shack, they feel something is wrong. Suddenly, they feel lighter. Small pebbles on the ground begin to float in the air, Gompers spins upside-down as he chomps on some grass, even the totem poe is hovering about the ground. Dipper hears his sister yelp and he looks over to see her floating higher in the air. He looks down to see himself rising too.

Suddenly, they feel a force, almost like a shockwave. The everything plummets back to the ground. Dipper almost landed on his head while Mabel lands on her butt. Dipper rubs his head as Mabel gets up slowly. Dipper follows suit and they both look at each other.

"Kids!" The twins turn to see their Gruncle Stan yelling out the door, "Get inside, now!" The twins run in after their uncle. He takes a quick look around outside, making sure no one is following them and then shuts and locks the door. It was finally time.

Time to get Ford back.

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