I am so sorry for using that terrible pun as a chapter title. Hopefully you'll look past my cheesiness and want to know what happens anyway!

Also, I am so so sorry about not updating sooner! Junior year is proving to be a lot tougher than previously expected, so I've been working on homework pretty much nonstop trying to keep myself from falling behind. I haven't had much opportunity to write in the past few months, but I promised myself I would get this chapter done tonight, so here you go!

Thanks so much for the reviews and likes and thanks so so much for sticking with me! I promise from now on I'm gonna try to update more frequently, especially since we're nearing the end of our little tale :)

Enjoy guys!

When Dipper woke up, the first thing he could register was a throbbing pain in the back of his head.

He raised his right hand to the back of his head gingerly, feeling a thick bandage taped to it. Dipper didn't understand. What exactly had happened? The last thing he remembered was sitting in Terrence's house, learning about Terrence's terrible life and his own equally horrible future. Then there was this brilliant flash of light, and then nothing.

He groaned slightly, pushing himself off his stomach into a sitting position on the concrete floor. Concrete? Terrence's floor was wooden, not concrete. Where was he now?

When he turned his head to look at his surroundings, he felt like he was in a dream. He found himself in a dark cell with metal bars surrounding him. He saw demons of all shapes and sizes float past, some carrying children in handcuffs with them. He couldn't believe it. This couldn't possibly could be real. Any second, he would wake up back at the campsite, getting ready to go save Mabel- or better yet, he would wake up back at the Shack, Mabel sleeping in the bed opposite him. This couldn't be real!

"You okay, Dipper?"

Dipper turned sharply, startled, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Terrence and Stanley sitting tiredly against the metal bars of the cell. Both looked worse for the wear, sporting massive bruises and cuts all over their bodies.

"Yeah," Dipper said breathlessly. "How long was I out?"

"About a day Dreamscape-time," Terrence said.

"What happened?"

"Bill escaped and called the demon forces. He told them everything; our weapons, our location, you name it. They raided the camp and took everything they could find." Stan stared at the ground as he spoke, his rage showing through his voice.

"Where are the other humans?" Dipper asked.

Terrence smiled. "If my assumptions are correct, everyone else found their way to a secret bunker underneath the Main Hall. I'm pretty sure us three are the only humans the demons captured. At least, I really hope so."

"But... how could Bill contact the demons in the first place?"

"Yeah, that doesn't add up," Stan said. "We had him locked in jail under constant supervision! How could he even begin to-"

"Morse code," Terrence interjected, his eyes wide with this revelation.

"What?" Both Dipper and Stan said.

"Bill used Demon Morse Code to communicate with the demon forces." Terrence stood up and began to pace- or as much as he could in the limited space of the cell. "You see, guys, a demon has the ability to communicate with other demons without even using words, in a very similar manner to human Morse Code. However, the demons figured out a way to do this in such a way so that we don't even notice. Demon Morse Code consists of a series of fast-paced color changes that the human eye can't detect. Bill must have been giving the demons information about our plan since the very beginning."

"That bastard!" Stan growled. "He's a traitor!"

"I should have seen this coming," Terrence muttered. "How could I have been so stupid?

"This isn't your fault, Terrence. Not by a long shot." Stan shakily rose to his feet and put his arms around Terrence, giving him a reassuring smile. "No one at all could have predicted this. Not a single person in the entire camp could have seen this coming."

"Yeah," Terrence said softly. "No one did." He turned his gaze to the ground, and as Dipper raised his head to look at him, he could have sworn he saw a ghost of a smile painted on Terrence's face.

But that doesn't make sense, Dipper thought to himself. If what Stan and Terrence had said was true, then what had just happened was a catastrophic tragedy that could mean the end of the human resistance! There was no element of this situation that could possibly make Terrence smile. Unless-

Dipper's eyes widened in realization as he turned his head to look back at the floor. Of course! He thought. As he ran through the possible reasons in his head, suddenly all the pieces began to fit together. Back at his house, Terrence had told him that he had lived to see countless scenarios and timelines where Dipper had tried to save Mabel and failed. And although Terrence hadn't said it out loud, Dipper had taken this to assume that he pretty much knew every single outcome that could ever happen and that he wasn't surprised by much. Must've been that 'Dipper-and-Terrence-being-the-same-person' thing, he figured. If that was the case, then the only way Terrence could not have seen this coming was that this was an all-new situation and timeline, meaning that there was a chance that they could get Mabel out of this alive. And knowing that made a shred of hope that had not been present in Dipper since before this whole portal mess started come creeping back into Dipper's heart.

Dipper was so absorbed in his own thoughts, he didn't even notice when Stan slowly took a seat against the bars next to Dipper, gingerly rubbing his left arm in pain as he did so. "Hey, kid," Stan said gruffly.

Dipper turned his head quickly, startled, and exhaled when he saw it was only his great uncle. He then remembered all the awful things he had said to Stan just a day earlier and looked back at the ground guiltily. "Hey, Stan," He mumbled.

"Listen, Dipper, about what happened the other day-"

"I'm really sorry, Stan. I should never have said that stuff to you," Dipper blurted out. "I was just... in shock, I guess. All I could think about was myself. I didn't once think about the well-being of you, of everyone else in the camp- I didn't even consider Mabel's safety." Dipper felt the tears begin to form in his eyes, but he wiped them away stubbornly. "I'm so sorry."

Stan put his arm on Dipper's shoulder. "No, I'm the one who should be sorry, Dipper. I should have told you. About everything, I guess. The thing is, when Stanford first came out of that portal and you were arguing with Mabel, I took him aside and asked him if he'd go by Stanley for a while- just so I could keep whatever trust you guys still had in me. He was a little bit-no, a lot bit shocked at first, but after a bit of begging, he came around." He sighed. "All I wanted was for you two to trust me. Because you two-you're the only family I've got."

Dipper's brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about? You still have your brother, don't you?"

"It's kinda complicated, Dipper. Stanford and I- we weren't exactly on the best of terms when he went into the portal. As far as I was concerned, he was dead to me. Even after he came out of the portal, he almost punched me in the face while I was trying to convince him to go by my name. You and your sister are the only blood relatives I have left who I genuinely care about and who care about me in return.

"Dipper, I understand why you were mad at me. I would've reacted the same way if it was me. But I swear, I wasn't keeping you behind because I thought you weren't strong enough to fight with us. I just wanted to keep you safe. My reasoning was, if things didn't go the way we planned during the invasion, at least I could die knowing there was someone left who could keep the fight going and who-who-" He tried to finish, but his tears choked off his voice and he couldn't.

"Someone out there who still loved you." Dipper picked up where Stan left off. "Someone to get to Mabel. Someone to make sure... to make sure that you didn't die in vain. Someone to avenge you."

Stan looked at his great-nephew and nodded slowly, a sad smile crossing his face.

Dipper looked up at Stan with a soft, kind look in his eyes. "Don't worry, Stan. No matter what happens today or anytime in the future, I'll always be your family. So will Mabel, even though she never even once doubted the kind of guy you are. And I shouldn't have, either. I'm really sorry."

Stan gave Dipper's shoulders an affectionate squeeze, and then, to offset the feelings Dipper knew Stan wasn't comfortable with yet, gave him a noogie. "It's fine, kid. Just trying to look out for you kids, is all. I'm a twin too, ya know."

Dipper nodded, and then realization hit him. "Mabel!" He cried out. He jumped to his feet, but had to grab his head because he was still a little dizzy. "She's somewhere on this floor. I'm certain of it."

Stan rose to his feet too. "Alright, kid, I believe you. I've never doubted those weird twin-instincts you guys have."

"We've gotta find a way out of this cell."

"How, kid? This is demon technology."

"I thought you'd never ask." Dipper and Stan turned to look at Terrence, who had a determined look in his eyes and a little box the size of a thimble in his hand. "Before you ask, this is a miniature lock-picking device we made as standard issue for all human soldiers in case they were captured by the enemy. It's too small for the demon security officers to detect, so we can easily break out of demon prisons. That's why, I'm proud to report, the demon forces have never been able to keep a human prisoner of war during this entire rebellion. This little guy-" Terrence waved the lock-picking device. "-It's our ticket out of here."

"Wait." Dipper interjected. "How have the demons not noticed these yet?"

"Well, Dipper," Terrence replied, "While the demons may be highly skilled with their own technology, they're dumb as rocks when it comes to our tech. Watch this."

Terrence slipped his hand through the thin space between two bars and stuck the lock-picking device onto the control panel which was holding the cell doors shut. He pressed a small button on the front of the device and slid his hand back into the cell, watching the machine with sheer delight. It made a few buzzing and whirring sounds, and in a few seconds, it dropped to the floor. Dipper's face fell; he assumed the machine had broken.

"Wait for it," Terrence murmured.

And in a few moments, the cell door made a few clicking sounds and swung open, allowing the three men to step out into the halls of the demon dungeon. An overjoyed grin stretched across Dipper's face for the first time in a few days.

"Alright, Mabel," Dipper said determinedly. "We're finally on our way." And with that, the three of them wandered into the unknown treachery of the demon castle's dungeon.