Nightmares and Dreamscaperers
The rest of the day after the Pig Dance Party was life as normal. Mabel went out and bought a Huggy Wuvvy Tummy Bundle for Waddles, and when she came back her pig was doing fine. (Stan had put Waddles out in the yard, but hastily returned him to the house before Mabel got back).
Mabel began planning her "Guide to Life" series for the Sev'ral Timez clones. She had all sorts of things they could learn: about stickers, art, fashion, and even dating. (She wasn't sure Lebam would let the boys see that one, but it would still be fun to make),
One day, Mabel led Dipper out into the woods.
"Dipper, I have someone I'd like you to meet," she told him. "You're going to be so surprised!"
"A vampire boyfriend?" asked Dipper.
Lebam stepped out from behind a tree. "Nope, I'm her mirror doppelganger girlfriend, Lebam Senip. Well, a friend who's a girl, a friend friend, you know."
"Yaah!" said Dipper. He backed away from the clone.
"She was secretly staying with us and sometimes trading places with me, but now she has her own life in the woods, so it's safe to tell you about her," said Mabel.
"I've read about doppelgangers: they're evil monsters. They want to kill you and take your place," said Dipper.
"Not this one," said Mabel. "Lebam's a good monster."
"I stayed hidden in the attic closet of the Mystery Shack, from the time Gideon was trying to date Mabel, when he pulled me from a mirror with a magic spell, to when she and Grenda and Candy... were having sleepovers," said Lebam. She decided that Dipper didn't need to know about Sev'ral Timez.
"If she had wanted to kill me, she had plenty of opportunities," said Mabel.
"I remember some funny business I couldn't explain," said Dipper. "I thought you were just being weird for fun. Like you do."
"Like I do," said Mabel with a grin.
"But sometimes it was me being weird," said Lebam. "Or serious. I saved your life from Gideon when he tried to kill you in the warehouse."
"That was you?" asked Dipper.
"Yep," said Lebam. "Beep boop!"
"Thank you," said Dipper. "I guess you're all right, Lebam."
"Now you have two twin sisters to torment you," said Mabel with a laugh. "Let's get fun sticks and poke him, Leeb."
"I'm ahead of you there, sister," said Lebam, producing her own fun stick from behind her back.
"No! No!" said Dipper, running from them but secretly enjoying it.
Later, they made several videos with Lebam's help. In one scene, Lebam held a cardboard cutout boy, "Zack" outside the kitchen window while Dipper filmed Mabel talking to the "boy" from inside, at the kitchen table. She also showed how she could eat leaves, but they shouldn't, in a "Guide to Eating Non-Foods."
Grenda and Candy were let in on the secret eventually (when they made more videos using them) but not Grunkle Stan. They still didn't trust him not to exploit Lebam as a Mystery Shack exhibit. Lebam was finally able to forgive Mabel's two friends, since things had turned out so well for her.
Mabel and Lebam also helped Dipper make a couple more "Guide to the Unexplained" videos to add to his series. It was Lebam who held the camera and captured footage of the Floating Island Head Monster when Mabel and Dipper were both rowing for their lives. Lebam also got the first-ever footage of the Hide Behind (when Dipper was walking away after he was fooled by the rattling sound of the Maraca Owl). It took Lebam for a fellow monster, so it wasn't bothered by being seen by her.
One evening a strange ad for Gideon's Tent o' Telepathy came on, promising that it would open in a new location, the Mystery Shack.
"Uh, should we be worried about that?" asked Dipper.
"Please, the only way Gideon's taking over the shack is by breaking in and stealing my deed," said Stan.
There was a crash from Stan's office.
"You mean like, right now?" asked Wendy.
They found Gideon trying to break into the safe by guessing the combination.
"Well, well, Stanford, my arch-nemesis," said Gideon. "We seem to have entered a dangerous game of cat and mouse. But the question remains, who is the cat, and who is the..."
Stan shooed him out with a broom, into the rain.
Gideon shook his fist. "You mark my words, Stanford, one day I'm gonna get that combination. And once I steal that deed, you'll never see the Mystery Shack again!"
Stan said, "Good luck, bucko!"
Gideon sneaked back to the window of Stan's office and watched him re-locking the safe.
Stan laughed. "The combo to this safe is in the one place he'll never find it: my brain."
Gideon said, "Your brain isn't as safe as you might think, Stanford Pines!"
He walked into the woods and got out his Journal 2. "This is the last straw! It's time to unlock the journal's greatest secret..." said Gideon.
Gideon looked up the instructions for summoning a dream demon, and walked to the birch woods where every tree had eye-like markings.
"You think that combination's safe in your mind, Stanford? We'll see what my new minion has to say about that!" said Gideon.
He began to chant the summoning formula, "Triangulum, entangulum. Veneforis dominus ventium. Veneforis venetisarium!"
Mabel and Soos had gone outside and followed the sound of Gideon's voice. They hid in the bushes and watched what he was doing.
"...backwards message, backwards message, backwards message," said Gideon, and there was a sense of time flowing in reverse.
Bill Cipher was still desperately seeking the lost Journal 2, following yet another lead to where Ruth Pines might have been staying when she was in hiding. The summoning signal caught him by surprise.
"Holy smokes!" Bill said. "The bat signal!"
He flew as quickly as possible back to Gravity Falls, and then went back in time to reach the summoner. It was L'il Gideon!
Bill turned on his dream projector, which reached everyone in range who was on his channel Ring with the same dream. The background turned black-and-white as the dream began, except for his hovering yellow triangular self.
"Oh, oh, Gravity Falls! It is good to be back. Name's Bill Cipher, and I take it you're some kind of living ventriloquist dummy? Ha ha, I'm just kidding, I know who you are, Gideon!"
It was so good to be back here, back on track. For Gideon must have Journal 2, or have gotten the summoning information from someone who did.
Gideon said, "W-what are you? H-how do you know my name?"
Bill said, "Oh, I know lots of things!"
Bill projected various mysterious locations in the past on his body, related to the Time Baby's interventions in human history.
"Lots of things..." he said in his slow, deep mode.
Bill was so happy that he wanted to reward this kid.
"What could I give him?" Bill thought. "Animal ivories are valuable to humans, right? I once gave some to McGucket, and he was really pleased with them."
"Hey, look what I can do!" said Bill. He gestured toward a deer, which opened its mouth to let its teeth fly into Bill's hands; he dropped the teeth into Gideon's hands.
"Deer teeth! For you, kid!"
Gideon gasped and dropped the teeth on the ground. "You're insane!"
Apparently, this wasn't a gift Gideon appreciated. Oh well... He put the teeth back.
"Sure I am," said Bill. "what's your point?"
Gideon said, "Listen to me, demon! I have a job for you. I need you to enter the mind of Stanford Pines and steal the code to his safe."
"Wait... Stan Pines?" Bill turned his back, and put up a picture of Stanley Pines as Bill last saw him, just before he jumped into the portal.
Could Pines have returned from another dimension, and shared secrets from the lost Journal with this boy? No, wait... he said "Stanford Pines." That was the alias of Samuel Pines, who had taken Bill's secret tattoo... Even better. He even had full permission to enter his mind.
"You know what, kid?" said Bill. "You've convinced me! I'm sold! I'll help you with this and in return you can help me with something I've been working on! We'll work out the details later."
Gideon said, "Deal!"
As they shook hands, their hands were surrounded by blue flames.
"This is so, so sweet," thought Bill. "The Journal is as good as mine, at long last. No more fear of Robot Tartarus for me!"
"Well, time to invade Stan's mind!" Bill said aloud. "This should be fun! Remember, reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold, bye!"
These random remarks were a way of looking at advanced portal physics. The "buy gold" was a reminder to prepare for the coming economic collapse. Gideon deserved the tip for being so helpful to Bill.
Bill cloaked himself and ended the dream for his receiver.
Gideon woke and said, "It worked!" He laughed like a maniac.
Mabel and Soos went to warn Dipper. Soos (with the mind of the evil Wax Larry King) wanted to go along to help Bill, so he stuck close to Mabel. He managed to distract her into raiding the kitchen for snacks on the way, to buy Bill a little time.
Soos said, "This evil triangle guy said he's gonna break into Stan's mind and steal the combination to his safe! Also we stopped for snacks on the way here."
"Triangle guy?" said Dipper, taking out Journal 3. "I feel like I've seen something like this before in the journal... Beware Bill, the most powerful and dangerous creature I've ever encountered. Whatever you do, never let him enter your mind."
Mabel said, "Grunkle Stan!" as she saw a triangular shadow merging into Stan.
Mabel took Journal 3 and read aloud, "It is possible to follow the demon into a person's mind and prevent his chaos. One must simply recite this incantation."
"Ugh, this is just great," said Dipper. "I spend all day cleaning sinks and fighting bats for Stan and now I have to save him from some crazy brain demon?"
Mabel said, "But if we don't do anything Gideon might steal the shack! Or worse!"
Dipper reluctantly agreed and he recited the code phrases that would allow them to enter Stan's dream along with Bill.
Soos played ignorant and said he would take his Burrito Bites along, but naturally he knew nothing physical would come into the dreamscape with them.
The three walked through a weird, distorted dreamscape of the yard outside the Mystery Shack. Soon they saw the triangular guy on the porch; Mabel tried to jump him only to find herself ejected seconds later with no memory of time passing.
Bill said, "Ah, Stan's family, we meet at last! Question Mark, Shooting Star, Pine Tree. I had a hunch I might bump into you!"
He raised a finger and shot a hole in Dipper's chest. Dipper screamed.
Mabel demonstrated that the hole had done no real harm by sticking her hand through it. "Boop!"
Dipper said, "Mabel!" Then, to Bill: "What do you want with our uncle's mind anyway?"
"Oh, just the code to the old man's safe," said Bill. "Inside the shack is a maze of a thousand doors representing your uncle's memories. Behind one of them is a memory of him inputting the code. I just need to find it and Gideon will pay me handsomely."
Mabel said, "Not if we stop you!"
Bill said, "Hah, fat chance! I'm the master of the mind, I even know what you're thinking right now."
"That's impossible, no one can guess what I'm thinking!" said Mabel
The cartoon boyz from Mabel's favorite movie came to life.
Xyler said, "Whoa, where are we, bro?"
"We must be in heaven, 'cause I just saw an angel!" said Craz, pointing to Mabel.
"You're out of your league, kids," said Bill. "Turn around now before you see something you might regret. Later, suckers!"
Bill crashed his way into the dream Mystery Shack.
Mabel let the cartoon boys carry her in an arm throne. Soos offered Dipper an arm throne too, but he turned it down.
Inside, they found endless doors. They found memories of Stan in the Columbian prison, selling vacuum cleaners, and going on a bad date with Lazy Susan. Dipper got side-tracked checking out Stan's memories of him.
Soos found a door leading to memories of the secret levels of the Shack; he quickly shut it before the others could see, lying that it was "Boring."
Mabel found a disturbing secret memory of Stan making a face with his tummy and feeding it crackers.
"Hah, we've been searching forever! What if the triangle guy finds the memory before we do?" asked Soos.
"If we wanna find Stan's memory, we gotta think like Stan. He's always hiding stuff, right?" asked Mabel.
Soos suggested looking under the gift shop rug, a place he had seen Stan hide his arrest warrants.
"Soos, that's it! Look!" said Mabel.
Mabel pointed to a rug. Everyone walked over to it, but Soos let himself fall behind and be "distracted" by another memory, so Bill could step in to impersonate him. Larry in Soos hoped that Bill would notice this and give him credit for being a mole. (Bill was too excited to pay attention and thought Soos was just being Soos).
Mabel flipped the rug and found a door. Everyone gasped. Mabel opened the door and found the memory of Stan inputting the code to the safe with the deed. She wanted to destroy the memory with an axe.
"Wait! Maybe I should do it! My big fat arms are great at destroying stuff!" said Bill as Soos.
"Oh, okay," said Mabel.
Bill as Soos lifted the memory with his telekinetic power.
Then the other imposter Soos (Larry) came back, saying he had seen a memory of Stan roller skating and wearing short-shorts. He pretended to be surprised to see his double.
Bill morphed back to his normal shape.
"Boy, you kids sure are gullible! I knew you'd lead me straight to the code! It's funny how dumb you are," said Bill. "The combination to Stan's safe. Boy, that was even easier then I thought!"
Mabel attempted a comeback, "Oh, yeah? Well, you're a-a stink face!"
She realized how lame it sounded even as she said it, and she snapped at Xyler when he praised it.
Bill said, "Later, suckers!" and flew away.
"Come on! We've gotta save Stan!" said Mabel.
"What's the point?" asked Dipper. He walked down some stairs to them.
"Why should I save him, huh? I work for Stan day and night and all he does in return is say he wants to get rid of me," said Dipper.
"Dipper, I'm sure that's not true," said Mabel.
"I saw it with my one eyes in one of his memories, Mabel!" said Dipper. "He always picked on me and now I know why. Stan hates me!"
Everyone gasped.
"Dipper, it doesn't matter what you saw. If we don't stop Bill, we'll lose the shack!" said Mabel.
Dipper held firm, so Mabel, Soos, Xyler, and Craz went on alone.
"Dipper, you're a cool dude, but.. this isn't cool, dude," said Soos. If Dipper stayed with them he wouldn't learn more dangerous secrets.
They followed Bill and found him communicating the safe combination back to the mind of Gideon. Mabel produced her Nyarf gun and shot the memory out of Bill's hands. It fell into Stan's memory of the Bottomless Pit, lost forever. Gideon called off the deal.
Bill was on the brink of achieving his goal. Once his part of the deal was fulfilled, nothing could stop him from getting Journal 2.
But then, that crazy girl! That was the master memory. The combination would be erased from Stan's mind, no matter how many other memories of it had existed. His hopes were destroyed. He was headed for Robot Tartarus once the Time Baby found out. Bill shattered his dream image and morphed to red.
"YOU! You can't even imagine what you just cost me! Do you have any idea what I'm like WHEN I'M MAD?" asked Bill.
Bills Thai numeral boot numbers flashed in his eyes as he gathered power. Flames from his hand encircled his enemies and they were lifted into a starry sky on a huge stone copy of Stan's head. Bill became huge and towered over them.
"So I guess he gets very mad when he gets mad," said Soos.
"EAT NIGHTMARES!" said Bill.
In a few seconds he gave Soos a nightmare of a British dog man, removed Mabel's cuteness, and destroyed Xyler and Craz.
"And now to finish you all once in for all!" said Bill. Since he was doomed, he might as well take as much of the Ring with him as he could and totally ruin the Time Baby's plans.
Dipper flew in. "Hey Bill!"
"WHAT?!" said Bill.
"Nice bow tie!" said Dipper. He made a hole in the tie with his laser face. "Guys! I just learned that you can conjure whatever you can conceive in Grunkle Stan's mindscape! "
"Huh?" asked Mabel.
Dipper said, "Just think of cool fighting stuff and it will happen. Like this!" He blasted away the British dog man with his lasers.
Bill was shocked. This was the real fighting Domiclese, laser face and all. Hero of the Great Robot War.
By the time he organized his thoughts, all the others were fighting: Mabel with kitten fists, and Soos with a stomach beam stare (Larry knew Bill hadn't realized he was an ally and that he would have to fight for his life now and reconcile with Bill later).
Bill said, "Enough games!" and shot a laser from his eye.
Mabel said, "Hamster ball shields activate!"
Balls of force formed around Mabel, Dipper, and Soos. These were from Callisto's power.
"AH! Oh my eye! AAH!" said Bill as his laser attack reflected back at him.
"Rise, Xyler! Rise, Craz!" said Mabel.
Xyler and Craz appeared behind her with musical instruments. They started to play synthesized music.
"No! Synthesized music! It hurts!" said Bill.
"And now to imagine your worst nightmare! A portal out of Stan's mind!" said Dipper.
"No, no, no! Enough!" Bill made everything around them white, and he became yellow again.
"Domiclese... Callisto... Helen of Troy... the Trojan Horse," thought Bill. Maybe all was not lost after all.
"You know, I've been impressed with you guys. You are more clever than you look. Especially the fat one," said Bill. There was something different about the handyman, he was just noticing.
"He's talking about you!" whispered Soos to Mabel, in a lame attempt to distract attention from himself.
Bill said, "So I'm gonna let you kids off the hook. You might come in handy later. But know this: A darkness approaches. A day will come in the future when everything you care about will change! Until then I'll be watching you! I'LL BE WATCHING YOU..."
It was all true. He showed them their symbols on his Ring as proof. But now it was time to pull out of the dream.
Dipper said, "He's gone! we did it!"
They all started to fade out.
"Stan must be waking up," said Dipper.
"Will I ever see you again?" Mabel asked Xyler and Craz.
"In your dreams," said Craz.
"Good one, bro, good one," said Xyler.
They all woke up with a yell.
"We did it!" said Mabel.
"What? Did what? What are you all doing here? And why was I dreaming of two brightly colored and radical young men?" asked Stan.
Dipper said, "Grunkle Stan! You're okay!" and grabbed him around the neck.
"What is this, a hug?" asked Stan.
Dipper said, "Nope! It's a choke hold."
"Not bad, kid. Not bad," said Stan.
"I'm just glad Gideon didn't get into the safe. I really love this old shack," said Mabel.
"Group hug! No? I never know the right time!" said Soos.
The shack vibrated.
"Hey, do you guys feel..." said Dipper.
There was an explosion and the wall behind the sofa broke open,
"Oh, I'm sorry, Pines family. Did I wake you?" asked Gideon.
"But.. we defeated Bill!" said Dipper.
"Bill failed me! So I switched to plan B. Dynamite," said Gideon.
"What? Bill, who? What are you guys talking about?" asked Stan. Did all of them know about Bill now? He had to cover for himself.
Gideon said, "Spoiler alert, Stanford! I've got the deed! The Mystery Shack belongs to me! So get out of my property!"
Gideon used a walkie-talkie, "Daddy? Bring it around the front."
"Don't worry, guys! It's just part of the dream! We're gonna wake up any second now! Right? Right?" asked Dipper.
Bud Gleeful smashed the Mystery Shack's sign with a wrecking ball, as the Pines and Soos shouted in surprise.
"Someone pinch me, dude," said Soos.
Bill watched, cloaked from view. "I'm going to fix this, and the little man who reneged on his deal is going to pay. Big time. That's a pun."
Bill laughed insanely.