Episode 26: To the Nightmare Realm [part 1].
Arc: "Fallen Royalty"
Opening: Another – Opening.

. . .

"I don't think I quite understand that."

Daniel groaned after having explained everything for the fifth time while walking towards Asaph's house, with Danna alongside him. She did nothing but snigger the whole time Daniel was trying to explain to Dipper the whole story about the forest, the clues, the secret passageway and all the stuff that had been going on lately. He was failing miserably on this task, mainly because he was being messy with the whole thing, causing everything to be even more confusing, seeing that he had already explained everything to Dipper five times and nothing would really work; really, nothing. Nobody was really sure if the brunette was a lost case or Daniel lacked the ability to explain things.

"Dan, you can try to explain things later," Daniel was about to explain for the sixth time about the whole incident when Asaph interrupted him. The black-haired preteen was carrying the object which was given him by Ariadne, afraid that Danna would drop it – wasn't hard to believe she would do it; talking about Ariadne, she had also returned him the feather Danna had found on the forest, telling them she had finished her "analysis". That girl is strange; I wonder what she meant with all the "a sound soul" talk, Asaph thought while gripping the object tightly.

They were going to his house because he needed to hide it somewhere. As they were about to part ways and return to their houses, Asaph had received his mentor's message through a pigeon (talk about strange ways to receive letters, but maybe it was Bill's idea) and it said to meet him at the forest, and about going to hell. Asaph and the rest were walking slowly; it would've been a faster trip if they had gone running or even teleported, but Asaph was enjoying the trip so far. The road was quiet and almost no one knew that it existed, which meant the road was practically abandoned. It connected Gravity Falls and the town he lived in, Summerfield, where his house was.

"Right now, our priority is to hide this… thing." He concluded. Daniel rolled his eyes.

"If you say so."

. . .

"Dipper, what happened to your shirt?"

It was Danna who asked this. With all the rush, all Dipper managed to get were his shoes and the pine tree hat. Dipper wish he could go back to the shack to get the vest and the third journal, but that wasn't possible anymore. Asaph said they had to go to the meeting point right after he hid the object in hands, and Dipper didn't feel like arguing right now. Also, there was a chance that, being with him, Bill wouldn't try and steal the journal.

It's not like Dipper trusted him just by making a deal…
… Of course not…

"Long story." He replied simply. "It involves a ghost girl, a story about a corrupted prince, corbos and… Many other things…" He continued, not giving many details. Danna smirked at this, because it sounded like a cool story, though Dipper could really tell otherwise. She didn't know what corbos were, but they sounded like interesting creatures. "I was going out, when this girl appeared in the Mystery Shack and wanted me to take her to the parking lot – remind you that we don't have a parking lot." Dipper grinned upon seeing Danna frown. "I knew her, somehow, and then… I-I shouldn't be talking about this… I think I'm being a bother, am I not?" He gave them an apologetic smile. Daniel shook his head.

"You're not being a bother, and the story's getting interesting. What happens next?" He asks, as if he had finished reading a thriller book and was eager to read the next one.

"I'd rather not tell but…" Dipper took a deep breath before continuing. The story still pained him inside, because of Ariadne's betrayal, but the more he told, the more it'd get funny; from another's point of view, it was surprising, but from his point of view, what Ariadne did was shocking. "… She led me through the forest and to a clearing, and then she said a word, I don't remember what it was, though…" He stopped to think before shaking the thought off his mind. "And then…" Dipper stopped…

… not only talking, but walking too.

"And then what?" Danna asked impatiently, just to be elbowed by her brother. She already knew what this meant and immediately shut her mouth, pouting.

"I-I don't want to talk about it." Dipper finished. "You… you guys know what corbos are, right?" He suddenly asked. The memory made his heart ache, and it felt like he was going to fall unconscious at any minute. The red-haired twins shook their heads, completely confused – they weren't aware of any kind of creatures called corbos, though it was a funny name. Suddenly Asaph stopped walking, and his house could be seen not very far away. He whipped his head to look at them, and all the other three kids were surprised to see his eyes so numb.

"How do you think my mother died?"

Everybody fell silent as he kept walking.

. . .

"Wait, wait, wait!" Danna suddenly said when they had finally reached Asaph's house. The four children were standing in front of the house, a little far away from the other houses of the town in Summerfield, and noticing how it was big – the house was more or less like the Mystery Shack, though. "How are we going to enter inside that house without getting your lazy sister's attention?" She asked; that wasn't such a bad question after all, though Asaph seemed to already know what to do.

"We're teleporting, of course." He answered, like it was the simplest thing ever. "Give me your hands." Asaph put the object under his arm as he grabbed Danna's hand, who grabbed Daniel's, and he grabbed Dipper's. Asaph closed his eyes for a moment as the world around them began to distort until they were on another place. It looked like a room, and it was a room; Asaph's room, obviously. "Alright, don't make too much noise; I think Ann's still downstairs."

Everybody nodded.

"Good, I need a place to hide this." He whispered. "Maybe the closet will do; it's not like Ann cares about my clothes anyway." And then he went to the large closet at the corner of the room. All the clothes were neatly folded inside and he place the object carefully inside the closet, covering it with a few clothes and underwear – Ann would never touch his underwear and that'd hide the thing for some time. Ignoring Asaph for a while, Dipper noticed how neat the room was. Describing it would take a lot of time, but he had lots of books about all kinds of things; then one book caught his attention:

Myths and facts: The door to the unknown.

Dipper took a few steps closer to analyze the book without touching it. It seemed old and dusty, and this caught Dipper's attention. He had always liked books, especially the ones about mystery, like The Sibling Brothers. Dipper would stay up all or most of the night reading these books and he wouldn't stop. "Hey, Asaph, can I read this book?" He asked, pointing to the old book. Asaph nodded, without even turning around. Dipper extended his hand and grabbed the book, noticing how dusty it was.

There were handprints on the dust, revealing that somebody had already read that book before. He opened the book and flicked through the pages, until he had stopped on a specific page which was titled:

Dream-benders:

Intrigued and a little surprised, he kept reading.

–Are creatures capable of installing themselves inside a mortal's dreams and controlling them at their will and usually modifying them according to the mortal's fears; they usually don't have a proper form and are normally described as "shadows" or "blurs". The dream-benders don't seem to interact with the "connector" – who is the person who has the dream – in any way, and it is claimed that they just watch them from a fair distance or corner. Many people believe the dream-benders are just a myth.

Dipper closed the book and let out a shaky breath. He had more questions than ever now. What was a dream-bender? Why do people believe they are a myth? Was… was that creature he had made a deal with a dream-bender? According to the description, it sounded like one. The thought of that creature reminded him of the only words that settled his nightmares, and that made him shiver just by thinking of them:

"Oh, I didn't kill these filthy creatures…"
"You did"

Dipper then held both sides of his head tightly when the disheveled voice crept through his mind. Then he remembered what Keehnesi had told them, the phrase that started all this: "It is Bill's son; he has escaped". Escaped from where, and from whom? What were Keehnesi and Beatrice hiding from him? What were Asaph, Daniel and Danna hiding from him? What was his family hiding from him? Dipper could already feel a headache coming, and he barely noticed the book had fallen to the floor. When he heard the "thud", Dipper extended his hand to grab the book, and then he noticed the page that was now different. It was between the page 44 and 47.

"Uh, Asaph, where's the 45th and 46th page?" Dipper asked suddenly.

Asaph closed the closet and turned to Dipper, looking at the book he was reading. His eyes widened slightly; he wasn't aware that Dipper was reading that book. "Uh, I don't know, I think it may have fallen but I'm not sure." Asaph grabbed the book and put it back on the shelf. "Alright, let's teleport back, the mentors must be waiting for us." He announced. Danna and Daniel nodded, but Dipper was lost in thought: people believed the Ciphers were a myth, and one of their family members killed all the fallen angels.

Then he remembered the dead people around him; it was a dream, but it felt so real, especially the smell of corpses, blood and death. Did he really kill them? How could he have killed people he didn't know? Were those people "fallen angels"? What were fallen angels exactly? His head felt like it was going to explode.

"Dipper, you ok in there?" Daniel asked, interrupting his thought.

"Uh…? Oh, yeah, I'm ok…" Dipper answered meekly, standing up and looking at them with a sincere glare. "I'm ok…"

But he wasn't.

. . .

"Hey, Asaph, what's that?" Danna asked when they were already far away from the house. She extended her hand and revealed the chip that had been once attached to the wyvern's neck. Danna didn't seem to be paying attention to what the mentors were saying about it back then, because she obviously didn't know what it was. When Dipper laid eyes on the chip, they widened and he almost tripped on a pebble that was on the way. Daniel was also surprised, mainly because they didn't know what had happened to the chip after the mentors took it.

"Don't touch that!" Asaph snatched the chip from her hands. Snapping his fingers, the chip was engulfed in blue flames before disappearing in front of the apprentices' eyes. Asaph had just magically teleported it back to his room; for how long had he been practicing that? "I managed to recreate the chip using magic spells and my memory of it; I've trained this for days and I'm trying to analyze the meaning of the numbers, so please don't touch my stuff unless I allow you to do so, Danna." He scolded. Danna rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue.

"Heh, whatever, Mr. Smarty Pants."

"Don't call me that!"

. . .

"We're here!" Asaph announced as the other three apprentices followed him through the forest. As he stopped, everything became grey, and the four children felt their bodies becoming lighter, as well as their minds. This always happened when they were in the dreamscape. Three forms appeared in front of them, shining brightly: a triangle, a square and a circle. This forced the apprentices to shield their eyes with their hands before the light dissipated completely and the forest returned to its normal gray color.

"Well, well, well, you're finally here. You humans are so slow." Bill commented, twirling the black cane around his fingers swiftly. Dipper wanted to reply with a sarcastic comment and was ready to do so, but forced himself to keep his mouth shut. Something told him to shut up and keep quiet. He shouldn't interrupt. Right now, he had to listen. "Anyways, when are we going?"

"It's not that easy, Bill." Keehnesi replied as he narrowed his eye at Bill. The square turned to the other apprentices. "Entering in the Nightmare Realm, or, as you humans call lamely, hell, isn't as easy as it sounds, because–" Suddenly Bill interrupted him harshly, pushing him to the side and dramatically answering:

"Because many half-demons have felt disturbing pains and most of them died." All of the apprentices paled. Beatrice laughed hysterically whilst Keehnesi shot Bill a glare that was equal to one thousand daggers going through your soul. "What? The first part is true." Keehnesi shot Beatrice another glare, and she immediately fell silent. Sighing, Keehnesi pushed Bill out of the way.

"Ready?" He asked as a bright light surrounded that area of the forest. It formed a circle around them. The four children wanted to scream "NO!" but their heads simply nodded, as they felt eager to finish this. It would be easier this way. The light got brighter and it turned out to be of a bright golden color, but then it flicked to blue, then to pink, and the sequence continued. A pink light surrounded Asaph, who felt a tinge of pain at his fingertips just before being lifted into air, with small particles surrounding his body and circling it; Asaph seemed a bit shocked, but nothing more; they didn't even need to be shocked at this point. The same happened to Daniel and Danna right after, but the light's color was blue, as well as the particles surrounding them; Daniel seemed a little scared while Danna seemed excited.

"Don't freak out" Keehnesi said; no one knew if it was a suggestion or a warning. "The pain is just the power running through your veins; it gets stronger when you're in the Nightmare Realm or in the borders. Now just close your eyes and focus…" Dipper didn't hear the rest of the lecture. His mind went numb as he watched his comrades in awe, afraid to be the next one and afraid to feel the pain. They didn't look very pleased, but it didn't seem that bad either.

And then it was his turn. He felt a golden light surrounding his body, that felt light suddenly, and the next thing he knew was that he was being lifted off the ground. After this, his whole body started tickling before this became pain; absolute pain. Dipper suppressed a groan of pain before everything around him started to fade. He turned to Asaph, Daniel and Danna, to see if he was really becoming blind, but they were still there, with their pupils gone. Their eyes were shining in pink and blue respectively, and this made Dipper want to look at this own reflection.

Soon the pain became almost unbearable and all the apprentices grimaced with the pain, not wanting to show any weakness. Dipper clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, hoping it would go away soon. The world finally faded until everything around them was black; the mentors were nowhere to be seen. Keehnesi's voice rang in this head: don't freak out. Dipper tried to relax, even with the pain that was now forming a headache, and then remembered another thing that Keehnesi had said: just close your eyes and focus. And Dipper did so.

Soon he couldn't feel the pain and he felt gravity affecting him once more as his feet touched the ground and noticing how cold the place was. Dipper opened his eyes slowly as he looked at his surroundings; it was almost like the forest he had been a while ago; almost. Even with the sky as blue as ever, something that didn't seem to be common for somewhere like the Nightmare Realm, it was pretty obvious that this place wasn't Gravity Falls because of one important thing:

"Goddammit" Danna exclaimed loudly. "I've lived in America for God knows how long and I've never seen snow, or an avalanche or anything and then the first time I see snow is in hell? It's snowing for fuck's sake! What a controversial thing! I was expecting more screaming and torture and stuff but NO! The first thing I see is SNOW, something totally… calm!"

"Danna, get ahold of yourself" Daniel warned, but he couldn't help but be impressed either:

It was snowing in hell.

A/N: Hahahahahahaha I'm laughing so hard right now.

Yeah, I've always thought that the "hell-is-somewhere-horrible-and-you-see-people-burning-everywhere" issue was rather cliché and since "hell" and "Nightmare Realm" are the same in this fanfic then I'll make something different. SNOW, YAY! I've never seen snow T-T live in Brazil (in Rio). I tried doing something funny but seems like I failed :P anyway, let's begin the questions:

(1) Dream-benders?
(2) Snowing in hell/Nightmare Realm, would you expect that?
(3) What would you do if you went to the Nightmare Realm and it started to snow?
(4) What was written in page 45 and 46?

Anyway, that's all because I'm lacking creativity today :/ even thought I made it snow in hell. BYEEEEEE, and sorry for the late update, I have no excuses :P

Awakened Niwana, off.