Hi guys. Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? *dodges tomatoes and bricks* Woah, woah. Calm down there. I've just been busy with school, okay? Sorry for the long hiatus :P I gotta be more time manageable.

How did you like the last chapter? *dodges more tomatoes and bricks* Okay, okay! It was just an idea I had. My 'annoying' brother got really into Mavel briefly, and I guess it kinda rubbed off on me long enough for me to write that chapter. The Avengers aren't going to be a big deal in this, it just a 'one time' thing.

I'm beginning to wrap things up, so I present to you an extra long chapter, leading up to the final events.

Enjoy! :P

Transcendence Rebels

Chapter 17

The group crashed through the forest, not daring to slow down, for fear that they'll be captured. They had no idea that they weren't even being pursued. Alcor and Mabel lead the group, running fast for their young legs. Their heavy panting dried their throats, saliva was hard to form. Lavendyr swallowed what little she had in the hope her throat would moisten, with no such luck. Vereyu gasped for air, Kali doing the same along side her. Qual stumbled on a tree root, and would have been left behind if Wendy hadn't heard and grabbed him. She and Pacifica went for morning runs alot, so they were rather unaffected. But like the others, they hungered for a rest.

Pacifica's eyes widened when she remembered a vital fact.

"Guys! I gotta do something!" Mabel glanced behind her. She thought she ment he needed to use the outdoor bathroom.

"You can wait until we get back." She panted. "We're nearly there." Sighs and groans of relief sounded from the rest of the group. The blonde shook her head.

"Not that...This is important. More important." She didn't wait for her leader's permission. Instead she leaped off the not-that-much-used-anyway path, and pushed her way through the dense undergrowth.

"Pacifica! Wha-wait!" Alcor yelled. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I should have known this would happen...stubborn girl..." he muttered. "Alright, let's follow her. And find out what this 'important' thing is." The rest of the group nodded, and obeyed the order.

Their job was much easier, since Pacifica had cleared most of the way.

Pacifica shoved away branches and brambles, until she came to a small clearing. She peered through the thicket to see if her idea had attracted any 'unsavory' recruits.

There were none.

A crashing sound behind her made her jump. She spun around, and saw the other rebels looking at her curiously. The blonde put a hand on her racing heart.

"Geez, guys. You really know how to give a gal a heart attack!" She whispered. Kali glanced behind her at the small crowd, and raised a questioning eyebrow. Vereyu interpreted for her. She pointed behind Pacifica.

"What's with the crowd?" She asked, narrowing her eyes.

"I'll explain later. Right now, we need to greet our new recruits." Pacifica replied cheerfully.

"New...recruits?" Mabel and Alcor questioned at the same time. She nodded.

"I'll keep it simple. First mission, old community service notice, quick symbol and date change plus our symbol, and here we are." Qual scratched his head.

"Makes sense, if you think about it." He said quietly. The rest nodded their agreement and understanding, while Alcor shrugged.

"Okay, lets do it."

They had been standing around for what? An hour now? Hope checked her watch. Yep, definitely an hour, maybe more. Her sister, Faith, stood with her hands on her hips, surveying the forest. Destiny had her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently.

"When are they gonna be here." She whined, only to be silenced by a shushing from her patient sister, Faith. 'They' were the rebel group, the ones who put up that notice after the 'incident' with the collapsing guards. The ones who had been too scared and afraid of the soldiers came now, in the hopes of joining the rebellion. Hope had been the one to urge them into it. Faith, believed in her sister, and Destiny just went along with it. That was her, she believed in the natural order of things and didn't like to argue. Hope was always cheerful and hopeful, just as Faith believed and had faith in everyone.

"Wait..." Faith ordered quietly. She brought a hand up to her eyes to block out the sun, and scanned the trees. She was sure she had seen some movement. Suddenly she pointed to a spot in the trees. "There! Behind the bush next to that pine with the carving!" She told her sisters.

Destiny perked up instantly, and waited for them to show. But they didn't.

"Well...?" She asked Faith. She shook her head.

"They must be having a conference, of sorts. We just have to wait-" she was cut off by the small band of rebels emerging from the thicket. They were wide eyed and staring, jaws hanging wide open. All except for one, who stood there, looking smug.

"I knew this was a great idea." Pacifica told her group after coming out. "Just look at the turn out!"

Alcor was the first to recover. He cleared his throat.

"Ahem. Welcome to the rebellion!" He clapped his hands together. "Now if you'll just follow us to the 'Den', as we call it..."

Mabel saw that two of the new recruits had brought pickup trucks. Wendy saw them too.

"Alcor, dude." She began. Alcor glanced at her, and she pointed to the trucks.

"Uh..."

Seeing what the red-head was pointing to, the owner of one of the trucks stepped forward. Pacifica narrowed her eyes at the man. He looked familiar...

"Our pickup trucks will get us there faster, if you want to." The man offered. The blonde's eyes widened when she realized who it was.

"Hey! You're the guy from the market!" She cried, pointing at him. The fishmonger turned his eyes to her, and smiled.

"I thought so. I saw you carve that symbol into the post." Pacifica blushed and tried to hide her embarrassment. She thought no-one was watching when she did that! The man noticed this and winked. "Don't worry. I didn't tell anyone, and I spread a couple of those rumors before I left."

Mabel coughed intentionally.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to get back to the 'Den' before nightfall." She stated drily.

"Ah, right." Alcor muttered quietly. Mabel smiled. Her brother was returning to normal.

She hoped.

Silently, the rebels plus the new recruits all climbed into the trucks, five fitting into each of the seats inside them, the rest being crammed into the backs.

With everyone ready, Alcor signaled the drivers by banging the window separating the cab from the back, and they drove into the night.

The Captain stormed into their base, face filled with betrayal and anger, the rest of the Avengers following close behind. Mavel turned around upon hearing his footsteps. He seemed to be having a conference with the 9-year-old who had hired them, Gideon Gleeful.

Steven never knew how the little kid had taken over the town, or why he wanted the Avengers in the first place. From what he knew, the local townsfolk were rather peaceful. No need for violence.

But what he had seen and heard today changed that. Alot.

"Captain?" Mavel inquired, curious behind his eyepatch. "What happened out there?" Steven scoffed.

"Why don't you tell me what?" He questioned. It was daring, but he needed answers. Badly.

"I'm not sure I understand, Captain."

"Those rebels. They attacked us, and said that we were kidnapping innocent small children, even though you told us that they were grown men!" He was shouting now. His breath heaved in his lungs as he lent on the table.

"That's what we were told. And if they were, they could have escaped-" he was cut off by the Captain slamming a fist down on the table.

"There was a freaking padlock on the door! How did that even get there!?" He cried, eyes blazing with fury.

"A padlock...?" Mavel turned to Gideon, who shifted in his seat nervously.

"Uhh...I..." he came up with an idea."How did you find out they were boys, anyways?" He inquired suspiciously.

"A rebel group came out of the woods earlier today, and rescued the damn lot of them!" Steven was quickly loosing his temper.

"Rebels!?" Gideon cried. "Why didn't you defeat them!?"

"Because," he explained through gritted teeth. "They have a demon with them, and he used demon magic to trap us!"

"A demon... fellas, I need to go do something." Gideon quickly stood and began to leave.

He probably shouldn't do this, but...

"And what would that be?" A daring question. And dangerous. Very dangerous.

The white-haired boy paused by the soldier who was absolutely shaking with rage.

"Don't cross me, you hear!?" He turned to the way older man, gripped the collar of his shirt, and dragged him down to his tiny level. "I have powers and abilities you couldn't dream of." Steven snorted.

"All that changed when the 'Transcendence' started." Smoke was quite literally pouring out of Gideon's ears now. He gave a harder yank on the Captain's shirt. For a 9-year-old, he was quite strong.

"Now you listen here, fella. You don't test me, you follow orders." He hissed into the older man's ear. "That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it? That's what you 'Avengers' have a reputation for, am I right? And you wouldn't want to tarnish that reputation, would you?" Steven knew what he was getting at. He couldn't.

And they had just gotten the world to accept the Hulk.

That sly lil' folksy brat.

When he was sure the words had sunk in, Gideon finally let go of the Captain. He straightened, and stormed out of the room, leaving silence in his wake. Hesitantly, the rest of his crew followed, very obviously wanting answers to their questions.

The new recruits stared around in wonder and awe at their new surroundings as they entered the Den. Alcor couldn't figure out why. Surely they'd have to have seen better. The Den was just a run-down old warehouse in the middle of the woods. They saw the exterior as they came back from hiding the trucks. They had parked the trucks not very far away under the cover of rather close-knit trees. It confused him that they looked at everything with so much interest. It was kinda creepy.

But he supposed that if you're just joining a rebellion you had heard so little about, you would be in awe of your 'rustic' and 'run-down' surroundings.

Mabel, Alcor and Lavendyr led the much-larger group of rebels into the center of the room, where they made the newbies stand while the more experienced soldiers went to debrief themselves. Or, more accurately, strip off their excess gear and take a nap. Most certainly were.

"Well, uh, once again welcome to the rebellion." Alcor stated nervously. "We weren't exactly expecting you, because someone," he glared at Pacifica, who caught his eye and blushed a bright cherry, "forgot to tell us." A disappointed wave of soft murmurs spread through the small crowd. They thought the whole thing was arranged. However, no-one told them otherwise.

"But, we will be happy to include you in our quest to free Gravity Falls of Gideon!" Mabel put in, causing smiles and small cheers. She pointed to the 'bedroom' at the end of the huge warehouse. "Bunks are over there, clothes and gear in the cupboards." She gestured to the training area. "Training and weapons are over there. Everyone shares chores. If you don't like it, deal with it, it's called discipline."

Now Lavendyr spoke up.

"Get comfortable, make friends, and train hard. We don't know when this will end, if we will be successful, or even if we survive. Who knows? Maybe this war will last for generations." She smiled solemnly as she heard several people gulp. "But the more we work, the sooner our confrontation with Gideon will come, and the sooner all this," she gestured around her, "will end. You start working tomorrow. See you there."

They all knew a dismissal when they heard one. They broke apart, some heading to claim beds, others going for new clothing and gear. Alcor began to walk off, and Mabel caught up with him. Together they just wandered around the enormous room, talking quietly. Three teenage girls paused the small conference they were having, and stepped up to Lavendyr. They were all identical. She smiled when she noticed them.

"Can I help you?" She asked, unusually kind after that speech.

"Um, yeah." The middle one began. "You see, we're sisters. Well, identical triplets, to be exact, and we were wondering if we could have a three-person bed. Maybe, a bunk of sorts...?" Lavendyr tapped her chin in thought.

"I don't see why not." The girls high-fived, grinning wildly. "Just let me talk to the technicians about making one. It's such an unusual idea, we don't already have one." She explained.

"Stop calling me that!" The agitated voice rang out across the room, slicing through the coincidental silence (You know when that happens? It's embarrassing) cloaking the warehouse like a knife cutting through half-melted butter. Lavendyr whipped her head around to see what all the fuss was about, and saw that Alcor had shoved Mabel, his sister and twin. Everyone gaped at the scene.

"But Dipper-" The brunette tried.

"My name is not Dipper!" He yelled. "It's Alcor now. Alcor!"

"I know you think that-" She attempted again.

"I know that! It was the least..." Alcor bowed his head and sniffed. "It was the least I could do after...after Diana died." He whispered quietly, but the whole room could still hear clearly. Mabel crossed her arms and held her chin up stubbornly.

"Well maybe she wasn't such a 'fantastic' person." She retorted, conveniently forgetting that she herself had liked her as much as her brother. But if she was the one who had turned Dipper into this...

Lavendyr stifled a sob. The brunette heard, and didn't make eye contact.

"Well, sorry, Lav-" She said drily.

"You have no right to call me that after you insulted my best friend!" She cried, devastated, tears flowing freely down her face. As everyone watched, she wiped away her tears, and ran from the warehouse, slamming the door behind her. Alcor glared unrelenting at his sister.

"Mabel, how could you!?" He yelled.

"Dipper! Snap out of it! This isn't you!" She begged. His hands clenched into fists and he closed his eyes tightly.

"My name... Is not... DIPPER!" His eyes snapped open, revealing black eyes with a yellow pupil that glowed brightly. His hands opened and caught on fire. Blue fire. "IT'S ALCOR NOW!" Mabel stumbled back a couple of steps in fright, but quickly recovered. This was her brother she was dealing with.

"This is what I ment! Diana turned you into this!"

"She helped me to control my powers, Mabel!"

"And created a monster in the process!"

Alcor had enough. He launched himself at his twin, effectively tackling her to the ground. His hands, still aflame, burned through her dull blue sweater as he knelt on top of her. She sweated, the pain unbearable, her consciousness slipping, but she held on. She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

"I get nightmares. Awful nightmares." Alcor paused, the flames on his hands lessening, and she continued, visibly relieved. "In them...you're gone. Well, you're there, but the old you is gone, replaced by a demon monster in the form of you." She sniffed. "I'm scared, Dipper. I'm scared that...that if I call you Alcor, I'll lose you."

The demon in his eyes faded, and slowly, he stood. He stuck out a hand to help her up. Mabel smiled, and accepted.

When she was up, Alcor scanned her eyes, no pity showing. Mabel's smile faltered.

"Dipper...?"

"You should get those burns checked." He whirled around, and went after Lavendyr, leaving Mabel just standing there, an arm out, reaching.

She let it drop.

Her brother was gone.

Gone...Gone...Gone. The words echoed around her skull, bringing forth guilt, anger, worry, sadness and despair.

She glanced around, and saw that everyone, everyone, was watching her. Even the technicians had come out of their workroom to see what all the fuss was about. Even the newbies, who stopped whatever they were doing to watch. They were beginning to wonder if joining was such a great idea.

"What are you looking at!?" Mabel snapped, and stormed off to her bed, completely ignoring both the pain of her burns, and the stares of her fellow rebels.

The ones she was supposed to lead. With Alcor.

Well.

This is a problem.