A Rock drifted through the sky of its dimension, its keen eyes peeled for any sign of movement on the smooth plain of gray stretching out endlessly below. At last a movement caught its eye, and it wheeled in the sky to get a better view.
It was not what the bird was expecting. Rather than the juicy morsels of rodent that it was expecting, it was a taller, humanoid figure having popped up out of nowhere. The Rock swooped down a little closer, wondering what new being had entered its territory and if it would be a worthwhile meal.
The silence of the dimension was shattered by the crack of a shotgun blast, echoing and rebounding off of the rocky surfaces over and over again before finally fading into silence once more. The Rock dropped from the sky, a sizzling hole through its feathery chest.
Gromar lowered his gun, returning it to his holster. He was not about to take chances with predators, even if they did not intend to hunt him.
He sniffed the air, the slit nostrils in his scaly face flaring as he breathed in the cold air. His sense of smell was unmatched by any other species across the dimensions; that was why the dream demon had hired him to hunt down his quarry in the first place.
The icy wind blew across the barren plain, blasting against Gromar, but he barely felt it through his heavy gear. The air carried with it a familiar scent of warm blood, ray gun energy, and parchment. It was the undeniable scent of the six-fingered man he had hunted for years, but always seemed to slip through his fingers at the last second.
But the wind also carried another scent, a new one Gromar had never smelt before. It too carried the smell of warm blood, but there was something sweeter about it. He tilted his head and inhaled again, intrigued by this new development. He would have to investigate this.
He loped off in the direction of the scent, leaving the carcass of the Rock behind as a testament to his ruthlessness.
"Mabel, wake up." Someone shook her gently by the shoulder, and she rolled over groggily, looking up into her Grunkle Ford's face.
"What time is it?" she asked, not thinking about where they were.
"Dawn," Ford said with a smile.
"Oh." Mabel sat up, rubbing her eyes and looking around. True to his word, the sun was rising in the distance, shading the sky in rosy hues of pink and a soft orange.
"The night lasted roughly nine hours," Ford said. "Same as the day I presume."
"How do you know that?"
"I time it starting at sunset." He pulled out a small device that was akin to a watch from one of the many pockets of his coat. "It pays to be aware of how much daylight you have."
"Is there anything you don't have in that thing?"
Ford shrugged. "A way to get to the dimension I want to go to."
Mabel frowned slightly. "Yeah."
Ford handed her a bar of Dehydrated Nutrients. "Eat up. We're going to be doing a lot of walking today."
Mabel accepted the bar and dug in. Today, her ribs were practically back to normal after another application of the cream last night, much to her relief. She could finally take a deep breath again.
As she ate, she watched Ford pack up the plasma fire starter and pull out a small device that looked like a TV remote.
"What's that?" she asked around a mouthful of food, pointing at the device.
"An Dimensional Rift Sensor from Dimension 50-Beta," he said. "it will let me know if there are any rifts to other dimensions nearby."
"Are there any?"
"Not at the moment, but we're bound to run into one when we keep traveling."
Mabel finished off her food and took a drink of water. By that time, Ford was ready to go, and they struck out in what she figured was the same direction they had been going in. As they walked, a thought occurred to her.
"Did you know Old Man McGucket?"
Ford started visibly at her words. He had barely thought about his former friend and colleague in the past thirty years. If anything, he had figured he went back to Palo Alto.
"I knew Fiddleford once upon a time," he said softly. "Do you know him?"
Mabel nodded. "He's a crazy old man who lives in the Gravity Falls dump. For a long time I thought he was just weird, but not too long ago we figured out he worked with you."
"He lives in a dump?" Ford exclaimed. "How? Why?"
She told him everything she knew from watching Old Man McGucket's memories, from the founding of the Society of the Blind Eye to his slow descent into madness. By the time she finished talking, Ford felt sick to his stomach. He had seen the Nightmare Dimension too, and he had suffered things he would rather forget, but he never would have imagined it would drive Fiddleford to wiping his own memory.
"So…he doesn't remember me at all?" he asked, forcing the words from his mouth.
"I don't think so," Mabel said sadly. "In the videos we watched of his memories, he didn't call you by name. I don't know if he remembers who you actually were."
Ford stopped in his tracks, placing his head in his hands. "Oh, he probably hates me. I never meant for anything to happen to him, but…"
Mabel tugged on his arms, lowering his hands from his face. "Come on, Great-Uncle Ford. He may be a little bit crazy, but he's a really sweet man. I'm absolutely positive he would have no trouble forgiving you for what happened to him."
"You really think so?"
Mabel nodded. "I know so. You haven't seen him in like, thirty years, right?"
"Yes, but…" Ford's mind drifted back to the last time he had seen his friend.
"This machine is dangerous. You'll bring about the end of the world with this! Destroy it before it destroys us all!"
Shock, disbelief, and fear had jolted him all at once. "I can't destroy this. It's my life's work!"
"I fear we've unleashed a grave danger on the world. One I'd just as soon forget. I quit!"
He hadn't wanted to believe Fiddleford. He hadn't wanted to admit the goal he had worked so hard to achieve was dangerous and needed to be destroyed. "Fine! I don't need you. I don't need anyone!"
He had been selfish in trying to keep the portal intact, and it had cost him. Eventually he too had seen the horrors of the Nightmare Realm, and he fully understood Fiddleford's fear, but would it truly drive a man to utter madness?
He flinched as the horrors he had seen came afresh to his mind. Maybe so.
"Great-Uncle Ford?"
He looked down and remembered Mabel was still there. She still held on to his arms, and though physical touch was still something he was working on getting used to with her around, it was a grounding force against the storm of memories in his mind. Suddenly he was even more grateful for her presence.
"Are you alright?" she pressed.
"I…I'm fine," he replied, shaking his head to clear it. "I was just remembering some things, is all."
"Was it really that bad?" she asked.
Ford considered not telling her about the Nightmare Realm at all, but the look of genuine concern on her face convinced him otherwise. "Yes, it was. He saw a nightmarish dimension beyond our own, but I didn't want to believe him. I was selfish and didn't want to give up what I had worked so hard to achieve, until I saw that place for myself."
"What did you see?" Her voice was now a hushed whisper.
"Nothing you need to worry about. It was a long time ago." He started walking before she could ask any more questions. "Come on. We need to keep moving."
Mabel knew he wasn't telling her everything, but she decided to let it slide for now as she jogged to catch up with him.
They walked in silence for a while longer, the only sound the whispering of the grass in the warm breeze. Then a loud beeping broke the stillness, causing Mabel to jump and yelp.
"It's alright," Ford reassured her, digging through the pockets of his coat. "It's just my Interdimensional Rift Sensor." He pulled out the device and peered closely at it. "That way!" He cried, pointing in a direction diagonal to where they were standing.
Mabel trotted with him, hoping and praying that the dimension they ended up in was more civilized than the last two. She needed a shower.
They kept walking until Ford grabbed Mabel's shoulder, stopping her. She looked up at him expectantly, and he pointed. She followed his finger with her eyes and saw a faint shimmer above a patch of grass a few feet away.
"Is that it?" she asked.
"Yes." Ford tore up a bunch of grass and wadded it up into a ball. He flicked it at the shimmering area, and it vanished into thin air.
Mabel was not surprised this time, but it was still strange to see something vanish into thin air, despite all the strange things she had seen over the course of the summer.
They stood and waited for a few moments, but the grass did not return.
Ford looked down at her expectantly. "Ready to go?"
Mabel shuffled her feet in the grass. "Uh, can you carry me again?"
He felt a strange swell of affection stir in his chest, the likes of which he had not felt in a long time. "Of course I will."
Mabel smiled gratefully and lifted her arms up slightly. He hoisted her up and held her closely to him with one arm, the other falling to his blaster just in case they ran into something unsavory on the other side. Then he stepped forward, and the bright sunny plains vanished.
She did not scream this time, but she clenched her teeth together so hard it hurt as they seemed to drop into nothingness. Then it was over, and Ford was stumbling to maintain his balance as they shot out of the portal.
The first thing Mabel was aware of was the noise. It reminded her of a busy street back in California, with the sound of cars zooming up and then fading away just as fast. There were also voices, but not the type of voices she was used to hearing. Everything was a jumble, but she picked out clicks and grunts and things that generally weren't considered part of human language.
She opened her eyes the, her curiosity getting the better of her as she looked about. They were in some sort of alleyway, high walls of buildings rising up on either side of them. There was barely enough room between them for her and Ford to stand side by side, and it made her feel slightly claustrophobic. Far above them, a sliver of sky was visible. It was black, with neon-colored nebulous wisps scattered across the darkness and providing a faint glow of light.
"Cool," she whispered.
"Are you alright?" Ford asked in her ear, taking her away from her observations.
"Yeah," she said, turning to look him in the eyes. "Are you?"
"Yes. There seems to be no immediate threat." He gently deposited her on the ground and stowed his gun in its holster. "We seem to have landed in a city of some sort, fortunately."
"Yeah, and its awesome!" Mabel said, turning in a full circle to see more of her surroundings. The ground beneath her feet was hard and dirty, but she felt delighted. She was finally in a civilized place again.
"While we're here, I want you to stay close," Ford said. When he received no answer, he looked around and saw her heading for the open end of the alleyway. "Mabel!"
She stopped, turning to him. "Yeah?"
"I want you to stay close," he said firmly, coming up beside her. "There's no telling who would see a rare species such as us and try to capture us, especially you."
Mabel frowned. "A rare species?"
"As far as I know we're the only humans to have ever made it into other dimensions. I cant tell you the number of bounty hunters I've had to fight off over the years because they saw me as a huge profit."
"Oh," she said weakly, staring at the open end of the alleyway. Suddenly the bustling alien city did not seem inviting, but dangerous and foreboding.
"Don't worry too much about it," Ford reassured her. "Most aliens are generally nice, but if they try to take you they'll have to go through me first."
Mabel glanced up at him, and she did not doubt he would be a formidable foe.
Ford took her hand. "Let's go."
As they stepped out of the alleyway, they were almost immediately run over by some sort of creature. Ford leapt smartly out of the way, taking Mabel with him. The creature was sort of like a camel, except with neon blue fur and huge dinosaur-like feet. Upon its back it carried a huge load of bundles, its dark liquid eyes focused on the path ahead.
"What is that thing?" Mabel asked.
"Not sure," Ford said, studying the creature as it loped on down the street. "It looks like some sort of odd mix between a camel and a dinosaur."
"A Blue Dino-Camel!" Mabel exclaimed. "I'm the best with names, you know."
"I gathered," Ford replied wryly. "Come on, we can't stand around all day."
They started down the street towards what seemed to be the busiest intersection. Buildings towered high above them, almost completely blocking out the whimsical sky above them. Strange, crooked street lamps cast soft blue light down on the street as they walked, making the aliens they saw look even stranger.
Mabel could not stop staring at every creature they passed. There were slender bug-like creatures with gossamer wings, a huge, hulking brown-furred creature with four arms and six red eyes, and a tentacled creature in a tuxedo of sorts, to name a few.
"Try not to stare," Ford murmured in her ear. "Some cultures find being stared at highly offensive, and I found out the hard way."
"Oh." Mabel tore her eyes away from a bipedal creature that looked sort of like a green tiger and focused on the ground.
They reached the busy intersection, and saw it was exactly what the needed. The whole street as far as they could see in either direction was a strip mall, with bright neon signs written in a strange language packed into every square inch of space and street vendors along every free bit of sidewalk. Many different creatures of various shapes and sizes walked up and down, browsing what the market had to offer. It reminded Mabel of the pictures she had seen of Las Vegas.
"This is so cool!" Mabel said, unable to find one place to rest her eyes for longer than two seconds. "But how will we find what we're looking for? None of these signs are in English."
"Fortunately for us there is a universal language for all dimensions, which I have learned over the decades."
"Fluent in alien? You just keep getting cooler and cooler!"
Too pleased to say anything at her praise, Ford focused his attention on the market around them. Fortunately the signs were generally high up, allowing him a good view of what stores were around despite the pressing crowds that surrounded them.
He finally saw what he was looking for a good distance down the strip. The flashing neon sign read "CLOTHES" in the alien language.
"There," he said, pointing. "Let's go."
"Are they gonna let you in with…that on your back?" She gestured to the big gun that was still hanging off his back as they started walking. "Seems kind of threatening."
"Trust me, some species walk around with bodily weapons far worse than that," Ford said. "This is nothing."
"Alrighty then."
They went with the flow down the sidewalk. Street vendors shouted in a strange language, selling even stranger wares. The windows they passed were full of glittery doodads the likes of which Mabel had never seen on Earth. She couldn't even begin to figure out what they were for in the first place.
"Don't try to talk to anyone," Ford murmured as they walked. "You won't understand anyone anyway, but you could be seen as an easier target."
"Okay," she said, latching onto his hand in an effort to avoid being swept away by the crowd around them.
They made it to the clothes shop with no incidents, much to Ford's relief. He ushered her inside, instinctively keeping one hand on her shoulder as he knew she was too busy looking at all the weird things rather than where she was going.
The layout of the store was much like any clothes store on earth. Wide aisles cut through large forests of clothes hanging on racks, with signs advocating a sale here and there.
That was where the normalcy ended.
There were numerous different sections of clothes for creatures of all kinds. There was a section for three-armed beasts, four-armed, five-armed, and the numbers only continued to go up. Sweaters clearly meant for creatures with tentacles had numerous sleeves that brushed the floor with their extensive length. Pants came equipped with holes for tails—or extra legs, perhaps. A sunglass stand had pairs for innumerable amounts of eyes, in all shapes and sizes.
"This place is crazy!" Mabel said, gawking at a pair of shorts that were longer than she was tall.
"You'll get used to it eventually," Ford said. "Come on."
They made their way to the bipedal section, which was not as hard to find as Mabel would have guessed amidst all the other options. Immediately Ford began flicking through the smaller sized coats, murmuring to himself as he did so.
"What are you looking for?" she asked, peering around him as he searched.
"Something like what I'm wearing," he said, still looking through the rack. "Something that's light but durable that can withstand ray gun blasts."
"Ray guns?" she echoed.
Ford did not answer, instead pulling out a coat from the rack. "Ah ha! This is what I was thinking!"
Mabel studied the coat. It was black, and looked very much like Ford's, except that it was in her size. "Does it have to be black?"
"What's wrong with black?"
"Black is so…blargh. I prefer bright colors, like this." She showed off her sweater, still bright and cheery despite the stains and dirt on it.
"Well, bright colors would be easily noticed if we were being hunted. It's best to keep to darker colors just in case."
"Why would we be hunted?" Mabel asked.
"You never know." Ford held the coat out to her. "Try it on."
She took it into her hands. It was surprisingly soft; not at all what she had expected. She put her arms through the sleeves and pulled it around her. It was light, and fit perfectly.
"This will stop ray guns?" she wondered, plucking at the sleeve.
"Not at point-blank range, but in general it should," Ford said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Now, what else do we need?" He went off through the sea of racks, Mabel trailing behind him with the coat still hanging from her shoulders.
"What do we need?" she echoed, arranging the coat around herself more comfortably.
"The basics," he said, waving his hand absentmindedly. "You know, pants, shirt, boots, a bag, a weapon…"
"Hold up!" Mabel cried. "A weapon?"
"Yeah. You never know when you might need to defend yourself, and I don't think a grappling hook alone will cut it."
"But I'm twelve!"
"Doesn't mean you can't shoot a ray gun, right?"
"Uh, I guess not…"
"I think this will fit you nicely." Ford pulled a shirt off the rack and held it up to her shoulders, checking its size. "Unobtanium weave, very sturdy."
"Wouldn't a shirt like that be super expensive?" Mabel asked.
"On earth, maybe," Ford said, handing her the shirt. "However, in he multiverse, strong metals are far less rare because there is a seemingly never ending number of dimensions to get the metals from."
"Oh." Mabel tugged on the shirt experimentally. It was stretchy, and didn't seem like it would be at all uncomfortable, but she didn't see how it could be made with metal.
"Here, try these on." Ford handed her a pair of pants and boots he had grabbed from somewhere and pushed her towards a dressing room.
"Uh, is it safe?" she asked, apprehensive about changing clothes in a foreign dimension.
"Entirely. I wouldn't have brought you here if I didn't think it wasn't," Ford said. "I'll be right outside in case something happens."
"Okay." She stepped into the dressing room, shutting the door behind her.
Two minutes later, she emerged, fully clothed in dimensional traveling gear. She looked almost exactly like a miniature version of Ford.
"I look kind of like the Terminator," she said grinning down at her new clothes. Then she looked up at him and said in the deepest voice she could manage: "Come with me if you want to live."
Ford laughed aloud. He had no idea what she was talking about, but her enthusiasm never failed to amuse him. "These should do just fine as pajamas. They're about the same size." He handed her another shirt and pair of pants, that felt like she was touching a cloud.
"Ooh, what are these made out of?" she asked, stroking the soft material.
"Clouds," he said, grinning at her mystified expression. "From a dimension where clouds can be woven into clothes, of course. Says so on the tag."
"Of course." She looked at the tag herself, but found it was written in the weird alien language.
"Now, change back into your regular clothes and let's get you a bag."
She changed back into her regular clothes from Earth and they continued through the store, passing several odd creatures as they did so. Ford stopped at a display, eyeing the various bags hanging on hooks. There was a bag that looked like a perfect sphere with a handle, a square, a tiny bag that looked like it would only hold a marble, and many more.
Mabel took in the bags, wondering which one Ford would go for, and as he stood there considering, her eyes wandered to the other displays. Her gaze settled upon a table lined with bandannas of various sizes, and she wandered over to them in interest. After sifting through a couple, she came across the best thing she had ever seen in her life: a hot pink bandanna that would fit her perfectly.
"Great-Uncle Ford!" she cried, running back to him. "Look what I found!"
He took them item from her, inspecting it. "What is it?"
"It's a bandanna! Can I have it, please?"
Ford frowned. "I don't know…"
"Come on! It'll keep my hair from getting into my face! Pleeeeeeee…"
"It's not necessary…"
"…eeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaa…"
"Alright!" He relented, unable to take her begging face any longer. He handed the bandanna back to her. "Consider it my gift to you. After this we're only getting what's absolute necessary, understand?"
Mabel nodded her understanding, knowing full well her would easily succumb to her charm again in the future. "Thank you, Great-Uncle Ford! You're the best!"
Ford plucked a medium-sized bag off of the rack, inspecting it both inside and out. "This should do well for you. What do you think?"
Mabel took the bag and looked it over. It was shaped like a duffle bag, colored black, of course, and would do well for carrying the few personal items she had with her. "I think it'll do just fine." She stuffed her new clothes and bandanna inside, as her arms were getting quite full at that point.
"I don't think they'll have any weapons in a clothes store," Ford said. "But now that I've considered it, I think that grappling hook will do you just fine."
Mabel nodded, not exactly keen on handling a possibly highly volatile ray gun.
They made their way to the front of the store. The cashier was a round creature with an uncountable tentacles and one fluorescent blue eye that seemed barely lodged in scaly green skin.
As they walked up, the cashier greeted them in some alien language in a burbling voice. Ford answered easily in what seemed to be the same language, which sounded absolutely bizarre to Mabel. To her surprise, the cashier turned his bulbous eye towards her, making what sounded like a polite inquiry as one would find back on earth.
Mabel did her best to smile and nod as if she knew what she was doing in an alien land, glancing at Ford helplessly. Fortunately he caught on to her predicament and told the cashier something else. The creature burbled and bobbed like he was nodding, before taking the items they had picked out. He fed them through a small scanner device, and Ford pulled out something like a credit card to pay. The creature took the card and scanned it as well, before typing in a series of numbers into his computer in a flurry of tentacles. He then handed Ford a translucent luminescent bag full of the items he had purchased.
"Cool!" Mabel breathed, grabbing the bag from his hands. She poked at the material experimentally. It felt kind of like stretchy plastic, but it glowed green.
Ford chuckled and bid farewell to the cashier in the other language before ushering her out of the store.
"What's this made out of?" she asked, shifting the bag from hand to hand.
"Flouretic polymers." When she gave him a look of hopeless confusion, he continued his explanation. "Plastic on earth is made from synthetic polymers. This material is made from fluorescent synthetic polymers, hence flouretic polymers."
"Cool!" she said, even though she didn't understand it really.
"How would you like some food?" he asked as they stepped back out on the street.
"Real alien food?" she asked. "Not dehydrated nutrients?"
He laughed. "Yes, not dehydrated nutrients."
"Sure!"
She left it to Ford to find a place to eat. She was hopelessly lost amidst the whirl of strange sights and sounds. It didn't take him long to find one; soon enough they were stepping into what seemed to be the alien equivalent of a regular restaurant. It didn't seem suffocatingly fancy, but it definitely wasn't a fast food place.
The host, a tall, brown, stick-legged creature, led them to a table for two. Mabel barely registered the glass of water placed in front of her as she focused on the swirling lava lamp light above them, the fat, slimy patron off to her left, and the fuzzy one off to her right.
"What looks good to you?" Ford asked, breaking the spell.
Mabel looked down at the menu on the table in front of her for the first time. Unsurprisingly, everything was written in a foreign scrawl.
"I can't read this, Great-Uncle Ford," she said.
Ford looked up from his own menu, a somewhat sheepish expression on his face. "Oh, right. Well what do you like?"
"Do they have macaroni and cheese?"
Ford looked back at the menu. "Uh, not necessarily, but I can get you something similar."
"Alright, that's fine with me!" she said cheerfully.
The waiter, a spotted, horned creature, came to take their orders not long after. Ford did the ordering of course, and soon enough they were waiting for their meals.
"This is like Star Wars," Mabel said as she watched the strange patrons of the restaurant come and go. "Do you know what Star Wars is?"
"Yes I do, actually," Ford said. "It was quite the trilogy."
"It's not just a trilogy now," Mabel said, delighted to impart some new pop culture knowledge to him. "They made a prequel trilogy as well."
Ford's eyes widened with interest. "Really?"
"Yeah, though they weren't as good as the original three. They made some TV shows and spinoffs as well."
"I'll definitely have to check those out when we get back to Earth," Ford said, careful to leave out the looming "if".
A few minutes later, the waiter returned with their food. Mabel frowned as the bowl was set down in front of her. It was filled with steaming pasta that looked normal, but it was covered with a blue substance.
"Great-Uncle Ford, why is my pasta covered in blue paint?" she complained.
Ford laughed, taking a bite out of what looked to be a red salad. "It's blue cheese."
"Oh." Mabel grabbed the smallest fork out of the several sizes offered and took an experimental bite. The blue cheese tasted like a mix between cheddar and mozzarella, and she found it absolutely delicious. Ford watched in awe as she ate the entire bowl, leaving not one noodle left.
"You can pack it in," he said, finishing his own food a couple minutes after her.
"Yeah, Dipper says my stomach is a bottomless pit," Mabel said, using a napkin to wipe a blue smudge of cheese off her face.
"He's got that right."
Ford paid for the meal and they left the restaurant, Mabel bouncing her bag as they went along. The multicolored nebulas in the sky were beginning to dim, signaling the oncoming of night according to Ford.
Lodging was a must, so they began to seek it out. It only took a few blocks for them to come across a skyscraper that towered into the sky, which Ford said was a hotel. Several well-dressed aliens perused the outside steps, meeting up and talking under the gaudy flashing lights of the sign.
"This is a hotel?" Mabel asked as they entered, looking around the lobby. The room was huge, with several exotic-looking chandeliers that looked like they were made out of luminescent flowers hanging from the ceiling. Off to their right was a long desk with several attendants, to their left was what was probably the elevators, and ahead of them was a grand staircase that descended into a room from which loud laughter and talking issued.
"It is a hotel," Ford confirmed as they walked up to a free attendant at the desk. "And it is also apparently a casino."
"Ooh, can we go look at the casino? Alien gambling sounds so cool!"
"Not a chance." Ford switched over to the alien language as he spoke to the attendant, a small, fuzzy creature with bug's wings, ending the conversation then and there.
As he spoke, Mabel let her eyes wander around the lobby. It was quite busy, with aliens going in and out of the front doors constantly. They swarmed thickly around the staircase that led to the casino, likely placing bets and exchanging winnings.
Entranced by the varying shapes, sizes, and colors, it took her a few moments to notice that she was being stared at as well. She locked eyes with the creature, a bipedal, six-armed alien with hulking muscles, orange skin, and piercing red eyes set in a scaly head.
Mabel swiftly looked away, turning back to face the desk just as Ford finished up acquiring a room key. He looked down at her and smiled.
"We're all set!"
She smiled back, forgetting about her strange eye contact with the alien.
The elevator was surprisingly normal considering the circumstances, save for it being overlarge to accommodate bigger species. Since the numbers were also written in alien, Mabel counted the number of floor buttons as they ascended, coming to thirty altogether, and they were staying on the twenty-first.
They did not have to walk far down the hallway, Ford letting them into the room with his card. The room was spacious, with two humongous beds that were twice the size of a king, a bathroom, a closer, and a window on the far side.
Mabel immediately ran to the window, throwing back the curtains. The view was the best she could've asked for; the window looked out towards the street they had come off of, offering her a view of all the bustling activity and flashing lights below.
"This is so cool!" she cried, pressing her nose hard against the glass in an effort to see more.
"It is quite the sight," Ford said, coming to peer out beside her. "It never gets old, because every city I visit is different. Sometimes there's nobody, sometimes there's so much going on you don't know where to look."
Mabel watched a flying alien swoop by several stories below. "You're right. There's too much awesome for me to look at!"
Ford chuckled quietly and turned away. "I know you want to look at everything but you should go ahead and get a shower in."
Mabel straightened at the suggestion. Normally she found bathing a hindrance to whatever project she might be working on, but now she was more than glad for the opportunity, feeling quite gross after going three days without and sleeping in the dirt. She snatched her new pajamas out of her glowing bag and made a beeline for the bathroom without hesitation.
It contained all the usual facilities; a sink, a toilet, and a shower. They all seemed normal save for their larger size. "Hot" and "Cold" in the shower were written in alien, but fortunately for Mabel it still contained the universal red and blue indicators. She turned it as hot as it would go, and she could almost hear Dipper and Grunkle Stan complaining about her steaming up the bathroom. The thought made her smile.
The water was absolutely heavenly, washing away the three days worth of grime and making her feel lighter. She had to guess which little bottle was shampoo, but after accidentally pouring purple body wash onto her hands, she figured it out.
She emerged from the shower feeling like a new person, drying herself off with a towel so soft it felt like it was made out of the same cloud material her pajamas were made out of. She changed into them, enjoying the feel of the soft fabric caressing her skin. It made her realize just how tired she was.
She exited the bathroom with her old clothes on hand. Ford looked up from his journal where he was documenting everything about the dimension they were in.
"How was it?"
"Great," she said.
"It's probably time for you to go to bed," he said, shutting his journal and rising from his bed.
"You don't need to tell me twice," she said through a yawn.
Ford went to gather his own things as she crawled into bed. When he turned back around, he saw her curled up in the middle of the huge bed, hugging her sweater.
"Why are you holding that?" he asked.
"Feels like home," she mumbled. "Smells like it too."
He felt a pang of sympathy for her. He too had hung on to his earth clothes for as long as he possibly could, until they got torn, burned, or ripped away. He still had a scrap of his original trench coat ducked away in the deepest recesses of his newer coat, and every now and then he would take it out, just to feel the cotton and smell what little scent of Earth remained. It was all e had left of home.
He opened his mouth to offer some sort of comfort, but he became tongue tied and made his way to the bathroom. Mabel fell asleep not long afterwards, exhaustion overtaking her as her breathing eased into a slow, comfortable rhythm.
But all was not so peaceful in the realm of dreams.
/
Mabel ran through the colorful scape of her dreams. The sky was pink fairy dust and rainbows, the streets made out of bouncy jello, and the grass as green as could be with lollipops for trees. Large pink kittens roamed the plains, and one came up to her, nuzzling her. She laughed as she petted its downy fur, all her stresses gone.
Then something changed.
The sky turned blood red, the grass withering and the lollipops melting into ooze. The kitten Mabel was petting started to transform and stretch, and she scrambled away in fright.
"Well, if it isn't old Shooting Star!"
Mabel watched in horror as the kitten transformed into the one being she had never hoped to see again: Bill Cipher.
"What are you doing here, you stupid dorito?" she yelled.
Bill twirled his cane idly, seeming to enjoy her irritation and fear. "Just thought I would stop by and see how you were doing. I couldn't help but notice you've gotten yourself in quite the predicament. You aren't in Kansas anymore, now are you?"
"How do you know I'm not on Earth anymore?"
"I know when the portal opens and when the portal closes. After all, I was the one who built it."
Mabel frowned. "What?"
Bill floated a little closer. "Oh yeah. Me and ol' Stanford are buddies. We go way back. He was just the muscle for building the portal, and I was the brains."
"Why would he do that?" Mabel asked. "He wrote in the Journals that you were dangerous!"
"That was after I told him the truth of what I was trying to accomplish with the portal."
"Which is?"
Bill spread his hands as if it were obvious. "To enlighten humanity about the multiverse, of course!"
Mabel scowled skeptically. She knew better than to believe that.
"Look, the truth of the matter is, your Great-Uncle won't get you home. He's just taking you to a place where he can sell you for the means to get himself home."
"That's an even bigger lie!" she yelled. "Great-Uncle Ford would never do something like that!"
"Wouldn't he?" Bill inspected his nonexistent fingernails. "How well do you really know him?"
"I know he made the portal and he accidentally got sucked through—"
"But he never mentioned me, did he?"
Mabel chewed her lip. She hated to admit the dream demon had a point. "Well…no."
"So how do you know he's really taking you home?"
"I trust him," Mabel affirmed, attempting to push all niggling thoughts of distrust from her mind. "I know you're a liar."
"Well, if you find yourself needing a way home, I can help you in that regard," Bill said. "All I need is one teensy little favor."
"Uh-huh." Mabel knew it was coming. "And what favor is that?"
"I need you to come to my dimension and give me a little piece of yourself. A bit of hair, an eyelash, a fingernail, anything really."
"Why?"
"Once you're back in that trash heap you call a dimension, I can use your DNA as a means to get into that dimension, because you'll be there already."
"Okay…" she said slowly, not even trying to understand how it worked. "Why in the world would I let you come to earth? You're terrible!"
Bill pressed a hand to his bowtie in mock surprise. "How you flatter me! I just wanna take a look around, see what's going on. Your dimension is one of the few I haven't seen in all the years I've lived."
"Sure." She was far from convinced.
"Well, if you ever find yourself needing an alternative way home, just ask me! Avoid Dimension 52 like the plague and trust no one, not even Ford!" He snapped his fingers, and vanished in a flash of light.
/
Ford exited the bathroom, switching off the light and plunging the room into darkness. As he shuffled over to his bed, he managed to make out the outline of Mabel curled up in the center of her humongous bed, fast asleep and clutching her sweater like a teddy bear. She looked horribly small and alone on that moment, and it only solidified his resolve to protect her and get her home as soon as he could.
He slipped into his own bed, relishing the feel of the silky sheets settling over his body. He was in peak condition for a man his age, but that didn't rule out aching joints, back pains, or sore muscles.
He rolled over, facing towards Mabel to ensure he could see her from where he slept, and slipped a small ray gun underneath one of the massive pillows. In his years of dimensional travel, he had learned to never sleep without one within arm's reach, just in case.
Soon enough, he too was out, dead asleep.
But he also found himself dreaming.
/
He woke up in his dreamscape: a drab field of wheat with a swing set, a broken down old ship, and a broken version of the portal he had so stupidly constructed.
He scrambled to his feet, panic sending his heart lurching in his chest. When he woke up in this place, it could only mean—
"Well, it's been quite a while since we've had a nice chat, hasn't it?"
Ford shut his eyes tight at that sound of the sound of the familiar, grating, annoying voice. He did not want to look, but he knew he had to. Slowly he turned, opening his eyes to see his worst enemy floating in front of the broken portal perfectly in line with it, as if mocking it.
"Ol' Sixer, we meet again!"
"Why are you here?" Ford snarled, marching forward until he was nearly in what could be considered Bill's face. "The Oracle made it clear that you were to stay out of my mind!"
Bill rolled his eye. "Well, she's not here, now is she? Over the time you've been separated, her power has faded away, and here I am!" He spread his arms as if that were some stupendous revelation.
Ford scowled. "Let's get this over with. What do you want?"
"It's come to my attention that you are no longer traveling alone."
Ford kept his face a practiced calm. The last thing he wanted was for Mabel to know about Bill. "So?"
"So, she's young, and your niece. You must want to get her home pretty badly. Humans with their emotions and love and whatnot."
"And what do you have to do with it?"
"Well, instead of trying to get to that stupid Oracle, I can offer you an easier road home. All you have to do is—"
"I don't want to hear it!" Ford shouted, cutting the demon off. "The Oracle can be trusted, and you can't. I'd much rather struggle getting to her than listen to you one more minute."
Something akin to anger smoldered in Bill's eye, but it vanished as soon as Ford noticed it. "Whatever. It's either come to me willingly or have my hunter catch up to you. Trust me, he's far more rough than I am."
"I killed all the last ones," Ford growled. "I've evaded this one for over a year. If he does catch up, I'll kill him too, make no mistake."
Bill shrugged. "Have it your way! Just remember, I'm always here." With that less than comforting reassurance, he vanished and Ford woke up.
He sat up in bed with a gasp, looking around for Bill, only to find that he was in the same hole room he had fallen asleep in. He dared to relax, only to tense again as he saw a figure move by the window, silhouetted by the light. He reached for his gun, only to freeze as he heard the voice.
"Great-Uncle Ford?"
Ford sighed with relief, letting his hands fall to his sides. "Mabel, what are you doing up?"
The small figure drew a little closer "Just couldn't sleep."
He scratched the back of his head. "I guess I can't either." He reached over and tapped the bedside lamp, turning it on. He briefly took in Mabel's appearance, and noticed she seemed less vibrant than normal.
"Are you alright?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Are you?"
"Yeah, just some bad dreams."
"When I'd have bad dreams, Dipper would stay up with me and play games until I couldn't even remember what the dream was about."
Ford smiled, groping for his glasses. "Well, why don't we do that?" He leaned over and grabbed his bag, beginning to rummage around in it. "I don have much, just a deck of cards that changes for whatever game you're playing."
"Cool!" Mabel said, hauling herself up onto the bed with him.
He pulled out the pack triumphantly. "What do you know how to play?"
She tilted her head, considering. "I can play poker."
Ford resisted the urge to scoff aloud. He would destroy her at it. "What are we betting?"
"If I win, you have to give me something cool out of all your dimensional stuff. If you win, I have to give you… a hug!"
He smiled. "Sounds fair to me."
Ten minutes later, he sat open-mouthed, staring at the winning hand Mabel had played against him.
"I win!" she cried, bouncing where she sat. "You have to give me something cool!"
It took Ford a few seconds to regain the use of his voice. "…Where did you learn to play like that?"
"Grunkle Stan taught me!"
His shock immediately turned to annoyance and bitterness. Of course Stanley would teach her how to play poker. Why wouldn't he? He was a con man after all, and apparently he was passing it on to his relatives. Great.
"So what did I win?"
Ford snapped back to the reality that held Mabel's gleeful grin in front of him. He sighed, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses. "I suppose you can have the card deck."
"Awesome!" She smiled charmingly. "Want to play again?"
"No," he said firmly. "There's only so many things I have, and most of them are far too dangerous."
"Aw, alright." She started gathering up the holographic cards and put them back in heir case. "Can you tell me some stories of your adventures then?"
"What do you want to hear?"
"I don't know! You've probably done all sorts of crazy stuff."
"How about the time I ended up in the dimension that had no ground?"
Mabel sat forward, her interest piqued. "Ooh, that sounds interesting. What was it like?"
"Well, I was constantly falling, and at first I thought surely I hold hit the round, but after a few minutes of falling I realized there was no ground in sight. It was just air all around me."
She frowned, trying to make sense of it in her head. "What did you do?"
"I started scanning for dimensional rifts. I fell past several of them before I finally managed to get through one."
"That kind of reminds me of the time we fell into the bottomless pit!"
Ford's eyebrows shot up. "You fell into the bottomless pit?"
Mabel nodded as if it were no big deal. "Yeah. It was me, Dipper, Grunkle Stan, and this other guy named Soos who works at the Mystery Shack."
Ford scrambled for his journal and a pen. "Tell me what it was like! I threw some stuff in when I was researching it, but I never jumped in myself."
They stayed up for a long time, talking and laughing, until finally, while in the middle of one of his long-winded stories, Ford was interrupted by a small snore. He looked down and saw that Mabel had fallen asleep, curled up on the bed. He smiled to himself and lay back on the pillows to fall asleep himself, his dreams of Bill almost forgotten.
/
The Oracle dreamed less often than one might think, but her dreams always had a meaning, showing her things of the past, present, or future.
This particular night she found herself striding through a terrible tumultuous landscape that was ever-changing and ever-chaotic. Though it was deeply unpleasant to walk in, she was not unfamiliar with it. She had been the before.
All around her the silhouettes of hellish creatures only conceived in man's worst nightmares rose up in restlessness, waiting as they always had for their release. Though their voices were all different from one another, they blended into one chant that shook the very dimension and vibrated through the Oracle's body, even though she was not truly there.
Oh rage, burn and burn, break the sky
Cracking open and spilling forth until
It is as blood reflecting flame!
It was part of a prophecy. The Oracle knew it by heart, for it was all her enemy had to go on in the hope that one day he would be free. The chanting continued, a thunderous cacophony in her ears as she walked the path that lay before her.
Eventually, the chanting faded away into a dull roar in the background as her path took her into the far edges of the Nightmare Realm and further on into the Dreamscape. Her curiosity was piqued, as she did not enter the Dreamscape often, so there must have been something important her Lord wished to show her.
Each step sent thousands of images hurtling by her, from the dreams of every being in every dimension. Things of beauty, things of terror, they were all fleeting glimpses of a larger picture she could not see unless her path took her there.
When her path did come to an end, she stopped dead in her tracks. Clear as day, her enemy was before her, his back to her. The dream around her was a field of wheat, drab, with a broken boat and a swing set lying discarded to the side. It seemed familiar to her, but she could not place it…
The grating voice of her enemy rang out, "Whatever. It's either come to me willingly or have my hunter catch up to you. Trust me, he's far more rough than I am."
Another voice came in reply from beyond her enemy where she could not see. "I killed all the last ones. I've evaded this one for over a year. If he does catch up, I'll kill him too, make no mistake."
The Oracle's heart sped up with hope. She knew that voice well, and though it had been many years since she had heard it, she had not forgotten it.
"Have it your way!" said her enemy. "Just remember, I'm always here."
She came awake with a start, sucking in a huge breath of air. She sat up, and remembered that she was in her bed, and all was quiet.
Slowly, a huge smile came over her face. He would return to her.
