"OI! GIDEON! WHAT THE 'ELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT!" roared the Death as he took a menacing step forward.
"None o' these children were scheduled to die today!" Death continued his tirade, then let out a huge exasperated sigh. "Great, now I'm gonna have to explain this bloody mess to the Guardians of Eternal Youth..."
Gideon just laughed. His horrible cackle echoed off the walls of the small room.
"My, my! I'm so sorry about that, Death!" Gideon cooed insincerely. "She did test my patience though, so I say that it's justified!"
Dipper was still staring at Gideon and the floating form of Robbie. He glared, looking as if he would charge over there himself and beat them both to death. But Dipper knew what would happen if he even attempted to try that...
Gideon noticed Dipper's pained, angered expression and continued his cruel mockery of the emotionally broken boy.
"Dipper Pines, don't look so pitiful. After all, she did deserve it..." Gideon sneered, he levitated himself closer to Dipper.
"I don't understand... I thought Robbie... Why... Why did he do that?" Dipper stammered trying to form coherent words from his jumbled thoughts.
"Robbie here," Gideon started, he motioned towards the floating teenager. "Is not actually a human at all. He is merely one of my minions from the realm in which I am from."
At this point, nothing surprised Dipper anymore. He remained silent waiting for Gideon to continue.
"In fact, none of the people in this town are human. They're all just like Robbie. Slaves from my world who do my bidding." Gideon gloated with an awful, evil smile. He then turned his attention to Stan. "Well, not all of them... Maybe you should once again explain the rest, Stanford."
"This town... If you look on any map of the surrounding area, you won't find this town on it." Stan said slowly. He was still recovering from the shock of Wendy being slaughtered right in front of his eyes.
"Gideon created the town as a prison for me. I'm trapped here until he fulfills his end of the bargain. He populated the town with his minions to keep an eye on me in case I tried to escape."
Stan cleared his throat and then continued. "The only normal humans in this town are myself and the Corduroy family. So, when I heard you kids were coming to visit for the summer, I tried everything in my power to try and keep you away from here..."
Stan then paused briefly, an immense feeling of uneasiness washed over him as he spoke again.
"Because now you're trapped here as well..."
"That's right, Dipper. I know everything that goes on here. I just couldn't pass up a chance to torture the new kid in town. So, I sent 'Robbie' out here to make your life hell." Gideon smugly stated. His eyes were narrowed, brows down in a scowl, his mouth formed a sneering smile.
This was all so much to take in at once. A nasty headache started to pound away inside Dipper's skull. Too much had gone on in such a small amount of time.
"I... You..." Dipper feebly sputtered, still not fully comprehending everything that had just transpired.
He just wished it was all a dream. That he could wake up and this situation would magically go away. He wished he had never met the strange travelers in the woods. He wished he didn't know his Grunkle's secret agenda. He wished everything was back to normal.
But most of all, he wished that he could have Wendy back.
"Now, I think since I was so rudely interrupted before, that I will finish what I started so that I can leave this cursed mortal world." Gideon spat venomously, his eyes started to glow as he ascended toward the ceiling.
"NOW, IT'S TIME TO D–" Gideon's words were cut off. He gasped, then fell flat on the ground. His companion Robbie did the same. They both writhed and twitched on the cold floor.
"What the hell? What's going on?" Stan shouted in confusion. His eyes darted around the room looking at each person as if they could give him an explanation. He then saw the yeti acting in a very strange way. He was skipping around in a small circular pattern while chanting something under his breath.
"Of course! Skips' spirit dance worked on this monster back at the park! Keep going, dude!" Mordecai sounded triumphantly as he watched Skips perform the ritual.
"This is no time to celebrate, Mordecai! Everyone, out of the room now!" Benson ordered, as he made his way toward the door. "Skips, hold him off for as long as you can!"
With Skips keeping Gideon occupied, the park crew, the Pines twins and their Grunkle all made a mad dash for the doorway.
"Everyone, follow me!" Stan shouted as they tried to keep up with the surprisingly-fast-for-his-age old
man.
They passed through the kitchen, seeing Soos still being mesmerized by the World's Most Distracting Object.
"Soos! Soos! Follow us! Forget that stupid thing!" Dipper called out to the man-child.
"Um okay, dude. But I'm taking it with me!" Soos replied, unsure of what to make of the situation.
Stan led them to a room on the tourist side of the Mystery Shack. He then unlatched a huge metal door, opened it up, and allowed everyone inside. It slammed shut and was locked from the inside. Fumbling around in the darkness, Stan finally found the light switch. After a few seconds, the shoddy lights burst forth with light. Inside the room, there were many costumes and boxes filled with Mystery Shack novelty items.
"We should be safe here in the storage room," Stan grunted, panting after every few words from all the running. "At least for as long as your friend can hold off Gideon."
They sat there silently in the dim lighting for a few minutes. Nobody said a word at all. Dipper found himself thinking that if there was ever a good time to reveal Book 3 to Stan, then now would be it. He reached inside his vest and pulled out Book 3 from his hidden pocket.
"Grunkle Stan, I found this in the woods the first week we arrived here." Dipper spoke as he showed Stan the book. "I guess it's not important since there's no way to stop Gideon anyway..."
Stan's mouth stood agape as he saw his great nephew holding the lost volume.
"Dipper, this is great!" Stan boasted excitedly. "Now we have a fighting chance against that little bastard!"
"Whoa, hold up. I thought you said there was no way to stop this Gideon guy." Benson said skeptically, his eyes narrowing at the old man.
"Well, to be honest, I only said that because I thought that volume that Dipper has was lost forever." Stan explained as he took out Book 1.
"But now, we have a shot at sending him back to his own world without having to sacrifice your employees!" Stan said as he opened up his book.
"Y'see, in each of the 3 books, there is a small excerpt of an incantation that can undo the deal, and send Gideon away. Right now, we have Book 1 and Book 3, while Gideon has Book 2." Stan told the group in front of him.
Off to the side, Soos was looking as confused as ever.
"Mabel, dude, what's going on?" Soos questioned the little girl at his side.
"It's a loooooong story Soos. We'll tell you when everything is back to normal.
"Awesome." was Soos' answer as he went back to staring at the Distracting Object.
"Anyways," Stan said, slightly annoyed by the sidebar conversation. "We need a way to distract Gideon to get Book 2 from him."
"Can't Skips just keep doing his spirit dance thing?" Mordecai questioned. "It seemed to work fine at the park.
Stan shook his head. "No, it won't work on Gideon forever. Eventually, he's gonna get past your friend and come after us."
Everyone was once again silent, contemplating how they could get the book from the monster currently fighting against Skips.
The silence was broken by a loud bang and a blinding flash of light. Out of thin air Death appeared once again in front of the group of mortals. He did not look happy at all.
"Honestly, you lot couldn't just roll over and let Gideon kill you, eh? I've got a very tight schedule y'know. You were supposed to be dead at least an hour ago!" Death roared as he pointed a bony finger at the park crew. "But now I have to wait for him to find you and kill you so I can then finally take your souls to the underworld..."
"You of all people should know we don't go down without a fight, Death." Mordecai retorted back at the reaper. "Remember when we had to babysit your kid to get Muscle Man back?"
Dipper's eyes widened at the name Muscle Man. He looked over at the short, fat, green-skinned man and surveyed him from head to toe. An ingenious idea once again had formed in his head.
Wait a minute...
Muscle Man could...
Yes! This has to work! It's perfect!
Dipper sprang up and ran over to Muscle Man. He looked back at the child with an expression of utter confusion.
"Um... What's up little, bro?" Muscle Man asked awkwardly as he took a step back from the kid who had just invaded his personal space.
"Everyone, I think I just came up with the best way to get the book from Gideon!" Dipper declared as he dragged Muscle Man toward the other end of the storage room.
"Whoa, little bro! What're you doing? Wait, stop! NOO!" Muscle Man squealed as he tried to get away from Dipper.
"Guys, come and help me with Muscle Man!" Dipper pleaded with the group as he held on for dear life while Muscle Man tried to shake the poor kid off of him.
"Well, I guess we should help him out." Benson said as he shrugged. "After all, nobody else came up with a plan."
The group made their way over to the frantically squealing Muscle Man and tried to help Dipper out.
Death just shook his head disappointedly.
"You mortals just don't ever give up do you?"