It was like someone simply switched on the lights when Dipper woke up in the morning and opened his eyes, looked up at the wooden sailing.
He couldn't remember the last time waking up so lightly and without any groggy feeling.
As if his sheer tiredness and exhaustion from the previous night would have never existed.

Still feeling a little heavy and weak though, he turned his head to his left, seeing the little dust particles floating in the ray of sunshine and an empty bed on the other side of the room.
So Mabel was already up.

How long has he been asleep? How deeply had this dream pulled him down?
Was it even an actual dream?
William…
Dipper could remember everything clearly and gapless. The endless sea, the blue demon, his even voice and that constant whisper in the distance. And that story he had told him.

About him being the deserted leftover of Bill Cipher and just a part of an ancient existence which only purpose was gaining knowledge about quite everything and more since time immemorial.
When Dipper first puzzled over their discovery back in the caves and the old incantation he just saw himself groping in the dark, standing on a dead end. But now they really did one step further towards the answers of all those mysteries and maybe even more!
That could be the big solution, the gambit to checkmate Bill!

Dipper couldn't wait to tell everything to Grunkle Ford!

Eager as never before the young boy jumped out of his bed and nearly stumbled over the carpet as he made his way downstairs quickly. Mabel and Stan were still sitting at the kitchen table, already dressed up and finished with their breakfast.

"Well, look who finally decided to come around. Already wondered about when you would plan to wake up, kiddo", Grunkle Stan greeted and raised his second cup of coffee.

Mabel was messing around with the newspaper sheets that were already read by her uncle and crafted something… indescribable.

"No wonder after going on adventures first and then staying up all night with his head stuck on notes and books, am I right?", she teased and covered her paper sculpture in sticky glue,
"But hey, you're not looking like a zombie this time."

"Uhhh, thanks...", Dipper answered before getting right to the point impatiently,
"Anyway, where's Grunkle Ford? I really have to talk to him right now!"

"Haah.. well, that guy is in the basement since whenever, only saw him once in the morning when he got himself some more coffee and mumbling stuff to himself", Stan sighed with a little grumble in his voice and looked back down into his newspapers.

"Great! Thanks!" Dipper didn't want to waste any time and spun around on his heels, only to get held back again by the rusty voice of his uncle.

"Not so fast, kid! Going down there is the last thing I would do now if I were you. That Sixer definitely hadn't caught any sleep just like I know him and he wouldn't let anybody even get their little toe inside his lab. Trust me."

"What? But it's really important! It's about our researches from yesterday and I have to-"

"No chances! I wouldn't say so if I haven't try it already, okey? So calm down already, eat your breakfast and take a lil' break from this mystery junk, will ya…"

"But-"

"I said no!"

And with that Grunkle Stan buried himself behind his newspapers again and cut off any other responses from his nephew who would just stand there left in the lurch.
At first he would just watch the old man in great disbelief before giving an irritated snort and dropping any more attempts to convince his stubborn uncle.

"Pf, fine then", Dipper snarled rather to himself and turned around to leave the kitchen.
That just had spoiled his appetite anyway.

What was the deal with him all of a sudden?
Getting all grumpy and bossy just because of Dipper wanting to talk to Ford about things he didn't understand anyway or simply wanted no part of it.
He had no idea what great discovery and progress they two had made since yesterday and that it could not only save their world but the whole universe.
He had no idea how important Dipper's concerns were, how serious the matter.
What a big blockhead…

"Hey bro-bro, wait!"

Mabel's voice jolted the young boy out of his bugged thoughts and made him stop in his tracks as his sister came after him on the hallway, bringing that paper thingy with her.
Dipper turned around and looked into her smiling and encouraging face.

"Don't mind him Dip, I'm sure he's just worried about Grunkle Ford who's acting all weird since this morning. And I think he just wants you to take a break and keep a clear mind…"

"Oh yea? Well, my mind is clearer than ever before while he was just taken it out on me!
Whatever is bugging him that much, it's not my fault and neither a reason to not letting me go downstairs!", Dipper responded surly and crossed his arms,
"What should be the matter with Ford anyway? Yesterday he was perfectly fine during the whole time till we went to bed..."

"Well… I don't know much about that either but he seemed quite worried when I saw him you know? I went to the bathroom last night and I think I heard him waking up with a scream before going downstairs.
Had a bad dream maybe…"

Dipper's frowned face softened slowly when Mabel shrugged and looked at him in slight concern.
Waking up with a scream. Yea, that sounded familiar…

"A bad dream? You mean that he woke up from a nightmare?"

"Maybe, yes. I bet he hadn't cough up any sleep since then.
Looked awful this morning and muttered strange stuff to himself", Mabel said and tried to remember those scraps that she could understand,
"Stuff like… 'I need to hurry' and 'He's coming', 'The rift, the rift' and something like that…"

At this point Dipper's gaze dropped to the ground as he went silent for a moment.

He's coming? The rift?
To him it sounded like Ford had indeed a sheer nightmare. But not just any nightmare.
Dipper was sure that his uncle got terrorized by Bill in his dreams and seemingly got told some daunting and startling things.
From what Ford had told him about his past with that wicked dream demon it wouldn't be a big surprise but rather to be expected, especially after their 'Mystery Haunt'.
And besides, Dipper could tell.
You just don't dream about Bill without waking up screaming and being covered in sweat, almost afraid to close your eyes again.

But… what has Ford seen in his dreams that he would be all paralyzed and frantic?
What has Bill told him?
And most importantly… does he think that he would have to blame himself?...

"Did something happen yesterday? The two of you weren't really responsive when you finally came back home from your adventure…"

Mabel's voice woke Dipper from his deep thoughts once again and the young boy raised his worried gaze to his sister, only to see her equally caring smile.
Since Ford told him about the cracking rift he didn't really talked to Mabel about all the stuff that was going on recently, also because he promised to not tell a living soul about it.
So what should he do?

"Ah... no, nothing happened. That's why I'm starting to worry about Grunkle Ford too, you know...", Dipper scratched his head.

"Then do you have any idea what he was talking about?"

What should he do?
Should he tell her?
Dipper swallowed.

"… No, I have no idea."

"Mh…"

An awkward silence filled the room and seemed to last for hours as both of the kids looked away, remaining in their own thoughts for many seconds. But soon it was broken when Mabel smiled at her brother again, encouraging and delighting as ever.

"But hey, don't worry about our Grunkles. I'm sure they would have told us when something serious is going on, right?"

Dipper couldn't help it and returned that smile his sister gave him. She would always be able to smile at him and cheering him up, no matter what…

"Yea, that's right… Let's not think about it…", he sighed and tried to get rid of that awful feeling. So he would just let out a sigh and point at the living room behind him,
"So I'll just… carry on with the stuff from yesterday."

"Hey, I can help you this time!", Mabel grinned at him while she tried to get her fingers off of the sticky sculpture in her hands.
"Just let me handle this masterpiece first and then I'm ready for whatever it is!"

"Oh, err… you don't have to, really", Dipper rejected with an uneasy smile and scratched his head again. "It's a little complicated to explain everything and it's also kinda difficult since you weren't with us yesterday and yea… it's complicated..."

"Oh…" Mabel looked down for a moment and her proud and happy face slowly vanished.

Dipper bit down on his lip. There was this awful silence again.

"I see… whelp, just come over when you need a Mabel okey?...", she finally said and looked at him, simpering.

"Haha, of course. I will", the brother responded and tried to brighten up the mood a little with a quiet chuckle.

And with that his sister gave him a last smile before the twins would turn away from each other and go their ways.
Dipper followed the hallway to the living room and forced himself to not look back to Mabel.

He can't remember the last time feeling so terrible and guilty.
It wasn't the first time that he had lied to her of course but there never were any serious secrets between them two before.
No matter what it was, Mabel was always the first and sometimes only person he would tell anything and vice versa. He would even bet on it that she knows him better than he does himself.
And yet he had lied to her face without flinching, rejected her help like he wouldn't want to have her around him.
Sure, he gave his word to Ford to keep quiet about their researches to some extent.
But she had looked at him so sadly…

"Quit it, man. Stop thinking about that. It's for the best…", Dipper mumbled to himself and shook his head to get it off his shoulders.
But this morning hadn't really gone out as delightful and exciting as he first thought it will when he had opened his eyes.
Ford was somewhere inapproachable until who knows when, Stan had his mind somewhere else and the mood between the two was quite ruined at this point and Mabel…

He will tell her eventually. He will. But not now…

"Haah...", the young boy sighed heavily and walked over to the table where he was sitting with Grunkle Ford yesterday.
And it was just as overloaded as on the previous night.
Some notes and printouts were still there, some got seemingly thrown away and others were added. But while the other two journals were missing there was still journal number one.
So Ford didn't collar anything before he would dig himself in his lab again.
At least something…

It wasn't like Dipper would have had much hope to actually find something helpful between all this mess, a mess he already knew like the back of his hand.
But he couldn't just wait until his Grunkle would finally come up from his underground office and tell him what's actually going on.
He couldn't just wait and twiddle his thumbs while the crack in the rift might get bigger with every passed second.
A crack which he might have caused…

He had to do something.
And by looking at his options he had to do it all alone.
Or did he?…