five years later

Chapter 15

"Dipper my boy, what are you doing here?"

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dipper's pov:

I looked up, it was Ford! He really was in front of me. I shot to my feet "g-great uncle Ford!" he laughed a bit "that's me!" I grinned at him, I was as tall as he was now, he looked almost exactly the same way he did when I left gravity falls, except his hair, it was more white and grey than just dark grey. It was also weird seeing him glove less, speaking of which. I took the gloves out of my bag and held them out to him "i believe these are yours" he grinned down at them, and took them from me "My gloves! You found them!" he quickly put them on and flexed his fingers, all twelve of them. He let out a little laugh and patted my shoulder "well done my boy!" I smiled, he also acted exactly like I remembered, I was brought out of my thoughts when he spoke again "so Dipper, what brings you to these woods?" I took a deep breath, this was going to be a lot to explain

It took me about an hour to tell Ford everything that had happened over that last month or so, from getting the call from Soos, to finding and gaining control of the bubble. He almost didn't believe that he was in a dream bubble at first but when Pacifica and Wendy backed up everything I said, he believed me. "So let me get this right, Stanley and I have been trapped here for months and neither of us knew?" I nodded "it would seem that way yeah, what do you remember before you woke up in this forest?" he made a face and I could tell he was trying to think "Stanley and I had finished our trip to the Bermuda Triangle and were on our way back when something struck our plane, I must have passed out on the way down because when I woke up I was here, in this seemingly never ending forest" I thought for a moment, It made sense, a traumatic experience like that would explain the memory loss. I thought about it more and realized something. Bill must ave taken the memories away from Ford, and probably Stan too.

I stood up, gaining everyone's attention "We should get moving, it isn't safe to stay in one spot for too long, we need to find a way out of here" I turned to ford "do you have any idea where the exit might be?" Ford put his finger up and tapped his chin "there's a temple guarded by big monsters that i haven't been able to get into, maybe we could try there?" I saw Wendy grin out of the corner of my eye, she had her axe out. "Well then, I say we bust in there and take down the monsters and get out of this place, Dipper how much time do we got left?" I looked at my watch and gulped "only 5 hours, we need to find the way out soon and hope Mabel's team found Grunkle Stan." everyone got ready, it was time we freed ford once and for all.

-time skip-

It was another hour and a half before we finally found the temple Ford talked about. There were some very familiar monsters guarding the entrance, it took me a minute to figure out where id seen them before, I gasped. "those. those are-!" I was cut off by Ford who shushed me, putting one of his six fingered hands over my mouth, and spoke lowly. Id almost forgotten we were supposed to be staying hidden "yes its the ogre's from Dungeons, Dungeons, and more Dungeons. But these ones are fully grown, that one was practically a child." Wendy stared at them and spoke "wait you mean that crazy game you two got stuck in that Stan and Mabel freed you from?" I nodded. It was then I put everything together, the monsters, the seemingly never ending forest, the ogre's, the temple. "were in the world of DD and more D, but this time it's cause of BIll's magic." I sighed, Bill having a hand in this world just makes it a thousand times more dangerous.

The four of us made our way down the small hill and through the trees. There were two ogre's so we decided to split up, Ford and I would take one, Wendy and Pacifica would take the other. Ford handed me a small ray-gun from his bag to use for now. when we got close enough I gave the signal and we all ran forward. The monsters were three times my height but that didn't matter, we had very little time left to get out. The girls dashed forward, taking on the closest of the two while Ford and I ran at the other one. I blasted it in the face making it stumble backwards, holding it's face. I watched Ford run past me straight at it. He kicked the thing backwards against the wall of the temple. When it's body hit the wall the stones above began to crumble, a giant bolder fell down onto the monster's head knocking it out as Ford just barely dove out of the way in time.

I turned just in time to see Wendy standing on the monster's forehead, pulling her axe out of its eye. apparently they had brought theirs down too, before Ford and i could take ours down. Pacifica grinned over at me, she was out of breath I could tell right away. she soon called out to me "you two good Dipper?" I nodded and gave her a thumbs up. Wendy hopped down to the grass and the two walked over. I turned back to ford who was checking out the door to the temple. When the girls and I walked over he spoke to us "there is a riddle on the door here, it's in code but ive translated it. it reads 'what has a heart but no other organs?' huh, I don't think I know this one." I thought for a moment, I didn't either. I turned to the girls, Wendy seemed confused too. Pacifica on the other hand scoffed and stepped forward "oh please, it's not that hard, learned this one when I was little" she faced the door "its a deck of cards" the ground began to shake and the stone door split in two, one half going left and the other going right. I grinned and hugged her "Pacifica you did it!!" she hugged me back and i forgot to let go until I heard Wendy clear her throat. I let Pacifica go and swallowed hard as ford spoke "alright kids, lets go in"

The inside of the temple was just almost as run down as the outside. It didn't look like anyone had been inside in a long time, i mean , dust was everywhere. When all four of us were in the doors closed behind us again. Ford got out a small lighter and picked up a stick from the ground to make a torch. as we started forward I felt someone grab my hand, I turned to see Pacifica who looked terrified,I think she might have been claustrophobic. As we walked through the halls I saw carvings on the walls, as we neared the end of the hall, the last one i saw was Bill's eye. Ford had stopped soon after, there was a door in front of us. I readied my ray-gun "alright guys, be prepared for anything" they got ready and I opened the door. We entered a large room which must have been the center of the temple. In the middle of the room on a small pillar was a glowing ball of energy, in the middle of it i could make out the six fingered hand shape of Ford's symbol. Wendy gasped "that must be out ticket out of here"

I nodded in agreement as the four of us surrounded the small orb. it was the same color as the bubble was from outside, this dark red, almost blood like color. It floated gently, a few inches above the small pillar. I took a deep breath and looked at the others and spoke "together?" they all nodded to me and said "together" at the same time. we hovered our hands above the orb as I counted "on three, One. Two. Three!" together we placed our hands on the orb and were blinded by a huge burst of light. Next thing I knew we were back on Scuttlebutt island. As soon as I could see again, I looked at the other three and spoke "everyone alright?" they all gave some version of yes and I turned around, calling out to the others. "SOOS?! CANDY! GRENDA?? MABEL!!" I stopped calling out when my eyes landed on a few familiar figures laying on the ground. Soos, Candy, Grenda, and Fiddleford were lying in various positions on the floor of the small forest. I barely had the time to register the sound of my sister's voice from the bubble behind me when I ran forward towards my unconscious friends.

"GUYS!!"