Between the Worlds

Chapter 13

Dipper didn't await this, but he thought of Pacifica as some quite nice girl. She reminded him a lot of Mabel, what made things easier for him. After all he still had the personality of the original Pacifica in the back of his mind. So he and Will spent the whole morning chatting with her and Gideon, fooled around with them and for once, they forgot the unfortunate situation they were in.
These three explored eagerly the woods of Reverse Falls. Dipper was impressed by how many different monsters he recognized and how many behaved completely different. So this time, the gnomes were all females and looked for a king instead of queen. In other words, Gideon needed to hide because of his perfect skin (and moreover because Pacifica saved him already once).

The small group stopped at the waterfall where Will and Dipper found shelter. Pacifica put on a nostalgic smile. Yes, she remembered this place exactly...
"So you use that now as shelter Will?"
Will nodded with a soft smile.
"Y-yeah... Our old hideout. I'm glad the Gleeful twins don't know about it..."
Dipper stood aside and smiled happily. He liked to sde these two friends reunited again and watched them silently.

Meanwhile in the other dimension, things went completely wrong. After Ford didn't hear any news from Bill or even a sign that he still is after his task, the man decided for himself to search Dipper on his own. All he needed to do was fixing the machine. There was just one problem...
Easier said than done.

The family seemed to break apart without Dipper. Ford was only in his laboratory and didn't fool around with them anymore, Mabel distracted herself with her friends Candy and Grenda, even when they were as sad as her and so she mostly showed up first in the late evening. Unbelievable but true, Stan closed the mystery shack. All he said was, it was a cause of technical problems... But he just wanted to hide his tears. Wendy? Wendy didn't meet up with the gang anymore. It wasn't the same since Dipper was gone. And Soos... he sat at Stans side and watched senseless game shows with him to get onto different thoughts. Mabel at least could calm them and tell them Dipper was alive, but more than that was impossible.

Late at night, Ford almost fell asleep on his chair as he studied his documents. He felt exhausted, tired and hopeless. The portal was completely destroyed, the work of years, his and Mc Guckets masterpiece. And so it would take years to restore it again.

With a loud yawn he got up from his old chair and arched his back, earning an unpleasant crack of it.
"Can't help it... I need to sleep..."
For this day, Ford stopped to work and finally went to bed after enough time of sleepless hours. He didn't bother to say goodnight to Mabel or anybody else. He just plopped down on the couch in his laboratory and stared onto the ceiling until his eyes fell close.

"Ford help! HELP!!"
The man tried to grab Dippers hand, but it just slipped through his own hands.
"Dipper!! I'll save you!"
The boy screamed in terrify as Ford could only watch him vanishing through his portal. As soon as Dipper passed the metal frame the portal crushed into million pieces and Ford fell onto his knees, crying softly.
"M-my fault... my fault... I built this nightmare... my fault..."

A hand on his shoulder let the man look up in surprisement. In front of him, a weak smile on his lips, stood Dipper. Ford remained speechless for a second, didn't the portal suck the boy inside? His eyes widen in realization, he lunged forward and pulled the boy into a tight hug which Dipper responded instantly.
"Shh... Don't cry grunkle Ford. I'm safe. I'm real."

Ford frowned and fixed the boy's eyes with his own.
"R-real...? In what kind?"
"This is your dream, Ford. I am visiting you in your dreams, same with Mabel. Here, look..."
The boy took out the charm of Will out of his shirt and shrugged sheepishly.
"A gift of a demon... You would like him too, grunkle Ford. He is Bills opposite."
Ford blinked surprised and carefully examinated the charm, then smiled in pure relief.
"Oh Dipper, it's really you... What happened? Where are you? What has Bill to do with that?"

Dipper sighed.
"Sorry that I managed to visit you that late... The nights were too short to do it earlier. Well, I fought with Bill... he accidently activated the portal... and I got sucked inside. I'm in Reverse Falls. Everybody is there the opposite of his usual character. Weird huh? They even have their own Bill. Only that his name is Will and he is the nicest demon on earth. Please hurry and get me back grunkle Ford... I don't wanna stay here."

Ford gave a mere nod and sighed.
"I'm doing my best Dipper... Please, wait a bit longer. The machine is completely destroyed."
Dipper bit his lip and shrugged.
"It's not that bad now... But make sure to hurry yes?"

Before Ford could answer, Dipper was already gone again. He sighed and drove with his hand through his hair, a sign of nervousity. Ford didn't like this, but right now he was unable to help.
The only one who could help now was Bill. As much as he hated this, but Bill was his last hope.