An Alternate Solution

Not What He Seems

"T-minus thirty-five seconds," the computer intoned, it's voice reverberating off the concrete walls of the underground lab.

Dipper flailed his arms wildly as he rose higher into the air. At any other time, he would be mystified by the portal's ability to shut off gravity, but the only thing he could focus on was his racing heart. He smacked into a wooden beam and grabbed onto it tightly.

"Dipper!" his sister cried from across the room. Her ankle was hooked on a wire connected to the shut off button. Hope wasn't lost!

"Mabel!" he cried back, "Hurry! Shut it down!" She nodded and climbed over to the lever, her hair floating behind her as if she were underwater.

"No!" Grunkle Stan started, "Mabel, Mabel wait!" Thankfully, Soos came to the rescue and tackled him in midair. "Soos, what are you doing?! I gave you an order!"

"Sorry, Mr. Pines - if that is your real name - but I have a new mission now! Protecting these kids!"

Dipper tightened his grip on the wooden beam and silently thanked the handyman for his undying loyalty.

Meanwhile, Stan wriggled in Soos's grip. "Soos, you idiot, let me go!"

Biting at the inside of his cheek, Dipper checked up on Mabel, who was hugging onto the lever. He knew he needed to do something, so he launched himself off the beam and knocked into Stan and Soos. "Go! Mabel, press the red button! Shut it down!"

"No, you can't!" Stan shoved him down and reached out towards his grand-niece. "You gotta trust me!"

Tears flew up from Mabel's eyes as she glanced back and forth between Stan and Dipper. "Grunkle Stan, I don't even know, if you're my Grunkle!"

"Then listen to me. Remember this morning when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?"

The portal interrupted him with a flash and threw Dipper, Stan and Soos against the wall. Dipper struggled against it, but he was pinned. "T-minus twenty seconds," the computer informed them tonelessly. 

Next to him, Stan picked up where he left off. "I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!"

"Family". Dipper scoffed and clenched his fists. What did that old lier know about family? Unfortunately, Mabel looked like she was buying it. "Mabel, what if he's lying?" he interjected, "This thing could destroy the universe! Listen to your head!"

"Look into my eyes, Mabel! You really think I'm a bad guy?" Stan pleaded desperately.

Dipper scowled and yelled louder, "He's lying! Shut it down NOW!"

"Mabel, please!"

"Ten...nine..." the computer continued.

Poor Mabel looked between Dipper and Stan and started crying silently. "Grunkle Stan..." she choked out finally.

Dipper grinned. They had won!

The computer echoed deafeningly. "Six...five..."

She raised her hand to push the button and end all this nonsense...and then stopped at the last second. "...I trust you." She let herself float up towards the center of the portal and her tears floated up in the anti-gravity.

Unbelievable. She had betrayed him. His sister had picked a wrinkly, old con man over her OWN TWIN. "MABEL, ARE YOU CRAZY?!" He shoved off the wall and crashed into his sister, pushing her towards the opposite wall. "NOW WE'RE ALL GONNA-"

"One."

A blinding light poured from the center of the portal and the sound of screaming filled Dipper's ears. It wasn't until his raw throat started hurting that he realized that the screaming was his.

Blinded and rendered mute, Dipper Pines found himself losing consciousness.