A/N : Hey, so, another chapter! Yay! I've had this witten up for ages, so I probably should have updated sooner, but, with exams and stuff going on it was all kinda AAAAAH! But, holidays have started, so I should have either more time to write, or more distractions to stop me. At any rate, we'll be finding out soon!

Enjoy!

xXx

-

The world was a mess of colours. Everything melting into itself, with no hard edges.

Dipper's mind was groggy, as if it had been dowsed in thick syrup.

The world fizzed into focus, everything still too bright and too blurry, but slightly distinguishable.

In front of him, a sudden cloud of grey flew into vision, completely masking everything around him.

The faint smell of smoke pierced through the bubble that his senses were in, taking him by surprise.

People were talking, but everything sounded like he was hearing it from deep underwater.

His vision began to melt away, but before he could think to stay aware, consciousness had already slipped through his fingertips.

In the darkness, the only sound left was muffled laughter.

Something shook Dipper awake, shoving him out of sleep so fast, he sat bolt upright, eyes wide open, taking gulps of air, like a fish out of water.

After a moment, he slowed his heart and took in his surroundings.

There was no one there. He must have shaken himself awake.

He blinked a couple of time, the simple prospect of sleep wiped from his mind.

After the initial shock faded, he exhaled and closed his eyes, trying to remember what he had been dreaming about. Eventually, he gave up the futile pursuit and got dressed to go to the dining room.

As usual, Mabel was the only one awake, but there was something wrong. Something in the way she wouldn't look at him. Something in the way she said, "Good morning." so bluntly and strained.

The silence filled the room like chlorine gas. Filling his lungs, suffocating him.

When Stan came in, even with his usual morning attitude, Dipper was still grateful.

Long moments passed as he waited to see if Ford would come in, but, as usual, he was nowhere to be seen.
Where did he go in the mornings? Or was it just his determination to avoid his brother? That seemed the most probable.
Although, to be honest, what did Dipper really know about him? Sure, he had shared his deep, dark past with him last night, but, other than that, was there anything Dipper could call to mind that he knew about his Great Uncle?

The silence grew so thick, that Dipper left as soon as he had wolfed down his small breakfast. He had no idea where he was going, but anywhere was better than that place. With Mabel giving him wary glances and the distance that seemed to suddenly have appeared between them.

What had happened?

It was something Dipper may never know.

He exhaled, heavily, releasing some of the tension in his gut. The redolent scent of petrichor hung in the air, serving to calm his nerves down a little.

Having time to stop and think, the deep wounds on his arms, that still hadn't healed from last time, were starting to itch and moan in pain all at the same time, reminding him of what would happen if he kept losing control this frequently.

-

"Huh."

Dipper muttered under his breath as he approached the Shake.

"This might be the first time in weeks that I've actually come back early."

The time was probably only something around 10. Very early for the Shake. Some of the patrons might even still be conscious.

He made his way into the club, and, as he did, the sound of a full on riot was dominating the room.
Glancing up at the stage, he noticed that there was no one there.

That wasn't surprising.

After the previous night, there was no way Mabel would want to come back and sing on stage again.

With a cautious look around, he manoeuvred his way to his quiet corner, only to find that it had been taken.

Relief flooded his system when he realised who it was.

"Soos! Wendy"

"Dipper!"

Soos came over, giving Dipper a big greetings hug.

"Hey, Dipper. It's great to see you again! I've missed you guys!"

He looked around, and then turned back to Dipper.

"Hey, uh, where's Mabel?"

Wendy stood, leaning against the wall, her usual half smile lazing on her face.

"I don't know, I was about to ask you if you knew."

They both shook their heads apologetically.

"Well, she can't have gone far. She's probably just a little shaken from yesterday."

The bodyguards' expressions grew serious as they nodded grimly. There wasn't any explanations needed in a place like this.

"So... Where have you been recently?"
Dipper attempted to break the thick silence.

"I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill you." Wendy joked with a raised eyebrow.

Dipper laughed, glad the atmosphere was becoming more relaxed.

"Yeah, seriously, Mr Pines works us real hard!"

The ex-boxer laughed with them. Dipper hoped that he would continue in more detail about what exactly they were 'working' on, but he didn't. He had to stop himself from sighing in disappointment.

Despite this, the conversation was serving to take his mind off of recent events.

"So, since we're free now, for a while at least, do you wanna go check out this room I found in the back of one of the warehouses just outside town?" Wendy grinned mischievously.

"I was securing some area for Stan, and found this mysterious back room. I haven't given it a good turn-over yet, so, are you in?"

Dipper couldn't stop grinning like an idiot.

"Okay! I'm in!"

He had wanted to join her and her friends for ages, and now was finally the first time he would get to do just that!

"So, Soos, have you done much fixing recently?"

Remembering the last time Soos 'fixed' something for him and Mabel, Dipper wondered if anyone else had been subjected to Soos' skills.

"Oh, yeah, loads of stuff! I fixed one of Wendy's pistols while we were away..."

the gunwoman looked at Dipper and pointed towards some kind of lump of metal she was holding under the table, with bits that looked sharp enough to impale someone stuck at all angles.

"Oh, and I fixed the big clock in the hallway, didn't you notice?"

Dipper recounted seeing Stan hauling something that may have once resembled a clock out the back door one night when he was sneaking back into the building. That may explain it.

Wendy rolled her eyes and shared a knowing look with Dipper, silently laughing at how oblivious Soos was when it came to 'fixing' things.

"So, Dipper, what's been going on in your life recently? Anything interesting?"

She asked him.

"Uhhh... Well... Not really, just normal stuff."

He hated lying to these guys, but there wasn't really anything else he could do.

"Unless you count Stan somehow managing to find even worse jobs for me to do."

The two chuckled.

"I wouldn't worry about it, that's just who he is. Besides, if he keeps you busy, you can't be bored, right?"

Dipper laughed nervously. He wished he could tell her that being bored would be great for him at the moment.

He was about to say something else when...

"Soos! Wendy! Here! Now!"

The sound of Stan's cranky yell came from the hallway attached to the back exit to the club.

"What does he want this time?"
Wendy groaned, rolled her eyes and, reluctantly, got up to leave. Both her and Soos gave Dipper a wave as they left.

After they had left, Dipper exhaled in exasperation. It had been an... Interesting day, to say the least, and now was the first time he had gotten time to relax.

The club was still in anarchy, people yelling as they descended further into vinolency.

The orange, yellow glow that came with the alcoholic atmosphere was, for the first time since Dipper had been here, rather warming.

*cough* *cough*

His lungs were still full of smoke, but, at least it had been getting better. Gradually.
Upon finding a pipe in his pocket, full of ash, it was clear what Bill had done with it. If that kept up, Bill would choke him to death before anything else. He had no idea why anyone enjoyed the stuff, or maybe Bill reaped in the benefits, leaving him to deal with the consequences.

He sighed, and closed his eyes.

In the back of his mind still lingered worries about Mabel, but he couldn't even guess what Bill had done with her watching. Honestly, the last thing she needed was him following her around after what she probably saw.

It was weird. Not having her at his side. They had always been together, at least for the most part. She was one of the only people in the world Dipper could truly trust, unconditionally.

Why had all of this even happened?

It was all that brat Gideon's fault.

He had taken everything from them and now he stalked the town they had been forced to move to. And he had the absolute audacity to follow Mabel around like a stalker under ludicrous claims of affection!

Anger began building in Dipper's guts.

He gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down. The last thing he needed was to hand over control on a silver platter.

Dipper was so preoccupied with stopping himself from flying off of the hook, he didn't even notice someone behind him until he felt the hand on his shoulder.

"AAAAAAH!"

He cried out and swung around to hit whoever it was, but they grabbed him by the wrist, stopping his blow before it, really, started.

"Dipper, Dipper, it's okay, it's just me."

Ford looked him in the eyes, the grip loosening on Dipper's arm.

"Oh, sorry, I was just... You caught me off guard."

Ford smiled.

"It's okay. Sorry I startled you."

The smile dropped.

"I wanted to ask you if you could come with me for a while."

Dipper looked at him, trying to mask his suspicion.

"Ummm... Where?"

"It's just about... Your problem."

"Oh."

Dipper nodded and followed Ford out of the club's back exit. They walked down the corridor until reaching an open doorway that presented stairs leading downwards.

"I didn't know we had a basement."

Dipper was impressed that after a thorough exploration of the house, this had never been discovered.

"Well, it's mostly unused, so I set some things up."

A sense of foreboding settled on the boy's spine. But, still, he made his way into the darkness. Into the Averno crater.

xXx

YAAAAY! We have a Soos and a Wendy! Confirmed! About time those 2 showed up! I really struggled with how they would talk, since this isn't exactly set in the modern era, but I just can't imagine Soos without his way of saying things, so, I just kind of dulled it down a little. I hope it didn't end up too OOC!

Thank you for ready, ladies and gentlemen, GOODNIGHT!