A Code to DeCipher (BillDip)

Chapter 16

Their special moment didn't get to last. They needed to get out of there. Their initial plan for escape would have to be evicted, seeing as there was no way the agents would let Bill or anyone in the Pines family live any longer after that show. Dipper knew that many cameras were wired to the room the dream demon had been kept in, and he didn't want to think about how many people witnessed what he had just witnessed. As Bill grabbed Dipper's hand and led him through the halls, another thought occurred to the teen, and his cheeks reddened. Bill glanced back at him.

"You okay, Pine Tree?" He wondered with a smirk as alarms started blaring through the agency.

"There were cameras in the room..." He realized, his stomach churning. Bill started laughing as he ran through the hallways. Dipper didn't think it was very funny, but seeing that Bill didn't seem to care relaxed him at least a little bit.

The two rounded another corner then skid to a halt. The way was blocked by a row of armed agents, all with their guns pointed at Dipper and the demon's heads.

"Don't move!" One of them ordered. Bill smirked again, his visible eye flashing.

"I was going to say the same thing to you. Tempus claudum!" He announced. The agents stopped moving, but the alarms were still going off. Dipper furrowed his eyes in confusion as they continued on their way again.

"Why didn't everything stop?" He wondered aloud. Bill glanced at him as they slowed down, reaching the section they'd been looking for.

"Mind control takes a lot out of ya, kid. I didn't want to waste any unnecessary energy, so I just pinpointed the halt in time." He explained as he waved his hand over a keypad, muttering something under his breath. The keys started to shine, their brightness fading based on the order in which they needed to be pressed. Dipper couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. Why did Bill have to take away his magic ability? What if something happened? What if someone got hurt and Bill wasn't there to help?

"Hello? Earth to Pine Tree? Or do you not want to save your family?" Bill called, snapping Dipper out of his thoughts. Bill raised an eyebrow at him and Dipper just rolled his eyes again, leading the way through the door. He grabbed an agent by the shoulder to brace him and drove his fist hard into the man's gut, making him double over, then kneed him in the face, knocking him out. Dipper brushed himself off as Bill gaped at him. The teen smirked.

"What? I told you I'd been practicing, remember?" He teased. Bill rubbed his nose as he recalled the boy's punch. Dipper laughed for a moment before he remembered where he was, and all humor left him. "Come on, we need to find them." He said sternly, calling them back on track. Bill nodded and closed his uncovered eye, focusing as much as one could when alarms were screaming in your ears.

His eye opened again and he gestured in the right direction before taking off that way. Dipper followed quickly, matching his stride step for step. The dream demon came to a stop right outside a cell door. The insides of the cell were cold, damp, and cramped. It was miserably dark, and all warmth and happiness seemed to be sucked into the drain in the middle of the floor that served as their toilet. Dipper's heart ached at the sight of his disheveled family, and he wrapped his fingers around the bars, feeling slightly unstable at the sight and smell. A slight sob escaped his lips.

At the noise, Mabel's head shot up and she spun around. Her brown eyes were still filled with determined joy. It was almost as if, after the events of Weirdmageddon, she refused to let herself lose hope ever again. At the sight of him, though, they filled with relieved tears and a smile trembled into existence on her face. She leapt to her feet and ran forwards, trying to hug her brother through the bars.

"Dipper!" She sobbed, clutching his arms, his shirt, anything she could reach through the bars as the others looked up in surprised jubilation. Dipper and Bill coaxed her off so they could open the cell door. The dream demon waved a hand across the lock pad then punched in the numbers. With a chink and clattering of metal against metal, the cell opened and Mabel threw her arms around her brother once more. She hugged him so tightly he was finding it a bit hard to breathe.