Dipper's pov

After having a movie night with Wendy at her house I asked her to come on a mystery hunt with me, Mabel, and Y/n.

I decided to hang out with Wendy because Y/n was off with her friends who I thought were creepy, especially that Barbara girl.

I was now in front of Mabel, Soos, and Y/n who ditched Lucas for this, which I was happy about but kind of nervous because I invited Wendy.

I think my feelings for Wendy were starting to come back which wasn't good at all but I think Y/n was starting to like Lucas anyway because he would flirt with her in front of me and it really got...me...weird?..so I would hang out with Wendy. It was a bad habit I started to get used to.

Just as Y/n was about to give her suggestion Wendy pulled up on her bike yelling, "Chop it down!"

I saw Y/n roll her eyes. Crap.

"Wendy!" Mabel cheered and I waved to her to be friendly.

"You came!" I said surprised, actually dying inside.

She took off her helmet and set it on her bike and walked towards us. "I'm so stoked about this. I've been wanting to go adventuring with you guys. It beats picking up after my dad at home. Thanks for the invite man." She ran towards the tree and Y/n walked towards me and Mabel.

"Of course! Anytime you wanna-I-I'm-We're always-haha-us. Haha." I froze. What the hell am I doing?

I felt Y/n poke my chest, ouch. "Uh oh. Someone's in love." She teased and I felt guilty.

Mabel continued teasing me a little too loud. "Inviting Wendy on this mission? Me thinks there's romance a foot!"

"No. Look Mabel I thought this threw and I'm over Wendy. I've looked at it from every angle and that thing was going no where. I know what matters to me now and it's finding the author of this journal." I lied.

I knew Y/n wasn't buying it which made me even more nervous. Mabel laughed, clearly not buying it either.

"Your over Wendy? Allow me to put on my skepticals." Mabel held hand circles around her eyes. And when Y/n looked away she brand me closer to her and whispered, "What about Y/n?"

I pushed her away and didn't answer her question.

What about Y/n though?..I don't even know what she feels because she doesn't show it on her face most of the time and she's just one big mystery that I'm trying to figure out. I know she's hiding something from me but I don't know what...

After Wendy figured out how to open the passage to the secret hiding spot, Y/n took the lantern out of my hand and led the way, unfazed about how creepy the situation was.

She walked down the steps cautiously, though to make sure there was no traps or something that could get us killed.

"It looks like some kind of fallout shelter or something."

I looked to the sign beside me and saw a sign that said, 'Warning Fallout Shelter'. I continued walking through the room with Y/n, who still had the lantern.

"This is incredible! It's like he was preparing for a lifetime down here. Maybe for some kind of disaster but what kind of disaster needs supplies for over sixty years?"

Y/n then opened a drawer labeled 'weapons'. When she opened it a whole bunch of different weapons were revealed, including grenades.

She took some and put them in her backpack. "Cool. Definitely souvenir worthy." She then took out some nunchucks and hung them around her neck, I guessed for protection.

I would be there to protect her though.

As I walked over to Y/n I stepped on a can that was out of place and on the floor.

"I think this can was opened recently." Y/n said, lightly nudging the can.

I picked it up and whatever was in it started pouring out of it. Yep, definitely recently. "The author might still be alive. Down here!" I got excited just thinking about it. Deep breathes.

"Wait a minute." Wendy looked in the direction of a piece of paper that was floating because of wind behind it. Wait, Wind? In a cave? She tore off the paper and revealed a secret door. "I think I know where he might have gone." Wendy continued after we all joined her and looked down the tunnel.

We crawled into it one by one and ended up in some rusty room with symbols on the wall. I've seen these symbols in the journal before.

Mabel was walking around, admiring the room and she stepped on one of the symbols, making the exit door close and causing the symbols to light up in red as the room started shaking.

The shaking stopped and brick by brick the wall started moving closer to the group of us surrounded in the middle. I saw Y/n was beside me and I grabbed her hand and she looked at me, fright in her eyes.

Everyone tried pushing the walls back but it didn't work and Y/n started being lifted up on one of the bricks and let go of my hand.

"Dipper what do we do!" She yelled as she dodged other bricks going her way.

I pulled out my journal, flipped to the correct page, turned on the black light and 4 symbols lit up. I showed them to everyone and Y/n hit the final one that was on the ceiling above her.

A door opened on the other side of us but Y/n was trapped, surrounded by bricks.

"Dipper!" I heard her yell but it sounded muffled threw all the bricks. I told the others to go and when they ran out I turned back to see Y/n with a crow bar ripping her way through the bricks and then falling into my arms.

She quickly put the crowbar back in her bag, got out of my arms, and grabbed my hand as we ran for the door. We had to slide in between two bricks that were just about to lock us in the metal room.

Breathing heavily, I placed my hands on Y/n's cheeks to make sure she was ok. She nodded with a straight face as she held her upper arm and continued walking in front of the group, grabbing the lantern on her way.

I knew she wasn't ok but it wasn't because of what just happened. It was me.

"That was nuts! You ruled back there man!" Wendy complimented me while punching my arm.

I chuckled. "Thanks." I rubbed my arm and looked at Y/n who was looking at all the surveillance with a stern face, not paying attention to me.

"Hey, bro, you forgot your vest." Mabel walked over and tried pulling out my vest from the blocks but when she got it out, the note I was gonna give to Wendy a long time ago, telling her I had feelings for her, fell out of my pocket.

I forgot that was in there. I don't like Wendy. I like Y/n, even though I can get stupid over Wendy sometimes.

"What are you..? Give me that!"

Mabel started reading the note and I snatched it out of her hands so no one else could see.

She then jumped up and down and I crossed my arms a little mad. "I knew it! Your not over Wendy-"

I cut her off by putting my finger on her mouth. "No, Mabel, I am. I have feelings for someone else, ok?"

She gasped and squealed. "Bro-bro you like-"

I covered her mouth with my hand because everyone looked at us and I got embarrassed. "You have to tell her." She continued after everyone went back to doing what they were doing.

"Look Mabel, I can't tell her everything no matter how much I want to. Just drop it, ok?"

Before Mabel could answer me, Y/n called my name peering into some door she opened using her crowbar. "Dipper, come here!"

I put my thumbs up at her to let her know I was coming. "Mabel, this never happened." I then drew my thumb over my neck so she wouldn't say anything. As I almost made it into the closet, Mabel came behind me and hugged me.

"Brother, I just want you to know that whatever happens I want you to know something. This is for your own good."

Before I could react, Mabel pushed me into the closet with Y/n, which made me fall onto her as she dropped the lantern and it broke.

I got off of her and helped her up and when I turned around I saw the door was closed. Great, now I'm stuck in a closet with Y/n. This isn't going to be awkward at all. I started to bang on the door hard. "Mabel let us out!"

Y/n was rubbing her head, which hit the ground, and watched me.

Then from the other side I heard Mabel talk. "Oh, I'll let you out...as soon as you tell Y/n that thing! You'll thank me for this later!"

I pounded on the door one last time, Mabel isn't winning this. I'm not telling Y/n now.

From beside me she asked in a soft tone, "What is she talking about?"

Her being this close made me blush. "Nothing! It's just Mabel being Mabel." I banged on the door even more while Y/n looked around for something else to try and get us out. "Let me out of here now! There's a monster in here!"

"No there isn't! Stop acting like a child!" Mabel responded, her voice growing agitated.

Y/n pulled a dangling switch that kept hitting her as she paced back and forth and water started spilling out from the top. What was that about? A strong wind was blown into us, making us knock into each other. The room started blinking red and above us was a "Decontamination Complete".

Another door opened on the other side from where Mabel, Wendy, and Soos where.

"Woah." Y/n said walking into the new-found room with her nunchucks in hand. "A hidden lab."

There were broken pods everywhere and dust and plants surrounding everything, not to mention the dark room because our lantern broke.

"Maybe the author did experiments down here." I added, but I already knew that that's what this place was.

Y/n headed to one of the many tunnels that looked to be dug the same size and shape. "What do you think made all these tunnels?" She curiously stepped into one but I pulled her back with her hand because I didn't want her getting hurt.

"Let's hope we don't find out." I said while still holding her hand as a loud roaring noise was heard through the abandoned lab. We looked over to see some monster crawling out of the tunnels.

She grabbed my hand tighter as we sprinted to the door with Mabel on the other side and started banging out it more than last time.

"Let us in! There's a for real monster in here!" I shouted over the door, trying to sound as convincing as possible given that this was another life or death situation.

Instead of the door opening, Mabel still didn't believe me and said something about not falling for it but I couldn't hear her over the pounding on the door.

"He's not lying, Mabel! Open the damn door!" Y/n added more aggressively then me, her fists slowing down.

Mabel ignored us and I turned to Y/n who was looking at the monster.

"Dipper just say whatever Mabel wants you to!" She turned to look at me but looked back at the monster, nervousness for once showing on her face.

"Y/n, I..." I can't do this. "I'm gonna find another way out!" I grabbed her hand and dragged her into the old lab as we ran through, looking for somewhere to escape out of. I took her into one of the tunnels while we were still hand in hand but when we reached the end of the tunnel, it turned out to be a dead end.

I should have just told her I liked her. I just couldn't because I don't think I just like her...I think I... I love her. I wouldn't have got her into this mess. It's harder then telling someone their important to you. I could say that to anyone! And to Y/n? I can't do that.

Y/n grabbed onto my whole arm, her touch making me warm, as we watched the shadow of the monster get closer but was abruptly stopped by another shadow that jumped onto its back and ripped out its tongue, making it run away. Y/n grabbed her nunchucks and handed me a crowbar in case we had to defend ourselves. I stepped in front of her, holding the weapon in front of me ready to see who this man is.

"I'm fine." Y/n said, forcefully coming up beside me as we waited the shadowed man to come into the dim light.

When the man stepped into the light, he had goggles on, with whitish hair and a dark, bushy mustache and beard.

"Well I just ripped out a monsters tongue." He simply stated and I put one arm in front of Y/n who shoved it away.

This man had to be the author. "Its you!"

Y/n eyed me unsurely, skeptically giving a stare to the author but I was too busy thinking about what to say to the author.

Y/n's pov

As me and Dipper followed 'the author' down the tunnel, he started talking about being down here for years.

I wasn't convinced that this guy was the author but I looked happy in front of Dipper because I knew it meant a lot to him. I'll just have to watch out for him.

We wouldn't be in this mess if Dipper just told me what Mabel was making him tell me, at first I was curious but now I could care less. It was probably about Wendy and how he has to crush my soul in order to be with her.

Focus, Y/n.

"You don't understand! Your the guy I've been looking for!" Dipper said, the cheesy lines from all those movies we've watched resurfacing.

He was totally fanboying.

"He's the guy!" Dipper said as he looked at me and held my hand with a huge smile on his face.

I smiled back, trying to go along with Dippers reaction.

"The guy?" The author asked, apparently not catching on to what we were talking about.

"I've got like-a gillion questions! Why did you write the journals? Who was coming after you? Why did you build this bunker?"

Dipper went rambling on, this side of him making me lost in thought. He's happy. I want him to be like this more often. Seeing him happy makes me happy.

Ew, those cliche movies are now effecting me too.

The author chuckled and put his hand on Dippers shoulder. "My boy. I'd love to discuss this in time but we have more pressing matters. It's one of my experiments. Shape shifter. He can take the form of anything or anyone it sees. It broke free from a solid cage of steel. I've gone half crazy trying to catch the creature alone. Now your here! Will you help me catch it?" He bent down to Dippers height and touched his shoulder again and I took a step forward about to tell him to back off but remembered that this guy seemed harmless so far.

I looked at Dipper who looked at me and I gave him the thumbs up. He looked back at the author and agreed with him. We followed him in silence into a fort looking place and he went on talking about his research and how he lost his journals long ago.

"Did you just say journals?" Dipper interrupted, making me even more hesitant.

I looked at Dipper who grinned at me and took out the journal he had. "I found one of your journals."

But wait...this guy said he lost his journals...but in the journals it says that he hid them. That's...odd.

"What? Could it be?" The man asked and turned towards us looking surprised at 'his journals'. "My boy. I can't express my gratitude."

I held onto Dippers arm and gave him a look that said 'are you sure you should give this to him?'

Dipper nodded in return and the man took the book and walked back to his original spot, facing the wall, saying something under his breath but I couldn't hear because he changed his tone of voice 10x lower.

We sat down waiting for the man to say something to us until I picked up a can beside me.

"Y/n, isn't this amazing? We're actually meeting the real author."

I looked at the can closer and saw that the mans face was really familiar and then it hit me. It was the man in front of us. He was the one on the can. If he's the man on the can then who's?..oh no.

"Dip..." I shoved the can in his face while looking at the man in front of us, cautiously.

Dipper's face was filled with disappointment and regret. All I wanted to do in that moment was to make him smile again, but we had to deal with the shapeshifter who I knew was a threat.

And I don't like when people threaten me.

Dipper's pov

After Y/n showed me that the man in front of us was not the author but someone or something else. I was taking a guess it was the shape shifter and cautiously headed towards it with Y/n beside me.

"Uh, you know what? We should probably get going. Can I have my journal back?" I stood a couple feet behind him trying to not look suspicious.

It turned his head all the way around and his pupils turned into thin lines instead of circles.

"Your not going anywhere!" He said in a low, cynical voice as he ran up the side of the wall and onto the ceiling, growing 4 more legs and making his eyes glow white.

I ran towards Y/n and stood my ground in front of her. I can't leave the journal with this thing.

He shifter into some giant whitish creature with a disgusting mouth and face structure. "How do you like my true form? Go on admit it. You like it." He said still upside down and I felt Y/n grab my hand.

"You! What did you do to the real author!" I pointed at him, still wanting my journal.

"You'll never find him! That six fingered dweeb hasn't been himself in 30 years! But I do thank you for bringing me his journal. He used to write it while I was in my cage. So many wonderful forms!" He then turned into different kinds of monsters from inside the book.

"We've got to get that journal back." I whispered to Y/n so the shape shifter couldn't hear me.

She picked up a can and threw it at him but he quickly changed form into something else and shot his extensive tongue at her but she quickly grabbed a piece of metal from behind her and he grabbed that instead of her. Y/n let go of the metal object and sent it flying in the monsters direction. It hit him in the face which made him drop the journal.

I ran over and grabbed the journal and yelled for Y/n to run. I threw the flashlight down one of the tunnels so he would follow the noise and the light down that tunnel as we made our way through another one.

When we weren't looking we ran into Mabel, Soos, and Wendy and collided on the floor but quickly got up. "What happened?" Y/n went on telling them what happened back with the shape shifter and we formed a plan.

We went on with the plan with me and Mabel as the distraction and led him to some water pump that would blow him away but it didn't work.

It stuck out his tongue and grabbed the journal which I tried fighting back but wasn't being to successful until Y/n helped me tug the book back but my hands slipped and the journal, and Y/n, who dropped her back pack, went flying to the monster.

"Y/n!" I yelled after her but she took out the crowbar and was getting ready to struck the monster in the face but Soos got the water working and it splashed onto Y/n and the monster and sent them and the rest of us, floating away.

I looked up a couple seconds after being floated away somewhere, gasping for air as I saw the crowbar Y/n had as I picked it up and ran to the edge of the tunnel screaming Y/n's name.

Oh no. Oh no. What have I done?

I ran down the little hill and saw Y/n on the ground, soaked and unconscious. I dropped the crowbar and ran to her.

"Y/n!" I slid behind her and tried waking her up. "No! No! No! Can you hear me!?" I then tried shaking her but she wouldn't wake up. "Come back. Please. I still need you, N/n."

When she fell lifeless after my constant panicking, I couldn't help myself. I buried my hands in my face and started crying.

"Oh no! Oh no! Th-This is all my fault." I choked in a deep breath, my words directed to Y/n who was haunting my mind. "If I had told you when we were in the