"Mabel!" Stan yelled. "I can't keep the portal open much longer! You have to get Cipher in there now!"
But which one was Bill and which one was Dipper? It was so hard to tell in the scuffle. Dipper and Bill-in-Dipper's-clone's-body were both trying to push the other into the portal without being sucked in himself. Mabel would have laughed at the image of two Dipper's slapping each other if she weren't so afraid of losing her brother.
I need a Journal, she thought. There was an incantation to push Bill out of any body hidden in the pages if they were folded the right way, not-Grunkle Stan had told her. Without a body, he'd be sucked into the portal. But all the Journals were lost, thrown into the portal by Bill - that's it!
"Grunkle Stan! I have an idea!" Mabel shouted back. She pulled Grappling Hook out from her pocket and attached the hook to a pipe on the wall, pulling the trigger to release as much line as she could.
"What are you doing?" Stan screamed at her, but Mabel was already flying across the room in zero-gravity, holding tight to the gun part. Good Ole Grappling Hook. Always there when she needed it.
Mabel passed through the portal and hit her head on something. She twisted her head to see a wall of random objects pulled or thrown in. Not-Grunkle Stan was right. Gravity didn't pull stuff thrown into the portal away. It just sat there until something outside moved it. Everything floated sluggishly, like it was being thrown through syrup. Mabel looked around for one of the Journals, hoping one was within reach. She wouldn't be able to reach very far to get it.
Luck was on her side. She had hit her head on Journal 2. Mabel grabbed the book and pulled it close to her. With heavy fingers, she opened the Journal and flipped through the pages. One. Mabel folded the first page down. Two. She folded the second page. Three! The folded pages formed a triangle, around which was clearly written an incantation of sorts, the letters hidden amongst all the scribbles so that the average person wouldn't know it was there and destroy the only way to defeat Bill.
Mabel held the book close to her chest and pressed the recall button on Grappling Hook. The strange, slow-moving effect of this realm made the journey seem to take forever, but eventually Grappling Hook brought Mabel back to Earth and everything sped up around her. One of the Dippers was punching the other over and over again. Mabel hoped it was her brother punching Bill and not the other way around. Grunkle Stan was still at the control panel, desperately flicking switches and typing things to stabilise the portal.
She opened the book to the folded pages, hovering just in front of the open portal. "Bill!" Mabel screamed, hoping to get the demon's attention. "Expellere Billus Cipherus ex agmine corpus!"
The punching Dipper looked up. "Hey, Shooting Star, you don't want to be saying that!" Bill. Dipper was the one being punched, now unconscious or dead or nearly one of them. Mabel continued chanting.
"Ducite eum ad suum orbem! Malum removeant fore triangulum!"
"I'm warning you, girl," Bill yelled. "You're going to regret this!" He realized he couldn't get to Mabel because she was too close to the portal and he would be sucked in. Instead, Mabel watched as Bill tried to kick his way over to Grappling Hook's hook on the wall. He's going to release it! Mabel would be sucked in, but this was her only chance to get Bill out of this world for good and save Dipper and Grunkle Stan.
"Eum removere!" she chanted. Bill shrieked and flinched, but was almost at the hook. "Eum removere!" He pulled the hook off the pipe and held it aloft.
"One more word and you disappear back inside that portal!" Bill shouted. Mabel stopped the chant, knowing that Bill would indeed release her and she would be sucked back to that strange, slow moving world.
A small explosion from the control panel made Mabel tear her eyes away from Bill over at Grunkle Stan. Smoke was pouring out of the machine. "The portal's going to close, Mabel!" Grunkle Stan said. "Finish him!"
"If you do, you're gone for good," Bill said, holding the hook aloft. It was disturbing, watching Dipper threaten Mabel's demise, even though she knew it wasn't actually her brother. "You say anything and this body goes limb and there you go through into the portal with me!"
Mabel froze, terrified at being stuck with Bill for eternity. He literally held the power over her in his hand. Bill was all-seeing and all-knowing and billions of years old. There was no way to stop him.
Except that Mabel knew something that Bill didn't.
"Eum removere!" Mabel screamed, as loud as she could. Bill screeched and the clone's body went limp, releasing the hook. A powerful wind began to blow, tearing the Journal out of Mabel's hands and pulling everything not tied down into the portal. Mabel held on tight to Grappling Hook as she was yanked towards the portal, her left foot disappearing into its surface. But she did not go any farther.
Mabel followed the line with her eyes to the very end. Holding onto the hook was Dipper, her brother Dipper, bruised and beat-up but very much alive, having snuck his way up behind Bill without him noticing, but in full sight of Mabel. He grinned at her, lopsided because his face was swollen, but a smile nonetheless. She smiled back. Dipper would always be there for her.
"Get your foot out, Mabel!" Grunkle Stan shouted. "The portal's about to close!"
Mabel tried to pull her foot out of the portal, but her shoe was stuck in it. Tentatively, Mabel let go of Grappling Hook with one hand and reached down with the other, trying to untie her shoe enough that she could slip her foot out. She pushed her hand through the portal just enough to feel the lace on her shoe and began to pull.
Something grabbed her hand, yanking her further into the portal. Mabel shrieked, and inside her head she heard Bill's voice: You're coming with me, Shooting Star. Mabel kicked out with her foot but hit nothing. Bill's hand yanked at her again, pulling her further into the portal, and at the other end of Grappling Hook Dipper screamed Mabel's name, desperately trying to hold onto the pipe and the hook at the same time.
"Dipper!" Mabel screamed back, kicking again and again and hoping to get Bill to let go of her hand. Mabel was dimly aware that no one on the other side should be able to pull that hard in such a gravity-free space, but apparentlyBill could.
Bill pulled Mabel's hand one last time with a mighty tug, and the hook flew out of Dipper's hand. Without the tension, Bill was able to pull Mabel all the way through the portal with him, and the last thing Mabel heard was Dipper screaming, "MABEL!" before the portal closed between them, severing Grappling Hook's line, leaving Mabel alone with the demon triangle.