After Mabel explained what happened to Dipper and Ford, the three of them split up to find Stan.
Ford had been hesitant to let the children look alone, but Mabel insisted that Stan was still in control. Plus, he wanted to find Stan as quickly as possible. Splitting up and covering more ground was the best way to do that. Ford told himself that even if Bill was inside him, Stan would never hurt the kids…right?
He kept an eye on Stan after his memories came back. If Stan's memories weren't completely erased, it was possible that Bill hadn't been erased either. He had secretly been researching ways to get rid of Bill should he turn up and came up with a few experiments that might work. But he hadn't seen any signs of possession the past few months, so he figured it might not have been necessary. Once again, Ford had been wrong.
"Grunkle Ford!" Dipper's urgent call pulled Ford out of his thoughts. He ran over to his nephew.
"Dipper, what's wrong?"
"The Stan O' War." Dipper pointed to the sea. Stan was sailing away without Ford. They both knew he had no intention of coming back.
"Oh my god." Dipper was even more panicked now.
"What is it?" Ford saw that Stan wasn't the only one going out to sea. Mabel was swimming after the Stan O' War II way past a safe distance from the shore. "Mabel…"
Ford and Dipper ran to the edge of the pier. Dipper was about to dive in after his sister but Ford put his arm in front of him.
"Dipper, don't!"
"We have to go get her."
"You'll drown."
"She'll drown!"
"She's too far, Dipper."
"What do we do?"
Ford did the only thing he could think of. Their only hope. "STAN!"