The Rescue
"Gnomes of the forest, move out!" said Jeff.
The giant gnome formation began to walk, carrying the humans in a belly pouch they had formed.
"Try not to step on my face," a gnome below Tambry said.
"Sorry," said Tambry.
Another gnome called, "Hey Jeff, there's a glasses-shaped creature trying to hitch a ride on top of my hat."
"Brush it off," Jeff suggested.
"No, pass it to me," said Soos. "I'd like a cool little monster as a pet."
The gnomes grabbed the living glasses creature and passed it hand to hand until it reached Soos.
Soos tied the earpieces of the glasses together with a rubber band to keep it from running away, and put the creature in his bag with the painting, the piece of carpet, and the make-pretend race set.
The gnome assembly made swift progress, and soon they were nearly at the grounds of Northwest Manor.
"Let's do this right. Remember the plan," said Stan.
Mabel yelled, "Chaaarge!"
The gnomes listened to Mabel and dashed onto the grounds. A high-pitched whistle played over hidden speakers, and the gnome formation collapsed to the ground as the gnomes covered their ears and ran.
The invading team was quickly subdued by robed figures and taken inside Northwest Manor.
Inside the ceremony room, the rest of the Ten were tied to columns to fill in the empty spaces of the Wheel. Tambry was tied up to the side as an extra hostage.
"Stan and Mabel, why weren't you more careful?" Dipper demanded. "Now we're all caught."
"You were fools to try to use gnomes," said Vincent Northwest. "I've studied them and I know all their weaknesses."
"This is perfect," gloated the Overeating Man. "Bring in the tapestry and the banner of our society and the ceremony can begin."
Two hooded figures brought in a tapestry showing Bill Cipher floating in triumph over the world, with two people bowing before him, next to a tree in flames.
"This prophecy cloth was made by native Americans a generation ago. It failed to come to pass at that time, due to the lack of cooperation by a powerful shaman, but this time we will not fail," said Vincent.
"We're not going to cooperate, either," said Dipper.
"We don't need a shaman this time," said Vincent. "All you have to do is be here."
"Do you see the nine bones at the bottom of the tapestry?" asked the Overeating Man. "It means that nine out of ten of you will die to bring about the rule of our Master."
"What happens to the tenth one?" asked Stan.
"He or she will become a permanent vessel for the Master to rule this world," said Vincent.
"Probably me," said Dipper bitterly. "That's why the triangle was trying out possessing me before."
"It was not revealed to us which one," said the Overeating Man. "But guess what? Even if the sealing ceremony was done correctly, one of you would have had to die."
"What? I didn't know that," said the Author.
"Here comes the banner of our secret society," said Vincent. "We're ready to finish this."
Two more hooded figures brought in the banner of the Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel and hung it beside the prophecy tapestry.
"Stan! You have a banner like that hanging up in the Mystery Shack," said Dipper. "You're a member!"
"I didn't know it was like this," said Stan. "It wasn't this bad when I was in it, before they kicked me out."
"You're lying!" said Dipper. "I bet you've been in on this all along."
The hooded figures unmasked, revealing a group of fishermen the twins had seen at Gravity Falls Lake on the day of the Gobblewonker. The first man was skinny, had glasses, wore a fishing hat and an orange life-vest, and had sunscreen on his nose. The second man was heavyset and bald, with a lot of hair on his arms and hair stubble on his chin. The third man had a large mouth with buck teeth, and he was wearing a fishing hat with fish-hooks stuck in it . The fourth was a short man with yellow buck teeth, with a gray mustache and beard. He wore an orange cap.
"I'm glad now you didn't 'like' or 'trust' me enough to be my fishing buddies, you traitors to the human race!" said Stan.
"Dipper, my brother wouldn't betray humanity to a demon," said the Author. "He's made a lot of mistakes, but nothing like that."
"You don't know," said Dipper. "It's been thirty years. Maybe he's possessed."
"It doesn't matter," said the Overeating Man. "Find the words of invocation in the Journal."
Vincent looked through the three confiscated journals. "The summoning spell ought to do it. Triangulum, entangulum..."
Gnomes came pouring out of the ventilation ducts. They menaced the Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel members with their pointy hats.
"I'm prepared," said Vincent. He drew a dog whistle from his pocket and blew it hard.
It had no effect. The gnomes swarmed over him and took the whistle away. Soon the prisoners were freed and the Royal Order members were tied up instead.
"We sure fooled you guys!" said Mabel.
"Why weren't you affected by the whistle?" Dipper asked the gnomes.
Jeff pulled something out of his ears. "Tiny ear-plugs. We learned from that time with Gideon."
Stan laughed. "We didn't want to have to search the whole mansion for you, so we figured the easiest way was to get ourselves captured and get taken to you, while the gnomes kept track of us for a rescue."
"Let's get out of here," said Pacifica. "I can't stand being in this place another minute."
"You can stay with me," said Dipper. "I mean... with us."
"No wonder they treated me like a trained animal," said Pacifica. "To them I was one."
"We'll be your family from now on," said Mabel. "We love animals."
When they got outside, Wendy said, "Now what?"
"We have to find a place to do the ceremony right," said Stan.
Dipper had picked up the Journals. He shined his portable black light on the summoning page in Journal 2, revealing a message in invisible ink. "It says here the best place to seal him is the place he was last summoned."
"That is correct," said the Author. "But where is that?"
"Ah can show you," said Gideon.
The gnomes re-assembled and gave them quick transport to the summoning site, among a group of aspen trees.
"This is it," said Dipper. "If we do this wrong, all but one of us dies and the world is lost. If we do it right, one of us dies and we save the world."
"We're not sticking around, just in case something goes wrong," said Jeff. "We're off to visit Lazy Susan."
"Thanks for your help, and good luck with your date," said Mabel.
The gnomes scampered away.
The Author took candles from his pocket and began setting them up in a circle around the site.
Stan whispered to Soos, "Let me see your bag of stuff for a minute."
"Sure thing, Mr. Pines," said Soos, handing it over.
Dipper watched with suspicion as Stan drew out a rubber-gloved hand with something in it. Stan moved toward the Author, approaching him from behind.
"Grunkle Stanford, watch out!" Dipper called out.
The Author spun around, a wild look on his face and his hands in claws. He swiped at Stan, but Stan blocked him with his left arm. With his right hand Stan touched the Author with the object he held. There was a snap of static electricity and the Author fell to the ground.
Stan held up the bound pair of living spectacles. "I charged these with the piece of Electron Carpet and swapped him into them."
"Why did you do that?" asked Dipper.
"We had no chance of doing the sealing ceremony right with him in it," said Stan.
"Why?" Dipper asked again.
"Because I figured out he's not really my brother," said Stan. "He was possessed."
