"Dipster?" The door suddenly opened: it was Mabel. "Dipper!"
"Mabel?" Dipper said happily as he went downstairs. "Mabel! You're all right, I knew you would come back." He hugged her.
"You've done so much for me already my friend, but I must ask your help one more time." Mabel hugged him back.
"Yes, anything." Dipper smiled.
Mabel gestured for someone to come inside. A gypsy appeared gently dragging Barnaby inside. Dipper instantly was worried upon seeing how weak he looked.
"This is Barnaby, he's wounded and a fugitive like me." Mabel explained. "He can't go on much longer, I knew he'd be safe here. Please can you hide him?"
"This way." Dipper led Mabel and the other gypsy towards his bed.
Mabel and the gypsy gently lay Barnaby on Dipper's bed. Barnaby groaned and woke up slightly.
"Mabel?" He saw her bending over him.
"Shh, you'll hide here until you're strong enough to move." Mabel said.
She then uncorked a cloth-flask of wine.
"Great, I could use a drink." Barnaby smiled.
Mabel flipped him over and poured the drink onto the wound on his back. Barnaby groaned from the pain.
"Yes, feels like a 1470 Burgundy." Barnaby winced. "Not a good year."
"That family owes you their lives." Mabel said as she sewed his wound. "You're either the single bravest soldier I've ever seen, or the craziest."
"Ex-soldier, remember?" Barnaby winced. "Why is it whenever we meet I end up bleeding?
Mabel finished sewing up the wound and flipped him back onto his back.
"You're lucky, that arrow almost pierced your heart." She said.
Barnaby took her hand and put it over his heart.
"I'm not so sure it didn't." He said.
Mabel got what he was saying, and blushed a little. Truthfully, she was feeling the same way. So, she leaned over and kissed him.
You'd think Dipper would be hurt...but he wasn't. He was a bit disappointed but didn't feel any pain at all. In fact he even got over his disappointment quickly. He looked at the Ace of Hearts Soos gave him and tossed it away nonchalantly.
After Mabel and Barnaby kissed Barnaby fell asleep. Suddenly Waddles squealed fearfully at one of the openings!
Mabel and Dipper rushed over to the opening and saw Gideon getting out of his carriage!
"Gideon's coming!" Dipper gasped. "You must leave, quick follow me. Go down the south tower steps."
The other gypsy rushed out but Mabel stopped to say goodbye.
"Be careful my friend, promise you won't let anything happen to him." She said.
"I promise." Dipper smiled.
"Thank you." Mabel and Waddles left.
"Quick, we gotta stash the stiff!" Katie said.
Dipper rushed over, grabbed Barnaby, and dragged him over to the table that had his carvings on it. He quickly forced Barnaby under the table and tried to straighten the carvings he accidentally knocked down. Gideon arrived.
"Oh, master I-I-I didn't think you'd be coming." Dipper quickly said, making it look as if he was just playing with his carvings.
"I'm never to busy to share a meal with you dear boy." Gideon half-lied. "I brought a little treat."
He sat down next to the table and placed a basket on it. He then cleared his throat.
"Oh." Dipper rushed to get the goblets and plates, though broke a few due to his nerves.
Dipper then went back and set the goblets and plates out. Gideon put grapes on both plates.
"Is something troubling you Dipper?" Gideon said.
"Oh, no." Dipper tried hard not to sound nervous but failed.
"Oh but there is." Gideon ate a grape. "I know there is."
A grape fell off Gideon's bunch, and Dipper went to get it so that Gideon wouldn't end up seeing Barnaby. He still acted nervous though.
"I think...you're hiding something." Gideon guessed.
"Oh no master, I-" Dipper hesitated as he thought about what to do with the loose grape; he just put it on his plate. "There's no-"
"You're not eating." Gideon pointed out.
Dipper stuffed a bunch of grapes into his mouth.
"It's very good, thank you." He said.
Barnaby woke up slightly, but Dipper covered for it by pretending to make 'yummy' sounds about the grapes. Barnaby then groaned so Dipper had to kick him in the head to knock him out. He covered for it by coughing and pounding his chest.
"Seeds." Dipper smiled awkwardly, pointing to the grapes he hadn't eaten.
Gideon gave him a suspicious look.
"What's different in here?" He got up.
"Nothing, sir." Dipper lied.
Gideon then saw the carving of Mabel.
"Isn't this one new? It's awfully good." He said, picking it up. "Looks very much like the gypsy girl."
Dipper now looked worried, he realized that Gideon had figured out how Mabel had escaped in the first place.
"I know...you helped her escape!" Gideon snapped angrily, slamming the Mabel carving on the table.
"But I-" Dipper tried to defend himself.
"And now all Paris is burning because of you!" Gideon tossed the Mabel carving aside.
"She was kind to me master." Dipper cowered.
"YOU IDIOT!" Gideon smashed almost all of Dipper's carvings. "That wasn't kindness, it was cunning! She's a gypsy, gypsies are not capable of real love! Think boy! Think of your mother!"
Gideon grabbed Dipper by the front of his tunic, causing Dipper to stare at him fearfully. Gideon then calmed down and let go of Dipper.
"But what chance could a poor misshapen child like you have against her heathen treachery?" Gideon took out a small thin blade and stabbed the Mabel carving before burning it in a candle. "Well, never you mind Dipper, she'll be out of our lives soon enough. I will free you from her evil spell. She will torment you no longer."
Gideon then tossed the now-burning Mabel carving onto the ground. Dipper looked at it with horror.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"I know where her hideout is, and tomorrow at dawn I attack with a thousand men." Gideon replied before leaving...with an evil smirk.
There was suddenly a groan. Barnaby came out from underneath the table.
"We have to find the Court of Miracles before daybreak." He said. "If Gideon gets there first...are you coming with me?"
"I can't." Dipper hung his head.
"I thought you were Mabel's friend." Barnaby frowned.
"Gideon's my master, I can't disobey him again." Dipper explained before turning around.
"She stood up for you!" Barnaby said angrily. "You've got a funny way of showing gratitude!"
Dipper didn't budge.
"Well I'm not going to sit by and watch Gideon massacre innocent people." Barnaby retorted before leaving. "You do what you think is right."
Dipper saw the gargoyle quartet looking sternly at him.
"What?" He said defensively. "What am I supposed to do? Go out there and rescue the girl from the jaws of death and the whole town will cheer like I'm some kind of a hero? Like that'll ever happen!" He snapped before sighing. "Gideon was right, Gideon was right about everything. And I'm tired of trying to be something that I'm not."
He then automatically looked at his palm, looked at the smoldering Mabel carving, and brought out the necklace Mabel gave him. He didn't know why but...he still felt some weird connection to her. Even though Mabel didn't love him romantically he still felt as if they belonged together. But not as a couple, as...as something else. Something he couldn't explain. After all he ended up not really loving her, at least not romantically. Sure he felt some affection for her before, but it couldn't have been romantic because Mabel picking Barnaby instead didn't hurt him in any way. And he still felt affection towards her, enough to...to want to make sure that she would never be harmed.
Multi-Bear smiled as he held out a cloak. Dipper took it, looked at it, and sighed.
"I must be out of my mind." He muttered as he put on the cloak and left.
Downstairs, Barnaby was just about to leave through an outside door-
"Barnaby!" Dipper hung upside down from the carvings on the wall.
Barnaby gasped with fright.
"*Shh*, I'm coming with you!" Dipper landed on the ground.
"Glad you changed your mind." Barnaby whispered dryly, annoyed about being startled.
"I'm not doing it for you I'm doing it for her." Dipper retorted.
"You know where she is?"
"No, but she said that this will help us find her." Dipper took out the necklace and gave it Barnaby.
"Good good good!" Barnaby looked at the necklace. "Ah, great...! What is it?"
"I'm not sure." Dipper shrugged.
"Hm, maybe it's some sort of code." Barnaby studied the dangling part of the necklace. "Maybe it's in Arabic...no, no it's not Arabic. Maybe it's Ancient Greek."
"When you wear this woven band you hold the city in your hand." Dipper remembered what Mabel told him.
"What?"
"It's the city!" Dipper realized.
"What are you talking about?"
"It's a map. See, here's the cathedral, and the river, and this little stone must be-"
"I've never seen a map that looks like-"
"Look I've lived up in the bell tower for twenty years and I think I know what the city looks like from above and this is-"
"Well I've been in battles on four continents so I've got a very good idea what a map looks like and this is not-"
"It!" Barnaby and Dipper finished at the same time.
They then glared at each other, both annoyed, and took a deep breath.
"All right, okay, if you say it's a map, fine, it's a map." Barnaby gave in. "But if we're going to find Mabel then we're have to work together. Truce?"
"Well...okay." Dipper patted him on the back, forgetting his strength.
Sure enough Barnaby gasped with pain.
"Sorry." Dipper said.
"No you're not..." Barnaby muttered.