Mabel sat in a crisscross position on the floor, pondering over ideas in her head. She counted them off on her fingers one by one, mouthing them to herself as Stan watched in hushed silence. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on in the girl's head, but it was definitely something.

Soos had gone home a little earlier before as Stan had instructed him to do. He told him, sincerely and with gratitude, that he had already done enough to try to help and that they could handle the situation for now. While the man-child had hesitated for a moment, he had finally given in and left the two alone.

The small girl's expression suddenly brightened for a moment with an idea and she briskly stood up from the dusty carpet, not wasting any time telling her uncle what she had figured out.

"Okay, Grunkle Stan, did the people at the hospital tell you what the guy looked like when they saw him? Or did anyone see him when he was still there?" she asked, her voice brimming with question.

Stan thought for a moment. "Not exactly. But one dazed looking nurse kept mumblin' something about a man with golden hair and bright glowing eyes to herself over and over," he explained. "Said he looked magic. She might have been just a bit loony though. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if she'd been. Most of the people at that hospital are."

Mabel thought hard as she took the information in. "Did she say anything else?"

"I don't recall she did. That was pretty much all she said, other than the fact that he just seemed to vanish in an instant," Stan replied. "Some crazy nutty things like that. But I don't see how that really solves anything other than how the guy looks."

"But Grunkle Stan, don't you see?" Mabel said as she threw her arms up and nearly face palmed herself. "It does help. Bill Cipher's a demon, right?"

Stan nodded. "What are you getting at, kid?"

Mabel shook her head and motioned with her arms, surprised that her uncle wasn't getting the idea. "Well think about how that woman seemed so shaken up. About how she thought the man was magic. Doesn't that seem a little more than crazy? I think…"

She turned and paced down the room, then back in a continuous pattern, deep in the thought process. Her brow crinkled in thought. "I think…"

Stan seemed to be getting it now and his eyes trailed off to the side in thought before they came back into focus. The point that his great niece was trying to get across came to him suddenly. "Wait, so you're saying…" he began to say.

"Uh-huh." Mabel shook her head up and down, still pacing the length of the room. She turned her to her uncle, and her dark brown eyes were filled with a seriousness she rarely ever possessed before. "I think you're getting it."

Putting the rest of the pieces together in his head, Stan could only gape in astonishment at the girl's bizarre conclusion. "You think Bill has the ability to take a human form," he said, "and that he was the one who had shown up in the hospital."

"Now you got it," Mabel confirmed with a bit of excitement in her voice. "We just solved our first clue! We are on fire!" She began to point her fingers out like laser guns and make accompanying noises with it, a smile playing across her face.

Stan smiled at Mabel. "Good job, kid. We're gonna need that wit to help us. And no offense, but I really wouldn't have expected such a thing to come from you."

Mabel put her hands back down and gave a serious, dramatic look at her uncle. "None taken, Grunkle!"

"So Bill can take on human forms. We got that down," Stan said as he went through a list in his head, "and he can easily manipulate people. Well, we already knew that, but what next?"

He looked at his niece for an answer. Mabel thought for a moment, rubbing her chin with her hand, gears beginning to churn once again in her head. Her mind automatically flicked back to a couple of nights before when she had been looking through journal number 3, it having been found partially sticking out from under her twin's bed opposite the room. She recalled as she flipped through the pages that she had come across one with dark, bold letters and a faded triangle with a single eye splayed across the page. In fact, she was sure of it. She had skipped past it as she had been going along, but now, she realized that it was their ticket to trying to stop Bill Cipher.

Perhaps their only one.

While she was thinking this over, only then did she remember that she had taken the journal with her on the way to the hospital visit to give to Dipper. Meaning that she didn't have it in her possession to look over, and that they couldn't do anything without it.

She began to flap her hands back and forth in a flourish. Her head whooshed to the left and right, her hair flying back and forth. "Grunkle Stan, the book!"

"What book?" her uncle asked quizzically. "We got hundreds of books, kid. You're gonna need to specify."

"You know the one I brought to give to Dipper when Soos and I went to see him? The reddish torn one?"

"Oh, you mean that piece of malarkey that fills his head up with nonsense on a daily basis?" Stan inquired.

"Yeah, yeah," the girl said, almost fumbling over her words. "Do you have it? Did you bring it home with you when you left? Did you?"

Stan put his hands up. "C'mon, kid, c'mon, slow down a little," he said gently, in a much quieter tone than her own. "I don't think I did bring it home. What's the big deal about it? Why're you looking so panicked?"

"Because…I think that it might have something about Bill in it! In fact, I'm sure of it!" she said as she began her pacing again. "Do you have it?" she stressed.

"My pockets are empty," Stan said as he shrugged. "But are you sure that there's something about him in there? For all you know you're just imagining things."

"I'm sure!" Mabel exclaimed, "I remember looking over…I mean Dipper telling me about it! I think that's how he was summoned in the first place." The girl then pointed up at her uncle. "If you don't have it, then it must still be at the hospital!" she exclaimed again, face brightening as she looked to him. "Do you think you can drive us back there right now, Grunkle Stan? Please?"

"I suppose it isn't bad to try," Stan gave in, "we're going to have to go before visiting hours end, though. Are you sure about this?"

"I've never been so sure about something in my life," Mabel said with her most sincere tone. "But before we go I'm going to go give a quick check on Waddles to make sure he's okay. I'll be right back," she said and began to turn around, heading for the steps.

"I'll be getting ready," Stan said as he grabbed his car keys off of the small round table by his chair and went out to start-up his old El Diablo.

"It's a plan," she said and gave two thumbs up as she began to skip up the first set of stairs and to the attic she and Dipper shared. The ascent seemed much longer to her than usual, and each step she took resulted in a groan to come from the protesting stairs.

The girl gulped as an almost sickening feeling begun to overcome her. She stopped halfway to wrap an arm around her midsection and take a deep breath, now beginning to walk up at a much slower pace. She reminded herself that she needed to hurry up, but now, the steps seemed to towering.

Another strange sense of sickness took over and she fell to her hands and knees as she finally reached the top of the stairs, taking more breaths. A moment before she had been just fine, and now, she felt sickly and weak.

She could barely lift her trembling arm to her head, which was now beginning to pound with the force of a hundred hammers. Confused and puzzled, she began to make an effort to inch her way along the grimy floor, being careful as to not bump into anything.

The twelve-year-old girl finally found herself next to the doorway of the attic bedroom, and she breathed a shaky sigh of relief. She tried pushing herself up, but immediately, like a sharp knife stuck into the side of her head, a jolt of pain rang up her neck an edged its way into her skull. Completely impaired of almost all movement, a shrill scream ripped from her throat and reverberated around the empty hallway.

A few seconds later, it must have been, the girl could hear the thud thud thud of footsteps clambering up the stairs, and Stan appeared at the top. He ran over to where she was currently on her hands and knees on the ground and kneeled beside her.

"Mabel!" he shouted with worry. "Mabel, are you alright? What happened?" He began pummeling her with questions, and about half the time she couldn't listen. Only one word echoed throughout her head. Only one thing was now on her mind. It was as if she was there, experiencing it, watching it…

"Mabel!" Stan yelled again, trying to get the girl's attention as he shook her shoulder gently, but with enough force to try to bring her back to reality.

"Dipper's in trouble!" she cried all of a sudden, startling the old man. Her body shook as she screamed again. "No, don't do that! Stop, get away from him!"

Stan shook her harder, trying to get her out of the horrible trance that she had been caught in. "Mabel, Mabel calm down! Kid!" he shouted anxiously.

The young girl quieted for a moment, her breathing now coming under control. She put a hand to her chest and looked up at her befuddled great-uncle. He looked just as uneasy as she did. She only muttered a couple of words.

"He's getting worse..."

Stan eased Mabel back up from the ground gently, giving her a quick squeeze for what had just happened and looked her in the eye.

"You mean…"

"Yeah…we need to get that book quick…"

Stan wasted no time in agreeing with her but stayed by her side for the rest of the time as she went to check on her pet pig and give him a quick pat on the head. Assuring that he was alright, she and her uncle both walked out of the room and back downstairs, out into the damp, Oregon day.

…

Holding the ancient tome her brother so dearly loved tightly to her chest, Mabel breathed a sigh of relief as Stan's car sped down the gravelly roads of town. Despite the doctors questioning them about having a book, they had gotten it back safe and sound, with no harm done.

Mabel held the book out in front of her and smiled. "We just got our ticket to saving Dipper," she mumbled excitedly to herself.

"Yeah, well we'll see just what exactly it'll do for us when we get back home," Stan said, watching the road in front of him as they sped by cars. "You did good, kid."

The girl smiled largely at her uncle. She set the book on her lap, gazing at the six-fingered golden hand stamped onto the front as it shined in the light. The dark bold 3 stood out strong, and somehow, she knew that this might just be it.

After what seemed like forever, the old car pulled up into the Mystery Shack's front lot and stopped with a screech. The jubilant girl unbuckled her seat belt and threw open the door in a flash, hopping out of the seat and running up to the door with the speed of a marathoner.

Stan lagged behind after her, his speed most definitely not comparing to hers, and walked into the building, where Mabel was already seated on his faded yellow armchair with the book in her lap.

"Geez kid, you're excited," Stan declared as he went over to join her. He scooted her over so that he could fit in the chair too and they were now sitting next to each other. Mabel sat the book in front of both of them so that they could both get a good look, eagerness showing in her eyes.

"You ready, Grunkle Stan?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Stan said. Mabel took this as her cue to open up the aging journal. Flipping through the wrinkled yellow pages, many an oddities passed by them, fantastic creatures and monsters, concoctions and chants, that were all boldly printed onto the pages and stood out from everything else. Stan could only gawk at it all as the girl flipped with ease, almost care freely as she went to find her destination.

"This…this is amazing," Stan mumbled dazedly. "This can't all be real, it just can't."

The girl gasped, interrupting his awed mumbling with: "I think I found it!"

Stan looked downwards, and sure enough, right there on the page, was the ever threatening dream demon himself, staring up at the duo with a cold single eye. The loopy cursive of the writer read: BILL CIPHER in daring print. What was even more unnerving, however, was the dark red substance smeared and splattered across the pages. It made both think that the man had been writing in a hurry as Bill had been going after him, and had been just a tad too late.

"Well, here we go…" Mabel said, now sounding slightly unsure as she began to read out loud the words.

"Bill Cipher…is he watching me?" she read from the top and her eyes scanned the rest of the text, trying to make out the almost unreadable handwriting.

"Beware Bill. The most powerful and dangerous creature I've ever encountered. Whatever you do, never let him into your mind..."

She looked up at her uncle, then back down, now, continuing to read.

"Wait a second, Mabel," Stan said as he pointed to another paragraph below that, "read this."

"This is what we did to get into your mind, Grunkle Stan," Mabel explained. "Dipper did this weird chant-thingy and that's how we were teleported into your head. I don't think that's going to help us now."

The girl sighed and set the book down when she was finished with reading, feeling hopeless. Most of the information she had already known or found out, and it didn't really help in their search at all.

"There's got to be something else," she murmured, "another page, or, or-" she took the book again and took the page with her fingers. Somehow the page seemed thicker than it should have been. Almost like watercolor paper, and she knew how thick that was, thanks to the numerous times she had used it.

Mabel got a good grip on the page with her other hand and, being careful as to not rip the page, made an attempt to peel apart the paper, revealing another hidden side that she hadn't known about.

Expecting to see something useless, this time, was a page she had never seen before. Her eyes brightened. It still seemed to be on the topic of Bill, but now had much more information on it. A small illustration of the demon was drawn off to the side in black ink. This time, he looked cowered over, and his hands were out in front of him as if trying to protect himself. With a brow raised, Mabel read the top headline, and held the book for her uncle to see once again.

"Weaknesses."

A/N: Wow, a much longer chapter than usual. The words just flew onto the empty text document like a bang, I tell you.

Also, reverberated is one of my vocab words, heh heh. My Communication Arts teacher would be proud of me, ye-siree.