Chapter 26: The Pine Tree's Sacrifice

Bipper sits on his main throne in the Gravity Falls pyramid, the throne still screaming loudly in agonizing pain, blood and fat still oozing from cracked, charcoal skin.

His leg was crossed over, his normal sitting position, and he gazed down at the people he had taken from the camp back in Texas. Bipper was saving them for when the Pines family and the others of the wheel would get here, wanting to torture the people they wanted to help protect right in front of them.

In Dipper's mind he recognized a few people from the time he was at the camp or saw with Bud Gleeful. He noticed there were a lot of small children, and his inner mind panicked, already imagining all the blood and screams. For a moment he want to run away, causing Bipper's leg to twitch involuntarily.

"Really, Pine Tree?" Bill's shrill voice echoes in his head. "You're really trying to resist again?"

No…

"Don't lie, Pine Tree." A snap of Bipper's fingers caused a person from the group to burst into blue flames, making them scream and drop to the ground, trying to stop the fire from harming them. But the fire ripped through the person with such an intensity that all was left after a few minutes of agonizing screaming was a pile of gray dust.

STOP IT!

Bipper then cackles, startling the petrified people in the main room. He had been amused this past week of torturing Pine Tree. The kid had lost a significant amount of weight from bulimia, him eating something but would end up throwing up from him mass murdering out of disgust and horror. Pine Tree was haunted with visions every night, causing him to wake up and scream and cry.

A demon then enters the room, one that looked similar to a gargoyle. The group backed away, terrified as the monster grinned at them evilly. The gargoyle bows in front of the screaming throne, Bipper uncrossing his legs and leaning forward, eager to hear any news.

"Master Cipher," the gargoyle greeted, still in its bowed position. "The Pines family and the wheel has arrived in here in Oregon." It then looked up slightly, red beady eyes, seeing the twisted, amused smile of the possessed boy.

"Just what I wanted to hear…" Bipper then cackles as he stands up, the blue flames on torches on the walls dancing happily.

"Now the fun can REALLY begin!"

Mabel was sitting on the motel bed, her weapons and items in front of her neatly arranged.

She had her handgun, fully loaded and the safety on, sitting next to her grappling hook. The memory erasing gun was next to the grappling hook, its brass looking exterior glowing in the weak sunlight that drifted in through the window. The note Dipper wrote underneath it. Her heart felt uneasy in her chest, making her almost feel sick.

Could she actually point that gun at her brother and erase him?

She had no other choice if the zodiac wheel doesn't work. In fact, Ford never told them what the wheel was supposed to do. She figured it was to banish Bill back to his original dimension or something. But she didn't want him just banished, she wanted Bill dead.

For years while Ford was studying in Gravity Falls the demon mentally tortured him, making build a portal and tricking him. For years it caused Ford paranoia and trust issues. Then in recent years Bill was tormenting Stan, herself, and his mentally torturing Dipper. Bill was nothing but a monster, but that seemed like an insult to the monsters she had faced so far in life.

Mabel picks up the memory erasing gun and runs her fingers over the brass metal that decorated it. She knew she had to be the one to do it, Dipper wanted her to. She couldn't let anyone else erase her brother, as much as it broke her heart, she needed to free him from Bill's control and the terrible memories that plague him.

The door to the room opened and Stan pokes his head in, his fez neatly on his almost silver colored hair. Mabel quickly hides the memory gun in her small backpack, not wanting her grunkle to see it.

"You almost ready, sweetie?" Stan asks softly, his tone a little worried.

"Yeah, just packing a little bag." Mabel replies, putting her other items including a small first aid kit in the backpack. "… I'm really scared, Grunkle Stan." She then admits, her body trembling.

Stan crosses over in the room and kneels down to one knee, pulling him close to her in a tight embrace. "I'm scared too…" he then tells her. "I'm so terrified right now…"

"What if the wheel doesn't work…?" Mabel asks tearfully, her small arms wrapping around Stan. "What if we can't get Dipper back…?"

"We will get Dipper back because the wheel will work." Ford's voice interrupts from the doorway, both Stan and Mabel looking up.

Ford wore a black sweater with no design in it, black pants, and his normal muddy boots. He once again wore a trench coat, but it was a midnight black, and he wore black gloves that he made himself for his six-fingered hands. In a way it looked like he just stepped out of the portal again.

"How do you know, Grunkle Ford?" Mabel asks him, pulling away from Stan and standing up. "What does the wheel exactly do?"

"According to my research the wheel is supposed to be high enough in magical energy that can banish Bill to his original dimension." Ford states. "From what I've read about Bill during my studies in Gravity Falls, and from what he even told me himself, it's a dimension in which he can never return to because of so many enemies. Bill has probably done something so horrible that they have the ability to execute him or something like that."

"So… the wheel is basically a portal to his dimension?" Stan then questions.

"More or less." Ford confirms. "We just need to make sure Dipper can resist Bill long enough to be part of the wheel so it can happen."

Stan then frowns. "Stanford, when you first met Bill in Gravity Falls he was a spiritual form right?" his twin nods. "When we tried to do the wheel the first time… that I cost us… he had a physical form right?" his twin nods again, but more slowly, trying to get at what Stan was trying to say. "What if you can't spiritually send him back, but physically?"

"What are you trying to ask, Stanley?" Ford then snaps.

Stan was unfazed by Ford's angry outburst. "I'm asking if we do the wheel will it send Dipper to Bill's dimension too?" he calmly states in one of the most serious sounding tones that Mabel, or even Ford, ever heard from him.

Ford's eyes widened. He never thought of that, it never crossed his mind. In all honesty he barely understood the wheel himself. He puts a hand to his head, scratching his head, gently moving the fluffy, dark gray hair.

"In all honesty, Lee," Ford whispers, using such an old nickname of Stan's that hadn't been used since they were extremely small. "I don't know… I have no idea…" his chest clenches. "Great… now you're making me second guess myself… I wouldn't want to send Dipper there… him trapped in another dimension with no way home…" tears start falling down his face. "I don't want him to end up like me… he's already half way there with all this mental torture Bill is putting him through… Dipper is just a kid… I was at least an adult when all of this happened to me…"

Both Stan and Mabel then go up to Ford, giving the depressed scientist a warm hug. Slowly, Ford puts his arms around his brother and his great niece, his body shaking. Everything was his fault, his whole family being tortured, so many people being killed… it was all because of him.

All because he got mad at his brother for something that was an accident, because he couldn't forgive and move on, him holding in his anger and emotions, building up a hatred to his twin brother that had been with him for most of his life. He let his love of science and the paranormal get in the way of his family, risking everything just because he wanted more knowledge.

"It's okay, Stanford," Stan tells his brother. "I'm sorry for what I did in the past… it's my fault you ended up not going to the school you wanted… all because I didn't want to imagine a future without you…"

"I'm sorry too, Stanley," Ford then says, his voice thick with emotion. "I let that anger control me… and I never truly said thank you for getting me back home…"

After another few minutes of hugging and crying, the three person embrace broke apart. With a gentle hand, Mabel takes both of her grunkles' hands and pulls them toward the door, her backpack on her back.

"We will save Dipper and save the world," Mabel states, turning around to give Stan and Ford large brown eyes. "Because we will do it together as a family."

Both Stan and Ford give identical, huge smiles as they let Mabel lead them to outside the motel to the RV and bus. Everyone was waiting, each wearing a sweater or some other article of clothing to represent their symbol on the zodiac.

Gideon then steps forward, "Everyone ready?" he asks, his voice a little high and wavering, clearly nervous on what is about to happen.

"As ready as we'll ever be." Ford replies as he gently lets go of Mabel's hand and walks to the RV.

As everyone piles onto the bus and the RV, George stayed behind for a moment and puts a hand on Mabel's shoulder.

"You okay?" he asks.

"No…" she replies, her eyes up in the sky, seeing a large x-shaped tear in the distance, knowing that Gravity Falls was there.

"But, I have to be for Dipper."

Ford drives down the dirt roads, heading towards Gravity Falls, Stan in the passenger seat next to him, looking at his gun and making sure everything was in order.

"So… this is it, Sixer." Stan grimly says. "The final showdown."

"Indeed it is, knucklehead." Ford replies, he tone equal to his brother's.

Soon the old looking sign that read "Welcome to Gravity Falls" and just underneath it read "Nothing to See Here Folks". Ford slowed down the RV, its wheels rolling unevenly over the stones and gravel of the road. The trees around them were charred black, no leaves hung on the branches. In the distance the giant, floating eyeballs with bat wings flied around, looking for any potential victims.

The old scientist's heart pounds in his chest as he found the collapsed Mystery Shack in a fairly large crater. He remembered when it was a giant robot, a plan made by the kids and McGucket to save him from Bill the first time. Seeing his old home, and the business Stan turned it into, made him uneasy. He pulls next to the down building, wood rotting at its sides and the roof in shambles.

"We need to make an official plan." Ford states as he gets out. Everyone follows his example, people getting off the bus that followed as well. Ford goes inside the Shack, seeing everything broken and covered in dust. Once everyone was inside with him, he then begins to explain, "For the zodiac to work, we need to join hands, and through my research I found an incantation, it's in Latin so bear with me here.

"Gravitate caeli et terrae cum factum est , sicut cum oculus timete bestia, Manus in manu nostra rota fit, ut in fine deficere bestiam, Una cessare faciam in te quod non aditus vere inmortale animal oculis perdere, Cum enim convenerant manibus nostris Maximo vicotry adversum te."

McGucket's eyes widened as he knew exactly what it meant. "When Gravity Falls and Earth become sky, fear the beast with just one eye. Hand in hand our wheel is made, to cause the beast in the end to fade. Together we will banish you back through the portal, to destroy the one eyed beast that is not truly immortal. For when we come together, hand in hand, our victory against you will be grand." It seemed like a full prophecy.

"That sounds like a mouthful," Stan complains. "Do we all have to say it or can you two nerds just do it?"

"I think if one or two people would just stun him… but not actually do anything." Ford says. Then his eyes widen with realization. "That's what we can do… we stun Bill long enough while Dipper resists, it would cause Bill to leave his body and then we can do the full incantation together."

Mabel's heart pounds in her chest, maybe she didn't have to wipe Dipper's memories completely. Maybe… just after this is all over she can just erase the memories of his time as Bill's puppet. It made her sigh almost with relief, but she still kept the memory gun with her, just in case it had to be done.

With the plan in motion everyone leaves the destroyed Mystery Shack. The begin walking towards the main pyramid that was built after Weirdmageddon was spread. It was twice the size as the other pyramids they have seen, it looking like the tip of it was going into the large tear in the sky. Mabel subconsciously went to grab for Dipper's hand, who had usually always been beside her, but her hand hits empty air. Without a warning a hand grabs her, and she looks over to see George, his face set in a determined position, his eyes hard looking. He gives her a comforting squeeze, which made her feel a lot better.

Ford leads the group inside the main entrance of the pyramid, knowing it wouldn't be guarded since Bill wanted them to come to Gravity Falls. The old scientist knew that Bill was somehow going to kill him, the demon most likely looking through every loophole in his and Dipper's deal. As he led them through the hallways, which he was all too familiar with from his time being Bill's puppet, he began to hear the screams of the throne.

Chills go up Mabel's spine, her never hearing such noise before. George's eyes widened when he began hearing the screams too. Melody pushes herself closer to Soos, her looking terrified. Wendy tried not to act scared, but she still stood next to Manly Dan close as well. When the room opens up, everyone sees the group that had been at their camp. George gives a sigh of relief seeing his friend's mother still alive. With a wave of a hand from Ford they all began moving towards them, trying to get away from the center as much as they could.

Standing on high podium with many steps, the screaming throne behind him, was Bipper in his usual outfit with glowing gold eyes. "Well, well, well," Bipper cackles shrilly, his voice echoing in the room. "I'm so glad you all can join us! Now we can have fun!"

"I'm giving you one last chance, Cipher!" Ford screams. "Give us back Dipper peacefully, or we will get him back from you by force!"

Bippers cocks his head to the side. "What are you going to do, huh?" he lowly says, taking the tone of Dipper. "Do you really think that your stupid zodiac wheel is going to stop me?" he began stepping down the stairs, and as he did his hands were covered in an angry red flame. The throne behind him then began to crumble down, the screams of pain finally subsiding as they all were released into the afterlife. "I'm already bound to Pine Tree's soul… you say that incantation and it's bye-bye Pine Tree!" he finally makes it to the bottom of the stairs, his whole body being licked by the red flames.

During his little dramatic stair descent, Ford had drawn the wheel on the floor. This was yet another variation of the wheel, this time he kept the Pines family all together: The Shooting Star, the Pine Tree, the Six-fingered Hand, and the Crescent-Shape.

"Dipper!" Mabel then screams. "I know you're in there, in your mind, just fight it! We have a plan…! Just resist!" Bipper laughs, a dark laugh that truly mocked Dipper's normal laughter. "Really, Shooting Star? You think you saying that is going to make him-" his voice cuts off as his body stumbles. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, PINE TREE?" he stumbles again and then collapsed to his knees. His body was violently shaking as he began throwing up blood, his arms wrapped around his body.

"Dipper!" Mabel screams as she runs up to her twin. Ford and Stan yelled at her not to go near him, but she ignored them, causing them to follow her. "Dipper! Hold on!" she cries, her eyes filling with tears.

"M…Mabel…" Dipper groaned, the flames that were around him subsiding. He looks up, one eye his brown color, the other the brilliant gold. He screamed in pain, his body twitching as he fell to his side.

"Dipper, I'm right here!" Mabel screams as she falls to her knees to be beside her brother. "That's good, Dipper, just keep fighting!"

"The… wheel… won't work…" Dipper gasps, blood trickling from his mouth.

Ford and Stan finally made it to his side, Stan picking Dipper up for his head to lean on Ford's lap next to him. "What do you mean the wheel won't work?" Ford demands, panic in his eyes.

"It… won't get… rid of him… only… stun him…" Dipper whispered, him violently shaking once again. He begins screaming, hands gripped in his brown hair. Both eyes glow gold for a moment, then they flash back to his brown. He was trying to resist, but he was losing energy fast. "He's… too powerful…" he then states. "Wheel… won't…. work…"

Mabel then grabs the backpack off her back, getting the memory gun and Dipper's note. She hold the gun in front of her for a moment, causing Ford and Stan's eyes to widen.

"Why do you have that, Mabel!?" Stan screams in horror.

"Because… Dipper had this plan all along…" Mabel states as she shows the note. "He said to wipe his mind… and he most likely erased his memory of writing this note and making that plan.

"We…" Ford began saying but trailed off. He had thought of that plan back at the start of Weirdmageddon, with Stan suggesting they switch and his mind would be erased. Now Ford really regrets not doing it, as now a 14-year-old boy had to make that sacrifice.

Dipper then sits up abruptly, blood pouring from his mouth. He then grips his sister's shooting star sweater, making himself stare into her eyes. "Mabel… please, please I beg of you do it!" his voice cracked as tears fell from his different colored eyes. "We will do the wheel to stun him… and I want you to erase my mind!" he was begging, his eyes pleading.

Once again doubt trickles through Mabel. How could she point blank erase her brother's mind? He was her twin brother, her other half so to speak. "But…" Mabel began but a scream rips through Dipper that made her choke back a sob, "I DON'T CARE THAT MY MEMORIES ARE GONE! I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER ALL THE PEOPLE I KILLED, RIPPING THEIR LIVES AWAY!" He then shook her shoulders, madness in his eyes, a look that looked familiar to Ford and even Stan. "For our entire lives I have dropped everything for you!" blood then trickles from his nose and the corners of his eyes, it was literally taking his life force to resist Bill. "This is the one thing I ask you to do! PLEASE, MABEL! FOR ONCE JUST DO WHAT I ASK!"

Her mouth quivers as she slowly nods her head. "We… need to get to the wheel…" she whispers as Stan and Ford help Dipper up.

The boy screams once again, ripping away from their grip. "I'm not giving up Pine Tree that easily!" Bill's voice rips through Dipper's body, him staggering as the pyramid began to shake and the walls were beginning to be covered in fire. "I'll kill you all! I don't care!" his hands goes to his head and Dipper screams.

Soos then makes the people who weren't part of the wheel to get outside to safety. Melody and Manly Dan leading the scared people. Melody gives Soos a quick kiss and she leaves, a child gripping her hand tightly in fear. George had glanced at Mabel, but he knew he couldn't do anything, so once their eyes met for a brief moment he gives a nod and follows the rest of the group out.

Stan then grips Dipper's arms, holding them to the boy's side so he wouldn't be practically ripping his hair out. Ford then helps Stan by getting Dipper's legs and he lift up, the two carrying him to the wheel. Mabel follows, putting the memory gun back into the backpack as she carried it.

"Just a little bit longer, Dipper!" Stan tells the screaming teenager. "You'll be free of this is a minute… I promise, kid…" Stan looked terrified and worried for the kid, his heart feeling like it was going to rip from his chest seeing the kid be tortured.

They set him on his pine tree spot on the wheel, him collapsing to his knees screaming. Ford and Stan join hands, the others joining in. Pacifica grabs Mabel's and Robbie's hands, while Robbie grabbed Wendy's, who grabbed Soos's hand, who then grabs Gideon's, then Gideon grips McGucket's as the old man holds Stan's other hand. The only one not holding hands was Dipper's, who was violently coughing up blood.

Slowly, he stands up and grabs both Mabel's and Ford's hands, him pulling himself up. Everyone began glowing a faint blue, the circle beneath them glowing. Ford and McGucket began saying the incantation, which was making Dipper's body hot. The pyramid continued to violently shake, the floor beginning to crack beneath them.

NO! NO! I WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN! Bill screamed in Dipper's mind, his head feeling like it was going to explode.

"Not… a chance… asshole…" Dipper mutters darkly, a slight smile on his face. He then collapses onto the ground backwards, his eyes heavy and his body feeling numb, his head slamming into the ground.

"DIPPER!" Mabel screams, dropping Pacifica's hand and crouching next to him. "DIPPER, DIPPER!" she called his name.

"Mabel…" Ford calmly says to her, putting a hand to her shoulder. "You know what you have to do…" Mabel nods her head as she shakily opens her backpack, getting the memory erasing gun. She turns it on, setting what she needed to set to erase his entire mind. Mabel typed in Dipper's real name into the screen, and she slowly aims it toward her brother's head. The gun was violently shaking as she takes a deep, shaky breath. "I'm sorry, Dipper…" she whispers as she pulls the trigger, a blue beam shooting out, hitting her brother in the head full on.

Dipper was standing in his mindscape, which looked a lot like his and Mabel's room in the attic at the Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls.

Bill stood in front of him, his body red and his eye black. Blue flames began surrounding the room, engulfing whatever exits that were around.

"You idiot, Pine Tree!" Bill screams in anger. "You're willing to basically kill yourself for your damn FAMILY!? You could've been a god, Pine Tree, to rule the universe! And you're giving it up for them!?"

Dipper calmly stares back, him wearing his red-orange shirt with his navy blue vest, gray shorts, and his blue and white pine tree hat sitting proudly sitting on his head. He gives a shrug. "That's the one thing I will always do, Cipher." Dipper tells him. "My family is the most important thing in this world. Just because you never have had someone that loved you, doesn't mean you have to make everyone feel the way you do. You become a person, or demon in your case, to be worth loving. You choose your own path to gain acceptance, but instead you chose death and destruction."

Bill staggers backwards, the blue flames beginning to take over him. He was being erased, he could feel his life tearing away. His body turns yellow as his eye widens. "NO!" he screamed. "NO, NO, NO, NO!"

Dipper then steps forward. "You messed with my family," he darkly says. "You tortured my uncles, you tried to kill my sister… and you messed with my extended family, my friends! That was a fatal mistake!" Dipper then pushes Bill body further into the flames, causing the demon to scream in rage and in pain. "NOW BURN IN HELL!"

The demon's body explodes into a series of colors. It fueled the flames and they begin to claw towards Dipper. Dipper gives a sad smile, knowing what was coming. He turns around behind him, now seeing a vision of his family.

"I love you guys… and thank you, Mabel, for being my twin sister…"

He closes his eyes as the flames engulfed him.