Evelyn ran down the forest roads, hoping that Mabel haven't managed to get too far in the time it took for the teen to realize what was happening. But ten minutes, especially when used by a resourceful girl like Mabel, may be all she needed. The water tower wasn't that far away, after all…

The brunette couldn't help but feel blinded by anger and hurt. Mabel had promised, had seemed to realize the need to be delicate, and had lied to her sister's face as though she didn't matter at all… How could Mabel be so stupid?!

'You give them too much trust, Little Bird,' Bill said. His words were harsh, but he delivered them with a touch of gentleness, no doubt feeling her emotional turmoil. 'You have to learn that you can't always trust humans, even your 'family'. Flesh bags always look out for themselves first, and Shooting Star and Pine Tree are no different.'

'I… I see where you're coming from.' Evelyn thought, focusing on her breathing as she ran. 'Maybe I give them the benefit of the doubt too much, and maybe that should change… but I will never stop trusting them when it really matters. They're good kids, and their mistakes don't outweigh their strengths and values.'

Bill sighed. 'I just think you trust them too much, Little Bird. and one day, you'll get burned for it.'

'Well, that day's not today.' Evelyn thought firmly.

The trees sped by her as she ran, and the loud crunch of gravel beneath her feet was the only constant sound in her ears. Her sides began to ache the longer she ran, but she refused to slow down; she had to reach the tower before her sister did something stupid.

Finally, there was a break in the trees, opening up to the park the water tower stood in. From a distance, she could see two figures climbing the ladder, and she cursed.

She put on a final burst of speed, reaching the ladder just as Mabel took off their uncle's blindfold.

The brunette could see that her uncle was saying something, but he was too high up for her to hear properly. Mentally aware that she had failed to stop Mabel, Evelyn mentally decided on a new plan; get up there and ground Mabel until the end of summer.

With that thought in mind, the teen climbed the ladder quickly, glaring at the ledge that was rapidly approaching.

"Mabel!" she yelled, and heard a panicked squeak came from above.

Mabel peered down, giving her sister a guilty and sheepish look as she attempted a smile. "Evie! I… knew you'd find us!"

Evelyn pulled herself up to the platform, her eyes practically burning holes into her sister. "Mabel Pines, you are in so much trouble right now! You lie to me, blatantly do the one thing I told you not to do, and then act innocent? You can kiss your freedom and sleepovers with Candy and Grenda goodbye!"

"Evie, no, please!" Mabel's eyes were wide at the threat. "I'm sorry, don't take away my sleepovers-"

"I, uh, take it that this wasn't your idea, kid?" Stan cut in shakily. His hands clutched the railing tightly, and he seemed unable to stop looking down.

Evelyn softened immediately at seeing her physically distressed uncle. "I'm so sorry Grunkle Stan. I told Mabel not to do this. I'd planned something a bit more relaxing-"

Her words were cut off by the sound of someone frantically climbing up the ladder.

"D-do you smell danger and hormones?" Mabel asked weakly, still reeling from her sister's ire.

Mabel's question was answered by the appearance of Robbie as he scrambled up the ladder and onto the platform. He plastered his back to the wall of the water tower, his expression a mix of panic and relief. "Finally! I'm safe!"

"Uh…" Evelyn took in the disheveled and fearful appearance of the older teen in confusion.

Robbie jumped, seemingly only just realizing that there were others there. He glanced at them with frantic eyes, and Evelyn wasn't sure if he was even in the right state of mind to recognize them.

Mabel wasn't as observant and, still feeling flustered and guilty, made a loud comment. "Hey, Robbie! Get your own water tower!"

The teen's panic seemed to escalate to a startling level at Mabel's piercing voice.

"SSSHHHHH!" he shushed as loudly as he could while remaining discrete. "Keep it down! He'll find us!"

"Who will find us?" the elder brunette questioned. Wasn't Robbie supposed to be confronting Dipper right now? Dipper, with his video game bodyguard…

Her question was answered by a booming, oddly pronounced cry. "CHALLENGER SIGHTED!"

As Robbie let out a high-pitched, girly scream, Evelyn felt a wave of urgency come from Bill. 'Little Bird, you need to get off that tower right now.'

She nodded minutely, beginning to make her way to the ladder and taking her sister's hand, when his voice added, 'Oh, and push Broken Heart off as an offering to be on the safe side.'

Evelyn could faintly hear the pixelated man roar, "YOU CAN HIDE, BUT YOU CANNOT HIDE!", causing her to pause as she processed the statement. Robbie looked like he was about to wet himself despite how stupid Rumble's sentence was, and Mabel seemed fairly uninterested, focusing more on quietly shooing the frightened teen.

Everything shifted a moment later, when a loud crack was heard and the water tower shuddered and tilted. Robbie began to fall backwards, his hands scrambling for purchase. Unfortunately, Evelyn happened to be near enough for his desperate hands to grab.

The brunette felt clammy hands clasp her wrist, and the momentum, mixed with her own unbalanced wobbling, sent her catapulting with Robbie off the ladder. Thinking quickly, she let go of Mabel and desperately grabbed at the wooden fence next to the ladder. Her free hand managed to grip the wood, no doubt giving her multiple splinters, and she shook her other hand out of Robbie's grip, her instincts telling her to hold on with both hands.

She heard her uncle and sister call out her name, along with a small distressed cry from someone at the base of the tower, but Evelyn didn't dare look down. She had to focus on getting proper footing.

As she scrambled and twisted her legs toward the ladder,she could sense Bill's rising panic, which only made her worse. Her hands shook from nerves and the shaking of the tower, and with Robbie holding onto the ladder right underneath her, there wasn't enough room for her feet.

Another shudder echoed through the water tower, causing Robbie to fall and Evelyn to shriek in terror. She glanced down for a split second and, seeing that Robbie was being held by the pixel fighter and not flat on the ground, her heart began to ease.

She managed to get her feet on a rung of the ladder, but the tilted angle of the tower meant that she was hanging against the force of gravity, and let out a panicked sound. Her arm still hurt from before, but she didn't want to fall; she doubted that Rumble would bother to catch her like he had Robbie.

'Push yourself up, Little Bird!' Bill urged. 'If you get your arms around the post, you'll be stable!'

'I'll try,' she grimaced at the growing strain on her arms as she began to lift her feet up the rungs of the ladder.

Her right hand began to slip, and soon she felt it let go involuntarily, only to be grabbed by a much smaller hand.

Mabel looked down at her from the leaning position she had on the fence, tears springing in her fearful eyes. "Hold on, Evie! I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!" Mabel sniffed, holding tightly to her sister's hand. "I was the one who wanted to go to the water tower, but I should have compromised. Please don't fall!"

Evelyn tried to use the additional help to push herself forward, but Mabel wasn't very strong, and her grip wouldn't last much longer…

"I forgive you, Mabel." Evelyn grimaced. "And we'll talk about it once everything is over, alright?"

'Is this really the right time for this, Little Bird?!' Bill questioned. 'You're about to become a human pancake!'

Her leverage on the post was beginning to give in, so she used the last strength in her strained muscles to jump forward and get a better grip. As her hand reached out, another calloused hand wrapped around hers, and her eyes met the shaken yet determined face of her uncle.

He began to pull, giving Evelyn the force she needed to push herself forward. With the collective help of her family, she clambered awkwardly back onto the tilted platform, her limbs splayed uncomfortably on the old wood.

She gathered her breath, before looking her uncle in the eyes. "Thank you, Grunkle Stan. you… saved my life."

Her uncle and sister collectively helped pull her back to the relative safety of the side of the water tower, before Stan replied, "Well, I wasn't just going to let you become a pancake, kid."

Evelyn gave him a shaky smile; she knew how momentous his action to move forward and help him was. He was terrified of heights, and the fact that he let go of the paralyzing fear and leave his safe spot to help made her feel a rush of pride and affection.

They all pressed themselves to the wall of the tower. Mabel, now calming down after helping save her sister, had no choice but to focus on the height of the water tower. "We… we're safe, right?"

Evelyn wanted to reassure her sister, but she was still calming herself down - with Bill's help - from her near fall, so she didn't think she could be very comforting.

Stan, however, had no such reservations. "Of course not!" he yelled hotly.

To the elder sister, he looked less frightened than before, and more annoyed with the question. "This thing is on stilts! High, high up!"

Mabel let out a whimper.

Evelyn shot her sister a comforting look, but couldn't do much else while they were stuck on the leaning and shaking tower. She could distantly hear the sounds of a fight, intermingled with electronic cries and… Dipper's voice?

The teen wanted to lean forward and see what was happening, but she could feel how unstable the tower was and didn't want to risk the fall.

'You can wait until the ground stops shaking under your feet,' Bill sighed. 'Don't let curiosity kill my Little Bird.'

'I wasn't planning on it.' Despite her precarious situation, a bit of dryness managed to sep into her mental conversation. 'Believe it or not, but I'm kinda starting to get tired of nearly falling to my death.'

The three on the tower let out gasps of surprise as the sky darkened. An announcer's voice seemed to be speaking, but she could barely hear what it was saying… something 'ultra'? Evelyn's curiosity and concern was nearly overwhelming her instinct to stay in place, but she didn't trust the balance of the tower enough to walk around to the side where the fight was happening.

The three remained huddled on the wall together, waiting with shaking limbs for whatever was happening to end. They were so frazzled that Evelyn doubted her companions had noticed the shift in the weather; it was easier to notice the ledge that was arguably closer to killing them than what was happening in the skies.

Finally, the clouds dissipated and a strange calm descended over the area, the chirping of birds restarting, and… was that the sound of crackling fires, or was she just imagining it?

Mabel began to speak, her gaze riveted to the ground in terror. "I'm sorry, Grunkle Stan, Evie! I thought this would help, but I was wrong! So wrong!"

Evelyn carefully took her sister's hand, holding it in an attempt to offer comfort to the panicking young girl. "Mabel, you need to calm down. Everything's fine, alright?" With a squeeze to the small, trembling hand in hers, she continued, "Take a deep breath."

Beside them, Stan seemed to shake himself out of his frozen state he'd had during the chaos realizing the danger was over. "I-I survived! I survived and I feel great!." He patted himself down in reassurance. "Wait, let me do a cocky dance just to be sure."

As his incredulous nieces watched, Stan began a cocky, if disjointed, dance. Swaying his hips awkwardly, he made a tune to go with it until Evelyn loudly cleared her throat.

Not one to stop midway through something when others wanted him to, he decided to loudly yell out, "HAHA! DEAL WITH IT WORLD! STAN PINES HAS CURED HIS FEAR OF HEIGHTS!" He turned somewhat to address his eldest niece. "That felt good."

He made his way towards the ladder, Evelyn releasing her sister's hand to do the same. It was only as Stan began to make his way down the ladder that they both realized they were short one peppy, tiny brunette.

"Mabel?" the older brunette questioned just as her uncle asked, "You coming, kid?"

Mabel remained with her back plastered to the water tower, her eyes focused on the tilted drop before her with wide, traumatized eyes. "Uh-uh." She barely opened her mouth enough for the sound to pass through, clamping her lips shut immediately after.

Evelyn stared at her sister with concern and growing awareness as her uncle joked, "What's the matter, you got a fear of heights, now?"

He was about to laugh, but paused when he actually scrutinized the 12-year-old. At the same time, Evelyn's eyes widened with realization, dread, and a bit of pity. Both observers, realizing the truth of the earlier statement, uttered an identical. "Uh oh."

"Dang it, Mabel." Evelyn breathed to herself. The event had definitely been traumatizing, and she had no intention of climbing onto water towers again anytime soon, but she'd honestly not considered the possibility that the event would be scarring enough for Mabel to develop a fear. Their summer had been full of scarier events by far!

Mabel only let out a whimper, unwilling to move.

Seeing that her sister wouldn't budge, Evelyn looked back at her uncle and lowered her voice. "Grunkle Stan, you can head down the ladder while I try to help Mabel move. If she sees that you made it down in one piece, she might be able to calm down a bit."

Stan nodded and began his descent down the stairs.

Turning back to her sister, the older teen slowly moved toward her, her hands splayed in front of her so that Mabel wouldn't be startled by anything. She'd seen her sister when she was terrified of something - that claymation film had not been a good idea - and Mabel reacted to everything in the same way a frightened animal would when she was scared, so it was always best to be very slow and careful when dealing with her sister's fears.

Her sister glanced between the approaching teen and the fall, but remained frozen in place. Once Evelyn finally reached her sister, however, the teen gently cupped Mabel's cheeks, forcing the girls' gaze away from the sight of the ground.

"Mabel, honey, we need to go down the ladder." Her sister waved her head frantically, and the red-eyed teen sighed. "I know it's scary, but if we don't get down, you'll have to be scared of how high up the tower is for longer. It's safe to go down, I promise -Grunkle Stan's going down right now!"

Mabel still looked unconvinced. "D-don't wanna. It's too high!"

Evelyn was at a loss as to what she could do to get the small brunette down, but decided to start with getting her off of the wall. Kneeling, she wrapped her arm around her sister, holding onto her gently. She hoped that if Mabel needed to cling onto something to feel stable, she could be convinced to hold onto the teen instead - one step closer to getting her down the ladder.

After a long, quiet moment, Mabel loosened her grip on the wood panels of the tower and wrapped her arms tightly around her sister, her blunt nails jabbing uncomfortably into Evelyn's skin from the tight grip.

The teen winced lightly, but weathered it out; if this is what it took to get Mabel closer to the ladder, she'd accept any pain that came with it.

Mabel started letting out little hiccups, her frame shaking from fear. Feeling the wet spot growing on her shoulder,Evelyn felt her heart ache for her sensitive sister, and she began to rub the girl's back, gently shushing her.

"Mabel, everything's going to be fine." she murmured, running a hand through her sister's windswept hair. "We just need to go down the ladder, alright?"

Mabel shook her head frantically her face crushed against the teen's collar bone.

"Mabes…" Evelyn's tone was firmer now; she wasn't exactly thrilled to still be on the tower she almost fell off of.

'Leave her if you have to, Little Bird.' Bill spoke up. 'Just give her enough time to realize that her only way out is down, then she'll run home and apologize for how dumb she'd been when she planned this.'

"I'd never leave Mabel up here alone… especially now that karma's come into play.'

'That really was some irony, wasn't it? It's so perfect that I almost feel like I should have thought of it.'

Despite her disagreeing with Bill's overall blase attitude, she could admit that the punishment Mabel had received in becoming afraid of heights was fitting; she just hoped the girl would learn from her lesson.

"I don't w-wanna let go, Evie." Mabel uttered, holding herself tightly to her sister. "C-couldn't you carry me down?"

Evelyn could see the genuine fear in her sister's voice and wanted to help, but even she could admit that trying something like that would be unnecessarily dangerous, even if it would help her sister. There were too many risks in carrying Mabel down.

"Absolutely not."

Evelyn tried to stand up and dislodge herself from Mabel's hld, but the girl clung tightly to her, flattening herself to her sister's waist and neck.

The teen didn't know what to do; if she tried to struggle against her sister's hold, she could risk one of them getting hurt or losing their balance…

She futily tried to pull her sister off one last time. "Mabel, please, I don't know if I'd be able to bring us both down safely!"

Mabel only clung on tighter. "I-I trust you, Evie. I don't think I can go down alone - I'll die!"

Bill cursed in the teen's mind. 'Shooting Star is trying to put you in danger just because her plan backfired? Pull her off, Little Bird! You don't need to risk your neck for her!'

Evelyn mentally sighed. 'She's holding on too tightly. If I try to pull her off with too much force, one of us could get hurt; we're literally standing on a tilting water tower, which is not the safest place to argue.'

'And…' Evelyn released a physical sigh. 'I'd never leave her hanging up here anyway. If I'm really careful, and she stays flat… it might work.'

'You give in too easily for these kids, Little Bird.' Bill said seriously. 'One day it's going to get you in trouble I won't be able to help you with.'

Evelyn shook off the sense of foreboding his words gave her. 'Today isn't that day. But… I'll try to put my foot down more in the future.'

Bill grumbled unhappily as the brunette vocalized her plans to her trembling sister. "Mabes, you'll have to hold onto me as tightly as you can, alright? You need to be flat if I'm going to carry you down by the front." She knew this would be more difficult for her in the long run, but she was worried about Mabel being on her back; if something happened and Mabel got too scared or fell off her back, there'd be nothing to break her fall. At least with her caged by Evelyn and the ladder, the chance of her falling and not getting helped were much slimmer.

Mabel accordingly pressed herself as flatly as she could against her sister, her grip on her waist and neck tightening as the teen began to walk toward the ladder.

She carefully maneuvered herself onto the wooden ladder, the pocket of space between her body and the wood ladder comfortably occupied by her shivering baby sister. She felt like a mother koala carrying her young, and the mental image made her chuckle.

The climb down was slow and uncomfortable; her muscles grew sore the longer she spent climbing down the ladder, and Mabel would frequently nearly asphyxiate her sister with a strangle hold, forcing Evelyn to stop mid-climb to tell Mabel to loosen her grip.

The entire climb down was topped by Bill's occasional commentary on the unnecessary danger she'd put herself in and how 'dumb' their plan was. The teen found that she was getting remarkably good at ignoring him, to her amusement and his annoyance.

But in the end, the sister's made it down, Mabel eagerly launching herself onto the floor in joy. Evelyn shared a look with her uncle, before she quietly went up to him and asked, "Could you bring Mabel home? There's something I need to check on before I head back."

Stab gazed at her skeptical, but nodded, turning to the flopped out Mabel. "Alright, kid, stop hugging the dirt; you're gonna make people think you're some 'flower power' girl."

The young girl reluctantly dragged herself forward, and once she was close enough, her uncle grabbed her arm lightly to help balance the unsteady 12 year old as they started their walk home.

"Oh, and could you take the right path that cuts through town instead, please? It might be good for Mabel to use her legs again." Stan acknowledged the teen's comment with a nod, then the uncle and niece duo were off.

Once Evelyn was sure they were out of sight, she hurried around the water tower to observe the damage.

Strange, pixelated fires burned crisp trees, and everywhere bits of debris lay, nearly tripping the teen at times. She marched onward, her anxiety rising as the likely causes of the destruction narrowed; she had a growing certainty that it had been Dipper and his pixelated hitman.

She walked into what seemed to be the epicenter of the disaster just as a bruised and battered Robbie marched past her, sending her a fierce glare as he passed. Evelyn brushed off his sour attitude, focusing on finding her brother in the carnage.

"This is the last time I ask Soos to watch over Dipper for me, I swear…" she murmured to herself. It seemed that both pseudo-guardians had failed in their mission to keep the twins out of trouble today; next time, she swore she'd work harder to shut down their schemes before they went as far as they did today. People had and were going to get hurt if the twins didn't learn to respect boundaries and stop before things became dangerous.

'I'm holding you to that, Little Bird' Bill commented, 'it's about time you stood up to them.'

'Are you saying that you don't enjoy the chaos they cause?' Evelyn tried to joke, needing a distraction from her anxiety.

'Not when it comes at your expense.' His tone was surprisingly serious. He immediately went back to his usually flippant demeanor, but the change was noticed, and Evelyn resolved to look at it more carefully later. 'Besides, their version of chaos doesn't have the same spontaneity mine does; theirs is normally because a stupid plan failed. I like it more when there's intent.'

The brunette brushed his mini-speech off; she was beginning to get used to his shock-value comments. They still unsettled her at times, but she was coming to realize that he was something far from human - expecting human reactions from him was like waiting for the ocean to suddenly dry up.

Any thought of a retort flew from Evelyn's mind when finally she saw her brother, covered in bruises and cuts, being supported by Soos. He was more purple than pale, and the teen's concern sky-rocketed.

"DIPPER?!" The brunette barely contained her panicked shriek, running to the surprised 12 year old and dropping to her knees as she inspected his bruised face up close.

"E-Evie?! What are you doing here?" Dipper stuttered, chagrined.

He'd been hoping that he would have had a bit of time to cover up his wounds before he ran into her, but Evelyn had an uncanny ability to show up when she's least expected, normally when he was in the middle of executing a plan she'd never approve of.

"I was dangling off of the water tower." Said teenager explained, brushing aside her brother's confused expression to ask the question she needed to know; "But what happened here, Dipper? Why do you look like you were thrown in front of a bus?"

She gasped as a thought occurred to her. "Did Robbie do this to you?! If he did, I swear-"

"No, Evie!" Dipper rushed to stop his sister from spiralling. "Robbie didn't do anything,even when I let him. He was all talk - you were right about him."

Evelyn felt a flicker of relief; she didn't want to explain to Wendy why Robbie would no longer be able to walk properly - she knew it would upset her friend. Still, that left a question unanswered… "Who hurt you then?"

Dipper looked down with a wince, embarrassed. "...It was Rumble. Turns out lying to a superpowered pixel martial-artist is not a great idea."

Evelyn sighed, gently brushing some hair away from a gash on his forehead. "Is he gone?"

Dipper nodded vigorously, before clutching his head in pain. "After he beat me in a fight, it was game over."

"Man, you should have seen it, dude!" Soos explained. "Dipper really stepped up and faced him like a man!"

Evelyn looked down at her brother, saw the pride shining in his eyes and couldn't help but smile despite the rough shape he was in. Her little brother was growing up, and though she felt nostalgic for his younger years, she was proud of the man he would become. Coming to Gravity Falls was possibly one of the best ideas her parents had, especially for Dipper's growth.

"That's amazing, Dip!" She hugged him gently, beaming when his spindly arms squeezed back.

Once she let go, she looked up at Soos, eyebrow raised. "Did you watch over him like I asked?"

Soos looked a bit sheepish. "Yeah, up until the point that he faced the chiselled pixel-man. He wanted to handle that on his own."

Glancing down at Dipper and seeing nod, Evelyn accepted the story. "Thanks for that, Soos. Mabel was a handful by herself; I don't think I'd have been able to watch over them both."

"What did happen with you and Mabel?" Dipper questioned, remembering his sister's comment about the water tower. "And what about what Rumble did to your arm? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine; nothing bandages couldn't fix." After giving him a reassuring smile, Evelyn huffed out a breath. "As for Mabel's little adventure, it all started when she realized that Grunkle Stan was afraid of heights…"

Grabbing his sister's hand, Dipper limped the three over to Soos' truck, Evelyn's story of her incident with heights drifting past them on the wind.

-DaLD-

The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully for the Pines family: Stan went out to buy a ladder now that his fear had disappeared, Mabel took a nap to get over her own trauma, and Evelyn spent the better part of an hour bandaging Dipper's many cuts and bruises.

There had been little to do afterwards, so when Evelyn deemed that it was time to rest up for their shift in the morning, she was met with few protests from the weary twins.

After having a shower and changing into sleeping shorts and a tank top, Evelyn wished her siblings a goodnight before she slipped into her bed, ready to fall asleep.

Before she could close her eyes, however, a rustling from one side of the room caught her attention. She listened as soft feet padded across the floor and stopped in front of her bed, leaving only the sound of Dipper's soft snores in the room.

A small hand grabbed the teen's shoulder. "Evie?"

The brunette hummed in acknowledgement, turning to face the faint figure of her sister in the dark. "What's wrong?"

Mabel's eyes reflected her uncertainty. "...Can I sleep here with you tonight? Like a sleepover?"

"Why?" Evie asked.

"I keep feeling like I'm falling and it's scary."

Evelyn hardly had to think before she wiggled to make room in her bed and obligingly pulled back her dark blue comforter.

The smaller girl quickly clambered onto the bed, cuddling up to her sister's warm body while holding onto her stuffy for the night; a neon pink rabbit named Sir Cuddles.

After the two had settled, they lay in silence until Mabel whispered. "Evie?"

Evelyn kept her eyes closed as she responded, beginning to feel drowsy. "Yeah?"

"I'm really sorry about lying to you. I thought that my plan was more fun, but you were right about it and I… just didn't listen."

The teen opened her eyes, the red orbs gazing at her sister in compassion. "I know you are, Mabel. But you can't keep getting away with doing dangerous things; you put other people at risk, not to mention the damage you do to yourself." Evelyn sighed. "I just want you to be careful next time and actually think before you act. If I say it's a bad idea, that means you need to think it over - believe me, I can be impulsive too. Just be more careful next time, alright?"

Mabel nodded, feeling chagrined, and curled up tightly to her sister. "Goodnight Evie. I love you."

Evelyn smiled and allowed her eyes to close, exhaustion taking over. "Love you too, Mabes. Goodnight."

-DaLD-

That night the Mindscape seemed more vast than ever to Evelyn, with no end to the birches around them in sight. Despite this, Bill claimed that she was getting closer. "C'mon, Little Bird. you'll reach me soon, and then we can finally meet face to face!"

"What am I even supposed to do if I find you?" Evelyn wondered. "If you're in an actual cage. I don't exactly have a key to free you with."

"Believe me, if this 'cage' only needed a key, I'd have gotten out already. You're enough to free me Little Bird, and it won't cost you anything!"

"But what will I do?" She pressed lightly. She'd moved passed wary and towards curiosity the longer she'd been in the Mindscape, but the question was genuinely bugging to her.

"I'll let you know when the time comes." His echoing voice assured her. He sounded closer to her - still distant, but approaching steadily.

She considered this progress, though she still didn't know what to expect once she reached the end of her nightly hunt. He was always so tight-lipped about himself and the circumstances that had led to him needing her in the first place; it was driving her mad with curiosity!

"Why are you trapped again?"

"That's a story for another day, Little Bird. All you need to know is that I got on the wrong side of an annoying human and he managed to pull the wool over my eyes long enough to keep me away."

"A human? Where is he now?" Evelyn questioned as she trudged through the forest, paying no attention to the eyes in the birch trees. He'd told her that they were there so that he could see everything in their section of the Mindscape, and she'd long since gotten over the eerie feeling of being watched, to Bill's pleasure.

"Oh, he's probably wandering dimensions right now." He sounded blazé, but Evelyn could hear the undercurrent of annoyance.

"How?" How could a human wander through dimensions? Evelyn felt overly curious, and it was better to kill time with a conversation as she walked through the dream forest.

"That's enough questions." Bill interrupted. "How about I tell you about the dimension where everyone has eyes on their feet?"

Knowing that he wouldn't tell her anymore, Evelyn reluctantly let go of the human that wandered through different dimensions, and listened as he explained another strange world.

She never noticed the fact that a distant part of the forest gleamed brighter than before as a certain dream demon spun his tale, his mood brightening at the ever progressing movement of his plan.

-DaLD-

Hey guys! So I'd planned on having this looked over and submitted by the 14th, but… the kids I was working got me sick. It made me very tired after a day at work (I refused to take sick days), and I found it hard to focus on writing during this. For that, I am very sorry! I have a short coming your way this week as compensation!

For those who are interested, I had an amazing time with my job (sick kids aside)! They were an absolute delight, and they seemed to really love me telling them stories, so I have plenty of original and folklore-y ideas drifting in my head for the future. As for this chapter, I hope you all enjoyed the sister bonding, even after Mabel pulled such a crummy trick; she's definitely learnt her lesson. How will her change in perspective alter the rest of the episodes I wonder…

Onto reviews!

Luckygurrl: Thank you so much, and that really sucks about your job; I hope you find a better one in the future! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

wyattharto8: Thank you so much! Mabel's definitely in a lot of trouble.

Angelwings2002: Thanks! I'll try my best.

mchap1154: I love writing Evie and other canon characters together and watching their relationships develop! I'm especially excited about Evie and Ford meeting; they have a lot in common. But how will Ford react to that?

lunamoon531: I love showing how childish they can be; people sometimes forget that they're only 12, and they'll act like kids sometimes.

Ms. Cipher16: Thank you so much!

Fantasy Fan 223: I've wanted to play that game for ages! Once my computer is fixed up, it's the first thing I'll do. Thanks for the crazy kind words; to finish a bath early for my story is the most touching and kind thing I can think of! And thank you for the support for my old job!

Guest: Yes, Bill will be showing up as a human in the story. Though Evie will meet him in triangle form as well, he'll have a good motive to change his form. After all, Little Bird does have a type…

laurenalyse24: Thank you!

JadeDragon100: It's a typo I haven't had the heart to fix yet. Thank you so much for the kind words! It makes me really happy to know you enjoy the story.

Stacked Waters: Bill will definitely make up for Evie's lack of 'discipline', though she's gradually getting a bit more firm herself.

sweetpye: Flute guy will make a reappearance soon-ish!

HelplesslyCanadian: Thank you so much for this praise! I'll strive to make this story something worth coming back to! Love the username, by the way.

Darkmaster10000000: The freeze ray is appreciated! It was an unintentional slip on my part, but it works!

redvintage888: your reviews always make me so happy! It's great to know that the way Evie's placed in the story doesn't rub you the wrong way; it was by far one of the more difficult challenges while writing this. I hope you're having a great summer so far!

That about wraps it up! I hope you guys have an amazing summer, and please favourite, follow, and/or review! No flames, s'il vous plait! A cipher will show up in the next chapter. – Aria

I don't own Gravity Falls.