Bill stayed on his throne in his fearamid, his throne was no longer made of stone humans, but it would be soon enough. Still he was occasionally keeping an eye on what was going on, he realized that the older twins were starting to break the illusion on more and more members of the zodiac, however he wasn't nervous, he still had Pine Tree.

As soon as he got Pine Tree he enjoyed tinkering and toying with his mind, putting in fake memory after fake memory, torturing him physically as well as mentally, healing him than torturing him again. The boy was a shriveled husk of his former self by the time Sixer and his brother returned two weeks later. Which made it easy to manipulate Pine Tree into doing all the dirty work. However he had taken a gamble letting him have a small portion of his power, though it would break if the illusion broke on him, still even if it did, Bill wasn't worried.

He was happy with the illusion he created and seeing everyone miserable and desperate, but it was still tame and boring compared to what he wanted to do. He wanted unending chaos, this ended up being a minor distraction for him, and part of him was genuinely curious what would happen if they did manage to free Pine Tree from his illusion, because even if they got him back, Bill's handiwork on his mind and body would still be there because that had been real. So with a snap of his fingers Pine Tree's cell would randomly open and if he chose to take the opportunity he could eventually find his way out of the fearamid.

Again Bill was not worried, after all, Pine Tree wasn't the only trick he had up his sleeve and he was quite confident the zodiac would never be completed.

Dipper was not surprised when the door to his cell opened it was not the first time it had happened randomly, usually he would always find himself in horrible places and back in Bill's grip, still, he had managed to get out once before, he needed to it again, and started to leave. Though the fearamid was a maze of twisting corridors, it was hard to tell if he was going left or right or up or down.

He often heard things walking down the hall from a high pitched "feed me!" to a low sounding growl to someone randomly going "now where did I leave that dohickey?"

"Wait" Dipper blinked that voice sounded familiar.

"McGucket?"

Sure enough the old man was in the fearamid, looking just the same as Dipper remembered him, slightly rattier beard but still him. He was at some kind of workbench doing something and muttering words that Dipper couldn't make out. "Hey" he called out but was continued to be ignored, and something in his gut told him not to push further that bad things would happen so he pushed his curiosity back and continued to focus on making his way out of the maze.

Dipper walked without much direction or without much fear of Bill anymore, he just felt numb. Sighing he touched the collar around his neck, he hated it as it was a symbol of his slavery to Bill, but it had allowed him to access Bill's powers. Bill had told him that if he got the answers out of Ford then he would earn his freedom, even with his mind in shambles he didn't believe Bill, but looking back in that moment he hated his great uncle more than anything, he did it because he wanted too. But they-

No!

He couldn't keep running through the insane amounts of "what ifs" in his head, he needed to find Mabel and forget about his great uncles for now until he found out the truth then he could assess his situation and go from there. He reminded himself that he needed to think logically. He continued to feel the collar, Bill had given him a hint of his power, would Bill know his every move if he used it? Bill probably was constantly watching him already.

Still, he tried to use it, he focused on just wanting to be out of here, back on the soft green grass in the forest. To his surprise the collar seemed to grand his wish and in a soft yellow glow he found himself exactly where he wanted to be in the woods and out of the fearamid.

"I didn't expect that to work" he whispered to himself "still, no distractions, focus on finding Mabel"

Mabel was curled up on the couch reading over the fifth journal, however, she didn't know how any of it would help and she just couldn't get into. "Hey, maybe you need a break" Soos said, as she had been at it for hours. "Yeah agreed" she said, and turned on the TV, however Mabel just looked to wall. She couldn't stop thinking about Dipper, and the memory of Bill collaring him, and what horrors he must have been through, she knew she couldn't possibly imagine it.

"Hey, you okay, dude?" Soos asked

"No" she sighed "I'm worried about Dipper"

"I'm sure he'll be okay, he's tough, and besides if this is all an illusion than once it breaks he should be fine" he said, Mabel wanted to believe that, but even though the illusion had been broken on her, she still found herself expecting people to distrust her, and it was affecting her attitude.

She was debating on sharing her fears with Soos, however Stan then walked in the door, and Mabel noticed Pacifica with him and instantly perked right back up again. "Pacifica!" she smiled and went over to hug the other girl however Pacifica flinched and pushed her off. That shouldn't of been too surprising, even though they had technically became friends, Pacifica was closer to Dipper and the others and often found Mabel and her friends annoying.

"Do I know you?" the blonde girl asked and Mabel realized the illusion hadn't been broken on her, as Pacifica looked to Mabel, then to Stan giving him a distrusting look, and then to the door like she was ten seconds from bolting out of there.

"Look, uh, Pacifica this is my great niece Mabel, why don't you two talk or something, I need to go talk to my brother about something" Stan said quickly going upstairs to escape the awkward situation and hoped that Mabel could help Pacifica remember who she was.

Ford was up and out of bed but was walking very slowly as he made his way to the bathroom, he was still covered in bruises once he changed into his usual turtleneck and trench coat most of them were covered save for his busted up face.

Ford balled his fist in anger as he looked at his reflection. He wasn't angry at Dipper, he could never be angry at Dipper, he was angry at Bill, and at himself for trusting him all those years ago.

Stan then knocked on the door "hey you in there?" he asked.

"Yeah" Ford sighed and moved out of the bathroom to greet his brother.

Stan then explained how he found Pacifica at the bar and how Mabel was with her now, they already have half the zodiac together.

"So that just leaves Fiddleford, Wendy, Robbie, Gideon, and of course, Dipper" Ford said

"Any idea where we can find them?" Stan asked

"I suggest going back to the mental ward at the hospital, I believe we'll find Wendy there, I suspect she is having a mental meltdown, and we were kicked out before we can finish looking through the wing" Ford said "alright, we'd probably get caught but we can most likely send Mabel back" Stan said

"Yes, she's our best hope to getting through to them" Ford said, though both looked at each other, they were both thinking of Dipper if Mabel couldn't get through to him, they could end up losing him forever.

"We will get him back" Stan said looking to Ford, he was finding some new confidence, the more people they were getting together, the more he was gaining hope, with everyone together, they would find a way to free Dipper from Bill's influence.

They had to.

Meanwhile, Mabel and Soos went over the whole story to Pacifica and she didn't seem to be buying it. She sat with her arms crossed as they finished. "You people are delusional" She said and got up.

"Wait please!" Mabel called out and grabbed her wrist. "I know how crazy this sounds, but if there's any hope that your life can be better than what it is now don't you want to take it?" she asked.

Pacifica then hesitated, as she reminded herself that she currently had no family, no home outside of a sleazy motel room, and was currently in a substantial amount of debt to bad people who were going to get that money from her one way or another, this may be her best option.

"I don't believe you, however, I will help you find the people you are looking for, but I want to be paid, and I want my own private room in this hovel rent-free, and free meals" she demanded.

"Deal!" Mabel smiled.

It took some digging but they eventually managed to find old pictures of Wendy, Robbie, Gideon and Fiddleford, their pictures were a little outdated, but all of them did look relatively the same. "Do any of these people look familiar to you?" Soos asked Pacifica.

"She looks kind of familiar" Pacifica said pointing to Wendy's photo "I mean, if it is the same girl, she didn't look like that . . . clean cut, when I saw her" Pacific said.

"How did she look?" Mabel asked.

"Paranoid, though I didn't understand what she was muttering about, I think she lives out in the woods" Pacifica said.

"We should head there now, and try to find her" Soos said and the others agreed.

The five of them headed out into the woods, calling out Wendy's name. However this soon resulted in a small hatchet being thrown right at Stan's head missing him just barely. Before the group could process what happened, they turned to the direction the hatchet came from and saw Wendy.

The normally cool and collected girl probably looked the roughest out of them all, her long red hair was a mess, her eyes were twitching like mad, and she had more knives and axes at her disposal. "Woah, Wendy, dude, it's us" Soos tried to say however the girl looked so crazed and her hand twitched over her weapons again.

"Get out you'll bring them here, they're everywhere" Wendy said.

"Who are you talking about?" Mabel asked

"THEM! DEMONS!" Wendy said "they're everywhere from other dimensions other worlds, horrible and grotesque" she tried to describe them but her voice was shaking. "Wendy, I know what you're talking about, I've been in the same position you're in, but we can help you, we can protect you" Ford said softly remembering how paranoid he had been when he had been first reunited with Stan before being sucked into the portal. "I've seen demons as well, we can help each other, just put down the knives"

Wendy bit her lip and her body twitched more as she was debating what to say, muttering something to herself. Though before she could respond, all of her knives and axes went flying from her hands and pockets as if by magic.

"Wendy?" Soos asked wondering if she was doing that, but it clearly wasn't her as Wendy screamed loudly and then fainted, dropping to the floor.

Dipper then appeared as if out of nowhere, the golden collar was glowing as the axes and knives floated near him and were pointed at the rest of the Pines family.

"Dipper!" Mabel smiled and wanted to run to him however Ford held her back.

"Mabel" Dipper said, his voice was low and full of venom, however Ford noticed that something about Dipper seemed off his voice was also shaking just slightly. Now was their chance to get him back.

Ford let go of Mabel and she slowly approached Dipper, "Dipper, it's me, just put the knives down and we can talk" she said softly. Dipper was clearly still on the defense, but let the knives and axes drop to ground.

"Fine, let's talk"