Dipper's dream started off good, dreaming of the college he decided to attend, he imagined what living in the school dorms would be like, classes he wanted to take, the people he would befriend, all seemed to be going well until he dreamed of one of his classes and a familiar voice came in "Good evening class, I'm professor Cipher and today I will be teaching you how to dismember your enemies and destroy their minds!" Bill laughed as he entered Dipper's dream, even dressed in a tweed jacket that didn't properly fit around his triangle body.
"Get out of my head!" Dipper yelled.
"I don't think so Pine Tree, do you honestly think you had a chance to live a normal life?" Bill teased.
"Yes I can, we are going to beat you!" Dipper snapped.
"You know as well as I do that you can't, come on think, you can't win, but tell you what, since I like you if you can get Ford to tell you the secret of how to leave Gravity Falls and then you tell me, I'll spare you" he said.
"Never! I will won't betray my family! And I will never help you!"
"Did you forget you already have" Bill sneered, "I'm only going to offer this once so do be a good Pine Tree and do as I say, I won't mess with your mind anymore, you'll have complete freedom"
Dipper then realized something and smirked "no, you will offer this again because you're desperate, you've lost so much power you can cast an illusion but that's it, without Ford you stand no chance of leaving, and you're going to be stuck watching all the future citizens of Gravity Falls grow up happily, your worst nightmare"
Bill then turned red "I AM ALWAYS WATCHING YOU PINE TREE! I'LL KNOW ANY OF YOUR PLANS BEFORE YOU-"
However Dipper then cut him off much to Bill's shock "I don't care what you think, we will beat you now GET. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD!" he yelled with enough force, not necessarily to kick Bill out but to wake himself up. Dipper knew what he had to do, but it still scared him.
It was the middle of the night, he went to check on Wendy who was still sound asleep, it was no wonder as when they saw her in the woods she looked like she hadn't properly slept in days. So she deserved to rest. He then went to Ford's room and gently knocked on the door. Not expecting a reply but got one anyway, as Ford opened the door. "Couldn't sleep either?" he asked
"No, Bill was in my dreams, we need put a protective spell on the shack like we did last time" Dipper said. Ford nodded "I know, fortunately, part of me knew this might happen again and got everything we need ahead of time, the last of it should be ready now"
"Good, because I don't think I can sleep otherwise" Dipper sighed and Ford put a hand on his shoulder "I'm sorry, if I hadn't-" he started to say but Dipper cut him off. "It's not anyone's fault, we can't go around like this, we need to focus on beating Bill" he said though Dipper probably was suffering the most guilt out of anyone and didn't want to have this conversation. Ford realized that and just nodded as they headed outside.
The two then set about casting the protective on the Mystery Shack when Pacifica came out, apparently she couldn't sleep either. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Setting up a protection spell so that Bill can't get to anyone in the Mystery Shack?" Dipper said.
"This being the triangle demon who cursed you and let you make knives fly out of people's hands?" she asked. "Yeah, though with the illusion gone . . . for the most part, I can't use any of his powers" Dipper said.
"That sucks" she said not really sure what to say, without the illusion being broken on her, she didn't have any of her memories back but trusted the Pines enough to stick with them.
Ford looked to the both of "Well the protection is casted, we should be fine against any further attacks or spying from Bill, I'm going back to bed if you two want to talk" he said heading back inside.
Dipper looked to her "do you want to talk?" he asked.
"I suppose it couldn't hurt" she said, as they sat down on a bench on the porch.
"So is anything coming back to you?" Dipper asked, he honestly did feel sympathy for Pacifica, as even when this illusion breaks her life wasn't great, her parents were still vile people who were still trying to act like they own this town despite being some of the poorest, most hated residents, and currently living in a mobile home.
"Fragments, like I'm pretty sure we've meet before today, I remember a fancy party, and being chased by something" she said, and Dipper chuckled "oh yeah, it was a ghost that hated your family, but you beat him, by letting everyone else attend your fancy party" he said.
"I did?" she asked looking genuinely confused.
"Yeah, you did, you even saved my life, as he had turned me and others into wood and was probably planning to burn everything down" he said.
"That seems . . . strange" she said softly.
"If there's one thing I've learned is that there's nothing normal about this town" he chuckled
"I was a bad person, wasn't I?" she asked, looking to him "answer me honestly"
Dipper looked to her "You were a snobby rich kid, but that was five years ago, you grew and changed, and became a better person" he said.
"Thanks to you" she smiled softly
Dipper looked to her, not sure what to feel, or what to say end ended up staring at her. Fortunately she didn't seem care about that response and just chuckled and got up to head back inside "I'm going to try and get some sleep, thanks for the talk" she smiled.
"Oh, uh, you're welcome" Dipper said.
She smiled "oh and by the way, I remember one thing, you did look good in a tux" she winked before heading back inside.
Dipper watched her go and stayed on the porch for another minute before heading back to bed himself.
The next morning everyone was up and was having breakfast when they heard screaming, which was Wendy, she of course was panicking, and everyone tried to calm her down. Having to explain who they are and why she was there. Though Wendy didn't seem to listen and was ranting off about a ton of conspiracies, some of which were true things they had knew about such as the gnomes in the forest and other weird things, but then started listing things that didn't make any kind of sense whatsoever.
"Wendy, believe it or not I've seen a lot of things you're talking about, I know you're scared, I was once trapped in another dimension for years, but I do no that the worst things out there can't get us here, and the one threat we do have to worry about out, can't hurt us if we're all together" Ford said.
Wendy seemed to relax a little knowing that someone seemed to validate her theories, "so you've seen them, the demons? but I can't help! They'll get me!" she yelled.
"Wendy" Dipper said softly and gently touched her hand "I know there's a lot of weird stuff out there, but you can't be afraid, you're one of the strongest people I know" he said. She just looked to him like she didn't believe him.
"You were always cool under pressure, there was nothing you couldn't handle, we got through so much because of you" Dipper continued "there is a still a danger to Gravity Falls, Bill Cipher, and he wants to destroy everything, but we have to stop him but we can't do anything without your help"
Wendy's face to flush with a wave emotions: gratitude, fear, confidence, anxiety, then full on panic. "I can't help you!" she said again and started nervously rocking back and forth.
"You're not the not the only one who's scared, we all are, but-" However before Dipper could say anything Wendy ducked behind the couch "how can I even trust you!" she yelled.
"You know us" Mabel said
"Yeah we've worked together for years" Soos added
They started telling Wendy about all the fun time they had with her, and what kind of person she was. They couldn't see her face was she was behind the couch, and eventually Dipper spoke up again "Wendy, one thing Bill did to me was that he let me keep my original memories but inserted so many fake ones that I couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't, but the one person I kept thinking about was you, what would you do? How would you get out of this? As I knew if anyone could it was you" he said gently and she finally said "if we stop this Bill guy, everything will go back to normal?" she asked.
"Yeah of course" Mabel smiled. Wendy then poked her head up "okay I'll help, but I'm not sure I believe you"
"Join the club, sister" Pacifica muttered, not looking her or Dipper in the eyes.
"Great, now we just need to find Robbie, Gideon and McGucket" Stan smiled
"Yes, and about that" Dipper said and everyone turned to him. "I think I remember where Gideon and McGucket are" he said.
"Well why didn't you tell us earlier" Ford said but still smiled
"Mabel and I briefly talked about it, but for one I wasn't sure what was real or not and didn't want to potentially lead us into a trap but now that some things are clearing I am confident that this is where they are. The problem is Gideon is currently in a maximum security prison and McGucket is locked in Bill's fearamid" Dipper said and everyone looked nervous "what we need to is first is find Robbie and get him here, Great Uncle Ford and I have put a safety barrier around the Mystery Shack so everyone should stay here as Bill can't touch us here. First we need to find Robbie, as he's the only who we can get to somewhat easily, assuming we can find him. Then we have to literally stage a prison breakout and then charge into Bill's fearamid and we won't have much time before he figures out what we're up to, so we need a plan, something Bill can't predict and won't see coming, I have the start of a plan but I need to think about some things more. I think for the mean time Mabel and I should go and try to find Robbie, everyone else should stay here, as we can't have Bill getting to any of you" he said.
The others seemed to agree, except for Stan and Ford who seemed a bit nervous "are you sure you should go alone?" he asked. "Yes, at least for now, when we find Robbie we'll come back, and hopefully we'll have more of a plan by then" Dipper said as he and looked to Mabel so they can head out.
"Any idea where we'll find Robbie?" she asked
Dipper shrugged "no idea, but we'll keep searching until we find him"