They had split into two groups: Stan and Ford, and Dipper and Mabel. They all agreed that it would be best if the two pairs of twins worked together. Stan and Ford went one way, so Dipper and Mabel went the other way. Dipper brought his new Swiss Army knife with him that he got over the last school year. Who knows when it would come in handy. As they started the search, Mabel figured that now would be the time to bother Dipper about what bugged him up in the attic.
"So Dipper." She started, "What was all that about?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Why were you ackin so cray-cray up in the attic? Is something bothering you?"
"No, it's nothing. I assure you." Dipper tried to play cool, but the sweating already started. Mabel flashed him a skeptical look as she put on her skepticals. "Dammit, fine. Last night I had a dream about Bill. Not the guy from school, the illuminati guy."
"What? I thought we killed that three-sided jerk."
"I thought we did too. But he's back, and the only known way to save our dimension is to perform the ritual and destroy the statue. That's the surest way to ward off Bill for at least a few thousand years."
"Oh, okay." Said Mabel. "That makes sense. Neither of the grunkles told me about your dream. They woke me up right after you did. Heck, I'd be all freaky too if that happened to me."
Thank God no one told her anything. She'd flip if she heard that Ford and I died in the dream. Dipper thought.
"But this doesn't count. I didn't forget about our deal last night. Once we find the statue, you still owe me the next morning."
"Shit." She muttered under her breath. She had hoped that Dipper had forgotten about that deal with all the chaos happening earlier. Dipper laughed at her response.
The search had been near silent for a while. They had decided to take a lunch break at noon. They ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chips.
Lately, in the last hour or two, Mabel noticed that Dipper had been acting strange. She only thought it was his awkwardness and never looked into it.
Around an hour later, Mabel and Dipper were still searching for the statue. They had asked the gnomes, the manotaurs, and all other creatures they met, but no luck yet. Just when the two would call it quits and head back to the Shack, flashes of grey stood out against the green of the forest, catching both of the twins' eyes. They looked at each other and flashed toothy grins. They ran towards the grey, racing each other. Mabel was winning, until suddenly Dipper stopped and rested his arm over a tree. He bent over, his other hand clutching his stomach. He was sweating profusely, even more than normal, and his skin turned pale. Mabel noticed Dipper and stopped in her tracks. "Dipper?"
Dipper's body began shaking violently and uncontrollably. Mabel grabbed his shoulders, and started shaking him, trying to get him out of the trance. "C'mon Dipper, it's not funny anymore." She said, tears forming up in her eyes.
Instantaneously, Dipper stopped shaking in the blink of an eye. Mabel stopped shaking him and touched his arm. "Dipper?" She pulled her hand back in reaction. Dipper's skin was ice cold to the touch, and slick in sweat. Then, in a quick, violent, inhuman motion that should have snapped Dipper's neck (but it didn't), Dipper turned his head to Mabel. He opened his eyes, revealing one eye as his normal brown, but the other eye as pale yellow with black slits for pupils. Mabel walked backward in horror. Dipper flashed an evil grin, and started walking towards her.
All the color drained from her face. She remembered those yellow eyes, but she couldn't remember what they were from. Suddenly, Dipper lunged and tackled Mabel. She wheezed from the impact on the ground. "Dipper!" She said, with him still on top of her. "What the hell's gotten into you?!" She kicked Dipper off of her in self defense, and he grunted when he hit the ground. She froze when she heard the grunt. That's not Dipper's voice. When Dipper got up, he shook his head, and stared back at Mabel. Both of his eyes were his brown this time, but they were filled with disdain.
"Mabel, run." Said Dipper in his normal, scared voice, with hints of alarm.
"What?"
"Just run! NOW!" He said before his body convulsed again, and both of his eyes turned pale yellow again. Despite Dipper's warnings, Mabel just stood there in shock. Dipper lunged for her again, but she was ready. She dodged and side-tackled him.
"Dipper, what the hell's going on?" Said Mabel, doing her best to keep him pinned. She hadn't noticed, but Dipper's right arm broke free, and it went into his pocket, frantically searching for something. "Dammit Dipper! Stop struggling!" Dipper's hand found what it was looking for, and took it out of his pocket. It was revealed that it was his Swiss Army knife that he clutched in his hand. With an almost silent click, Mabel noticed the knife, but it was too late.
With a smooth, flick of the wrist, the knife sliced into Mabel's cheek. She winced in pain and alert go of her hold on Dipper to cover up the wound in reaction. Dipper took this opportunity and also kicked Mabel off of him. It was a surprisingly superhuman strength kick that sent Mabel flying 15 feet backwards. She landed with a thump, knocking all the wind out of her.
"I'm too damn tired of you brats foiling my plans." Said Dipper, but it wasn't in his voice. In Mabel's mind, it was the last clue that solved the puzzle. The eyes, the superhuman strength, the voice. She narrowed her eyes as she figured it out.
"Bill-Dipper. Bipper." She said.
"Shooting Star." Said Bipper coldly, as he played with the Swiss Army knife, still coated in her blood. He playfully pricked his finger, and blood slid down his finger and the knife. "It took you long enough to figure me out. I thought you were actually smart." Mabel tried standing up, and she did with difficulty, on account of her dizziness. Blood streamed hotly down her cheek and neck, only to be stopped by her sweater. That'll be a pain in the ass to wash later.
"Why are you doing this?" Asked Mabel. Bipper laughed.
"Shooting Star, I've got big plans, and this time I will not be stopped. I learn from my mistakes. You and Pine Tree have always been a thorn in my side since that runt Gideon summoned me to this miserable dimension. You're the biggest threats to me, so I decided to not be the nice guy anymore and kill both of you. I don't know what to say right now. I've never killed a teenager before."
"There's no way you're killing me, you equilateral buttface!" Said Mabel, putting her fists up like a boxer. "You think I'll just give up? Fat chance, Dorito! I'm not afraid of you!"
"Oh, but you should be." Said Bipper as he lifted his hands, and they lit on fire with magic. Mabel's eyes became as wide as saucers.
"Shit." She muttered as she finally took Dipper's advice and ran.
Bipper fired a light-blue fireball, aiming it near perfectly, and it grazed Mabel's right arm. It burned off that part of the sweater and left a nasty, festering burn there. She grimaced in pain. She knew she wouldn't last long if he kept hurting her like this. She kept running, ignoring the pain, and hid behind a large tree to catch her breath. She took the time to look at her right arm and see how much damage had been done. She almost puked. It looked even worse than it felt, which was already hard to beat, since the pain was searing.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are." called Bipper. "You can't hide from me forever, Shooting Star. I'll make it a nice, quick, and painless death. Well, there might be pain. I'm not really good at telling the truth.
I'm running out of time. Mabel thought. The surest way of getting Dipper back is the way I know: tiring him out. It won't work. It'll take too long. She could sense Bipper coming closer to her hiding spot. She looked up at the tree and saw a large branch. Aha!
Bipper set his eyes on the tree that Mabel was hiding behind. "You've annoyed me for the last time, Shooting Star!" he said as he circled the tree, his hand lit in blue flames. But to his surprise, Mabel was not there. He shrugged his shoulders and continued looking around, still standing next to the tree.
Unbeknownst to Bipper, Mabel was standing twenty feet above him, on a branch. She silently climbs down to a branch only ten feet above Bipper. This better work or I'm screwed. Thought Mabel as she jumped down.
Bipper had heard the sound of Mabel jumping off the branch, but his reaction was too slow. Mabel used all the force in her body and kicked Bipper right in the stomach, knocking all of the air out of him. Then, after pinning him down, tears formed in her eyes as she began beating the shit out of Bipper. Just thinking about hurting her brother made her feel sick, let alone actually hurting him, but this isn't Dipper, and she hoped that her plan would work without hurting him too much. "I'm sorry, Dipper." said Mabel softly as she continued. She refused to look at him when doing it.
For a while, all the noises that Mabel heard were the tortured grunts of Bipper and the sniffling of herself, but eventually Dipper's body gave out and he stopped moving, unconscious. Though Bipper did fight back, Mabel dominated and dished out most of the pain. She finally opened her eyes and looked at what she did to poor Dipper's body. She gasped at the sight. His nose was gushing blood, staining his shirt. Many bruises formed by his cheekbones and jaw, and she gave him a pretty bad black eye. Blood also slowly poured out of the corner of his mouth. Her fists hurt from all the pain it's caused, stained in the boy's blood. She finally cracked and wept over Dipper's unconscious body, repeating again and again "I'm so sorry, Dipper." until she fell asleep, drained from the pain.
About half an hour later, Mabel finally woke up, still keeping watch of Dipper's body. Suddenly, Dipper's body started to stir. She gasped, stood up, and got into fighting position in case her plan backfired. Dipper's body sat up and rubbed his head. "Mabel?" said Dipper as he opened his eyes, and to Mabel's relief, were his normal brown. She went and gave him a big hug. Dipper winced in pain. "Ow, everything hurts." Mabel started bawling as she went and hugged Dipper.
"I'm so sorry, Dipper." said Mabel.
"It's okay, Mabel. I'm back. You had to do what you had to do. On the brightside, Grunkle Stan would've been proud of you. I mean, you knocked out a guy without the help of brass knuckles!" he flashed her a reassuring look. This cheered Mabel up. Dipper glanced at Mabel's cheek and arm. "Oh my God, what happened to you? Did...did I do this?" he asked as he held up the bloody Swiss Army knife.
"No, no. I'm fine. I swear." said Mabel as she flashed a pained smile. To be honest, Mabel felt like hell, thanks to all the wounds and the emotional trauma earlier, but the feeling of seeing her brother back and okay is all that matters. She stood up, grunting in pain. Dipper still couldn't get up yet. Mabel held her hand out to Dipper, who gladly took it as she helped him up. Dipper didn't seem to injured, so that was a good thing. They stood there awkwardly for a few seconds until the reason of why they were there in the first place went into their minds. "The statue!" they both exclaimed as Mabel took off, with a limping Dipper close behind. Once they were where they saw the statue first, they dropped their jaws. The statue was no longer there.
"I don't understand…" said Dipper. "We just saw it right here." he pointed to the spot.
"Maybe it moved." proposed Mabel. "Maybe Bill didn't want us to get it."
"That makes sense." said Dipper, checking his watch. "Crap. It's already four. We should've been back at the Shack an hour ago. We gotta go!"
"Relax, Sir Dippingsauce." said Mabel, punching his arm lightly as she slung his arm over her shoulder. "You're still hurt, and you're not much of a use when you're more hurt." Dipper nodded. He stared at the burn mark on her skin. Mabel looked at it as well. "What a shame. That'll be a pain in the ass to fix up."
"I'm really sorry Mabel. You loved that sweater."
"It's alright. I can knit another one. No biggy. Plus, it's not your fault anyway."
"Hey Mabel?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for doing that. I'm not much of a use if I'm being possessed. It took balls to do that. I'm proud of you."
"Thanks, bro-bro. Also I don't have balls. I'm a girl."
"I'm well aware. Let's go. I'm starving."
"Same. I could really go for chicken noodle soup."
"Really? Same!" Said Mabel as the twins chuckled and started heading back to the Shack.
Bill silently watched as the twins disappeared from sight. "Smart little brat." He muttered to himself. He was invisible to Dipper and Mabel, like Dipper when he took over his body. "Laugh now, little rats. I may not have succeeded in killing you, but you failed to find the statue. Just six more days and I will return to my physical form once again." He laughed and faded away, his laugh echoing through the forest.