Gravity Falls: Once More

by Absolute Rift

Four years after their faithful summer of weird, Dipper and Mabel finally return to the legendary town of Gravity Falls. Despite having new adventures and mysteries to take on, they are still tailed by the challenges that come with navigating teenage life. With friends and enemies, both new and old, the Pines must prepare themselves for whatever awaits them. (Cover by pau sketches)

47. Back With A Vengeance: Part 3

Back With A Vengeance: Part 3

---

What was perhaps the strangest thing about the day was how unalarming everything seemed from an outside perspective. It was only mid-afternoon with the sun in the middle of the bright blue sky above the town. There were some clouds, but they weren't plentiful nor dark enough to reverse the idea that overall, it seemed like a very average day in Gravity Falls. Maybe even a pleasant one.

Back at the half-destroyed Corduroy cabin, Derrick and Ryland continued to sit amongst the front porch by themselves waiting for anybody else to show up. Derrick carelessly laid with his back against a partially broken down wall as he played on an old school handheld video game device. Having nothing better to do, Ryland just sat beside him, watching him play as some sort of sword-wielding hero followed by a blue fairy.

"So, have you played any other good games lately?" he asked.

"I've been playing a lot of Bloodcraft: Overdeath recently," Derrick said without turning from his game.

"Eh, that game's kinda overrated in my opinion," Ryland said with the slight shrug of his shoulders.

Derrick said nothing for a moment as he processed his words. "Okay, I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that."

"It's true though."

With an annoyed sigh, Derrick promptly sat up as he paused his game. "Okay, buddy, you baited me. So allow me to present a few reasons why your opinion is wrong. Reason number one…"

"Hold that thought…" Ryland cut him off as he looked up ahead and pointed. "Look."

Looking where he pointed, Derrick saw just what he noticed. A few yards away, the two spotted Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Soos, and Melody walking down the path leading up to the cabin. Farther behind them, Dan continued pushing the flatbed cart with his sons following. They all walked with gloom clouding over them. Both Dipper and Mabel helped an injured Stan walk, each of them holding an arm over their shoulders. Soos walked staring at the ground glumly, as did the Melody and the Corduroy brothers.

"Holy hell, it's them," Ryland realized as he quickly rose to his feet and began fast-walking over to the gang.

"Finally. I was just about to go off on you," Derrick said, putting his handheld in his pocket before following.

"There you are!" Ryland called out, making his way toward Mabel.

"Ryland!" she shouted joyfully as she saw him. She gently dropped Stan's arm from her shoulder before running up to him, throwing her arms around his neck as she pulled him into a warm embrace.

"I was worried about you guys," he told her. "I even texted you. Did you not get it?"

Mabel had no recollection of receiving any texts. "I-"

Bzzz.

Diving a hand into her back pocket, she pulled out her vibrating cell phone. "Oh. Heh… there it is…" she said awkwardly as she saw his notification on her home screen. "I guess I only just got reception again."

"Well, I'm just glad all of you guys are alright."

Dipper glanced over at Wendy on top of the flatbed as Dan pushed her past him. "Almost all of us…"

It took a moment for Ryland to identify just what Dan was pushing on his cart. Recognizing the statue's striking resemblance to Wendy, he grew somewhat confused. Combined with the sudden realization that Wendy herself wasn't otherwise around, he began to make the connection.

"What the- Is that… Wendy?" he asked as his eyes widened in utter shock.

Dipper sighed morosely. "Just about."

"What in the hell happened to her?" Derrick asked with disturbed eyes as he stared at her petrified state.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Ryland asked.

"Bill happened," Mabel said bluntly.

"Wait, Bill?" Ryland asked. "You mean that demon guy that's stuck inside Stan's head?"

"Well, was stuck in Stan's head," Dipper clarified. He then helped Stan over to the front porch of the cabin, sitting him down slowly while Mabel sat beside him, holding him upright.

"Bill tricked Wendy into shaking his statue's hand. The whole thing freed Bill and turned Wendy to stone," Mabel explained.

"He went back to his normal form. We fled underground for a while to escape, but he still forced us out and caught up to us anyway. Then he captured Ford and flew off," Dipper added.

"Wow. That all sounds so...overwhelming," Ryland said as the severity of the situation began to weigh down on him as well.

"It hasn't been very easy these past few hours," Melody put simply.

Derrick thought for a moment. "But hang on, I thought this Bill guy would be capable of starting the apocalypse if he got back to his normal form," he remembered. "So, why is everything still sunny and bright?"

"Something looked wrong with his powers, right?" Soos brought up. "When he had Ford and we were watching from behind those trees, it looked like he couldn't do what he wanted to do to him."

"Yeah, I don't know what was going on with that…" Dipper said, trying to give it an ounce of further thought.

"You think that's maybe why he took Ford? So that he could help Bill get his powers back?" Melody suggested.

"If revenge isn't all he's after, then that's definitely possible," Dipper nodded. "But Ford said it himself- he would never help Bill again. Not after all he's done to us."

"No. He wouldn't," Stan chimed in as he rubbed his pained head. "Which means how much harm is Bill going to cause before he gets Ford to cave in and give him what he wants?"

"Well, then we shouldn't just be sitting around here doing nothing!" Mabel said as she shot up with determination. "We need to go to the Shack and fight back against Bill before it's too late!"

"What can we do, Mabel?" Dipper asked in a defeated tone. "We can't stop Bill. We don't have any weapons or anything we can use to fight back. Even if we did, how do we know if they'd work? We don't have a plan."

"Well, Ford told me earlier that he did have a plan for defeating Bill," Stan suddenly remembered.

"Wait, really?" Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What was it?" Mabel asked.

"I don't know. He never told me," Stan shrugged. "He said he wanted to wait until all of us were together again. That it would be easier to tell us all at once."

"Great! So the one person who had a plan of any sort was captured! That's just fantastic!" Dipper said sarcastically as he threw his arms up with great frustration. "As if today couldn't get any worse! Our great uncle was captured, we're stuck without a plan, and Wendy is STILL A STATUE!" he shouted frustratedly. "I still can't even believe that! It just had to be her, didn't it? Wendy, of all people!"

"C'mon, Dipper, it could've been any of us," Melody insisted, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Could it have been though?" he asked as he pulled away from her. "Just days ago, I saw Ryland's little brother shake the statue's hand with my own eyes! Nothing happened! But then we have Bill, who has tried to get many of us to shake his hand: Ford, Wendy, Soos… even Mabel and I on Summerween. Why would any of our handshakes work, but not Evan's? I don't get it! What do we have in common that he doesn't?"

Soos stroked his chin as thought about it. "Well, if Wendy's included, then it's definitely not intelligence…"

Darting his eyes to his right, he quickly caught Dan glaring right at him, huffing angrily. Realizing his mistake, he quickly retracted, holding his hands up innocently.

"Heh, because she's smarter than all of us combined, of course!"

Dan continued to glare at him for a moment before turning away. "You're lucky I'm too upset to kill you."

"Why did he want us to shake his hand over anybody else? What makes all of us so special?" Dipper continued to think aloud.

"I don't know what you're talking about. You guys are the special ones," Derrick assumed. "When I was held hostage that night, he had no idea who I was. Sure didn't feel very special then."

"Well, yeah. You guys never met each other before that night. Of course he wouldn't know you," Dipper reasoned.

"But, wait a sec, why didn't he know Derrick?" Mabel asked as she thought over it more. "I mean, Bill knew usbefore we met him. Remember? When we went into Stan's mind?"

"Well, it was in Stan's mind, so he could've figured out who we were already while he was in there," Dipper pointed out. "But you're not wrong. Hell, he even had those nicknames ready for us- Question Mark, Shooting Star…"

His eyes suddenly widened.

"...Pine Tree…"

It was like the entire summer of 2012 flashed before his eyes at that very moment. The remembrance of what those nicknames truly meant and what they stood for. It all started to add up. It all started to make sense. With one realization, what seemed like a hopeless situation suddenly had a bit of possibility.

"Of course. I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner!"

"What?" Mabel asked.

"Bill's weakness, Mabel!" Dipper said, cracking a somewhat joyous smile. "Don't you remember? During Weirdmageddon, when we rescued Ford, he had a plan for defeating Bill. Before it came down to wiping him from Stan's mind."

She didn't need any more elaboration at that point, as her eyes shot open widely at the same realization. "The zodiac! That's it! That's how we defeat Bill!"

"That whole holding-hands-in-a-circle plan?" Stan recalled, narrowing his eyes. "We're seriously going back to that?"

"It doesn't matter how stupid it sounds. Last time we did it, we knew it was working," Dipper mentioned before paying him a blaming glare. "Until somebody messed it all up…"

"Hey, why are you looking at me like that was all my fault?" Stan said defensively. "You should put some of the blame on Ford for thinking it was necessary to correct my grammar in the middle of trying to fix the god damn apocalypse!"

"Well, ain't that excuse just a bunch of bull hockey!" a voice suddenly called out.

Everybody turned their heads in the direction of this intervening voice to see Fiddleford McGucket approaching them as he walked with his knob-handle cane.

"McGucket? What are you doing here?" Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Wait, didn't Ford contact you?" Soos remembered.

"That's right," McGucket nodded. "A little over a half-hour ago, I got a ping from Stanford."

"You guys played ping-pong?" Mabel asked, literally tilting her head in confusion like a dog.

McGucket reached into his jacket and pulled out a marble-sized ping device, which only Stan, Soos, and Melody recognized from being with Ford at the time of its first use.

"Right after Weirdmageddon, Ford and I had met and constructed an emergency signal protocol in which we could quickly communicate each other's locations in the event of potential disaster or world-endin' scenarios. I got one of those signals from Ford and immediately assumed somethin' big was happenin' and had my pilot fly me here as soon as possible. But I was stumped for a moment when I realized the signal actually led underground. That was until I overheard you fellers as you came by."

"Ford did say something about contacting you for his plan," Melody remembered.

"Well, here I am," McGucket affirmed. "Where is Ford anyway?"

"Bill took him," Mabel said without warning.

He froze fearfully. "B-B-Bill?" he stuttered. "You mean, as in… he's escaped?"

Seeing his changing facial expressions began to concern Dipper, who knew he was on the verge of total panic. "Now... try to keep it together, McGucket. We know it's a lot to take in."

"Oh no… oh no… " McGucket said as his hands began shaking anxiously.

Soos took a cautious step back. "Oh, man… he's gonna do that freakout thing he does! Where he screams a bunch of folksy words that make no sense!"

McGucket grew continuously more panicked and jittery. However, just as he felt he was about to burst, he caught himself and realized his behavior as he looked down at his hands. Fighting it, he tightened himself up, clenching his fists and shutting his eyes as he tried his hardest to calm himself down.

"No… not this time," he said to himself frankly. As he managed to control himself, he opened his eyes and turned back to the others, looking as determined as ever. "We ain't got time for freakin' out. Not while Bill's on the loose again. We need to get to work," he vouched. "Now, if I overheard correctly, y'all already have a plan worked out?"

"You're right. We do," Dipper nodded. "And since Ford called you here, now I know for certain that this must've been his plan too."

"You think so?" Mabel asked.

"McGucket was there with us on that zodiac that Ford drew back in Bill's fortress," Dipper explained. "He must've called him because he was also part of the prophecy."

"That also must be why he wanted to wait until all of us had met up before telling us the plan!" Soos added.

"So as far as this prophecy goes, do we already have everybody we need for it to work?" Melody asked, having only the vaguest idea about everything being discussed.

Dipper shook his head. "Not yet. If we're going exactly by last time, then we're gonna need Gideon Gleeful, Pacifica Northwest, and Robbie Valentino." He sighed once he realized what that meant. "Looks like we're all gonna have to go out and make a few stops."

"Nonsense. That'll take too much time," McGucket said. "I reckon it would be best if some of us just split up and brought these people in all at once."

"Oooh! I call dibs on Pacifica!" Mabel shouted excitedly. "No offense to Gideon or Robbie, but I mean, Pacifica's my gal! And I think I'd probably have the best chance at convincing her to come along."

"I guess I'll go get Gideon then," Dipper accepted. "Only because after last night, Robbie's kind of the last person I want to talk to right now."

"I'll go with you," Derrick offered, stepping up beside Dipper.

"And Ryland can come with me," Mabel said as she grabbed a firm hold of Ryland's hand.

"You bet," he nodded with a smile.

"Then I'll go find this Robbie fella myself," McGucket claimed.

"So that settles it then," Dipper assessed. "Derrick and I will go and get Gideon; Mabel and Ryland will get Pacifica; and McGucket will get Robbie."

"And what about the rest of us?" Stan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The rest of you should just stay put here until we come back with the others," Mabel advised.

"Yeah, once we have everybody, we'll work out a plan," Dipper nodded. "Then, when we're ready, we'll go to the Mystery Shack and move on Ford and Bill."

"Indeed," McGucket nodded. "Let's try to meet back within the hour, folks."

Without further word, the two duos and McGucket began to set out on their own ways. Everybody else stood back by the cabin, ready to settle on waiting for them to return. That is, everybody except for Stan, who watched his great-nephew and niece walk off with a look of unfulfillment.

"Ya know, maybe I should tag along with one of you kids," Stan suggested as he stood up from the porch. "Give some extra support or something."

"Grunkle Stan, you're hurt. You need to stay here and rest," Mabel reminded him.

Stan scoffed. "Please. You kids are just walking around. I ain't gonna hurt myself by walking." Taking a single step, however, he immediately tripped and fell flat on his face. "Ow, my meniscus…"

Dipper sighed as he quickly came to his aid alongside Mabel. "Grunkle Stan, can you please just stay put?" he asked as he and Mabel stood him back up and sat him back down on the porch. "Look, I know you like to be involved and all, but we're not in a position to make mistakes or waste time right now. After all that you've been through, it would make us feel better if you would just rest for a bit."

"Yeah, we can handle this ourselves. We're not twelve anymore," Mabel assured him.

Stan let out a mellow sigh. It wasn't that he didn't think the twins were capable on their own, but he didn't like the idea of being part of a situation as dire as it was and not play a part in helping fix it. Given how the entire problem had previously revolved around Bill Cipher being present in his mind and using his body to put others at risk, not being able to stand for himself and prove his own worth again just made him feel useless. Even if rest was what he needed, he still wanted to help. Yet his own family would prefer if he didn't.

"No. You two ain't," he said under his breath.

"Come on. Let's get a move on," Dipper said as he grouped back up with Derrick.

"Lead the way, prophecy guy," Derrick joked as he followed behind him, to which Dipper shoved him with a chuckle in response.

Overhearing this, Ryland turned to Mabel curiously. "So if this is all part of a prophecy, does that me I'm actually integral to defeating Bill?"

"Ehhh… more or less," she replied with a nervous smile.

---

Despite how odd the previous night had been, having been hit with a knockout ray and all, Abuelita had woken up to the day without a worry to give. As long as she woke up in either her bed or in one of the living room chairs, she knew she had no reason to fear for her life. She had gone about things as per usual before and after everybody else had left to see Wendy. Continuing to treat things normally, she vacuumed the floors of the entire Mystery Shack.

Waddles laid sleeping peacefully on the living room chair, not particularly bothered by the noise. As Abuelita finished vacuuming the last untouched spot in the living room, she shut the vacuum cleaner off and looked around with satisfaction.

"There. All done."

CRASH!

A large part of the wall and ceiling beside the back door suddenly caved in as Ford's body violently smashed inside. He laid on the ground coughing within the rubble, severely bruised and scratched, as small chunks of ceiling rubble continued to collapse from above on top of him.

The large crash in itself was enough to startle Waddles awake, sending him squealing as he hurried out of the living room into the gift shop. Abuelita looked over at the rubble and Ford with an expression of momentary shock. However, rather than acting upon anything, she simply turned around dismissively and walked away.

"I go take a nap now."

As she walked off, Ford attempted to rise from the ground despite how much it hurt to do so. Just as he began pushing the rubble off of him, Bill descended from above right in front of the giant hole now present in the Shack's wall. He shrunk his size down moderately but continued to tower menacingly over Ford.

"AH, HOME SWEET HOME, HUH, FORDSY?" he taunted."TO THINK ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS KEEP YOUR BROTHER HERE FOR JUST A FEW MORE HOURS AND YOU MIGHT'VE BEEN RID OF ME! I GUESS ALL THAT HARD WORK YOU PUT INTO THAT QUANTUM DESTABILIZER WAS ALL FOR NOTHING. THAT'S REALLY GOTTA BURN, DOES'T IT?"

Ford gritted his teeth together as he slowly rose back up to his feet. "Is this what you wanted? Is this why you brought me here? Singling me out just to torture me for everything I've ever done? Is THAT what this is about?!"

"I MEAN, MAYBE THAT'S PART OF IT," he admitted. "BUT THERE'S A REAL REASON I BROUGHT YOU HERE. A MORE… RELEVANT REASON, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN…" He looked down at his hand and attempted to start a fire within it again, but unlike the momentary flames he was able to create previously, absolutely nothing came out now.

"Let me guess- you don't have all of your powers," Ford assumed, narrowing his eyes. "When you returned to your true form, you came back without the ability to create the chaos you're used to causing. That's why you're torturing me like this instead of using your usual weird antics. That's why you haven't started Weirdmageddon again. And that's why you need my help. You want me to open another portal; to create a new dimensional rift..."

"DING, DING, DING!" Bill shouted. "IMPRESSIVE, SIXER! YOU KNOW, I'VE ALWAYS ADMIRED THAT ABOUT YOU- NO MATTER HOW MANY HITS YOU TAKE, THAT BRAIN OF YOURS ALWAYS MANAGES TO GO UNSCATHED." He flew right up to Ford and gave him a validating pat on the head, much to his annoyance. "YOU'RE RIGHT, THOUGH. DESPITE HAVING MY PHYSICAL FORM AGAIN, I DON'T HAVE ALL OF MY POWERS FROM BEFORE YOU DEFEATED ME," he confirmed."I GUESS JUST TO SAVE MYSELF FROM DEATH, I HAD TO MAKE SOME SACRIFICES."

Ford raised an eyebrow. "Sacrifices? What are you on about?"

"IT PAINS ME TO ADMIT IT, BUT THE TRUTH IS THERE ARE BEINGS MUCH MORE POWERFUL THAN ME OUT THERE THAT SET OUT TO USE THEIR POWER FOR FAR MORE BORING PURPOSES," Bill explained to him with visible frustration in his eye. "BUT THAT'S AN ASIDE. THE POINT IS- TO GET MY POWER BACK, I NEED YOU TO OPEN UP A NEW RIFT SO I CAN FEED INTO THE NIGHTMARE REALM AND TAP INTO THE REST OF MY POTENTIAL ONCE AGAIN."

"Even if I wanted to do that, I couldn't. The old portal I built thirty-four years ago has been dismantled for years. As if I know how to rebuild it or make anything similar after all this time."

"OH, DON'T PLAY DUMB, BRAINIAC," Bill said, poking Ford with his giant finger, throwing him off balance for a second."I KNOW FOR A FACT YOU HAVE THE SMARTS TO BUILD ANOTHER INTERDIMENSIONAL PORTAL. THIRTY YEARS OF DIMENSION HOPPING UNDER YOUR BELT AND YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO MAKE ME ANOTHER RIFT? HOW DUMB DO YOU THINK I AM?"

"Dumb enough to come asking me for help!" Ford snapped. "After all that you've done to me, my family, my friends, my friend's daughter… you really think I'm just gonna turn a blind eye to all of that and HELP YOU destroy our universe?! What kind of mind games do you think you're playing here, Cipher? Because this might just be your most hopeless plan yet!"

"YA KNOW, FORD, AS MUCH AS I LOVE PLAYING GAMES WITH YOU, AS LONG AS I DON'T HAVE MY POWERS, I DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE ANY GAMES TO PLAY RIGHT NOW. I'D LOVE TO TORTURE YOU IN A FUN WAY LIKE TEARING YOU MOLECULE FOR MOLECULE AND LITERALLY STITCHING YOU BACK UP AGAIN. OR TURNING YOU INTO A GIANT BOWLING BALL THAT I USE TO ROLL OVER THE REST OF YOUR FAMILY! STUFF LIKE THAT," he exemplified. "BUT I CAN'T, SO INSTEAD, I GOTTA DO THINGS THE LESS INTERESTING WAY…"

Without offering a second to react, Bill violently rammed Ford into the wall behind him with his hand. Not letting go, he then pulled him back out and threw him against the corner of another wall, sending him crashing right through it.

"...AND THAT'S BEATING THE HELL OUTTA YOU!"

Bill shrunk down a bit more to follow Ford into the Shack, watching him helplessly sprawl out amongst the floorboards in grueling pain. He still hadn't even recovered from Bill's previous throw just moments before. Still, he tried to move, staring right back up at Bill with a clear refusal to admit defeat on his face.

"Don't act… like you don't enjoy this too…" he told him weakly.

"ME? ENJOY BEATING YOU NORMALLY WITH MY OWN HANDS? MAN AND I THOUGHT YOU KNEW ME BETTER THAN THAT, SIXER!" Bill said, sounding slightly offended, but was likely just pretending to."I MEAN, I DID BEAT YOU UP A GOOD BIT WHILE I WAS STILL IN YOUR BROTHER'S BODY, BUT THAT'S ONLY BECAUSE I HAD NO OTHER OPTIONS! BUT IN MY OWN FORM? MAN, THERE ARE A BILLION OTHER WAYS I WOULD RATHER TORTURE YOU BEFORE JUST BEATING YOU COMES ALONG! BUT HEY, WHATEVER GETS YOU TO TALK, HUH?"

In yet another instant, Bill grabbed hold of Ford once again and chucked him straight down into the floorboards with all his strength. The impact sent him crashing through not just the floor, but through the weak dirt ground directly below the Mystery Shack that covered the basement and laboratory. Ford screamed as he plummeted straight down through another set of brittle wooden boards that made up the ceiling to a section of the lab. From there, his body finally bounced off a piece of his machinery before crashing straight into his multi-unit file cabinet, knocking the whole thing over as he laid against it.

All of the various impacts that his body had suffered within such a short time frame left Ford almost entirely immobile. He had bruises, scratches, and deep cuts throughout his entire body on his visible skin and beneath all his clothes. Blood dripped from his nose and mouth as he coughed. Even breathing was painful. He wouldn't even be surprised if he was bleeding internally either.

Though for as many injuries he had sustained and as much pain as he was in, he knew it wasn't even the worst thing that he had ever been through. He had definitely suffered worse in the past, but that didn't mean what he was going through at that moment wasn't bad either.

"AH, NOW THIS PLACE BRINGS BACK MEMORIES," Bill said as he flew down into the laboratory through the holes Ford had crashed through. He looked around, genuinely reminiscing in the days when the two used to work together."FEELS JUST LIKE OLD TIMES! AND NOW, YOU'RE GOING TO HELP ME… JUST LIKE OLD TIMES."

Ford's state of agony didn't stop him from holding his stance. "What makes you think… that I'll do… any of the sort?"

Not answering right away, Bill suddenly grew excited as he stumbled upon one of Ford's weapon cabinets and began sorting through it. "MAN, I FORGOT HOW MANY TOYS YOU HAD DOWN HERE!" he said right before stopping on a particular weapon. "TAKE A LOOK AT THIS BAD BOY!"

Swiping the weapon from the cabinet, Bill held it upward, wrapping his hand around the handle. Pressing down on the trigger, a large stream of flames fired out the other end, reaching out at somewhere around twelve feet in distance. Ford flinched as Bill fired the flamethrower almost directly above him.

"WOO! THAT'S GOT A KICK!" Bill said with great amusement as he stopped firing, holding the flamethrower admiringly in his hands."THIS WILL WORK PERFECTLY!"

"Do your worst, Cipher," Ford challenged. "I'm not afraid to die. I would prefer that over helping you again any day."

"WHAT? I'M NOT GONNA USE IT ON YOU, SILLY! I'M GONNA USE IT ON YOUR FAMILY!"

Ford's eyes widened fearfully. "What?"

"OH, DID I LEAVE THAT PART OUT? OOPS!" Bill said sarcastically with the playful shrug of his arms. "WELL, FORD, THE THING IS- I KNOW YOU'RE TOO STUBBORN TO GIVE IN NO MATTER HOW MUCH I HURT YOU. AND I KNOW IF I CRIPPLE YOU TOO BADLY, YOU'LL DIE BEFORE YOU GIVE ME WHAT I WANT. SO, HERE'S HOW THIS IS GONNA WORK- EITHER YOU HELP ME MAKE A NEW RIFT IN YOUR WORLD OR I GO FIND YOUR FAMILY, BRING THEM BACK, AND KILL THEM RIGHT IN FRONT YOU."

Up to this point, Bill's tone had been mostly playful and careless. But now, it seemed as though he had genuinely lost most, if not all, of his patience in dealing with Ford as he paid him nothing but threatening looks.

"I MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO DO SO IN ANY FUN WAYS, BUT I PROMISE I CAN STILL MAKE IT LONG AND PAINFUL…"

"I already told you that I can't!" Ford yelled back at him while holding his injured arm. "I don't have the schematics! Not for the old portal or a new one. There's no way I'll be able to work from sheer memory. I need schematics to work with and I don't have any!"

At that very moment, a single file fell out of the collapsed cabinet that Ford had crashed into. Inconveniently, a recognizable set of schematics poured out of the file as it hit the ground. Ford and Bill glanced over at them, to which Ford's heart dropped as he realized just what they were.

He had no chance to reach them back though, as Bill flew over to the papers themselves, picking them up in his hands for examination. His eye bulged with growing interest.

"WELL, WHAT HAVE WE HERE?" he asked as read through the files. "DO MY EYES DECEIVE ME? ARE THESE MODIFIED SCHEMATICS OF THE ORIGINAL PORTAL FROM ALL THOSE YEARS AGO? MY, OH, MY!"

Continuing to read through the files, Bill quickly noticed how their writing didn'tlook anything like what he knew Ford's handwriting looked like. Nor did the content of the schematics look much like Ford plans.

"HUH, AND THIS DOESN'T EVEN LOOK LIKE YOUR OWN HANDIWORK, SIXER," Bill noted aloud. "WHO HOOKED YOU UP WITH THESE? AN OLD FRIEND, PERHAPS?"

Ford knew he was onto him. "I-"

"NO NEED TO EXPLAIN. I ALREADY KNOW EXACTLY WHO SENT YOU THESE," Bill cut off."GUESS SHE'S STILL OUT THERE SOMEWHERE. HOW INTERESTING! AND HOW KIND OF HER! WELL, NOW IT LOOKS LIKE YOU CAN GET TO WORK!"

He threw the schematics in Ford's direction, which landed right in front of him. With these schematics exposed, Ford knew his range of options had suddenly become significantly thinner. As his heart sunk deeper and deeper in his chest, he slowly looked back up at Bill in absolute horror.

"SO, WHAT'S IT GONNA BE, FORD? THE PORTAL OR YOUR DEAD FAMILY? IT'S YOUR CHOICE!"

---

Walking down the sidewalk, Dipper and Derrick eventually stopped as they turned to the front of a fenced up property that sat connected to an auto mart on the other side. Dipper pushed the front gate open and approached the house as Derrick followed right behind him.

"So who's this guy again?" Derrick asked while examining the property.

"His name's Gideon Gleeful. I told you about him before. He was the kid that used to torment me and had... or... still has kind of an obsessive crush on my sister."

"Ah, I remember now," Derrick said, recalling these stories. "The kid with poor taste."

"The point is- he used to be super evil, but we're cool with him now," Dipper assured. "Mostly. He's still got a loose screw or two. But I think we're at a decent enough spot now to put some trust in him."

"Well, let me meet the little devil then."

The two stepped right up to the front door of the house. Dipper knocked a few times and stepped back with Derrick folding his arms curiously right beside him as they awaited an answer. After a brief moment, the locks clicked and the handle turned as the door opened wide. Standing right in front of them was a hearty Bud Gleeful who greeted them with an honest, welcoming smile.

"My, my! Ain't it Dipper Pines!"

"Hey… Bud…" Dipper said with an awkward wave of his hand.

He felt really weird interacting with Bud again considering the last time they had met, he had tried to run for mayor to free Gideon from prison and wipe his family out again. Of course, Gideon played a greater role in most of those exchanges at the time, but still. Regardless, they were surely well past that now, but that didn't ease the sudden awkwardness that came with playing nice again.

"I've heard you and your family have been in town again for some time now," Bud continued. "How long's it been again? Four years? Funny how far our families have come from being at each other's throats."

"Yeah, yeah, real funny," Dipper quickly brushed aside. "Hey, is Gideon home? We really need to talk with him, and we're in kind of a rush."

"Sure thing! Let me go get the little rascal," Bud nodded as he turned back inside. "Gideon, boy!"

"WHAT?!"

"You have friends for you at the door!"

"DANG IT, FATHER! I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF CUPCAKE BAKING WITH GHOST-EYES!"

"Oh, come now, Gideon, this seems pretty urgent. Sounds like they're in a hurry."

"THEN COME AND TAKE OVER FOR ME!"

Bud turned back toward the two at the door with an eased chuckle. "Heh, he'll be here in just a second."

He stepped away from the door and headed back inside toward the kitchen. Within a few moments, Gideon suddenly popped out from inside and walked right up to the door wearing a pink apron with hearts. It looked to be covered in what was presumably cake batter. In contrast to the aggressive tone he had directed toward his father, he seemed far more content and pleased to see Dipper.

"Well, well! Dipper Pines! Ain't this a pleasant surprise?" he merrily greeted.

"Hey, Gideon."

Derrick chuckled as he scanned Gideon, from his youthful voice to his generally innocent appearance. "You've gotta be kidding me. This kid used to be one of your greatest threats?"

"We were twelve!" Dipper defended.

"And what was he? Five?"

Dipper sighed, not wanting to talk about it. "Gideon, this is Derrick. He's a friend of mine from back home."

"Oh, why it's a pleasure to meet you!" Gideon said as he gladly stuck his hand out and firmly shook Derrick's. "And just to clarify, I was actually ten. Though I'm pleased to hear that Dipper considers me as one of his greatest former enemies. Didn't know I was that high up the ranking, heheh."

"My point still stands," Derrick sneered at Dipper.

"Anyhow, why don't you two come in? Ghost-Eyes and I are making cupcakes in the kitchen," Gideon offered.

"Actually, Gideon, we don't really have time," Dipper rejected. "Listen, we need your help. Bill is back."

"What?! Bill?!" Gideon asked, eyes shooting open widely in shock as he dropped to his knees and started to hyperventilate. "Y-You're kidding, right?! No! T-That can't be!"

"Easy…" Dipper said, waving his hands down at him. "I know it's a lot to take in."

"It's actually just three words with a lot of weight," Derrick remarked.

Gideon shook his head in disbelief. "I don't understand! H-How is this possible?"

"It's a long story, but the good news is he doesn't have the necessary power to cause the chaos that he wants," Dipper calmly explained to him.

"He doesn't?"

"Not yet. Which is why we need you to come with us so we can stop him once and for all."

"Oh my…" Gideon said as he continued to process everything, holding his head with unease. "Well, I can definitely see the urgency of your situation. But, I mean… it's Cupcake Day!"

"What?" Dipper asked, narrowing his eyes. "Are you seriously prioritizing cupcake baking over helping us destroy our most dangerous enemy?"

"I'm sorry!" Gideon said as he twiddled his fingers with uncertainty. "It's just that… Cupcake Day has been a yearly tradition for me and Ghost-Eyes! We've been excited about this for so long, and we're nearly done too! You don't realize just how important this day has been to us! Trust me, I can see why this is important too, but I just don't know if I can join you right now!"

"Gideon, this is Bill we're talking about! Cupcake baking is the last thing you should be worried about!"

"Settle down, Dip," Derrick intervened as he put a steady hand on his shoulder. "I got this." He cleared his throat as he took a step forward up to Gideon. "Mabel's gonna be there."

Gideon froze for a few seconds as he processed this information.

"Give me a minute to change!"

SLAM!

Without further hesitation, Gideon had slammed the door shut and ran back into the house, leaving the two to wait outside for him.

"Well, what do you know? Clever thinking on my part, I should say," Derrick gloated as he gave Dipper a cheeky smile.

"I literally just reminded you that he had a thing for Mabel."

"And I didn't see you use that to your advantage."

Dipper gave a slightly irritated sigh. "Well, at least we got him." He then pulled out a walkie talkie from his hoodie pocket, holding it up to his mouth. "Dipper to Mabel."

There was static for a brief moment before her voice came through. "Go ahead, broseph."

"We just got Gideon. We're about to head back in a minute. What's your status?"

"We're coming up on the mansion now." She suddenly gasped. "Oh my gosh! Are those peacocks?"

He rolled his eyes. "Just stay focused. We don't have time to waste right now."

"Roger that! We'll meet you later."

Dipper pocketed his walkie again just as the front door flew wide open again. Gideon stepped out onto the porch in front of the two, now sporting a baby blue suit, which to Dipper looked akin to his initial Weirdmageddon sheriff attire. With western sleeve fringes, spurred boots, tie, gold belt, and an almost obnoxiously large cowboy hat, he displayed a face of strong confidence and readiness for the fight ahead.

"Wooooo-we! I'm ready to save the world!" he cheered as he jumped off the porch toward the two. "Shall we, gentlemen?"

"Is the cowboy hat really necessary?" Dipper asked, staring directly at the hat with critical thoughts.

"Of course! It's for special occasions. Ain't this special?"

"I'm not gonna argue with that," Dipper dismissed as he started to walk off. "C'mon, let's just get going."

Gideon looked over his shoulder toward the door where Bud now stood. "I'm heading out to save the world, father! Tell Ghost-Eyes to save a cupcake for me!"

"Will do, Gideon!" Bud assured as he waved at him and the others. "You all just be careful now."

"Lil' Gideon?"

Bud turned around to see Ghost-Eyes step out of the kitchen wearing his own pink apron and pink oven mitts, looking around the room.

"Where's Lil' Gideon?" he asked. "I need him to help me out over here."

"Oh, he's just gone off to tend to other important matters of his," Bud said as he walked up to him. "But I can still help if you need."

"Oh, great. Because I accidentally set the kitchen on fire."

Bud's eyes bulged. "WHAT?!"

Turning right around, he quickly noticed the heavy amount of black smoke emerging from the kitchen at that very moment as the smell of burning suddenly hit his nose.

"OH MY! QUICK, CALL 911! I'LL GO FIND THE EXTINGUISHER!"

As he ran off elsewhere in the house to find a fire extinguisher, Ghost-Eyes continued to stand completely unfazed within the living room. Turning to his right, he spotted Mrs. Gleeful standing with her vacuum cleaner, staring at him in utter horror.

"Last time I called 911, I got arrested," he said as he continued to make no effort to do anything about the situation.

With a twitching eye, Mrs. Gleeful grabbed her cellphone and quickly speed-dialed a number.

"Janet, it's me again," she said in her quiet, frail voice. "Are you doing walk-in sessions today? I have a lot I need to vent again."

---

The new Northwest mansion did not quite meet the scale of the originally built mansion in 1863. The original Northwest Manor was built on top of a mountain cleared by lumberjacks. Across the valley, the new manor stood, and it was just about similarly aligned to the rest of the town. No longer did the family have its towering views as it used to have.

While the manor itself appeared to be complete, the outside perimeter still seemed to be a work in progress as the manor was practically secluded by the tall trees of the forest. The Northwests would almost certainly be clearing them out to make sure their mansion was actually seen by the people.

As it was, Mabel and Ryland walked beside tall fenced walls that surrounded the main perimeter of the house. Mabel wasn't too fazed by the sight, but Ryland was in awe as he looked around at the manor.

"Woah... this is... expensive."

"That's the Northwest family for ya," Mabel nodded.

"So, who is this girl we're trying to find?"

"Pacifica Northwest- just the daughter of the used-to-be richest family in town," she explained. "I'm surprised you've never heard about them in all your time here. Especially since they seem to be making a comeback in recent times."

"Well, I can't say celebrity gossip was ever really my thing," he admitted. "My mom, on the other hand, can't go more than a few hours without verifying the relationship statuses of her celebrity crush list, which actually updates more regularly than you'd expect. But yeah, I never really went out of my way to look into the local rich families."

"Eh, there's not much to know anyway," Mabel told him as they approached the stepped past the main gate and down the long path leading to the front door. "Pacifica aside, the Northwests are just a family of total rich poop-heads. Or at least, they used to be rich, but then they weren't, but now they are again. It's kind of a long and convoluted story."

"And isn't this Pacifica girl, like, another rival of yours next to Derrick?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in slight concern.

"Pacifica? Naaaah! We're totally cool with each other! Maybe we've had our differences in the past, but trust me, we're basically best friends these days!" she confidently assured.

Mabel gave a few rhythmic knocks on the front door of the house. About a minute later, the door opened and Pacifica stood right before them.

"Hi, Pacifica!" Mabel greeted with a wide, enthusiastic smile.

"You have thirty seconds to explain why you're here before I slam the door in your face," she threatened. "And you better not be trying to set me up on another blind date."

"Oh, no need to worry. No blind dates this time," Mabel assured her. "But you do have one date... with destiny!"

SLAM!

Mabel frowned as she found herself staring right at the front door again. "Aw, c'mon! I didn't even get my full thirty seconds!"

"So, uh, best friends, huh?" Ryland asked skeptically.

"It's a bit of a complicated dynamic."

She then knocked on the door again, to which Pacifica soon returned with a face that clearly displayed a lack of patience.

"Okay, I was trying to be cute, but seriously, you are a real vibe killer," Mabel told her bluntly.

"What do you want, Mabel?"

"We need your help!" she said, getting straight to the point. "You need to drop everything you're doing right now and come with us!"

"Uh-huh," she said dismissively as her eyes glanced over at Ryland. "And who is he?"

"Oh, right! Pacifica, this is Ryland. Ryland, this is Pacifica."

"Sup," Ryland greeted, waving a friendly hand upward.

"Ryland is the guy who romances my face with his lips on an occasional basis."

Ryland blankly stared forward as he processed this description, having no proper idea of what to make of it. "I guess that's one way of describing it."

"Wait, you two are a thing?" Pacifica realized, slightly surprised as she glanced between them. "How do you put up with her?" she asked Ryland.

Mabel burst out laughing. "You see? Isn't she something?" she said to Ryland. "But seriously, we really need you to come with us."

"Um... why?"

"So, you remember that old triangle that nearly killed us all a few years ago?" she began. "Well, he kind of come back to try to kill us all again, except he can't really use all of his old powers, and so to try to get his old powers back, he stole our Grunkle, and so now it's up to us to get to him and defeat the triangle guy before he succeeds and gets his power back, and the only way we know of defeating him is to try doing that whole thing where we held hands in a circle that we tried to do to defeat him last time before my other Grunkle messed up everything with his old-man emotions, and we know you were apart of that and so we need you to come back to help us with that and the fate of the world depends on it!"

Having just spoken very quickly on a single breath, she let in a deep gasp to catch her breath.

"So you get what I mean?"

Pacifica stared at her blankly for a moment. "I have literally no idea what you just said."

"Yeah, no, I actually understand what's going on, and even I didn't get that," Ryland nodded in agreement.

Mabel sighed. "Look, we really don't have a lot of time here. All you need to know is that Gravity Falls and maybe even the world is at stake, and we need you to help us save it before it's too late."

"Well, as much as I'd love to save the world, I'm already too busy trying to save my evening," Pacifica said as she took out her cell phone and glanced through it. "My parents are busy fixing up the dining hall for the reopening ceremony of our family business tonight, and my bangs are getting frizzy. The problem is my personal hairdresser is taking her vacation days, and my parents don't want me to subject myself to a normal salon in town to get it fixed it."

"Seriously? You care more about this kinda thing instead of helping us?" Mabel asked, somewhat dumbfounded by her priorities. "I thought you were over this sort of lifestyle."

Pacifica sighed. "Look, the constant revolting against my parents' inevitable business practices hasn't gone anywhere. I may be the future of my family, but it's not easy trying to change things when no one takes me seriously as my parents' teenage daughter. So whether I like it or not, I have to go through with this," she explained. "Anyway, you should probably go find someone else who can do what you need instead of me."

"But we need you, Pacifica!" Mabel told her as she grabbed ahold of her arm. "Y-O-U. You! We can't go to anyone else!"

"Well, sorry, but you're gonna have to," she dismissed, politely pushing her hand away as she stepped back inside. "Now if you'll excuse me..."

"Aw c'mon! What am I gonna tell Dipper if I come back to the Shack without you?"

Pacifica's eyes lit up all of a sudden. "Wait, Dipper told you to come and get me?"

"Um, I mean, kinda?" Mabel nodded. "Why? Does it matter?"

"Uh... yeah!" Pacifica said, thinking quickly. "I mean, if it's coming from him, then it's probably really serious! I mean, c'mon, it's not like I'm used to you being the messenger of serious news."

Mabel looked on at her for a good moment as she considered her reasoning, only to nod in agreement. "Yeah, fair point. Dipper's definitely more of the serious twin."

Hook, line, and sinker, Pacifica thought to herself.

"So does that mean you're coming?" Mabel asked again.

Pacifica knew what she how much trouble she would get in for missing the reopening ceremony of her parents' business. But at the same time, she knew that if Mabel was being truthful, the overall consequences could be far worse if she didn't help her and Dipper in whatever mess they were involved in this time.

She sighed. "Let me grab my coat."

---

Stan leaned forward in one of the seats in what was left of the Corduroy living room as Soos stood behind him, applying disinfectant to his scratched up back. Melody stood next to him holding bandages, which she applied to every spot Soos went over. He tightened up as the intense stinging got to him. It had gotten so bad that his eyes began to swell up with tears as he tried his hardest not to burst out screaming.

"AGH! OW!" he winced painfully.

"Easy, Mr. Pines. Your back is pretty marked up," Soos told him as he carefully applied the disinfectant.

"It's nothing. I'm fine," Stan dismissed casually as he tried to stay as strong as he could.

"There. All done," Soos said just as he finished up, with Melody putting on one last bandaid.

Stan let out a sigh of relief before reaching back over for his shirt and putting it back on. "I don't even know what I'm doing here. I mean, Bill's out there with Ford, and I'm just sitting here wallowing in my woes instead of helping out."

"There's not really anything else for us to do besides waiting here, Mr. Pines," Melody said.

"Yeah, trust us. You're contributing plenty just by staying put and healing up while we wait for the others to get back," Soos assured him.

Stan then turned his eyes over to the side, looking over at Dan and his sons, who continued to hang out around Wendy's statue. They all sat silently, not having talks with one another or engaging in any activities that brought out any noise. Their facial expressions crossed between angry and mournful, both of which were understandable given the circumstances. Yet without trying to make it about him, Stan still felt a strong sense of responsibility for just about everything.

"I still can't believe what that bastard did to her," he vented out as he hung his head low. "I blamed Ford for not keeping me away, but I can't help feeling that what happened to her was my fault. She was on her way, and I got too close. Now look at what her poor family has to deal with."

"Mr. Pines, please. Don't torture yourself by putting this whole thing on your shoulders," Melody urged as she put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You shouldn't feel faulted for caring enough about Wendy to say goodbye. What ended up happening was unpredictable."

"That doesn't mean it couldn't have been prevented," he said as he continued to stare at the ground. "Hell, I'll be thrilled if she does manage to come out of this alive, but I can't imagine she would ever trust me again. Who could blame her though?"

"Mr. Pines, I can assure you- Wendy would know better than to let something like this change how she feels about you," Soos reassured him as he kneeled in front of him to get his attention. "If she comes out of this, she'll still look up to you. I mean, maybe not as much as I do, but you know."

"Soos is right. She would know Bill's the real monster. Not you," Melody nodded.

Glancing between the two, Stan still wasn't all that sure. Regardless, for him to even consider the idea of whether or not Wendy would even forgive him would require her to be back at all. And after everything they've gone through already, it still didn't look like that was likely happening anytime soon, if at all.

The front door then opened and everybody looked over as Dipper, Derrick, and Gideon promptly walked inside.

"We're back," Dipper announced.

Derrick looked back over his shoulder at the mostly destroyed walls around the front door and raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, the entire wall is busted down to the side and we're still gonna come through the front door?"

"It's more polite," Dipper told him.

"It's more polite. Yeah, okay," he mocked.

"Anyways, we got Gideon."

"Why, hello! Fancy seeing most of you again," Gideon happily greeted as he looked around the room before his eyes landed upon Stan, to which his expression quickly shifted. "And, ehem... Stan."

Stan grinned. "Wow, Gideon! What's it been, four years? Does that mean you're old enough to do your own makeup now, or do you still get your deadbeat dad to do it for ya? Hey-o!" he insulted as he slapped his knee.

"Why, you revolting old man!" Gideon snapped as he stomped up to him. "It may have been four years, but lest we not forget how you had your own home stolen by a ten-year-old once! For you, it never took much to be outsmarted by wittle ol' me!"

"Christ, kid," Stan chuckled. "You still refer to yourself like that? Just how badly have you been getting bullied in school?"

"DANG YOU, STAN! DANG YOU!"

"Alright, c'mon. Can we not do this?" Dipper pleaded as he stood between the two. "Look, Stan, you won't believe it, but we're cool with Gideon now."

"You're right. I don't believe it," Stan said as he folded his arms.

"And Gideon, Stan's still our great uncle," he reminded him. "We're all on the same side now. You think that's enough basis to drop this feud? I'm not trying to put up with another Mabel and Derrick here."

"Hey!" Derrick called out.

"Aw, c'mon! You mean I can't make fun of him anymore?" Stan complained. "But that was the fun part!"

"You know what? Yeah, that did keep the dynamic somewhat entertaining," Gideon agreed, oddly enough. "How about we just keep it to a neutral alliance where we're on the same side, but we don't necessarily have to respect one another?"

"Now that might just be the first time I've ever agreed with you, Powder Hair," Stan approved with a smile.

"Likewise, Rotten Nose."

"Ya see, Dipper? We're making progress!"

Seeing them come to their own resolution, Dipper was no longer invested in playing the middle man and just walked off. "Okay, I'm just not gonna make this my problem."

"So are we just waiting on Mabel and McGucket to get back now?" Melody asked.

"Just about," Dipper nodded. "Once they get back with Pacifica and Robbie, we should have everybody we need. Then we'll be ready to go."

"Uh, dude. I've been thinking about it though…" Soos began, rubbing the back of his neck somewhat nervously. "Wasn't Wendy part of the prophecy too? Don't we need her in the circle if we're gonna get this whole thing to work?"

Dipper stood frozen for a moment as this reminder suddenly caught him off guard. "Well, I mean, yeah. I guess she is supposed to be," he admitted. "But it's fine! Manly Dan can still bring her with us! Put her where she belongs and we'll be set!"

Melody looked uncertain that it would be that easy. "Not to be callous, considering I wasn't even here for this last time, but… does she not need to be conscious for it to work?"

"I… I don't know. I mean, maybe?" he tried to skim over. "But maybe not! Maybe it'll still work and that's how we free her. I mean, maybe that's how we get her back, right? By defeating Bill? Maybe that'll undo everything on its own!"

Derrick raised an eyebrow. "Do you know that's how it'll work though?"

"Yeah, what if it doesn't work with her like that?" Soos doubled down.

The constant questions frustrated Dipper further and further to the point where he clenched his fists angrily as he reached his emotional peak.

"I don't know what will happen!" he scolded his friends, who flinched upon his sudden eruption. "I don't know if it will work or if it won't! Ford was the one who discovered the prophecy! Maybe he has the answer! But is he here? NO! He isn't!"

Stan gently put his hand out toward him. "Kid, calm down…"

"I'm sorry that I don't have all the precious answers about what would or wouldn't happen if we used Wendy as she is now! But we need to stop Bill no matter what! And if this is the plan, then we gotta use Wendy as she is no matter what! If it works, great! If not, then oh well! I mean, what else do you want me to say?!"

"DIPPER!" Stan called out as he shot up from his seat.

"WHAT?!"

The two were locked making stern eye contact with one another. Though despite how much taller Dipper had gotten in four years, Stan still had a level over him. He was looking up at Stan, while Stan was looking down at him.

Stan's stern look slowly settled down into a look of genuine concern. As he let the growing silence settle in to ease the tension, he put his hands out toward Dipper, grabbing hold of his shoulders lightly.

"Calm down. Please."

Dipper stared up at him for a moment as his tenseness maintained. But that wouldn't last long, as he began to shake up just a few seconds later. It took until that point for all the overwhelming circumstances to finally catch up to him. His eyes started to water, to which he threw his arms around Stan, hugging him desperately in a time of need.

It wasn't like him to break down the way he did. Stan knew it too, as he remained by the intensity of his reaction. But as he knew he should, he complied with Dipper's need for comfort and hugged him back, understanding perfectly. When taking into consideration all the different variables that had added up throughout the ongoing month, there was bound to be a point where it all just became too much to handle for him.

Dipper didn't even need to look around to know that everybody was watching them. If it was over anything else, he would feel embarrassed for letting himself break down in front of everybody. But as it was, he just didn't care.

"I just want to be done with this, Grunkle Stan," Dipper vented as he hugged him. "I just want to be done with Bill. I'm just... I'm just so tired…"

"Believe me, kid. No one's more tired than I am," Stan said as he patted him on the back. "But you gotta get yourself together and really think this through. I know that bringing Wendy along with us no matter what looks like the only option here, but if we bring her over there like this and this prophecy thing doesn't work as planned, there's no way this is ending well for us."

Dipper pulled himself away, wiping his tears off with his sleeve. "Then I don't know what else we're supposed to do then," he admitted. "We already have no idea how to bring Wendy back as it is. And if we sit around trying to find a way to do so, then how much time will be left to stop Bill or save Ford?"

"I don't got any better answers," Stan said with the shake of his head. "And trust me, the same way you do, I wish I did. But all I want is for you to think straight. Because even a knucklehead like me knows that this is the greatest life-or-death risk we could be taking right now."

In no way was Stan wrong, and Dipper knew that. But even as he did try to mentally pull himself together and really think things out, he was still at a complete loss of what to do. There was such a short range of options that all practically banked on taking risks as far as time was concerned. No matter what they did, there was too strong of a possibility that things might go wrong.

And when dealing with Bill, having a great chance at failure wasn't something to bet on.

Dipper looked over at Wendy, who stood back in the middle of the dining room. Slowly, he walked up to her, looking her directly in her stone-turned eyes. Despite her lifelessness, he could still read out the immense suffering she seemed to have gone through when she shook Bill's hand.

The tears. The pained scream. Standing on her knees. The helplessness rang out ever so clearly across her entire appearance.

He thought he could feel her pain, but another version of it. Though, he wasn't quite sure if it was better or worse than what she went through. Not that he was going to make that assumption considering the differing results.

Regardless, he was looking into the dead, pained eyes of one of his best friends, and it was a sight that hurt him more than he wanted to admit.

"I feel like if Wendy was around to help, she would know what to do," he began as he looked on at her with grief. "When it came to her, it was never about having smarts or wisdom. She just went straight to the core of any problem and got right to work in fixing it. If it had been any of us instead of her, she would do whatever it took to stop Bill. To save us. Even if it meant risking her life."

He paused, turning his head back up to her sadly.

"Because that's just the kind of person she is."

He took off his bomber hat and held it down as he closed his eyes, paying his respects to Wendy. Maybe she wasn't actually dead yet but he honestly had no idea anymore. As far as their current situation went, she was gone, and until they learned of any way to undo what happened to her, she would stay gone.

The rest of the Corduroys that stood closest to her didn't saw this gesture, and as such, they followed suit. Dan and Marcus took off their own hats as they shut their eyes out of respect along with Kevin and Gus.

The same feelings of grief and sorrow spread throughout the rest of the room. Soos and Melody continued to look on at the two together for a moment before shutting their eyes and hanging their own heads.

Stan shook his head, not wanting to believe it was really the end. The more he thought about it, the more he blamed himself. Even when Soos and Melody told him not to, he couldn't shake the feeling off. It was his hand that forced her hand into Bill's. Even if he wanted to say goodbye, he knew he should've prioritized keeping her safe. But it was already far too late for that. Now, he had to grieve like everybody else.

Derrick didn't know Wendy quite as well as most people in the room, but he had spent enough time around her to respect her greatly. Especially after the bunker adventure. That alone gave him just barely enough of an emotional attachment to where he was at least unhappy to see her the way she was. The mere consideration of the possibility that she might not be able to come back just dispirited him.

Meanwhile, Gideon felt as though he had no business being present in the current situation. Regardless, he kept his mouth shut out of respect, simply glancing around the room as he wondered whether he should step out or not.

After a brief moment, Dipper put his hat back on and looked up at Wendy again. With a sorrowful sigh, he took a step forward and put a soft hand on her stone shoulder.

Crack.

His eyes shot open. Everybody else's eyes glanced back up at him. They all heard it. It wasn't loud, but it was obvious.

Quickly, he retracted his arm from her and backed up. As he looked up at her, he started to feel nauseous as his eye twitched shamefully.

A long crack had split down the middle of Wendy's torso right from where he had rested his hand on her shoulder. It was so blatant and noticeable with smaller cracks that branched off in different directions.

Dipper incompetently stuttered as he shook his head with great regret. "I-I-I-I…"

"YOU BROKE HER!" Dan screamed out in horror. Without even a second of hesitation, he quickly grabbed Dipper by the collar, holding him up in the air for him to dangle his legs around fearfully as he reeled his fist back. "WHY, I OUGHTA-"

"Wait, dude!" Soos quickly intervened while pointing back at the statue. "Look!"

Dipper and Dan's heads turned back toward the statue as everybody else did. As it turned out, the statue continued to crack on its own without any additional pressure or physical contact from anybody else. The cracks kept spreading and growing deeper. Everybody looked on with great shock and confusion.

Crack!

A piece of stone suddenly cracked off of the palm of Wendy's held-out hand. Much to everybody's surprise, it revealed her actual skin underneath.

Stan stared on with great shock. "What the-"

CRACK!

Soon enough, all the cracked stone suddenly broke apart, crumbling all at once. Beneath all of it, Wendy's true self fell out, collapsing onto the ground. She still wore the clothes she had before her petrification, though both her cap fell off her head and her axe dropped from her back pocket as she hit the floor and gasped for air. She coughed and heaved violently as her body tried to readjust from its previous state.

Dipper couldn't believe what he was seeing. "W-Wendy…" he mouthed quietly to himself. "WOOAH!"

Dan had dropped him from his grasp without thinking as he stared at his live daughter in great shock. "Wendy…"

She continued to cough for a moment, holding her spinning head as she sat weakly upon the ground. "God, my head… Am I having a migraine or something?" She paused. "Wait a second…"

She held her hands out in front of her and examined them. Her vision was half blurry and still adjusting, but she quickly realized that she wasn't sharing hands with a stone statue in the middle of the woods. Looking up ahead of her was the real test of her vision, but she was able to make out her brothers and her father well enough as they stood around her.

"G-Guys?"

"WENDY!" her brothers each shouted at once as they all rushed up to her, throwing their arms around her and hugging her tightly.

Soos began to tear up as he looked over at her, overwhelmed with emotion. "I'm not gonna cry," he told himself with a sniffle as he tried to fight back his tears. "Not this time."

Melody quickly took notice of his poor attempt to fight his emotions. "Just let it out, honey," she told him as she spread her arms open wide for him.

He took her offer instantly, wrapping his arms around her and stuffing his face into her shoulder as he bawled. "Thank you," he said, muffling through her sleeve.

Amongst the overwhelming joy present in the room, Derrick gave off a glad smile. Looking to the side though, he noticed that Gideon was expressionless. "You don't look too enthusiastic," he said to him. "Don't know her that well?"

"Well, that and she drop-kicked me last time we met."

"Hmm. I believe you."

Wendy laughed as her brothers continued to hug her. "I can't believe it! I'm actually alive!"

"We thought you were a goner, sis!" Kevin said, tightening his hug.

"Started to think we wouldn't get to see you like this again," Marcus added.

"Alright, off of her, boys!" Dan ordered promptly as he stomped his foot down in front of them.

As commanded, the three brothers quickly separated from Wendy and stepped away. With them aside, Dan walked up to Wendy, kneeling right in front of her with squinted eyes and a mean look as though he was about to explode on her. She sat on the ground, anxiously awaiting his strict word or whatever lecture he had to treat her with this time.

However, his expression quickly went soft and teary-eyed as he suddenly hugged her tightly himself. "Oh god, my little girl. I wasn't ready to lose you. Not like this. I'm just… I'm so glad you're okay."

She looked at him gratefully for his words as she hugged him back. "Thanks, dad." She broke apart from him and looked back over at her brothers as she finally stood back up on her feet. "And thanks, you guys. Really. My mind is just everywhere right now. And that's not just because I'm incredibly disoriented right now. I mean, just… I didn't think I'd be seeing any of you again after… you know…"

Before she could continue to articulate her thoughts further, Soos suddenly ran up to her from behind and tearfully bear-hugged her. "Oh, dude! I know that it's only been a few hours, but I'm still so happy that you're actually back!" he cried. "Even though I've been crying an abnormal lot today, I still have no shortage of tears for these emotional moments."

"Yeah, no kidding. You drenched my entire shoulder," Melody confirmed as she pulled on her dampened shoulder sleeve. "But yeah, we're really happy to have you back, Wendy."

"Aw man, you guys," she said appreciatively. "Though, if you don't mind, I'm gonna pull away now because I'm not trying to have my shoulder drenched in tears too," she said, pulling herself away from Soos' waterfall eyes. "But it's really good to see you again, Soos. You as well, Melody. Also, has it really only been a few hours?"

As she asked this, she glanced to the side and caught Dipper staring at her, still absolutely stunned to see her alive.

"I can't believe…" he tried to speak. "You're really… This is so… so…"

"Easy, dude," she told him with a smirk. "If it's only been a few hours, then-"

"No, you don't understand," he cut off as he stepped up to her. "I was starting to think that you were… that you were gone! I really thought that… we'd never see you again like this."

"Hey, it's alright, man," she said as she put a consoling hand on his shoulder. "I'm here now."

With a stupidly helpless smile, he gave in to his emotions and threw his arms around her tightly. She was surprised to see just how much her temporary absence had really affected him emotionally. Though she was somewhat tired of all the hugging she was receiving, she couldn't reject his kind-hearted self and hugged him back with a soft chuckle.

SLAM!

Eyes turned behind as Mabel kicked the front door all the way open as she finally arrived at the cabin.

"Hey, party people!" she shouted, announcing her presence. "We're back, and we brought Pacifi- OH MY GOD! WENDY!"

She bomb-rushed inside as her eyes laid upon Wendy. As Ryland stepped in right after her, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Wait, Wendy's back?! Holy crap!" he shouted, running quickly inside to catch up with the others. Resulting from his great excitement, he unintentionally shut the door right in Pacifica's face. Though, she promptly reopened the door with a look of annoyance as she stepped back inside.

"Gee, thanks for holding the door open for me…" she sarcastically remarked.

Looking ahead, amongst everybody already there, she quickly caught sight of Dipper amidst his hug with Wendy, which had apparently gone interrupted despite their arrival. While she had seen Wendy previously on a few occasions, she had little idea of who she was as a person besides being a much closer affiliate of the Pines. Though just how close she was to a certain one of them, she wasn't quite sure. But that hug looked especially telling in that there may have been something more present there. Suspiciously, she folded her arms as she stood back and looked on from afar.

"WENDY, YOU'RE HERE!" Mabel shouted as she jumped up and joined in on the hug session before it got old. "YOU'RE REALLY HERE! YOU'RE NOT A ROCK ANYMORE!"

Wendy chuckled. "There she is. Good to see you too, Glitter Girl," she said, playfully ruffling Mabel's hair before turning back to Ryland as he approached. "You too, Ryland."

"Thank god you're alright, Wendy!" Ryland said, greatly relieved. "I don't know how I'd feel about succeeding a statue as a Mystery Shack employee. I was actually kind of looking forward to the higher precedent I would be competing against."

As she pulled away from the Pines, she narrowed her eyes. "So is that what happened to me then? Bill turned me into a statue?"

"Basically. Just like he was," Dipper nodded.

"Except in kind of a weirder pose," Soos added.

She clenched her fists, growing incredibly angry. "That piece of… Where is he now?"

"We think he went to the Mystery Shack with Ford," Mabel said.

"Wait, he has Ford?"

"Yeah, and we think Bill's trying to use him to get his powers back. Which means right now, Ford's either following along or suffering for not doing so," Dipper explained before rubbing his arm anxiously. "That is if Bill hasn't already killed him…"

"Oh no. We're not gonna let it come to that," she said confidently. "We're going to go over there to the Mystery Shack and put him down... today."

"Now wait just one second! You're not going anywhere…" Dan halted before giving her a bold grin as he stood beside his sons. " ...without us."

The four men stood together smiling at her, much to her surprise. "Wait, I get the boys would wanna go, but dad, you really wanna come too?"

"Of course!" he nodded. "You think I'm gonna let that triangle turn my daughter to stone and get away with it?"

"I guess I just thought that you might've been too scarred by everything that had happened today to want to deal with this further."

Dan gave her an earnest for a moment as he sighed. "Well, I sure ain't over it, and I probably won't be for a long while. But I'll be damned before I turn you, the boys, or anyone else away from a fight when I had spent so much of my life raising you for times like these. I know your mother probably would've wanted me to hold you back and keep you safe, and maybe there's something to be learned from that. But I'm not gonna hold you back from your fight. And at the same time, I ain't gonna let you fight alone either."

He then bent down and picked her axe up from the floor, holding it out to her.

"We're doing this together, and by your word. You're nineteen. It's time to show what it means to be both a Corduroy and a leader."

As Dan finished speaking, Marcus, Kevin, and Gus each drew out their own axes, holding them ready in hand with strong, determined faces.

"We're right behind you, sis," Marcus told her. Kevin and Gus nodded in agreement.

She looked at them all lovingly. Turning back to her dad, she took her axe from his hand. Kneeling down, she then picked up her pine tree cap and stuck it back on her head as she turned back toward the others with a ready smile.

"So what's the plan?"

Dipper looked around the room. "Well, we're still waiting for McGucket and- oh, Pacifica's here!" he suddenly realized as he spotted her across the room. "Hey, Pacifica."

She glared at him with her arms folded bitterly. "Hi."

"Well, in that case, I guess we're just waiting for McGucket to get back then," he said, turning back to Wendy.

"I'm here!"

Everybody turned around and looked as McGucket arrived just in time, walking into the cabin through the half-destroyed wall rather than the front door like the others had done. Over his shoulder, he carried a large sack, which looked to have something in it.

"Sorry I took so long!" he said as he walked up to them.

"McGucket, what happened? Where's Robbie?" Mabel asked.

"Please tell me you managed to find him," Dipper said.

"Relax, fellers! I got him right here!" he said, gesturing toward his sack. He then proceeded to dump the sack out on the ground, Robbie himself dropping out of it onto the ground in a sudden state of panic.

"AH!" he screamed as he fell out of the sack. Looking straight up at McGucket, his eyes narrowed as he quickly began scooting himself on the floor away from him. "YOU FREAKIN' PSYCHO, STAY BACK!" he shouted before suddenly pausing as he analyzed his surroundings. "Wait, the Pines? Wendy?! The hell is going on?!"

Dipper raised an eyebrow in concern. "McGucket, did you kidnap him?"

"I'm sorry, but I had to," he admitted. "He wasn't being very compliant when I asked him to follow along with me normally."

---

[Sometime Earlier]

---

While walking through the cemetery, McGucket's eye suddenly caught a particular open grave hole. Approaching it, he looked inside and managed to find a young adult in a dark hoodie moping inside while in the fetal position.

"Howdy fella!" he greeted casually from above. "Are you Mr. Robbie Valentino?"

"Whatever's left of him, sure," Robbie moped.

"Well, I'm sure that'll still do just fine," McGucket said. "Listen, Robbie, I need you to come along with me. Big things are happenin', and we need your help. The fate of the entire universe rests on our shoulders here."

"Good," Robbie replied carelessly as he turned over on his other side. "Maybe I'll finally be put out of my misery."

McGucket frowned. "C'mon, partner. Don't talk like that. This is a serious situation. Lotsa people will be hurt."

"Can't top the pain I'm going through."

"Well, I mean, I wouldn't be so sure about that one."

"Look, old man, I don't know who you are or what you're doing here, but I don't care," Robbie barked at him. "Just leave me alone so I can drown in my sorrows."

"Aw, c'mon, Robbie," McGucket pleaded. "We really need you. I can't go back until you come with me."

"Too bad."

"Please?" McGucket begged. Robbie ignored him though and didn't move a muscle as he laid in the hole. Knowing they didn't have time to waste, McGucket narrowed his eyes impatiently. "Boy, don't make me have to come down there with the sack now."

---

[Present]

---

"It was either that or keep wasting time while the fate of the universe is at stake," McGucket finished explaining.

"Man, my day was going so much less terribly until this freak showed up!" Robbie ranted angrily. "And of course, he just so happens to be involved with the Pines! They're always involved with every terrible thing that happens to me!"

Wendy rolled her eyes as she grabbed Robbie by the arm and brought him back up to his feet. "Would you pull it together, man?"

He raised an eyebrow. "And why are you here? I thought you were leaving Gravity Falls this morning."

"Plans changed. Same with you and the rest of us."

"Why me though? Couldn't you have just left me to mope around in my grave all day?"

"Look, Robbie, it's been a wild past few hours," she began. "It wasn't my idea to bring you here, but if the guys brought you, then that must mean we really need your help. I know you're going through a lot after last night, but if you're looking for some redemption, you'll stand with us and help when we need you."

As much as he wanted nothing to do with the Pines, Robbie still knew he had made a large number of mistakes the previous night. While he was in no mood to partake in whatever they had brewing, Wendy was the only person there who had any hook keeping him there.

"Fine. I'll help," he accepted with the roll of his eyes. "Though I don't know what kind of help you people could possibly want from me."

"What's next, Dipper?" Mabel asked.

Dipper analyzed the room once more, affirming that everyone that needed to be present was present. "We have everybody, so I guess we move on the Shack, find Ford and Bill, then form our strategy accordingly. Whatever happens, happens."

"Let's get to it then," Wendy said, walking down the middle of the room with her axe well in hand. "Bill's been a pain in our asses for too damn long. Every one of us at some point has been affected by him one way or another."

"He turned Abuelita into a chair!" Soos recalled.

"My entire dream of being a stage dancer was ruined when he forced me into an eternal state of cute dancing!" Gideon cried out, shaking his fist in the air. "Now the mere thought of dancing continues to haunt me to this day!"

"He held me hostage once, so I don't really like him," Derrick said simply with a shrug.

Wendy jumped up on top of a chair to stand above everybody else. "He's hurt us and the people we care about multiple times. Now it's up to us to make sure he never gets that chance again. We thought it was over after the weirdpocalypse, but apparently, we were wrong. So let's finish the job we started four years ago and bury this triangle for real this time!"

"YEAH! SCREW TRIGONOMETRY!" Mabel cheered.

"SCREW SHAPE MATH IN GENERAL!" Ryland added. "WHO ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT SURFACE AREA AND VOLUME? NOT ME!"

"Ugh. Now I know what they see in each other," Pacifica groaned in annoyance.

Everybody else clapped and cheered Wendy on to varying extents for her rousing speech. Though, she didn't waste time basking in the spotlight. Instead, she jumped down, walked up to the front door, and kicked it open as she stood aside for the others.

"Come on, people! We don't have a second longer to waste!"

One by one, everybody made their way out the front door, beginning to head out toward the Mystery Shack. Though, Derrick looked particularly annoyed by using the front door again despite the wall just to the side being broken down.

As they walked outside, Mabel quickly caught up beside Dipper. "So what happened back there? How did Wendy come back?"

"You know, I was wondering about that too," he admitted as he tried to think about it. "But honestly, I don't even know. Just minutes before you showed up, she just started cracking and then boom! She was free. I thought I did it because I touched her, but I wouldn't think that's what caused it."

"That's so weird," she said, thinking about it herself. "Wait, you don't think it may have had anything to do with what Dr. Stone did, do you?"

"What? Come on, Mabel, don't be ridiculous."

"I'm serious," she insisted. "After hugging Wendy, he did say that it would take an hour to see results. It's clearly been over an hour now…"

"You're seriously trying to imply that Wendy was brought back with the power of stone-hugging?"

"Well, do you have any better ideas as to what could've brought her back?" she asked, folding her arms skeptically.

"I mean… maybe not right this second…" he admitted, struggling to come up with a more believable idea. "But I mean, there could be multiple different factors that might've played a part. Maybe it was something less obvious like going through the Crawlspace… or the humidity or… maybe even the wind speed. Or maybe it did have something to do with me touching it…"

"You just don't want to admit Wendy was brought back with the power of hugs, don't you?"

"I absolutely don't."

"Shhh… it's all gonna be okay, bro-bro," she assured, patting him on the back as they walked. "If Bill can be defeated by holding hands in a circle, then hugs can bring stone statues back to life."

Dipper sighed. "Sometimes the world's greatest problems really do have the stupidest solutions."

They continued to walk together alongside everybody else down the dirt path leading away from the cabin. As the last one to leave out the front door, Wendy was about to join them. However, she stopped herself as she caught something at the corner of her eye.

Looking to the right, she spotted Stan standing around on his own, not even looking at her. He stared up in the air, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.

"Mr. Pines?"

He snapped out of it, looking over at her in slight surprise. "Oh. Uh, hey, kid."

"I thought you were around, but I didn't catch you back inside," she said, walking up to her.

He glanced to the side uncomfortably. "Yeah, I kinda just decided to step out quietly when everybody started getting excited."

"Well, are you not coming with us?" she asked. "I mean, surely we're gonna need you along to finish this."

"I mean, yeah, I guess," he replied, visibly unfocused.

She took notice of this, raising an eyebrow at him in concern. "Mr. Pines, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he nodded as he looked back over at her. "It's just… why are you talking to me so normally? Like… are you actually okay with me?"

"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Kid, I was the one who pulled you into shaking Bill's hand," he reminded her. "I mean, obviously that wasn't really me, but like… that was me who Bill was controlling, and you actually thought it was me talking to you and-"

"Mr. Pines, I don't blame you for what Bill did if that's what you're getting at."

He looked her straight in the eye. "You… you don't?"

She chuckled lightly. "C'mon, Stan. What happened wasn't really in anyone's control. Could it have maybe been prevented? I'm sure, but I mean, I know that wasn't really you who tried to hurt me. With all the time I've spent working for you and such, I've known by now that you're really a softie who loves and cares about us."

He smirked. "Way to have me all figured out," he humorously replied. "I just… I don't want my face to be what you fear if you ever think about what had happened."

She scoffed. "Trust me, I'm already scared of your face for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with Bill."

"Huh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Look, the point is- what happened this morning won't change a thing about how I see you," she said assuringly. "I'll always look up to you in some fashion, whether it's good for me or not. So if you think I hate you for anything that happened, then don't worry because, at this point, I couldn't hate you even if I tried to. You'd have to somehow say or do something stupid enough at your own will."

"That's still highly possible, just so you know," he maintained. "Just cause I've spent the last four years around Ford doesn't mean I've gotten better at knowing when to keep my mouth shut. For God's sake, I made enemies in Canada, of all places."

"I believe you," she said with an amused chuckle. "But for now, let's just go find Ford and junk. Provided we survive all of this, I still gotta leave for college by the end of the day, and I'd rather leave Gravity Falls knowing all my favorite people are gonna be okay."

"Aw, that's real sweet of you to say, kid. I appreciate it," he told her with a warm smile.

"Well, I never actually said you were one of them," she clarified, beginning to walk off. "But hey, if it helps you sleep at night…"

"You know, it wouldn't kill kids like you to just give your older folks a simple compliment without sliding it back or making it backhanded," he said as he followed behind her.

"Well, why don't we kill this triangle first and then see what compliments you deserve afterward?" she challenged.

"Alright, kid," he chuckled. "You're on."

---

After a decent walk across town, the entire gang eventually came upon the main lot of the Mystery Shack on Gopher Road. Walking through the woods for cover, they grouped together behind some bushes and tall trees as they laid their eyes upon the Shack.

"There it is," Dipper said as he looked over some bushes.

The only notable difference in the building's appearance compared to its usual state was the large gaping hole on the side of the back entrance. That was the only immediate sign of Bill's presence. Apart from that, the Mystery Shack looked relatively inactive. There was no occurring noise or visibly moving lights or anything that implied anything was currently residing inside.

"You really think they're there?" Ryland asked as he looked around.

"Well, if that giant hole in the wall means anything, I'd say it's a fair wager," Mabel examined.

Melody sighed. "Man, I am not looking forward to those repair bills."

"Oh, this summer? Trust me, sweetie, you'll get used to it," Stan scoffed.

Wendy checked the surrounding area, ensuring it was clear. "Let's move up. Stay quiet. Pines and Soos, you guys are on me. The rest of you guys stay back for a minute while we make sure the area is secure."

She stepped forward out of the forest toward the Shack, speed-walking across to clear the gap quickly. Dipper, Mabel, and Soos followed her lead, whereas Stan was more cautious and closed the gap at a slower pace. As they grouped up, Wendy moved up a bit further, leaning her back against the wall right beside the large hole in the wall. The rest stood behind her. She peeked inside slightly, noticing heavy darkness further inside beyond the luminance of sunlight that broke inside from the hole. This meant all of the house's indoor lights must have been dead or turned off themselves.

"Mabel, take point," Wendy ordered. "Look inside and let us know if it's safe to move in. Be discrete."

"Discrete. Got it," she nodded with a ready grin.

Taking two steps up to the hole, Mabel then performed a sneaky cartwheel into the house. As though she was pretending to be a ninja, she touched one hand to the ground as she crouched down with one leg stuck out to the side. Quietly, she analyzed that immediate section of the room beside the staircase. As it looked clear, she moved up slowly, sneaking like a cat. Peeping her head behind the staircase, she glanced between the kitchen and the living room, both of which appeared empty despite the darkness.

"How's it look?" Dipper quietly called to her.

She gave them all a thumbs up. "Okay. I think you guys are clear to move in."

As told, the other four quietly moved up behind her. They all walked in further, checking their immediate surroundings carefully as they kept their eyes and ears ready for anything.

"I'm still not seeing anything," Dipper said.

"I don't hear anything either," Soos followed.

Stan grew paranoid. "I don't like this."

"Me neither," Wendy said, shaking her head. "Keep quiet though. If Bill's around, we don't want to alert him that we're here."

"Right," Mabel whispered back. "We gotta keep things on the down-low-" She suddenly let out a loud gasp. "WADDLES!"

Through the thick darkness, she barely managed to make out a frightened Waddles shaking in the back corner of the living room. With no attempt at discretion, she ran straight into the room as Waddles came racing into her arms with happy squeals.

"Aw, don't worry! It's all gonna be okay! Mama Mabel's here!" she told him as she hugged him tightly. He started licking her face as she cradled him in her arms. "Hahaha! Yes, I was worried about you too!"

"Mabel!" Dipper, Wendy, and Stan quietly snapped at her in unison.

"Oop," she quickly realized as she shot back to her feet. "Sorry… I got into Waddles mode." Waddles let out a passive oink as he sat on the floor beside her. "Heh. Good pig," she said, patting his head.

Soos suddenly realized something. "Wait… where's Abuelita?!"

"She's literally right here in the chair taking a nap," Stan pointed out.

As he said, Abuelita sat comfortably asleep within the living room chair in front of the television. She looked completely undisturbed and at peace despite Mabel's alarming interaction with Waddles just seconds ago.

"Oh, thank goodness," Soos said with a sigh of relief.

"Guys, seriously. Keep it down! We don't want Bill to know we're here!" Dipper quietly warned.

"No worries, dude," Soos complied, returning to a quiet voice. "It doesn't look like we've alerted anybody anyway. Must mean we're in the- WOOOAHH!" he shouted as he suddenly found himself wobbling on the edge of a deep hole in the floorboards.

"Soos!" Dipper and Wendy both shouted anxiously. They quickly ran over to him, pulling him back by his arms just as he started to lean forward into the hole.

Quickly maintaining his balance again, Soos took in a deep breath as his heart beat rapidly. "Woah… thanks, guys. I don't remember us ever installing a death hole in this house recently."

"I SAID, BACK TO WORK!"

Everybody suddenly went completely still as they heard Bill's highly recognizable voice, which somehow sounded distant, yet close.

"Wait... did you hear that?" Stan asked.

Dipper walked up to the hole in the floor and looked down into it. "Bill… he's down there."

"In hell?" Wendy asked.

"In the basement."

"NO, YOU DON'T GET ANY BREAKS! KEEP WORKING!" his voice echoed from down below.

"That's probably Ford he's talking to," Dipper realized.

"That means he's alive!" Mabel positively noted.

"But how the hell are we supposed to go down there?" Stan asked. "If we take the elevator, he'll hear us coming."

Dipper kneeled on the edge of the hole, staring straight down for a minute as he thought. With the snap of his fingers, he glanced over at his sister with an idea fresh in his mind. "Mabel, go outside and call the others over here. Quick!"

"You got it!" she nodded before she running across the room and heading back outside with Waddles following behind her.

"What're you thinking, man?" Wendy asked as she kneeled next to him on the edge of the hole.

Dipper rubbed his chin as he looked down into the hole. "I got an idea for how we might be able to do this. Hear me out…"

---

Down below in the laboratory, Ford stood up as he continued to add finishing touches to his newly designed portal frame in what was once the old portal room. It was actually relatively easy putting together the portal again in such a short amount of time. Despite dismantling the portal, he still had most of the disassembled pieces kept stored to the side of his the power refinery he had built for the Quantum Destabilizer.

Since Valora's instructions were modifications to his model, it was didn't require deviating too much as far as the design was concerned. Additionally, her modifications were much more streamlined compared to what he formulated with his original inner workings. To Ford's surprise, she had somehow managed to figure out how to power the portal in such a convenient way as rerouting much of the Hyperdrive's wiring to make it function of self-sustaining renewable energy instead of radioactive waste for fuel.

Her design also incorporated a brand new control panel connected to the portal frame itself just off to the side. Ford had figured out from her schematics that stable and precise dimensional travel was actually equation-based. The alien parts that the portal had been constructed from had a type of molecular energy that could be shifted through code, and through equational inputs, one could achieve specific dimensional outputs or even outputs beyond just interdimensional travel.

Ford was greatly impressed by her vast interdimensional knowledge allowing her to make such innovative schematics. Their accessibility could allow a future of potential opportunities as far as interdimensional travel was concerned.

Though of course, only at that moment was the pioneering of her work an inconvenience to him as it was being used in the aid of Bill. And he did not want to hand him his wishes at a fast rate. Regardless, the sooner Bill got to see results, the less of a nuisance he would be.

It was very clear that he was completely opposed to what he was doing for Bill. But of course, how he felt didn't matter anymore. If it did, he might not have dried blood under his eyes and nose, reopened scars on his ankle, and a possibly dislocated shoulder. Bill had already marked him from head to toe, and while he could deal with the pain, Bill had already set his sights on the rest of his family unless he did what he was told. So if satisfying Bill kept him away from his family, then so be it.

"I GOTTA SAY, SIXER! THIS PORTAL LOOKS LIKE IT'S COMING ALONG NICELY!" Bill admired as he circled the portal excitedly. "JUST AS I FIGURED, YOUR SKILLS HAVE REALLY IMPROVED A BUNCH OVER THE YEARS! I MEAN, JUST LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE IN JUST A FEW HOURS TIME."

"I'm already more than well aware of the skills I possess, Bill," Ford remarked.

"ALRIGHT THEN. YEESH," Bill said, taken aback by Ford's tone. "CAN'T EVEN MAKE A COMPLIMENT WITHOUT TOUCHING A NERVE IT SEEMS."

"You already know that I'm only doing this because you're threatening to murder my family otherwise!"

"C'MON, SIXER! JUST BECAUSE I THREATEN YOU WITH YOUR OWN BLOODLINE DOESN'T MEAN I CAN'T RESPECT YOU! WE USED TO BE BUDDIES LONG AGO! WE HAVE HISTORY!"

Ford clenched his fists tightly at these words. "You were never my friend."

"WELL, NOT MY FAULT IF THAT'S HOW YOU SEE IT," he carelessly brushed off. "ANYWAYS, HOW CLOSE IS THIS BABY TO BEING FINISHED?"

With an annoyed sigh, Ford backed away from the portal frame. "There. It's done."

"WOW, REALLY?" Bill asked, eye lighting up in surprise."THAT'S SOME SOLID TIMING! HOW DO YOU START IT?"

"Well, there's a failsafe panel up there near the top with a switch that I can't reach," he said, pointing to the top of the frame. "I need to get up there and activate it first before I can start it up."

"NONSENSE. I'LL SAVE YOU THE EFFORT AND DO IT MYSELF. IT'S THE LEAST I COULD DO AFTER ALL," Bill said as he began flying upward.

Ford narrowed his eyes. "Right. The least."

Flying up to the top of the frame, Bill inspected the different metal panels. He soon found one with a switch on it. "IS IT THIS ONE RIGHT HERE IN THE MIDDLE?"

"Yes, that's it," Ford nodded as he walked over to the portal's control panel and typed an equation into the system. "I just need you to stay right there and activate it."

Bill flipped the switch. "LIKE THIS?"

"Perfect."

Ford proceeded to slam his fist down on a big red button next to the keys. He then looked up just as a large stream of electricity suddenly began surging out from the portal frame. With no chance to react, Bill was quickly caught within the surge. His lack of supernatural ability to defend himself left him vulnerable to electrocution. As a result, he was stuck midair as electricity flowed through him, shocking him unendingly.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Despite the intense shock, he wasn't entirely incapacitated. He clutched his fists, managing to the ability to slowly reach his hand upward. With a twitching eye, he pushed himself as hard as he could to be able to reach the top of the portal frame.

WHAM!

With the very quick swing of his fist, Bill managed to punch the top of the frame. Immediately following, the power shut off and the electricity stopped surging. Angry, he ripped the switch panel clean off from the frame and chucked it down at Ford like a frisbee with zero hesitation.

Ford quickly jumped out of the way of the panel flying at his head. Pulling himself back to his feet, he knew right away his trap had failed, and as such, he tried to run away.

"YOU JUST THINK YOU'RE SO CLEVER, HUH?" Bill asked, now very irritated.

He quickly flew up behind Ford, swiping him from the ground with his hand before immediately pitching him across the room, sending him violently crashing against one of his refinery machines. His body's impact left a dent on the machine's metal panels, to which he bounced straight off of it before hitting the ground right beside the open doorway to the laboratory room.

Seeing the elevator directly across the room, he felt compelled to try and crawl toward it. However, one brief attempt at crawling proved that he no longer had the strength after Bill's harm.

"THAT WAS REAL STUPID OF YOU, STANFORD!" he told him just as he floated down behind him. "TO PUT ALL THAT WORK INTO SOMETHING AS POINTLESS AS THAT WAS! FIGHT ALL YOU WANT, BUT YOU AIN'T GONNA WIN! AND I DON'T CARE HOW MANY TIMES I GOTTA BEAT YOU TO NEAR-DEATH BEFORE YOU REALIZE THIS!"

"Damn you, Cipher…" Ford told him weakly, just barely able to lift his head off the ground now. "You haven't won yet. My family… they're coming for me right as we speak."

"OH, I'M SURE THEY ARE. THAT'S WHY YOU ONLY HAVE FROM NOW UNTIL THE MOMENT THEY GET HERE TO FIX THAT PORTAL, OR ELSE THEY'RE DEAD."

Whirrrr...

Ford's eyes widened as he heard what he knew was the elevator coming down at that very moment. Catching the sound, Bill glanced over at the elevator himself.

"HUH. I GUESS GRACE PERIOD'S OVER," he said as he gave Ford an amused look. Just off to the side, he quickly swiped Ford's flamethrower and readied it within his hands. "ALRIGHTY THEN, LET'S GET THIS MASSACRE STARTED!"

"NO!" Ford screamed desperately. "YOU CAN'T- "

He was suddenly cut off as Bill grabbed him by the throat, holding him up in the air before getting slammed back down aggressively.

"QUIET, BRAINIAC!" he said before placing a foot down on the top of his head, forcing him to face directly at the elevator ahead. "I WANT YOU TO WATCH ME BURN YOUR FAMILY. JUST LIKE YOU TRIED TO BURN ME IN YOUR BROTHER'S MIND FOUR YEARS AGO!"

Ding!

"BILL! NOOO!" Ford desperately pleaded.

Bill held the flamethrower readily as the elevator doors opened. He could feel his finger just inching the trigger excitedly, eager to burn the Pines family. However, upon the elevator doors opening, it was quickly realized that there was nobody from the Pines onboard. Instead, Bill was met by an entirely different face.

"HAHAAA- wait, what?"

"Oh, sorry," Derrick said casually as he stepped off the elevator. "I was just looking around for the Mystery Tour. You wouldn't happen to know where I could find it, would you?"

Bill stared at him in confusion as he continued to aim the flamethrower in his direction.

"FORD, WHO THE HELL IS THIS?" he asked, genuinely clueless. "AH, WHO CARES? I CAN STILL BURN YOU TOO."

"Woah, hey now!" Derrick said as he raised his hands innocently. "Now, that's not necessary. You already burned me."

Bill inspectedhis flamethrower with uncertainty. "I HAVEN'T EVEN PULLED THE TRIGGER YET."

"No, I meant you burned me… when you couldn't even remember me."

"HUH?"

Reaching into his pocket, Derrick quickly pulled out a walkie talkie and held it up to his mouth. "Now."

A trio of offensive screams gradually came into the room as the Corduroy brothers piled on top of Bill all at once as they suddenly plunged from the hole above.

"WHAT THE-? AAAHHH!" Bill screamed. The unsought impact of the boys ganging up on him pushed the flamethrower to slip from his hands onto the ground. "GET OFF OF ME!"

Withdrawing from his position above Ford, he threw the three boys off of him one by one. To his misfortune, all of the three boys were too skilled and flexible, managing to catch themselves or bounce off from the surfaces Bill had thrown them at. They all now had him surrounded from three different angles.

Bill cocked up his eye as he glanced between the siblings condemningly. "SO THIS IS HOW WE'RE DOING THINGS THEN? WELL, LET'S HAVE AT IT!"

Without answering to him, the brothers hastily rushed into cover rather than pushing back against him.

"HEY, GET BACK HERE!"

Kevin was the closest of the brothers in relation to Bill's position. Because of this, Bill made a clear rush for him.

However, this was quickly halted as he felt a tug on his leg holding him back. Looking over his shoulder, he recognized Dan stood on the ground, using all of his strength to hold onto him. Before having a chance to react, Bill was suddenly swung over Dan's head before being forcefully slammed onto the floor.

"THIS IS FOR MY FAMILY!" Dan passionately cried out at him.

He continued to swing Bill around, slamming him into the concrete multiple times for a good minute as Bill continued to find himself unable to immediately react. He finally got an opportunity, however, as Dan had begun to spin him around by his foot rapidly. As he did so, Bill began to slowly grow in scale, which made him both heavier and more difficult to hold onto in Dan's hands.

Eventually, Dan lost control of his grip and was forced to let go of his foot. Following directly after, Bill fiercely kicked him back, sending him crashing straight into a wall. The impact of his large body was so hard that he was embedded within the wall itself, hanging from it without a floor beneath his feet.

"OH, YOUR FAMILY'S GONNA HAVE A LOT MORE TO MOURN WHEN I'M DONE!" Bill threatened as he cracked his knuckles.

From across the room, he charged at Dan with his fist held out at near-top speed. The noticeably fast velocity at which he was flying left Dan to flinch readily.

Unexpectedly though, at the exact moment when Bill was about to zoom right past the hole from above, Wendy came dropping out with her axe held above her head as she sped right at Bill from the direction he charged. Hacking her axe down at the perfect time, she struck Bill in the dead center of his eye, slicing right into it with the edge of her axe before landing firmly on the ground.

"AAAAAGHHH!" he screamed painfully as he flinched backward, clenching onto his eye with both of his hands.

Wendy twirled her axe as she stood up straight. "Don't be sure so sure about that, asshole!"

Amidst his eye's regenerative process, he turned back, squinting at her in shock upon realizing who she was. "HOW THE…? HOW ARE YOU…?"

"…alive?" she finished. "Hell if I know. I guess your tricks just aren't what they used to be, and that's why you're picking on others to try and help carry your worthlessness!"

"GAH!" he screamed as he continued clutching his sliced eye while it regenerated.

Wendy looked to her left and right as her brothers soon came out from hiding and joined up together beside her as they all stood at a standoff with Bill.

"It's over for you, Bill!" she called out. "You just so happened to mess with the one person with a family hellbent on kicking the ass of anyone and anything that screws with them!"

As his eye finished regenerating, Bill stared down the four siblings menacingly. "YOU CORDUROYS ARE REALLY COMPETING WITH THE PINES FOR THE MOST ANNOYING FAMILY IN THE MULTIVERSE!"

"Well, I'd be more than happy to live up to the name!" she accepted. "What do you say, guys?"

"Sounds good to me," Kevin nodded.

"As it does to me," Marcus backed up.

"You bet," Gus smiled.

"Then let's settle this like an old game of Needle in the Bearskin," she said, pointing her axe out forward. "Whoever hits Bill the hardest gets to eat best tonight."

"Oh, NOW you're on," Marcus said, sporting a wide, competitive grin.

The four siblings stood together readily with their axes out as they stared Bill down. He had no desire to fight who he saw as just another worthless family of children, especially with his lack of powers to subdue them as easily as he would usually. But it was clear they stood between him and his goals and that they needed to be taken out.

Whether they would make doing so easy, he was about to find out.

"CHARGE!" Gus screamed.

As commanded, the four stormed at Bill with their axes. Recovering from being thrown, Dan also threw himself off of the wall and back onto the ground before joining the fight behind his kids. With a growl, Bill aggressively launched himself at the family; the two clashing into a brawl of their own.

While the Corduroys duked into out with Bill, right from above the portal room, Mabel used her grappling hook to descend with Dipper out from the hole. As they came down, the two were able to identify Ford's body on the ground below next to the laboratory doorway. Touching ground, she retracted the hook before joining Dipper by their great uncle's side.

"Grunkle Ford!" she called out worriedly.

"Great Uncle Ford, we're here!" Dipper said, kneeling beside him.

Ford weakly turned to look up at them with squinted eyes. "Mabel… Dipper…" he said with a cough, only to smile as he looked at them. "I knew you two would come."

The twins smiled back, both glad to see him still alive despite his brutalized appearance. Appearing just by the doorway next to them, Derrick stood leaning against the wall as he cockily checked his nails.

"Well, I think I did pretty well if you ask me," he gloated.

"Nobody asked you," Mabel quickly denounced. Derrick simply rolled his eyes in response before retreating beside the elevator again.

"Come on. We need to get into cover while Bill's distracted," Dipper said as he tried to pull Ford back to his feet.

"Help me over, please," Ford asked of them. "Bill really made a mess of me during all this time."

"Yeah, I can see," Dipper nodded remorsefully as he threw his arm over his shoulder.

"Are you going to be okay?" Mabel asked as she did the same with his other arm.

"I imagine so, provided we all get out of this alive."

The two helped him over to a secluded corner in the portal room right behind the inactive refinery, out of sight from Bill's brawl with the Corduroys. Getting into a comfortable position, the two rested him on the ground, allowing him to lean his back against the rocky wall.

Ford looked around. "Wait, where's your uncle Stan?"

"AHHH!" Stan's voice screamed from behind out of nowhere.

THUD!

Looking right behind them, the twins and Ford saw Stan lying face-down on the ground right underneath where the hole was. Without any way of breaking his fall or coming down safely, he had simply jumped down the hole on his own only to end up slapping against the concrete. Now, he dealt with more pain as his punishment.

"Nevermind," Ford retracted, pinching the bridge of his nose annoyedly.

"Ugh… that should've killed me," Stan groaned regretfully as he flipped himself onto his back.

With somewhat annoyed sighs, Dipper and Mabel promptly ran over to Stan, picking him off from the ground before aiding him over to their safe corner.

"Stan, why did you jump down into the hole?" Dipper asked, completely unsure how he intended to rationalize his decision.

"I thought that was my cue."

"You never had a cue. You were supposed to come down the elevator with the others," Mabel reminded him.

"Well, you know me. I like to make an entrance," Stan shrugged as he was let go, leaning against a wall.

Ford raised an eyebrow at Mabel. "Wait, the others?"

Dipper looked over his shoulder with a confident smile. "You got that right."

The rest of the family turned their heads in the direction he did. They then watched as Derrick led Soos, Melody, Ryland, Gideon, Pacifica, Robbie, and McGucket over to their secluded corner from the lab room. Watching their entire crew walk together toward them brought a sense of thrill in Dipper and Mabel, who knew now that they were just moments away from defeating Bill.

On the other hand, everybody looked very uncomfortable as they walked toward them.

"Welp, now I know what it feels like to be squished against a bunch of other people on an elevator," Soos simply put.

"In videos, it looks funny because it happens to other people. But, it's honestly not so funny when it happens to you," Melody added.

"This day is just routinely uncomfortable," Robbie said as he used his hand to straighten up a patch of hair that had gotten messed up on the ride.

"Ugh, now my clothes are all wrinkled," Pacifica complained as she brushed down on her outfit. "How come you got your own ride down?" she asked Derrick.

"Hey, if you don't have a problem being on the receiving end of a flamethrower, be my guest," he told her bluntly. "At least I have experienced nearly being set on fire before."

"I'm not quite sure that's something to be proud of, fella," Gideon passively commented.

Ford looked momentarily confused by the number of people brought down into his lab by Dipper and Mabel. But as he scanned every familiar face that entered, it started to click for him. "Wait a second, is this…?"

"…everybody who's a part of the prophecy?" Dipper finished for him.

"Why, yes! Yes, it is!" Mabel nodded.

"So you did remember," he realized. Despite how much it hurt to do so, he stood back up to his feet and pulled the two in a hug. "I knew I could count on you kids. Always more than one step ahead of me."

"Hey, I helped too!" Stan said, to which Dipper and Mabel both glared at him. "Okay, it was like ninety-nine percent them and one percent me, but that one percent is still important!"

"Stanford!" McGucket greeted as he walked up to him.

"Fiddleford!" Ford smiled. "I'm glad to see you."

"I got your ping earlier. If this is the emergency, then well, I can certainly understand the urgency," McGucket said as he glanced back at the ongoing battle with Bill.

"It is what it is, my friend," Ford shrugged. "I suppose it's finally time to fix this though."

"Let me guess- you're gonna draw the big circle on the ground again?" Stan assumed.

"Well, if we have everybody we need, then I guess that's the plan," he affirmed.

"Don't worry! I made sure to come prepared!" Mabel said as she dug into her sweater and pulled out a pink spray can, handing it out to him.

"Thanks, Mabel," he said, gladly accepting the spray can. He took a step forward, bending down slightly as he prepared to get started. The slight movement alone was enough for him to tense up due to his many injuries. "Ugh… this isn't gonna be easy for me though. Bill threw me around so much that I can barely move."

"Well, it doesn't look like we have much time, dudes!" Soos claimed, pointing upward.

They all turned back to Bill's brawl with the Corduroys. Despite how long the family had managed to hold their own, they were starting to lose their footing.

Kevin had been caught in Bill's hand, and as Marcus came to the rescue, he was very quickly kicked back against a wall with a heavy impact. Following right after, Bill threw Kevin right into Marcus, hurting them both further. Off to the side, Dan and Wendy looked to be running out of breath, whereas Gus continued to push himself to fight when it looked like he was running out of the strength to do so.

Throughout everything, Bill's stamina remained intact, and he showed no signs of backing down any time soon. In the fight being had, he was clearly dominating, and the longer the Corduroys fought, the weaker they would get.

Looking on at their losing battle, Dipper thought for a moment as he looked around the room for places of interest. Spotting a particular corner, he was suddenly hit with an idea. He glanced over at Mabel, who looked over at him at the same time, which was usually their sign of thinking of the same thing. Assuring they were on the same page, they exchanged nods as they turned back to the others.

"Ford, you get to work on that circle," Dipper told him directly before running toward the fight.

"The rest of you can either stay back or join us!" Mabel said just before joining Dipper.

"Wait, what?!" Ford questioned.

"What're you kids doing?" Stan anxiously asked.

"Buying you guys more time!" Mabel called back.

"Don't worry about us! We got this!" Dipper assured them. "Just focus on getting that zodiac drawn!"

"Oh, hell if I'm not doing anything," Stan refused as he stepped forward. "Do what you gotta do, Ford. I'm gonna make sure the kids don't get hurt."

"Don't get yourself killed now, Stanley! We need everybody alive for this to work!" Ford reminded him.

"Those dudes ain't finishing this without me. I'm gonna help too," Soos stated as he stepped forward himself.

Melody nodded in agreement. "Me too."

"Me three," Ryland stepped up as well.

"Same with me," Derrick nodded, cracking his knuckles. "I mean, getting to punch a demon triangle? Who would pass that up?"

Gideon chimed in. "I still have a bone to pick with Bill for all that dancing he put me through. Count me in!"

Watching everybody else step forward, Pacifica stood back hesitantly. "Well, I mean, surely that's more than enough people risking their lives for us, isn't it?"

"Who cares?" Robbie groaned, covering his head with his hood as he stood to the side, depressed. "Life is meaningless. We're all gonna die at some point anyway."

Pacifica stared at him comparatively for a moment. "Okay, I'd rather join in than stoop to that level."

She set out alongside the others, leaving Ford, McGucket, and a sulking Robbie on their own back in the safe corner. Ford anxiously looked back at everybody else as they joined the fight with Bill.

"I'm concerned, Fiddleford. If any of the core members get themselves killed out there, this entire plan is a bust," he feared.

"Don't worry, partner. I'm right here with ya," McGucket told him with a reassuring glance. "Just get to work on this zodiac. I'll keep watch of everything that's going on."

Ford nodded in agreement to the plan. Shaking the paint can, he kneeled down to begin spraying. Though as expected, the pain as he moved was significant enough to get him to lose focus. Despite this, he knew he needed to proceed if they were to have a shot at destroying Bill. No matter how much it hurt, he pushed on, inching his movements as he started to paint the circle from his memory.

Taking place back in the rest of the large open room, Bill continued to beat the Corduroy family down. Manly Dan and Kevin were weakened to the side, having a quick recuperative rest while Wendy and Gus struck next. Despite their attempts to lay hits on him though, Wendy was kicked to the side while Gus was flicked off of his back.

Amidst their distraction, Marcus tried to charge him with his axe. However, he was just as quickly subdued with a quick punch to the face that caused him to drop his axe. Now disarmed, Bill took the chance to quickly grab hold of him with his hand.

"GOTCHA!" he shouted as he eye-balled Marcus in his grasp.

"Hey, Bill!" a voice called out to him. "Over here!"

Just as he turned around to identify this voice, he took an immediate punch in the eye from Mabel, who had sprung up at him swiftly with the help of a pair of red spring shoes she wore at that moment.

POW!

"GAH!"Bill screamed as he was punched back, quickly dropping Marcus from his hand.

"How about again?" Mabel asked just as she sprung up at him another time with her closed fist.

POW!

"And again!"

POW!

"And AGAIN!"

POW!

She punched him from seemingly every angle, zooming at him so fast that he had no chance to retaliate each time.

"HOW ARE YOU JUMPING AROUND LIKE THAT?!" Bill asked as he finally managed to catch sight of her bouncing around the room.

POW!

While focused on Mabel, Bill took a sudden hit from Dipper, straight from behind as he bounced around the room just like his sister with his own spring shoes.

"Super spring shoes!" Dipper informed him. "You might've forgotten that we're in Ford's lab. We have access to all of his weapons and gadgets!"

"Like the Sword of Excalibird!" Mabel shouted as she suddenly came out of nowhere again with a large sword.

The sword had large, birdlike wings as its hilt, which flapped as she went airborne. Flying right above him, she came slashing down right on his back, leaving a large mark as she flew downward.

"AAAHHH!"

The Sword of Excalibird gracefully glided Mabel down to the ground with its large wingspan. "Woah! So majestic!" she said as she looked on at it admirably.

"SHOOTING STAR!" Bill screamed angrily.

He quickly zoomed himself at her, prying the sword from her hands before splitting the blade off from its hilt. He tossed the hilt over his shoulder, which managed to strike Dipper in the head amidst his bounce, sending him crashing to the ground violently.

"No!" Mabel shouted.

"DIPPER!" Stan screamed before running to his aid.

With the sword's blade still in his hand, Bill held it out threateningly as he towered over Mabel. "THAT'S ONE TWIN FOR ANOTHER!"

On the other side of the room, Soos looked on distantly from a cache of some of Ford's various weapons and gadgets. Frantically looking around for something that could be useful, he settled on a very square and angular gun, aiming it in Bill's direction.

"Quick! What does this thing do?"

Pew!

Pulling the trigger shot what looked to be a pixelated fireball, which flew right at Bill paired with a bunch of digital arcade-like sound effects. Despite how gimmicky it seemed, the fireball managed to hit Bill right before he could strike Mabel.

"AAAAH!" Bill screamed as pixel flames coated his entire back."PIXEL FIRE! IT'S BOTH HOT AND POINTY! THIS MAKES ZERO SENSE EVEN FOR ME!"

Realizing what the gun did, Soos stared at it with awe. "The power of retro video games… in the palm of my hand…"

Pew! Pew! Pew!

He shot further pixelated fireballs at Bill, covering him further and further in pixel flames. Infuriated beyond comprehension, he turned red with rage, which somehow dissipated the flames. Turning toward Soos, he began to growl as he shook frustratedly.

"GRRRRRRRR-AAAAAHHHHHH!" he screamed before suddenly storming right at him.

Soos' eyes bulged as he froze in place. "Oh boy…"

Flinching back, he prepared for Bill's physical wrath. However, just in the nick of time, Melody jumped in from behind, blasting Bill with a freeze ray. Just mere feet away from Soos, Bill was frozen in a block of ice that stood itself upon the ground.

Melody smirked as she held the ray gun up victoriously. "Looks like he needed to cool off."

Soos broke out laughing. "Hah! Cool off! Because you froze him in ice! I get it!" He laughed for a few seconds more before looking up at Melody and realizing she didn't get the same kick out of the joke as he did. "Man, I really sucked the life out of that one, didn't I?"

"You're just lucky I still love you," she told him with an honest smile.

"Indeed I am," he nodded.

Their sweet moment of victory was short-lived though, as Bill's red hot rage was enough to melt the ice from the inside, allowing him to easily break out.

"GAAH! YOU PEOPLE ARE REALLY STARTING TO PISS ME OFF!"

Narrowing his eye down at Soos and Melody, he raised his fist to slam it down on them. However, the two quickly managed to get out of the way before he could crush them. Evading his attack, the two stuck together as they ran off between a bunch of Ford's other stationary weapons.

"GET BACK HERE!"

He chased them down for a moment, only to suddenly halt himself as a box started floating right in front of him. Glancing around, he quickly noticed that there were actually several floating boxes, all of which surrounded him.

"WHAT THE-?" he asked, looking around in confusion.

Stood on top of a pillar near the center of the room, Gideon held a glowing blue amulet in his hand. With it, he controlled a plethora of various boxes and inanimate machinery, levitating them off the ground to surround Bill.

"This is for all those cute cage dances, Cipher!" he shouted, tightening his fist.

"OW! HEY!" he shouted as all the machinery came smashing against him, one after the other.

"Ya see, Mabel?" Gideon asked, turning toward her below. "I told ya holding onto some of those amulets would come in handy at some point!"

"That's great!" she called back to him. "Just… don't lose your mind again! We already have enough on our plate, ya know."

"Hey, kid! Mind making me a path with those boxes?" Derrick then called out to Gideon, now wearing blue metal bracelets strapped around each wrist. "I just found these things called Battle Cuffs, and I wanna give 'em a go!"

Gideon grinned. "Be my guest!"

While still pitching boxes at Bill, Gideon used the amulet to make a path of levitating boxes from Derrick's position on the ground. Derrick jumped up on the boxes, leaping from one to another like he was attempting rooftop parkour (of which he had done before). At the end of the path, he leaped forward and lunged at Bill. The Battle Cuffs activated, forming a blue aura around his fists as he went in for the punch.

POW!

SMASH!

He punched Bill directly in his bowtie. The force was amplified by the cuffs, and as a result, the punch sent him flying right at the wall behind him, smashing him right into it while Derrick rode a levitating box back to the ground.

"Ugh…" Bill groaned as he rubbed his head painfully.

"Holy hell, that was awesome!" Derrick said with a satisfied smile as he looked down at his cuffs. "That didn't even hurt me! I'm gonna have to ask if Dipper thinks his uncle would let me keep these."

Pulling himself out of the wall, Bill angrily glared at Derrick. "ALRIGHT, KID! SINCE YOU LIKE PUNCHING SO MUCH…"

WHAM!

Bill decked Derrick in the face, sending him tumbling backward violently due to the excessive force.

Dipper watched as he slid across the ground. "DERRICK!"

"OH, IS THAT WHAT HIS NAME IS?" Bill asked."FUNNY! IN MY HEAD, I WAS JUST CALLING HIM IRRELEVANT!"

"Hey, nobody calls him irrelevant except for me!" Mabel shouted, stomping her foot forward in defense.

"OH, REALLY? THEN I'M SURE YOU'D LOVE TO JOIN HIM!" he suggested as he suddenly grabbed her within his hand, holding her up to his eye menacingly.

"I GOTCHA, MABEL!" Gideon shouted out loud.

He clenched his amulet tightly with one fist while outstretching his other hand toward Bill. He squinted his eyes and clenched his teeth as he tried to focus the amulet's effects. Eventually, a greenish-blue aura formed around Bill, indicating the amulet's effects taking place. Bill watched as he did this with momentary concern, but some time passed, and despite the amulet's aura surrounding him, he found himself completed unaffected by the amulet's mystic power.

"HUH. WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT? I GUESS I'M STILL IMMUNE TO THE DIRECT EFFECTS OF MAGIC!" he gloated.

Gideon's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, what?!"

Bill then grabbed one of the previously floating boxes with his free hand and chucked it right at Gideon, hitting him straight in the head and knocking him off from his pillar. The amulet flew out of his hand as well, smashing into dust as it hit against the concrete floor.

"YOU WERE ONLY SLIGHTLY BETTER OFF AS A DANCING BOY, GIDEON," Bill remarked before turning back to Mabel. "NOW, WHERE WERE WE AGAIN?"

Before either of them could continue further, Bill's hand was suddenly chopped clean off with Mabel inside as Ryland had chucked an axe right through his wrist.

"GAAAHHH! NOT AGAIN!" he yelled in agony as he gripped his arm.

Mabel screamed as she dropped, falling out of Bill's severed hand. Ryland ran underneath her as she fell, jumping up and catching her safely in his arms. "GOTCHA!"

She looked up at him in surprise. "Ryland! Since when have you known to handle an axe?"

"Well, Wendy used to teach me a bunch of tricks during our off time in the Shack… which was pretty much all of the time," he explained while putting her back down.

"He's still far from being an expert," Wendy called out from the side, having watched what had happened. "But he's not half bad."

With his hand having finished regenerating, Bill turned back around and looked down upon the others, eye landing on Ryland. "WAIT, THERE'S ANOTHER IRRELEVANT?!"

"Ouch. Well, that hurt," Ryland said, slightly offended.

"Ryland isn't irrelevant!" Mabel stood up to him. "Even if he was, he still got his hit in! What's your excuse, Mr. Oh-So-Powerful Demon?"

That riled him up. "OH, YOU WANT AN EXCUSE? I'LL GIVE YOU AN EXC-"

BOOM!

Everybody flinched back, covering their eyes with their arms as Bill was suddenly hit with a large rocket that exploded upon impact. For as big as the explosion was, it wasn't expansive enough to touch any of them on the ground, as it simply created a midair cloud of firey smoke that enveloped his entire physical being.

Following the rocket's smoke trail, everybody below looked over to a lone section of the lab where a stationary rocket launcher sat. Right beside it was Pacifica, who stood frozen in place as she was bent over with her finger held right beside a button on the rocket launcher. Her eyes were large and shocked, and her jaw hung open as though firing the rocket was completely unexpected and unanticipated. Despite this, it still had managed to hit successfully, and the others seemed to believe it was intentional.

"Damn…" Ryland said in surprise.

"WOOOO! GO, PACIFICA! You how that sucka!" Mabel cheered her on.

Dipper looked up at her with an impressed look as well. "Dang, Pacifica. That was awesome!"

Pacifica's state of shock dissipated as she quickly wore a prideful smirk. The rocket may not have been purposeful, but since it hit, there was no way she wasn't gonna wear that victory on her sleeve.

"Yeah, great shot, Northwest!" Wendy complimented as well.

"Yeah, I bet you wish you could've hit a shot like that," she sourly remarked at her.

Wendy raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Huh?"

From above, however, Bill's eye started to glow red through the dissipating smoke. "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"

Bolting out from the smoke, he grabbed a metal panel from a piece of machinery to the side and chucked it at Pacifica, fiercely knocking her to the ground. He then warped toward Ryland and kicked him hard in the face, smashing him against a wall. Right after, he darted at Soos, picking him up before throwing him at Melody, taking both of them down. Then, he warped to the center of the room and picked up Stan by his legs before swinging him like a golf club as he hit Dipper before throwing Stan away. Dipper flew directly into Mabel at an unavoidable speed, sending her backward and crashing directly into a nearby machine with a water tank right above it.

Bill hovered above the center of the room as he stared down at everybody that he put out of commission with his infuriated red eye.

"I'M SO TIRED OF ALL OF YOU!" he screamed furiously."NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY AND NO MATTER WHAT GADGETS YOU USE, YOU CAN'T TAKE ME DOWN! I'LL HEAL EVERY SCRATCH, REGENERATE EVERY LIMB, AND COME BACK FROM EVERY DEATH! YOU CAN'T STOP ME!"

"And you can't stop us from trying!" Wendy shouted.

From behind, she suddenly leaped up on top of him using a tall pillar to reach him. Catching him by surprise, she pulled out her axe and began striking numerous times amongst his body, each hit creating a solid indentation in his body. She struck his arms, legs, bowtie, and top hat, the latter two of which still remained parts of his flesh.

"AAAAAGHH!"

After striking enough times, she jumped off of him, landing right beside her father as he weakly stood on his knee. He smiled at her proudly. "That's my girl! Nice going, Wendy!"

Bill's eye darted back at them. "DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL, HUH?"

Before either of them could successfully look back up, they were both quickly grabbed by Bill, who clenched them both tightly in his fists. He hadn't even finished regenerating all of Wendy's hits, allowing the two to watch as all the indentations slowly patched themselves up right before their eyes.

He glanced between the two with a devilish look in his eye. "WELL, LET'S SEE HOW MUCH DAD LIKES SEEING HIS DAUGHTER CHOKING TO DEATH!"

Not wasting any time, Bill violently pinned Wendy up to a wall, putting the full pressure of his hand against her throat. Constrained in his other hand, Dan was forcefully brought up to her so he could watch as she began to suffocate helplessly. Dan tried to pull himself free from Bill's grasp, but his arms were too tightly constrained within his fist. Panicking, his heart began to pound in his chest as he looked at her.

"Wendy!" he cried out.

Coughing and sputtering as her face began to purple with Bill's tightening hold, she looked on at him desperately as her eyes began to twitch. "Dad…"

"I HAD A DAD ONCE. TRUST ME, THEY'RE OVERRATED," Bill told her as he continued to put even greater pressure on his chokehold. "YOU COULD'VE LIVED THE REST OF YOUR DAYS PEACEFULLY AS A STATUE! BUT NOW, I GUESS I GOTTA BREAK THE ICE!"

Everybody else in the room laid on the floor collapsed from Bill's attacks. Most were too hurt or weak to move quickly and couldn't aid in what was happening on time, leaving Wendy to continue suffocating as her vision began to go dim.

Mabel laid in a puddle of water that continued to get bigger as water leaked from the cracked tank above her. Looking up, she noticed that the water tank was actually the tank containing Berry, the baby Snacken that Stan and Ford had brought home. In the days that had past since she last saw it, it actually grew a sizeable amount, now almost fitting the entire tank.

As she looked at it, an idea popped into her head. "Hey, Bill!" she called out to him with a grin.

He turned angrily while keeping his hold of Wendy and Dan. "QUIET, SHOOTING STAR! I'M BUSY KILLING YOUR FRIEND OVER HERE!"

"Well, that isn't Berry nice!"

She dove her hand into the leaking tank and grabbed Berry. Pulling her out with both of her hands, she then proceeded to catapult Berry up at Bill, hitting him right in the eye. As she stuck to him, she wrapped her long tentacles around his body as she stuck to his eye.

"AAAHH!" he screamed, immediately dropping Wendy and Dan to the floor as he used his hands to try and pull Berry off of him. "DAMN THIS SUGAR-LOVING OCTOPUS FREAK!"

Wendy and Dan hit the floor hard as they dropped. Barely conscious, Wendy panted hard to catch her breath, coughing loudly as her face slowly regained its normal color.

"Wendy! Are you okay?" Dan shouted as he got up from the ground and ran to her side.

"I'm fine, dad," she nodded, easing her breathing. She looked to the side to see Mabel walking up to her. "And good one, Mabel. I mean, terrible pun, but nice throw."

Throughout the laboratory, everyone who had been thrown or hit or taken down by Bill in any way slowly began to rise back to their feet again. Glimpsing up at Bill, some were surprised to see him actually struggling to pull Berry off of his eye. Just as he pulled a tentacle off, it quickly stuck itself back to him, clearly proving a challenge to him.

"That thing should keep him distracted for a minute," Dipper said. "Come on! Let's meet back up with Ford!"

As directed, everyone followed up behind him as they retreated back toward the safe corner. As they reached it, they saw Ford still painting on the ground with the spray can. The zodiac looked nearly complete with the circles finished, Bill drawn in the center, and the ten symbols inputted in their individual slots on the wheel- the pine tree, the shooting star, the question mark, the ice bag, the six-fingered hand, the fez symbol, the glasses, the llama, the pentagram sign, and the stitched heart.

"How are we looking over here, Grunkle Ford?" Mabel asked.

He set his spray can to the side as he scanned the entire wheel. "I think we should be good to go. Now, it's just a matter of organizing everybody together in the right spots."

"Great, so we all just stand in the same places as last time?" Wendy asked.

Ford rubbed his chin hesitantly. "Well, honestly, I'm not quite sure."

"What?!" everybody questioned at once.

"This ain't the time for uncertainty, Sixer!" Stan said hurryingly.

"I know!" Ford nodded. "It's just that as I look around at everybody now, I can see some differences from the last time we attempted this. I don't know if the symbols themselves are concordant with the person that bears them. Of course, some of the people here can't be different at all. But all at the same time, perhaps, it all might not even matter and it really is just the same as before."

"You mean we have to guess?" Wendy asked, raising an eyebrow.

Dipper glanced down at the circle analytically. "Well, let's knock the obvious ones out of the way then. The only person who could be the six-fingered hand is Ford, and the Tent of Telepathy sign can't be anybody else but Gideon."

"And Robbie has to be the one with the stitched heart," Mabel added.

"It's more of a broken heart these days," Robbie said somberly as he stepped onto his symbol.

"Yeesh, kid. Could you be any sappier?" Stan asked.

Dipper continued to analyze the wheel, beginning to realize what Ford might have been talking about. "Wait, hold up... am I still the pine tree? I mean, Wendy's wearing the cap now, so maybe she's the pine tree. So maybe that means I'm the ice bag now."

"Right, so when again did you become the cool one in the last four years?" Mabel asked skeptically.

He thought for a moment before giving a defeated sigh. "Alright, you got me there. Guess she's gotta be the ice bag then," he settled as he stepped onto the pine tree.

"I think the fact he calls me Ice Bag is also a bit of a giveaway," Wendy added with an amused smirk as she stepped onto her place on the wheel.

"Well, he still calls me Shooting Star so that means I know who I am!" Mabel said as she hopped forward onto the shooting star. "Nobody's replacing Mabel!"

"But am I still the question mark?" Soos asked, looking at what was once his symbol. "Or would that be Melody now? Or could it be Ryland since he wears the shirt for work too? And since I'm Mr. Mystery, would that also make me the fez now? Or does that still apply to Stan since he was the original? Or maybe..."

"Uhh, I think the fact you're asking so many questions right now is reason enough to assume you're still the question mark," Ford cut off.

"Hmm… an equally valid point," Soos agreed, walking onto the question mark. "So I guess that would have to mean Stan would still be the fez symbol. Who else could it be?"

Stan narrowed his eyes at his slot on the wheel. The fez was his father's, and he donned it for the simple purpose of completing his Mr. Mystery character. While that symbol was undoubtedly associated with that character, the fact that it would still stand for his place on such a prophecy four years after passing it on felt weird to him. Even more so knowing now that his dad was gone.

"Yeesh. I guess no matter how hard I try, there really ain't no escaping dad's shadow," he said to himself before walking onto the symbol.

Mabel looked over at the symbol beside her. "And I guess Pacifica is still the llama!"

"But how? How am I the llama again?" Pacifica questioned. "I'm not even wearing the sweater this time!"

"Well, I don't know. It's either that or the glasses," Mabel pointed out. "Are you the glasses, Pacifica?"

"What? Pfft, of course not! Do I look like I wear glasses? Glasses are for nerds!"

"Not entirely true," Stan passively commented.

"It's just, why am I a llama? What does that even mean?" she asked as she finally stepped up onto her symbol next to Mabel.

"Well, Pacifica, as an old voice that reminds me vaguely of Larry King once told me, llamas are nature's greatest warriors!" Mabel told her, wrapping a friendly arm around her.

Pacifica scrunched her nose at her as she pushed her away. "Your makeup makes you look more like a llama than I do."

"Awww, thank you!"

"So I guess that just leaves me with the glasses," McGucket said as he stepped onto the last unfilled spot on the zodiac.

"I guess that means nothing's changed after all," Dipper realized as he looked around at everybody standing on the same symbols as they did four years ago.

"I suppose not," Ford said.

"Welp, that was just a waste of time then," Stan remarked with annoyance.

"And so what about the rest of us?" Derrick asked as he stood grouped alongside Ryland, Melody, and the rest of the Corduroy family.

"I recommend all of you stand clear. Maybe even get to cover if possible," Ford advised. "I can't predict just how much of an impact this entire thing will have when it gets going."

"Alright, well, kick his ass, guys," Derrick told them all.

"Good luck, you guys," Ryland nodded.

"Be careful, everyone. You too, Soos," Melody said.

"You got this, Wendy," Dan told her with his sons nodding in agreement.

They all ran back into cover in the elevator room, leaving everybody else on the circle to themselves. At that point, everyone looked at one another readily.

"So, are we done?" Stan asked. "Is this it?"

"This is it," Ford nodded. He held his hand out to him. "Shall we begin then?"

Stan glanced down at his hand and remembered this same moment going a lot differently last time. A lot more scornfully. But this time, there was no scorn. No resentment. No hate. So with a proud smile, he happily placed his hand within his brother's.

As they joined hands, everybody else began to join hands until the entire circled was linked. A faint blue aura began to form around everybody as the zodiac began to glow itself. There was a quick flash as a light gust of wind came out of seemingly nowhere, circling around the wheel, breezing against everybody's clothes and hair.

Back on the surface, a bunch of dark, stormy clouds began to circulate right above the Mystery Shack. Lightning crackled rapidly as the effects of the prophecy being fulfilled began to take place.

The clouds thickened throughout the rest of the town as the winds picked up. The attention of several walking townsfolk was pulled upward as the once sunny day now quickly turned into what looked like the start of a nightmarish storm.

The glowing of the wheel continued to slowly increase in strength as everybody just stood by patiently waiting for it to get to work.

Robbie made a face as he held onto Gideon's hand. "Kid, are you wearing moisturizer?"

"What's it to you?" Gideon snapped defensively.

"Nothing. It's just kinda weird," he said with an amused smirk. This smirk quickly faded though as he let out a sad sigh. "Although, Tambry wore moisturizer…"

Gideon raised an eyebrow. "Okay, now who's being weird?"

To the right of them, Dipper looked up at Wendy as he held her hand. "You know, it's only been about a month since we came back here, and it already feels like we've come a long way."

"For real," she nodded. "It may make me kind of a sick and twisted person for saying this, but… I'm honestly kind of gonna miss doing stuff like this."

He smiled back at her. "And I'm gonna miss having you around."

Right across from them, Pacifica's eye began to jealously twitch as she gritted her teeth together and tightened her grip on both Mabel and McGucket's hands.

"Aw, don't be scared, Pacifica. We're all going to be alright. Trust me," Mabel obliviously assured her. Pacifica's tight grip maintained, however, which started to cause Mabel discomfort. "Okay, now you're kind of cutting off the blood flow to my hand here…" she reminded, but Pacifica continued to not listen. "P-Pacifica?"

"Heh! It's a good thing I can't feel with this hand anymore!" McGucket casually chuckled as Pacifica gripped his bandaged hand.

As the wheel began to glow brighter and brighter, Stan looked at his brother. "Here we go, Ford. One last time onto the breach."

Ford smiled. "Indeed."

There was a brief pause.

"I hope you don't have any smartass things to say back to me this time," Stan told him.

"No, no. Of course not," Ford shook his head. "I've learned my lesson from last time."

"Good."

There was another brief pause.

Ford turned back to him. "Though, if I had to say anything, I would just kindly remind you that the saying is actually- AAAAHH!"

Everybody gasped as Bill's hand swooped in and grabbed Ford from above, pulling him away from Stan and Robbie's hands. With the chain broken, the circle's glow began to dim down with the effects fading away. With Ford in hand, Bill stared down upon everybody with an amused eye.

"'ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH.'"

"NO!" Mabel cried.

"GREAT UNCLE FORD!" Dipper desperately called out.

"God dammit, WHY DOES THIS CIRCLE TAKE SO LONG?!" Stan angrily asked.

With his free hand, Bill violently slapped down everybody else stood on the zodiac with a single aggressive swipe, knocking them all against the wall behind them. From the side of the wall, there was a large steel beam that he pulled out and bent effortlessly across everybody, pinning them all well against the wall. They all made an effort to pull themselves free, but they were either locked in tight or were pinned in too poor of a position to make any reasonable attempt to free themselves.

Bill cackled sinisterly. "YOU KNOW, I GOTTA ADMIT- YOU ALMOST HAD ME AGAIN! BUT NOT EVEN YOUR LITTLE PET COULD BUY YOU ALL THE TIME YOU NEEDED!"

He then reached down and picked up Berry by one of her tentacles, showcasing her to everybody else. She was severely beaten and looked incredibly weak with all of her other tentacles just hanging out lifelessly. Her eyes twitched as they struggled to stay open.

Mabel gasped in horror, tearing up as she held a hand up to her mouth. "Berry! No!"

Without any care to give, Bill let go of Berry, harshly allowing her to splat amongst the floor, much to Mabel's further dismay.

"SO YEAH! TRY YOUR LITTLE ZODIAC TO STOP ME NOW! YOU CAN'T! NOT AS LONG AS I HAVE STANFORD!"

He broke out laughing yet again, which infuriated Stan even more. "Bill, I swear when I get my hands on you, I'm gonna-"

Bill didn't bother letting him finish his spiel. Rather instead, he just pulled him out from behind the steel beam with his free hand and carelessly threw him right over his shoulder. Stan let out a scream as he flew across the room before colliding into a cabinet, smashing it before rolling onto the ground.

"GRUNKLE STAN!" Dipper and Mabel screamed.

"STANLEY!" Ford screamed.

Lying right beside the portal frame, Stan tried to pull himself back up. It was too hard, however, as he found himself too weak and too hurt to do so and quickly failed, collapsing his head back and shutting his eyes.

Bill chuckled. "I DON'T KNOW WHY YOUR BROTHER TRIES, STANFORD. I USED TO RESPECT HIM BEFORE FOR MANAGING TO BEAT ME LAST TIME, BUT AFTER LIVING IN HIS MIND FOR SO LONG, I KNOW NOW THAT HE'S NOTHING MORE THAN A BRAINDEAD FOOL PRETENDING TO BE A HERO."

Ford narrowed his eyes. "Stanley is a hero and more so than any of us."

"HAH! OH REALLY? YOU CALL THAT A HERO?" Bill asked as he turned Ford's view toward Stan. "FACE IT, SIXER! YOUR BROTHER'S JUST AN AGING BAG OF THREATS. THE ONLY TIME HE EVER BEAT ME WAS IN HIS OWN MIND, AND EVEN THAT LOOKS LIKE IT'S FADING AWAY THESE DAYS," he ridiculed."HE PROBABLY GOT THAT FROM HIS MOTHER."

In an instant, Stan's eyes flew open. He then clenched his fists furiously to the point of trembling as he laid on the ground. A new wave of rage rushed over him as he pushed through the pain, forcing himself onto his feet with an unfounded level of determination.

He held himself steady against the portal frame, his squinting eyes darting right at Bill as he panted aggressively.

"In the end, anybody who stands against you is a true hero, Bill," Ford told him. "That includes all of us."

"WELL, THEN I GUESS A HERO LIKE YOU DESERVES A HERO'S DEATH!"

"You won't kill me! You still need me…"

"I THOUGHT I DID, BUT ACTUALLY, I'M STARTING TO THINK YOU'RE JUST TOO STUBBORN FOR MY NEEDS," he said as he stroked his would-be 'chin' wondrously."I THINK I'LL HAVE BETTER LUCK TORTURING THE REST OF YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS. SO I GUESS I MIGHT AS WELL GET YOU OUT OF THE WAY THEN…"

The mere thought of it quickly shook Ford to his core. "NO! DON'T!"

"THEN TALK!" Bill demanded, getting serious."I PUNCHED THAT PORTAL OUT AFTER YOUR EARLIER TRICK! NOW, HOW DO I FIX IT, AND THEN HOW DO I ACTIVATE IT FOR REAL?"

"You didn't break it. You just set it offline," Ford clarified. "It can still be activated normally."

"THEN TELL ME HOW TO ACTIVATE IT BEFORE I SNAP YOUR NECK WITH MY THUMB!" Bill threatened. He then started to put pressure on Ford's forehead with his thumb, pushing it back slightly.

"The portal schematics I was given are wired around equational inputs that determine its functionality!" Ford anxiously explained. "You need to let me enter the proper equation into the system to start the portal!"

By the portal frame, Stan glanced below at his feet where several various folders and papers belonging to Ford were spread out amongst the ground after he smashed into the cabinet. Scanning the ground, his eyes caught one folder named 'Anomalous Equation Reference'. He bent down and picked it up with his hands, flipping it open.

Inside, he spotted a bunch of various equations of which he had absolutely no understanding of based on the various letters, numbers, and symbols Ford had used to construct them. He may not have been good at math, but he was positive that some of the symbols were completely made up as well. It also didn't help that, for some reason, all of the equation names had suddenly been whited out as he could very obviously tell from the dried paint markings.

However, looking to the side at the portal's control panel, he saw many of the same symbols on the control pad. Every equation was compatible. It was just a matter of figuring out which one to use, which was basically impossible given his knowledge.

"I'M NOT LETTING YOU DO ANYTHING ANYMORE! NOT AFTER YOUR LAST TRICK!" Bill said to Ford, his voice getting louder and angrier by the second."TELL ME WHAT THE EQUATION IS NOW!"

Ford shook his head. "I can't-"

Bill quickly dove his free hand back down into the corner and heedlessly grabbed both Dipper and Mabel tightly, ripping them from their hold behind the steel beam. As he held them, he made sure to hold them by the neck as he strangled them both in his fist.

"NOW, OR I KILL THE KIDS!" he threatened impatiently, tightening his hold.

The twins choked, grabbing onto Bill's hand as they helplessly tried to pry it open to breathe, but to no avail.

"Grunkle… Ford…" Mabel said between gasps.

"…Don't…" Dipper breathed.

Ford stared at Dipper and Mabel with panicked eyes as he watched them suffer. He didn't want to give Bill what he wanted, but their situation seemed entirely powerless at that point. He was willing to risk his own life for his family, but he wasn't about to risk theirs for his.

"I'M OUT OF PATIENCE, FORD! I'M GIVING YOU THREE SECONDS AND NOTHING MORE!" he finalized."ONE… TWO…"

"OKAY, OKAY!" Ford finally gave in. "IT'S-"

"HEY, BILL!" Stan's voice called from behind.

Bill physically turned red with unyielding rage as he turned back toward Stan. "WHAT?!"

Holding onto the portal's control panel, Stan looked back at him daringly. "You want your portal? WELL, YOU CAN HAVE IT!"

He slammed his fist down on the giant red button on the portal's control panel. As he pressed down on it, the inner frame began to spark from the bottom all the way to the top. Ford's eyes widened in shock as he watched, whereas Bill raised his eyebrow with growing curiosity.

Then there was a whirring noise that grew progressively louder as the frame began to light up. The sparks grew bigger until electric currents started to link with one another across the inner circle. Eventually, the electricity started to circulate into a widening bright blue swirl that expanded through the frame. The weight of the room suddenly lightened as the winds picked up, lightly blowing into the portal itself.

Now, Bill was surprised. So surprised that he mindlessly dropped both the twins and Ford from his grasp as he focused his full attention to the now active portal.

"HOW DID YOU…?" he prompted."AH, WHO CARES? I FINALLY GOT WHAT I WANTED"

As he flew toward the portal, Dipper, Mabel and Ford dropped to the ground painfully behind him. Especially Ford, who wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to endure such experiences in his current state before just passing out. Despite this, he tried to stay strong and quickly, yet cautiously, pulled himself back up to his feet just as Dipper and Mabel did. The three turned back to look over at Bill, who started to bask in the functioning portal's light as he hovered right in front of it.

"YES! YES!" he exulted."IT'S HAPPENING! IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!"

Ford was horrified by the fact that Bill seemed to be right on the edge of victory. Amidst Bill's celebration, Stan managed to meet back up with the three while he wasn't looking.

"Stanley! What did you do?!"

"I have no idea!" he admitted before pushing past him. "But it's buying us some time! So, c'mon!"

"What?!" Ford questioned.

"Grunkle Ford, Bill's distracted!" Mabel pointed out. "Now's our chance!"

Looking back up at Bill hovering in front of the portal, he realized Mabel was right. Bill was paying them no mind whatsoever now that the portal was active. Of course, though, that was subject to change at any moment, and they needed to use the time they had why they still could.

The Pines all ran back into the once deemed 'safe' corner. The steel beam that pinned the others against the wall was still intact. As such, the family joined together on one side of the beam and put their remaining strengths together to pry it off of their friends. Once there was enough wiggle room, everybody slipped out from wherever they were able to, stepping free once again.

Dipper looked back down at the wheel, running back onto his place on the pine tree. "EVERYBODY, GET BACK IN YOUR PLACES! NOW!"

Without wasting a second further, everyone else quickly rushed back onto their symbols. Not even needing to be reminded, they all held hands as they did so. Just as before, the zodiac lit up and the winds began to circulate around them again. Though the speed at which the zodiac's effects took place didn't seem to go any faster than they did before

"C'mon, man! Can't this thing go any faster?!" Robbie asked worriedly.

"GOSH DANG IT, HURRY UP!" Gideon screamed anxiously.

"Even my video games load faster than this!" Soos claimed.

"Grunkle Ford, is there a way to make this go faster?" Mabel asked as she looked over at him.

"If Bill comes back for us again, we're dead!" Dipper added.

Ford shook his head, though he felt just as anxious himself. "There isn't a way as far as I'm aware! We just have to let the prophecy do its thing! Just stay focused and keep holding hands! That's all I can say!"

Everybody exchanged nervous looks with one another, but complied with the general request and continued to hold hands. They knew the zodiac was at work considering that the glow continued to get brighter and the winds continued to grow faster, but it all went on so slowly that it left them with a great sense of vulnerability. But rather than risking a break in the chain, everybody instead just held hands more tightly to preserve the link as best they could.

Just as the zodiac accelerated, the portal did. The portal's inner swirl grew much faster in speed as unstable bolts of electricity blasted from the frame. Regardless, Bill's excitement remained intact as he spread his arms wide open to feel the portal's rush.

"HAHAHA! I CAN FEEL IT! I CAN FEEL THE ENERGY SEEPING BACK INTO ME! IT'S GLORIOUS! IT'S DELECTABLE! IT'S-"

He suddenly paused, his excitement settling down as he started to grow somewhat perplexed. Looked down at his hands, he started to realize that nothing had actually changed. As he let the moment go on, he then realized that he didn't feel any different than he did before. What felt like his power coming back before was actually nothing at all.

"Wait… SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT," he grasped.

Suddenly, there were long, momentary streams of a sort of bright blue energy that started to emerge from the portal rather than the quick, unstable electric bolts that had struck before. These streams magnetized to the portal but blew out like loose threads. Occasionally, they would come into contact with physical items in Ford's lab, but rather than leaving behind simple burn marks, these streams completely vaporized whatever it touched.

Noticing this, Bill floated backward as they came close to hitting him. It was at that point he realized something was entirely wrong and that the portal wasn't functioning in the way he wanted.

"HANG ON A SECOND… THIS ISN'T HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! THAT IDIOT USED THE WRONG EQUATION!"

His eye suddenly widened. Turning around, he looked straight back toward the back corner of the lab, where he saw everybody holding hands on the zodiac yet again.

"NO… NO! HE TRICKED ME AGAIN!" he realized.

He immediately zoomed right back to the corner, ready to dive right in and just break up everybody on the spot. Everybody's hearts sunk as they glanced upward to see him rushing right back toward them.

However, right at that moment, a giant white bubble formed from the outer edge of the wheel all around the zodiac members like one big dome. Bill flew straight into the bubble, which blocked him from being able to enter and interfere with the procedure.

Ford looked up at the bubble wondrously. "It's… it's working…"

"NO!" Bill cried as he punched the bubble multiple times ruthlessly, all to absolutely no effect or result. "NOOOO! THIS CAN'T BE! THIS CAN'T BE!"

Inside the bubble, the circulating winds from prior began to accelerate to an extremely fast speed. Below everyone's feet, the zodiac gave off an intense glow that got harsher and harsher. The bubble itself quickly lost its transparency too and surrounded everybody with nothing more than what looked like a pure white void. With the combined winds, brightening lights, and pure whiteness of their immediate surroundings, everybody braced themselves by shutting their eyes while holding hands as tight as they possibly could, keeping their feet locked firmly to the ground despite the intense winds.

Bill continued to punch the bubble over and over in an attempt to break through it. Despite his desperation, however, he could not make so much as even a dent in it. It was his zodiac and his defeat, therefore, the bubble was completely impervious for him.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

With one last, unsuccessful smash of his fists against the bubble, he gave up, letting himself slide down the side of the bubble onto the ground. He turned around, facing the accelerating portal. In what he knew were his final moments, he just stared into the portal and thought.

He thought about his powers and his failure to regain them.

He thought about vengeance.

He thought about home.

He thought about his family.

He thought about life.

He thought about death.

He thought about how far he came just for things to end this way.

He thought about the Axolotl.

He tried to think about the answer it had given him, but he couldn't remember. But what he did remember is that it told him that he was going to succeed at getting what he wanted. But did he succeed?

Was his brief moment of belief that he was going to get his powers back his success? Was that all there was? Or was there more still to come? Was this truly his end, or was this just the beginning?

Perhaps, in some way, he knew. Not everything, but knowing everything was boring anyway. Knowing less kept things interesting. He knew just what he needed to know.

And that perhaps, it wasn't a total defeat in the end.

"STANLEY, YOU IDIOT… WAIT TILL YOU SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE…"

Both the prophecy bubble and the portal unleashed at once, both sending streams of energy that directly struck Bill. The overpowering anomalous nature of the portal meshing with the zodiac's prophetic supernatural power created energy levels too unstable for the lab to properly contain.

As a result, a giant blue beam shot up straight from the laboratory upward, blasting through the Mystery Shack above and decimating a large part of it as it fired right into the sky, breaking right through the prophecy's dark stormy clouds. Despite it not being night, the beam was strong enough to illuminate the town from the storm clouds. Several townsfolk looked in the beam's direction, most being able to identify it coming from the direction of the Mystery Shack. Deep within the surrounding forests and throughout the valley, several of the forest critters and supernatural creatures also looked upward to see the distant beam.

Whether one was in town, below the trees, in the trees, in the mountains, or just anywhere within the valley of Gravity Falls, most were able to see the beam shooting directly into the sky past the clouds. Most were fearful for their lives and opted to retreat for safety as they had no idea what was happening. Others (mostly creatures) just watched from a distance, intrigued by the sight but not curious enough to move forward and risk their own lives.

After about a minute, the beam began to die down, thinning out as the rest of it shot out into the atmosphere. The dark storm clouds started to fade and dissipate as well, allowing the sun to shine upon the valley once again. Townsfolk looked around in confusion as the normalcy of the day suddenly seemed to return to them. While most held a level of concern, it was still within the nature of most Gravity Falls citizens to simply carry about the rest of their days as though nothing had ever happened.

And so they did, resuming their walks around town and moving on with their lives.

Back in the basement, the portal slowly shut down. Having been completely enveloped within the beam like much of the lab was, it was barely functional anymore. It had completely broken down, a part of the top hinging over one half while the other half had completely collapsed.

As for the rest of the room, much of Ford's equipment and machinery had either been vaporized or smashed up from the earlier fight. The only spots that remained somewhat intact and untouched were, naturally, the deep corners and the laboratory room. Aside from a few computers that managed to remain intact, the lab had been decimated to the point where daylight poked in from above since the beam had melted right through everything above it, including the Mystery Shack, which now sported a giant hole through many floors and the roof itself.

In the safe corner, the white bubble over the zodiac continued to stand for another minute, to which it eventually dissipated. At the same time, Bill's zodiac on the ground vanished below everybody's feet, which seemed to be a sign recognizing the prophecy's completion. Following after, everybody swayed dizzily before collapsing to the ground at once.

There were several groans and pained grunts as they all sprawled on the ground. The entire process of completing the prophecy had done nothing to any of them physically, but the constant muscle tenseness from holding hands and keeping stood up on the ground while hundred-mile winds spun around them was more than enough to leave them all somewhat nauseated and aching afterward.

Robbie was the first to sit back up from the ground, groaning as he held his spinning head. "Ugh… Am I dead yet?"

Wendy sat up coughing. Her eyes glanced around the room, processing her surroundings a bit more easily than him. "No, Robbie. It looks like we're all still here."

"UGH…" he groaned unhappily as he let himself fall back onto the floor, holding an arm over his eyes like a child who didn't want to get out of bed

Everybody else started to finally readjust back to normal conditions again, slowly picking themselves off from the floor one by one.

Dipper stood back up to his feet, picking up his bomber hat and placing it back firmly on his head, covering his messy hair after the wind blew it around so much. He glanced around with slight curiosity. "So, did we… did we do it? Did we defeat Bill?"

Ford stood up again and looked around for himself. His lab was destroyed, but he hardly cared considering it was always going to be a price to pay for proceeding with the zodiac down there. As it was at that moment though, there were no immediate signs of Bill's presence anywhere.

"I don't want to make any premature assumptions, but… I think we did!"

Stan paused as he stood up. "Wait… so is he really gone? Like, he didn't go back into my head again, did he?"

Right to the side, there was a desk that Ford limped over to, where he grabbed a device. It was the same device he had used Summerween night for scanning anomalous activity within his mind. Without any advisory, he held the device up to Stan's head once again and pulled the trigger, scanning it. The last time he had used the device, the result was a red light, which indicated an anomalous presence in Stan's mind. But after a brief scan, that same light was now green, indicating his head and mind were completely clear of any unusual activity or health-related issues.

"No activity detected," Ford confirmed with a smile. "Looks like you're in the clear, Stanley. Which means it looks like Bill might be finally gone."

"WOOO-HOOO!" Mabel cheered as she turned beside her and suddenly hugged Dipper from behind. "WE DID IT! WE DID IT! We beat Bill!"

"Haha! Yeah!" Dipper laughed as he gave in to their victory.

In the same celebratory vein, Soos popped up behind Stan and unexpectedly hugged him. "We did it, Mr. Pines! Now I can hug you again without having to worry about fearing for my life!"

"That's great, Soos, but I've already been thrown around a few times today, and I'm still in a lot of pain, so could you please save your hugging for another time?!" Stan asked, pulling away from Soos' grasp.

"Oh, you're totally right," Soos acknowledged, quickly backing off. "Heh, my bad."

"Wooooo-we!" Gideon whooped as he stepped into the mix. "Good riddance! Bill's finally dead! It won't resurrect my stage dreams, but at least they've been avenged."

"Hey, gotta take what you can get, huh?" Dipper told him.

"Victory hugs for everyone!" Mabel declared at that moment. Not excluding anybody, she excitedly ran up to Gideon and hugged him (for once without disgust), even lifting him off the ground amidst her extreme joy.

Being hugged by her in a way that wasn't forced by him or out of reluctance was a new experience for him. His pale white face suddenly flushed with warm pink as he smiled gleefully.

"I shall cherish this moment till the day I die," he whispered to himself.

Almost everybody looked behind to see the others finally coming out from the elevator room. Derrick came out first with his hands in his pockets as he stared around the lab, surprised by all the damage. "Woah. You guys were busy."

Following behind him was Ryland, who walked toward everybody with a look of concern. "Is everybody okay?" he asked.

Mabel ran right up to him and euphorically hugged him next, though she made this hug much more affectionate as she swung herself around in his arms as he hugged back. "We did it, Ryland! We did it!" she told him before victoriously pressing her lips against his, to his surprise.

He smiled as they pulled away from one another. "Alright, I guess I'll take that as a yes."

The sight of their kiss immediately soured Gideon's mood, dampening any happiness that had sprouted out of him from the hug he had shared with Mabel. Though he had already known of their relationship, it didn't soften the blow at all.

"You're right, Dipper. Guess you can't win 'em all…" he bitterly accepted.

Dipper chuckled. "Keep dreaming, man."

Melody was the next one who came out from the laboratory room. "Soos!" she shouted as she ran straight toward him.

"Melody!" he called back, spreading his arms wide open before embracing her tenderly.

"Did you guys beat him?" she asked.

"Heck yeah, we did!" Soos said with a fist pump. "It was like the coolest final boss fight ever! Though I guess… for me, it was more like watching a cutscene than doing any actual fighting for the most part. But an awesome cutscene!"

Melody giggled. "Well, so long as it's awesome," she said. "I'm just glad I didn't lose you. The last thing I want is to lose another fiancé just a month before the wedding again."

"Well, no need to worry about- wait… again?"

"Have I seriously never told you that story?" she wondered. "Huh… well, remind me to tell you before bed tonight."

Lastly, Wendy's family were the last ones to come out of the room to join the mix. Marcus, Kevin, and Gus made a straight beeline for their sister as Dan paced himself behind them.

"Wendy!" Kevin called out to her as they ran.

Wendy turned around, eyes lighting up happily as she saw them. "Guys!" She spread her arms out as the three hugged her each from a different angle. "Glad you all are okay."

"Same to you, sis," Gus said, smiling.

A shadow then loomed over them. Looking up, Wendy saw her father staring back down at her fondly. "Wendy…"

She smiled sincerely as she looked him in the eye. "We got him, dad. We won."

"I knew you would," he said, putting a proud hand on her shoulder.

To the side, Stan stood next to Ford, looking around at everybody in the room reuniting with another; at ease once again. "Well, Ford, it's good to see everybody managed to escape with their lives today."

"Indeed," Ford nodded in agreement. "Though I have to ask- how did you know the equation to start the portal?"

"I didn't. I just found one of your random files on the floor with a bunch of equations and so, I just typed one of them into the system."

"Wait, what?" Ford asked, raising an eyebrow. "So which equation did you use?"

"I don't know," he shrugged.

"Stanley!" Ford barked, growing concerned again. "That's incredibly dangerous! Did you not once think of the possible repercussions of doing what you did?"

"Hey, look! Does it really matter?" Stan asked, raising his arms defensively. "We still beat Bill! And look around! Everything's just fine, and you can clearly see the sky above. There's no end of the world. No interdimensional rifts. We're alright, Sixer!"

Ford looked up above at the hole in the ceiling, seeing the clear blue sky above just as Stan mentioned. Despite seemingly normal conditions, he remained hesitant. "I mean, it may appear so on the surface, but depending on the equation you used, there could be a bunch of underlying consequences we have yet to be aware of."

"Don't worry so much about it, Ford," he cajoled. "Look, if any problem does come about from this, then we'll just fix it together like we always do. No sweat. But as it is, we beat Bill and we're perfectly fine. I'm willing to bet whatever equation that was won't have any future relevance to our lives again."

Ford sighed reluctantly. "I desperately hope you're right."

Outside of the reunions and the mingling, Pacifica stood on her own. Turning her head, she spotted a broken piece of mirror glass laying against the wall. She looked at herself, rolling her eyes as she examined her hair and how unkempt it was after being blown around as much as it had been. It didn't bother her too much, as she had learned long ago not to let her appearance determine who she truly was. But it was still an annoyance if anything.

Mabel popped up behind her, taking notice of her dismay. "Aw, cheer up, Pacifica! We all look like a mess! As much as you love being exclusive, at least this isn't exclusive to you."

She sighed. "I'm not even mad. I basically expected it was gonna get like this from the start."

"Well, I mean, I guess now you have a real excuse to go to the salon now! No way your parents are gonna let you fly by like this later," Mabel considered for her.

Pacifica glanced into the rest of the crowd. Her eyes landed on Dipper, who just so happened to have been conversing at that very moment with Wendy yet again. She was too far to tell what they were talking about, but they were laughing, and they looked happy, and she couldn't stand it.

"That's one positive, I guess," she replied to Mabel, bitterness in her voice.

"Speaking of, you don't think you could hook a girl up with some discounts, would you? I know you have your own hairdresser, but you totally have those connections still," Mabel said as she examined her own messy hair in the mirror, paying no attention to what Pacifica was looking at.

"I, uh, should really get going so I can still make my the reopening ceremony," Pacifica said dismissively before walking back toward the laboratory room to leave. She had already filled her role for the day, and at that point, there was nothing left convincing her to stick around.

"Okay, it's been fun saving the world with ya!" Mabel obliviously waved. "And I'm serious about those discounts! The salons in this town are surprisingly not cheap!" She then rejoined the others as the side conversations seemed to have dialed down as nearly everybody had come together into discussion.

"So what even ended up happening to Bill?" Dipper asked. "Did he like… just go poof or get turned to dust or…?"

"I think I know!" Derrick's voice suddenly called out.

Everybody else turned in his direction, spotting him standing near the center of the laboratory facing away from them. Not given any further word, they all slowly walked toward him. As they reached him, they grouped up beside and behind him before turning their heads downward at the ground itself.

"Oh, man..." Dipper said, eyes narrowing worriedly.

"Oh no…" Soos said, cupping his mouth with his hands.

"Oh, great…" Stan said with a disgruntled frown.

Horror and concern grew as eyes fell upon Bill Cipher, who laid on the concrete as a stone statue once again. His former petrification had him happily sticking his hand out from his deal with Stan four years ago. This time, however, his statue was a frozen moment in time of him in pain as he was caught within the giant beam of energy that blasted him. His eye was squinted amidst his agony at that moment, and his arms and legs were stuck out, presumably frozen as he had swung them around.

At least this time, he actually looked like someone who had been defeated.

"I guess there are just some fates that one just can't avoid," Ford remarked.

"Can he come back again?" Soos asked.

"I'm not too familiar with the underlying science behind these statues," Ford admitted as he kneeled beside Bill for a closer look. "But there's no reason yet to think he can't."

"So what're you guys gonna do with him?" Ryland asked.

Wendy narrowed her eyes, folding her arms. "For starter's, we gotta make sure that nobody can shake his hand again."

"Or hug him," Mabel added.

"Well, luckily he's already down here in the lab," Ford addressed. "So, for now, I suppose I'll work on a way to effectively block him off from the rest of the world. Then, I suppose I'll work on a way to destroy the petrification once and for all. But after scanning Stan's mind, I think it's safe to say that every part of him is all in there this time."

"Phew! Well, at least that means we don't have to worry about fighting Bill inside one of our friends or family again," Mabel said with relief.

Dipper continued to look on at the statue uncomfortably, however. "But still, if anybody that's apart of the prophecy shakes his hand again…"

"…then we're in big trouble," Ford finished with a serious tone. "And so I'll do everything I can to ensure that doesn't happen."

"We'll both make sure," Stan nodded as he put a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"All of us shall," McGucket said, stepping forward as well. "Y'all fellas should know that you don't gotta fight this battle alone. As we've learned, Bill concerns all of us, and so, it's up to all of us to make sure he can't come back."

"You're right, F," Ford agreed. "Then again, when aren't you?" He held his hand out to him. "Thank you, Fiddleford. For everything. I don't know where I'd be without your help.

"We help each other," McGucket clarified with a smile as he shook his hand. "Don't forget that, my friend."

"So, now what?" Derrick interjected. "I mean, now that Bill's done and all, what's next on the agenda?"

Wendy rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly with a mellow smirk. "Well… I still haven't finished loading up."

---

As the early evening settled in, one might consider it crazy that after an entire day of ludicrous events, there would still be some sun left to shine upon the day. But there was. The sky was filled with thin cirrus clouds that extended past the visible horizon as the sun stood about an hour away from setting. Still, it left the sky with a partially orange hue as it shined brighter than usual.

With their own interests and matters to attend to, Gideon, Robbie, and McGucket had each parted ways with the others from the Mystery Shack. This left Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Ford, Soos, Melody, Derrick, Ryland, and the Corduroy family to head back to the family's cabin in the woods themselves. The cabin was still broken down after everything it had suffered through earlier in the day, though it would just have to be fixed another time just like the Shack. The occasion that everybody had shown up for remained unfinished since the morning came.

And despite how unanticipated it may have been, it was still something that needed to be finished.

Wendy walked up to her car with a box in hand and placed it right into the trunk. With everything finally loaded up inside, she pulled the lid down and slammed it shut, ensuring it stayed locked.

"Welp, that's everything," she said before turning back to everyone else behind her. "Can't believe it took me over eight hours just to load one box."

"So... I guess we're doing this for real this time?" Dipper asked, not quite ready to get started.

However, further down the line beside him, Soos was already bawling his eyes out. "Do we have to?" he asked through his tears as Melody patted him on the back comfortingly.

"Soos, c'mon, man," Wendy said as she walked up to him, putting her hands on his shoulders. "You're gonna see me again next month for your wedding. And besides, that's one less paycheck you have to fill out!"

"I know," he said with a sniffle. "I already told myself earlier that I was over it, but because this feels like it's supposed to be a sad moment, I just feel obligated to cry!" He then pulled her into a goodbye hug as he continued to sob, which for as sad as Wendy felt, she couldn't help but feel slightly entertained when it came to Soos.

"Take care of this guy, Melody," she told her over Soos' shoulder. "I know I don't have to tell you, but…"

"Oh, trust me, I will," Melody nodded as she softly pulled Soos back before hugging Wendy herself. "Thanks, Wendy. We're gonna miss you."

Pulling away from her, Wendy proceeded to walk down the line of her friends, snickering as she walked up to Stan. "So, you're not gonna try to kill me again, are ya, Mr. Pines?"

"Nah, not this time," Stan shook his head with an amused smile. "I'm too old to try anyway. You know that."

"I do, but sometimes Mr. Mystery's full of surprises," she said coyly.

"I haven't been Mr. Mystery in years, kid. Trust me, I got no more surprises," he assured her.

"I don't believe that for a second," she said. "But still... when you gave me a job, I don't think I could've ever imagined growing so close to you and all these other guys four years ago, but here we are." She hugged him suddenly, tightly, and gratefully. "Thank you for letting me in."

Stan had no plans on getting teary-eyed, and despite everything, he managed not to. But all things considered, he couldn't have been any closer to being so than he was at that moment.

"You're always welcome, kid," he said softly as he hugged her back.

She smiled as she pulled away, eyes darting in Ford's direction. "And Ford, try not to give this guy too much of a hard time. He's fragile enough as it is."

Stan's eyes widened. "What? And he ain't? You don't know squat, kid. This guy once got emotional over the first satellite launch as a kid."

Ignoring Stan's comments, Ford let out a chuckle at Wendy's request. "I'll try not to push him too hard," he assured her. "Safe travels, Wendy."

She moved along, stepped right up in front of Ryland next. "Well, Ryland, I think you've got things more than covered back at the Shack. Shouldn't have any issue taking over all the work I'll be leaving behind."

"Right… all of that 'work'," he joked. "Shouldn't be any sweat at all."

"I'm sure," she said, ruffling his hair with her hand genially, sparking a laugh out of him. "All things considered, just be good to the rest of the guys... and Mabel especially."

"Wouldn't dream of doing otherwise," he nodded. "By the way, where does Soos keep the cereal bars in the back again?" he then asked in a whisper.

With a quick glance back at Soos to make sure he wasn't paying attention, Wendy leaned forward to Ryland's ear. "Bottom shelf, hidden behind all the cookie dough."

"Gotcha," he noted mentally. "Ya see? This is why we're good friends."

She chuckled heartily as she pulled him into a brief one-armed hug. "Just don't get caught, man." Pulling back, she then moved on to Derrick, who was next in line with his hands stuffed in his pockets as usual. "Derrick."

"Wendy."

"I haven't known you for too long, but you're alright in my eyes," she said. "I'd like to think you, me, and Dipper could've done a lot of dumb stuff together if I stuck around."

"Yeah, I can see that," Derrick agreed. "You're pretty cool, Wendy. I know that's something you've probably heard a million times by now, but hey, you live up to the hype."

"Thanks, man," she said with an appreciative smile. "Enjoy things here in Gravity Falls. There's a lot here, and you got a lot of good people to learn from."

He smiled. "I know."

Both mutually agreed in mind that despite their positive standing with one another, they weren't necessarily close enough for hugs like most of the others. As such, she continued along, stepping right in front of Mabel, who stood happily awaiting her presence.

"Mabel's turn!" she said eagerly.

"Mabel's turn," Wendy smirked.

"I don't even know where to start. You're like the cool older sister I never had. You always gave me such good advice whenever it came to boys or…" She thought for a brief moment. "No, wait, it was really just boys," she realized. "Ah, but still, it was usually great advice! And well, part of why I was so excited to come back to Gravity Falls was being able to have more of those girl talks. Though, I guess those will have to wait now that you're leaving."

"Aw, dude. Look, trust me, you're plenty strong without my help," she assured. "But regardless, if you ever wanna talk, gal-to-gal, just call. I'm leaving town, but that doesn't mean you can't reach out."

"Yeah, I know," Mabel nodded as she rubbed her arm somberly. "I'll still do that. It's just… it won't be the same."

Mabel hadn't been too emotional before about Wendy leaving beforehand, but the more she thought about it and the closer it got to happening, the more real the idea of spending most of the summer without her started to become. Now it was happening, and the thought of having to deal with that change saddened her most. She knew now she didn't want her to leave, but that wasn't up to her.

"You'll be fine, sis," she told her as they hugged.

Separating from her, Wendy moved on to the last friend stood in line.

"So this is it, huh?" Dipper asked.

She grinned. "Just for now."

"Right," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "You know, it's crazy how all of our time spent together totals to just a few months, yet it feels like we've been through practically everything together. From the convenience store to the bunker to the apocalypse to the bunker again and so forth..."

"Well, that's just how we roll, man!" she said, giving him a friendly punch in the arm. "No end in sight for that regardless of all of this."

He smiled momentarily, only to frown as he began to think about all the circumstances again. "I guess I'm still just sorry this even needs to happen at all. I mean, I don't think this is what either of us had in mind as far as 'See You Next Summer' goes."

"Dude, you came four years after that summer," she reminded him. "Trust me, at this point, that ship has probably been sunken, eaten, and then crapped out by a sea monster for all I know."

He burst out chuckling for a moment. "I know, I know."

"So, don't be sorry," she told him. "Plans change. For better or worse. But everything happens for a reason. Better to make the most of it than dwell on the 'what ifs', you know?"

"Yeah. I do," he nodded in agreement. "I guess that either way, it's been fun going on adventures with you again this month."

"We'll have more adventures," she promised. "Eventually."

He smiled warmly. "Well, I can't wait then."

She then hugged him, which of course, he warmly returned. He didn't know why after not seeing Wendy for four years, it was so aching to see her move away just a month later. It shouldn't be that big of a deal to him, but for some reason, it was. She had always meant a lot to him, and she still does, but for a while, he couldn't figure out exactly why.

It would feel wrong to call her his sister given how he used to feel about her, but for some reason, calling her his best friend wouldn't feel quite right either, even if it would've been more accurate. The truth was that she was a representation of everything he wanted to be- cool, confident, sociable, etc. She inspired him, pushed him to be better, and was a sort of guiding light in some of his darkest times.

Wendy was his hero. That's what she was. In some ways, she was his best friend. In some other ways, she was family. But in most ways, she was his hero. It took him four years to realize that, but at least he finally knew how he felt and never needed to question himself again.

"Oh, and one last thing before I go…" she prompted as she retracted.

Suddenly, she snatched the bomber hat right off of his head. He was confused for a split second, but right after, she took off her pine tree cap and plopped it on top of his head, pulling the bill of the cap down so it stuck on. As he looked up at her, he watched as she placed her old bomber hat back on her head for the first time in four years.

"There," she said as she adjusted her hat, pulling down on the muffs.

Dipper looked up at his cap as he straightened it out on his head. Wearing it again after so long felt weird, but at the same time, so familiar. The biggest surprise was that it even fit his head the same way it used to.

She had given him the bomber hat as something to remember her by when heading back home to Piedmont last time. After having it for four years and having gotten used to seeing her in the cap for a month, he understood perfectly why she would switch again. What was once something purely his own now meant so much more to him and vice versa.

"Thanks for holding onto it," he told her with an appreciative smile, which she returned.

Having gone through her complete line of friends, she turned away and walked toward her family, who stood right across from everybody else. Catching Dan's eye, she approached him primarily.

"Dad..." she began. "Now, I know when I decided to go to college, this wasn't what you wanted from me, but…"

"That doesn't matter to me anymore, Wendy," he cut off, shaking his head emotionally. "Sooner or later, I was gonna have to let you go anyway. Part of me just wishes it was later. But to be strong, one has to be able to learn to let go when it's time, and that time is now. Regardless of what happened before, I'm proud of ya. I know it's been a rough month, but I just want you to know that no matter what happens, no matter what decisions you make, and no matter how old you get, you'll always be my little girl, and I'll always love you."

Wendy managed to keep herself well together throughout every parting hug with her friends. But she couldn't keep it in when her father spoke, and no matter how hard she tried to fight the tears, they came flowing down her face anyway as she lovingly hugged Dan one last time.

"I love you too, dad," she said with her eyes shut tight. She peeked her eyes open again, looking over to the side at her brothers, who all just continued to stand there watching tearfully. "Oh, just come on, you guys. I know you want in on this."

Marcus, Kevin, and Gus didn't wait a second longer after her go-ahead. The three quickly raced up to them, wrapping their arms around her and their father, sharing one last Corduroy family hug. Everybody else watched from behind simply through teary eyes, sniffles, and sobs. Especially Soos, who still hadn't run out of tears somehow.

After a good minute, they finally let her go, pulling away from one another. She backed up and took a good long look at everybody one last time, admiring the large family she had. Though she was reluctant to go, she knew the longer she stood around, the less sun there would be during her drive.

"Well, I guess it's time," she decided.

She turned back and walked over to her car. Opening the front door, she looked back one last time at everybody else, who all continued to smile as they watched her.

"You guys are the best," she told them all.

Paying them one last glance, she got into the car and closed the door. Putting the key into the ignition, she turned it and started the engine. She placed a hand on the rearview mirror, adjusting it accordingly, allowing her to see her family and friends once more as they all started to wave at her. She smiled at the sight but recognized that she had been holding off for too long already.

Putting her hand on the gear shift, she put the car into the drive and finally began to accelerate slowly down the path away from the cabin. Pulling up to the main road, she stopped, checked both ways, and then made a turn, driving off.

Everybody continued to wave until she was out of sight, which was rather quick. At that point, they all just simply stared on at the bittersweet road ahead. Dan placed his hands on his boys' shoulders, Melody pulled Soos into a comforting hug, Ford patted Stan on the back, and the rest just stood and stared melancholically.

"Later, Wendy," Dipper said to himself as he pulled the bill of his cap down slightly. Right beside him, Mabel placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile, which he appreciated.

As Wendy took to the road herself, she knew now that she was on her own. Completely independent. Her own person. Her own life. On the surface, that was terrifying to think about. Her choices had already been a mixed bag over the years, and it was just as easy for her to assume she could make more awful decisions that just end up worsening things.

But no matter which direction her life could've taken, whether it was staying back in Gravity Falls or leaving, life itself would always be unpredictable. Despite the many mistakes and bad judgments she had made previously, she had managed to learn something from all of them. As a result of that and the experience gained from her father's lessons, she grew more prepared for the future. She learned and she grew, and she would keep learning and keep growing. And that was the way of life.

Now it was time for her to live life her own way.

Glancing to the right, there was a large sign that read 'Now Leaving Gravity Falls' that came up ahead. Before driving past it, she took a deep breath and exhaled softly as she gripped the wheel readily.

"Here we go."

---

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