"Seriously? Bill, what do you want?" Dipper tensed; Wendy could feel it from the arm that was still around her.

Bill floated down out of the air to sit on the roof next to Wendy. "Oh, you both know what I want. I'm just here to up the ante."

"Great," Wendy said apathetically.

"It is great! So I can see you're telling Pine Tree about our little talk."

Dipper and Wendy exchanged glances. "Yeah," Dipper said. "And what the heck is up with you? Can't you just fight me yourself?"

Bill shrugged. "Ah, well, you know, I could do that. But it's a lot more fun this way. Don't you think?" Bill put one of his arms around Wendy, making her feel uncomfortable.

"Sure," Wendy said. "It's about as fun as hanging out with a murderer."

"Yeah... You know, it kind of is the same thing." Bill blinked his eye.

Dipper pulled Wendy closer to him. "Okay, so what's the point in this? Are you here to tell us you're gonna ruin our lives over a game of go fish?"

"Sure!" Bill held out his hand like he was holding a set of cards, but said, "You got any trout?"

"What?"

"Go fish!" A trout fell from the sky and landed behind everyone. Dipper and Wendy turned to stare at the triangle. "...You guys want me to leave, right?"

"Yes!" they both said.

"All right, all right. Just stopped by to check up on you two, make sure you're not forming a conspiracy, y'know, that kind of thing. Oh, and good luck against me! You need it."

That's when Bill did the creepy thing again, where he narrowed his eyes, staring, and time seemed like it stopped. Before she knew it, Wendy was asleep, and there was nothing she could do.

―――

"Wendy, wake up."

They were still on the roof when Wendy's eyes fluttered open. It was the next morning, just a hint of sunrise left in the sky, and they were laying down. She had her head on Dipper's shoulder. She was tired.

Wendy looked over at Dipper and said, "Hey."

"Hey. Did Bill come to talk to us last night...?"

"Yep."

"Oh-h-h great. So the dream was real."

Wendy nodded. "Bill needs to calm down. It's not like we're destroying the planet or anything." She glanced back at the sea creature laying on the roof. Her red hair was strewn all around her. "He tells us we need to stop, and then ends up throwing a fish at our heads. Does that not say something?"

"Yeah... You're right."

Bill was definitely a hypocrite. Wendy guessed he didn't care, though, as long as he ended up with the journal. She sat up, staring out across the horizon line. It was slightly chilly; Wendy rubbed her hands on the bare part of her arms.

"Do you think that all Bill wants is the journals?" Dipper asked, now sitting beside Wendy. "I think there has to be something more. It's just that there's still pages I haven't uncovered, which is probably what Bill is after."

"Like what?" Wendy said. Dipper pulled the journal from his vest and laid it out in front of them, flipping to a page near the back. To Wendy, it looked like part of a circle with a bunch of symbols surrounding it. "Any ideas on what it is?"

"No..." Dipper laughed quietly. "Well, I had an ides once, but Mabel said I was just imagining things."

"What was it?"

"It's dumb," Dipper shrugged.

"Dude, just tell me!" Wendy shoved her arm into his side.

"Well," Dipper told her, "I thought it could be a portal to another dimension. Something that the author or someone working with the author could have built...? I dunno. It's kind of far-fetched—"

"Dip, no, no, it isn't..." Wendy bit her lip in thinking. Her eyes widened. "Dude. Dude, you're right."

"Wait, what?"

"Dipper, first off, McGucket worked on building a machine that he thought could save everyone. Remember, in the video of his memories? He quit though, which means it was never finished. But you have the third journal, which means there were ones written before it—a first and second. If the page," she pressed her finger against the image, "in your journal is incomplete...?"

Dipper nodded. "We have to find the other journals."