Mabel quietly slipped past the vending machine and headed down the stairs, not wanting to alert her brother or Stan to what she was doing. She knew the mere MENTION of Bill would put her brother into a panic attack, and seeing Dipper in a panic attack would set Stan off, and none of that would do at all.

Yes, it was best to do this quickly and get it over with.

She stepped out of the elevator when it landed on the basement floor, looking around quietly. She could tell that Grunkle Stan had thrown a fit in here recently. There were smashed consoles and claw marks everywhere. She wondered what Ford had said to him to rile him up THIS badly.

Her jaw tightened, feeling indignation at the thought, setting about looking through anything that looked like a cupboard or a nook for what Bill had shown her. After a few minutes of looking, she found a locked cabinet under the desk, where no one would ever notice it unless they were looking for it. It had a regular lock, something she could easily pick with a hairpin.

It took a few moments of picking, but the lock came open, and she opened the cabinet. Inside was a black case tucked back, securely snapped shut. She took it out and opened it, and saw the very item she had been shown.

It looked like a glowing lava lamp inside a snow globe, very mysterious and dangerously beautiful. She looked into it for a few moments before tucking it under her arm, putting the case back, and shutting the cabinet door again, heading out quickly.

She was just stepping out of the vending machine when Stan came down the stairs.

"Hello, Mabel," he said. "Where have you been all…" He trailed off, eyes going right to the rift in her hands. "…Mabel, where did you…..why do you have that?"

Mabel's hands tightened around it. "…I just…I need it," she replied. "It wont take long, I promise—"

"Mabel, give me that." Stan held out his hand, looking mildly ill. "Be very careful and give it to me." He faltered slightly when Mabel backed away.

"I need it," she insisted, edging for the door. "Please, Grunkle Stan, I promise, it's important!"

"MABEL, GIVE IT TO ME!"

Mabel yelped when he made a grab for her, bolting out the door, hearing him follow her. She glanced back for a moment, and nearly ran into Ford, who was walking back up the path.

"What on Earth—" Ford exclaimed, holding his hands out to keep her from crashing into him. "Mabel, what's—" His eyes widened when he saw the rift in her hands. "Mabel!"

Mabel scurried back, looking between her two great-uncles. "I need it!" she cried. "PLEASE, just let me DO THIS!" She backed up when the two men stepped forward.

Dipper hurried out of the Shack when he heard his sister's voice, looking confused and frightened when he saw them both honing in on Mabel. "What's going on!?" he demanded, hurrying out, not knowing WHY they were closing in on her, but feeling a surge of protective anger at the fearful expression on her face. "What are you doing to her!?"

"Dipper, get BACK INSIDE!" Ford shouted, not looking at him. "Please, this is important!"

"BUT—"

"DIPPER, LISTEN TO FORD!" Stan snapped, his hands twitching. "MABEL, GIVE US THE RIFT!"

"The RIFT!?"

Mabel teared up, swallowing hard before hurrying off as fast as she could, hearing all three of her relatives call after her and follow. She was nearing the Bottomless Pitt when she saw the familiar form of Blendin Blandin step out of the woods and into view. She ran faster up to him, holding the rift out.

"HERE!" she cried, panting hard. "I HAVE IT!"

"MABEL, STOP!" Ford shouted, hurrying up and taking his gun out. "WHO ARE YOU!?" he demanded. "WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH THIS RIFT!?"

Dipper caught up with the others, panting, his brow furrowing in confusion. "…Blendin Blandin?" he said, wiping his forehead. "What….why do you want the rift? What's going on?" He jumped and paled when he heard Stan snarl next to him. "…Grunkle Stan…?"

Ford looked at Stan, his blood going cold when he saw his twin's eyes glowing brightly with the dead lights, teeth bared in a feral snarl as he glared at this new stranger, shoulders haunched like he was prepared to strike.

Mabel wiped her eyes. "Just take it!" she said, holding it out. "Take it and fix Grunkle Stan!"

"Mabel, how can Blendin help Grunkle Stan?!" Dipper demanded, then almost dropped like a weight when he heard high-pitched, dark-humored laughter.

"'Blendin' cant help you, Pine Tree," Bill said, turning to grin at them. "But I can." He reached out and took the rift from Mabel's hands.

"NO!" Ford shouted, firing a shot at him. It hit Bill's shoulder, and the demon stumbled back, laughing hysterically.

"Gonna shoot an innocent puppet, Sixer!?" he laughed. "How DEVIOUS!" He held up the rift. "I'm not here for YOU, though, I'm here for Shooting Star. And a deal's a deal." He turned his eyes to Stan, who seemed to be growing more feral by the moment. "Putting him back to normal, just as promised!"

Bill's eyes turned bright blue, a blue aura surrounding his hand as he snapped his fingers. Next to Ford, Stan suddenly dropped like a switch had been flipped.

Mabel hurried over to Stan, holding his shoulder, looking desperately hopeful. "Grunkle Stan?" she said, shaking him. "It's okay now….you're all fixed!" She beamed when he shifted and began to get up. "Grunkle Stan?"

Stan lifted his head, eyes full of nothing but dead lights, his skin a dead grey, the scent of death overwhelming. Mabel paled, jerking back. "Grunkle Stan—"

Stan snarled, snapping out at her, hands clawing out to get a hold of her. Mabel screamed, backing up, tearing up. "GRUNKLE STAN! BILL, WHAT DID YOU DO!? YOU SAID—"

"I SAID I'd make him normal!" Bill laughed. "AND THE OLD GEEZER WAS CLOSER TO THE GRAVE THAN ANYTHING! SO I MADE HIM A NORMAL ZOMBIE! SEE?! BACK TO NORMAL, JUST AS PROMISED!" He raised his arm, then threw the rift to the ground.

Ford dove over to Dipper and covered the boy as the rift emitted a blast of energy up into the sky. He kept Dipper's head down as he glanced up in time to see Bill emerge from his puppet's body, laughing loudly.

"AT LAST! AT LONG, LONG LAST!" Bill shouted. "THE GATES BETWEEN WORLDS IS OPEN! THE PROPHESY OF ONE BILLION YEARS HAS COME TO PASS! THIS WORLD IS MINE!"

Dipper's whole body shook as he peeked out from under Ford's arm, looking around wildly until he saw his sister back-crawling away from Stan, who was pursuing her, heedless of her cries for him to come back. His eyes widened when he saw how close she was to the side of the Bottomless Pit. "Mabel—!"

Mabel sobbed, shaking hard as she stared into the dead lights of her Grunkle's eyes, seeing no recognition behind them. "Grunkle Stan…!" she stammered, choking on her tears. "PLEASE, Grunkle Stan, PLEASE! Come back! COME BACK, please…!" Her hand felt the lip of the Pit behind her, crying harder. "PLEASE! I LOVE YOU, GRUNKLE STAN! I ONLY WANTED US TO BE HAPPY AGAIN! PLEASE!"

Her breath hitched when she saw him pause, hearing his growling death rattle over the commotion of the rift in the sky. She sniffled, shakily raising one hand to reach out at him—

Dipper's heart stopped when he saw his fully-zombified great-uncle launch himself at Mabel, teeth embedding into her arm as he knocked them both back into the Bottomless Pitt.

"MABEL! NO!" Dipper thrashed against Ford, hands clawing at the air as he tried futilely to get over to the Pit. Ford clasped both arms around his nephew, his face void of blood from what he too had seen, too numb to scream, cry, or do ANYTHING but allow another relative to be taken away.

"WHY!?" he shouted up at the demon, his arms tightening around Dipper. "WHY, YOU DEMON, WHY!?"

Bill cackled, a blazing eye staring down at the pair left over. "WHY NOT, SIXER?" he replied, his voice resonating down to Ford's bones. "I COULDN'T CONTROL HIM AS HE WAS. BUT SINCE THE CURSE OF THE UNDEAD COMES FROM MY REALM, HE BELONGS TO ME NOW! AND SHOOTING STAR AS WELL!"

Dipper muffled a scream into Ford's shoulder, tears soaking his face as he felt his heart and soul shatter to pieces. He wanted to punch Bill in the eye, throw himself down the Bottomless Pit, roll over and die, all at the same time. His Grunkle Stan was gone for good now, and so was his twin sister. He didn't want to be here when they came back out of the Pit. He didn't want to see them lost forever.

Ford picked Dipper up and headed back for the Shack, only to be thrown into a tree by Bill's psychic power. He tucked his body around Dipper's to protect the boy, yelping when he struck the tree, bruising his side.

"YOU ARENT GOING ANYWHERE, SIXER!" Bill laughed. "YOU AND PINE TREE ARE GOING TO SIT RIGHT THERE, AND ENJOY THE SHOW!" He snapped his fingers, shackles appearing around Ford and Dipper's wrists, held by chains attached to the tree. While the two jerked on the chains, he floated up higher, expanding in size, and began wreaking havoc on Gravity Falls.

Dipper hugged his knees tightly, his whole body shaking so hard the chains rattled. It was painfully obvious that Bill wasn't going to let them get out of this suffering, and that it would only get worse. Ford curled one arm around Dipper's shoulders, the other prodding around his pockets, hoping and praying there was something in there somewhere that could help get them out of these chains.

'NO USE LOOKING, SIXER!' Bill's voice resounded in his head.'ALREADY RELIEVED YOU OF YOUR ESCAPE TOOLS. JUST SIT BACK. RELAX. ENJOY YOUR FAMILY REUNION.'

Family reunion? What family—

Dipper's ragged gasp made him look up, and his blood went cold when he saw a hand gripping the edge of the Pit. It clawed upward, pulling up his brother's familiar form, seeing the dead lights glowing all the way from where he was sitting. He pulled Dipper closer to him as Stan crawled out of the Pit and stood up before turning his head back toward it.

Ford's breath caught in his throat as another, smaller hand came up too and was soon followed by a small body, the right arm sleeve of a sweater torn and a festering black wound glaring out on pale skin. Ford heard Dipper make pained, tortured animal-like sounds as he struggled to remember how to breathe.

"…Ma…Mabel….!"

Mabel stood up next to Stan, swaying on her feet for a moment before steadying and raising her head, the dead lights glowing brightly from behind her curtain of hair stuck to her face.

A muffled, piercing sound rang through Ford's ears, and it took him a few moments to realize it was Dipper's screaming.