Author's note: Here we go. It's all come down to this. What exactly is Bill's game here? Why is it getting so hard for Dipper to fight Bill off? And can Mabel come up with a plan to get Bill right where they need him and eradicate his black magic from Dipper's head…before it's too late?

Half of this particular chapter was written at an extremely late hour, while the other half was written on a gloomy February afternoon during an unseasonably intense thunderstorm! So…tension was high…;w;

Let me tell you; writing Bill dialogue is a real experience. I am always half terrified just thinking about what I'm writing and half completely and totally down for just...punching his lights out. lol

Something I completely forgot to add when I first began posting this here - always be on the lookout for any codes you find throughout this fic, and keep them nearby! You never know when they'll come in handy...

Also, as I mentioned in the fic description, there are some references to the real-life Journal 3 novel in this chapter, so if you haven't read it, continue at your own risk! (And also, please get on that whenever you can. It's such an excellent read.)

Just one more chapter left before the story comes to a close, and since I'm posting this at a pretty late hour, I'll wait to post it until tomorrow afternoon! As always, thanks for stopping by, and feel free to let me know what you think! c:

- Danni


Mabel and Dipper both yelled and tried to escape, but it was no use. As much as they struggled to break free, Bill's grasp was too tight to get out of. As they glanced up, they saw that he was covered in strings of bubblegum from the trap Mabel had left for him, and as he began to taunt them, it turned to ash and crumbled off.

"Oh, THIS…now THIS is PRICELESS!" Bill cackled as he gazed menacingly down at the children's frightened faces. "You HONESTLY THOUGHT you could outsmart me? Here in MY domain?"

"This…ISN'T your domain!" Dipper cried out as he struggled. "It's MY head…and I'm NOT…gonna-"

"What? Let me destroy you from the inside out? C'mon, what's the fun in that?" Bill retorted menacingly. "ALL you had to do" - he gripped Dipper tighter with each overly-emphasized word - "was JOIN me, Pine Tree. A GREAT new world is coming, and YOU could've been one of the elite few!"

Dipper couldn't even respond. He felt as though he were being put through a vice, and all the while, Bill just continued monologuing with evil delight.

"You don't know what you're missing, half-pint…but why should I bother with you anymore, anyway? There's no use fighting! You're DONE FOR whether you want to admit it or not!"

"What…are you TALKING about?!" Dipper squeaked out, still determined to break free, but hardly able to move at this point.

Bill put a hand to his face as he continued to laugh. "Boy, I tell ya - if there's one thing that defines you Pineses, it's STUBBORNNESS. You just DON'T know when to GIVE UP!" He brought Dipper directly in front of his empty, unsettling eye so he had no choice but to gaze directly into it. "Look, let me put it this way…the last guy whose head I got into…we sure had a BLOODY good time!"

An image of the journal's Bill Cipher entry appeared. A six-fingered hand was seen lying across one of the pages…as red liquid slowly dripped onto the page.

So the red splatters on the page had been blood after all. Could…could the author be dead? Killed at the hands of Bill?! Dipper was horrified.

"And keep in mind - THAT guy was in pretty good shape for a mortal fleshbag!" Bill continued. "Meanwhile, you don't really even need anymore of MY input - your OWN BODY was already beginning to burn up BEFORE I came along, and me just BEING here is making the flames burn higher. Every time you and your puny little consciousness tries to fight back, more and more of your energy just keeps draining out of your ears. So…just so you don't end up causing your OWN demise before I get to have a little FUNI think…it's HIGH TIME I just let your own nightmares and human weaknesses consume you." Quick flashes of Dipper's various nightmares and the overgrowing brambles slowly creeping up on the mind library flashed across the eye-screen next. "Oh, but don't worry! I'll make sure your precious journal finds a safe space first…'cause it's coming home with ME!"

While Bill had been hassling Dipper, Mabel certainly hadn't just been sitting and letting it happen. She'd managed to slip out just one arm out from Bill's grip. Quickly, she imagined a baseball bat for her free hand.

"Leave…my BROTHERALONE!"

The bat went to hit Bill straight in the eye. It was just about to make impact…but then…

"WELL! I'm surprised at you, Shooting Star! You wouldn't hit a demon with" - a one-eyed pair of glasses appeared over Bill's giant eyeball - "GLASSES, would you?" Rather than the eyewear shattering upon impact, though, as one would expect, the…bat was what ended up shattering into pieces. Mabel was left in complete and utter disbelief. And Bill found it hilarious.

"M…M-Mabel…"

Mabel, afraid for Dipper's life, tried desperately to get out of Bill's hand. With her free arm, she managed to squeeze herself out a little, but not enough to change anything. The only thing she accomplished was tiring herself out.

Bill laughed maniacally. "Oh, GIVE it UP, Shooting Star! Did you hear ANYTHING I just said?!" He put a hand to what would normally be a person's chin. "Then again…after the whole 'sock opera' fiasco, I think we've all seen how GREAT of a listener you are…"

Mabel felt her stomach twist with guilt at the sound of that. And even in the state he was in, anger began to eat Dipper up inside when HE heard the demon bullying his sister.

"With your brother's physical state deteriorating, his mind isn't going to last much longer if I can help it! But of course…YOU and I could always make a-"

Suddenly, Bill was slapped upside…whatever part of himself you could call his head by a giant frying pan. A cry of pain emerged from him, and he instantly dropped the twins to the ground. Hard.

Mabel jumped to her feet in an instant, but as she brushed off her sweater and looked up, she saw Dipper groaning as he tried to recover from the impact. It seemed like it took everything he had just to pull himself to his feet.

Immediately, she ran over to him and helped him get up. "Dipper…are you okay?"

He nodded, slowly…and then Bill went lunging after them again.

This time, though, Mabel was too quick for him.

In the span of half a second, Mabel wrapped an arm around Dipper, thought up a series of cartoony hole portals in the floors below them, jumped down them with Dipper in tow, then finally conjured up her trusty grappling hook - just in time to hook the stained-glass light fixture and gently lower them to the fourth floor. Each hole closed as the twins fell through it, leaving Bill up on the second-highest floor…far too close to the top-secret room for comfort.

"Ha! Yes! Stuck the landing! Secret agents, eat your heart out!" Mabel proclaimed, proudly, but fortunately not too loudly. "Hey…thanks for the frying pan. Perfect timing, too!" She grasped onto Dipper's hand and started to pull him along. "C'mon, Dippin' Dots, let's find a place to lay low so we can-"

"He's right."

Mabel, alarmed by the noticeable fatigue and defeat present in her brother's voice, stopped and spun around. "What?"

The world spun a little, and Dipper leaned one arm against the wall, holding his back as Stan would after a particularly hard shift. "I'm…gonna be honest, Mabel…" he whispered to her. "Bill's right. Being this sick, it's…screwing with my mind. It's getting harder to fight…" He took a deep breath before continuing to speak. "But I mean...we've got to get him out of here, and-"

"Hey, hey now! C'mere…" Mabel dragged a chair out of the nearby cheat-code 'computer lab' and sat him down in it. "Yeah, I noticed you were getting kinda worn out earlier…which I knew had to be weird, 'cause…usually, in dreams, you've got energy for days. So…he is right, then…" She gave him a look of pure concern. "I'm really worried about how much longer you can hold up. Maybe you should just…leave it to me, bro, and sit out the rest of this crazy-fest."

"No. No way. I can't let you face Bill alone," Dipper responded. "And besides, the spell's strength increases tenfold with each person that assists with it. This is Bill we're talking about; the Author was terrified of his power. I don't think just one spellcaster is gonna be enough to get him out and undo all of his nightmare-bending outside."

"But…you're gonna get real hurt if you do much more, and-!" Mabel growled with frustration. "Aaaaah, this is awful…this is awful times double infinity!" She sank down on the floor beside him.

A book on the shelf beside her, one with a spine that was oddly colorful for something of Dipper's, happened to catch her eye. She glanced up and noticed that they were sitting in the middle of the 'holiday memories' section.

The little book, bound in yellow leather and decorated with shimmering confetti, was the memory of a family New Year's Eve party the twins' parents had thrown when they were five - the first one they'd ever been allowed to attend. Mabel smiled when the memory came flooding back to her own mind.

Suddenly, as she turned the page, the discordant, yet still pleasant, sound of party horns and noisemakers blasted from the book and echoed through the halls. Mabel cried out in surprise.

"Shhh, Mabel!" Dipper shushed and quickly shut the book. "Don't freak out! That's just how my memories work! You open the book up, and it comes to life. You can even kinda…pull things right out, if you want. I used to imagine doing that a lot when I was little…I never thought it could really work that way." He thought for a second. "Think of it as, like…if your scrapbook could talk."

"…Hold the phone. Open it up and it…springs to life…!" Mabel gasped with delight. "I've got an idea happening here! Dipper - what do we still need for the spell?"

"Ah…" He pulled the spell out of his vest pocket - it was awfully fortunate that Bill hadn't seen it - and took a look. "A projectile. Something that will strike him with force. The reaction between the white magic of the crystals and Bill's dark energy will activate the trap and clear all black magic out of the area."

"Well, I think my trusty old grappling hook can do the trick!" Mabel continued, beaming. "And remember you told me about those paper clones you made of yourself in order to try and ask Wendy to dance?"

"W-well…yeah," he replied, a little embarrassed about that situation now.

"If your memories come to life…then that means memories of people could probably just…come right out of the book, if we wanted 'em to! Right?" Mabel paced a bit as she brainstormed. "If Bill wants to get you…then why can't we just get a few Dipper decoys to distract him? We can get him when he least expects it! And that way, you only have to help with the most important part!"

Dipper gasped. "Mabel…Mabel, that's perfect! Besides…there have been a few days where I've really missed Tyrone. It'd be kinda cool to see him again." He grinned. "Let's go find the book of clones. It's back upstairs, the floor right underneath Bill…so we've gotta be sneaky." The twins fistbumped in agreement.

Suddenly, they heard a strange commotion a few floors down. When they peered over the balcony, they were horrified by the sight that awaited them.

The strange, tentacle-like limbs of the nightmares had grown to impossible lengths and had finally begun to seep into the mind library itself. One had snaked its way through the crack in the entrance doorway, while another was intent on trying to bust its way through a window - and it had already created a good-sized crack. The lights in the lobby began to flicker and short out, as if to flee from the impending doom.

Dipper gulped. "And we definitely don't have any time to waste…"

Mabel quickly took hold of his hand. Off they went to hire help and get the real Dipper to a safe spot.


"Let's let my friends out in the woods take care of the mortal scum for now…" Bill said as cryptic images of the nightmare creatures he was summoning flashed across his eye. "I just love the smell of FEAR in the morning!" He cracked his weird little knuckles. "Won't be long…so in the meantime…time to break down some barriers!"

As Bill tried figuring out how best to get past the security sealing up the journal room…

"Hey, Bill!"

Suddenly, he heard Dipper's voice call out and spun around.

Dipper folded his arms defiantly. "If you're so powerful, how come you can't pick a lock?"

Bill turned an angry, hellish red. "Sass won't get you ANYWHERE with me, Pine Tree! Didn't your parents ever teach you to RESPECT YOUR ELDERS?!"

And with one blast of fire, Dipper appeared to melt.

Then…

"Seriously?"

Bill spun around, and there was Dipper. Standing there by the door. Arms folded. As if he'd never been touched.

"WHAT?! I just DISINTEGRATED you!" And so he blasted Dipper again.

"You know…" This time, Dipper was standing on the stairs leading down to the next floor. "You should really work on your aim."

"AaaaaAAAAAHH-"

Mabel observed from the twins' hiding spot. "Okay, Dipper, Bill's totally distracted!" she whispered, giving him a thumbs-up. "He's on Number Five and on his way down! Now's a good time to get him out of here." She made sure the trinity crystal she'd made was securely locked into place at the tip of the grappling hook, then noticed Dipper leaning against a bookshelf for support again. "Are you sure you're ready?"

Dipper pulled the spell page out of his vest pocket. "Ready as I'll ever be." He took a few deep breaths in order to prepare himself. "Are you ready?"

"Mhm!" Mabel nodded. Just then, they both gasped at the sight of a giant tree root breaking through the window beside them, looking very much like the zombie arm that had nearly dragged Dipper away during the karaoke party misadventure earlier that month. "Come on, come on!"

They silently sprinted over to the next bookshelf, and they stood, out of sight, waiting for just the right moment.

Down the stairs Bill descended after the clones, firing at Dippers all the way. Yet no matter how many times he annihilated Dipper, he simply kept reappearing, completely unharmed.

"HOW" - there went Seven - "is this POSSIBLE?!" Bye-bye, Eight.

The ninth different Dipper sighed. "You know, this is…actually getting pretty monotonous. Don't know why I was so scared before."

Bill growled, completely and utterly done. "RrrrryyyYOOUUU-"

Then, just as he was charging up to fire at Number Nine…he heard something.

Something that struck fear in him.

Mabel and Dipper had begun to recite the spell together, as loudly and as clearly as possible.

"Of the darkness…

I do not fear…

For the light…

Shall be my savior…"

As they repeated the spell twice more, the crystal before them began to glow with divine light. Bill stood there, rage and disbelief taking over his entire being as he began to turn to static.

"Wait…NO! There's NO WAY you just…?!"

"Ohhhh, I think we just did." Dipper shot him a look of victory.

The Mystery Twins tightened their grip on the grappling hook.

Mabel stuck her tongue out in determination. "Sweet dreams, Bill."

And with that, they launched the crystal toward Bill at lightning speed.

The crystal seemed to burn him the second it touched him. Suddenly, a white light encapsulated Bill in a mystical white orb.

"You're...NOT...THROUGH with me! You're FAR from through with me. I'm coming back before you know it! Something's coming…something your underdeveloped little minds couldn't POSSIBLY comprehend…and when that day DOES come, you'll wipe those grins right off of your faces and cower in FEAR before me!" He briefly chanted some sort of gibberish: "Lyom, rvs yqe GVOEZL ihkxz kvbg jps uybvhawav iozdihtbg? WA, K mpe'h usyxexo nfi TQGJANVN kchy gwe vsbv hh rrrofo iywl!"

Finally, a blast of white light consumed everything in Dipper's mindscape, instantly disintegrating every bit of black magic that had infiltrated the library.

All the nightmares, no longer under the influence of a demon, were pushed back into their proper place.

And in an instant, Bill disappeared before their eyes.

Light returned to the library. All of the broken glass had vanished without a trace, as if the windows had never broken in the first place. The atmosphere lost any and all tension. The serenity of a quiet summer day came back.

All was right in Dipper's mind once more.

The twins stood there for a second, still as statues, just to make sure Dipper was truly safe.

Then, they heard familiar voices murmur something from behind them - the only two clones other than Nine who hadn't been blasted, Number Ten and Paper Jam.

"Pssst…hey…is it over?"

"Nyang-nyang?"

"He's gone! WE DID IT!" Mabel cried, her voice filled to the brim with pure joy. She and Dipper exchanged their special twin handshake and hugged each other in celebration.

Once he disappeared, the Dipper clones - all of them, even the ones that seemingly been annihilated - re-materialized and went around giving the twins highfives before they climbed back into their memory book and went silent. Dipper and Tyrone even exchanged finger guns before Tyrone departed for the book. Mabel put it back in its proper place, and all was still again.

"Ohh, man…whoa…" Dipper slid down the wall, wiping his brow with relief. "Thank goodness that's over and done with. Now let's…let's…"

Suddenly, Dipper sneezed. He was slowly beginning to experience the symptoms of his cold…inside his dreamscape.

"Ugh...why?" he said, sniffling. "Even in here?"

Then something dawned on him…and he gasped.

"Wait. Then I must be waking up! Okay…Mabel, you've gotta wake up, too…we gotta imagine an exit-"

"No way, Jose, you rest! I'm on it!" A door with an 'Exit' sign on it appeared before them. "I'll see you back at the Shack…okay?" Mabel helped Dipper up and hugged him. Dipper returned the 'awkward sibling hug'.

And with that…the twins walked through the exit together.