Here's the next chapter! A wonderful thanks to my beta reader PhoenixWillowsRox88 for making sure this whole thing was actually understandable.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.


"So where is she?" Gideon asked quickly, when he finally found his bearings.

"Yeah, that's for me to know, and you to find out when I decide I either need your help or believe you're worthy of knowing."

Gideon stared at him, mouth open and slightly aghast. "What? But why?"

"Because you're a traitorous little shit and I don't trust you. Fair?"

Grouchily, he looked away, crossing his arms over his chest. "No."

Dipper smacked the back of his shoulder. "Okay. Now get lost. I'm done with having you in my face."

Gideon didn't argue with him, hand clenched around his weapon, but he also didn't move. He turned away for a moment, then spun back around as quickly as he could manage to hit Dipper with the weapon. He'd barely managed to move it before a firm shoe had slammed hard into his chest and sent him sprawling to the ground. Dipper smirked from above him, hands shoved in his pockets casually.

"Good attempt, kid," he sneered, removing the toe of his shoe from where he'd pressed it to his windpipe. "But you're gonna have to work a hell of a lot harder to even come close to my level."

"Cocky bastard."

"I try."

Dipper hoisted him up by the back of his shirt, half choking him in the process, but letting him go when he was on his feet. He even handed him his crutch and bat back.

How thoughtful of you, you sadistic douchecanoe.

Gideon squared his shoulders as he walked away, not giving him the satisfaction of seeing him beaten down.

His mind flew back to their talk; that strange, predatory look on Dipper's face as he told him that if he did not comply, he was going to break him into tiny pieces.

In his mind's eye, he saw it – himself, a walking, talking pawn with strings attached, and Dipper, controlling his movements and leading him straight into a deep dark abyss that he wouldn't be able to escape from. Somewhere he'd be left to rot and die.

And that bastard would enjoy it, too.

One hand clenched around his crutch, the other tightening around his bat, he let out a hiss between his teeth.

Just comply, Gideon. Stop asking questions. Just do as you're told and things will be okay.

Dipper wasn't Bill. Sure, they were two sides of the same coin, but in the end, one was still heads and one was still tails.

Similar but different, with separate buttons that could be pushed but shouldn't be.

Really, though, Gideon just didn't know what to think about Dipper Pines.

Of course, this wasn't the first time he'd thought about this - how completely dissimilar his twelve year old and sixteen year old selves were, and it wasn't going to be the last. Knowing that Mabel's questionable existence was part of the reason he was like this was just one - albeit large - piece of the puzzle that he was proving to be.

Which…was frustrating, to say the least. Dangerous, at the worst.

It was something he'd have to think about more seriously, at some point.

But right now, his stomach was growling, and the smell of freshly cooked meat was wafting out from the kitchen through the window, speaking sensual whispers straight to his taste buds.

Who was he to deny something so undoubtedly delicious?


He didn't know how many days it had been since Candy had last asked to see his leg (he was keeping track of sunrises and sunsets, but things were getting a little confusing now), but when she did ask to see it, it was with a bubbling enthusiasm that seemed a little too insane to prove good to him, if the little laughs she kept having to quell were any indication.

"So…what's the matter?" Gideon questioned as she pushed him down onto the edge of the bed in her nursing office.

She didn't respond right away, rummaging around in some cupboards and mumbling something about 'fairy dust' and 'not exactly the magic mushroom I meant' and then she had spun around with a little jar of glowing pink paste in her hand. She shook it at him excitedly.

"I'm going to heal your leg – give improvement, even!"

He straightened where he sat, feeling excitement quiver through his arms. "What? You found somethin' to heal the wound? When did that happen?"

"Few days ago – these toadstools only sprout on the full moon. Still had to check it was the right mushroom though - things could have gotten…very strange very quickly if I was wrong."

"So is there still a chance it's the wrong one?" He said hesitantly. Her grin said it all, but still she stepped forward, uncorking the bottle and smacking the open end onto her palm.

"Stretch out your leg."

He did as she asked. Okay, there was the possibility things could go horribly wrong, but he was prepared for that. It couldn't have been worse than the actual injury itself. Candy slathered the radiant pulp across the bullet wound, ignoring the painful wince from Gideon as she pushed hard down onto it, rubbing the substance in.

"Ow! Okay, I think it's done!" He yelped when she gave a particularly hard kneed into his leg with her knuckles.

She looked at him and grinned wickedly. "I know."

Everyone in this gosh darn stronghold was crazy, he swore.

Standing, Candy wiped her hands off on her pants. "Okay. Stay here until it's dried. That should be in a couple of hours."

"And what am I meant to do until then?"

She shrugged. "Beats me! Maybe read a comic book, count some sheep. Oh! You could sort all the fairy dust out into different shades of granules for me!"

Gideon leaned away from her, lying down on the bed.

"…I'll figure somethin' out," he muttered as she left the room. When the door closed behind her, he let out a heavy sigh.

Half of him was buzzing happily with the idea of his leg finally being healed up. Maybe with the ability to move around again, he might stand a better chance in his defense lessons with Dipper, though he supposed the training would change if he was able to walk and run properly.

The other half of him was angry, which…wasn't all that disconcerting because he was usually angry, but being left alone to his own thoughts wasn't helping him keep calm in the least. When he was alone he thought about his position, and by extension his position in the resistance, which made him think about Dipper, which in turn made him think about Mabel, which made him think about just when Dipper was planning on acting.

They couldn't just sit here and do nothing, after all. Bill had never said much about what Mabel's bubble was like, if it was horrible or not, or just a suspension of reality stuck in time and space, but either way she couldn't just stay there forever!

Why Dipper Pines - who'd always dived head first (sometimes literally) into battle to save his sister - wasn't acting was beyond him. Surely he wasn't just leaving her in there? He had a plan, right? His…his peach dumplin' was surely needing rescuing from Bill by now.

He punched the pillow under his head to release some pent up frustration, imagining it was both Dipper and Bill and Candy and even himself (though just a little, because he was definitely the least to blame for this crisis).

This whole thing was just ultimately frustrating. If only Dipper had been smarter as a kid, and he himself had been less naïve. If only Mabel had been less trusting, and Stanford Pines had been more of a dunderhead.

But, he supposed, 'if only' could only get a person so far. There was no point dwelling on things that he couldn't change.

His eyes fell down to stare at his leg, and he let out a very loud, very exasperated sigh.

He was really beginning to get sick of waiting.


When he'd drifted off, he didn't know, but he was jostled awake when he was unceremoniously smacked into a door frame.

"Ow! What the hell?" He squawked upon waking, blinking bleariness and pain from his eyes as stars swam through his vision.

"Heh. Sorry, Gideon," Dipper said, arm around Gideon's legs as he carried him over one shoulder. He didn't sound remotely apologetic.

"Where are we goin'?"

"My office."

"Your office?"

Dipper hummed in response, nodding his head.

He blinked blankly. "Okay. But why?"

"I want to know what you think of something."

Gideon's brows furrowed down, and he made to inquire further only to stop short when he realized that Dipper wasn't just gripping his leg – he was gripping his injured one.

Only, it didn't hurt anymore. In fact, it felt better and looser, and stronger than it probably ever had. He almost laughed!

Note to self: remember what Candy did. Steal some from the infirmary later.

His attention snapped back to where he was being carried when a door was kicked open and Dipper walked inside. He was unceremoniously dumped into a rickety chair in front of a thick, stained mahogany table.

His eyes traveled around the little office with a frown. It was small and dingy – definitely not up to his own standards. The wallpaper, patterned with what was probably once gray lines, was faded into more of a murky dirt color and had begun to peel from the walls. It was dark inside the room compared to the infirmary, and even though it was daylight the burning red sky did nothing to invoke a more pleasant atmosphere.

"Sorry about the bad lighting," Dipper said. "The bulb burst the other day and I don't see the point in wasting another in here until I go down and check the circuiting."

"Not ominous at all but okay…" His eyebrows rose as he noted the map on the desk. He didn't ignore the excitement that rushed through him when he spotted several circled areas, others crossed out, and even more with questions marks peppered all around the areas. One he noted that had been crossed out said something about a 'weird radio frequency' and 'glowing clouds'?

"Is this the part where you tell me where she is?" He asked.

"Okay...so I might have fibbed a little. We...we don't know for sure where she is," Dipper said with a false little laugh. Gideon felt his insides shrivel, just the slightest. "But we have a few ideas."

He stared at his leg, giving it a light pat to test it out. No pain. There was that, at least. He felt a righteous anger rising in the pit of his belly, and all he wanted to do was lash out at him, scream for letting him get his hopes up - and damn right he almost did.

The only thing that kept him sitting was the fact that Dipper would crush him in a heartbeat, so he settled with a scathing remark. "And here I was thinkin' you cared about her enough to tell me the truth. Clearly, it's just that you enjoy fuckin' with me!" Gideon spoke nastily. He earned a hard cuff around the back of his head in response, a twist of fingers tugging at hair. and pulling, just enough to cause some discomfort.

"Do you want me to shove a gun down your throat?" Dipper half spat back at him.

"...not really."

"Then shut your goddamn mouth and listen to me." He flattened the map out a little more with one hand, pushing the sleeves of his jacket up, and pointing from one place to another. "These are the places where we think Mabel might be."

Gideon leaned over to look at the map, trying to promote a casual air surrounding him, but the smack of his hand down on the chart gave him away as he ran his eyes across the different locations marked in fat red ink. He recognized some of the names scribbled above them, like the pyramids, Stonehenge, Petra, Machu Picchu – and that one place he always confused with chicken, Chichen Itza.

Dipper began to roll the map up, out of sight. Gideon sat back upright in his chair, frowning hard.

"Candy and I thought and talked a lot about magical centers – y'know, places that had the potential to conduct a lot of magical energy," Dipper said.

"Which means what, exactly? There are probably better places for that sorta thing – ain't Gravity Falls better for that kinda thing?"

"Well, there are different types of magic. I'm assuming you've deduced that kind of thing already, what with being Bill's bitch for four years."

"Are you tryin' to get a bite? You really are, aren't you?" Gideon spat out.

"It was a fine piece of alliteration."

Scowling, Gideon said, "Yes…I know about different types of magic."

"Right! Well, the magic Gravity Falls produces is what I call supernatural magic-"

"Veeeery original-"

"But supernatural magic," Dipper persisted as if he'd never spoken. "Being what breeds the weirdness and creatures within the town doesn't necessarily mean it is a conduit magic. Certainly, it draws the stranger beings of our planet towards it."

"You've lost me."

Finally sitting down in his own seat behind the desk, Dipper rest his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers together. "Candy brought up the idea of a conduit – something that, for instance, transports water. But what if there was some kind of channel that transported magic?"

"…I would think it sounds totally absurd," Gideon stated blandly.

"It was a rhetorical question."

"…you're a rhetorical question."

To his credit, Dipper barely even rose his eyebrows, choosing to continue instead. "Anyway…we narrowed down different towns and historical sites, where there was the potential to be some sort of conduit, and then from that, we discussed how likely the probability Mabel would be in those places."

Gideon felt very confused, but also pleased. He was, after all, finally doing something. His leg was healed, he felt well rested, and he was being included in Dipper's plans. "So what do I have to do with your plans, then?"

The corner of Dipper's mouth jerked into a contorted sneer, before dropping. "Bill is…unpredictable-"

Rich, coming from you.

"-So I've no idea if we're even looking in the right places. For all I know, he could have put her somewhere completely different, like the freaking jungle."

"Or outer space."

"I don't even want to consider that," he said with disgust tingling the back of his tongue.

Leaning back in his seat, and kicking his legs (he could say legs again, oh joy!) up onto the edge of the desk, Gideon lifted his head to stare at the ceiling. As he thought, he could see the faint tick of stress at Dipper's twitching fingers from the corners of his eyes.

"I think…" He began. Dipper braced his arms hard against the table. For just a moment, he considered tearing him down, telling him that he needed his help, that he held all the answers to his questions so Dipper should listen to him. Instead, he gnawed at the bottom of his lip and said, "I think that Bill is an egotistical maniac and he'd want to put her in a place that seems powerful. With him runnin' the entire world, he needn't worry about someone comin' along and somehow freein' her. Even with me havin' the key – at least thinkin' I still do, anyway, he probably don't think I can do all that much." He looked back at Dipper squarely, watched the way the older teen's fingers laced between each other and tensed, the expression of cold decisiveness spread through his face.

"So yes…I think you're on the right track, at any rate. He's definitely conceited enough to consider one of them a point of interest."

"That's encouraging to know. Thank you, Gideon."

"It's not a problem. But you aren't seriously gonna go have a look at all these places, are you? How would you even do that?"

"I have people I can get on the case. Contacts I've made over the past four years. As for travel methods…" He trailed off, eyes glistening with a wicked sort of gleam. When the expression was wiped away, Dipper stood, moving to the door and pulling it open.

Gideon stared at his hand on the handle, then up at his face. He jerked his head out the doorway.

"Well, we're done here. Get out."

Tempted to argue only for a brief moment, Gideon stood. "Fine. But…but I better not have missed out on my lunchtime sandwich!"

"I'll make sure you're fed, your highness," Dipper quipped dryly, shoving Gideon out the door as soon as he was within arm's reach and slamming it shut behind him.

Gideon paused, turning to face the door as he heard a lock click into place.

"You're very difficult to get along with!" He hollered angrily at the door, slamming one fist against the door. Dipper didn't make any snide remarks, so with a frustrated shriek, he turned and marched away, making sure the stomping of his footsteps were loud with fury.

Sweet Suzie, he really wished Dipper would stop this messing around!

But he could gripe about that later, when he was alone.

Right now…well, he just really wanted a sandwich.


Sorry this chapter is late! I've just finished it, and my beta reader was nice enough to run through it even though she's under the weather at the moment!

I hope you all enjoyed it, and I can't wait to hear what you thought of the chapter!

Until next time!