Chapter Five: Escape


"Miss, you are under arrest for treason, please come with us." The man speaking to her had eyes that held no color, almost seeming to be staring blankly at her. She pressed her back against the door she had just come through, trying to think straight. She had always hated guns.

"I haven't done anything." Mabel said, her voice carrying a noticeable tremor in it. "I think you have the wrong person. I don't even know a Gleeful."

"Denial will get you nowhere. We're prepared to let your friends go if you come along quietly." He lowered the gun as he spoke, and let Mabel place Waddles on the ground at her feet. "If this is a misunderstanding, which I assure you it's not, you will be free to leave in a couple days."

Bill shook his head, and whether he was trying to tell her not to comply or to forget about them, she wasn't sure, but it didn't really matter. Why should she care about them when they were the reason why she was in this mess?

"Goddamn it!" The man howled as Waddles bit his ankle roughly, harshly enough to draw blood. There were only three men, a perfect match for the people they were holding prisoner. The pig was on the defensive, standing in front of Mabel and snapping at anyone who tried to come close to her.

Bill slammed his hand up, hitting the gun right as the man fired. The shot went through the roof of the train instead of through his skull, and Bill ducked out of instinct. Mabel couldn't help it, at the sound of gunfire she froze, pressed against the door and heart pounding, unable to make a move.

Tad kicked the feet out from under his attacker, grabbing Mabel's arm and hauling her away from her place blocking the door. He moved her out of harm's way, and while Mabel instantly wanted to declare she wasn't someone who needed protection, she didn't even get a chance before someone else was talking.

"Don't run! He'll find you!" The man with white eyes screamed, kicking Waddles and sending the pig into Mabel's arms squealing in pain. The screeching noise jolted her out of her daze, and she was instantly cooing sweetly at Waddles and checking him over to see how badly he was injured. She hated guns. "He'll always find you, Mabel. Gleeful won't forget the curse."

Bill grabbed something, Mabel wasn't sure what it was but she saw the glint of metal and then the man was lying on the ground unconscious. With their leader down, the other men were quick to back off, though not without muffled curses at the three of them. Their assailants glared as Tad and Bill both took the guns, though Mabel refused to take one herself.

"We'll have to wait for the train to stop." Bill sighed, brushing away Tad who kept checking him for injuries. "Stop it, you're such a mother hen."

"At least you have someone to look out for you." Mabel muttered, still checking over Waddles. The pig adored the attention, eagerly demanding more of itl.

"You have your uncle." Tad said eventually. "I really do think you might be the lost princess."

Mabel nodded, petting Waddles and trying to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. Nothing seemed to be broken, but he was definitely going to be sore.

"That's sweet, but I think we might have a bigger problem on our hands." Bill suddenly spoke up, looking on in fright as one of the men lit a match, holding it close to a box, a box that Mabel could just barely read in the dim light of the unlit car that said something she had never had the displeasure of seeing in real life before.

Dynamite

Bill grabbed Mabel around the waist as they bolted towards the door, sliding it open only to be confronted with even more dynamite, stuck in the railing between the cars and stopping them from finding safety. Tad shouted nonsense to get their attention, racing towards the back of the car, where the door slammed open just as the men behind them started to laugh.

In one swift motion all three of them went flying through the air as the explosion happened behind them. They landed in snow besides the tracks with their ears ringing from the explosion and aches in their bones from the fall, but luckily the snow had captured most of the blow. Even as the still burning car went drifting down the tracks. Tad had managed to grab a couple of their bags, the contents of which lay scattered all around them.

"What in the world…" Mabel whispered as she laid in the snow, dazed and too exhausted to move, Tad on one side of her and Bill still on the other. "Is Gleeful so bad that they'd rather try to kill us all rather than explain we got away?"

Bill sat up slowly, pulling his arm away from Mabel and checking himself over before Tad could. She let him, despite the fact that she already missed the warmth he offered and what little comfort it brought. His face was unreadable, a blank expression that Mabel couldn't decipher.

"Yes, he is that bad." Bill rose, offering his hand to Mabel so she could have help getting up.

"You have no idea."


"What do you mean she just got away? Do I have to do everything myself?" Gleeful stood from his place, face starting to burn an ugly color of red. "Where's Ghost Eyes?"

Said man hobbled forward, any part of his face not covered with bandage revealing burns. He struggled to remain standing on his own, but every time that someone tried to touch him he would protest their help as loudly as he could.

"Loyal Ghost Eyes, I'll heal ya, but this is the last time. If you don't bring my Mabel to me, our deal is off." Gideon pressed his hand against his amulet, the pale green light seeping through his fingers as the color found its way to rest of Ghost Eyes.

Gideon could almost taste the silence in the air as Ghost Eyes managed to stand up fully on his own, bandages no longer holding wounds but simply draping across his more for decoration than functionality. The process of such rapid healing was painful, but he bared through it. Before everyone, his visible burns fade into unblemished skin.

"Gideon." Ghost Eyes started pulling bandages off his newly healed and rather tender skin. "The men she was with, they intervened. Do we really have to go through this all again? I don't think this girl is worth it anyways."

It was a good point, and some men nodded along with their comrades words. Gideon only frowning, refusing to give up unless he either had the Pines family dead or Mabel by his side.

"That family will pay for what they've done to me, and she's a part of that. She's the only one who gets a choice. I did not make a deal with the devil to have my revenge just to have her get away from me!" Gideon slumped down in his chair. "I have to do everythin' myself, don't I?"

"I just don't get why Stanley can live, but you made us… Stanford and Dipper had to die." A man in the back of the group spoke up, staring down at his shoes instead of at Gideon.

"Stanford was the one who cast me out of that house, and the boy deserved what he got for getting in my way." Gideon snapped. "Always going around talking about how great his uncle was, he didn't know anything. Too bad I took care of that before showing him what the real world was like."

"Sir…"

"No! I've had enough of this. Stanford was a prideful man who tried to banish me for treason when all I did was try to make his rules better. Dipper was a stupid boy who should have died at birth like he was meant to. Stanley don't even matter. I want Mabel, either buried six feet under or at my side. Do I have to tell you idiots again?" Gideon's eyes glowed to match the pendant around his neck, and his men took a cautious step back. "I will have my revenge, I will take everything that family holds dear, and then everyone will finally know that I should be the one ruling this city instead of them."


"What do you remember?" Mabel asked. "I mean, you were both around when that happened, right? What was it like seeing a whole kingdom fall?"

"I wasn't in the city when it happened, but Bill was." Tad nudged his cousin, who hadn't said a word the whole conversation. "Do you remember?"

"I used to work in the palace, but that's not important." Bill said. Mabel paused, thinking that maybe that palace had been as much as his home back then as it was when she found him.

With no other choice, they had started walking, following along the train tracks so they wouldn't get lost in the middle of nowhere. It was a long walk, most of their possessions gone and more than likely destroyed. Mabel couldn't help but feel a bit restless as they walked, even with Waddles once more tucked into her sweater, snoring away.

"Bill doesn't like to talk about it." Tad murmured to Mabel as they walked along the train tracks towards the nearest town. Mabel frowned at that, wanting to press more but not wanting to bother Bill on the issue.

"You're going to have to start acting like a princess if you want any hope of seeing Stanley." Bill quickly changed the subject.

"What? I thought I'd just see him?" Bill rolled his eyes and frowned, which made Mabel pout. Tad laughed at how easily they could get a rise out of each other.

"Well, you will, but first you have to make it past his assistant, Soos. Soos makes sure no fakes see Stanley, only people who could really be Mabel. I'm still certain that you're her." Tad explained, patting her shoulder.

"Do you think you can do this?" Bill got in front of her, looking down at her and making them all pause on their journey. "It'll be useless to travel all the way there if you don't think you can handle this."

"It's in my blood, isn't it?" Mabel asked, walking around him. "Don't question a princess, Bill."

"I like her." Tad mused, following after her. "Try not to hurt her, she wants the family."

"Well, I want that money, so don't ruin things for me." Bill snapped back. "She's not the real Mabel, all that matters is that Stanley thinks she is."

"How do you know?" Tad turned his cousin to look at him. "She could be."

Bill pulled himself away from Tad, not answering as he turned away and followed after Mabel, shoulders a bit stiff.