Cassandra wasn't sure how long she sat at the desk in the old Shack attic. She held her head in her hands trying to calm down and think this through. How was she supposed to find the 'real' Abel in all these memories? What would make him the 'real' Abel?!
Maybe- maybe it was one closer to present day? It was unlikely his 12-year-old self was the 'real' Abel. She stood up from the desk and took one more look around the room. All this had clearly meant a lot to her dad. If this plan didn't work out, she'd be back. She scrambled down the ladder and headed for the lowest level.
On the ground floor she started opening doors, searching for any sign of her father.
A camping trip several years ago.
One of her Great-Grunkles' visits.
Her parent's anniversary (got out of that one quick, just in case.)
Work.
A snow day.
She grunted in frustration; even if she stuck around for a little while none of these memories showed any signs of being more than just that - memories.
She raced down the hall for more recent memories:
A trip to the pool.
Getting to Gravity Falls.
The reunion party at The Shack.
A handful of purely mundane memories.
Abel and Mabel following her and Ashwin on the gnome hunt.
Cassandra hesitated. They'd been… following them? She watched them for a moment, but this memory still showed no signs of importance. She skipped over several doors and threw open one very close to the entrance.
She found herself, possessed by Bill, confronting her father.
"I'm sure you remember my affinity for the painful," Bill sneered, riffling through drawers. "Oooh, look at this one!" he commented, retrieving a large kitchen knife, "Fun!"
Cassandra's breath caught.
Her father stared, mouth dry.
"Don't," Abel managed to force out.
"OK," Bill agreed, holding out a hand, "give me your body."
Dipper hesitated.
"NO!" Cassandra yelped, reflexively throwing out a hand, which slid right through the film between the hallway and the memory.
She stared at her arm, and so did Abel.
"Cassie?" he asked, making direct eye contact.
"Dad?" she whimpered, not daring to move.
Abel walked over and pulled her through the film,
"Cassie, I'm glad you're here-"
"What about Bill?" she asked, turning to her possessed body.
"He seems to be frozen," Abel noted, waving a hand in front of the yellow eyes. "with any luck he'll stay that way. Cassie, you need to take advantage of the mindscape," he explained, taking Cassandra by the shoulders, "Bill is weakest here."
"W-what?! But he acts all high and mighty-"
"Any power he has comes from experience, nothing more. You're in the mindscape, Cassie - you can do whatever you want!" with the turn of his hand he produced the white and blue hat and placed in on her head. She'd lost it when she fell into the mindscape.
"Anything?" she breathed.
"Anything," he confirmed. "if you face Bill-"
"How do I even find Bill?!" she asked, "I could barely find you!"
"You can do anything you want, remember? If you can imagine it, you can do it."
"Really?"
"You bet."
She hesitated a moment, before nodding and heading for the door back out of the memory.
"Go get 'em, Cassie," Abel called after her.
Bill was getting bored of his charade.
"You just don't get it, do ya' Shooting Star?" he sighed, "You just keep trying the same thing over, and over, and over again! I thought you were supposed to be the creative one!"
Mabel growled and shot another useless projectile at him.
"Well if it's so pointless, why haven't you finished me off yet?" she barked.
Bill glared down at her, turning red,
"Oh, you want me to finish you off-?!" he was cut off as something slammed into his side, sending him reeling. "Agh! Hey! Get off!" he barked, shaking the attacker loose.
Cassandra hit the ground, and jumped up, still glaring him down.
"Fight me!" she hollered.
"Cassie!" Mabel yelped, "What are you-?!"
"So, the Sapling tracked me down, huh? What're you gonna' do-"
Cassandra summoned a ball of energy and hurled it at Bill, catching him off guard. He was briefly incapacitated, but shook the blast off quickly.
"Why you-"
Before he could lunge, Cassandra teleported away, coming at him from a different angle.
"Missed me!" she grinned. "And again," she added, dodging his attack, "and again, and again, and-"
"ENOUGH!" he bellowed, sending a shockwave through the mindscape that knocked both Cassandra and Mabel to the ground. "You think you can just waltz into my realm and fight me? You think it's that easy?!" he howled, towering over Cassandra. "I can destroy you with a single-"
Mabel shot another energy blast at him, glancing off one side of him.
"Shooting Star, I've had just about enough of you!" he snapped, flinging her to the side with a single gesture. "The Sapling needs to learn a lesson," he snarled, blue power building in one hand.
"HEY!" someone shouted, grabbing his attention, "Back the HELL away from my cousin!"
"Hey," Elowen retorted, elbowing him, "there's a toddler present!"
"Ashwin!" Cassandra chirped, teleporting to his side and flinging her arms around him.
"Ash?!" Mabel spluttered, rushing over to her son and the gaggle of young people with him, "Hun, how did you get here? What are you-?!"
"We found the incantation," Ashwin beamed, "I thought, maybe, if everybody followed into Uncle Dip's brain-"
Bill fired at the group, scattering them like bowling pins,
"Would you stop it?!" Bill snapped. "Alright," he groaned, pinching his apex in exasperation, "what are you trying to do here? Did you plan this?" he gestured at the group, "What is this? I can't believe it. Damn Pines…"
"Ashwin, we can do whatever we want!" Cassandra explained, scrambling over to her cousin. "With all of us, maybe we can take him!"
Ashwin grinned, full of mischief, and hopped up.
"Hey, nacho! Over here!" he barked, gaining Bill's attention, "Have you ever considered a makeover?" he asked, producing a comedically large mascara brush and very purposefully jabbing Bill in the eye.
"GAH! What the-?!"
Gilda giggled with delight, picking up on the method.
"Kitties!" she squealed, summoning brightly colored cats to pile onto Bill, who howled in protest.
In a moment Elowen was wielding a chainsaw and hollering like a madman, leaping towards Bill's limbs, the Ramirez twins hot on her tail, Gabby wielding a laser sword and Stan a broadsword. Lilith called up fire balls, searing Bill's glowing form, and Brenda, inspired by her symbol, summoned ice powers, freezing Bill solid, only for the ice to be broken by shotgun fire from Kathy McGuckett.
Mervin was slightly less imaginative, simply leaping at Bill, brandishing his binder. But Bill had recovered from the other attacks.
"You," he snarled, catching the boy in midair. A sort of hush fell over the arena. "you would really betray me?"
Mervin was frozen in fear.
"You think they can give you half the power I can?" Bill hissed, "They hate you! You know they do," he assured him as Mervin tried to avoid his eye. "They only want you to complete their stupid zodiac. I could make you all powerful-"
"He's lying!" Mabel shouted, "Don't believe him! He's made of empty promises and evil!"
Mervin stared up at Bill, stricken with terror. The group held their breath - with what she'd seen, Cassandra believed that Bill could make Mervin all powerful, at least as long as he wanted him to be. She swallowed hard.
"Mervin!" Cassandra shouted, "You're an asshole, but you're smart! And you're smarter than this!"
Mervin glanced back toward Cassandra.
"Kid, this isn't me or them," Bill growled, "this is ultimate power or death."
"Mervin, he promised me power, he promised me answers! And he gave me death threats! Mervin, don't make the same mistake-"
"Shut it, Sapling." Bill shot a bolt and Cassandra, knocking her back. "So, what's it gonna' be, Merv?"
Mervin looked back at Cassandra, and up at Bill. His face set, and he pulled back and punched Bill in the eye.
Bill yelled in pain, reeling back and dropping Mervin.
"That's it!" he roared, recovered, "This is the end for you!"
He produced an attack of ultimate power, but Mabel summoned a shield around Bill, pushing the attack back on him. In a single gesture he eliminated the bubble, and an all-out fire fight broke out. The whole group attacked Bill with a fury, each choosing a power or a weapon all their own - Mervin summoned magic; Cassandra summoned lasers and lights; Mabel summoned craft supplies, glitter, and heavy artillery - but for every attack they could dish out, Bill countered with a fury. As they got more creative, he became more persistent. As they hit their greatest strength, he sent a crippling wave of power through the mindscape, toppling them all.
Cassandra struggled to her feet again, and grabbed Ashwin's hand, giving him a meaningful look. The pair each found another hand, and the zodiac gathered together again as Mabel looked on. Cassandra started a whisper, a life-or-death game of telephone:
"Imagine Bill's destruction."
"What, third time's the charm?" Bill sneered, "It hasn't really worked yet, why should it work now?"
"Because you're weaker in the mindscape," she responded, feet set and gaze firm. "Now!" she hollered, and all the symbols' pent up anger was projected toward Bill, consuming him in various forms of mutilation. He wailed in distress, overcome, before bursting free of the attack, throwing the wheel apart.
Both parties were wounded, an no one dared move. Bill was smaller now, like when Cassandra had first seen him, a little flickery around the edges. They'd hurt him, but it wasn't enough. Cassandra screwed her eyes shut.
"I'm sorry," she whimpered, "Dad, I'm so sorry. I thought- I thought I could do this, I wanted to do this so bad- Dad- Dad, I-"
"You found me."
Cassandra's eyes shot open to find herself face-to-face with Abel, the pair suspended in a starry sky. Cassandra gaped at him.
"Dad-"
"Looks like you really can get caught up in your own head," Abel chuckled, gesturing to their surroundings, "I didn't even really know I was in here, but look at that! I guess Grunkle Stan wasn't kidding." he smiled softly at his daughter. "Come on," he added, wrapping an arm around her, "this should have ended a long time ago."
In an instant, they were back on the battlefield.
"Where did she go?" Bill was just realizing,
"Cipher," Abel barked, stepping in front of Cassandra.
Bill turned, a cocktail of shock, fear, and anger in his eye.
"Dipper!" Mabel beamed.
Abel produced a small, blue pine tree. He flicked open the top, revealing a lighter.
"So, did I hear right that you're afraid of fire?"
"It doesn't work like that," Bill retorted, "last time it was that stupid memory gun-"
"Yeah, sure. Hey kids, want to play with fire?"
Cassandra, Mabel and Ashwin took action first. Cassandra produced a tree lighter herself, and Mabel and Ashwin produced stars, tricolored tails included.
The rest of the group followed suit, and soon flames of all colors flickered at the top of each symbol.
"You can't be serious," Bill spluttered, looking them all over, "for all you know this could destroy your mind!" he told Abel.
"Anything to get rid of you," Abel responded.
"It won't work," Bill insisted, only a little convincing. "Look, I can just-" he shot out a burst of air in an attempt to blow out the flames, but they stood tall. "Well, what if-" rain poured down, but the flames were not affected.
"Ready?" Abel asked.
The group nodded.
Abel turned to Cassandra, who nodded in turn.
"No!" Bill wailed, "Don't you dare! I can still-" Bill began to conjure up an attack, but the lighters were already in the air. The first to make contact was Abel's, and the demon began to burn.
"No!" he wailed, trying to summon any power and failing horribly. He contorted and transformed in agony and desperation as the flames consumed him."This can't be happening!"
"How's your punch?" Abel asked his daughter.
She shrugged.
"Come on," he prompted, holding up a fist.
She followed suit.
The pair pulled their arms back, and dashed at Bill, landing their punches right on his eye.
Bill screamed in agony, bursting into bright, searing light.
Abel was the first to come to. He managed to sit up, and look around the room. The old basement was dusty and still, but that was only because the pile of people around him was still unconscious, though not for long.
Cassandra groaned, and struggled into a sitting position.
Abel and his daughter stared at each other, checking each other's eyes for signs of possession.
"Cassie?" Abel prompted.
"D-dad?" she returned.
There was a short moment of hesitation as they reassured themselves that everything was OK again, and Abel pulled his daughter into a tight hug.
A gesture she readily reciprocated.
LOS BLUDG AZ CRHF, PUW IOPWZA'F OVB,
PKCQTZ AVAUS'O BFL ZWVH NRMUWKQ MAG LV QKPS.