(A/N: Hey, everyone, awesome news. This story has managed to get a TV Tropes page. How cool is that? That makes two of my stories that have managed to get a TV Tropes page. Sweet. Just wanted to give a thank you shout-out to The_Literary_Lord for that. But enough about me, you want to see what happens next. We're getting down to the wire. If Bill's managed to defeat the Collector, what are our heroes going to do? Options are running out, so let's see what happens.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 16: United

As the light from Bill's blast died down, the group of humans and witches looked back to the two reality warping combatants. The Collector was lying motionless on the ground as Bill hovered over him, laughing. With a snap of his fingers, the Collector was shrunk down and trapped in a snow globe, which Bill snatched out of the air and began shaking.

"He can't beat him," Eda remarked. "Bill's too powerful. Not even the Collector can stand up to him."

"So what do we do?" Sasha asked, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice. "There's got to be something we can try." She motioned to the chaos Gravity Falls had become. "Otherwise, this is going to be what the future of the multiverse looks like."

Anne's eyes lit up as an idea struck her. "Wait, that gives me an idea!" She turned to the others hopefully. "We might not be able to defeat Bill right now, but maybe we can beat him before now." At their confused look, she elaborated. "Luz, you discovered those time portal things, right? That's how you were able to go to the past and meet Philip before he became Belos." Then she turned to the Pines twins. "And you guys used that time traveling guy's time travel thing, so you know about time travel too. Could we somehow do something to go to the past and stop Bill before he became all-powerful?"

Marcy's eyes widened at this. "Wait, time travel is a thing!?"

Ignoring her, Dipper crossed his arms and let out a sigh. "That would be a good plan, but time travel doesn't work that way. Be it with magic or technology, time travel seems to operate on the set rules theory."

Hunter raised a questioning eyebrow. "Um, set rules?"

Dipper sighed again, this time seemingly out of frustration that no one knew what he was talking about. "When it comes to time travel, there are three main theories. The multiverse theory, the altered timeline theory, and the set theory.

Marcy clapped her hands together. "Oh, oh, I know these! The multiverse theory is that if you travel to the past and change something, it creates an alternate timeline that branches off from the original timeline and the two exist parallel to each other as separate realities where one is different based on whatever changes were made to the past and the other remains unchanged and unaffected by the changes made to the past because those changes happened in the newly created alternate timeline, not the original one."

Dipper blinked at her explanation. "Um, yeah, pretty much."

"The altered timeline theory," Marcy continued, "is that if you go to the past and change something, any of the changes made to the past will change the future you came from, and time will adjust itself to its new past, so that when you go back to the future, things will be different based on what was changed. Basically, it's Back To The Future rules. But that theory does present the paradox of if you go back in time and kill your grandfather, you would never have been born, so how could you have gone back in time to kill your grandfather?"

Now she was receiving stares from some of the others, and Gus leaned over to whisper to Willow. "Are you following this?"

"Mmm-mmm," she mumbled wobbling her hand slightly.

"The set time theory is that everything is set in stone," Marcy went on explaining, "where you can't change time. Like, even if you go back in time to change something, it wouldn't change anything because in your original timeline, a future you had already gone to the past and done that, so you were supposed to have gone back in time all along." She eagerly looked at Dipper. "You're saying that that's how time travel works, on the set theory?"

Dipper scratched the back of his head. "Well, when mortals mess with it, I guess. Unless a super powerful being like Time Baby gives someone a time wish, allowing paradox free alterations to be made."

The excited look on Marcy's face gave way to confusion. "Um, Time… Baby?"

Mabel giggled. "Oh, yeah, you weren't here for story sharing. Time Baby is a giant baby overlord from the future with the power to control time, but he was killed by Bill the last time he was here."

Dipper tapped his chin. "Although, there should still be the Time Baby of this time; he just hasn't risen to power yet. I actually think that's supposed to happen in 3012."

Amity raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Oh, because that's the year an all-knowing mailbox said the world is supposed to end, but Mabel and I went far beyond that into the future when we were playing the time travel guy's time travel thing. Seems there was a big war or something in the future, and Time Baby took over after that. So I guess the 'world ended' in that war, and the survivors managed to rebuild society."

Eda helped up her hand. "Hold on a minute, back up. Did you say all-knowing mailbox?"

Dipper snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah, I guess I did forget to tell you about my Dipper's Guide To The Unexplained entrees.

"And my Mabel's Guide To Life," his sister added.

"Mabel, not now," Dipper scolded her, then turned back to the others. "See, Mabel, Soos, and I found a lone mailbox, where if you put a letter in it with a question, it will give you a response with an answer."

Anne's face lit up. "That's great. Then we can ask it how to stop Bill."

But Dipper just shook his head. "Can't. It went away after being disgusted by a video somone made of stuffing a bunch of gummy worms up her nose."

He threw his sister a glare, but she just scoffed and crossed his arms. "Everyone's a critic."

Letting out a frustrated growl, Sasha threw her arms in the air as she rounded on Mabel. "For real!? How many ways of us stopping Bill did you ruin!?"

"Not on purpose!" Mabel objected.

In the distance, the Collector suddenly broke free of the snow globe Bill had trapped him in and grew to an enormous size once more. He delivered a punch to Bill, who retaliated with a kick to the gut. The resumed fight briefly caught the attention of the others before they quickly went back to trying to figure out a way to stop Bill.

"Ok," said Marcy, "so Time Babies and clairvoyant mailboxes aside, how do you know time travel operates on the set theory and we can't use it to stop Bill?"

Dipper groaned impatiently, but knew it wasn't Marcy's fault for not understanding since she wasn't present for their story sharing. "Because we witnessed it. Belos already knew who Luz and Lilith were, even before Luz met him, because a future version of her had gone to the past, allowing him to learn the light glyph and find the Collector. And for me and Mabel, Blendin came back in time to fix time paradoxes, but those time paradoxes only happened because he came back in time to fix them, allowing the two of us to meddle with time and cause them in the first place. And also, I tried to use time travel to fix a mistake I made, but that mistake kept happening in different ways no matter how much I tried to change things."

Mabel suddenly inhaled. "But, Dipper, don't you remember that one time where you did fix your mistake? Remember, I didn't get Waddles because of it."

He glanced at her. "But you did get Waddles in the end, and I did allow the mistakes to happen, so those events did occur and nothing was changed. I guess since I had figured out all variables to make sure I didn't give Wendy a black eye that something had to happen to make sure I let myself give her a black eye. See, set in stone, the past unchanged."

Mabel blinked, as if trying to process what he was saying, but then gave up and rubbed her head. "Ouch, this hurts my brain."

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Long story short, time travel is not an option. Not that we even could time travel if it was since we have no way to do it."

There was a loud, pained cry from the Collector, drawing everyone's attention back to the fight. The Collector was down, and Bill was gleefully kicking him in the side over and over again. It was more than apparent that despite the Collector's overwhelming power that he wouldn't last much longer against Bill.

Eda's remaining hand closed into a tight fist. "Bill's just toying with him. Once he gets bored with this, he'll find some way to dispose of him, then he'll come after us again."

"But what can we do?" Gus exclaimed. "We need to do something, but I'm drawing a blank."

Eda stared at Bill as he continued to kick the Collector for a few seconds more before sighing in resignation and turning to the others. "Ok, listen up. I'm going to go try and help the kid. Not sure what I can do, but I gotta try something. You lot use that time to get out of here."

Luz's eyes widened. "What!? Eda, no! You're no match for him. He'll kill you."

A sad smile crossed the Owl Lady's face as she glanced away. "Yeah, probably. But I can at least distract him a bit to allow the Collector to keep him busy for a little longer." She turned back and pointed at them. "That'll give you guys a better chance to escape. Get out of here and find that Ford fellow. From what we've heard, he's the only one who knows how we might be able to stop Bill."

Tears appeared in Luz's eyes. "Eda, please, no. I've lost Stringbean and the other palismen, I've lost King, I can't lose you too."

The sad smile on Eda's face became one of deep affection, and she reached out, pulling Luz in for a hug. "Oh, Luz, my little apprentice. You know I've always thought of you as the daughter I never had." She pulled back and reached up to wipe away a tear from Luz's eye. "So you let Mama do what she needs to do to protect my owlet."

"Eda…" Luz whimpered.

The Owl Lady stepped back and transformed into her harpy form once more. "If you manage to stop Bill, when you see Raine again, tell them I love them. And give my love to the rest of my family too."

With that, she took off. She heard Luz call her name, but ignored her as she flew towards Bill. The interdimensional being seemed to be having the time of his life as he proceeded to now stomp down on the Collector rather than kick him in the side as he had been and didn't even seem to notice Eda. At least not until the Owl Lady flew directly in front of his eye, and gave him swipe of her hook.

"Ow! My eye!" the interdimensional being cried, grabbing his face. "Do you all keep aiming there as a running gag or something?"

"It's a good target," Eda declared.

The Collector took the opportunity to push himself up and throw himself at Bill, tackling him to the ground. Eda hovered in the air out of range, waiting for an opportunity to attack without getting crushed in the squabble.

"Eda…" Luz whispered once more as she watched from a distance. She then wiped her eyes and turned back to the others, looking determine. "We can't let this opportunity go to waste. We need to find a way to get to Ford and find out how to stop Bill."

Dipper looked uncomfortable. "That's easier said than done. Are you sure you can't just teleport us to him?"

Luz shook her head. "I told you, not without knowing where I'm going. But you said you still get postcards from him and Stan. Could we use one of those to find out where they are? Even if it's just the general area, that's better than nothing."

Dipper gripped his hat nervously. "The last one we got was several weeks ago. They'll have moved on by now; they're traveling around the world in their boat."

A frustrated growl escaped Sasha. "Then getting to Ford is a bust too? Ah! When are we going to catch a break!?"

Marcy looked at the Pines twins. "I don't know who this Ford person is, but did he tell you anything that can help?"

Dipper shook his head. "Nothing that will be of use right now."

Suddenly, Mabel sucked in a breath before grabbing her brother and shaking him. "Dipper, Dipper! The circle! The magic circle thingy that Pacifica said looked like a game of hopscotch!"

Anne's eyes widened as she remembered. "Yes, you mentioned that in your story! It's supposed to stop Bill!"

Marcy gave Dipper a hopeful look. "Magic circle? What magic circle? Stop Bill how?"

Dipper sighed. "The first time Bill was at large, Ford drew this Zodiac-like pentagram thing that was supposed to be able to defeat Bill."

The Taiwanese girl's face lit up. "Great! Then we do have a way to defeat Bill."

But Dipper just shook his head. "No, we don't. The circle was this really complicated design with a bunch of symbols in this specific order, and we only saw it once for a few minutes seventeen years ago. I don't remember what it looked like. Do you, Mabel?"

His sister bowed her head. "No…"

But as the Pines twins despaired, Gus cleared his throat. "I believe I have the answer for that," he said smugly. "Ta-da!"

He pulled out the magic tweezers he had used to extract the memory of the teleportation glyph from Luz. Those that saw it gave it a strange look.

"Are those splinter gobblers?" Mabel asked.

Anne gave her a questioning look. "Splinter gobblers?"

Mabel nodded. "Yeah, you know, you use them to get out a splinter, and it looks like its gobbling it up. Splinter gobblers."

Dipper's eyes widened as he suddenly recognized the tweezers for what they were. "No, Mabel, don't you remember from their story? It's what they used to extract memories."

Marcy watched as Mabel's eyes lit up as well. The others had similar looks on their faces, and she gave them all baffled yet frustrated looks. "You guys are going to have to tell me these stories you shared."

"Later," Dipper replied, hurrying over to Gus. "For now, get that memory out. What do I have to do?"

Gus brandished the tweezers. "Just hold still, and try to think about that memory as hard as you can."

Dipper nodded, and all the others gathered around as Gus carefully reached into Dipper's ears with the tweezers. Anne leaned in as she looked on anxiously. "Will this work though? He said he doesn't remember what the circle looked like."

"Doesn't matter," Luz reassured her. "As long as you remember an event, the picture will still come out as if you remember it exactly.

"Huh," Anne muttered thoughtfully. "Convenient."

Luz shook her head. "No, magic."

As Eda and the Collector proceeded to distract Bill, the others waited with baited breath as Gus continued to dig around in Dipper's ear before slowly pulling out a picture. They all gathered in close to look at it, waiting anxiously for it to develop. And as the blackness slowly faded away, it revealed itself to be a picture of Pacifica.

"Seriously!?" Sasha cried in frustration. "You're thinking about your girlfriend right now!?"

"I'm sorry!" Dipper apologized. "I'm just really worried about her, ok." He motioned towards Gravity Falls' chaos. "She's out there somewhere in all that."

"And the only way to save her and everyone else is to stop Bill," Gus told him impatiently as he made the picture he had extracted disappear. "And we need you to concentrate for that."

"Ok, ok," Dipper grumbled. He took a deep calming breath. "Ok, try again."

Gus nodded and reached into Dipper's ear once more, pulling out another picture. They once again gathered around to watch, only this time, the magic circle in question revealed itself once the picture developed.

"That's it!" Mabel exclaimed. "That's the circle-y thingy that's supposed to be able to stop Bill."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" said Hunter. "Let's get to drawing."

Using the picture as a reference, they all got to drawing. Luz took a few moments to glance back at the battle taking place. Bill and the Collector were locked together, their hands interlocked as they pushed against each other. Eda flew around Bill as an annoying fly would, and he sprouted a third arm to swat her away, which allowed the Collector to use the distraction to slam his forehead into Bill's face. The interdimensional being stumbled back, but then used his new third arm to punch his opponent in the jaw. Eda once again buzzed in front of him, and he grew a fourth arm and attempted to clap his hands together over her, just barely missing.

"Eda, Collector, hold on," Luz quickly begged them before joining the others.

Working together, they completed the circle in no time, drawing it in the dirt, and then stood back to admire their work. Dipper looked back and forth from the picture of the circle to what they had drawn, checking it over several times before nodding in satisfaction.

"Ok, everything looks right," he commented, then glanced at Gus questioningly. "And you're sure this picture is accurate? Because I really don't remember much about what the circle looked like, let alone the details. Like, even if these are the right symbols, are they in the right order and stuff?"

But Gus just smiled confidentially and nodded. "Oh, don't worry, it's accurate. Your brain may not remember, but your mind does."

Dipper raised an eyebrow at that, not quite sure what he meant. "Um… ok then. You understand the whole magic memory photo thing better than I do."

Amity examined the circle with interest. "It almost looks like some kind of glyph circle combo, with different symbols obviously."

"Maybe it is," Hunter theorized. "Just a different kind from Titan magic."

"Good to know," Sasha impatiently remarked in disinterest. "So, how do we activate it? Do we just tap it like normal glyphs or… what?"

Dipper blinked, then looked down at the circle for several long moments before slapping his forehead. "Oh, man, I'm so stupid!"

Willow gave him a worried look. "Why? What's wrong?"

A frustrated growl escaped him as he ran a hand over his face and looked back down at the circle. "It's not enough to just have the circle, we need certain people to make it work. It requires the energy or something from ten specific type of people in order to activate it."

Luz glanced at the circle curiously. "I… guess that makes sense. Magic does come from the heart after all."

Mabel gave her brother a nervous look. "Dipper, what do we do? You and I are the only ones here needed for the circle. What are we going to do about the others?"

"I don't know, I don't know," he muttered, pulling down on his hat. He glanced out at Gravity Falls. "We might be able to find Pacifica, Robbie, and McGucket out there, but Soos went out of town to buy Blubs and Durland's wedding gift, Gideon and Wendy moved away years ago, and Stan and Ford are traveling the world. At best, we'll still be missing five people for the ritual."

Sasha looked down at the circle in frustration, resisting the urge to kick at the drawing. "So this stupid thing is useless?"

"Why?" Marcy asked, trying to understand the significance of the drawing. "What are the requirements?"

Dipper rubbed his head as he tried to remember what Ford had said all those years ago. "Ah, I don't really know. People are just meant to represent the symbols. Ford said they don't need to be literal though. Like he said that the ice just needs to have someone who remains cool in the face of danger, and the glasses just need to be someone scholary."

With a smile, Hunter glanced at Willow and put a hand on her shoulder. "Well, if you want someone who can stay cool in a dangerous situation, Willow's your girl."

She blushed at that. "Aww, Hunter."

Amity gave Luz an affectionate smile. "And if you want someone scholary, look no further than Luz. Her thirst for magical knowledge is unshakable."

Looking bashful, Luz averted her eyes and shyly rubbed her arm. "Well, I wouldn't go that far…"

Gus cut his eyes at her. "Luz, I've never in my life met someone so determine to know everything about magic."

Both Pines twins stared. And then, as if they possessed a twin telepathy, both their eyes widened as the same thought occurred to them, and they let out simultaneous gasps.

"Dipper," Mabel said quietly as she slowly turned to her brother, "you don't think…?"

"Is it possible?" Dipper asked to no one in particular. He looked down at the circle, then up at the others. "Ten spaces needed, ten people present… The prophecy…"

He moved forward, grabbing both Willow and Luz. He positioned the former on the ice and Luz over the spectacles, then motioned for his sister to take her spot on the shooting star.

"Mabel, go there," he told her, then looked at the others. "Now, let me think. Who would be most suitable where?"

"But, Dipper, they don't have the symbol on them," Mabel pointed out.

"Neither did McGucket, Gideon, or Wendy," he told her. "I think having the symbols on them was just an indicator, not a necessity. I'm trying to determine who here fits the requirements for each symbol."

That made Mabel smile. "Guess it's a good idea we shared all those stories with each other."

Her brother nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it really gave me a feel of everyone's character. Ok, now, let me see… Marcy, I think you would be best on Ford's spot. And Gus, you're an illusionist, so I think you should take Gideon's."

The two of them exchanged looks before shrugging and taking the places in the magic circle Dipper indicated.

"Six fingers?" Marcy asked as she looked at the symbol she now stood on. "But I don't have six fingers."

"And shouldn't Willow or I be on the glasses symbol?" Gus asked, tapping his glasses to get his point across."

Dipper shook his head. "No, again, the symbols don't have to be literal, they just have to be someone the symbol represents. A physical sign or characteristic is just an indicator, not a requirement."

Anne nodded. "Ok, fair enough. So where do you think I should go?"

Dipper tapped his chin. "Let's see… Anne… I think you should go on Soos' spot, the question mark. And Hunter… um… let's have you go on Robbie's spot."

The two of them took up their positions indicated by Dipper. Hunter frowned as he looked down at his symbol. "A stitched heart? Should I feel insulted?"

Ignoring him, Dipper looked at the last two. "Ok then, I think we'll have… Yes, Amity, you'll go here on Pacifica's spot, the llama. Too bad Eda flew off, she would have been perfect for Stan's spot. Instead, Sasha, we'll have you go there."

The two of them did as they were told and took their spots. As they moved into position, Sasha raised an eyebrow at her symbol. "Wait, is mine Pacman?"

"It's not Pacman," Dipper exclaimed. "It's… You know what, it doesn't matter, we have all the spaces covered."

But the blonde girl didn't look convinced. "Look, I don't know your uncle outside of the stories you told, but are you sure I could represent him?"

Dipper gave her a smile. "You mean someone who was a former troublemaking delinquent in their youth who used to use, manipulate, and take advantage of others for their gain and came off like they didn't care about anything when they really did and was actually a good person who turned over a new leaf and was there for those they cared about when it really mattered, even if it meant sacrificing themself for their sake? Yeah, I say you're pretty well suited."

Sasha stared, feeling both insulted and complimented at the same time. "Well, if you say so…"

Mabel looked uncertain as her brother took up his spot on his symbol. "Dipper, are you sure about these? I mean, I see what you're going for and why you put who you did where, but some of them seem like a bit of a stretch."

"It's the best we've got, Mabel," he told her. "We're doing what we can with what we've got." He looked at the others determinedly. "And seeing all of us here like this, it almost feels like destiny." He glanced at Bill as the interdimensional being did battle with the Collector and Eda. "Time to see if it works."

He held out his hands for those next to him to take. The others followed suit, and they all joined hands, forming a circle within the drawing. And then they waited.

Several seconds passed where nothing happened, and Anne glanced down at her hands. "So… are we supposed to do something more or–Oh boy!"

Light began to emit from their joined hands. It began to grow brighter, and then an aura emitted from their palms that spread to consume all ten of them. It was a familiar sight to Dipper and Mabel, but the others looked on in awe as the outline of the magic circle began to glow.

"This is amazing!" Marcy exclaimed. "Is this what's supposed to happen?"

"It certainly looks like what started to happen back then," Mabel replied.

Then, one by one, the individual space each of them were standing on began to glow a different color. And with each space that began to glow, the center of the circle began to fill with more light.

"I guess this mean we're compatible," Gus commented.

"Looks like it," Dipper replied as the circle grew brighter, shining a light up into the sky. "But in order to pull this off, we have to keep holding hands. Understand? So nobody let go," he looked back at the battle with eyes full of determination, "no matter what."

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

The Collector cried out and went down again as Bill delivered another punch to him. Though he possessed no physical injuries, that didn't take away from the pain of the beating he was receiving. And as Bill loomed over him, he recoiled from the interdimensional being.

"What's the matter, kid?" Bill taunted. "Weren't you going to make me pay for trying to kill your friends and for what I did to King. Come on, get up and do something; I'm beginning to get bored."

Eda suddenly slammed into the side of Bill's head. He jolted slightly from the impact before glaring up at her. Reaching out, he attempted to grab or swat her as the Owl Lady flew about in the air, maneuvering around his swiping hand.

"I'm also beginning to get really tired of you, Owl Lady," he growled. "Will you hold still. I swear I'm going to–Gotcha!"

His hand closed over Eda. She had been serving as a distraction while Bill and the Collector fought, but with the young Archivist down, there had been no one to prevent Bill from snatching her out of the air. She let out a pained groan as he squeezed her just short of crushing her bones. She struggled in his grip, but there was no getting out of his hold.

Bill laughed as he brought her up to his face. "Hoot, hoot, Eda. How does deep fried owl sound for tonight's main course?"

Eda spat at him, but her spit fell way short. "If that's your way of saying you plan to eat me, then I hope I give you indigestion."

"Oh, Eda," he remarked with a roll of his eye, "even in the face of death, you still keep your sassy attitude." His grip on her tightened, and she let out a pained cry. "I'm going to miss it."

His grip on her tightened more and more, squeezing her to the point where she could no longer scream. And just when Eda thought she was going to black out, a beam of light in the distance rose up into the sky. Bill's grip on her loosened as it drew his attention, and he turned to it.

"What now?" he grumbled in mild irritation. He looked up at the beam of light with a peculiar look. "Is that a sky beam? What is this, a superhero movie?"

While he was distracted, Eda shifted from her harpy form to her normal form. Her lack of wings and smaller size gave her some wiggle room, and she began squirming in Bill's grip.

As Eda proceeded to shimmy out of his hold, Bill continued to stare up at the beam of light, his eye narrowing suspiciously. "Wait a second… That beam… Isn't that…?" His eye suddenly widened in disbelief. "No, it can't be!"

At this point, Eda had managed to pull her right arm free. Using her mouth, she twisted her hook loose from where it was attached, and with a swipe of her arm, she sent it flying up at Bill. And when it hit its mark, he cried out and released her, grasping his eye.

"Are you kidding me!?" he thundered. "Again with the eye!? What is wrong with you!?"

From behind Bill, the Collector rose up into the air. He flew forward like a superhero, both arms extended. His fists slammed into Bill's back, pushing him forward through the air, and right into the beam of light.

An inhuman wail escaped Bill as he was engulfed by light. His limbs began flailing about as his colors began rapidly changing. This was then followed by his body warping into disfigured shapes and forms as his cry became distorted.

Down below, the group of ten held their ground from within the beam of light. Dipper especially gripped the hands he held extra tight. "It's working! Whatever you do, don't break the circle!"

All around, Gravity Falls began to distort. Reality warped, skipping back and forth between the chaos Bill had unleashed and the town's normal appearance. And as the seconds ticked by, the distortion began to settle as sections of the town reverted back to normal, as if Bill's power had never touched it. It was as if reality itself was glitching, but that glitching was now correcting itself, the distortion shrinking more and more.

This correction included the trees the palismen that had been turned into reverted back to normal. The giant red bird Bill had turned Hunter's tattoo into let out a screech before it turned into a mass of red light that flew through the air, over to the group of witches and humans, and back onto Hunter's shoulder, becoming a normal tattoo once more. Hunter let out a surprised gasp at its return, but didn't break the circle.

As the last bit of reality corrected itself, Bill continued to abstract as he shrank back down to his normal size. He was hovering directly in the middle of the group of ten's circle within the beam of light. Then, as if the ground were a projector, the glowing outline of the magic circle rose up into the air. And once Bill was directly in the center of it, it shrank down until he was locked in the center of it.

Bill's distortion stopped as he reverted to his normal form and colors, now bound by the circle surrounding him. "No, this can't be happening! I can't be defeated like this! Not after so long! Ahhh!"

He cried out as he once again began to distort. This time though, it was as if an invisible force was attempting to rip him in two. And with one last wail, he was. But while one half of seemed to disintegrate into nothing, the other half was tossed from the circle. The remnants of the tossed away half dissolved away though to reveal an unconscious King that bounced across the ground and then lay motionless.

"King!" Luz cried, almost letting go.

"No, don't!" Dipper shouted. "Don't break the circle!" He looked up at the beam in front of them, his eyes narrowing in determination. "Not yet."

They all looked up as well. Bill wasn't gone. The glowing magic circle still hovered in the air like a hologram and Bill was still in the middle of it. Only he was a mere outline, akin to when he had transferred himself from Marcy to King, reduced to nothing more than a mind once again.

He looked down at King, his movements slow and shaky as he reached for the little Titan. "This can't be… I need my body… NOW!"

"That's enough of that," the Collector declared as he flew in, now back to his normal size. Eda was right behind him, in the process of reattaching her hook-hand.

The Collector snapped his fingers. Threads of light began rapidly appearing around Bill, winding themselves around him. The interdimensional being gave one final cry before he vanished from sight as the threads of light encased him in a glowing cocoon. And a few seconds later, that cocoon of light shrank down and reshaped itself before solidifying into a sealed scroll.

The beam of light then erupted outward and vanished, along with the magic circle that had been drawn on the ground, throwing the group of humans and witches back. The scroll that Bill had become confined in dropped to the ground with a light thud, and the Collector glared down at it in disgust.

"Archived," he said with cold finality.

(A/N: Well, how about that. It looks like our heroes were able to work together to defeat Bill after all. I believed I mentioned before how all the series seemed to line up everything perfectly for this to work out. Bill being able to get into Marcy's mind via the Core, Anne and Luz having met in the past, Eda being Stan's ex-wife, King being Bill's reincarnation, Gus being able to see the magic tweezers to extract the memory of the Zodiac circle, ten characters who matched up almost perfectly with each of the symbols. It all just came together for the perfect outcome. If you go back and check previous chapters, I laid the groundwork for Bill's defeat. The pentagram being the only thing that could defeat Bill according to the prophecy, setting up things with the tweezers in having Gus carry them around and showing how memories, even forgotten ones, could be extracted with them, having Pacifica remind Luz of Amity to make the connection that different people could be used for the pentagram, which was backed up by what Ford said about the symbols not needing to be literal, having them share their stories so Dipper gets a feel for everyone, having ten people for the ten spaces needed. Yup, it was all carefully planned out. It's almost obvious when it's all pointed out, isn't it? Ah, but we're not done yet. We still have a few more chapters to go. Is Bill really gone for good? Stay tuned to find out.)