Dipper and Mabel are walking towards the school, but the more time passed, the more Mabel gets frustrated with the situation. It got to the point where she wished she wouldn't have to go to school anymore, but she does it due to her conscience.

She groans on the way there, there's little cheerfulness left in her mind when it comes to this. "Alan keeps bothering me so much... He's gotten worse and worse... Thank goodness the end of the school year is near, but even then... I don't know if I'll be able to stand it much longer..."

Dipper, obviously, is very unhappy about seeing his usually carefree and cheerful sister like that. "... I can try to talk to him... I can try to get more people to see how he truly is..."

"Dipper, it's pointless! You already tried, and you got hurt... We already tried to call him out, and it never did work out. Everyone gets tricked by him and his behaviors. I... I almost miss the days we were in danger last summer... It felt more hopeful than this situation..." She almost tears up. Alan's longterm actions really did a toll on her whole morale. So much so that Dipper goes for a small embrace, he's silent in his comfort while he's also fighting against his own emotions.

They arrive a little late at school because of this conversation and Mabel's reluctance to go to class. Samuel notices how down his friend is and tries his best to cheer her up too in the little times he has during school days. But for now, he hardly makes a difference.

Mabel joins her class and is looking emotionally drained once she gets around Alan. And the boy is loving what he sees without a hint of remorse. As always, she has to silently endure his teasings and favors while keeping shut about it.

Her bad mood definitely shows when her brother and friend see her during the breaks. It really seems like all these troubles are close to breaking her mentally. However, as Samuel promised, he wouldn't go and confront Alan about this because his friends don't want him to end up being the victim of a bad publicity manipulation himself.

Then comes the end of the day. Dipper leaves the classroom while Samuel stays behind, finishing to take some notes from the class. Like often these days, his immediate instinct is to find Mabel as soon as he can.

When he spots her in the hallways, however, he sees her trying to escape Alan by going upstairs, but she's still being pursued by him. He follows them silently until the two reach a deserted dead-end. He looks at the scene, currently hidden.

Mabel turns around, looking eerily calm and resigned. "What else do you want, Alan...?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He says that without any hint of remorse. "I want you to do that entire essay we've been assigned for me. You won't say no, would you...?"

Mabel is feeling a little scared from that, she weakly asks. "... Why me...?"

With a smirk, Alan answers. "I've managed to see it since the very first day. That potential in you. Of someone who can easily be walked all over to my own benefit. Someone being way too nice to their own good. It would've been stupid for me to not take advantage of it..."

Mabel is silent and almost feels like crying.

"So you will continue to do what I tell you to do. Will you...?"

She's still silent, as she has too many thoughts on her head. But Alan is losing patience.

"Will you?" He asks with insistance and gives Mabel a slightly violent bump on the back of her head.

Dipper gasps and gets furious enough to intervene. "What... did you just...?"

Mabel raises her head, surprised. "... Dipper...?"

"Oh, how cute, the brother is here to try and save you..." He smirks with an amusement before talking at him directly. "What do you think I just did? You've seen it, haven't you?"

"Have you no shame...?" He's completely enraged at this.

"Dipper, wait..." Mabel wants to calm him down, but it's pretty clear that he wouldn't take no for an answer when it comes to letting Alan get away with this.

Alan doesn't lose his composure. In fact, he has something in mind. "And what are you gonna do, uh...?"

Dipper is almost about to go physical on him after having witnessed that and hearing more teasing and confidence from his mouth afterwards. Blinded by anger, he actually goes for a punch gesture.

"DIPPER, NO!" Mabel screams at him, allowing him to stop himself at the last moment. Only a small contact was made, but even then...

Alan feels the fist around his belly, and this leads to him reacting to the pain like if the action wasn't stopped. "OW!" He covers his gut with his hands. "How could you?" He goes to get attention to the nearest faculty member around. "I was just punched, by him!" He points at Dipper, who still has his fist clenched.

"What...? But... I only..." Dipper is lost about what just happened, but he feels like he'd be unable to get out of this mess.

Alan continues, sounding like he's in pain and managing to cry. "I'm serious, he lunged at me with his fist... It hurts..."

Dipper is looking shameful, somehow believing it to be true because he did make the contact. But he mostly knows it'd be pointless to argue back against Alan's actions. So he accepts, resigned, to be dragged to the principal's office for what just happened, leaving Mabel alone with Alan.

Meanwhile, Samuel has been lost in the hallways, looking for his friends. He then sees Dipper being dragged away, much to his shock.
"Dipper... What the...?"

His friend can't stop to talk to him right now, however. He gets the time to say. "Please, go find Mabel..."

Sammy starts panicking, believing something is going horribly wrong. He walks through the hallways with his heart pounding of fear until he hears Mabel speaking to herself.

"This is wrong... Dipper stopped before going too far..."

"Heh... You are right..." Alan stands up like nothing happened. "He was being a nuisance, so I found a simple solution to get him out of my way..."

Sammy thinks, looking at them unnoticed from behind some lockers. "Wait, so he got Dipper in serious trouble... because of an act...?" He gets angry, but stays away from the situation for now. He recalls Dipper's warnings: not getting involved with this guy.

Somehow, Mabel isn't shocked, or even surprised. She's just irritated. Hearing that was the last straw for her. She's decided to confront Alan for good about all he did to her and her brother.

She sounds really stern, even if she tries to keep respect in her speech. "I'm done, Alan! I won't be complying to all your requests anymore! It's ridiculous that I've let myself be stepped over by you for so long!"

The boy is barely concerned and keeps his composure. "Aww, isn't it adorable to see you try to act so mature? But didn't you find out already that it's pointless to fight me? Everyone adores me, and there's nothing you can do against that."

Mabel grows very frustrated. "I'm serious, I'm done being mistreated by you! And I won't ever forgive what you just made my brother go through!"

He answers more stern and directive. "Oh, I see... You think you stand a chance against my reputation, don't you...? It's a lost cause, sweetie, you'd know it if you had brains!"

Her anger keeps building, and she's almost losing it. "Someday, somehow... More people will peek behind your mask... And they'll see the monster that you are, like I did!"

Alan starts being really scary. "Listen, girl, no one will be able to go past my exterior because I'm just that good. Just a small snap of my fingers and I can make people think what I want. Which I'll use against you if you insist..."

"You..." Mabel's fists start trembling. "You absolute JERK! You won't always get away with this!"

"Oh yes, I will! And just because you made me lose my time..." He suddenly reaches for Mabel's head.

"HEY! What are you doing?" She feels something.

"I'm confiscating this..." He shows that he grabbed Mabel's headband, and he holds it high enough out of reach for her.

Following that, she starts panicking. "Give it back! Now! I feel naked without these...!"

"Not a chance! I told you, don't try to go against me!" He keeps his smug attitude.

Samuel sees this and wonders if he should intervene. But he decides to wait for now.

Mabel insists "Give... it... back!"

But Alan is having a little too much fun with this. "It's hilarious to see you try! How about I also...?" He goes for Mabel's right wrist.

"What do you think you're doing?" She fights back.

"How about I also confiscate this silly thing?" He goes for Mabel's pink friendship bracelet without any remorse.

The action makes her even more enraged. "Don't you dare... My best friend made this! It was my birthday gift!"

Alan smirks even more. "Oh, even more reason to go for it with how much you care for it!" He tries to take it off no matter how much she tries to stop him. Eventually, the struggle causes the bracelet to outright rip and drop to the floor.

Mabel gasps and looks at the bracelet in disbelief, looking devastated.

"HA! Your face is delightful!" Alan mocks. "I hope this will teach you to..." His speech is interrupted out of nowhere.

The headband is suddenly dropped to the floor, and when Mabel raises her head of surprise, she sees him odd. "Um... Alan...?"

The older boy is couching and drops on his knees. He doesn't look fine at all as he struggles to breathe.

"ALAN! What's happening?" As she looks at him concerned, the answer is right around the corner. Samuel has been looking at the scene silently, but the moment Alan went too far on his threats...

Bill forcefully took control, with a very strong hatred in his stare and he grits the human body's teeth angrily as well. His hand is trembling as he executes some kind of strangling force from a distance. He keeps going without caring about the consequences.

But then... "What are you doing, Sammy?" Dipper approached from behind after he was scolded, not knowing what's going on.

Sammill stops his gesture, being genuinely shocked to be interrupted. This causes Dipper to be surprised as well when he sees what's going on. "Bill?"

Alan stops choking and he catches a good breath again. As Mabel puts her headband back, she asks him, genuinely concerned. "Are... Are you okay...?"

Refusing to appear weak, Alan makes up a lie. "Of course I am! I probably just swallowed wrongly, or something. Consider yourself lucky for now!" He leaves, but really wonders what happened to him for a moment.

Mabel spots Dipper and Samuel and joins them. Then she notices Samuel's eyes. "Bill...? Did you...?"

"Did he what?" Dipper asks concerned.

"Alan was feeling strangled moments ago. Was that..." She acts concerned as well. "Was that your doing, Bill...?"

"It must've been!" Dipper gets angry, while Bill starts looking nervous from both of their stares.

Bill feels some level of panic rising while using Samuel's body, as the angry face of Dipper and the judgemental face of Mabel only makes it worse. He confesses in fear, not wanting to lie here. "I... I did that, yes..."

Dipper is in fact furious. "Why did you do that, Bill? This is not okay!"

Mabel is also very unhappy to find out. "Bill, you can't do that! It's being evil! I thought you were above this now!" She looks away, sounding betrayed and heartbroken by this. "Was I wrong...?"

Sammill tries to justify it, but his panic gets in the way. "No... You're not... I promise... It's..."

Dipper doesn't wait for more. "Then why?"

Sammill is full of fear, he can't put his reasons into words. The only sounds that come out are unintelligible.

"Bill, tell us!" Mabel acts more serious.

"Why did you just do that to Alan?" Dipper has almost no more patience. "Speak!"

Under huge pressure, Sammill yells the reason. "BECAUSE HE WAS BULLYING MY FRIEND!"

After this, there is stunned silence from the twins... But the more shocked of all of them is Bill himself... More calmly, he tries to continue. "He was messing with you... With both of you... He was making your lives miserable... and I hated it! I..." Samuel's body starts crying. "I couldn't just float there and let it happen..."

"You...? You wanted to...?" Mabel feels very emotional to see how much Bill has changed, while he looks shameful about it.

"I'm sorry, alright? If anything, I'm thankful you stopped me, Pinetree..." He still looks away, not daring to face them.

Dipper is stunned. "You did that, because..." He has a faint smile.

Mabel grabs Samuel's hand and looks in Sammill's yellowy eyes. "I'm... I'm very happy that you wanted to help us, Bill... And... I understand that you struggled controlling your emotions around that Alan jerk... I do too... But... This is not okay..."

Dipper nods. "I wanna see this guy get his deserved comeuppance too. But we can't physically harm him to do so."

Bill feels huge shame as Samuel's body heats up from the feeling. "I... I'm sorry... I think I'm still a monster... An evil troublemaker who wants to see others suffer..."

"No, that's not true... You did that out of a good desire, without thinking... And... Alan is fine in the end..." Dipper tries being reassuring. "Just, don't do something like that again, alright?" He looks back at what just happened. "I... I almost made that mistake myself, but I would've struggled moving forward after that." He looks at Sammill directly and grabs his other hand. "So... I understand what you've felt. ... You didn't lose my trust..."

Mabel adds to this. "If you really want to do something about it, we'll figure it out together... Please promise not to repeat what you just did. Violence can't be the solution..."

"I... I promise... As much as I can, at least..." Sammill picks up the pink friendship bracelet, and thanks to Bill's magic, it regains its pristine condition. "Here, Shooting star... Good as new..." He tries to smile despite his guilt.

Mabel got a huge smile for the first time in what feels like a while when she gets it from Bill and puts it back. Seeing this was enough for Bill to feel a little better about himself for now.

And a strong embrace from her did the job to let the guilt behind.

Author notes: Sooooo... Yeah... That happened...

This chapter is actually sort of a repurpose of an initial draft of the whole story. At first, Bill was posing as Dipper to terrorize Samuel until fear forced him to punch his friend in the eye for self-defense. Which Bill would then use to paint Samuel as a bully to everyone, including Mabel. Making the boy's life enough of a mess to have Bill show up as himself and lie about helping him with a deal.
I changed that because I prefered a scenario where Samuel knew full well that Bill was tricking him and just went with it out of a desire to protect his friends and friendship with them.

If you think it's hypocritical of Dipper to call out Bill for a mistake he was about to do himself... You can make the argument that him just having had a very bad series of events in a few minutes, coupled with feeling like being betrayed by his friend, makes it understandable.

Thanks for reading, like always!