Misguided Adventures and Magical Attachments (Completed)

Chapter 50

At first Bill wasn't sure what to do. He kinda stood in a numb shock for a moment, half-expecting to be ejected into the mindscape because of some time travel thing Ford did to stop everything. To his great relief, nothing happened. Weirdmageddon was still there and so was the Fearamid. He let out a breath and looked at Dipper. "I think we'll be okay . . ."

The tween thought he was having a heart attack, nerves frantic, worried beyond compare. But . . . they were still there, after all. Maybe their particular timeline wouldn't be affected? Or . . . maybe Ford failed. Dipper admittedly hoped for the latter of the options, matching his gaze with Bill's. But maybe Ford hadn't done anything yet. Anyway, he had escaped. And they had to act somehow. Dipper nodded, offering a weak smile, trying to calm. "Yeah, I hope so . . . What are we going to do? He could be anywhere, anytime."

"Well . . . as the All-Seeing Eye, I can probably find him, but it takes a while to search . . ." The blond shrugged. "Otherwise, we could wait for him to come back?" Bill wasn't sure. He was so close to being free, but of course, he lost his chance yet again. "Or maybe he won't come back because he wants to prevent me from doing anything . . ."

"If he was going to come back, he would be here by now," he reasoned, beginning to pace. "He would have changed something if he was in the distant past, right? He has to be hiding. Not too far back, just enough for him to get away under the radar. But . . . none of this makes any sense. Where did he even get one of those? He had no contact with any of the time police since before we captured him and we got rid of all the rubble. I'd blame Blendin, but we would have seen him here with one of your eyes. If he had it originally, there's no explanation of why he wouldn't have used it since he completely believed you were the same as before. When could he have . . .?" Dipper stopped, staring at Bill, composure quivering from the sheer impossibility of his unspoken conclusion. There was no way. Absolutely not. But . . .

The blond didn't know what Dipper was trying to get at, staring at him. "What? Did you think Mabel gave him the device or . . . ?" Bill trailed, tilting his head. "I was sure he didn't have it earlier."

"I don't understand. Mabel . . . she wouldn't . . . betray us like that, would she?" he said, expression pleading, like Bill denying it would remove the possibility. But who else could have? She was the only one who got time alone with him. We never suspected a thing.

"She . . . ships us or whatever but probably didn't understand how much this means to us. And she saw Ford in his tortured state . . ." Bill muttered, looking away. "Well whatever happened, it's history. I suppose you can talk to Mabel about it later."

Dipper smiled softly, appreciating that Bill stood up for his sister. Yeah, things don't have to be so black and white, he reminded himself, stepping forward to grab Bill's hand, determined. "I'll ask her when I can. Now, though, why don't we get on the roof and see if there're any clues as to where he might be? You could check your eyes, too."

Bill grinned, holding his hand. "Yep!"

When Dipper felt his feet lift off the floor, body weightless, the thrill of teleportation rushed to his head. The young couple reappeared in the Gravity Falls sky. They were floating just above the glass ceiling's tip, getting an extensive view of everything. Over their heads, the rift's colorful insides writhed in power, spewing magic in a dancing flourish of bubbles and waves. Below, the town seemed alive again — no, the town — as many inanimate objects had found motive to trample the fires and play their own games. In the distance, the forest cloaked a cheerfully lit Mystery Shack, which was undoubtedly Mabel's doing. He didn't suppose they were preparing much longer. Dipper looked intently at their surroundings. Strange. I can't find any of the demons . . . Could they be at the Mystery Shack? No, nevermind. Unlikely.