When the Pines family and Bill finally arrived back at the Mystery Shack, they were surprised to see another car in the driveway. For a moment, Dipper wrote it off as a customer's car. However, as he considered the thought, it seemed highly unlikely... Not only did customers tend to be few and far between, but they tended to park on the side closest to the actual shop. So who...?

"Is that Melody's?" Dipper wondered aloud, furrowing his brow at the light green four-door.

"No, I don't think so, she and Soos were in a white car this morning," Stanford recalled as he put the car in park.

"Well, let's go find out, shall we?" Bill piped up with a cautious smile in Dipper's direction. The brunet huffed slightly, but he didn't say anything or return the smile. He held the dream demon's gaze for a moment, an indecipherable look in his eyes, before he unbuckled his seatbelt and exited the vehicle. The original Pines Twins exchanged a slightly worried look before they got out of the car as well. Bill Cipher let out a sigh, sitting for a moment more, rubbing his temples to fight off the headache that had been steadily pounding behind his eyes.

"Stupid human bodies," he grumbled. Sure, he had only gotten about an hour or so of real sleep last night, but he didn't see why his body had to punish him for it. It wasn't his fault he couldn't sleep, so why did he have to suffer?

Bill sighed once again then exited the car, following the Pines into the house.

When he followed the sound of voices into the kitchen he stopped at the doorway, eyes widening slightly. Sitting at the table was a blonde girl he recognized as Pacifica Northwest. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun and she wore a pair of jean-short overalls with a pink crop top shirt beneath it. When he entered the doorway, her tired eyes darted over to him and widened, her lips thinning into a tight line before she averted her gaze. He was going to address her when another strangely familiar voice stole his attention away.

A brunette woman who seemed to be in her late twenties, maybe early thirties, was talking as she walked over to the seat across from Pacifica, holding a folder of something in her hand.

"We didn't mean to intrude, we came in through the gift shop and that kind man listened to what we had to say and told us to wait here until you all returned," she said, her voice brisk yet soft. Bill frowned slightly, staring at the back of her head, peering curiously. He knew he knew her... why did he know her? He felt as if he was missing something important in the back of his mind, like the last piece to a puzzle that got lost between the couch cushions.

"But... I don't..." Dipper seemed to be struggling to talk, his face ever so slightly pale. Bill started to move towards him, instinctively wanting to comfort him, before he remembered that the brunet wasn't exactly happy with him at the minute... He stayed in his spot in the doorway.

Having finally seemed to get his words under control, Dipper rambled, "But how did you get out in time? And how did you find out about Bill? And Mabel? And how are you here?"

The woman at the table chuckled softly, brushing a loose strand of her short chocolate hair back behind her ear.

"Relax, Dipper," she laughed gently, "I'll explain everything, I promise. To everyone," she added, addressing the two older men in the room as well.

"Terra! Terra Carson!" Bill suddenly exclaimed, causing the brunette woman to jump slightly, startled as her head whipped around to face him. The chaos god let out an incredulous laugh, finally stepping into the room to join the conversation officially. "No wonder I didn't recognize you, you chopped all your hair off, Doc," he teased. She rolled her eyes, lips pursed, though there was an air of reserved fondness in her gaze as she looked him over once.

"And you're a completely different person," she countered, a slight edge to her voice. Bill picked up on the edge and hummed another small laugh.

"Oh, come on, Doc, you're not still mad about the bucket of spiders thing, are ya?"

"I hate spiders..." she monotoned, giving him a pointed look. "But that's beside the point. Why don't you all have a seat? If you don't mind me overstepping my bounds as a guest, that is," she suggested. There was a soft tumbling of voices as the original Pines Twins, Dipper, and Bill all found a seat or pulled up a chair around the table. The blond demon reflexively sat down next to Dipper, tensing up as soon as he did, wondering what the brunet would do. However, Dipper didn't even react, as if he hadn't even noticed. Bill released a small breath and sat back more comfortably. He'd have no reaction over a bad one any day...

"Alright, Dr. Carson," Stanford prompted as he settled into his seat, "why don't you start from the beginning?" The woman pursed her lips in thought for a moment. Pacifica shifted uncomfortably in her chair, not quite meeting anyone's eyes as chewed the inside of her cheek with a sense of restrained impatience.

"Well, I suppose that would be explaining what was up with those guys that imprisoned you all," she began with a sigh. Dipper huffed slightly, crossing his arms with a small pout playing on his face.

"Yeah, no kidding... Excuse my language, but they were pretty fucked up, " he grumbled. Dr. Carson gave him a soft, sympathetic smile.

"There had been a movement for a federal supernatural division for a long time, but there had never been much ground to believe in a need of one. After the events of Weirdmaggedon, though, there was some... turmoil, to put it lightly. One group, in particular, pushed exceedingly hard for the funding of a supernatural division for 'research,'" she said the word as if it tasted foul in her mouth. "In short, they were finally granted a plot of federally owned land out here in Oregon, since this was where everything went down. I got a job as a medic pretty much right off the bat. Apparently, research wasn't quite as without danger as they thought it would be," she admitted with a bitter smile. Stanford let out a small huff of a laugh.

"Tell me about it," he chuckled humorlessly.

"In any case," Terra continued, "as time went on, they weren't getting anywhere with their research. The director of the facility requested a grant to fund more in-depth research. His request was denied; multiple times. So, scorned by his superiors and doubted by his subordinates, he took matters into his own hands. They needed results, something to show the higher-ups to prove that the facility had worth. So, the director found an anonymous patron. Their identity was kept airtight. Even now, with the utter dissolution and decimation of the organization, I can't find any information on who the patron might have been..." she trailed off, lips pursed in disappointment. After another moment, she shook her head slightly and continued.

"Regardless of who the patron was, they apparently had a crap-ton of money to spend. Pretty soon, the facility and all its assets were completely independent of federal spending. Not long after that, the government cut all ties to the facility. They had no need of it anymore, but they couldn't shut it down for reasons that I have to uncover... if I had to guess, though, it was simply a matter of money. It usually is... As far as they knew, the facility wasn't doing anything illegal, and they weren't producing any interesting results, so... What did they care if it became privately owned?" she paused to take a sip out of the glass of water that had been provided to her.

"Anyway," she began again, "without the government's eyes to hold them back, and with the patron's seemingly unconditional support, the director began to turn to some more... unconventional methods to get the results the facility desired. With the change in methods, a lot of people working there began to question their 'loyalty,' as it were. When word spread that they were no longer federally funded, a lot of people quit. They left and went back to government jobs. At the same time, a lot of people stayed. After all, pay increased and productivity sky-rocketed. I stayed to see what was going to happen. I couldn't get my hands on any evidence of the inhumane things going on, so I couldn't find any ground to sue, but I knew it was only a matter of time."

"Man, when they built that place, I had no idea what it might be," Stan spoke up, sitting back in his chair. "I like to keep tabs on all the new federal buildings that pop up around the place. After all, I've had more than my fair share of squabbles with the Feds. But to think that a place as terrible as that was just outside Gravity Falls the whole time..." he grumbled. Dipper leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and crossing his arms.

"So, that explains their readiness to hold an entire family hostage and torture people," he muttered. "But the explosion... you seemed to be in on some sort of plan with Bill, and as far as I'm aware, things didn't seem to exactly go according to that plan," he recalled. Carson looked at Bill for a moment, who dropped his eyes to the table, before she continued.

"You're right, things didn't go according to plan. At least, not exactly to the plan I had been told. An explosion had always been a part of the plan, but the way it went down was some improvisation on your demon's part. The first time I met Bill was when the agents brought him into the medic bay. He wasn't responding to any outward stimuli, and they were concerned that they'd possibly lost their bargaining chip before they were ready. Naturally, as soon as the agents left, Bill was completely fine. He managed to cast a fine little illusion over the ice bucket I use for keeping certain medicines chilled," she shot the dream demon a sour look. "I still haven't forgiven him," she added on.

"It was just an illusion," Bill insisted, smirking slightly. Terra rolled her eyes.

"Whatever... I hate spiders..." she grumbled. "Anyway, eventually he seemed to trust me enough to leave me a message in my dreams. He told me about how you all were being held captive, how they were pretty much abusing Dipper, and how he planned to escape. The plan was to get you, Dipper, unable to use magic. That way, they couldn't use you like that anymore. Also so that you couldn't interfere with anything," she explained. Dipper's eyes darted to look at Bill out of the corner of his eyes momentarily, a movement that the dream demon caught and that had him smiling apologetically. The brunet didn't react to the gesture, his eyes already back on Dr. Carson as if he hadn't seen the smile at all.

"Then, once Dipper was secure in the medical bay, I was to set off an explosion on the other side of the facility. In the chaos, I would then lead Dipper to the rest of his family and release everyone. By the time we got out, Bill would have found a way to get out on his own and meet everyone back here. With the medical records, video evidence, and testimony that I would then collect, we could take a case to court, get the place shut down, and get the director arrested," the woman explained. She paused for a moment more to let her words settle in before starting again. "Unfortunately, as you all know, things didn't go according to plan. Explosives had been set up all around the base previously, in case things had gone wrong with our plan. Once I was sure you all had made it out of the facility, I sounded the evacuation alarm. Anyone who wasn't actively chasing after you all made it out relatively safely before your demon set off the chain explosion that took the whole place down."

There was silence for a moment in which Pacifica continued to shift periodically. Bill frowned slightly in her direction; not with any malicious intent, but more in a curious manner. He'd almost forgotten she was present.

"I was wondering why you seemed so ridiculously strong," Dipper spoke up, gesturing to Bill. "You'd never done anything like that before, it seemed a little over the top." The dream demon shrugged with a small smirk.

"You can't blame me for wanting to go out with a little style, now can you?" he chuckled. The corners of Dipper's lips twitched into a smile, but his eyes were clouded with the memory of it all, casting a bleakness to the expression that drained any humor Bill had from him in a heartbeat. The blond frowned again, looking down guiltily at his hands in his lap.

"Please continue, Doctor," Stanford prompted the brunette woman. Dr. Carson dipped her head slightly in acknowledgment as she sat back in her chair.

"Well, for a few months after the explosion, it was all police work. However, out of the survivors, nobody but I really knew what had happened, and those that had started to put things together didn't want any part in the possible repercussions that would follow, should the world find out about what went on in the facility. The police didn't find much evidence of anything. So... eventually, it was written off as a devastating freak-accident, and that was that," she explained. Dipper pursed his lips in thought, processing what had been said.

"What about you? What did you do? Where did you go? And why are you here now?" he wondered, voice soft as if the words simply slipped from his mouth as they crossed his mind. Dr. Carson smiled gently at him.

"To put it simply, I carried on with my life. It would be safer for you and your family if I avoided contact, and it would be safer for me and my family if I pretended I was never involved with anything in the first place," she admitted. "I didn't know anything about the patron or who they might be affiliated with, so I did a little digging here and there, but I never found anything. I ended up going back to my original position in mental health and took up a job as a therapist/psychiatrist in a town about a thirty-minute drive from Gravity Falls. I would have liked to remove myself from the town altogether, but I couldn't just uproot my family, so we stayed in the area. That's when a few months ago I met this young lady," she gestured to Pacifica, whose face paled slightly as all attention turned towards her.

Dipper frowned slightly at her expression, a small tug of concern pulling at his chest. What happened to the over-confident, egotistical prat that used to torment his sister at dance parties? The girl before him now seemed quiet, anxious, and uncomfortable...

"Pacifica eventually opened up to me about certain events that were going on in her life; events that seemed a little too suspicious to be a coincidence. When I found out that the Pines family was involved, we did some investigating. Thanks to my government ties, we managed to narrow down the possible places where the other demons could be hiding, and... well..." Dr. Carson pushed the folder in front of her across the table to Dipper. The brunet teen took it carefully, opening it with a clear sense of anxiety. In the envelope were multiple pictures of a run-down abandoned warehouse on a dock. There were some papers with the address and the layout and such, the images clipped to the papers with small clips and hurried pieces of tape. Dipper looked at the contents of the folder with an indecipherable expression on his face, his mouth opened slightly, eyes wide.

"We found her, Dipper," Pacifica finally spoke up, her voice seeming strained. "We know where they're keeping her..."

There was silence as all eyes carefully watched the brunet male as he gently thumbed through the papers and pictures.

"It was that easy, huh..." he muttered under his breath. Dr. Carson frowned slightly.

"Well, I wouldn't say it was easy..." she started to correct him, but she was cut off when the brunet got to his feet suddenly.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get her back!" he demanded, his form tense, jaw trembling slightly. Bill grimaced, putting a hand over Dipper's clenched fist in a calming gesture.

"Pine Tree, we can't," he spoke softly, "going in without a plan would be suicide." Dipper pulled his hand away, narrowing his eyes at Bill.

"We have a plan, Cipher, you're just too scared to follow through with it!" he snapped.

"Boys, come on now," Stanley began to try and defuse the situation, to no avail. Bill was on his feet now, tired eyes narrowed, his anxieties from the night before burning at the nape of his neck.

"Of course I'm fucking scared, Dipper! I'm scared of losing you!" he exclaimed, raising his voice. Dipper scoffed at him, tossing the folder of papers onto the table and turning to face the dream demon.

"Oh, so it matters when you're scared of losing me, but when it's the other way around, it's absolutely fine to get yourself riddled with bullets!"  he snarled. Bill flinched slightly, but he didn't back down.

"This is different and you know it," he growled. "You're a human, Dipper! If you die, that's it! There's no chance of coming back!"

"You know who else is human? My fucking sister! And you're letting her rot away in some rundown warehouse, waiting for the perfect fucking plan that's never going to happen! We can't keep wasting time, and you can't keep playing favorites!" the brunet scathed. Bill's jaw clenched, his hands in fists by his sides.

"I've told you, they aren't going to kill her! She's their only bargaining chip!" he reminded him with an edge to his tone.

"Yeah, because you've given me every reason in the past to trust a single word that comes out of your God damn mouth!" Dipper shouted, voice dripping with sarcasm as he jabbed Bill's chest with his pointer finger. The others at the table were in shock, unsure of what to do as things fell apart before them. The dream demon found himself unable to respond, his chest tight with the wound of the brunet's words.

"They may not kill her," Dipper continued, ice in his tone, steel in his gaze, "but who knows what else they could do to her. The fact alone that she isn't here right now is reason enough to risk it all to get her back. We have a plan. We know where she is. All that's left is for you and everyone else in this room to grow a pair and do what needs to be done."

The room was silent, eyes averted from Dipper's cold gaze, all except Bill, who stared at him, jaw slack in stunned guilt. His eyes saddened, his anger vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

"Mason..." he said softly, his tone broken in a way that had Dipper flinching and looking away. The brunet shook his head, stepping away from the table, running a hand through his hair with a huff.

"I need some air..." he muttered, walking out of the room without meeting anyone's eyes. The cold silence hung over the room like fog. No one wanted to be the first one to speak, to address what had happened, but as the front door closed, a feeling burned within Bill that he didn't understand. He glanced over at the table to find all eyes on him and he winced in anticipation for the scorn that would surely befall him.

"Bill," Stanford began with a sigh, getting to his feet. He pursed his lips, a doubtful look on his face. There was a moment of hesitation, but then he placed his hand on the dream demon's shoulder, an action that stunned the blond almost as much as Dipper's yelling had. "It's probably for the best that you just let him cool down," the old scientist suggested. Bill opened his mouth to protest, not wanting to let things sit with the brunet on bad terms, but Stanley spoke up.

"Look," he huffed, shaking his head, "it's clear you two care about each other. Dipper knows that you're only looking out for him, but he and his sister, well..." Stan's eyes darted to Ford for a moment before returning to Bill, "there's a bond between twins that's hard to explain. Without Mabel here, it's like..."

"Like a part of him is missing," Ford finished his thought. Bill sighed, sitting back down, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I know," he admitted, lips pursed in a small frown, "I just..." he shook his head, letting the thought trail off. This wasn't exactly a group of people he wanted to open up to about his insecurities... "I don't like the idea of him being out there alone," he changed the topic.

"I'll go talk to him," Pacifica offered, getting to her feet. Her eyes drifted to Dr. Carson for a moment, who dipped her head in the smallest of nods, before she scurried out of the room.

As the front door closed again, Bill let out another huff of a sigh, sitting forward in his chair, resting his head in his hands.

"Is that really the only plan we have?" he voiced in almost a whisper, tone as tired as he felt. Stan and Ford exchanged glances, lips pursed, but they didn't say anything. They didn't need to; their silence was enough. Bill huffed a sardonic laugh, pressing the heels of his hands against his temples to fight off his pounding headache. "Of course it is..." he grumbled under his breath.

"What are you going to do?" Dr. Carson wondered gently. Bill sat back in his chair, a grim smile on his face.

"Everything I can. I made a promise; one I intend to deliver. I'm not going to rest until I've come up with a plan that will get both Pine Tree and Shooting Star back home safely," he insisted. The brunette woman chewed on her lip for a moment before speaking.

"And if you can't...?" she asked cautiously.

"Dipper and Mabel are coming back safely," Bill repeated sternly, "no matter what."

"LIEJINL, LIEJINL AJI BD KPB, NIWW YI BDT DJ IWLI TI'JI GDBI" - FJQBEIX

A/N: Anyone who figures out what the coded message is from instantly wins a million brownie points XD (I didn't use the actual name just in case someone wants to watch it, I don't want to actually spoil anything - also, let me know if I made any errors in the code, I was typing pretty fast) THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE!!!! Holy cow, you all are the best. Honestly. My life is casually being consumed by all these classes, and I'm not even actually in college yet... We're slowly approaching the end of our journey!! Not too many chapters left to go (I won't give a number, though, cause I never really stick to any plan I make)! In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I didn't revise it because it's already taken so long that I just want to publish it already for you guys, so hopefully there aren't any big issues... Let me know what you guys think! I'll try to get the next chapter out sometime this month, but I make absolutely no promises (kind of ironic considering the name of this book).

Thank you again for all the support! I'm trying my best to keep up with updates, but I've just been so stressed, anxious, and just kind of... emotionally exhausted lately that I get worried my work will suffer, so I chicken out of writing sometimes when I manage to find the time to... So here's to hoping that isn't actually happening! I love writing for you guys, so I hope you continue to love reading. You guys mean the world to me - You're beautiful, valid, and important! Keep being amazing, and I'll howl to you later!