"Mr. Northwest, you have a visitor," said Gideon's butler.

Gideon frowned into his breakfast plate. "Who is it?"

"It appears to be Pacifica Pleasure. Should I show her in?"

Gideon looked up in surprise, then sighed. "No. I'll go out to her." He stood, abandoning his half-finished breakfast. "I'm done with this," he said with a glance to the food. He left the servants to clean up after him and left the Manor.

Pacifica stood just past the gates, shivering in the cold. "What are you doing here?" Gideon asked.

She sniffed and folded her arms. "Good morning to you, too. Can we go inside?"

"No," he said simply.

Pacifica gave him a look like she thought he was the rudest person in the world. "Fine," she said. "I have a question for you."

"Okay."

"Who's Cipher?"

The question completely caught Gideon off guard, and he stared at Pacifica for a split second before assuming a bored look. "Who?"

"Oh, please. You know who it is. I caught that look."

Gideon closed his eyes. Why me? Why now? He'd been wondering if he should show Pacifica the Cipher Wheel, but now it appeared he had no choice. "Where did you hear that name?"

"A ghost."

"What ghost?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, some random ghost that mentioned Cipher. Oh, and he called me a Symbol."

Great. This wasn't what Gideon had planned to do today; but if he tried to dissuade Pacifica, she'd just get more obnoxious. He'd better explain it to her now and save the trouble. Plus, if he showed her, she might finally see the stupidity of her "rivalry" with Mabel Pines.

"There's something I have to show you," he said, suppressing a sigh. "Stay here; I have to go grab something."

"You're going to leave a lady out here in the cold?" she demanded in a very unladylike tone.

He shot her an unimpressed look. At twelve years old (more than a year younger than he), Gideon highly doubted that Pacifica would be a "lady" anytime soon. But he wasn't about to say that: He was too much of a gentleman. "It'll only be a minute." He left her standing at the gate.

Soon, he returned with his winter jacket and his Journal under his arm. To his horror, Pacifica floated just beyond the gate with her shimmering purple astral projection. "What are you doing?" he demanded, resisting the urge to look frantically back at the manor.

"The snow was making me even more cold," she replied, "and someone didn't invite me into his house."

"Turn that off," Gideon hissed. "You're in plain sight!"

"So? Nobody actually notices. Plus, my projection is tiny."

It was fairly small: just large enough to keep Pacifica's feet above the snow. Still, "Trust me, my servants would notice." My father would notice, his brain added. Gideon didn't know how much his father knew about Pacifica and her amulet, but he didn't want to risk anything by showing him. "No amulet magic around my mansion, got it?"

Pacifica rolled her eyes. "Fine. Lead the way to whatever it was you wanted to show me." She didn't get rid of her projection.

"I don't want to show you anything," Gideon muttered silently. He led Pacifica off the path into the trees, then activated his own amulet and rose into the air.

With Pacifica's projection and Gideon's blue aura, the two of them made their way into the forest. "So, what's that?" Pacifica gestured to the Journal under Gideon's arm. "Some kind of amulet instruction book?"

"No," Gideon replied. "It's a journal about the supernatural side of Gravity Rises. It has directions to a place that the author dubbed 'Harbinger Hollow.' That's where we're going."

No need to show Pacifica the six-fingered hand on the cover, or to reveal that Stanford Pines was the author. Her hatred might extend to him as much as Mabel, and who knew how she'd react.

"That place is what you want to show me?"

"No. What I'm showing you is inside."

They passed through the forest. Gideon opened the Journal as discreetly as he could, hiding the hand with the 2 on it from Pacifica, and flipped to the first page on Harbinger Hollow. "This way," he said. He knew the way well, and he led Pacifica straight there. Usually, he let himself get distracted on the way to destinations, and sometimes he would find something new; but with Pacifica by his side, he decided against it. He would show her the Cipher Wheel and nothing else.

Using their amulets, Gideon and Pacifica reached Harbinger Hollow quickly. Gideon set himself down at the entrance of the cave but kept his amulet glowing brightly; they would need the light. Pacifica followed suit, her astral projection dissipating into twinkling purple stars before vanishing completely.

Gideon snapped the Journal closed and slid it into his black coat. He knew the path to the Cipher Wheel by heart. As he led the way, Pacifica bathed the cave walls in purple light, looking around at the primitive symbols painted on or etched into the rock. "What is this place?"

"It's full of ancient prophecies," he said. "As far as I know, there's only one that concerns us."

"There's a prophecy about us in here?" Pacifica asked, quickening her step. Good, that little poke to her ego helped her get back on track.

It wasn't long before they reached their destination. Painted with faded black lines, the Cipher Wheel sat in the center of the wall, pushing the other prophecies to the side. Gideon approached and bathed it in blue light. The circular drawing had ten unique symbols that surrounded a triangular figure in the center of the Wheel.

Pacifica stepped forward. Her purple light mingled with Gideon's blue as she stared up at the Wheel. "What is this?" Her voice was hushed, almost reverent.

"The Cipher Wheel," Gideon replied. "That triangle in the center is a creature known as Bill Cipher. Each symbol represents a person, who is also called a Symbol."

Pacifica's fingers brushed the section of the Wheel that contained the crescent moon surrounding an eye. "That's my psychic logo," she said in awe. "This is what the ghost was talking about?"

Gideon nodded. "That's your symbol." He pointed to the symbol of the wolf. "And this one is mine. The Lone Wolf."

"You said these were ancient prophecies?"

Another nod. "Some very powerful magic was involved in making this. It's possible that the ghost you talked to was someone who lived around the time this prophecy was created." He glanced to her. "This is the answer, Pacifica. This is why you can't read those kids' minds."

Pacifica frowned. "What do you mean?"

Gideon pointed at the pine tree symbol on the top of the Wheel. "Isn't that the symbol on Mabel's shirt that she's always wearing?" His finger moved to the other side, directed at the shooting star symbol. "Dipper has a shirt with a star on it. Maybe some shoes, too."

"They're on the Wheel," Pacifica said in understanding.

"Exactly. You can't read their minds because they're on the Wheel, and that protects them."

Pacifica was silent for a moment, processing this. Then she scoffed. "Yeah, right. Why would being part of a prophecy protect them from me?"

"Well, we can't read each other's minds, right? We thought it was because of our amulets, but it's actually because we're both on the Cipher Wheel." He thought about adding examples of other Symbols he knew of — like Stanford Pines with the six-fingered hand — but thought better of it.

"And how do you know all of this? How are you sure that the prophecy protects them?"

Gideon hesitated. He didn't want to say anything more about the Cipher Wheel. . . but if he didn't tell Pacifica what she wanted to know, who knew what lengths she would take to find the information? "It's Cipher," he finally said. "The triangle. He's a dream demon. He deals entirely with the mind. My guess is that his connection with the twins — and with us — is so powerful that it overrules our amulets."

"A dream demon?" Pacifica repeated. Something lit up behind her eyes.

That couldn't be good.

"So you're saying that we can't get inside their minds, but this demon can?"

Gideon didn't want to answer that question, but his silence was enough for Pacifica.

"Do you know how to summon him?"

Gideon wasn't expecting that. Or maybe he was. He turned sharply to look at Pacifica. "Why would you want to summon him?"

"To exact revenge!" Pacifica said. "I can use him to get inside Mabel's mind and. . . and get revenge!"

"But there's nothing to get revenge for!" Gideon objected. "That's what I've been trying to tell you! Mabel and Dipper and everyone else are immune because they're on the Wheel, not because Mabel is some mastermind with her own amulet. You don't need revenge for anything, Pacifica."

Pacifica's features hardened, framed by the purple light of her amulet. "Yes, I do," she said quietly. "I can't rest until Mabel is defeated and Dipper is by my side. He's blinded by her influence, the poor thing, and she's — she's—"

"Pacifica, you have no real reason to hate Mabel."

"Don't tell me what is and isn't real!" Pacifica shouted. Gideon stepped back, surprised by the outburst. He hadn't known he would tip the scales of Pacifica's insanity just by telling her the truth.

"Stay calm, Pacifica," he said.

"Don't tell me to stay calm! You told me you would help me get revenge on the Pines!"

"Not by summoning a demon!"

"You promised and now you're telling me it isn't real? The amulets don't lie, Gideon!"

"You're right! They don't! And your amulet is telling you that those kids are on the Cipher Wheel, not that they're plotting against you. There's no one evil in the shadows after you, especially not some girl and her dorky twin brother!"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Pacifica's hand clutched her amulet, and Gideon realized his was doing the same. She stepped forward, backing Gideon up against a wall perpendicular to the Cipher Wheel. "I'm going to get revenge with or without you; but if you turn against me, you'll live to regret it, Northwest!"

Gideon took another step back and braced his free hand against the wall. He had to turn the tide somehow; he didn't like being backed into a corner at all.

He didn't notice a prophecy beneath his hand beginning to glow.

"Don't you dare threaten me, Pleasure," he warned.

Pacifica let out a small laugh. "I'll threaten whoever I want! And you wouldn't be able to stop me."

Gideon's eyes narrowed. "What makes you say that?"

"You've grown soft," Pacifica taunted. "You don't want me hurting Mabel, do you? You probably wouldn't even hurt me if you had to."

That was it. "Don't push it, Pacifica," said Gideon, his voice deathly low. "Don't assume you know what I will or won't do. You have no idea what I'm capable of."

Pacifica waved her free hand as if she were pushing his words away. "Your threats mean nothing to me, Gideon. I'm—"

She stopped as Gideon took his hand off the wall and snatched her wrist. A bit of the white glow stayed on his hand, dancing around the fingers of his black glove. "Let go of me!" Pacifica screeched. But before she could pull away, both she and Gideon noticed the white glow growing bigger around their hands, centered on where they were touching. They both tried to let go, but they couldn't.

The glow grew bigger.

Gideon and Pacifica had time to look up at each other in a panic before the white light enveloped them, consuming everything else in sight.

Graphic by me