Mabel and Melody spent the morning in the basement, doing — wait for it — more cleaning and maintenance. Mabel wasn't sure if it was even possible to clean this entire thing. Then again, she could see a definite difference between the parts they'd cleaned and the parts that were still caked in rust, so at least she could tell she was accomplishing something.

Melody seemed content to work in silence, which was honestly relieving. Mabel had no idea what to say. Sometimes Melody would make a comment about whatever she was working on, but otherwise the two didn't carry on a conversation.

With a sigh, Melody leaned back to observe her handiwork. She'd been scrubbing the rust off one of the gauges, and she cleaned an entire machine in the time it took Mabel to wipe down one section of a pipe. "Okay, it looks like that's as good as it's going to get. Let's go grab some lunch, shall we?"

Oh, good. Mabel had been getting hungry. But she hadn't wanted to say anything; that would've sounded like complaining.

She followed Melody into the elevator, and it rumbled upwards. Melody put an arm around Mabel. "We're doing good work, Mabes. I know it's boring, but it'll make Stanley's rescue possible."

"Will the portal be ready to open?" Mabel asked. "O-once the boys get back with the fuel?"

"I think so," Melody said. "Especially if we can get more done today."

They made it up to the kitchen, where Melody started pulling out the sandwich ingredients for the second time that day. Mabel sat at the table, her chin in her hands, thinking. Throughout the day, she'd been imagining Dipper and Ford's mission — both good things and bad. She'd imagined Dipper running happily through a forest full of supernatural creatures, throwing snowballs at the minotaurs, talking and laughing with Ford. Those thoughts made her happy. But she also imagined the Order leaping out of the trees and taking them captive, the minotaurs imprisoning them — even the unfriendly fairies attacking them.

There was a quiet thunk as Melody put a plate down in front of Mabel. "Watcha thinking about?" she asked.

Mabel took a bite of her ham-and-cheese sandwich, partly out of hunger and partly to stall for time. She swallowed and said, "Dipper. I just. . . I hope he's safe."

"Me too," Melody said.

A comfortable quiet fell on them as they ate their lunch. Mabel ate quickly at first, but then slowed down to savor the meal — and to, once again, stall. She knew the work was helping get Stan back, but. . . well, she didn't want to do it. So she passive-aggressively took longer than necessary to eat.

When Melody stood up to rinse her plate, Mabel still had a good portion of her sandwich left. It was nice being up here, where she could look out the window and see the pine trees and the sunlight sparkling on the snow. Down in the basement, the only things to see were metal and rust.

Finally, Mabel couldn't stall any longer, and she finished her sandwich and took her plate to the sink. "Okay," she said with a sigh, "let's get back to the portal."

"Well, it sounds awful when you put it like that!" Melody said. But she had a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "It's almost like work isn't the most fun thing in the world."

"Who would've guessed?" Mabel replied with equal sarcasm.

Melody chuckled, and the two headed out of the kitchen toward the Employees Only door. "I don't really like it down there either," Melody confessed. "So dark and dreary. But it's where—"

A loud smash rang through the house.

Mabel screamed in surprise. Both she and Melody froze, staring at each other. The sound had come through the Employees Only door. "The Order," Melody whispered in horror.

Then she snapped back into efficiency mode. "Mabel, go get the stun guns. They're on the counter. I'll go hold them off." Melody shoved open the Employees Only door and ran into the gift shop.

Mabel raced back to the kitchen, her mind freezing up with panic. She tried to force herself to snap out of it. Don't freeze — don't freeze — don't freeze — keep moving — don't freeze — Melody needs you — Ford needs you — Stan needs you—

She ripped the stun guns from the table and was halfway through the entryway when she realized she'd forgotten the knockout patches. The gift shop was small enough that shooting them would probably cause lasting damage. She hurried back to the table, pocketed the knockout patches, and dashed out of the kitchen.

She ran into the gift shop just as Melody clubbed an Order member over the head with a Bigfoot bobblehead. "Melody!" she called. The housekeeper turned, and Mabel lobbed a stun gun to her, hoping she would catch it.

She did.

Melody shot the nearest Order member point-blank. He cried out as he fell, and Mabel winced. Would he be okay?

Can't think about that right now. There were four other Order members, still awake and swarming the gift shop. Each of them held a net stretched out in their arms.

Mabel fired off a couple shots, but Melody was standing between her and the window, and she didn't want to accidentally hit her. Melody kept firing, but her shots were slow. An Order member reached her and shoved her to the ground, throwing his net over her. Then he moved to the vending machine and typed in the code.

The vending machine swung open. The man started to move down the stairs.

Mabel shot him, and he fell against the wall, sliding down a couple steps before coming to a stop.

As Mabel knocked out the Order member by the vending machine, Melody finished off the last Order member by shooting through the net. With all five of their attackers unconscious, the girls let out a breath of relief.

Melody threw the net off of herself and hurried to the window, looking out of it as best she could without cutting herself on the broken glass. Mabel was suddenly glad they were both wearing shoes. Melody fired off a few shots out the window, and Mabel heard the thumps as approaching Order members hit the outside wall of the Mystery Museum.

"I think that's all of them," Melody said. Her voice was shaking badly.

She set the stun gun on the checkout counter and hurried to the nearest Order member, putting her fingers on the woman's neck and bending down over her. Mabel watched in confusion for a moment before she realized — Melody was checking for life.

A suffocating silence filled the room as Melody checked the vitals of every Order member that lay unconscious in the gift shop, including the man Mabel had shot down the stairs. Finally, she leaned back from the final cultist. "They're all alive," she said.

Then she sat on the floor and leaned against the checkout counter, trembling.

Mabel was shaking too. She — she'd never — she'd expected the Order to attack the boys on their mission — but she'd never thought they'd attack here, too. She wanted to go sit by Melody, but she would've had to step over bodies, and she didn't have the energy. She sank to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees and trying to calm her breathing.

A thread of thought had sprung up in her mind as soon as the Order member had opened the vending machine, but she hadn't had the time to focus on it. Now, as her gaze fell on the open door, her mind grabbed the thread and brought it to her conscious mind.

She stared at the vending machine in horror.

"M-Melody—" she stammered. The caretaker raised weary eyes to her, and she turned panicked ones back. "They opened the vending machine."

It took a few moments for Melody to understand that. Then her eyes widened too. "Oh, no," she said.

"They kn-know the passcode," Mabel said.

"How?" Melody asked.

"I. . . I don't. . ." No. Wait. She knew.

"Bill," she said. "He can read our thoughts. As soon as Ford told us the passcode, Bill knew. He. . . he can't read Ford's mind, though. I think." She paused. "If we go back down now. . . the Order could send more people to ambush us down there."

Melody rubbed her face with her hands. "So we're stuck up here?"

"I-I think so," Mabel said. "When Ford gets back, he's gotta change the passcode and not tell any of us what it is. Th-that way, the Order won't know it." Unless they were wrong, and Bill could still read his mind through that metal plate.

Melody stood up, carefully moved around the bodies, and stepped into the room behind the vending machine. Mabel watched as she dragged the man on the stairs up to the gift shop and out of the way. Then she closed the door and leaned against the vending machine, staring out across the room full of unconscious cultists.

"I thought. . . if I'd killed any of them. . ." Her voice trailed off. Mabel could see the haunted look in her eyes.

Mabel understood. These were bad people, but. . . they were still people. The thought of taking another human life was too horrifying to consider. Ford had said the stun guns got more dangerous the closer your target was, and the cult members were pretty close to Melody. . . but it was okay. They were alive. The stun gun had burned a whole through some of their robes, but they were alive. Melody didn't kill anyone.

"Y-you didn't," Mabel said, trying to sound reassuring. "They're still alive." She'd never imagined she would be comforting Melody, but. . . well, they both needed comfort right now.

Melody nodded. "Right. They are." The haunted look in her eyes turned helpless. "Wh-what are we going to do with them?"

Mabel had no idea. She didn't know how long they'd stay unconscious, either. She just shook her head.

Melody's eyes widened. "The ones outside. We can't leave them there — they'll freeze." She moved to the Employees Only door. "Come grab a coat and help me carry them."

The two of them carried two more unconscious cultists into the gift shop. Then Melody went back to Ford's lab, returning with some rope and duct tape, and they tied the Order members' hands and ankles together before securing their own nets over them. Mabel could only do one cultist before she felt too sick to keep going, so Melody had to do the rest. Mabel knew they were defending themselves, but. . . wasn't taking people captive something the Order did? Something the Pines should avoid?

Once all the Order members were tied up, Melody used more duct tape to cover the hole in the window. Neither she nor Mabel had stopped shaking.

"S-so what now?" Mabel asked. She wanted to read one of the Journals to calm down, but she was terrified that bringing them upstairs would put them at risk.

Melody sighed, running her hands through her hair. "I don't know. Everything we need to do is in the basement. But if we can't go downstairs. . ." She sighed again. "We're going to have to do something when these guys wake up. Whether that's shoot them again or interrogate them, I don't know."

"S-so we should probably stay in here," Mabel said. "Can I go grab my sketchbook?"

Melody nodded, so Mabel ran up to go get it. When she got back, Melody was moving the Order members out of the walkway and checking them over for injury. She sat back on her heels. "My instincts are to treat them," she said, not looking at Mabel. "Should I?"

Mabel shrugged. She didn't know. If these Order members had been successful, they definitely wouldn't be treating Mabel or Melody for any injuries. But treating them wouldn't give the cultists any opportunity to escape, and it was the kind thing to do.

Melody apparently came to the same conclusion, because she stood up. "Stay here and watch them," she instructed before heading back into the house.

Mabel tried to watch them, but seeing seven unconscious adults all lined up on the ground was all sorts of unnerving. She couldn't handle it for long before she needed to look away. She opened her sketchbook, and the idea to sketch them appeared in her head — if she was sketching them, she'd need to look at them, right? That'd be watching them. But she didn't want that in her sketchbook. She turned so that they were in her periphery, not directly in front of her, and started sketching Dipper instead. She wanted to add a minotaur into the picture, but she didn't have a reference, so she just stuck with Dipper for now. Maybe she'd add the minotaur later, once they got here.

Once they got here. . .

Would they get here? Would the minotaurs help them? She took a little consolation in the fact that she and Melody were attacked. Maybe that would mean the boys wouldn't be.

Her paranoia quickly dashed that hope. No. There were more than seven Order members. If Pacifica sent a group out after Mabel and Melody, she almost certainly sent another one after Dipper and Ford. The question wasn't if, it was when.

Mabel sighed deeply and stared down at her half-finished sketch. There on the floor of the gift shop, she sent her twin a mental plea.

Please be safe, Dipper.