Mabel still didn't know if she could handle going back to the Order headquarters.

Ford told her it was okay, that she should wait until tomorrow to decide. Mabel appreciated that, and knew she needed that time — but it was also just more time to agonize over it all. She sort of wished the decision was just over with so she didn't have to stress about it anymore.

The three Pines stayed up in the attic for a long while. Mabel felt safe in Ford's arms. Maybe. . . maybe it would be okay, since he would be there. Dipper, too. They could protect her, right?

After the Museum closed, Melody came up and stuck her head in. "Oh, there you all are," she said. "I've been looking for you, and I thought maybe you'd gone off to get the Journal without even telling me!"

"Nope, just snuggling," Dipper said happily. He'd come and wormed his way into the embrace as well, and he and Mabel were comfortably smushed up next to each other.

Melody looked them over like a proud mother. "How sweet," she said. Usually Mabel heard that phrase used solely in sarcasm, but from Melody, it sounded authentic. "I'm going to go get dinner ready, so it'll probably be about twenty, thirty minutes. Do you want me to come up and get you?"

"Maybe," Ford said. "I think we'll be down, though."

Mabel had honestly forgotten about dinner. She was ready to just fall asleep in Ford's arms. But once Melody brought it up, she realized she was pretty hungry.

Eventually, Ford disentangled himself from the twins, and they set off downstairs to have dinner. Melody presented them with a wonderful soup she'd put in a crockpot that morning, and it smelled delectable.

"So what did y'all plan?" Melody asked after they started eating.

"Not much," Ford said. "We got. . . sidetracked."

Dipper rolled his eyes. "That's an understatement. Ford was being a jerk. But it's okay, we're good now."

Ford pursed his lips, though Mabel thought she saw him suppress a smile. "Yes, thank you, Dipper. Anyway," he said, preventing any further questions from Melody, "we've tentatively decided on who's going, at least."

"That was what Ford was being a jerk over," Dipper added helpfully.

Ford pressed on. "I'm definitely going," he said, "and Mabel is deciding. And Dipper. . ." He frowned. "Dipper, are you coming whether or not Mabel is?"

"Yeah," Dipper said. "I don't like the idea of being in Pacifica's home base either, but somebody's gotta watch out for you."

Ford rolled his eyes, but this time let his smile through. "Well, thank you," he said. He sipped a spoonful of soup and then looked to Melody. "I suppose we've been assuming you wouldn't be a part of the team. Hopefully that's all right."

"Oh, trust me," she said, "I have no problems being left out of this one. I'll be a mess of anxiety while you're gone, but. . . well, I got in the way with Mabel's rescue more than I helped."

"What?" Dipper said. "No you didn't!"

Melody gave him a knowing smile. "I appreciate your loyalty," she said, "but I'm pretty sure I did."

"I mean," Mabel said quietly. They all looked to her. Oh. She hadn't meant to draw everyone's attention. "Well, if I did go, and if something happened to us, at least Melody would still be here to run the Museum and organize a rescue, right?"

"If I had to organize a rescue, I would not be running the Museum," Melody said.

"Oh, so there are more important things?" Ford asked in mock surprise.

Melody gave him a disapproving look. "Let's just not think about that possibility, all right?"

Mabel had to think about it, though. She had to think about every possibility to make an informed decision. Though the decision would probably end up being made based entirely on her emotions, she thought wryly.

Throughout the night — it took hours for her to get to sleep, even though her body was tired — she went through it all in her head. Her emotions were saying no, no, don't do this, get away, stay away — but it seemed like she couldn't make the decision just based on her emotions, because every time she thought, This isn't worth it; I'm staying home, her brain jumped in with reasons for her to go. Ford needs you. Stan needs you. Are you really going to condemn a man to never seeing his brother again just because you're too scared to do hard things?

Mabel fell asleep with these thoughts in her head and woke up with them raring to go. It took only sitting up before everything rushed back, before the two sides of her mind started screaming at her to go or to not go.

"Morning Mabes!"

She mustered a smile for Dipper. Her observant brother saw past it, though. "Woke up thinking, huh?" he asked.

She shrugged.

"I actually did too," he said. "But I'll wait until we're with Ford to bring it up."

Ford wasn't at breakfast, though, so the twins ate with Melody and then waved her off as she went to open the Mystery Museum. Ford came out just as she left. "Any breakfast left for me?"

"Morning, Ford!" Dipper said. "Yep, there's food left. You wake up late?"

Ford spread jam on a piece of toast. "No, I was gathering weapons. I'm going to sort through them to decide which ones we should take with us."

"Ooh, can I help?"

Ford shot Dipper an amused smile. "Sure." He came over to sit at the table.

"So Ford," Dipper said as he sat down, "I just realized something. To get into the Order headquarters, you gotta have a password."

Ford grimaced. "I was worried about something like that. How did you get past it the other night?"

"Gideon," Dipper said. "So I was thinking, why not just get him to help? He knows his way around, right? And if anybody would go to that library just for fun, it's him. If we get Gideon, he can get us into the base, and Mabel won't even need to come!"

Dipper gave a winning smile to Mabel, but she didn't return it. "N-no," she said. "Gideon. . . he's already in trouble for rescuing me. I don't want to make anything worse for him. It's. . . it's better if I just go."

Even as she said the words, Mabel wanted to take them back. No — no, she didn't want to take them back. Gideon had already done so much for her. Doing this — it was the least she could do for him. And for Stan. Right?

"Does that mean you're coming?" Ford asked.

"Mabes, are you sure?" Dipper added.

"No," she said. "No, I'm not sure. But. . ." She took a deep breath. "When I first got down to Order headquarters, I thought. . . I thought I was going to die. Pacifica told me she was going to do it. I was freaking out, my thoughts were going all over the place, but I remember — I remember thinking. . . that if I died, I wanted Ford to keep working on getting Stan back. That he didn't deserve to be abandoned."

She looked up at Ford. He was staring at her, overcome with emotion. There were no tears on his face, but it looked like they might show up at any moment.

"He doesn't," he whispered. "I. . . you can't imagine how much that means to me, Mabel, that you thought of him, even when faced with the prospect of dying." He smiled. "I, for one, am very glad that you're still here."

Mabel smiled back at him, though she hoped they would get off this topic quickly. Thinking about how close she'd come to. . . to not being here made her all sorts of uncomfortable.

"I'm probably going to change my mind," she admitted, "and want to back out of it. Multiple times. Probably even while we're down there. But I want to help. I want to get Stanley back."

"You won't be alone, Mabes," Dipper said. "Ford and I will be there to keep you safe."

"I know," she said. "Thanks, Dip." She turned to Ford. "I don't really want to help with the weapons, though."

"That's fine," Ford said. "Dipper and I will be back in the lab, but you can go help Robbie out in the gift shop if you get lonely."

"Just — no real guns," Mabel said.

"No real guns," Ford agreed. "We will be taking stun guns, though. I refuse to be caught with no defenses."

Ford finished his toast, and he and Dipper left to go sort through Ford's cache of weapons. How many weapons did he even have, anyway? Probably a lot, if gathering them all made him late for breakfast. The thought of being around so many things that could hurt her made Mabel shudder. She had no desire to go pick through a pile of pointy objects.

She got bored quickly, though, sitting alone in the kitchen. Her brain kept trying to talk her out of the decision she'd just made — the decision to go back for the Journal. Eventually, she wandered over to the gift shop, In hopes talking to Robbie would help her think about something else.

"Hey, Mabel-kid!" Robbie called when he saw her. "How's it hanging?"

Mabel ambled over to the checkout counter, weaving around the occasional tourist. "Hi Robbie," she said. "I'm doing okay. How about you?"

Normally, Mabel hated this type of conversation. Hi, how are you? Oh, I'm great, how are you? I'm good. It was like people used "how are you" as a synonym for "hello," and nobody actually wanted to know how you were doing. The few times Mabel had answered that question honestly, she'd gotten these uncomfortable stares. Mabel hated the way the question was just thrown out time and again, like it didn't mean anything, so she did her best to avoid it altogether.

Right now, though? Right now, she just wanted a normal conversation.

"I'm doing good, I'm doing good," Robbie said. A tourist came over, and Robbie rang them up. "Thanks for stopping by the Mystery Museum!" he called after them as they left. He turned back to Mabel. "What brings you out here?"

Mabel shrugged. "Ford and Dipper are doing guy stuff."

Robbie raised an eyebrow. "Like blowing up hot dogs in the microwave?"

"What?" Mabel involuntarily let out an obnoxious giggle. Wow. She hadn't had to deal with her crush making things awkward for a while. It actually felt kind of nice, for some weird reason.

"Oh yeah, Thompson and I used to do that all the time. It was pretty entertaining. But I'm guessing they're not doing that."

"Nope, not that," Mabel said. She couldn't tell Robbie what they were actually doing, of course. "Anyway, just thought I'd come out here and see what was going on in the gift shop."

"Well, you're always welcome," Robbie said.

"Thanks." Mabel pulled a stool over and perched atop it. "Slow today?" she asked, glancing around the gift shop. It was fairly empty.

Robbie shrugged. "'Bout normal. Normal and boring." He sighed. "Some days, I just want to bring my speakers and play something upbeat and intense instead of this 'easy listening' nonsense." He gestured up at the ceiling, from which faint elevator music came wafting down.

Mabel gave another awkward laugh. "Yeah." She kinda liked the music Melody played in the gift shop, but no need to tell Robbie that. "Um. . . did you get the money to the theater okay?"

"Yep," Robbie said. The Pines had given him the money from Gideon yesterday so he could pay the theater for the damages the twins had caused when. . . when Mabel was possessed. Mabel was glad to get that out of the way. Even though they had much more pressing things to worry about, it was relieving to have on less thing on her plate to stress over.

After that, she sat on her stool and watched Robbie do his job. They chatted idly about things that didn't matter. Mabel liked it; it distracted her from obsessing over the Order.

It didn't work for long, though. During a story Robbie was telling about adventures with his friends, Mabel's brain suddenly woke up, wondering why she'd stopped thinking about the Order and the Journal and the mission. She tried to stay focused on the story, she really did — it was about some irate teachers chasing Wendy after she graffitied on the side of the school — but other thoughts kept sneaking their way into her attention. Was she really going to do this? What were Ford and Dipper finding back in the lab? If getting Gideon's help wasn't an option, how were they going to get the passcode?

"Mabel-kid?"

She snapped back into reality. "S-sorry, Robbie," she said.

"No prob. So anyway, there I was, holding Wendy's spray paint cans, right? And the crazy teacher dude thought they were mine. . ."

Mabel firmly told herself to stop thinking about anything that wasn't Robbie's story.

". . . But I wasn't going to give Wendy up, so I played the part and just ran for it. Got pretty far, too, but the guy was still after me. Tried to lose him by ducking into the town library, but. . . Mabel?"

She swallowed. "Y-yeah?"

"You just went all pale," Robbie said. "You doing okay?"

No, she wasn't. He'd just mentioned the town library. Now Mabel really wouldn't be able to keep her thoughts away from the Order.

A customer came up, and Robbie turned to check them out. Mabel watched him as a horrifying thought appeared out of nowhere and wormed its way into her head. Robbie. . . he didn't know about the Order, right? He wasn't. . . a member?

No. No, he couldn't be, Mabel told herself. Robbie? Worship. . . him? Not a chance. The fact that he brought up the town library didn't mean anything. It was just a library. Robbie didn't know it was the entrance to the Order.

Right?

The customer left. Mabel glanced around the gift shop. There were only two tourists, and they were on the opposite end of the room. If she was going to ask him, it'd have to be now.

"You good, Mabel-kid?"

But did she want to ask him? What if the answer was yes? What if he tried to hurt her? Trust no one. But Robbie. . .

She'd been in Robbie's head. She would've seen if he was involved in the Order. She didn't know about it back then, but a bunch of creepy dudes in purple robes would've stuck with her, right?

Ask him. Just ask him. It'll be fine. Just pretend the Order is some band you just found if he doesn't know. And he wouldn't know. He couldn't know.

"Y-yeah," she forced out. "I'm good. Um, Robbie. . ." Was she really going to do this? It was risky. Stupid, even. But she had to know. She had to be sure he was innocent. "Robbie, have you ever heard of the Order?"

Robbie froze. His eyes widened, and he stared at her in silence for a moment. Then he groaned and put a hand to his face.

"Not you too," he moaned.

"Wh-what?" Mabel said. No. No, this couldn't be happening — should she run? But he didn't seem angry, he seemed. . . sad.

Robbie shot the tourists a furtive glance. "They got you too?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"G-got me?"

"You know, kidnapped you, tried to wipe your memory. And it didn't work?"

Mabel gave him a wary look. "Th-they kidnapped me, yeah. But. . . well, they were going to do something worse than wipe my memory. So wait, you know about the Order? But you're not a member?"

Robbie looked at her like she was crazy. "Me? A member? In your dreams. My parents are, though. Unfortunately. They're the ones who tried to get my memory wiped. Surprise, I'm immune to Gideon Northwest's dumb amulet! That made their day," he finished sarcastically.

"H-how long ago was that?" Mabel asked.

He shrugged. "Six months ago, a year, something like that. I try not to think about it."

"Yeah," Mabel said with a derisive laugh. "I've been trying not to think about it all day."

"Oh, so that's why bringing up the town library made you freeze up. Sorry about that."

"N-no, it's fine. You didn't know."

They had to stop talking about the Order, since the tourists moved closer to the cash register. It seemed to be a mother and her son. Robbie chatted with them as they looked through the bowl of free stickers that they kept by the cash register, but Mabel was silent. Watching the mother and her son only made her think of Robbie, and how his mom was in the Order. How awful would that be! She thought of her own mother, and of Melody, and tried to imagine them living secret double lives. She couldn't.

Wait. But if Robbie's parents were in the Order. . . they would know the passcode!

The tourists left after taking a couple free stickers and not actually buying anything. Mabel could hear Melody's voice in the distance, so the current tour was close. They only had a few minutes before being swarmed with more customers. "Robbie," she said quickly, "you said your parents are in the Order?"

He grimaced. "Yeah. They really believe in it, for some insane reason. I don't think the supernatural needs to be kept a secret! Maybe from the rest of the world, sure, but the locals here could handle it just fine. I mean, you've handled it fine so far, and you're not a local."

"O-oh. Um, it doesn't feel like I have," she said, blushing. "But thanks. So, um. . . the Order has something we need, and we're trying to go get it, but. . . we don't have the passcode to get into headquarters. D-do you know it, by any chance?"

Robbie's eyes widened. "Woah, no wonder you've been so distracted. You're going there by choice?"

"I don't want to," Mabel said quietly. "But we have to."

"I can't think of why you'd need to do that, but that's your business. No, I don't know the passcode, sorry. My parents do, but I don't think I could get it out of them."

"Oh," Mabel said. Well, it was a long shot, anyway.

Melody came in, leading a group of tourists. "And here, you have the elusive gift shop," she said in a mystical voice.

The tour group laughed.

Melody reverted to her normal voice. "This concludes our tour, folks! Thanks for stopping by the Mystery Museum, and feel free to look around, see if something catches your eye!"

She winked at Mabel before heading back out.

Robbie and Mabel were kept busy with tourists for the next half hour or so — well, Robbie was. Mabel just sat on her stool and watched. And thought.

She was relieved that Robbie wasn't an Order member. Part of her knew it all along, but a different part of her actually doubted him for a moment there. Still, she felt sorry for him that he had to know about it at all. He said that Gideon's amulet hadn't worked on him, that he was immune to mind-wiping. Immune. . . 

Was Robbie on the Cipher Wheel?

The ghost had just said being on the Wheel kept them safe from the Order, but he didn't get into specifics. Being immune to the amulet would make sense. If Robbie was on it. . . which symbol was he? She was running through the unknown symbols in her head, trying to figure out which one would fit him, when Robbie spoke up.

"You know. . . ," he said, and Mabel realized there was no one in earshot. "Mom and Dad are always trying to recruit me, since they can't erase my memory. Maybe I could pretend like I'm actually interested and ask them to take me on a tour of the base. Then I could memorize the passcode when they type it in."

Mabel's eyes widened. "R-really?" she asked. "You'd do that?"

He shrugged. "Wouldn't be any danger to me, except having to deal with my folks getting overexcited about the possibility of me joining their crazy club. And that's not danger, that's just annoying. I'm assuming this mission is important?"

"Very!" Mabel nodded rapidly.

"Then sure, I can help out."

"Th-that's great!" Mabel hopped off her stool. "I'll go tell Grunkle Ford! Thanks, Robbie!"

"It's no problem," Robbie said. "But hey, tell Mr. Pines I want to know what you guys are stealing and what you're using it for. I'm curious now."

"Trust me, they stole it from us," Mabel said. "But sure, I can do that. Thanks, Robbie!"

And she dashed out of the gift shop.

On the way back to the lab, she realized she'd said "Thanks, Robbie" twice. She mentally kicked herself for about half a minute before deciding it wasn't a big deal. It gave the Robconscious something to laugh about, she was sure.

She burst into the lab. "Great news!" she called.

Ford and Dipper looked up from the alarming piles of weaponry that surrounded them. "What is it?" Dipper asked.

Mabel closed the door behind her and made her way across the lab, stopping before she got within five feet of the nearest weapons pile. "So you might get mad at me for asking, Ford — don't worry, there's a part of me that can't believe I did. But I asked, and Robbie knows about the Order — he's not in it!" she added when looks of shock crossed Dipper and Ford's faces. "He knows about it because Gideon's amulet can't mind-wipe him for some reason — I think maybe he's on the Cipher Wheel? Anyway, his parents are in the Order. And he says he can get the passcode for us if he just asks his parents for a tour, which they'd be happy to give, from what he said. So there's that problem solved!"

Ford blinked at Mabel's torrent of words. He took a minute to process it all, then said, "That's wonderful, Mabel, good job. Though that could've turned out very badly if he was in the Order."

"Yeah, but Robbie would never be in the Order," Dipper said.

"Well, it was still risky. But it paid off, for the which I'm glad. When he does get the passcode to us, we should go for the Journal that night, in case it changes. Sound like a plan?"

Mabel didn't like that plan — she'd have barely any time to emotionally prepare. But it made sense. "S-sure," she said.

"Sounds like a plan," Dipper agreed. "Do you wanna join us, Mabel?"

Mabel glanced warily at the piles of weapons. "Um. . . I'm good over here."

Dipper shrugged. "Okay." He reached his hands into the nearest weapons pile — Mabel winced — and rummaged through it for a bit. "Ooh!"

He pulled out a pair of brass knuckles and slipped them on. "Oh, sweet, look at these babies!" He grinned up at Ford. "Do I look like a mob boss?"

Ford's eyes widened. He stared down at the knuckles, his face growing pale.

Dipper frowned. "What's wrong, Grunkle Ford?"

Ford took a shaky breath. "N-nothing. Can I have those?"

It wasn't nothing. Ford would never get this upset over nothing. Mabel watched the exchange in despair. Grunkle Ford. . . don't you know by now that you can trust us?

Dipper took off the knuckles and handed them over. "Okay," he said slowly. "What's the big deal? They're just brass knuckles, right?"

Ford held them gently in his hands and rubbed a finger over the smooth, gold-colored metal. "No," he said softly. "They're not just brass knuckles. Well, they are, but. . . these were Stanley's."

The twins gaped at him.

"Really?" Mabel whispered.

When Ford answered, he wasn't looking at Mabel. He was looking at the brass knuckles. "Yes. He used to wear them when we went monster hunting. He was formidable, when he wanted to be."

"We should take them!" Dipper blurted. Mabel shot him a look, but he kept going. "I mean, don't you think he would like the idea of us using his own weapon to save him?"

Ford considered this. "I. . . I don't know. He probably would. But I don't want to lose them."

"If we lose them, we can tell him we lost them in the epic quest to save his life," Dipper said confidently.

Mabel glanced at the floor. Dipper was forgetting a possibility: that they lost them and then failed to save Stanley. If that happened, they wouldn't even have the brass knuckles to remember him by.

Ford appeared to be thinking along the same lines. He bit his lip, looking between Dipper's encouraging face and the brass knuckles. Finally, he sighed and smiled up at the twins.

"Okay," he said, "let's take them. With Mabel getting us a way to get inside the Order base, I'm feeling good about our chances."

He slipped the brass knuckles on. They only fit on four of his fingers, of course; the fifth dangled on the outside. "It'll feel good to fight for Stan with these. You're right, Dipper. He would approve."

Keyword cipher, code word: Stanley