Dipper, Candy, and Greyson went down the stairs to the living room. Caleb and Yingtai were sitting on two chairs from the kitchen, leaving the couch open for the three friends. Dipper didn't like how Candy's parents were between him and the door. "Can you guys, um, move the chairs over?" he asked. "So — so there's a clear path to the door?"

Yingtai and Caleb glanced at each other, then did as Dipper asked. "I hope things don't get to where you feel you have to escape," Caleb said.

Dipper sat on the couch with his friends and looked at Caleb. Like Andrew, he had tan skin, but his hair was dusty brown rather than blond, and he was a bit stockier, and his horns curved upwards more than Andrew's did. Dipper wondered what Andrew would say if he were here. Should Dipper have gone to him first and gotten a message to relay to Caleb?

Too late. He took a deep breath. "Thanks," he said. "Um, hi, Caleb."

"Hello," Caleb said warily. "My brother told me a bit about you."

"Cool," Dipper said. "I saw him on Wednesday."

Caleb turned his head to Yingtai, and she whispered, "Three days ago."

Caleb nodded. "And what. . . did he say?" he asked, though from his tone he was afraid to find out.

"He didn't ask me to tell you anything specific," Dipper said. "He just, um, told me the story of what you did. And Enoch said it was good that Candy was with her dad now," he added, glancing at Candy.

"Who's Enoch?" she asked.

"Your cousin," Caleb said softly. "Was he okay?"

"They were all fine physically," Dipper said, "but they were really hurt by what you did."

Caleb nodded, like he'd expected this. At least he seemed to realize some of the consequences of his actions.

"I have cousins?" Candy said. "Wow. Too bad I can't meet them because of these stupid rifts. Which Dipper says are your fault, Dad."

Caleb raised his hands. "I had no idea about the rifts."

"But you don't mind them, 'cause they keep me trapped here," Candy muttered.

"Candy, that's not fair," Yingtai said sharply. "We're not trying to trap you."

"Then why do you want to stick me in another dimension?" Candy demanded. "What about my friends? What about the sun and the wind and the trees? Do you even know what Bill's dimension looks like?"

"No," Caleb admitted, "but Cipher made it sound like it has palaces and—"

"Wrong," Candy snapped. "It's empty. It's cold and barren. Right, Dipper?"

Dipper nodded. "One of the other Symbols was trapped in Bill's dimension for thirty years. He went into some kind of coma and survived, but he says there was nothing but 'bright blackness.' He just floated there for thirty years until we opened our portal and brought him back."

"That must not have been Cipher's dimension," Yingtai said.

"It definitely was. He said he himself programmed the portal with Bill's help."

"A dimension is a big place," Caleb said. "That could've just been outer space, and Cipher's planet with its palaces was nearby."

"He saw nothing. Anywhere." Dipper could feel his frustration rising. "Are you not even going to consider that you're wrong?"

"Good cop, Dipper," Greyson muttered.

Right. Dipper shut his mouth and let Candy do her thing. "I believe Dipper," she said. "And I don't like the idea of moving, no matter what! I like this house, in this town, on planet Earth, in my own universe!"

"Candy," said Caleb, "we're doing all of this for you. This is all to keep you safe from my brother and the other minotaurs who might want to hurt you. As far as I know, you're the first minotaur-human child ever, and I can think of people who would want to kill you just for existing."

The room fell quiet as Candy thought about this. "That's paranoid," she said.

"No, it's not! Since you're mostly human, Cipher can still read your mind. My people are so paranoid about Cipher reading minds that they refuse to associate with humans."

"If that's true, then why did Andrew spend time with me?" Dipper asked. "I even went into his hut and met everyone the other day." Granted, Bill was currently inside Lee's body and hadn't been reading minds since the township started its voyage. But Andrew hadn't known that at first.

Caleb hesitated. "Yes," he said, "but you're a Symbol."

"So? Bill can still read my mind." Dipper folded his arms. "It doesn't really sound like this is all for Candy. It kinda sounds like you're running away."

Caleb tossed his head and flicked his ears, a clear expression of anger. "Look," he said, "do you know what we do with criminals in my village? We have a prison for small offenses like minor theft. You visited your uncle there last week. But for bigger things — including any unauthorized contact with Bill Cipher — there are two options: execution or banishment."

"Banishment? Where?" asked Dipper.

"To another dimension," Caleb said. "How do you think we've kept our population so small if we've been here for thousands of years? We have a one-way portal from our village to our dimension of origin. Every few decades, we send some volunteers and criminals through. That would probably be my punishment. Unless the elders decide to just execute me and get it over with. Either way, I'd be separated from my family again. This time forever."

"And whose fault was it the first time?" Candy demanded. "Oh yeah, yours. It's your fault you hid from me!"

Caleb closed his eyes. "That may be true," he said quietly. "I. . . I was trying to protect you, Candy. But maybe I didn't think things through. I didn't imagine you'd be angry with me."

Candy didn't have a response to that. She folded her arms and glared at the floor.

"The point is that, yes, I suppose I'm running away," Caleb said. "It's my only choice if I want to stay with my family."

"What about the rest of your family? Your brother and all those people I met?" Dipper asked. "If you apologize to Andrew — if you try to make things right — if you fight with us instead of against us — then I bet he could help you. I think he could forgive you."

"You don't know him," Caleb said, looking away.

"Maybe you don't know him, if you've spent the last thirteen years being afraid of him."

Caleb's ears flicked. "You're saying you know my brother better than I do?"

"No, but I'm saying to give him a chance! If you run away, you'll never see him again. Actually, since Mabel's been up in the sky for eight days and is still alive, that means it'd take over ten weeks to get to Bill's dimension by the time all ten Symbols are dead. I don't know if anyone has supplies to stay fed and warm for ten weeks. Bill's probably expecting everyone to starve so he doesn't have to fulfill his promises. So not only will you never see Andrew again, but you'll probably both die."

Dipper's voice was level, which was good. He didn't want to fly off the handle. He just hoped Caleb would listen to him. "On the other hand," he continued, "if you try to make things right with him — if you give me a note to take to him, or if you ask Gideon Northwest to levitate you over the rifts to see him — you could probably avoid execution or banishment."

"You don't know how our laws work."

"Okay," Dipper said, "then I'll go right now to Andrew and ask him if there's a chance of you not being punished if you start helping us. I'll ask him if Candy would be safe from anyone who may not like that she was born. I have to get back to the Museum tonight, and I don't know if it would work to sneak out again, but I can spend the next few hours as your errand boy."

Caleb hesitated.

"Please, Dad," Candy said. "Please listen. Everything I've heard about this Bill Cipher guy makes me not trust him. Why should he get to tell us how to live our lives?"

"Because he is all-knowing," Yingtai said. "He has been guiding your father and me since we met."

Candy blinked. "Oh. Then that's an even better reason not to trust him! He told you to steal my memories? He told you to hide my dad from me?"

Yingtai's cheeks flushed pink. "He guided us to do the right thing."

That was too much for Candy. She jumped to her feet. "News flash!" she yelled at her parents. "Keeping huge secrets from your daughter is not the right thing!"

Greyson flinched at Candy's loud voice, but he didn't say anything. Dipper, for his part, thought the yelling was completely warranted. And, as a bonus, it made it easier not to lose it himself when somebody else was already yelling.

Caleb sucked in air and let it out in a rumbling breath. "Okay," he said quietly, "okay. Maybe you're right."

"What? Jiā lēi, what about—"

"Yingtai," he said, and his voice was gentle but sad, "I've been imagining living with you and Candy for years. I've imagined being happy, and waiting comfortably in your electrically heated house while we travelled to our new home, and having Candy be so excited to live with us in another dimension. But there's no power, and Candy's angry with us, and nothing has turned out like I imagined."

"We just have to trust that Lord Cipher will fulfill his promises," said Yingtai.

"Has he ever actually made promises?" Dipper asked. "Like, 'I promise you that you'll live in a palace when we get to my dimension'? Because in my experience, he only makes you think things will be like that, without actually committing. Fiddleford, the guy who was in Bill's dimension for thirty years, did really awful stuff because he thought he'd gain some big reward from Bill in the end. But he didn't. He just got a thirty-year coma and hatred from his best friend. And because of what he did, my uncle Lee — the guy you know as Blind Lincoln — lost his memory and was separated from his brother for thirty years. If. . . if you knew Fidds, if you could see how sad he is most of the time. . . you'd see what you get from helping Bill."

Yingtai and Caleb both looked at him silently. "He didn't explicitly make promises," Caleb finally said. "I can't remember any. And. . . and I haven't heard from him since getting the dagger for him. Like. . . like he's abandoned us."

Yingtai looked at him like she couldn't believe her ears, and he took her hand. "I've actually been thinking about this the past couple days," he admitted. "I. . . I haven't wanted to admit it, but. . . maybe Cipher was wrong. Maybe we should've figured out a way to raise Candy together."

"How? Your people would've wanted us dead."

"I don't think it would've been safe to tell them," Caleb said, "but maybe I should've just left. I. . . I don't know. I don't know what the right way would've been, but surely there was a way that didn't end with my daughter hating me."

"And my sister disappearing," Dipper whispered.

"Dad, I — I don't hate you," Candy said. "I'm really mad at you, but I don't hate you."

"You don't?" he asked hopefully.

"No. But you have lots of apologies to make. And twelve years to make up for."

Caleb started to nod, then shook his head. "Even if they don't banish or execute me, they'll put me in prison," he said.

"Well, that's called the consequences for your actions," Dipper said helpfully.

Caleb tossed his head, but then lowered it, putting his hands over his eyes. "You're right," he whispered.

"Jiā lēi," Yingtai said, "you cannot turn yourself in."

"They can't get to me yet," Caleb said. "I have time. Are you still willing to help me?" he asked Dipper.

Dipper nodded. "I can help you today. But I don't know how much time you have after that. Gideon and my sister could come back at any moment, and then we'll have everyone to do the Cipher Wheel."

This wasn't exactly true, since he didn't know if Pacifica was willing to join them, and they still needed to figure out how Lee could possess someone. But it was true enough. Yingtai looked as if she were seriously considering kidnapping Dipper now that he'd shared this information. That was a little scary, but Dipper thought he could get a knockout patch out quick enough to stop her if need be.

"If you're only available for a few hours, then I'd better get started on a letter," Caleb said.

"And I should get home," Greyson said, glancing at the clock.

"Have we really been here that long?" Dipper asked. But as he said it, he realized that yeah, they had been.

Greyson stood, and Candy stood as well. "Thanks for coming," she said. "It was really, really good to see you."

"You too," Greyson replied with a smile. He put his hands out like offering another hug, but it seemed Candy was only up for one hug that day. She hit him lightly in the shoulder instead.

"Rowan could probably take you by yourself if you want," Dipper said.

"I'd be too scared of falling off without you behind me," Greyson replied.

So Dipper went with Greyson back to his house. He didn't want to say goodbye to his friend, but he had to. "Bye, Greyson." He hugged him hard. "Hang in there. It'll be okay. We'll get home."

"Will we?" asked Mrs. Gray quietly.

"Yeah," Dipper said. "I'm going to do everything I can, and so is the rest of my family and our friends. We're going to get this whole forest back home safely."

With that, he went back to Candy's house. Caleb was sitting at the kitchen table, frantically writing a letter, sometimes pausing and lowering his head onto the table as he thought of what to say. That looked funny, because he just rested his big bovine nose on the wood and sat there for a few seconds, but Dipper didn't dare laugh.

"You did it," Candy said quietly to Dipper in the living room. "You got him to listen."

"I think he was ready to listen," Dipper said. "And I think our good cop, bad cop routine helped."

"Yeah. We make a good team," Candy said with a grin.

"I don't know," Dipper teased, "I saw some good cop moments from you, Miss Bad Cop."

"Not as many as your bad cop moments, Mr. Good Cop."

Dipper glanced at the time. Even if the sky wasn't working, at least the clocks were. It was about five P.M., and Dipper knew Melody would get worried if he didn't come back for dinner. But he'd promised to help Caleb, and he knew it would be a while before he went home.

Yingtai got out some cold food for dinner. Dipper, Candy, and her mom ate at one end of the table while Caleb worked at the other.

"I hate it," he frequently muttered to himself. "I hate it; he'll hate it; this is pointless." But he kept working, and around seven, he was done. "It's probably bad, but this is what I could do in a few hours," he said as he handed it to Dipper.

"I'll take it to Andrew, and I'll try to bring back a reply tonight," Dipper promised. He glanced between Yingtai and Caleb. "Can I tell him that you'll both join the fight against Bill?"

Yingtai flatly said, "No," and Caleb hesitated before saying, "I don't know."

"Aw, c'mon," Candy said. "You already admitted that Bill's plans were bogus, Dad. And Mom, why not?"

"Because the Order means a lot to me," Yingtai said. "It's. . . it's how I made friends after immigrating here."

"But what about Bill himself?" Dipper asked. "Do you still think he's good?"

She hesitated. "Maybe not."

"It's more important to follow what's right than to follow your friends," said Dipper. That was something his parents repeated to him often, and he believed it. He added, "And if it helps, Janice and Greg Corduroy switched sides. You won't be alone."

Yingtai looked annoyed at being lectured by a child, but there was a hint of guilt in her face as well. And maybe some hope.

Caleb took a shaky breath. "The truth is, Dipper, that I care most about being with my family. If Cipher can't actually give us a safe place to live, then I won't help him. But unless my people let me stay with my family, I don't want to help them, either."

Dipper could understand that, though he still didn't like it. "Did you say that in your letter?"

"Basically. That's why I think Andrew will hate it."

"I don't think so," Dipper said. "At least, I don't think he hates Yingtai and Candy. He's just really sad you hid them." He put the note in his backpack. "Well, I'll tell him that you're both considering switching sides. How's that?"

"Sure," said Caleb. Yingtai mumbled something that may have been an objection, but Dipper took it as an agreement. If she really wanted to object, she would've let him know.

Dipper and Rowan flew to the minotaur village. Andrew was relieved to read the letter and hear Dipper's news that Caleb's and Yingtai's minds were changing. For a few hours, he worked on his reply, and Dipper hung out with his children — his calves, he called them — while Andrew wrote. When Dipper brought Andrew's letter back to the Chius, Caleb was noticeably anxious, pulling on his horns and pacing, but he took the letter immediately and left to read it.

"He says he'll talk to the elders," he announced when he was done. "He says — he says we can work something out."

He asked Dipper if there was something he could do to thank him. "No, I'd better get home now," Dipper said. "But if — if you could, um — well, because of what you did, my sister is in danger. My friend is trying to save her, and I'm hoping that he'll succeed, but — but it's really hard. Really painful. And it's. . . because of you. Not entirely, but—"

"I'm sorry," Caleb said sincerely. "I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry I helped Pacifica and Bill. I hope your sister can return safely."

That's what Dipper had been trying to ask for — an apology — and he felt a little better. "Thanks," he said quietly.

It was late; Dipper had to leave. He went to the door, and Candy followed. "Thank you," she said. "I really needed that. All of it."

"Me too," Dipper said. "I'm really glad I could see you again. Will you be okay here?"

"Yeah." She slugged him on the shoulder, noticeably harder than she had Greyson. "Hey," she said, "make sure to save the world, okay?"

"Well, it's just this forest," Dipper said.

"This forest is my world," said Candy. "So save it."

Dipper grinned. "I will."

Dipper and Rowan returned to the Museum, flying in from above so the servants wouldn't see until it was too late to stop them. What were those guys still doing here, anyway? Three days ago, Gideon had suggested to Ivy the hamadryad that she do something to sabotage the servants and Order members that were standing guard around the Museum. Dipper was hoping Ivy and other hamadryads and supernatural creatures would come and drive their enemies away, but so far no one had shown up.

Rowan landed, and Dipper went inside. Melody was anxiously waiting, and she hugged Dipper tightly when she saw him. As expected, Ford was angry that Dipper had left, though everyone was impressed and excited about Dipper's conversation with Caleb. Robbie wondered aloud if it'd be possible to bring anyone over to their side without Dipper.

The visit to the Chius had gone better than Dipper had expected. Caleb had seen that his actions had hurt the people he loved rather than helped them. He'd been ready to change his mind; he just needed Dipper and Candy to help him get there. And now he and Andrew were on the road to reconciliation.

Reconciliation. Dipper wanted to be reconciled with his sibling. When was Mabel coming back? What was taking Gideon so long? It helped that Caleb had apologized for his part in hurting her, but it didn't bring her back. It didn't stop the constant worry in the back of Dipper's mind that Mabel was going to die at any moment.

He shook his head. No. She wasn't going to die. She couldn't. Gideon would save her. Dipper would see her again.

As he went to sleep that night, he repeated that in his head over and over. He had to believe it.

Mabel would be here soon.