It took a while for Geneva to come back. The boys didn't dare wait in her room, in case somebody else came by. But even with their coats and gloves and heat mushrooms, it was really cold on the roof, and Dipper soon convinced Gideon to go inside and get some blankets. Fortunately, Geneva kept a stack of blankets in her closet (she got cold easily), and Gideon grabbed a few of those.

Sitting on the backs of the perytons, huddled in their blankets, Dipper and Gideon couldn't do much but talk. "I wish there was something I could do," Dipper said. "I know you said on Sunday that you probably couldn't make me invisible, but still. I don't wanna sit out here in the cold for hours."

"Sorry," Gideon said. Once he had his amulet, he'd use it to turn invisible and search for Ford and Lee. He didn't think there was anything useful for Dipper to do except wait with the perytons until they could all escape. "If it makes you feel any better, it's not going to be any fun when I'm sneaking around."

"More fun than sitting in the cold," Dipper muttered. Then he patted Marigold's neck. "Not that I don't want to spend time with you, Marigold."

Marigold ruffled her wings. Even on the open rooftop, the perytons didn't seem the mind the cold as much as the boys did.

"Hey, Gideon," Dipper said after a moment of silence. "I've been thinking since you told me you could turn invisible with your amulet. Is that how. . . Well, Mabel told me that she saw you down in the bunker. The day Shifty died. Did you follow us down there, invisible?"

Gideon glanced at him, then nodded. "Bill sent me. He led me to believe that the first Journal was in the bunker, and I could take it from you and trap you down there."

"You came down to steal another Journal from us?"

Gideon stared at Rowan's fur. "I don't know. I don't know what I would've done if the Journal was there. But it wasn't."

"You saved Mabel from Shifty, didn't you?"

Another nod, this one uncomfortable. "I saved all of you from Shifty," Gideon said softly. "I switched the guns so that Ford would accidentally kill it."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah. Shifty was going to steal the Journal and trap you in there."

"Just like you were?"

Gideon hesitated. "Well, that's what Bill wanted me to do," he said. "But I didn't do it. I gave Mabel her Journal back when I had a chance to take it. And I didn't try to trap you."

There was a moment of silence. "I'm glad you didn't," said Dipper. "I don't think you had to kill Shifty, though."

Gideon was quiet. Technically, Ford was the one who had killed Shifty, but Dipper probably didn't want to be corrected on that point. Gideon still thought killing it was the right thing to do: If Shifty had gotten out, its shapeshifting abilities could've caused even more chaos than was already present. But Gideon didn't say as much to Dipper.

More silence. Gideon shivered and drew his blanket tighter around him.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Dipper asked, "How long have you had a crush on my sister?"

Gideon blinked in surprise. For a moment, he thought of denying that he had a crush at all — but Dipper would probably see through that. So he decided on the truth. "I don't know," he said. "I think it started somewhere between when I took her Journal and when I followed you guys down to the bunker." He hesitated. "Is it obvious?"

"To me, yeah," Dipper said, shooting a mischievous grin Gideon's way. "To her, probably not. She doesn't really think about that sort of stuff."

"She doesn't?"

"No, she doesn't think we're old enough to deal with it. Which, I mean," he admitted, "she has a point. It's pretty complicated to be more than friends."

"Yeah," Gideon said softly. Then, "But does she at least want to be my friend?"

Dipper laughed, but not rudely. "You tell me, dude. She's been spending most of her time with you since you came to the Museum. I think she's forgiven you, and I think she definitely wants to be your friend. Which is saying something, because Mabel can hold some impressive grudges."

Gideon couldn't stop a smile from coming to his face. That was good. That was really good.

"I wish I could go with you to save her," Dipper said. "I mean, I trust you — which is also saying something, because I never thought I would. But. . . I still want to go with you. I don't want her to think I don't care about her."

"I'll tell her how much you wanted to come," Gideon said. "But I don't think she'd doubt you. It's easy to tell you're a good brother."

From the smile that came onto Dipper's face, that was the right thing to say. "Thanks," Dipper said. Then, "Your mom said something about a daughter. Do you have a sister?"

Gideon winced. It was always painful thinking about Grace. "I did," he said carefully. "She's gone. I don't like to talk about her."

He worried Dipper wouldn't get the hint, but thankfully, the other boy didn't pursue the topic further. Instead, "Where do you think Geneva is? Is the game room across the mansion?"

Gideon shrugged. "Yeah, sort of. But she should be on her way back, unless she ran into trouble."

"I hope she didn't."

They waited some more. Gideon's anxiety grew. Was Geneva safe? Did the servants catch her? Were they hurting her? Gideon had never known the servants to hurt his parents, but he knew full well that they could. Maybe they would, now that they were openly working for Bill.

Rowan picked up on this anxiety and sent Gideon feelings of calm and assurance. It would all work out, he promised. His kind thoughts helped. But Geneva was taking so long that nothing could stop Gideon's worries entirely.

Eventually, Gideon got hungry and ate one of his sandwiches. He was just finishing it off when he heard the balcony door open. "Gideon?" came Geneva's whisper.

His eyes widened. She was back. She was safe. Gideon immediately climbed off Rowan and moved to the edge of the roof. "Up here, Mother," he called softly. "Do you have it?"

She looked surprised and worried to see Gideon on the roof. But she recovered and said, "Yes, I have it. Are those. . . are those pegasi up there with you? They're beautiful."

"They're perytons. They flew us here," said Gideon. "Are the servants suspicious at all? Did they get in your way?"

Geneva shook her head. "Sorry for the delay. They did get in the way, but I don't think they're suspicious about anything. They just asked me where I was going, so I said I was hungry, and they sent me to the kitchens. I had to eat something there before I could leave without anyone getting suspicious. But I got the game room eventually." She looked nervously up at him. "Could you come down?"

Gideon nodded. "Do you want to come down with me, Dipper?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Sure," said Dipper.

The boys dropped down to the balcony. Gideon turned to Geneva. "May I have it?" he asked eagerly.

She smiled and opened her handbag, pulling out the teal blue stone.

Gideon took it from her and thanked her. Then he stared down at the amulet as a feeling of relief swept through him. Here it was! He had his amulet again. He could actually be useful now.

He fastened it to his collar. Its weight on his collarbone was a familiar friend.

"Yes!" Dipper cheered. "Thank you, thank you, Geneva! Can you turn invisible now, Gideon?"

What Gideon really wanted to do was jump of the balcony and fly around for a while, but he refrained. All right, amulet, he thought, I know it's been a while, but we have work to do. He closed his eyes, concentrated, and turned invisible.

"Woah," said Dipper. Gideon opened his eyes as Dipper reached out and waved his hand around. He bumped into Gideon's arm. "So cool, dude. Are you going to go look for my grunkles now?"

Gideon nodded, only to remember that Dipper couldn't see him at the moment. He turned visible again. "I'll start with Ford," he said. "I'll go find him, and maybe reveal myself to him if I can. You said you know where he is, Mother?"

"They have him in the interior guest room on the first floor," she replied. "The one without any windows."

Gideon nodded. He'd always thought that room was more fitting for prisoners than guests. Knowing his family, that was likely intentional. "How many servants are guarding it?"

"I don't know. Two, perhaps, or maybe three. Can you get in there safely if you're invisible?"

He didn't know, so he'd better find out. "I won't take any risks," he said. "I'll just scout the area and come back if I can't get in."

He left Dipper on the balcony, then had Geneva open the door for him so he could slip through invisibly. The halls of the Northwest Manor were shadowy, with a few lights shining dimly and most of them off altogether. Gideon suppressed a shiver and headed for the room that Ford was in.

The halls were mostly empty — after all, there were only half the servants and no businessmen coming to speak with Gaston. Still, Gideon stayed close to the walls, which turned out to be a good strategy when two servants turned a corner and almost walked right into him. Gideon waited until they were well out of sight before allowing himself to release the terrified breath he held. Then he continued on his way.

He soon caught up to those same two servants and realized they were going the same direction he was. Making sure to keep a few yards of distance between them, he tailed the servants. They went all the way to Ford's prison room, where two other servants were. The two arriving servants switched places with the current guards, who went on their way. Gideon stood at the end of the hallway and watched.

He lifted a foot to take a step, then froze. The hall was completely still. Would the two servants hear his footsteps in the silence? Probably, since the servants had sharp senses. Gideon wondered if he could fly while invisible. If so, he'd be able to silently hover around the servants.

He didn't dare try it while standing right in front of them, though. And how was he going to get through that closed door, anyway? Wait here for hours until the servants brought Ford a meal, and slip through when they opened the door?

No, he decided, he'd better get back to Dipper. They'd make a plan with the information they had, and Gideon would experiment with the amulet a bit.

With a final look at the door, Gideon turned away and left Ford's prison room behind.

~~~~~

It was nearly time for dinner by the time Gideon was ready to leave his parents' room again. For the past few hours, he'd tried out different things with the amulet, only to have it turn out basically as he expected. He couldn't make both himself and Dipper invisible at the same time, and he couldn't turn Dipper invisible at all (no matter how much Dipper had asked him to keep trying). He couldn't phase through walls, either. Most disappointing of all was that he couldn't fly while invisible. Couldn't even hover and get rid of his traitorous footsteps. Gideon was a naturally quiet person, but even he would have trouble sneaking through a silent hallway without making some sort of suspicious noise.

"They might be taking Ford's dinner soon," Dipper said, glancing at the clock on the wall. "Do you want to go try to get in?"

Gideon didn't respond. He was thinking. "Mother," he said to Geneva, who had been in and out of the room since Gideon had left the first time, "do you think you could come with me?"

Geneva looked startled. "Why?"

"To mask my footsteps," he said. "Maybe you could go and ask to talk to Ford, because. . . I don't know, just because you're curious, or you want to make sure he's comfortable, or something like that. Then, when they open the door for you, I could slip inside."

She hesitated. "Would they fall for that?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "We'll have to come up with a good reason."

"What if they don't let me see him? They've let me know very clearly that they don't take orders from me anymore."

"If they don't let you in, then you'll leave, and I'll stay until they bring him food."

At that, Dipper's stomach growled a little. "After you go down to Ford," Dipper said to Geneva, "do you think you could bring some food up here?"

Gideon glanced at him. "You have two more sandwiches."

"I know, but we might as well eat here while we're here. Who knows when I'll need those sandwiches?"

"You'll be going straight back to the Museum after this, so you won't need them later," Gideon pointed out. He didn't know when "after this" was, but it was best to eat their sandwiches and then worry about smuggling food up here.

Dipper pouted. "Fine. I just wanted to try your rich people food."

"The servants aren't making anything fancy right now," Geneva said. She sounded both conciliatory and resentful. "They aren't serving dinner to us, either, so I'll have to go to the kitchens. I'll grab something extra for you."

"Okay, but don't take so much that the servants get suspicious," said Gideon. "What reason will we give for your visiting Stanford?"

They soon decided that she would pretend to be acting out of concern for Ford and curiosity for herself. It was the best motivation they could think of that would be realistic. Whether the servants would think it good enough to allow her to visit Ford, Gideon didn't know. But they had to try.

"I don't want to just stay here," Dipper grumbled. "Do I have to sit on the roof again?"

"You're welcome to stay in here," Geneva said, glancing out the balcony doors and shivering. "Anyone coming should knock before entering, even Gaston. But do be careful."

"Okay," Dipper said, though he still looked annoyed that he wouldn't be coming with them. "Tell Ford hi for me, Gideon."

Gideon nodded. "There's a possibility I won't be able to leave Ford's room until the morning, so don't worry if I don't come back tonight."

"Good luck."

With a final glance at Dipper and Geneva, Gideon turned invisible. Then Geneva went to the door, opened it, and started down the hall. Gideon followed and tried to match the pattern of her footsteps to mask his own noise.

They headed for the prison room. Soon, Gideon would see Stanford Pines.