Mabel Pines put her hair up into a high ponytail with a glittery hair tie and swept the extra hair back in place with multiple multi-colored clips. She was always the type to leave it down, but when one goes out nearly every day for hours at a time in the blistering eternal summer heat with the possibility of fighting supernatural monsters, then one would probably want to consider having it up instead of it getting in the way of everything.

Speaking of summer for all eternity, it had been not even two weeks since Bill Cipher took over the town and they still have no way of getting rid of him. It'd been seven days since Dipper traded his life for hers, not that she was counting (she definitely was. It was one of the only things she could think about. It didn't help that Great Uncle Ford invented clocks that worked during this supernatural end of the world after Bill made all the other pre-existing clocks stop. They all tried to make them work. They couldn't.)

She squinted at her reflection in her dresser's mirror, considering the new hairstyle. She thought it looked kind of out of place on her, but she could get used to it. She smiled brightly at herself, patted Waddles on his cute little head, and headed out her bedroom door.

Or, at least, she would have if not for Robbie--Robbie, of all people--leaning casually against the doorpost. His fingers were twisting together and he wouldn't meet her eyes. It might have been the summer heat but his cheeks were flushed. "Robbie? You're actually in my room," she cocked her head at him, a little confused. Robbie had never seeked her out before. Maybe he was coming to get her for the patrol they were about to go on with Pacifica in a few minutes.

He jumped a bit at that. He met her eyes for a split second before looking away again. "Hey, well uh. I was wondering if you could y'know, braid my hair or something because it gets in my face sometimes and everyone else is kind of busy."

Mabel just stared at him, not believing what she was hearing.

Robbie must have mistook her for judging him because the pink flush on his face turned dark red. "Never mind, it was stupid. I'll go now. Okay, bye," he tried to turn away, but Mabel grabbed his arm.

"No! C'mon, sit! I just can't believe you want me to do your hair," she said delightedly, tugging him until she sat on the edge of her bed and she pushed Robbie down so he was on the floor with his back to the bed. "Okay, let me just brush your hair first."

Robbie started to get up but Mabel pushed him down again. "Really, it's no trouble. Just a stupid idea. I can just deal with it, we need to go downstairs anyway."

"Nope, not on my watch. Pacifica can wait. Now, do you want a simple 3-strand braid, a dutch braid, or two french braids?" She asked, brushing his hair back.

He was silent for a moment. "I don't know, whatever looks good, I guess?"

"One French braid, coming right up!"

After a couple minutes of brushing and braiding, Robbie said quietly, "Do you think Tambry will like it? If we ever get them all back?"

Mabel's hands stilled, taken aback by his vulnerability. Then, with as much sincere, serious passion as she could muster, she said, "Robbie Valentino, Tambry would love it."

"Thanks."

Ten minutes later, after some serious primping, Mabel and Robbie meet Pacifica downstairs at last. They found her by the giftshop with a foot tapping the floor impatiently. She narrowed her eyes at them and said, "Ugh, finally. I've been waiting for you two for like, ever." She adjusted the shotgun hanging off of a llama-sweater clad shoulder and turned away haughtily, walking out the door and into the fiery world.

Mabel looked down at her watch, which indicated that it was only mid-morning, exactly the time when they were supposed to leave. These special watches were of the works of her Great Uncle Ford that he invented a couple days ago that indicated the time of day. In Weirdmageddon, before the watches, they all had to rely on their natural body clocks, but Ford explained that he used the equation that could collapse the natural weirdness barrier surrounding Gravity Falls so that they could get the outside time. It worked, of course.

Lately, Ford has sunken into some kind of depression and this was the only thing he's really done. All he does now is stay in his room, he rarely even goes into the basement. The only time he went down there was to create these watches. Mabel does her best to try and include him in everything and bring him stuff, but it's no use. She doesn't know what more she could do except be there for him.

Now, catching up with Pacifica and locking the gift shop door behind them, Robbie ruffled Pacifica's hair good naturedly. She sputtered in indignation, in which he ignored, and said, "Sorry, drama queen."

Mabel grinned. "I could braid your hair too, if you want, Pacifica," she offered.

"I--" Pacifica scowled, picking at her sweater. "Maybe later."

Pacifica must sunburn real easily, Mabel thought. Pacifica's ears were red. She shrugged and skipped ahead of them, making sure her grappling hook was snug against her side. Robbie had a shotgun as well as Pacifica. Stan offered her one when they planned patrols a week ago, but Mabel insisted on her trusty grappling hook. The conversation with Stan went like this:

Before the first patrol, Mabel was as impatient as ever to leave. She wanted to find her brother. Stan went up to her and said, "Hey kid, uhh... I know your parents would kill me but they aren't here right now. Anyway, here's this. You know how to use this, right?" He held up a gun.

Mabel blinked at him and held up her grappling hook. "No thanks, Grunkle Stan, I'm all good."

"Your grappling hook? How is that supposed to help fight monsters?"

"If you don't ask about my grappling hook, then I won't question why you have ten guns and that you're giving them to kids," she winked.

"Ugh, deal."

Anyway, back in the present, Mabel and the others had been walking for a while, having hushed conversations about nothing, really. About half an hour into the forest, Mabel realized they've reached a location that she only just barely recognized.

Along the way, with Mabel taking the lead, Pacifica in the middle, and Robbie in the back, Pacifica picked up flowers that hadn't been burned up by the fires yet. Mabel met her eyes and grinned. Pacifica rolled her eyes, but went back to making a flower crown with whatever flowers they all came across. Mabel silently thought she looked like a force of nature, what with Pacifica making a crown of colorful flowers with a gun slung nonchalantly over her shoulder.

A few minutes later, she felt something land delicately over her head. Mabel blinked, stopped walking, and looked at Pacifica in bewilderment. She must have put the flower crown on her head. Mabel felt her cheeks burn. The blonde didn't meet her gaze. Instead, she crossed her arms and looked anywhere that wasn't Mabel. "Happy late birthday, or whatever," she grumbled.

Mabel grinned so hard that she thought her face would break. "Oh, my gosh, thank you so much!" She rocked on her heels, stopping herself from pulling Pacifica into a hug because she didn't know if she would be comfortable with that or not.

Robbie looked like his eyes were bulging out of his head. "Shit, wait, it was her birthday?" He whispered seemingly to himself.

Mabel smiled sadly and went back to walking. It was a few days ago, but it felt so wrong to celebrate without Dipper by her side. Everyone who knew her birthday just simply smiled sympathetically and went on with their day. She didn't appreciate the gesture. Instead of smiling, why wouldn't they do something worthwhile instead? Getting her twin brother back would have been the best gift in the world.

They reached what used to be a very beautiful place with rich green grass, fallen logs, strong trees with large leaves, tons and tons of flowers, and fireflies, but now it was all just ash and char. One of the fallen oak logs that she used to sit on all the time was burnt black. She sighed and shook her head. It was uncanny how something that used to be so beautiful could be destroyed like this in only ten days.

Her group stopped abruptly when they heard chatter and laughter of henchmaniacs. Even though she had been going on patrols for a week, this was the first time Mabel had actually been close to a henchmaniac enough to see them. They must have been getting bold, being this close to the Mystery Shack. Mabel, Pacifica, and Robbie stopped right behind a large bush that concealed them from the sight of the monsters in the clearing.

Mabel ignored the conversation the group of four were discussing, but her ears zeroed in on one word: Dipper. They were talking about her brother.

Henchmaniac 1, as Mabel dubbed, cackled, its sharp, yellow teeth bared. "Yeah, yeah, and did you see when that Dipper kid fell flat on his ass? Ha! Priceless!"

Mabel frowned. Her brother got hurt?

Henchmaniac 2 bounced in place. "It's been only four days and the sapling is so skilled at magic! It's pretty impressive if I do say so myself; he has a great teacher. It took me weeks to hone even one of my magic skills."

"It's not that impressive," Henchmaniac 3 grumbled in it's low, deep voice.

Mabel blinked. Then blinked again. Magic? But Dipper didn't have the journals anymore. Dipper had told her that Bill burned them right in front of his eyes. Maybe he had spells and stuff memorized, or small, harmless magic objects that he kept in his vest.

Henchmaniac 2 howled. "Not that impressive, you say! Bill is a dream demon and he gave the sapling a small sum of his magic, just you wait until he knows how to do everything that Bill knows how to do! It's only a matter of time and it will be so fun."

"He will be a mighty fine demon like us yet!" Henchmaniac 1 said.

Mabel felt the world collapse beneath her. She...she couldn't believe what she was hearing. The other henchmaniacs had something to say in the conversation, but she couldn't hear them with the blood rushing through her ears, with the panic gnawing at her heart.

"Oh, God," whispered Pacifica with anguish.

"Oh, fuck," hissed Robbie.

She needed to get out of there.

Mabel's mind reminded her just in time that she needed to be quiet when she turned around, pulling along shell-shocked Pacifica and Robbie.

Five minutes later, when the group knew they were out of sight and the henchmaniacs couldn't hear them, Mabel dropped onto her knees. Pacifica stood silent and still. Robbie threw down his gun on the grass and paced back and forth, pulling at his hair, messing up his braid (not that Mabel cared at the moment.)

Pacifica gasped in breaths. "Oh, my God."

"Your brother," Robbie breathed, still pacing, "a demon. How?! What!"

Mabel closed her eyes and shook her head. "I can't believe it," she whispered.

She must have mistaken, must have misheard. But Pacifica and Robbie heard the conversation too.

Did Dipper make a deal? Why did he become a demon? What was the cost, just why, why, why? Was losing the journals a deal-breaker for him? Did he want power, or something? Maybe he lost the journals and found an opportunity, and wanted more. She shook her head in anger. She couldn't think that of her brother; she didn't know the circumstances. She didn't even know it was true, anyway. Bill's monsters couldn't be trusted.

"Bill's monsters can't be trusted," Mabel voiced out loud. "They probably knew we were there. They would say anything. Right?"

Pacifica fiddled with the ends of her sleeves in a rare display of nervousness. "Yeah, hopefully."

Robbie stopped his pacing. "I hope you're right, Mabel. I mean, this can't be right." He picked up his gun again and slung the strap over his shoulder with practiced ease.

"Yo, dudes! What's up."

Mabel got up from the ground and turned to see Wendy. "Oh, Wendy, am I glad to see you!"

Wendy strolled up to the three, axe at her side, and pointed at Mabel's new flower crown. "Nice. Anyway, it's cool that we found each other here. We can group up if you guys are done already."

"Yup, yup, we are totally done," Robbie said in a haste, running to Wendy's group of four. "I am definitely patrol-ed up right now."

Mabel breathed in shakily and turned to Pacifica. The latter jerked her head over in Wendy's direction and Mabel nodded with a smile. The two girls went and joined Wendy and her group.

"Cool, cool. We'll go this way," Wendy said and pointed in the opposite direction.

"Sounds good to me," Mabel said. She wanted to be as far away from those awful, lying henchmaniacs as she could.

They walked and walked and Mabel was lost in the activity and when their time was up, they headed back to the Shack.

Mabel smacked right into Robbie with a grunt, who had stopped for some reason. When she looked up, the rest of the group was stopped as well, their faces all pale, eyes wide, and stiff-postured.

Mabel furrowed her brow and looked around them.

Mabel dropped her grappling hook. She didn't hear the thud when it made contact with the ground.

"Dipper?"