A/N:

Hi guys!

I've been feeling kinds guilty for completely forgetting that this fanfiction exists, so I've been making chapters left and right.

There's also another reason...

...I got engaged in my own story.

Does that mean I'm doing something right with the book or am I slowly getting narcissistic?

Let me know on this line - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >

Anyway, back to the story!

*Ford's POV*

I still couldn't grasp the fact that Mabel had turned to stone.

Mabel, my grand niece...

"Ford! We have to think of a plan!" Stanley yelled. "Gah! There's a weirdness wave coming! Get inside!"

I shook out those thoughts and headed in with Stanley.

Mabel was turned to stone, Dipper was trapped in Bill's hands...

...and I didn't even have a plan.

I had two ways to stop Bill, but the first required the Cipher Wheel - we'd need Mabel to do that and I don't know how you reverse people to their original state without magic.

The second one was an option, but I didn't know how to get from here to there.

"Ford, do you have a plan?" Stanley asked me. "Did you know this was going to happen?"

"No, but I do have a weapon that can kill him with one shot." I said.

"So you did know."

"I only made it in case we weren't able to stop him! I thought we'd have defeated Bill by now!"

"You underestimated him, then. And now the twins are gone." Stanley said.

I sighed.

"Stanley, we're never going to stop him with all that negativity." I said. "The worst thing that could happen is if we all die trying."

Stanley chuckled. "Alright. But we're gonna need help."

And so we began gathering our supplies, heading out to find some people to help and add to our team.

After a long day, we managed to gather the whole town to our cause.

And so we went about our plan to save Dipper, Mabel and anyone else turned to stone - and to defeat Bill.

*Dipper's POV*

I was very worried about Mabel, Ford and Stan. Were they okay? Did Bill do something to them?

I couldn't seem to stop worrying about them - especially Mabel.

Was she okay? Did she get hurt? Where was she?

To distract myself from my worrying thoughts, I headed over to eat breakfast.

I wasn't scared that it'd be poisoned or anything - Bill needed me for his plans, so he'd want to keep me alive.

It was actually really good - fluffy pancakes with maple syrup and blueberries and raspberries on top... along with a little tiny smidge of whipping cream...

But I still kept wondering - why was Bill going out of his way to make me comfortable? Wouldn't he have just put me in a cage and served me gruel?

Or maybe he wouldn't serve me anything, I thought. He'd probably just give me the gruel when I'm to die of starvation or something, just to make things agonizing for me.

I finished my breakfast within seconds. I sighed.

"Stress eating," I mumbled.

Then I heard the scratching of paper coming from the answers book.

I ran over there immediately, seeing that an answer was coming in late:

Because you're gonna have a heck of a hard time mastering your magic, Pine Tree.

I felt dumb for not thinking of that before.

Then I started worrying about what I was going to endure.

If it's enough for Bill to put me in a fantasy world, it must be absolute torture, I thought, shivering.

But it's not like I was gonna play by Bill's rules. I was gonna survive on my own, master my magic as quickly as possible, and use it to defeat Bill, saving Mabel and the others.

I'm not going to do what Bill wants me to.

So now comes the hard part... how to get out of this place.

Well, I thought. We could at least start by going to "Ford's" office to start our "investigation". I could try and slip in questions about how to get out of this place.

So I opened the door and walked out of my room.

The first thing I noticed was that there was a glowing trail on the ground. So, hoping it would lead to Ford's office, I followed it, watching as it faded away as I traveled.

It led to a door, so I knocked on it.

The door opened and Ford was inside.

"Ah, good, good. Now, come with me outside." Ford gestured, walking out of the office and through a grand hall. He opened the golden doors and sunlight streamed in.

We were surrounded by a forest, filled with glowing mushrooms and fairies, all sorts of paranormal creatures around to study. It would take decades to discover them all.

"Alright, if we head to the east for a few minutes, we should be at the last sighting of those painted stones." Ford said, heading into the forest. "Are you coming, Dipper?"

"Coming!" I called, dashing towards him.

As we were walking, I decided maybe I should drop in a little hint of how to get out of here.

"Um, say the painted stones could be leading to somewhere outside of the forest - what would we do to get there?" I asked. Ford just looked at me as if I'd asked what color the sky was.

"Well, the only way to get to that 'place' is if you get banished." Ford asked.

"But how does someone get banished?" I pressed.

"By breaking the only rule." Ford said.

"Which is...?" I said, trying to pry it out of him.

"Dipper, you're not seriously thinking of getting yourself banished, are you?" Ford asked.

"No, that's not it! I'm just curious is all." I said unconvincingly.

Shoot, I thought. I forgot Ford was smarter than me. I'm too used to be the smartest person in the room...

I snapped out of my thoughts when Ford found a painted stone.

"Oh look! Here's one!" He said, racing towards it.

He took out a magnifying glass to inspect it.

"Hmm... looks like the paint has the same molecular structure as an amethyst." Ford said. "Is the paint made from crushed amethyst gems...?"

As much as the prospect was interesting, I knew it was fake and that this was a fantasy world so I just decided to make something up.

"Um... those look like aboriginal patterns. Maybe some aboriginals managed to survive to this day and they ate amethysts to survive. Then they decided to make the amethysts into paint so they could give a clue to any others who wanted to survive for that long as well." I said.

I knew it was ridiculous with little to no proof to get that much information, but I wanted to get this whole thing over with.

"Yeah, maybe..." Ford said. I stifled a laugh, pressing my hand on my mouth and letting out a tiny snort.

Luckily Ford didn't notice and instead found another stone, and another, leading towards somewhere in the far east.

"They seem to be leading us somewhere... come, Dipper, let's investigate." Ford said, following the trail.

I followed behind him.

It seemed to be leading to some sort of bubble wall, and I knew we'd reached the end of the fantasy world.

"Looks like we can't go any farther. This investigation will have to be discontinued." Ford said. "Come on, let's go look for something else to-"

"So to use magic in here I have to clap my hands twice, right?" I asked.

"Well, yes, but what are you going to-"

I clapped my hands twice and a giant pin was in my hands.

I threw it at the bubble wall as Ford screeched like a banshee. As the bubble wall popped, my surroundings turned dark and Ford dispersed into maggots.

Just as I was running to jump out of the fantasy world, blue chains grabbed my wrists, stopping me from going any farther. I was so close...

I tried to break free, to run out of there and stretch the chains so that they would break -

I felt the tingle on my forehead and eyes again, and the chains broke, but the remaining part of it was still latched onto my wrists. Before I could get trapped again I ran and jumped off.

And then I was next to a giant throne of stone statues.

Each one a person from town.

All of them... turned to stone.