The Symbols moved together. Their footsteps weren't quite in sync, but they kept pace with each other. A strange energy surrounded them — not like when they formed the Wheel, but still magical. This felt right. They were where they needed to be.

The hallway wasn't long. At the end were two doors — one to the Symbols' left, and one to their right. The Symbols didn't even look to the left. They knew which room Bill was in.

And there he was. The door to the bedroom was open, and Bill stood inside. There was nothing else in there — just Bill in Lee's body, a bed, and a few other pieces of furniture, all resting on the plain brown carpet. Bill smiled genially at them. "Welcome," he said. "Come on in."

For a split second, the Symbols hesitated. But then they moved forward. They needed to go in the room to stop Bill, to get him out of Lee's body, so that's what they did. Bill was alone, with no magical diagrams or objects, and no weapons. This was their opportunity.

They walked in and surrounded Bill. And they readied their weapons — some of them just had knockout patches, but Gideon's amulet started to glow, Dipper raised the grappling hook, and Lee, Melody, and Wendy all lifted stun guns and pointed them at Bill. Ford was the only one with a real gun, and he left it in his holster, which Lee thought was probably for the best. Better to stun Bill and then figure out what to do next.

But Bill gave them no chance to stun him.

As soon as all the Symbols were inside the room, the door slammed shut. Lee whirled around to see one of the servants, who'd been hiding behind the door. Lee fired his stun gun, but the man anticipated the shot and ducked just in time. The energy from the stun gun dissipated on the wall.

Well, who cared about the servant? It was Bill who mattered. Lee turned and pointed his stun gun at the demon.

Then Bill clapped his hands.

And the Symbols fell to the ground.

They cried out as a dark power reached into them and ripped their energy away. Lee felt his knees buckle under the magic. It was like the disaster a few days ago, when the Wheel's energy was stolen from them — but this time without the Wheel.

Bill was stealing their life force with no other magic, no special dagger. Nothing but his yellow eyes and triumphant smile.

"Marcus, take their weapons," the demon instructed. The servant obliged, stepping to each Symbol in turn and taking their stun guns and other weapons. The Symbols were too weak to stop him. The magic they were under was like a physical weight keeping them down — so much so that Gideon lay facedown in the carpet, unable to look at Marcus and freeze him with his amulet.

Marcus calmly untied the amulet from the boy's neck and put it in his pocket.

"No," Melody whispered. She raised her stun gun with shaking hands. But Marcus got to her before she could shoot, and he twisted the gun out of her grip.

"Don't try to struggle," Bill suggested. "It's rather pathetic."

Marcus took Ford's gun, then moved to Robbie and reached for the hunting knife at his side.

"No," someone growled. A stun gun fired; the shot hit Marcus in the side.

The servant collapsed.

"I'll. . . show. . . you. . . pathetic," Wendy said to Bill.

"Ooh, very nice," Bill said. She turned her stun gun on him, but he stepped forward and kicked at her arm. She cried out, and he bent down to force the stun gun out of her hand. With that done, he pulled Marcus's unconscious body away from the rest of the Symbols, so no one could take their weapons back. He gave Robbie a nice kick as he went, seemingly just for fun.

Then he went back to where he'd been standing: in the center of the Symbols, smiling down at them. The Symbols were struggling to push themselves up into sitting positions, and Bill didn't try to stop them. They could hardly sit — Lee found himself on all fours, barely able to lift his head — so it wasn't like they were a threat.

"How?" Pacifica asked, sitting against the bed. "How are you doing this?" Her voice was raspy, her breathing labored.

"Do you like it?" Bill asked her. He didn't answer her question.

"You're in a human body," she persisted. "You need — diagrams and objects and words and — you can't just cast a spell on your own."

"Much like I can't cast a spell that the minotaurs use?" Bill said smugly.

Lee looked from Pacifica to Bill. So Cipher had cast that spell. Enoch's uncle hadn't been involved. How. . . ?

"You'll just have to accept that I can do things you never expected," Bill said.

"Wait," Dipper said. "Look." He lifted a weak finger and pointed to the corner of the room. "The carpet."

The carpet?

"It's loose," Dipper said, and that seemed to be all he had the energy to say.

"Ah, yes, very clever, Shooting Star," Bill said. He went to the corner of the room, stepping past Lee and Fidds, and took the carpet in hand. It peeled back easily, and Lee glimpsed some kind of white chalk pattern underneath.

Bill released the carpet and returned to the center of the room. "You caught me. I had the servants remove a section the carpet from this room, and the wood below was a canvas for my spell diagram. Then we lay the carpet back on top, and thus we had a hidden spell, just waiting to be activated by my clap. That's how I stole the power from the Wheel and redirected it in my favor, and that's how I'm doing the same thing now. Genius, wouldn't you say, Crescent Moon?"

Pacifica didn't respond, but the look on her face was clearly scared. Now that Lee knew about it, he could see the line in the carpet by the bed where the servants had cut. How hadn't he noticed it before?

"And," Bill continued, "the spell is working even without the Wheel being active. It stored the Wheel's power — and the power of the other supernatural creatures helping the Wheel. The other power didn't last long, but I had enough time to cast nonhuman magic throughout the Manor. Including the barrier that kept your bodyguards out. I stole the power."

"That's. . . that's dark magic," Pacifica said.

"Oh, yes. Very dark." Bill smiled widely. "You shouldn't expect anything less, Crescent Moon."

Lee felt dizzy. He knew enough about dark magic to know that this was costing Bill. He kept returning to the same spot — the center of his diagram, maybe, where he could better fuel the spell? Magic like this, so dark and powerful that it could steal the power from others to use against them, took a toll on the caster. Bill was likely using Lee's own body, as he inhabited it, to fuel the spell.

Would that weaken him?

Bill seemed unconcerned about that. He remained in place and continued taunting the Symbols. "I'm so happy with how well this is working," he said. "Did you wonder why you wanted to come to me? Did you even stop to think that it might be a trap? No, you didn't. That's also a part of my spell here."

The connection. The Symbols were all connected; they had to stay together. And nobody had thought that they should all just stay away from the Manor. No. . . Lee had been adamant that they come. So had Ford and the others.

"It was subtle at first. A desire to come here, to fight me — no one would suspect that, since it was the plan to begin with. Even with my magical threads between you, which I'm sure you saw, you still wanted to come. You didn't realize you were being pushed along by the magic. And the closer you got to me, the stronger the magic's influence grew. It grew until you were all standing on the spell diagram, ready to provide your energy."

Bill once again smiled widely. Lee could see his own gums. It sickened him, the way Bill was twisting Lee's face.

"Not only did I steal your magic and use it for my own purposes," the demon said, "but I also stole your thoughts. And I brought you to me."

It was too much. Lee couldn't hold his head up to look at Bill anymore. He dropped his gaze to the deceptive carpet.

Was this it? Were they defeated?

"I'm sure it feels like you're dying," Bill said, "but don't worry. Because of the unexpected way I've taken your life force, I think you'll all survive the trip to my dimension. And then I'll have free reign to do to you whatever I wish. So get ready, my Symbols — we're close. I can feel it. We'll be there in about ten minutes. Maybe only five."

Five minutes. That gave them some time, right?

But Lee couldn't think of what would happen in those five minutes besides the Symbols lying helplessly on the ground, unable to do anything.

"I can't wait," Bill said. "It'll be such fun."

Lee looked up enough to look around at the others. Were they all as weak as he was? It certainly seemed like it. They were laying on the ground, or sitting against the bed, or trying to move to a better position. . . .

Wait. What was Gideon doing?

"You. . . ," said a tremulous voice. It was Fiddleford.

"Yes, Portal-Bound?" Bill asked.

"Your dimension. . . is empty," Fidds said. "Nothing there. You'll. . . have nothing."

Lee wasn't really paying attention to what Fidds was saying. He was watching Gideon. The boy was doing some sort of army crawl, slowly so as to not get Bill's attention — or maybe slowly because that's all he could do to fight the magic. Regardless, he was moving, getting behind the other Symbols and making his way to Marcus.

To get his amulet back.

Lee felt a tentative hope in his heart.

Bill had yet to notice Gideon. At the moment, he was responding to Fidds. "Oh, that's where you're wrong, Portal-Bound," Bill assured him. "See, my dimension is empty now. But in a few short minutes, it'll have me. That's all it needs: me and my power. And if you think my accomplishments with human magic are impressive, just you wait until you see me in all my glory."

"I'll pass," Lee said. Just so that Bill would look at him and not at Gideon. "I've seen. . . more than enough of your. . . glory."

Gideon was getting close. Lee made sure to look straight at Bill, not at Gideon, but in his periphery he could see that the boy was getting close.

"Oh, but you haven't," Bill said, happy to exchange verbal blows with his victims. "I'll be so much stronger once I'm free. You'll see."

Lee scoffed. "I think I'll just see a lot of yellow. . . and not a lot of glory."

Bill glared at him for a moment; then the expression melted into a pitying look. "Your pithy insults aren't going to stop my spell, Blind Eye."

"No," said Gideon. "But I am."

Bill whirled around, and Gideon froze him on the spot.

Yes! "Gideon," Lee said, "help me and Fidds."

He wanted to say more, but it'd take too much time, with how much effort it took to speak. Hopefully Gideon would know what he meant. He knew the boy could only levitate one person at a time, but surely he could time it effectively so that Lee and Fidds could get over to Bill without having to move so slowly.

Sure enough, Gideon released Bill from his magic and levitated Fidds, sending the man flying through the air and crashing into Bill. Bill fell onto his back with a cracking sound that made Lee wince, and Fidds knelt over him on his left side. Bill struggled, but Gideon froze him again, giving Fidds time to get a better position.

But Fidds wasn't strong enough to hold Bill down on his own, not without the amulet's help — and the amulet would be needed for. . . other things. Lee glanced at Ford, who was watching the scene with an uncertain look on his face.

A blue glow appeared around Lee, and Gideon levitated him over to Bill and Fidds, dropping him down on Bill's right. The levitation was disorienting, but Lee did his best to recover, and he held Bill down.

With two men, one of whom with a body years younger than Bill's stolen body, keeping Bill prone became possible. Plus, the spell that Bill had cast was weighing Fidds and Lee down already, so it was easy to keep their positions on top of the demon.

"Wait!" Ford had realized what was going on. "Lee, wait!"

"Quiet, Ford," Lee said. "Fidds. Now."

Bill laughed. The sound was harsh and loud in Lee's ears. "Oh, Portal-Bound," he said, "look at you. You're once again caught between these two brothers. How is that fair? Don't you think you deserve better? You said my dimension was empty, but I told you thirty years ago that we could rebuild it together. And we still can."

"Stop," Fidds whispered. "I won't."

"You won't help me? But, Portal-Bound, you're bound for such great things if you come back to me."

"No," Fidds said, but it was clear he was weakening. His already brittle body was struggling under the weight of the spell, and Bill looked ready to throw him off.

"Knockout patch," Lee said. "Someone get me a knockout patch."

"I can guess why you're here holding me down," Bill said to Fidds. "Stanley wants you to do something atrocious. But you shouldn't listen to him. You shouldn't be under his control, Fiddleford. And once we're in my dimension, you don't have to do what the Pines tell you ever again."

"Knockout patch!" Lee shouted.

"And you, Lincoln," Bill said. "Do you really want to—"

"Here." A knockout patch floated into Lee's vision. Someone had gotten it out of a pocket, and Gideon had levitated it over. Lee took it, then shifted his weight to his elbows so that he could keep Bill down while having use of his hands.

Unwrapping the knockout patch was the most ridiculously difficult thing Lee had ever done. It would've been easy under normal circumstances, but with the weight from the spell making it hard to move, and his elbows pressed into Bill's chest and shoulder, and his hands shaking — well, he got there eventually. Bill was thrashing, moving his head around to try to make his neck inaccessible. With Fidds and Lee in the way, Gideon didn't have a view of Bill's head anymore and couldn't freeze it.

"You can't stop me," Bill said. "We're almost there."

Leepushed Bill's head to the side, keeping it still, then pressed the knockoutpatch to Bill's neck. The demon fell unconscious. And Lee let out a breath of relief.

He looked up, his eyes meeting Fidds'. Rather than relieved, Fidds' expression was terrified. "Lee, I. . ."

"Now's the time," Lee said.

"No!" Ford immediately shouted.

"He's unconscious. He won't struggle." The words hurt to say, but Lee said them. He somehow had enough strength to speak now that he had to say the unthinkable words.

"He might be out of your body already!" Ford said. "We have to form the Wheel and check, Lee!"

"The spell hasn't stopped, even though he's unconscious. Which means he's still in there," Lee said. He could still feel the weight on him. He could feel the spell stealing his energy.

"Not necessarily. We have to try the other options!"

Lee turned on his brother. "There's no time. We're dying, Ford. Or we will be dead after we get to Bill's dimension. And that could be any second! We have to act now."

"Wait, what's going on?"

It was Pacifica's voice. Pacifica. Oh no. . .

Lee let out a sob.

But just one. Then he was back to business. "Fiddleford. Now."

"I — I can't!"

"You have to."

"Lee, don't you dare!" Ford started moving toward them.

But a blue glow stopped him.

"Gideon!" he roared, turning an angry look on the boy.

"I'm sorry," Gideon said. His voice was small. But the glow of his magic remained around Ford.

"Gideon, you let me go right—"

"Fidds, take out the knife—"

"Wait, Lincoln, Fidds, what are you—"

Fidds took the knife out of the sheath that was hidden under his clothes. Everyone fell silent.

For a second. Then — "No!" Pacifica cried.

"Fiddleford, you stop this!"

"Grunkle Lee, what's going on?"

"Everyone look away!" Lee bellowed, his voice cutting through all the others. "Fiddleford, now!"

Tears were running down Fidds' face, but he gave a weak nod. With shaking hands, he raised the knife.

Everyone was yelling and screaming. None could stop Fidds — they were too slow, and Gideon was still holding Ford with his magic — but Lee could see a few of them in his periphery, crawling toward them. Lee tried to shout them down, get them to look away — no one should have to see what was about to happen — Fidds included, but he had to do it, he had to, they were almost to Bill's dimension and Fidds had to stop it—

Fidds raised the knife over Bill's — over Lee's — heart.

Then Fidds let out his own guttural scream. It was afraid, panicked, angry — it was harsher and louder than Bill's laughter had been. It encapsulated everyone else's screams yet stood apart from them all. It was the scream of a man horrified with himself.

Lee looked away.

And Fidds plunged the knife down.