Yes, the above artwork belongs to me. Not the best I've ever done(the proportions are off), but I was tired, and I couldn't find any fanart that suited this chapter. Anyway, enjoy the story.

Never had Dan enjoyed himself so much.

The looks on the humans' faces were priceless, Jazz's especially. He wished he could have done this sooner. Alas, he wasn't supposed to exist, and had to take massive amounts of energy from the Ghost Zone to survive. He couldn't travel too far from it.

He had to be close to Danny for the deal to work, as Bill needed to take over the boy's body immediately. So Danny had to come to him.

The ghost scowled a little, remembering the mistake of trying to control the septem tigris. They'd told it to go after Mabel in order to break Dipper's resolve, part of Bill's little mind game. Then it was supposed to create a situation in which the shifter, in Jazz's body, could lead the halfa wherever it pleased without raising suspicion.

But instead of just following the siblings to scare them, the tigris had gone ballistic and attempted to kill Danny. That wasn't part of the plan. Danny wasn't just a stabilizer for the portal, he was a stabilizer for Dan. Once they'd combined the three dimensions, Dan would merge with his younger self and no longer exist outside of time. His power would equal or even exceed Bill's.

He was drawn away from his thoughts as Bill snapped them out of the dream.

* * *

Dipper felt tears threaten to fall as he held Mabel.

They woke up back in the cave, Mabel still unconscious and Danny on the ground. Dan was standing over his counterpart, grinning.

Jazz ran to her brother. "Jazz, don't!" Dipper choked out. "That's not Danny anymore!"

She ignored him and knelt by his side, placing a hand on his shoulder.

His head snapped up to look at her. She gasped at his yellow eyes. "Well hello there!" he laughed in Bill's voice. "Did ya miss me?"

The teen scrambled away as Bill floated into an upright position. Danny's usually whitish aura was glowing blue. "Whoa! This is great! There's so much power, it's like I'm gonna explode!" He flexed his fingers. "An ice core, eh?" The possessed boy looked at Dan. "No wonder you're so cold-hearted!"

Dan chuckled as Bill enjoyed the new form. "And the pain! He's got so many wounds, he shouldn't have even made it this far. It's hilarious!" He shot himself in the face with an ectoblast. His skin steamed, and welts appeared. "Cool!"

Pacifica was on the verge of tears. "Stop it!" she screamed.

The demon just grinned. "Hey Flame Hair, does Techie say it's ready?"

Dan scowled. "Yes, Technus completed the work. I've let him go already, though he won't be able to hide once these worlds are ours."

Dipper felt Mabel's breath slowing. Her closed eyes flickered back and forth, her brows creased. He hoped she was okay.

The others began to discreetly scoot over to him as Dan and Bill went down the hole to check on the portal. "Don't try anything stupid, you little meatpuppets. The shifter is watching."

Wendy glanced down at Mabel as she placed a hand on Dipper's shoulder. "We have to get rid of Bill," she whispered. "Then Danny can handle the other creep."

Stan scowled. "How? What did you do last time, Ford?"

Hesitantly, Dipper spoke up. "When he possessed me, Mabel had to exhaust my body to the point that it was useless to Bill. I woke up feeling like crap, but I was okay."

"But Danny won't be!" Jazz interjected. "I've seen him in fights. His powers are insane. He defeated the king of the Ghost Zone, plus a million other crazies way more skilled than us. If we get him to the point where he can't kill us on sight, then he may not recover."

Ford grunted. "She's right. He's already injured as it is. And I have my suspicions that his abilites may combine with Cipher's."

To everyone's surprise, Pacifica smacked the stone floor in anger. "We have to try! Are you not listening to what's going on? If we don't do this, then all of our worlds will be lost to them. So quit complaining and make a plan!"

For a moment, there was silence.

"All right, team," Wendy finally said, "let's get to work."

* * *

Danny felt like a ghost.

Not an ectoplasmic, glowing and freezing things kind of ghost, but a specter. Something that no one else could see. A horror movie ghost.

Only, this was so much worse than a movie. He watched his friends shy away from his possessed body, winced as Bill blasted him in the face. Nothing could have prepared him for the feeling of complete and utter helplessness that went with it. It was almost worse than Freakshow's mind control.

Dan and Bill floated down into the pit where the rip in reality was located. Inside the Zone, there was a large island of floating rock that held nothing but a portal, shaped like a triangular pyramid with no bottom. The three sides were made of a thin, glasslike material, and the frame was metal machinery on a large base. One could see into the center of said pyramid, which held a table with straps and wires.

Danny paled at the sight. Bill turned, noticed the look on his face and laughed. "You know, Spook, this was almost too easy." He phased through the glass and began to check the table. "All set!" he grinned. "But I've got an idea for you!"

He split himself in two. One of the bodies was strapped down to the table by the other, then wired to a bunch of different parts of the machine. Dan watched them with mild interest.

Suddenly, a ray of energy was shot from somewhere above. Dan growled. "I'll take care of this." He flew back into the cave.

Desperately, Danny followed. Ford was holding one of his parents' ecto-guns, though how he'd managed to take it was beyond the teen.

Everyone in the cave stumbled back as Dan appeared, clearly expecting Bill. "Fools," the ghost hissed, "do you really think that Cipher doesn't know your tricks?" He shot an ectoblast into their midst, making them scatter. Dipper dragged his sister away from the chaos.

"Shifter!" Dan snapped. "You should have control of the girl already. What is taking so long?" Her eyes just flickered in response. He scoffed. "Either that imbecilic creature is a traitor, or the Shooting Star is stronger than Bill's given her credit for. I'll assume it's the former."

He powered up another blast, intending to fry Mabel into oblivion. Ford yelled and fired at the ghost's eyes.

Dan grunted, taken by suprise. "Come on!" Ford shouted. Everyone jumped off the edge of the pit, into the Ghost Zone.

"You idiots!" Danny screamed in frustration. "Bill is down there!" No one could hear him, though, and he raced to catch up before Dan could recover.

He found them floating in a group, staring at Bill in horror. "Well, well, well," both bodies laughed in unison. "Just in time to see the show!"

His hands lit with blue fire, which glowed ecto green in the center. His grin widened, and Danny wanted to throw up as Bill phased out of the portal and flipped a switch.

"All sysytems go, meatpuppets!"

We're so close to the end, you guys! Maybe about four more chapters. I've got a lot of stuff to do this week, but I'll try my best to update frequently.

Oh, and I realize that many of you guessed that the mysterious voice was Dan. Good for you. But that wasn't the big plot twist, and the events of the final showdown are something I can guarantee you won't predict. There's no way you can. But by all means, I invite you to try.