Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Soulmates, the strongest bond that any two living beings can share, one of the rarest occurrences in any universe, and it's just Bill’s luck that he gets stuck with this so called “honor”.

Ever since he was created cosmic beings, monsters, demons, and every other kind of species had been looking at him, fascinated by the rare mark on his arm.

In the beginning when he had first figured out what the mark had meant he was thrilled. When two beings are soulmates it means that they were created from the same soul, essentially splitting it in half.

However, very few souls can withstand the excruciating process and most end up getting completely destroyed, obliterating any trace of the soul, which is why soulmates are scarcely heard of.

Surviving the split takes an extraordinarily strong and resilient soul, so if the two halves are able to go through unscathed a gift is bestowed upon them, and once the two halves are reunited the two beings will be gifted with unique powers and abilities. So, naturally Bill decided to dedicate his life to the search for his soulmate.

Throughout the millennia he  painstakingly scoured millions of universes and dimensions for his “destined partner”, but alas as centuries passed with no results he began descending into madness as his excitement and drive melted away into bitterness and rage.

By the time the human race had sparked into existence Cipher had banished any thoughts of his soulmate into the deepest depths of his mind, smothering them with thoughts of universal takeover and ways to manipulate and destroy any who crossed his path.

Soon enough all those who had known about Cipher’s soulmark had faded from existence or gone into hiding. The only evidence remaining of the so called “gift” he’d been given eons ago was the permanent soulmark that was branded onto his arm.

No matter what method he tried he was never able to remove the cursed mark, but desperate to be rid of it he chose instead to cloak it with dark magic, so that he would never have to gaze at the taunting symbol ever again.

A beautiful array of stars that form the elegant design of what would one day be known as Ursa Major.

Chapter Text

Dipper looked up at the canopy of trees above him, their branches framing the vivid blue of the afternoon sky as the wind carried the sweet smell of pine through his nose.

He’d only been in Gravity Falls for two months so far, and despite all of the weird and sometimes deadly creatures that inhabit these woods they are still his favorite place to go.

He loved his family and friends here and because they’d been through hell together it only brought them all closer, but sometimes he just needed some time for himself, away from everybody and everything.

This summer had been...strange to say the least and fucking insane to be accurate, which for him was a weirdly good thing. Back in the city his life was dull, monotonous. All he ever did was go to school, do homework, watch tv, repeat, yadda yadda yadda.

Coming to the supposedly boring, middle of nowhere town had started as the beginning of the worst summer of his life, but from the moment he discovered the journal everyday had been exciting, had had purpose in a way that they never had before.

Hell, he even enjoyed the days he almost died the most since those were the days filled with adventures and creatures he’d never been able to imagine in his old life.

Though he never said that part out loud since even to him it made him sound like either a lunatic or a masochist, but it’s true.

All of the adventures and excitement was why he was currently hiding in his secluded spot in the woods. This summer he’d done and changed so much that he forgot that this wasn’t his real life. It was a ‘vacation’ with a deadline, one that was approaching way too fast, and he wasn’t even remotely ready.

That’s the only problem with adventures. They’re challenging, dangerous, thrilling, like climbing up a mountain, and when you get to the peak, the place you’ve been working towards this whole time and you get this feeling of absolute euphoria.

It makes you feel satisfied with your life for a brief second before you realize that no matter how perfect it feels this isn’t where you belong. Eventually you have to go back down, it takes the same work, the same effort, but at the end of the journey the only thing waiting for you is the boring life you left behind.

And even if he still had a bit more time here he knew that right now he was at that peak, just holding on as long as he could until he knew he had to leave. He’d hoped that by letting himself wallow for a bit in nature he’d eventually get used to the idea, but all it did was make him feel more miserable.

Great. 

It’s stupid to just sit here sulking by myself. All I’m doing is wasting whatever time here I have left on feeling sorry for myself. 

Letting out a defeated sigh Dipper begrudgingly pulled himself up from the ground, dusting himself off and stretching out his muscles, especially his arms which were not happy with him after being leaned back on for so long. 

I might as well go back and see if Mabel can cheer me up, and if not at least I’ll have someone else to be miserable with. Either way she’ll at least be good company.

It took him awhile to get back to the Mystery Shack, apparently he’d been so lost in his mind that he’d wandered a lot deeper into the woods than he thought; but hey, the walk gave him a bit more time to take in the woods, which was always pretty nice.

As Dipper stepped up onto the creaky porch of the Mystery Shack he was greeted with a surprise attack hug from his twin sister that almost knocked him onto his back.. 

“Dipper! You’ll never guess what happened while you were gone!” Mabel screamed, practically vibrating with anticipation to tell her news. 

“What, did you actually manage to meet a guy that wasn’t gnomes, a merman, or a puppet loving psychopath?” he couldn’t help teasing her about all her relationships, and since she did the same back it only felt fair.

And maybe a bit satisfying. 

“No, and since I’m in such a good mood I’ll only lightly punch you for being a smart-ass!”

And she did just that, except her version of ‘light’ is definitely not the same as Dipper's, especially since his arm started throbbing immediately after the hit.

“Oh right, the news! Okay, so since our 18th birthday is coming up soon I got Grunkles Stan and Ford to help us set up and create the bestest most extremely great party this town has ever seen!” She cried out.

Dipper shot her a confused look,

“Okay so…why is it such good news that they are helping us out? No offense but what do two old guys know about planning a teenagers birthday party? I don’t get it.”

I mean, he understood (kind of) his sister’s love for parties, but he was completely lost on exactly what was making her so happy right now. 

“Um DUH! They’re gonna help us monster proof the entire area so that stupid evil creatures don’t try and crash it without permission, especially stupid, pointy, one eyed jerks that have a habit of ruining things. All. The. Time.”

Her voice was still as bubbly as ever, but he could still hear the annoyance (a rare thing in his twin's voice unless she was talking to him) when she brought up Bill. The illuminati-looking dream demon harassed them for half the summer.

When he’d first shown up he was definitely weird, but he seemed pretty par for the course in Gravity Falls.

Unfortunately they’d learned pretty quickly that he was on a completely different level than most of the weird things that lived here, and he just wouldn’t stop showing up, every ‘visit’ only causing more trouble than the last.

He’d attacked them in Grunkle Stan’s brain, taken over Dipper’s Body, and even showed up to get in the way during their other adventures for no good reason, it was like he just enjoyed making their lives miserable.

But they hadn’t realized how bad he truly was until their Grunkle Ford came out of the portal and told them all about his experiences with Bill.

He was an insane, ruthless and powerful demon. A creature that you always had to be wary of.

If they could enjoy one of their last nights here in Gravity Falls without having to worry about Bill or any other creature attacking while they said their goodbyes to their friends it would be pretty nice. 

“That actually IS good news! Good thinking Mabes.”

He was still a bit surprised though, it wasn’t usually like his sister to think about things like safety, that was more his forte. Mabel was more of a jump in guns blazing kind of person, which made it an even better surprise.

“Yep, I’m a GENIUS! But I also wanted to make sure that nothing ruined our party, I don’t want us to have to have to leave early to fight monsters or,” she glanced at Dipper with a smirk on her face, “stop the zombie apocalypse.” 

“Ughhhh. Are you ever gonna let me live that down? It was just a little tiny invasion, nothing bad happened, for the most part.” He defended weakly.

He didn’t mean to raise the dead, it just happened! But since even ‘small’ accidents in Gravity Falls tended to end with at least a little property damage he was still gonna have to deal with Mabel’s taunting forever.

Not that she wouldn’t have found something else to taunt him with even if he hadn’t. Ahh, the joys of having a sibling. 

“Whatever you say bro-bro. Now, back to the matter at hand. Our birthday is in one week and we have to get planning!”

Grabbing his arm so he couldn’t try and escape Mabel grabbed his arm and yanked him into the house, likely where she had an ungodly amount of craft supplies waiting to write out her plan.

Luckily he was saved from coughing up glitter for two days when they heard a shout coming from somewhere else in the house. 

“Dipper come quick, my face is on fire!” Grunkle Ford screamed.

Glad for the out and also not wanting his uncle's face to melt off he gave a fake disappointed look to his sister over is shoulder before sprinting off towards Ford. 

******

Dipper ran through the forest, ignoring the sting on his legs and arms as tree branches and thorns tear at his skin. 

I have to get to Mabel, this whole thing is my fault. If I hadn’t taken Ford’s deal and abandoned her none of this would have happened. 

His Great Uncle’s words still rang in his head as he looked up to the psychedelic-looking rift that’d suddenly opened up in the sky. 

“We’re too late. It’s the end of the world.” 

Bill floated above Gravity Falls, his single eye drinking in the sight of all of the incredible chaos surrounding him with a deep sense of satisfaction.

His demons wreaking havoc on innocents, the bat eyeballs turning people into stone, it was all too beautiful for words.

The only thing that could make this moment better would be to destroy the family that had been a pain in his side for far too long’.

As if just thinking of them had been enough to summon them the second he finished, that thought a bolt of energy tore a hole through his ‘hat’, courtesy of the exact people he’d been looking for.  

“Well well well and here I thought today couldn’t get any BETTER!.”

His twisted laugh rang out through the sky, this day really was going perfectly. 

Before Ford could react Bill raised his noodly arm and blasted the man’s hiding spot in the bell tower with a violent bolt of blue light. 

Using his telekinesis he lifted the scientist out of the rubble, his body dangling in the air as all of the other demons turned to the scene and joined in on the sick laughter.

Reaching out his arm the triangle dramatically spun his body around to face him, 

“Aww, don’t look so sour Fordsy, it’s not too late to join me. With that extra finger you’d fit right in with my freaks!”

The rude meatbag that he was, he didn't even pretend to think about the offer. Rude. 

“I’ll die before I join you!” Ford screamed, shaking with anger and disgust at the offer, “I know your weakness Bill!” 

Ahh typical human, always ruining the fun with their morals and feelings. Old Fordsy would be way more fun if I could just rip those right out of them. Maybe later I’ll try it, but for now let’s make this old geezer more fun and useful!

“Oh yeah? And I know a riddle, why did the old man do this?” He questioned, holding his arms up and bending his fingers. 

“This?”

Confused, ford mimicked the demon's pose, playing right into his childish plans. Without missing a beat Bill zapped the old man with another burst of magic from his eye, immediately turning him to gold. 

“Because I needed a new back scratcher!”

Bill couldn’t help but let out another grating peal of laughter at his own joke. The moment didn’t last long before the familiar high pitched voice of another annoying Pine’s screamed out behind him.

What’s with this family, don’t any of them know how to have fun? 

“That’s enough! Hand over my uncle, or else!” Pine Tree held up the journal, as if Bill should be scared off just looking at it, pathetic.

“Now isn’t. This. INTERESTING!”

Bill taunted, appearing in front of the boy in a flash, his single monstrous eye rolling back to become a haunting plain white.

“The little puppet is back for an encore. You think YOU can stop me? Go on Pine Tree show me whatcha got?” 

“I U-Uh, I Umm,” He stuttered, clearly nervous as he desperately flipped through the pages in that stupid journal of his. 

“Do some brilliant thing that takes me down right now! Come on, Pine Tree, everyone’s waiting!”

The demon was fully screaming now, getting more worked up by the second, something that was easy with this family.

Suddenly the boy launched himself at the demon's face throwing a pathetic punch at his eye, it was an unexpected but utterly useless attack.

With a blast of energy Dipper was thrown back, his panicked attempt completely useless.

As the boy struggled to recover and grabbed for the journals all three of them were ripped away from his reach.

“That’s right, don’t be a hero kid, this is what happens to heroes in my world!”

He shook the the golden statue of the kid’s uncle like a kid showing off an action figure. T

hen, just for a little extra fun he set those precious journals he knew the kid was obsessed with ablaze, destroying the boy's spirit and his last hope of stopping the demon.

It felt great.

“Okay, now that that’s out of the way it’s time to GET WEIRD! V.I.P. party at the Fearamid. Oh and 8-Ball, Teeth you’ve earned a treat, have the kid for a snack.”

Bill and the rest of the demons tore out of the town cackling as they went to go revel in the destruction they’d created, while the two left behind licked their lips at the sight of the weak human in front of them. 

“No, no NO!”

Jolted out of his shock about the loss of the journals Dipper screamed as he stumbled into a standing position before bolting off into a back alleyway, the sick sounds of the monster’s tongues and laughs falling close behind him

“WOOOH!”

A group of demons were cheering and screaming in excitement as they watched Zanthar throw a poison tipped knife at the chest of one of the Gravity Falls residents, who was currently pinned to a spinning board across the room, screaming in fear and begging for their life, the sad cries and screams only adding to the fun.

When Zanthar made his first throw a loud crunch could be audibly heard, along with the bloodcurdling scream of the poor soul whose leg had just been severed off by the massive dagger. 

Bill, who was sitting on his throne of Human Agony, laughed as the screams reached him. 

“Ahhh! Music to the nonexistent void where my ears might be,” He sighed.

As he looked down at the inferior demons around him he noticed that Teeth and 8-Ball still hadn’t joined the party. 

How hard could it be to kill one measly human brat. The kid doesn’t even have his ‘magic journals’ so he’d practically 

Annoyed at how they could be incompetent enough not to squish something as easy as a human in a few seconds was actually enough to make him curious enough that he was actually motivated into looking into what the hell the two idiots were doing back there.

Lazily waving his right hand he conjured a ball of mist into his palm, the vapor glowing a sickly shade of red as it quickly grew to be the size of a window.

With a snap of his fingers the ball activated, an image slowly forming in the center of the fog.

8-Ball and Teeth were scanning an abandoned store for the kid, stalking the isles for their prey, who was slowly crawling across the floor, ready to make a break for it.

Just as he noticed the kid was about to start running an explosion sent him flying across the room. 8-Ball had dislodged one of his eyes and used it as a slimy grenade, blowing up a shelf that had been right beside Pine Tree. 

They really are Idiots, I can’t believe it's taken them this long to capture one pathetic kid. Bill groaned, at least the fight was starting to get a little interesting now. 

Inside the ball the image had changed to show Dipper lying in a crumpled heap on the scorched tile, his clothes torn and singed from the blast and his hat reduced to a tattered piece of fabric barely clinging to his head.

Still, Pine Tree refused to give up his hopeless struggle to stay alive, ignoring the burns and cuts on his arms Bill watched in amusement as he grit his teen as attempted to use his strained arm muscles in a vain attempt to lift himself up.

He’d only managed to drag himself a few feet before he had Teeth grabbing his hair, yanking hard enough on his scalp to lift him off the ground.

And that’s when Bill, who had been lying back, enjoying the misery and despair that was displayed on the boy's battered face, froze.

His body grew cold with dread, the chill coming off him in waves and radiating through the other room, the intensity of the emotion causing the demons who had been laughing and joking moments before to drop to their knees and cower.

When Bill rose up from his throne the cold had transformed into an ominous power that radiated from the demon, saturating the air around him with a hostility that instantly produced terror enough to have them all trembling by the time he disappeared in a flash.

A second later he appeared in the store, freezing time in the room so he could get a clearer image of things.

Seeing Pine Tree still dangling in Teeth’s grip he moved over towards them, leaning close to scan the human’s face to be sure he wasn’t wrong.

His features were frozen in an expression of pain and fear, but Bill was completely oblivious to it, drawn away from his face and transfixed on his exposed forehead, something that the kid always hid with his hair and hat.

There on the bruised and bloody skin was the symbol that had taunted and tortured Bill for billions of years, the one that he had forced himself to forget about millions of years ago after it had truly driven him past the brink and straight into insanity.

Right there as clear as day a smattering of star-like dots were scattered about the surface, their pattern an almost exact depiction of the Big Dipper constellation. Ursa Major.  

No. NO! 

Scanning it over and over again he willed it to disappear, but it only served to burn the shape of the mark he’d covered up on his own arm further into his mind.

He had found his soulmate, after eons of relentless searching, anguish, and anger.

After he’d written it off and moved past it to a new, better goal he had stumbled upon the being, the human that the damn universe had decided was destined to somehow complete his soul.

And after everything he’d done to both find and forget about this whole thing, when his stupid soulmate is thrown right in front of him he finds out that not only a puny human, but someone an enemy.

One he had been about to have killed.

Chapter Text

FUCKING PINE TREE! 

The entire time I was tearing apart the galaxy for my goddamn 'other half', the being that ends up being my soulmate is a member of a species that hadn’t even EXISTED yet.

Hell that didn't exist until millions of years AFTER I'd already given up. What the fuck has his soul been doing this entire time, was it fucking hiding? Hanging around in space just to taunt me?

One big fucking cosmic JOKE. 

Bill had been angry, annoyed and even pissed off countless times in his long life, but this was something he’d never experienced. 

The pure rage and pain that crushed his body was nearly unbearable as years of repressed memories and emotions ripped through him, tearing him apart so fast that he had to fight to keep himself even remotely together.

“B-Bill we’re s-sorry it took so long w-we won’t let it happen ag-gain!”

8-Ball stuttered, the sound of his voice bringing him partly back from the war in his mind.

The lesser demon had instinctually started begging as the aura coming off of Bill had started to suffocate him, bringing him to a paralytic state.

He should have kept his mouth shut.

The only thing his words managed to do is bring exactly what his henchman had been about to do to the forefront of his mind again.

“YOU THINK I GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU USELESS WASTES OF POWER?” Bill roared, all of his early emotion pushed back, allowing only anger to come to the surface.

In an instant Bill changed his form, his size tripling until he was almost too big to even fit into the building his body darkening as his eye began to roll over into a hellish, bloody red.

8-Ball screamed in agony as Bill’s gaze turned on him, his power heating up the other's body in an instant.

His skin began to bubble and melt and his blood boiled out of his body until a sick combination of the two began to melt and drip onto the floor below him.

Teeth watched in horror as his friends body was destroyed, his fear making him loosen up his grip on Dipper’s hair enough for his hair to slip out of his grip and drop to the floor.  

******

Dipper hit the floor hard, the wind getting knocked out of his body with the impact.

Everything that had happened in the past five seconds made his head spin.

Gasping to regain some air he tried to figure what was going on, and why the hell he had gone from being seconds away from getting eaten by a demon to witnessing Bill appear suddenly and go Ballistic on his own demons. 

Fuck, what the hell is happening!? He told them to eat me, so why the hell is he here now, killing them right before they managed to do what he asked? And why…

Even thinking about Bill, or what he’d transformed into, made something inside him shrivel back in fear.

Even if his ire wasn’t focused on him yet Dipper could still feel the aura of certain death that the demon was giving off.

His mind was clouded with fear, but he had to force himself to push away his freaked out thoughts along with the desire to just curl into a ball and beg for mercy before he turned out like the 8-ball demon.

If he had any chance of getting out of this alive he had to escape now, while Bill was still focused on the other demon.

Summoning up as much strength and willpower as he could at that moment, Dipper pried himself up from the ground, slowly crawling his way to the door, not trusting his legs to get him there alone.

Somehow he managed to make it to the door, slipping out and back onto the street without drawing Bill’s attention to him.  

******

The brutal and tortuous death had managed to bring Bill back into a more secure state of mind, once again pushing all thoughts of his hopeful and painful past into the dark corners of his mind. T

his is who, what he was now, and that is all that mattered. 8-Balls death had been painful and drawn out, after melting off his skin he had used his hands to tear through the bare muscles and gripped the skeleton underneath before ripping it right out of his body.

The tear of muscles and nerves had the demon screaming so loudly it sounded like he’d torn his vocal cords, the sound only stopping when he was nothing more than a pile of torn and melted meat and blood.

It had been exactly what Bill needed.

He was pure evil and a soulmate wouldn’t change who he was, it was merely a tool that he planned to use to his advantage, one he would take before it could disappear from him.

He was HIS soulmate, and despite everything Bill would not let the thing that had caused him so much anguish be lost.

Not because of any sentiment, but because of the potential power he could gain once his soul was complete, making him unstoppable.

And he was about to do exactly that, except for now Pine Tree was nowhere to be seen. 

“WHERE THE HELL IS PINE TREE YOU WORTHLESS FUCKING MORON” Bill bellowed, his voice shaking the ground with tremendous force. 

NO! I WILL NOT BE DENIED MY SOULMATE AGAIN. I WILL USE HIM TO TAKE REVENGE ON THE UNIVERSE.

“H-he es-scaped d-during the chaos, but I can go f-find him, I sw-swear I’ll kill him f-for you!” Pleaded Teeth as he chattered nervously.

Suddenly Bill was reminded that he had been about to let two spineless worms for demons kill his soulmate, and that paired with Dipper’s sudden disappearance made Bill itch with the need to take out his anger on someone again.

“You will never lay your slimy mitts on Pine Tree ever again! His life is worth FAR  MORE THAN YOURS!”

Bill screamed, the intensity of his voice causing a few of the teeth in the small pink demon to completely shatter with such force that the shards sliced deep cuts in his gums.

Bill’s second bout of rage was even more gruesome than the first, he used his inky black limbs to tear out the remaining white teeth the demon still had, using such force that dark blood immediately began to spurt out of every new wound.

Before he had a chance to recover from the first attack Bill had used his telekinesis to pull all the nails out of every single shelf in the store, then with lightning speed he sent the hundreds of spikes hurtling towards Teeth.

When the projectiles made contact with the tender flesh they pierced all the way through causing even more blood to pour out around the nailheads.

As the demon cried out in pain Bill placed one hand on either half of the bloody and shredded jaw, with his tight grip he pulled in opposite directions ripping the jaw into two pieces with a sickening crack.

After tossing the destroyed halves of the demon onto the floor Bill formed a cerulean fireball in his hand and launched it straight at Teeth’s remains, charing them until they were only a pile of scorched ash. 

As soon as his anger had been satiated Bill took a deep breath and reverted back to his usual sarcastic self.

The empty building filled with the sound of his laughter as the twisted hilarity of  this situation finally hit him. 

“Pine Tree Pine Tree Pine Tree, who knew you were hiding such a big secret from me. HA!” Bill cried out. 

“You may have gotten away today, but I have spent millions of years looking for you, I don’t mind waiting a bit longer. Sooner or later I’ll have you, then it’ll just be you and me Pine Tree!”

Bill cackled, rising out of the store's busted ceiling back into his beautiful Fearamid. 

*****

Dipper stayed in his hiding spot for hours, long after his surroundings had grown quiet and the sun began to sink below the horizon.

After what had just happened, after seeing how ruthless Bill had been to his own subordinates he barely even let himself breathe as he curled up underneath some discarded trash bags near the dumpster.

He knew that Bill had already left, but even after all the time he waited he was still cautious as he finally crawled back out into the open.

His entire body ached and stung from all of his injuries and his head was throbbing in pain with the occasional sharp stab at the back that was a constant reminder of how hard he’d hit it when the demon had dropped him on the ground.

Thinking back on everything that had just happened Dipper still couldn’t wrap his head around what the hell had just happened any more than he’d been able to earlier.

After he’d managed to slip out of the store he began to run, well more like limp, in any direction that took him away from the gruesome sight he had just witnessed.

His mind had whirled with questions;

Why was Bill so angry? 

Why did he kill his own demons?

How did he escape without being noticed? 

Why didn’t Bill let them kill him? 

These thoughts had filled his head even after he found his hiding spot, but none of the theories he’d been able to come up with made any sense.

Well, considering who he was dealing with he couldn’t really expect anything different, Bill was insane, and the only one who could make sense of the things he did was the demon himself.

Now that he wasn’t stuck hiding he was less focused on finding answers to probably impossible to answer questions and way more focused on finding himself shelter and medical aid.

The adrenaline from his fear had been enough for him not to notice the extent of his injuries, but now that it had finally faded away he realized just how banged up he was. 

He had multiple bruises and cuts covering his entire body, his hair was matted down on his head with sticky pools of blood and mud, and there were deep gashes in his arms and stomach that had left his clothes stained with blood.

I’m lucky I’m alive right now, it’s probably a miracle that I’m even able to stand with all of these injuries, and it’s downright impossible for me to have survived running all the way here without collapsing.

Adrenaline is a hell of a drug. 

Dipper stumbled down the streets looking for somewhere he could rest safely, but whether it was from his head injury or the likely concerning amount of blood he’d lost his vision was staring to spin and he was getting more unsteady on his feet.

When he felt like he was about to collapse the sound of a voice coming from behind him was enough for him to refocus and get his body back under control for a minute. 

“Hey you! Boy, get into my mouth!” 

When he turned around he saw yet another demon, this one donning the form of a massively oversized head with only one arm sticking out of the crown of the skull, and it was rapidly dragging towards him. 

Shit, just how many demons are gonna try to eat me today?

I need to find shelter quick, in the state I’m in, even his pathetic dragging will be able to reach me pretty soon.

Forcing himself to ignore the way the world felt like it was tilting he kept moving until finally he saw Gravity Falls shopping center come into view. 

Its doors were stuck in a semi-open position that allowed an opening barely big enough to fit him, which meant that even if it didn’t have what he needed he would at least be able to avoid getting eaten, for now anyways.

Using up the last of his energy Dipper ran for the door, ignoring the demon's angry screams and the sounds of dragging that were coming closer.

When he finally reached the gap he gripped the metal edges of the door frames and pulled himself inside, narrowly escaping the hungry demon behind him.

After practically throwing himself inside he’d landed in a not so graceful heap on the floor, which paired with the impact of once again hitting a hard floor wasn’t exactly doing wonders for his injuries.

At this point he was so numb with exhaustion that he didn’t even bother trying to pick himself up, right here was as good a place as any to rest, not that his body was really given him any other choice.  

At least if I die in here it will be from starvation or bleeding out and not the result of demons using my head for... volleyball or something.

It’ll be my, admittedly sad sounding, last act of rebellion against those assholes. 

White spots danced across his vision and his eyelids started to feel impossibly heavy, making it harder and harder to open his eyes again after every blink.

The last thing he saw (well at least he thinks he saw, he wasn’t exactly the most coherent) before completely blacking out was the familiar outline of a feisty red-head. 

I really hope this isn’t a hallucination. 

*****

Bill sat back in his throne of frozen human agony, lost in thought.

After living for longer than most creatures would be able to comprehend he had finally found his soulmate, the one that had apparently been hiding out under his nose for months.

After his initial and completely justified act of rage and violence he was feeling much better, especially after repressing the emotions he didn’t want to feel to the deepest and darkest portions of his mind.

Now he was ready to use this new discovery to his advantage.

He’ll admit he doesn't 100% remember what else will happen with the whole soulbond thing, but he does know that he’ll gain even more power.

And that’s really all that matters.

He didn’t need a soulmate, he needed a tool and that is what he intended to have, as soon as he figure out how to capture the human and get him on his side.

One of the annoying requirements for the whole soulmate thing is that he only gets his power boost once the bond has been accepted willingly. 

If only I could just torture the meatbag until he agrees and then keep him alive off to the side, like a pet.

I t’ll be a chore to get him to agree to anything willingly.

Pine Tree has this irritating habit of fighting on the boring side of humanity and justice.

So, I need to come up with something that forces him to play right into my hands, without using violence. Ooooh wait, I just can’t use violence on hiiiim.  

A plan started to form inside of Bill’s twisted mind and the corners of his eye turned up in what was the closest thing he could get to a smile as his evil laugh bubbled up from inside of him.

The only thing he had to do now is figure out how to deal with all the demons sitting in front of him.

Bill rolled his eyes at his remaining henchmaniacs, they’d gotten bored of playing darts and other party games and had resorted to just randomly stabbing different humans as well as each other to keep themselves entertained.

Idiots. 

I’m not gonna let this group of morons, whose brains likely died from lack of use a few thousand years ago, know anything about Pine Tree.

I don’t want to deal with their questions, killing one of them to make them stop asking them or risk them ruining my plan with their stupidity.

Sounds like now would be the perfect time to spread our mayhem and weirdness across the universe, they can wreak havoc to their multi hearted content while I capture Pine Tree.

I’m a genius. 

Rising up from his throne the triangle demon grabbed the golden corpse of Ford tossing it up in the air before catching it again.

With a flick of his wrist he conjured a fork into existence and clinked it against the side of the gold human like he was making some kind of twisted version of a toast at the world's weirdest wedding. 

“Ladies, gentlemen, that creature with like 87 different faces. It’s been fun turning Gravity falls inside out, rounding up all its terrified citizens, and then stacking them into this massive throne of frozen human agony.”

The demon gestured to his human jenga chair before sitting down in it again. 

“But Gravity Falls is just the beginning! It’s time to take our chaos world wide! Alright boys to the corners of the Earth, set the world aflame with your weirdness. This dimension is ours!”

At his command all of the Henchmaniacs rose off the ground and headed to the skies, their shrieking laughter and cheers of excitement ringing out into the air.. 

Now, time to go and collect what’s mine. 

Before Bill could even turn his two dimensional back on the pyramid a huge explosion sounded behind him and all of the demons that had been flying towards the sky a second ago were now sprawled on the floor, groaning as their bodies buzzed with a weird magical electricity. 

“WHAT!?”

Bill exploded with confusion and rage, his scream echoing through the whole town as he floated towards where the demons had been knocked out of the sky. 

What could be strong enough to prevent my army of freaks from leaving this town, every one of them has more power in their smallest horns than any being in this dimension. 

He reached out one of his inky noodle arms and poked at the invisible barrier, instantly a jolt of energy wracked his body.

Unlike the other demons the force field didn’t send Bill crashing down from the sky, but it did do something else, something far worse. 

The other demons were still lying on the ground, disoriented from the blast of weird energy that had hit them, but slowly starting to recover from the sudden shock.

As a few of them finally found their bearings they looked up to look to their leader for what to do now, but what they saw wasn’t the Bill that they knew.

The snarky gold triangle had completely changed, he was still the same three sided shape he had been, but instead of yellow bricks and his stupid black bowtie and hat the demon had donned the appearance of the night sky.

He was colored a depthless black with a splattering of tiny stars that glowed with a beautiful light, not something people typically associated with the demon, and had swirls of dark blues and purples slowly moving around his body.

If it hadn’t been for the slight glow that came off of his body he might have been able to blend right in to the sky above him.

The Henchmanics were all in awe at the change in the demon, but Bill hadn’t even noticed, his eye glued with laser-like focus on his forearm. 

When the bolt of energy had run through him the feeling of energy had flowed towards his arm, building up until it formed into a bright white flame on the hand still idly touching the barrier.

It moved down his arm, getting increasingly hotter as it neared his forearm.

When it finally reached it the fire stopped becoming burning hot enough to singe through Bill’s ‘flesh’ the pain enough to cause even the masochistic dream demon to cry out in pain.

After the fire had finished on his arm it coated his entire body before snuffing itself out, leaving a brief puff of smoke and a transformed demon in its wake.

When Bill recovered from his shock he glanced down at his arm where the burning had been the worst to check the damage, only to have his eyes lock onto the soulmate mark on his arm.

The one that he had covered millions of years before with powerful magic to make himself forget it was there.

The one he had never wanted to see again. 

As Bill studied the insulting mark on his arm everything clicked into place for the demon. Only one thing could have caused this reaction…

Well well well, I guess Pine Tree doesn’t want us to leave without saying goodbye.

*****

Dipper’s eyes twitched as he slowly started to rejoin the waking world, his brain slowly starting to function again.

He pulled at his heavy lids, attempting to force them open in order to try and reheat his brain. 

Why is it so hard to wake up? Wait, wasn’t I dying? Does dying make you really tired? I guess it might, right, or am I just being an idiot? 

He didn’t have time to think of any more ‘important’ questions before a sick, twisting feeling settled in his stomach.

With a grunt he ignored the sharp pains all throughout his body and convinced his body to get up in order to avoid choking on his own vomit, which was not how he wanted to go out.

As he slowly sat up, he tried to get his eyes to adjust quickly so he could find somewhere to spew his guts in peace, but it was a struggle to say the least. 

Where the hell am I, and more importantly where the hell is the door so I can puke outside.

Or leave just in case my luck keeps heading the way it has all day and there’s another demon in this place. I wouldn’t even be surprised.

When a bucket shaped blob began to take shape Dipper immediately ran for it, he didn’t care what it was, it looked close enough to a trashcan and he was running out of time as he felt vomit begin to climb its way up his throat so it was his best option.

As he spewed into what he now knew was an old plastic bucket that had been filled with cheesy summerween decorations, he faintly heard the sound of footsteps approaching him before a hand laid gently on his back.

If he hadn’t been preoccupied he would have freaked out at the sudden appearance of another person, but at the moment he couldn’t care less.

“If you’re going to kill me, let me finish puking first.” Dipper replied only semi-sarcastically. 

“Haha, wow didn’t know you had enough sass to be sarcastic to someone during the fucking apocalypse kid.”

The sound of the voice was familiar and paired with the quick, light laugh he knew who it had to be. 

Warily raising his head from the bucket Dipper stopped to take in the familiar pale, freckled face framed by a head of wild red hair that he’d admired (and obsessed over) countless times.

“Wendy?”

Chapter Text

Dipper froze for a second, his breath caught in his throat and his eyes burning at the sight of one of his best friends.

His eyes scanned her up and down, Wierdmageddon hadn’t left her unscathed, she looked worn out with dark smudges underneath her eyes, her clothes were in tatters and she had a bandage wrapped around a mysterious wound on her arm.

But she was alive, and she was here with Dipper, and right now with everything that had happened in the past few hours that’s all that mattered to him.

Tears started to form in his eyes as he jumped up and turned his body towards the feisty redhead and threw his arms around her, something he never would have dared to do before everything went to hell.

She hugged him right back, both of them holding on tight to each other and the memory of comfort from life before Bill took over that the embrace gave them.

Reluctantly Dipper pulled back until they were far enough apart to look at each other again, not bothering to wipe the tears off of his cheeks he found his voice again. 

“I’m so glad you're okay.”

It came out strained, his voice weak with relief that at least one person he knew was still alive. 

“Well, I’m not exactly doing great, I mean it’s the fucking apocalypse, but” her eyes gave Dipper a once over, “it looks like I’ve had it easy compared to you. What happened dude?” 

Dipper couldn’t help but shudder as the question made his memories from earlier surge up to the surface, but he shook it off and tried to act as casual as he could.

“Nothing really unusual, Bill and his Henchmaniacs tried to kill me, I got chased by a demon who wanted to eat me, just another day in Gravity Falls.”

He chuckled, but the sound was dark and humorless. He wasn’t doing a great job at this whole ‘casual’ thing, but then again he wasn’t good at it before the apocalypse so he shouldn’t have thought he’d miraculously be able to do it now.

He could tell from the look that she gave him that Wendy knew he wasn’t telling her the whole truth, but if her experiences in Weirdmageddon were anything like his, he knew that she understood why he didn’t want to talk about them. 

“Yeah. I guess our town does kinda suck.” She turned around and started walking away, 

“Come on, now that you're not dead, how about we go get you some water so we can keep it that way.”

As they walked through the building Dipper began to see more people the further inside they went.

He recognized a lot of the faces, but every one of them looked changed, morphed into colder, more lifeless versions of themselves by the craziness around them.

Even for the people of Gravity Falls who had dealt with monsters, killer robots and zombies this was too much.

They were keeping to themselves, each person doing something to keep themselves busy, sharpening knives, redressing wounds, or just pacing around in circles.

He was so engrossed in the scene around them he didn’t realize Wendy had stopped, and was now holding a bottle of water out in front of his face.

“Hello, Earth to Dipper, do you want this or not?” 

Dipper whipped his head back to his friend.

Now that he finally had access to water he realized how thirsty he was, his throat practically sticking together every time he tried to swallow.

He snatched the bottle out of her hands and downed as much as he could in one go, the water feeling like a liquid form of life itself as it went down his throat. 

“Thanks” He gasped, catching his breath. 

“Anytime, wouldn't want you passing out from dehydration, that's like the lamest way to die during the apocalypse.” 

“Thanks. Having a lame death would definitely ruin my cool reputation.”

At that the two both let out a few laughs, which they both desperately needed. 

“No offense, but I feel like Mabel got all of the cool when you two were born.”

Immediately she wished she’d kept her mouth shut.

At the mention of his sister’s name Dipper felt a sharp pain in his heart, it was the end of the world and his sister was out there somewhere, without him. 

How could I ever even think of leaving her behind?

She’s the most important person in my life, we’ve been through hell together and I was just gonna abandon her?

I’m an idiot.

“Yeah. Mabel’s always been the better twin.” 

Pulling himself from his thoughts Dipper sat up straight and fixed a serious expression on his face. 

“Which is why I need to go find her. If we’re together I know we can find a way to defeat Bill and put an end to all of this. Do you have any supplies you can give me before I go?” He asked, ready to head out as soon as possible. 

“Are you crazy? You were basically dead when we found you, you’ll die if you go out there alone!” she cried. 

“I don’t care. I’m not abandoning Mabel during the fucking apocalypse.” His voice was cold and determined.

He’d made the mistake of trying to leave his sister behind once and he wasn’t gonna do it again.

Wendy could tell she wasn’t going to be able to talk him out of this, so she  offered the only other option that would keep her at least partly sane.

“Fine, I’ll get you a pack. We’ll leave tonight after I dress your wounds and we rest up. And before you try and argue I AM going with you. No offense but with your track record I don’t trust you not to die without backup”

He wanted to defend himself, but considering the state of his body and his history of clumsiness and bad luck he didn’t really have a leg to stand on.

Plus, even if she’d tried to hide it with an insult he knew she was really coming because she cared about both him and Mabel, and he couldn’t deny that he would have a better chance of survival if she came with him. 

“Okay, I’ll be ready.” He smiled.

******

Bill sat in his throne, staring into the same ball of mist he had conjured earlier.

He’d finally managed to get his body looking normal again, well for him at least, with the exception of the mark that had stubbornly refused to be covered again.

Right now he was ignoring it in favor of spying on Dipper to see where he was headed, which had led to him glaring daggers at Wendy as she and Pine Tree laughed and joked together. 

That bitch needs to keep her hands off my soulmate. 

The triangle demon was radiating a deadly aura, and it seemed like he was only a few seconds away from either bursting into flames or snapping somebody's neck (or both if there was time) as a substitute for not being able to vaporize the red head right there and then.

Unfortunately before he could pick out a victim one of his henchmaniacs walked up to him, clearly wanting to deliver his message and get away as soon as possible.

“WHAT” Bill bellowed.

“We-we brought him l-lke you told us t-to s-sir.” the demon stuttered, terrified that he would be used as the outlet for his bosses ire.

Luckily for him, his news caused Bill’s entire demeanor to change and his eye turned up at the edges in his version of a smile.

“Bring him in.” 

A few seconds later a small boy with giant hair stood in front of Bill, his freckled face displaying an evil smirk. 

“What can I do for you Bill?” Gideon drawled, his thick southern accent unnervingly sweet.

You had to be one heartless bastard to be willing to do business with the demon who destroyed your town, and Gideon was just that, a lot of evil wrapped up in a tiny misleading package.

“I have a job I’m sure you’ll love, kid. It involves a certain Shooting Star.”

“Mabel!” 

“Do you know any other Shooting Star? Now shut up for a second. What I need you to do is go and protect her.

I’ve got her locked up nice and safe, and I’d be happy to leave her in your fleshy little baby hands. All you have to do is capture Pine Tree and bring him back to me. Alive.”

Bill bit out the last word with emphasis, a subtle threat to the boy in front of him.

Just the thought of having Mabel all to himself was more than enough to have him agreeing right away, not even caring about what Bill wanted Dipper for.

“I do believe we have a deal Bill.”

“Let’s shake on it.” Bill stuck out his hand, blue flames dancing around it, Gideon reached out grabbed on tight.

******

The ground shook all throughout Gravity Falls and the sky seemed to darken to a deep blood red as Bill’s cries of rage filled the air. 

“FUCKING DAMN IT! HOW THE HELL DOES PINE TREE KEEP GETTING AWAY FROM ME. HE’S JUST A HUMAN, A WEAK SACK OF FLESH!” The demon screeched.

Dipper, Soos, and Wendy had all succeeded in rescuing Mabel from her prison. Now ALL of them were missing and Bill wasn’t any closer to capturing his soulmate.

Bill was alone in his weird castle, all of the gone, having fled for safety as soon as they sensed their boss was in a bad mood again.

The unfortunate few that weren’t fast enough were now piles of ash and goo on the floor, proof that running was the best thing to do when faced with an angry triangle.

With another burst of anger Bill conjured a ball of cerulean flame fifteen feet high and hurled it at the wall, the giant fire-wave breaking through it with ease, the crumbled remains of the bricks plummeting into the town below.

The demon was about to destroy something else when a loud clanging noise rang out in the empty Fearamid.

Momentarily distracted, Bill glanced down at the ground to see what he’d knocked over, his rage fading as his gaze fell on the familiar statue.

Picking it up he felt himself start to laugh until he was cackling whole heartedly. 

“How could I be so stupid. I’ve been wasting my time trying to capture Pine Tree and bring him to me.”

He stared at the golden statue in his hand, his favorite little trophy from this whole ordeal, his old friend turned enemy staring back at him, face plastered with an expression of fear. 

“As long as I have old Sixer here it’s only a matter of time before Pine Tree and the rest come to try and break down my door to get him back. They’re always ready to play the heroes. All I have to do is sit and wait.”

Filled with a new wave of satisfaction Bill floated over to his throne of Frozen Human Agony and settled in.

It was only a matter of time. 

******

“No. No. NOOOO!” Ford screamed as Bill fried him with his eye laser. 

“Ready to talk now?” Bill questioned.

“I won’t. I won’t let you into my mind.”

Hahaha. That’s the same stubborn old sixer I know and hate.

Good thing he’s stupid enough to believe that I actually need him to get rid of that barrier when he's just good old fleshy bait.

But hey, what better way to pass the time than some torture. 

“Whadya think pals another 500 volts?”

Bill yelled at his audience of Henchmaniacs, all of them cheering him on until they’re interrupted.

The Fearamid began to shake, the demons on the ground looking around trying to figure out what was happening, but Bill just gave himself an internal smile. 

Guess Pine Tree finally decided to show up 

Bill’s hunch was immediately proven right when a giant dinosaur head crashed its way through the wall. 

Time to go and collect what’s mine. 

“Henchmaniacs, you know what to do. Destroy their robot and bring me the Pines family. And make sure they are ALIVE.” 

With that order all the henchmaniacs jumped down to face the Shacktron, whooping and yelling, excited for all the blood and carnage to come.

From the fearamid Bill waited until it was time to collect his prize, a look that was as close to smug as a faceless being could have plastered onto the front of his body.

That is until team Take Back the Falls started beating down all of his henchmaniacs, taking out his entire army without taking barely any damage.

Trying to conceal his growing anger Bill chose to go the route of exasperation, this would just mean he had to do more work since all his demons were useless morons. 

“Seriously guys, you had like one job to do!”

Guess I’m gonna have to go and get Pine Tree myself. At least I can make it more fun this way.

Floating out of the massive hole in the wall of the Fearamid he used his powers to make himself bigger, tripling in size in order to match the scale of the rebels thrown together battle robot.

His initial plan had been to yank off the roof and pluck Dipper out, leaving the rest of the family as fair game, a plan that came screeching to a halt when his giant hand was blocked from touching the crappy building by a shimmering force field. 

“What the! NO NO NO NO”

Bill was getting increasingly frustrated by all the obstacles that kept blocking his plans and he’d finally reached the breaking point of his already fractured sanity.

Like some kind of rabid beast his eye burned crimson in rage as he began pummeling the force field, each hit striking down with god-like intensity powerful enough to send shockwaves into the air around the shack.

If he hadn’t been blinded by his anger he would’ve seen the Pines’ sneak out and run towards the Fearamid, but he was too far gone to focus on anything other than shattering the force field keeping him from his soulmate.

He used a plethora of his different powers beating on the robot, losing more and more control by the second.

Just as he was about to completely fall over the edge and just start destroying the town until they let him in he managed to  figure out the robot's weakness.

Reigning in his haywire emotions he cleared his mind and attacked with strategy rather than brute force, aiming for the exposed legs.

The sound of thunder made the demon pause, a nagging at the back of his mind causing him to turn his head towards the Fearamid. 

Well look at that. I’d wager that PIne Tree and the rest of the Pines aren’t even in this thing anymore.

Which means I don’t have to hold back. 

With a newfound confidence Bill rose into the air far above the Shacktron, fixing his eye on his shabby opponent.

In the blink of an eye the dream demon surged towards the robot pummeling it from every angle, each blow knocking the shack directly into the path of the next one.

Once the shack looked like it was about to collapse, Bill levitated it off of the ground, the broken limbs falling to the ground as the crew inside all laid in various states of injury on the ground.

With one more surge of power Bill drove the Shacktron right into the ground, taking it out completely. 

Now, time to go and see what old Sixer and the rest are up to. 

As Bill floated closer to the fearamid he heard Stan and Ford yelling at each other, completely unaware of the dream demon sneaking up on them.

Perfect. Dipper, Mabel, Ford, and Stan all went silent, bodies frozen as Bill’s shadow fell over them. 

“Oh no, it’s Bill! Right? Isn’t that what you’re all thinking?” 

With a swing of his jet black fist the ground broke apart, completely destroying the cipher they’d been standing on.

“Did you really think you would be able to defeat me?”.

In the next instant Bill waved his hand, his powers sending all of the other people in the room sailing across the room before floating closer to the Pines family.

But his gaze was only focused on one person.

Dipper.

“Fine. Bill you win,”

Ford’s voice interrupted his trance, he’d forgotten about the old geezer for a minute now that he finally had his prize right in front of him.

“I’ll tell you how to take down the barrier, just let my family go.”

Starting as a quiet chuckle Bill’s laugh grew into a loud, manic, full bodied laugh as he practically fell into a fit at the joke no one else in the room understood. 

“You really are stupid aren’t ya Sixer.”

Still laughing, Bill raised Stan, Ford and Mabel into the air before conjuring an iron cage around them. 

“I didn’t kidnap you to get inside your head. You were just bait, and a source for entertainment while I waited for you to bring me what I really wanted.”

“Bill you bastard! What do you want with my family, what use could they possibly be to someone like you.”

Ford screamed confusion and helplessness giving a desperate tone to his voice. 

“Why would I waste that knowledge on a fleshbag? And anyways, I couldn’t care less about your family. I was just using you to lure Pine Tree here for me, and you didn’t disappoint! Good job Fordsy.” 

None of the Pines knew what to say, all of their minds whirling as they tried to figure out why, out of all of them, Bill had wanted Dipper, whose blood had gone cold at the sudden revelation. 

“What do you want from me, you twisted triangle.” Dipper whispered darkly, his voice barely feeling like his own. 

“Join me, become---”

“NEVER!” Dipper cried. 

“There is no way you can win. I’m an all powerful demon, you’re a kid whose never even had a girlfriend, you don’t have exactly have a choice here. Why don’t you stop making this difficult and just join me before I start making threats.” 

Sorry kid, you're my key to world domination, I'm not letting you go anywhere.

Slowly Dipper walked towards the edge of the fearamid, the horror of Bill's statement jarring him, but it didn’t stop the gears in his head from turning as he tried to figure out a way out of this.

He could only think of one thing that he could do to save the world, the only question was, could he do it.

After a long pause Dipper straightened his back, choice made.

Taking a deep breath he looked straight into Bill’s eye and, voice filled with determination he declared

“I would rather kill myself than be a pawn in your twisted scheme Bill.”

Running towards the edge of one of the holes in the wall he got ready to jump. 

“NO WAIT” Bill cried out, then before he could completely think through his words he yelled. “I’ll MAKE YOU A DEAL!” 

At that everyone still conscious in the room gasped. Stopping barely an inch from the ledge the human looked over his shoulder, eyes filled with hatred.

“Why would I ever trust you?” Dipper spat. 

“A deal’s a deal Pine Tree, even I can’t go back on one.”

Bill tried to mask his desperation, but in reality he was on the brink of a meltdown. A few wisps of the emotions he’d been repressing leaked out into his mind.

He couldn’t let his soulmate die. Not after he had spent millenia searching for him.

“What’s the ‘deal’ you wanna make?” 

I have to make it something Pine Tree can’t refuse. I can’t let him kill himself, at this distance if I try and stop him with magic he’ll jump before I can stop him.

Damn it!

Even if I force him into joining me he would never stop trying to either kill himself or escape, and even then I wouldn’t have access to the power until he accepted me.

I need time to get him to come to my side. If I have that I can manipulate him into joining me, I’m a master of the mind. All I need is time….. 

“Okay, I know you drive a hard bargain kid so here’s my offer. I'll put the town back to normal and let all of your family members go.

In exchange you’ve gotta stay with me for an entire month. And when those 30 days are up, I'll start up Weirdmageddon again and your family can have one more shot to stop me."

Silence blanketed the room.

No one had been expecting something like that to come out of the demon's mouth, it was almost too much for their brains to process. 

“D-Don’t do it Dipper.” A strained whisper from Mabel broke the silence in the room. 

The sheer amount of craziness had left her mute until now, but at the thought of her brother, her twin being taken by Bill.

He was her best friend, the only person she could fully trust and count on.

She couldn’t let him do this.  

“I-I have to Mabel you guys--”

“No,she’s right Dipper, there is no telling what plan he has in mind!” Ford called out. 

“Don’t negotiate with terrorists, kid, trust me. For once I agree with my braniac brother. Don’t do it!” Grunkle Stan's voice cracked as he tried to warn Dipper. 

Tears prickled in the corners of Dipper’s eyes as he looked back and forth between his trapped family and Bill.

This was the only chance there was to save them, to save everyone. 

“I’m sorry. I have to.” The tears finally fell, streaming down his cheeks as his eyes locked on to Bill.

“It’s a deal Bill.”

“Perfect.” 

Bill reached out his inky black hand, a brilliant blue flame sparking up around it. Reaching out Dipper went to go for the shake, only for Bill to pull his hand back at the last second before he could grab it.  

“Just one more thing. Just to be sure you don’t try to do something stupid and self-sacrifcing, if you try to escape or kill yourself the whole deal is off, and everyone in this town will pay.”

Closing his eyes Dipper nodded silently before he once again reached out for Bill, this time both of their hands meeting together, the deal sealed beneath the flames covering their hands.

“NOOOOO!”

Stan, Ford, and Mabel all cried out, all of them feeling helpless from behind the metal bars of the cage, having to just sit and watch as Dipper sold himself to the devil.

With the deal complete Bill lifted Dipper into the air with him, his triumphant laughter echoing throughout the entire town.

He had his soulmate and one month until he could conquer the universe. Nothing could stop him now.

With the snap of his fingers he and Dipper disappeared, and a wave of normal swept through the town.

The timer was set.

Chapter Text

Mabel woke up with a pounding headache.

She was groggy and disoriented as she tried to adjust to being awake, so it took a moment for the blurry settings around her to come into focus.

There were bright posters covering moldy wooden walls, and the familiar smell of must was strong enough to burn her nose. 

I’m in my room? 

Confused, she cautiously took in her surroundings.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, in fact there was no sign that Weirdmageddon was anything more than a fucked up dream.

That is until she looked out the window.

Cutting across the middle of the sky was the unmistakable x-shaped scar that Bill and the rest of his demon army had come through. 

This was real.

Every crazy thing that had happened over the past few days wasn’t just some kind of twisted dream.

Demons really had taken over Gravity Falls. The universe really was in danger. But what was far worse than anything else for Mabel is that her brother really was Bill’s prisoner. 

*******

The last thing Dipper remembered was seeing a weird sort of power wave washing over Gravity Falls that returned everything back to its pre-Weirdmageddon state. 

Then everything had gone completely black, like someone had flipped a switch and turned off everything.

He was fully awake, but he couldn’t see or hear anything. 

This must be what people feel like when they are in a coma. 

After a moment he began to regain feeling throughout his body and he attempted to move around.

The first thing he noticed was that he was standing, not lying down or collapsed in a heap on the ground like he thought he would be.

The second thing he noticed is that he was blinking his eyes and he could hear the sound of his own breathing, which meant his senses were functioning just fine, and while that gave him a small bit of relief it didn’t change the fact that he was somehow trapped in a soundless, lightless void.

Great.

What the hell is going on? Where am I? 

Dipper’s first instinct was to try and look around to see if he could at least feel something even if he couldn’t see it, but since he literally going in blind he didn’t know if moving would cause him to fall into a bottomless pit or a bear trap or something. 

If I only move a little at a time I should be fine. Right? 

He tapped his right foot in the space in front of him, testing to see if the ground beneath him was solid.

When he was sure it was he took the step and started the process all over again.  

“Well look who is finally up and moving around. Glad to see you're alive Pine Tree.” 

Dipper had only gone about three steps when Bill's voice boomed out, the familiarly grating sound of his voice filling up every inch of the void he was in.

Even though he was a little disoriented he still remembered everything that had happened, even if he wished he hadn’t.

“Hello? Endless void to Pine Tree.” 

Even though Dipper was tempted to ignore the dream demon, he knew that he might go crazy if he stayed in this endless void forever, and unfortunately talking to the dream demon was the only hope he had of getting out.

“Where the hell am I Bill? Why can’t I see anything?”

“Oh sorry about that, I forgot that humans and their weak little eyes can’t see 8D colors.” A second later the dark void melted away into what seemed to be some kind of living room. 

God, at least now I can see the hell that I’ve been taken to. 

“Aww come on, I thought I made your prison look comfy.”

Bills voice rang out again, but this time it wasn’t his voice that made Dipper freeze, a deep chill racking through his body. 

D-did Bill just respond to my thoughts?! 

“Good job Pine Tree, I guess your mushy human brain is still working.” 

“What the hell? Since when can you hear my thoughts?” 

“Since we entered my domain. Ah, speaking of which, welcome to the dreamscape!”

Dipper drew his eyebrows together in confusion, 

What’s a dreamscape 

Immediately Dipper mentally kicked himself. 

“Glad you asked. It’s the place where all beings in every dimension, quarter dimension, and voidless existence go when they fall asleep. A place that has been under my control for longer than your puny universe has existed.”

Wow, I wonder how this place was created, is it tied to Bill? Did he get it passed down from someone? Did he--

“HahAhAHa” Bill's splintery laugh cut off Dipper's signature habit of overanalyzing everything.

“You’re more entertaining than I remember.”

As Dipper listened to the voice of the dream demon he realized that he hadn’t seen the pointy triangle’s face since he had woken up. Ignoring Bill’s comment, Dipper looked around the room to see if he could find his captor. 

“Where are you?”

For a moment the room was just silent, the dream demon leaving the question hanging in the air for a moment. Then, just as Dipper was giving up on an answer a bright golden light began to shimmer in the air.

As it continued to grow bigger the space around it warped and bent, as if the light was trying to break through an invisible wall.

Suddenly the golden light intensified into a blinding flash so bright that it started to burn the Pines’ eyes and forced him to shield them behind his arm. 

What was that? 

When the light finally died down Dipper squinted his eyes, wary of what he might see if he tried to open his eyes completely.

However, what he saw caused his eyes to snap open wide, allowing him to drink in every detail of the sight in front of him.

Where the bright light had been now stood the tall, dark tan figure of a young man.

He had a messy crop of short blond hair that was topped with a very familiar black top hat, and he was donning a pair of black jeans paired with a white shirt and a golden vest.

But what really caught Dipper’s attention was the man’s eyes, or should he say eye since one of them was covered with an inky black eye patch.

The eye that was visible though was a beautiful, piercing gold. And it was completely fixed on Dipper. 

“Bill?” Dipper gasped. 

“In the fake flesh. How do you like the new look Pine Tree? It’s all for you.”

Dipper was completely speechless as his eyes raked over the new form of the dream demon. Before he could stop himself another useless thought slipped into his mind. 

What happened to him being a pointy gold asshole? And why is his human form so hot?

When Dipper realized what he’d just thought his eyes widened and he immediately tried to save face. 

“N-nononononono. That’s not what I meant.”

Dipper was prepared to drown out any taunts or insults that the demon decided to throw at him, but he was completely unprepared for the words that actually left the former triangles mouth. 

“I’m glad you like it.” 

What the hell?

******

Mabel sat on Dipper’s bed, her knees pulled flush against her chest as she fought back the tears that were threatening to spill down her cheeks.

What am I supposed to do without Dipper? He was the one that had all the ideas and the plans, I can’t do this without him. 

These same thoughts had been weighing her down since she woke up, and no doubt they would have continued to float around in her head if she didn’t hear the sound of voices approaching the house.

She tried to figure out what the people were saying but there were too many of them, all competing with one another, and it was starting to sound more like thunder than actual conversations.

What the hell? Is the whole town out there?  

The noise only continued to get louder, so, finally pulling herself together, Mabel walked out of her room and headed outside to figure out what was going on out there.

As soon as she stepped through the front door she was met with a scene of complete chaos.

Her initial guess had been right, what looked like the entire town of Gravity Falls was on the lawn of the mystery shack.

Everyone looked scared, confused or angry as they screamed accusations and questions at one another until someone finally noticed Mabel’s appearance. 

“Look, it’s Mabel!” 

Suddenly all eyes turned towards the older Pines twin, their questions now directed at her.

For a moment all Mabel could do was stand shell shocked at the scene that was playing out in front of her. 

Why are these people coming to me? Just because I’m always surrounded by weird stuff doesn’t mean I know anything! 

Before she could recollect her thoughts a high pitched screeching noise rang through the air making everyone in the crowd pause in their talking to cover their ears in pain.

When it finally stopped the townspeople all took the hint and quieted down, now looking towards the source of the noise, which happened to be in the hand of Ford. 

“Good. Now that all of you have stopped screaming, someone tell me why all of you came here to yell at my great niece.”

A few murmurs went through the crowd before Pacifica stepped to the front of the group. 

“We came because we want to know what the hell is going on. We went from being in the middle of the apocalypse to back in our houses like nothing ever happened. We want answers, and Dipper and Mabel usually know all about the weird stuff that goes on in this town.” 

The crowd mumbled their agreement as they eyed the Pines family. After a moment another voice from the middle of the mob called out again. 

“Where’s Dipper? He’s the one who usually deals with these things?” 

“Yeah” called out a few other faceless voices.

At the mention of her brother's name Mabel was once again overwhelmed by grief and she couldn’t stop the few tears that rolled down her cheeks.

The crowd fell into a grim silence as they watched Mabel crumple to her knees on the porch, none of them had ever seen the usually bubbly girl look so defeated, the sad sight only made them feel even more unsettled about their whole situation.

With a sad sigh Ford stepped forward, a hand dragging down his face before he finally addressed the crowd. 

“Everyone calm down. I’ll tell you what happened.” 

******

Now snugly inside of his new meat puppet Bill fixed his gaze on the form of his soulmate who was currently pacing the length of the room.

Pine Tree had one hand on his chin as he made his way back and forth over and over again, biting at his bottom lip as he silently freaked out. 

Hmm who new Pine Tree could look so adorable when he was freaking out

As soon as the thought entered his mind Bill began to feel uncomfortable and stiffened. 

What was that pitiful thought, it sounded so disgustingly… human. No it was just mocking, no need to worry yourself Bill everything is going according to plan!

Calming himself back down the demon began to think about his next move. 

I need to slowly get Pine Tree on to my side. He is the fleshy meat key that I need for universal domination. 

Finally, Dipper seemed to finish his frantic pacing and was now sitting with his head between his knees against the wall, muttering incoherently. This felt like progress.

“You’re taking this better than I thought Pine Tree.” Bill smirked. 

After a moment Dipper lifted his head up, his eyes cold and calculating as he looked at the demon. 

“Why?” The boy asked. 

Locking eyes with him Bill feigned ignorance, as if he couldn’t read the kid's thoughts. 

“Wow, nice question kid, but I think I’m gonna need a bit more than that.” 

Gritting his teeth and rolling his eyes, Dipper added to his question. 

“Why did you make that deal with me? You had all of us completely cornered, you could have killed all of us, so why didn’t you take the chance?”

As the words left his mouth all of the anger drained out of Dipper, leaving only confusion and sadness behind. 

The dream demon didn’t miss the changes in his soulmate and for the first time in his life he didn’t feel like being a sarcastic asshole. 

I can’t tell the truth about how I need him to leave this fucking town. Good thing lying is always a fun option. 

“I wanted to have a bit more fun with the Pines family, you guys are pretty interesting for simple little meatsacks.”

At first there was no response, but after a deep sigh Dipper shook his head and looked back up at Bill, a humorless laugh falling from his lips. 

“Somehow that doesn’t even surprise me. So, what now? Are you gonna…attack me with screaming animal heads or something?” 

“Not a bad idea, but I was thinking of doing something like this,” With the snap of his fingers the setting around him disappeared, once again leaving Dipper in an empty void. This time however, Bill was in front of him.

"What are you doing?" Dipper questioned, fixing a sharp glare on the dream demon.

Is he gonna torture me with sensory depravation instead?

"Calm down Pine Tree, I'm just giving you a blank canvas. I’m generous like that."

Still not convinced Bill wasn’t going to torture him in some way Dipper drew his eyebrows together and glared at the demon. 

“To do what?” 

In a movement that was far too quick to be human Bill had floated forward and slung his arm around the human’s shoulders.

“I thought you were supposed to be the smart twin Pine Tree. It’s a blank void, you can do anything with it.”

Although Dipper was far from reassured by that answer his natural curiosity was beginning to cloud his better judgment. 

“So, I can make this place into anything I want? Anything at all?” 

“Coooorrreeect!” Bill cried out, tightening his grip on the human's shoulders, an action Dipper purposely chose to ignore.  

“What’s the catch? You don’t do anything unless there is something in it for you, and there is no way I would believe you're doing this out of the goodness of your heart. You probably don’t even have one, I mean you used to be a 2-D triangle for crying out loud.” 

“You wound me Pine Tree, of course I have a heart, this new meat sack has all the weird little organs you humans need to live. 

And as for the catch I'd rather just let you freak out about what it could be, it's fun to watch you squirm.”

As much as Dipper wanted to keep up the interrogation he knew that trying to get Bill to give him a straight answer would be like trying to get his Grunkle Stan to give money to the less fortunate, too much work to be worth it.

He closed his eyes and threw back his head before releasing a loud sound that was a combination between a groan and a sigh.

“Uggghhhhhhhhh. Fine, I guess anything I can come up with will still be better than spending who knows how long in an endless void with only you for company. At least this way I'll have something interesting to look at that doesn't smirk at me every five seconds.”

“That’s the spirit!” 

“I wish I could find a way to insult you that you’d actually be offended by.”

Unsurprisingly all he got in response was yet another smirk. He wanted to punch him so much.

“So, how do I make it… go? Do I just think about it or picture it or something?”

“Yep, I guess there is some potential for intelligence in that mushy meat of a brain of yours. This is the dreamscape, anything you want can become a reality.” 

Dipper's face scrunched up in concentration as he tried to come up with an idea.

While the human allowed his different thoughts to mill around his head as he thought about what to make Bill took the time to watch his soulmate. 

Leave it to this kid to start stressing out over a place where he can literally do anything. I can practically see his brain overloading. 

The image his mind created made fond chuckle rumble in the chest of his new human form, which was definitely…new.

The unexpeted noise surprised both Bill and Dipper, which drew the human from his intense brainstorming.

“What’s so funny?” Dipper bit, clearly not happy about being laughed at.

Pretending that he had laughed on purpose Bill decided to keep poking fun at the human, which also allowed him to avoid thinking about why he’d chuckled in the first place. It was a win win. 

“You are Pine Tree. You’re gonna overload your tiny human brain at this rate,  just pick something and have at it.”

“FINE!” 

Screwing his eyes closed one more time Dipper emptied his mind, only one idea echoing around his head, a place I’d be happy spending the rest of my life, letting his unconscious mind do the rest work for him as an image formed in his mind’s eye.

An instant later the two of them were in the middle of an empty clearing in the woods. 

Real original kid.

Bill was ready to poke some more fun at Dipper over his lack of creativity, but when he turned to look at the boy the retort died on his lips and he was left speechless. (Which is a miracle in itself)

The look on Pine Tree's face was full of amazement and wonder as he looked around at the place he had created.

The woods he was in were more beautiful than anything he had ever seen before. The two men stood in a clearing surrounded by dark, towering trees that spanned for miles in every direction.

Fireflies danced around in the distance creating pinpricks of light in the seemingly impenetrable darkness surrounding them.

But the most breathtaking thing of all was the sky that was visible through the break in the trees.

It was unlike any sky the demon had seen in any dimension.

It was a dark navy color with swirling ribbons of blue, purple, and white light threaded throughout it.

There were thousands of glittering stars scattered in the sky that glowed with an ethereal light above the mysterious darkness of the woods and were as clear as diamonds on the dark canvas of the sky.

But Bill's eyes were transfixed by something else in the clearing, Dipper.

The beauty of the scene was reflected in his features, his eyes sparkled brighter than any star and his smile was so radiant and blinding that Bill wished it would never leave his face again.

It was just then that he realized he’d never actually seen the kid look so happy.

“Wow” The sound of the word was like a stone being dropped in a lake, it shattered the surrealness of the moment and brought both of them back to reality.

Dipper looked at Bill questioningly, which was when Bill realized that the noise had come from his mouth, well the mouth of his human suit.

“What?” Dipper asked, immediately putting up a defensive front.

“I just thought of the first thing that popped into my head, sorry if it’s too boring for your taste.” The boy growled, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I’m actually kind of impressed by Pine Tree, I didn't think you had it in you.” Bill smirked

Dippers stance relaxed a bit at the sort of compliment, the new environment clearly making him more at ease than he’d been in the void. 

“Gee, thanks for that.” 

“But just one question?” 

“What?”

“Where do you plan to sleep?” 

The now familiar smirk spread across the annoyingly handsome face as he pointed out Dipper's mistake.

The Pines twin choked back his retort and a blush spread across his face that Bill definitely didn't find himself appreciating. 

“I was getting to that!” 

*smirk intensifies* 

“Shut up and leave me alone so I can concentrate!” Dipper growled. 

How the heck am I supposed to come up with an idea for a house?

“Do you want my help Pine Tree? Your imagination might be all used up after creating all this, I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself with all this thinking.” 

“SHUT UP AND STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!” Dipper screamed as he took a swing at the dream demon’s face. 

In a swift movement Bill caught his arm midway through the punch and used his hold to pull the boy forwards until he was almost pressed up against his body. 

“No can do Pine Tree, it’s too much fun to watch you get all angry and flustered.” 

Dipper was about to tell the demon off when he realized what position they were in.

Bill had one of his arms around the Pines’ lower back and the other one planted loosely on his hip while both of Dipper’s hands were pressed firmly against the demon’s chest.

His brain short circuited, the amount of mortification flowing through his body freezing him to the spot, which only made the whole situation worse since it forced him to actually take more notice of what the hold felt like.

It wasn’t like he’d never been hugged (not that this was a hug, it was a restraint hold, definitely), but whether it was because he was in the dreamscape or because Bill wasn’t human something about this felt weird, different.

For one thing there was a warm sensation flowing through his body, something different than just body heat.

It bloomed out from the spots where he and Bill were touching, and even if he’d never let himself acknowledge it the feeling was far from unpleasant.

The heat was calming as it flowed into him, his body relaxing as his mortification cleared away to a hazy, nice feeling right up until he felt his head hit the demon’s chest as well.

The light thud was enough of a jolt for him to regain some of his common sense and with horror at what he’d been doing.

Pushing his hands against the demon’s chest he used the momentum to rip himself from Bill’s arms, sending them both stumbling in opposite directions.

The warm feeling began to fade from the teens body, leaving behind a cold and empty ache that Dipper chose to ignore.

His heart was beating frantically, loud enough that he could hear the pounding sound in his ears, and he was barely preventing himself from hyperventilating.

Whatever had just happened had been an accident and whatever weird feeling he got was all because Bill was a demon.

He can make fire, his blood is probably just extra hot and since I haven’t been able to relax in a long time I mistook him for…a heated blanket!

Yeah, he was like a warm blanket and I’m just out of it from everything so it made me forget where I was for a moment. Exactly. Bill probably doesn’t even know why I spazzed out like that.

Don’t worry about it.

Fake coughing to break the awkward silence from his little freak out. 

“Well, at least I know how you’re torturing me now.” 

Since the demon hadn’t treated it like a big deal Dipper decided to go the route of pretending as if nothing just happened too.

“Do tell Pine Tree?” 

“By forcing me to spend inhumane amounts of time with you. And I’ve got to admit, so far it’s working pretty well. This past half hour has already felt like an eternity.”

Deeming that as an end to the conversation and an excuse to get away from Bill so he could finish clearing his head Dipper walked to the opposite end of the clearing to try and figure out what kind of shelter he was going to make for himself.

But when Dipper’s was far enough away Bill let the smirk he’d plastered on his face sink down, his face blank as he looked down at his arms.

He could still feel the phantom sensation of that strange warmth even now that it had been replaced with an almost painfully cold feeling. 

What the hell was that?

Chapter Text

“Being creative is exhausting. I want to go back to being the smart twin, it was less draining.”

Dipper groaned as walked through the door to the room, letting himself collapse onto his newly created bed. 

After Bill had smugly pointed out the fact that Dipper had no place to live, the Pines boy had spent what seemed like forever coming up with the design for a cabin to live in, and let’s just say if how wonky his first few tries had turned out were any indication he definitely didn’t have a future as an architect. 

Bill walked into the room right after him, watching as the human’s body turned to mush from exhaustion. 

“Looks like I finally broke you Pine Tree, who knew it would be this easy.”

The disgruntled sound Dipper made was a nice reward for his comment.

“I knew there had to be a catch, you’re just trying to come up with new ways to torture me aren’t you?” 

Dipper’s voice was filled with the same whiney undertones that he used when he complained to Mabel, which amused Bill to no end.

It seems that the combination of being in a human form in a comfortable environment was allowing him to see new sides to the human. 

“The torture is just a happy side effect Pine Tree, my real intentions are way too complex for your simple brain to understand.”

Bill called out as he walked across the room and began to comfortably float in the air next to the bed. 

Dipper could practically feel the smirk on the demon's face without even looking, which somehow made it even more annoying. 

I feel like I’m arguing with a psychopathic 5 year old

“I prefer the term evil psycho better, but I’ll give you a half point for creativity kid.” 

Dipper sat up with a start before coming to his senses and groaning even louder than before. 

“I forgot that I can’t even get away from you inside my head.”

With a slight chuckle (that was definitely part of lulling the kid into a false sense of security and no other reason…) The demon plopped down onto the bed next to Dipper and threw his arm around his shoulders.

“You better get used to it, Pine Tree, it’s just you and me from now on.” 

“Oh God help me.” 

“Compared to me God is like a four-headed dog with no legs, hilarious and pathetic.” 

“If you’re as powerful as you are full of yourself then I’ll believe you.”

The retort flew right off his lips as if he was back having a stupid sibling bickering contest with Mabel, and the familiarity of it made him lift his own lips into a gentle smirk. 

“Woah! Didn’t know you had that in you Pine Tree, nice one kid.”

Bill couldn’t suppress the second bout of deep chuckles that rattled his chest after hearing the boy act so sassily. 

As the demon chuckled next to him Dipper found himself tempted to start laughing right alongside him.

Their playful bickering, the warm and relaxing feeling of Bill's arm around him and the oddly sweet sound of Bill's laugh were creating a comfortable atmosphere in the room.

There was something about the Dream Demon that seemed different now that he was in human form, or maybe it was because they were in his domain or that they were alone.

Well, whatever it was it made Bill seem like less of a monster and more… human as weird as it sounded, and Dipper couldn’t help but be drawn in and comforted by it.

As he sat wrapped in the demon’s grasp the same warmth from earlier began to slowly spread throughout his body, causing Dipper to relax further and let his guard down.

But then it happened, as if it was his brain's last ditch attempt to keep Dipper from falling into some kind of comfortable trap.

Memories of all the destruction and horror of Weirdmageddon flooded into his head. The carnage. The statues. The pain.

And at the center of it all was Bill. The memories forced his mind back into reality, causing the stirring emotions within Dipper to come to a screeching halt. 

All he did was change forms, he's not human. He’s a demon. He’s just using you. He’s evil… I’m his prisoner.

Shooting up from the bed he roughly pulled himself out from Bill’s arm, body recoiling in disgust at what he’d been doing.

His mouth felt dry and numb as he realized that he had almost started to see that psychopath as something other than the monster that he truly was. 

I need to get away from him. 

The thought entered his mind before he could stop it, but he didn’t even care.

“I know you heard that, and I think the message was pretty clear. Get out.” 

******

“DAMN IT!” 

Bill screamed as he hurled a flaming fireball at a terrified nightmare beast, instantly setting its oily hair on fire. The creature released a piercing cry of pain as the fire reached it’s skin, burning and melting it off even as it struggled to put out the flames. 

But even the screams of pain weren’t enough to make Bill relax, his mind whirling as his brain continued to replay the cold expression that had flashed across Dipper’s face when he looked at him, the way he’d pulled away from him like he’d been burned. 

Being a ruthless maniac is my favorite thing about myself, and seeing the terrified and angry little fleshy faces of humans is usually hilarious. So why… 

“AHHHGGGGGGH!”

The dream demon let out another wrath filled scream into the endless abyss around him. 

After being ‘kicked out’ Bill had gone to one of the nightmare pockets of the dreamscape to blow off some steam, or more accurately to take all of his frustration out on unsuspecting monsters. 

“I was finally gaining some of his trust, why did he have to think of his little human friends!”

Bill launched another ball of cerulean fire at the next unfortunate target, a large and inky mass of sludge who was desperately trying to flee from the ball of pure death that had just been thrown at him.

This kill, much like the last one, wasn’t enough to satiate the wild bloodlust that was flooding through the demon’s system.

When he was about to go on another screaming rant one of the stray “human emotion” thoughts slithered into the front of his mind. 

Why did he have to pull away from me?

Why. whywhywhywhywhywhywhy

The demon's thoughts began to frantically spiral out of his control as the foreign human emotions began to overwhelm his previously icy heart. 

“NO!” 

 Bill aggressively smacked himself on the side of his human puppets head with so much force that it nearly flew off, sending it spinning around his neck before it finally settled back into the normal position. 

“Who cares why the kid pulled away! It doesn’t matter. All that matters is the plan!”

Bill called out, his booming voice sending all the leftover monsters in the clearing into a panic, fleeing in every direction. 

“It doesn’t matter. It’s all for the plan. He’s nothing but a tool to use. He’s nothing!”

Bill punctuated each sentence with the dramatic throw of a fireball, attempting to drill these thoughts into his head and force them to be the truth.

But even after the final monster in the area crumbled into a pile of chunky ash Bill could still hear the lie ringing in each word as they echoed in the void.

******

After the rest of the town heard what Dipper had done for them no one knew what to say.

They’d all seen him do some amazing and dangerous things the past few months, but that didn’t change the fact that he was only 17.

He’d given up his life for them days before he could even have the chance to become an adult while the rest of them stood powerless.

“What Dipper did was reckless, but it was also selfless. He was brave enough to sacrifice himself, his freedom so that the rest of us could have a second chance, and no matter what we can not let his sacrifice go to waste!.”

Ford’s voice blanketed over the silent crowd. 

“Gravity Falls was given another chance at life and we are gonna use it to beat the hell out of all the demons that tried to take over our town!”

When the words finally sunk in the townspeople had a new determination in their hearts, they had time to prepare, to train and this time they would be ready to fight back with everything they had. 

“YEAAAH!” 

Long after the people had left and the clearing in front of the shack was empty again the Pines’ family continued to stand outside, the weight of what had happened and what they needed to do keeping the stuck in place.

Despite the confidence he had had in his voice during his gallant speech as soon as no one was there to see Ford’s shoulders slumped and he let out a heavy, pained sigh, sinking down onto the porch.

“I can’t believe I let that monster get away with taking my great nephew.”

The older man’s face looked years older than usual as guilt weighed down his features. 

Mabel, who had been sitting silently on the porch scooched closer to the man and laid a hand on his shoulder. 

“It wasn’t your fault. You know Dipper, he’s a stubborn idiot. He would have taken that deal no matter what any of us said.”

She laughed dryly, a few stray tears escaping down her cheeks despite her trying her best to hold them back.

She’d cried enough for one day. 

“Yeah, the kid has a real hero complex.”

Grunkle Stan’s voice called out from behind the two of them as he spoke from where he was leaning against the house.

Mabel couldn’t help but nod, smiling at the memory of all the times Dipper had gone above and beyond to fight against weird creatures for the town. 

“You can say that again!”

The memories of her brother’s resilience and determination filled her with newfound energy.

Dipper was fighting his own battle and even if they weren’t together she was gonna do everything she could to make sure that she was ready to fight her own.

Jumping up from her seat Mabel turned to face her Grunkles, fists clenched tight. 

“We can’t let Dipper’s sacrifice go to waste. He bought us a month to figure out how to kick Bills pointy yellow ass and we are gonna make the most of it.”

The sudden outburst caught the two older twins by surprise, but soon enough they were jumping up alongside her, all three of them sharing the same determined glint in their eyes. 

“You’re absolutely right Mabel.” 

“Let’s do this kid.”. 

******

The minute Bill had left the room Dipper immediately began to freak out, which was basically second nature to him at this point. 

“What the heck am I doing! Why am I sitting in here LAUGHING with a fucking demon!” He cried out.

His body was completely overflowing with nervous energy and even though he was trying to burn it off by pacing he was so worked up that it seemed more like he was sprinting back and forth. 

“Dipper, stop being an idiot! He’s just trying to trick you into trusting him so he can use you. Don’t fall for it.”

The teen nodded his head to himself. He knew that that was the only logical explanation for why he wasn’t currently being tortured or turned into a… worm or something. 

Gah! I can’t even think straight anymore. I have to stay focused, he won’t lure me to his side. This is a trap. A trick. 

To keep himself grounded Dipper tried to hold on to memories of all the cruel and horrible things Bill had done. 

Turing Grunkle Ford to Gold. 

Releasing Demons on the world. 

Building a throne of living human agony. 

With every memory Dipper’s hatred for the dream demon began to steadily rise. 

This is the real Bill.

But some part of Dipper still felt uncertain.

It was like something deep inside of him was preventing him from completely hating that pointy asshole. He attempted to bury the feeling with more cruel memories, but it only seemed to make him feel even worse.

Suddenly the walls of his bedroom began to feel more like the bars of a cage.

His heartbeat picked up as he felt the walls slowly begin to creep closer, the room trapping him in tighter and tighter.

“Shit! What the hell is happening?” Dipper cried out, his voice cracking with frantic emotion. 

He screwed his eyes shut, digging both his hands into his messy brown locks as he screamed in anguish and confusion. 

“Agggh!”

I need to get out of this room, I need room to think.

Forcing himself to open his eyes, Dipper looked around and saw that the room had gone back to normal, but that didn’t change anything, he couldn’t stand being in here anymore.

Taking a deep breath he fled out the door and walked out into the woods that he’d created earlier.

Even though he knew that nothing here was real he couldn’t deny the relief and happiness that he felt when he inhaled the sweet scent of pine in the air, allowing himself to pretend even for just a second that he was back in the woods out behind the shack.

That all of this was just some weird hallucination and he was about to wake up to the sound of Mabel yelling at him for being stupid enough to let himself get poisoned by a magical plant or something.

The thought was enough to settle his nerves a bit. 

“Okay. Now that I’m no longer going insane.”

He paused for a minute when he realized saying that to himself out loud only made him sound even more crazy. 

“Oh God. Whatever, I might as well embrace it since this is the only other voice I’ll be hearing for the next month.”

Dipper sighed before he continued to voice his thoughts out loud. 

“Since I’ve got nothing better to do I might as well look around this place. I have free range of the mindscape, I could investigate its secrets or perform experiments or anything! This is the only chance I’m probably ever gonna get, and who knows maybe it’ll be able to help me someday.”

Dipper’s nerdy little heart was ecstatic at the thought of researching this unknown and mysterious world, and it was a welcome distraction from having to think about the rest of his situation.

“I need to find a journal somewhere.” He began to head back into his cabin when he remembered where he was. 

Wait. Can I use the same weird “magic” that I used earlier to make myself a journal.

Does it work for me when Bill isn’t here? Does it only work once? Is it disabled now that I’ve already built something here? 

His inquisitive mind was racing with questions, but he couldn’t just stand there and think forever, which may or may not be something that he was known to do.

He had to try something. 

“Here goes nothing.” 

Closing his eyes he tried to remember how it had felt to make the woods and the cabin earlier.

He conjured up an image of a simple leather bound journal and an ordinary ballpoint pen in his mind, pouring his focus into that image. He repeated each detail in his mind. 

Soft brown leather

Thick white pages

Black ball point 

After a moment he reluctantly opened his eyes, half expecting to see nothing. 

“Please work please work please work.” He begged some unknown force. 

When he finally fully opened his eyes he looked down at the ground in front of him and couldn’t help but cry out in excitement. 

“Yes! I did it! Woohoo!”

He threw his arms up before pumping them in the air in victory. After his mini celebration he picked up his new creations, still giddy, and walked into a random section of the woods.

For what felt like an eternity Dipper saw nothing other than the dark ridges of bark on trees and the silhouettes of leaves and bushes. 

“What kind of idiot doesn’t bring a flashlight into a dark forest.”

Dipper scolded himself as he pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. He had been stumbling through the darkness for a while now and he had completely forgotten that flashlights were a thing.

He once again closed his eyes and attempted to focus on the thought of a flashlight rather than his own stupidity, but his thoughts were interrupted by a strange sound off to his right.

It sounded like a deep rumble mixed with a low whistling wind. It wasn’t anything like the other noises he’d been hearing since he’d started walking, and even though he didn’t really have a reason to be scared (yet), something about the noise was unsettling.

Turning his head in the direction of the noise he felt a sinking feeling form in his stomach.

His experience in the woods of Gravity Falls had trained him to be drawn to the weird and terrifying (even though he knew it would never end well), so despite his unease he ignored all of the flashing warning signs in his head and slowly walked towards the section of woods where the sound was coming from.

The further he walked the louder the sound became until it'd turned from a murmur to a roar as he got closer to what he assumed was the source of the noise.

Whatever it was was having a physical effect on him too, which didn’t bode well for him, his skin was needled with goosebumps that were so intense they began to sting and his blood felt as if it had been replaced with cold mud, causing him to shiver as his arms and legs grew heavy.

For once, Dipper’s survival instinct won out over his curiosity.

Whatever was making that noise was dangerous, and not in the normal way, this thing was radiating an aura of fear strong enough to make every cell of his body pull back in horror.

The heavy feeling in his limbs made it hard to maneuver his body, but he forced himself to power through it as he started to bolt in the opposite direction to get as far away from this thing as he could.

But it was too late.

******

Dipper hadn’t realized that what he had been inching towards wasn’t an animal or even a monster, it was a tear in the dreamscape.

When Bill had left this pocket of the dreamscape he was too enraged to realize that he left a weak connection between this world and the nightmare realm that he’d traveled to, one that was filled with the worst and most cruel creatures to ever have been dreamt into existence.

When Bill started letting out his rage on all of the monsters unlucky enough to be caught by him they all began to frantically search for any means of escape.

No matter how terrifying they were to other beings in his domain no one was more powerful than Bill and they could sense that on an instinctual level.

Unfortunately since they were all focused so intently on looking for a way out a few of them managed to notice Bill’s grave mistake, one that normally would have been easily overlooked. 

They began to desperately attack the weak spot so they could escape their prison, clawing, ripping and attacking it with determination fueled by their rage and fear.

With a final strike the creatures succeeded in making a tear, but it wasn’t big enough for any of them to slither through.

No matter how viciously they attacked it they weren’t able to do any further damage, the weakness that Bill had created was limited to only the small area they had pierced. 

That’s when Dipper was unfortunate enough to discover the tear.

Similar to the fear that Dipper felt radiating from the rift on the other side, the monstrous creatures could feel the pulse of power that had begun to flow through Dipper.

Nightmare creatures are not intelligent beings by any means, their only instincts are to destroy, terrorize and survive, and to them this power meant survival.

Sensing escape so close they squeezed their limbs through the rift, hysterically flailing them around, needing to capture their prey, the source of the power.

Dipper. 

******

Dipper’s surprised scream sliced through the air as he felt something grab onto his calf.

He kicked his leg furiously trying to dislodge it, but its sharp claws dug deep into his flesh, anchoring themselves deep into his muscles.

“Ahhhggh!”

Dipper couldn’t muffle the cry as intense pain exploded from his leg.

He didn’t have time to fully process what was happening before the pain intensified, tears streaming down his face as the creature used it’s hold to drag him towards the dark, ominous rift it stretched out of.

The pull of the claws on his skin and muscle consumed him, but he grit his teeth and forced the rest of his body to move, knowing that if he didn’t do something he was as good as dead.

Blindly feeling around his hand finally brushed against something he could grip on to.

Wrapping his fingers around it he gripped what he now knew was a tree root as tightly as he could,  his knuckles turning so white his hands looked almost skeletal in the moonlight.

He tried to use the branch to pull his leg back but the combination of the monster's strength and the searing pain of his tearing muscle made it impossible to do anything other than try and keep the thing from dragging him any further. 

Dipper could feel the muscles in his arms aching and cramping from the strain of his grip, the pain starting to rival the burn in his calf as the monster’s strength began to overpower him. 

I can’t let go. If I let go, I die. I lose. I CAN’T. 

Sadly, Dipper’s body didn’t have the same strong resolve as his mind, and as the creature gave one final pull the strain became too much for his fingers and  they buckled under the pressure, releasing his grip on the root. 

“No!”

Dipper’s voice cracked from defeat and pain as his body was dragged towards the rift.

When he passed through the rift an icy sensation rippled through his entire body, and the fear that he had felt before intensified ten fold.

It was too intense for his brain to understand and caused every thought in Dipper’s head to vanish, replaced by images of his worst, darkest and most brutal fears flooding every inch of his mind.

Even with his tortured mind Dipper tried to look at the creatures he was going to be facing, but it felt like an impossible task.

Each monster's figure kept flickering and changing, acting more like images on a screen than the real, physical creatures the pain in his body assured him they were. 

Each time they changed they morphed into an even more terrifying creature, and Dipper had to fight not to look away from the sight as he began to recognize a few of their forms as creatures he’d seen in his own repressed nightmares from the past.

They switched from having claws the size of daggers to being massive snakes with rows of razor sharp teeth.

It felt as if every monster and nightmare creature from his childhood was standing right before him, which was exactly what they were.

Dipper tried to find some shred of courage within himself as he faced every fear he had ever conjured up or faced, but it was futile.

His fear continued to eat him up from the inside out, until by some miracle, his mind completely gave in to fear and he blacked out. 

******

After all of the monsters that hadn’t been able to escape had been reduced to sad piles of ash Bill’s rage had finally begun to simmer down.

Clapping his human hands together to knock off the remaining monster corpse ash Bill steeled his mind for the task ahead. 

It’s time to put the plan back into action.

I’ll get Pine Tree to join me in no time. I have a month, there's no need to rush things.

I mean in the end he’s just a fleshy meat bag, he doesn’t stand a chance against m-

The rest of Bill’s thought was cut off by a sudden strange feeling, like a ripple from some a disturbance somewhere in the realm. 

It wasn’t exactly normal for there to be problems here, but it is the dreamscape, weird wasn’t exactly a new concept.

Anyways, since it didn’t feel like anything big, likely just a tiny whole or tear somewhere he wasn’t careful enough, the demon planned to ignore it until later when he was less inclined to blow things up.

Giving his human suit once over to make sure he hadn’t damaged it in his totally justified fit of rage, fixing some seared clothing.

When he felt presentable enough he honed his mind, determined to keep his eyes on his real plan and not get distracted by any of the stupid tricks of his damn soulmark, that is until everything came to a screeching halt at the feeling of a sudden and searing pain ripping its way through his leg.

“Aggh. What the fuck is this!”

One great thing about being the ruler of your own magical dimension is that you’re completely immortal and unkillable, meaning that the fact that he was feeling pain meant something way worse than he thought was going on.

Looking down at his human forms leg where the pain was coming from he looked down to find, nothing.

Nothing.

Gears turned in his twisted mind, confusion warring with annoyance until the realization made his entire body stiffen. 

This pain didn’t belong to him. 

And if he was feeling it there was only one person it could belong to….

Pine Tree

All thoughts of his plan and his earlier anger vanished, his mind consumed only by fear and worry.

Honing in on where he could feel Dipper’s presence in the dreamscape Bill flashed himself to his side in an instant.

Things like blood, pain and suffering had never phased the demon before, but the sight in front of him was enough to make his blood boil and his heart clench in both regret and anger.

The nightmare monsters froze as they felt the ominous anger radiating from behind them causing them to drop the bloody mass they had been playing with, leaving it to fall back to the ground with a wet thud.

It was Dipper.

Red flooded into his eye as Bill’s mind lost all sense of reason as the image seared itself into his brain like a brand.

The skin of his human suit bubbled as the intense heat of his emotions overwhelmed his vessel, the fabricated flesh and muscle melting off in large slimy chunks, until he was nothing but a mass of seething, golden energy.

Even with their limited intelligence the monsters could feel the imminent threat, the certain death that was coming towards them.

Despite knowing it’d be useless they couldn’t fight their instinct to run as fear sent them bolting as far away as they could manage of the enraged demon.

Gathering as much power as he could muster, Bill launched an attack of pure energy in all directions, completely obliterating everything in his surroundings in an instant.

When the light from the blast dimmed down Bill looked out into the empty void he’d left behind, his eyes locking on to the only thing remaining, the thing he’d subconsciously protected. 

“Pine Tree!”

Bill rushed to his soulmate's side, his entire being numb now.

As he approached the boy he realized that in his current form it was too dangerous for him to approach Dipper, especially with how injured he was.

Quickly switching back into his human form he gently knelt down next to the ravaged body, his own vessel shaking as he finally forced himself to really look at him.

As Bill’s eyes raked down the boy’s prone form his heart tightened and all of the breath in his fake lungs felt as if it had disappeared, leaving him gasping for air that he didn’t even need.

He looked like he was already dead.

His face was pale, an unnerving shade of white that was covered in large, dark bruises.

Long, deep gashes ran through his chest, the claws having savagely torn all the way through the skin and muscle, leaving several glints of white bone under the mess of blood and flesh.

Barely any of his skin was left intact, similar claw and teeth marks scattered across every inch of his body leaving him bathed in dark, sticky blood that continued to flow from the open wounds.

Bill couldn’t stop himself from looking, seeing what those monsters from his domain had done to Dipper.

He stared until his vision began to blur, liquid he hadn’t realized he could produce pooling in his eye and trickling down his cheek.

New emotions fought against one another inside of the dream demon.

Fear. Sadness. Loss.

They completely overwhelmed him as he mustered up the courage to gently lift Dipper off the ground, terrified that if he jostled him even slightly the last, thin thread connecting him to life would finally snap.

“You’re going to be okay, kid.”

The demon comforted weakly, his voice barely a strained whisper as he hesitantly lifted his hand to stroke the top of Dipper's head, ignoring the sticky feeling of blood he felt there.

“Please, be okay.” 

Chapter Text

All Dipper could think about was pain.

It was white hot all over, seeming to cover every inch of his body in invisible flames.

It was so intense and constant that after a while it was like an off switch had been flipped in his body and suddenly he felt nothing.

The combination of the constant input of intense pain from his nerves and the massive loss of blood had finally overloaded the pain receptors in his brain and they’d shut down, sparing him from any more suffering as he inched closer to death.

As the moments ticked by Dipper felt himself slipping further and further away from the world, his sense of hearing, sight, smell, touch, faded to nothing until he had absolutely no connection to the world around him.

All he had left were a few thin threads connecting him to reality, but as he grew weaker even those began to slip from his grasp until he was finally consumed by darkness. 

******

Bill blew through the door of the cabin, the one Dipper had made only a few hours ago, and quickly moved to lay the unmoving body of his soulmate down onto the bed.

The dream demon was frantic, too overwhelmed by the flood of foreign human emotions that surged beneath his skin to think clearly.

As he gently maneuvered the boy's body to assess the damage the voices inside of Bill’s heads argued with one another, practically screaming at each other.

It was too much, too distracting.

Letting out an intense scream the demon attempted to force his thoughts into submission.

FOCUS! 

How am I supposed to focus when the kid is dying

If you don’t focus then he doesn’t have a chance of survival

I can’t let him die. 

Then STOP FREAKING OUT 

Trying to listen to the voice of reason in his head (which is something that Bill had never attempted to do in his life) the dream demon struggled to piece together a plan to save the human in front of him. 

“Pine Tree’s physical body is actually in the dreamscape this time, so the injuries he gets here now can actually kill him, but since I still control everything here I should be able to remake his body.

I  just need to figure out exactly what’s wrong with him so I can undo the damage. Fuck, I need to build a damn human from fucking scratch!”

He had to calm down, he couldn’t do this if he was freaking out, Pine Tree needs all of his focus if there’s any chance of him pulling through this.

Calmer, Bill sat down next to Dipper on the bed, looking down to inspect each and every injury on his body.

Before this whole thing he’d always been entertained by blood and guts, from his perspective as an immortal demon found it hilarious how fragile humans were with their weak toothpick bones and thin fleshy covers.

Now, looking down at the mangled body of his human soulmate he only felt sick. 

Is this what it’s like for humans to see their own kind die?  

With every new wound he went over the sinking feeling in his fake stomach got worse, to the point that the demon even felt like he was about to throw up, despite the fact that his vessel was incapable of actually doing it. 

After an agonizingly slow assessment of the boy's injuries Bill centered all of his power and concentrated it into his palm.

A pale colored flame engulfed his hand, the color much softer and calmer than the typical cerulean flames he used for destruction.

Moving the flame closer to the lifeless body on the bed Bill hovered over each wound individually, creating a mental image of each body part's structure.

Making sure to cover every inch of the body Bill repaired the broken bones, muscles, veins and skin before slowly replenishing the lost blood throughout his body.

The bruises faded, their ugly yellow and black colors changing until they once again matched the boy’s fair complexion and the gashes on his torso began to weave and knit themselves back together, the skin healing one layer at a time until no more blood was able to escape.

He was determined to not leave even the tiniest trace of a scar on the boy’s skin, not wanting there to be any evidence of anything bad having happened to him at all.

When the process was finally finished the only thing that showed even a hint of the attack were the tattered, blood stained shreds of fabric that had once been Dipper’s clothes and blood that coated the sheets beneath him.

But even after his body was completely healed Dipper remained unconscious.

What’s going on? 

“Pine Tree, wake up.”

The demon gently shook the boy's shoulder, still hesitant to touch him even with all of his injuries gone, but neither the words nor the touch elicited a response.

Trying again he used both of his hands to grip onto Dipper’s shoulders, lifting him slightly off the bed as he tried to shake him awake.

Still, there was nothing. 

“Why aren’t you getting up!”

Bill’s mind raced as he thought of all the possible reasons the could be for him not waking up, but none of them were reassuring and only managed to make him panic even more.

As he held the weight of the human in his arms he realized that the way his head lolled back and his limbs hung limply looked more like the body of a dead man than a live one. 

Was I too late?

Even though Bill doesn’t have a heart he felt like something in him died at the mere thought, a dark feeling almost consuming him before he could force himself to think logically again.  

“No, he was still breathing when I got here! He has a heartbeat! He can’t be dead.”

Refusing to believe that he’d failed, that after all this time, after everything he’d done his soulmate was really gone.

It couldn’t be the truth. There had to be some other answer.

The demon wracked his brain, but even if he came up with a million ideas it was pointless anyways, there was no way of knowing what the real answer was or how long it would take Dipper to wake up again.

Bill had been alive longer than even he cared to remember, but this was the first he’d ever felt so useless.

So powerless.

All I can do is wait.

Looking down at the lifeless form of the soulmate he’d spent half his life looking for, Bill couldn’t stop himself from reaching out towards him.

In probably the most gentle gesture he’d ever made towards another being he slid his hand up Dipper’s cheek, gently cradling his face in his hand.

Bill had written off the idea of ever finding his soulmate a long time ago, the empty, bitter years of loneliness allowing him to convince himself that the whole concept meant nothing to him.

Then that damn mark had come back, ripping through the layers of magic he’d used to hide it until the one thing he’d done his best to wipe from his mind, to forget was staring back at him again.

From the moment that damned thing had come back all of Bill’s plans had been derailed, and even after he’d tried to force them back onto that track deep down he knew that the second he’d seen the mark on the human’s forehead that some part of who he used to be had come back.

He’d tried to ignore it and fight it, but now as the person he’d given up on ever finding, the one he’d despised for getting in his way the past few months was lying here motionless in front of him.

And more than anything else, all Bill wanted was for him to open his eyes. 

******

The first thing that Dipper felt when he began to regain a sense of consciousness was a feeling of warmth being spread throughout his body.

The sensation was so intense and powerful that he felt like it would move past warm and turn into a burning pain at any second, but nothing like that ever happened.

Rather than feeling a sudden wave of burning pain as the warmth grew stronger all it brought was a strong sense of comfort.

The feeling washed over him like a gentle breeze, carrying away everything else.

He wanted to lean into the feeling, grab onto it and let it take him away, but all too soon it started to fade.

'The loss made him want to cry out and chase it down, but for the first time he realized that he couldn’t move.

Without the warmth his head started to clear a bit from the groggy state of euphoria he’d been in, allowing him to really focus on what was happening.

A sense of loss clawed sharply at his stomach as he felt the last wisp of the warmth disappear, but he forced himself to ignore it, instead all his focus was on trying to fit the pieces of his fragmented mind back together.

Frustratingly, before any real thoughts were able to take form Dipper felt everything around him start to fade again, he tried to fight back against the pull, but either he was too weak or the pull was too strong because soon enough he felt himself unwillingly sink right back into unconsciousness.

The next time that Dipper was finally able to sense something against it was noise, one that broke had somehow managed to break through the nothingness to reach him.

The sound was distant, but even though he couldn’t place exactly what it was he could tell that whatever or whoever made the sound was devastated, the feeling of sadness the only clear thing he could make out.

He felt the urge to reach out and comfort them, but again, it was like he had no control over his body at all.

No matter how hard he tried to move nothing happened, he didn’t feel like he was even connected to his limbs or his brain anymore, almost as if wherever his body is, it’s just a little bit too far out of reach for him to be able to go back to it.

He continued to fight for any kind of movement or connection, but it was an impossible task, until something outside of him made the connection for him like it did with the sound earlier.

Where there had been nothing before he suddenly felt something soft and warm gently caress his skin, the simple touch allowing him to finally feel something.

It gave him the faintest connection to his body through the comforting and calming sensation.  He wanted to come back to himself, open his eyes and look at and touch whatever it was that was filling him with such warmth.

Dipper fought hard to force his eyes open so he could figure out what was really going on, but it felt as though his eyelids were locked shut, trapping him inside the vast emptiness of his own body.

Before long the heavy pull of the darkness returned and began to drag him back, not letting up no matter how desperately Dipper fought to hold on, and he felt himself wanting to scream as he was once again surrounded by nothing.

These same hopeful moments occurred dozens of times, but they were frustratingly fleeting.

In his moments of consciousness he thought he could sense a gentle touch or some kind of soothing sound, but he never stayed in this state long enough to make sense of anything. 

Damn it, I feel like I’m drowning inside my own head! What the hell is going on? Why am I even here? 

Unfortunately, before Dipper could even begin to try and figure out the answer to his own question he was gone again. 

*****

“It’s been three fucking days!” Bill cried out, screaming out his frustrations into the dark forest scene around him. 

“How long is Pine Tree going to lie there like an empty sack of flesh! I’m essentially a god, why can’t I get one puny human to wake the fuck up from a stupid death nap!”

The dream demon's growing impatience was slowly driving him even more insane than he already was.

He hadn’t left this pocket of the dreamscape since Dipper’s accident, and even though he was going stir crazy he knew that he wouldn’t be able to force himself to even try to leave until the human opened his eyes.

Especially after what had happened the last time he’d been stupid enough to leave him alone.

As he grumbled into the void his mind began to wander back to the moment when he found Dipper.

The familiar sight haunting him in the same relentless way it had been for days. 

The blood.

The anger. 

The fear. 

The sensations from that night were still vivid in his mind, and he knew they weren’t about to go away anytime soon. 

How does Pine Tree manage to almost kill himself wherever he goes, it’s like the universe’s most useless talent.

The truth of the statement managed to make a dry, humorless laugh choke it's his way out of his throat, momentarily distracting him from the familiar cycle of thoughts that had been plaguing his head for days.

All he could do was pace back and forth, mirroring the way Dipper had paced when he’d first gotten here. 

Why the hell does every one of my thoughts lead me back to Pine Tree? Seriously, I’m the ruler of the dreamscape. There should be something bizarre enough inside my head to make me think of literally anything else. 

Unfortunately he found that no matter how stupid, strange or weird he made his thoughts his mind could always find a way to tie it back to the damned human laying down a few feet away.

What’s worse is that his body was doing the same thing, making him feel this nagging urge to go back inside to check on how he was doing, something that he had been doing a frustrating amount of times over the past couple of days no matter how much he wished he could stop.

As soon as he passed through the door his eye was immediately drawn to the still motionless figure lying in the bed, still in the exact same position he’d been for days.

Trying to restrain the part of him that actually believed that there might be some change in his condition he stomped down on any feelings even remotely close to disappointment.

Of course he looks the same. 

Nothing had changed about the Pines’ condition since Bill had initially healed him.

He looked perfectly fine, healthy even, but even from afar there was an obvious lifelessness in the way he was positioned, like his body was empty.

As had become a habit for the dream demon he floated to the human’s bedside and knelt down so his face was level with him.

His eye raked down every inch of the body, looking for any slight change or hint of life, but all that he saw was the same stiff, unchanging pose he’d initially laid him down in. Leaning in closer, Bill rested his hand on top of

Dipper’s messy brown hair, running his fingers through it as he stared down at the boy.

“Come on Pine Tree, it’s boring in here without you cursing me out and complaining every few seconds. How am I supposed to annoy you into submission if you’re unconscious.”

The tone he used was completely different from his usual high pitched, echoey voice.

It was softer, more genuine.

More human.  

The thought hung in the air for a moment before the demon regained his senses, quickly growing disgusted with himself. 

“What the fuck am I doing?”

He yanked his fake hand away like the boy was about to bite it and backed away quickly.

He tried to bring thoughts of his plan and the mission back into the forefront of his mind to remind himself of the reason he had brought the human here in the first place.

But no matter what he did he couldn’t get rid of the uncomfortable foreign feelings that kept surfacing inside his meat suit whenever he looked at the lifeless form of his soulmate. 

I need to get out of here. 

The dream demon whipped around, turning his back on the human as he prepared to disappear into the furthest possible region of the dreamscape, stupid needless worries be damned, but he was stopped cold by the slight sound of something moving against the sheets behind him.

Whipping around, momentarily forgetting everything he had tried to remind himself of, he locked his eyes onto Dipper, scanning for the movement that had made the sound.

There.

Locking his golden gaze onto the human’s arm, Bill saw the slight shift of the boy's hand, his fingers lightly twitching against the bed.

Inhumanly (Obviously) quickly the dream demon rushed back to the boy’s bedside, his earlier moment of disgust pushed to the back of his mind. 

*****

The first sign that told Dipper he was finally regaining some kind of control over his body was his right hand.

As he’d been struggling in the dark void for what felt like the thousandth time he had actually felt something, which was immediately apparent to him after feeling nothing of his own for so long.

At first it was just a vague tingling feeling that he could have almost written off as nothing, but it wasn’t.

Even if it was laughably faint Dipper focused every bit of his attention on the sensation, holding onto it with everything he had until he could actually pinpoint exactly what it was.

He was twitching his fingers.

He had fingers!

Locking on to that one movement, Dipper clung onto it like it was a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean, hoping it would be able to keep him afloat for even just a little bit longer. H e

strained every part of his mind as he desperately struggled to find any other part of his body without losing the already thread thin connection he had to it.

Then, like someone had just lit his hand on fire, a red hot warmth bloomed from the part of his hand that he could feel.

The warm sensation seemed to strengthen his bond with his body, and it didn’t stop at his hand.

The longer he felt it the more it seemed to grow, lighting up his skin as it moved.

Allowing the warmth to completely overtake him, Dipper began to feel like he was getting heavier, becoming more attached to his own body rather than floating inside of it.

As the pull of the nothingness became weaker Dipper allowed himself to feel the kind of hope he hadn't had the entire time he’d been trapped, the feeling blossoming into a beautiful thought in his mind.

Am I really going to get out of here? 

*****

As soon as Bill got to Dipper's side he collapsed to the ground beside the bed, feeling practically glued to the floor.

His eyes were locked on to the hand that had just been twitching with life. 

Fuck don’t stop moving now. Do that again! Come on Pine Tree!

For a second Bill considered the fact that he might have just imagined the movement, but even just thinking that made his human body grow stiff and cold.

No. It had really happened. It had to be real.

Reaching out with his own hand Bill hovered over the pale fingers for a moment before allowing himself to grab on to them.

Immediately a warm sensation spread through his fingertips, the same one that he had been trying to pretend didn’t exist since he had first touched the human.

Since the day Dipper first came to Gravity Falls Bill had been showing up and causing chaos in his life on a regular basis.

No matter how hard Dipper worked to try and stay as far away from Bill as possible this was by no means the first time Bill had been close to him.

Hell, he’d even taken over his body at one point, but somehow during all of those interactions they had never come into physical contact with one another.

The first time they had really touched skin to “skin” was when they made their second deal, since their first one had been outside of reality.

The moment he held Dipper’s hand in his grasp an intense heat had surged into his body.

The shock of the sensation had almost been enough to make Bill drop his hand, but he had forced himself to not react and continued to go on like nothing happened.

He refused to acknowledge this sensation after that, pushing the surging feelings of warmth and contentment to the bottom of his cold heart, trying to convince himself that like every other thing he had begun to feel since his soulmark had been revealed, it was nothing more than a distraction.

But right now the warmth he felt spreading through his hand was like a lifeline.

He knew Dipper could feel the same thing when they touched since he had practically freaked out over it in his mind the second he was undistracted enough to finally notice it.

If that twitch in his hand had been real Bill would do anything to make it come back, even if that meant dealing with all of the confusing and foreign human emotions that came with touching Pine Tree. 

“I’m doing my part, now do yours and wake up Pine Tree. Come on.” 

******

Dipper could feel the exact moment when he finally reentered his body, it was like a pitch black room had suddenly been flooded with bright light, bringing so many things you hadn’t even known you’d missed back within your sights.

It took a second for him to regain his bearings and remember how to actually move his limbs (not something he thought he’d be able to forget), but eventually he was able to figure it out enough to try and force his eyes open.

Prying open his heavy lids Dipper's mind struggled to process the outside world, everything felt too bright and what he could stand to see his eyes were only able to interpret as a mush of random colors in front of him.

As he waited for his mind to come back to him Dipper tried to test out all of his other functions, focusing all his energy on his limbs he reached out with both arms and tried to push himself up using his stiff muscles.

His movements were clumsy and awkward, so the result wasn’t exactly what he had been hoping for, his body falling right back down to the bed before he had even lifted himself up an inch.

As he lie on his back working up the strength to try again he felt someone grab onto his shoulders.

The hands lifted him slowly off the mattress and carefully guided him up until he was able to lean his back against the headboard.

Normally he would have complained to the person that he could do it himself and try to shirk off the help, but right now he was definitely not going to refuse since his noodly appendages felt almost completely useless.

At least I have limbs again. 

Closing his eyes again Dipper gave himself a few more minutes to adjust, making sure his brain was fully reconnected to his body again before he tried to do anything else.

He felt stable enough, but even if he wasn’t in pain or trapped anymore he still felt pretty shitty.

Now that he was settled into a somewhat sitting position he felt like it was as good a time as any to make a second attempt at looking around the room.

He pried open his sensitive eyes again and hesitantly moved his gaze to look around him.

Nothing seemed familiar at first, the cabin walls and simple furniture not triggering any memories or thoughts when he looked at them.

Finally daring to move his head Dipper’s gaze tilted slightly down, only to immediately settle on a tan looking figure hovering next to the bed he was laying in.

The man next to him had a strange look on his face that Dipper’s muddled mind couldn’t really process, but there was something about it that tugged at his heart. 

Is this guy okay? 

He struggled to place the guy in front of him for a moment, the same way he had struggled to figure out how to actually make his limbs do what they want, but his mind was still scattered like it had been when he was in the empty void so he still couldn’t make it do what he wanted.

As he continued to stare at the guy next to him the expression on his face suddenly changed and the figure jolted up.

Pausing for only a second the other man suddenly launched himself at Dipper, his arms wrapping around him in a tight, unrelenting squeeze.

He felt like he should at least try to be alarmed or freaked out about the sudden attack, but as soon as the weird guy wrapped his arm around him the same grounding warmth that he had latched on to earlier began to course through him.

This feeling was the only thing that was even somewhat familiar to him right now, and it felt so damn good that he just allowed himself to revel in it.

He could freak out or question it later, for now he just leaned into the embrace, burying his face into the shoulder of the other guy.

As the warmth coursed through his body it was like everything around him finally seemed to fall into place, he could feel his legs becoming easier to control under his body and fragments of memory pieced themselves back together in his mind.

His Family. Mable, Gravity Falls, Adventure, Monsters, Journals, Stan, Ford, Soos, Wendy, Rift.

Bill. 

As all of his memories flooded back into his mind Dipper's body stiffened, his brain finally able to recognize the “person” who was wrapped around him.

Panic, anger and confusion ripped through him as he tried to adjust to the sudden shift back into reality he had just gone through.

Finally, his mind fully wrapped around the current situation and he was able to react.

Pushing at the body in front of him frantically Dipper opened his mouth for the first time since waking up. 

“G-get off of me!” 

For a moment the arms around him don't move, but eventually he feels them slowly unwrap themselves and pull away.

When Bill’s body and his had a more appropriate amount of distance between them Dipper looked at the face of the demon’s human suit.

As he took in the expression on the dream demon’s face Dipper could feel his heart falter.

He didn’t know what he had been expecting to see, but it definitely wasn’t this.

Bill's Human face was face was flashing between emotions that Dipper didn’t even think the other was capable of, relief, rejection, panic, and dozens of others that were changing too fast for him to catch.

Before he could properly take him in, Bills golden eye locked with his own. In an instant every single emotion on the demon’s face was wiped away, replaced by an intense smirk that gave Dipper whiplash. 

“Look who finally decided to wake up! You flesh bags are even weaker than I thought.” 

Still stunned Dipper didn’t say anything.

He couldn’t.

The shift had been so quick that Dipper wasn’t sure that what he had seen had actually been there, and he was so shaken over it that for a reason he couldn’t explain he felt himself reaching out towards the face that had morphed so quickly.

As soon as he came into contact with the realistic looking skin and cupped the face in front of him a flash of emotion flitted through the golden pupil.

He’s really okay.

“What?”

As soon as the word slipped from Dipper’s lips Bill's body went stiff, an awkward few seconds passing between them before the demon completely disappeared from the room, leaving Dipper’s hand still hovering in the air where his face had been. 

******

Bill’s body came careening into the most remote corner of the dreamscape, practically collapsing into a heap on the ground as soon as he was sure he was out of the room.

Away from Pine Tree.

There were so many thoughts and voices whirling inside his head it felt like his skull was about to explode.

He heard me. This is good! No this is bad! Why did I think that. What did he think? He’s awake. He knows. He’s growing. I’m losing control. I’m getting closer. Stop. Shut up! No you shut up! I’m trying to think! Me too!

“AAaaaaaaaaghhhhh!” 

The only sound he could manage to get out of his mouth was a primal scream. There were no thoughts tied to the sound as it tore itself from his throat, just pure, raw emotion trying to escape from his body.

He hadn’t even meant to scream, but at least it had managed to help get all the voices in his head to shut up.

All except one, it’d deemed itself important enough to stick around, and even if he wasn’t thrilled to have to keep thinking at all he knew that out of all his thoughts this one was the one he cared about the most. 

He’s really okay. 

“Nothing else matters right now. Pine Tree isn’t dead, that means the plan hasn’t failed. I need my soulmate for the plan, and now that he’s okay I’m all good. The plan is all good. Right. That’s all this is about.” 

Apparently, as Bill just found out, he’s a lot better at lying to other people than he is at lying to himself.

Good to know, but it’s nothing that a little denial won’t cure, which is exactly the route that he chose to go with.

Acting like the past few minutes of panic never happened, Bill stretched his face into a sinister smile, letting himself get back into the mindset he’d been in back during Weirdmageddon as he imagined all the chaos and destruction he’d be able to wreak on the universe when this was all over.

“Just one more month until this whole universe is all mine, and none of the little Pines’ will be able to stand in my way this time. Not even Pine Tree. ”

Bill ignored all of the conflicting and disgustingly human emotions that flicked at the edge of his mind, they were just side effects from the small bit of weakness his stupid soulmark had opened up inside him.

They were all temporary.

Clenching his fists he forced his mind to only think about his future victory and the glorious image of pure chaos he planned to paint his new domain in. 

******

“What the hell?”

 Dipper stared pointedly at the now empty space where Bill had been until just a second ago.

His brain was still reeling from all the time he’d spent being unconscious, however long that was, so his brain was still struggling to wrap around where and who he was let alone anything else.

Even his ever curious and analyzing brain couldn’t just instantly restart like that.

He had his limits, and everything that had happened in the past 30 seconds was definitely way more complicated than he could handle right now. 

Did I just hear Bill’s thoughts? But that doesn’t make any sense? And why did he look so surprised?

Is it a trick or something?

It has to be. Bill controls everything here, I wouldn’t have heard his voice unless he wanted me to.

Maybe it’s a trap to try and get me to trust him. But why would he want me to trust him?

Actually, why the hell is he doing any of this? 

As Dipper's brain pumped out a continuous stream of rambling thoughts a dull pain began to radiate through his head, growing sharper with each new question his mind popped out. 

“Ugh. This isn’t the time to be trying to figure out Bill. My brain feels like it was blended on high and served with ice.”

Turns out excessive thinking isn’t recommended after being in a coma. Lesson learned. 

Lying back down in the bed, Dipper let his eyes rest on the ceiling.

There was no way he was going back to sleep right now, even if he could feel his body now he was still terrified that if he shut his eyes again that same darkness would pull him in again, for good this time.

Yeah, sleep definitely wasn’t gonna be an option for awhile, but the headache punching him in the brain was persistent enough that he conceded that he should at least lay down for a bit.

While he stared off into space he couldn’t help but let his mind wander to some of his memories over the past few months, hoping that reviewing memories might be a little less painful than the other kinds of thinking.

The gnomes, the Merman, the miniature golf gremlin things.

Despite all of the danger and weirdness he’d experienced this had been the best summer of his life. How had it ended up going so wrong? 

He’d managed to do some good with the deal he’d made with Bill, but he honestly had no idea what the demon was even planning and with the way he was right now he didn’t feel like he was gonna be able to do much to help the others. 

It’ll be fine. ’ve bought the others some time to figure things out. Ford, Mabel, Grunkle Stan, everyone, they know what to expect now and they’ll definitely be able to come up with some way to stop Bill.

My memories from this summer won’t be the last good ones I make in this life. Bill won’t win. 

“You won’t win.”

He spoke the words out into the room, hoping to make them sound more final, more definite than they had in his head, but instead as soon as they left his mouth they seemed to just get swallowed by the air, leaving the room just as empty and quiet as it’d been before. 

“Fuck.”

Chapter Text

A few minutes after Bill’s seemingly panicked escape he blipped right back into the room, this time carrying a mysterious tray. 

“Did you miss me Pine Tree?” 

Shooting the demon a deadpan look Dipper let his reply drop out of his mouth with a straight face. 

“I’ve had ulcers that I’ve missed more.”

“Aww you always say the sweetest things!” 

With their usual sarcastic banter restored they both ignored the entire situation from earlier, which was definitely easier than thinking about it. 

“Anyways, I know that you humans need food to survive so I brought you sustenance. Can’t have you dying from starvation while you’re lying here, can we? No. That’s the answer in case you were wondering.”

Lifting up the tray in his hands Bill waved it around like it was some kind of weapon, which for all Dipper was aware could be true. 

Who knew what kind of hellish crime against nature this demonic lunatic considered ‘food’, especially considering his real form didn’t have a mouth, let alone tastebuds.

Whatever he’d brought for him to eat wasn’t exactly something that he was looking forward to putting into his body, if he could even get it that close to his face without it attacking him or something.

“Are you sure whatever you’ve brought is actually edible?”

Setting the tray on the human’s lap Bill made a dramatic show of presenting the meal that he’d managed to scrape together. 

“Only one way to find out!”

Despite it’s fairly normal looking appearance Dipper wasn’t taking any chances putting anything even remotely sketchy into his body, especially so soon after getting revived from being on the brink of death.

Picking up the item on the plate the teen treated it more like a bomb than a meal, which was evident by the way he held it about 2 feet away from his body when he even so much as attempted to pick it up off of the tray. 

“A sandwich? Where did you even get this?” 

“That’s not important. All that matters is that you need to eat it, so, bring it towards your weird, meaty little mouth and start putting it into your body.” 

“And if I don’t?” 

The temperature in the room suddenly dropped and the atmosphere became a hell of a lot more ominous, most of that emotion emanating directly from the demon himself.

A sharp and deadly glare practically shot straight out of his human eye as his gaze bore into Dipper. 

“We had a deal Pine Tree. If you try to kill yourself or die while you’re in here with me, everything is off. Remember that.” 

Any snarky retort Dipper wanted to spit out died in his throat as he attempted to glare back into the demon’s eyes.

Behind the sinister and lethal sharpness in golden irises there was something else that Dipper could have sworn he saw flit subtly behind them as the demon delivered his threat.

It was the same brief something that he had seen in Bill’s eyes when he had first come to, an emotion that was different than anything he’d ever seen on the demon before, and something he couldn’t place for the life of him.

At the moment, with his exhausted body and fried mind Dipper didn’t have the strength to continue with the conversation, or more accurately the sarcastic comment contest turned lecture that he was having so, begrudgingly, he let his glare simmer down as he closed his eyes in defeat. 

“Fine. I’ll eat the fucking food. But could you at least promise to leave me alone for even just a few damn minutes if I  actually choke whatever this is down?”

His voice definitely sounded a little bit whiny and pathetic, but he couldn’t bring himself to care, especially if it worked.

Putting a hand over his chest in mock surprise Bill pretended to be offended by his desperate plea, but that didn’t do anything to mask his clear amusement at their whole interaction. 

“Whaat? You want a break from little old me?” 

“Yes. More than pretty much anything else.” 

Dipper wasn’t actually expecting the former triangle to agree to his demand, he said it mostly because he didn’t really have the mental clarity to separate his internal and external thoughts.

Not that it mattered here anyways since apparently the demon could read his mind if he wanted to in this world.

But, just like he had on multiple other occasions during the short time he’d been in the dreamscape, the demon surprised him. 

“Fine, I guess I’ll just have to go and find some other way to entertain myself. Don’t miss me too much Pine Tree!” 

With that annoying remark Bill disappeared again.

Dipper had thought he’d had the evil, selfish monster at least somewhat figured out at this point, but, as he slumped back against the headboard and tentatively poked at the meal that the demon had somehow put together for him he realized that nothing about Bill made any sense at all. 

*****

Bill didn’t return again until a couple of hours later, once again bringing a tray of mysteriously sourced food with him.

The first meal he’d brought had actually tasted pretty good, which only made Dipper more curious about where the hell he got it from since there was no way he believed Bill actually knew how to cook.

That thought was currently sitting on a shelf in the back of his brain though, because at this point, figuring that out wasn’t exactly the highest thing on his list of priorities.

Right now, all he was really hoping for was that this was something that would become a pattern.

Even though he’d threatened to not eat whatever he’d brought him, dying in here wasn’t currently part of his plan, and as difficult as it might be, he needed to suffer through this whole ordeal if he wanted to give his family a real chance at surviving the second time around.

That means he has to grit his teeth and suffer through being stuck with the demon. For a month. 

Oh my god, Bill is gonna be my only source of almost human contact for a month. Shit. Maybe this really is all part of a bigger plan to torture me. 

After the first few minutes he’d been left alone with his sandwich he’d done a bit of initial pondering about how the hell he could have managed to make something real and edible inside of a completely fake world, but it wasn’t exactly easing his mind to try and think of the ways a nightmare demon went about making food. I

t only took about 2 minutes for Dipper to decide that it was probably best to file that question under ‘it’s probably better if I don’t know’, which actually had a few other things stored beneath it from even before his summer of strangeness. 

Huh. Normal. High school, socially awkward interactions and math. All that feels like such a long time ago.

Yep. Now he was laying in a fake bed he’d created with his mind, in the dream kingdom of a demon that he agreed to let kidnap him in order to prevent the end of the world.

Not to mention he was being taken care of by said demon who was now in a weird magic version of a human suit. 

Wow.

I can’t believe this is actually what my life is now. 

“You better believe it Pine Tree!” 

Dipper had been so lost in his thoughts that he’d momentarily forgotten that the demon had come back into the room, which was mostly due to the fact that for some reason he was just standing there, silently holding the tray and staring at him like a creep. 

“Jeez, would it kill you to stay out of my head for like five seconds?”

He’d only been here a few days and not being able to have a single private thought was starting to make him wish he had been vaporized by the demon instead. 

“I could, but that’d be boring.” 

“Of course it would.”

“Glad you understand! Now here, take this tray of human slop and make sure you don’t die of... whatever that weird mortal thing was again.” 

“Starvation?” 

“Yeah, that!” 

Part of Dipper really just wanted to throw the food right back into Bill’s face, just to get in some kind of win in this whole shitty situation, but he didn’t really wanna see how much longer the demon would keep pretending to be patient with him.

Plus, if he was planning to just let himself die in this hellscape he should have just made sure whatever monsters in the forest went after him the first time didn’t fail, at least that would have been a quick and cool way to go.

Not that he thought the demon would let him try to get away with starving himself, he clearly wanted him alive for something, and as long as he was useful to the jerk he’d be forced to stay here and live through this entire ordeal, for better or for worse.

A part of him wanted to keep throwing snarky comments until the demon left since he was becoming pretty bitter about what had essentially been a series of cosmic beatdowns on both his body and spirit, but in his hours of alone time the only thing he’d done was mull over everything that had happened so far.

This whole situation hurt his head, not just the actually physical attack that he’d suffered (though that wasn’t exactly pleasant) but all of the bizarre things that had happened since Bill had taken him.

Like, why had the dream demon even made this deal?

What the hell did he have to gain by taking Dipper away and giving everyone another chance to beat him?

There had to be some kind of angle, but no matter how he looked at it he always ended up back at the same dead end.

Then there were the weird feelings and sensations that he kept feeling when he touched Bill.

He’d never felt anything like it before, and along with the strange way the demon himself had been acting over the past few days Dipper was almost maxed out on weirdness for the day.

Waking up from being on the brink of death had really lowered his tolerance for dealing with weird stuff, at least for now.

Before he’d been able to just brush off debris from a things like gnome battle and then just move on with the rest of his life like the whole thing was no big deal, now he had barely done anything and he was already maxed out for the day.

Who knew that the weird thing that would finally be able to get to Dipper to reach his breaking point would be a hug.

The surprisingly nice and comforting one he was pretending never happened and that needed to be thrown back to the furthest reaches of his mind again.

Damn it. 

It was at that moment that he realized he still hadn’t bothered to grab the tray yet, which was an essential part of his plan to once again be alone, even if he didn’t really want to be alone.

But since he didn’t really wanna have to face the demon, along with all the weird looks, confusion and everything else that came with his presence, for longer than he had to, being alone was his only option.

Yet another stupid thing that he hated thinking about.

As he lifted his arms his body still felt a bit awkward even after a few hours of adjustment, so it took him a bit longer than normal to gain enough confidence in his muscles for him to believe that he wouldn’t immediately drop or tip the tray.

When it was finally settled in his lap the smell of whatever Bill had brought him wafted into his nose.

Surprisingly it smelled pretty good, which only made him realize how hungry he actually was.

Even though he’d picked at the food he’d been brought earlier he was still too out of it to actually focus on eating, so he didn’t really pay attention to what it had tasted like in the few bites he’d managed to force down, just that it wasn’t horrible.

Hopefully whatever this was tasted at least half as good as it smelled, especially considering he’d be eating it and the rest of its kind for the next month.

The presentation was actually pretty fancy, covered in one of the silver domes that neither he nor his family had even been sophisticated, rich or over the top enough to use, so it felt a bit weird. 

Why do people want to unveil their dinner? If they want to keep it warm they could just eat it right when it’s made. 

Awkwardly placing the intricate metal cover to the side Dipper looked down at his meal.

He was not ashamed to admit that he definitely drooled a bit as he looked down at it.

On the plate was something he could only describe as a burger pulled right out of a tv commercial paired with fries seasoned with something that smelled good enough to make him want to face plant right into them.

T his definitely hadn’t been what he was expecting, but this absolutely beautiful stack of meat, cheese bread and whatever else was on this thing looked better than anything he’d eaten all summer.

He didn’t remember picking up the burger, but the next thing he knew what felt like a bomb of flavor exploded into his mouth.

“Mmmmmmnnn.” 

Dipper was too preoccupied to notice the moan that had fallen through his lips, since he was pretty sure this burger was the new love of his life.

The same thing couldn’t be said about the dream demon standing next to him….

******

What….what was that?!

Bill had been content to watch Pine Tree struggle to put two thoughts together, it was always funny to him how simple humans were.

And if he found himself looking at Dipper’s movements with a bit of relief after seeing him not move for days, that was just out of pure curiosity.

Possible plans on how he could put his goals into action had been running through his mind while he’d been gone, and something he was attempting to keep thinking about while he stood there, that is until Pine tree made that sound.

The breath that he didn’t even need to take caught in his fake lungs involuntarily when he heard it.

In all the interactions he’d had with humans he’d heard a lot of the weird noises their bodies made, screaming, crying, manic laughter, all the usual things, but this was something else.

And for some reason he wanted to hear it again. 

If I go over there and squeeze him like a human sponge would that work? No human bones and organs are too fragile, they’d probably just break or explode and I really don’t need to break him after going through all the effort to put him back together again. 

No. That wasn’t something they were thinking about right now.

“Hey, where did you get this?”

The question pulled Bill out of his musings about how to wring that sound out of his soulmate again somehow, without hurting him and his stupidly fragile body.

Making sure to not let any of his inner turmoil or curiosity show on his face the demon pulled himself together to answer the question. 

“Oh, curious are you? Well, I just waltzed over to the dreamscape of a random meatbag and plucked out one of the things that looked edible, add a little bit of my power to it to make it real and voila, human sustenance.” 

It was clear that the human had a lot to process after hearing that, and based on the exhaustion brimming in his eyes and the defeated look on his face Dipper's mind was already too tired to even try to filter his thoughts at this point.

Either that or he’d finally just given in to the fact that Bill could read his thoughts now. 

“Wait, what? Does this mean that you can take anything from someone else's dreams? Can I even survive here eating food from the dreamscape? Am I literally eating nothing or some weird magic illusion that you made and really I’ll die of starvation in like two days?” 

Bill hadn’t expected the sudden hysterics at the offhand comment, but then again he knew everything there was to know about his domain so those answers were obvious to him.

They were probably less obvious to a human who only knew the bare minimum about what Bill even did here. 

“Hate to cut this short, but I’m going to. This here food is 100% real and does give you all those nutrient things that keep your body not dead.” 

Bill conveniently left out the part where it was only real for him because he was tied to this place just as much as the demon was himself now, that information was on a need to know basis, and since he’d the one that knew it he’d made the executive decision that Dipper didn’t need to. 

“And just to blow your simple human mind some more, I can go anywhere, do anything and take anything that I want here.

Any dream anywhere, whether it’s from the mind of a fifth dimensional being or a human from Canada I can do whatever I want with it. It’s all mine Pine Tree, so don’t worry. If you get lost I’ll be able to find you anywhere.” 

****** 

Dipper’s awe at the new information (that he was already itching to add to the journal out of habit) faded.

Right.

He wasn’t here to do some scientific investigation or go on an epic adventure with Mabel, he was a prisoner trying to gain intel on his captor.

This wasn’t fun, it was serious.

This information could be the difference between life and death for everyone in Gravity Falls, and since there wasn’t much he could do to help them out in the real world all he could do was try to find something that could help them against Bill from in here.

He’s on a mission and  he needs to focus.

Keeping his voice steady to hide a ny emotions that might leak out Dipper played it off like he wasn’t planning anything, hoping that his instinctual unconscious thoughts were safe from Bill’s mind reading.  

“Yippee for me.” 

“You’re nice and safe in here as long as I want you to be. I haven’t had any guests for a long time, it’d be bad for my reputation if you died on accident while in my domain.

The only way you’re allowed to die here is if I kill you, otherwise that’d just be embarrassing.”

“Great, that’s nice and comforting, thanks. Now are you gonna keep talking or is there a chance you’ll get out and leave me in peace again?” 

“Like I said Pine Tree, you’re the first guest in ages. You’re too entertaining to leave alone, plus what would I do if you sneakily tried to kill yourself again.

I was nice enough to give you a little alone time earlier, that seems like more than enough time to me.” 

Although the demon's tone was mocking as he said the last words, his expression seemed to tighten up a bit at the mention of the incident .

Luckily since Dipper was so annoyed at the actual words themselves he didn’t take the time to notice. 

“Shut up you fucking evil triangle. I didn’t know that the stupid dream forest was full of things that wanted to kill me, I thought you were the only thing here that was that much of an ass.

For all I know you put those things there to do the job for you.” 

In two swift movements Bill was suddenly sitting right next to Dipper on his bed, arm draped over his shoulders.

The grip was tight and stiff, and it made him feel suddenly really uncomfortable as a strange emotion seemed to radiate off his body and leech into Dipper, distracting enough that he barely even registered the feeling of the warmth coming back again.

The same kind of dangerous energy was present in his voice when he eventually opened up his mouth to speak. 

“Oh ho ho, you wound me! If I wanted you dead, you already would be. Rest assured, the fact that you’re here breathing right now is proof that I want you nice and alive.” 

There was nothing Dipper could say to that.

The words paired with the strange and chilling aura that was pouring off the demon killed anything he had been prepared to say. 

Then, as quickly as fast as it had changed, the atmosphere in the room snapped back to normal (whatever that constituted in a place like this). 

“Anyways, I’m offended Pine Tree, I thought we were bonding!”

Jumping up from his seat Bill whirled around to face him again.

Dipper tried to pull his thoughts back together and brush off everything that had just happened, but since he’d gotten here the demon had been giving him emotional whiplash during every other interaction and it was starting to make him think hard about all the things Bill probably wasn’t telling him.

He really didn’t need this right now, it was his first day of consciousness and he’d had enough Bill-related weirdness.

Anyways, he didn’t need another thing to add to the imaginary journal page he’d been writing in his head.

Right now, acknowledging something he had no way of getting the answer to anytime soon was the last thing he wanted to do today, so he didn’t.

He’ll save thinking for another time.

“It’d be a lot easier to bond with you if you were somewhere far away from me. Trust me, it’s the same philosophy with siblings, so if you really wanna ‘bond’ try leaving to some far off place.”

Again the demon stepped into his personal space bubble, the closeness making his skin feel weird warm tingling at the proximity.

Another thing he’d analyze when he had brain cells to spare. 

“I like your style kid, sarcasm is a good look on you.

Fine, just because I’m so generous I’ll give you a few more hours to yourself. Just for today, tomorrow you better prepare yourself for some fun! ”

Then he was gone.

Crap!

The human had a pretty good idea about the kind of things the dream demon considered fun , and he was pretty sure that anything he thought of as entertaining would mostly just be mentally and emotionally scarring for him.

Thoughts of the triangle man pulling the teeth out of a deer just for the fun of it and building a throne out of frozen human bodies made him shudder as he thought about what might be in store for him tomorrow.

At least he had tonight. 

******

Bill materialized into one of the more secluded, darker corners of his domain after leaving the cabin.

Although he’d managed to play it off, his exit hadn’t been a courtesy, it’d been an escape. 

“For all I know you put those things there to do the job for you”

Those words shouldn’t have hurt. It was partially true, Bill had, on occasion, tried to kill Dipper and his entire family.

Plus there was the fact that he was still actively working on enslaving the entire universe and all the puny things in it, but still, for some reason the idea that Pine Tree thought Bill was trying to kill him made something deep inside of him ache. 

These useless human emotions, damn it! This isn’t even a real body, emotions shouldn't come with this useless sack of flesh. 

This whole damn situation was a pain.

Bill had written off the idea of having a soulmate thousands of years ago and any of the things that were associated with the concept, and now that he’d had the stupid creature thrown right into his life it was ruining everything he’d been working for.

A part of him still couldn’t believe that after all this time, a human, and not only that a human that he’d been…trying to, kill was the last piece of his soul. 

This won’t change my plan. Nothing has changed. 

But even as Bill continued to mull over his plans and dream about universal domination and the suffering and weirdness he’d spread throughout the world once it was his, he could feel something off about the whole thing. 

In all the time he’d spent trying to forget about anything to do with his soulmate Bill had also allowed himself to forget about what it actually meant for a being when they actually found and bonded with them.

If he’d taken a minute to try and remember everything he’d been told about soulmates he would have realized that Bill wasn’t the only one who was going to get stronger.

Soulmates aren’t one sided, both of them are going to change, and those changes were going to ripple out and affect more than just them, something Bill definitely wasn’t taking into account with his plan.

Especially since he was still repressing so much. 

******

After being unconscious for several days, the last thing that Dipper wanted to do was go to sleep.

He barely wanted to even try closing his eyes at all, but his body was still drained from everything that had happened, and eventually after he’d eaten and stared off into space for hours he had to give in to his body’s basic need for rest.

Letting his eyelids fall closed for longer than a few seconds caused made him panic the first few minutes as he waited for something bad to happen.

He felt a flood of relief as the minutes ticked by and he realized that he wasn’t falling back into the same empty, pulling darkness from before.

Unfortunately, his sense of calm was short lived. As soon as real sleep managed to grab onto him the scenery inside of his mindseye began to warp and shift into something more sinister.

Gnarly, knotted trees began to shoot up from the ground, curling around each other in twisted masses of sharp branches.

The sky began to glow with eerie colors, sickly greens, reds and oranges making the sharp silhouettes of the new plants seem even darker as they closed in on him.

But the feelings of fear that those caused were nothing compared to the sinking dread that welled up inside him when the sounds began to start pouring out from the shadows of the demonic forest.

Vicious growls and snarling came at him from every direction, and somewhere deep inside him he knew that these were the same monsters that had tried to kill him.

He knew rationally that he didn’t really remember what those creatures had looked like, but as soon as the massive, gangly creatures began to melt from the shadows he knew.

In that way you just know what or who things are supposed to be with a kind of certainty in your dreams, that these were the things that had almost killed him.

The sound of piercing screams suddenly joined the symphony of growls surrounding Dipper, and it took him way too long to realize that the sound was coming from him .

And he had no control over it.

Suddenly the looming shadows were on him, his body paralyzed as they attacked him with claws and teeth.

He could feel his body being torn apart piece by piece, pulling itself back together just for it to happen all over again.

Then, it got worse.

Suddenly he was no longer alone, the sound of his own screams of pain were gradually joined by other voices, people who were joining him in his helpless, endless fate.

As recognition washed over him his screams only intensified, becoming more desperate as he listened to the sound of his friends and family members sharing in his pain.

He fought with everything he had, but in a dream you don’t have any power or control, not really, and that powerlessness he felt eating him up from the inside made him feel like was going insane.

He couldn’t just sit here and listen to his family suffering, dying. 

Help. Someone help them… Please. 

Then, something warm and comforting wrapped around him and all the sounds and images of pain and suffering were wiped away along with any of the agony he’d been feeling. 

Everything was finally quiet, the image in his mind just a peaceful and mindless swirl of colors dancing in front of his eyes as a feeling of warmth and comfort started to leech into his bones while he continued to lie there.

His body was still too weak to do anything, he couldn’t even open his eyes to see what was going on, but he suddenly got the feeling that everything was okay.

With this new sense of security and the soft feeling of something stroking through his hair Dipper’s mind and body relaxed, and he was finally able to fall into a sleep that was actually restful for the first time in a long while. 

Chapter Text

Bill was usually good at entertaining himself, especially since being in his in his domain meant he could go and terrorize anyone he wanted inside their dreams, which was usually fun enough to keep him occupied for awhile.

But annoyingly, right now the only thing he could bring himself to do is lazily throw fireballs off a random cliff he’d found in one of the realms.

Even if he wouldn’t let himself acknowledge a lot of things, or ya know anything other than what suited his best interests, about his whole…

connection with Pine Tree he could admit that at the very least that the human was a decent source of entertainment.

Having conversations with people who were dreaming never resulted in anything coherent, sleeping people weren’t exactly known to be good company.

And even though their screams of terror were hilarious they just weren’t as good as the ones they made when they were in their physical bodies.

Unfortunately, Dipper had wanted ‘alone time’ earlier to do the things humans needed in order to function, eat and sleep.

Considering dreams were kind of his domain he should be more understanding about it, or at least pretend to be so he could get Pine Tree to let his guard down, but he didn’t want to, he wanted to be a petulant child about it.

So that’s exactly what he did. 

“Stupid Pine Tree, wasting all this time sleeping. Maybe I should teach him a lesson by going and drawing something on his face.

I guess since he needs it not to go insane it wouldn’t be a good lesson, but I never claimed to be a teacher. Plus I’m bored, and I want to.” 

Honestly that’s all the motivation Bill really needed to convince himself that this was the best thing to do with his time.

Plus there was also the added bonus that it would probably piss Dipper off enough that they could have another fun round of trading sarcastic insults.

It was a win win.

He was ready to pop right back into the room and commence his brilliant plan when a disturbing feeling washed over him.

It was faint, not even remotely as intense as the pain he’d felt when Dipper got attacked, but the undercurrent of the feeling was the same.

That meant it was definitely coming from the same source the pain had. Pine Tree. 

When the feeling only started to get more noticeable he immediately jumped into action, rushing towards the source.

He expected the feeling to draw him towards the cabin where Dipper had miraculously managed to do something to get himself into trouble again, but instead he found himself popping up into what was clearly a nightmare.

He didn’t have time to appreciate that his fragile human hadn’t hurt himself again when he heard a scream come from somewhere in the nightmare.

It was Dipper’s scream, and dream or not Bill found himself whipping around to find where it’d come from.

Turning around he caught sight of Dipper.

The kid was lying on the ground of an eerie, ominous looking forest surrounded by his friends and family, none of them able to move a muscle as they looked directly ahead of them with matching looks of pure terror carved onto their faces.

Like an eternal reenactment of the day he’d almost died.

Bill watched as Dipper and the others were ripped apart by giant, shadowy creatures.

Every one of them letting out desperate screams of pain that rang out into the air only stopping when they finally died, the quiet lasting only a few seconds before the whole thing started all over again.

When he’d gotten there he’d been ready to deal with whatever had happened to Pine Tree, but now he felt like he was paralyzed, his body disconnected from his brain as he watched Dipper die over and over again.

Even knowing it wasn’t reality the logical side of him still couldn’t stop the sharp, stabbing pain he felt every time he watched the light go out in Dipper’s eyes.

Especially when he knew that only a few days ago the kid had been seconds away from sharing that same fate in reality.

It was when another one of Dipper’s pained screams tore through the air that Bill finally came back to himself.

Every other complicated thought and emotion in his head pushed aside by his need to get them both out and away from this hell.

With a wave of his hand he used his powers to erase the nightmare, leaving only a blank void in return. 

This is what I should have done the second I got here. What the hell is wrong with me? 

Growling at his own stupidity he left the void as fast as he could, not wanting to be near the damned place even a second longer.

Landing back in the cabin. He didn’t hesitate for a second to grab Dipper and pull him into his arms as soon as his eyes landed on him.

He allowed himself to indulge in the contact, reminding himself that the real Dipper was here, alive.

It was just a nightmare, one that, though late, he’d destroyed.

Pulling back a bit he took the time to actually take in the sight of the physical body of the human.

Despite not having any real damage to his body from the dream attack he could still see the lingering effects of the nightmare etched onto the human’s sleeping face.

Both of his cheeks were streaked with tear tracks from what he could already tell was a lot of crying, and by the way his eyebrows were furrowed it was clear that even though the nightmare was over, the memory of it was still effecting him, ricocheting around his head like an awful echo.

Reaching out one of his hands Bill gently laid it down on Dipper’s forehead.

Releasing a light pulse of magic he used his thumb to gently rub at the skin between his eyes until it finally relaxed.

He hadn’t done anything amazing, just added a few calming images and colors into his dream, but he could tell that it’d been enough for him to get away from the remaining hold the nightmare had on him.

Bill had no idea how it happened, but one minute he was looking down at Pine Tree’s face, watching him finally relax in his sleep, and the next he noticed that the room was brighter and the body in his arms was slightly stirring.

How long have I been sitting here? I mean I know I don’t really have a concept of time with the whole immortality thing, but I would've noticed hours passing. Right? 

The answer was, apparently not. 

He didn’t have the time to dwell on his lousy time management skills, he had to be about 1,000 dreams away in the next two seconds if he wanted to avoid having to come up with an explanation he didn’t have for why he was randomly holding Pine Tree in his sleep.

Though he could probably come up with some fun answers he didn’t want to risk seeming like he cared this much.

A, because he totally didn’t, and

B, because that would make the human suspicious, well more suspicious.

For the plan to work he needed it to be more subtle to be even slightly convincing.

So for that reason Bill made his immediate, definitely not the same as running away, tactical retreat.

For the sake of the plan.

******

Unlike some people Dipper’s brain tended to mostly wake up before the rest of him was able to even start the process.

Usually just stayed lax for awhile, thoughts starting up in his head while the rest of him took it’s time to start working again.

It was a bit weird, but it meant he at least got a bit of warning before Mabel attacked him with a wake up pillow to the face in the morning and that he could tell if and what his parents made for breakfast before he even knew what time it was, but today it allowed him to learn something else.

As his brain started to boot back up, way ahead of his ability to move his body like usual, Dipper noticed that his upper right side felt really warm for some reason.

It wasn’t in the ‘I put way too many blankets on for the weather and now I’m all hot and sweaty’, but in the ‘I never want to move because this is so warm and comfortable’ kind of way.

At least it was until it somewhat clicked inside his head what was happening around him that was giving off that warmth.

There were arms wrapped around the upper portion of his body, which was also partially lifted up to lie on some part of whoever it was that was holding him.

Of course by the time he managed to figure that out his body finally followed his brain’s lead and started to wake up too, muscles and limbs twitching like a mini test run before the real thing.

Immediately he felt the person holding him stiffen before they slid out of the bed and silently disappeared in what was probably no more than 2 or 3 seconds, and just for a second he let himself feel a little disappointed about losing that warmth.

Sitting up slowly he stretched his arms above his head and rolled his neck to get rid of some of the stiffness of sleep.

The actions were so ingrained in his body's autopilot he did them without thinking, which was good because right now his brain was totally out of commission as he tried to rationalize what had happened.

Someone had been holding him while he was asleep, and while he didn’t exactly remember what it was about he knew that at some point in the beginning of the night he’d had a nightmare.

A really painful one that had suddenly stopped out of nowhere.

As much as he wanted for there to be any other explanation for who it could have been, the facts didn’t leave any room for denial,

Bill was the only other person (being) in here that was real and also the only one who would have been able to make a nightmare suddenly disappear out of nowhere like that.

Not to mention as much as it annoyed him to admit, that warmth he felt when he woke up was the same one he’d only ever felt when he and the demon touched.

It had to be Bill.

But knowing that just made everything worse. 

Why would Bill care if I was having a nightmare?

And even if he didn’t care he still went through the effort to get rid of it and for some reason came and sat with me while I was asleep.

Why would a psychotic dream demon bent on terrorizing the universe do something like that?

Is it some kind of manipulation tactic to get me to trust him? That could be it. Before all of this started he did tell me he wanted me to join him for some reason.

I thought he was just mocking me again, but maybe that’s really why I’m here. It’s the only reason I can think of for him even making this whole deal in the first place.

He didn’t have anything to gain, at least I thought he didn’t, but maybe he knew I’d agree to this deal and he set up the whole thing in advance.

A month is a weirdly specific time frame, and he didn’t just want to keep me locked up or in a bubble like Mabel, he brought me somewhere where I’d be stuck with him. 

The more he thought about it the more he became convinced that Bill had been planning this whole thing from the start, and that just made his mind jump straight down into the rabbit hole of everything that had been going on since he’d gotten here. 

Bill’s been weird, even by his standards, since the second I got here.

Going out of his way to actually get me good food, doing  that whole weird, touchy comfort thing.

It’s like he’s pretending to actually have emotions or that he cares, but…. Oh my god. Is he..

He thought of crimes from his world that, minus all the insane weirdness, magic and demons, had a similar MO to what Bill was doing .

A captor kidnaps someone, locks them away in a gilded prison where they are their only company and they act all kind to them.

Act like they care about them or love them or whatever to manipulate them into wanting to stay. 

Stockholm Syndrome.

It fits.

Whisking me away from anything and everything and trying to act like my friend out of nowhere.

That warm thing is probably part of his powers and he’s using it to lower my guard or something. 

The whole idea was disgusting to think about, especially because he knew that this whole tactic was something that had worked on a lot of people back in his world.

But even though it fit and 90% of him was convinced that he’d finally figured it out there was still a loud, nagging voice in the back of his head that stopped him from fully committing to the idea. 

Why?

Why would Bill go through all of this to get me on his side?

I mean I’d get him wanting Grunkle Ford on his side, he’s a genius and someone who actually knows about all this weird supernatural stuff, but I’m just some teenager who stumbled into this whole thing and got in way over my head way too fast.

It just doesn’t make sense.

Dipper was the only thing that didn’t make sense in this whole idea, and yet Bill was still acting and treating him like he was worth something.

Like the other day when he went all dark when he’d threatened to stop eating or the whole part of the deal where he wasn’t allowed to kill himself. 

Damn it! How is it that even when he’s not here he manages to fuck with my mind? 

He has no idea how long he sat up in his bed just going back and forth between these two thoughts, but he was eventually interrupted before he could make any final decisions about either of them. 

“Did I already manage to drive you crazy? I made great time! I mean, it’s not anywhere near my record, only 5 seconds by the way,  but I think it’s pretty impressive since I wasn’t even actively trying. I guess I’m just too amazing for humans to handle.”

Dipper didn’t even try to pretend he was ready to deal with the demon right now, not like it would matter.

“Don’t give yourself too much credit, I’ve been driving myself crazy just fine on my own.”

“Aww, did you do it so we could be more alike? I’m flattered Pine Tree.” 

Running his hand over his face Dipper mentally reasoned with himself that it would be more effort to punch the dream demon than it was worth.

Somewhat successful he compromised with himself by turning to glare at him instead.

Aaaand he immediately realized he shouldn’t have done that.

Now that he was looking at Bill he saw that for a second the demon looked like his body stiffened, avoiding meeting Dipper’s eye before he seemed to catch himself.

If he hadn’t been laser focused on the demon to make his glare more effective he would have missed it, but he had, and now he had yet another weird thing to add to his mental journal entry.

Even if it was just another part of his plan it at least seemed like Bill hadn’t wanted him to know he’d been with him last night.

What the truth really was he had no idea, but it wasn’t like he was gonna get any answers lying in bed and avoiding the demon.

That’s all he’d been doing since he got here and the only thing it managed to do is make him want to bash his head against a wall until things made sense, so now his only option was to try and go along with him.

It seems like spending time with Bill is the only way he’d actually have any chance of figuring out anything about why he was here or what he was planning, but that doesn’t mean he’s looking forward to it.

“How am I supposed to handle spending the day with you when you make me want to punch you five seconds after you show up?” 

“That’s what makes hanging out with you so fun! And hey, go ahead and try to punch me, I’m interested to see how wimpy a human punch feels in this form!” 

He couldn’t decide whether to sigh or glare, so he just went with both.

He had a feeling he’d be doing a lot of both anyways so he might as well get the practice in.

He just wished it didn’t entertain Bill as much as it clearly did.

“Your glares are definitely getting better, but I think they’d be a lot more effective if you learned how to actually vaporize someone with ‘em.”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that.” 

“Fantastic! But first,”

Suddenly pulling a tray from behind him that was definitely too big to have actually been hiding there he skipped, like real skipping, across the room and placed Dipper’s breakfast right on his lap.

“Human food time!” 

At this point food actually sounded really good to Dipper, and since this was probably the only way he was gonna get to eat for the next month he decided he might as well accept it.

Apparently he was pretty adaptable, whether it was suddenly going from a house in the suburbs to a cabin in the middle of monster filled nowhereheresville or being forcibly moved to a DIY dream dimension he could convince himself to get used to anything.

Good for him.

As long as he still allows himself to investigate whatever he doesn’t understand he’d be okay, which was exactly what he planned to do now. 

*****

Who knew that a newly awakened Pine Tree would be so hilarious.

It’d be great if he could just shove down the feeling that somehow the kid knew what he’d done last night…until this morning. 

Nah, the kid’s acting normal, and he isn’t even asking questions. That’s practically all he does, there’s no way he wouldn’t know if he knew right? Right. 

He didn’t need to dwell on anything, right now it was time to restart the plan that had been rudely derailed until this point.

And the first part of that was to spend more time with the human.

That way his powers would start to finally develop and he could start to coax him towards his side so he could use those powers.

And the perfect way to start that off is to wow the kid with all the delights of the dreamscape.

Everything else would follow suit. 

He never knew that it took such a long time for human’s to actually eat, it seemed like a waste of time.

If they weren’t so useless they could just unhinge their jaws and take in all their food at once, it’d save so much time, but when he’d tried it that one time to prove his point the human had just screamed in pain before choking and dying.

So fragile.

But even knowing that humans couldn’t eat fast didn’t make it any less boring as he waited until Pine Tree finally pushed the tray to the side so he could get out of the bed. 

“FINALLY! How do you meat bags have time to do anything besides eat with how long that takes?” 

Getting up and stretching out Dipper took his time answering the demon, probably just out of spite, which was fair. 

“For a being who’s supposedly been around for millions of years you’re pretty impatient. Isn’t an hour like half a second to you?” 

Bill immediately got defensive. 

“Hey, hey, hey. How dare you say I’m only a few measly million years old, that’s pathetic!

I’m obviously way more powerful than any loser who's only lived that long, I’ve been alive longer than your puny brain would be able to wrap it’s head around.” 

“Is that really what you chose to be offended by in that sentence? That I thought you were younger than you are.”

“Yep.”

“Well at least now I know how to actually offend you. I’ll definitely be filing that away for later.” 

Bill almost thought that could have been a lame human joke, but based on everything he knew about Pine Tree and his obsession with those damn journals he’d bet his one working eye that he had some kind of mental library for all the random things he learned.

Well, maybe if he went into his head and took a look around he could actually find it, that might be fun.

Later, for now he had other plans for him and the human. 

“While I’m flattered you keep a place just for little old me in that puny head of yours I’m bored. Finish the rest of your weird mortal morning rituals and let's get ready. I’ve got something planned for you today.” 

The look of slight panicked horror was absolutely hilarious, he could practically feel Dipper’s soul groaning at him from across the room already. 

“Don’t remind me.” 

“What, don’t you trust me to take you out for a good time?”

There was no hesitation when a sharp “No” was thrown back at him, which only made his face stretch into a wide smirk. 

This really was going to be a fun day. 

******

Dipper thought about purposely dragging out the time it took him to get ready to leave, which would be kind of difficult since apparently he’d forgotten he was sleeping in his clothes and shoes since he hadn’t exactly brought or made anything else, but he decided it was useless to delay the inevitable. 

Whatever Bill has planned for the day I just hope it doesn’t involve anything torture or demon related. Yeah, no, even if it’s not I’m still probably doomed. 

He felt like he was walking towards his imminent doom when he finally walked over to stand in front of Bill. 

“Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

Not surprisingly Bill was completely unphased by his obvious reluctance, if anything it looked like it just made his stupid smirk even wider as he threw an arm around his shoulder.

That, by the way, was something he really needed him to stop doing before Dipper started to get used to that feeling. 

“Perfect! I’ve already got our first stop all picked out.”

“Wait, first sto–” 

Dipper didn’t even get to finish his question before he suddenly found himself in a different one of the seemingly endless dream realms inside of this place.

Out of habit he automatically began to scan his surroundings, and let’s just say this was not what he’d been expecting someone like Bill to pick out for them to do. 

The dream they were in now was set in some kind of infinite, mythical garden full of the most beautiful and confusing plants that Dipper had ever seen in his life, and not a single one looked like it was about to eat him or something.

He had to admit, if they were gonna be exploring this place today he might actually be able to enjoy himself a little bit, even if he had no intention of letting down his guard.

He knew that whether he was right about whatever Bill’s plan was or not, everything he was doing still had some ulterior motive to it, and he was gonna do whatever it takes to figure it out.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t do a little exploring too.

Taking a step forward he reached out to touch the plant that was closest to him.

It looked like some sort of neatly trimmed shrub, but rather than the typical green color he was used to, every single leaf was an almost sparkling shade of light blue.

They almost looked like impossibly thin gemstones, but when he actually touched one instead of feeling like either a stone or a plant the leaf in his hand was soft, with a slight warmth coming off of it.

He was about to take a closer look when suddenly the leaf changed shape in his hands and turned into the tiniest blue-bird he’d ever seen, hopping from his palm and up to his arm, taking the time to stare at him for a second before flying away. 

“Pretty cool right?” 

The sound of Bill’s voice right behind him almost made him jump out of his skin. 

“That’s an understatement. What just happened, where is this place?” 

Coming to stand next to him Bill grabbed a leaf of his own and they both watched as it shifted into a small butterfly instead. 

“Obviously we’re inside of someone’s dream. This particular being is from a place where plants are rare, so since they don’t get to see them when they’re awake they make up their own versions of them in their head when they’re asleep.

Since shapeshifting is common there they decided it would probably be the same for plants too, along with anything else their imagination could come up with. Put all that together and voila, we get this lovely little garden right here.” 

Dipper’s inner geek was practically buzzing as he drank in all of the new information he’d just gotten. 

“Are they all like this? Do they change every time whoever this is has a new dream? And wait, this is this dream of someone from another world, do you mean like another planet or another dimension altogether?

If this place has dreams of things from literally anywhere how big is it? How the hell do you keep track of it?” 

“Woah, woah hold your horses kid one thing at a time.” 

A blush crept up onto Dipper’s cheeks when he realized he’d started rambling. 

“Right.”

“Eh, it’s not like I can’t answer ‘em. To answer your first questions, nope. All the plants in here are 100% unique, and while some of them come back for repeat appearances most of them are new every time this dream pops up again.

And as for how big this place is, it’s infinite. It’s as big as it needs to be to fit all the dreams that pop into the heads of anything that’s capable of dreaming in the first place.

And while that may blow your little human mind, this domain belongs to yours truly, all I’ve gotta do to find what I’m looking for is give it a passing thought and this place does all the work for me.

It’s like an extension of me in itself, and it keeps track of itself, storing all the info in the back of my amazing mind unless something interesting or wrong pops up, then I get a little heads up in case I wanna do something about it.

T hey’re all just background tabs I don’t worry about unless I want to. Simple as that” 

Which is to say not simple at all. Hearing all that, and in such a casual tone, was almost too much, even for Dipper, superfan of the weird and impossible.

Even the way Bill went about explaining it told him just how little about this place and its ruler he understood.

Bill had clearly dumbed it down, which he wishes he’d be offended by instead of grateful for, but even with that he felt a headache forming when he tried to think about how that would work or what it would be like. 

“Wow.”

It was really the only thing that he felt like he could say.

Because really, what else was there to say after everything he just heard. 

“I’m glad you’ve finally gained an appreciation for just how all powerful and amazing I am!”

Honestly, kind of.

“Was that an actual compliment Pine Tree? Is it my birthday? Nope that can’t be it I don’t have one of those considering I wasn’t born, maybe–”

And yeah no, he couldn’t let Bill think he’d suddenly come to hail him as some kind of overlord.

Even with all this power if all he used it for was to be a pointy, three sided asshole it kind of canceled everything else out in Dipper’s mind. 

“Don’t get too full of yourself, it wasn't a compliment. I just think I understand just a bit more why you’re absolutely insane.

Maybe instead of trying to take over the world you should go on vacation. Or get some therapy, cause I think this god complex of yours has given you some issues.”  

“Aww, you really think I have issues? That’s so sweet.” 

“And that just further proves my point. Well, now that we’ve re-established your insanity I’m gonna focus back on this garden. It’s a lot more interesting than hearing you talk about yourself.” 

While that wasn’t 100% true since that whole conversation was enough fuel for Dipper to theorize and think for the rest of his life he really didn’t feel like feeding into Bill’s twisted ego.

Plus, he had no idea how long they’d be here and he wanted to see as much of this place as he could.

“That’s more like the Pine Tree I know!”

Dipper spent what felt like hours walking through the garden, observing and interacting with every plant he saw, all while he dealt with brushing Bill’s arm off from his shoulders, ignoring his snarky statements or throwing sarcastic remarks at him whenever he deserved it.

The garden really was the most unique place he’d ever been, no two plants were the same.

One had been a deep dark blue that had long vines that had intricare white patterns all over them.

Another was bright red with branches that were completely covered by long, thin spikes.

It would have been imposing if it hadn’t seemed to be so curious, it mimicked the shape of whatever Dipper was thinking about as soon as he touched it (because no matter how spikey he still needed to know what it felt like), the plant doing its best to recreate the images inside his head, it was incredible.

But by far his favorite one was definitely the large, pure white tree that was hidden in a small little secret area.

It was really short and only had about a dozen, massive leaves that spread out around one giant pink flower in the middle.

It was absolutely beautiful.

Just like everything else he walked towards it to get a better look at it, but when he got close enough to touch it the leaves in front of him suddenly shifted, moving to each side  to create a sort path directly to the flower in the center.

As soon as he got to the flower the pink petal at the front lowered down to the ground while the others reached out, as if they were trying to tell him to come in closer.

It could have all been a ploy for the flower to suddenly eat him, but something about the aura around the tree made him believe that it didn’t mean him any harm.

So, as stupid as it may have been he took a breath and climbed into the center of the flower.

When he sat down the petals around him instantly became lively, dancing around him like they were happy he’d accepted their invitation.

It was then that he noticed the center of the flower had started glowing underneath him, becoming slightly warm to the touch as the light began to grow brighter.

Then, one by one tiny little puffs of light started rising up into the air around him, and as more began to fill the air around him Dipper couldn’t help but reach out to one of the pinpricks of light.

He was half expecting his hand to just pass right through it the same way it would a sunbeam, but it didn’t, when he caught one in the palm of his hand is settled down onto his skin,

giving his skin a warm glow around where it sat. It was soft and fragile feeling, like he was holding a tiny dandelion puff in his hand.

As if they were afraid of touching him before too a few more of the tiny puffs of light started to land on him, assured that he wouldn’t disappear by the one in his hand.

They felt alive to him, and by the time the little puffs decided it was time to float away with the rest of their kind he felt like he’d made a dozen new little friends as he gave them a small smile and waved them off.

When he eventually climbed out of the flower he gave one last stroke of thank you to the leaves as they let him out, back into the garden.

He was pretty sure he would be able to spend the rest of his life in the garden and never get bored, but the heaviness of his body and the hunger pangs in his stomach were telling him otherwise, and he took that as his cue to leave. 

“Ready to get out of here kid?” 

Bill was leaning up against a pillar that he was pretty sure hadn’t been there before he’d gone into the flower, and he realized that he’d probably been standing there waiting for Dipper this whole time.

That was definitely a little embarrassing, but since this whole thing had been Bill’s idea in the first place he didn’t let himself think about it too hard. 

“Yeah, I think I might end up passing out from either hunger or exhaustion if I stay here any longer.” 

“I’m surprised your weak little human body has managed to hold out this long.”

The condescending tone was something he was already desensitized to at this point, but the comment about the time they’d spent here did give him pause, he’d completely lost track of time.

“How long have we been here?”

“In human time about 13 hours.”

“13 hours! What the hell! Seriously? And has this person been dreaming for that long?” 

“Aren’t I always serious Pine Tree?”

The human just stared at him, not even dignifying that with a response while he waited for Bill to answer his real question.

“No, time doesn’t pass normally in dreams. In here what’s hours for you is just a few seconds for the dreamer, plus I can make it move even slower, faster or even make it stop if I want.”

With the amount of things he’d learned about the dreamscape today he wasn’t even phased by that answer, in fact he somehow found himself just nodding and accepting it the same way he had when his teacher first told him there were 60 minutes in an hour.

“No wonder I’m starving if it’s really been that long. Come on, let’s go back.” 

He didn’t mean for it to come out sounding like they were a package deal or anything, but when the words left his mouth it kind of felt like they had.

It was probably just because he’d been forced to be around him all day, but it still made him get annoyed at himself.

He had to remember that all of this was part of Bill’s plan, a plan that would eventually lead to the universe being terrorized by demons.

Something he was gonna stop by figuring out what Bill was up to. 

If only he didn’t have to keep reminding himself of that. 

******

The minute he saw the look on Pine Tree’s face when he touched that first plant Bill knew that he’d got him.

The first step of the plan was already going great, the human was so awed by the plants that he was starting to let his guard down, all he needed now was to wheedle his way further into his mind over the next few days and let the bond strengthen.

The human wouldn’t stand a chance against it and he’d be able to finally move on to the next phase.

That should have been all this whole trip was about, but what he didn’t count on was how much he was actually enjoying it.

Sure he’d put a bit of thought into what places would be the most likely to catch Pine Tree’s attention, but at this point there wasn’t really anything in any dream realm that was really interesting for the dream demon anymore.

As far as he was concerned most dreams were just the same old boring things that he’d rather keep as background noise in a deep corner of his mind.

At least that’s how he usually felt when he walked into dreams. 

This time though, he found himself fascinated, but not by the contents of the dream, by Pine Tree.

It was something about the way he looked at everything, his face held such genuine excitement and  his curiosity about every little detail was so relentless, like he was determined to dissect and understand everything about every single plant in the garden, which he probably was.

He asked so many questions, some that were so out there or so open ended that even Bill sometimes found that he was caught off guard enough to not be able to immediately think of an answer.

They spent hours just walking from plant to plant, but despite that he never showed any sign of getting bored.

And for the first time since he could remember, Bill didn’t feel bored either. T

hat familiar pull of boredom and dissatisfaction in the back of his mind was like his constant companion in life, one he’d had since before he cared to think about, it’s why he was always jumping from one thing to another, only concerned with entertaining himself.

Because after only a little while that same feeling always ended up rearing up again and he had to go and find his next source of entertainment to push it back again even just temporarily.

But somehow here, just walking around watching the way Dipper reacted so passionately towards something that had always been so dull to him had him completely entranced.

So the day passed by, faster than even he realized, filled with short conversations, some cutting remarks and Pine Tree's constant stream of curiosity.

Whatever had happened to him today probably wasn’t good, he should probably try and avoid it next time he took the kid out.

It was nothing more than a distraction.

At least that’s what he should have thought, but instead he somehow managed to shelve those thoughts and take a different approach for a reason he couldn’t quite place.

This could be a good thing.

Yes. 

It wasn’t like he’d lost sight of the plan, but if he could also experience a bit of quality entertainment in the process then why not indulge himself, after all, everything that Bill did was for his own gain.

Always.

I won’t be able to revel in the destruction and chaos of the end of the universe until the end of this annoyingly long month.

I can’t expect myself to just sit around, and it won’t be enough to just terrorize some people from inside their dreams, it just doesn’t have the same rush as it does when there’s that real threat of pain and death in their eyes.

So why stop myself from taking advantage of the side effects of my plan.

In the end I’ll still get to take over the universe, and if in the meantime I get to annoy Pine Tree and have a little actual fun on these little trips that just makes everything even better for me.

Then when this is all over I’ll have both Pine Tree and my new power and I’ll get to go back into the human world and have some real fun.  

Having a little bit of fun while he tricked and manipulated Pine Tree into joining him wouldn’t change anything.

It wasn’t a big deal.

The small voice in the back of his head that said otherwise could shut it.