Dipper ran frantically towards the mob surrounding Will, cursing himself for not having got out sooner or something.
Bill was going to be pissed when he got back, not to mention Will would doubtlessly be even more traumatized then before.
"Kill the demon! Kill the demon!" the townsfolk were shouting, and as Dipper got closer, he heard Will shrieking.
"Why don't he use his magic and protect himself?" Dipper seethed as he reached the edge of the crowd and began to try and force his way in. "Oh yeah, helpless, that's what Grunkle Ford said Bill calls Will. Helpless."
"Oh look, it's the demon boy!" one of the townsfolk had spotted Dipper and was now leering at him. "Coming to save yet another monster so he can kill us all and wreck our town!"
"No no, you've got it all wrong!" Dipper tried to protest, but a surge of people rushing him knocked him backwards. "This isn't Bill! This one won't hurt you!"
"Give it to him!" he heard someone shout, and Will let out a shrill cry.
A handful of men held Dipper firmly as he thrashed about. "Its for your own good." One of them said.
"Yeah." Another agreed. "We don't know what you see in these demons, but it all stops now."
"You-you don't understand!" Dipper pleaded. "Bill-he-he made a deal not to harm anyone anymore! For me! You do this you violate his deal!"
"Sorry kid, we're tired of living with that thing and with you. We'll get you back in your right mind, don't worry." Another added.
"But-but, that's not Bill!" Dipper cried again, but no one paid him any heed.
Dipper kicked and fought, listening to the agonizing cries from Will somewhere before him.
Slowly, he managed to make his captors stumble closer through the crowd, close enough that Will seen him through the press around him.
"D-di-pper!" he stretched out a bleeding hand, his one eye begging. "Help me!"
Dipper shook with frustration as the men holding him gripped tighter.
Then he had a brainwave.
Letting out his breath, he went completely limp, letting his head fall forward as though he just passed out.
"He's more of a wimp then we thought." He heard one man grumble to another.
"Just set him down, he'll be out for a while." Someone else replied.
Once the men had stepped away from him, Dipper shot to his feet and with a tremendous leap, landed straddling Bill's pathetic twin lying helplessly in the dirt.
Dipper began throwing punches and kicks, dodging some and taking some of his own.
"Use your magic Will!" he shouted, hoping to encourage the reluctant demon.
All he got was a sniffle.
"Come on Will! I need your help!" he shouted again, but Will just squeezed his eye shut and whimpered.
"Will, come on!" Dipper yelled in frustration.
"I-I can't." was the low reply.
"Yes, yes you can!" Dipper replied.
He couldn't help thinking of Bill as he desperately fought a losing battle against those who wished to harm the pitiful blue demon.
Bill had no qualms about using his ample magic to help his boyfriend.
Dipper never had to worry about bullies or kidnappers or murderers or anything anymore, because the instant anyone tried anything to him, Bill was there, protecting him.
Of course, now that six years had passed and Dipper was older now, Bill let him fight his own battles more often, but Dipper knew he was always watching, and would never let anything serious happen to him.
But now Bill was not here, and Dipper needed help more then ever.
Slowly, he was forced on one knee, and was irritated when Will's trembling fingers tugged at his shirt.
Swallowing any angry words, he risked glancing down at him.
Will's blue eye was glowing, and he leaned close to whisper a question: "When did everyone start hating you and Bill?"
Dipper was not sure whether he was surprised or not that Bill evidently had never revealed his crimes to his twin while here.
"Six years ago." He replied.
Will let go and Dipper concentrated back on his fight, knowing it was hopeless.
"I'm sorry Bill. If I'm still alive when this is over, I'm sure you'll take great pleasure in slowly killing me." He muttered bitterly.
Suddenly, everyone stopped.
Confused, Dipper also froze in mid punch and watched as everyone began drifting away, giving him and Will odd looks.
An old lady shuffled up and asked if they needed anything.
"Ahhh, n-no, we're good." Dipper assured her, slowly standing to his feet.
He glanced down at Will.
Will was lying slumped facedown in the dirt, and Dipper was unable to tell if he were even breathing.
Gently, he wrapped his arms around him and lifted him up, bridal style.
His heart ached as he thought of the hundreds, no, thousands of times Bill had begged to be carried and Dipper refused him.
And yet Bill faithfully carried Dipper whenever he could, much to the young man's annoyance, but still.
Will was covered in blood and dirt was caked all over his body, which shook ever so slightly as the demon would draw in a shaky, shallow breath.
Dipper felt rage at the townsfolk who had attacked him, and wondered again at the strangeness of everyone ignoring them suddenly.
He was certain Will used magic, but what did he do, exactly?
Dipper needed to find out, but that would have to wait until said demon woke up and was patched up again.
Dipper just hoped Bill wouldn't be too angry with him when he got back.
"Mabel, are, are you here sis?" Dipper called as he managed to get the door open and slip inside.
He and Mabel had moved to Gravity Falls once they were out of school.
Mabel had gotten a job at the diner, and Dipper helped his Grunkle Ford.
They still lived at the Mystery Shack, as neither wanted to live elsewhere, having grown so attached to it the summers they spent here.
It always irked Dipper, and Ford too, that Bill refused to live there, and instead built himself a tiny, dark house at the edge of town.
Bill always threw a massive tantrum every time Dipper left for school, but he always came along anyway.
Dipper never knew where the demon stayed once he was back home with his parents, but he did know that Bill stuck around, since he visited his beloved human whenever he could.
Of course, since he could teleport, he might live on the moon for all Dipper knew.
Bill refused to take him to wherever it was though, and when Bill said no, that was final.
His twin shouting from somewhere pulled Dipper from his musings.
"Yes, I'm here DipDip! It's my day off, remember? So I'm helping Grunkle Stan and-"
"Sis, I need your help." Dipper interrupted, and stood in the living room as he waited on Mabel to arrive.
Will moaned as Dipper waited, and Dipper wished his sister would hurry.
On cue, the beaming girl bounced into the room, her smile vanishing when she saw her brother's bundle.
"Oh Will." She whispered.
She looked up at Dipper. "What happened?"
She began leading her twin to the lab while he recounted the angry mob and their sudden disinterest in him and Will.
She listened until the end, by then Dipper having laid Will on Bill's bed in the lab.
While he refused to live there, he would sometimes stay late working with their Grunkle Ford, his best friend, and would opt to stay there instead of going home.
All the humans secretly thought he hated his lonely little house, but he stubbornly refused to move into the Mystery Shack.
"Well, we'll ask him once he's awake. Where's Grunkle Ford?" Mabel looked around curiously.
"Right here." The voice came from a stack of books on the other side of the lab, and Ford eased himself off the floor and strode over. "I heard the story, don't bother repeating it. Bill sure chose a good time to get captured." The older man remarked as he bent over the unconscious demon.
"Bill's been captured?!" Dipper didn't mean to shriek, but he did.
Ford nodded sadly. "Will probably felt it is why he passed out."
"How did you know?" Mabel wanted to know.
Ford sighed. "When he told me he was going after the enchantment, I placed a tracking device in him that would alert me if he had his magic inhibited, which would happen if he were captured like Will."
"In him?" Dipper wondered, blinking rapidly and assuring himself his eyes were only watering due to some dirt in them.
Ford nodded, but didn't elaborate, as Will coughed and cracked open his eye.
The demon squeaked and stared in terror up at the three humans around his bed, shrinking into the soft yellow sheets, clutching at the black blanket, whimpering and shaking in terror as his blurred vision only took in their facial features, mistaking them for the reverse humans.
"P-please!" he cried weakly, squeezing his eye shut and pulling away when Ford reached out to check his pulse with a frown.
"Aww, WillWill Blueberry!" Mabel cooed, reaching out and brushing the sweaty blue hair off his forehead.
Will looked up, confused as Ford held his wrist carefully.
"Its alright Will. Its only us, the Pines family not the Gleefuls." Dipper clarified, and a look of relief swept over the demon's pale face.
"I'm s-sorry." He whispered.
"Its ok." Dipper assured him.
Suddenly Will shot straight up, looking around wildly. "Where's Bill?" he cried loudly. "Bill!" he slumped back onto the bed, weeping. "They got him, oh oh they got Bill!"
"I can bring him back." Dipper said firmly. "I have his enchantment." The boy dashed out of the lab to go get the journal with the spell inside.
"And while Dipper is doing that you need to rest." Ford said firmly, carefully tucking in the trembling figure in the bed. "You had quite a nasty attack out there I heard."
Will kept sobbing, but managed a nod.
"Now, I am quite curious." Ford leaned closer. "What did you do to the townsfolk to make them ignore you two?"
Will cringed and shrank back, crying even harder. "I-I-I'm s-so-sor-s-s-"
"Ah, ah." Ford wiped his tears with his handkerchief as Dipper panted back into the room. "No apologies; we're quite happy you did this for us. I just want to know what and how."
Will sniffled and tried to stem his flood of tears. "M-memory spell." He whispered faintly.
Mabel tenderly kissed the top of his head.
Will let out a squeak and his face grew red.
"What did you erase?" Ford asked excitedly.
"Summer of six years ago. They'll never remember it again." Will mumbled as Mabel stroked his hair and began tying pink sparkly ribbons in it.
"Mabel!" Dipper scolded as he found the spell. "Leave him be."
"O-oh, but I li-like it!" Will cried, sounding distressed.
"Really!" Mabel squealed and clapped her hands.
Will nodded and turned his head to look up at her from under his blue bangs, blinking his eye and tilting his head ever so slightly, a trick that always won him extra affection from Bill.
"Aw, youw juss swoo adowable!" she cooed, stroking his flushed cheeks and tickling under his chin.
A shy smile made its way onto Will's face as he blushed.
Ford chuckled while Dipper gagged.
"You've done us a great service Will. I think you deserve some pampering." Ford announced.
"Ok, well, I'm going to bring Bill back now." Dipper said. "So quiet please."
Everyone nodded, and Dipper began.