Chapter VII
"What!" Everyone stares at me with focused eyes. Everyone in the room was staring at me.
"Dipper?" Pacifica has shock written on her face. "What is he talking about?"
"Yeah. Care to explain how you're still here, alive? No point in denying who you are."
"Hehehehe. You always were smarter than I gave you credit for, Sixer."
"Release my nephew, demon. We defeated you once and we'll do it again." Stanley Pines clenches his fists in anger.
"Funny you should say. If you beat me once, then why am I still here? And I am not the only threat anymore, slaves. I have power on my side. I have friends who want what I want."
"Yeah, yeah. 8-ball, pinkie, and the others. We defeated them too if you remember."
"Fools. Mortal, moronic fools! You think those are all the friends I have? I have way more. Friends that bend the fabric of reality. If life is a game, then they created the cheat codes. Believe me when I say you haven't a chance."
Sixer stays calm, well, calmer than the rest at least. Lumberjack girl eyes me down and man-child has a look of worry drawn on his weirdly shaped face.
"Bill? What is it that you actually want with us?"
"I don't want you. I want my freedom from this prison, and if I hypothesized it right, I should have it by now. Having untold power in a place I can't escape? It's a joke. What's the point to all this power if there are limits I can't cross, if the world can't witness the impossible. As for My need for Pinetree, he's my get out free card."
"If you were going to do what you claim you were going to do, then you would've done it by now. You must've been powerless out there, huh?"
"You have no idea. To be so weak in a world I could destroy, had I been at full power? It's laughable."
"Be that as it may be, if you think you're leaving here, you have another thing coming. We will defeat you."
"Yeah. That's not going to happen, Fordster."
"Bill?! You-you're Bill?" Mabel runs up at me and flails her arms, but doesn't get the chance to hit me as I fling her across the room. "How long? H-how long have you been, you?"
"Quite a while actually. C'mon, Mabel. Did you really not suspect anything? Think of how much Dipper has changed. Do you really think he could do those things on his own? Believe me when I say he's better off with me."
Tears form in her eyes, then rage. "I-I thought he was just going through puberty or something. Going through changes, like Grunkle Stan taught me."
Stanley shows a face of confusion, "I did what now?"
"You're telling me that all this time, it was you?!"
I laugh. "I never said such a thing."
"Why you son of a b-" Stanley runs up to punch me, but like his great niece, he fails. He flies into a desk, knocking over a lamp, that actually turns out to not be a regular desk lamp. As it falls, it shines on me, revealing markings on my arms that weren't there before.
"Those, those symbols." Ford steps closer to me. "When did, those are occult symbols. What did you do, corrupting my nephew?"
"Do you know how long I've been waiting for this? Now that my power has returned, I can now rule supreme over everything."
"You think I'll give you the opportunity, you despicable, triangular freak!?"
"Oooh, sticks and stones."
"Wait." Ford takes a step closer to me to check something out, then extends a finger. "That symbol. It's a warding symbol. Specifically meant to keep monsters like you out. How are you possessing him?"
"I'd love to rant on about my intentions and such, but there'd be no point. You're smart. You'll figure it…"
"You're not possessing him."
"Whaat!" The whole room exclaims at once. Pure shock. I show interest in this revelation.
"Dipper told me that you made a deal with him a great while ago. Possessing his body wasn't all you did, was it? You did something."
"Like I said, you're a real Brainiac. While it was fun, the short amount of time I had before the aching of a tired body practically cast me out, I planted something. I'm a powerful entity, but even I have to come to terms with defeat. You're unlike anything I have ever fought. Fitting that your great nephew would take on those genes. When I possessed his body, I threw a little piece of myself away and locked it away in Dipper. It was to stay dormant until I was gone. Think of it like an extension to my immortality."
"So, when you 'died', that locked away part was awoken. Unfortunately, for you, he and Mabel were leaving town by that time. Your consciousness was there, but your magic stayed behind, within these borders. I have one question, though. Why Dipper? To my understanding, you also possessed Blendin and a couple others. Did you do the same to them?"
"That is two questions, but, as you wish. I chose Pinetree because he is unlike the rest of this backwater town, which ties to the next question. As you may have noticed, being a part of Dipper for so long, I began to adopt certain feelings, among other things I mustn't discuss. Dipper was my only choice, the only one that didn't ultimately destroy me. He is a very intelligent kid, but he also happens to be entirely emotional. No, I didn't place myself among the other possessions, simply because they were too stupid for me to attempt it. Possessing is one thing, but what I did is entirely different. It's a bond that can't be undone."
"What did you do to my brother!?" Mabel wipes the tears from her eyes while pointing an angry finger in my direction.
"I am your brother, Mabel. Or, at least a part of him, biologically. We are bonded beyond the boundaries of possession."
"What are you saying?"
Ford pulls Mabel back as she tries to close in on me, expecting answers. "Like MPD, Bill has taken the role of a personality amongst himself as the last resort to remain living. It seems Dipper has held the upper hand these last years, staying in control. To my understanding, acts such as anger drive Bill out, because those are the moments where Dipper is emotionally weaker. Now that his magic is back…"
"I'm stronger than I have been in the last few years. Haha. It's time for the world to witness dictatorship like no history book has ever recorded."
"You can't leave, Demon." Stan speaks, now. "I may not be as smart as my nerdy bro over here, but even I am not unaware of a certain fact. Your body left the borders of Gravity Falls, but your magical weirdness didn't. Why do you think that is? Because the Laws of Gravity Falls Magneti, whatever my brother called it, are bound to it."
"No, Stanley. He can very well leave if he likes."
Tired of the situation, I toss them all into a wall. "Nighty night. This has been fun." I hover out of the door and breathe in the air I've come to know. It's all mine, at long last. That one-eyed freak is running her café, like the end of the world isn't among them all. Boy, is it going to be a great surprise when they figure out the true gravity of the situation. I walk to the borderlines of this forsaken prison and take a deep breath in. My true freedom starts today. As I take one step out of county lines, I hear a bang. My arm grows warm and a pain I've only come to know recently overtakes me. I've been shot. I turn around to meet a taser to my person. I look Ford in the eyes as the pain that only a mortal body could fall victim to drags me to the ground.
"You think you've won, but you seem to have forgotten something. You are Dipper. You know what that means? You're mortal. Now, I won't repeat myself, so listen closely, devil." Get the fuck out of my nephew!"
"Are you mad! You shot him for heaven's sake. How could you?"
"It's not fatal. It's only the shoulder. I know exactly where to hit in terms of not killing him, so unless you want to meet another."
I headbutt him to gain some space to get away. "No problem. Given time, my body will heal itself, thanks to the magic surging through me. You could kill me, but you won't, hahaha. Dipper's life is far too precious."
He tackles me back to the ground. I refuse to have him get in the way of my master plan. "Give him back to us!"
"I can't"
"I said…"
"Didn't you hear!? I can't! Not now or ever!"
Ford releases me, tears clouding his eyesight as he rests on his knees. "What?"
"I'm not possessing him, remember? Like it or not, I am a part of Dipper. I can't leave this body. I'm bound to it. You might as well just kill me. This is my final lifeline. Kill him, and you kill me. Soo, you going to take it? I promise you, you'll never get this opportunity again."
"You're saying I can't part you without killing you both?"
"Are you deaf? Yes. A person can't reach inside themselves and just tear out pieces they don't like. Believe me, if that were the opposite, I would have parted with these feelings long ago. They're like a heavy weight, or an anchor."
"Maybe you can't do it." Ford reaches into his bag and pulls out a weird gauntlet with claws. "Lucky I know someone who has expertise with such things as splitting personalities."
"What, that's impossible. You're bluffing!"
"We'll see." Ford stabs down at the ground with the claws, but I roll out of the way in time. My shoulder is still in pain, but it's slowly healing. I lift Ford with my abilities and throw him back. He rolls head over heels, ramming into a tree. "Ouch, that'll show him."
The line is a mere couple inches away from me, but not for long. I take my first step out of city limits, when suddenly, a massive earthquake much larger than the former ones strikes. "Aww, yes. My time of wreckoning is upon you all. We'll see just what powers can stand against…aww!" I feel a jolt of pain in my back as I look over my shoulder to see what surprise has showed itself, or herself. "Shooting star?" My knees lock and I kneel to the ground in bone crushing pain, unlike the gunshot that threw me back a few minutes ago.
"I want my brother back!" Her free hand presses against my mortal shoulder as her gloved hand pulls my true form out of him,
"Awww!" Dipper and I both scream out as the only things that holds us now are a few strands of our bond, trying to keep us together. Finally, they fade away and we're parted. "No, noo!" My body burns up as the Gravity Falls Magnetism Law starts to suck me back into its domain. "How!? That's impossible." Ford comes up behind me and shoots me with something from him bag. I now rest inside a prison inside my prison. A bit cramped in here.
I awake a few hours after being separated with Bill Cypher. It's dark out, or at least, it's getting there. "Uhh."
"Dipper!" I hear a squeal of excitement before her weight is thrown upon my still-aching body.
I grunt. "Geez, Mabel. I thought I told you to stop jumping on me. It's more painful when you're not aware it's coming." I try to get up, but my body's aching state bounds me to the bed in which I lie.
"You're awake!" A group of friends enter the room. Though my body is pain-stricken, one place in particular is in more pain than the rest. I glance to the side and notice the state I'm in. I'm shirtless with a bandage wrapped around my shoulder. I try to get up again, but find myself thrown back.
"Don't force it." Gruncle Ford lightly pushes me back to resting formation, preventing me from moving. "You'll just strain yourself. Do you mind telling me the last thing you remember?"
"I-I was with Pacifica."
"Doing?" Gruncle Stan raises an eyebrow and shows some amusement while Paz, on the other hand, averts eye contact.
"We were about to, well, umm."
"Well, umm. Haha. That's my lady killer."
"We didn't do anything. I just blacked out after that. We, didn't do anything, did we?" I look over at Pacifica who quickly turns away, brushing the hair behind her ear.
"Uh, no. Nothing at all."
"I'll give you some time to catch up. Later, I have something to discuss with you. All of you."
"It is good to have you back." Candy speaks up with her weird, yet oddly adorable robotic, monotone voice.
"Yeah, man. What was it like, having a demon inside you, being you and all that junk." Wendy taps the side of my head, playfully.
"What? Oh, that. Um, actually, I was completely unaware of that until recently."
"Really. you had no idea. Nothing hinted to him?"
"Well, I guess it's obvious now that I know. There were times where I heard voices and had thoughts I wouldn't normally think."
"So, like, glad that you're back and such, but talking about you being, not you, or whatever, is depressing. Can we maybe talk about something else?" Pacifica rubs her wrists.
"Nothing would bring happiness to me quicker. So, does anyone have anything to share? Anything interesting?"
"Nothing has really happened. Gravity Falls has been, pretty much the same. Slight mini quakes here and there, but the same. The gnomes and manotaurs are more out in the open now that we all know of their existence. We all interact. The only thing that changed was the fact that a certain somebody was no longer around, manipulating his surroundings. Now, it seems everything has balanced itself out to familiar norms."
A couple hours pass. We talk. We share laughs. We bond. Grunkle Ford enters the scene and draws our attention to him.
"Okay, okay. You all bonded, great. There is something I must show you. Can you all please follow me to my lab?" We do as asked. Inside his lab, Bill is imprisoned inside something.
"A thermos!? A freakin' thermos!? That's what you caught me with? You have no idea how cramped it was inside that god forsaken thing."
"Sorry, Cypher. It was the only thing I could think of at the moment to contain you."
"How? How can something such as a drinking unit keep me, an all-powerful deity?"
"Please. You think too highly of yourself. As for the thermos, I got it from the same guy who invented the ghost gauntlet."
"That makes no sense. I'm not even a ghost."
"You are powerful, no doubt, but without a host, you have no physical form. The thermos can suck a ghost out of whoever it possesses, but given your circumstances, I had to wait till you could part from my nephew. You are now what you were. You call yourself a deity, and given all your apparent power, it seems the laws of this thermos still identify you as a ghost."
"And just who is this friend you speak of?"
"I didn't say friend. It seems you found out the formula I wouldn't give you all those years ago, that all you needed to escape was something to camouflage with."
"You know, Fordsy, it's funny. Through all the dimensions, through all the plains, I am the only one bound to a specific region. Me and my friends of course, the ones you met. I have this one friend, though, a draconequus. He is probably one of the few magical beings I have ever met that holds more power than I."
"How'd you meet him if your place is here?"
"While I was in my little pocket dimension within Gravity Falls, he found me. Very few have the ability to travel between dimensions."
"I'm sorry, but, why is he here?" Stanley walks up to Bill. "Looks like you're not as powerful as you thought."
"Have your laughs now, because I assure you, something greater is upon you."
"That is exactly why we're all here right now. I came across some realizations. Some were just theory, but after Bill crossed the county line, it became fully understood."
"Grunkle Ford, what are you saying?"
"Those quakes were just the beginning. They started a few years ago, when you left, when Bill left. As you know, he is meant to be here. The universe knows that, but with him gone, it caused an imbalance recognized by the very law that kept him here. The quakes were ongoing and no one seemed to care. To them, they're just harmless quakes. Harmless because they don't know the true gravity behind why they're happening. His magic stayed here, you know. When he came back to very place that held him before, his magic returned to him, but not like before. Bill, by himself, can't leave, but with Dipper, it hid his existence. Bill is pure magic, and Gravity Falls specifically shined light on him, in the metaphorical speaking, meaning it chose him personally to be trapped here with his friends of equivalent weirdness. Being Dipper, he was no longer pure. He was changing every step of the way. You two have been together for a while, so there are still things I worry about with you being parted. With that magic completely soaked up, he decided to leave the limits. You'd think that the magic, itself, wouldn't be allowed to leave, but as you heard. That is not the case. With the magic finally free into the world, even for a split second, it caused a greater imbalance, fully recognized by the universe, which caused a quake much larger than the ones we've experienced. But, even out of the limits, without a body, in this case, Dipper's, he'll be sucked back into the very walls that trapped him in the first place. One thing I don't understand, is why the imbalance hasn't reset itself. There are quakes everywhere that holds magic, so my theory is that Bill's Disturbance has spread to everywhere that possesses magic."
"What are you saying? And I'm sorry for being late on the subject, but, did you say dimensions, like more than one?"
"Yes, Stanley. Did you think ours and Bill's were the only ones? There are numerous ones. The one I got the gauntlet and thermos from? He's from another dimension. One where ghosts are everywhere, terrorizing citizens. From the looks of things, his home looked a bit, in ruins. He was ragged, a bit beaten up. Apparently, he had plans to use the gauntlet on an enemy of his. Anyway, there are as many dimensions as you can think up. We're not the only ones. Back to the point at hand, his disturbance has caused an imbalance in all that is magic. There are many dimensions and many equivalents, but only one dimension that is the home to all magic. When the magic is tainted, some call it a fritz. I fear we'll be getting a lot of new visitors. The baby quakes have invited some visitors from foreign dimensions at random. They only seem to appear in magical domains. With a bigger disturbance, we may be getting a lot more than we bargained for."
Later, that night, I rest in bed with Paz, on the other side of me. "So, um. Are we going to be sharing a bed, or I mean, I'm not saying I don't like you being here and all, err, let me start over…?"
"No, it's fine. I completely understand. You haven't exactly been yourself. I'll go see if Mabel's awake."
"No, I mean…" Way to go, Dipper. You just repelled a beautiful girl. I lay in bed, restless. I can't sleep. Suddenly, I hear rustling in the bushes outside. Being as anxious as I am, I go to take a look, not without caution. I take a flashlight and a crowbar. I sneak out of my window without a noise and circle the shack, following the noise. It could just be the wind, but I won't give up till I'm certain that's all it is. "Hello?" I whisper. Nothing answers back. I turn around, then hear a girl's whisper.
"Hello?"
I follow where the voice came from. The rustling changes location. "Hello? I know you're there." I turn around and meet a stranger in the distance.
"What is this place?"
"Gravity Falls, where else?" I shine the light up to see who I'm talking to. She's a bit beaten up, with some scrapes on her cheeks. She's skinny and beautiful. Something is off. I take a step closer to get a better look. My flashlight isn't too bright, so I can't see too well.
"Gravity. Falls?" She looks down at her hands. "How did I get here? Why do I look like this?"
"Please, come with me. I'll tell you all you want to hear. Let's go inside first." I crawl up to my window and into my room. She follows. I turn to face her and instantly look away. She is beautiful indeed, but her skin tone is a bit, unique. She is purple in hue, and naked. I quickly remove my shirt and toss it to her. "Can you, um, put that on please?"
She does as I ask, and I find it hard to not look at her. It's a tight squeeze as she tries to fit my shirt over her rather large, tucked in wings and her ample bosom. The shirt barely fits as her breasts make the shirt stick out, revealing everything below her belly button. Her long legs, leading up to her perfectly firm hindquarters. On her hip is a tattoo of sorts: something that looks like a star, only with more than five points. More stars surround it. Right above her butt, on her lower back appears to be a… a tail? I take another look at her and realize that, hidden in her oddly colored hair are ears of an animal and the horn of a, a unicorn? Her eyes aren't natural either. I realize the state I'm keeping her in and quickly act. "I'm sorry. It must be awkward standing like that." I reach into a drawer and pull something out. I hand it to her. She stares at it. I realize that I just handed her my boxers and instantly burn up. "I'm so sorry. This is awkward for me, too. Umm, you can wear these, or, I have sweats."
She grabs onto my boxers and stretches them over her figure, with the tail sticking out of them. "These will do, thank you." She sits on my bed and I sit next to her uncomfortably, trying to think of things to settle down.
Avocados. Avocados. Uhh, Grapefruit. I think of nonsexual objects to ease the rising tides. " Uh, sorry, I'm Dipper. I've got a few questions of my own, if you don't mind. I guess I'll start with the basic one. May I have a name?"
