No Mercy For the Guilty

It felt like hours before Gideon and Pavonis finally stopped their assault. Both Dipper and Bill were on the verge of passing out, hanging limply by their wrists, neither bothering to put their weight back on their legs. They didn't have the strength for it.

The wood below them was stained with their blood, and the whole room seemed to reek of the scent of copper.

"Hm... I think that's good for now," Gideon panted, looking at the knife he had been using. His brow was covered in sweat, and he had thrown his jacket off earlier so he could move more easily. Now he went to pick it up, as Pavonis paced in front of Dipper and Bill, looking over their handiwork proudly.

"Any comments, you two?" he asked them.

Dipper didn't open his mouth for fear that he would start crying from the pain, but Bill spoke. "I'm going to kill you," he promised. "You can't keep us here forever, and as soon as we're out, we are both going to kill you. And it will be slow and painful."

Pavonis snorted. "Brave words from someone who can't even speak telepathically to their own soul-bonded partner. Don't you get it, Cipher? You're powerless. As long as that collar is around your neck, you can't even burn an insect with your magic. And let me tell you something else." He walked closer to him, grabbing the collar and yanking him forward, glaring into his tired but defiant eyes. "I may kill those who back out of deals too, but I don't enjoy it and I don't draw it out so they suffer. What you and that human are doing is sick. And then, this... this self-righteous vigilante thing you've started... disgusting. You are both arrogant fools and you deserve to feel everything you've ever inflicted on someone else."

"You're a hypocrite," Bill seethed. "You fucking young demons, you're still so human inside, aren't you? You don't get how those like me think. You're more self-righteous than I am. Demons my age are quite proud of what I've been doing, how I've manipulated a human into helping me, the fear that we've caused across the world. You... you're soft. Sympathetic. That's what's really disgusting."

"Oh, shut up." Pavonis reached down to grab a wound on Bill's side, twisting his hand and making the other demon hiss in pain. "It's you old demons who are making us look bad. With your senseless violence and killing... You all need to be destroyed. It's time for younger beings to take charge. Beings like me." His fingernails constricted, expression becoming more concentrated, and Bill felt a wave of faintness. "Do not mistake me... I'm not going to kill you. Nor will we kill Pines. But by the time we're done with you, you'll never want to hurt another human again. We are going to strip both of you of your magical power. All of it."

At that, Gideon grasped Dipper's shoulder, muttering a few words and crudely drawing strength from the older boy. Dipper struggled, eyes wide as he realized what was happening.

"And once it's all gone? We'll let you go." Pavonis sighed as he absorbed energy from Bill, but soon stopped, lifting his hand. "The human may be able to recover his through training, but... you, Cipher? I'm going to take your demonhood. Everything that makes you one of us... it will become mine. When we're through, you might as well be another human. If the trauma of the process doesn't kill you, you'll probably kill yourself after."

Bill gave a barely perceptible shake as Pavonis's hand traced down his cheek, as the psychic murmured, "I've seen very few demons who wish to continue living like that... I'll be looking forward to seeing how you handle it. After all, you are one of the most powerful. Imagine waking up one day and not having that anymore." Pavonis chuckled at Bill's fear. "You wouldn't be able to go on."

"He'd have me," Dipper said weakly. The others looked at him, and he gave Bill a sad smile. "E-even if they took your magic... at least we'd have each other, right?"

Bill swallowed, then nodded. "Yes. Yes, I'd still have my Pine Tree. And we'd find a way to get our power back. Even if it takes years."

"How sweet. Well, I wish you luck on that." Pavonis strode over to Gideon, flicking his cape out behind him as he did. "I should tell you... I don't like making the innocent suffer. But you two are not innocent. I feel no remorse in torturing you. And when I decide to torture, I can make it last for months." Pavonis grabbed Dipper's collar, causing the other to make a pained choking noise. "Years," he emphasized. His eyes trailed down Dipper's body, taking in the bruises and gashes and exposed muscle where skin had been torn off. They had of course removed the clothes from their captives' upper bodies so they could reach the skin. "We're just getting started. If you think today was bad, just wait until tomorrow."

"It is starting to get cold," Gideon pointed out. He had put on his leather jacket and buttoned it by now. "I think we should head back to civilization."

"Good idea. You think it'll get cold enough to give these two hypothermia?"

Gideon checked his phone. "Hmm. It's gonna be very cloudy tonight but the temperature shouldn't drop below freezing. Those freak snow flurries shouldn't come back either... but light rain, perhaps."

"All right. Then they should be okay overnight. Though... let me see." Pavonis went over to Dipper, leaning up to mess with the chains that attached to the wall. "I am not unmerciful. It'll keep you in better health if I allow this for tonight." He removed the chains on the wrist cuffs completely, and they disappeared as Dipper fell to the floor, unprepared for his weight to be put on his legs. Pavonis held him down with a foot and reached for the back of his collar, using magic to create a thick new chain, which he seamlessly attached to the collar and drew down to the floor. It was very short; Dipper wouldn't even be able to stand with it. But he would be able to sit up.

And he did, as Pavonis walked over to do the same with Bill.

Wincing, Dipper stretched his arms and rubbed them, feeling the muscles sear with pain as blood rushed back into them. The moment Bill was allowed to sit on the floor, Dipper crawled into his arms, and Bill quickly hugged him back, holding him tightly.

Pavonis shook his head at the display and moved beyond their reach. "You two disgust me. Enjoy each other's company for tonight, but in the morning, we're moving on to much more painful punishments."

"Pavo...nis. Hey, why are we letting them stay together like that?" Gideon asked as he followed the other out.

"Let them be together and talk," Pavonis replied. "It's so much more satisfying when you let them gain hope before crushing them."

The door closed behind the two, and Dipper and Bill slowly looked at each other, not saying anything, just taking in the sight of the other's injuries. Then Dipper began to cry, weakly and quietly, but it was enough to worry Bill.

"Hey, it'll be okay, we'll figure out a way out of this," Bill said soothingly, rubbing Dipper's back, which had thankfully been spared of the majority of the damage since it was against the wall earlier.

"I... I can't believe they're doing this... how can Gideon be so cruel?" Dipper's voice was thick with tears, and Bill's heart ached, tears stinging his own eyes.

"We already knew he was cruel." Bill held him closer, his free hand reaching down to take one of Dipper's. He raised it, looking sadly at the bruising and dried blood on his wrist, before kissing it. "But I didn't expect him to go this far."

"I thought... I thought he would have changed in prison, that they would have taken care of that violence, but... he's still as cruel as before."

Bill gently placed Dipper's hand down, seeking out the other so he could kiss that wrist as well. "I looked into his dreams one night, you know," he said quietly. "I wanted to see if he was any different now. And you know what? He is. At least, I thought he was. He seemed calmer, more rational... but I don't know, I guess him learning that it was us behind the murders just set him off. He feels a sense of justice in punishing us. Heh, kinda like what we feel when we kill. We aren't so different from them. Both of us have the same motive to what we're doing... hurting those who deserve it."

"I understand their point of view. Just... God, we hurt people, but not like this, we kill them afterward so there's no more suffering, we don't just... just leave them in the cold, slowly bleeding out, with the promise to come back the next day..."

"True, but we have done some very awful things. Honestly, I get the feeling a lot of people wish they could do this to us."

"Most people would probably just shoot us in the heads and be done with it," Dipper mused.

Bill chuckled. "Yeah. Or stick us in a prison cell for the rest of our lives."

Dipper shivered, nestling closer to Bill for warmth. "It's really cold out... I wish we had our magic."

"Me too." Bill reached up to his collar, and his hand was zapped away. He tried to ignore the pain and force his hand closer, but it was like trying to push together two magnets that had the same poles. A magical force pushed back against him, and when he used more force, it only resulted in his hand being shocked back again.

"Here, let me try." Dipper reached to Bill's collar, but the same effect happened to his hand, and he was barely able to brush his fingers over the material before the electricity forced him to withdraw it. "Hm. I know these runes... kinda. Wait, I think some of this is just Latin letters... And I don't know the language."

"Typical." Bill sighed as he looked at Dipper's collar as well. "Young demon, new magic. But this isn't too different from what I taught you. If I could just get one of these damn things off by force, I could disable the other one..."

"Wanna try?"

"Hmm, well my pain tolerance is better than yours... okay let me try. Sorry in advance." Bill grabbed the other's neck, and the electricity coursed into his arms, but he gritted his teeth and fought it, managing to hook his fingertips under Dipper's collar. He pulled, but the leather didn't budge. He tugged and twisted it, but it was too thick, not even tearing. And the voltage was making his teeth chatter, body twitching. He finally let go with a hiss, looking at the smoke curling off his fingers.

"Any luck?" Dipper asked.

Bill shook his head. "No. It doesn't even seem to have a clasp, it's just... a solid piece of leather going around your neck." He leaned around to check, and nodded. "Yeah, it's just a seamless strip of material. I can't rip it."

Dipper sighed and slumped forward. "Great. If only we had my knife... but I left it in my room."

"I didn't think to grab any weapons either before I went out." Bill laid down carefully, cringing as the hard floor scraped against his wounds, but putting up with the pain so Dipper could stretch out on him instead. "It was just supposed to be a quick trip to the store for food, no more... I didn't know we would be attacked. I should have paid more attention to Gideon's thoughts, but I didn't... maybe if I had watched his dreams, I would have foreseen this."

"Don't blame yourself. We both got cocky, we thought we'd be able to fight them off... we didn't count on them just... assaulting us. I mean, Gideon came at me with an iron pipe for God's sake. I wasn't expecting that. It doesn't matter how strong your magic is, if someone hits you over the head with a pipe, you're going down."

"Hmph. What a dirty tactic. Pavonis at least fought with me. He won and I can respect that. I hate it, but I respect it."

"How did he manage to take you down? You're so tough."

"Mm..." Bill sighed as he slowly stroked Dipper's back, feeling the human relax against him. "He's much stronger than any human we've fought. My magic didn't really intimidate him, it was down to a physical fight, and he took advantage of natural human weak spots to knock me down. I wasn't even on the ground yet when he was on top of me and wrapping this damn collar on. After that, I couldn't do anything. He punched me and then teleported us... and now I'm here."

"So he just quickly jumped you."

"Yeah."

"Just like me. Man." Dipper closed his eyes, just listening to the other's heartbeat and trying not think about how he ached all over, how even now, he was sure he was bleeding. He felt dizzy and nauseous, and not only was it getting colder, but he was hungry. And worst of all, he couldn't even talk to Bill in his mind about it. He would have to speak to him out loud, and he was too tired to do that anymore.

Bill may not have been able to hear his partner's thoughts, but he could read him well enough based on his body language. He rested his head against him, pressing a quick kiss to his temple. "We'll be all right," he said softly. "Go to sleep. You need to recover."

"Bill... I'm scared," Dipper admitted.

Bill didn't respond, just petting his back until he heard those even breaths that let him know the other was asleep. Only then did he speak, in a voice almost too low to hear. "I am too."