Ford faintly hears his name being called but it sounds so far away, his eyes twitch but he doesn't open them, not wanting those warm caressing touches on his face to stop just yet.
"Bro, sixer. You've got to wake up, man. I'm really needing your help here." He hears again, it sounds so familiar and Ford leans against those comforting hands with a low groan. "Ford? Stanford, open your eyes for me, come on."
"Stan...ley?" Ford asks with a hoarse voice and barely able to open his eyes, his sight is still fuzzy even with glasses on. The old man squints at him and turns his head away, feeling his heart ache in his chest. "Bill, this isn't funny."
"What?" Stan leans down to get a better look at his brother, he was refusing to meet his eyes or even look at him. "Ford, what's wrong? It's me, it's Stan."
"You're not real," Ford growls, moving his face from his brother's hand and looks towards the floor, watching him from the corner of his eye. "Just another trick."
"Jeez, what has he done to you?" Stan asks, reaching up and letting his thumb brush against the broken stitches along his hairline. Ford turns his head away again, muttering that he was fine but gets a huff in return. "Can you move just fine? Does anything feel broken?"
"I ache just about everywhere," Ford replies, opening his eyes to look at his brother. He seems real enough but he couldn't be, Stan has no idea where he was. "How did you find me?"
"Gideon told me where you were after trying to steal that spell of yours out of your lab."
"It's really you." Ford smiles but then it slips from his face, looking around the room "Stan, where's Bill? Do you know where he is?!"
"Bill? Gideon is stalling him while I came to rescued you." Stan tells him, confused by his brother's sudden urgent tone in his tone. "Why?"
"It's a trap, you've got to get back to the shack!" Ford leans up in his seat, panic spreading over his face.
"I'm not leaving without you, numbskull." Stan tells him, messing with the glowing blue chains that held his brother to his seat. He runs his fingers over the blue collar around Ford's throat and feels that it's not tight on him, so that good. Ford leans his head back and closes his sore eyes again.
"It's useless, I've already tried getting out of these," Feeling his brother's rough fingers grazing against his neck and shallows the lump in his throat.
"You're tied to a chair," Stan comments, trying to pull the collar open but it wouldn't budge. "You can't do much of anything."
"Stan, you gotta get out-"
"No, you listen." Stan snaps at him, Ford opens his eyes to see him pointing at his face and giving him a firm stare. "I came here to get you and I'm not leaving unless you're coming with me, got it?"
"That's what Bill planned!" Ford shouts back at him, "It was never about the ritual, he was using me to lore you here, outside the shack's protective shields. He's going to kill you, don't you understand?!"
"So he looks different now, big deal." He rolls his eyes and stands back up, debating if he could perhaps carry the man back if he needed to, probably not his best idea with his bad back and all. "He doesn't scare me, he's not coming in between us again."
"That's the thing with you Pines twins," Both men jump and Stan turns to see the blonde standing in the doorframe, the creature shakes his head amusingly. "Always willing to risk everything for your STUPID siblings. You're just as bad as the kids, it's hilarious!"
Stan quickly slips on his brass knuckles and arms himself to fight if he needs to, putting himself between Bill and his brother.
"But I'm mean, good idea with Gideon distracting me though. I almost didn't notice you slip by!" Bill laughs and comes into the room, Stan grits his teeth. "Clever but your plan is pointless without the spell, it's about as crispy as the boy is right now!"
"What?" Stan lowers his fists and his anger is replace is a cold feeling in his chest, what Ford had warned him about earlier finally dawns on him. Bill had expected him to come with Gideon, he knew the boy was going to help them and betray him again. "Where's Gideon?!"
"Still outside most likely," Bill shakes his shoulders, playing with nails like the topic of the boy bores him. "Still unconscious probably, how am I supposed to know?"
"What did you do to him?!" Stan digs his nails into the palms of his hands from clenching his fists so hard, his anger flares.
Whatever the monster did to him, it was all his fault. Gideon was scared and he had him come back out here anyway to help them, he was the one who told the kid that everything would be fine.
"I told him I wouldn't kill him and I didn't," Bill points out, flicking his wrist and flames lick at his fingers but stops walking for a moment, like he senses something and he looks up. Stan's stomach drop when he sees demon grin and flicks his yellows eyes back down to him, pointing up. "Did you really...? Did you really believe I would fall for that?!"
The demon starts laughing hysterically at him and Ford looks up to see that there was a symbol of some sort painted to the ceiling, he didn't really recognized it but Stan must have put it there for a reason before he woke up.
"Stan..." Ford wants to reach out and touch his brother, to ask or to comfort him but all he can do is watch his brother shake with anger.
"I ought to beat you to bloodily pulp, you freaking lunatic!" Stan shouts at him, his face turning red from his anger and grips his brass knuckles tighter.
"Please do try, Fez." The blonde smirks, his eyes lit up eagerly.
"Stan, don't be stupid! He's too dangerous to fight by yourself!" Ford snaps at his brother angrily, chains rattling.
"Have any better ideas, genius?" Stan looks back at him and could see the fear clear as day on his brother's face.
"I told you to run!"
"And I told you, I wasn't going to leave you so shut yer trap!" Stan turns away from him to look at Bill, who was still watching them.
"You're going to get yourself killed, you idiot!" Stan feels Ford kick his legs in frustration but he ignores Ford's lecture to stay focus on those eyes staring at him intensely. "You should have listened-"
"Shut up," Stan tells him, trying to think, to come up with anything sort of plan as Bill walks around his handiwork. The blonde seems to be avoiding it so maybe if he could just knock him inside the circle, he could trap the demon long enough to preform the banishing spell himself. He could just have Ford say the Latin part.
"You really should have learned to listen to your brother if you knew what was good for you," Bill shakes his shoulders, stopping a few feet from the two. "I mean he went through all this trouble to help and protect you, you still came rushing to your death. So ungrateful, Stanley. After all he's done for you too."
"Bill." Ford warns the blonde through clenched teeth, Stan turns and looks at his brother with questioning eyes. All he's done for him? What has he done for him and why does Ford not want him to know?
"What are you talking about?" Stan asks, watching the panic spread across his brother's face as he turns to look at Bill again. "What did he do?"
"You mean to tell me, you have no idea why I'm here or how I came back?" Bill raises a brow and then laughs it off like a joke. "Are you really that stupid? I was in your head this entire time since the weirdmageddon and you didn't think your brother knew about it? How much he hated it?"
"What...?" Stan's eyes grow wide and he looks at his brother again, "You knew and didn't tell me?"
"I didn't want to scare you, you were already having enough problems with memory loss." Ford tells him, looking everywhere but at him and bites his lip nervously. "I just trying to get him out, I didn't plan for this to happen. I don't know what went wrong, I-"
"Screwed up, sixer." Bill interrupts, vanishing from Stan's line of sight and hears him reappear behind him. He turns around and sees the blonde looping a arm casually around his brother's shoulders, enjoying the discomfort on his face. "Should have just left me inside that noggin of your twin's. Would have been better for everyone if you hadn't went meddling in things again but of course, you're you. You can't help it, can't you IQ?"
"Get off of him!" Stan swings his fist at him, only to miss and hit nothing but air. The man almost trips over his own feet and onto Ford when a hand grips him by the collar of his jacket and hauls him backwards and lands onto his bad back.
"And what are you going to do about it if I don't?" Bill laughs, standing in between them now. Ford yanks against his restraints again, watching Bill's hands light up again in blue flames and feels his heart being rapidly against his chest. He kicks out his feet, hoping to kick him like he done Stan before, anything to shift Bill's attention back onto him but he settles with begging instead.
"Don't! Don't hurt him, please!" Bill looks back at him from over his shoulder and gives him a soft smile.
"Don't worry, Fordsie. Just for you, I won't." Bill turns back to Stan as the other twin got onto one knee and widens his eyes in excitement, flames still crawling up his arms. "I'll make it quick, I promise he won't feel a thing."
"I'll say yes or whatever you want me to! If it's my knowledge or mind you want, you can have it!" Ford pleads with a look of desperation, Stan looks at his brother like he's crazy.
"Ford, you can't do that-"
"I'm trying to save your life!" Ford snaps at him, wanting him to be quiet but of course, his brother refuses to do so.
"You're being stupid is what you're doing." Stan argues and he gets back onto his feet, staring Bill down with the urge to pummel that smile off his face but also to slap some common sense into his brother for spouting nonsense. "You can't just give this monster permission into your head, ya idiot!"
It's too dangerous and not worth risking hundreds of lives for just one...
Bill watches the two bicker back and forth for a few moments, and though he finds it hilarious, he didn't want to just listen to them both fight all night. The blonde snaps his fingers and cuts Ford off in mid-sentence, hearing him let out a startled shout and watching him jolt back in his seat. His body starts shaking, shoulders twitching and his breath hitching in his throat.
Bill grins at the sight but before he could really enjoy the way the man trembles at the aftershocks, a fist collides with the side of his face and has him stumble a little. Bill manages to dodge the second one but just barely and jumps behind Ford's chair, seeing the look of rage on Stan's face.
"Let him go or I swear, I'll rip you a new one." Stan warns him through his teeth. Bill was actually thrown off by the sudden strike to the face and even from a human, it hurt quite a lot. Bill decides he'd rather not be hit by the man again as he rubs the soreness in his jaw and collects himself again before wrapping his arms around Ford's neck and resting his chin on top of his hair in a taunting way. Bill can practically feel the loathing towards him radiating off of the man and leans his cheek against his brother's head to anger him even further.
"Lash out again and your brother here will have to face the consequences," Bill warns him, his chipper tone turning serious though he keeps the smile on his face. He runs his hands up into his hair and grabs his head, holding Ford's up . "His neck would snap easily, like a twig and I would like to avoid that and I think you would too."
Regardless of wanting to punch the other's face in, Stan forces himself to take a deep breath and shallows his anger. He looks at Ford and sees he's struggling to clear his head, blinking his eyes to focus them again.
"You see, both of you can be tearing at each other's throats but once one of you are in danger, you're both willing to risk your own lives for the other.." Bill pats the side of the man's head and pulls away, letting his head fall again, his hand still lingering on his shaking shoulder. Ford lifts his head on his own with a shaky breath and slightly jumps when he feels his restraints disappear off his body. Ford rest his hands in his lap and rubs his sore wrists, giving him a question glare. "You both really do CARE for each other, a lot, don't you?"
"What's your point, Bill?" Ford asks him demandingly but weakly and clears his sore throat, Bill meets his eyes and gives him a mischievous smirk.
"You know this new form makes me stronger but did you ever stop to wonder what other perks that came with it?" Bill watches Stan from the corner of his eyes to make sure he didn't try to pull anything as he leans down to level with his brother.
Ford would have hit Bill himself if it weren't for the fact that he aches all over and can barley move his arms.
"I don't need a 'yes' from you to get in that big head of yours, your mind is mine to use however I please...and you know what, that gives me a idea."
"Don't-" Ford jerks back as Bill's entire body began to glow a bright yellow, his eyes widen in alarm and lets out a loud gasp. Stan rushes over to help him but before he can land a hit on him, Bill's gone and Ford's gone still.
Stan slips off his brass knuckles quickly and cups his brother's face in between his hands, his eyes staring up at him but no one was home.
"Ford, force him out." Stan shouts at him, frantically looking for any signs of his brother still in there. He grabs Ford's shoulders to try and shake him out of it but painfully grunts when a hand grabs him by the neck, forcing him back. Stan gags and grabs the hand on his throat, feeling them tighten their grip. Ford's eyes suddenly change, yellow spreading through white and round pupils becoming sharp.
"To answer your brother's question from earlier, my point is that even though you both always fight, you both really do CARE about one another." Bill stands up, making Stan almost trip a little and watches in horror as flames engulf his brother's free hand. "It had me wondering how much would it hurt Fordsie if I had him kill his brother with his own bare hands? And from the constant begging in my ear right now, I guess it would devastate him!"
"You're a monster," Stan forces out, wincing when the pressure on his neck got painfully tight and chokes. Bill hits him with the fiery fist, burning a small part of Stan's and the man lands on his back again.
"And you know what I'll do next?" He laughs, standing over him with both feet on either side of his hips and siting down on his gut. "I think I'll have your brother visit those two adorable little great niece and nephew of yours. One at a time, I'll have him to wrap his hands around their throats and squeeze, forcing him to watch as the life leaves their eyes and by his own hands too! Who do you think I should kill first? Pine tree ? I think it would fun to make little Shooting Star cry for her brother as she watches her dear great-uncle Ford strangle him to death."
Before Stan can even think about lifting a hand to punch the daylights out of him, a rock hits the side of his brother's head hard and he almost falls over. Stan takes the opportunity and grabs the front of Ford's sweater, using his legs to lift him up and throws him into the circle, finally trapping him.
"I won't let ya touch her, demon!" Stan turns his head and to his surprise, sees Gideon on the other side of the trap. The boy winces and falls down onto his knees, the look of agonizing pain on his face and from where he was, Stan could see the nasty burns.