Chapter 24

The six stepped out onto the porch of the shack. Boards were missing, and the wood pillars that held up the roof were beginning to splinter from the wind. It blew around them, but none of them could feel it. It was like they were in a force field.

Wendy looked up and leveled her gaze at the shadowy figure on the other side of the front yard. They were only about ten feet apart, now, and she could see him much more clearly. He was thin, almost unhealthily so, but he seemed to stand firm in the midst of all the wind. His eyes flashed as he watched the group approach slowly, weapons lowered but ready to be used.

"After all that," he spoke, his voice too smooth and too deep. It raised the hair on the back of Wendy's neck, and she stopped. He connected their gazes, and she was frozen to the spot. She vaguely felt Dipper's hand catch her wrist, but she couldn't acknowledge it. "After all you did to try and protect your friends, you brought them all to me anyway, my child. Brilliant."

Wendy looked to Dipper, terrified that she might see a flash of doubt across his face, but he just looked at her with concern before moving to stand just in front of her. "You don't know what you're talking about," he said firmly, glaring at the figure.

Terrified that she had led her friends to their deaths, Wendy began to shake visibly, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I know," Dipper continued, his voice booming across the field with an authority to it that Wendy had never heard. "I know the things you've done to her. What you've said to her and when you've said it. She owes you nothing."

"She owes me everything," the figure contradicted him. "She owes me both her life and yours. And today is the day I plan on collecting on that debt."

"You've lost your damn mind if you think you're touching any of them," Stan warned, stepping forward, his fists raised aggressively. "Those kids are my family."

"Stanley," the figure commented, turning now to face him. "You've grown since you were a child. You and your brother, I can't believe you're even in the same house after all this time."

Stanley just glared back.

"I watched you as children. All of you," the figure said, gesturing widely with his shadowy arms. A sweeping trail of silver followed his every movement. "My victims are selected the moment they are born. And you all grew up to be the perfect sacrifices to me. You were intended to originally be sacrificed by Bill Cipher. And somehow, that moronic entity failed to take care of the easiest job on the planet. So, I figured it was time to take care of things myself."

It stepped forward now, beginning to close the distance between them. The grass beneath its feet shriveled and died with every step it took.

"Dipper," Ford whispered frantically, grabbing his grand-nephew's arm. "I need you guys to keep him busy. I need to take Wendy and Stan. Just hold him off for a few minutes."

"What are you talking about?" Dipper asked, looking confused.

"Please trust me," Ford murmured, before giving Dipper a sad smile and turning. He whispered something to Wendy, who nodded, and Stan joined them as they headed back into the house.

"Three gone already? It's almost unfair," the figure taunted. It was only two feet from Dipper at this point, and he glanced at both Mabel and Beckett, who held his gaze.

Now or never, he supposed, and curled his metal arm into a fist. Mabel raised her shotgun, leveling it at the dark figure's chest, and Beckett drew his sword, crouching into an attack position. The three charged at the figure, who smirked and began to glow silver.

Dipper reached him first, launching a powerful swing directly at the figure's neck, but it went through him like he was nothing, something Dipper had been prepared for. Tensing his shoulder, he felt the arm begin to glow gold just at the figure launched a trail of silver smoke at him. He disappeared and quickly reappeared behind it in a flash of light, grinning as he silently thanked the mage who had crafted the arm in the first place. The figure turned to strike again, but right as it did, Beckett swung his sword in a wide arc. The lonsdaelite had more of an effect than Dipper's punch had, easily opening up a half-inch deep cut on the figure's shoulder, which immediately began to leak silver.

The figure yelled in anger, turning around faster than was visible to the naked eye, and Beckett took a shot of silver full on in the face. He collapsed at the figure's feet, breathing heavily and in obvious pain.

"If you put your STUPID SILVER HANDS on my boyfriend again, I swear to God I will send you back so many dimensions you won't know where you came from!" Mabel screamed, squeezing off a round of golden bullets. Her aim was flawless, but the figure disappeared into a cloud of silver smoke, the bullets passing through it harmlessly. It rematerialized behind Dipper and sliced a hand across the top of his right shoulder, but Dipper just as quickly counterattacked with a knife that had materialized from his bronze hand, cutting the figure deeply again in the exact same spot. The two of them now had the same wound. The only difference was that one bled silver, the other red.

Mabel shot again. With the figure's back turned, she scored a hit at the small of its back, but all it did was knock it forward slightly, and it quickly regained its balance.

"You can injure me all you want," it hissed, still dripping silver from its wounds. "But you can't get rid of me. I'm tied to this dimension."

"By me," Dipper heard from behind him, and turned. Wendy was standing behind all of them, Stan and Ford each on one side of her. She no longer carried any of her weapons. "Am I right?"

It grinned at her horribly, its teeth too white in contrast to its dark body. "You're smarter than I gave you credit for."

"I am," she spoke bravely, stepping forward now, in front of Dipper and Mabel. "There are a lot of things I know about you. Not as many as you know about me, but enough."

The figure shot a trail of silver at her, slicing her lower arm. She bent at the waist, and Dipper ran to her, but she quickly straightened up and held up a hand, stopping him from coming any closer.

"And the things I don't know, they know," she gestured back towards everyone with her uninjured arm. "You were right, it isn't fair. It's six against one."

"You're delusional if you think six people could come close to matching me," it growled, again shooting a beam of light at her. This one cut her across the cheek and nose, and she winced, but kept going.

"You are tied to this dimension. By me. You have been since I was a child."

"And that means you lose. Because there's no way to break those ties," it replied haughtily, raising its hand for another attack.

Wendy straightened up, her red hair easily visible in the darkness. "And one of the things I know is that that's not true."

She turned, locking eyes with Dipper before moving her gaze. He followed it to see Stan pointing a shotgun at Wendy's chest, tears streaming down his wrinkled face, his trigger finger shaking.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dipper yelled, running towards his grunkle. He was a foot away when the shot rang out.

Wendy fell to the grass, blood blooming on her white tanktop, her green eyes now dull and staring off into nothing. Her lips were tinged with blood, and she moved no more.