Disclaimer: I own none of the characters featured here.
Assault on the Fearamid - Part 2
"Bill's coming!"
Lili's scream echoed off of the walls of the massive chamber, louder than the bickering group at the chamber's center, and immediately silenced them all. She took off in a sprint towards them, Raz only a split second behind. He looked over his shoulder as he ran, at the gaping entrance he left behind. Bill had not appeared through it just yet, but he knew they only had maybe seconds at most before Bill arrives.
The lingering pain at the back of his head began to grow stronger. They might have even less time than he thought. "Everyone, run!" Raz yelled. "We need to get out of here!"
The group spent a moment frozen, their eyes slowly widening, gears turning in their heads as the realization of what's happening dawned on them.
Coraline was the first of them to break out of their reverie. "You heard him!" she barked, pointing a finger towards a grand doorway leading deeper inside the Fearamid. "We gotta move!"
That managed to break the rest of the group from their stupor. They scrambled, stumbling and tripping over themselves, towards the doorway that Coraline pointed to. It was all a chaotic blur of people and movement. Dipper picked up a discarded paint spray can as he ran. Mabel had her grappling hook in one hand and Pacifica's hand in another. Norman stayed in place for a second longer than the others, his palms turning into fists, before he followed the others. Coraline made sure everyone was on the move before she herself started running. As Raz ran, he spotted a circle of symbols from the corner of his eye, surrounding an image of Bill.
Raz and Lili finally caught up to Coraline, who stayed at the back of the group.
"What do we do now?" he asked, desperate, through panting breath, to Coraline.
"There's a ritual that can stop Bill. We need Stan, Ford, Wendy, Soos, Robbie, McGucket, Gideon, Pacifica, Mabel, and Dipper to do it." The determination and resolve that burned in Coraline's eyes was almost scary to see. "We have to protect them, at all costs."
Raz nodded resolutely. His eyes narrowed at the ten people running in front of him. He'd done escort missions before. He knew how this worked. Ten people to protect. Ten people that holds the key to saving the world. Ten people he's prepared to die for, if needed.
He felt a sharp spike of pain at the back of his head just as he, Lili and Coraline passed through the doorway. The entire structure rumbled, and he could've sworn the floor began shifting. That could only mean one thing.
Bill's here.
"You dirt walkers are trying to do a little ritual here, huh?" Bill's voice sounds like it came from everywhere. Not like an echo, it was as if he spoke through the floor and walls and ceiling. "Tell you what; call it off and I promise I'll only make you all suffer for a few millennia!"
Raz heard someone yelping, and even a few quiet whimpers, but they all kept running. He glanced back; the hallway behind them was still empty. It won't stay that way for long.
"We need to find a place to try the ritual again!" Dipper's voice came from the front of the group.
"And the time!" Wybie shrieked back. "We won't be getting neither with Bill right on our asses!"
A terrible plan took form in his mind. Raz's face darkened. He skidded to a halt. Lili immediately stopped next to him, joined by Coraline, then Wybie, until everyone stopped in their tracks, their attention focused on Raz.
"Raz?" Coraline's eyes narrowed. He knew she knew what he had planned.
Raz stared each and every one of them in the eye, putting on the bravest face he could muster. "You're on your own for the place, but I can give you the time."
They reacted with gasps, refusals, and unadulterated horror.
"Raz, you can't, we have to-!"
"No, no way, not in a million-!"
"That's suicide, Bill's not going-!"
"Don't even try," Raz replied succinctly, cutting them off. "Just go."
They didn't leave, at first, but the look on Raz's face made it clear that he made his mind. There was nothing they could say that would dissuade him. One by one, they slowly turned on their heels and ran off ahead. The Mystery Kids was the last ones to leave, and among them, Lili and Coraline were the ones that stayed the longest.
"Kick his pointy ass for me." Coraline gave him one last smirk, before she spun around and sprinted off to rejoin the others.
Now, the only ones left were himself and Lili.
"Lili…" Raz began.
Lili raised a hand. "Don't even try."
Raz couldn't help but smile. It was stupid of him to even to try to get Lili to leave. Not to mention, rather hypocritical.
His smile didn't last long, fading as he turned to stare down the long hallway behind him. Beside him, Lili did the same, her expression grim and determined. The rumbling of the walls, the shifting of the floor, the throbbing pain in his head; they're all getting stronger.
Lili shifted her stance, bringing a finger up to her forehead. "We don't stand a chance."
"No." Orange psychic energy pulsed to life from Raz's taut fists. "No, we don't."
When Bill appeared, the pain skyrocketed. Raz's knees nearly buckled. His vision blurred and shifted, it took everything in him to keep his focus. Just looking at Bill hurts, in more ways than one.
Bill floated forward, closing in on Raz and Lili. He looked amused. "Goggles and lily pad! Planning on giving up?" He glared, and Raz heard Lili hissing, holding back a scream. "If you do, I'll be nice and use your skin for my new curtains! Don't worry; I'll make sure you're alive and conscious for the entire process!"
"Human skin… is a terrible match… for the aesthetic of this place." Raz forced a grin through gritted teeth. It probably wasn't the best idea to devote what remained of his brain power for snappy comebacks, but then again, none of his decisions today were particularly smart.
"Wait, you're fighting back?" Bill burst out into laughter. "That's idiotic, even by the standards of three dimensional beings with overdosed minds like you!"
Raz gave Lili the tiniest of glances. On my signal…
"Sure, we might be idiotic three dimensional beings with overdosed minds," the pulsing energy in his fists grew stronger, larger, swelling beyond the limits of what he knew was safe, "but we are idiotic three dimensional beings with overdosed minds that's going to take! You! Down!"
Now!
Raz held both hands out, Lili extending out one. Two massive orbs of orange and pink-ish energy, each one larger than him, shot out from their palms. The knockback was enough to send the two skidding back a few inches. The orbs sailed through the air with a booming roar. Bill's single eye widened in surprise.
"What the-?!"
Both orbs struck Bill square in his eye, the blast massive and deafening, Bill reeling back by a few feet. The entire structure shook, the corridor suddenly bathed in a kaleidoscope of orange and pink lights, almost blindingly so. Raz and Lili had to shield their eyes from the light and the sheer force of the blast.
"My eye!" Bill screamed out, clutching his eye. "Cheap shot, you psychic inbreds!"
No time to waste. Lili threw her hands in the air, eyes tightly shut, her brows furrowing in exertion. Bits of stone from the floor, walls, and ceiling was ripped out, flying to a central point above Lili's head. Raz felt the intense heat of Lili's pyrokinesis, and witnessed as the gathered stone bits began to melt, coalescing into a ball of molten rock, growing larger and larger as more material flew up to join it.
"Cover me," Lili whispered through gritted teeth.
Raz nodded with a grunt. He sprinted off straight towards Bill, peppering him with small blasts of psychic energy. With Bill still reeling, he was oblivious to the growing ball of molten rock, and each blast Raz shot made sure to keep it that way. Raz easily slid under the distracted Bill, firing off a couple more psi-blasts for good measure, breaking off into a sprint again on the other side. Bill finally recovered with a grumble about his eye hurting. He quickly spun around and fired off a wave of blue flame. A levitation ball bounced Raz above the wave of searing, cerulean flame. Summoning a psychic platform beneath his feet, he used it to launch himself back at Bill. Twirling in midair, a massive, ethereal fist came to form behind Raz. He swung his fist with a battle cry, the ethereal fist flying past him, aimed straight at Bill. The fist struck Bill's eye, impacting with a resounding, satisfying thud. Bill reeled, and Raz grinned.
Down below, seeing her chance, Lili hurled her molten boulder with a grunt of exertion. Bill remained oblivious. Raz's grin grew wider.
Suddenly, Bill's eye flitted left, finally noticing the molten boulder. A new arm suddenly sprouted out of his body, rushing towards Raz, rushing far too fast for Raz to react. Dark fingers clamped down tight around Raz, pinning his arms against his sides. Raz bit back a cry of pain from its crushing grip. He barely had time to even attempt an escape before Bill's arm abruptly sent him swinging through the air towards, in Raz's horrified realization, the path of the molten boulder. In that split second before impact, Raz hastily threw up a barrier around himself, and braced.
The impact was overwhelming. The pain was overwhelming. It was crushing, searing, melting, pulverizing, all at the same time. His vision shifted back and forth between complete darkness and a blur of shapes and colors, and it took everything in him to not succumb, to hang on to that colorful haze. His ears were ringing, so loud he thought his eardrums might burst, but distantly he could still hear the sickening crunch of something breaking, the sizzling of clothes burning, Bill's booming laughter, and even more distant than all that, the sound of Lili's horrified screams.
Raz felt another impact, this time not nearly as bad the first one. Some distant corner of his mind still had enough clarity for him to realize that he's now lying face down on the ground. The appeal of succumbing, of letting it all go, has never been as strong, and it continued to grow stronger by the moment.
"Raz!"
Lili's scream reached him once again, but only barely. It was followed a cry of panic. A cry of fear.
Something stirred within Raz. Something that pushed him to crack his eyes open.
All he saw was a blur, at first, but everything slowly came to focus as the moments ticked by. He saw Lili, standing closer than he thought she would be. She held an arm out, desperately reaching for Raz. Tears were streaming down her face. He had never seen her look so afraid before. Raz drew a strained gasp when he realized why.
Her legs had been turned to wood. Her feet turned to roots, stuck into the floor. The transformation slowly continued to spread upwards, past her hips and up to her stomach. Bill floated behind her. There was a sick sense of amusement in his eye.
"Irony is my eighth favorite form of humor!"
Bill laughed again. Lili sobbed. All Raz could do was watch.
"Raz, please, hold my hand, please," she begged, the transformation spreading past her chest, "Raz, don't let me go, I don't wanna go, please, Raz, please."
Raz raised his hand and held it out to Lili with all the strength left in him, but it wasn't enough. Her fingertips were so maddeningly, frustratingly close to his. He couldn't muster the strength to close the distance. When her begging stopped, her sobs ceased, and she became deathly silent, her wooden fingers were only inches away from his reach.
Raz's hand dropped lifelessly to the ground. He choked and sobbed, hot tears streaming down his face.
"Oh, boo hoo, kid. It's only permanent if I want it to." Bill turned around and began to float away from Raz. "Don't bother getting up. I can make things worse for you."
The sight of Bill leaving, so indifferently, so nonchalantly, after what he did; it set something off within Raz. Something in him snapped, and he felt anger like he never felt it before. He had no idea how it was possible, or where he got the strength to do it, but he suddenly found himself barely standing on two feet, his fist faintly pulsing with energy.
"Bill!" Raz's voice echoed throughout the cavernous hallway. Bill stopped moving away. He didn't turn to face Raz.
Raz took one step forward, and stumbled. Raz took another step, and tripped. With every step he took, it threatened to send him crashing to his knees, but he didn't care. He didn't care that the energy pulsing from his fist fizzled out about five steps ago. All he cared about was Lili, and Bill, and how good the demon would look after Raz had beaten the shit out of him.
In desperation and rage, Raz raised a hand, ready to fire.
Bill spun around. He glared.
Pain flooded Raz's senses. It felt like a thousand needles were piercing his skull, like two mountains were pressing against his head, like his skull was set aflame with the fires of Hell. His jaw stretched open in a silent scream. He dropped to his knees, and would have fallen flat on the floor if he didn't catch himself, his arms barely holding himself up. Something wet, something warm, dripped out of his nostrils, then dripped out of his eyes, then dripped out of his ears and mouth. A pool of red began to form underneath him.
He could still hear Bill's voice, mocking him.
"Look at you! I'm barely doing anything and you're already leaking human juice from all your face holes!"
Raz had no response. He couldn't think of any. His mind was a blank, empty of everything except for the pain.
"You're never getting up from that, goggles." The floor all around him shifted. "But here's to make sure."
Water burst out of the floor. It rose to the air before the flow bent and curled, forming a dome around Raz, tightly closing in upon him. Raz let himself collapse to the floor. His eyelids lowered and closed. He tucked his knees against his chest. He had succumbed. Bill left without uttering another word.
He had no idea how long he laid there, curled into himself, when he felt something wet tickling his back, the tips of his hair, and the soles of his shoes. He didn't even have to open his eyes to know what's happening.
The dome was shrinking.
X-X-X-X-X
"Turn right over here!"
Coraline's voice was confident and unwavering; the group following her directions without question, taking a blind right turn in the ever-increasingly mazelike corridors of the Fearamid. Her features were etched into a mask of undaunted bravery, but even then, she still found herself shooting looks over her shoulders more than once. That loud boom earlier that rocked the entire structure; no doubt that that was because of Raz and Lili. She just hoped it turned out to be a good sign.
That right turn eventually led to the group passing under a massive doorway and emerging into an equally massive, barren room. Besides chunks of rubble, there was practically nothing to speak of in it; no furniture, no windows, no way forward.
"Oh no, dead end!" Mabel wailed. Panic was quick to swell among the group. After all, turning back was certainly too risky of an option to take.
Coraline's eyes scanned the room closely. In spite of, or perhaps because of, her desperation, her eyes caught a glimpse of something in the far corner of the room. "Over there!" she shouted.
Coraline led the group as they flocked towards it. As they got closer, it became clear that what caught Coraline's eye was a doorway. A normal, human-sized doorway, unlike the gigantic ones she had encountered before, that had almost entirely collapsed in on itself, but it still had just enough space for people to crawl under.
"Come on, everyone. Through here." Coraline stepped forward and did her best to lift the collapsed parts of the doorway to create just the slightest bit more space for the others to pass through. Mabel and Wendy came up beside her and helped her with the deed. Without further prompting, one by one they crawled under the doorway, starting with Gideon, then Robbie, and so on. The Mystery Kids were the last ones to pass through, and Coraline made sure she was the last one to do it. She took a glance behind her for a moment, her eyes darting left and right for any sign of Bill or his ilk, before she swiftly ducked under the doorway.
The room beyond was rather similar to the room before in some aspects; namely that it had scarcely anything but rubble in it, it had no windows, and no other doorways forward. What was different about the room was how small it was compared to all the chambers and hallways she'd seen in the Fearamid. The height of the ceiling was about the same height as a normal room, and even the rubble here was smaller. This room was basically the Fearamid's equivalent of a crawlspace. Despite that, it still had more than enough room for the rather large group.
Neil stepped up into the center of the room and looked around. "Hate to say it, but I feel like this room is about as safe as it gets," he said.
"He's right." Coraline wasn't exactly happy with it, but her feelings weren't important right now. "We'll hole up here, try the ritual again. Hopefully this time no one's gonna mess it up." She didn't even bother with subtlety when she sent a glare to both Stan and Ford.
"Sounds like a plan." Dipper nodded. He walked up to Ford, holding out a spray paint canister. "Great uncle Ford?"
Ford didn't take the canister immediately, not at first. He was still wilting under Coraline's glare. When he did accept the canister, he did so without as much as a whisper.
Coraline threw her gaze to the side and silently scoffed. Good.
Ford was quick to busy himself with recreating the required ritual circle from earlier in the center of the room. The other nine spoken of in the prophecy stood around in a circle, anxiously waiting until the mystical circle was finished. The rest of the Mystery Kids mostly paced around the room nervously. Coraline knelt by the entrance of the room, her eyes flitting between Ford working on the circle and the room outside.
Ford barely managed to draw a circle when a voice echoed down the hallway and into the room.
"Organ bags! Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
Coraline's blood ran cold. It was as if time itself froze inside that room. Everyone stopped in their tracks, even Ford, looking like a deer in the headlights.
"Keep drawing!" Coraline snapped at him. He did so immediately.
"Th-that was… was Bill," Wybie stuttered. The horror in his eyes was all too palpable. "Raz and Lili…"
Coraline tightened her palms into fists. As if the air in the room wasn't grim already. Dipper wrapped his arms around himself, shaking his head. Mabel had her hands covering her mouth, trying her best to choke back her sobs. Neil collapsed against the wall, clutching his head in his hands. Norman stood almost deathly still in the corner. Coraline had to shut her eyes as tightly as she could. This was no time for tears. Not for her.
She opened her eyes and stared out into the room and hallway before. She just had a grim realization. "We need more time," she stated, simply.
She wasn't surprised when Norman immediately spoke up. "Coraline. No."
"What other choice do we have?!" Coraline rose up to her full height, drew her mace, and gripped the weapon tight. "I'm stepping out there and buying you guys time. None of you can stop me."
To her relief, no one actually took her up on that. However, when Wendy broke away from the circle, her brows furrowed and her axe in hand, Coraline raised her guard.
"Don't even try, Corduroy."
"I'm not." Wendy raised her axe up to Coraline, handle-first. "I just thought you needed this more than I do."
There was a beat, a moment, where Coraline simply stared dumbfounded at the offered axe. When that moment ended, she readily accepted the axe with her left hand and gave Wendy an appreciative smile. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Stan breaking away from the circle too, opening his mouth to speak. Coraline's smile disappeared.
"Look, kid, before you go through with this stupid idea, you gotta-"
"No, you shut the fuck up!"
Coraline's words were ringing, cutting cleanly across the air.
"You think you still have a say in this?! Two of my best friends might be dead, all because you two ancient, idiotic troglodytes can't keep your hate boners in check for five fucking seconds! We could've-!"
Coraline held herself back from saying any more. Her eyes were starting to water.
"Just do us all a favor, and don't fuck it up again," she finished. Stan retreated back to the circle without another word. Not that he needed to say anything; the chastised look on his face spoke louder than words.
Coraline casted one last glance to everyone in the room, to her best friends, to the people she's fond of, to the people she once hated, and to the people that now kind of hate. She turned, walking closer to the collapsed doorway. She paused when she realized Wybie was following closely behind her.
Coraline sighed. "Wybie. I know you know what I meant."
"Then you're not taking a step outside of this room." The boldness in his voice and the finality in his tone were unlike anything she'd ever heard from him before.
Coraline spared him a glance over her shoulder. "And you're gonna stop me?"
"I'm… gonna try."
That's rather impressive, she had to admit. Annoying, but impressive. Coraline set aside both of her weapons for a moment. She turned on her heels to face Wybie, finally. His brows were knit into a glare, his hands balled into fists, genuinely looking ready to do his damnedest to stop her. Gently, Coraline approached him, gingerly placing both of her hands on his shoulders. Wybie's eyes flitted between them with a nervous glint. She grew closer and closer still, until their faces were only inches from each other, and she could feel his warm breath tickling her lips. Wybie's eyes were wide with surprise. Coraline's eyes were closed out of guilt.
"Neil, hold him back."
A look of shock and confusion barely dawned upon Wybie when Coraline shoved him back into Neil, who immediately wrapped his arms around Wybie in a tight bear hug.
"Wha- Neil?! No, let go of me, you-!"
Coraline wasted no time. With one swift motion, she picked up both the axe and her mace and ducked through the collapsed doorway.
"No! Coraline, please, you can't do this! He's going to kill you, you crazy-!"
Coraline didn't hear the rest of what Wybie said. She was already in a full sprint going down the corridor.
Coraline briefly wondered how long it would be until she encountered Bill, and what she would do when that happened. She didn't wonder for long. After only three right turns and two left turns, she skidded to a halt. For a moment, she tensed, her knees suddenly weak, chills running down her spine. Another moment, she shook off her doubts and pushed down her fears, and held her weapons at the ready. There, floating at the far end of the corridor, was Bill Cipher.
Bill, from what she could tell, looked pleasantly surprised to meet her. "Doll face! Let me guess, defiant to the end?"
Coraline didn't bother gracing that with an answer. She took off in a sprint, full speed, her mace and axe bared and eager to rip a demon to pieces.
"Oh, there it is! Hilarious!" Bill's single eye turned into a deep crimson color. "Or it would be, if it's not getting increasingly annoying!"
Bill snapped his fingers, the sound resoundingly reverberating off of the walls. A deep rumble shook the corridor, giving Coraline pause in her advance. There was a sudden sound of stone grinding against stone, and Coraline watched wide-eyed, as an entire section of the corridor began to rotate clockwise. Another rough grinding noise, a different section of the corridor beginning to rotate, this time counter-clockwise. Three more sections rotating clockwise, four more rotating opposite, on and on until the entire length of the corridor was transformed into an ever-shifting, spinning, chaotic mess of blocks and stone. Coraline simply gritted her teeth and leapt from one section to another. There was nothing he could do to stop her from pressing forward.
That was when Bill clapped his hands.
The clap echoed louder than the snap. Coraline paused again, her eyes darting left and right for signs of something, anything, changing. Her eyes were drawn to a tile high above her that had started moving as if it was shuddering. In the blink of an eye, the tile suddenly shot downwards as a pillar in blinding speed. Coraline barely managed to move her foot only a split second before the stone pillar struck where it once was. More and more pillars shot out of the ever-changing floors, walls, and ceiling, all throughout the corridor, adding in to the cavalcade of chaotic madness before her. Not that she's deterred, not in the slightest.
Jump. Roll. Sidestep. Vault. Leap. Slide. Both her brain and body, and the connection in-between, pushed to their limits. The smallest misstep, the tiniest miscalculation, and it could all be over in an instant. Against all odds, against the shred of doubt that gnawed at the back of her mind, she's gaining ground. With every pillar dodged, with every platform traversed, the distance between her and Bill grew smaller. She heard another clap. Coraline doubled her speed.
A pillar shot up underneath her feet. For this, Coraline didn't dodge. She rode it as it carried her high into the air. Guessing she's at the correct height, Coraline launched herself off of the pillar, both her weapons gripped tight, straight at Bill.
Bill reeled, caught off guard. Coraline swung her axe. Bill swerved to the side at the very last minute.
Coraline landed with a roll. When she looked back, she saw Bill glaring at the underside of his left arm, where a small, clean cut had exposed bits of the flesh underneath.
Coraline leered up at him. "So you can bleed."
Bill shifted his glare to her. The exposed flesh reformed itself. He spoke, his voice low and distorted.
"YOU SUDDENLY THINK YOU'RE HOT STUFF, DOLL FACE?!"
Coraline almost laughed. Despite everything, pissing Bill off felt good.
Her leer didn't last. The ground shook and rumbled again. Her instincts screamed at her to start moving once. She leapt, and an earthen jaw clamped down on the empty air where she once was only a split second later. She barely caught her breath when she felt the ground tremble. She rolled, and a jaw rose out of the ground, missing her by inches. They were like bear traps, made from the floor itself. Coraline quickly learned to keep moving and move quickly.
At some point, it became almost like a dance. A game. One that she's playing with Bill, where she kept winning every round, pissing off Bill more and more. She grew rather bold. Confident. Overconfident, even.
But overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
Coraline leapt again, but she knew she slipped, her jump not covering as much ground as it was supposed to. Something solid clamped down hard on her left leg. Her jump cut short, she fell into a crumpled heap on the floor. Her mace and axe fell out of her grip with a clatter. Even without looking back, she knew what happened. Coraline got careless, and the jaw got lucky, catching her by the foot. She tugged with all her strength, once, twice, to no avail. She remained stuck.
A shadow loomed over her. Her heart plummeted to her stomach.
A single misstep.
"Done? Can we now skip to the part where I win and you get to enjoy an existence of eternal pain?"
Coraline's answer was to reach for her axe and chuck it as hard as she could at Bill. The weapon found its mark right in his eye, but Bill didn't even flinch. Coraline's heart plummeted even lower.
"You kids have a thing for being a pain in my eye, don't you?" Bill blinked once, crushing the axe with just his eyelid. The remains clattered to a halt before Coraline's prone form.
"Do you have any idea how powerful I am right now?! I turned this hallway into a chaos carousel with just a snap of my fingers!" Bill gestured towards the gauntlet that Coraline had just passed. "And with another snap," he snapped his fingers again, the cavalcade of shifting stones immediately grinding to a halt, before it reverted back to a normal corridor, "I can take it all away!"
In her endless list of terrible decisions, Coraline decided to tack on one more, by putting on her biggest shit-eating grin and snickering, "Still managed to nick ya."
Bill actually landed, the floor beneath him cracking. His eye, blood red. His voice, rumbling and distorted.
"Your worst nightmare is that sorry excuse for a demon! My finger is enough to take her place!" Bill raised a single finger. "Here. Watch."
Coraline did watch, as the skin on that finger peeled away into a tangled mass of endless obsidian wires. Each strand was razor thin, razor sharp, glinting in the reddish light of the Fearamid. The ends of each strand suddenly solidified, morphing into metallic needles that danced in the air like snakes. Coraline was shocked out of her macabre reverie when Bill lowered his finger to point it at her. The needles shot at her, the black wires trailing eternally behind them. As they slithered closer and closer and closer, Coraline tried once more to free her trapped foot. No avail. She braced herself for the worst.
Something suddenly stepped in front of her.
No. Someone.
She only had a split second of thought, but with that ratty, black coat and matted, dark hair, she recognized who it was instantly.
"Wybie?!"
Wybie had both of his hands held out. The mass of needles and wires quickly consumed them.
"And the wrench throws itself into my plans!" Bill bellowed, annoyed and frustrated.
Any instance of Bill being annoyed would have usually attracted Coraline's attention, but she had other things in mind right now. "Wybie, what are you doing here?! I told you to stay put!" she shrieked.
With the needles and wires still swarming his hands, Wybie screamed back over his shoulder, "And I told you you're not doing this by yourself! I'll always follow you, Coraline, until the ends of the… of the…"
Wybie faltered in his bold declaration, as the swarm surrounding his hands cleared, revealing that the needles and wires had literally sewn the fingers of each hand together into a single, useless limb. Coraline gasped in horror. Wybie stared at his hands, slack-jawed, too terrified to speak.
"C-Coraline…?" His low, timid whisper was barely audible, but it set something off within Coraline.
The wires weren't finished. They pulled at his hands, pinning his arm against his sides, before it began to swarm all around his torso like rabid wasps. Once it cleared, it had stitched the length of both his arms to the sides of his torso. Even then, they weren't finished, immediately slithering downwards towards his legs. They circled them, swarmed them, and once they were done, his legs had been fused together into one. Wybie was not prepared, teetering for a moment, before he fell to the floor with a yelp.
The mass of wires and needles still hasn't stopped moving. It had begun to creep upwards, headed to Wybie's face.
Wybie locked his gaze with Coraline's. Wide eyes filled with fear met wide eyes filled with desperation. Coraline couldn't think of anything she could do other than to plead, to yell out his name, over and over again. Wybie's lips quivered, like he was about to say something, but he never had the chance. A needle pierced through the upper right corner of his lips, and it quick wound its way along the length of it. Within seconds, his lips had been sewn shut. A pair of needles went a bit higher, to his eyes, and before long, his eyelids had also been sewn closed. He still squirmed, he still screamed, blindly, in his grotesque bondage.
Coraline collapsed, slamming her fist against the floor in anger, in sorrow, at her own failure, quietly sobbing Wybie's name to herself.
"Sit still, and I might just let you die." Bill's voice rang, distant, dispassionate. He turned, floating away from her.
Coraline didn't even think. She was seeing red as she reached for her discarded mace and tossed it at him with all the strength she had left, screaming bloody murder all the while. The mace sailed through the air, only to come to a dead stop in midair halfway through its arc. Bill spun in place, slowly, facing her with his eye glowing red. Despite her rage, Coraline shriveled under Bill's imposing gaze.
"You don't know when it's time to quit, do you?"
She heard stones cracking, and to her surprise, saw the earthen jaw that pinned her foot crumble into pieces. However, before she could utilize the opportunity, she was enveloped by a blue glow, and she felt herself lifted up to the air. She flailed frantically, trying to escape, to no avail, rising higher and higher until she was at eye level with Bill. Her mace, still floating in midair, was suddenly, effortlessly split into two. Both halves flew at her and, before she could react, each one clamped and locked themselves around her wrists. She cried when her wrists were suddenly pulled behind her, the metal meeting each other with an echoing clang. The makeshift shackles melted and joined together, leaving her hands uselessly locked behind her. The pile of rubble below her that was once the earthen jaw cracked and crumbled even further into grains of sand. A sudden gust of wind cleared the sand away and revealed, among the dark-red tiles of the Fearamid, a small door.
Coraline's eyes widened in horrified recognition.
The small door slowly swung open with a long, whining creak, revealing a lightless, impenetrable, unending abyss, and faintly, a singsong hum of something pretending to be a human woman.
"Run along home to mommy."
Bill's words rang in her ears as the glow surrounding her fades, and gravity took its course. Down she went to the abyss below, to her fated destination. Fear seized her heart in a vice, cold and unrelenting. Any semblance of composure had abandoned her. Her mask of bravery, of determination and valor, long gone, discarded. She screamed. She cried. She begged. All for naught. Plunged into the abyss, to be claimed, consumed.
"Just a little doll, afraid of the dark."
Her scream was silenced as the small door slammed shut.
X-X-X-X-X
Norman could've stopped Raz and Lili from staying behind, but he didn't. Norman could've stopped Coraline from leaving the room they hunkered down in to slow Bill down, but he didn't. Norman could've stopped Wybie when he broke free of Neil's bear hug and went out after Coraline, but he didn't. All those times when he could've stopped his friends, and he chose not to. All because of a strange, vague whisper at the back of his mind told him to.
And now, that whisper urged him to leave this room and confront Bill.
He nearly acted on it almost immediately. He managed to catch himself, instead casting his gaze around the room. Ford's progress on the ritual circle was halfway complete, and all ten of the people needed for the ritual were all here, safe and sound. Logically, there was no need to step outside of this room.
Norman watched Ford as he moved to finish the lower half of Bill's depiction, but as he pressed down on the can's nozzle, instead of a spray of blue paint, all that came out was a hiss and empty air.
"Oh no." Ford frantically shook the can and tried again, only to get the same result. "This can's empty."
There it was. The reason.
The entire structure suddenly rumbled. Tiny chunks of the ceiling broke off and fell to the floor. Norman jumped as an all-too familiar voice filled the air.
"I'm getting really tired of these distractions, Fordsy!" Bill's voice sounded livid. "You throw one more kid at me, and I'm gonna lose it!"
That was another reason.
"What do we do now, dudes?!" Soos shouted, clutching the top of his head.
"We can still finish the circle!" Ford yelled out. "Quick, everyone search for something sharp, something that I can use to carve out the rest of the circle!"
Everyone was quick to do so, scampering towards the piles of rubble scattered around the room. Neil did so too. Norman didn't. He had his eyes locked on the partially collapsed doorway, the only entrance and exit to this room.
"Hey, Norman, c'mon!" Norman heard Neil say. He wasn't expecting Neil to be suddenly standing beside him. "We gotta help look!"
Norman took one last look around the room, at everyone busy scrounging through piles of rubble, then at Neil. "Neil, promise me you won't let anyone follow me outside," he said.
It took Neil a second to digest what Norman had said. Once he did, he didn't take it well. "You want to-?! Norman, why would you want to do that?!"
Norman clamped a firm hand on Neil's shoulder. "Just trust me on this. Promise?"
Neil hesitated for a moment, but he eventually gave him a steely nod. "I do. I promise."
Norman replied with one last smile, which Neil was quick to reciprocate. As silently as he could, with everyone but Neil still preoccupied, he slipped underneath the doorway.
Emerging on the other side, he stared down the massive, barren room he's in, and at the massive doorway where Bill would soon emerge. One step after another he took, drawing closer and closer to the center of the room. Energy flowed from his center to the tips of his fingers, first starting as a trickle, but with every step he loosened his limits more and more, until energy were surging towards his hands. Some managed to escape his control, manifesting as quick lashes of yellow that burned at the edges of his sleeves. He was only a few steps away now. Out here, he won't hesitate.
"Wait, where's Norman?"
Norman stopped. Even out here, Dipper's voice still managed to reach him.
"Neil, where's Norman?!"
Norman couldn't afford to take the risk. Without looking back, Norman opened his palm at the doorway he emerged. A bolt of lightning left his palm, quickly followed by the sound of lighting striking and of rocks falling and crumbling. Amidst it all, he heard Dipper's voice screaming out his name.
Norman drew a deep breath. Now he couldn't hesitate even if he wanted to.
Three more steps, and he was at the room's center, standing tall, fists clenched, waiting for Bill's arrival.
The wait wasn't long. Bill emerged from the massive doorway, his single eye already colored a vibrant crimson. He scanned the room, until his gaze met Norman's. Norman might only be seeing what he wanted to see, but when Bill's eye landed on him, he could've sworn he saw Bill flinch.
"Ghost boy," Bill said, his tone peculiarly flat. "Where's the rest of your little troupe?"
Norman glared up at him. "Whatever you say to me, it won't work."
"Not even if I say I will make the people you loved suffer the most?" Bill asked, as if that question was supposed to be a joke.
Norman's reply was to hold out both of his hands, palms opened. "I've only done this a few times so far." He changed his stance, spreading his legs to better handle the knockback, and gritted his teeth. "This is the first time I'm not sorry for using it."
The energy surging and building towards his palms were practically fit to burst. Finally, Norman let go of his control of it, letting it all loose. A singular bolt of lightning shot out of his palms. It split the air in a flash, crackling and hissing like a cacophony of angry snakes. Bill's eye went wide with clear, genuine fear. Hastily, in panic, he put up his arms to shield himself. The lightning bolt struck Bill's arm with a deafening roar of thunder, and Bill… yelped.
A quick, weak yelp. Something caused by the spittle of boiling water, or a sudden shock of static in a dry day. Not by a bolt of lightning that Norman knew for a fact was the single most painful thing someone could feel. All Norman could do was stare, frozen, dumbfounded. Even Bill seemed bewildered, staring at the spot where the bolt struck his arm. His gaze moved to meet Norman's.
"I-Is… Is that the best you can do?" Bill asked, something almost like caution clear in his tone.
Norman was too afraid to answer, because it was a yes.
His answer must have been written clear on his face, because Bill began to laugh. It started as a low, disbelieving chuckle at first, but it quickly devolved into an unrestrained, booming guffaw. Norman stared down at his palms; at what he thought was something that could stop Bill.
"Well, you sure made me feel like an idiot, kid!" Bill mocked as his laughter died down, mimicking wiping tears from his eye. He floated forward. Norman slowly backed away.
"Here I was, worrying that I've got a storm coming!" Bill leaned closer, close enough that Norman nearly fell over. "But you're still just a pathetic, little spark, aren't you, Norman?"
Despite the demon inching closer, Norman's eyes were drawn again to his hands. There were sparks still, surging beneath the skin. "That's… that was supposed to…"
"Supposed to what?! Hurt me? Kill me?!" Bill's voice rocked the entire structure. His entire body changed color into dark red, his eye turning into deep black with a shining yellow pupil. "I am beyond anything you've ever faced, witch! There's no hurting me, there's no killing me, there's no banishing me."
That time, Norman did fall over. As he stared up with wide eyes, Bill withdrew. His composure returned to something resembling calm.
"Let's make this easy for everyone," he said. His hand burst into blue flame, and he pointed it at Norman. "Tell me where Ford is, and I might not kill you."
For a split second, Norman had the urge to cast a glance at the collapsed doorway hiding the others. He easily resisted. Instead, he rose back to his feet and, though much more timidly this time, extended his hands out towards Bill. The surging energy was still there, electricity rippling across his skin. If he couldn't defeat Bill, then he could still slow him down.
Bill sighed. He lowered his arm, the blue flame fizzling out, much to Norman's surprise.
"Not done, huh? Fine!" Norman thought if Bill had a mouth, it would've cracked into a wicked grin. "Since you're so eager, I'll make this easier for ya! I'll give you a bigger target!"
In the blink of an eye, and with a terrible roar, Bill transformed. The hands that took all of Norman's courage to hold up slowly lowered themselves at the sight. A towering beast of crimson red, his body segmented by maws ringed with yellow fangs and slobbering, black tongues. Eight yellow, shining appendages sprouted from his body; six serving as his 'hands', two serving as his 'legs'. His single obsidian eye, repeated three times across all four of his sides. The eye that was facing Norman narrowed down at him.
"GO ON. HIT ME."
Something primal at the back of his mind told him to turn tail and run. Instead, what he did was hastily raise his hands back up again. Norman willed energy to surge to his fingertips.
A bolt of his lightning left his palms.
A wave of blue flame left one of Bill's hands, massive and all-consuming.
Everything turned black.
When his senses returned, the first thing to greet him was pain all over his body and the smell of smoke. The second to greet him was a worrying numbness on his palms. The third was how he was sprawled on the Fearamid's floor, arms splayed wide on each side. The fourth was Bill's voice, low and distorted.
"One last time. Where. Is. Ford."
Norman's intent was to give Bill the middle finger, but the numbness on his hands made it hard to tell whether or not he succeeded. Although, judging from how Bill grumbled, he was hopeful that he did.
"Fine! Be that way!" Bill sounded like he was huffing. "You should know this is the second time I've resorted to torture today!"
Norman heard a finger snap. The earth suddenly rose and clamped down around his wrists. Norman gave it what amounted to a courtesy struggle, but it was no use. Even if he wasn't in the state that he currently was, he had no chance of breaking free of the earthen shackles. Another snap, and the floor he laid on began to rise and straighten, until he was perpendicular to the ground, suspended by the wrists thanks to the shackles. Through the haze and pain, Norman realized, disturbingly, that the piece of the floor he was hanging from had been shaped to bear more than a passing resemblance to a cross.
"There! Just like that fake thing you humans worship!"
Norman would've rolled his eyes if he could. So much for subtlety.
Bill circled Norman, all four his eyes searching the barren room. "I know you can hear me, Fordsy! I know you're seeing this!" he bellowed. "Come on, Sixer! You know I can still make it worse for this kid!"
With his head hanging low, Norman chanced a glance at the collapsed doorway. He quickly looked away when he caught sight of three pairs of eyes peeking through the tiny gaps in the rubble.
No response came. Bill fumed, while Norman smiled in silent gratitude. "Alright, fine!" From a swirl of darkness, a giant nail materialized on one of Bill's hands. He placed the tip against the palm of Norman's left hand. The size was immediately made apparent, the 'small' tip covering the entire palm. On a different hand, Bill materialized a giant hammer. "I'm giving you to the count of three! Or this," Bill pressed the tip harder against Norman's hand. Norman had to bite down to hold back a scream, "becomes far more historically accurate!"
Norman glanced at the collapsed doorway again. There was still no apparent response. Good.
"One!"
Norman drew a deep breath. To say that this would hurt was an understatement.
"Two!"
Bill raised his hammer. Norman resolved to try his best to hold back his scream. Out of the corner of his eye, however, he spotted a light shining through the gaps of the doorway.
"Three!"
Bill swung his hammer down. The rubble blocking the doorway began to shrink. Norman nearly cried out in horror.
"Bill!"
The hammer stopped inches from the nail. Both vanished into thin air as Bill's eyes lit up with glee. All Norman could do was shake his head in horrified disbelief.
Dipper stood in the doorway, flashlight held out in hand. Beside him were Mabel and Neil, both trying to pull him back into the room.
"It's us that you want, right?!" Dipper yelled out again. "Let him go!"
There was a flash. A rift. A break in reality. For a moment, Norman saw two Bills. Another moment, and Bill was suddenly floating in front of him again. In one hand, he held Dipper, and in another, was Mabel. They struggled with all the strength they had, but there was no escaping Bill's grip.
"Finally!" Bill raised Dipper and Mabel closer to his front-facing eye. "You kids really went out of your way to make things annoying for me! The good news is that it's finally over! Bad news is, well, none! For me!"
Bill held Dipper in front of Norman, practically waving him around like a toy. "Couldn't resist, can you, pine tree?" he mocked.
Norman's gaze met Dipper's. "Why?" he whispered, barely heard.
"I'm not just gonna let him do that to you," Dipper replied, true and genuine. In any other circumstance, Norman would have felt happiness hearing that. Dipper cried out as Bill pulled him away from Norman.
"Now!" Bill leaned in close until his eye was at arm's length from Norman. "How should I turn you into a corpse?"
Bill lifted Dipper and Mabel to his left-facing and right-facing eyes. "Any suggestions? Pine tree, shooting star?"
"Fuck you!"
"You jerk!"
"Just kidding! I already know the answer!"
Something fell from the ceiling to dangle in the distance between Norman and Bill's eye. Norman's blood went cold when he realized it was a length of blackened rope, tied into a noose.
"Just like back in the day! Isn't that right, witch?"
Norman tried one last time to put up a fight, to will energy to surge forth once more, but even that was impossible in the state he's in. A pair of Bill's hands moved to wrap the noose around Norman's neck, their motions bizarrely gentle and delicate. The noose was tightened; not yet enough to squeeze, but just enough to always make its presence known. Bill stepped back with a sick sense of pride in his eye. Dipper's struggle heightened into a frenzy, spouting incoherent screams and Norman's name. Mabel did the same, even as she broke down and tears started streaming down her cheeks. All Norman could do was watch their anguish as he teetered ever closer to submitting to his own.
"Going up?"
The shackles, the cross that held him crumbled into dust. The rope, the noose around his neck squeezed and pulled. It dragged him higher and higher to the dizzying heights of the ceiling. Panic quickly set in. Norman's desperate, weakening fingers clawed against the rope that bit into his neck. Air was running out. Limbs were going numb. Darkness crept at the edges of his vision. Faintly, he heard the twins, calling out for him.
Terror, dawning. Despair, succumbing. Acceptance, settling.
Faintly, he heard Bill, threatening the twins with death.
Control, liberated. Anger, released. Hatred, unleashed.
Hatred. Hatred. Hatred.
Everything turned red.
Everything turned black.
X-X-X-X-X
"Last chance, Ford! You tell me how to break the barrier, or I turn these two into corpses!"
Bill's voice was almost deafening as he loomed over the doorway into the room where the others hid, completely dwarfing it in this monstrous form. In Bill's unrelenting grip, Dipper still struggled to break free. Despite what he had just witnessed happen to Norman, despite the pervading sense of despair within, he still struggled with all the strength he could muster. Across from him, Mabel matched his struggle pound for pound, even with her cheeks still caked with fresh tears.
"Great uncle Ford, don't listen to him! He'll just kill us anyway!" Dipper yelled out, his voice starting to become hoarse. He had no idea if it even mattered or not, but when no response came from the doorway, Dipper took that as a small victory.
However, that feeling was short-lived.
"Good point, Dipper!" Bill held the twins out under his gaze. "Maybe I should kill one first! Let's take a pick, shall we?!"
Dipper turned to look at his sister, their gazes meeting with one another. Terror was clear in their eyes, for each other as well as themselves.
Bill's pupil transformed into the shape of a shooting star. His eye locked onto Mabel, red light shining upon her like a spotlight.
"Eenie!"
Bill blinked. His pupil took the form of a pine tree. Dipper was bathed in red light.
"Meenie!"
He blinked again. A shooting star-shaped pupil. Red light shining upon Mabel.
"Miney!"
One last blink. Dipper closed his eyes. He braced for it come. At the very least, Mabel got to survive.
"M-!"
Thunder. Righteous and frightening. One that he didn't just hear; he felt it. Shaking him to his core, leaving him feeling small and perilously mortal. His eyes shot open. A compulsion left his gaze drawn towards the sky.
Dipper looked up, and saw a storm.
A mass of black had engulfed the ceiling. It roiled and swirled, forming a tumultuous whirlpool of shadows. Breaks of light intermittently snaked from one patch of darkness to another. At its center, at the eye, was a blinding, yellow light. It looked unnatural, and it felt almost divine.
Dipper wasn't the only one drawn to the storm. Mabel did too, staring in a mix of fear and awe. Even Bill had his gaze drawn upwards.
"What the-?"
Bill was cut off by a wraithlike shriek.
A flash of lightning. Dipper cried out when he suddenly felt himself falling. The landing was rough, but the hard ground was far more preferable than Bill's grasp. Mabel landed the same manner, not too far from him. A few feet from the two was a shining, yellow shape, hunched over and panting. Looming above, Bill's eye practically popped out of its socket, staring at his two severed limbs, the flesh exposed and burned, leaving a faint trail of black smoke.
Bill roared in pain as the shape rose to its full height.
The shape was none other than Norman. Beautiful, terrible lightning covered every inch of his being. It changed and shifted in every moment, nary a second of stillness. Snakelike flashes of electricity snapped and sparked at the air and the ground around him. His eyes were blank, yet filled with terrible, righteous fury. How he moved was unnatural, every motion and every twitch unnerving. Despite all of that, this was unmistakably Norman, his friend that he'd made at the start of summer.
Dipper had never thought he would ever see Norman and feel such a primal urge to run away from him.
Bill had ceased screaming. His eye glared death down at Norman. His remaining limbs burst into blue flame and he lunged.
"You deranged, little witc-!"
Norman spun around. He held a hand up, palm opened. The world turned white.
As color and sound returned, and as his sight recovered and he lowered his arms from shielding his face, Dipper jumped back in shock. "Holy-!"
The entire section of the Fearamid beyond Norman was gone. The ceiling, the walls, the hallway; all completely obliterated. In its place was a gaping hole at one side of the Fearamid, giving Dipper a clear view of the blood crimson sky of Weirdmageddon. Gale winds rushed in, already beginning to chip away the edges of the Fearamid that survived the attack. What's more, at first glance, he saw no sign of Bill whatsoever.
Dipper's stare landed on Norman. Could it be…?
"Hey, kid!"
Dipper couldn't help but feel disappointed, when he heard Bill's booming voice. That disappointment quickly turned into astonishment when he actually caught sight of Bill. Or, what's left of him.
Out of his eight limbs, only two remained. Even then, one was already halfway gone. The entire lower half of his body was missing, and the same could be said of a small chunk of his just above his eye. Disgusting, dark red flesh sloughed and spilled off of him from every part where it was exposed. He was shaking furiously, painfully. He still had a glare fixed upon Norman, and it was one that could kill.
"You missed a spot!"
With a disturbing cry of pain, Bill quickly reformed all of his missing parts in a cacophony of horrible squelching noises. That nearly had Dipper groaning in frustration. The hope that steadily swelled in his heart came crashing back down. Even after that, Bill still shrugged it off like it was nothing. He'd imagine Mabel was thinking the same thing, based on how she slammed a fist to the ground. Norman, on the other hand, looked completely undeterred. At least, as far as Dipper could tell. He's still having a hard time believing that the wraith of rage and lightning a few feet from him and Norman were one and the same.
Norman unleashed a chilling, wraithlike shriek; a voice that was not at all like the Norman that Dipper knew. With a burst of electricity, he launched himself and flew straight towards Bill, leaving a trail of crackling yellow behind him.
The approaching streak of light was impossible to miss for Bill. Blue flames burst into life on three of his hands. With a roar, he unleashed a wave of fire that sailed through the air at Norman. Norman easily danced in and all around the torrent. Darting around in speeds barely caught by the human eye, until he was clear of the onslaught. With another shriek, he doubled his speed, and was upon Bill in a split second. Bill desperately swerved to the side, but he wasn't fast enough. Norman crashed into Bill's right side, obliterating a sizable chunk of his body and two of his limbs in an explosion of flesh. The impact didn't slow Norman down in the slightest, speeding past and leaving Bill to scream in pain. He flew up higher and higher, only seemed to be satisfied when he was among the clouds, far higher than even where Bill was. Bill's missing flesh and limb quickly reformed. He turned his gaze upwards and glared. It was clear that neither had no intention of backing down.
The battle in the skies had Dipper so enraptured that he jumped when he felt a pair of arms tightly wrapping around him. He immediately calmed when he realized it was Mabel, hugging him, and he gladly hugged her back. A different pair of arms lifted him up to his feet. This time, they were Neil's, who still had his eyes glued to the sky as he helped Dipper up. Not that Dipper could blame him. His attention was immediately drawn back to the fight as well.
Norman unleashed another chilling shriek, the electricity covering his skin sparking and crackling wildly, snapping against the empty air around him. The sky around Norman darkened, black clouds congregating into one, as if summoned by his cry. They grew so large that, for a moment, the blood red sky turned pitch black. It was so dark that Dipper lost sight of Norman's shining form among the clouds. He had a feeling Bill did too.
Another shriek. The clouds burst into blinding, radiant light.
A torrent of lightning shot out of the clouds. They crackled through the air to join into one upon Norman. His form grew brighter than even the radiant clouds around him. He brought his hands together in front of him in a tranquil rage that bordered on unnerving. Energy surged towards his palms, manifesting as a chaotic mass of electricity that hissed and snapped like maddened vipers, fueled on even further by the lighting feeding into him, growing and charging until it became something truly massive. As it reached its apex, Norman fired.
Dipper shoved Mabel and Neil to the side, once he realized they were in the line of fire.
The bolt of lightning was the largest that Dipper had ever seen in his life. It looked less like a lightning bolt and more like a divine serpent that descended from the heavens. It pierced through Bill's eye socket easily, it pierced through the Fearamid behind him, and it didn't stop until it struck the ground. Dipper pressed himself and Mabel and Neil against the wall, desperate to put as much distance between him and the streak of light as possible. The world nearly turned blinding white again. The strike ceased; the red sky of Weirdmageddon returning and Norman's form dimming to its normal glow.
"Again with the eye!" Bill cried out in pain, clutching the empty eye socket where his eye once was.
Dipper gaped at the mark the attack left on the Fearamid. Beside him, Mabel and Neil did the same. By this point, the Fearamid must be just a few careless knocks away from falling apart.
"D-do we… still need the ritual or…?" Neil said, nervously glancing at Dipper. By this point, Dipper had begun to wonder that as well.
He didn't have long to think, as Bill's furious roar broke him out of his thoughts. If it wasn't clear that Bill had been pissed before, then there were no doubts about it after that.
Blue flame came to life from all six of Bill's hands. He blindly fired it at all directions, flailing his arms around in a disturbing, mad frenzy, creating an ever-expanding ball of blue, fiery death. Norman was quick to dart around the flames, but even with his blinding speed, it wasn't enough. He managed to dodge the brunt of the encroaching flames, but a stray trail of flame caught him by surprise and licked at his arm. Dipper gasped when he saw Norman veering downwards, the electricity around him sputtering out. However, it seemed he managed to catch himself, slowing down to a hover. He glared at Bill, furious, but visibly injured, one arm hanging limply at his side.
Without hesitation, Dipper turned to Neil. "Yes. Yes, we do."
Dipper led the other two as they took off in a sprint towards the room where everyone else hid. Or, as it turned out, what was left of the room. The ceiling was gone and half of the room was replaced by a steep plummet to the ground far below. Thankfully, the ritual circle was left untouched. With the ceiling gone, everyone had a clear view of the fight that's been occurring in the sky. Everyone, except for great uncle Ford, was transfixed, practically frozen in place.
Wendy was the first to break out of her stupor and actually notice that the three had returned. "I-is that… Norman?" she sputtered, weakly pointing at the sky.
All Dipper could muster was a slow nod.
While everyone was watching the fight, great uncle Ford was still hard at work chipping off pieces of the floor with a rock, and thank god for that. He really did take Coraline's outburst earlier to heart.
"Finished!" Ford announced, stepping back with a relieved grin. That managed to gain the attention of everyone in the room.
The ritual circle was indeed finished. Half painted on the floor half carved out of it. The key to banishing Bill, once and for all.
"Everyone, step into the circle!" Ford shouted at the others. "Razputin and Lili, Coraline and Wybourne, Norman; they have bought us precious time! We must not waste it!"
Dipper was the first one on his symbol. "This is for them all! Let's go!"
"For Gravity Falls! For the Mystery Kids! For the rest of the world!" Mabel grandly announced, standing tall on her symbol.
One by one, the others followed suit, stepping onto their respective symbols. This time, without needing to be told, everyone held hands with each other. Dipper wrapped his hands around Wendy's and McGucket's, and held them tight. Mabel did the same with Pacifica and Gideon. The only ones left that haven't held hands was Grunkle Stan and great uncle Ford, and Dipper couldn't but sense a horrible feeling of déjà vu. Silently, they gave each other a look; one that said more than a thousand words, more than what Dipper could infer from what he knew about the two. Still not saying a word, their joined their hands together. Everyone in the circle began to glow.
Dipper felt the familiar sensation something stirring within him, of an energy building up to a crescendo. Dark clouds formed far above, a looming vortex of shadow with the circle at its center. It wasn't nearly as massive the clouds that formed during Norman's attack, and it felt different too, somehow. Norman's felt divine, otherworldly. This felt earthly. Natural.
Bill had been occupied with fighting Norman, but the growing mass of clouds finally caught his attention. His gaze shifted from the circling clouds down to the ritual circle. His eye widened.
"No!" Bill abandoned his fight with Norman, flying towards the circle at full speed. "No, no, no, no, no!"
Bill had murder written all over his glare. Dipper gulped.
A bolt of lightning clamped down on one of Bill's hands. Seven more lightning bolts came to restrain the rest of Bill's limbs. The streaks of electricity trailed back to Norman's fingers, using them to hold Bill in place. Bill tugged and pulled on them with all his might, one time, two times, but Norman didn't budge an inch. Dipper let out a breath he didn't even realize he was holding.
The energy inside him finally reached its peak, Dipper could tell. He felt the energy leaving him; saw the glow rise from his body. The glow left everyone's bodies, forming a circle of shapeless blue lights above their heads. Dipper watched, mesmerized, as the light above him assumed the form of a pine tree; his symbol. The other lights did the same; Mabel's light forming into a shooting star, great uncle Ford's into a six-fingered hand, Soos' into a question mark, and so on. The lights had a gentleness to it, twinkling and shimmering almost merrily. Gazing upon them, Dipper felt a strange sense of tranquility washing over him. Peace. Relief.
The lights began to revolve, slowly at first, but it didn't take long for it to gain speed. Gusts of wind picked around them, circling them, as if following the lights. The shapes lost their form as the lights revolved faster and faster still. They blurred together into a spinning, luminous, resplendent halo of blue light that grew brighter with every passing second. It began to shrink, the revolutions continuing to gain speed, condensing into a single point in the center of the circle. Bill bellowed a wordless roar. The light gathered into a radiant singularity. Dipper grinned.
He glared towards the sky, towards Bill. "Here's to never meeting you again, Bill Cipher."
The light launched with a high-pitched screech. A beam of blue sailed through the air. The lightning holding Bill dissipated, Norman darting out of the way in a blink. Bill had nowhere to run.
The light consumed Bill. It surged on unflinchingly towards the gaping rift in the sky. Bill pushed back against the light in a mad, frantic desperation. Pieces of his physical form began to crumble, the tips of his flesh sent back to the rift whence they came. In the throes of his enchanted banishment, Bill unleashed a roar of pure, violent rage.
"I'll be back! Mark my words! Even if it takes another trillion years! I will return and burn this pitiful dimension into oblivion!"
More and more of Bill fell apart, dragged back to his dimension by the light. His hands, his legs, his top hat, parts of his body; collapsing into nothing but formless flesh and banished to never return. His eye was the last of him to remain, engraved into a seething glare. Dipper could've sworn that eye was glaring specifically at him.
"EMIT FO HTAED EHT LITNU, YTINRETE LLA ROF, REVEROF! EID DNA EVIL I, EID DNA EVIL UOY SA! ENIVID RO TLUCCO YB NEKORBNU! ENIM HTIW ECNETSIXE RUOY DNIB I!"
The last of Bill's voice echoed throughout the land. The last of Bill's presence in this world sent back through the interdimensional rift.
For the second time that day, the world turned white.
X-X-X-X-X
The sun was shining. Birds were singing merrily. Gravity Falls' town square was packed with the townsfolk. All of them confused as to how they got there. All of them confused as to how everything returned to the way they were. All of them paid little mind to their confusion for the moment. For now, they all basked in the light.
Neil, standing up straight and tall after pressing himself against a corner for most of the ritual, basked in the light.
Wybie, spending a moment gasping in panic after suddenly freed from the terrible wires and needles that constricted him, basked in the light.
Mabel, still clutching Pacifica's hand in a tight grip as if her life depended on it, basked in the light.
Lili, taking in a deep breath and staring in wonder at her form that now has returned to normal, basked in the light.
Raz, realizing with a start that the bleeding had ceased and the encroaching dome of water was nowhere to be seen, basked in the light.
Coraline, rubbing her unbound wrists and silently grateful to no longer be in the clutches of darkness and needle-like fingers, basked in the light.
Dipper, scanning the clear sky in search of a particular person he held most dear, basked in the light.
Norman, the one that Dipper was searching for, descended from the light. The electricity that covered his skin had calmed almost to a complete stop, ebbing away as he descended. The crowd parted and formed a circle at the spot where he would land. Dipper was the first to emerge into that circle. The rest of the Mystery Kids were only seconds behind.
Norman gently touched down upon the ground. The last of the electricity clinging on him dissipated into thin air, leaving him as regular, plain Norman. He stood there, staring blankly ahead, for all of five seconds before his knees buckled under him and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. Dipper was immediately there to catch him when he fell. He pulled Norman into a tight hug, a smile on his lips, tears rolling down his cheeks. Mabel joined the hug. Neil joined the hug. Raz, Wybie, Coraline, Lili; they all gladly piled on to the big group hug. Smiling. Crying.
No words were said. No words needed to be said.
They won.
X-X-X-X-X
And that was that, folks. The end of the Weirdmageddon Saga.
This was, without exaggeration, a gargantuan endeavor to undertake. While I always knew this would take a lot of work, I was still not prepared for just how much work there would be. I had to spend several consecutive nights staying up late to get this done in time. I had to wrestle with my own expectations and hopes of what this chapter is going to be to get this done at all. Not helping was the fact that I suddenly had a mountain of college work to do. In the end, I can only hope that I have done the story and event justice, I have done the characters justice, and I have done the hype I built up myself justice.
As for the chapter itself, personally, I'm overall pretty happy with how it turned out! I got to write awesome scenes that I have always wanted to write for months now, and got to write awesome scenes that popped into my head in the process of making this chapter. Not to mention, everyone actually got to do something cool in this chapter! I realized Wybie's part in Part 1 being a highlight for a lot of people was probably because he's the only one that got to do something cool in it. Although, full disclosure, I will admit that the power levels definitely got way buckwild near the end there, with Norman. Definitely broke someone's suspension of disbelief. Here's hoping I didn't do that to too many people.
Now, while this might be the end of the saga, this is far from the end for this entire story. So, no worries to y'all who are thinking that this is the end. I've got stuff I've been concocting in the background for months now. New adventures, new enemies, and you guessed it, lots and lots of new additions to add to the team. For my plan right now, I have four more chapters that will act as sort of a bridge between this saga and the next. I'm hoping I can get them all done in December, so we can kick off the new year with a brand new saga! Get mega hyped for that, y'all!
Last but not least, I would like to thank you, the reader. To those who have stuck with ever since I started this fic like three years ago, and to those who have only recently discovered this fic, I cannot thank you enough. Your support and your kind words all this time are like the fuel that feeds my fire. With it, this fire has grown brighter than I ever thought was possible, and I am eternally grateful for it.
Thank you for reading, thank you for your support, and I hope you have a nice day!