"You Guys Miss Me?" Bill looked around at the gang. "No? Oh Well." He snapped his fingers and the people who were in the circle disappeared. Red tapestries unfurled on the back wall behind where the throne used to be, with images of Dippers friends on them. Their faces had absolute terror imprinted on them.
A triangular prison surrounded Dipper, Mabel, Gruncle Stan, Great Uncle Ford, and Star. Bill didn't even glance in Marcos direction, which may because he wasn't moving. Was he even still alive? Star groaned, fighting Bill alone must've taken a huge tole on her body.
Dipper took a closer look at Bill. It looked like he'd been injured by Star. There were scratch marks on his bricks and one of his arms was covered in rainbow goo.
"Hey Gideon, Shouldn't You Be Dancing?" Gideon started crying as his tapping reverberated throughout the hall. "Now Star, Be A Dear And Let This Force Field Fade."
"Never…" Star answered weakly. Her body glistened with sweat and now that she'd stopped moving, the sweat chilled her skin. She slowly opened her eyes and found out she was in some form of cage. The bars were uneven and crossed each other at random angles. Everything that Bill did was chaotic.
Bill's rant was blurred out as Star noticed the limp body on the floor. The red hoodie was unmistakable. Marco was so close to her; she could almost reach out and touch him. Well, she could if her arms were about twenty feet longer. He didn't seem to be moving much, was he asleep or something. Silly Marco.
"STAR! Listen To Me!" Bill slammed his fist against the cage. He obviously wasn't very pleased with her lack of focus. But Star was exhausted, if only she'd found something to eat.
"You're not my mom, chill out." Star let out a little giggle, it'd be weird if an interdimensional sleep demon was her mom. Did Bill even have a gender? He didn't seem to like her response, but his words sounded distorted, like she was underwater.
"I think it's very possible that the girl has a concussion, why do you want her?" The old grumpy man said. He seemed so serious with his big glasses and trench coat, like the world was at stake or something.
It all came back to her with a snap. The world was at stake! Marco wasn't asleep – he was unconscious. He'd been with Bill for the past few days and had been tortured for the past few hours because of her actions.
"Star! How are the people that were trapped in the Mystery Shack?" Dipper whispered, shaking her. It was like afraid Bill would overhear him, which seemed a little unnecessary because Bill probably had super hearing or something. He hovered at the edge of her vision with a very worried expression on his face.
"They're safe for now. I stopped Bill from finishing them off." Dipper sighed in relief. Star tried to sit up but her arms felt like Jell-O when she put her weight on it. That fight had taken everything out of her. At least she'd been able to land a few good hits before Bill had been able to incapacitate her.
It looked like Bill was ignoring Marco for the moment. Star had to fight the urge to sacrifice everything just to be able to get to his body and save him. Dipper and Mabel would certainly not survive if she let her selfish desires overtake her. Besides, her and Marco wouldn't be able to last long on the run from a demon with near infinite power.
"Alright, Star. Here's The Deal. I Want Out And You Are The Only One Who Can Get Me Out Of Here. I Will Torture Everyone Here Until You Give In." Marcos body was picked up by an invisible force and dragged to Bill. Dipper, Mabel, Stan, and Ford were similarly dragged.
"Hey!" Dipper yelled in indignation. He grabbed a flashlight out of his puffy vest and shined it on himself. He grew too big for the forces to control and smashed through the cage they were in. Bill went to block the hole, but dipper grabbed Mabel and ran deeper into the pyramid. Bill growled as multiple arms sprouted. His body turned from yellow to pure white with red accents. His sclera was black with white veins.
Definitely nightmare material.
After the Bill chased Dipper and Mabel out of the main chamber, Star finally rushed to Marco.
"What did he do to you?" she cradled his head in her lap. Marco softly at the movement. Finally, a sign of life. Star would take it, no matter how faint it was. She brought out her wand and made a healing salve made from mewman plants. She started to gently rub it into the cuts and scrapes on Marcos body. A little color was returning to his face.
Stan and Ford started arguing about what to do next. All they did was blame each other; it was really starting to get on her nerves.
"Would you two cut it out! Dipper and Mabel are out there alone with Bill and you guys still can't get along!" At least they had the decency to look embarrassed.
"You're right." Ford said turning to his brother. "Why can't we just get along like we used to?"
"From now on, let's be brothers." Stan said, pulling his brother into a hug. "Twin brothers."
"That's great and all." Star interjected. "I love a good reunion, and under different circumstances I would definitely join that hug festival, but Bill is still out there. Do either of you have any more ideas on how to defeat him?"
Ford rubbed his stubble thoughtfully. "Well… if we were able to get him inside of someone's head and then erase that person's memory, it could maybe erase him as well. But we'd need to give him a reason for him to get in and the only thing he'd want would be the knowledge on how to escape the portal and I have no idea what's causing it. Even then, we have no way to erase someone's memory."
"I know how to take down the portal," Star said, "I was the one who put it up, after all. But Bill can't get into my head, he told me that mewman royalty had a natural resistance to magical influence since we are so exposed to it."
"Why don't we just trap him in a genie bottle or something?" Marco said. Star nearly cried when he opened his eyes and looked at her. His voice was course, like the inside of his throat had been rubbed with sandpaper, and his eyes were bloodshot. But he was alive and conscious.
"MARCO!" Star wasted no time pulling him into a hug. Finally, after a week of misery, Marco was back by her happy reunion was cut short as the walls shook. Bill's monstrous body crashed through one of the side walls with Dipper and Mabel clutched in his many hands.
"This Is SO Annoying!" Bill screamed. "Just Let Me Take Over The Universe Already." His voices had turned from chalkboard scratching to multiple tritones layered over one another.
"Never!" Although Star was tired, she couldn't give up. She charged Bill once again.
"Acid Rainbow Narwhal Blast!" A blessing of narwhals shot towards him like bullets. Once their horns punctured Bill's skin (did he have skin?), they exploded into a corrosive rainbow goo. Star learned from her previous fight with Bill was to constantly come up with new spells. If she used the same spell a few times, the demon would figure out how to counter it.
Bill screamed and dropped the Pines twins. They scrambled over to Ford, Stan, and Marco, who Star hoped were busy coming up with a permanent way to stop Bill. She could only create new spells for so long, and Bill had beaten her already today. They had a few minutes at most before Bill knocked her out again. At least Star knew she wouldn't die; she was the only one with the knowledge of how the force field received its energy. Although, if she died, then Bill would have no way to bring it down.
The thought left her mind as soon as it appeared. There was no telling how long the force field would stay up so all she would do is delay the inevitable. And since the humans of the town were currently being used as leverage against Star, Bill would have no reason to keep them alive and sane. Besides, Star had never been one to throw in the towel.
She dodged a laser beam so close she could feel the heat singe her eyebrows. It was a little too close for comfort, although a lot of the near-death experiences in the past few days had been that way. She should really be more careful in her adventures, but she just couldn't help herself.
Star's mother would always scold her for her recklessness. always talking about how she was the sole heir to the throne. Star never wanted to be the Queen of Mewni in the first place and now that Eclipsa was revealed to be the rightful ruler, she could take the crown. Would that mean that Star would have to give up her wand? That'd definitely be a bummer, but it'd be the right thing to do.
Star was so caught up in her thoughts that when she dodged a blast of fire from Bill's eye, she missed the left hook follow up. It caught her right in the stomach and she gasped as the wind was knocked out of her. Something was definitely broken. Her breathing was short and ragged because a sharp pain pierced her when she tried to take a deep breath.
Star had never been in so much pain before. She couldn't even scream it hurt so much. She collapsed on the floor, desperately trying to claw herself away from Bill.
"BILL!" Marco yelled. "I want to make a deal." What was he doing? Marco was going to get himself killed. Star was so distracted that she didn't even notice Bills foot until it collided with the back of her head. She was knocked out cold.
AN: Howdy, everyone! Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving yesterday if you celebrate it! If you're doing any Black Friday shopping, I wish you the best of luck and I hope you stay safe. Fun Fact: A group of narwhals is called a blessing! Also, this chapter brought me past the fifty-page milestone on Word, so that's kind of a big deal to me. I'm proud of it.
I also wanted to give a HUGE shout out to ConorMcNamara7 on Wattpad. He's been commenting on my chapter almost everyday this week and it really means a lot to me. Thank you so much, this chapter is officially dedicated to you.
Hope you guys have a good week and I'll see you next Friday!
