This chapter is dedicated to Thedyingjokepastaway. Thanks man for being there for me. Also I would like to thank LumpyApple, Subtle Shenanigans, Nina EverBlade, TheFalls and all of you who are reading this right now. Thank you all so, so, so, so much for all the support you've given this abomination of work. You have no idea how much it means to me. Now, enough about sappy stuff, let's get onto the story!
The corridors had gone strangely quiet, too quiet. Only a pair of footsteps bounced about the walls, and even the silent breathing could be heard. It was uncomfortable at best, but at least silence guaranteed that nobody was near. Bill reassured Dipper that demon hearing was so acute that they could hear a heartbeat over a mountain, but the boy had explained that human hearing isn't that good. Bill seemed legitimately disappointed at that fact.
Occasionally, a dragon voice would echo round the corridor like a ghost's call, its owner unknowingly guiding her two travelling companions closer to where she was kept.
Right, then left, then straight on.
They had learned their lesson on lowering their weapons, so the sharp cane and the tiny metal rod were held tightly and raised shall anyone attack. But soon the two boys came across a room similar to the one housing the mirror of Jaddrycryn.
More bones. More people died this way. Dipper's stomach twisted into a knot, threatening to puke pure bile, but it just ended in a loud rumble, wailing for food that he'd been deprived of. How many people have these monsters abused and killed?
But again, Bill wasn't interested in the hills of human bones, but instead looked behind the bigger picture and found something Dipper would never find in his right mind.
"What is it?" the brown-eyed boy asked, taring his sorrowful eyes away from the bonehill. His golden-eyed companion held a necklace, a strange crystal attached to it.
"We're finding stuff here I haven't seen a while," said the ex-demon. "This is a demonite crystal. It-"
"It makes things bigger and smaller when light is shined through it!" Dipper finished for him, his nerdness gene acting up when he heard of something familiar to him. "I once created a shrink-grow ray with one of those."
Bill gave him an impressed glare. "Well, well, well, you know more about the supernatural that I thought you would. I'm impressed Pine Tree." With that he pocketed the necklace and once again they were on the move.
"Do you think we'll ever get out of here?" Dipper whispered to Bill a few hundred minutes later, looking up uncertainly at his companion. "This place is like a maze with no exit."
But before Bill could answer, he stood straight and too attention, just like a bloodhound, clasping his hand over Dipper's mouth to shut him up. The next second he pulled them both into a dark crook in the wall, breathing quietly through his nose.
A few moments passed, nothing happened. A little longer, still nothing. What was Bill scared of?
Just when Dipper was about to tare Bill's hand away from his face a stampede of men ran past them through the corridor, just like a herd of bison. Past their thundering footsteps Dipper managed to make out cries of outrage about two slaves escaping and being on the loose. They knew about him and Bill, and the mere realisation of it made Dipper shudder and press himself against Bill's warm body for comfort.
Then, just as quickly as it came, the stampede ended and all once again was quiet. For a moment longer Bill was tense, still, listening, and then Dipper felt his body relax.
"Okay, I think we're good to go," he whispered, peaking out of the crook to look both ways into the corridor.
"How did you know they were coming?" Dipper asked him, finally taking Bill's hand away from his mouth.
Bill looked back at him and gave him a smile. "I might be human on the outside, Pine Tree, but on the inside I'm still the insane ol' demon. I know these sort of things. I know lots of things! Lots of things..." He shifted his voice so it was deeper pitched and slower, but it only made Dipper laugh, for he strangely found it funny and comforting.
"C'mon then!" he whispered as loud as he could. "Let's g-"
He was interrupted by another dragon noise. They were getting more and more desperate by the moment, and louder and louder every time the voice's owner whimpered, whined, wailed and called for help. Her voice gave the boys a kick and they were once again travelling silently down the intertwining corridors.
More quiet moments passed, and honestly Dipper had lost track of time. Was this day or night? He had no idea, for the only light was the torches against the walls.
The dingy hallway opened up into a balcony, an indoor balcony overlooking a lower level. The broken pillars still somehow held up the ceiling, the banister worn and weathered at by time. Rebar hung hopelessly from the ceiling. Those noises, they were coming from the lower level.
No words were needed, Bill and Dipper gently padded up to the banister, close to one of the broken pillars for protection. Slowly, every slowly they looked over to see.
And instantly they wished they didn't.
There is always that sense of disgust and horror when you see someone familiar treated in such a low way, shown absolutely no respect. And that feeling came like instinct, not only to Dipper, but strangely to Bill as well.
Their guide had big, metal chains binding her to the stone walls at each side. The huge metal clasps around her ankles and neck were either too small that they visibly cut off the blood supply or too big, but not big enough to be slipped off. A rope muzzle was tied around her snout, keeping it tightly shut so she couldn't burn or bite. The dragoness the chains were binding was ferociously battling against them, pulling and tugging at them with all her might. And the dragoness was losing.
There was one man standing guard at her, presumably the others have gone to look for the escapees. And that man was hardly keeping himself back at the animal's annoying cries for help and rattling of the chains. Eventually he snapped.
"Shut up!" he snarled at Primrose, who in turn started to struggle harder against her binds. So the man raised his hand, and with it a long whip. With a swift flick he sent it crashing down at her like a venomous snake. The loud crack of the whip was followed by a dog-like whimper of pain.
It was then she showed her weakness. Where the whip had hit her between the wings, it had left a raw-red mark on her dimming, now-dull orange-amber scales. As she stumbled back, now passive and docile like the animal that knew it had lost, she revealed the horrible condition her hind leg was in, so bad that she couldn't put any weight on it.
"You're lucky those two escaped, or you would've been the next prey!" the man threatened, returning to his post without another word.
If Dipper was still a dragon, he would've breathed fire. How dare they treat her like this?
He then felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Have you got a plan brainiac?" Bill whispered to him, his golden eyes not leaving the scene below them. "Cuz I don't have any ideas."
With great difficulty Dipper pushed the rage away and thought. A moment later his expression brightened a little. Without his hesitation he told Bill his plan.
With no hesitation Bill nodded his head and picked up a rock that was laying around the ground, like many others were. With a reassuring glare at his smaller compadre, he got a good grip on the rock and then threw it as hard as he could to the other side of the lower level. Before it hit the ground, both boys hid behind the broken pillar and kept close to the ground. The next moment a loud clatter echoed round the corridors, the sound of a stone hitting the ground followed by the multiple clatters of the roll afterwards.
"Hey!" the man yelled, detecting where the noise came from at once. "The escapees!"
The boys listened silently to the quietening footsteps of the man, along with the diminuendo of the man's cries which in turn faded away into the maze of corridors.
Course clear.
The lower level was not that far off, so it was perfectly safe to just leap off the balcony. At least to Bill it was, who did not say a word before he flung himself over the banister and landed so lightly and soundlessly on the ground he could've been a cat. The golden boy looked back at his brown-haired companion, wordlessly egging him on to jump down.
Dipper looked unsurely at him, before clambering over the banister clumsily before letting himself fall down to the lower level. He was no way as graceful or as light-footed as Cipher was, and his landing was much less smooth as he'd liked it to be.
He had fallen an unhealthy amount of times last year, too many times to count. The most memorable to him being tossed back by the massive Gideon-bot and hitting his head hard on a rock, nearly passing out if it wasn't for Mabel being in danger. So his body was ready, and he picked himself up quickly in spite of his tired muscles and hunger and thirst.
Bill stared at him, clearly expecting him to double over in pain after a fall like that. "Right," he reminded himself. "I remember your body was always durable."
Dipper shuddered. "That's a little creepy of you to say," he pointed out dryly.
Then the ex-demon realised why Dipper was being so hesitant. He hung his head, then shook it as if to shake away the bitter memory.
"Let's get at Crescent Moon, shall we?" he proposed awkwardly. Dipper also nodded his head briskly.
Was Bill really beginning to regret their brief, yet horrible for both possession experience?
The two boys approached the dragoness, who had her eyes tightly shut against the world. She wanted to lie down to rest her tired body, but the horrible chains wouldn't let her, so she just hung limply against the chains, as if she were to fall at any moment.
The two exchanged a worried glance, and Bill cleared his throat quietly. But the dragoness didn't look up. Not even an animal could tell the who the sound of someone clearing their throat belonged to.
"Primrose?" Dipper whispered quietly to her, and at his voice the dragon snapped open her eyes and lifted her head to look at them. The moment she saw the boys her spirit lifted, and her dull scales brightened. She had never looked this relieved and happy. "What have they done to you? I can't look at that muzzle."
Dipper's fingers tightened around the rope that was tied around her long snout and he began to pull. It was tight, and Primrose took the hint to pull the other way. The rope moved a little, but still it wouldn't slip off. Not until a third person came and helped them.
"On the count to three," Bill counted. "One, two, three!"
The three of them pulled with all their might, and with one final tug the rope let go and fell to the floor like an idle snake.
At that moment Primrose made two noises, the first that sounded a lot like 'Bill', the second suspiciously similar to 'Dipper'. Her forked tongue flickered out of her mouth to lick at the boy's faces like an excited dog, lapping at the hair beneath their hats, covering the fringes with dry slobber.
"Alright you oversized snake, you're happy to see us," Bill grumbled, wiping the saliva from his face and attempted to get some out of his already messy hair. Dipper didn't want to offend the dragon, so he let it dry on his face and hair. Oh well, he was never a clean-freak like Mabel was.
"You keep a lookout," he commanded to Bill. "I'll see if I can get Primrose out of these chains."
"Roger that," Bill agreed and took to stand guard.
All while Dipper got closer to peer at the shackles. In reality, they weren't shackles at all. The thing around Primrose's neck, that was a carthorse harness. The shackles at her wings and ankles, those were just dog collars. Did these people harm animals too? It appeared so, otherwise they wouldn't show much interest in the dragon. So it looked like Dipper would have to get Primrose out of binds again, just like he got her out of the snare trap back when they first met.
First came the wings, ones which were bound by studded dog collars, yet easiest to undo the belt-like buckles. Up the wings rose, uncurling to their fullest and waved greatly like colossal military banners, torn but triumphant.
The horse harness took a while. Dipper bit his bottom lip in irritation as he fiddled with the clasps, but he eventually used the metal rod to pry open the clasps and managed to pull it over Primrose's head and lay it gently on the ground to not make any noise. One by one the ankle binds came off, but when he got to the hind leg Primrose was desperately keeping off the ground, she whimpered as he freed it.
It was at that moment Dipper realised that it was stiff, unmoving, yet painful. When Dipper asked her to move the claws, she couldn't. The leg was broken.
Hmm... he needed a split to make sure her leg would mend properly. A long stick would suffice, but where would he find such a twig? His brown eyes set onto Bill's black cane.
"Bill, can you lend me your cane for a moment?" he asked him. Bill glared at him in confusion.
"What for?"
Dipper pointed to Primrose' hind leg. "Her leg is broken, and we need to put on a splint. Can we use your cane to make sure it's straight? We can substitute it for something else once we get out of here."
Bill looked unsure, but sighed in defeat once he realised there was no other way. He tossed the black cane to Dipper, who caught it like catching a regular hockey stick. By coincidence, the length of the dragon's lower leg bone was nearly identical to that of Bill's cane. Perfect!
So Dipper strapped the cane to stiffen Primrose's leg, using the rope that had previously muzzled her. She sniffed at it curiously, just like an animal would when fitted with human accessories. Their cat back at California did that when Mabel tried to dress it up.
"It's a splint," Dipper assured her, once against standing to his feet. "It'll make sure your leg heals properly."
The dragoness nodded reluctantly, taking another sniff at it.
"Guys, it won't be long before those blokes come by here," said Bill. "Let's get out of here before they manage to tare out my other eye."
Dipper and Primrose nodded their heads in agreement, quickly following Bill out into the corridors again. Primrose was limping, but still she managed to step lightly like the humans that set her free.
Now that they've gotten the team back together, they just needed to get out of this horrible place.
If only they knew the way. Oh well, no matter. They would find a way out, or die trying. The latter was most probable, but each of the three would do everything in their power to make it the former. Anybody would.
So once again it was the routine of quietly stalking down the corridors, breathing silently through their noses and carefully stepping to make sure they made as little sound as possible. Tense situations like these caused the sense of hearing to amplify, and caused the three to jump at any small sound that they did not cause. And since this place turned out to be infested with mice, their scurrying sent jolts of panic through the adrenalin-overdosed hearts of the three. Primrose's ears were poised and alert, and Dipper's hands tightened around the thin metal rod he held as his weapon.
It would be often that they would hide in abandoned prison cells to avoid being caught by their captors. Occasionally, it became necessary to knock out the guards that wouldn't budge or let them past. They would do this by a swift punch to the lower jaw or side of the head, if it were Bill or Dipper who did so, or tossing them back into a wall with a powerful blow from a wing or a tail, in Primrose's case. It was always satisfying to see justice delivered to the wrongdoers, and this time was no different. However each tiny victory was short-lived, as the one thing they were desperately seeking was lost.
Whether it was hours, days or weeks, the time spent down in those tunnels kept the trio on edge, hunger and thirst prodding at them relentlessly, a stomach growling here and there. Move tongue, get saliva, swallow.
It was then that Primrose lifted her head, her ears pointing to a specific direction. She whispered quietly to her compadres in her soft dragon voice. An animal had better hearing than a human's, and looked like dragons were no exception. She was their guide, so naturally the two boys followed her without any hesitation.
The human walls grew in size, getting wider and taller, and soon another sound joined that of the travellers, one that even Dipper and Bill could hear.
Steady droplets.
Droplets meant water.
Water meant hydration.
Eventually the smooth-cut stone ended, and opened up into a small enclosed cave, where the illumination of firelight ceased to exist, replaced by the soft blue glow of algae around the rough walls. Dipper tipped back his head to look at the ceiling, where pointed stone blades hung down, lined with sharp ridges. A drip of water hung from each tip, and would drop down to the floor below, where another drop would slowly form and the process would be repeated. Where were the droplets going?
A massive pool of water stood still at the base of the rocks, unable to evaporate with the lack of heat or sink into the solid stone. The pool was so still it showed a perfect reflection of the ceiling, and when a droplet would splash into the reflection, it rippled and disrupted the image greatly for a little while before it returned to its stillness.
WATER!
Dipper was the first to make a desperate dash towards the pool, shortly followed by Bill and Primrose. He fell to his knees by the pool and dipped his whole face into the freezing cold water, opening his mouth and taking in gallons of water at a time. He kept his head submerged, drinking, until air became a necessity and he pulled back, scattering droplets of water from his hair. Never before in his life had he been so grateful for water. The dryness was gone from his mouth, and his organs once again kicked back into regular functioning. A human being could last a long time without food, without water, not so much.
Primrose's tongue flickered out, drinking the cool water just like any animal would, though it was rapid and glad, sending massive ripples throughout the pool. Bill was at his other side, taking the water in his cupped hands and drinking from that. Dipper took a deep breath and dunked his head back into the pool.
Once again he took his face back out, panting for air. Thank the heavens!
"Finally!" Bill breathed next to him. "I needed that."
"We all did," Dipper replied, standing back to his feet. His eyes glanced around the cave that the corridors had lead to. The algae on the walls gave off a strange, pale blue light that was dimmer than the orange torchlight in the corridors. The ridged rocks surrounding the walls were glistening in their glow. It looked like there was no exit this way. At least they got rid of their thirst. "I don't think there's a way out this way," he announced to his two compadres. "Are you ready to keep going?"
Primrose nodded her head and stood to her three working legs. Bill took one last sip before following her lead.
The blue light of the cave melted away and the firelight from the torches once again hung around the now smoother corridors.
Turn left... right... then left again... then straight on...
Hide! The predators are coming!
A few million more minutes passed, and the reassurance of the water faded away into uneasiness once again. They were still trapped down these corridors, and the twisting tunnels were beginning to be repetitive, almost like they've been there before.
The corridors opened up to a room once again, and Dipper's hopes sank.
This is where they found and released Primrose from...
They've been going around in circles this whole time!
"Are you kidding me?" he growled loudly, forgetting for a moment that they desperately needed to be quiet. "Is there even an exit to this place? We're doomed!"
Primrose wailed quietly beside him, ears drooping with her spirit. The dragon and the boy had lost hope. But the ex-demon didn't.
"Stop lamenting," he forcefully told his companions. "I have an idea. I just pray that the Shooting Star was powerful enough to at least grant me this power."
Primrose and Dipper looked quizzically at him. Bill had said repeatedly that Mabel's symbol, the Shooting Star, wasn't that strong a symbol, just like Question Mark, Broken Heart and Ice Bag, and was the sole reason he was stuck as a mortal in the first place. A more power symbol, such as the Pine Tree, Six Fingers or Scholar Glasses, would've reincarnated him fully. But perhaps the Shooting Star wasn't as powerless as he'd made it out to be.
Bill closed his remaining golden cat eye, and focused. For a few moments he stood still and silent, then he grimaced before a wave of power blew his mouth and eye wide open.
His familiar golden eye was gone, replaced by an endless void of stars and universe beyond. Primrose and Dipper looked at each other uneasily, before they became aware of the high-pitched noise that seemed to emerge from the former demon. It was really high-pitched, Dipper could barely hear it, but Primrose flattened her ears and her wings pressed to them to drown it out.
Animals have naturally better hearing than humans do. They can hear the high pitched-sounds that a human like Dipper couldn't, but a beast like Primrose could.
Then the noise stopped, and Bill gasped for air as his remaining eye returned to its normal golden state. His legs gave in, and he fell onto Primrose, who held him up with her massive body. Exhausted he was, which was understandable. All three of them were exhausted, but a mortal body wasn't used to executing such powerful magic like demon magic. Just making his hat and cane appear was a challenge for human Bill, so something much more difficult seemed to tare the living daylights out of him.
He took a few thousand deep breaths, barely holding himself up on Primrose's bulky shoulder. The dragoness lowered herself to the ground, so that if Bill happened to fall he wouldn't have much to drop.
"Well? Are you gonna fill us in?" Dipper asked, sitting down beside the dragoness indifferently, but inside was concerned for Bill. "What did you do?"
Bill panted for more air before he could even answer. "Remind me to never try to use my powers again," he gasped. Primrose whinnied and pressed her muzzle to his forehead, her warm breath making his hair shudder. She was concerned for him too, which was strange since beyond the corridors it was obvious the amber-scaled dragoness wasn't too fond of the golden-eyed boy. "I can... I know where the exit is," Bill announced finally.
Echolocation... of course! Though Bill didn't look smug about his accomplishment; he barely managed it. Like he said, the Shooting Star was the weakest symbol, so even Robbie Valentino, someone Bill never interacted with, could shake his hand and Bill would've been more powerful. But such is fate that the twin sister set the demon free and cursed him with the inescapable human weakness.
"Will you be able to lead us there?" Dipper asked, unable to hide his concern for his companion any longer.
Bill nodded his head and managed to stand, though it was awkward and stiff. Perhaps he was still weak from his attempt to reconnect with demon magic, or perhaps he was confused on why his peers were concerned about him. Why would they be?
"C'mon then, we have far to travel," he told them, looking up at the higher level where he and Dipper had come from. "Question is, how do we get up there?"
For an answer, Primrose limped over to the balcony, and reared up onto her strong hind leg and hooked her claws onto the wooden banister.
Bill went first, using the dragon as a ladder to the balcony. Dipper followed him, and Primrose flapped up behind them. It was progress.
Bill lead the way, instinct leading him blindly. Once again the routine of quiet stepping fell into place. But something was off. Where were the guards? Where were the predators that seemed so content in keeping them down here in these horrible, abusive tunnels? Where were they? Not that any of them wanted to see them or god forbid interact with them, but still, now the silence was uneasy and horrible.
They twisted within the corridors, quickening their pace, eager to finally get out of this awful place. They've been down here long enough.
Finally the corridor opened up into a massive empty space like a school gym-hall, however just as dingy and mouldy as the corridors behind. There were no torches in this room, yet it was still illuminated. In the distance, there was a single exit, where natural light seeped in like honey. Finally, after thousands of years of darkness and artificial light, they saw pure natural outside light.
There! Right there! Their freedom!
This time it was Primrose who made a dash towards the exit first, however a nanosecond later Bill and Dipper followed her, using their remaining strength for the final sprint towards their freedom. Freedom!
But it was too good to be true. Why would the exit be unguarded like that? It seemed too easy... And indeed it was.
Right before Primrose reached the exit, however, an iron cross-barred gate slammed over the exit, blocking off their exit. The dragoness gave a terrified screech and skidded to a halt, causing the two boys following her to smack right into her tail.
Trapped.
Dipper looked back, and his insides flipped inside out.
There were many tunnels leading from the wide room, where hoards of men scurried out like dozens of massive black insects. Some were perfectly healthy, others had bandages around their heads, and one of them... that man... a reddening bandage was wrapped around his torso, clogging the near-fatal wounds in his belly Dipper had given him mere hours before. His cold, dead eyes were fixed on him, not leaving his face, and Dipper instantly backed away to feel Bill's body press against his. The tiny metal rod he had held gladly as his weapon for the entirety of their escape, what could it do against all of them?
"Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." One of the men stood forward, presumably the leader. He had a bushy beard, yet was bald at the top of the head. The others were barely held back, just like rabid dogs trained to kill. What a disgusting sight.
The three backed away so that they were pressed against the cold iron gate, and each felt the cold wind of outside hit their backs. That was their freedom, and an iron gate stood in their way. The men were closing in.
Bill was the first to lower himself into a fighting stance, closely followed by Primrose, who curled her tail around the two boys and spread her wings. Dipper took a deep breath and also prepared himself to battle, his trusted makeshift dagger held tightly in both hands. It was at times like where he couldn't afford to be scared, but he was terrified. There was only three of them, and at least fifty of the predator people. They were badly outnumbered.
"You can surrender to us, and your deaths will be mostly painless," the man continued, his voice calm, disturbingly calm. He knew that the three had no chance to take out all of them. "If you chose to fight, I dare not describe the things my men will do to you. But I assure you, it will be most painful for the trouble you've caused us already."
It was Bill who answered the man. "You liar!" he hissed back, loud enough for everyone to hear. "You'll do whatever you want to us, whether we surrender or not!" Primrose punctuated the ex-demon's words with a loud snarl. Bill was smart. He was buying them some time... to do what exactly? To spare them from doom for just a while longer as far as Bill was concerned.
But Dipper took this time to analyse the room. There were men at every side, each armed with their bare firsts alone, and black belts holding something Dipper could not make out from the distance. Each were cold, older than thirty at least, and banded together. However those big brown eyes of his managed to pierce behind the threat and notice something vital.
Dipper was always a very observant person, and it was those crucial times like these his trait came into his advantage.
At the furthest wall there was something that looked like a wagon wheel, except without the outer rim. It was wooden, and linked up to chains that snaked up the wall and along the ceiling. Dipper's eyes followed the chain, and landed behind him at the iron bar gate. Of course! His heart lifted into a tiny spark of hope. There was a chance! They just needed a distraction- he couldn't do it himself.
While Bill talked, Dipper gently nudged Primrose with his elbow and whispered something incoherent to anyone else. The dragoness nodded subtly and continued to growl and show her side teeth.
"Very well," the leader to the predators replied once Bill told him that they would find a way out or die trying. The man raised his hand, and the men at his command got ready. "Remember, this was your choice." He closed his fist, and the men began to move forward.
"PRIMROSE NOW!" Dipper bellowed suddenly. At his command, the dragon threw her head back and shot a great blast of fire towards the army.
In that moment Dipper darted from the dragon's side, dragging Bill behind him. Primrose was strong, and was armed with fire, claws and teeth. She would be alright.
"What are you-"
"I know how to raise the gate!" Dipper yelled back, desperation clear in his voice. The room temperature rose again, fire now dancing everywhere. Just like in the wildfire. But now, unlike the wildfire, the flames were on his side.
What was once his foe, was now his friend.
Dipper snaked between the men swiftly, pressing forward towards the turning wheel. If he had not been as agile as he turned out to be, he would've had to rely on Bill to bulldoze past the predators. He ran faster, and faster and faster. Until the white chain sprung to life and choked Dipper until he jumped back, spinning round to see why the chain had reacted.
Bill had fallen!
Dipper barely hesitated before he sprung to his aid. He jumped on one of the men keeping Bill down, taring him away. "Get off him!" he yowled, unbalancing the creature until he fell over, Dipper leaping away in the nick of time. Bill shook the other guy off and darted after Dipper.
"Thanks Dip," he breathed as they kept running. The wheel was close now, and the majority of the predators focused on Primrose, who had turned the entire hallway into hellfire. But there were still some in the way.
They couldn't snake past them. There were too many. While Bill lashed out and fought back with his bare hands alone, difficult to say whether he enjoyed the thrill of battle or was deeply grossed out by it, Dipper had another stroke of genius. He raised his voice, and out came a chant that he heard Bill mumble back in their cell. It was a perfect mimicry of Bill's voice, and once again the chain sprung to life. Bill glared at him once he realised the chain was called, but all Dipper had to do was blink at him and he understood what Dipper had planned. What once was a curse could be a blessing. This chain could be their weapon, but they had to work together.
Dipper and Bill as one person.
Luckily they got hang of it pretty quickly, moving swiftly in unison with little to no words spoken between them. The chain between them tensed, then fell, then tensed again, tripping up the brutes or knocking them out with powerful blows. It almost looked like the two boys were dancing together in battle, focused in some sort of trance, the flames about them crackling and reaching higher. The last man realised that he had no chance against the two while they were mind-blended and working as a single being, so he fled into the flames, never to be seen again.
Suddenly the unspoken connection between the boy and the demon was shattered, and they returned back to reality.
Dipper would lie if he said he wasn't stupefied. He realised that he no longer felt any fear, only exhilaration and calmness. Somehow, just somehow, he knew what Bill was doing and acted accordingly, and somehow, just somehow, Bill responded in the same way. Perhaps it was the curse? Perhaps.
"C'mon then Pine Tree, the wheel!" Bill snapped him out of his thoughts and raced the little distance to the wheel, Dipper hot on his heels.
They weren't bothered by the predators while they heaved the wooden wheel with all their might. It turned slowly at first, but gained speed as together they raised the gate, once again unlocking their freedom.
There it was! An open doorway! Their way to safety and freedom!
The brown haired boy gasped in relief, leading the charge towards the door. They would call Primrose once they've found her in the chaos, it was no big deal.
But something made Dipper halt. A loud noise which at first he thought was a firework, but then realised that it was in fact a gunshot.
