Chapter 13: The Mind is a Terrible Thing
The three companions made their way to a small facility that they had found on the other side of the town after leaving the bar, both Rick and Layla drunk.
"Rick… why did you want to come here?" Ford asks him, but he was ignored.
Rick then finds a bunch of extra metal and some tools and throws them on the table before him. Ford raises an eyebrow and goes into his black trench coat, pulling out the research that was Rick's from before and the scraps of metal he had. Rick sees it and snatches it from Ford and lays it out next the metal, looking at it.
"Maybe you should be sober before you tinker with things." Ford suggests in monotone.
"A-a-a-and you c-c-c-can shut the h-h-hell up!" Rick shouts at him, him throwing scrap metal against each other.
Layla drunkenly giggles, her face blushed a red.
Ford gives himself a face palm. "Are you serious…?" he mutters angrily, mainly to himself. "Next time I won't take you to a bar, Layla." She then leans on him, making him freeze with surprise. "L-Layla…!?"
"M-m-maybe you should l-l-l-lighten up, S-S-Stanford." Layla giggles, her pulling out a bottle of some kind of alcoholic drink she had stolen from the bar.
"Y-y-y-yeah, get w-w-wasted, Sci-Fi." Rick then mumbles. "I-I-I-I'm g-g-g-gonna build you two you're o-o-o-own portal gun, t-t-that way you can escape Magum."
Ford scoffs, "I think one of us adults should be sober in case something happens!"
Rick rolls his eyes. "W-w-w-whatever, Sci-Fi, b-b-b-be a l-l-l-little bitch all y-y-y-you want," he mutters, him tinkering with the devices in front of him.
"I am not arguing with you, Rick." Ford states. Layla was still leaning on him and he gently pushes her away to stand up on her own. However, she just leans back in. Ford groans in annoyance.
"B-b-b-besides, Sci-Fi," Rick continues. "I know the p-p-p-" he belches in the middle of his sentence. "P-person that owns this place… w-w-w-we should be fine." He takes out some tools and starts putting the metal pieces together.
Ford begins to walk away, but Layla was practically glued to him. With a groan he takes her hand and tries to find a room where she could lay down and sober up. After a minute he manages to find a breakroom that had something that resembled a couch. Ford guides her to it and sits her down on it.
"Now, lay down and sober up a bit, Layla," Ford orders, his voice stern. It reminded him of his father when he and Stan wouldn't go to bed in a timely manner.
"O-o-o-or what, Ford?" Layla taunted drunkenly, she sat down on the couch but staggered to get up, but she just fell again.
"Ugh… I don't know… I'll lock you in here." Ford grumbles, him pinching by his eyes and nose in annoyance. He forgot how terrible she was when she was drunk.
She grabs his hand and pulls him down next to her, causing him to yelp in shock. Without a warning she leans against him and falls asleep, her soft snores making Ford stay still. He didn't dare move, and it felt like he wasn't breathing. He felt if he made on movement it would wake her up.
Ford after about fifteen minutes of just sitting dozes off himself, finding that he began to lean on the wall and his head resting on Layla's head as her rested on his shoulder. For the first time in a long while Ford didn't hear Bill's shrill, maniacal laughter echo in his dreamscape.
"H-h-h-hey, lovebirds!" Rick then shouts, causing Ford to jump, Layla yelping as she jumped too and fell to the floor. "I-I-I-I g-g-got the portal g-g-gun to work f-f-f-for-" he belches in midsentence. "-ya guys."
"Rick!?" Layla screeches, her standing up quickly. "What the hell are you talking about!?"
Rick rolls his eyes. "W-w-w-w-well, sorry your d-d-drunk ass didn't p-p-pay attention," he stutters.
Layla glares at him. "Whatever," she scoffs as she pushes her way past him to leave the room.
Ford calmed his beating heart and stood up. Was his heart beating from Rick's sudden loudness or was it from being next to Layla?
Both. Ford rationalized with himself.
"S-s-s-s-so, you and L-L-Layla?" Rick smirked, wiggling his unibrow.
"What!?" Ford exclaimed, a sudden wrecked nervousness overwhelmed him. "N-n-n-no, it's not like that, we're friends!"
Rick gives him a skeptical look. "Right, and JFK was just 'friends' with Marilyn Monroe…" Rick says sarcastically, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. "N-n-now, here!" he then undoes his arm cross and thrusts a small gun device in Ford's hands. It was small and black, looking more like a TV remote than a gun.
"Okay…" Ford drew the word out. "This is not a gun by any means."
"S-s-s-shut up, Sci-Fi!" Rick yells. "I have v-v-v-very limited equipment h-h-h-here!"
Ford sighs and puts the portal device into his inside coat pocket. Rick was still babbling about something, but Ford had longed tuned him out. Once the two were back in the main room where Rick was building the device, they noticed that Layla was nowhere to be seen.
"Layla?" Ford calls out, his voice wavering in worry. "Layla… if you're hiding, it's not funny."
"Y-y-yeah, don't w-w-w-wanna scare Sci-Fi into a heart attack." Rick comments.
Ford glares at him. Slowly, he takes his gun out from the holster on his left side. He wraps his hands around it, one finger on the trigger, ready to shoot. Ford makes his way through the room and gets to the door that led to the hallway of the building.
One light flickers above, however the hallway was mainly pitch black. Ford glances up and down to see if there was any movement. Shadows were dancing within shadows, and he couldn't tell whether or not something was really moving or his mind playing tricks on him.
"Layla?" Ford calls out again, his voice slightly stronger than before.
"You d-d-d-don't got a light?" Rick asks impatiently.
"No… I don't…" Ford replies, his tone sharp in annoyance at himself. He did have a lighter, but it was out of fuel… and Rick was the one that took it for their previous plan and he never returned it. Who knows where it was now?
There was a click, a small brilliant light illuminates, making Ford's shadow dance on the floor. He turns around and sees Rick holding up the lighter that Ford had taken from Stanley. Rick then holds out the lighter to Ford, gesturing for him to take it.
"I-I-I forgot to give it back before…" Rick says slowly. "So, I f-f-filled it with lighter fluid for ya."
Ford takes it, careful of the flame. "Thanks…" he says. "Now… let's go find Layla."
The two walked in the pitch black hallway, only less than two feet being illuminated in front of them from the lighter. Their footsteps gently echoed off the walls, Ford keeping his eyes wide open to try to peer in the darkness. For once Rick was quiet… or at least Ford thought.
"Where do you think she went, Rick?" Ford asks. There was no response. "Rick?" he stops and turns around, holding the lighter out further in front of him trying to get a better look in the darkness. "Hey! Where'd you go?" his voice echoes back to him.
Iciness pulses through Ford's veins. First Layla was gone… now Rick? His right hand gripped the gun as he aimed it forward, the left holding the lighter. A chilling laughter started echoing around him, it wasn't Bill's… it was Magum's.
His hand starts to shake, the gun wavering. The pounding in his chest was making him feel terribly ill, and all he wanted to do was just curl up on the floor. But that wasn't his thoughts… he would never do that… as a kid, yes, but now…?
"Do you realize what kind of demon I am yet, Stanford?"
"Where the hell are you, Magum!?" Ford screams. Something touches him and he yelps, dropping the lighter causing the light to go out. He immediately pulls the trigger, the beams of blue plasma hitting the wall. Nothing was there.
"I'm a psychological and psychic demon, Stanford. Bill Cipher may have access to the Mindscape and Dreamscape, and even the Nightmare Realm… but I have access to every part of the brain…"
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD, YOU BASTARD" Ford's voice was heavy with panic, it was like being in Gravity Falls again, hearing the voices and slowly descending into madness…
"Do you feel it? Your sanity slipping? The mind is a terrible thing you know… I can make you think that you're back home in Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey, happily playing a game of make-believe with your twin brother, Stanley. Would you like that, Stanford? When was the last time you were happy with your brother?"
Ford backs into the wall and slides down, his hand wavering as he lowers his gun. Would that be so bad? To think back on the happier times he had in his life? No… it wouldn't be real… he'd be trapped in his own happy bliss while Layla and Rick suffered.
"So, how about we make a deal, Stanford?"
Ford grips the gun tight, his jaw clenched. He stands right back up and aims the gun steadily in front of him.
"I'm sick of making bad deals with you demons! You devils!" He calmly states. "I will not be manipulated again, do you hear me!? Now, return Layla and Rick!"
The air suddenly felt cold, causing Ford to shudder. His eyes dart around and suddenly his throat felt tight. He tries to gasp, but no oxygen was getting into his lungs. He felt his eyes bug out as he desperately tried to swing his arms and legs to the unknown assailant. Ford felt nothing coming into contact, which made him struggle even more.
Ford was suddenly thrown against the wall, the pain screaming in his body. He felt his head smack against it, something warm dribbling down his neck. Suddenly he was able to gasp for air as his body crumbles into the ground. His head felt hot and it was like being submerged in boiling water.
His mind was back in the family pawn shop, a teenaged Stanley playing with his paddleball and commenting on how attractive an actress was on the TV. Ford felt anger within him. Why was he so mad? He looks down and sees the crumbled up pamphlet to West Coast Tech, the school he wanted to go into but his project was sabotaged.
By his own twin brother.
This isn't real… Ford desperately thought. This is the past… or is it the present and out of anger I hallucinated everything?
"Now do you see my power? I'm making you doubt your very being!"
Ford blinks open his eyes and he felt the cold ground beneath him. He groans and tries to sit up, but was forced back onto the ground with some kind of force.
"How about that deal now?"
Through clenched teeth Ford growled, "You can take whatever deal you have and shove it up your ass!"
There was a sudden scream, and something in his head felt lightened, like a pressure was released. Was that a sign that Magum was there? Ford's thoughts were interrupted when he heard the scream again, recognizing the scream as Layla's. It wasn't a scream of horror, like he had heard at Bartek's Psycho House, but it was a scream of rage.
"Leave him alone you psychopath!" Layla's voice was heard. There was a sudden shot of a gun, a blue light being illuminated at the end of the hallway. The light was just enough for Ford to see his dropped lighter and gun and he makes a grab for those before running.
There was a sudden green light and an odd humming sound. The green light abruptly ended, and Layla's scoff of disbelief was heard. Something must've hit the wall as there was a loud crash.
As Ford made his way, he sees both Magum and Layla both on the ground, her trying to put the gun to his head. He manages to kick her off of him, and he stands up, straightening out his suit that he was wearing. Layla had grunted and fell to her side, her gun slipping from her hand.
"I can't get into your mind, Layla…" Magum comments, almost sadly. "I never could… Dr. Bartek put a different alloy of metal to hide his secrets in your pretty little head of yours."
Ford freezes, him thinking of the metal in his head. The metal was from a facility that Magum owned and was a part of. No wonder why Magum was able to slip into his mind, he needed that specific metal to see into the minds of the people that worked for him and to use his telepathy powers to read minds.
"Well, Dr. Bartholomew Bartek is dead!" Layla counters. "So, you'll never get his research!"
Magum cocks his head to the side. "You're still going to try to protect him after what he did to you?" he says to her, a taunt in his tone. "He never cared for you, he basically said that outright to your face, and you're going to sit here and still protect him?" as he spoke his voice got angrier and angrier, scarlet flames licking across his hands.
"I'm not protecting him," she whispers. "I'm protecting my world!"
Ford went to raise his gun, but he was frozen in place from Magum's telepathy.
"I do have to say, Stanford," Magum lowly says. "I'm quite impressed on how far you have come in these dimensions. But… I'm afraid you are no longer any use to me… I can just let you rot out there and Cipher's henchmen will find you. As long as I have the portal research, I can spread my power across the whole multiverse.
"Bill thinks he has an advantage… he thinks he is all so powerful… but he forgets he doesn't have a physical form, that it was stripped from him long ago. I, however, am a being of flesh and energy, I can easily take over while he is in this weak state!"
Ford couldn't move, his gun was just held out in front of him, the finger on the trigger. But because of Magum's psychic hold on him, he was useless. To his left there was a sudden green light and a circle appears on the wall. Rick steps out, a gun in hand.
"S-s-s-sorry," Rick sarcastically begins. "But I had came to the party with n-n-no presents…" he then raises a gun to Magum. "But I got some now!"
Magum had been surprised at Rick's sudden reappearance that the hold on Ford was weakened. For managed to pull the trigger and the plasma blast hits Magum in his neck. Magum roared in anger and pain, him about to use his hand flick Ford away when another beam hits him, this time from Rick. Then another from Layla.
As Magum tried to hurt one person, the other would shoot, him becoming extremely frustrated. As red flames erupted from him in anger, Rick makes an escape through his portal as Ford ran to Layla and grabbed her hand.
Ford pulled Layla down the hallway where there was a window to the outside. They didn't have time to stop as Magum was on pursuit, his physic energy causing the walls to fall apart and surround him like some kind of shield.
"Ford?!" Layla gasped in horror when she saw him give some kind of smirk.
"You said not to trust no one, and I'm a firm believer on that…" Ford pants, his heart racing from running. "But… you'll just have to trust me on this one."
He sprints faster, forcing Layla to pick up her speed. Ford puts up an arm to shield his face and he braced himself for the impact. His forearm crashes through the glass, the two humans tumbling out the window. The ground was coming up fast, Layla screaming and gripping Ford's hand tighter.
Just as she had closed her eyes to brace herself to hit the ground and die, she felt like she was surrounded in water. She opens her eyes and sees that in fact that she was in water. Her hand was still tight around Ford's, his free hand holding up a small black device.
The two swam up to the surface and both gasp for air. They let go of each other's hands and swam toward the shore. Water, or whatever liquid it was, dripped off their clothes. Ford puts the device back into his coat pocket.
"Good thing Rick made that, huh?" Ford comments. He then looks back into the water. "And hopefully Magum doesn't get to us…" he puts a hand to his head. "It was like some kind of pressure… like I felt that he was in my mind and messing with me…"
"But you're okay?" Layla asks him.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" he comments. "You had disappeared."
"No… you're the one that had disappeared." Layla states. "Rick gave you your lighter and suddenly it was like you vanished."
Ford raises an eyebrow. "Wait… what? That makes no sense…" he gasps in shock. "It must be part of his powers…"
"He is right about one thing…" Layla whispers. "The mind is a terrible thing…" she then throws her arms around him, making his face blush red. "But… I'm glad you're okay, Ford."
He puts a hand on her back, feeling uncomfortable. He then swallows whatever nervousness he had and returns her embrace.
"I'm glad you're okay too, Layla." Ford gently says.
And the two stood there as water crashed onto the shore, them in an embrace as the sun sets behind the horizon.
A/N: FINALLY I GOT A CHAPTER OF THIS DONE! I was so focused with Dipper and Ford in the short stories that I just kept coming up with new ones to write and I was neglecting this. I even got an idea for another set of short stories and even photo-shopped a cover for it.
Since I have been practicing drawing, I'm going to try and get a concept art kind of thing out there for Layla and Magum.
Also, I think Rick ships Layla and Ford XD
Thank you for reading as always! And sorry it took a bit to get this out...
~Skye Hendersen~
