Chapter 23: A New Wheel

"Magum?!"

Layla's voice screeched his name. Her fists where at her side, shaking, and her face was flushed red with anger.

"Oh, my lovely Layla, it is nice to see you again, my dear." Magum says smoothly, him giving her a hungry stare. The way he looked at her and said her name made Ford's skin crawl, especially now that he knew how Magum was possessive her.

Layla spits in Magum's direction. "Screw you!" she screamed, her face scrunched up in pure rage and disgust.

Magum gives a sad sigh. "My dear, that's not very polite," he tells her sadly.

"Don't call me your 'dear', you asshole!" Layla screeches, her face a deep red, making her electric blue eyes pop.

Ford slowly moves forward, being partially in front of her. He did it so subconsciously, and he felt like that he should protect her in some way. Magum's eyes narrowed at the sight of that, his hands slowly glowing into a brilliant crimson flame.

"I'm very impressed, Stanford, that you have survived for this long," Magum smoothly says. "I didn't take you as that type at all. In all honesty I thought you would've died from that plasma wound for stealing that infinite die."

Ford growls, him demanding, "How the hell did you know that?"

Magum gives a malicious smile. "I have my sources," he informs. "Because you have that die… we can make a deal-"

"Not a chance in hell, you bastard!" Ford screams, gesturing with his hand in the stop motion. "Like hell I'd make a deal with you!"

Magum holds out a hand. "If you give me the infinite sided die, and Miss Bartek, I can get you back home… you can disassemble the portal so Bill Cipher doesn't get through." He offers.

Ford's eyes widened with surprise, then they narrowed darkly. Like hell he'd trade Layla to go home. The portal was deactivated, Bill couldn't get through. And besides… didn't Magum wanted to get to the Earth dimension?

"Why would you want the portal to be deactivated…?" Ford questions. "Don't you and Cipher have the same goal?"

Magum gives a shrug, his demonic wolves continuing to growl towards the three humans, their pelts a dancing wisp of shadows. "I do have a similar goal, and believe me it will become a reality for myself… but right now I have other plans." Magum stated.

Rick then pokes both Layla and Ford in the back, them using their eyes to see him in their peripheral vision. Rick then raises his portal gun and slowly aims it behind him, him glaring at Magum with daggers.

"Y-y-y-y-you seem to already have a-a-a-a-a plan…" Rick comments. "D-d-d-d-did Bartek already make a d-d-d-d-deal with you?

Magum then glows a brilliant crimson red of flames. "That fool of a man decided he wanted to play on both sides of the fence! When he was making deals with me he was also making deals with Bill Cipher!"

While he was distracted with his anger, Rick shoots the portal gun and grabs both Layla and Ford and drags them in the portal with him. The demon roared with anger in the realization that his prey was getting away, but his wolves managed to get through the portal with them. The three humans were tumbling in the portal as the demonic beasts tried to tear at their throats, but soon they tumbled out of the portal, Rick landing on his gun and cracking it.

"DAMN IT!" Rick shouts as he rolls off of it, one of the wolves tearing into his lab coat. Layla gets her gun out and shoots the demonic wolf, it yelping in pain. She continues to shoot at it until it falls to its side, black blood pooling beneath it.

The other one was at Ford, trying to get to his throat. During the portal jump Ford had gotten out of his trench coat, it now tangled around him and the wolf. He couldn't reach his gun, all he could do was hold his arms out, pushing against the demonic beast's throat to keep its jaws from ripping into his soft throat.

"Ford!" Layla shouts as she then shoots at the wolf, the bullet pierced its flank and it falls to the side.

Ford jumps up quickly and uses his trench coat as a net and entraps the demonic wolf, its shadows seeping through. He gets his gun from his side and continuously shoots into the coat, the demon roaring in anger and pain, soon it stopped squirming as its life slowly fades away. Ford unravels the coat, seeing how it was damaged with many holes and scorch marks. He searches the pockets and gets the photo from when he and his twin brother were children, the edges starting to rip and the corner was singed. He sighs with relief that it wasn't more damaged.

"Is everyone all right?" Ford calls out.

"I'm okay…" Layla replies.

"I-I-I'm not!" Rick shouts angrily, him holding up his cracked gun. "This is b-b-b-broken…! The good n-n-n-n-news is that Ma-Magum-" he then belches mid-sentence as he goes into his torn lab coat and grabs his flask, taking a huge swig before continuing, "Magum won't be a-a-a-able to track us now… the e-e-e-energy signature got lost."

Ford looks at the portal gun, seeing how the glass dome that held the energy source was cracked, the energy source no longer glowing. It was simply useless now. With a groan Ford puts a six-fingered hand to his face, feeling annoyed.

"There has to be a way to get rid of Magum…" Ford muses. "If there is a way to get rid of Bill, then there is one to get rid of Magum."

Rick mumbles and grumbles, ignoring Ford as he looks at his portal gun and tries to find something in his lab coat to try to fix it. He sighs as he also drinks from his flask, him annoyed that his gun was broken, after so many years and attempts to making a successful one.

Layla then hums, her thinking. Ford could help but be entranced but her humming, him thinking it was very relaxing. "I… I think I've read this somewhere before…" she then finally says, her hand going into her trench coat. She then pulls out a small black book, it torn in the cover. "When… when I was with Magum he had this book… it's in a completely different language and I don't understand it whatsoever… but I think I've seen something similar to Bill Cipher's Wheel in here." She then flips through the pages, the pages yellowed and browned with age.

"Is it like a journal of some kind…?" Ford asks, him thinking how he had his journals back in Gravity Falls.

"I believe so…" Layla agrees. "It's Magum's handwriting. I had hidden this book in one of the alcoves years ago and when we were there I grabbed it. I haven't looked at it in years…" She makes a sound of exclamation, her finding the page. She reveals the page to Ford, his eyes widening on just how similar it was to Bill's… even a few of the same symbols were on it.

The picture showed a wheel, just like Bill's. However, instead of the triangle in the center with the one eye and top hat, it was instead something that resembled a large lizard head with no scales but instead a pelt that resembled wisps of flames, it with massive horns that branched off its head that knotted and twisted around in an intricate design, and its eyes were a soulless white. Around the wheel Ford recognized a few symbols from Bill's wheel: a six-fingered hand, a crescent shape, a pine tree, a shooting star, and a llama. There were new symbols as well: an arrow, an oak leaf, something that resembled a flask, an acorn, and a full heart.

"So… he does have a weakness!" Ford exclaims happily. "He even has a few similar symbols that Bill has… so that means a few of the same people can defeat Bill and Magum…!"

"O-o-o-o-oh, goody." Rick mutters sarcastically.

"But… what do the symbols mean…?" Layla asks curiously.

"That… with time, we'll probably know." Ford tells her, taking her hand gently. He then gingerly takes the book with his free hand, him looking at the wheel with a new burning desire to get rid of not one, but two demons. "And now… I need a new coat…" He just had his black turtleneck sweater, his muddy brown boots, and his black pants.

"T-t-t-t-there is a market in t-t-t-this dimension," Rick drunkenly tells him. "G-g-g-go snag one… I'll stay here a-a-a-and fix this."

Both Ford and Layla glance at Rick, the man fumbling with his device. With a shrug they begin to walk away.

"We'll bring you something too Rick," Ford calls over his shoulder.

"B-b-b-b-bring me a-a-a-a-a small nuclear reactor!" Rick demands with a slur.

"Um… no promises," Layla responds.

Ford kept a tight grip on Layla's hand as the two walked off. He glanced his eyes away, him nervous.

"Um… like I was trying to say before… about what happened…" Ford began to say but was interrupted with Layla's abrupt stop and she makes him look at her. "Um… what?" he nervously asks.

Layla then stands on her tip toes because of her being short and goes and kisses him. "You're perfectly fine," she tells him. "I'm… I'm actually happy you did that…" she then lowers herself down and grips Ford's hand tightly. "Now… let's get you a new coat."

Ford's face was a bright red, but nonetheless had a big smile on his face, making him almost look like a young boy. The two then walked off toward bright lights, heading to the market to steal him a new trench coat.


A/N: Hello everyone! Sorry this took so long, but I got a new chapter of this up!

Also, after newfound research, since I was looking for symbols, I found out about the true meaning of the name "Bartek". When I first made Layla's character, her last name was originally going to be Oak as a similarity to Pines, but I found a wikipedia pages that had a list of oak trees and I found Bartek randomly and decided to make that her last name. It is apparently not a type of oak tree, but the name a famous one in Poland, one that is over 600 years old. In Poland they have a saying about being as "strong as an oak" and the Bartek Oak Tree is a famous landmark based on that in Poland. The name "Bartek" is actually the Polish version of the name "Bartholomew", which I had no knowledge of until literally writing this chapter today, so Dr. Bartek's name literally is " Dr. Bartholomew Bartholomew"

Thanks for reading as always!

~Skye Hendersen~