Teeth
Time was meaningless and meaning had no meaning. Everything, it seemed, meandered on.
But Alcor wasn't so concerned with that. There were other things to preoccupy him. Mabel's paints and yarn needed organized, again. A summons was pulling him to the other half of the globe. The sense of another demon trailing him niggled at the base of his skull.
There was so much to do.
Which is why Dipper was not amused by the interruption he foresaw taking place in exactly forty-one seconds. Not. At. All. Granted, nothing should be able to interrupt him. He was a powerful demon. But just this once, he would concede that this power surpassed his. He would need a plan.
Taking the home-field advantage, Alcor blipped himself to his mindscape, not pausing for a moment to take in the scenery. His mindscape clung to his humanity more than anything else. The Mystery Shack, that stood proud and sturdy in the real world, was a mere dilapidated shadow of itself here. Gray-scale, rotting wood composed the walls. Through the ruined gaps, he caught glimpses of doors and memories. He turned away.
Instead, Dipper cast his eyes around to the field and forests surrounding the Mystery Shack. In the real world, they would be teaming with the life of the supernatural. Here, in the mindscape, denizens of dreams and nightmares lurked in the shadows. He could see their red eyes, glowing like rubies in the dark.
Alcor smirked.
Projecting orders straight into their minds, he didn't leave them free to agree or disagree. Not that they would object to the violence he had impressed upon them. No. He simply reveled in the authority he held over them.
Speaking of which.
In a blast of fluorescent green light, a collection of creatures entered Dipper's mindscape. Troops of uniformed humans, holding laser guns and emblazoned with patches of the time police, stood rigidly in perfect formation. And behind them, in his floating high-chair, was the Time Baby himself.
Alcor felt disgust creep up inside of him that he didn't remember feeling at their last meeting. He and Mabel had been solely focused on winning the time wish for Soos. They hadn't given the godlike ruler of the future a second thought.
Now was very different.
Dipper maintained his cool, floating lackadaisically back into the old sofa on the porch of the Mystery Shack.
"The Time Police." He sneered, "Do you have a warrant to search my mindscape or is this just breaking and entering by those with power who abuse it?"
"If there is anyone with power who is abusing it, it is you, Dipper Pines!" A squeaky voice proclaimed. A sharp glance from Alcor not only shut him up, but identified the man as Blendin Blandin.
"Do tell." Alcor purred, knowing Blendin had been scared into silence and would provide no further accusations. Dipper straightened the cuffs on the sleeves of his suit, seemingly ignoring the small army on his doorstep.
Needless to say, the Time Baby did not appreciate his attitude.
"Dipper Pines…" Time Baby boomed, in his deep, loud voice.
"It's Alcor the Dreambender." Dipper snapped.
"Which is one of the reasons I have come." Time Baby went on, "While the advent of the Transcendence is a keynote past event that has been recorded in history for many millennia, it is your actions, Dipper Pines, that are changing the future. For the worse. This construct you are creating – Alcor the Dreambender – wreaks nothing but chaos and destruction."
The immortal baby's forehead glowed, casting a projection shaped like an hourglass on the Mystery Shack, with Dipper at its center.
"In my great and powerful name," Time Baby commanded, "I order to stop your pursuits of the real realm and abide by the preordained demonic rules. Accept what you are now. Accept that you will never have a physical form again. Accept my conditions and I will not erase you from every dimension in the known multiverse."
Alcor fumed. This baby, this infant, was asking to abandon everything that made him different. His humanity. His drive. His sister. Was he just supposed to lie down and accept that he would never see Mabel again? She was his sister. And no one would take that away from him.
"This is the past." Alcor growled, "You have not even been born yet, you insufferable brat. To think that you can give me orders. Preposterous. You have no dominion here."
"I am a god of the next age." Time Baby responded. "I am a ruler of time. And you, a mere child, are upsetting the stream of all futures. You have deviated from your course with your lack of morality and human decency."
Dipper laughed. Loud, roaring guffaws that shook the mindscape. The weather vane on the Mystery Shack spun faster than it would in a hurricane. The ground shook. In the distance, the totem pole grew legs and wandered off into the woods, groaning about mangy, magic men.
Dipper stopped as abruptly as he started, dropping his voice into a low hiss, "And therein lies the true paradox. You say that my existence had deviated from its intended course. An existence where I am much more human and decent. But your conditions are that I am to adhere to my newfound nature. To act the part of a demon. I cannot be both."
"Do you not realize? You are a hybrid of sorts. Though much more demon than human."
"Ha! I know that very well." Alcor stood, summoning his cane to his hands, "I am everything Bill Cipher craved to be. I am not 'a mere child' as you so ignorantly assumed. I am fire and death. I am power and life. I am an exponential function. And I am a resident of two worlds. They will be mine. I will have it no other way."
"So be it, Dipper Pines, you condemn yourself." Time Baby boomed. "Men, spread out! Prepare the array!"
From the information gleaned off the minds of the weak humans, Dipper could see plans for the magic circle they were planning to create. Time Baby had extensive knowledge of the future, of demonology, and of Dipper's name. With all those elements, he could create a sound circle that could easily keep Alcor trapped in his own mindscape for centuries.
The demon inside of him raged at the thought of being caged like an animal.
The human inside of him worried that he would never see Mabel again.
"You!" Alcor, buoyed by his rage, floated higher off the ground, almost even with the god of the future, "You call me 'a mere child' but you are nothing more than a spoiled infant that must be placated every time he cries."
Ignoring the gasps of the Time Police at his impertinence, Dipper continued.
"The reason you have taken issue with me is not because I am too powerful for your comfort, but that my presence has so completely changed the future that YOU NO LONGER EXIST!"
Alcor's third eye slid open to pin the Time Baby with its stare. He knew he was right.
"You've come to my realm, desperate. This is your last shot at survival. You're unable to accept that the past is not going according to plan. But let me remind you: THE PAST WAS HERE FIRST! You have no right to interfere. If anything, your interference is what made this happen."
Dipper slashed a hand through the air. A signal.
"I will not pay the price for your mistakes. And I will not lie down and accept the conditions that you have set up to save your own twisted future. You think you can punish me for things I have not yet done? You are wrong!"
From the surrounding pine trees, the nightmares burst forth. Sheep of every shape and size. Covered in eldritch eyes, teeth, tentacles, and wings they made a horrific sight. With black clouds of terror, they smothered the forces of the Time Police. Discordant screams rang out as the victims were forced to live out their worst fears in their heads. The nightmare sheep wasted no time in feeding on their subdued victims.
Souls, in different shades of blue, floated free of their bloody and mangled bodies, like ghost lights. Respectfully, the members of Dipper's flock had left the best part for their master. And now, he was in no danger of being bound.
But the danger had not been completely eliminated. The Time Baby was still powerful enough, alone, to subdue him. He was still a threat.
Alcor did not plan on allowing that threat to continue.
A glance at the bloody maw of a nearby nightmare gave Dipper inspiration. Gathering up the souls unto himself, Dipper reached out with aura and consumed them whole. He didn't have time to indulge in the pleasure of enjoying them. The Time Baby was waiting, and he was getting very impatient.
With a snap of his fingers, Alcor internalized the fresh rush of energy, and Time Baby took that moment to act.
A wide beam of green light swept over the space that Dipper had occupied only milliseconds before. Everything the light touched sizzled and expanded outward in an immense, delayed explosion. Shrapnel, dense bits of mindscape matter, drilled into Dipper's side. Whatever energy Time Baby had used, must have been infused with temporal magic. The pieces imbedded in Dipper's form degenerated into liquid galaxies – like the contents of the Time Baby's bottle.
It burned, in a way nothing had ever burned before, both in his human and demon form. Alcor shrieked in indignation, attempting to swipe it off of him, though it only smeared the matter onto his hands as well.
Golden eyes simmered with intense heat and hatred as they turned on Time Baby. Though the baby's chubby face wasn't capable of such an expression, Dipper was sure he was smirking. He thought his godlike powers gave him the upper hand.
But with a changing future, how much does he really know? He came here thinking he could put a stop to us, prevent us from growing stronger.
Not gonna happen. Dipper thought stubbornly.
He set his hands alight, blue flames vaporizing the liquid galaxy from his gloves. The wounds in his side were still healing, but he didn't have time to wait around for that to happen. Time Baby wouldn't permit it anyway.
He'd have to multitask.
Time Baby's mind beam swept across the clearing that contained the Mystery Shack yet again, dealing more damage to the derelict structure as Alcor successfully dodged. Rolling with the turbulence of the explosion, Alcor focused his third eye on his enemy, looking for weaknesses, openings, and above all, his soul. Weaving magic as he went and tossing fire in the mix added to the mayhem, also preventing Time Baby from moving his high-chair overmuch. The disadvantage of being big, Dipper thought.
Viscous, black matter, littered with stars and nebulae, soaked Dipper's mindscape. It was a horrid violation of his privacy. His mindscape was the one place were no creatures, save the nightmares and dreams, could tread. It was one place he had found to escape his fellow demons.
His ire was palpable in the way his wings were taught, his claws were bent and ready, and his teeth were clenched. Teeth. Alcor was suddenly successful in shattering the mental barriers that had been blocking his sight, overcoming the wards protecting the Time Baby.
It took him back a bit.
Time Baby truly was a godlike creature. Something almost as eternal as he was. Power flowed under his chubby skin in putrid greens and indigo galaxies. The baby didn't care a mote for the loss of his troops. His main focus was bringing down the demon in front of him, restoring order to his future, and maintaining the power he wielded through the time police. The baby had singular focus despite his broad knowledge.
Dipper had not been far off in calling Time Baby selfish.
Dipper also saw his soul.
It was large, practically filling the baby's disproportionately large head. Perhaps that was why he remained in such an infantile form. It's steady glow of radioactive green made Dipper squint his physical eyes subconsciously, even though the light of the baby's soul was purely metaphysical.
Good thing we have such an appetite.
Even after the infantry men, Alcor had room for more in his vast stomach. But it wouldn't be easy to swallow, no matter how he did it.
Teeth.
Tear him apart.
You are the higher power.
The world would become his domain. That was why the Time Baby was here in the first place. To stop that from happening. Which meant that someday, there would be no greater power, no greater authority than Alcor. Godlike indeed.
Alcor grinned at the thought. Instinctively, his power rushed through him, changing him.
If this was some kind of battle for the Alpha, then he would win at all costs.
Dipper's teeth grew loose, coming detatched with the barest touch of his tongue. Blood and tissue ridden pearly whites fell to the ground, and Dipper spat out the last of them to assist in the process. In their place, rows of sharp, pointed teeth grew. Alcor bared his fangs, now shark-like, with animalistic belligerence.
"I might actually feel full after this meal." He cackled.
"Fool." Time Baby was monotone as always, "A human turned demon cannot best me. No star has ever portended such a fate."
"The stars are mine." Alcor hissed savagely through his teeth, "Not yours to make demands of. Just as you cannot make demands of me!"
"Then I will make no demands, Dipper Pines. Just this one decree: die."
In an effort that must have cost much of his strength, Time Baby threw blast wide enough to engulf the expanse of the mindscape. There was no running from this attack. But Alcor wasn't running.
The magic he'd been weaving throughout the entire fight was now channeled through his came. In one swift motion, Alcor drew the hidden sword from the length of the shaft. It shone with gold lightning, and slashed it through Time Baby's onslaught, quick and clean. Energy snapped in whirling torrents, mixing green and gold, as it funneled around him. But his demon magic held. It corrupted the green, turning it one hundred and eighty degrees, back on its master. The additive power of both his own attack and Alcor's was enough to deal a crippling blow.
Time Baby dissolved into his component atoms. His metal high-chair crashed to the ground, no longer fueled by its master's presence. His gigantic soul thrummed, pulling up its vestiges of power to reform a physical body.
I bow to no authority.
Alcor pounced on the Time Baby's soul. It was nearly the size of that ball of yarn he'd once seen on a road trip with Mabel and Grunkle Stan. With ferocious glee, he sunk his fangs into it and tore tremendous pieces loose, swallowing them in bits. It felt like gelatin and tasted like lime and ghost peppers. And the power that sloughed off of it as he digested was pure ecstasy.
I answer to no one.
And I take what is mine.
TBC
So I killed the Time Baby. So did Bill. Gravity Falls has really been going wild lately, it kinda takes me aback that it's on children's television. Anyway, as I've said before, I tend to crank these out when I've got stuff going on in my life. Lately, I've been kinda struggling with authority, so this was a fun way to vent. Happy reading!