*possible trigger warning for torture, but nothing gory*

Chapter 14

"AHHHHHH!"

Ford woke with a violent start as the sound of a high pitched scream rang throughout the darkened plane cabin. Sitting up groggily in his reclined seat-bed, he quickly realised, with absolute horror, that it was coming from the seat next to him.

"Bill!" Ford hissed as his adrenaline spurred and he reached over the seat divider, grabbing Bill's shoulders and shaking them, the demon still hysterical. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

His travelling companion suddenly stopped, and looked around the aircraft wildly, wide-eyed like a feral animal. The quiet in the cabin was stark as Ford slumped back in his seat. People in the aisles were starting to angrily sit up in their beds, looking towards the source of the sudden scream, as Ford shrunk under everyone's irritated gaze. It was, after all, around two in the morning…

"Everything's alright, just a nightmare!" Ford announced, cringing as Bill starting grabbing at Ford's arm. Stanford irritatingly shook him off as their fellow passengers grumbled and went back to sleep. With slumber heavy on his brain as he settled back into his 'bed' and tried to fall back asleep himself, Ford couldn't shake the feeling that something about Bill felt… different.

"Ford… Ford…" his 'brother' murmured as Ford tried to ignore the demon and fall back asleep, his eyelids heavy as he silently begrudged his failed plan. "Ford! I'm...I'm back!"

"Yes, I've been very aware of this fact for the past day and half…" Ford muttered bitterly, hugging the pillow to his ears, but the grabbing hands didn't stop. "Knock it off, I'm trying to sleep here..."

"No, Ford, you gotta listen to me! It's me! It's Stanley!" the man beside him exclaimed, and suddenly Ford sat up like a flash, the blanket flying as he turned towards his brother's body, instantly realizing what it was he'd noticed before - when he'd first been awoken and looked to his brother's wandering eyes, feeling something was out of place, or perhaps back in it.

It was his brother's eyes. They were back to normal.

Ford was staring at his brother, his real twin, his best friend… and Stanley was staring back with tears in his tired brown eyes.

"Stanley!" Ford exclaimed as the two of them practically crashed into each other, barreling into a bear hug over the divider in the seats. Tears were falling down Ford's cheeks with fury, his glasses spattered with salt water as he finally managed to pulled away from his brother with his hands on Stanley's shaking arms. Ford smiled proudly at his brother, who smiled back wearily with a heavy, relieved chuckle. "You made it."

Alone, in a darkened room, lied a demon flat on his back. The air was frigid as Bill opened his eyes to the darkness.

"Ugh… didn't realise that stupid human soda could knock you out like that…" Bill muttered to himself as he sat up, jet black hands propped up against the ground. Something that felt oddly like splintered wood…

The human feeling of sleep still lingered on Bill's consciousness. It was disorienting, and unpleasant, to say the least. The demon squinted against the darkness, recoiling at the faint scent of pine needles in the air.

"Hey, Sixer!" Bill called out, his mind starting to clear as he looked around in the darkness, chuckling to himself. "Hehe… who turned off the lights in he…"

Bill stopped mid-thought as he suddenly realised that something was very wrong.

Wrong, and far too familiar.

Bill trembled as the lights flashed on, mercilessly bright as his triangular shadow fell across the shrinking prison. Peeling wallpaper, wooden floors, and the sickly stench of Pines.

The demon fell to his knees, terror grabbing him like a vice as his tightly clenched fists shook, before he slammed one of them against the splintering wooden floor of Stanley's Pines' mindscape.

"NO!"

"So how did you do it? What happened in there!? Has Bill been hurting you?" Ford asked, the questions flying out of his mouth a mile a minute. Stan could already feel his head spinning, and was grateful that everyone onboard the plane was fast asleep so that the twins could have some privacy. Stan went to answer, but his words froze in his dry mouth as Stan suddenly noticed the giant bruise on Ford's jaw.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Did Bill do that to you?! Did… did I do that to you?" Stan asked fearfully. Ford shrugged it off, trying to fake a smile.

"I'm...fine. Bill's done worse to me," he replied, trying not to think about the validity of that statement too much. There were more important things to focus on now. He smiled at his twin. "I want to hear about you, Stanley."

"Oh, god, here do I even start?" Stan said with a laugh, thinking back on the impossibly strange circumstances of the past day-and-a-half. "Well, for starters, Bill was keeping me locked up like some kinda… wild animal, and then there were these two dopes that I conned into letting me escape, and…oww, why does my right eye hurt so much? It feels like someone punched it from the inside! Huh…actually I think Bill was usi..."

"STANLEY!"

Stan turned pale as a ghost as his words evaporated on his tongue, the man suddenly as stiff as a board in his cushioned seat as fear rushed through him like white rapids. It felt like ages since he had heard that shrill voice ringing through his thoughts... the indistinguishable voice of Bill Cipher. Ford hesitantly looked to his brother, who was trembling.

"...S-Stan?" Ford said hesitantly, when his brother suddenly looked to him with panic in his eyes.

"We don't have a lot of time," Stan said, trying not to let his focus on reality slip. Ford grabbed Stan's hand as he tried to keep his brother grounded. The clock was ticking...

"Okay, I suppose I'll just skip to the important part then," Ford said hurriedly as he reached into his pants pocket and retrieved a large sheet of folded blueprint paper. He pulled out the sliding desk in front of him and laid out the blue graph paper, smoothing out the creases as Stan's eyes widened. "These are the blueprints for the external doorway. It's simpler than it looks, really. See, I took the essential concept of the portal use from…"

"Quick version, Sixer!" Stan said as he tried to stay focused. Reality shimmered before him like stained glass as he felt himself losing his grip. His fingers clenched over the ends of his armrests. It helped a little.

"Sorry, okay," Ford restarted, mentally chastising himself for forgetting Stan's fleeting situation. He pointed to the corner of the blueprints. "This is the only part you need to know about anyways - this is how we're finally going to get Bill." Stan eyed the diagrams, trying to make sense of the basic mechanics. "Essentially, Bill's going to think this portal, here, is the way out - his way home. Except it won't be. The second he touches it, it will corrode his demonized, molecular structure…"

"Ford, English!"

"Sorry! Short explanation… it should incinerate Bill on contact," Ford said, his gaze hard. Stan grinned eagerly as he thought of the demon, who'd terrorized their family enough for a lifetime, falling right into their trap. Something flickered in his mind, though, as Stan looked at the blueprints… something important… and suddenly he gasped as he remembered.

"He knows!" Stan blurted out. Ford furrowed his brow.

"Knows…?"

"Ford, I think he knows about the plan!" Stanley exclaimed, and Stanford's eyes bulged in fear. "Bill… he said something weird to me earlier today, something about going home… but he said it all sarcastic-like, like he didn't really believe it. I think he already knows the machine is gonna kill him!"

"Wait a second, do you think Bill see us right now?" Ford exclaimed, trying to keep his voice down as he started to panic. Stan suddenly grimaced as he felt himself being pulled back again, and fought to hold on, grabbing onto Ford's hand with a death grip.

"I don't know!" Stan choked out as he felt his grasp on reality slipping away. "Ah-gh! Ford! I'm being pulled ba-"

Stan's eyes drooped closed as his grip loosened on Ford's hand.

"Stanley!" Ford exclaimed under his breath, his brother's hand cold as ice. Ford recoiled instantly as Stanley's eyes snapped open again, back to the sickly shade of yellow that Ford was far too familiar with, Bill's snake-like pupils staring murderously into the pits of Ford's very soul.

"You drugged me?!" Bill seethed, before grimacing as he began to convulse. Ford quickly realised that Bill was fighting for control over the vessel, just like Stanley had. Hope lit up in Ford's eyes - Stan was fighting back.

"Oh… no… you… don't!" Stanley's true voice cried, struggling to take back control of his body. Stan's eyes flashed white again in a triumphant moment, but not for long. The shimmering orbs quickly deepened to yellow again, Bill's slitted pupils wide in what was, unquestionably, fear.

"No!" Bill exclaimed, clenching Stan's body's fists. Ford watched, terrified, as the struggle continued, Bill's yellow eyes now shining blood-red. "I'm not… going back in there! You… cAN'T… MAKE ME!"

Stan grunted as he grabbed a steady hold of one of Cipher's kicking legs, sticking halfway out of the right eyeball, and pulled with all his might. The platform he'd conjured beneath him wobbled, threatening to tumble down to the ground beneath him at any moment. Stanley knew better than to look down.

"AGHH! MIND-FORD, you gotta help me!" Stan called out into the unstable mindscape, rapidly flashing back and forth between a vision of the darkened Fearamid and Stan's own living room. He breathed a sigh of relief as Ford soon appeared beside him, seemingly floating midair. Stan glanced down briefly at Ford's feet, and grinned at the flames shooting out of his twin's boots like mini-jetpacks. He'd always thought that'd make a great invention for the real Ford to invent. "Quick, grab his other leg!"

Cipher was holding on tight, and the twins grunted as they heaved with all their might, Bill trying desperately to shake them off

"I've got a plan! Follow my lead! Pull hard on three!" Dream-Ford cried, Stan nodding resolutely as they both strengthened their grips on the demon's flailing, jet black legs. "1! 2! 3!"

With a cry from the twins, Bill's grip on Stan's physical body finally slipped, and with a loud pop he emerged from the right eyeball. All three bodies fell towards the floor of the mindscape in a flurry of limbs and screams. They landed hard on the ground, alternating furiously between old wood and cold stone. Stan gasped as the wind was nearly knocked out of him, rolling towards the demon and taking Ford's lead. With a single look exchanged between them, they tackled the blood-red demon, and a spray-can materialized in Ford's hand. Stan smirked at what was about to come next.

"AHH! NOT THE EYE, WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE EYE?" Bill cried as Ford threw away the used spray-can and helped Stan hold down the hysterical demon. It was perfect, Stan thought to himself with a wicked grin - now Stan and Ford had a perfect window of time where Bill wouldn't be able to see what was happening on the other side...

"Stan! What are you waiting for? GO!" Ford barked as his head whipped towards his stunned brother. Stan knelt there for a moment in silence, and shook his head as tears formed in his eyes.

"But he'll kill you!" Stan protested, but he was quickly met by Ford's strained response.

"Stan! I'm just a figment of your imagination!" he exclaimed as he struggled to hold Bill down. "Now GO!" Stan nodded hesitantly, a jet-pack appearing on his back, and without another word, he blasted upward bound. Bill screamed, his eye useless as he twisted himself back and forth, writhing under Ford's weight.

"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS, STANLEY!"

Stan clenched his teeth, a tear falling from his cheek as he blasted straight into the massive left eyeball…

… and gasped for air as he woke back up in his real body, safe on the airplane. Stanford looked to him for a moment, squeezing Stan's hand on the armrest, before Stanley sighed with great relief - he really was back this time, but for how long… he couldn't say, and he looked to his brother urgently.

"We don't have a lot of time, Sixer," he said, still a bit breathless. "This probably isn't gonna last too long, so I hope you got a plan." Ford nodded eagerly.

"I do - I just finished sketching this, check it out," he said quietly as he flipped over one of the complimentary napkins lying on the desk beside the blueprints. The concealed side of the napkin was covered in lines and symbols, and some kind of lever. With a smile to his brother, Ford moved the napkin over the blueprints until it fit into the picture like a hidden puzzle piece. Stan's eyes widened.

"That's brilliant…" he smirked, eyeing the design of Ford's latest improvement, and how simple and effective it was. "You're sure he's gonna fall for that, though?"

"He will as long as we both carry out the plan I've conceived to accompany it, from inside the mind and out of it, but we have to perform it to the letter," Ford stressed as Stan nodded. "Okay, here's what we're going to do…"

Bill stood, alone, on the raw wooden floor of the mindscape, and with a crack of his wrists, snapped Ford's glasses in two. They fell to the ground with a clatter, before they were crushed under Bill foot, the heat emanating from his red-hot form melting the lenses to a puddle beneath him.

His eye still stinging, Bill let out a long, slow breath and began marching towards the far most wall. Under his command, the floor began to expand out before him, so as to give him time to heal his eye, and to settle his raging thoughts before he woke Stanley from his little daydream.

"I knew I should've used more restrains…"he muttered to himself, as he suddenly noticed with feigned interest that the wood floor beneath him was catching fire. He laughed as he thought about burning Stanley with just the touch of his palms, after Stanley had punched him into interdimensional dust in this very room. This Axolotl DAMNED ROOM...

"No..." Bill growled, his voice lowering an entire octave as the room began to pulsate around him, his fury no longer contained to his own form. "Physical pain alone is too easy."

He eagerly extended his arms in front of him and cracked his knuckles, his vein-sprawled eye curving upwards in his own sort of mouthless smile. The revenge he had planned for Stanley was a bit more complicated and energy-consuming than the last one, and ran the risk of speeding up the demon's theoretical time limit in Stanley's mind, but at this point it was unavoidable. Stanley had simply become too dangerous.

And as for Ford… Bill hadn't yet made up his mind how he was going to tackle that little problem. One moment of naivety had been all it had taken for that nerd to deceive him. Bill was actually a little impressed - Stanford had proven to him time and again how ballsy he'd become since their first encounters thirty odd years ago. Bill didn't need an opponent in this game though, and Ford truly made for a much better back-scratcher than he did for a psychological opponent. Bill would have to ensure that Ford was reminded of that fact promptly. Embarrassing the man wasn't enough - he'd have to be more severe in his tactics…

Tactics that would have to involve the blueprints that had continued to slip through his fingers. The blueprints that the Pines twins were probably cackling over at this very moment… Blueprints which would likely be disposed of before he even got back into that decrepit vessel.

Bill seethed as he snapped his fingers and Paci-fire and Pyronica appeared beside him. They were nearing the end of Bill's elongated hall now, the wallpaper peeling off the tired, stale lumber like shredded skin. What he wouldn't give to peel away some of Fordsy's skin in retribution… but it wasn't enough. Bill knew just what to do to hurt the Pines the most - all of them, and their idiot friends.

It'd be a performance for the ages.

"You know what to do!" Bill commanded, bristling in anticipation, and at once, both of his goons reached into the crying-clown painting on the wall and began to pull.

"Okay… are you sure you're clear on all the steps?" Ford confirmed as he finished tearing up the blueprints and the accompanying napkin, having committed all the important parts to memory. He quickly stashed the shredded paper in his complimentary, airline barf-bag. Stan nodded assuredly, giving his brother a crooked grin.

"Bill's gonna be in for a big surpr-ISE! Arggh!" Stan suddenly gasped, clenching his teeth as his whole body stiffened. His vision began to grow dark at the edges as his brother leaned over him, grabbing Stan tight by the shoulders. "L-lllooks like this is… ugh!... it, Sixer!" Ford squeezed his eyes shut as tears threatened to fall.

"Just remember that Bill can't hurt you in your own mind, Stan! Whatever he does to you in there…" Ford trailed off as his grip on his brother softened, "... just remember it's not real, and that you'll be back with us soon. I promise, Stan - I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

Ford practically threw himself onto Stan in a desperate hug, Stan clinging to reality by a thread as he weakly held his twin brother.

"Aghh… don't worry, Ford! I'll be back before you can say Gravity Fa-"

Stan's body slumped forward, Ford managing to catch his brother before he hit his head on the pull-out tray.

Ford shuddered, his cheeks wet as he leaned Stan's body back in his seat, and reached up to press the attendant assistance button above him on the low ceiling. Within a moment, a young woman with short blonde hair appeared beside him.

"I'd like to dispose of this," Ford uttered, to which the attendant nodded and took it from him.

"We'll be landing shortly, sir. I can help you adjust your seat back to the upright position now," she offered. Ford nodded, his mind elsewhere as he glanced over to his brother's body.

Why hadn't Bill woken up yet?

Stan grimaced as he was pulled back into the mindscape, the two, strong pairs of hands that had grabbed him finally releasing as the group of them tumbled through the wall and onto the rough, wooden floor of the shack. Stan let out a faint *oomph* as he landed flat on his face, the floor beneath him quickly transforming back to the cold, stone floor of the Fearamid. He tried to stay calm as he felt one of Bill's monsters put a heavy foot on his back to hold him down.

Bill's cackling suddenly echoed off the walls, filling the space like poison gas as the hairs on Stan's neck stood straight up. He strained his neck to look up and watch as Bill floated down from the air to meet him, glowering down at the man with his upturned, smiling eye.

"Stan Pines… you're a whole lot stupider than I thought!" Bill laughed, his hands on his hips as his feet finally touched the ground. He looked down with pitiful glee at the captive human lying at his feet, snarling up at him. "I mean, did you and your freak of a brother actually think you could pull one over on me like that and get away with it?"

"Yeah, we did," Stan replied with a gnarled smirk, blowing a stray piece of hair out of his face. Bill goons began to laugh. "And I'm not as dumb as you think, wiseguy! Don't forget what happened back in August when I shattered your one-eyed mug into the dirt!"

Bill's brow lowered annoyedly as he adjusted his bowtie, and he slowly knelt down, as condescendingly as he could, to face the man.

"Listen, buddy - I've been at this for longer than your pathetic excuse for a galaxy has existed," Bill said as he chuckled, and flicked Stan's nose playfully, just to see him squirm. "Trust me when I say that you do not want to get into it with me."

"Yeah, well, I'm already in it, Bill, and I'm not some little chess piece that you get to manipulate!" Stan spat back, looking the demon square in the eye as the Bill's pupil narrowed. "I know how to play the game now, and I'm showing my hand!"

With a loud snap, Manly Dan, Tats, and Ghost Eyes suddenly appeared mid-air and, with a battle cry, they jumped on to Bill's goons. In a flurry of punches, tackles, and screams, the demon baby holding Stan down eased his grip on him enough for Stan to escape. As he watched the chaos unfold in the center of the room, a thick baseball bat appeared in Stanley's hand with a snap. He smirked as he let the bat fall into his open palm menacingly, and he looked towards Bill. The demon was hovering over the fight, yawning for effect as he looked Stan in the eye from across the room.

"Oh wow, didn't see that one coming, Fez. Really knocked that one outta the park," he taunted, looking down at the scuffle with disinterest.

"ARGH, I'm gonna knock YOU OUTTA THE PARK!" Stanley cried as he rushed towards the demon, wooden-bat ready to swing. Bill simply chuckled as he watched Stan get closer.

"You know, Stanley, I think you're forgetting a pretty crucial fact right now," Bill said calmly, with little concern as Stan charged towards him, crying out with wild abandon. "As long as I'm in here, I OWN YOU."

Everything around them disappeared with a snap, and Stan blinked as he was suddenly surrounded by nothingness. Bill, Stan, and their creations floated in a white void. Stan looked around, panicked, as Bill giggled.

"You clearly don't remember who you're playing with, pal. Maybe THIS will jog your memory!"

Stan gasped as a long black tendril reached out from the void and snaked around his body, squeezing him like a boa constrictor as Stan struggled for air. The feeling was deathly familiar from the events of Weirdmaggedon. Stan looked around wildly as he saw his creations entrapped too, and surprisingly, Cipher's lackeys as well.

Bill's demonic laughter filled the space as his silhouetted image appeared before them, monstrously huge as his eye shone a blood-red spotlight down on Stanley. He squinted against the harsh light, his stomach in knots as Bill stared down at him like a vengeful god.

"Everyone! Give a big hand for our pathetic friend Fez over here for actually trying to outwit me!" Bill cackled. Bill's cronies laughed manically as they did as they were told, their hands suddenly freed from the tendrils. Their slow, sarcastic clapping rang through Stan's skull like thunder. "You sure are funny for a puppet, Stanley!"

"I ain't nobody's puppet, Bill!" Stan barked, his lungs tight and starved for air as he tried not to choke. Bill snickered.

"You do realise with the double negative that you just said you are somebody's puppet, right?" he asked with a chuckle as he removed and brushed off his hat, Bill's eye upturned in a sinister smirk. "I'd say your lack of intelligence compared to your nerd of a brother's is, what's the word… Oh yeah! SHOCKING!"

Stan's entire body seized with pain as the coiled tendril around his body lit up in a flash of light, jolting him with electricity. He wasn't the only one, as screams began to fill the air. One by one, the creations poofed away, including Bill's own cronies, who cried out for mercy. They were met with a cruel laugh from their master.

"You see, Stanley? Unlike you, I'm not a sentimental moron who believes these projections are real or have feelings! They're not like you and me, Stan. In fact, I have a feeling you could handle this kind of pain for a lot longer than those guys!" he shrieked with glee, and the tendril holding Stan lit up once more as Stan barred his teeth, not letting a scream escape from his trembling lips. He wouldn't give Bill the satisfaction. "It's funny, you know. I technically did promise Fordsy that I wouldn't 'touch a hair on your head,' which I take it, in English non-formal speaking terms, means not to hurt you… but I tend to take wordings fairly literally. And plus, I'm not even touching you! Look, no hands!" Stan couldn't help the scream that escaped him this time as another electric shock jolted through his body, leaving him slumped and weak as the tendril suddenly released him. He fell to the ground in a slump, trying to will himself to stand up, to move, to do anything.

"But I'm getting carried away," Bill relented as he shrunk down to his normal size and color once more, looking to the writhing man on the ground before him. "Don't wanna get full on the appetizer before the main course!"

"Main… course?" Stan gasped as his muscles spasmed. Bill laughed.

"Oh, you didn't think this was it, did you?" Bill asked rhetorically, faking surprise as he floated over to Stan with his hands behind his back, chuckling as his voice sank lower. "No… I'm just getting started." Stan groaned as he managed to get onto this hands and knees, his body wobbling like gelatin.

"You can… torture me… all you want. Just don't… hurt… Ford!" Stan managed to squeak out, snarling at the demon.

"Oh, I'm not going to hurt Stanford… physically at least," he snickered to himself. He had to be careful not to let on too much to old Fez - Bill still had the big day to look forward to in Gravity Falls, and he wasn't going to let anything ruin that. "And speaking of which, I've got to be heading back soon. This body's gotta get onto the next airplane! And since you like exploring so much, you'll be going someplace new!"

Bill waited for a response, but Stan didn't give him one. He simply glared up the demon, unflinching.

"You're not going to ask where?" Bill asked dryly, shaking his head in disappointment. "Geez, you're as boring as Sixer..."

"Don't call him that!" Stan suddenly yelled, startling Bill a little, his eye upturning in glee.

"Ooh, there's that Fez fire… It seems I've struck a nerve!" he said giddily as he floated closer to Stan. Another tendril came down from the void and scooped up the man, raising him up so he see eye-to-eye with the demon. "I'll have to tell Sixer that you say hi, seeing as you won't be coming out until the big day!"

A swirling vortex opened up below Stanley's feet, and the tendril started to loosen around his body before the fall. Stan gulped as fear began to seize him again, his feet dangling as he felt himself starting to slip. He finally growled out the response Bill was looking for, just for the sake of his own sanity.

"Wh-where are you taking me? What aren't I comin' out of?!"

Bill's pupils narrowed to a slit as he laughed, his demonic voice filling the room and booming through Stan's head as the tendril let go of him and he fell, screaming into the abyss.

"YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE."

*AUTHOR'S NOTE*

That last scene has been one of my favorites so far to write. What can I say? Bill's a messed up dude :)

Two or three chapters left to go. Things are seriously heating up now (since they are, after all, in Cipher hell...)

See you for the next one ;D I'm gonna say... three weeks! Maybe sooner if I have time on my hands!