WARPED
Chapter 30
The darkness rescinded all at once.
Lucy was slammed back into her body, jolting her back into reality, and leaving her dazed. She blinked rapidly, gazing around at the real world. She felt...different. Her head was cleared, almost like she'd taken aspirin after a horrible headache.
The first thing Lucy took in, in the foreground of her vision, was Jocelyn, who was writhing on the ground by Lucy's feet.
The first thing that Lucy heard was a terrified scream of, "JOSS!"
Hazelle. What was wrong with Jocelyn? And why couldn't Lucy remember anything after struggling to make her way to Jocelyn, trying to warn her?
Her thoughts were a swirling mess in her head. She'd had a goal. She'd wanted to warn Jocelyn about Bill's horrible plan to possess her and use her powers. But what had happened while she was out?
Lucy felt a sickening bolt to her chest as Hazelle ran over to Jocelyn, followed cautiously by the Pines.
"Jocelyn?" Hazelle asked tentatively. "C'mon, Joss."
Lucy heard Hazelle's stricken gasp, and quickly sat up, ignoring the pain in her head.
Jocelyn's eyes were open. And they were glowing blue.
Lucy managed to yank Hazelle away as Jocelyn sprung to her feet, grinning at the group that stared, dumbstruck, back at her. "Now this…" Jocelyn inhaled, breathing in the woods, her eyes so blue they almost hurt to look at. "This feels great," she continued. "Like putting on your best old tux, huh? Man, it's amazing how some sweet threads can make a guy feel great!"
She breathed in deeply through her nose. "This one's a fighter, but it doesn't matter. I won in the end."
Lucy watched Hazelle nearly tackle Jocelyn, only held back by Dipper and Stan. "Get out of her," she hissed, the most venomous Lucy had ever seen her. "Get out of Jocelyn!"
"Oh, you don't need to worry, Caduceus," Jocelyn said, flexing out her fingers and rolling her ankles. "Now that I've got Music Note, I'm not gonna possess a wimp like you! You don't need to worry about me taking you over or anything like that."
Hazelle narrowed her eyes.
"I mean, I guess you guys probably should worry about the fact that now I'm gonna take over this reality," Jocelyn went on. "But by all means, do what you feel, feel what you do, ya know?"
"Take over this reality?" Lucy gasped, hands flying to her mouth.
"Well, duh, Pen! Why do you think I've been after you three?" Bill flexed Jocelyn's wrist, blue sparks dancing atop her fingers. "I can't conquer and warp life as you know it without a physical body! One of the letdowns of being of pure energy: can't interact outside the dreamscape. But now...oh yes, now, things are gonna change."
The horrified group was blasted back as a portal appeared above Jocelyn's head: the biggest she'd ever done, larger than a schoolbus, and deepening rapidly by the second. Her hands were raised above her head and her hair was whipping around her face. But this time, Jocelyn didn't look like some goddess. She looked like a demon straight out of hell. The portal stretched and whirled, blocking out the sky and eclipsing the woods into twilight.
"We gotta get outta here!" Stan yelled.
"And go where?" Dipper demanded, clutching Journal #3 to his chest. "That thing is gonna swallow all of Gravity Falls!"
Jocelyn's cackling laughter reached them from yards away, sending goosebumps down Lucy's arms. "Right you are, Pine Tree! Once I've absorbed Gravity Falls, it and all its residents are gonna be warped to a whole new reality of my own design. You'll all be trapped and under my thumb, living in your own isolated dimension! Oh, and trust me: you, or anyone for that matter, won't be portal jumping any time soon. Not as long as I have a say in it. And I do!" She cackled again, sending shivers down Lucy's spine. Jocelyn's voice sounded so wrong mixed with Bill's evil laugh. Her usually cheerful, grinning face was now plastered with an ugly sneer. It wasn't right.
The group slowly backed away, ducking out of the tornado Jocelyn was creating. Everyone looked distraught. How could they fix this?
Hazelle looked even more distressed than the rest. Jocelyn was her best friend. Lucy felt left out and alone. Hazelle didn't react like this when she was being possessed.
"YOU!" Hazelle turned on Lucy, tears in her eyes. She looked frantic, and beyond upset. Lucy froze.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! IF YOU HADN'T MADE A DEAL WITH THAT- THAT THING, JOCELYN WOULD STILL BE WITH US!" Hazelle's voice had taken on a vicious quality that Lucy had never heard before.
"What-Hazelle-" Lucy backed away, holding her short curls down from the wind. "Look, I know I messed up! I felt so lost and alone and you guys weren't making me feel any better! He offered to at least listen to me!"
"We TRIED!" Hazelle yelled, eyes blazing.
"No, you tried! Jocelyn didn't give a damn whether or not I was even around! And you hovered around me like a stupid mother hen!"
"Because you were isolating yourself! What would you have prefered I do, ignore you?"
"I-I-I don't know," Lucy admitted, her knees wobbly. And really, she didn't. That time in her life was a blur now, like they'd crash landed in Gravity Falls years ago. For all she knew, they did.
"Okay, this isn't helping us right now," Dipper interjected. "We need to focus. How are we going to help Jocelyn?"
"We gotta knock Bill right outta her," Stan proclaimed, cracking his knuckles. "You idiots get out of here and somewhere safe-I'm gonna teach this triangle some manners."
"No," Lucy declared. She was shaking, hands clenched into fists. "This is all my fault. I started it, and now I have to finish it. Hazelle, I need you to open a portal."
"Me?" Hazelle paled, the anger rushing out like an inflated balloon. "Where have you been? You know my portals are the size of Frisbees."
"Well, Jocelyn is a little busy right now and I don't even know how to open one. It has to be you. And while that happens," she added, face darkening, "he'll be distracted enough for me to tackle him."
"And what?" Stan challenged. "Knock the crazy right out?"
"Well, that worked to get Bill out of her," Dipper said.
"So then what after you ideally get Bill out?" Hazelle asked.
Lucy rubbed her arms and bit her lip. She couldn't believe what she was considering...but it would work. It had to work. "I'll fix this."
"You'll-"
"I'll fix this, Haze. Please. Trust me."
Hazelle looked like she wanted to argue, but another burst of maniacal laughter ripped from Jocelyn's throat, coated with Bill's madness. Trees from the woods were being tugged from their implanted roots and flying into the massive portal, the wind turning everything topsy turvy. She didn't have time to fight with Lucy's apparent plan. "Okay. Okay, I trust you."
"We do, too," Mabel added, flashing a smile. "What should we do?"
"Nothing," Lucy replied shortly, rising to her feet.
"Nothing?" Dipper demanded, red with outrage. "You're kidding! After all this time, after everything we've been through-"
"You're just gonna make us sit here like a sad sack of potatoes?" Mabel shrieked.
Hazelle met Lucy's gloomy eye and understood entirely: even from the start, Lucy had been able to differentiate between reality and fantasy. Lucy could tell it hurt her heart in a way she didn't think possible, but Gravity Falls wasn't their world. She'd accidentally left her reality and entered a new, familiar, wonderful, dangerous one. If Gravity Falls was sucked up into Bill's monstrous portal, it would be all Hazelle, Lucy, and Jocelyn's fault.
She wouldn't be able to live with that fact. She loved Gravity Falls and its characters too much to see them yanked away like dust bunnies under the sofa. Bill's fight was with them and them alone.
"Guys, look." Hazelle had to yell above the howling wind and destruction, but her tone was solemn and sad. She met the Pines' eyes, ending at Dipper. Lucy felt a pang: Hazelle and Dipper had gotten really close during their stay in Gravity Falls. Nothing close to romance, but they had a wonderful, nerdy bond, strengthened by their mutual love for mysteries and adventure. "We want you to help. Really, we do. But this is our fault. We can't allow you to fight our battle."
"Okay, kid, no need to get noble on us," Stan grouched, but he nodded all the same. "Be careful out there. Watch out for flying trees. Get him out of her. Jocelyn."
Lucy and Hazelle crawled through the vibrating underbrush and peeked out. "You go," Hazelle whispered. "I'll distract him."
"Okay," Lucy replied. She made a move to continue to her left through the bushes but Hazelle grabbed her shoulder.
"I'm sorry. For everything," Hazelle added quietly. Her glasses were slipping down her nose, and there was a fresh bruise on her chin, probably born from being blasted by Bill's portal. She looked terrified, but at the same time, Lucy had never seen Hazelle look stronger.
"I'm sorry, too." Lucy patted her hand, almost afraid of cutting off the touch. "Let's get our loudmouth back."
Lucy started through the bushes, wincing at the scratches the branches left against her skin. Some were so sharp they cut through her T-shirt and jeans, mussing up her hair. Through the criss-crossing thicket, she saw Hazelle emerge into the clearing, a pinpoint of orange in the swirling world of gray and green.
C'mon, Haze, Lucy thought. Just distract him for a little bit! I'm almost there!
But to her bafflement, Hazelle didn't raise her arms and wrinkle her nose in concentration. Instead, she strolled out deeper into the clearing, steady gaze locked on Jocelyn.
"Hiya, Caduceus!" Bill greeted, waving Jocelyn's hand. "Do you wanna be the first human to spiral uncontrollably into my portal? Lucky for you, there's no height limit! Even a shrimp like you can ride!"
Hazelle noticeably bristled, but her rock-hard stance didn't waver. "I want you to know something."
Jocelyn's eyebrows raised, blue sparks orbiting around her head. "Oh really, Caduceus? And what's that? I'm all ears!"
"Jocelyn's ticklish in her feet."
There was a beat of confused silence, fraught in the roar of the portal. Lucy's jaw dropped and she smacked her hand to her forehead. Goddammit, Hazelle, what the hell!
Bill guffawed so hard, Jocelyn bent over and slapped her knee. When she rose to full height, victory shone in her eyes, fiery and malevolent.
"Well, thanks so much for the tip!" Bill twisted Jocelyn's ankle, taking note of her apparent weak spot. "I'll be sure to credit you when I take over the world."
"No problem." Hazelle's posture was so straight, it was like a metal rod had replaced her spine. She rolled her shoulders, as if preparing herself for her next remark. "I mean, after all, if you're going to continue to be a coward, then you should have the proper tools."
Bill scrunched up Jocelyn's face in a scowl, the blue fire in her hands flaring. "What. Was. That?" he asked, articulating every word.
Lucy gaped. The atmosphere had just taken a deadly turn. What was Hazelle doing? Did she have a death wish? Had she completely lost her mind? Where was her portal? Had she forgotten how to make them?
Hazelle's eyes flashed to Lucy in the bushes, the portal reflected in her glasses. "I thought you'd think the same thing," Hazelle went on, hands tight at her side. "You have all this power, and all this gall, but what do you do? Hunt down fifteen year olds for their power, and their gall. You hide behind the very same 'meat puppets' you want to rule."
Bill's fire glowed brighter, and Lucy could feel its heat even from her place in the underbrush.
"And you know this already, don't you? You've known for a long time. And every time you realize it, you feel smaller and smaller, and even more desperate for a human shield to hide behind and take all the damage, us especially because we're actually strong. We remind you that you're a tiny, pathetic, wisp of a dream demon." Hazelle met Jocelyn's furious gaze with a determined one of her own. "And that's not something that's ever going to change, no matter what dimension you're in."
Blue fire shot out of Jocelyn's body, lighting up the gloom like a bonfire. It hurt Lucy's eyes, and she had to look away.
But she heard Jocelyn's scream of agony mixed with Bill's shout of anger.
When Lucy looked back, Bill had left Jocelyn, who was lying on the ground, lifeless.
Hazelle ran over to her friend, but was blasted backwards by a shockwave from Bill.
"You puny humans think you're so smart! You think you can figure me out, foil my plans? Well guess what, Caduceus? I only needed your precious Music Note meat shield to set my plan in motion. Now that the portal's open, I can take it from here. Which is good," he added with a sneer. "'Cause it looks like this one's out of juice."
Lucy felt her heart nearly stop. She watched Hazelle scramble to her feet, obviously ignoring pain from the blast, and reach Jocelyn, who lay sprawled out in the dead grass. She frantically searched for a pulse, but her face was losing hope with every passing second.
Lucy went cold, her hand clasping over her gaping mouth. Jocelyn. She couldn't be gone. She couldn't. Not Jocelyn. The cheerful, talented, competitive, overly sarcastic, musical, obnoxious, and loud girl who'd become one of her closest friends over the past few months. Gone.
Lucy knew what she had to do.
Numb to the stinging of the branches and brambles on her face, arms, and legs, Lucy took off at a dead sprint toward the clearing. She heard Hazelle's cry of surprise, but all of her focus was aimed on the dream demon that had caused her and her friends so much trouble. Blood coursing with adrenaline, Lucy launched herself at Bill, smashing into his face. Bill shifted in the air, caught off guard by Lucy's sudden appearance, but it was too late: they were suddenly caught in the force of the portal, hurling toward the vortex that hung like a storm cloud over Gravity Falls.
I'm sorry, Hazelle.
"Wait, no, Pen! What are you doing?" Bill shrieked, trying to float back down. But their combined weight was too much, even with Bill's frantic thrashing to throw Lucy off. His voice was hitched: he sounded the most panicked Lucy had ever heard.
I'm sorry, Jocelyn.
Lucy grabbed hold of Bill's clammy black hand, scrutinizing him right in the face, her expression unbreakable.
I'm sorry, everyone.
"If I go down, you go down with me! We shook on it, remember?"
Lucy felt the blast behind her as the portal slammed shut.
Then everything was dark.