Everything is Different Now

"He's... he's going to wake up soon, isn't he?"

"Yes, Shooting Star, it should be any moment now. I can't get into his head like before, but I can tell he'll be awake soon."

"Should I be here when he does?"

"Hm, you may want to take a few steps back, I'm not sure how he's going to react to you."

"Yeah, you're right, I'll back up."

Dipper groaned as he heard the voices speaking, limbs shifting as he gained awareness of his surroundings. He felt surprisingly good considering what he had gone through recently, and as he opened his eyes, he felt the reassuring presence of Bill's thoughts.

"Hey, you're awake!" Bill was leaning over him, smiling, back in his human body. It looked really beat up, but nowhere near as bad as it was before. A few tears slipped down his face as he leaned down to kiss Dipper gently.

Dipper chuckled and responded, but soon pulled back, blinking and staring at Bill curiously. Everything seemed too bright. Not bright, exactly, but too... detailed, was a better word? It was hard to describe, but it seemed that his vision was sharper. He could make out every little fleck of brown in Bill's gold iris, could see the pores on his skin, every little scarred ridge he possessed.

As he was puzzling over that, Bill stepped aside and he was promptly jumped on by Mabel.

"Dipper, you're okay, I was so worried!" She hugged him tightly, and he leaned up to hug her back, now glancing around and realizing he was in his room in the Mystery Shack, laying on the bed. The familiar room helped him relax, but again, things seemed too clear, too detailed. Should he really be able to make out the grains of wood on the dresser from here?

Deciding not to worry about it right now, he nestled his face into his sister's long, soft hair, laughing a bit as he smelled vanilla. Still using that same old shampoo that she has for years.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he said, working his jaw a bit as it felt odd, but it didn't seem broken. "It's weird, I actually feel... really good, despite... what I've been through. Um..." He leaned back, looking at her concerned face. "How much do you know?"

She frowned. "Bill told me everything. You and him were caught by Gideon and this other demon and tortured. As punishment for your... for what you've been doing."

He nodded. "Yeah. Well, they did a lot of horrible things to us, yet... I feel fine, there's not even any pain, it's so..." Dipper stopped as he held out one of his arms to look at. He stared at it, speechless. His skin was much paler than its ever been, and his fingers were thin and ended in blue claws. He quickly looked at his other arm, flexing that hand. It was the same. Not only were his smallest fingers there despite being cut off before, but they were spindly and clawed like the rest.

"Pine Tree, you may need to take a moment," Bill said softly.

"I... what..." Dipper reached up to touch his face, feeling along it, and when he got to his ears, he bolted up and ran for the bathroom, hardly noticing the third person in the room as he shoved past him.

He banged into a few door frames on the way, but was running much more quickly than he ever has before, and made it into the bathroom in about three seconds. He flicked the lights on and looked at himself in the mirror, before recoiling and screaming.

"Dipper!" Bill ran in as he was clutching the counter and hyperventilating, staring at his reflection in disbelief.

"I... what..." Dipper reached up with a hand to touch one of his ears, confirming that its tip was pointed, but he was soon staring at his eyes in a mix of fascination and horror. His sclera had become pitch black, pupils slit-shaped, and his irises were a deep blue. He swallowed as he saw that the rest of his skin was as pale as his arms had been, and there were strange freckles of blue in some areas, such as his cheeks and shoulders, almost seeming to glow.

He brushed his fingers back through his hair, which was thankfully the same as it has been, just messy and oily after not being washed or brushed for days. His jaw had become sharper, chin a bit narrower, facial hair gone. He felt along his jaw just to make sure, but there wasn't even a hint of stubble. Luckily, it didn't make him look younger like he usually did when he was clean shaven; in fact, he looked several years older.

"What is..." Now he saw his teeth, and he quickly opened his mouth wider to look at them. His incisors had sharpened, and his enamel was now a perfect, clean white that he hasn't seen on his teeth since he was very young. He ran his tongue along them, and they all seemed sharper, even his molars. His tongue itself was normal-looking, thankfully.

"Pine Tree, are you... okay?" Bill asked quietly.

Dipper whipped toward him, grabbing his shoulders. "Bill, what am I?!" He glanced at his reflection again, and then saw something on his back that made him jump, twisting to try and look with his own eyes. "What is that?!"

"Ah... those would be wings."

"Wings?!" The moment Dipper acknowledged them, the new limbs stretched out, and he saw that it was a pair of black, leathery wings like those of a bat, sticking out of his back as though they belonged there. He turned to the mirror, seeing them rise up over his shoulders, and when he flinched at the sight, they folded back down.

"Look, if you would just relax, I can try to explain..." Bill started, but Mabel pushed her way into the room and walked past him to grab Dipper into her arms, hugging him tightly.

"You're okay, it's no big deal," she assured him, rubbing his back below where the skins of the wings connected, and despite how distressed he was, he relaxed into her hold. "You're just, well... different now."

"I can see that," he muttered. "Please tell me I don't have a... a tail or something?"

She laughed. "No, you don't have a tail."

"Good." Dipper leaned into her hold, and looked over her shoulder at the doorway as someone else walked into view. He narrowed his eyes. "Gideon."

Gideon raised his hands defensively, standing a good distance back. "I just wanted to see how you were, if you want me to leave, I can leave."

"What is he doing here?" Dipper growled, looking over at Bill.

Bill shrugged. "He refused to leave until you woke up. Ask him why he's still here."

"Oh, I will." Dipper pulled away from Mabel and walked toward Gideon, who wisely decided to back away.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing, I had to know what happened, I've never seen a human do what you did and I wanted to see the effect it would have." Gideon's back hit a wall and he quickly looked around for an escape route.

"So after everything you did to me, and to Bill, you thought it'd be a good idea to wait until I woke up? You're a fool."

"I don't mean you anymore harm, just please... Bill, stop him!"

Bill came over to take Dipper's hand, pulling him away. "Pine Tree, please, we need to talk. I get that you're angry, but we have to talk about what happened. You're... you're not the same."

"Yeah, I noticed," Dipper snapped, but he let Bill coax him away from Gideon. He turned to the other, who took his other hand, winding their fingers together. "What am I? Why do I look like this?"

"After you killed Pavonis, his soul was ripped from his form and left abandoned. It would have dispersed on its own, or I would have taken it. But you were angry and vengeful, and you did what I had told you not to do. You took it for yourself, as though it was just another one of our normal kills, and..." Bill sighed, letting go of Dipper's hands so he could caress his shoulders. "It overwhelmed you. Its power was too much, all that raw demonic energy passing through you just destroyed your body, you were bleeding out nearly every orifice when you lost consciousness, which was lucky I suppose, because then you didn't have to feel the rest... as your skin was stripped and then replaced, as you were healed in fire, as the soul changed you into something that better suited it. No mortal could contain such energy... so it took your mortality. It took your humanity. You... aren't a human anymore. You're still you in a way, you have your memories and personality, somewhat look the same, but... you're a new being." Bill met his eyes. "You're a demon."

Dipper slowly backed away from him. "No... no, I can't..."

"Yes, you can, and you are. You killed a demon and took its soul. As is our way, you became one yourself. And one as powerful as Pavonis... you're going to get a lot of respect. You're certainly going to be stronger than most new demons. You should have abilities similar to his, but demonhood manifests differently in everyone. We'll see in time what power you have. But you should still be capable of every spell you already know."

"I'm a demon, but I..." Dipper looked at his talon-like hands, and then over his shoulder at one of his wings, unfolding it and stretching it around so he could grasp it. He had sensation in the new limb, was perfectly aware that it was being touched, could control it like he could an arm or leg. "I don't feel so different, I mean I can hear and see better I think, but..."

"You'll have other new senses. It might take a while for you to notice them, though." Bill smiled at him. "I'll help you out with that later. For now, I think we all have a lot of talking to do."

"I think you need to go to the hospital," Dipper replied. "I might be okay now, but your vessel is human. It needs medical care."

Bill glanced down at himself, then shrugged. "It'll deal with it."

"Especially your eye, that could get infected." Dipper gestured to the empty eye socket, which really wasn't looking too good.

Bill gingerly touched the area. "Yeah... maybe I should go to the hospital... but I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm great. Never felt better." Dipper smiled as Mabel came over to touch his shoulder, but he soon looked at Gideon, eyes narrowing. "So what are we gonna do with him?"

"Thank him for letting us go," Bill replied.

"He may have let us go, but he was one of the ones torturing us! I'm not going to just forgive him because he felt bad about it and let us go!"

"He also gave you that last burst of energy you needed to kill Pavonis."

That made Dipper pause. "What?"

Gideon reached into his pocket, taking out the bracelet from before. It was no longer red; all its stones were pale, almost clear. "I gave you everything this artifact had," he said. "I caught up to you right at the end of the fight, as you were using that spell on Pavo, and I could tell that you didn't have enough strength for it. So I decided to help. I didn't know if it would make a difference, but I transferred the power to you anyway... and I guess it was just what you needed, because you killed him."

Dipper looked at the bracelet, remembering how the magic had beams of red in it along with the other colors. "Oh. Yeah, I remember feeling a hand on me... that was you?"

"It was me."

"Wow. Um... thank you. That really helped, I don't think I could have done it without you. Yeah, thanks a lot."

"No problem." Gideon nervously fiddled with the bracelet. "I honestly just felt so terrible about what I had done to both of you. I was just so angry, I wanted to get revenge on behalf of all those people you had hurt or killed, but... I understand now why you were going after them, and though I don't agree with your methods, it doesn't make me any better than you to punish you for it. I learned a lot in prison about settling things peacefully, and I was going against those lessons. I was supposed to be a better person, right? So I had to put a stop to it. I probably deserve to go back to prison after all that, and if you two want to turn me in, I'll confess. I just... wanted to try and make things up to you."

Dipper sighed, rubbing his head. "I don't want to forgive you. The things you did to me, and to Bill, were horrible. I'm never going to forget any of that, I'm probably going to have nightmares about it, though my scars are gone, I'm always going to remember it. And I know Bill will never forget either. His vessel is going to be permanently marked. Unless he decides to fix it somehow, he's going to have to deal with a half-blind body, because of what Pavonis did. You were easier on us than Pavonis was, but he was acting under your orders. So you are just as responsible. But you did save us. You felt remorse and decided to let us go. So... while it doesn't make things okay, I suppose I can let you live. Granted that you never try this again. We are going to keep doing what we were doing before, and I expect you to deal with it."

Gideon nodded. "Yes. I will. I'm just going to move on. Go back to school, try to get a job... see if I can fix up my life. Dad needs some help with the car dealership anyway, maybe I can earn enough to fix my motorcycle. You two demolished it."

"That tree just came out of nowhere," Bill said with a shrug.

Dipper held out his hand to Gideon, gesturing to the bracelet. When the boy gave it to him, he examined it, and said, "This is a really interesting piece of jewelry. I'm glad you had it. We might have lost, otherwise. And I don't want to know what Pavonis would have done to us then."

"Probably would have killed you," Gideon replied. "And then tortured me."

"Probably. He was a very sadistic person... he was enjoying what he was doing to us far too much."

"I didn't know he had that kind of hatred in him," Bill said. "He was usually so calm... I guess he was just enjoying hurting us. He wanted our power, he wanted to see us miserable, and he took things way too far. It's easy for a demon to get overexcited. Especially a young one like that."

"Yeah." Dipper traced his fingers along the bracelet, and got an idea. He focused, and slowly, each of the stones began glowing a soft yellow color. Once they were all glowing, he handed the bracelet to Gideon. "Here. My thanks for helping us."

"Oh goodness, is this... your magic?" Gideon slipped it around his wrist, admiring it. "It's so soft."

"I have a very calm type of magic, apparently. But yes, that's mine. You can use it for whatever you need, but it's quite good with healing. You never know when you'll need that."

Gideon nodded, tugging the sleeve of his jacket down over the bracelet. "I'm sure I will have a use for it. Thank you, Dipper. And I wish you luck with... you know, this."

Dipper glanced down at himself and shrugged. "I'm sure I'll get used to it. Thank you."

Gideon awkwardly patted his arm, then held his hand out to Bill.

Bill looked at it, and then glared at him. "I don't think you'd want to shake my hand, unless you're willing to lose a few fingers."

Gideon dropped his hand and looked at Mabel. He offered her a smile. "Anything for me, sugar? A handshake, a hug, maybe a kiss on the cheek?"

She shoved him. "Get out of here before I kick your ass!"

"Fine, I'm leaving!" He huffed and headed for the stairs, calling back, "Tell Blondie I said hi and that she better appreciate having you for a girlfriend!" He hurried downstairs.

Mabel crossed her arms. "We should throw him back in prison."

"Trust me, I'm thinking about it." Dipper slid his arm around Bill's, looking him over. "Okay, let's get you to the hospital now."

"Are you sure you want to go out looking like that?" Bill asked.

Dipper blinked, ears giving a self-conscious twitch. "Well, it's not like I can change it... can I?"

"Of course you can. You can make your eyes look normal, round out your ears, and get rid of those wings. It'll burn up energy while you're doing it, but you should be able to maintain it for a while."

"All right then. Tell me what to do." Dipper and Bill went to the bathroom so Dipper could see his reflection, and the other walked him through adjusting his appearance so that he seemed human again. He still looked pale, and those blue freckles were pretty obvious, but he decided not to mess with those. This was Gravity Falls, no one would care too much.

When Dipper was satisfied with his appearance, he left the bathroom, and he and Bill went to their room to tug on some clean, warm clothes before rejoining Mabel, and the three headed outside.

The air was cold but the Sun was high and bright, and Dipper inhaled the fresh air and sighed, enjoying the scent of evergreen trees in the nearby forest, appreciating even the sound of grass crunching under his shoes.

Mabel offered to drive them to the hospital in her car, and they didn't argue, getting into the backseat with each other so they could snuggle up and relax, enjoying their freedom. Dipper had plenty of concerns about being a demon now, but he didn't let himself worry right now. This moment was for relaxing. He put his apprehension aside and just let himself rest in Bill's arms, head leaning against him, speaking with him through their thoughts, enjoying the movements of the other's hand on his back, and also enjoying the sound of his sister's voice as she called Pacifica to tell her about everything that had happened. Part of him wanted revenge against Gideon, but that wouldn't change anything. What would killing him prove? Nothing, really. He was content to just let the boy go, let him try to better himself, and have a successful life untarnished by this past unpleasant week.

Maybe Dipper was being too forgiving. But he had more important things to think about right now. Like how much permanent damage Bill's vessel was probably going to have. Like how he probably had a whole lot of new abilities he would have to discover and then get used to as a demon. Like the loving sister he had to catch up with and thank for being so understanding of all of this. Gideon was honestly the least of his concerns right now.

Besides, he joked to Bill, who had been listening in on all of his musing, It's not like I haven't accepted worse, huh?

Bill chuckled and kissed him. Exactly. You don't have to forgive Gideon, but by all means... you can leave it in the past. Accept that he regrets it, appreciate how he helped us... and then forget about him. He'll live his life, and we'll live ours. We don't ever have to talk to him again, if you don't want to.

I definitely don't want to. But I don't want to let him go so easily... can you give him some horrible, painful nightmares for me?

Of course. I was just planning some out. I'll make sure he's sorry for every last thing he put us through.

Dipper grinned, pressing his lips to Bill's cheek. Good. Thank you.

No problem, it's what I do. Now, I think I'm gonna let my vessel sleep for the rest of the trip... and I've gotten kinda used to dreaming, so I think I'm gonna sleep with it. Wake me up when we get there.

Sure.

Dipper watched Bill fall asleep, and then looked at his sister, who was still talking to Pacifica. She was using the car's Bluetooth system, so he could hear Pacifica's voice through the speakers, and decided to speak up.

"How are you doing, Paz?" he called.

"Oh, hey Dipper," she replied. "I'm great, and how are you?"

"Better. You know, now that I'm back home."

"Yeah, Mabel told me about everything... how are you going to explain where you've been? Are you going to turn in Gideon, or...?"

Dipper shook his head, then remembered that she couldn't see that. "No, just... we were in a freak bear attack out in the woods and it took us this long to get home. That's our story."

"A bear attack? Dipper, really..."

"Several bears. Oh, so many bears. We're lucky to be alive, honestly."

She made a soft 'tsk' sound. "Well, people trust you. They'll believe it. I hope you two are gonna be okay, though."

"Oh yeah, we'll be fine. We've got our magic, we've got each other... everything will be fine."

"I hope so. Let me know if you need anything, though."

"I will. So how's college been?"

"Oh, great! The fall semester is almost over but I'm working on this final project..." Pacifica soon went into detail about the things she's done in school, and Mabel added her own tidbits, and Dipper let them do most of the talking, smiling at the cute compliments the girls occasionally passed to each other, and thinking about how happy he was to have things returning to normal. He couldn't wait until Bill was fully healed and they could return to the life they had before they were captured.

This experience has only brought them closer together, and Dipper was optimistic about the future.