(A/N: Wait no longer, my friends, the next chapter is here. After a cliffhanger ending last chapter, and yes, I know I'm evil for doing that, I bring to you the long awaited next chapter. Last time, Bill revealed that the whole battle taking place in Marcy's mind was just a ruse and that he was only messing with them for kicks before leaving them to be dragged into the depths of Marcy's subconsciousness. Let's see how, or should I say, if, our heroes can get out of this mess.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 11: Final Revelations
There was no fighting against the shadow limbs. Any attempts to damage them were futile, as was any attempt to use their magic or imaginations against them.
"I can't get away from these stupid things!" Sasha cried out, already having been dragged down up to her waist. "They won't let go of– Ah! They're pulling my hair! They're pulling my hair!"
The others were no better off, each of them halfway submerged in the ground. Not even Anne's full-power Calamity form or Luz's Titan-hybrid form were of use.
"It's almost like they're antibodies or red blood cells attacking foreign bodies!" Dipper theorized as he struggled. "Bill must have set them after us!"
"We have to do something fast to get away," said Hunter. "Otherwise, we'll be dragged down and trapped in your friend's subconscious."
"This is why entering people's minds is dangerous and borderline illegal!" Gus shouted.
Willow looked desperate at Luz. "Luz, quick, call Eda! Have her get us out of here before it's too late!"
The current Titan-hybrid girl in question struggled against her own shadow limbs. "But we haven't gotten Bill out."
"I think that ship has sailed!" King cried, now submerged up to his neck.
Amity gave her girlfriend a desperate look. "Luz, we won't be able to help anyone if we get trapped."
Realizing that she was right, Luz closed her eyes in dismay. She managed to wrestle enough of her arm free from the limbs holding her to pull out the bell the Owl Lady had given to her. But as she made to ring it, a shadow limb coiled around the length of her arm and grasped her hand holding the bell. Luz tried to shake her arm, but the limb wrapped around it wouldn't let her.
"Can't… ring… bell…" Luz grunted out, now having sunk up to her neck. "Shadow arm thing won't let me."
"Come on, Luz, you can do it," Dipper encouraged.
"Yeah!" Mabel chimed in. "Right that bell! Ring that bell!"
Luz tried, really she did, even attempting to simply shift her body around to shake the bell enough to make it ring. Her movements caused the metal ball to roll inside the bell enough to make a small sound, but not enough to ring it. The others continued to shout encouragements to her, but then the sounds of some of their voices became muffled as they sank past their mouths. King had already been submerged completely, with only his horns poking out of the ground.
She fought to get her hand with the bell free that was being grasped by the shadow limb, but only managed to get her pinky finger out from under the hand's grip. She improvised from there, using the little finger to draw a tiny circle in the air. It became a light glyph, which unleashed a flash of light, dispersing the shadow hand holding her.
With her hand free, Luz made to ring the bell again, but a new shadow hand sprouted and seized the hand once more, this time causing her to drop the bell, and it fell to the ground.
"No!" Luz cried in dismay. "Guys, I'm sorry, but I dropped the bell."
"You what!?" Amity exclaimed.
"Luz!" Willow cried.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorr–"
She was cut off as her mouth sank beneath the ground, and she closed her eyes in despair. She couldn't believe she had dropped the bell like that. Now they were all going to be trapped in Marcy's subconsciousness.
But then she heard a light jingle and opened her eyes again. There were a pair of feet right in front of her. And her eyes followed them up the length of the person's body to their face. A muffled gasp escaped her as she saw that the person was none other than Marcy. No, not Marcy, but Inner Marcy, the real one this time. And she was holding the bell, looking down at the others in confusion.
"Marcy!" Anne cried, also having taken notice of her as well.
The Taiwanese girl looked from her friends to the bell, then back again. "Anne? Sasha? What's going on? Who are these people?"
"No time!" Anne exclaimed. "Explain later! Ring bell!"
At this point, only Anne, Luz, Hunter, and Sasha had not been submerged. Inner Marcy looked back down at the bell again, then held it up and began ringing it.
(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)
Outside in the real world, the sound of the enchanted bell reached Eda's ears. A smile crossed her face as she hoped for good news.
"Hot dang, I guess they did it," she said to herself.
She ceased using her magic to keep Marcy asleep and instead cast a spell to pull the others out of her mind. Marcy's forehead began glowing before a stream of magic burst out of it. It spiraled around in the air, and everyone that had entered the Taiwanese girl's mind was dropped to the ground, each of them intact and having reverted to their normal forms.
"Ha! You're alright!" Eda cried joyfully, and hurried over to the dogpile they had fallen into. "So, how'd it go?"
The others were noticeably shaken by what had happened, and the smile left Eda's face, her hopes becoming dashed as their sorry state registered to her.
"Oof, that bad, huh?" she asked uncomfortably.
"It was a total failure," Luz replied as she rolled over and attempted to dislodge herself from the pile.
Eda offered her a helping hand. "Yeah, something about your sad, sorry expressions clued me in on that." She pulled Luz to her feet. "What happened with Bill?"
"Why don't you ask the man of the hour?" came Bill's voice.
All attention shifted to Marcy as she rose up in the air, awake once again. It was clear that Bill was still in control of her, and he looked amused at their failed attempt to purge him from Marcy's mind.
"I gotta admit," he said, sounding surprisingly sincere, "you've impressed me with your resourcefulness. Even though your plan was a failure, I didn't expect you to try and enter Marcy's mind like that. You cut it a little close though towards the end there. Had Inner Marcy not shown up when she did, you'd be in real trouble."
Eda let out a sigh and stepped in front of the others as they got to their feet. "Ok, I guess we're going to have to do this the hard way."
Bill just grinned in amusement. "Aw, come on, Owl Lady, why don't we be friends? I always liked that wild and chaotic nature of yours. Who knows, you might even like the new world I create. I could even tell you how to get rid of that Owl Beast curse of yours."
In answer, Eda transformed into her harpy form. "No thanks. The Owl Beast and I are on pretty good terms. But you though, I have a real problem with you. So…"
She launched herself through the air, flying up towards Bill. The interdimensional being just hovered there, grinning as if he didn't have a care in the world.
"Eda, no, don't hurt Marcy!" Anne shouted up at her.
The Owl Lady stopped her attack at the last moment, her clawed hand inches from Bill's face. A growl escaped her as she reminded herself that Anne was right, she couldn't harm Bill without hurting Marcy.
The interdimensional being just looked at her in amusement. "Yeah, thought so."
He held out his hand and flickered her forehead. There was apparently a great deal of strength behind the simple touch, as Eda shot down to the ground. Hunter moved quickly, magically dashing over to where she would have crashed and thrusting out his staff. A magic aura surrounded the Owl Lady, halting her momentum just before she hit the ground.
"Phew, thanks, kid," she told him as she made to stand on her own. "That would have hurt."
Hunter sighed. "Just try not to be so reckless."
Bill hovered over to them. "Oh, it's so cute seeing you Clawthornes helping each other. So cute in fact that I think I'm going to be sick."
Both Hunter and Eda gave him a bewildered look. "What are you babbling about now?" the latter asked.
"Yeah, I'm not a Clawthorne," Hunter added.
Bill blinked, then looked back and forth between the two of them before pointing at them. "Wait, you mean you don't…?" At their continued baffled expressions, he burst out laughing. "No way! You don't know! You really don't know!"
Eda crossed her arms. "Know what?"
Bill just kept laughing for several seconds before getting control of himself and wiping away a stray tear. "Oh man, I would have thought you'd have found this out during your big finale confrontation with Belos or something. Usually such big revelations are made just before or during the climax." He glanced at Luz with a knowing grin. "Hey, Light Girl, you love backstories, right? Want to hear one about your mentor and foster brother that not even they know about?"
A feeling of being torn in two directions suddenly hit Luz. On the one hand, she knew how important it was to stop Bill, but on the other hand, yes, she really wanted to know what he was talking about.
"Well…" she muttered. "I mean, if there's some time to spare…"
Bill's grin widened. "Then listen up, because you're all going to love this. You'll also probably hate it too, and that's why it's so funny." He looked back at Hunter. "I know you already know that your Golden Guard friend here is a grimwalker. That's a magically made clone for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term. He was genetically created from Caleb, Belos' brother that he killed for falling in love with a witch."
Willow stepped forward, placing a reassuring hand on Hunter's shoulder since she knew that this was a sensitive topic for him that had caused him to undergo identity and existential crises in the past. "So what? He may be a clone, but he's his own person, and he's just as real as the rest of us."
Bill just waved this off. "Chill, Plant Girl, I'm not saying he's not. But listen closely, because here's the fun part. You know that Caleb hooked up with a witch, Evelyn, the same witch who created your dead palisman friend, Flapjack, for him, but it seems what you didn't know is that she and Caleb, were your ancestors, Eda."
A mad grin crossed his face as he dropped this bomb. His smile only grew at the stunned looks that appeared on the others' faces. Eda and Hunter looked especially shocked, and they slowly glanced at each other, staring at one another in disbelief.
"Wait," said Amity, putting together what Bill was taking about. "If Evelyn and Caleb are Eda's ancestors…"
"And Hunter was created from Caleb…" said Anne.
"Then… they really are related," Gus finished.
Mabel glanced at her brother. "Does that mean that Hunter is, like Eda's twenty-five times great grandfather?"
Dipper tapped his chin, his instinctual need to solve a mystery overriding his surprise. "Well, if Hunter is a clone of Caleb, then that would make him more of a twin brother of Caleb, or maybe more of a son. So… I guess he would technically be more like a many times over great uncle."
"Oh," Mabel replied. She then raised her voice as she waved at the grimwalker. "Hey, Hunter, you're a Grunkle!"
Eda and Hunter continued to stare at each other for several more seconds before the Owl Lady scowled and looked up at Bill. "Hey, is that really true? Sounds more like a crazy fan theory."
Gus leaned over to whisper to Amity. "Yeah, one I'm surprised that Luz didn't come up with."
"I know, right," the lavender-haired witch whispered back.
Bill just laughed in response to Eda's question. "Why would I make it up? I actually thought you knew already. Why do you think Flapjack never chose a new master before your friend here? It's because he could sense the other Golden Guards that Belos created and was waiting for one of them to find him. Why do you think the door to the human world was found just outside of your ancestral home? Evelyn was the one who created it and was using it to visit the human world; that's how she met Caleb and Belos. She just ditched it after her boy toy was killed because it was too painful to hold onto." His gaze then shifted from Eda to Hunter. "And didn't you notice how the pictures of Evelyn in Belos' mind looked like Eda? Family resemblance much? Or that she was pregnant in some of them."
"I…" Hunter muttered, and averted his eyes, "was a little preoccupied."
More gleeful laughter escaped Bill. "Oh, but it seems you haven't realized the best part of all this. If Caleb is Eda's ancestor, then not only are you related to him, and by extension Mr. Grimwalker here, it also means that each and every member of the Clawthorne family is also related by blood to none other than Belos himself."
He roared with laughter at this, and his laughter only grew in volume as the truth of his words hit the others. The color visibly drained from Eda's already pale face as she too made the connection, and the others looked shocked and horrified as well, all their eyes now on the Owl Lady.
"Suddenly Belos' wanting the Owl Lady captured so much more makes sense, doesn't it?" Bill cackled. "He knew she and her sister were his brother's descendants and wanted to remove the taint in his family bloodline. Such tangled webs we weave, huh? Just look at all these family connections we're learning about today."
Grinning in amusement, he looked from one member of the group to the other. "The great uncle of my old adversaries, Dipper and Mabel, is the ex-husband of Eda, who is related to Belos, Evelyn, and Caleb by blood, and thus by extension to Hunter, the sort of foster brother of Luz, who was created from Caleb, and is the adoptive son of Darius, the rival of Luz's girlfriend's father. Luz is the best friend of the girlfriend of Hunter, the pen-pal of Anne, and her mentor is Eda, who is the adoptive mother of King, the reincarnation of the original me, who I am a copy of, and am now controlling the mind of Marcy, the best friend of Anne and Sasha, who faced off against the Core that I originated from after the original me got inside it. Seems we've all been connected all this time and never even knew it."
He burst into more laughter as the others continued to try and process this newest information. It was true though, they were all connected, as if the threads of fate had woven their destinies together for this one moment of interaction.
Bill's laughter finally calmed down, and he smiled down at the others. "But as amusing as all this is, I've got a body to obtain. So, if you'll excuse me."
He began floating towards the Bill statue. Suddenly though, a wall of thorny vines burst out of the ground, cutting him off. He turned around to glare at Willow, who had been the one to summon the vines.
"Sorry, but we're not going to let you do that," she told him.
Bill just cut his eyes at her and snapped his fingers, and the walls of vines burst into flames, immediately burning to ash. "You think you can stop me? It'll be amusing to see you try."
"Then we'll try!" Amity declared.
She sent her Abomination sludge up at him, and it formed a wave to fall over him. Bill made a simple chopping motion, and the purple sludge wave split in half. Willow summoned forth more vines that flew at him, but Bill held out his hand, halting them, and with a flick of his finger, tore them from the ground and then sent them flying back towards the others.
As the others dodged out of the way, Eda used her hook to slice the vine that came at her in half. "Ok, no attacking, just restraining."
She flew up towards Bill and made a grab for him. He easily dodged, and Eda tried again, but Bill continued to maneuver around her until he eventually reached out and grabbed her by the hair. He then delivered a kick to her back, but held onto her hair. Eda quite literally lost her head as her headless body crashed to the ground.
"Looks like you're losing your head in your old age Owl Lady," he commented.
"Hey, that's not funny," Eda's head replied. "Age is just a number, and I'm a still a spring chicken."
Bill laughed. "Of course it's funny. Maybe you just need to see things from a different point of view. Here, I'll help."
He began twirling her head around by her hair, laughing all the while. Hunter teleported above him and raised his staff to strike him. Bill's other hand came up though, catching Hunter's staff, and he sneered at him over his shoulder.
"Here," Bill said, "lend your aunt a head." He then swung Eda's head right into Hunter, knocking them both out of the sky. "Or your niece, or whatever she is given your freaky family relations."
Suddenly, the environment around him changed. The forest disappeared as Gus cast an illusion all around the area. Bill looked around for a bit before smirking and snapping his fingers, and the illusion shattered like a glass wall.
"Really? Illusions?" he asked in a bored voice. "You really think illusions can stop me?"
"How about this?" Luz asked, flying by him on her staff.
She tossed several glyphs down at him, but before they could activate, Bill snapped his fingers again, and the glyphs burst into blue flames. He then directed them at Luz, and the fireballs flew after her. She let out a cry and dodged the fiery balls as they came at her.
From beneath Bill, giant arms made of Abomination sludge reached up and grabbed hold of him. He merely glanced down at them and then burst free, sending globs of sludge flying everywhere. King ducked beneath a blob of sludge that came at him and then unleashed one of his wails. Bill simply held out his hand, blocking the soundwave, then sneered at the young Titan before letting out his own mocking wail, which blasted King off his feet.
Sasha's fists clenched in frustration. "Sorry, Marcy."
She grabbed a tree branch, breaking it off the tree, then charged forward. As Eda reattached her head, Sasha jumped up, kicking off her shoulder. Eda let out a cry of "Hey!" as Sasha soared up towards Bill, raising the tree branch to hit him.
Before she could land the blow though, she froze in midair. Bill just smirked at her before reaching up to pluck the tree branch from her hands, then used it to jab Sasha in the gut, knocking the wind out of her. Then, with a flick of his finger, he sent her crashing into a bush.
"Sasha!" Anne cried. She threw a glare up at Bill before her face twisted with regret and she turned to the witches. "Hey, can one of you magic me up a tennis racket?"
The witches exchanged confused looks before Amity shrugged and used her Abomination sludge to form a racket. Anne snatched it up, along with a rock, then turned back to Bill.
"Sorry about this, Marcy," she commented. "Hope this doesn't hurt too much when it knocks you out."
Tossing the rock up in the air, she whacked it with her Abomination tennis racket. It flew up towards Bill, but before it could hit him, it froze in midair before bursting into dust. Bill then pointed a finger at her, and Anne was lifted off her feet.
"Oh, that was a bad idea," she muttered.
She then got the same treatment as Sasha, getting flung through the air and crashing into a bush. Bill sneered at her. "You girls must like getting tossed around."
The bushes rustled before Anne came stumbling out of them with leaves and a twig in her hair. "And you must love hearing yourself talk." She then noticed something felt off and glanced down at her feet. "Oh, come on, where'd my shoe go!?"
Bill laughed some more. "Your futile attempts would be sad if they weren't so funny." He then tapped his chin. "Oh, wait, nope, they're still sad. Whoa!"
He quickly dodged as a grappling hook flew at him, nearly missing getting hit by it. All attention turned to Mabel, having been the one to fire at him, and she proudly declared, "Grappling hook!"
"Mabel!" Dipper exclaimed, horrified. "Are you trying to kill Marcy!?"
His sister blinked, as if just realizing the consequences of her actions. "Oh, yeah."
Bill floated over to them. "Oh, wow, your grappling hook. You used that in the mindscape too. What a throwback. Well, here's another throwback for you."
He held out his hand and made a come forth motion. From out of the woods, several dozen gnomes came flying over to him, all of them crying out and waving their little arms and legs.
"Hey, whoa, what is this!?" Jeff, the gnome leader, cried. "What's going on!?"
"Shmebulog!" the gnome floating next to him exclaimed.
As the gnomes all gathered into a big ball above Bill, he sneered down at the others. "Let's play a game of lawn darts."
He motioned forward and the gnomes were launched at the others. Those with magic used it to defend themselves while those without it fled as the gnomes landed pointy hat first in the ground. Bill just laughed as he sent more and more gnomes flying, but as he used the last of them, a frown crossed his face and he looked down at his hand.
"Uch, my power is so limited like this. I can't wait to return to my former glory." His gaze then moved to the Bill statue and he grinned. "So enough fooling around. Time to get me a body."
With a sneer on his face, he began floating towards his statue. There was a cry of "No!" from behind him, and a series of vines grabbed his arm, pulling him back. Bill glanced behind him to see that the vines had come from Luz as she flew towards him. A moment later, he was blinded by a flash from a light glyph, and he covered his eyes.
"Annoying witch wannabe," he growled.
He yanked on the vines wrapped around his arms and Luz let out a yelp as she was jerked off her staff and fell to the ground, getting the wind knocked out of her as her staff crashed into a tree.
Bill tore the vines off his arms and flashed Luz a mocking smirk. "Nice try, Luzura, but I'm a little bit higher in the ranks than a witch hunting general wannabe and imaginary Darcy. But if you think I'm powerful now, just you wait."
A gnome suddenly flew past him, and he glanced over to see that it had been thrown by Eda, who had a handful of them. "We told you, it's not happening."
Letting out a deep sigh, Bill snapped his fingers. All at once, a tornado surrounded him and the statue, cutting him off from the others, and he dusted his hands off in satisfaction. "There, enough of that. Time to get down to business."
He once again approached his statue. Also on the inside of the tornado, Luz let out a groan as she lifted herself up and saw Bill right in front of his statue. He had a victorious grin on his face as he slowly began reaching for the extended hand of the statue, as if savoring the moment.
Luz gasped as she realized that he was about to gain his body. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out several fire glyphs. She placed them on top of each other and slapped them. They curled up together and created a large fireball that she launched at Bill and his statue.
The smile left his face as he caught sight of the fireball in his peripheral vision. With his hand mere inches away from the statue's, he turned in the direction of the incoming fireball, and his eyes widened in surprise just before it hit the statue.
(A/N: Wow, lots of close calls this chapter. Our heroes were almost dragged into Marcy's subconsciousness, but were saved at the last moment by Inner Marcy. But it seems they got out of the frying pan just to get into the fire, because Bill is wake now. And he made a revealed revelation about the relationship between Eda, Hunter, and Belos. I mean, we as the audience knew that Eda was Evelyn and Caleb's descendant, but she never found out, nor did anyone else, which was surprising, as I expected that to be revealed in the finale. But it seems she's going to need to work that out later, because Bill is on the verge of regaining his body. Did Luz's last desperate attack manage to stop him? I guess you're just going to have to wait and see.)