Memories Through the Mindscape Part 3

Shaking his head, Stanley sunk to the ground. "Oh, I can't believe this. The kids are gonna die and it's all my fault! Because I couldn't shake your stupid hand! Uh, Dad was right about me. I am a screw-up."

Sitting down next to him, Ford wrapped an arm around his brother. "Ah, don't blame yourself. I'm the one who made a deal with Bill in the first place. I fell for all his easy flattery. You would have seen him for the scam artist he is." He took out a flask and drank before giving it to Stan.

"How did things get so messed up between us?" Stan asked in between gulps.

"We used to be like Dipper and Mabel. The world's about to end and they still work together. How do they do it?" Ford wondered.

"Easy. They're kids. They don't know any better." Ford stood, barely sparing a glance to the ecto-bubble Bill had left in the throne room. He knew what he had to do. To save the kids. To save his brother. "Whoa, where you goin'?"

"I'm going to play the only card we have left. Let Bill into my mind. He'll be able to take over the galaxy and maybe even worse, but at least he might let the kids free."

"What?! Are you kiddin' me!?" Stan rushed to his feet, shouting. "Are you honestly telling me there's nothing else we can do!?"

Ford shook his head. "Bill's only weak in the Mindscape. With a physical form…it would take a being of tremendous power to stop him now. Either that or a massive amount of…ectoplasm…" The sphere! When Dipper found it, it moved, indicating that it contained a ghost.

But it was a ghost Bill seemed to know. Who's to say that it wouldn't just help the demon destroy them?

He couldn't think like that. He had to trust that the natural hatred between ghosts and demons would win.

"Stanley! Do you have anything on you that can shoot an ionized beam?"

"A what-now?"

Ford slapped his forehead. "A ray gun, Stanley! Do you have a ray gun?"

"Why would I have a ray gun?" Stan asked, hands on his hips. "Isn't that something you'd usually bring, Poindexter?"

Ford's eyes widened. "Of course!" Pulling out the memory gun, he started to dismantle it, removing a few screws and adjusting some of the wires. "The memory gun works by shooting a weak ionized beam into the brain, scrambling the hippocampus and removing whatever memory is specified. If I can adjust the strength of the beam and disconnect it from the part that destroys the memory, then it will be strong enough to pop the bubble!"

The gun back together, Ford aimed it at the ectoplasm. The strength of the blast would break the bulb. This was his only chance.

He pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

D/_\P

Bill stomped back into the throne room, the Pines kids struggling in his grip like they could actually get free. "Alright, Ford. Time's up. I've got the kids. I think I'm gonna kill one of 'em now just for the heck of it! EENIE" His eye flashed Pine Tree's symbol on the zodiac. "MEENIE," Shooting Star. "MINEE," Pine Tree. And then… "YO—"

"You."

A green blast of light came out of nowhere and zapped Bill in the eye. "SERIOUSLY!?" he screamed, dropping the Pines. Hot pain raced through him, but Bill stayed aware enough this time to listen to Pine Tree and Shooting Star's screams of absolute terror. And then… wait. Why didn't they hit the ground? Their frail, mortal bodies should have perished with a delightful crunch, or at least a splat, when they hit the ground, so why…?

Rubbing his eye clear of the burning goo, Bill could see the twins running towards Fez and Sixer, who had escaped at half dissolved cage. He could see the rest of the zodiac fall free from their banners, ectoplasm eating away at the walls. But that wasn't what held Bill's attention.

No, that belonged to the young woman floating in the center of the throne room. The one with snowy white hair and glowing green eyes.

D/_\P

Bill loomed over Glow Bug, his firey red form 10 times her height. She was tiny compared to him, like the bug she was named after, ready to be squished. Fury burned through Bill as he glared down at his defiant, little bug. "WHAT do you think you're doing, Glow Bug?"

"I'm not going to let you hurt these people, Bill," she said. "You're not going to destroy my world."

"What?" he seethed, leaning over her. She stared back, unconcerned. "Your world? YOUR WORLD!? THIS WORLD HATES YOU! IT WOULD BE BETTER OFF DESTROYED! YOU SHOULD BE THANKING ME!"

"I should thank you for the murder of over 7 billion people!?" she spat, eyes glowing bright. "Seven billion innocent people! Why would I ever thank you for that!?"

"I FREED YOU!" Bill roared. He slammed his fist down on her, only for it to bounce off an ectoplasmic shield. Pain once again burned up his arm and Bill threw himself at her, pummeling her shield with a dozen fists, the increasing stings of pain just fueling his rage. "You owe your existence TO ME! If it wasn't for me, you'd still be dying in the Nightmare Realm, and THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME!? BY CHOOSING THE OTHER SIDE!?" Glow bug's shield finally gave out and she screamed as he smashed her into the ground.

Bill froze under her glare, staring at the puddle of bloody ectoplasm she coughed up. Ghosts didn't bleed. Not normally. Not unless… unless… "I would love to choose your side, Bill. But I wouldn't let my dimension burn." He jerked back, the red fading from his form as ecto-energy flared from her fists. "And if I have to fight you for it, then I wi—"

She collapsed, more blood-laced ectoplasm flowing from her mouth as she fell to her knees. Fear filled her eyes as she started coughing her lungs out.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" Panic consumed Bill. She was dying; there was too much demon magic in the air, trapped inside the confines of this infernal town as more and more poured in. And she still breathed, despite not needing to in that form. She still breathed, inhaling the essence of the Nightmare Realm and shredding her lungs. She still breathed and blood escaped with each exhale.

Shrinking significantly in size, Bill flew down to her crumpled form, rolling her onto her side so she wouldn't chock. He… he couldn't stop this. He couldn't close the Rift. It didn't work like that. "This wasn't supposed to happen." He couldn't stop the words, quiet enough so that no one else heard, as Glow Bug tried to hold onto his arms. He couldn't do a lot of things apparently. "You were supposed to be farther from the Rift when you popped, far enough away that it didn't affect you. This… this wasn't supposed to happen."

Glow B—Danny tried to smile back at him, but any calming effect was taken by the red and green mess coating her teeth. "I know," she rasped. "I'm not going to forgive you for trying to destroy my world though."

"Out of infinite realities, that might be the one thing that could never happen," he answered. Away from them, the Zodiac had been put back together. Bill could feel it working; his body felt heavy, leaden, the pull of his incorporeal self back towards the Rift.

He wouldn't stop it this time. Not if it stopped Danny from looking at him with those hazy, bloodshot eyes.

"Nruter yam I that rewop tneicna eht ekovni I," he whispered as his body started to catch fire. Danny flinched, panic clear in her eyes, but she was too weak to do anything. "Nrub ot emoc sah emit ym. L-T-O-L-O-X-A."

The Zodiac flashed with a bright white light and Weirdmagdeon disappeared.

D/_\P

Sixer found her in her human form, lying in front of all that remained of Bill. He was just a statue now, hunched slightly over her. Danny didn't move. Not because she didn't want to, though that was part of it, but because she couldn't. Miraculous ghost healing powers or not, her lungs had almost been turned to putty just hours before. It's not like they could just go back to normal with one transformation. It was only because of her ghost half that her human one wasn't dead.

Instead, she just laid on the grass. It was an awe inspiring experience; with nothing but her own brain and Bill for three years, things had faded, like the smell of dirt and the precise shade of the sky.

For a while, she stared at Bill's stone body. Betrayal and sadness panged in her heart. How could he do such a thing!? To destroy something he knew she loved! And what was worse was that she should have saw it coming. How many times had he mentioned hurting Pine Tree or Sixer or random others that she had just brushed off due to how desperate she was for sentient interaction!?

And above all else, why did she still miss him!?

He had been kind to her. He had been obnoxious and pried too much and had the annoying habit of trying to end the world, but he had been there for her during her personal hell. So she still wanted him back.

But he was going to have to do that himself, because if that damn demon thinks for one second she'd let him off the hook for what he'd done, it would take him a millennia to regrow that eyeball!

That's when Sixer appeared. At least she thought it was him; he wasn't wearing a Fez and was too old to be Tree or Star. And when he adjusted his grip around his gun—pointed at her, she realized belatedly—he had six fingers. "Who are you?" he barked, expression hard and unforgiving. "What are you to Cipher?"

What was she to Bill? They'd been more than friends, she believed. But nothing else properly defined what they had been, so finally she said in her raspy voice, "I thought he was my friend. I was wrong."

That seemed to have been the right thing to say because Sixer lowered his gun, though it was still out. "Tell me everything," he demanded.

So she did.

Fin