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The pyramid was crumbling.
Brick by brick it was being torn apart, floating up into the rift above them. All around them demons were panicking as they were picked up one by one and sucked into the rift.
Ford yelled for the kids to hold onto him as the floor beneath them crumbled as well but his voice was drowned out by the roar of the rift closing, suddenly he was blinded by a flash of bright multicolor light that burned his eyes until he closed them.
The light faded, when he opened his eyes his feet were on solid ground, green grass felt soft underneath the shoes he wore. Birds chirped high above them inside the cloudless bright blue sky.
Yet he couldn’t find it in himself to appreciate it all.
Not when the price was so high.
Not when he was the one to pull the trigger.
He watched with a heavy heart when Mabel ran over to Stans kneeling body, his eyes were closed and his mouth hung slightly open. Unmoved from his position when the deal was made.
“Oh my gosh! Grunkle Stan, you did it!” Mabel said excitedly, dumping the fez back onto his head, her eyes filled with joy.
He felt a shiver run down his spine.
Something was wrong.
Stan seemed to start shaking, no. He seemed to be spasming.
Mabel’s smile immediately became concerned, almost unsure. “Grunkle Stan? Are you okay?”
That’s when the laughter started.
That’s when Ford felt an unimaginably heavy dread settle on him, worse than the 500 volts and chains, far worse than any other torture he had just gone through.
Because Stanley was laughing.
A loud, high pitched strangled noise. Filled with cruel amusement, a far cry from Stanley’s usual laugh.
How long had it been since Ford heard his brother laugh? Truly laugh? He couldn’t remember. Why couldn’t he remember?
The manic sound echoing across the grassy clearing. Cutthroat and unforgiving.
Dipper was quick to drag Mabel away from Stan, she didn’t put up an ounce of resistance, their eyes wide open in fear.
Ford felt his throat close up, depriving him of much-needed air.
No. no, no, no, no, no, no it couldn’t be. Stanley- he couldn’t-
“Oh wow! Ahahaha! You- you really thought it’d be that easy? Pffttt- ahahahaha!” Stan wheezed out between laughs, staring at them staring incredulously.
Except it wasn’t Stan, was it?
A bright almost glowing yellow and slit pupils confirmed his fear, erasing any last doubt, any last hope.
He felt numb, it couldn’t be. Bill had to be dead, the rift was closed, Stanley was- no. Don’t think about it, thinking about it makes it true. It can’t be true.
“Like come on! Memory gun? Seriously Brainiac? That’s the best you could come up with? Wow! I’m almost disappointed! You really thought that piece of junk made by some deranged hillbilly would stop me? Ahahahaha! How cute!” Bill slapped his face, his cackling spilling out like a waterfall relentlessly and taunting.
They couldn’t find any words.
The past few days (had it been days?) have been so much, this was too much.
It wasn’t fair.
Except Bill didn’t give a damn, his expression gleeful on his stolen face.
“I mean come on , you can’t say this isn’t gold! Wow you r e a l l y thought it worked? The looks on your faces! It’s priceless! C’mon, look at their faces guys! Isn’t this all hilarious?!”
Bill turned around, expecting to see his minions besides him in his carefully crafted work of chaos.
And for the first time, he took in his surroundings. The laughter dying in his throat, cut off by shock when his two stolen eyes saw nothing but pine trees, green grass and blue sky around him.
A deathly silence passed as Bill took it all in. Until a scream built up in his throat, unleashing an inhuman shriek that made them all flinch and their hair stand on end.
He sounded completely mad.
“What is the MEANING of this?!” Bill sneered, clawing at the dirt underneath him, staring at green strands between his fingers with frantic, eyes wide in disbelief. “WHAT IS THIS?!”
He whipped his head around with a sharp crack, turning his splitting grin towards them. Ford couldn’t help but flinch at the sight, Bill on his own was already unsettling, but with him inside Stanley’s body-
“This- oh! Haha! Very funny! Fine, I’ll admit you almost got me with that one! Not bad Sixer! But tick tock it’s time to drop the act! There’s still a party to run after all! Wouldn’t want to keep people waiting now would we?!”
Suddenly, Ford could hear the tremor in his voice, and then he realized,
Bill was scared.
Good. let him be scared.
His voice by some small miracle held steady, holding a false bravado he didn’t feel.
“There is no trick, Bill. This is all real!”
As selfish as it was, he almost wished it were a lie.
Please. Please, please, please let Stanley still be there. I have to apologize, God I didn’t get to apologize, I didn’t get to thank him. Please, Stan.
“You’re- you’re lying!” Bill spat out, hands shaking in fury. He stared up at Ford, looking for anything- absolutely anything in his face that would prove him right, but he found nothing, and the realization was starting to sink in
“This is real. The rift is sealed. Your minions are gone, Weirdmageddon is over! Face it Cipher. You lost.”
It still didn’t feel much like a victory.
“No, no, no, no , no, no, NO! ”
Bill screeched, no birds were singing anymore. All animals and creatures alike in the area had scattered. The world was silent besides them, besides Bill.
Ford felt chills run up his spine when Bill glared up at him in a burning hatred, he was utterly seething as he clutched his (Stans) hands into tight white knuckled fists, nails digging so hard into his flesh that there was blood trickling down them.
He had seen Stanley genuinely angry towards him before perhaps only once in his life, on the day he fell into the portal.
Had Stan truly only been mad at him only once…?
Seeing Bills rage on Stanley’s feature was wrong, it was as if the moon had suddenly become the sun, scorching the earth in a matter of seconds, killing all life in existence before finally engulfing the world in its unforgiving flames.
What was even worse was how uncannily natural the anger looked on him. How could it? How dare it?
“Grunkle Stan!”
Mabel shouted bringing their attention to her. Ford felt sick to his stomach when he realized he had almost forgotten the kids were there with them.
How could he? He could only begin to imagine how the kids were taking this all in.
They were only kids.
He looked down at the twins, his heart sinking at what he saw.
Dipper looked utterly at lost, no journal could help him now, could help either of them. His face was warring with a multitude of emotions fear clear in the midst of it, he was clinging to his sister tight and refused to meet his eyes.
Mabel was clinging just as tight to Dipper as he was to her. She was staring at Bill, a desperate hope in her eyes that was painful for him to see. Dipper was there, with a reassuring hand on her shoulder, ready to protect her from anything, even the truth.
Had he really tried to pull them apart? How could he ever think about that? They were better than Stanley and he had even been. What a fool he’d been. Blinded. All he could be was blinded
“You’re in there! I know you’re in there! Please come back! Don’t let this evil triangle take control!” Mabel pleaded, “You’re stronger then him Grunkle Stan!”
Bill laughed and Ford let out a startled yell when out of nowhere two hands were at his suit's collar.
It was Stans suit. He was still wearing Stans suit. It felt so wrong
His feet were dragged up from the ground, he heard the kids scream in shock behind them. Ford could hear his own heartbeat beating away loudly in his ears as he looked down at Stanley Bill, trying and failing to hide his fear.
He hadn’t realized how much he was terrified at the prospect of Stanley being possessed by Bill, hadn’t realized how much he was terrified of losing Stan until it was too late.
Now demented yellow eyes that’d been haunting him for decades were staring back at him using Stanley’s face, an unhinged smile wide on his face.
What a fool.
“You don’t get it? Do you?”
Bill crowed, his grin was predatory and vicious. The hands holding him up wouldn’t budge no matter how hard he struggled against them, god. He hadn’t realized how strong Stanley was.
In hindsight, he didn’t realize a lot of things, hadn't he?
Bill was a liar, all he could do was lie. He lied about everything, lied about being his friend, about being his muse, about the portal, about Stanley. No matter what, he always lied.
So Bill would only tell him lies. Still, Ford wanted to block out the laughter, wanted to block it all out. He knew what Bill was going to say and he didn’t want to hear it.
“Fordys here killed him! Stanley’s gone for good! Nothing left here except a convenient empty puppet for me to use!”
This time it didn’t sound like a lie. After all, why the need to lie when the truth was beneficial to him?
Still. He closed his eyes, he didn’t want to believe it. He couldn't believe it.
“Congratulations Sixer! You utterly and irreversibly killed your own brother!”
I’m so sorry Stan.