Chapter Text
The twins crawled through a gap in the floating cube, running around the building. Their time was running out fast. Any moment now, their great uncle would be back. Finally, after searching many of the rooms, the two found a prison located right in the middle of the construction, with Will still in chains.
"Mabel? Mason? What are you two doing here?" asked Will, as the twins ran up to him.
"We thought you were dead!" exclaimed Mabel.
"I'm honestly really shocked you're still alive." said Mason.
Will laughed. "Yeah, me too,"
"You two shouldn't be here. God knows what Stanford will do if he finds out." said Will.
"We're here to free you! Dipper found the quantum destabilizer in one of the rooms of the Rubix Cube, along with some sort of memory gun." said Mabel, while Mason activated the destabilizer.
"You're really going to risk your lives for me? Why?" asked Will.
"Isn't it obvious? We care about you. You're like our only family at this point." said Mason, as he shot the chains with the quantum destabilizer, causing the whole room to shake as the chains dissolved.
"And family sticks together." responded Mabel.
Will felt tears of joy well up in his eye. The twins saw him as family?? It had been a while since he actually had a family of his own.
"They really have changed, huh?" he thought, as the twins hugged him.
It didn't matter that they weren't legally or biologically his kids, he was going to adopt them right after this whole Armageddon was over. After all, he had a pretty good lawyer.
"Let's get out of here." said Will, and the trio ran through the maze that was the Rubix Cube, weaving through the complicated web of rooms and pathways before finally managing to escape.
"Do you have a plan to defeat our Grunkle?" asked Mabel.
"I do. I'm not sure it'll work, but it's our only chance.There's a prophecy that utilizes a sort of 'Zodiac Circle' to defeat a 'dimension-destroying monster'. For the longest time, I thought I was the monster from the prophecy. So I've always held back on using my powers in case I ever caused something like this. But now, I've realized that Stanford was the monster all along." said Will, in a haunted tone. The demon had a distant look in his eye.
The twins gave him a sympathetic look, as they realized the extent of Will's inner self-conflict.
"It wasn't your fault." stated Mason, holding out his hand to the demon.
"Thanks, kid." said Will.
"Now come on, we've got to find the rest of the town." he said.
"Will! Oh my god, I'm so glad you're alive! Are you okay?" exclaimed Pacifica.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. It's not the worst thing that's happened to me. He may be crazy, but for some reason he decided not to kill me." said Will, grabbing a bottle of spray paint to draw the Zodiac on the ground.
"Wh..what is this?" asked Gideon.
"It's a part of this so-called 'prophecy' that will apparently destroy a 'dimension-destroying monster'. I'm skeptical, but this is our only way out." said Will.
"Every person here has their own spot on the wheel." he stated.
The other townsfolk began to examine the wheel, trying to find out which place belonged to them. Finally, after everyone stepped in, there was only one spot remaining.
"Stanley? I think this is your spot." said Will, urging the con man to complete the circle.
"There's no way I'm helping you guys kill my brother. I mean sure, he's a bit of a megalomaniac, and he is trying to take over the world, but I swear he isn't a bad guy. If you knew him like I do, you'd know that there's a lot more than meets the eye." said Stan.
"Come on, Grunkle Stan! We don't have much time." complained Mabel.
"Absolutely not." said Stan firmly.
Right as he said that, the rest of the townsfolk's eyes widened, looking behind Stan.
"What, was what I said really all that surprising?" asked the con man.
"He's right behind you!" exclaimed one of the gnomes, as the rest of the residents of Reverse Falls scattered.
"Oh no, it's Stanford! Isn't that what you were all thinking?" said the scientist.
"Fuck." said Will, rolling his eye.
"Aw, don't be like that, my dear muse. I know you missed me." replied Stanford.
"Eat shit and die, you son of a bitch." seethed Will, before turning to the kids.
"Sorry guys. I got a little heated up. Now get out of here! I'll handle this myself" he said, preparing to fight, as the kids ran.
"The time has come, my dear muse. You stand upon the brink of the abyss. Yet even now, it is not too late. Choose me, or the fire." said Stanford, chaining up Will once again while summoning red flames in his hands, and bringing them closer to the demon. Plastered on his face was a wide, creepy grin illuminated by the harsh flames.
"I'd never join you!" said Will, spitting in the scientist's face.
Stanford didn't even flinch, instead slowly opening his mouth to lick up the spit with his tongue, making direct eye contact with the horrified demon.
"You're really willing to die over this? Quite strange, if you ask me,"
"But you really care about those kids, ĐꝊꞤ'Ⱦ ɎꝊɄ?" remarked the scientist.
"Leave them out of this please, the kids are innocent." begged Will.
"Oh, but that tourist girl and her cousin were the ones who led this whole 'rebellion' thing. I don't take too kindly to people questioning my rule,"
"Perhaps if I kill them, you'll be more willing to help me, wouldn't you?" said Stanford in a low, threatening voice.
"You wouldn't." said Will, even though he knew that the scientist was fully prepared to follow through on the plan. He just needed to distract the man for as long as possible, so that maybe the kids could escape.
"Try me." stated Stanford, before transforming into an inhuman creature. Extra arms and legs jutted out from all sorts of angles, bones crunching and bending as they made way for the new appendages, teeth growing sharper, and eyes getting larger. It was truly the stuff of nightmares.
"I have a few children I need to turn into corpses. ꞨɆɆ ɎꝊɄ ꞦɆȺŁ ꞨꝊꝊꞤ." said the scientist, chasing after the kids.
'This is it. He's going to kill those kids, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. I messed up real bad. If only there was a way to... wait a minute, I have an idea." thought Will, suddenly realizing something.
If he managed to get inside of Stanford's mind, the man would be incapacitated for a while. It wouldn't be enough time to kill him for sure, as refueling the quantum destabilizer needed a lot of time and resources, but it would be enough to shoot him with the memory gun.
Using whatever was left of his powers, he managed to summon a small piece of paper and a pencil, and wrote down his plans. Hopefully, the kids would understand what to do.
Pacifica, Gideon, Mabel, and Mason ran through the long, winding corridors of the Rubix Cube, trying desperately to escape.
"Didn't you two navigate this thing like a couple hours ago? How come you don't know where to go?" asked Pacifica to the twins.
"I think the Cube changes its patterns, because this doorway definitely didn't exist when we were last here." answered Mason.
Before Pacifica could answer, Stanford Gleeful burst through the wall, and grabbed all four of them, bringing them back to where Will was chained up.
"Time's up, Will. Hmm, which one should I kill first? Eenie, meenie-" said the scientist, before being cut off.
"WAIT! I...I'll join you. Just leave the kids alone." exclaimed Will.
"Don't do it, Will!" yelled Mason.
Stanford set the kids down, and walked over to the demon.
"Finally, you've come to your senses. Now, I suppose a deal is in order?" stated the scientist, freeing the demon from his chains.
"Yes, but I'll have to enter your mind for this." said Will, outstretching one hand. The other held the note.
"Deal." said Stanford, shaking Will's hand. Will's body turned to stone, and Stanford collapsed onto the floor.
The kids ran toward Will's stone statue, and as they did, Gideon noticed the note in Will's hand.
"Guys... you may want to take a look at this." he said.
The other three crowded around the note, reading it with wide eyes. The only thing they had to do was erase Stanford Gleeful's mind. It seemed easy, but erasing it would mean erasing Will as well.
"I..I can't do this... Will's going to die for real." said Mabel, tearing up.
"I know, it's hard, but we have to. The only way to stop our Grunkle would be to erase him as well." said Mason, pulling out the memory gun, and pointing at Stanford's unconscious body. He felt tears prick at his eyes as he entered the name 'Stanford Gleeful' into the memory ray, and pressed the trigger.
"I'm so glad you decided to join me, my muse. Now, for our first official act working together, I need your help in figuring out the equation. As much as I studied the weird nature of Reverse Falls, I never was able to figure out that equation." said the scientist.
"Yeah. Sure." said Will, looking around, waiting for the memory gun.
"Alright. So, I believe the equation will involve-" said Stanford, before cutting himself off as he noticed yellow flames surrounding his mind space.
"What's happening? Will, explain this at once!" demanded the scientist.
"You're going down, old pal. I wrote a note explaining to the kids to shoot you with a memory gun after I entered your mind." said Will triumphantly.
"You- You IDIOT! Don't you realize that this will kill you too? You'll be erased from this world!" yelled Stanford.
"I know. But I'd rather sacrifice myself to bring you down with me than live to see you destroy the world." said Will.
"I can't BELIEVE you would betray me like this." screamed the scientist.
"Oh, save your tears, you goddamn monster. YOU betrayed me first! I- I loved you, and you fucking LIED TO ME, you selfish bastard. I could at least deal with that, but the MOMENT you threatened the kids, that was the final straw." responded Will.
At that instant, Stanford put his last energy into one final punch, shattering Will. He looked down at the floor, seeing the fire engulf everything, suddenly coming to the realization that he was going to die alone. Nobody was going to help him. Even his own brother couldn't save him now.
As the fire raged through his mind, clearing everything, he had last thought before his mind was completely erased.
"I...I killed Will in this timeline too... I thought this one would be different." thought Stanford, before finally being erased.