Chapter Text
You'll be okay, you'll be okay... ah, fuck. I'm not going to be okay. I’m going to die. Oh, God, I'm going to die and my soul is going to be absorbed or eaten and destroyed permanently. Oh fuck I can't do it, I can't, I can't, I can't do this...
Dipper Pines collapsed to the ground. The impact of his tailbone hitting the firm, pressed dirt of the forest floor sent waves of pain to his brain. He hardly felt it at this point.
Somewhere buried within his subconscious, the boy knew that he was having a panic attack, but who could blame him? Not many 13 year old kids have to knowingly walk to their own grisly deaths. The relentless parts of his mind and soul fighting for his survival tried to convince him that he didn't have to go through with it, yet another piece of him yelled even louder, insisting that he didn't have a choice.
He sat in the same place for an unknowable amount of time, unable to pull in a satisfying breath. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours, but he was much too absorbed in his thoughts to care. With arms wrapped around his legs and face buried between his knees, Dipper noticed nothing of the world beyond the tears soaking his skin.
Once he pushed past the overwhelming fear enough to regain his ability to form coherent thoughts, he steeled his resolve. Getting to his feet was a challenge in and of itself with the amount he was shaking, but convincing his legs to carry him forward was one of the most difficult things he could remember doing. He stood on the patch of stiff earth where he had previously been sitting, and forced a ragged stream of air into his lungs.
For Mabel.
He walked deeper into the trees.
--------
Dipper felt as though the whole sleepy town of Gravity Falls was coated in a blanket of oppressing darkness and silence. His pulse fervently picked up its pace, continuing to increase in speed and pressure the further he descended into the shadowed trees. The ominous ambiance of the supernatural woods set the boy on edge, and he could feel each individual hair on the back of his neck stand up. Dipper was alert, he was as mentally prepared as he could be, and shit was he paranoid.
His heart recognized the clearing an instant before his eyes did, and his chest pounded with renewed vigor. When he glanced down at his chest, Dipper was alarmed to find that he could see the movement of the organ through both his skin and the cloth of his hoodie. In the unnatural absence of any sound that did not originate from the boy, the beating of his heart was deafeningly loud to him.
Another rush of panic washed over him as he kneeled in the grass, but he forced his mind into a blank slate as he pulled his materials out of his backpack. He placed a couple of photocopied pages and a pocket knife on the ground in front of his knees. The knife was nothing special, just something that he found in the Mystery Shack. It was decent enough for his purposes, however. The sheets of paper were a bit more special, as they were some of the only surviving remnants of his great uncle Stanford’s journals on the supernatural. Although the journals had been destroyed, Dipper miraculously and coincidentally had the only pages that mattered anymore. Earlier this summer, his Grunkle Stan had made a complete copy of the third journal, and these particular pages held all of the Pines family’s knowledge on Bill Cipher- including his summoning wheel.
What if he doesn’t want my soul? The thought somehow scared him more than relieved him. Nothing would stop him from just killing me here. Nothing would protect my family. Fuck, if I’m going to die I don’t want it to be meaningless…
He couldn’t shake the terror that threatened to suffocate him, but he choked it back as much as possible and focused on what he had to accomplish. Flipping the pocket knife open made his stomach drop, but he just grimaced and pulled the blade across his palm in a quick motion. He wanted to flinch away from the blood that dripped from his skin. Unfortunately, he needed to be able to see what he was doing.
Drawing the Cipher wheel would have been infinitely simpler if he could have used virtually any other material… but he needed to get the demon’s attention, and this was likely his best way to do so. Trying to keep his mind off of the inevitability of his death, Dipper let his mind wander to his family members. If he could convince Bill to spare their lives, what kind of lives would they even have?
Something in him felt almost relieved that he wouldn’t have to live much longer- that he didn’t have to face the unknown and terrifying until he came to either a torturous or natural end. He would never have been able to explore and study in this new, horrifying world. Even if he somehow survived for years, he knew that he and his family would never have a normal life again. They would always be running from the demons who took over their universe. They had simply caused too much trouble to ever be granted peace.
Dipper closed the circle with a few more ruby drops before pulling his injured hand back into his lap. He leaned back onto his ankles and watched his blood on the forest floor as it was engulfed in a ring of blue flames. No warmth radiated from the fire, and the boy didn’t know what to think of that. As quickly as it caught aflame, the blue light was extinguished- all at once, as though someone had doused it with water. There were no scorch marks left in their absence, but the Cipher wheel he had made was now illuminated as though it had been drawn with glowing paint.
The boy let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding, and was again left with only the frantic sound of his own heartbeat. Maybe he’s just beyond being interested in us… He suppressed a sigh and contemplated going back to the Shack. Not because he was afraid! Just… how long was someone supposed to wait for a demon to show?
“Jeez, kid! If there were still animals in these woods, your pulse alone would chase ‘em away!” Bill’s ethereal voice cut through Dipper’s internal monologue, and he flinched harshly at the words. He whipped around, eyes raking over the clearing and trees behind him as he tried to find the voice’s owner. Suppressing yet another sigh, Dipper turned back towards the summoning wheel to find it still glowing with a pulsating light.
“Boo.” This time, the voice was only a hairsbreadth away from the boy’s right ear, and he yelped at the ridiculously loud volume, jumping nearly a foot off the ground and scrambling away from the source of the sound. His gaze flickered frantically over the area where he’d been sitting, but again, he saw nothing.
His position on the ground obviously displayed his fear, and he realized- with some embarrassment- that he likely seemed weak and pathetic to the powerful demon. Dipper shifted from his hunched position, leaning his torso back as he tried to come across as more relaxed. The movement had the exact opposite effect, unfortunately, as he felt his back make contact with something hard and surprisingly warm. The shriek the boy let out was only the tiniest bit more mortifying than the fact that he jerked away from the demon with such force that he actually managed to throw himself face-first into the dirt.
As Dipper sat up again, the clearing echoed with reverberating laughter. He rubbed harshly at the dirt on his cheek, and his face reddened with irritation and embarrassment. The demon finally appeared in front of him, his golden glow flickering like a candle’s flame as he continued to cackle in his amusement.
Bill’s laughter dissolved into occasional chuckles when the triangle addressed him. “Boy, Pine Tree. I try to stay mad at you, I really do! But you’re just so adorable!” Dipper cast him the coldest glare he could muster, and that only made him glow brighter with joy. “Aw! Look at you! Think you’re scary, little sapling? Ooh, the kid glared at me!” The demon dramatically held a hand to his… chest, maybe- well, some part of his triangular body, anyway- feigning offense.
He floated close to the flustered kid, and placed his tiny, black hand on one of Dipper’s cheeks. “Y’know it could work too, if you weren’t blushing so hard.”
Dipper made a disgusted noise, and swatted the hand away. “Do demons not have any concept of personal space?” As if to make a point, Dipper leaned away from the face that was much too close to his own, and wrinkled his nose.
The demon seemed to enjoy that reaction, and he floated to the kid’s side, stretching his arm around his shoulders. Dipper tried not to cringe. Bill let out a long, satisfied-sounding sigh. “Alrighty, Pine Tree, as much as I love our little get-togethers, I imagine you made me that delicious work of art for a reason. So what is it ya want, kid? A stack of gold? A puppy made purely of viscera from other puppies? A battery that never dies? A nest of wasps that never die?” Bill drifted in front of this kid again, a wicked glint shining in his eye. “Maybe a decent wardrobe? I know you could use the help reeling in the ladies.”
Even though he tried to hide his fear of the demon, Dipper couldn’t help but shudder at the way Bill looked him over. It reminded him of a predator targeting their prey, coiled before the fatal strike. The boy just shook his head, unamused at Bill’s typical antics. “You think of some fucked up stuff.”
Moving uncomfortably close to the human again, Bill silently stared him down for only a moment, but that moment seemed to stretch on for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Actually, Dipper wouldn’t put it past the demon to slow time down just to torment him.
From this close, Dipper could feel the heat radiating off of his triangular form. Bill’s eye was alight with a dangerous glee, and the boy had to consciously stop himself from shrinking away.
The demon hummed then, pulling back just a few inches. It was enough to make Dipper feel like he could breathe again. “You’ve got no idea, Pine Tree.” The gentle tone of Bill’s voice was more terrifying than his open rage. “So!” He clapped his hands together and the cheerful tone returned once again. “Enough fun. To what do I owe the honor of you giving me some of your lovely blood? I’d love to make a deal.”
It was now or never, and Dipper talked himself up to avoid running while he still had his life. He closed his eyes and curled his hands into fists, feeling oddly inspired by the sting of the cut on his palm. You’ve come this far.
“I want to make a deal,” he tried to ignore the monster’s gleeful cackling, and chose to just keep speaking over it. “You can have my life- or soul, or whatever. But I want you to spare the people I care about. And not just for now!” he added quickly. “I want them completely safe from the influence of you or any other monstrosities you’ve dragged into our universe.”
Bill whistled, dragging the sound out. Dipper had no idea how a triangle could make a sound like that. “Wow, you ask for a lot. It’s pretty hilarious, honestly! You really think you are worth that much?” The boy’s face flushed with embarrassment. “Ah, don’t look like that, kid! Listen, think about it from my perspective. I’m a business man, you could say. Deals are my deal and I always get the most out of the deals I make! You’re asking me to lose multiple souls in exchange for just one? Ha!” The demon’s eye drifted to his outstretched hand, as though he was looking at his nails.
Well that’s stupid. He doesn’t have any nails.
…I hope.
Panicking at Bill’s disinterest in his offer, words tumbled out of Dipper’s mouth before they had even formed completely in his mind. “Anything!” Bill’s gaze flickered back to the boy, waiting. He pulled in an unsteady breath. “I’ll give you anything you want for this.”
He watched as the glowing form circled around him once before settling in front of him again. “Hmm. You have to know that’s a dangerous offer, sapling. Tempting… but oh, so dangerous.” The large eye flashed with an image that Dipper didn’t catch.
“I don’t care. I will agree to your terms, if you agree to mine.” He wished he sounded more resolute, but his hesitant tone didn’t seem to faze the demon.
Bill glanced over him once again, humming in thought. “Alright, Pine Tree. I think we can come to an… agreement.” Dipper’s eyes widened with the strangest mixture of dread and hope.
“And what is it that you want…?”
“Weeeeell, I’ve been contemplating investing in a vessel- for when the need arises! You’re far from the most appealing option, but…” Dipper held his breath, waiting for him to finish. The demon’s eye met his, and he could have sworn that Bill was smirking at him. “Your family’s got a certain resilience when it comes to demonic possession. No cracking skin or vomiting blood! And I gotta say, I didn’t have the worst time when I last made you my puppet.”
His heart skipped a beat at the reminder of Bill’s previous possession. Oh, fuck, you idiot! Why would you say ‘anything’?! He nodded solemnly at the downright chipper monster in front of him. Bill seemed like he was about to burst with excitement… while Dipper came to the cold realization that there were fates worse than death.
“You’re not going to enjoy it, I can tell you that much, kid. But… do we have a deal?” Bill held his hand towards the boy, his entire limb becoming enveloped in threatening blue flames. Dipper eyed it warily, ignoring the dread the lined his insides.
Dipper closed his eyes, but he stretched his injured palm out towards the demon, and shook his hand.
For everyone.
--------