Chapter Text
Dipper shot up from his seat, causing his chair to hit the shack’s wall. He made a move to leave but was held back by his sister’s grip.
“Mabel, let go,” he demanded.
“No. I’m not letting you go out there, Bro Bro,” Mabel exclaimed.
“I agree with Mabel, you need to stay inside,” Ford added as he stood to level with Dipper, “especially after the things you’ve done to cause this,” he added.
Dipper bowed his head and sat back down. Ford’s eyes softened for a moment before hardening as he turned to Stan.
“You come with me,” Ford glanced at Dipper before facing Mabel, “stay with him and make sure he doesn’t leave,” Ford stated.
Stan glanced at the younger twins before following Ford out the door. Dipper kept his head low, and his eyes focused on the table. He could feel Mabel’s nervousness engulf the room, but made no effort to ease her. Eventually, he felt Mabel sigh heavily next to him before getting up with their dishes. After placing them in the sink, she turned back to Dipper and decided to break the uncomfortable silence that had filled the room.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.
Dipper looked up at Mabel, “Do you actually want to know?”
“Of course, I do! My brother fell in love, why wouldn’t I want to know about it?”
Dipper gave her a knowing look.
“Okay, the demon thing is a minor detail, but still, can’t we talk about it?” Mabel smiled.
“Fine, but there’s not much to say besides what I told you, Grunkle Ford, and Grunkle Stan,” Dipper said.
“Liar, there is so much more to talk about. How does he make you feel? Did you kiss? How did you know you first liked him?” Mabel asked.
“You’ve always been more in tune with your emotions, but imagine how you felt when you went on a date with Norman before you knew he was a sack of gnomes. That’s how being with Bill made me feel before this mess. We weren’t even together before this; our first kiss was three days ago, and we haven’t even spoken to each other since. He just…ran off,” Dipper concluded.
He felt tears threaten to fall down his cheeks but held them in as his sister wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m so sorry, Bro Bro,” Mabel said.
“It doesn’t even matter anymore. Now, we need to focus on banishing Bill again. Though I’m still confused about how we’ve fought him before, why don’t I remember anything?” Dipper asked.
Mabel winced, “Um.”
“Mabel, what do you know?” Dipper questioned.
“You can’t be mad at me.”
“Mabel, spill,” Dipper demanded.
“Okay, okay. We fought Bill before in what we called, ‘Weirdmageddon.’ After this battle, we trapped Bill in Stan’s mind and then destroyed him, or so we thought. You started having horrible nightmares a few weeks later. At first, they seemed manageable, but they only got worse as time went on. The following summer, we came back to Gravity Falls for a short visit, one that I doubt you remember. Ford and I worked to lessen these nightmares. Eventually, we concluded that the only way to help you was to erase your memory of Bill, which is exactly what we did,” Mabel finished.
“You…you erased my memory without my permission? Mabel! What were you thinking?” Dipper exclaimed.
“We weren’t! We just wanted to help you! None of us knew that Bill would come back or that you would fall in love with him!” Mabel explained.
“I am not in love with him, I have a crush, those are two different things, Mabel. Either way, you nor Ford should’ve done that!” Dipper yelled back.
“I’m sorry, Dipper. What we did was wrong, and I’m so sorry,” Mabel whispered.
“I don’t forgive you, but it doesn’t matter. Right now, we need to stop Bill,” Dipper sighed.
The two sat in silence until Stan and Ford appeared with a gun and supplies.
“Are you kiddos okay?” Stan asked, feeling the tense atmosphere in the room.
Mabel glanced at Dipper, then nodded, “Yeah, we’re okay. What’s the plan?”
Ford stepped forward with the gun and placed it on the table.
“Okay, as of right now, Bill’s weakness is Dipper. We think the connection he’s built with Dipper has caused Bill to become unstable again. Demons like him aren’t supposed to feel human emotions, but since Bill has a human form now, it is inevitable for him to experience these strong emotions. Due to this, Dipper, we need you to face Bill head-on. If he’ll be distracted by anyone, it’s you. Mabel, Stan, and I will be on the sidelines if anything happens, but you will be in control of the situation, okay?” Ford asked.
“Okay, but do I have to shoot him?” Dipper worried.
“Yes, this gun will stabilize him. Unfortunately, I don’t know what that will look like for Bill. His powers could leave and make him human, he could go back to a dormant demon, or he could die,” Ford explained.
“He could die?” Dipper asked.
“Yes, but Dipper you have to understand that if we don’t stop him, we could all die,” Ford said.
“Right. Okay, let's do this,” Dipper said.
---
Dipper was the first one out of the shack with Ford’s gun in his hands. The four decided that it was best for Dipper to leave first and for the others to wait about five minutes before following. It wasn’t hard to know where Bill was since there was a large circle of rotating trees and various animals floating in the sky somewhere deep in the woods. Dipper glanced once more at the shack before heading into the forest. He eventually decided to put Ford’s gun in his pocket to avoid putting Bill more on edge than he already was.
As Dipper got farther into the forest, he started to see clear signs of Bill. There were broken trees and burn spots everywhere once he first got into the forest. Eventually, it turned into puddles of blood where Bill ripped apart several woodland creatures. The sight made Dipper uncomfortable, but he had to remember that this wasn’t the Bill he knew. This was a demon.
Once Dipper got to Bill’s bubble, he stopped. He hid behind a bush and saw Bill pacing around the bubble. He had blood on his hands, his hair was disheveled, and his clothes were torn. Dipper briefly wondered about the damage he couldn’t see. However, that thought was pushed aside when he saw Bill sit down with his hands in his hair. Dipper knew it was time to confront him.
“Bill?” he yelled.
Bill’s head snapped toward Dipper’s direction. Dipper noted the tears running down his face before stepping forward.
“Don’t come any closer,” Bill warned.
“Bill, I want to help you,” Dipper replied. He didn’t stop.
“No, you did this to me. I…I…you turned me soft!” Bill yelled.
Dipper took another step, “Bill, having emotions doesn’t make you soft. It means you’re human,” Dipper explained.
Bill noticed their proximity and started to scoot back.
“I’m not human, I’m a demon. Demons don’t feel emotions. We destroy,” Bill said.
“I know, Bill, but maybe you’re not fully a demon anymore. I don’t know what happened to you and my family, but maybe what they did made you human,” Dipper said, inching forward.
“Exactly. Your family did this to me. A bunch of meat sacks took me down. I’ll kill you; I’ll kill all of you,” Bill rambled.
Dipper crouched down next to Bill. He briefly noticed his family surrounding the two outside Bill’s “bubble” but ignored them. Dipper’s hand reached out to lightly touch Bill, but it was immediately burned as blue flames covered the demon’s arm.
“I said, don’t touch me!” Bill screamed.
Tears continued to fall down his face and his hands started to shake.
“You’re right, I’m sorry, Bill,” Dipper said.
“No, you’re not,” Bill whispered.
“Yes, I am. I don’t know about my family, but I’m sorry you were hurt.”
“No, you’re not,” Bill claimed again.
Dipper took Bill’s hands in his, ignoring the pain from Bill’s flames.
“Yes, I am,” Dipper stated.
Dipper was looking into Bill’s eyes, but Bill was staring at their hands. Small, blue flames covered Bill’s hands and latched onto Dipper.
“I’m hurting you,” Bill whispered.
“It’s okay.”
“Dipper?” Bill asked.
“Yes, Bill?”
“I’m scared. I’m so scared,” Bill sniffled.
Instead of replying, Dipper removed his hands from Bill’s and wrapped them around Bill’s body. Bill slumped into Dipper, who raked his hands through Bill’s hair. They were raw and red with anger from the flames, but Dipper didn’t care. His eyes locked with Ford’s, who sent a knowing look. Dipper glanced down at Bill, who had his eyes closed. His breathing leveled out, but Dipper knew he was awake. He carefully pulled the gun from his pants and made sure it was loaded. Slowly, he aimed the gun at Bill’s stomach.
“Bill?” Dipper asked.
“Yes, Sapling?” Bill replied.
The nickname made Dipper bluish and feel much worse for what he was about to do.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Wh-“ Bill started but was cut off by the sound of Ford’s gun going off.
The blast hit Bill in the stomach and tore him away from Dipper. Golden blood oozed from Bill's abdomen as he struggled to stand up. Dipper stepped back, ignoring the desire to help him. Bill staggered again before falling back onto the forest floor. Then, a bright light engulfed him. Dipper flinched as Bill’s screams flooded the forest. He moved to get closer to Bill, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. When Dipper looked back, Ford was hovering over him.
“We cannot interfere with the process, Dipper. He should be okay,” Ford explained.
“And if he isn’t?” Dipper questioned.
“Then you’ll learn to live with it, I’m sorry, Dipper,” Ford replied.
Dipper stood in silence as he watched Bill’s lit-up form writhe in pain.
Eventually, the screaming stopped, and the bright light faded, leaving Bill. He was sprawled across the forest floor, looking pale and worse than Dipper had found him. Ford let go of Dipper, who ran towards Bill’s form. He signed in relief when he found Bill’s pulse.
“Guys, he’s alive!” Dipper exclaimed. Subtle tears ran down his face and fell onto Bill’s sleeping form. Mabel ran to help Dipper lift Bill up, and Ford and Stan eventually followed.
---
When the family returned to the shack, Bill was placed on Dipper’s bed to heal. Mabel watched Dipper sit next to Bill with dark circles under his eyes.
“Dipper, I’m sure he’ll be okay. Why don’t you get some sleep?” she offered.
Dipper shook his head, “I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway.”
“Well, I’ll keep you company,” Mabel said.
Mabel sat down next to Dipper with a small smile on her face. Dipper returned the smile and laid his head on her shoulder. It didn’t take long for Dipper to peacefully fall asleep.
When Bill woke up, Dipper was still asleep. Mabel watched as Bill smiled at Dipper’s sleeping form. The two made eye contact and Mabel sent a knowing nod. She moved Dipper, so his head was laying on the bed, and then quietly left the room.
“Sapling?” Bill whispered, nudging Dipper.
“Bill?” Dipper yawned, “Are you okay?” he added.
“A little sore, but I think I’ll survive,” Bill laughed.
The two lay in silence until Bill let out a long sigh.
“I’m sorry, Dipper,” he said.
“Don’t be, at least not to me. The people you should be worried about are my family. I’m sorry too. I never meant to hurt you,” Dipper said.
“You’ve never hurt me Sapling,” Bill smiled.
He leaned down to kiss Dipper, and Dipper quickly kissed back. Things would never be normal for the two of them, and Dipper was okay with that. Dipper also knew that he would probably never recover the memories he lost due to his sister and Grunkle, and he slowly accepted that too.