Chapter Text
Bud pulled up a couple blocks away from a park in Redmond, putting the trailer into park and cutting the engine. The trailer had been disguised as a regular motor-home, the usual thing when they didn't want to be recognized, and they had been following a specific car for the past 48 hours, ever since it left Gravity Falls.
“No second thoughts, right?” He opened a window to look into the back. “You know more than anyone how quickly the memory gun wears off.”
“I know.” Gideon said, carefully applying makeup at a vanity mirror. “And, no, no second thoughts.”
“Alright. This IS a bit out of our usual range of work.” Bud remarked. “I just thought I'd check.”
“He attacked my family. Bill thinks I let him live, but he has to die.” Gideon set down the blush and got up to pick out a particular outfit. “Whether he forgets Stanford or not, he's a criminal. He deserves to die.”
“Alright.” Bud nodded. “Sure you don't want me to move closer?”
“I can walk from here.” Gideon shook his head. “Better to see me alone.” He pulled the white and blue outfit from the hanger and started to put it on. “I'll contact you when I'm done.”
“Just be careful. Mistakes can happen.” Bud said, frowning.
“Why, father, you almost sounded concerned. I can protect myself.” Gideon tied his hair back in a ponytail and then slipped his knife into an inner-pocket of his shirt, where it was barely noticeable without touching. And he wouldn't let it get that far.
“Haha, well, I've been improving on my acting. Besides, you know that I'd hate for your face to be ruined.” Bud chuckled.
“Because my shows wouldn't get as many suckers?” Gideon asked dryly, looking himself over in the mirror. “Well? Do I look like a kid you would kidnap if you were him?”
“Hell, you look like a kid I'd kidnap, anyway.” Bud remarked. “Seein' dollar signs, son.”
“It is blood alone that keeps yours from being washed down the city drains, father.” Gideon said, walking to the door. “I'll contact you by telepathy if there's any changes.”
“Changes?” Bud asked.
“I've seen him on the phone a few times. It's possible whoever he's talking to also knows Stanford. And if he reminds him, he may remember where he is.” Gideon opened the door. “You know what I have to do then.”
“Of course. Want the robe?” Bud asked.
“No. This outfit is expendable. Just make sure that you're ready to help with taking out the trash.” He stepped out and closed the door behind him, heading for the park.
He noticed his prey right away, watching the kids to see if they would leave their parents for even a few moments. Disgusting child predators. They all deserved to die. He kept his true emotions hidden as he practically skipped to the swing-set past him and took a seat, kicking his legs and laughing happily like a normal child would.
“Normal”. Hah. What a laugh. NOTHING about him was normal. From the way he was conceived to his powers and especially his state of mind. But, he was an expert actor. He could look and act the part and his target was watching him like a wolf watches a herd of ram. A little lamb away from the protective horns of its parent. Bait set, target hooked. Let's see if we can reel him in.
He was close enough to overhear the man's side of the conversation as he picked up the phone and started speaking in Spanish. “Hola Jorge. Es Rico. Creo que encontrado el indicado para ti. Él luce como de diez años, rico y esta solo. Es rubio y muy pálido. ¡Aja!, se que te gustan pálidos. Muy bien, lo recogeré. Nos vemos en veinte.” He hung up and got up from the bench, walking over to sit on the swing next to Gideon.
“Hi!” Gideon greeted with all the innocence of a child his age.
“Hey.” Rico grinned at him. “How you doing?”
“I'm okay.” More swinging, a determined look to get even higher.
“Don't see your parents around. Do they know you're here?” Rico asked.
“Nope! My parents are always busy.” Gideon gave a secretive smile, giggling a bit. “I snuck out past the nanny.”
“Ohh, you naughty kid.” Rico laughed. “Reminds me of myself when I was your age.” He looked towards his car then back at Gideon. “Hey, what's your name?”
“I'm Gideon!” Gideon chirped, giving another swing of the legs.
Rico reached out and gripped the chain of the swing, halting it. Gideon looked up at him curiously. “I'm Rico. Hey, Gideon, wanna go do something fun?”
“Fun?” Gideon asked climbing off the swing eagerly.
“Sure! I've got games at home, and lots of tasty candy. Come with me?” Rico extended a hand to him.
“I like candy!” Gideon took his hand, inwardly smirking. Hook, line, sinker, this fish was going on the fire. But not alone. He wouldn't make his move until he had both of them ensnared.
Rico, obviously thinking he had won, led Gideon along to his car and opened the passenger door. “Would you like to ride in front?”
“Ohh, would I!” Gideon climbed in and Rico closed the door for him before getting in the driver's side.
“Need help buckling?” Rico asked, sitting down.
“Nuh-uh, I'm a big boy.” Gideon shook his head, buckling himself in.
“You sure are.” Rico chuckled and buckled in before starting the car and driving off.
“Is it far?” Gideon asked, looking around as they drove. He memorized the way for mentally sending to Bud later.
“Oh, not too far.” Rico assured him, glancing in the mirrors to make sure that this wasn't some police trick. No undercover cop cars coming...he'd have to make sure the kid had no access to a phone once they got there.
“Are we there yet?” Gideon asked after ten more minutes of driving.
“Almoooost.” Rico said in a cheery way as he drove into an underground parking garage.
They parked and Rico turned off the car. “Here we are!” He unbuckled and opened the door.
“Mr. Rico, you live underground?” Gideon asked, unbuckling and eagerly looking out the window.
“Yep.” Rico nodded. “Pretty sweet, right?” He got out and went to open Gideon's door for him. “Sorry about the passenger side not opening from the inside. I really gotta fix that.”
“It's okay!” Gideon climbed out and turned to the door leading to Rico's “home”. Well, well, it looked like Gideon had hit the jackpot on criminal scum. He followed Rico to the door and watched as he knocked three times and said something too quiet for him to hear.
“Did you forget your house key?” Gideon asked.
“Yeah, I lent it to a friend so they could come in while I was out. Ah, here we are.” The door unlocked and opened, letting them inside.
The place smelled of some kind of drug and there were people laughing and talking on different couches at tables. He noticed that, for now, he was the only child here, but he'd keep an eye out. All these people would be dead by dawn, no matter if he saw any other kids or not.
“¡Rico, tú conseguiste uno muy bonito! ¡Jorge estará bastante satisfecho!” One of the women laughed.
She didn't look Hispanic. Maybe German? Italian? Her Spanish had an accent to it Gideon couldn't place right now.
“Ah, ¡sí! ¡Él es un buen premio, por supuesto!” Rico patted Gideon's shoulder and led him past the tables.
As they got closer to the back, Gideon could hear the sound of children begging to be let out. “What's that?” He asked.
“Oh, just a movie, don't worry.” Rico assured him, then opened a door. “Jorge, ¡aquí esta el niño!”
A flicker of recognition went through Gideon as he recalled how Bill had described Stan's old cellmates. Yes, this guy definitely knew Stan. Rico closed the door behind him and locked it as Jorge stood up and walked over, bringing a hand up to tilt Gideon's chin up.
“Well, aren't you a pretty boy.” Jorge purred, stroking Gideon's cheek .
“I'm Gideon!” Gideon chirped.
“I'll go turn down the movie.” Rico said, heading for a side-room.
“A bit far from home, though, aren't you?” Jorge asked, moving his hand down Gideon's chest with a hungry look in his eyes.
“Yeah.” Gideon said, dropping the facade as the door Rico was opening shut again with a blue glow. “Pretty far from home. But it was necessary.”
“¿Rico?” Jorge glanced at him.
“¡No lo se!” Rico shook his head.
“Your friend decided to cause trouble in my town. Not that he remembers, I made him forget.” Rico tried the other door, but it wouldn't budge, a blue glow around the doorknob. Gideon smiled up at Jorge, this one a more sadistic and cold smile than the one he had before. “Unfortunately, it's not permanent, and you all deserve to die anyway.”
“¡¿Qué?!” Jorge grabbed a gun and fired at Gideon, but Gideon held up a glowing hand and the bullet stopped in mid-air.
“No one of your group is getting out of here alive.” Gideon's smile widened as Jorge and Rico started to glow, unable to move. “Don't worry...I'll make it slow and painful. Your friend put Stan Pines in the hospital, after all.”
“¿Stan Pines?” Jorge struggled to move his hands, his legs, anything.
“Yeah. He's practically family to me, so I'm going to make Rico and anyone who associates with him that may've hurt Stan Pines in the past suffer.” His eyes flashed blue and they gasped, feeling their throats constrict. “Let's begin.”
The screams of the criminal group were unheard by everyone up above, their own ingenious location working against them. By sundown, Gideon was standing in a room of mangled and cut up corpses, blood turned his white and blue clothes into red. He flicked blood off his knife and wiped it clean before touching his temple. 'I'm done. Come collect them. And, uh, there's a lot. Like, thirty, minus the two I came in here for.'
He sent Bud mental directions and then moved his hand down, heading for the back room again. He stepped over Rico's and Jorge's bodies and opened the door, seeing a dozen kids in cages inside. “Can you wait a bit longer? I'll contact the police and tell them where you are, but I can't really be seen by them.”
“Are you an angel?” A little girl asked, in both fear and awe.
“...” Gideon considered the question. An angel? Maybe an angel of death. Yeah. Okay. “Yeah. God heard your prayers and sent me to save you.” He nodded.
“Oh, thank God!”
“Praise God!”
“Thank you!” A little boy cried in happiness.
Gideon nodded. “I'll need you to stay in here, okay? The other angels are coming to help me clean up the bodies of the bad men.”
“Okay!” They all nodded.
“Good.” Gideon held up a glowing hand and the locks all opened, letting them open their cages. “Just stay here until the police come, okay? Are you hurt at all?”
“N-No. Those bad men said they wouldn't hurt us, but other people would.” The first girl whimpered.
“He was gonna SELL us!” Another kid wailed.
Gideon breathed a sigh of relief. “It's a good thing I got here in time, then. I was so i that I'd gotten here too late.” Apparently Jorge wasn't planning on selling Gideon, though, since he was getting all touchy-feely. “I'm going to close the door now, okay? I'll tell you when I've called the police and then that's the last you'll hear from me.”
“What's your name?” A girl asked.
Gideon blinked in surprise. “Uh, my name isn't really pronounceable in human words. Just call me the Angel of Death, I guess.”
“Okay! Thank you, Mr. Angel of Death!” The girl said happily.
Gideon closed the door and sighed, running a hand through his blood-soaked hair. Ugh, this was going to be a pain to wash out. He'd never killed so many at once before.
He heard a whistle and looked over to see Bud had entered. “Wooooooowee, you were not kidding about the body-count.”
“Where are we going to dispose of all of these?” Gideon gestured around him.
“Eh, we'll figure out somethin'.” Bud waved it off. “We could take their bodies apart, give them to your wizard friends. Don't you have one local?”
“Well, let's bag them first. Then I'll give a call to the police and get them to come here.” Gideon walked past him to pick up one of the body-bags he'd brought. “I don't think we have enough. You put tarp over everything in the trailer, right?”
“Yep.” Bud nodded, picking up one of the bodies and placing them in a body-bag. “Pretty girl. Why'd you kill her?”
“She's been sexually abusing her younger brother and framing every babysitter for it.” Gideon replied.
“Speaking of sexually abusing, how are the kids?” Bud asked, zipping up the bag around her body.
“Untouched. They were keeping their merchandise in good shape, only kept them in cages.” Gideon said, using his powers to float a man into a body-bag.
“That's good to hear. They'll only have trauma from the kidnapping. What did you tell them?” Bud asked.
“That I'm the Angel of Death.” Gideon zipped up the bag.
Bud laughed. “Oh, that's a good one! We should use that more often! Hey, do you want a black robe or a white one? Ivan's getting annoyed about the blood on the Society robe.”
“Oh, he's noticed?” Gideon asked dryly.
“Yep. Asked me about what you've been getting up to, and you know what I did?” Bud asked.
“Zapped him?” Gideon asked, floating another body into a bag.
“Zapped him! Bzzzzt!” Bud laughed.
“Of course.” Gideon nodded.
After moving the bodies into the body-bags they had and wrapping in tarp the rest of them, Gideon pulled out his phone and left a tip to the police about something suspicious happening at their location while Bud waited to drive away with the evidence. Then he knocked on the door to let the kids know the police were coming before he left with Bud and left the doors all open, the two of them long gone by the time the police arrived.
“Which way to your friend's?” Bud asked.
Gideon pulled out his phone and turned on the GPS program for him before he went to the in-trailer shower and stripped off his bloody clothes so he could dispose of them and wash himself clean of their blood.
He was already ready to head home and sleep in his nice, warm bed or on the Pines' couch next to Mabel, but he knew they weren't quite done yet. But, hey, at least the world was 32 people cleaner of criminals.
End