Work Text:
Ford was in a frenzy, trying to get his assistant to tell him what he’d seen. It was supposed to be a simple test run, but something went wrong. If it hadn’t been for the rope around his ankle, he’d have been lost forever. But something on the other side had shaken him to the core, and he rambled absolute nonsense before saying clearly, “When gravity falls, and earth becomes sky, fear the beast with just one eye!”
Ford gripped his shoulder and cried, “Fiddleford, get ahold of yourself! You’re not making any sense!”
Fiddleford jerked away from him. “This machine is dangerous. You’ll bring about the end of the world with it.” Fiddleford gripped Ford’s shoulders, fevered eyes burning into him. “Destroy it before it destroys us all!”
Ford didn’t seem alarmed by the warning. He smiled, as if Fiddleford’s words were the imaginative ramblings of a child. “You can’t expect me to destroy my life’s work.”
He stood up, adjusting his glasses. That’s when he saw, in the mirror of his partner’s glasses, a golden glow, and he felt himself being pulled into the recesses of his mind. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sensation, but it was the first time he didn’t choose it. Inside of his head, he screamed as the demon smirked. “Bill,” Fiddleford hissed.
“How’d you like the sneak peek?” Bill asked. Ford’s body strolled over to his partner, who backed up on his palms, hitting the wall behind him. He smiled pleasantly, amused at the way Fiddleford shook. He looked up coldly at the demon-possessed scientist.
“You’re a monster. You might have Stanford fooled, but ya ain’t fooling me!” Fiddleford shouted. “Ford, I know you’re in there! Bill’s not your muse! He’s using you!”
Ford laughed, the sound echoing, yellow irises glowing even brighter. His own voice blended with Cipher’s. “Listen, Specs, your partner is outta commission at the moment, but even if he could answer you, he’d never listen after your paranoid babbling!”
He was right. Fiddleford decided to take matters into his own hands.
“Forget it,” Fiddleford hissed, pushing himself to his feet. He began to walk towards the portal. “I’m shutting this thing down myself. Stanford can hate me for it if he wants, but I’m not letting the world end!”
“See, now, I can’t let you do that, partner.” The voice came from right behind him, and he turned just in time to feel something sharp plunge into him. He looked down at himself to see the wood handle of a kitchen knife sticking out of his abdomen. He gasped, looking thunderstruck at the scientist he used to call his best friend.
Ever since Bill came into the picture, Fiddleford wasn’t sure if he was anything to Ford besides his assistant. “Stanford?”
Cruelly, Bill chose that moment to leave Ford’s body. Ford blinked, confused. Then, he saw his partner, face frozen in shock. He looked down and saw his own hand wrapped around the knife handle, ichor dripping from Fiddleford’s stomach. He yanked his hand back like it was red-hot. “No. Nonononono!”
Fiddleford pulled the knife from his body, and it fell to the floor with a loud clatter. His knees buckled, and Ford caught him and gently lowered him to the floor, sputtering apologies the entire time. “Fiddleford, I’m—I’m so sorry! I-I—”
“I tried to tell you,” he said, pausing as a series of wet coughs racked his body. He looked up at Ford, who couldn’t form any more words. What could he say? “I tried to tell you that muse of yours was no good.”
“Fiddleford, I’m so sorry,” Ford sobbed, but he couldn’t get another word out when his partner’s eyes went glassy, and his breath stopped. He lay still on the cold floor, all the life in him gone. Icy panic gripped Ford’s chest, and he screamed in utter anguish.
“FIDDLEFORD!” From behind him, the portal activated all on its own, and piercing laughter filled the room. Ford whipped around just in time to see a dimension of horrors spilling into his world, and he realized too late whose words he should’ve trusted.
Ford jolted awake. He looked around himself, at the cavern he’d set up camp in. Lavender flames were reflected off the walls from the fire he’d set for warmth. He hugged his knees to his chest and stared into the fire, willing himself to forget the horrific nightmare he’d just had. The worst of it was that it had been a very real possibility. Bill Cipher would never allow the portal to be dismantled as long as he could still possess Ford’s body.
He’d been traveling across the multiverse for about a month now (at least, according to earth hours), and the nightmares had only become more frequent. The fire wasn’t just to keep warm. He wasn’t eager to sleep in pitch black.
Not that the dark was the worst of his fears.
He thought of all the times he let Bill into his mind, all the while Fiddleford distanced himself, knowing that nothing he said would make him see what was really happening. Fiddleford never trusted Bill, and after seeing the other side of the portal, he was done entertaining the fantasies he put in Ford’s head.
Ford had been so angry the day Fiddleford left. He thought he was overreacting, that he just had a bout of dimensional travel sickness—who knew what he was exposed to?
“You’re the one with the sickness!” Fiddleford had told him. He’d known he was choosing between their friendship and his sanity. Having both was no longer a possibility.
Ford put his head in his hands, images of yellow eyes reflecting off of wide, terrified blue ones, of blood blooming in the center of Fiddleford’s shirt, of the portal unleashing endless chaos flooding his mind.
“Fiddleford…” Ford said into the night. “Wherever you are, please forgive me. You were right. You were always right.”
Too late he’d understood that his pride clouded his judgement. He let Bill’s flattery blind him to the truth. Fiddleford had been the only person who saw what was really happening. He saw Bill Cipher for the sadistic monster that he was, and Ford was never going to see him again.
Still, he knew in his deepest heart of hearts that wherever Fiddleford ended up, it was much better than the path he’d foolishly chosen.
THE END