"What," Dipper prompted, after Bill was about to tell him what he was going to do for their deal. The tears on his face were now dry and they felt sticky whenever he blinked. He didn't care enough to bother wiping it away because he didn't want to miss hearing what he had to do—the safety of his family depended on it.

"Get up first," Bill chirped. "Let's take a little stroll through the labyrinth."

With a sigh, Dipper straightened out his clothes and ignored the sting of the healing burns of his arm. He hoped it wouldn't scar over. Over the summer, he had gotten a couple of scars here and there from falling on his knees and stupid stuff like that. Burn scars all over his arms would be a very unwelcome change.

As he walked back toward the entrance, he saw a few returning animals peeking out from the underbrush since the previous commotion interrupted their little maybe-hallucination-animal business. He inwardly apologized, even though he didn't have to. They weren't real, although it sure felt and looked real. The feeling of that deer gently sniffing his hand still lingered, albeit what happened with the fire. He was surprised it was still there and the harsh fire hadn't snuffed the tingling feeling.

"Alright, Pine Tree, let's cut to the chase," Bill resumed as they arrived back in the maze. Dipper mentally prepared himself. "I need you to go back to the Mystery Shack and get the equation from Ford to me."

The world stopped.

In a sense, anyway.

"You can't be serious." But he knew he was. Dipper knew about Bill's weird obsession with power and world domination and he has seen and read and heard about what he'd done to gain it. People had gone mad: McGucket's face flashed in his head. People have died, he was sure.

"As a heart attack, kid!"

"Can't...can't I do something else?" Dipper pleaded, rushing forward to stop in front of Bill. "There must be something else I could do!"

Bill's eye flashed in warning. "No. You made a deal with me and you will do as I say. That's final. If you have such a problem with it, kiss your family's safety goodbye forever!"

Dipper flinched and let Bill go around him. Bill was right; there was no use in arguing. Bill would sever the deal in a heartbeat and would even find another way to get the equation somehow. Distasteful ways.

"Oh, one more thing," Bill added without turning back, "Meet me by the stairs that lead down here after you get something to eat. You're going to train."

Dipper waited until he was alone before he muttered, "Train." He couldn't believe that something like this was even happening to him. He said the word again, and even pinched himself, just to see that he wasn't dreaming, but he was still there at the bottom of the Fearamid (some chaos god's castle), after he exited the room at the end of the hall (which was some weird hallucination that felt real; there were deer that could touch him and everything), and not excluding the part he just got turned into a demon (a demon) last night, all the while during an apocalypse (with monsters and general weirdness), ultimately whilst he lived in the "sleepy" town called Gravity Falls (don't need to explain that one there).

He tried to mourn his life for a moment.

Boys his age should not have to worry about fighting monsters and dream demons and the apocalypse (okay, that last one makes more sense). 13-year-old boys like him should worry about the dreaded and anxiety-inducing first day of school, of worrying about bullies, about not very discreetly hiding a certain uninvited, treacherous thing during class at random, being excited for high school, thinking about girls, and just the promising future in general.

But was there even a future anymore?

Ever since Weirdmageddon started, Dipper didn't know what to expect everyday. No routine. Just surviving.

All stirred up in the spur if the moment, Dipper angrily kicked the wall. Pain shot up his toes and he hopped on one foot as he tried cradling his knee. Ugh, stupid. Thank God there were no henchmaniacs around to witness his embarrassment.

He took the stairs up to find Pyronica, admittedly hungry. Why were there so many stairs? His foot hurt. Begrudgingly, he hoped Bill would teach him how to teleport.

Later after getting something to eat, Dipper admittedly less famished, he sat at the top of the stairs that led to the labyrinth.

True to his word for once, Bill appeared.

He took one look at him and said, "Huh, you're actually here. I thought you'd dip!" Bill bursted out laughing. Dipper counted the seconds in his head.

Three...four...

"Get it? Dip! Ha! I crack myself up sometimes," the demon wiped away an imaginary tear. He blinked. "Hey, that was funny. Why aren't you laughing? I said your actual name and everything."

"What are you teaching me?" Dipper asked, straight to the point. He didn't want to spend more time with Bill than he had to.

"Oh, you know," Bill said, waving a lazy hand. "Fire, healing, teleporting, reading minds. Basic stuff."

"Basic stuff," Dipper echoed.

"Exactly! So you've already gotten fire down. Kinda," Bill eyed the healing burns on Dipper's arm. "Yeah, we need to do something about your fire. Luckily, you have me to teach you how to control it!"

Lucky me.

"Let's get started. This will take a couple days, so pay attention."

___

The first lesson was fire, of course. If Dipper was being honest, he was kinda stoked to be learning magic. Especially fire, though he was still weary of hurting himself again, but he was sure he could learn. He learned quickly.

Dipper ignored the throbbing in his toes from when he stupidly kicked the wall earlier and hoped he would be learning healing super soon.

He let the nervous energy build up inside of him until Bill teleported them both somewhere.

Dipper blinked, getting used to his new sudden surroundings and tried not to fall over.

He was in the forest. But this time, it was for real. He was on the ground.

Dipper whipped his head around to face Bill. "We—what are we doing here?"

"Teaching you fire. Duh, where else would we do it? Don't want to burn my whole castle down," Bill said with cheer. He gestured with a hand to their surroundings. "This place is already burning, so why not take our chances on something that's already destroyed?"

Dipper looked around.

The world was so warm. He felt heat pressing against his body from the fires and they were barely even 10 feet away from the nearest one. He wondered how it was still burning. The pine trees around him were char with the needles burnt off. The grass below him crunched under his shoes. The sky was all warm colors, but not in a pleasing way like a sunset. Just warm-color-throw-up, as Mabel would say. In the sky, there were a couple henchmaniacs stirring up trouble. Dipper pushed the frustration and grief down. His home was as good as ash.

"Alright, first up! Conjure the fire."

"I don't know how."

"What made you do it the first time?"

Dipper thought for a moment. When it had happened, it had been in that weird, hallucination-but-not, forest part of the castle. He was only just observing his surroundings, like when he'd noticed he couldn't smell the earthy forest. He vaguely remembered Bill saying that magic was connected to emotions. Maybe he was feeling a bit upset. He breathed in the dirty, smoky air, feeling a pang in his chest at the realization that he would never smell the fresh, green forest again.

And just like that, a warmth in his hand. Except this time, instead of destroying and hurting, it licked around his hand gently and stayed like that.

He remembered the week of Mabel's puppet play, when he took Bill's hand in a deal, when the barely-warm, blue fire danced around their hands. Binding.

But Dipper's fire...it was different. It was a calm orange-yellow instead of icy blue.

He looked up at the demon in question, a genuine, victorious smile on his face.

Bill put his hands together in a slow clap. "Bravo, kid! We'll start teleportation tomorrow, but for the rest of the day, practice," he cast a searching look at Dipper. "You'll need it."

That night, after hours of practicing, he was able to conjure fire whenever he wanted to. He always had a way that made magic come to him.

He weaved a tiny little flame through his fingers and let that and thoughts of his family lull him to sleep.

___

The next day, after Pyronica brought him food, ruffled his hair good naturedly then and sent him on his way, he met Bill in the throne room.

He tried and failed looking at the horrible throne. (It was smaller than it used to be...Dipper guessed that it was because some people escaped the Fearamid when it was dismantled the first time. Some people weren't as lucky and most were brought in by bats from the surface. He saw those bats bring people in a couple times before and it was not pleasant. He knew it would only get bigger, and soon returned to its full horrific glory.)

"Now I'm teaching you how to levitate. It's easy as pie. Like this!"

Bill's feet touched the ground, and then he let himself fly up.

Dipper blinked, appalled at the non-explanation. "This is quite a step-up from fire," He deadpanned, albeit a little nervous. He didn't expect to be doing something like this so abruptly.

Bill scoffed, waving his hand in a dismissive manner. "Well, it's what we're doing. Once you do this, the rest will come easy, kid. As I recall, and I remember everything, the first time we met in your uncle's mind, you were levitating."

That felt so long ago. It was when Gideon was trying to steal the deed to the Mystery Shack. He shifted on his feet uncomfortably, trying to remember the feel of the ground before he would eventually leave it somehow. "Well, yeah. But it was more like a dream, I guess. I thought it and then I just did it."

"Exactly, it's not hard! It becomes second nature! Now that you've got some magic, you can do it."

Dipper refrained from rolling his eyes. All Bill did was fly around. He rarely ever saw his feet touch the ground. It was as if he never saw a need to.

"That's besides the point."

Dipper's head snapped up. "What did I tell you about reading my thoughts!"

Bill shrugged his arms and squinted his eye. "And I didn't listen. Try now."

Dipper breathed in a slow breath. Maybe Bill was right. Maybe it would come as easy as breathing. He closed his eyes and imagined himself as weightless, and imagined his ratty old shoes leaving the ground.

"See? What'd I tell ya!"

The boy made the mistake of opening his eyes. His eyes widened when he saw that he was at least almost five feet off the ground. He lost focus and suddenly he was falling. He yelped when his ass hit the ground with a thud.

Bill made a disappointed sound and feigned sorrow. "Wow. I had such high hopes for you, kid," He wiped away an imaginary tear, "My heart bleeds."

Dipper rubbed his bottom, willing the pain to go away. "Whatever, Bill. What's next?" He wanted to get it over with and he obviously had it down, faster than he had anticipated. He wondered if it was because he'd already been dabbling in magic all summer.

A few hours later with time to himself doing whatever in the Fearamid (he spent time talking to Pyronica, he tried navigating the maze and only got lost and had to call out for help twice, he ate, he did not make his bed, talked to Pyronica some more, endured teasing from other henchmaniacs, the usual stuff), he met Bill again on the bottom floor of the Fearamid to learn--

"--Teleportation!" Bill cried with delight, rubbing his hands together as if he was planning something devious. "Ah, yes. One of my favorites. It's so fun, you see! Because at one moment I'm here," Bill disappeared in a white flash and a voice boomed behind him, making Dipper jump, saying, "And now I'm here!"

"Fascinating," Dipper said dryly, already knowing what teleportation is, but again, he was nervous. What if he accidentally teleported halfway across the world? What is he teleported underground? Underwater?

"Woah, jeez, relax kid," Bill exclaimed with an emphatic laugh. "Your thoughts are going a billion miles a minute. First, you think where you want to go. Technically when you do this, the world is metaphorically folding in half to your whims, kind of like a wormhole, if that helps, who knows. Now that's out of the way, try it!" He then teleported to another place with a cackle.

Dipper whipped his head around as Bill kept teleporting to and fro, frustration growing and growing.

"Over here!" Behind him.

"Peek-a-boo!" Right in front of his face.

"C'mon, Pine Tree! Just go for it," Bill jeered a few feet away.

"What, are you just gonna stand there all day?"

Dipper had enough. He grunted as he took a step forward and tried to land a punch on Bill. Bill laughed delightedly as he teleported short paces around him, taunting him, Dipper getting oh, so close every time.

Finally, it seemed as Bill had enough of his stupid little game and appeared in the air out of reach with a pleased glint in his eye. "Woah, there, kid! Chill out!" Dipper took a deep breath and tried to calm his racing heart. "Why aren't you happy, PT? You should be proud of yourself right now! You just teleported like, 5 times in a row. Huh, that was a surprisingly good tactic. I make a fantastic teacher."

The rest of those words went through one ear and out the other. He teleported 5 times? Just like that? Had that just happened? Suddenly, he felt dizzy. He went over to the dark wall and put a hand against it, waiting for the world to stop spinning. Huh, how about that.

"Don't throw up, now, I just had this floor polished," Bill chastised Dipper, as if he was a small child.

Dipper just ignored him. This must have been because either he was dehydrated or he had used up too much magic at once. Another, distant part of his mind told him that it was because the more he learned, the closer he was to stealing the equation from his and betraying them, but he didn't dare think of that more in front of Bill. He knew he was listening.

Then he felt a sharp pain on his knee. Oh. He barely noticed that he'd gotten it scraped while he was chasing Bill around. With the adrenaline ebbing away, the pain grew more and more. Well, this was unfortunate.

Bill seemed to realize that he had the scrape as well because he started to snicker. Those snickers gave way to full cackles.

Dipper furrowed his brow, unamused. "Would you like to share with the class?"

The demon seemed to calm down, but barely. He put his hands on his knees as if he was trying to catch his breath, but there wasn't even a need because he was just a triangle-demon-whatever. "Sorry, sorry, Pine Tree, it's just...pain is hilarious. You know how it is!"

Oh, Dipper very well knew how it was. Memories of when Bill possessed him during the week of Mabel's sock puppet play and how underwhelming it was was just as hilarious as the scrape on his knee. "Ugh. Mind if I leave? I gotta get a band-aid on this." Also you're annoying.

Bill seemed to sober up and went closer to Dipper, inspecting the scrape with a studious squint to his eye. "Speaking of annoying, why don't you heal your knee, right here, right now?"

Dipper jumped a little. "Y-you mean as in magic? Right now? Me?"

"I mean, I did just say that, but yes. First put your hand over it, yup, good, and now you just will the skin to stitch back up together. C'mon, now."

Dipper blinked, trying to make sense of those simple terms. Saying it and doing it, are of course, two separate things. He did what Bill suggested, imagining the torn open layer of skin coming back together. His heart sped up a bit when he saw a faint yellow-white light coming from his palm and a tingling sensation on his knee.

After a moment, the tingling stopped and he took his hand away, then frowned. Some of the skin was raised and some small parts of it didn't even heal up, blood drying. "Uhh..?"

Bill groaned and put his own hand over it for a moment, then took it away. The skin was perfectly back to normal. Dipper bent his knee back and forth to test it. "There. It was annoying me. Anyway, at least you know how to do it, so it'll have to do. Now, go do whatever. We've gotta big day tomorrow. It's time to learn how to read minds, Pine Tree."

The next day was odd. It was full of nervous anticipation and Bill hadn't come to found him yet. He guessed he was attending to his weird King of Weirdmageddon or whatever duties. He was probably revelling in the sight of the fiery chaos outside.

Those past couple of days were filled with learning magic from Bill, practicing it on his own time, doing random things with Pyronica around the castle (and on one instance, they went down for a walk on the surface. It was as sad as it was uneventful), and exploring the library. Bill still hasn't taught him the language yet, but hopefully he would soon. He felt like he would die if he didn't learn more information on Bill...his origins, his backstory, where he came from, the scale of which he was capable of. Dipper had a feeling that Weirdmageddon wasn't it.

Later that day, when Dipper was opening and closing drawers in his room, Pyronica cheerfully knocked on his door before swinging it wide open. "Oh, Dipper!" She sang. Dipper tried to smile back at her. "It's time for your last lesson with Bill before your big mission! Are you excited? I sure am."

Excited to see his family, of course he was. He missed his sister and uncles and friends so much that it made his heart ache. Excited to betray them, certainly not. Hopefully he could try and lengthen his stay, so he could put off the end of the world as they all knew it as long as he could.

"Yeah, I guess so," Is what he said instead.

Pyronica grinned so hard that he could see all of her teeth. "So happy to hear it! C'mon, I'm taking you to the throne room." She wrapped a flamey arm around his shoulders and took him down the stairs, down the stairs to despair.

Pyronica dropped him off, and Dipper was finally ready to start his last magic lesson. Probably not the last one in the long run, but the last one until he saw his family again.

Bill turned with a cheery glint to his eye. "Are you ready to learn how to read minds, kid?" Bill didn't give Dipper any time to answer when he said, "Good, I sure am! Alright, let's see, how do I want to do this...ah, yes!" Bill turned and teleported to a spot of the throne. From what he could see from the floor, Dipper watched as Bill grabbed someone's stone arm and pulled until they were somehow made human again. White light enveloped the both of them until Bill appeared right back in front of Dipper, putting the person he chose on the ground ungracefully. "Ope--yeah, there you go."

The person he chose was Preston Northwest. All the sympathy he felt for the once-random person Bill chose was gone.

Right now, Preston opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings, eyes widening more each second. While he did that, Dipper took a moment to take Preston in. The usually well-groomed man with perfect hair and a perfectly pressed suit and polished shoes was exactly the opposite of that. The man's hair was greasy, his skin caked with dirt, and his clothes were filthy and had rips and holes in them. Dipper would say that his conceited demeanor was crushed now, but that was before the man sat up on his knees and looked up at Dipper. His gaze was as judgemental as ever and he still felt like a bug, but Dipper wouldn't cower. Not even if Preston had a bell to ring in his face.

Dipper didn't pity him, not when he treats him, his sister, Pacifica, and the rest of the town like the dirt he is covered in.

Bill burst out laughing. "Oh, I knew I chose the right person for this little experiment! Wow, your face cracks me up, Pine Tree."

Dipper turned his glare onto Bill.

"Alright, alright! Let's cut to the chase. Let's start! Now, isn't like the first time you did this when you and your sister and the other guy cast that spell to go into Fez's mind. Remember, you have my magic now. First, close your eyes," Dipper did as he was told, "And now imagine, let's say, hands reaching toward his mind. Imagine that you're in his mind. Open your eyes."

Dipper opened them, still imagining a grip on Northwest's mind. He blinked once, twice, in bewilderment. He was actually in Preston Northwest's mind! It wasn't like how he went into Stan's mind, in fact, except in here it was only black, but he could hear Preston's voice. He guessed that it was because either he wasn't a full dream demon or he just simply wasn't using enough power. He had to strain his ears, though. "Bill," he breathed, "I'm doing it."

If Bill had a mouth, he would be grinning wide. "Nice job, kid! You're doing it!"

Dipper's eyes fluttered open in the real world, and retracted his magic. He was a little breathless. He was just in someone's mind.

Preston recoiled, panting hard. "You! Dipper Pines, what is going on, I demand an explanation to what just happened. What was he talking about, just now?"

Before he could say anything, Bill chuckled and whisper-shouted, "Shh, now that's mine and Pine Tree's little secret! Now back you go!" Before Preston could argue, Bill turned him back into stone and put him back on the throne. Even with how much he hated that man's guts, he couldn't bring himself to watch the process.

Bill went back to Dipper and smacked imaginary dirt from his hands. "Alright, now that he's out of the way and now that you know how to read minds... it seems like you're ready, Pine Tree. Go eat or whatever and have a good night's rest. Or don't. We have a big week coming up!"