A/N:

Hello.

Greetings.

It has been months since I've updated this. I think maybe even a year, idk.

At this point I'm just writing this fanfic to finish it off. No one's really reading this absolute mess, lol, so I'm just wrapping it up to focus on stuff people are ACTUALLY reading.

Jk, no one reads my books anymore ;-;

Anyway, on with the story!

*Dipper's POV*

I woke up, expecting to be back in the alleyway, but I found that I was in an endless white void.

Nope, turns out I wasn't awake. Bill wanted to talk with me, I guess.

I walked around the endless void, trying to find some way out, but all I saw was the endless reaches of blankness.

I sighed.

"Bill, if this is you, then just come out already!" I said.

All I heard was the echoes of his all too familiar manic laughter.

Even though I've been repeatedly slipping out of his fingers, he still has the audacity to laugh?

Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I was dealing with an insane triangle demon with sadistic humor, after all.

Which got me thinking - if I was a dream demon too, wouldn't I be some triangle as well? Or at least a shape or something?

"Dream demons come in all shapes and sizes, kid! Since you were brought up in the third dimension, surrounded by humans, you default naturally took the form of a human." Bill said. "But if you really want to be in a more obvious dream demon form like me, then I'd be glad to transform you!"

"You know that's not what I meant, Bill!" I said, and he laughed.

"Anyway, why do you want to talk to me anyway? I'd have thought you'd be chasing me down or something." I said.

"Oh, nothing! I just wanted a little chat." Bill said. I rolled my eyes. That was such a blatant lie.

"We both know you're lying, Bill. What is it that you want?" I asked. It was still frustrating that I couldn't see Bill anywhere, yet I could hear his voice echoing from all sides.

More manic laughter. I sighed - I didn't know what I would've gotten from him. It was obvious that he wanted something from me, and yet, he kept prolonging everything, like he was...

I froze.

...Stalling.

"Ding ding ding!" Bill said. "Took you long enough."

But why would he be stalling me? It's not like he had something to distract me from, right?

Wait, I've been so stupid. The eyeball from earlier must've shown him where I last was, and he used that to pinpoint my location! He could have me in his clutches right now!

Bill began laughing as incoherent, panicked thoughts began racing through my head quickly.

"How do I wake up?!" I shouted at myself, slapping my cheeks, hoping that would get myself to wake up.

"Wow, your attempts are so pathetic!" Bill said. "But only I can release you from the dream. No one outside of your mind knows where you are, so no one will be able to rescue you."

Regardless of the trapped situation I was in, I kept trying to do something about getting out of here. I tried manually widening my eyes, manifesting a glass of water to splash my face, slapping my face... nothing worked.

And all the while Bill was laughing, like I was some entertainment show.

Eventually, I lost hope, clenching my fists and staring downwards with a worried frown. My pine hint was tilted so the front of it hid my eyes.

I couldn't do anything, so all I could do was wait and do whatever I could when I woke up.

*Ford's POV*

I was still troubled by what Oliver had told me. But I knew I shouldn't be. Dipper wasn't a violent sort of person - and if he ever attacked someone, he did so with valid reason. Oliver must've said something he shouldn't.

But then again, this wasn't my Dipper. Or even this dimension's Dipper, possibly. This Dipper was a dream demon, so maybe his powers was affecting his way of thinking? It couldn't be that he'd be capable of acting like this from the start, as Mabel herself didn't think so.

So it was either Oliver angered Dipper and he used his powers by getting rid of the magic-warding stone, or Dipper's powers were affecting his mind and making him act more violent.

I hoped it was the former.

Mabel was knitting sweaters for those who were cold, and soon enough, nearly everyone was wearing a sweater. The reason I wasn't was because I was already wearing a coat and a turtleneck.

Anyway, Marcus, Susan, Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland managed to gather the ingredients required.

And so I set to work. I placed the moonstones around, I sprinkled the mercury, and I placed the unicorn hair. When I was done, an invisible barrier was set in place. The barrier would show up when it was blocking something of Bill's, but otherwise, it would stay invisible.

I headed inside the cave and told everyone of the news, and the air seemed to lighten by a lot. As long as we were inside the cave, there was nothing Bill could do to us.

All we had to do now was rescue Dipper (assuming he hadn't already escaped) and then we could all form a plan to take down Bill, once and for all.

I could tell Mabel was really stressed, because once she made sweaters for everyone, she started making blankets. Then pillows... then started making more sweaters...

I sat down beside her.

"Mabel. You can talk to me about what's on your mind." I said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Unable to contain her emotions, she teared up and grabbed me in a hug.

"Dipper's dealing with so much, he's been kidnapped by Bill multiple times, I... I'm so worried about him." Mabel sobbed. "And I'm worried about Grunkle Stan, about you, about everything..."

I reciprocated her embrace as I comforted her while she cried.

"Don't worry, we'll get him back. Stan and I will be fine. We'll all be safe with the new barrier up..." I said gently, her sobs softening.

I wasn't sure how we'd get Dipper back, considering before we'd only managed to break in and try to defeat Bill. Dipper had broken out on his own, so most likely whatever Bill had Dipper trapped in before was going to be strengthened this time around.

I just hoped that I'd be able to stop this and return back to my dimension with my journal. It was originally why I'd come here in the first place, until Mabel and Stan had asked for my help. I'd obliged, considering the Bill that was terrorizing them was from my own dimension.

I heard soft snores and looked down to see Mabel had fallen asleep in my arms. I gave her a bittersweet smile and stroked her hair for a bit, before I shifted my gaze to the floor and my face fell.

I would do everything I could to fix this mess before I left.

*Dipper's POV*

I woke up (for real this time) back in the small bedroom. But this time, the door was locked, chained up, and didn't even have a doorknob.

There was a small triangle window I could look out of, but the glass burned me when I touched it (most likely to prevent me from breaking out from there) and the sight from the window was just Gravity Falls in utter destruction. I didn't want to look out there.

And the thing is, I still didn't have the hang of my powers. Sure, it listened to me a lot of the time, and it seemed like I knew how to use my powers, but all I was doing was following my instincts and the powers just kicked in. I still couldn't control them. They were still spontaneous.

That's why when I tried to use my powers to teleport out or destroy the door or window or do something to get out, nothing happened. My hands weren't glowing, and I felt no tingle to tell me whether my forehead or eyes were glowing either.

I was completely and utterly trapped.

And I realized that my powers hadn't completely healed me from the de-stabilizer's effects either.

I didn't feel any pain, and I could still move, but my body felt drained and weak, even after a good night's rest. Sure, I was hungry, but that wouldn't be enough to explain this.

Did the de-stabilizer effect my powers as well?

Looking down at my hands, I started getting lost in thought. I still didn't know anything about my powers. I wanted to learn how to control them, so that I could be a better help in defeating Bill with Stan, Ford and Mabel.

My heart squeezed at the thought of those three.

A weight I didn't know was there was suddenly crushingly heavy, and I fell to my knees, holding in my tears.

They'd done so much for me... tried to protect me... to rescue me... and I'd still been so USELESS!

I wondered if they were okay... where they were... if Bill had gotten them in his clutches like he had with me...

All of my hope started shattering, the world crumbling around me.

And before I knew it, I was crying.

My tears was streaming down my cheeks like waterfalls, dripping onto the floor.

At this point, my willpower started... fading.

I felt hollow. Empty. Without a purpose.

As if just existing was painful for me.

I crawled under the bed, wiping away my tears. I didn't feel safe anywhere. I didn't feel anger, nor happiness, nor sadness...

It felt like I only two modes - hollow, and fearful.

One had no willpower, and just wanted to curl into a dark corner.

The other was terribly desperate to get out of this situation, willing to go through whatever pain to defeat Bill.

Both were suffocating.

I looked down at my torso and remembered I was still wearing the sweater Mabel had knitted for me.

It gave me the tiniest of smiles - enough for me to have enough will to get out from under the bed.

Stan... Ford...

Mabel...

They cared about me.

What would they think if they saw me like this...?

Stan would awkwardly try to cheer me up, and there would probably be a 50/50 chance he even succeeded.

Ford would try to comfort me, but I didn't know him well enough to know what approach he'd take with that.

And Mabel...

Mabel would hug me. She wouldn't say anything, she wouldn't do anything, she'd just... hug me. And that would be all I would need from her.

But then the room door started opening. I almost screamed.

I quickly hid under the bed, switching from my hollow mode to my fearful one. I didn't know who had opened the door, but I was still shaking, worried for who it was and what they might do to me.

When I heard it was Bill's voice my shaking grew more intense.

"Peekaboo!" Bill said, the bed lifting upwards with his telekinesis. I cried out and tried to inch away from him, but he got me under the telekinesis power too.

"Don't think you can run away from me! You may have escaped twice before, but third times the charm, as the meatsacks say." Bill said. "It's time we begin our reach beyond Gravity Falls! And you'll be watching it happen."

A/N:

Hello!

So that's the 19th chapter of this hot mess of a fic.

I don't even think anyone's reading this lmao

Well whatever, I'm just trying to get this thing done while also trying to entertain the readers who might come here years later lol.

So if anyone actually cares/is reading this, hi! Sorry for the hot mess this fic is. I promise I have better writing skills, I started this back somewhere in 2020, the cursed year of the virus.

I basically wrote this fic as a coping mechanism bc of my E in Math back then :)

Now I'm just trying to finish this.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

Bye!