Gravity Pines

Part 41: Within

Stan stood at the breaking point, angry but mourning, loathing himself but blaming everything on Ford, knowing it was not his fault. In honesty, Stan knew if Ford had not met Bill, Dipper would have never been able to fend him off and he would be free to have enacted his original plans. Yet now Stan stared at Bill who was walking around, wearing Dipper's face, never cracking a smile, only working as if a slave to the world.

" Hey hey! That goes in the tunnels! The ones for the cars are stored there! " Stan walks up, grabbing the fuel cell out of the air that Bill carried with his ability, and soon enough Stan was lugging it onto his shoulder with no problem at all.

" I... I'm sorry I was just, I thought I had everything-- "

" Look it's ok Ki... Bill. Just look for the narrow canisters. These are meant to cycle with the grid, remember. You shared this with Ford. " Stan turned and began to walk down the tunnel entrance, his back to Bill but soon pausing as he turned noticing Bill was following, but that moment passed and Stan was on the move again.

" I remember now. Fuel cells that won't last forever but... psh... won't need to replace them till your great great great great great grandchildren are old. " This made Bill smile a bit yet it was short-lived, muttering a silent berating to himself as Stan just sighed.

" Ya, from what Pointdexter tells me, you gave him almost limitless uses for our reality or whatever. Once we beat you, McGucket took over and began to make the profits roll in, if he was greedy, we would be making a hundred times what he made a deal for. Guy knows that improving the world shouldn't be for one's gain but for all. " Stan soon smacked a nearby control panel open, a simple push would work but he liked to do it this way.

" Unlike me back then, using all of you like puppets so I could please "Him", so I could control this universe while he just used it for his playground. " Bill would pull open the door that revealed the power station, it was hooked up much like a roll of cookies, lit up like a Christmas tree as the chemicals mixed with the elemental mixtures to carry the torrents of energy through. Soon Stan slipped the disk in and a light hum began while it settled into place and eventually went silent.

" Ya, well back then you were dead set on the whole evil overlord bit. Trying to scare us to break us. I saw the real fear in you every time Bill. When we were sharing those last moments, and you said that incantation, ya, I remember that... I felt sorry for you because you didn't know why you lost still. I think now... you know, and you realize that you don't fear it. " Stan stared at Bill who would have that sorrowful expression, the same Dipper had when he was lost so long ago, and even when he came back and looked at his Gruncles for help.

" What is it about you humans that makes the pain worth feeling? Why do I feel it now and have the urge to fight back against someone I know I can't beat?! " Bill's outburst came just as Stan guessed, powerful and breaking free from the confines.

" This is Bill, we are born into pain... When air fills out lungs, it almost burns the first time, when we see the light after being born... it stings when we hear everything that goes on for the first time our heads throb from our ears ready to BURST! " Exclaiming the last part almost to make a point as Bill shook slightly from the surprise. " We learn that pain means something is happening, that we can't be bullied and made to look like fools, that when we hurt because of someone selfish, we need to fight back hard and make sure they can't do it again. " Stan rose his arm and smirk a bit at Bill.

" What's this... wh-what are you doing? " Bill gesturing to the risen arm that was hooked ready to cross with Bill's. Soon enough Stan taking his hand to pull up in the same pose as himself, resting their arms together.

" This is a pact, between you and me Triangle. We will stare that beast dead in the eye and watch him feel the terror he deserves. " Stan just stared without breaking, waiting for Bill to notice the conviction, he knew Bill about as well as Dipper knew him now, but it was a bond forged through a few months of literal body sharing.