Gravity Rises (S3)

CW: Part Twelve

The Symbols moved together. Their footsteps weren't quite in sync, but they kept pace with each other. A strange energy surrounded them — not like when they formed the Wheel, but still magical. This felt right. They were where they needed to be.

The hallway wasn't long. At the end were two doors — one to the Symbols' left, and one to their right. The Symbols didn't even look to the left. They knew which room Bill was in.

And there he was. The door to the bedroom was open, and Bill stood inside. There was nothing else in there — just Bill in Lee's body, a bed, and a few other pieces of furniture, all resting on the plain brown carpet. Bill smiled genially at them. "Welcome," he said. "Come on in."

For a split second, the Symbols hesitated. But then they moved forward. They needed to go in the room to stop Bill, to get him out of Lee's body, so that's what they did. Bill was alone, with no magical diagrams or objects, and no weapons. This was their opportunity.

They walked in and surrounded Bill. And they readied their weapons — some of them just had knockout patches, but Gideon's amulet started to glow, Dipper raised the grappling hook, and Lee, Melody, and Wendy all lifted stun guns and pointed them at Bill. Ford was the only one with a real gun, and he left it in his holster, which Lee thought was probably for the best. Better to stun Bill and then figure out what to do next.

But Bill gave them no chance to stun him.

As soon as all the Symbols were inside the room, the door slammed shut. Lee whirled around to see one of the servants, who'd been hiding behind the door. Lee fired his stun gun, but the man anticipated the shot and ducked just in time. The energy from the stun gun dissipated on the wall.

Well, who cared about the servant? It was Bill who mattered. Lee turned and pointed his stun gun at the demon.

Then Bill clapped his hands.

And the Symbols fell to the ground.

They cried out as a dark power reached into them and ripped their energy away. Lee felt his knees buckle under the magic. It was like the disaster a few days ago, when the Wheel's energy was stolen from them — but this time without the Wheel.

Bill was stealing their life force with no other magic, no special dagger. Nothing but his yellow eyes and triumphant smile.

"Marcus, take their weapons," the demon instructed. The servant obliged, stepping to each Symbol in turn and taking their stun guns and other weapons. The Symbols were too weak to stop him. The magic they were under was like a physical weight keeping them down — so much so that Gideon lay facedown in the carpet, unable to look at Marcus and freeze him with his amulet.

Marcus calmly untied the amulet from the boy's neck and put it in his pocket.

"No," Melody whispered. She raised her stun gun with shaking hands. But Marcus got to her before she could shoot, and he twisted the gun out of her grip.

"Don't try to struggle," Bill suggested. "It's rather pathetic."

Marcus took Ford's gun, then moved to Robbie and reached for the hunting knife at his side.

"No," someone growled. A stun gun fired; the shot hit Marcus in the side.

The servant collapsed.

"I'll. . . show. . . you. . . pathetic," Wendy said to Bill.

"Ooh, very nice," Bill said. She turned her stun gun on him, but he stepped forward and kicked at her arm. She cried out, and he bent down to force the stun gun out of her hand. With that done, he pulled Marcus's unconscious body away from the rest of the Symbols, so no one could take their weapons back. He gave Robbie a nice kick as he went, seemingly just for fun.