Never Trust Your Demons

41

"...What?" Both Bill and I both respond.
"You're that girl from Gleeful's prophecy!"
"Oh not this thing again..." Stan sighs.
"Not you too!" I groan with the same exasperation. "Cipher told me I could take down the king of England or something-"
"It never said anything about England's king," He cuts me off. "Based on the second half of it, I'm fairly certain he is the King you'll overthrow."
"How do we even know I'm this person?" I ask. "Being flat out told this stuff is overwhelming, and frankly, all I want to do is figure out how to get home," I direct the last part to Bill, who shrugs. So we're still nowhere on that.
"Yes, but once Cipher's gone, a man could actually call himself a pirate without getting raided by him."
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm hardly able to stand, let alone take on a guy who just tried to kill me," I scoff. "Do you really expect me to just go back and hope that I'll somehow overpower him, likely getting myself killed again?"
He's about to reply, when a muffled boom stops him.
"...What was that?" I ask
"CANNON FIRE!" Stan yells, right before Bill pulls me back and a cannon ball splinters through the wood where I was.
Everyone rushes up on deck (except for me, I just sort of limped).
"It's the Mindscape! Return fire!" Stan shouts. "Was Soos seriously the only one up here?!"
Another cannonball flies at me through the walls and I duck out of the way.
"I have no interest in getting a limb blown off today, so can we get out of here?" I call up. As I come above deck, I freeze when I see the huge ship right next to ours. Glancing across, I eventually make eye contact with Cipher. He glares at me
"Prepare to board!" He shouts.
"Ooh, not good," I groan. I don't have my sword, and Bill took his back. I look back to Cipher, but he's disappeared. "Huh?!" A flash of black and yellow suddenly lands in front of me, and I find my terrified gaze staring straight at Captain Cipher as he stands up.
He grins. "'Hello, poppet."

I gasp, nearly falling as I back down the stairs.
"Look at you," Cipher chuckles, following. "You can barely walk straight!" His grin turns to a scowl. "Maybe keeping you in line will be easier now." My foot misses a step as he raises his sword, and I tumble down the rest. I lean against the wall, aching and dazed as he walks down after me. Pft. Some lucky compass. I watch helplessly as his sword raises once again.
"Hey!" Bill-my Bill-leaps in front of me, his own sword blocking his dimensional counterpart's at the last possible second. "You okay?!" He asks. I nod and he shoves Cipher back. "So you're the guy who looks like me!" Bill looks Cipher up and down. "Not bad. Longer hair's a nice touch.," He comments as I stand up. "What do you think, should I try that?"
"Wha-?" I raise an eyebrow in pained confusion. "Bill, not now!" I tell him as Cipher swings his sword again. Bill hits the sword away.
"Police Box, get out of here," He commands. I hesitate. Without his powers, he seems weaker, more tired, and that only seems to intensify with each passing second. But still, I duck into the nearest room. I find my sword conveniently hanging on a hook just inside the room. Glancing back out, Bill seems to be struggling some.
But he has a point. No matter how much "luck" that compass gives me, I don't know how to fight with weapons, and these guys are out for blood.
Nevertheless, the maker of dumb decisions I am, I draw my sword, adrenaline allowing me to ignore the sting in my leg.
"What are you doing?!" Bill somehow notices me climbing the stairs while locked in battle with...himself.
"I'm not helpless-"
"Yet," Cipher growls. He pushes Bill back, who slams into the wall with a grunt.
"Heh," He chuckles quietly. "Pain is hilarious."
Cipher turns his attention to me, Bill still trapped behind his sword. "I'm not sure England is worth all this trouble," I find myself staring once again down the barrel of his gun. "So why don't we make it easy: you surrender and only you die, or keep moving and both of you die."
"Again, with the bad deals," I sigh, but still don't move. "How about you surrender, and no one dies? Huh?" I shrug, coming back down the stairs.
He pulls down the flint and I freeze.
"I have got to stop getting cocky," I gasp. He pulls the trigger, and in a desperate attempt to save myself, I raise my sword to possibly-but-unlikely block it
CHING!
"Unf!"
I open my eyes after a second. I'm unharmed. At least with any new injuries. Looking up, Cipher's clutching his shoulder as a red liquid stains his yellow shirt. I drop my sword in shock.
"Captain!" Gideon shouts from up on deck.
Cipher snarls and rolls his eyes. He grabs me by my collar.
"We aren't done dancing yet, lass," He growls in my face. Then he shoves me into the wall. He rushes back up the stairs like a ghost. By the time I make it back up the stairs, the Mindscape is already leaving.
"Meet us at Lookout Island by sundown!" He shouts back. "Trust me, it's in your best interest!" There's a flash of sunlight and a burst of strong wind, and when my vision clears, the ship is disappearing into the horizon.
"Hmph. Like going anywhere near him again is in anyone's best-"
"Wait!" I glance to my side and see a distraught Mabel. "Where's Dipper?!"

"We've searched the ship," Wendy reports. It's been a a while since both Dipper and the Mindscape disappeared, and at this point it's presumably together. "No sign of him."
Bill's told me that when Captain Cipher shot at me, somehow the bullet ricocheted of the blade of my sword and hit him in the shoulder.
"So... what do we do?" Soos asks. Everyone else is just as worried as he is.
"We... we go to Lookout Island..." I sigh. "We figure out how to get him off the Mindscape without, you know, getting me killed."
"I... I guess we don't have many other options," Ford rubs the back of his neck.
"Well then," Bill stands. "It appears... we have our heading." His voice change confuses me for a second, then I roll my eyes
"Bill, this is neither the time nor place for imitating Jack Sparrow," I grumble under my breath.
He appears to think for a second. "Time, no. Place, yes." I sigh, rolling my eyes again.
"Fine, fine, heading, let's go," I shrug, turning to head back down below deck. Bill follows.
"Police Box, we need to figure out how to get back to your dimension... just in case, you know, we get in a situation like that again," He tells me. "I don't think you're going to get that lucky again."
"I couldn't just do nothing. Are you okay?" I ask. "You seemed...I don't know, weaker."
"Weaker..?" His head tilts in confusion. I nod in response. "I mean, my magic's still blocked, that's probably part of it."
"But you're okay..?"
"Oh yeah, I'm fine," He shrugs. "You're the one able to walk with a bullet in your leg."
I wince as he calls attention to it. "Oh yeah, reminding me that I'm in pain is a great idea."
"Ooh... sorry," He smiles apologetically. "Anyways... any ideas?"
"Why are you asking me? Dimensions are completely new for me!"
"Well, we've been gone almost a week and I fig-"
"A week?!" I gasp. "H-how did that happen?!" I tug on my bangs nervously. "Oh my gosh my cousins must be worried..."
"Well, we had about a day in the reverse dimension, and you were on that ship... eh, maybe two to three days, and you out for about a day and a half."
"Oh wow..."
"Yeah, you had him worried sick."
"Gah!" Both of us yelp in surprise as a third voice joins our party. Wendy stands there.
"Sorry," She laughs. "But he was constantly either watching over you or asking about you." She starts to walk away. "He never slept. Is he like a zombie or something?"
I glance at Bill. The slightest hint of pink is showing on his cheeks.