Never Trust Your Demons

62

I can almost see my face turn bright red. Bill stands in his Cy form at the door.
"Hey, Connie," He grins. If possible, my face burns brighter.
"Wait, what is he doing here?!" Dipper asks angrily. I bite my lip sheepishly and when I glance back at him, his eyes widen in realization. "Wait a second... do you still like him?!"
"Well, I-I mean-it-" I stumble over my words. "Well, the 'still' isn't quite right..."
"Are you kidding me?! After all he's done?! Including take over Gravity Falls, and soon to be the world?!"
"Wait, what?" Mabel raises an eyebrow at me.
"I-it's complica-"
"It is not complicated!" Dipper interrupts. "'Cy' is Bill! And she knew that the whole time!" He tells Mabel.
"There was this whole time when I didn't know he was-"
"But once you did, did you tell us?!"
"Hey, you hadn't exactly talked openly about him-"
"And even before that, you knew about Bill!" Dipper argues.
"I didn't know he was evil! I just thought he was... secretive and mischievous!" I protest.
"So now that you've found he is evil, why is he standing right there as what you want right now?!" Dipper's voice rises.
"Okay! Fine! I'm not over him, okay?!" I explode. "His feelings might have been fake-and right now I don't even know if they were-" I ignore the look of growing disbelief on Dipper's face. "Mine weren't exactly fabricated!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
"No, actually," I snap. "I'd think you would understand. You weren't exactly over Wendy as soon as you realized it wouldn't work, were you?!"
Dipper glares back at me. After a second, I turn around, storming out of the room. When Cy starts to follow me I stop him.
"No, no, no, I'm not in the mood right now fake-Bill. Leave me alone."
I leave the tower, and, with nothing better to do, wander Mabeland, trying to find a place that at least muffles the synthetic music blasting all around me currently. A place with less animals smiling creepily would be nice too.
I do eventually find a place. It's right on the edge of the bubble, and the music is at least a little quieter, so I can actually think.
However, I don't have much time to do so. As I lean against the bubble, something shifts behind me. When I glance back, a giant, pale-yellowish eye with a slit pupil about as tall as me blinks open.
"Gah!" I start to move away from it, but I'm caught off-balance and I fall right through it.

My foot hits a stone floor and I stumble forward, finding myself once again in the fearamid. I also find myself once again aching, covered in bruises and scratches, and with a huge headache like before we entered Mabeland.
What is it with me arguing with Dipper, then disappearing for a while?!
Looking around, I notice throne completed, every single face twisted in pain as they sit frozen in the formation. I also notice the demons, besides Bill muttering about something, and it doesn't appear to be me.
"Ah, Conifer!" Bill comes up to me, morphing from his triangle to his human form. "Checking out Mabel's bubble, I see. I told you she was fine! Though I wonder.." I see a glint of slight anger, as well as betrayal, in his eyes. "If you weren't planning something else..?"
"I... yeah, okay, I did go to free her," I admit. "You've been in my head, you know I don't like Dipper and Mabel being apart... especially after what happened in the pirate dimension..." I shiver as the crack of Captain Cipher's gun goes off, fresh in my mind.
He hesitates, then sighs. "Okay, fine, it's not like they'll get out anytime soon anyways. I do need you to do something for me though."
He grabs my hand, and our surroundings change to the parlor-like room he took me to a few a days ago.
"What is i-" I stop. He's disappeared again. "That was... weird-"
"Let me go you insane three-sided-! Wha? What is this place?" I'm cut off by a familiar shout. I gasp, turning around to see Ford, unfrozen and standing on the opposite side of the room.
"Grunkle Ford!" I exclaim, running over. About halfway across, I smack into an invisible barrier. Ford doesn't seem to have heard me as he pulls at a pale blue chain around his ankle.
I'm about to knock on the barrier to try and get his attention, but we're both distracted by piano music coming from no discernible source.
"We'll meet again."
"Bill?!" I instantly recognize the singing voice, but am still utterly confused. A piano rises from the ground, triangle Bill sitting on the bench and playing it.
"Don't know where, don't know when! Oh, I know we'll meet again some sunny day!"
"Wh-where am I?" Ford asked.
"You're in the penthouse suite, kid!" Bill levitates as the piano continues to play on its own. "The tip of the pyramid. Have a drink!" He snaps his fingers and a martini glass appears in Ford's hand, as well as his own. "Make yourself comfortable!" I knock on the barrier as Ford sits down.
"What's going on  Bill?" I ask as I do, something knocks into my legs, and I fall into a soft chair.
"Wait just a half second!" Writing appears in the "air" in front of me, then vanishes as Bill takes a sip from his glass. With his eye.
Huh.
"You know that couch is made from living human skin?" Bill asks Ford.
The couch groans as eyes, a nose, and a mouth appear suddenly on the couch, causing Ford to jump up in surprise. Glancing down, my chair appears to be different from the rest. For one thing, it's a pale lavender, similar to my pesky purple pyrotechnics, and for another, it's soft, not the texture of human skin.
"Quit the games, Cipher!" Ford demands. "If I'm still alive you must want something from me!"
"Ah, sharp as ever, Fordsy!" Bill answers. "As you may have noticed...I've recently had a multi-dimensional makeover," Everything-including Ford and I-starts to levitate in the air along with him. "I control space, matter," As he says the words, a weird  feeling comes over me. Everything vanishes suddenly, then reappears as quickly as it disappeared  but rearranged and different. "And now that that dumb baby's out of the way, time itself!...But I wasn't always this way..." As he turns away, he snaps his fingers and everything is set back on the ground. Ford and I, however, just fall, landing with a grunt, although I notice that, at the last second, a chair slides underneath me. I gasp, wincing as Ford smacks, face down, on the ground.
He pushes himself up, looking straight at me. "Connie?!"
He can see me now?! I take a step forward, and when I don't hit an invisible wall, I run over to Ford.
"Thank goodness you're okay!" I smile, hugging him.
"I'm okay? Last time I saw, you were surrounded by demons too!" He hugs back.
"Of course he's okay, I told you so, didn't I?" Bill scoffs indignantly.
"To be fair," I cross my arms. "You're often hard to believe."
There's a moment's pause before I'm thrown back into the chair and the chain around Ford's ankle yanks him back a bit.
"You think those chains are tight?" He asks. "Imagine living in the second dimension, flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams. I liberated my dimension, Stanford, and I'm here to liberate yours!"
"And by liberate, you'd mean the general villain definition of 'utterly destroyed'?"
"There's just one hitch," Bill ignores me as his eye projects a hologram of him pushing against some sort of dome over Gravity Falls. "As it turns out, my weirdness can't escape the magical confines of this town. There's something keeping me in." He blinks and the image disappears.
"Incredible!" Ford taps his chin thoughtfully. "Gravity Falls natural law of weirdness magnetism. I studied this years ago!"
"And did you find a way to undo it?"
"Of course. There's a simple equation that could collapse the barrier, but I'd never tell you!" Ford insists.
"Then why tell him you knew it at all?!" I've made my way back over to them.
"Listen, Ford, if you just tell me that equation, finally your dimension will be free!" Bill ignores me once again. "Anything will be possible. I'll remake a fun world-a better world! A party that never ends with a host that never dies! No more restrictions! No more laws! You'd be one of us. All-powerful. Greater than anything you've imagined! And all I need is your help!"
"You're insane if you think I'll help you!" Ford continues to adamantly refuse.
"I'm insane either way, brainiac!" Bill cackles. "But have it your way. I'll just fish around and get that equation directly out of your mind!" A stone image of him crashes to the ground and I can see a ghostly outline of him hovering above it
"Not so fast!" Ford says before I can attempt to stop Bill. "You know the rules, Bill. You may be able to haunt my dreams but you can't enter my mind unless I shake your hand and let you in," He wiggles his six fingers tauntingly.
Bill sighs as he reenters the stone body. "You're making this so much harder than it needs to be," He tells Ford as another blue chain clamps around his neck.
"Wait, stop!" I protest, but am pushed back again.
"Conifer, read his mind."
My eyes widen in shock. "What? I can't do that! I-i don't-" I'm cut off as he snaps his fingers again. I gasp as my head is suddenly filled with the screaming thoughts of the semi-conscious townsfolk, mostly for help.
A voice comes out more distinct than the others, saying not only a stream of unintelligible numbers and terms, but also "Don't think about it, don't think about it." "And what makes you think I'd tell you if I could anyways?" I ignore the intense drumming in my head.
"What?!" I voices disappear at Bill's screech. "Conifer, if you find what I need, the world-the universe could fall to chaos!" Not exactly convincing. "You could rule by my side! We could be together! Forever!" I blush slightly under Ford's stare of confusion/disbelief. "With no one questioning you or calling you a freak ever again."
"Well there wouldn't be anyone to call me a freak!" I retaliate.
"Exactly!"
"No humans!"
"So?!"
"I-i-just... I don't-" I sigh, not finding a sufficient argument in my mind and stumbling over my words. "People!"
He rolls his eye and I find myself pushed back yet again.
"Everyone has a weakness, Fordsie!" He turns to my great-uncle manacingly. "I'll make you talk! It's only a matter of time!"