But he's trying his best.
(Bill's POV)
As soon as the show finished, I took off. I couldn't let the twins see us working together. They couldn't figure out that something was different, not when I was so overtly planning their demise. At least, that was what I told myself. I tried not to feel like I was abandoning Will to their mercy, or lack thereof.
I walked briskly back to my room, intending to go back to bed. I'd woken from a dead sleep when I'd sensed Will in distress. I had almost gone back to sleep, but that pesky newfound conscience got the better of me again and I went to help. I'd considered letting the fire onstage burn, maybe even egging it along, in the hopes that it would consume the twins and take care of our problem. But that plan lacked elegance, even for me. The twins were good enough magicians in their own right that they could have saved themselves, and then Will would have had to face their wrath.
Although, if they think I'm about to open that portal for them again, they've got quite a surprise coming, I thought to myself. Annoying though he may be, I still needed the blue dork. I wasn't going to be able to rescue Y/N by myself.
I was almost asleep when I heard Will start screaming.
I leaped up, intending to run to the rescue, but stopped myself. No... I still can't let them catch on. I have to be my usual callous self... Otherwise... My fists were clenched so tightly my sharp fingernails were practically ripping my gloves. Something as simple as holding a door open had made Dipper suspicious, and look how that had ended up. I couldn't explain to the twins why I'd suddenly decided to come barreling in and interfere when I'd never cared when they tortured him before.
I sat at my desk, trying to force myself not to listen as Will's screams reverberated through the tent. I knew how utterly exhausted he must be, yet it still took almost half an hour for the sound to peter off. Still, I waited until I heard Mabel walk past my door, off on her way to do whatever sadistic things filled her days. I liked her better when she was dead.
I headed straight for the basement as soon as her footsteps faded. I opened the trapdoor without a sound and slithered down the ladder, my demonic senses telling me there was no one around. I hesitated at the door, then pushed it open.
(Trigger warning, I guess? I don't know, I usually try to keep this fic PG.)
I was no stranger to carnage. I'd caused more than my share of death and destruction back in my dimension. Yet I still grimaced upon seeing Will's condition.
His face and chest were bleeding in so many places it had all turned into one huge, raw wound. His eye patch was missing, his glowing eye missing as well. His other eye was swollen shut. Tear tracks mixed with the blood from the eye socket. His hair had turned from blue to a streaked reddish-purple.
(Okay, you're good.)
His arms were still locked above his head, his sleeves hanging off and the rest of the shirt mostly missing. I examined the chains, finding them magically reinforced so they couldn't be unlocked. However, there was an easy way around that. If past experience was anything to go by, the twins would leave him down here for a few days to 'think about what he'd done,' so I felt relatively safe teleporting him straight back to my room. He slumped limply to the ground as soon as his arms were free.
I hope this isn't going to become a habit, I thought, trying not to jar his head injuries as I got rid of what was left of his shirt and settled him carefully on my bed. My powers were still depleted, but I did what I could for the worst of his wounds. I stopped the bleeding in his eye socket before taking off my own eye patch and tying it around his head. I repaired his shattered collarbone, then tried to clean some of the blood out of his hair before conjuring a towel to cover the mess of gouges all over his chest.
A wave of dizziness hit me as I straightened up, telling me that I'd hit my limit. With my bed occupied, I sat at my desk, resting my head on my arms.
He gave it everything he had last night, I thought to myself drowsily. Then he made it almost all the way through the show by himself, not to mention held up against Hurricane Mabel. That's pretty impressive... I knew if I were fully awake, I would never allow myself to think this, but... Maybe he's stronger than me...
Then I was asleep.
Tired as I was, I was only out for a couple of hours. I was alert the moment I heard Will start to stir. I stared at him as he woke up, not sure what to do next. He stared back at me, eye half-open, in equal consternation. Silence reigned.
He opened his mouth to speak but started coughing. I stood up, concerned, as blood leaked from his lips.
"Um... maybe don't do that," I suggested. He shot me a look that said, ya think?
I pulled the bloodstained towel gingerly away from his chest. He winced in pain, closing his eye again. Having had a chance to recover my strength, I was able to heal most of the damage to his chest before moving on to his face.
"There," I said, finishing by helping regenerate his eye. "You look recognizable again. Although," I pretended to study him, "I can't say it's an improvement."
"Shut up," he muttered, but I could tell he was suppressing a smile. He started to take off the eye patch, but I motioned for him to keep it and conjured a new one for myself. Tying it on, I sat back down and kicked my feet up onto the desk.
"I'm in so much trouble," he muttered.
"Why?" I frowned.
"I'm n-not supposed to escape or heal myself. Wh-when they find out..." he paled, his eye filling with tears again.
"Don't worry about it," I reassured him. "I'll take care of it. I'll tell them I needed your help with... I'll make something up."
He didn't seem satisfied, but nodded anyway and wiped at his eye. Silence fell again.
"Is it always that tiring to help them with the show?" I asked, filling the space with my idle curiosity.
"S-sometimes. At least I didn't have to t-take anyone into the Dreamscape like I did with Y/N."
"You did?" I sat up, suddenly interested. "What happened?"
"She threatened to shoot me with her crossbow."
I laughed. "That sounds like her."
"I was so n-nervous that I messed up the trick, and that's when the twins decided to kill me, though..." he trailed off, remembering.
"It wasn't her fault. Or yours," I added. He looked at me with mild shock.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but... why are you being s-so nice right now?"
I looked away, equal parts embarrassed and annoyed. "Would you rather I go back to my old chaotic self? I don't hear you thanking me for helping you, by the way."
"No, no! I'm s-sorry! Thank you!" He tripped over his words, flustered.
"Whatever. And as for why I'm acting so sickeningly civilized all of a sudden, I think you know who's responsible for that."
"Y/N..." he muttered. We were both quiet for another moment.
"Tell me more about how she threatened to shoot you," I prompted.
"Dipper had a crush on her," he remembered with a small smile.
"There's no way that's true."
"It is! She caught his eye from the audience and he flirted with her before he got distracted trying to murder me. And after that..."
"Yeah, killing someone's sister would probably put a damper on any new relationship," I chuckled.
"You know the rest of the story," he concluded. "I lived with her for a while before you and Dipper showed up again."
"She's really quite-"
I stopped. Will stiffened, sensing it too. We looked at each other in alarm. Powerful magic had just been used near the town border, and it had felt quite familiar...
"That c-couldn't be-"
"Only one way to find out." I helped him up, his blue sweater appearing on him, and we teleported to the outskirts of town.
Late afternoon sun filtered through the trees. We watched from a slight distance as a bus pulled up and opened its doors. I leaned forward, watching intently, not quite wanting to believe as a figure stepped off the bus.
"Y/N?"
(A/N: This two-part chapter and awkward stopping point brought to you by the fact that this was a 2,500-word behemoth before I decided to break it up.)