An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
After millions of texts and dozens of video chats over the long wait between winter and summer, the Mystery Best Friends are ready for a summer full of fun and romance in Gravity Falls.
After too many years of waiting and planning, something else waits in the shadows. And this time, he has Hellish help and enough power to draw the attention of one angel and one demon who would so much rather be doing anything other than trying to prevent another Armageddon.
Co-written by @syl-writes-stuff and @skimmingmilk
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Chapter 8
He hadn't counted on them getting through the barrier. An angel immune to Hellfire shouldn't also be immune to a barrier, and it infuriated Bill that he couldn't hear what was being said behind it. A goody two-shoes angel and a soft demon helping Pine Tree was exactly what he didn't need. He'd been making some progress before they'd shown up, but it was virtually impossible to separate the quartet when they left the Shack and completely impossible when they were in it.
Of course a Duke of Hell wouldn't be much use. Heaven and Hell were both so small-minded, ultimately. They weighed everything on a scale Bill had left behind years ago. Centuries, really, when he'd first popped up onto Earth with instructions, "Have fun and rip it up. Sow Hell's seeds."
Have fun.
He'd had fun. He had ripped the place up. He'd fashioned dinosaurs out of God's fake bones and trapped them in amber. He'd screwed up the timeline for this tiny part of the world. He'd helped Trembley get elected and happily ignored that it had ultimately been a failure, with him entirely erased from history. He'd encouraged visiting demons to try and gain some sort of imagination because that, he was convinced, would win out in the final war.
The only one who'd shown a spark of it had been good old Crowley. Still Crawly, then, he'd appeared with a unicorn and Bill had secretly watched him set their continued population in motion. That was what he'd needed, but the serpent hadn't surfaced again. At least not here.
So Bill had decided to think outside the box. He'd suffered for it, sure. His original vessel had burned away in the crossing of dimensions, but he'd found what he'd been seeking. A whole host of creatures just filled with dark imaginations and wicked dreams. He'd ripped them into this world, and Hell - small, weak Hell - had turned on him. Bubbled him up.
Fury still burned in him. Cover him up, officially cast him out, and why? Because of God? The Great Plan was boring. Pointless. Unimaginative. Very unlike God in so many ways, and yet they'd been obsessed with it.
He landed on two feet, giving Hastur the visage he expected from a fellow demon. He barely remembered this body. Slim, lanky even, with a mop of golden hair and an eyepatch on one side to hide the pit the angels had left him with. The other was something like Crowley's, but he'd never been a snake. He just liked the look and he'd been quietly jealous of the gold. He'd covered up his red with it.
It twitched now, flickering between colors as he held onto a broken human form. "So. You thought they'd stay in London."
[Continue on AO3]