Cast Away (½)

Words: 3,500~ || CW: -None- || What happens when Stanley is the one to fall through the portal instead.

Shoutout to @hurricanelistmaker​ for the ask that well, wound up getting me thinking about this enough to write it.

In their struggles, they hit the lever in the middle of the floor and Stan stumbled backwards, nearly falling onto his back. He just barely caught his balance though. “Some brother you turned out to be.” Stan ground out spitefully, righting his stance.

Of all the things for him to say. Silently, Ford walked to him.

“Heh.” Stan scoffed, watching as he stopped in front of him. “You care more about your dumb mysteries than your family? Well then you can have ‘em!” He roughly shoved the book into Ford’s chest.

Ford grabbed the book, and instinctively shoved back at Stan. In truth, it was more frustration than instinct though. However, instead of Stan falling to the ground, he started to lift up into the air. That’s when Ford finally realized the spinning light just beyond his brother.

“W-Woah, what is this?” Stan wobbled in the air, arms uselessly cycling for balance.

Ford fruitlessly tried to reach out far enough to grab Stan by his foot or something, but didn’t dare step past the line on the ground. He desperately glanced around his surroundings for a rope, for something!

“Stanford, what’s going on?!” Stan demanded worriedly this time, glancing back behind him in the direction he was floating as he struggled to somehow move forward.

“It’s the gravitational pull from the portal, it’s-” and mid-sentence his mind already calculated it out… Stan was going through the portal before he could find anything, much less bring it over in time.

“Ford!”

He focused again hearing the uncharacteristically panicked voice. His brother was mere inches away from the portal, looking far more frightened than Stan, of all people, ever should. His eyes brightly reflecting the swirling light of the portal, as he half turned his head to see over his shoulder. “Ford-” his voice caught in his throat as he pleadingly looked back to him.

“Hold on, Stan! Just hold on!” Ford urgently yelled to him, nearly taking a step forward. He saw Stan’s shoulder dipping into the light. “I’ll get you!” He promised

There was a moment as Stan fell through the portal, then it flashed brightly, blinding Ford and knocking him back with some force, the book skittering a few feet away, forgotten.

As he opened his eyes again, he saw the ring of sigils around the portal dimming… and something fluttering to the ground.

Ford pushed himself up on his hands, and adjusted his glasses to see what had dropped. There, in the pale light from the machinery nearby, was the postcard he’d originally sent Stan.

He ignored the pain in his chest and quickly looked away. Pushing himself up from the ground, his mind was already racing ahead. Why did the machine just kick off like that? That wasn’t an emergency shut off. Maybe it overheated?

He shook his head as he sprinted for the work table and took the rope from it. He tied it off, then hefted the rest past the line, before going into the control room only to find all the settings disrupted. He frantically corrected the switches and started typing on the keyboard when his mind finally stopped enough for him to realize what he was actually doing.

He was re-activating the portal.

Upon the realization, Ford hastily jerked his hands from the keyboard like it was radioactive.

What was he thinking?! He couldn’t activate the portal!

Yet as he looked through the glass at it, he thought back to barely a minute ago when Stan had been there. He looked down, guilt painfully twisting his stomach.

He couldn’t do this. He had to be- he had to be rational. Activating the portal again was risking Bill getting through which meant the end of the universe as he knew it. He had to let-

…Let Stan stay on the other side of the portal… stranding him in some nightmare dimension that he knew nothing about… with Bill.

Ford slowly doubled over, arms crossing over his stomach.

Stan didn’t deserve that. The only reason Stan was even here in the first place was because he’d sent that idiotic postcard asking for help! Now, he was worlds away with no idea where he was at and- and terrified. ‘Terrified’ was an adjective that shouldn’t even apply to Stan, but he’d seen it clearly on his face just before the portal shut off.

Could he even get Stan back though? What were the chances? The portal could take just one more activation theoretically, if there was a safe way to do this.

There wasn’t though.

Bill was over there with Stan. As soon as the portal opened up Bill would see it as soon as Stan did. Unless…. Unless Bill was distracted.

Ford finally looked back to the portal, an idea forming. He could summon Bill and distract him as the portal fired on.

He could see several things go wrong with that plan alone though. Bill could easily realize what he was doing and go back, coming through the portal before Ford could stop him. Bill could already have captured Stan. Stan could already be d-

Focus. If Stan wasn’t free and nearby the portal, then no plan of his would work anyways. Ford couldn’t go through the portal himself to get him back after all.

Technically speaking, the portal could activate again, the risks were with Bill or plausible complications.

So… he could do it. One more time. Stan just had to be nearby on the other side to get through.

How long would Stan stay close or be able to do so without getting caught though…? Once he left, there’d be no way to know if he’d ever try to come back to Bill’s realm - much less when.

If he had any chance to get Stan back it was now or never.

Ford looked back up at one of the screens, his hands shaking as he keyed back in the settings.

He hurried through everything, taking several shortcuts and skipping nearly every safety check. Even the note he left Stan, in large slanting letters telling him to shut off the portal at all costs, had been affixed to the post the rope was tied to using a nearby nail gun.

For just a few seconds, he hovered in the control room, but he knew what his options were. The only way to distract Bill was outright summoning him.

He started the delayed activation then sprinted for the spiral staircase. He had anywhere between forty seconds to a quick minute before the portal would open.

Once upstairs, he sat down in the middle of the room and recited the incantation.

The color of the room bleached away to grayscale and there was the lack of a familiar pop of Bill into the world… which only caused Ford to grow more and more nervous. It hadn’t worked. No. No, he had to reach Bill, he had to. He needed-

A cheery laugh echoing around the room cut off his hasty thoughts. “Wow, you sure are desperate for something, huh!”

Ford turned around, not seeing Bill. Then the sheets covering the old tapestries rolled up and glass pyramids crystallized in the air, the room returning to its previous ‘glory.’ Finally, Bill appeared, radiating bright yellow in the gray room. Ford was already regretting this.

“Hey, now! Where was all the ‘need’ from five seconds ago? Come on, Sixer, it sounded just like old times.” He said with arms gestured around them.

“After everything you’ve done I will never regard you in that manner again.” Ford ground back, anger making his voice shake a bit.

“Yeah, see then why are ya summoning for me back in this old shrine room again?” Bill said, leaning onto his cane in the air. Suddenly he was right beside Ford, practically leaning against him. “Gotta say, this was the last thing I was expecting from you though!” He paused to roll his eye. “Well, this or go seek professional help at the local hospital.”

Ford was agitated at himself for flinching at Bill changing location in the blip of an eye. He was running off of fumes by this point though. Fumes and a lot of coffee. “If I could trust the hospital, I would.” He replied shortly, shifting away from Bill.

“Man, where’d you get such trust issues, Sixer?” He questioned raising an eyebrow in mock innocence. He laughed. “Ha, no, I’m just kidding I know exactly why you summoned me.”

Ford froze, found out already.

Bill tapped the cane roughly on his head before rising back into the air. “You want your brother back in your universe again.”

He didn’t let himself think on it, mentally charging ahead. “Where is he?” Ford demanded. As long as Bill hadn’t already nabbed him…

“Oh, you know, he’s around.” Ford’s frustration flared at the vague answer before Bill continued. “Kinda slippery. Guess that’s how he busted out from prison though.”

“You don’t have him.” Ford said with some mild relief.

Bill’s eye squinted up. “Oh, don’t have to wait long for that one.” He said, his tone was still light but there was an undeniable underlying threat. “Being stuck in this realm means that visitors are pretty rare. The gangs all ready to pregame a bit and have some fun with him.”

“Don’t you even think about it.” Ford objected immediately, determination coming from… where he frankly had no idea. “If he gets hurt…”

Bill put a hand up. “Woah, getting protective a little late there, don’t you think? That probably would have come in handy for your brother if you’d gotten like this sometime in the past 13 years!” He used his outstretched hand to snap a finger in mock remorse and bring it back in towards himself. “Just barely missed that short window.”

“Hey though, you sure got even with him for that science fair project, finally! Talk about overkill though. Seriously, you might as well have pushed him into a pit of spikes!”

Ford guiltily looked away from Bill animatedly talking, only to see the tapestries with his form woven into them. All of which now had their eyes squinted in amusement.

His previous treatment of Stan was… regrettable to a degree, but at least arguable. Now, he’d caused him to go spiraling into some nightmare dimension with Bill though. He had to get Stan back, he had to- Ford cut his thoughts short, trying to focus again. “I want you to leave my brother alone.” He emphasized, looking straight on back at Bill.

“Well, I can promise that, but all my friends here…” he shrugged. “Woof, see it’s hard to get them to follow most directions as it is. ‘Stay away from the new delicious human’ just isn’t gonna fly for long. Teeth was really looking for him before I left. Can you believe it? Poor chompers hasn’t had anything alive to eat in eons! He could be chewing on him right now.”

“Call them off then.” Ford said.

Bill hummed. “Sixer, Sixer, S I X E R.” His voice vibrated through all of Ford’s bones, though the room seemed unaffected. “I’m not calling them off, they’ve got to find him first, after all. You wouldn’t want him wandering off somewhere dangerous, right?”

Ford’s skin started to crawl. Bill didn’t have a disinterest in Stan’s fate over there. Whatever happened to Stan… Bill was going to decide it. Even if he was just going to casually tell one of his friends to eat him, he was still going to choose what happened to him.

Panic started to crawl its way up his throat at the realization. Being inside Bill’s realm was bad enough, but this was- accidentally pushing Stan into a pit of spikes would have been better than this.

How did he not notice the portal had turned on? How big of an idiot was he? It was a huge glowing circle of light behind Stan. If he just hadn’t shoved him back. This was Ford’s fault. This was all because-….

Ford clenched his hands into fists, stopping his rapidly spiraling train of thought before it brought on the flood of guilt and blame that was residing somewhere in the back of his mind.

Bill started talking again, casually continuing on. “Now, Stanley here could become an early dinner snack any minute, so why don’t we get to the specifics of why you summoned me this time.” He said smugly, pointing his cane to Ford’s head, the tip touching his forehead in a sickening reminder.

There wasn’t any time left. This had to work.

“I want to make another deal.” Ford heard himself saying, the words making him feel sick.

A torrent of emotions kicked up in immediate rejection of his own words, and he swore it felt like every cell in his body was buzzing in an attempt to make him stop, stop right now, STOP! He had to keep going though. He swallowed around a dry mouth. “I want to make another deal, Bill.” He repeated, forcing himself through every word.

Bill glowed brightly at that, amusement evident in everything from his expression to the giddy laugh barely held back in his words. “Oh, you want to make a deal, Fordsy?”

No. No, never again. Never- “Y-Yes.” He pushed the word out.

Bill started to hum thoughtfully, leaning onto his side in the air, outright antagonizing him for fun. “What about all those regrets from our last deal, huh?”

The worst mistake he’d ever- stop. Breath. Ford took a breath, then just as he was about to talk, Bill interrupted.

“Here, hold up, you don’t mind, right?” His limbs and features moved around his frame so he was standing straight in the air again. “Plenty of time and twin brothers to kill here, after all.” Bill pulled the cane back and then pushed it again to his forehead with an audible click like a button being pressed. Afterwards, there was a cacophony of Ford’s own thoughts over the months playing into one another. The emotion ranging from determined and angry to hurt and scared.

“I should NEVER have taken the deal! What a fool I was to-“

“-played me, leading me to work on a monstrosi-“

“What am I going to do? Stay awake but for how-“

“WHY did I ever agree to possession of all things?!”

“- lie to me? My muse… he couldn’t have, it must-“

“Stay awake. Just stay awake… just… can’t let it happen… again…”

“-am I going to fix this?! He’s in my head, he has access to everything! He-“

With another push and a click, it all stopped, the room strikingly quiet for a moment. “There’s a lot more but you get the point!”

Ford pitifully realized he could feel tears welling up at the corners of his eyes. He stepped back just enough to be out of the cane’s reach, and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment willing the tears back. For just a moment, he wished that he wasn’t here.

He opened his eyes back up though to see Bill who was unashamedly enjoying himself and staring right at him.

“Hey, cheer up, Sixer! I thought you wanted to make a deal here, after all!”

Anger flared up, but that wasn’t going to help him now. “Stan. He- he needs to be back here.” Ford then quickly tacked on. “Alive and as well as when he went through the portal!”

Bill rolled his eye. “Yeah, yeah, I figured as much. Now, what do you have to offer?”

Ford paused. “I… ” He hadn’t even thought that far.

“I mean,” Bill gestured out, “what else do you even have to give by this point, am I right?” He tapped a finger underneath his bow tie. “What was that you said again…?” He turned his hand over and Ford’s voice played around them on a frantic repeat.

“ -everything. He has access to everything. -//— He has access to everything. -//— He has access to-“

“Stop it!” Ford snapped, loud enough to be heard over his own old frantic thought playing on loop. He hated that just hearing his own thoughts was getting to him at all, but the helplessness of this moment combined with the helplessness of- it was just too much, practically unbearable.

Thankfully, Bill did pause it, a staticky sound remaining in the air, scrambling his thoughts. “Alright, But you heard yourself.” He said smugly. “I can already enter your mind and everything you’ve got in there, Stanford. So, what are you planning on offering? A deal’s a two way street, pal!”

Ford bristled slightly. Their original deal hadn’t been a two way street.

“Sure it was! I did those equations for you, didn’t I?”

But they didn’t- “match up in worth and value, blah blah. Nobody said that two way street had to be equal.”

Ford grinded the back of his teeth, irritated and- and run down. He was so tired . “I… don’t know.” He admitted, before pushing forward. “What do you want?”

Bill made a show of rubbing the space under his bow tie in contemplation and floated around Ford, all of the eyes from his surroundings blinked then opened up as actual bloodshot eyes. Flickering flood lights emitted from all of them, drowning him in spotlights from every direction as they stared.

Despite knowing his atmosphere really hadn’t changed, it still racked up his paranoia and he had to keep himself from turning around to see the various eyes. Bill was just trying to get to him.

After an agonizing amount of time Bill stopped in front of him, floating just higher than his head. “Hmmm, nope!”

“What…?” Wait… no.

“Hey, What can I say?” He casually inspected his fingers. “You already gave me a free pass to ‘everything.’ Unless you can think of something else…”

Useless ideas flung up one after another. With each one he realized, Bill wouldn’t care for any of it. Working on a project of some sort? This portal had been all Bill needed. Finding relics for him? Utterly useless. Then for nearly anything else Bill could just possess him when he fell asleep. He’d already done it plenty of times now.

Bill was right. He had no cards left to play. “Pl-“ Ford bit down on the word though and he looked down from Bill.

There was a beat of silence. “Hmmm. I didn’t quite catch that.” Bill encouraged conceitedly.

He could hear his heartbeat in his ears… It’s one word. It’s not difficult to say. Ford took in a breath and looked directly at Bill who was watching him with a smug and self assured air around him.

“Bill-” yet his throat closed up before he could even get the first syllable out this time. He… He was not doing this. “Fuck you.” He wouldn’t beg Bill to spare his own life, much less to stall for time.

Bill’s enjoyment quickly leached out of the room, and the eerie creep of some unknown threat hung around now like a fog. “What are you stalling for exactly, huh?” He asked.

Ford’s thoughts halted, and he had to keep his thoughts from going to the subject. “I’m not stalling.”

“One, you’re a lousy liar, Sixer. Two,” Bill snapped his fingers and all of Bill’s eyes around them blinked and opened back up to a still scene of just a moment ago. Bill’s voice echoed, deeper than the small room should have entailed.

“Y O U C A N ’ T H I D E A N Y T H I N G F R O M M E N O W, R E M E M B E R?”

All the screens started playing in reverse through Ford’s memories, quickly scrolling back through their conversation and just as quickly through what had happened downstairs.

It quickly became an imperceptible blur of images before turning to static. Bill blinked… then started to laugh. Loud and reverberating around them, causing the surroundings to ripple. Some things warped out of existence entirely.

Bill leaned forward then back up again, hands at his midsection, and a tear at the corner of his eye. “Oh, WOW, really??!” He wiped the tear away, straightening his top hat. “HAHAHA! Oh, man, you’re even dumber than I thought, Sixer! You humans always surprise me with stuff like this.” He let out a breath, the surroundings finally settling to well- only slightly wavering. “You really outdid yourself this time, smart guy.”

He cordially tipped his hat then with a wink. “Hey! See ya real soon in the physical world, Fordsy!”

And with that he blinked out of existence in a white light, and the room drastically changed.

Not only did color return to everything again, but the air was clouded with all kinds of floating papers and instruments with slivers of bright line shooting up from between the wooden panels underneath.

Ford was floating in the middle of the room himself, the deep rumble of the portal filling the room with a thrumming energy.

He turned in the air, panic flooding his system. After a moment of struggling he caught onto a sheet that was still tied to something. His hands fumbled beyond control slipping off the sheet as he pulled himself towards the wall. He- He couldn’t make it downstairs in time before Bill got through the portal.

Stan had to be downstairs. Please, he had to be down there. He had to be.

Ford desperately shouted downstairs. “Stanley! Stanley! Do something!”