Dipper did feel helpless and that made his teke field dim even more. He tried to lash out with it but with how disoriented he was, and the beatdown he was taking, he couldn't get it to work. His powers were too closely tied to his emotions and feeling scared and vulnerable wasn't conducive to getting them to work.

"Stop!"

It was instinct to cry it out, just terrified instinct. Dipper knew Bill wouldn't stop, except -- except as he managed to peel some of the webbing off his face, for just a second, it occurred to him that webbing was a weird thing for Bill to fire at him. He'd never taken on a spider form before. And wasn't wevving something that belonged to --

Instead of Bill, her face briefly flashed. Gwen.

Bill had appeared but where had Gwen gone? What if all this was some kind of trick?

"Stop!"

Blood was running from his nose now and with him not sure if it really was Bill, he was afraid to fight back.