Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bill Cipher is many things. He is a dream demon and a reality warper, someone that could bend and change the laws of reality, physics, time, space and existence. He is an ancient being with knowledge and power one couldn't imagine. He is not one to believe in rules and only follows his own philosophy of doing whatever he wants without a thought or care of consequences.

Bill Cipher doesn't feel much. He felt amusement in the lives he ruins and humour in the physical pain meat sacks has to endure. He felt anger as a heated urge, an irrational impulse.

Bill Cipher had, however, felt power. The boiling sensation bubbling just underneath his skin(?), the ecstasy seeping through his triangular body, the uncontrollable excitement as he stares at the faces of horror frozen on the citizens of gravity falls, the madness as he hears his own hysterical laughter echo through the halls of his fearamid. He had felt insanity.

Bill Cipher had also felt despair. He had felt the same power that had made him so gleeful before drained from him in such an unstoppable, abrupt manner, too short for even him to grasp, to plea for it to stay only to let it slip through his finger like specks of dust, like grains of sand in a wild gust. At the same time he had felt panic, a twirling mix of fear as he watched the flames surround him, engulfing him, throwing him into a blank void of emptiness, a vacuum of death, leaving only darkness, cold nothingness, dread and his shattered mind as his company.

Death scared him. It was pitiful, really, he who is a being older than time with so much potential, so much power, so much knowledge, trapped forever in oblivion with only the sensation of icy fingers crawling against him, the helplessness suffocating him, weighing him down. No, it was enraging. Inside that vacant space he had screamed in his mind with bloody fury, his words drooling with venom as he found only plotting and imagining the savage death of the Pines family a solace to his state.

Until one day, after a senseless amount of time, his calls were returned. The darkness around him faded to white, and he was welcomed by a giant shadow. A rumble of the earth combined with a low hiss were hurled from its throat, which caused Bill to immediately turn toward him.

Straightening his bow tie he relaxed, not noticing how tensed he had been moments ago. “Ah! My good ol’ pal, The Axolotl. Y’know, the name’s Bill Cipher now!” The twisted but nevertheless enthusiasm in his voice left no trace of the absolute rage that made him scream his throat hoarse just a while ago.

“My apologies, I forget how that name brings unwanted memories.” The Axolotl said, his voice a little too calm for Bill’s liking as it sent a prickly rattle up his back.

“Yeah yeah yeah, skip the small talk! Why am I here?” Bill demanded, though his thoughts had already answered it for him.

“You’re a liar, Cipher. You invoked my name. YOU KNOW WHY.” The Axolotl hovered over him, his body seemingly growing in size as he quaked the endless void underneath his voice.

Flames flared in Bill’s eyes. How dare any being treat him with such disrespect?! Then, the Pines family reappeared in his mind. He will need Axolotl’s help if he wishes to get his power back and destroy everything those sickening waste of DNA that call themselves the Pines ever love. Temporarily he was calmed by envisioning the death scene of the Pines, for the mere prospect of it shook him with exhilaration. He tried to hide it, maintaining the annoyance in his voice.“Jeez, put it away big guy! I get it! What do you want from me?”

“Six degrees that comes in threes, watches from within birch trees. Saw his own dimension burn, misses home and can’t return. Says he’s happy, he’s a liar, blame the arson for the fire. If he wants to shirk the blame, he’ll have to invoke my name. One way to absolve his crime, a different form, a different time.” The Axolotl responded cryptically. Bill furrowed his eye. This guy and his riddles. Oh, forget it. He looked around frustratingly, his eye glaring at the space around them with impatience. He snapped his finger, trying to spark his magic, yet nothing came but an echo. His eye turned to a red hue; his annoyance was growing quickly.

“Axolotl, how about instead of these riddles, you just give my magic back?” He growled, tapping his foot against the emptiness. The Axolotl frowned.

“You must redeem yourself…-” Bill was about to snap there and then at this big guy’s words and walk away from this purposeless, useless, senseless conversation, but his action came to a halt at the next sentence, “-but I could make a deal.”

His eye beamed at the word. Had he had a mouth, a grin would have spread so wide it touched his ears. Swiping his hands together, his eyes glinting as he said, “Why, Axolotl, why haven’t you said that earlier? What do we have on the table?”

“You will have your powers back…” Bill was practically jumping at his words as he glowed a bright yellow, his hands gripping his cane tightly with excitement, “-if you can manage a true romantic relationship with one of the Pines. This will prove you have not only earned their forgiveness but allow them to be attracted to you as well.” At this, Bill’s entire mood sank completely with his shoulders. He felt like he was being tricked again, and as his hands curl into fists sheer anger quickly overridden his disappointment. The Pines flashed before his mind, and for a moment all he could see was the same blue flames that had thrown him into the mess he is in now and the fist of a man that punched him into the coldness, darkness, emptiness.

“A true RELATIONSHIP?!” His pitch was threatening low, his body unconsciously flashing multiple images all at once at an incomprehensible speed. “With one of the PINES?!” His voice cracked at this, his hands trembling furiously. Abruptly, Bill exploded into maniacal laughter. “FORGIVENESS?! ATTRACTION?!” He collapsed onto the ground, hugging his abdomen. Had he been a human he wouldn’t have been able to breath as tears prickle his eye. Axolotl only watched as the hatred and fury escaped the demon as hysterical giggles and insane crackling.

“You mean, the exact useless, disgusting, atrocious garbage of flesh that contributed to bringing me here?!” Bill screamed at Axolotl, his voice echoing in an unearthly way, the dominant power of an ancient demon seeping the atmosphere.

“Yes, and they have to care about you in order for your powers to return. Or else, you could decide to be trapped in the vacuum of Death forever.” Bill stopped laughing as he watched, with slight unease, the Axolotl stretched his arm. Usually, it was always him to offer his hand. However, he knew he never had a choice to begin with, and without further questions or care he reached for it. Their hands shook firmly, and Bill watched the blue flame rise from his palm. He stared at his own hand, engulfed in flames, and felt a familiar yet foreign sense of awareness as it climbed up his arm before disappearing.

AXOLOTL...

MY TIME HAS COME TO BURN

I INVOKE THE ANCIENT POWER

THAT I MAY RETURN

Chapter Text

“You should realize by now that you’re trapped in the Mindscape, without access to the human world nor the Nightmare Realm. Basically, you’re stuck in a limbo. You can still access people’s dreams but you can’t alter them unless with permission. For once all you can do is be an observer and watch, unless you are in your human suit. Speaking of that, to help you, I have provided a vessel, or a meat suit like you liked to call them, for you to move around and interact with. Within the suit you are just a plain human, but outside it you will still take the form of a dream demon and make deals as you wish. You just don’t have the physical power associated with the deals, so you can’t possess humans and can only manipulate them mentally.” The Axolotl explained briefly after dumping Bill in the monotone of space. He eyed the dream demon cautiously before turning away.

“Your human body is accessible for you at all times, so you can enter and leave as you please. Once you leave the vessel it will de-materialize until you inhabit it again. However, it will only materialize at the location you left it at previously.” The Axolotl added, as if an afterthought, as Bill poked the human body in front of him while pensively holding his hand to his chin(?).

Bill Cipher weighed his options carefully, no longer caring about the words said by the mythical being beside him. He needs his powers back. Once that is achieved, everything can come later. Revenge, Weirdmageddon 2.0, they can all wait. Tapping his cane he materialized a chess board in front of him and started moving the pieces to the position corresponding to his own situation. If he played the right cards, say the right things, urge and nudge in the right direction, it was easy to get to what he wanted.

(The Axolotl chose now to leave, whispering “Good luck.” before vanishing.)

With a snap of his finger four puppets appeared, floating in the air. One had long, brown hair curling down her sides, a pink sweater and the symbol of a shooting star embedded on it while the other had a short, messy nest of hair tucked underneath and blue and white hat with its pine tree symbol. The other two had grey hair, with one of them holding a journal with a six handed symbol and the other wearing a red hat and a crescent. “Two pairs of twins…” Bill mumbled to himself, studying each carefully. With a poke of his cane the one representing Stanley Pines burst into blue flames, the same that had torn the dream demon away from his powers. Then, one by one, Stanford Pines and Mabel Pines diminished as well, leaving not even a single speck of dust in the empty space.

Mason ‘Dipper’ Pines. Bill eyed the puppet very carefully before smirking. Looks like Pine Tree will be getting a visit from his worst nightmare.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Bill quickly realized that five years have passed since his last visit the second he stepped into the dream. The 12 years old boy with insecurities embedded within him had grown into a fine man, his bold shoulders and slightly bulging arms resembling his great uncles’. The sapling had flourished into a great pine, and he has had a successful scholarship in physics and engineering, seemingly following the steps of IQ.

Somethings that didn’t change, however, was his curiosity with the paranormal and his desire for adventure. To Bill’s disappointment, the wild parts of him that were curious and loved venturing into the unknown, were suppressed underneath the boring California life. The poor boy doesn’t fit in well and probably suffered from bullying and such.

Pine Tree’s mindscape, however, revealed nothing of that. Bill Cipher watched carefully as the boy strolled into the imaginary woods itching similar to the ones in Gravity Falls, his trademark hat over his hair as he hummed a cheerful tune. In the boy’s dream it appeared to be a late evening after a rainy day. Autumn leaves danced toward the icy fingers of the wind as a breath of cold air scratched against branches and trees, rattling leaves. A fresh smell of pines needles with faint hints of nightly chills to come filled the air as the sun rose from its sleep and emerged from grim clouds. Red, cider orange, yellow and indigo blue painted the sky and warmth splashed into the woods, creating a soothing sight. Melting into the horizon a yellow glow was cast upon the forest, the sunlight refracting in the suspended moisture setting it aglow.

The boy kept walking in the endless rows of trees, not disturbed by the occasional sound of paranormal beasts stumbling within shadows, as if embracing the woods as a whole, until he approached a clearing. There, in the middle, stood a cracked statue lined with traces of time and thick moss. A triangle with one eye and a top hat held out a small, fragile hand, as if offering a gentle gesture to the woods around it. To Bill’s surprise Dipper kneeled in front of it and started talking quietly.

Knowing he can’t change the dream, Bill had hid himself in the midst of all the shadows, and now he was inching toward the clearing as far as he could. The voice of Pine Tree didn’t change, as it was still the high pitched, slightly shy and nervous voice cracking from time to time. As Bill listened to the whispers of the boy, he realized the insecurities within the boy hadn’t changed either.

“I miss Gravity Falls.” Dipper begins, almost hesitant at first, “I miss the people there; old man Mcgucket, Wendy, Soos, Grunkle Stan and Ford. I miss the woods and the creatures within it. I miss the paranormal, the strangeness of the town that seems so welcoming to me.”

“I don’t belong in California. Mabel has been settling fine these past five years, but if I have been doing half as well as she is, I wouldn’t be here talking to you.” Dipper snorted at this but continued, “I rented a room away from the dorm Mabel and I share. I told her it was so I could focus. But really, I just spent my time doodling and looking through Mabel’s scrapbook.” He chuckled sadly.

“I want to go back to Gravity Falls. We still visit, sure, but it’s not the same. Gravity Falls is part of who I am. The weirdness, the adventures, the danger, even. They are like my family.”

“I still want to unravel the secrets of the universe. The mysteries of the world. I still want to learn more, know more, more than even Grunkle Ford.” Dipper shook his head sadly. “And I can’t do that here in California. The resources are so limited here and the atmosphere is so unwelcoming for ‘freaks’ like me.”

Having heard enough to make up his mind, Bill left Dipper’s dream silently with a racing mind of his own. Quickly he turned to materialize a pen and a small slip of paper before scribbling on it in haste.

“D PDQ ZLWK JROGHQ HBHV
DQG NQRZOHGJH D IHDVW IRU HBHV
D GHPRQ ZLWK D GLIIHUHQW IRUP
D GHDO GLIIHUHQW IURP WKH QRUP
LI BRX ZHOFRPH KLP LQWR BRXU OLIH’U
FDOO KLP EB KLV QDPH ELOO FLSKHU”

He re-entered the dream and dropped it onto his statue. Then, turning to leave once more, he was halted by a sudden mischievous idea.

Listening to the boy had reminded him of his rage, of why he was doing any of this at all. The blue flames, once a symbol of his own tricks and victories, turned against him and swallowed him. The older twins, the two men that were once his pawns won at his own game, turning the mindscape, his reign of power, into his funeral and grave. The younger twins, the two children that he once toyed and saw nothing in, had outsmarted him, reached beyond his expectations just because they had each other, and defeated him, dragged him, the master of the mind, into the dark and bitter cold of death.

With a small twirl of his finger he left the boy a little bit of his rage, a small reminder of the good times they had in the past.

“Sweet nightmares, Pine Tree.”