When it comes down to it, the most important steps to success are patience and timing; at least that's what she's come to understand. There are other things like planning and preparation that go into it, but patience and timing are the main points.
Often people mistake timing for the more difficult to master, however time is a science that can be tamed through study. She understood time in all of its madness, perhaps because she had so much of it; more than enough to figure out when what pawns needed to be where and how many errors had to be accounted for. Patience, however, is not a science, it is an art, an art which does not lend itself to her nature very easily. But even that, over time, was a skill that she developed and perfected, not that she had much choice; when trapped in a situation such as her's one has nothing to do but work to develop the skills that will led to escape.
She eventually gained the skills that would have allowed her to recapture her freedom, but had also learned the virtues that she now considers her most valuable assets: patience and timing.
It took patience to remain vigilant until the day her brother called for her help, and timing to have everything she needed when he did.
This was why she was walking through the forest of a strange Oregon town with a thirteen year old boy in tow: she was looking for her brother.
The boy didn't know what was happening, only that his family had told him to follow her. He didn't know that he was in a place called Gravity Falls, or that the reaches of his existence was so short lived as to be ended that day, or that this had been timed perfectly to fall on the honeymoon of Gravity Falls' only two police officers and exactly five days before the only people with the power to stop this were due back in town, or that she had been patiently waiting for her brother to sink low enough to ask for her help so that she could enjoy both having him back in her life and punishing him for what he did to her, or that she had lived in this body for centuries, but had been alive for millennium, or that they were looking for a statue. The boy knew none of this.
The statue was well hidden, and looked far older than it should have, but it had been a year and she highly doubted that anyone had cared for it.
"This is it," she said to the boy, who hadn't known they were looking for anything.
The statue made him uneasy for reasons he couldn't explain. Perhaps it was the way the single eye seemed to fixate on him, staring at him, following his movements, silently demanding that he meet its gaze. The boy didn't recognize or understand the statue, but he stepped towards it, unconsciously giving in to whatever was pulling him closer.
"I want you to know," she said from behind him. "That this is not your fault. You were only chosen because it was convenient for me; you've done nothing wrong and this is not a punishment."
The boy didn't respond, he just stared at the statue, not knowing that something was staring back.
"I don't know if that's any consolation, knowing that this doesn't have anything to do with you," her hands were tight around his neck, but he didn't break his gaze from the statue. "But if it helps, the fact that your involvement was completely random doesn't mean that what's happening is meaningless. If nothing else you can say that you died for something important," the boy was no longer looking at the statue, the boy was no longer doing anything; he had suffocated.
"You died so I could save my brother, thank you." The boy couldn't hear her.
She glanced at the sky; almost midnight. Timing was important, she could not spare a moment of silence for the boy; moments were precious and she had work to do.
Steps had to be taken to ensure that he wouldn't cause more trouble than he was worth, steps that would bind him the same way he bound her. He was her family, but that made her neither blind or an idiot; he was mischievous, power hungry, and not to be trusted. Above all else he was dangerous. She knew that she could not destroy his power, but she could take it, put it in her control; it was just a matter of a few well placed spells.
The boy, who was no longer there in any spiritual sense, had to be prepared. She had only minutes left, but it wouldn't take long, she had planned for this. She bound the boy in chains and then attached them to herself. The chains then glowed blue and immediately disappeared. Then she took out a vile, which had earlier been filled with her blood and unicorn hair (don't ask where she got it), and poured the contents into the boy's mouth. The effect of this was less evident, but she knew it had worked.
Only one preparation remained: the cuff. It was made of old, worn leather and was engraved with a prophecy, his prophecy. This was her fail safe; if she could not control him then the world would be in grave danger. This cuff links him to the people who could stop him; as long as he wears this he cannot hide from them. She snapped it into place on the boy's wrist, knowing it would never come off.
She glanced at the sky again; midnight. It was time. She took the boy's hand and placed it in that of the statue.
"Niaga edit uoy evah lliw dekovni uoy rewop tneihca eht, niap ruoy dna gninrub ruoy draeh sah L T O L O X," she said, before she began chanting the spell to summon him.
The boy began to glow, just around the tips of his fingers and the corners of his eyes. She knew that it would take hours, even days, for the spell to be complete and for her brother to wake up, but she was not worried. When it comes down to it the most important steps to success are patience and timing, which she has in spades.
Chapter 2; A Mistake
As he gained his conciseness and his mind began to clear he became more and more certain of one thing:
Pain was no longer funny. He then became aware that he shouldn't have been able to feel pain, or lose conciseness in the first place, and as those thoughts started to dawn on him he began to realize that the way he was feeling was not right at all. He was cold for one thing, and his neck was sore. This was strange because he existed in a dimension outside of the influence of temperature and he didn't have a neck. At least he shouldn't. Another thing he shouldn't have had was multiple eyes, yet he had two of them and they were fluttering open.
His two eyes were greeted with the site of the morning sun and tree tops being rustled by small animals.
"Morning, Billy." The sound rang in his ears. Also, he had ears; those were new. Despite its fuzziness he also had a mind, a mind which recognized that only one person had ever called him "Billy."
It was beginning to dawn on him that he might have made a mistake.
"What…" he trailed off, distracted by the fact that he had a mouth.
"Happened?" Shy offered. "You died, Billy."
He vaguely remembered dying, but it hurt to think about it, which served as a reminder that pain was no longer funny.
"But that doesn't matter now," she continued. "Because, as you've noticed, you're no longer dead."
He didn't respond, so she took it as an invitation to keep talking.
"So you've probably noticed some changes, don't worry, you'll get used to it soon enough. It's going to take you a while to be up and moving, what with you just being resurrected and your new body just being reanimated."
"New body?" He muttered, his voice coming out horse.
"Well the old one was kaput, completely unsalvageable. Probably; I didn't really check." She laughed at this and his understanding of the situation grew.
"I have to say I wasn't surprised to hear from you, I've been telling you for eons that your plan wouldn't work; lucky you had me to fall back on, right little brother?"
He couldn't see her, but he could tell that she was there, dancing along the edge of his field of vision.
"I suppose we'll have to find a home somewhere in the area; traveling would be difficult while you're still so young." He was becoming more and more alert about the fact that she was moving closer. He felt a hand resting on the head that he now had, ruffling his hair.
"It's good to see you again, Billy, things will be better now."
She stepped into his view; she had red hair and an angular face with a long nose, gold rimmed black eyes, and a sickly pale complexion which was highlighted by her crimson lips. She dressed like a business woman, but did not seem out of place in the wilderness.
"Welcome home." She said with a particularly unwelcoming grin.
He had definitely made a mistake.
Chapter 3; Jet Lag
She decided that his body’d had enough time to recover from its recent strangling and reanimation. She grabbed him by the arm and tugged him into a sitting position. His head whirred and swam, slow to adjust.
“I can tell you from experience how hard it is to get used to a new body; you have to relearn everything. Just hope that yours has a better immune system than mine, although modern medicine does make getting over things like the plague much easier; leeches are not pleasant.”
He felt dizzy, weak, and very vulnerable.
“Here, drink this,” she said, handing him a flask. He looked at it doubtfully and she rolled her eyes.
“It’s water, paranoid, I just brought you back to life what would I try and kill you for?”
He took the flask and drank, the water relieving the dryness that he had not been able to identify the cause of.
“You might have a little jet lag; you’re a year behind.”
He choked on his water.
“A year?” He asked, his voice still hoarse.
“Yes, a year.” She said, happy that he was talking.
“Why did you wait so long?” He demanded.
She arched an eyebrow at his tone, but let it pass for the time being.
“Timing is important; demon resurrection isn’t something that can be done haphazardly, there are rules. Besides, the lack of subtlety you displayed last summer left the whole town on alert, I had to wait for things to simmer down.”
“We’re still in Gravity Falls?” He asked.
“Yes, and we will be for quite a while,” she said. He ground his teeth; the events of last year had somewhat diminished the endearment he felt for the place. “Be patient, your journey here is not yet complete, and I have a feeling mine is just beginning.”
He glared at the ground and reached up to rub his neck. He winced and pulled his hand away before gently bringing it back to prod at the tender flesh. It throbbed and he pulled his hand away again.
“What happened?” He asked her.
“You needed an new host,” She said with a shrug. “I figured you’d prefer a fresh one.”
She leaned down to examine his neck. Ugly purple bruises were starting to form.
“We’ll have to put you in sweaters or something until the bruises fade.” She said.
“You couldn’t have tried something less messy, like poison?” He asked irritably.
“Poison would have interfered with the other spells.” She said through pursed lips, she would really have to teach him to mind his tone.
“What other spells?” He asked, suddenly alert.
She smirked. “Well the fact that you didn’t sense them is a good indication that they worked.”
“What did you do to me?” He growled.
“I prevented you from causing any more trouble.”
“I should never have called for you, it was a mistake.”
“No, your mistake was being so sloppy that you had to default to your last resort. Regardless, there’s nothing you can do about it now, you invoked the ancient power and invited me back into your life, and this time I’m here to stay.”
“I’ll find a way out of this,” he promised. “The ancient power only extended a bridge, it doesn’t bind us forever.”
“No,” she agreed. “But being twins does.”
Chapter 4; Nerve
“Come on, get up,” she said. “We have to get going, they’ll be arriving soon.”
“Who?” Said Bill, who had spent the last few minutes ignoring his sister and trying to pry the leather cuff off of his wrist.
“Some old friends of yours.” She said.
“Do you always have to be so cryptic?” He asked.
“I wouldn’t seem cryptic if you used your head every once and awhile.”
He huffed. Did she always have to act so condescending and self important?
“Quickly,” she said, looking up at the sky. “They’re going to get there before us, but the longer we wait to get going the longer it’ll take for us to get settled in.”
“You still seem to be under the impression that I’ll be staying with you.”
“You still seem to be deluding yourself into thinking you have a choice.”
She began walking and he considered going the opposite direction, but she was right: he had no choice. His legs were wobbly at first, but he quickly found his stride.
“Where are we going?” He asked after awhile.
“To see your old friends, I already told you.”
He growled.
“We’re going to the Mystery Shack,” she admitted. “The Pines family is returning there today and they need to be informed of your return.”
Bill stopped.
“No,” he said. “I’m not going there.”
“Yes,” she said. “You are.”
“They’ll kill me.” He said.
“They can’t.” She replied.
“That didn’t stop them last time.”
She sneered, vulnerability and fear were new looks for her brother, and they didn’t suit him.
“Don’t you look at me like that! They’ll kill me and then they’ll kill you so I’ll have no way to come back!”
“Funny, you used to love taking risks.” She said, trying not to let it show that he was testing her patience.
“That was when I power, and resources, and a body that was good for more than making carbon for the trees!” Bill snapped.
“Oh, please! A year ago those losses would have been minor set backs to you,” She said, glaring down at him. “The only thing you’ve lost since then with any semblance of importance is your nerve!”
“What was that?” He demanded.
“Oh, my bad, apparently you’ve lost your hearing as well; what I said was you’ve lost your nerve! The Bill I knew would have sauntered into the Mystery Shake as soon as he woke up to greet the Pines’ with a promise to make them rue the day they crossed him, powers or not! I could tell from the moment you opened your eyes that they’d gotten to you; you let go of everything that made you feared and respected and amazing all because you were tricked by two old geezers and a pair of twelve year olds!”
They were shouting now, why did it always have to escalate to shouting?
“How dare you!” Yelled Bill. “I have just as much nerve as I did the day I brought this town to its knees!”
“Of course! You must be made of nothing but nerve to be running scared from a pair of senior citizens and their teenaged lackies!”
He glared at her, his eyes full of anger and defiance.
“Scared? I am Bill Cipher, I have driven countless men to the edges of insanity, I have conquered realms and destroyed civilizations for fun. I am not now, nor have I ever been scared of anything.” His voice was deadly quiet, as if he was daring any creature that could hear him to claim he was lying.
She leaned her face close to his so they were at eye level.
“Prove it.”
He hated how easily she could manipulate him.
“Which way to the Mystery Shack?”
Chapter 5; Matchmaking Ninja
They could hardly contain their excitement. Dipper and Mabel had been looking forward to this day from the minute they left last summer. Piedmont was great and all, but Gravity Falls was home. It was everything the twins loved; adventure, mystery, friendship, and family, and today was the day they were going back.
Soos had already agreed to house them for the summer, they’d be reclaiming the attic space and their Grunkles would be taking one of the newly added guestrooms.
They knew it wouldn’t be exactly the same Gravity Falls they left, but they weren’t the same people who first came there either. Dipper was still a sweaty awkward nerd, but he’d realized that he didn’t need to try so hard to fit in, although there were still some things he was self conscious about. He still wore a hat everyday but it was more out of habit than an attempt to hide his birthmark. He had also upgraded to normal length pants during the cooler months, but now that summer had rolled back around he would probably switch back to shorts. He’d had a significant growth spurt and was now a few inches taller than his sister, who was not in the least pleased about this.
Mabel was still Mabel in all of her homemade-sweater-boy-band-obsessed-fun-loving-glitter-sticker glory, but she had grown up a bit (not too much.) She’d come into her own at school, primarily in communications, she was the top of her public speaking class. She made friends easily just as she always did, but none close enough to replace Grenda and Candy as her besties. She had expanded her knitting prowess to include hats, the majority of which she donated to Dipper’s now abundant collection.
She had also abandoned her mission to find herself romance from last summer in exchange for a more difficult and deadly quest: finding romance for her brother. She was going to put every bit of energy she could spare into finding Dipper’s soulmate. Of course she hadn’t told Dipper about this, she figured it would make for a nice surprise; and that is absolutely the only reason she didn’t tell him. Definitely.
It’s not like she didn’t have a good reason for doing this; she was worried about her brother because of a conversation they’d had around Valentine's day, and she was determined to help him.
They’d been closer than ever since last summer and it wasn’t entirely unusual for their casual conversations to turn into deep, stay up all night heart-to-hearts, so it wasn’t completely strange that when Mabel asked Dipper if their was anyone he was interested in he ended up telling her that he’d been questioning some stuff about himself.
He’d said that lately he wasn’t sure about what type of people he was attracted to. Mabel had said that she thought he was into cool redhead girls, flicking Wendy’s hat for good measure. Dipper had chuckled nervously before elaborating that he wasn’t sure he was only into girls.
She could tell that was hard for him to say, and probably not something he would have admitted to anyone but her; she was flattered that he trusted her so much. She called upon her sisterly powers of comfort to assure him that whatever he was into was chill, and she might even know a few guys who’d be interested, but he cut her off, saying that he wasn’t even sure yet, and exploding into a rant about how he hates not knowing, and how the more he thinks about it the more complicated it gets, and how he wishes this was like his mysteries or codes where there was a definite answer, and how he felt trapped by himself, and how he was worried about making himself a target at school, and how he still felt attracted to girls which made it all more confusing, and how he didn’t think it was possible to feel this frustrated, and how he just wanted it to go away.
Dipper had always been a bit of a touch-me-not, but Mabel had figured that this was the time for an exception. She’d hugged him and told him that he shouldn’t bottle that kinda stuff up; it leads to angst bubbles which were notorious for popping easily.
Dipper had laughed and hugged her back (pats and all,) thanking her. She’d said that if he ever needed to talk she would be there. He thanked her again and said that he just wished there was someway he could know for sure.
That’s why Mabel was on a matchmaking mission this summer; she figured that the best way for Dipper to get to the bottom of this was to play the field, something she knew he would psych himself out about if left to his own devices. So she was going to throw every guy and gal she could find at him in the hopes that he’d get some answers. When he caught on to what she was doing he’d probably kill her, so she’d have to be sneaky, a matchmaking ninja. This was gonna be great.
Waddles was also excited about returning to Gravity Falls, at least he would be if he knew what was happening. Their parents had not been pleased when they showed up with a pig, and even less so when Mabel had insisted he was house trained at the same time Waddles was snacking on their couch, but there were few people who could resist Mabel’s puppy dog eyes, so he had been allowed to stay.
And now the three of them were going back to where they belonged, Dipper and Mabel were chatting happily about seeing their family and friends and all the towns folk. They had with them a wedding present for Blubs and Derland, a sort of apology for not being able to make it to their big day. Their Grunkles had gone and it had apparently been quite the event, Quentin Trembly had returned to serve as the minister, Manly Dan had thrown out his hip while dancing at the reception, and Pool-Check had been the flower girl. All in all it sounded like exactly what you would expect a traditional Gravity Falls wedding to be.
And speaking of weddings, Mabel was looking forward to helping plan Soos and Melody’s. They were still in the planning stages, but they had already asked Dipper and Mabel to be the ring bearer and flower girl. Soos had also asked Stan to give him away at the ceremony, but settled for him being the best man once it was explained to him that that’s not how weddings work. Stan claimed to be dreading the event, but everyone knew that meant he was flattered and glad to be a part of it.
Melody was still relatively new in town and hadn’t spent much time away from the shack, so she had asked Wendy to be her maid of honor. The two of them had bonded a lot working at the shack together, and though she didn’t say it Wendy thought it made a nice change to have new female role model in her life, even if Melody was more sisterly than motherly. They hadn’t set a date yet, but they were hoping to be married before the end of the summer, and Mabel was eager to lend her decorating and party planning expertise to the cause.
They twins were both thinking that this was going to be a smooth going and nearly care free summer, though if nothing else they were willing to settle for apocalypse-free.
The bus was pulling into the station where Stan and Ford would be waiting to pick them up. They both pressed their noses up against the window as the vehicle slowed to a stop; they were home.
Chapter 6; The Society of Near Giants
Stan and Ford were waiting for them. The past year has been easily the happiest of both of their adult lives and seeing their niece and nephew would make it perfect. Of course the start of their adventure hadn’t been smooth sailing, so to speak; they had both held on to a lot of hurt for a long time, that’s not something that could just be healed in a moment. But they were trying, they had both been ready to let go of that hurt and get back to where they had been. They were okay now, and even when they weren’t they knew they would be.
They’d had many adventures throughout their travels, which they were eager to tell Dipper and Mabel all about, and they were by no means done. This summer would be a sort of break, a chance to spend time with their family and for Ford to continue his research on Gravity Falls for a while.
The moment the bus stopped moving the kids were rushing out to greet their Grunkles. There were many awkward-but-not-really family hugs and how’ve-you-been’s and it’s-great-to-see-you’s and I’ve-missed-you’s before they loaded their trunks into the back of the Stanley mobile and started their drive to the Mystery Shack.
“So, Dipper,” said Ford, happy to have his fellow nerd to talk to again. “How’s school been treating you? Any good mysteries to solve?”
“No, not much,” Dipper half-lied. “There was this lunch lady who I was pretty sure was a gorgon, though.”
“Ugh, Dipper, for the last time, she was just a normal lunch lady!” Said Mabel, jokingly re-opening the old arguement.
“Why did she always wear that hair net?”
“Because she had to, all the lunch ladies do.”
“What about the dude she turned to stone?”
“That was a statue of the school’s founder, it’s always been stone!”
“Well what about the hissing?”
“That’s… was… whoa, now that you mention it, that was pretty weird.” Said Mabel, eyes alighting with suspicion.
“Ha-ha, told you.”
“That doesn’t prove anything!” Mabel said with a playful shove.
“Quite right Mabel,” said Ford. “But if you were to confront her with a mirror, you might be able to-”
“Now don’t go telling the kids to harass their cafeteria ladies because they might be horrifying, soul-eating monsters,” interjected Stan. “Tell them to do it because lunch ladies are a bunch of jerks who are too stingy with the mashed potatoes!”
“You really are never going to let that go, are you?”
“Hey, I told that broad I’d resent her until the day I died, I’m a man of my word.”
“You need help.” Chuckled Ford, a statement his brother just shrugged off, honking and shouting at the driver who had cut him off (totally had the right of way.)
“So, what’s the first thing you kids wanna do after we get settled in?” Stan asked, turning the car sharply and sending its occupants flying.
“I’m gonna head straight over to see Candy and Grenda and catch up with my girlfriends! It’s gonna be great!” Shouted Mabel.
“I’m gonna go check up on all my old favorite spots; the roof, the arcade, the clearing in the woods-”
“Actually, Dipper, I was hoping you’d accompany me to the stationary store,” said Ford. “You see, since the journals were destroyed last summer I’ve been meaning to start making an updated version: new mysteries, new monsters, all of that. But after reading the editions you made to the originals it didn’t feel right to start this project without you.”
“Seriously?” Dipper asked, awestruck.
“So what do you say, will you help an old man out?”
“Of course!” Shouted Dipper.
As the two dove into a long, nerdy discussion, Mabel began to wonder about how this would affect her summer mission; it’d be hard to get Dipper to focus on romance with him stuck in a lab all summer. She’d have to find a way to lure him out every once and a while to be thrown at her latest (victims) finds. She began scheming quietly.
By the time they pulled up to the Mystery Shack they were all in high spirits, and completely unaware of how short lived this cheerfulness would be.
“Dudes!” Called out Soos from the front porch of the Shack, rushing over to sweep them all up into a bear hug. He welcomed them all inside to the gift shop, where they were greeted by Melody, Soos’s abolita, and, of course, Wendy.
She was still wearing Dipper’s hat, but other than that she looked just like she always had; Beautiful, relaxed, and completely, devastatingly cool. Nice to know that somethings in Gravity Falls hadn’t changed. She looked at Dipper without saying anything for a moment.
“Dude, you got tall,” she said, holding up her hand to compare their heights; he was almost to her shoulder now. “You must have grown half a foot.”
“Nearly,” he said, pleased that she’d noticed (though it would have been hard not to.)
“We should totally form our own brotherhood for tall people,” she said. “We could call it the Society of Near Giants, or something, and we’ll have meetings where we grab things from top shelfs and look down on all the short people.”
“Literally!” Dipper replied. The two cracked up at their own lame jokes.
“Dude, I missed you so much!” Wendy exclaimed, realizing that she had even more then she knew.
“Me too, I’ve had no one to mock people with back at Piedmont. Every time someone does something stupid I have to bottle up my snide comments.”
“Oh man, that’s rough, snide doesn’t have a good shelf life. I had to start unloading mine on Tambry, who’s always too busy texting Robbie to notice.”
Before Dipper could respond Wendy was side-glomped by Mabel, who had just a moment ago been spazzing out to Melody and Soos about the wedding (Melody and her lack of experience with Mabel’s unique brand of enthusiasm had found this a tad overwhelming, but had bore her mild alarm with politeness.)
“Hey Wendy, it’s great to see you!” shouted Mabel.
“Ha-ha, hey Mabs, what’s up?” Asked Wendy.
“Oh nothing, same as always.” Something about Mabel’s tone said I’ll tell you later; perhaps it was the way she whispered “I’ll tell you later,” very audibly under her breath with a not-at-all-suspicious wink. She rushed to change the subject before her twin could question it.
“Hey, I heard you guys talking about forming a secret tall people club and I’m here to tell you i forbid it! I refuse to be excluded from any secret club activities because of my height. Besides, I’m pretty sure that the only reason Dip has gotten so tall is because your hat gave him some weird magical tallness virus.” She shot an accusing glance at Wendy, who could only chuckle at Mabel’s strangeness, which she had so missed.
“Well how’s this,” she said, picking the hats off her and Dipper’s heads and returning them to their original owners.
“This way they can, like, absorbe our respective atmospheres and retain their keepsakeyness for longer after the summer ends.”
“Like a forget-me-not recharge, for long lasting remembrance durability!” Squealed Mabel. “Plus they’ll start to smell like you guys again, and the first thing you forget about someone is their smell.”
“Their voice Mabel.” Dipper corrected as he chuckled at his sister’s strangeness, which he would never grow tired of.
“Well, well, Pinetree, don’t you just have all the answers.”
Perhaps Dipper was wrong, maybe the first thing you forgot about someone wasn’t their voice. Or maybe he was simply incapable of forgetting this voice.
“Bill.”
Chapter 7; Family Ties
They all whipped around at the sound of his voice, expecting to be confronted with the triangular demon they had just barely defeated last summer, but were instead met with the sight of a thin, blond boy, not much older than the twins, and a tall redheaded woman behind him. To say that her hair was red is somewhat misleading, Wendy’s hair was red, this woman’s was crimson like blood; however they were more focused on the boy.
He had a thin, bony body and a pale complexion spattered with golden freckles. He had a shaggy mop of untidy blond hair which framed his angular face. He looked rather impish, though perhaps this was due to the slightly crooked and psychotically menacing grin that played on his lips more so than his actual features. His eyes were impossibly dark black and rimmed in gold, his nose was long and narrow, and there were angry purple bruises around his neck. He was human, yet there was no doubt: this boy was Bill Cipher.
“What, no hello? No how’ve you been? Honestly it’s almost like you didn’t miss me!”
They were all too stunned to speak.
“Kids? Are you gonna come up to unpack or-”
Stan, Ford, and Soos re-entered the room, back from taking the suitcases upstairs. They immediately sensed the tension.
“Children, who is this?” Ford asked.
“Oh, now you don’t recognize me, Sixer? And to think I thought I meant something to you.” Bill pouted in mock hurt.
“Cipher!” Grunkle Stan growled.
“Well hello, Stanley.” The menacing grin had returned, if not intensified.
The crimson haired woman sighed and rolled her eyes, glancing at the sky through the window.
“Not to break up this little family reunion, but we are on a schedule. Keeping that in mind we can skip the standard how can you be back? Bantar; I reanimated him (and still haven’t received a thank you, might I add.)” She aimed the last part at Bill, who just sighed dramatically about having his thunder stolen.
“Who are you?” Ford asked.
Brief flashes of surprise and something resembling hurt passed across the woman’s face before she regained her composure.
“Right, I suppose he wouldn’t have told you about me,” her tone bore distant traces of resentment. “My name is Venus, I’m Billy’s sister.”
“Sister?” They all asked.
“Billy?” Mabel's voice trailed behind.
Eyes flickered to Bill for confirmation, the former demon’s expression was one of distaste.
“Yes, twin actually.” He grumbled.
“Again, I’m not surprised he didn’t mention me, for the past couple hundred years or so he’s taken to the nasty habit of denying my existence and renouncing our family ties.” She laughed like they were sharing vaguely amusing small talk at a business meeting. “He can be a real heathen like that sometimes.”
She reached out and pat Bill’s head, a gesture that's imitation of affection was spoiled by the way he flinched and the excessive force she put into the action.
“But I’m getting off topic, this was only going to be a quick briefing on the important information, we can always round out the details later if you care to arrange a formal meeting; though I warn you that it might take some time to fit it into my schedule. Things are going to be pretty busy soon, but I digress. Now where did I put…” She trailed off as she began rummaging through the pockets of her suit jacket. The Pines family stood there in stunned silence, all too dumbfounded to speak up.
It was now Bill’s turn to look impatient as Venus continued to dig around, occasionally pulling out some strange object or other that shouldn’t have fit in such small pockets, muttering to herself all the while.
“I see that our time apart hasn’t been long enough for you to get organized.” He said.
“Oh hush, I have a system,” She said as she pulled a human finger from her pocket. “No, that’s not it.” She tossed it over her shoulder and it scurried away behind one of the displays, leaving a thin smear of blood in its wake.
“Ah, here it is,” she said excitedly, ignoring the slightly gruesome scene which transpired behind her and pulling out a packet of papers. “Just where I left it.”
“I’m sure,” Bill muttered under his breath. Venus scowled and whacked him over the head with the papers.
“Hey!”
“As I was saying,” Venus drove on, ignoring Bill pointedly. “I wanted to give you a brief overview of our situation. As you now know, Billy is alive again, and there have been some obvious changes. Assuming his demon form was destroyed, I bound him to a body. In addition to this I’ve placed him under a hand full of spells that limit his powers and preserve his safety. You’ll notice the cuff on his wrist, it’s a binding spell that links him to every member of his zodiac circle, in case of emergency.” She glanced at the paper every so often, to make sure she was covering everything. “On a more domestic note, Billy and I will be staying in the area and I will be bringing my work into town with me, I’ll send you all the relevant information as soon as I have it. Of course Billy will be working here-”
“What?” There were two speakers, Bill and Ford, both of whom had looks of horror and disgust on their faces. Venus looked up, slightly dazed by the disruption; she clearly wasn’t used to being interrupted.
“I said Billy would be working here, at the shack.” She repeated.
“No he won’t!” Ford cried indignantly.
“I agree with I.Q.; no he won’t!” Bill added.
“There’s no way I’m letting that maniac anywhere near the kids.”
“Really, Venus, think of the children.”
Venus closed her eyes briefly and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “patience” under her breath.
“Well what do you propose we do then? Not you.” She added when Bill opened his mouth. Her voice was tight and her eyes were flickering to the window with an expression that said “We don’t have time for this.”
“I don’t care what you do with him, he’s not our problem.”
“Are you really naive enough to think that, Stanford? He’ll always be your problem, you’d have to be blind not to see that all of your fates are connected.” She gestured to everyone in the room. “But say you’re right and he’s not your problem, should I just send him off to some poor, unsuspecting caregiver everyday, or let him wander around on his own? Because if you think that’s a good idea you’re not just naive, you’re an idiot who’s willing to put innocent people in danger, all because you couldn’t be bothered to keep an eye on someone who poses little more threat to you than any other thirteen year old boy.”
Bill had to admire (not unbegrudgingly) his sister’s ability to give anyone self doubt. The evidence of this power could be found in the slight hints of uncertainty flecked across Stanford’s face. Bill could practically see the wheels turning in his head, trying to find a way out of her argument. He wouldn’t find one, she had planted her seeds in his mind, and they had quickly taken root, branching their way out and poisoning the justification for disagreeing with her. Well, she was a corruption demon, poisoning the minds of rational men was something of a specialty of hers.
Venus and Ford stared into each other’s eyes, the room was silent, but alive with nervous energy; the decision made here would affect them all, and it would not be up for debate.
A smirk fixed itself on venus’ lips, her eyes, having detected some sign of weakness in her opponent invisible to the others, shone with victory.
“She’s right,” Ford said, lowering his eyes. “Bill’s too dangerous to go unsupervised, even without his powers he’s cunning enough to trick anyone who doesn’t expect it. We have to take him in.”
“Great, now that we’ve wasted five minutes on that, we can get back on track, where was I?” She traced her finger down the page. “Ah, yes, he can start on Monday, that’ll give us all time to move in and get unpacked. I’ll drop him off at seven and be back to pick him up at 6:45, I’ll leave a number for you to call if he causes any trouble. We’ll be moving in somewhere close by incase of emergency, not necessarily right next door, but within walking distance; I’ll give you the address Monday and I’ll also leave you my secretary's number incase you wanted to schedule that meeting to talk over some of the details with me, she’s a real peach but a bit hard of hearing, so you might have to repeat yourself a few times to get the point across.” Venus smiled fondly, it was the most genuine expression they had seen from her. “Anyways, I think that about covers it, we’d best be off. I’ll leave this with you.” She handed Ford her papers. “We’ll see you on Monday. Come on, Billy.”
She turned and walked out the door, after a moment Bill followed her, aware that, as with everything in his life now, he had no choice. He tripped over his own feet as he left the building, and nearly fell flat on his face: he would have to work on getting more control over his human motor functions.
The door swung shut on the two demons, and the Pines family was left to stand in shock for a few moments after their departure.
“What just happened?” Mabel finally asked her brother.
“I think Ford just hired a demon.”
