(A/N: Ok, so this is based off of the Bill Cipher AMA that happened in April of 2015. Basically, it's now known that Bill HAD family relations, but everyone disappeared.

This story takes place after Sock Opera, and this story fills up plotholes from AToTs's information, but this happens before the Author shows up. I'm not going that far into the actual story, so this is like a side-quest to the main game, I guess. /shrugs/

Anyway, remember to write a review if you liked it! Onwards, Aoshima!)

Bill had a family.

This information can't be right! Demons can't have families!

...But how would I know? How would... ANYONE... know?

The only one who can say for sure is...

«~~~»

Making sure he wasn't seen on his way out, Dipper snuck past everyone at the Shack: Grunkle Stan, Wendy, Soos- even Mabel. He felt really guilty after hiding from his own sister, but he was also overwhelmingly ready to get his hands on some more information on Bill Cipher, the demon from his nightmares, the one who almost broke every bone in his body the last time he pulled a stunt like this.

All he needed to do to grab the dream demon's attention was to just go look for him in the woods. Apparently. The boy thought he should have used a more formal approach -a summoning circle or something-, but there wasn't one in the Journal he had.

"So you wanna make a deal again, Pine Tree? It's about time!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to be doing this very often after what happened, so gloat while you can."

Dipper shuffled his feet through the dry soil, trying to ignore the one-eyed triangle's grin- or lack of. The boy could feel it nonetheless.

"I'm just happy you came around again! After all, you're my FAVORITE meatsack! Especially after that whole puppet fiasco!" Dipper shuddered, recalling the memory of when he was just a spirit floating around without a body, watching as said body was torn away, possessed and prancing about the attic, tumbling down the stairs and stabbing forks and-

"Alright, can we get this over with? I've got something I need answering!" The young preteen shook his head of the memory, trying to clear his jumbled thoughts.

"If you say so, Pine Tree! What's the million-dollar question? We can go over the details of MY end la-"

"-No! We're going to hear your part of the deal! I'm not making that mistake again!" Dipper knew interrupting a demon- Bill, especially- was not the brightest idea, but it didn't earn anything. Lucky him. Bill, on the other hand, huffed at the deal itself. A question like that wasn't worth quite enough to make the meatsack below him execute another part of his plans, anyway. Might as well hear the kid out, at least. It'll waste the demon's time, but he didn't have anywhere to go right then.

"I'll tell you my end if you tell me yours, kid! Fine with me." He didn't sound fine, but that was probably Dipper's imagination. Said boy took a breath and shuffled the hat on his head in place before speaking.

"...O-okay. I'd like to confirm if this is true or not. A-and if it is, you have to tell me all about it- history, appearance, everything. That's your end of the deal."

Bill had a sour look on his face- or what could be seen of it, there's not much emotion you can convert with only an eye on your face- Dipper couldn't place why exactly, but he thought he saw... Sadness?

"I-I want to know if..." He trailed off, but the dream demon already knew what he was going to say. He knew as soon as he saw Pine Tree stepped into the forest and was contemplating his response ever since, so he just finished the sentence.

"If I had a family. Well, Pine Tree, that's a VERY interesting question! All I'M gonna need from answering some questions is that I can leave whenever I want to and a few pages from your Journal about me!"

Bill held out a blue-flamed hand, but Dipper hesitated to reciprocate. He'd practically memorized the journal verbatim, so this wasn't going to change much. And he'd be getting new information that even the Author didn't know about! But if the Author came back to find five pages of Bill Cipher are missing from his third journal, he'll be in for a lot of trouble...

Dipper returned the handshake.

«~~~»

"So... Do you have family?"

"'Course I had one, Pine Tree! Everyone has one!"

"But how would a demon even go about and HAVE families? I thought they didn't get along with other..."

"It just depends on the demon, kid! I never bothered with that- I had other, BETTER, things to do."

Dipper's mind was swirling with new information- so much he almost passed out once. He should have brought a notebook or something. Every sentence that yellow triangle said was something crucial he should keep remembered, for goodness sake! It was Author-worthy information! He was currently seated on a short tree stump, rubbing his temples to clear his head, while the demon in questioning floated, then crossed his right leg over the other. This was going to take a while, especially if Bill kept bouncing around the questions.

"D-do the families have like, demon children or something? How?

To Bill, this was like playing Twenty Questions- a complete waste of time, but it's entertaining. At the moment, he was focusing half his thoughts on getting the Journals to progress with his plans, the other half was making vague answers. He didn't want these memories brought up again, but it was gonna haunt him for a good while now. He didn't dare mention it, lest he made Pine Tree question him even more.

It didn't matter whether Pine Tree knew about his family relations or not, since it had nothing to do with what he was planning.

"Yeah, the little idiots hatch out after a while. Then it's everyone for themselves, unless they choose to work together."

"Wait, HATCH?"

"Yeah, Pine Tree! It's different from birds, though. And that's all I'm going to say about that!"

Dipper contemplated that thought. Maybe if there is enough of an emotion or substance, that could create an embodiment of some kind? He put a mental note to research that later. The fact that he hadn't learned anything about BILL specifically yet practically startled him into a gasp, which brought said Dream Demon's attention back to the present.

"What about you, though?"

Bill stiffened a bit at the sudden change of subject, looking down to meet his client's gaze. This kid was too curious for his own safety, luckily he took interest in Pine Tree instead of some other... Low-class demon. Before he could speak, however, a female voice echoed through the forest.

"Diiiipperrr! Where are youuu?!"

Bill took this as his cue to leave. "Well, Pine Tree? Guess I have to get going! Try again next time!"

The demon snatched up the boy's journal and began tearing out pages, thinking to take pages that weren't part of the deal but decided against it; the kid didn't technically get what he was looking for, after all. He dropped the old book on the ground after he was done with it, then blipped off to the Mindscape.

As Dipper scrambled to the Journal, his energetic sister called out various nicknames saying that the Shack was closed for the day- did he really take that long?- and he ran from the forest back to his summer residence.

«~~~»

As Bill retreated back to his plot of the Mindscape, he thought back on the conversation he had with Dipper that brought up memories the dream demon thought were lost to the ages.

Bill floated over to an isolated part of his territory where an old wooden chest with the name William Rephic roughly engraved onto it sat in grey emptiness.

He opened it.