HELLO TO ALL! So, this isn't actually MY fanfiction, it's my friend's. But she does not have an account and I felt this story had to be published, so she gave me permission to publish it on my account! YAY! (for those of you that read Fanfire, this is that friend. If you haven't read Fanfire, READ FANFIRE)

Anyways, so I hope you all enjoy this story as much I as did! :)

"Cipher!" Stanford called, up to his shoulders in heavy machinery. He couldn't hear the creature approach him, but he knew when Bill was hovering over his shoulder by the electromagnetic energy it gave off in constant waves. It was like standing near a heavy subwoofer- you could feel the vibrations in your diaphragm. "Help me, please?"

Bill didn't say anything, but Stanford could tell it was amused. With a slight flick of its hand it unstuck the bolts that Stanford was struggling to work into place. As much as it went against his most basic instincts, having an entity that could alter reality hanging around could be very convenient when working with electronics.

"Y'know Magic Fingers, one of these days you're gonna have to learn how to use these tools yourself." Stanford extracted himself from the engine and turned to see Bill swinging a wrench from one finger, floating casually near the dormant portal. "Now that you don't have that hick around to help you with all that engineering biz."

Stanford sighed. Sometimes he wondered whether Bill had any sense of propriety at all. He supposed he was lucky that the demon wanted to help him. When it came through the portal shortly after McGucket abandoned the project, originally he had feared it- wasn't this the creature with one eye that he had been warned about? But soon after, he had accepted -in a moment of desperation and curiosity- Bill's offer to help reveal what was beyond the portal. "The secrets of the universe," it called them.

Stanford couldn't help himself; without McGucket, he couldn't possibly reboot the portal again on his own, and he still had that burning desire in him. He needed to know what was out there, to travel and discover. And as much as he didn't like to think about it, Bill's slapstick, often inappropriate sense of humor somehow reminded him of another fellow adventurer that he'd much rather have with him.

"You're being awful quiet there, Stanford. You're not getting all 'reminiscent' on me, are you?" Bill twirled the wrench in its hand like a dapper cane, sliding up against Stanford. Its eye slid up to stare into his face, and he knew what it was searching for. He looked away.

Bill chuckled and did a lazy somersault away from the stoic Pines, stopping to lean on a workbench. "So! What else is on the agenda for today? Warp drive need recalibrating? We gonna oil up the levers on the old control panel? Hey! I know! We can keep stalling until you find a reason to get your brother on board with this transdimensional treasure hunt!"

Stanford whipped around to glare at Bill. He clenched his empty, grime-stained fists, too angry -or too shocked- to say anything for a moment. He let out a growl of frustration, one that Bill seemed to enjoy immensely.

"Whassamatter? Triangle got your tongue?" Bill laughed at its own joke. "I'm just joshin you, kid. No worries! We'll get this baby fixed up as soon as you want."

"Good," Stanford finally said. "I'm sure this time it'll work."

"Of course it'll work! I'm helping you, right?"

"Yeah," Stanford stared at the portal, its center stubbornly dark and unknown. "You're helping me." Almost against his will, he turned back to Bill, who was now amusing itself by making a fly do figure-eights around its hat. "I never told you I had- have a brother."

"Didn't have to!" Quickly, much too quickly, Bill was beside Stanford. "I'm a dream demon, remember? You're the one that classified me. You brought me into this dimension, and now I can stay here-" it gestured to the empty cavern "or here-" it suddenly had its hands hovering over Stanford's head "as long as I want! No rent, no restrictions!"

It may have been Stanford's sleep-deprived, overworked imagination, but the demon's voice seemed deeper as it continued to speak, until it struck an octave that rattled his core and created within him a primal fear. It was the fear of the unknown, of the dark. But as quickly as it came, it passed, and Bill had found the fly again, and Stanford went back to work, the previous conversation all but forgotten.

-

Seeing as Bill was merely a concentrated wavelength of energy manifested in a rudimentary physical form, it didn't need much by way of food or sleep. But it still took it upon itself to join Stanford at a lonely dinner table built for one every evening, making the single unprotected bulb flicker and spark when it came too close.

"Whatcha got there?" Bill peered into the chipped Tupperware, resting what would've been its chin on its hands. "I don't really know human food that well. It all looks like meat lumps to me."

"It's pasta," Stanford grunted. He stabbed at the bare linguini with his fork, his desire to eat it dropping by the second. "We need to work on the magnetic fields tomorrow. Increase the amount of time we can sustain a temporal rift within the confines of the portal entrance at a reasonable temperature."

"Sounds fun!" Bill would have been smiling if it had a mouth. "I think if we can get into the mainframe of the entrance I could mess around a bit and see what I come up with. Pull some wires, arrange some wormholes, y'know?"

Stanford nodded. It was strange, their agreement, but absolutely necessary. This Bill Cipher creature (though he didn't know for sure if that was its actual name, or if it had a name at all) certainly knew what it was doing when it came to quantum engineering, and despite its abusive personality, it was an invaluable resource of information on anomalous occurrences. He had to admit he wasn't always quite sure what Bill was doing -engineering at this level escaped him every once in a while- but he trusted that Bill wanted the portal opened as much as he did. And at this point, not much else mattered to him.

"You oughtta go to bed, Magic Fingers," Bill spoke suddenly. It had conjured the image of sheep leaping over its head, though they disappeared as soon as it leaned to one side. "We've got some big days ahead of us. Are you ready to make some major discoveries on the occult?"

Stanford nodded, his jaw clenched. "I've been ready my entire life," he said.

"Everything's gonna change, y'know," Bill's slightly translucent front plane flickered into the image of a bedraggled figure emerging from the center of the portal before transforming into the Pillars of Creation. "I mean, I can't really say what it is yet -multiple timelines, see- but you get the idea, right?" Stanford knew that Bill had some degree of foresight ability- it could see the future- though with what level of accuracy, Bill itself most likely didn't know. But seeing the figure silhouetted in the portal entrance still shocked him, and made him fully appreciate the gravity of what he was doing. His life wouldn't be the same anymore when this was completed, he knew.

Stanford took a slow bite of his pasta. It felt like lead in his mouth, heavy and thick, but he chewed and swallowed anyway. He would need sustenance soon; if his calculations were correct, the portal would be ready to test in no more than two days.

-

The next day, after a fitful sleep and strange dreams that he knew Bill would question him about later, Stanford made his weekly trip into town to buy whatever bare necessities could get him by out in the shack. He walked quickly, with his head down, partially to shield against the biting Northwestern wind, and partially to shield against biting questions. He clutched ten dollars -the last of his spending money- in a gloved fist.

Stanford was so lost in thought that he didn't realize there was another person approaching him until they collided, his bulk sending the smaller man sprawling in the snow.

"I- I'm so sorry," Stanford's voice felt hoarse and awkward after only speaking to Bill for so long. He wasn't sure what it was like to talk to another human anymore. "Do you need, uh- do you need help?"

Stanford knelt next to the man, trying to get a grip on his upper arm. As he got closer, he realized he recognized the wiry frame, and worse still, he recognized the disjointed muttering coming from under the hood of the man's parka.

"McGucket?" Stanford stuttered. Roughly he pulled his former friend to his feet. "I- I thought you had gone!"

"Me? Gone?" McGucket's voice was thinner than it had once been; it wavered like a mirage in the air. "Where am I gonna go? You think-" he laughed, short and bitter.

"Anywhere but here!" Stanford said. He took McGucket by the arms and pulled him closer, the ten dollars fluttering to the ground. He paid it no mind. "Isn't that what you wanted? To get out?"

"No, that's what he wants," McGucket's hands formed a shaky triangle around his eye. "The monster. And he's gonna get it."

Stanford bit the inside of his lip to keep from reacting in the way that he wanted to. He knew McGucket had seen things inside the portal, things that haunted him, but he hadn't realized it had affected him this much. The man was starting to lose his mind.

And it was Stanford's fault.

"There's nothing in there that we can't handle," Stanford tried to speak reassuringly, like one would do to a frightened child. "I've got some help now."

"I know what you did," McGucket said, more lucid now. "You can't stop what's coming. You can't stop it! Only one person in the world knows how to stop him."

"What?" Despite the feeling that what his old friend was saying was just the ramblings of an overwhelmed mind, Stanford's curiosity was piqued. McGucket was talking about a way to banish Bill. Something Bill itself had said was impossible. "What d'you mean, 'stop him?'"

"There's a spell," McGucket whispered, hunched and leaning in close. "A spell I saw. In the void. The void told me that you can only use it once. It doesn't like to be talked about."

"Right," Stanford sighed. He was beginning to think this was a waste of time. The brilliant man he once knew had been reduced to thinking incantations were sentient, something neither of them had ever encountered in all their years of anomaly scouting.

McGucket thrust a piece of wax paper into Pines's hands. "I wrote it down 'cause I knew you'd need it. Can't explain how it works; that was my one chance. Learn the spell, Stanford," The former engineer looked truly distraught now, wringing his hands in the icy cold as Stanford stared at him. "Don't tell anyone about it! You can only use it once. After that you'll never be able to even think about it. Don't even think about it-"

Stanford looked down at the torn parchment in his hands. Scribbled on it in black and yellow crayon were a number of runes arranged in a formation not unlike the Star of David. He was surprised to see that he recognized some of them, noticing words like "banish" and "mindscape" amongst what was mostly gibberish. In the center was a figure he clearly recognized as Bill, and a final spell was written just below Bill's feet, in the center of the triangles.

Stanford began to mouth the words of the spell when McGucket shushed him with a trembling finger.

"No!" he cried. "Not here. Use it when you need it. You'll know." He nodded to himself, backing away from Stanford into the blizzard. "You'll know." He was just close enough now that Stanford could still hear him. "Please learn the spell, Stanford. But don't let him know you have it." And then the genius turned and staggered down the windy road, muttering to himself as he went.

-

Stanford tossed the bag of groceries into the icebox without bothering to unpack it. The wall next to him seemed to ripple and warp and then Bill was at his side, drifting along as he made his way towards the basement entrance.

"Have fun in the great wide world, Stanford?" Bill asked. When Stanford said nothing it just continued as if he had answered. "Yeah, well, nothing out there can compare to what we've got in here. Am I right?"

There was silence save for the creaking of floorboards and the sparking of electrical wires as Bill passed them. Stanford opened the heavy metal door that lead down to the basement and started to descend. Bill trailed behind, sometimes cocked at an angle, sometimes upside down, but always following.

"Saw you were talking to that old guy. Your old pal McWhatsit? Seemed fun. Whatcha talk about? Was it me?"

"No."

"Hey what's that?" Without warning Bill shot forwards and reached into Stanford's pocket. Before Stanford could even protest Bill was out of arm's reach, examining the paper McGucket had given him with its eye narrowed. When it next spoke, its voice had that subtle edge again, and Stanford felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "Where'd you get this?"

"Um-" Stanford winced, expecting to experience Bill's fury- to be quite honest, he was expecting the world to end.

What he didn't expect was for Bill to start laughing.

"Look at this thing! McWhatsit really did lose it, didn't he? Wow. This is great! He really captured my likeness, right?" For an instant Bill's appearance shifted to mimic the crude drawing and he struck a dramatic pose. "And he really thinks this is what can stop me?" Bill handed back the drawing and sighed, rolling its eye. "Man. You have great friends, Magic Fingers. We oughtta hang this up in the workroom." Bill drifted down the stairwell and out of sight, still chuckling.

Stanford stood on the stairs for a moment, McGucket's drawing clutched in his hands. He stared down at it, wondering why he had taken it so seriously. Bill was right. It was the ramblings of a madman.

Despite himself, he put it back in his pocket before going downstairs.

Bill was already at work when he reached the portal room, its body half-phased into the main portion of the portal as it tinkered with some finer sensors in the quantum processor.

"Hey! Stanford! Thought you'd never make it!" Bill waved him over with a tiny screwdriver. Stanford shoved his hands into his pockets and walked over to Bill, refusing to acknowledge the knowing smirk in the demon's voice.

"That's looking good," he said. Bill might have been incredibly annoying, but he was efficient. "You think it'll be done by tonight?"

"Don't sweat it, Stanford," Bill said breezily. It tapped the machine with its screwdriver and it responded with a shower of blue sparks. When Stanford didn't respond it laughed again and put its arm around Stanford's shoulders. "You're not still thinking about McGuckit's little coloring book, are you? I told you, it doesn't mean anything. There isn't a banishing spell in this dimension that can get rid of me! So," In an instant it was in front of Stanford, its eye boring into his. "Get rid of the spell, Stanford. I don't wanna help you if you're thinking about offing me."

"You've got yourself a deal, Cipher," Stanford said. He didn't dare look away until Bill did.

"Wow, that was dark!" Bill remarked, turning back to its work. "I love working with you, Magic Fingers! So much drama!" It wiggled its fingers, creating flamboyant sparkles before picking up the screwdriver. "You really oughtta write all of this down in those journals of yours. Publish it. Make it a national bestseller! Ooh! Or maybe a hit TV show!"

Stanford ignored Bill's comments and instead went over to the work table and unrolled one of McGucket's last works, a full, instruction filled schematic for the portal. With this, anyone with a wrench and a few thousand dollars could build an exact replica.

"Cipher," Stanford said into the silence, his voice bouncing off of all the different machines in the room and creating discordant echoes.

"You rang?" Bill dropped his screwdriver with a loud clatter and floated over. For a moment both of them just stared down at the blueprint, with the whirring of the portal's newly restarted engines being the only noise in the cavern. Stanford heaved a sigh.

"I want you to burn this," he said finally. "Burn it now."

"Great! I love burning things!" Bill was about to snap its fingers when it turned and glanced at Stanford, seeming almost puzzled. "This is what you want, Stanford? You wanna destroy years of work? It doesn't seem like you."

"Just do it, Cipher," Stanford snapped. He turned and stared up at the portal, imagining it glowing with blue light, its glare so bright his eyes watered.

Bill shrugged. "If you say so." Stanford heard the rush of flames and Bill laughing.

"That's great! There it goes! I like your spontaneous side, Stanford. It's a riot!"

"Get back to work," Stanford muttered. He ducked underneath the table and pulled a few tools from a metal box. He went into the workroom and lifted the front of the control panel, peering through the glass into the portal room as he did so, watching Bill.

The creature was bent over the main body of the portal, seemingly hard at work. It flipped upside down to gain a better angle and Stanford shook his head. When Bill was the only thing he talked to for so long, he often forgot that his one companion was far from human, and didn't abide by the laws of the human world.

Stanford knelt over the exposed control panel and loosened some of the wires, turning knobs and pressing buttons to test their connectivity. He adjusted the main circuit and made sure the ciphers were in the correct position to open the portal. Despite the heavy cost of his experiments, he still retained some shred of pride at the seamless blend of science and magic that he had managed to create in this machine.

He knew that Stan would've loved to see this contraption. He wouldn't've understood half of it- or maybe even more than half- but he would've appreciated what it meant. Stan would've known adventure when he saw it. He would've jumped into that portal with nothing but a rope and his wits and some sandwiches for the road. And he would've jumped out again, laughing, ready to fill Stanford in on what he had missed when he was too busy "being chicken."

But instead, Stanford had no one to share his journeys with- no one but a high-frequency wavelength of psychokinetic energy that took the form of a triangle in a top hat.

Stanford stared out again into the main room. Bill was engrossed in whatever it was doing -there were sparks flying everywhere, so Stanford hoped it was something productive- but the portal entrance was just as empty as ever, with nothing behind it but the opposite wall, mundane and dark.

-

"Are you ready?"

"Ready? Kid, I was spontaneously manifested from the pure energy of the cosmos ready!"

Stanford clutched the main lever of the control panel so tightly he was worried it might break. Bill hovered directly in front of the entrance to the portal, dead center. The piece of wax paper McGucket had given Stanford two days earlier was carefully folded in his pocket; for some strange reason -and Stanford was not a superstitious man- it gave him some small comfort to have with him. He hoped against hope that Bill didn't realize it was there.

"I'm going to turn on the magnetic field and start up the quantum engine!" Stanford yelled. "When the runes start to glow, you pull the lever to open the gate and I'll up the frequency to hold it there! And remember, we're not sending anyone or anything in yet! This is just a test!"

"Gotcha!" Bill said cheerfully. This was the most compliant it had been in- well, as long as Stanford had known it. It conjured a pair of massive goggles with only one eyepiece and strapped it over its eye. "Lock n' load, Pines!"

Bracing himself, Stanford pulled the lever for the magnets with his right hand and turned the dial for the engine with his left. The machine began to rumble and the room quaked, a high whirring sound causing Stanford to wince. Bill merely gazed into the eye of the portal, completely still for the first time Stanford had ever seen. Slowly the runes lining the circular entrance began to pulse with an eerie blue light.

"Now!" Stanford roared over the machine. "Carefully!"

He was so concentrated on the portal's opening that he didn't notice that Bill was nowhere in sight. He didn't notice the door to the workroom opening next to him, and he didn't notice the telltale electromagnetic pulse building behind him until it was too late.

"Hey, let me try!" Stanford turned just a second after hearing Bill's voice, enough time for the demon to swipe him aside with a hand that was several times its original size. In fact, Bill's entire body had grown until it towered over Stanford, and Stanford scrambled out of the way on his elbows as Bill grasped the control panel, channeling its energy into the machine. The frequency dial turned to its maximum setting. Buttons lit up and then exploded; levers moved back and forth of their own accord. The whirring of the machine was loud, but not nearly as loud as Bill's laughter.

"Sorry Magic Fingers!" it shouted to the cowering Stanford. "But it's my turn to pilot this thing! Once this portal opens you can't imagine what'll come through to this world! You might as well kiss humanity as you know it goodbye!"

The portal crackled and sparked to life. Bill phased through the glass in an instant and appeared next to the lever near the portal entrance- the lever that activated the gateway.

"Bill, no!" Stanford screamed, hurrying out into the main room. "With the frequency this high the wormhole will collapse on itself and grow exponentially! We won't be able to control it or close it!"

"That's the idea, lamebrain! Nothing can stop what's on the other side!" Bill turned to face Stanford, its single eye wide and hypnotic. The din of the machines faded as it spoke, until there was nothing but Stanford and the demon, staring each other down.

"Not even you."

Stanford faltered, but only for a moment.

The portal was opening now; gravity was beginning to lessen its hold on the things in the room. Stanford stumbled as he lifted into the air, and he struggled against the pull of the portal entrance. Wrenches, hammers and other equipment hurtled past him and disappeared into the circle of blinding blue light that was growing at the center of the portal.

Flailing through thin air, Stanford managed to make his way over to where Bill was hovering. The creature was giving off sparks of red light as it glared at the opening gateway, its eye narrowed in fierce concentration. Stanford attempted to wrench its hand off the lever, but his fingers went straight through it. He only felt a strange fuzzy sensation, as if his hands had fallen asleep briefly as he touched Bill.

"Like I said, kid," Bill said. There was no lightheartedness in its voice now, and Stanford admitted to himself that he was terrified. But he couldn't give up now. "You can't do anything! You're useless!"

"How could I have been such an idiot?" Stanford shouted. "This isn't what you promised! I won't let you destroy this world!"

"Ha! What has this world ever done for you?" Bill countered. There was a trace of the old humor back in its tone. "All it's given you is a deadbeat family, friends that abandon you, and a lifetime of searching for answers! And what answers are you gonna find here that aren't going to come through that portal?"

Stanford didn't have an answer for Bill. But he had something else.

"Really?" Bill laughed when it saw Stanford pull McGucket's childish spell diagram from his pocket. "You still think that'll do any good? Remember what I said, Stanford, nothing in this world can stop me!"

"You're right," Stanford said. "But this isn't from this world. This is what McGucket saw when he went through the portal. And it's a banishing spell." He felt a smile on his face for the first time in what felt like decades. "It works on all dream demons. But it's especially for you."

"What? No!" Bill shouted. "You're taking the word of a madman over me?" The portal flared even brighter, and Stanford lifted even higher. He was now at eye level with Bill. "I know all the secrets of the universe! There isn't anything I haven't seen!"

"Then I hope you know what this'll do to you," Stanford grinned. "Because I sure as hell don't."

"No! Hey! Stanford Pines, don't you dare-"

Stanford stared down at the hastily scrawled ciphers and began to read them out loud. They flowed past his lips, their meaning escaping him. Once he started, he couldn't stop, and he traced the runes in front of him with his finger as he spoke, forming two interlacing triangles around Bill. When he drew them, they remained, hovering as glowing blue forms in the air. Bill cringed away from them as if they were burning hot.

When he was finished reciting the spell, Stanford held the paper high above his head and drew a lighter from his pocket. Why he was doing this, he wasn't quite sure, but somehow he had a feeling that the spell was compelling him to do it. This was what it wanted. Bill was shouting something, but he couldn't hear it anymore.

Stanford clicked the lighter and the paper began to burn.

The floating runes began to spin around Bill, faster and faster until they were a bright blue blur. Bill seemed to be fading, until it was merely a black impression on the air, like a photo negative.

"The portal will be opened whether you want it to or not, Stanford!" Bill's voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a deep canyon. "It's fate!"

"Go back to hell, Cipher." Stanford tossed the ashes of the paper into the circle of runes. With a high screeching noise, Bill disappeared in a flash of light. In the same instant, Stanford finally pulled the lever and shut the portal off. He collapsed to the ground along with the rest of the machinery, the room temporarily pitch black as the bright light of the gateway faded into nothing.

For a moment Stanford lay face down, the energy of the situation finally overwhelming him. But after a few minutes he stood up and dusted himself off. Experimentally, he tried to recall the words of the banishing spell, but no matter what he did, he couldn't remember them. McGucket had been right about that, too; the spell could only be used once per person.

Stanford picked up a diagram that had fallen near him. It was the schematic for the control panel, showing where the computer board was and which buttons and switches did what. Holding the lighter close to it, he began to burn it. When it was reduced to gray fragments, he turned to the workroom, full of machinery, plans, and years of discoveries.

It would all have to go, if the portal was to remain closed- if Bill's prophecy was to go unfulfilled.

Stanford pulled on his engineering gloves and walked away from the portal.

There was work to do.

Wasn't that rad? I thought that was rad. If y'alls also thought that was rad you should most definitely favorite or review. You may think, "why should i review if the author won't actually be able to see the reviews because its not her account?". Well, never fear, for I will most definitely be conveying any reviews or views or favorite etc etc, so you should definitely do all of that! YAYY!THANKS!