"What do you want!" he exclaimed again.

"Calm down Pine Tree, I'm not here to hurt you. If I was, you'd be hurt already." His voice darkened at the last few words, but his smile remained.

"Answer the question Bill!" Dipper grabbed the front of his hoodie and pushed him into the wall of the school.

"Pine Tree the tough guy!" he laughed. Bill met his eyes and his smile vanished from his face. "All jokes aside Pine Tree, I need your help."

Dipper loosened his grip in disbelief. "My help? You?"

"You see, as powerful as I am, there's unfortunately some demons more powerful than me, and one of them is trying something stupid."

Dipper ignored what he said, and raised his fist. "Whose body is this anyway?"

Bill's face remained still, and he spoke slowly. "It's mine. Like it? I designed the thing myself. I think I got the age off a bit though, I think this body is like twenty. How old are you now Pine Tree? Seventeen, eightteen?"

"What do you mean it's yours?" Dippers fist lowered, his curiosity had gotten the better of him.

Bill put his hand on Dippers and tugged it off of him. "Are you hard of hearing now kid? I just told you I designed it myself. The details are sticky and don't need to be bothered with right now."

Dipper clenched his hands into fists. "Why do you need my help?" He wasn't going to get side-tracked, he knew Bill was trying to mess with him.

"I already told you. Maybe you are hard of hearing. I have my powers you know, I could fix you up," he chuckled, his smile returning to his face.

He had his powers? Dipper's chest tightened. "Why do you need me to help you fight another demon? And why come here in a physical form to ask me rather than just talk to me in the Mindscape?"

Bill's smile softened, almost as if he wasn't sure himself. "Well, I thought about that. I figured you would just fight me in the Mindscape, and at least here you would have to hear me out." He paused for a moment, and his smile turned mischievous. "Besides, I did try. You woke up before you even saw me."

Dipper's head was filled to the brim with questions, but he knew Bill wouldn't just answer them without either dancing around the answer or flat out lying to him. "Why do you need my help?" he repeated.

"Well Pine Tree, as much as I hate to admit it, you've got something other than hot air in your head. Plus you can tell when you've entered the Mindscape a lot easier than others."

"Yeah, thanks to you!" Dipper grabbed Bill's hoodie again and pushed him back into the wall. "Why do you think I would even help you anyway? After everything you've done?"

Bill didn't seem surprised by the sudden attack, and his facial expression turned blank again. "Because, if you don't then everyone you know will be plagued with nightmares that will quickly turn them insane."

"What do you mean?" He tightened his grip and surprisingly Bill flinched a little.

"You see, I wanted this physical world, but some demons are alright with trying to take over the Mindscape. Not many of us know how to fight this demon." He smiled again and looked Dipper in the eye. "But I do. I need someone else though. A human."

"But you're a human now too, why can't you just do it this way?"

Bill clicked his tongue at him. "Oh Pine Tree, I don't have enough years left in this body to explain all the reasons it won't work that way. Let's just say just because I'm in a human body, does not mean I'm a human."

Dipper wasn't sure what to say next. Should he ask more about what the demon wanted, or should he just tell him no and tell Mabel so they could figure it out themselves?

"Come off it Pine Tree." Bill suddenly snapped. "I already told you it's kind of an offer you can't refuse. I'm the only one who knows how to fight him, and I'm the only one who could come and find a human who can be as aware as you are in the Mindscape."

"How do I know this isn't a trick? Last time I trusted you, you stole my body!"

Bill rolled his eyes and his impatiens was visible on his face. "I already told you," he said slowly, trying to calm himself. "if I were here to hurt you, I would have already hurt you. I was left alone with Star for long enough that I could have-"

Dipper did not want to hear what Bill could have done to Mabel, so he cut him off with a punch to the face.

"Is pain still hilarious now Bill?"

Bill took the punch surprisingly well, and responded with kicking Dipper in the gut, causing him to stumble backwards.

"I won't help you Bill! You should just leave!" Dipper coughed.

Bill seemed like he was already over the punch, and was smiling at Dipper again. "Alright, I admit I probably deserved that," he chuckled. "But you will change your mind kid. As soon as everyone around you is crazy, you'll be sorry you said no."

Dipper went to swing at him again, but Bill caught his arm and punched him in the jaw.

"Fighting won't do you any good. You got lucky with that first hit, but be assured Pine Tree, I can hurt you. Badly." He let go of Dipper's arm and walked off, his hands in his jacket pockets.

Dipper stood in silence for a moment, stunned. Why would Bill care about humans going insane from nightmares? Wasn't that what Bill did to people anyway? If he really did still have his powers, why hadn't he hurt Dipper more?

He knew Mabel was probably starting to get worried that he wasn't at the car yet, so he brushed himself off and hurried to the parking lot.

"Dude, where were you?" Mabel watched him as he got into the car without saying anything. "Did you get into a fight?" she asked as soon as she saw his red jaw.

Dipper gripped the steering wheel. "Can you just get in so we can go home?"

She piled herself into the car, then crossed her arms. "There, I'm in. Now what happened bro-bro?"

He took a few deep breathes to calm himself down before he answered her. "It is Bill, Mabel. He asked for my help," he said as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Her eyes widened and she gasped. "Why does he think we would help him?"

Dipper shrugged. "I don't know! He went on about nightmares or something, and I told him there was no way I would help him."

Mabel looked down at her hands in her lap and shook her head. "What exactly did he need your help with anyway? And why didn't he say anything to me about it?"

"Well, I guess since I notice when I'm in the Mindscape, I have the ability to somehow fight this other demon who's trying to fill it with nightmares, or something. He said I would change my mind once everyone around me was insane."

Mabel shuddered, but wanted to stay strong for Dipper. She had had her fair share of scarring moments with Bill, but knew that Dipper needed the support. He sometimes didn't handle things as well as she did. "Like I said before, we're the mystery twins! We can deal with this demon crap again, easy-peasy."

A small smile found his lips and he looked over to her for a moment. "You're right Mabel. These demons should be scared of us, not the other way around. Tomorrow at lunch we can start planning what we're going to do about this!"

Mabel inhaled sharply. "I have more planning to do tomorrow. In fact, this whole week is going to be full of meetings for me. Some after school. . ." she trailed off.

"Oh. Well, okay. We'll do it when we can." He smiled at her and stopped the car in front of their house.

"Why aren't you pulling up the driveway?"

"I'm going to the library. Maybe I can find some exorcism books or something that might help."

Mabel opened the car door and gave him an apologetic look. "Don't stress about this too much Dipper. We'll find a way to get Bill to go away."

He gave her a quick nod before she turned to leave, then drove slowly to the library, giving himself time to think about what books might even help him.

The journals wouldn't be much help, since Dipper had memorized them anyway, and they had no mention of a nightmare demon in them. Really, he had no idea what to be looking for, since Bill hadn't even really told him what demon it was. He didn't know enough about demons to just guess either.

He pulled over to the side of the road and groaned. There wasn't enough information to even make a trip to the library worth it. If the body really wasn't stolen, would exorcising Bill even work? What could a normal library even have that would give him any information he needed?

The only person he knew that had all of that information would be Bill. Dipper wasn't going to lie, knowing more about demons and the place Bill came from would be cool, but there was no way he was going to ask Bill about it. Could he? How much of the truth was Bill telling him?

He let out an annoyed scream and let his head fall onto the headrest of his seat.

"Frustrating, isn't it?" Bill's voice made Dipper nearly jump out of his seat.

He looked over and saw that Bill was suddenly in the passenger seat, reading a magazine.

"These books are so stupid. Why do humans find any pleasure in this?" He tossed it into the backseat and leaned against the passenger door so that he was facing Dipper.

"What the hell, where did you come from?" Dipper shouted.

"Calm down Pine Tree, teleportation is simple magic. I like to keep my eye on you, so I knew you were here, contemplating life, and decided to pop in."

"I'm still not going to help you."

Bill pursed his lips and took a deep breath. "How do you deal with these meatsacks anyway? I swear I'm always wanting something. I can't ever just be comfortable. Food, drink, sleep, showering, going to the bathroom, chemical emotions, breathing. It's a lot if you're in it for more than a day or two."

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Then why don't you just leave? And how long have you had a body anyway?"

Bill smiled as if Dipper had asked him exactly what he wanted him to. "I can't go into the Mindscape right now unless I'm asleep in this body, so leaving isn't an option. As far as time, I've been in here long enough to get my ducks in a row."

"What does that mean?"

"It's an expression, it means-"

"You know what I meant Bill!" Dipper's face was hot with anger and he felt like taking another swing at the demon.

"Do I?" Bill tilted his head slightly to the side and smirked. "Anyway, I'd say it's been about two weeks. I haven't gotten used to it quite yet. All these eyes and organs. Not my thing."

A deep sigh forced its way into Dipper's lungs and he groaned again. He might as well ask as much as he can, as long as he didn't let himself get tricked into anything.

"You're going to have to answer some questions," Dipper said slowly.

Bill smiled and leaned forward, resting his arm on the armrest between them. "Only if I get to ask some in return."

"What could you possibly want to ask me?"

Bill didn't answer, but instead motioned or Dipper to ask a question.

"Fine. How did you get your body?"

"I made a deal with a human who had the ability to help me build one. I let him be rich, he gave me a body. My turn." He looked down at the arm rest and chewed his bottom lip. "You're not allowed to give me shit for this Pine Tree, but. . ."

Dipper almost smiled. Bill looked embarrassed, and seeing him like that made Dipper want to laugh. "But what?"

"Why did my body feel warm when I looked at Blue's legs? I haven't brushed up on my biology for humans and I don't know if I liked the way it made me feel. Is there a way to get rid of it?"

Dipper couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. "Oh my god Bill, you don't know why it made you feel funny?"

Bill sat back and glared at him. "I told you that you couldn't give me shit for it. And I answered your question, so answer mine."

At first Dipper thought he was messing with him, but he could see that Bill really didn't know what was going on. "Well," his voice cracked. "I'm not going to give you the birds and the bees speech, but basically what you're feeling is when humans want to. . . well, when they want to reproduce. You know," he huffed "have sex."

Bill kept his glare on Dipper and didn't move. "I'm going to get a computer and cellphone later, and I'll have to use the internet thing you guys made to look up what all of that means. Blue told me about some of that crap, so I might as well use it."

Dipper thought about advising him not to, since he knew exactly what would come up, but the thought of Bill's reaction to it was too funny to pass up. "Alright, you do that. Who's Blue anyway? I know you do that nickname thing, but here we use people's names."

Bill scoffed. "I have my reasons for them. And it's that girl we're paired up with for that stupid homework thing, which I'm not going to do, by the way."

"Claire?" he shouted. Anger rose up into his chest and he crossed his arms.

"Yeah, Blue." Bill returned the gesture and crossed his arms as he leaned back onto the door.

He didn't want to get into that with Bill right then, so he just took a deep breath and relaxed as much as he could. "Next question. What type of demon is it that's trying to give everyone nightmares, and why do you care if he gets away with it?"

"Obviously he's a dream demon like I am. And I only care because if we get rid of him, then I can get the hell out of this fleshbag and go back to the Mindscape. Now I get two questions."

"How do you figure?"

"You formed two questions into one sentence, but they were still two questions."

Dipper closed his eyes and sighed. "Fine, what else do you want to know?"

Bill looked out the windshield and let his head fall back onto the window. "If I look up that whole weird feeling thing, will it explain why sometimes when I wake up in the morning, my-"

"Yes!" Dipper stopped him. He did not want to hear about Bill's morning wood, and he was not about to explain it to him. "It will."

Bill gave him a strange look, but continued with his next question. "Will it happen when I look at everyone's legs, or just girls, or just boys? Like will I feel it when I look at another person wearing shorts? 'Cause Star was wearing shorts, what happens if-"

Dipper cut him off again. "If it happens when you look at Mabel, you tell me, so I can finish beating the snot out of you!"

"Geez Pine Tree, okay. I won't look at Star's legs."

"You'd better not," he growled.

"Anyway, this body is exhausted. Drive me home Pine Tree?" He put his seatbelt on and made himself comfortable in the seat.

Dipper groaned. "Why can't you just teleport back?"

"Magic uses energy. I'm tired, so I can't use it right now."

"Fine, where do you live then?" Dipper snapped at him, but was actually a little curious about where Bill was staying, since it seemed like Bill really didn't know much about how humans lived.

"Third street. Next to the library. You were headed there anyway, weren't you?"

Next to the library was an apartment building. A nice one too. Dipper pulled away from the curb and made his way through the traffic, driving slowly to try and get more answers from the demon. "Yeah, but how are you staying at such a nice place?"

"I just use my magic to trick the guy to let me stay there. It's pretty comfortable." He looked out the window and let his head relax onto the chair. "A little lonely though," he added quietly.

Dipper ignored the after thought, and shook his head. "That's wrong Bill."

"Well then, are you going to let me stay with you?"

"No!" he said quickly.

"That's what I thought."