A/N Why hello all you lovely Fallers! Welcome back to my story! Thank you for making it this far! Special thanks to Gravity Faller and Brenne for the lovely reviews! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Part Three: Undetected

Bill wasn't happy with his new reality. Not at all.

In fact, his whole plans to take over this dimension have all fallen apart completely and he was angry. First, he couldn't let his beautiful Weirdmageddon expand beyond Gravity Falls. Then he got spray paint in his eye which hurt, then just as he was about to turn Shooting Star into star dust, the stupid elder Pines twins had to trick him—trick HIM—and then they had the audacity to erase him from existence! And up until then everything had been going so smoothly.

And then, as an insult to injury when he slowly came back into existence, hitching a ride on Stan's returning memories, he had discovered he was both powerless and trapped in the wrong vessel. He never wanted Stanley as a vessel, invading his mind for Gideon was bad enough, he was glad to get out of there. Stanley was no longer part of his grand master plan. Sure, he was part of the now obsolete Zodiac Prophecy designed to stop Bill, but Stanley's role was never very integral to Bill's plan like his brother and the kids were. The only thing he was good for was putting the Portal back together, and that was just simply Bill's backup plan. Once he served his unintended purpose, he was back to being the nobody he always was.

So, it was a bitter irony that suddenly the most insignificant member of the Pines family had suddenly become integral to his very survival. Though Bill knew his condition was temporary, he was not pleased with or used to the concept of being mortal. Because that's what he was now. Mortal—well, actually, destructible. He could still live forever, but for now, he was also vulnerable to being destroyed. A fact that Bill discovered shortly after Stan's murder.

When Stan died, Bill legitimately thought he was finally free. His death gave him a sudden surge of power, he still didn't feel like himself—certainly not 100%—but he felt more powerful than he had been in almost a year. But that power rapidly drained from him as Stan's life force left his body and Bill was still stuck. As he quickly discovered, he could only animate Stan's corpse for so long before he too would die. He hated doing it, but he had no choice but to bring Stan back from the dead—just when he thought he was finally rid of him.

Bill smirked when the bodies of Rico and his son Frankie hit the ground. It was almost a shame to have to kill them—well, force them to kill each other that is—because Bill kind of liked them. Rico was extra diabolical and Frankie wasn't much better than his old man and, especially given Bill's new reality, he could use some low life criminals like them to do his bidding while he hid in Stan's mind and rebuilt his strength. Plus, the things they would've done to Pine Tree and Shooting Star would've been entertaining, and it most certainly would've caused Stanley great pain to see them suffer because of him. Bill may have had plans for the Pines family, big plans, but that didn't mean he didn't want them to pay for what they did to him and his glorious Weirdmageddon.

But, because of them Bill was almost back at square one power-wise, and he couldn't keep up both controlling Stan's body and maintaining control over his killers's will. They had to die. If Bill released them they would've just killed Stan again and Bill didn't think he could come back from that.

"I guess I could've thanked you, Rico," Bill chuckled, regarding his corpse, amused by the frozen look of horror on his face and glazed over eyes, "but you really ruined everything, you have no idea."

Bill had spent the last ten months hidden in Stan's mind, watching from out of the corner of Stan's eye, slowly building his strength. Being erased took a lot out of him and he hated this new feeling of complete powerlessness. All he could do was wait, dormant inside Stan's body, feeding off his energy while he plotted out his revenge on the Pines family and Plan B for world domination.

Sometimes he could take control of Stan for a few seconds, or even minutes, at a time. Usually when he was asleep, but sometimes he could even take over when he was awake. But doing so always seemed to weaken him. Besides, for now, Bill's plan relied on no one knowing he still existed, so he had to do it sparingly, when it would work best to his advantage. So far Stan had no idea that he had a little dorito-shaped parasite sharing his body, occasionally taking the reins in secret. Undetected. It needed to stay that way.

He was OK with starting over again, he was over a billion years old, he knew how to be patient, being a year off schedule was not the biggest deal in the world. Inconvenient, sure, but everything was riding on no one discovering him - especially while he was still weak. As much as he would've liked to thank Rico for murdering Stan the way he did, doing so created a huge problem.

Bill surveyed the clearing, his eyes scanning past Rico and Frankie's corpses to the pool of blood where Stan had fallen, grumbling in frustration, contemplating his next move. He ran his fingers through Stan's hair in frustration, "How do I remain hidden after this?"

The few times Bill took control of Stan's body when he was awake, Stan had no idea it was happening and no memory of it. Stan was a little unnerved by his little blackouts, but they didn't last long enough to worry him enough to mention it. Stan was convinced that his blackouts were a side effect of his memory being wiped. They rarely caused problems and when they did, one time in particular, he was in denial to the point he managed to convince himself that it was because of something else. This however, this was not something that could go unnoticed.

"Guess I've got some work to do," Bill sighed. He hovered his hands over the pool of Stan's blood which was magically absorbed deep into the dirt until there was no trace of it. When Rico and Frankie's bodies are discovered, there couldn't be any evidence Stan was there. He also removed all traces of blood from Stan's body, wanting there to be as little questions as possible when he woke up. Stan was wearing a black shirt, which made his job a little easier, but using his powers to clean up the mess Rico made was making Bill dizzy.

He was not enjoying this feeling of being weak. His powers were draining at an alarming rate and if Stan wasn't so deeply unconscious right now, Bill didn't think he could maintain his control. As it was, he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it up. He had to finish before he too passed out, so he swallowed hard and pushed through it, making his way back to Stan's car, carefully retrieving Stan's wallet from Rico's pocket on the way.

He opened the door and was blasted with heat, which made him feel physically ill. He may have raised Stan from the dead, but Bill did not have enough in him to fully heal him, nor did he really want to. Pain really was hilarious, but not so much when he was the one experiencing the pain, and Bill was feeling it now. He just had to remind himself how satisfying it will be when Stan wakes up feeling like shit. By then Bill will be back to his little corner in Stan's mind, watching the show and knowing what Stan's going through without having to feel a thing himself. It always pleased him when Stan or his precious family was in pain.

"Just a little further," Bill muttered, digging into the part of Stan's mind that knew how to drive to start the car and get away from there. Silently he groused about how much easier things were when he was an all-powerful, all-seeing, interdimensional dream demon—there was no need for something as mundane as driving. He just hoped that his pathetic, limited, and weakened state won't last long. Feeling a little sorry for himself, he drove toward Gravity Falls, trying to think of a plan, think of his next step.

How was he going to get out of this undetected? Sure, he erased the blood and most of the evidence of Stan's encounter with Rico, but Stanley himself was still a problem. It was going to drain him of even more energy and power, but he would have to do some digging and wipe Stan's memories of his encounter with Rico, that was for certain, but that too was a problem in of itself. It was going to create a massive hole in Stan's memory, and how was he going to explain that?

So far Stan hadn't mentioned the small gaps in his memory to anyone, but a huge one like this? That would be worth mentioning. It was going to raise suspicion and if Sixer found out, it wouldn't take long for a few theories to emerge and that would ruin everything.

He entertained the idea of going back to the diner where it all started, letting Stan think he took a nap in the parking lot or something, but it would still raise too many questions and wasn't nearly as fun. Besides, Bill's control of Stan's body was dwindling fast. He wouldn't be able to make it to the diner, and certainly not all the way back to Gravity Falls, which would be a bad idea anyway. It would only raise more suspicion to his existence, especially considering he can't even enter the Mystery Shack unless he's hiding so far in Stan's mind that the magic spell made to keep him out can't detect him. He just could not afford the risk right now.

Bill sighed, needing to think of something fast. He was slowly starting to lose control of his vessel, even though Stan was still out cold. He needed to act now, but what to do? If he waited too long to think of something, he ran the risk of losing control of Stan completely while he was still driving and if that happened, they might crash.

A huge grin crossed Stan's face as Bill formed a brilliant idea, "Of course! How silly of me!" he exclaimed, "The solution is obvious!"

Up ahead, Bill saw a sharp bend in the road. Slowing down slightly, Bill let go of the steering wheel and released his control over Stan's body, retreating deep into Stan's subconscious. Vaguely he was aware of the car coming to a jarring halt as it smashed against a tree.

Problem solved.

A/N Hello again! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Good or bad, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!