Seconds turned to minutes turned to hours. Alcor's threats grew increasingly more vitriolic and nonsensical. And still Bill Cipher did not appear.
Maybe he was going about this all wrong. Maybe threatening to tear the demon apart limb from limb was actually scaring him off… but no, that didn't seem right. For an upstart demon- somebody who, as far as anybody else knew, had just been born- to boast that much was bound to attract attention, attract retribution, especially when he had already antagonized Bill by acting as him. Yet the mindscape was as silent and static as ever, showing no signs that anybody, let alone Bill, had heard the words that Alcor was screaming into the void. Bill wasn't rising to the challenge.
Well, if Bill wasn't going to come meet him, Alcor would just have to hunt him down.
If he were Bill Cipher, where would he hide?
Alcor wasn't quite sure. He knew lots of things about his past and present foe, but where he went when not working on bringing about the end of the world wasn't one of them.
He would have to find out the hard way.
Alcor sighed and began flitting from place to place in the mindscape, scouring the realm for a sign, no matter how minor, of Bill's presence. It was not an easy hunt- the mindscape was vast, and without having any sense of where to go, there were no shortcuts to be found, no easy way of narrowing down the scope of the search. Days went by, long days filled solely with the mind-numbing monotony of jumping from spot to spot and glancing around before moving elsewhere.
He found nothing.
What brought the search to a halt was not any signal within the mindscape, but a stirring in action in the world of the physical.
Somebody was calling Bill's name.
The source of the sound, Alcor found, was none other than Stanford Pines. The man had deep, dark bags under his eyes, and his hands shook as they straddled the edges of the journal.
"Bill Cipher, I want your help now." Ford's voice was gruff and hoarse.
Alcot tingled with excitement as he floated in the air, careful to keep himself invisible from the human's watchful eyes. That was a direct summons, he was sure of it. Not a formal one, to be sure- no candles, no circles, nothing but a simple request spoken aloud- but the intent was there, and that was enough, he would come, hehad to, Alcor knew too much about how the demon had "helped" his great-uncle in the past to have any doubt about that-
"Bill Cipher?" Ford's aura was tinged with the deep blue of uncertainty now, doubt pervading the man's mind with every passing second.
Where was Bill? One instance of him being too distracted to seek out Stanford at a moment of vulnerability was one thing, but refusing to appear a second time, and when he was being directly summoned no less? What could Bill be doing that was so much more important than laying the groundwork for the Transcendence, implementing the first steps of his master plan?
Stanford slumped his shoulders, his eyes settling back onto the half-finished page of the journal that he had been working on, which was covered in near-illegible scribbles. "Of course. Just somebody else letting me down again. I'll do this myself, then, I don't need him."
Alcor struggled to reconcile his knowledge of how events went in his timeline with Bill's lack of presence here. Maybe the demon was trying to bolster his energy before taking on the challenge of setting up the portal, or he was working on some part of the Transcendence that lay outside Gravity Falls, and he was still somehow oblivious to Alcor's impersonation, his challenges, his searching…
Only one thing left to do. If nothing else had grabbed Bill's attention, well, intercepting an actual summonsought to do the trick, right?
Alcor took on the triangular shape of his foe once more, appearing in the air behind Stanford.
"You sure about that?"
Ford jumped at the unexpected sound, knocking his leg against the desk as he stood to face the demon. He was paler and thinner than Alcor had even seen him before.
"I… I was starting to think you wouldn't show."
"Relax, Sixie. I told you, I'm here for ya. Now, what seems to be the problem?"
"I don't know!" Stanford dug his hands into his scalp, pacing back and forth across the length of his desk. "Something must have happened when Fiddleford went through the portal, because the next time I tried to use it, it just started sparking and died and now it won't turn on no matter what I try and what am I going to do what if I can't fix it my research will beruined all my hard work will be fornothing-"
"Calm down. All your work will pay off soon enough, I can promise you that much." The image of what that "pay-off" would be flickered through his head, as clearly as if he had been standing in the middle of it all- Stanford flying into the portal, Stanley unable to do anything but watch, a doomsday device left standing…
"Really?" Ford dropped his hands back to his sides and slowed his pacing to a stop, staring up at the demon with hopeful eyes.
"Sure thing. I can help you fix this up in a jiffy, and then you'll have plenty of time to explore what's on the other side of that there portal."
"And…" Ford arched an eyebrow suspiciously. "Will it do to me whatever it did to Fiddleford?"
"Not a chance. Fiddleford was weak, unprepared. But you know what you're doing. You'll be just fine."
Stanford nodded curtly. "I suppose that makes sense. Now, you said you can help me get this thing working again, right?"
The differences between the scene around him and the one residing in Alcor's memories stood out as intensely as if a spotlight had been shining on each one. A sigil out of place here, a crack in the rock there…
"Yeah, I think I know just the thing."
No deals were made between the two, even though Alcor could feel himself grow weaker with every deal unmade, every modicum of energy spent without compensation. That was Bill's job, not his. After a few hours he absconded back to the mindscape, leaving his great-uncle with a simple summoning circle and an incantation, identical to what he'd found in the journal thirty years later.
And where was Bill in all this? Alcor still had no clue.
Unsure of what else to do, he started warping through the mindscape once more, shouting taunts at Bill Cipher in the hopes that one of them would finally, finally catch his attention. He took a few breaks to watch over Stanford and see if things had progressed on that end, but there was no sign of him interacting with Bill at all, let alone using the circle and chant that Alcor had provided.
When he finally stumbled into somebody in the mindscape, it was a demon who looked nothing like the one he sought, a small round thing covered in brown hair and curved spikes and glowing green eyes. Alcor didn't know the demon's name, didn't recognize them from any interactions or demonology texts, but he could sense that they were young, immature, still settling on their name and place in the world.
"Can you pipe down? S̕om̴e of us are trying to res̕t̴ here." Their voice was high-pitched and shrill, though much quieter than his own shouts.
Alcor narrowed his eyes. "I don't suppose you know where Bill Cipher is, do you, little one?"
The demon snorted, the sound making their hair rustle. "Never heard of the guy. Sounds like he's some kind of demon, based on what I gathered from all your yelling about him? Pretty lame name for a demon, if you ask m̛e."
Alcor drew closer, his claws pressed up against the demon's side in a none-too-veiled threat. "Don't͠ ̵li͏e͡ ̛t͠o m͘e!̵"
The other demon shook violently, their eyes paling. "I'm not lying, I swear, I've never heard the name in my life! If he's that much of a big-shot, maybe- maybe he gave you a fake name? Like I said, that name soundsmade-up to me, I mean, who ever heard of a demon going by the name Bill, sounds like some weak little h̕uman̸…"
"A fake name, you think? Hmm… then perhaps a description would help j̸o͠g ̸y͡ou̶r ͜m̧em̴ory." Alcor dug his claws in ever so slightly.
"S-sure, absolutely, just tell me about this 'Bill' and I'll, uh, help you- help you find him! Honest!" The waves of terror floating off the demon were palpable. At least somebody around here could tell that he was a force to be reckoned with. Now if only Bill had gotten that memo…
"He has the shape of a yellow triangle, his sides all of equal length. He has one eye, and wears a top hat and a bow tie and has…" Alcor waved the arm that wasn't occupied with threatening the other demon in the air vaguely. "-these black, sort of stick figure arms and legs… wait. There's an easier way to do this."
And, in the blink of an eye, Alcor took on the triangular shape of his foe once more, thin hand still clenched around the round demon's body, before reverting to his usual form a few seconds later.
"He looks like that. Seem familiar?"
"N-no, I- I can't say it does." Their eyes looked him up and down before settling on making eye contact, and Alcor was uncomfortably reminded of the traits that he had subconsciously inherited from Bill, how he, too, now defaulted to wearing a top hat and a bow tie, a fashion sense so unlike that of his human self…
"Alright. One̕ mor͘e̛ ̢s͞h͞ot. What he's trying to do-" what, in the future, he almost managed to do, what he would have done if not for Alcor's intervention-"-is merge the physical realm with the mindscape, widen existing connections between the two worlds until they're one and the same. Now, a plan like that can't have gone unnoticed. That's a big deal right there. So even a p͝iṕs͢q͘ueak ̛l̛i͘k͘e y̸o͢u should have heard somerumors about the matter."
"Hmm…" After a minute's pause, the demon finally perked up, its eyes widening in delight. "Oh, I did hear something about that! I think K'nar and Cerzrex were talking and I didn't manage to overhear that much, I mean it's not like I was trying to eavesdrop I know better than that of course, but-"
"Tell me. Tell me ev͜ery͡t̀hi̢ng͝."
"There's something going on in, uh, some small town in America I think, where some magic stuff has already managed to leak out, I guess? And there's this, this portal thing there, this human was trying to mess with the dimensions or something-"
"I kn̸ơw all that. Tell me about B͡il̵l."
"Right, right. So this, uh, this 'Bill' guy. The human was having trouble, I think- maybe there was more than one human? Or there used to be and there was only one left? Like I said I didn't get too close, I don't wanna mess with those guys- and then this, this demon guy appeared. And K'nar and Cerzrex didn't know who, and that's weird right, like, I thought they knew everybodybut- anyway, he said he'd help out the human, and then just today, I think, he came back to do stuff with the portal biz, and those two sounded worried, they didn't like what he was doing at all, and if they're worried then I guess I should be scared too because compared to them I'm a nobody-"
Alcor glared at the demon before him. Could he have found a more useless informant if he tried? "So. One meeting when the humans split, and another today, you said? And that's all, just those two?"
"I- I think so, yeah, that's what I heard, I could be mistaken but-"
Alcor sighed, closing his eyes and massaging his forehead for a brief moment. He knew those two meetings well enough, though how word had spread about them he had no idea- perhaps it was inevitable that word spread within a magical community that thrived upon psychic powers and arcane knowledge. But they were not what he had wanted to hear about, not by a long shot.
"You fool, that was methose times, I wanted to know about the real Bill Cipher- what he's up to, what he plans on doing about this new demon playing pretend in his name- not… not just telling me about me!"
Alcor's mind raced, uncertainty filling him as much as anger. Because somehow, it seemed, this nosy little eavesdropper had managed to go their entire life without once hearing the name Bill Cipher- hell, without even being able to recognize the demon's appearance. But if Bill was such a big-shot, how could he have escaped notice for all this time? Bill being a fake name- and, admittedly, it did seem a little plain for a demon, now that Alcor thought about it- could only explain some of that. Either he had altered his appearance as well as his name from their usual state every single time he'd interfered with the goings-on of Gravity Falls, or… or…
Or there was no Bill, and there never had been.
"I- I'm sorry, sir, that's all I know, you can always ask somebody else, there are loads of demons who would know more about this than little old me-"
"That settles it." Alcor bared his fangs, making the younger demon quiver in fear. "Three strikes. Y̛ou'͟re͞ out̛."
The other demon barely put up a fight.
Physically, Alcor felt great afterwards. It had been some time since he had last eaten another demon's soul, and while other meals could be helpful there was nothing quite like the rush of energy obtained from consuming one of his own kind. He felt like himself again, all the weakness that had clung to him since he first noticed the effects of the paradox vanished entirely, replaced with power, enough power to take on anybody else, to take on the very world if he so chose.
The sudden rush of physical power, a vast strength replacing the energy that had been slowly but surely draining away, almost made up for the pain that now pervaded his every thought.
Almost.
Because the pieces were finally fitting together. Why he'd been sent back here. Why Bill was perpetually absent from a history that was supposed to feature him so prominently. Why that other demon had never heard of Bill before, despite having "overheard" a striking amount of information about Alcor's own dealings in Gravity Falls.
It all led to one inescapable conclusion.
No.
No, that wasn't possible. Bill Cipher had been around for- centuries? millennia?- some great length of time, anyway. He was way older than this. And that wasn't just a hunch on his part, Alcor had proof, there were ancient parchments and tapestries and-
And his mind filled in the blanks all too willingly. A deal here, a suggestion there, scatter about a handful of carefully-chosen pieces of "evidence" and let the gullible little humans draw their own warped conclusions…
(Gullible little humans like he had been once, because the one he had really needed to fool with all this washimself, back when he knew so little that he didn't even realize how ignorant he truly was.)
…And one "Bill Cipher" would burst onto the scene, an identity made of whole cloth, created from memories of what was, what would be, what must be. Created from memories of loathing, of fighting, of battles lost and a war won. Created by the only one around who knew of Bill's existence.
Alcor had feared, from the moment he realized that he had become a demon, turning into Bill Cipher. Now, his eternal fear had come true… though, truth be told, he'd never pictured it quite like this.
Before he could more fully process the implications of this revelation, Alcor felt himself being pulled away by a gentle tug.
A summons.
It couldn't be from Alcor's summoning circle. No proof of its existence, of his existence, had ever been discovered pre-Transcendence, for reasons that until not so long ago he had thought self-evident.
There was only one other circle that had ever had even the slightest effect on him. It hadn't worked for centuries, of course, but then, nobody had tried using it for centuries either. News of Bill's death spread fast, after all.
Alcor arrived on the scene in the blink of an eye.
Or rather, Bill arrived- after all, that was the name that would be written in the journals, the one that would go down in history, the one cursed by many a tongue for years to come.
He was greeted by a half-awake Stanford, his right hand smeared with black ink and resting beside a sketch of a summoning circle- the design that Alcor had given out, the one that he had expected would let him wash his hands of this whole mess but had instead only embroiled him in it further.
Though his eyelids were drooping, a fire burned in Ford's eyes as he looked up at the demon.
"I have a few ideas that I'd like to bounce off of you, if you don't mind."
There was a pause, and Alcor struggled to think of Bill's response, to piece together his script from the tattered snippets that he had been able to gather together over the years. But Ford beat him to the punch.
"I have to say, Bill, I think we make a good team, you and I."
It was intended as a compliment, he knew.
But that just made it hurt all the more.
