A/N: THIS UPDATE IS ACTUALLY ON TIME! It's snowing in the desert! It's a miracle! Wooooooo! No one else excited? No...just me? Okay...
floralheartninja: You're not a wimp! If anything, I'm the wimp. Little fact you should all know about me guys! I'm a lil' dorky wimp. But, in all seriousness, have a virtual hug buddy. And a cookie!
BADWOLF1221: Yay!! I love storms, too! Something about them sooths me! And, yeah! Bill's got too many issues and the Reformation itself, the way it's being done, isn't really helping, per se. Fourteen? You're a pretty smart kid! And of course it won't change anything! And you can PM me whenever you want! I'm always up for a conversation!
Vampire Tails: Indeed it does! It makes me happy to hear you love my descriptions! Thank you so much for your kinds words! And missing things does hurt indeed, it's a very bitter and gut-wretching thing. The demon thing...may be touched on later. Maybe not... Also good guess! Yay! Good to know my characterizations are spot on! Thank you, bud!
PippyTheBest: I'm glad you liked it! The change in weather IS suspicious, as pointed out by Ford himself.
Fantasy Fan 223: It's okay! My emails sometimes glitch out, it's weird stuff. I agree, technology these days...jeez. Soos and Melody ARE having a family and the idea of twin girls is so cute, ohmygosh!
supersonicninja1 (c4-c5): I think we all have a small soft spot for angst...'cause I do...And OHGOSH! You stayed up at 2:57 to finish reading? This genuinely made me smile but I do hope you got your sleep later! Sleep is important. Those are my wise words for today.
3DPhantom: Good guess! And interesting theory! Bill could use some saving now, haha. He isn't doing too hot at the moment to say the least, someone must save the poor lil' nacho. Thank you!! Yay! I'll love to chat to ya! You seem like an awesome person and you're a very talented writer so...the idea of being buddies did seem pretty cool to me. I sound kinda dorky but it's true *small shrug* but thank you so much for reading...buddy!
And now! Onto the chapter!
TW: Slight violence ahead.
Bill laughed, delighted, as his eye followed the young man hurrying through his nightmare's land; the dry grass hit against his pants and legs. He stumbled over his own two feet and panted with sweat dropping from his brow in long, sticky drips. Bill could see the hot fear clouding his eyes and it made him happy and enthusiastic. There was something about seeing someone drowned by their own fear and panic that earned him genuine pleasure; it was silly how emotions of all things could make the most brilliant of minds stupid and slow. It was almost funny. Bill grabbed his hat and idly dusted it off, pinching invisible specks of dirt and flinging them away with a smirk crossing his singular eye.
"Ya know, Fordsy, if you were to stop and think I bet you could find a way to escape." He planted his hat on his top and studied his nonexistent nails. The man didn't stop at his echoing words, the large and impossible to describe monster Bill had sent after him was right at his heels; blood rimmed its many eyes and coated the dry grass underneath them.
Bill feigned sadness at the lack of response from the man, "Aw, c'mon, Sixer! You're makin' this boring! When my friends and I start to party in your dimension you gotta be ready for stuff like this!" He thrust a hand out toward the monster in a lighthearted gesture. "I don't want ya to ruin anything!" He waggled a finger at him, giggling as the man tripped and hurriedly rolled away from the advancing creature. He dodged the ball of acid it spat at him and gulped a lump in his throat when he crawled under a grounded and wrecked ship.
The monster ran past him.
He let out a sigh of relief that irked Bill.
"That's not very fair, Sixer!" He told him, his voice booming, "How're you gonna be prepared when the intergalactic criminals that I call my friends take over and start playing with ya? I'm doing ya a favor and preparing you for the what's coming!"
The man glared at the pet name given to him and peeked out a little to scowl at the demon, "You are not going to take over, I'll make sure of it, Cipher!"
Bill rolled his eye skyward, "Yadda, yadda, yadda. You can try and be as heroic as ya want but at the end of the day, it's just a cute lil' act." He saw the man glower but quickly hide when the monster came speeding past him again, looking as hungry as a creature of its size could. Bill eyed his monstrous buddy, "HEY! Try lookin' underneath stuff, I bet he's hiding." The monster paused and began to do just that, stupidly laughing under its breath.
The man cursed, "Damn you, Cipher," and slowly slithered out of the ship's underside.
He yelped as his hand scraped past a sharp piece of wood sticking out of the ship, it drew blood and he hissed with a furrowed brow. He suddenly looked up, aware of how loud he had been. The monster had stopped looking under objects and growled softly as its eyes landed on him. Bill laughed and clapped his hands, "There he is! Couldn't hide forever, Sixer!" The man began sprinting again, his wounded hand swung by his side.
Bill watched and leaned back in the air, his eye stretched and crinkled in amusement.
Bill jerked awake, bolting upright as the Guide's chilling voice pelted the cell.
"Good morning, Prisoner 7777. I hope you slept well, we have much planned for you today." Bill squinted as a mirror sprouted up from the grounds like a plant of some kind, ancient engravings were carved on its top and bottom. Bill quirked an eyebrow and slowly brought himself to his feet, he hissed as the weight failed his left leg, having been injured last night by the Mentor's latest Lesson. He shifted his weight to his right leg and stared at his reflection shining through the mirror.
Fury tightened his throat; he looked absolutely pitiful. His vessel was bloody and bruised, his left eye was completely swollen and a cut was vividly open over his eyebrows that stretched across his forehead. Dry blood traced his lips and nostrils from previous Lessons with various Mentors. His hands trembled and rolled into fists, oh how he ached for freedom. For an escape; an escape from these dull walls that trapped him and his powers. He knew they were still there, they had to be. He had several theories as to why they weren't working, one of them being his location and the other his current shape.
He needed to escape. He wanted to be free and once he was, he would obliterate everyone and everything in his way.
A grin slipped over his face.
"So, what's w-with the m-mirror?" He asked.
The Guide chuckled at his casual tone, "Oh, you will see. It is apart of your Lesson today." Confusion fell over Bill's eyes like a pair of sunglasses, "To our understanding, you found misery and fear to bring pleasure to you? That's rather sick. This mirror is designed to teach you why fear or misery isn't a favorable feeling." Bill glanced back at the mirror as he limped towards it, his eyebrows knit curiously and suspiciously. For a moment he could've sworn he saw his reflection wink back at him.
Bill rubbed his chin as a sudden idea struck him, demons use mirrors as gateways to other dimensions…
He tried to cover up the bite of hope that showed on his battered features, "How's a m-mirror supposed t-to educate me o-on that, Guidey?" He attempted to keep his voice cool and leveled. Centuries of making deals had taught him how yet having a Human body put those years into the garbage. Human bodies easily showed emotion; he truly hated that.
The Guide's response was smooth and vague, "You will see. Now, I will leave you to it, Prisoner 7777. Goodbye." The cell went deadly silent, so silent Bill could almost hear his thoughts dribbling on his mind.
"I-Idiot," he murmured as he gently touched the blood on his forehead, "it doesn't e-even realize it left m-me a p-possible way to e-escape." He planted his bloody finger on the mirror's surface and thought on what to trace. "Who should I-I call? Let's s-see…hmm." He tapped his chin with his free hand and considered deeply who could possibly help him in his escape.
My pals from the Nightmare Realm could spare a hand or two… or sixteen.
He smirked and concentrated on the dimension, focusing on its location and who he wanted to reach, he steadily began to trace a message for them when his mirror's reflection grinned sickeningly and literally pulled him in. It all happened so fast, Bill groaned as he landed on a hard, sharp ground; he rolled over on his back and sat up with a grunt. The fall hadn't been kind to his wounds.
He surveyed his surroundings and blinked sluggishly. He was aware he had been pulled inside the mirror, somehow, but everything looked to be the same. His cell was, for lack of a better word, normal. He shakily stood up with a wince adorning his grubby pale face and stared at the dried blood stuck on the cell's stone ground.
Even that's the same. I must be in a Mirror World of some kind.
He rolled his non-injured eye at his thoughts, that's obvious, isn't it, Cipher? The reflection did pull you in. Though, I expected a more twisted version of my cell for a Mirror World...
"How r-rude of m-my reflection to pull m-me in." He muttered under his breath and stopped suddenly when he saw himself standing across from him, leaning on one of the cell's stone walls. He wore a large, cocky grin and a well-maintained golden tux, he tipped his top hat at him. Bill narrowed his eyes suddenly and cocked his head to one side, studying the Mirror-Bill with an obvious envy. This version of me actually looks presentable! Does everyone but me get to look presentable and clean? Damn it.
Bill sighed and folded his arms over his chest, hiding the sudden flash of pain that trapped his eyes at moving his bruised arms, "Oookay, M-Mirror Me, what're y-you up t-to?"
Mirror-Bill lifted his shoulders in a small shrug, "Not much, what're you up to?"
"N-Nothing," Bill started slowly, "I just got here a-and speaking o-of just of that, w-why'd you pull me in? I w-was kinda in the middle o-of something important." He glared at himself and Mirror-Bill looked down at his hands, suddenly finding them interesting. Bill waited, knowing his reflection was taking his sweet time on purpose.
"You'll see in a moment," he brought out a pocket watch and snapped it shut after seeing the time, "and that moment is right now! Toodles, me!" He winked at Bill and leaned on his cane, a knowing smirk etched his lips creepily, "Have fun." He whispered before gracefully vanishing from the cell. Bill stared at the spot he was in and turned around when a sudden close of a door rang in his ears.
The cell had voluntarily altered into the room from Fez's mindscape.
The room where he had almost died.
He suddenly felt something claw his heart and tighten his chest, making his breath short and quick.
He ran to the door, his left leg almost gave up on him. He fumbled for the doorknob and attempted to wretch it open, "C'mon, c-c'mon! Open, y-you stupid l-little piece o-of—"
"Ya can't escape, Cipher."
Bill froze. He knew that voice and he loathed it. He jerked his head back and peered at Fez who sat nonchalantly on his worn recliner, "W-what?" He sounded pathetic but it was the first thing his mouth had said.
Fez barked a rough laugh and crossed his legs, "I said ya can't escape. Funny, ain't it?"
Bill didn't answer but stared, his heart quickened inside his chest.
"Funny how you're gonna have to experience this twice." Fez chuckled as blue flames began to lick the walls, warming the room itself. Bill shook his head, mouthing the word no endlessly. He didn't want to experience this, not again, not ever. The fire crawled up his long legs and sank deep into his skin, he screamed and felt as if his flesh was being burned off. He trembled but was suddenly pulled toward the recliner by Fez who had gotten to his feet.
He clutched his jumpsuit's collar and scowled at him with a deathly look, his eyes bored into Bill's beaten face. "Looks to me that you still got a working eye, Cipher." He chuckled darkly, "Let me fix that for ya." Bill didn't know what happened next but he was suddenly consumed by an inhuman scream as the feeling of his eye being gruesomely ripped out punched him. He felt like vomiting and sobbing but he did neither.
He weakly clawed at Fez as he kept yelling and screaming in awful, hot, swallowing pain.
He was thrown down onto the floor like a rag doll and remained there for some time, how long he did not know. He fingered his eye socket and was relieved to feel both his eyes there, "T-Thank t-the demons…" He slurred.
Eventually, he painfully sat up and looked around the cell and the mirror. He stood and limped towards it only to yell in horror as the room shifted to look similarly like a two-dimensional world.
"My—my...my home d-dimension…?" Bill was stunned and felt a wild panic burn down his throat.
Why was he here again? He couldn't be here again. No, no, no, no, no. He couldn't be trapped in a flat world. He didn't belong here.
His breathing was ragged as he slammed his eyes shut and opened them again to see the cell again. His normal, ugly cell. What kind of joke was the Guide pulling?
Recomposing himself, he turned toward the mirror and traced his bloody finger over the surface but yelped as blue fire erupted from the ground and enveloped him in a burning embrace.
"AH! S-STOP IT!" Fear of that room, of Fez, of the fire crushing his pleading form made it impossible for him to breathe.
With a trembling limb he wrote out the words, "Help me…please…" on the mirror before the fire hugged him whole.
He screamed and suddenly felt as if someone had pushed him. He felt himself heavily landing on solid ground.
His chest rose up and down, alarmingly quick and he took violent gasps for air. Sweat draped his forehead and stung his cut as he cracked his eyes open and shifted his head to the side.
The mirror's message glimmered a blood red before vanishing.
The mirror sunk down into the ground, returning to where it had come from, just in time.
Bill sighed weakly, I hope it works.
Bill grunted and sat up, he looked down at himself, checking for burns from the fire but saw nothing. He breathed out, rubbing his face, he was drained.
A/N: I have a few headcannons about Bill's home dimension and why he burned it, does anyone have headcannons about it? Or did I just read too much into that?...I tend to do that. Anyhoo! Enough about the boring old author! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to leave a review, we writers love reading them! We treasure every single one! Have a nice night/day!