Stanley shifted his weight well enough until he was within the bounds of his home. He quickly shut the door and locked it behind him, resting his shoulders against the main entrance for a moment. He caught his breath enough for himself to move to the cellar door, the one that Fiddleford left open on his previous decent. Stanley took a large gulp of hair, settling his shaking limbs, and stepped over the threshold and into the lamp lit stairwell.

His head spun from the run over and his throat was dry but little did that bother him as nerves and fear held on tighter; they were churning his gut and making him slam the basement door behind him, locking it as well. He allowed another moment to breathe. This was the only moment, Lee could tell, that he would be able to breathe alone before everything kicked into action.

And so with his ill willed fears, he turned and climbed into the elevator, entering the code needed, and felt it as gravity pushed him further away from the sun... into the shadowy deceit of his plan becoming action.

Bill Cipher moaned and laughed, one not present without the other. He raised his haunches and pushed himself off of the bottom level of that unnecessary contraption, smiling crookedly and shaking off the ringing noise he acquired from the fall. "Stanford you're brother is going to lengths I did not imagine he'd go to!" he talked to himself, chuckling. "He just about killed you with that fall! You know... if it weren't for me that is." He pulled his legs under his body and rose to his feet, wiping the dirt from his clothes.

Then, he began to truly rise, ignoring the laws imposed by gravity, and hovered above the forest floor enough to know that Bill was in full control of the body- nothing about him said Stanford anymore. Only the occasional use of his name is what remained of Stanford Pines.

Bill Cipher looked in the direction of the shack, not seeing it directly but sensing the journals and the two nerds that insisted on making their deaths difficult. Oh, he sensed something else too... Ah... the portal. This was going to be fun.

"Prepare yourself, Stanford," Bill smiled inwardly, "all of this running around is going to stop. Everything, as a matter of fact, is going to end..." He lurched forward and began his approach to the beginning of the end of this crappy, pathetic planet.

"Lee?" the professor gasped, hearing footsteps approaching from down the hall. His heart leapt into his throat for a moment, anticipating the other Stan instead. "Lee," he gawked, looking at his partner's swollen face, "are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," he said, looking over Fiddleford's shoulder. "Are you ready?"

"I will be, I just need a minute..." he told Lee, focusing back to the propped journals. He continued to input the necessary codes.

We don't have a minute, Lee thought impatiently, eyeing the journals and then bringing his attention to the portal on the other side of the blast shield. He looked over his shoulder as well, eyes peering down the dark hallway he just traveled down.

His entire body was soar from the fight. His face was throbbing and the metallic taste of blood, like pennies, had become poisonous to his senses, giving him a headache that simply added to the one he already gained from dehydration, and the emotional state he'd been in for the past few days. Bill beat him pretty hard... Stanley's honestly surprised he'd made it this far.

"Now would be a good time to destroy it, Stanley," Fiddleford told him lightly.

"What? No. We need to keep it functional. This," he pointed to his side, "is Bill's ticket out of here not to mention our own Hail Mary. This device is what's keeping us alive at this point." Fiddleford looked at him, worry filling his eyes, and Lee couldn't help himself but sigh. "Ford is strong enough," he told his partner sterner than needed. "He can expel Bill before he gets sucked in, and I?" He looked over to the portal again. "I'll be tied down."

"I just don't feel right about it, Lee."

"Finish the code, Fiddleford. It's this... or we all die."

Begrudgingly, Fiddleford finished the code, entering the correct algorithms and finally turning the portal on, the blue lights bleeding a path in the dark room as to show just the outline of the machine. Both the theorists looked up with admiration, Stanley opening the blast shield door to enter the room.

The twin hurried over to the main lever, struggling to push the handle into the correct gear after weeks and weeks of unuse. With a grunt and the metallic grinding of forcing it into place, the blue lights of the machine turned into something more: the symbols. Not only these but blue lightning whizzed out of the main hatch of the portal with an electric buzz.

The electricity stopped just as soon as is began as it was converted into the next step of the energy protocol for starting up the portal. The previous blue lights shot out as if lasers, all in the same electric blue, and quickly fade out, energizing the machine. The entire thing lit up with an angelic light, the telltale whirring sensation of all the functions working to perfection echo throughout the two rooms.

Stanley stood in front of it all, a slight wind from the portal having kicked up and ruffled his brown hair. This was it. This is the moment that ended it all so they could start anew. "Here we go," he said to himself with a sigh. He turned around to see Fiddleford looking at him, mirroring the same expression of worry that Lee had himself, and begun to walk back to him.

"Start it up, Professor," he said with a nod of his head, and his partner complied, going back to his work station and entering the final codes. He mashed the startup button to initialize the final act.

The lights around the portal brightened in a rainbow fashion before blending together in a spin cycle. The machine whirred again, starting up with a kick and then flowing smoothly.

This was it, the end of Bill's torment. Fiddleford closed the journals and lined them in order, looking over them good and hard. If Lee wasn't so wrapped up in these things, if they were just to have destroyed them... but no, Stanley's right. Bill would kill them on the stop if they did. This was the best way, even if they were relying on the third member of their party who was clueless to the plan. This was, somehow, their best and only option.

Stanley came over to him, stood behind with a hand on his shoulder. He too looked at the journals. Years upon years of work, research, and discovery, these journals were his life and now he was going to risk them in the hopes that Ford could fight off Bill.

The journals, like himself, would never be in actual danger though because were Bill would be the one not strapped down to anything like Stanley was going to be... and he'll have a close hold on the journals too. If worst comes to worst then he'll know what will happen to Stanford... but he didn't dare think about it.

"Are you ready, Professor?" Stanley asked him, reaching for the journals.

"Are you?" Fiddleford replied.

Stanley looked at his friend for a moment, really looked at him, and, having a firm hold on the journals, replied after a pause.

"Yes."

Even if he wasn't so sure of the outcome he hoped for.

Bill Cipher was pissed, he was composed, but he was still pissed he'd been having the run around with these two nerds- AND THEY WEREN'T EVEN DEAD YET. As a matter of fact, Bill was the one to be knocked down and not them, literally, twice. He was having no more of these games.

So when he burst through the elevator door on the third level he made himself aware; blue flames licking after him as he sauntered down the hallway.

Fiddleford twisted around sharply, feeling the presence of Bill Cipher, and was shaking in his shoes when he happened to find the face of Stanford. But even though it originally belonged to Stan it obviously wasn't him. The blue fire made sharp lines on Stanford's otherwise soft features and the smile on his lips was anything but the kind, joking one that Fiddleford was so used to. That smile was joking alright, but the punch line was much deadlier... and his eyes, Ford's eyes were never so... harsh.

"Hello Professor," Bill welcomed him. It sounded like the demon was welcoming into the pits the Hell, perhaps he was. Fiddleford took a step back and propped himself against the controls, shaking but not speaking, he watched instead. "I'll give you an option," the dream demon proposed dangerously, leaning forward while the blue flames still danced off his stolen form. "If you give me the journals now, I'll kill you first and I'll kill you quickly." Bill smiled at him in twisted anticipation. Fiddleford managed to swallow his fear long enough in order for him to speak to him, audibly shaken, but still talking.

"You won't be hurting any of us, Bill."

The demon tsked and laughed, stepping forward with his downward gaze burning into the professor. Fiddleford gulped and prepared for everything to hurt, but then a voice rang over the presence of the two of them and they both stopped.

"Bill!" the voice called. It was Stanley and he was in the other room standing directly under the whirring portal. Bill looked up and with one quick glance he recognized the situation and ran into the room, forgetting about Fiddleford and his most recent threat.

"Stanley," the demon greeted through gritted teeth. It almost sounded like he was trying to be polite. His fire had gone out as soon as he figured what Stanley was trying to accomplish and now he mossied as close to the journals as he could get.

"Come any closer and you can say goodbye to the journals, Bill," Stanley threatened. Bill stopped. The portal continued to run.

"What's your plan here, Stanley?" Bill asked him, Stanley becoming blatantly aware that his brother wasn't there. "Throwing those journals away will do you no good. Really! What are you going to get out of this? Because I can tell you what I'm going to. I'm going to get the journals, and I'm going to get the portal," he said eying the big, beautiful thing in front of him. "I'm going to kill your friend and gut you and then I'm going to let your brother have the run of things so he can watch you die... and then I'm going to kill him and that should wrap things up! Oh, did I mention the Apocalypse? Yeah, that's going to happen too." Bill laughed, feeling the victory of his win to come.

That's when the anomalies began and the town shifted out of control.

"Wah?" Bill spoke, surprised at the sudden lift of his body. He rose as Stanley did, Fiddeford in the room over trying not to mash any of the controls by accident. And just as it had begun, it ended, and they all fell as gravity did. Bill landed on his feet where Stanley managed to hold his balance for the most part; Fiddleford fell on his bum and adjusted his glasses, shaking and watching the confrontation of the twins.

The demon's eyes fell upon those of Stanley's, the man surefooted and sturdy, giving the possessor a hard look of ill intent, having a tight grip on his precious journals. The sight of him was hilarious, absolutely unbearably precious. This human man actually thought he had the upper hand here! Stanley Pines thought he was winning. Bill could barely contain himself to begin with but the actual sight of the author of the journals standing there after having been floating in air was ridiculous! And Bill showed it.

"Hahaha," he began, "Ahahahahah! You're actually telling yourself that this was a good idea!"

Stanley straightened his back and never changed his gaze.

"Get out of my brother, Cipher."

"Oh, oh, Stanley! You have to stop! Ahahahah!" Bill doubled over in laughter. "Stanley," he said, standing upright again, "you can't honestly say that after the stunts you've pulled these past few months that you think Stanford is going to come running back to you with open arms? That's just reckless abandon! And now?" The demon motioned toward the portal, looking at the journals. "You're what? Going to have a temper tantrum and send away the journals so that I can't have them?"

Stanley frowned.

"I mean, you know this isn't going to end well, come on! Who would sacrifice everything they'd worked for just for their dumb sibling?" There was a pause as Stanley regrettably broke his gaze. "Not you!" Bill laughed again, his wide smile going beyond the average perimeters of Stan's face.

Stanley shook his head in the smallest manner, making himself remember the path that he started on, his plan. "Ford, listen to me."

"When are you going to run it through your head, poindexter..." Bill stepped forward, Stanley grimaced at the sound of his brother's pet name coming from Bill's voice. Bill laughed at his response. "I'm the only one here!"

The portal continued to whir, the two dangerously close to it's opening that the wind ruffled their loose articles.

"I need you to fight him, Stan," he yelled at his brother. "Fight him and come back and-"

"Don't you get it? The only way Stan's coming out again is when I let him! And that's not happening until he kills you with his own hands."

"He won't do that," Stanley told Bill with a crack in his determination. "You're not going to get the chance."

"Oh, I can take my opportunity any time I-"

Once again, the anomalies began, and neither of them could hold their ground. Bill floated without his will and Stanley too, though much closer to the face of the portal.

"What do you think you're going to do!" Bill yelled at Stanley, sounding strained but angry. Suddenly, it felt as though the portal was working too well and the current of the machine began to suck in the two men closest to it.

Bill was sure that Stanley would be sucked in at any moment, the journals along with him, but as his shoulders came close to the surface of the machine something tugged at his body and his shoulders leaned forward while the books were still in contact with this Earth. That's when Bill realized the rope around the man's waist, and that's when he recognized that he was going to be sucked through. Regrettably, a spike of fear shot through the demon, but he'd die before he'd show it.

The anomaly already had a greater force than the one previous, not to mention lengthier, and it was this factor alone that got Stanley worrying that he'd made a mistake, that the portal wasn't stable for this kind of use and now they were all going to pay the price of it. A streak of worry lined his stomach but he pushed the fear into the back of his mind as he had much more pressing matters to deal with at the forefront.

"Are you crazy!?" Bill yelled at him as he struggled to maneuver himself away from the colorful machine. "You'd sacrifice the journals and your brother?" Maybe the demon underestimated the lengths of Lee's perseverance to have him killed.

"No," Stanley shouted, the machine gaining intensity and volume. He stared at the demon who was in control of his twin's body, his beloved brother, and didn't dare break his gaze this time. "Just you."