Yay, a chapter posted early! ...Call it me making up for the fact I've been all over the place in the way of updates. And look, I found out there's a line-thing that splits pages in half. :)

Bill blinked awake to the light blue sky. He took in a soft breath of chill air and sat up. It wasn't exactly dark, but it wasn't bright either. The humanized Dream Demon stood up and inspected the forest. Strangely calm. He pursed his lips and glared over the appearance of the area. A caw of a crow caused Bill to turn sharply toward the direction of the sound. The dark bird ignoring him in favor of cackling to the sky. Starting to feel hyper aware of his breath, he put a hand to his chest as if the motion would ease the need to start breathing manually. The bird lifted off from it's resting spot and Bill watched it leave tentatively.

He bit his lip and furrowed his brow. How did he get here?

"Dipper, I'm going to pick him up, you need to hold his head slightly up," Ford said firmly, "Mabel, clear off the table, we'll put him there." Mabel quickly moved to do as she was requested.

"Ready Dipper?"

Dipper nodded and they positioned themselves to properly lift the limp form of Bill Cipher. Dipper looked toward Ford expectantly. Ford glanced at Dipper before hefting him up.

They gently lowered him onto the table, his legs dangling ever so slightly off the edge.

"Okay, he's got a few scratches, but nothing that would cause him to be unconscious, it might be a concussion, but-" Ford shook his head, "We should take him to a hospital."

"You can't," Mabel let out. She swallowed and held her arms.

Ford frowned, "Mabel, he needs medical attention we can't give him here."

She shrunk into herself, "We should at least wait." Ford and Dipper frowned at each her with concern and confusion, "Until we know for sure it sin't something, else?"

Ford sighed, "If he doesn't wake up after four minutes or his condition elevates, we are going to the hospital."

Mabel nodded and glared at the floor.

"Dipper, what happened?"

"Well- There was, I don't know, it was like the power was cut off briefly, the lights turned off or something, and a huge gust of wind just tore through the living room."

"Could it possibly have been a ghost, maybe a pixie or wind spirit?"

Dipper shrugged, "I- I didn't see anything, happened too fast."

Ford let out a sigh, "Alright, let's focus on our currently unconscious guest. Dipper, you're alright though? Did you loose consciousness at any point?"

Dipper frowned, feeling as if he was being accused of something, "No, I'm fine, I just," he shuffled his feet, "You know." Mabel gave her brother a soft look as he glared at the ground.

Ford sighed, "Okay, just, take care of yourself, please."

Mabel bit her lip and patted her brother's shoulder, "How about we get the first aid stuff, it's probably still in the bags we packed, right?"

Dipper nodded, "Yeah, I think so."

Ford watched Mabel burst into a run and Dipper ran after, obviously tenderly avoiding putting weight on his right leg. Ford sighed and turned back toward Bill. "At least you're not possessed by a demon."

Bill wandered around the forest for a while longer before he gave up, and teleported himself to the Shack. He walked into the building slowly, "Mabel? Dipper?" his voice echoed slightly and he frowned, "Come on Shooting Star, Pine Tree." He sighed, "Ford? Stan? Anyone!"

He let out a growl of a sound and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he padded along in the building, "Alone again Cipher," he muttered.

"As you always are and always force yourself to be," Quell said from her perch on the counter top.

He glanced up, "Tetris."

The Dream Demon smiled lightly, "You know, you should be slightly more paranoid."

He frowned and turned to find the piercing white irises of that creature. He backed up, "What- what is that thing?" He turned his head to find the other Dream Demon missing from her place.

He flickered his attention back to the animal and the creature smiled before slowly disappearing from sight. His breath hitched.

Dreams are like a dance. It starts when you finally allow yourself to be comfortable and end when you slip and fall. However, a Nightmare is more like a roller-costar. You get on timidly, probably dragged into sleep by something; and you got off when you find out the roller-costar was broken and had a hole in the tracks mid-jump. Bill loved a good roller-costar. This, however, was more like the middle of a horror movie, the part where you being anticipating seeing something frightening only to find yourself scared from the anticipation.

"His pulse is elevating," Ford said, "We better get him to a hospital."

Mabel tapped her arm, "Okay, okay."

"Mabel, what's wrong?" Dipper whispered.

"He- I'm just worried that he, um, won't want to be in a hospital with people asking questions of who he is and, stuff?" she muttered.

"He'll handle it," Dipper huffed, "But, he's not waking up, we don't know why he isn't and it's better to be safe than sorry."

Bill spun around a few times before deciding that thing was going to attack him for whatever reason. He sighed and allowed himself to relax slightly.

"Bill Cipher." He stiffened again. Glancing back, he found himself face to face with Ford.

"Fordsy," he said uneasily.

"You sure do like to trick everyone into trusting you, don't you?"

Bill swallowed, "They don't tend to trust me when I say 'heyyy, I'm a demon!'"

"Or when you betray anyone that actually starts trusting you," Ford growled.

He smiled falsely, "That- is right, I, see that. To be totally honest with you Sixer, I did do it for good reason."

Ford moved quickly, tackling the humanized Dream Demon, Ford's arm crushing his throat. Bill kicked and struggled, attempting to tear off the attacking human. He blinked as he gasped. He hated the need to breathe with every fiber of his body at the moment. Forcing himself to think clearly, he tried the first thing to come to his mind. He teleported. Only to find that Ford teleported with him.

"He's not breathing," Dipper said urgently, his hand on Bill's stomach to gauge his breathing.

Mabel turned from the front seat of the car, eyes wide. Ford glanced through the rear-view mirror, "We're almost there-" he said under his breath, "Dipper, put some glass or mirror or something that will fog up under his breath, and put it under his nose, he might just be breathing shallowly."

Dipper glanced at Mabel, "I-" he glanced down at Bill, his lips growing slightly blue, "okay."

He rummaged in his pockets and then around the car. He swore to himself and Mabel handed him a small rainbow mirror. He took the thing without a word and shook his head, "Grunkle Ford! What do I do? He's not breathing!"

He struggled and gasped for air. Each breath sharp and painful, as if shards were carving out his throat. Bill managed to push off his attacker and took in a sharp breath. It was as if he was choking on air. He blinked. Eyes wide, he found no trace of Ford. He looked around frantically. Which did not help his attempt to properly breathe.

"You know Bill, being a little more honest helps in the long run," Mabel said. She smiled at him, in her Shooting Star sweater.

Bill coughed harshly as he held onto his throat and looked up at the girl with what she would probably call 'puppy dog eyes', "I-" he swallowed, "I'm in the Mindscape."

The girl smiled. It was a frighteningly false smile placed on the girl that smiled so easily.

"Who put me here?" Bill demanded, "Tetris?"

"You put yourself here Bill," Dipper called, walking across Bill's field of vision to stand next to his sister.

Bill laughed, "Um, no, I wouldn't do that."

"You sure?" Quell huffed, "You sure do like to torture yourself."

"I'm not-" he bit his lip, "Who really put me here?"

"You're really good at being the sceptic," Dipper huffed, "You taught me how to do it, and I'm great at it."

"You started to trust me way to fast," Bill huffed, "If I'm being honest with myself."

Quell shook her head, with a light laugh, "You lie to yourself the most Bill."

Bill groaned, "You always say that, but, is it true?"

"You realize you're talking to yourself," Stan grumbled.

Bill spun sharply to look at the older twin and let out a groan, "Sure."

"You're impossible," Ford huffed.

Bill glared at the image of Ford, "Okay, if I'm the one trapping myself in the Mindscape, then how do I get out of it? I should have woken up as soon as I realized I was here."

"You want to know what happened to the Nightmare Realm though, and to do that, you need to be in the Mindscape," Quell said, "You have some long-term memory loss or something?"

Bill sighed, "This human brain has given me a tendency to forget how to do things I had been more used to doing on instinct and habit."

"Yeah, sorry little dude," Soos said with a smile, "Sorta how the ball rolls."

Bill closed his eyes, with a grit of his teeth, "Right."

Mabel paced, "Oh gosh, oh my, what if he stops breathing again, what if he-"

Dipper tapped his foot as he sat in the waiting room with his sister, "If anything happens the nurses and the doctor will do their best to help him."

"But-" Mabel let out a whine, "He just- They might not know what to do if-"

"If it's something more mystical that's keeping him unconscious?" Dipper said quietly.

She nodded shakily, "Yeah, yeah." Mabel folded her arms and pouted at the tile flooring. It was sickeningly clean smelling, nauseating to breathe in for too long. She just wanted to go outside for some fresh air, but her senses planted her right here, pacing the tile.

"I heard about my brother's state," Quell said as she walked up to the twins, "What is the reason behind it?"

Dipper jolted as he turned to look at her, "How did you- why didn't I see you come in?"

She shook her head with a roll of her eyes, "Mabel?"

Mabel pointed at herself, "What- why are you asking me? Dipper's the one who was with him," she said quickly.

Dipper frowned at her and then turned to smile uneasily at Quell, "Um, a gigantic gust of wind kinda, knocked him out."

Quell raised an eyebrow, "Was there a sudden darkness beforehand?"

"How did you-"

She sneered, "Alright, you're going to have to find a way for me to get in that room."

"How did you know about that?" Dipper asked, furrowing his brow as he slowly stood up.

Quell glanced at Mabel, and paused time. Mabel looked around at the greyed version of the hospital waiting room with a curious look of wonder on her face. "You have not informed your sibling?"

She shook her head, "Well, Bill said I couldn't tell Dipper about who he was, so, well, I couldn't exactly figure out a way to tell him that you were a Dream Demon, but, 'Don't worry bro-bro, she's not gonna hurt you, and yes, she actually is his sister. Adopted though," she said with a mocking tone. Quell folded her arms as Mabel continued, "Well, yes, I assume the next assumption Dipper would have is that 'Billy' is Bill Cipher, I mean, it's not that hard. Bill could have been a tinny-whinny more creative with his human name, you know?"

"I understand," Quell huffed, "Bill and his secrets sure does make things more difficult. Things would be so much easier for him if he just stopped letting his fears control him and be honest."

"I can see Bill's reasoning, I mean, if my Grunkles killed me and then I came back in a body I wasn't exactly comfortable in, only to meet them again, I'd probably lie about who I was too." Mabel said bobbing her head to herself.

"Yes, lies have their purpose and their roll, but so does honesty, everything has a time and a place. Bill should know better." She sighed, "Fine, I can work with this, I'll make sure not to inform your brother of my or Bill's identity." With that, time flowed back to normalcy, and Quell turned her head toward Dipper, "Billy had once um, messed with a spirit of destiny, who is what is currently affecting my brother."

"I knew he wasn't new to the whole magical stuff!" Dipper announced. Quell sighed heavily and Dipper put a finger to his own lips, "I, could have been quieter."