A/N So we're finally to the part that I originally wrote several months ago. After reworking it, several times over, both for fluidity and storyline accuracy, I'm still not sure I'm completely happy with it. Oh well, it's what I'm putting out, so hope you enjoy.

Rude Awakening

Belle stood silently at the bedroom door, watching as Dipper decoded her message.

Anything she had begun to feel over the last few days was shoved away; all the anger, hate, and revenge that had been building up over the last five years brought to the forefront of her being.

This is for everything you did to me... Because this is what I am, after all.

She crept up silently behind him as he sat bent over the notebook at his desk, seemingly not even disturbing the air as she moved. "Boo," she whispered gently behind his head. An extremely startled Dipper nearly fell to the floor. "Wow! I've never seen someone jump so high!" Belle laughed, hysterically.

"H-how-" he began, but a bright blue fingernail pressed to his lips cut him off. It was inhumanly warm, hot almost, as she brushed her finger over his mouth.

"Shhhhh," she whispered as she moved her face closer to him. She moved in as close as possible without actually touching him. Her mouth was now only millimeters from his ear. Dipper closed his eyes, his heart racing in his chest, as he felt her hot breath against his skin. "I think you already know the answer to that question, Pine Tree."

Upon hearing those last two words, Dipper was finally certain of what he had long suspected, and he felt his pounding heart nearly stop altogether. He had a history of suffering panic attacks, but what he was about to experience would go way beyond that. His chest muscles tightened up so much that he could no longer take in enough air. Each breath became more impossible than the last, until his blood oxygen plummeted to critical levels. In only a matter of seconds, his body could no longer tolerate the conditions it was being subjected to and his brain put a stop to the trauma the only way it knew how- It lost consciousness. He slumped to the floor with a loud thud, body in an almost coma-like state.

"Aw, so cute how two little words can actually frighten your feeble bodies into such a state! Buuut, it's just not going to be that easy for you, kid," she said playfully. "Passing out is just too easy, I want you to be fully aware of what is happening."

She easily scooped him up off the floor and layed him down on his bed. "Hmm. Maybe a wardrobe change first," she said with a sly smile. A swipe of her hand instantly changed the party clothes he was still wearing into grey cargo shorts, a red t-shirt, and a navy blue vest. "Yes, that's much better. Now, I suppose I should bring you back so you can join in on the fun."

Her right hand hovered above his chest, glowing blue fingernails stretched out like the claws of a predator. An electrical charge suddenly surged from her palm, straight into Dipper's limp body. The jolt revived his consciousness, but he still had his eyes closed. She looked down at him, almost lovingly.

"Ahh, so peaceful," she cooed. "But we'll change that." A devilish smile broke out across her face. "Wake up, my little Pine Tree."

Dipper heard the angelic voice that seemed to rain down on him from above. Slowly, he opened his eyes and saw one deep blue eye staring back at him, the other hidden behind glowing, golden hair. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I disturb your peaceful rest?" The voice was still angelic, but he could hear the sarcastic inflection in it. He opened his mouth to say something, but was instantly hushed again by a blue fingernail. "No, no," she scolded gently. "Don't speak just yet. I want you to see something first." Dipper remained quiet out of pure fear.

She carefully coaxed him off of the bed, sensing the anxiety starting to rush through his body as she pulled him up to his feet. She led him in front of the full length mirror on the backside of his bedroom door. Dipper gasped as he caught sight of his reflection.

"So, what do you think?" she asked excitedly. He couldn't speak as he stared in disbelief at the all-too-familiar outfit he was wearing. "No words, huh? Well, maybe we're missing something. Ah, yes! I have just the thing to complete your new outfit."

From behind her back she brought an old, extremely worn, trucker's cap. She placed it snugly on his head, wisps of brown hair pushing out from underneath it, here and there. The blue shape of a pine tree reflected back at him. "That's better," she chirped with a huge grin on her face.

An onslaught of horrible memories rushed into his head like a tidal wave. His stomach churned as he grew more and more nauseated from the realization of what was happening. But then, suddenly, all his emotions turned to pure anger. The fingers of his right hand began to close into a trembling fist. Despite being raised to never, ever strike a woman, he reasoned that this was a more than acceptable exception. Out of pure rage he swung his arm around, aiming for her head, but she easily side-stepped out of the path of his feeble assault attempt.

"Whoa! Strike one, slugger!" she exclaimed, nearly laughing aloud. She was very amused at his desperate attempt, even more so because of the way he was now dressed. "I knew you wouldn't be very pleased about this, but, taking a swing at a lady? That's just wro-". Dipper, having found his voice finally, cut her off out of sheer disgust.

"You- you're no lady, you d-demon bastard!" he stammered. Still, the look of amusement soaked her face. "I knew it! I knew you were him- her...whatever it is you are!"

Now opposite from him and the closed door, she took a moment to think about how she was going to respond to him. He was hoping for some sort of delay as he suddenly remembered the metal softball bat he kept standing in the corner behind his door. Without turning, he reached out behind him, snagged the bat, and closed the gap between them, all in one fairly quick move, and then took another swing at her. This time, she held out one hand and effortlessly caught the weapon just inches from her face. Smiling, she used the momentum of the swing to toss him onto the floor. He was hurled onto his back, hitting the hard surface once again.

"Strike two! And quite literally this time. I'm slightly impressed," she mused with a smug grin on her face. Dipper looked up to see her still holding the bat, tapping it in and out of her free hand. "Oh, don't worry," she smiled as she looked from the bat to his red face. "I wouldn't dream of using it on you. In fact, I think I'll give you one free shot at me. Not with this, of course." She tossed the bat onto the bed and put her arms behind her back in mock surrender. "Come on, let's see what you got, Pine Tree. One uncontested swing at me, but you can only use your fist. I'll even close my eyes," she said in a shockingly innocent voice.

Dipper wasted no time in moving quickly behind her. The adrenaline rushing through his body was giving him a much needed boost of energy. He wrapped his left arm around her neck in a choke hold, squeezing tighter than he even thought he was capable of. Belle wasn't expecting this and immediately opened her eyes. But she never struggled or fought him off. This was too much fun.

"Mmm... I didn't know you were into this kind of thing," she managed to whisper sensually, though her throat was being crushed.

"Go to hell, you bitch!" Dipper screamed as he brought his right fist around to her head.

Suddenly she felt a rush of pain on the right side of her face. Her jaw was knocked out of alignment and she could feel herself falling to the floor. After a split second of shock, she shot back up to her feet. A warm, metallic taste filled her mouth as she felt something ooze down her throat. There was something sharp and extremely hard wedged in her cheek. She reached into her mouth and pulled out a large shard of tooth that was broken off by the impact. The sight of blood amused her, even more so than she already was. Not surprised by her reaction, Dipper just stood there, holding his very sore hand and staring down the bloodied, but still unimaginably beautiful, woman.

Her fingernails began to glow blue as she swiped a hand across the side of her face, healing her injuries instantly. Rather than spit out the pool of blood that had gathered in her mouth, she hungrily swallowed it down.

"Not bad, Pines! Not... Bad... At... All." She licked each finger clean of the blood after each word. "Boy, I've been missing out," she said to herself, mostly under her breath. The taste of human blood was new to her.

"Well, I must admit, I didn't think you had it in you...hitting and name calling of a woman. It's no wonder you're still single," she giggled. She sat down on the edge of his bed and patted the side next to her, motioning for Dipper to take a seat.

"Yeah, right. I'd rather die." He reached for the chair at the desk, wincing audibly as his right hand gave out trying to grasp it. He tried his hardest to not show how much pain he was in as he quickly grabbed it with his left hand, instead. Knowing his defeat, he slumped down into the hard chair, but not before ripping the blue and white pine tree hat from his head and throwing it across the room.

"Oh, don't be that way," she playfully pouted as she watched the hat fly into the wall. "I went through a lot of trouble to get that for you."

It suddenly occurred to Dipper that the hat had to be the exact same one he wore all summer that fateful year. The one he had traded with... "WENDY!" he shouted, a sickening feeling starting to well up in his gut again. "HOW DID YOU GET THIS?!" he demanded as he flew out of his chair to pick the hat back up. He groaned from the pain in his hand as he picked up the dirty, worn hat, staring at it the whole way back to his chair. "I swear, if you did ANYTHING to her, I'll-"

"You'll what? Hmm?" she snapped back at him. "All powerful, immortal being over here, remember?!" She felt the redness beginning to flow into her eyes. Nope, not yet, she thought to herself. She took a deep breath.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. The circumstances surrounding Wendy's departure from his life always did seem a bit too coincidental...That was all your fault, he thought as he glared daggers at her. You had something to do with it...to get her out of my life...to make me suffer...

"Yeah, took you long enough to figure that one out," she replied casually.

Not even paying attention to the fact that she had just responded to something he didn't say out loud, he began to yell again. "I FINALLY got her to go out with me! I was HAPPY! How could...Why... Oh, I am going to..." he trailed off as he clenched up his fist, forgetting it was injured and wincing at the pain again.

"Okay, let's just calm down and relax a minute, shall we? Let's see that hand," she said as she held out her hand and beckoned for his.

"Don't. I don't care how much it hurts, you're not touching me, demon," he said, sulking.

"O-kay. I can see we're not going to get anywhere this way. So I guess I'll just have to paralyze you," she said, matter-of-factly.

"N-n-no!" he started, but it was too late. Belle already snapped her fingers in his face. He was helpless.

She could still see the look of disgust on his face. "Don't be a poor sport. I can't have you whining over an injury like this over the next several days. Besides... you'll probably need that hand later." A suggestive smile grew on her face.

You are sick, you demon scum! When I get out of this I'm gonna-

As she knelt in front of him, getting ready to grab his injured hand, she flashed him an angry glance and quickly cut off his train of thought. "Gonna what? I believe we just covered that. Now stop with the pathetic insults and empty threats and let me do this. Oh, that's right. You don't have a choice," she said with a smirk.

This time, he was aware of what she did. So you can read minds...Dammit! She just rolled her eyes and shook her head as she reached out for the now black and blue hand. An immense calm overtook Dipper as she gently took his hand and looked it over. He couldn't believe how soft and gentle she was being after what had just taken place.

"Looks like you broke it. Next time, don't grip your fist so tight, and begin to pull back as soon as you make contact." Her nonchalant-ness about the whole situation was baffling to the teen.

Seriously?! You're giving me fighting tips? Yeah, right. I'll try to remember that next time I feel the urge to punch a demon, which will be soon, I'm sure.

"Oh, stop. You know, I could put you down anytime, like an old dog. I've been nothing but tolerant of you, considering what you and your uncles did to me. In fact, I just brought you back from what was going to end up as a full-blown coma a few minutes ago...where's the appreciation for that, Pine Tree?"

Stop calling me that! And you deserved what we did to you... and you should have left me that way.

"Well, now...how am I supposed to torture you when you're unconscious?" she asked through an evil smile. "Now shut up and let me fix this." She almost felt guilty for letting the boy have at her, knowing how fragile humans were. Almost. She quickly let the thought fall away as she focused on repairing the damage.

Healing herself was one thing, but a being other than herself took far more energy from her. Repairing the mind wasn't a big deal, it just needed electrical impulses in just the right places, and the mind was Cipher's specialty, after all. Repairing broken bones, on the other hand, was a different story. After all, energy like that didn't come out of nowhere, and she needed living energy, not just potential or physical energy. The only other living thing around was herself, so she would have to use her own.

After a half minute or so of building up the blue glow in her fingernails, she brushed her hand over his. The broken bone knit back together, and the bruising and swelling instantly subsided. She got up with some effort and took a few steps back before snapping her fingers and removing his immobility.

Dipper rubbed his once very sore hand and stared at it in disbelief. After a few seconds, Belle became impatient and spoke first. "Well?" she questioned harshly.

"Well, what?" he replied, honestly perplexed. Realization hit him suddenly, though. "Oh, you can't be serious! You want me to thank you for doing that?! You're the reason I got injured in the first place! You're insane if you think I would actually thank you!"

"Yeah, yeah...I'm insane either way, remember?" she said as she winked at him. "Suit yourself. Just keep in mind that I may not be as amiable next time."

Dipper shuddered at the confidence in her voice, like there was definitely going to be a next time.

"What makes you think there'll even be a next time? You're not welcome here, Cipher! Just leave already!" he hissed, though obviously nervous.

Belle ignored him, deciding to make herself comfortable on Mabel's bed. She jumped playfully onto it, folding her hands behind her head before lying down on the fluffy pillows that littered the head of the bed. She stared at the ceiling, waiting for Dipper's next move.

Seeing that she wasn't going to leave him alone anytime soon, Dipper slumped down onto his bed, back up against the wall, feeling utterly lost and confused. He tried to keep his thoughts at a minimum, knowing she would hear all of it as if he had spoken it out loud. Finally, he opened his mouth, took in a deep breath, and began to speak.