Surprise, surprise! This chapter is going to be extra long. Like, three times as long almost.
Enjoy... I guess...
*crying in background*
Please *sniff* leave a review...
Chapter 4 - Again
"Mason... I have some bad news..." Ford said as he walked into the twins' attic bedroom, the 12 year old boy by his side. Mabel was lying on her bed. She looked lifeless, but Mason hoped it wasn't what he thought it was. The saddest part about it though, was that today was Mabel's 11th birthday.
June 3rd, 2012 wasn't meant to be like this. She was supposed to have the best birthday party ever, with glitter and sparkles and balloons. Not blood, gore and tears.
"I knew Mabel wouldn't want to die at a hospital, so I was allowed to bring her home. The doctor said that the wound was already infected, however... and well, I hate to break it to you.. but... she's dead."
"No! No, she can't be dead!" he screamed, tears running down his face like a waterfall.
"Mason, my boy, you're grieving. Denial is just the first step of the process-" Ford started, but was interrupted by his great nephew.
"Shut up! Just shut up! I don't want to hear it! There's gotta be something to bring her back. Please!" Mason practically begged.
"If you really insist... there's a spell I know that can revive her for five minutes, but after that, she's going to be gone forever."
"Do it!"
"Are you sure?"
The child gave him a death glare, which pretty much answered his question, and Ford hurried out of the room.
"Reversae illuminatae."
The ten candles surrounded around Mabel's body suddenly flared up to life, as if an invisible force had lit them all at once. Ford had left to leave him alone. Besides, he was confident he could perform the spell just right.
"Ex cerasus rosa flores et folia huius bring puer ad vitam. Fac iterum sanguis regnum cor eius, et effuderunt in peccatis eius. Hic puer nihil est factum de iniquitate." Mason began chanting.
Mabel's body started glowing with a pink hue, while the candles gleamed yellow. Mason didn't notice it, but as he chanted, his birthmark of the Big Dipper started to radiate a blue shade. Slowly but surely, Mabel was brought back to life, gasping in air, trying to even her breathing. Her brother walked over to the side of the bed, hugging her gently.
Just like the flowers,
You are finally free
Rise to the heavens
To fulfill the star's destiny
"M-Mas-on…" Mabel said weakly, her hand slowly motioning to her pocket when he finally released.
But once and for all,
It's crashed to the ground
Couldn't save it,
Lost and found
He pulled the dandelion out of her skirt. By now it was withered and brown, a dying flower, a dying weed, the tiny yellow leaves threatening to crush and fall off at the simplest of movements.
They say that all things,
Always come to an end
So the fire's ablaze
A crater you send
"R-remember…" she coughed harshly. "...the promise…"
"I will, Mabel. Happy 11th birthday."
Secrets, secrets, zip it up
Lies and lies, white and black
Clamp your mouth and just shut up
'Cause everything feels like it's turning to gray
Her eyes closed and she seemed to relax, as if going to sleep.
"Mabel?"
Time is going, tick tick tock
But does it matter? It's all falling down
Dreams are just fantasies
That we go to, to escape reality
"Mabel!"
She said nothing. She didn't even move.
He rushed over to her side, grabbing her hand so hard he almost pulled it out of it's socket. His thumb rubbed against the skin on her wrist.
There was no pulse.
It's all falling down,
Now that you're gone
It's turning to gray
Like those monochrome stains
Mabel, his little sister, who was just 11 years old, was now dead.
Because of some stupid curse in the forest.
Because of him.
His sadness was flambéed into a burning, fiery anger. He didn't even notice that his fists were clenched, that the dandelion was scrunched up and destroyed now, and that it flew to the floor in tiny bits and pieces like ripped up paper, because right now, to him, all that mattered was justice.
And justice, to him, was killing Bill Cipher.
Yes, monochrome stains,
The monochrome stains…
...Of his name.
XxX
Mason had snuck into Ford's lab and study and grabbed one of his journals on random, hoping that it had some information on Bill in it. He flipped through the pages until he finally came to one with the demon's name on it, withered and stained with blood.
"... There is a prophecy that says you must use the Cipher Wheel to exorcise this demon, but only one of the Children of the Constellation can preform this ritual. If someone who isn't the destined does perform it, the ritual will fail, and they will die." he read out loud from Journal 3.
Mason pushed up his hair, finger tracing his birthmark of the Big Dipper. Was it possible...? Of course, it had to be! Why was he even asking? It wasn't everyday that you saw someone with the Ursa Major on their forehead.
He tucked the journal away into his vest, looking around. He spotted an emo-like guy with acne problems walking on the sidewalk. "Hey! Excuse me, but do you happen to have anything that I could use to paint or write?"
The guy took out a spray paint bottle. "Here, little kid. Don't know why the hell you want it, but it's not like I needed it anyway." Something told Mason that the guy knew what he was about to do, but he brushed it off...
He started walking into the forest. Anxiety rose up in him from the negative nostalgia of it all. The feeling of being watched again surrounded him.
He ignored it, keeping his eyes trained on the ground as he sprayed the zodiac onto the dirt. There were ten symbols, some he'd seen before, other's he hadn't.
Pinetree; what Bill had called him.
Shooting Star; what Bill had called his sister.
Llama; Pacifica had been wearing a sweater with that symbol on it.
Pentagram; he'd seen it before. Something about the 'Agency of Telepathy'? Who it belonged to he didn't know.
Stitched Heart; he'd just seen it on the hoodie of that emo teen on the sidewalk.
Ice, Question Mark, Glasses, and Fez were all ones he knew nothing about.
But the Six-Fingered Hand... He clearly knew that was his Great Uncle.
"So you came back?"
Before he could ponder more on the symbols, something tackled him to the ground. He let out a shriek before he came to his senses and realized it was the demon. He was somehow able to give it a right hook, which distracted Bill, giving him enough time to run over to the side. And just like Mason had planned, it was too focused on trying to kill him that he ran straight into the finished zodiac painted on the ground, effectively blocking him in.
He took the journal back out and flipped to the correct page as the demon pounded on the barrier the Cipher Wheel created.
"Dona secundo casu..."
At that, he stopped banging, as if the demon knew something was going to go wrong, or that something was going to happen, or something was going to change.
"...Ut ad Arcturum genus suum refert videretur revocandam compo stella Fall de cecidit. Stella, redde. Et post haec, non animadverto eius errorem et Aquila, et vide Edea Caelestis simul reflectionem in speculo resplendent."
When he finished reciting the ritual, he looked up to see the demon laying on the ground before him, whose body was covered in blood and his flesh was ripped from wooden crosses that had pierced through his skin from the ritual, which was slowly killing him.
"I- I can't believe I still feel s- sympathetic for y- you…" Mason managed to stutter out as he stared at the sight, but not looking right at him, trying to keep himself from crying again at what he'd done.
The grin on his lips only widened as Cipher replied, "Ya goin' soft on me, Pinetree?"
"...How- w- what-" Mason sighed before looking up from his feet and directly at the blonde's face.
"Why...why are you like this?"
There was a moment of silence before he finally said, "I used to have a sister like you. Thousands of millions of years ago."
"W- what?"
"SECURE THE PERIMETER! SIR, SIR, HE'S DOWN!" the voice of that emo teen he'd seen earlier, Robbie, yelled, the static-y voice coming from a radio as government agents approached the scene.
"Thank you, Mister Pines. You have no clue, but you saved the world." said Agent Trigger as he and Agent Powers roughly grabbed the boy, escorting him away from the area. "No! You can't do this! Stop! He deserves a second chance! Wait!" he yelled as he was pulled away, but they did not give in to his protests, even as he kicked and screamed and squirmed.
"Sir, the area is secured and ready." another agent informed a man who was walking towards the scene.
"Thank you, I'll take it on from here." the sickly sweet voice of him replied.
The young 15 year old man named Gideon Gleeful, whom Mason had heard of in town, with his white hair slicked back with gel professionally, stepped into the area, Agency of Telepathy uniform on.
"Ah, so we meet again, Pentagram?"
The man scoffed, and had a harsh look of disgust on his face filled with pure hatred for Cipher.
"Let's end this once and for all, shall we?" he said, picking up a knife and a jar of holy water. "After all, you always said pain was hilarious, right?"
Mason had managed to get loose from the Agents' grip and had run as fast and as far away as he could into the streets and alleys. He sobbed, the tears trailing down his soft cheeks, tears that he'd wished he let out sooner…
"I'm so sorry…" he cried to no one in particular but himself, maybe.
- You are? - said a voice coming from… It wasn't coming from anywhere actually, he just seemed to hear it. Maybe it was coming from his mind, maybe it was coming from his overactive imagination, maybe he was going crazy, or maybe even psychologically insane. But he responded nevertheless.
"Yes, I regret what I did…"
- And yet you have done nothing? - the voice said, filled with curiosity. He could tell the… being? would be cocking its head to the side right now in question.
"But I did!" he yelled, in pain, in sadness, in anger, because he was angry at himself. "And I know that he's the cause of my sister's death, but… but…" He sniffed, wiping the hot and salty tears off his face, trying to get a hold of himself. "But that doesn't mean killing another person doesn't justify it either. Two wrongs don't make a right." he said.
- I suppose you have a point about Bill Cipher, then… -
"Who are you?" the boy asked.
- I am the Axolotl. -
"You know about the guy who killed Mabel?"
- Yes. I am, in fact, quite fond of him... -
There was silence once more before Axolotl continued.
- I will grant you and your sister another chance. -
"Really?!"
- Yes. But I must warn you, it will be a long and difficult journey. -
Difficult? But it was just another summer, right? Well, whatever. He wanted his sister back. And he was willing to sacrifice everything for her, even if it took every inch of effort in him. He had made a promise to Mabel, and he wasn't going to break it again.
"I'm fine with that."
- You will not remember our encounter or the events of this summer. Are you sure you want to take this path? -
"I would do anything for Mabel."
- You must have courage, Mason Pines. -
"I will." he said, confident and strong.
'A secundo.' the wind seemed to whisper in his ear.
A second time.
June 1, 2012
Two children, one 10 and the other 12, stepped off the bus, and began walking through the clearing in the forest that was covered in pine needles and pine cones, and twigs and branches and leaves, as they began walking towards their Great Uncle's wooden cabin, when suddenly, they were greeted by a voice, that, for some reason, sounded somewhat familiar to the older sibling - the boy, but he could not place where he had heard it before.
"Nice to see you again on this sunny day, Pinetree."
The young and innocent child turned around, the man a stranger to him in this renewed timeline, with a soft, warm, gentle and curious smile on his lips.
"Hi! Uh, who are you? I don't think I've seen you before."
"Name's Bill Cipher, the one and only."
"Mason. Mason Pines." said the boy eager, his smile growing as the sun began to set in the evening. "And this is my sister, Mabel."
"Cute sweater you got there, kiddo."
She giggled as she snuggled in it more.
Their Grunkle Ford suddenly opened the door, stepping onto the porch to observe the twins. Huh, looks like Bill's changed after all… He thought. The curse has been broken...
"Oh! We gotta go, sir! That's our Great Uncle Ford!" said the boy, holding his sister's hand.
"Bye bye!" said the girl excitedly as they walked away.
"See ya later, kid." he said, tipping his hat.
If you've seen the comic i'm referring too right now on YouTube... yes, this whole story was inspired by that. If you haven't seen it and have no idea what I'm talking about, just forget what I just said.
Don't try to translate the Latin. Google is going to butcher it. Literally. The whole "reversae illuminatae" thing isn't actually Latin, it's just something that's fake. It's basically the first two words you use in a chant/spell when trying to reverse things caused by Bill in this AU (though it was also used in Blinding Visions), but it can only reverse minor things like injuries or deaths for a limited amount of time, but not worldwide destruction or something dramatic like that.
This isn't the last chapter, by the way.
It's really only the beginning. I have multiple things planned, such as aikwrgohgegojmgoweoitwjwityiootphekarpttttttttttttttttttttttttttaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa&^()*^%()))&$ #$ !
Hello, mortal and pathetic fleshbags. This is a message from Tad Strange.
You think that this is just the start of a happy ending? Well, you're wrong! Because I am going to take control of this universe, and there's nothing that you can do to stop me! I'm a pure being made of energy, and I'm older than time itself!
Be prepared, because big things are coming, and they won't be pleasant. Especially for you, Bill Cipher. Ahem, from this dimension, of course.
Actually humans, don't be prepared, because I want to see you die when I start Weirdmageddon.
See you later when I take over the world!
-TaD sTraNgE