Hey guys! This is my first fanfiction published here. I've been working on it for a couple years now. It's based on that old video that Vailskibum94 made about Bill coming back as a bird, which I think was debunked. But I liked the concept too much to just let it die. Blame my love of birds.

CHAPTER ONE:

It was a peaceful, normal, early autumn morning in the little town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. The sun was rising over the mountains as birds flitted between the trees and sang, their melodious voices filling the air with song in one last triumphant fanfare to what was left of the summer. There was no sign of the chaos that had enveloped the area a mere week before. Well, almost.

The sunlight sliced through the forest and cast an orange glow on a peculiar object that lay half-buried in the moss and ferns. It was a statue of some kind of triangular creature wearing a top hat, with one single, staring eye with a slit pupil like that of a cat. One hand of the statue was outstretched as if offering a handshake.

A bird flew down and perched on the statue's outstretched hand. It was a male western meadowlark, a mostly dappled brown songbird with a brilliant yellow underbelly and a black ring around its neck. The bird opened up its beak to sing.

And that was when it happened...

He wasn't sure how long it had been since he'd been...awake. The dream-demon couldn't quite see yet but he was definitely free again. Or something. Some foolish creature had been dumb enough to touch his hand.

Hopefully it was a human.

One minute he'd been stuck half-conscious in a blank black void, and the next minute he felt himself hit solid ground. Although rather disconcertingly his powers felt a bit weak. Well, a bit was an understatement. But that wasn't much of a concern for Bill at the moment.

He forced his eye- or rather, eyes open, and was met with a face full of grass when they finally adjusted to the light.

What the hell?

After a moment he figured out that whatever he was possessing was lying on its belly in the grass. He scrambled to "his" feet and looked around, trying to get a good look at his current form.

Let's see what we have here...feathers. Some kind of bird. Damn it. I was hoping for a human.

One chance to absolve his crime...a voice whispered inside his head.

Who said that? He thought in annoyance.

A different form, a different time. Then, he recognized who was talking.

Damn it Axolotl when I asked for your help it didn't mean you could invade my train of thought. He shook his head in annoyance. "Now what?" He squawked. Nobody answered him, of course. But the forest birds scattered when he spoke, so that at least meant what he said was coming out as English.

Hopefully that was a sign his powers were working to some extent. Although he couldn't 'see' anything outside his actual field of vision, which was slightly alarming. But he shrugged it off as a temporary thing. After all, why wouldn't it be?

Now, all he had to do was dump this body somewhere and then go back to the dreamscape to recuperate for a while, then come back later and kick butt.

Okay, here we go. One, two, three, GO! Bill shut his...er, the bird's...eyes and tried to launch himself out of the avian body. He cracked open one eye only to find himself still stuck in the bird.

He groaned. "Dammit...okay, let's try that again...One, two, three, GO!- OW!" This time, he stumbled forward and tripped over "his" feet, smacking "his" face on the forest floor. Bill got up and shook himself to get the dirt off. "Why the hell did that actually HURT?" He squawked. "And why can't I get out of this stupid body?"

Because it's yours now.The voice in his head was back. Bill rolled his eye...er, eyes, in annoyance. "Cut it out, Axolotl. That wasn't part of the deal."

I didn't make a deal with YOU, Cipher. YOU made a deal with ME. It is your part of the bargain that must be fulfilled and not mine.

SHUT UP, YOU OVERGROWN SALAMANDER! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

One place to absolve his crime. A different form, a different time. This last statement seemed to echo in his mind for a while. Then, the Axolotl's voice went silent again.

The dream demon began to ponder what the godly amphibian had just said. Am I actually stuck like this? The hell does he want me to do? I-Is this why my powers aren't working right...No, that can't be it. He wouldn't...did I really get the short end of the stick? Why me?

Of course, he already knew why. But that didn't matter to him at the moment.

Bill sat there, continuing to ponder his situation for several hours on end until he noticed the sun was starting to set. If he was truly stuck inside this body, that meant he needed to get out of the open, and fast. All sorts of predatory animals came out at night, and he probably looked like a chicken-flavored snack at the moment.

Not that he even knew what KIND of bird he was stuck as.

Bill closed his eyes and tried to recall how birds flew. Panic slowly started to set in as he suddenly realized he couldn't remember. He also couldn't remember a lot of other things he'd never considered all that important. This was definitely not a good sign.

He panicked for a brief moment, wondering how to get somewhere hidden before remembering— even if he didn't remember how to fly, he definitely remembered how to run. So, Bill did just that—he ran, ran into a hollow at the base of a tall tree. He hunkered down into the leaf litter to somewhat camouflage himself and prepared to wait out the night. There was absolutely no way in hell that he was going to sleep. Stuck as a bird or not, Bill was fairly certain sleep was still beneath him. After all, it couldn't be that important, could it?

Now, what WAS important was planning out his next move. And so, Bill, being ever the chessmaster, began making his plan. Or at the very least trying to. What was he supposed to do if he was stuck in the body of a bird?

Okay, so, tomorrow, as soon as the sun is up, I'll...uh...relocate to another spot, I guess. Maybe I could try wreaking havoc upon the townspeople and causing paranoia and fear? On the other hand, I'm now vulnerable to shotguns and these types of folks are more likely to own them than people in less rural areas...damn it. I could try contacting the Henchmaniacs...but then they might just try to eat me.

This one-sided internal discourse continued in Bill's head until the sun finally rose above the horizon again. Bill scrambled to his feet and began to walk. To where, he hadn't decided yet. He was beginning to feel a bit weird. His vision seemed off somewhat and he wasn't sure why. Surely he couldn't be tired. There was no way in hell that the Axolotl would make him, the LORD OF NIGHTMARES, have to sleep to survive!

"You left us here to die, you coward!" Someone abruptly shouted in his left ear. It sounded like either Keyhole or Hector...or both of them at the same time. Bill whipped his head around only to see nothing there at all. "What the heck?" He muttered to himself.

"You are weak!" Another voice hissed in his ear. This time he could swear he saw the vague shape of...one of his henchmen. He couldn't even tell who it was. But that confirmed what he thought was happening. He was hallucinating. Bill shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts, and kept walking.

This was a horrible decision. I'm going to freaking die out here.

Bill had spent the last three days walking in circles and hallucinating about his former lackeys. And every moment he felt progressively worse. He knew he needed to eat but he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be eating. The inside of his mouth felt dry and painful. His legs were weak and he didn't think he could keep going for much longer. After a few more feet of walking in the hot early autumn sunlight, Bill could take no more. His legs gave out underneath him. He collapsed on the dusty soil.

"Boss?" This time it was Kryptos's voice he was hearing. And then the shape of a blue square moved into his vision. Another hallucination, he figured.

"Boss, you okay?"

He shut his eyes and then opened one a crack, hoping the blue square was just another hallucination like the ones he'd been having for the past few days.

Instead, Kryptos was still there, clearly visible, staring at him, and looking concerned.

Ugh.

"You're still here?" Bill hissed. He couldn't imagine why the other dream demon would've stuck around after his defeat- after all, it didn't benefit him in any way. Then again, Kryptos was always weird, even by his standards. It was also immeasurably embarrassing to be seen by one of his former underlings in the pathetic state Bill was currently in. A tiny, disheveled, starving songbird with almost no powers. Shameful, really.

"Yeah, of course I'm still here, boss." The blue square squeaked. "Not like I got anywhere else to go." He paused. "You ain't lookin' too good, Bill."

"You think?" The songbird spat, shakily rising to his feet. "I'm hungry, thirsty, and who knows what else? I am STUCK IN THE BODY OF A GOD-DAMNED BIRD AND I CAN'T EVEN USE MY DAMN POWERS! YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST LEFT WITH THE OTHERS AND LET ME DIE ALREADY!" Bill collapsed again, exhausted from shouting. Now his throat hurt even more.

"Uh, I'm kinda stuck here, boss. Portals ain't working no more."

Bill and Kryptos sat there in silence for a few moments, before Kryptos began talking again. "So, uh, anything I can do for you, boss?"

Bill coughed. "GET ME SOME FREAKING WATER!" He shut his eyes, and heard Kryptos run off. Then, a few minutes later, he heard him running back. He opened his eyes to see the blue square holding a large leaf with a puddle of water on it. He set the leaf down in front of the bird.

Now, the hard part was figuring out how to drink the water. Bill first instinctively stuck his face into the water.

This, predictably, did not work.

He then tried lapping up the water with his tongue. This sort of worked although he had a feeling he wasn't doing it correctly. But at least his mouth and throat no longer felt horribly dry. But he was still hungry.

"Gonna need food, too."

A few minutes later, Kryptos was frantically fleeing from some very pissed-off gnomes. "KEEP YOUR DIRTY DEMON MITTS OFF MY SQUIRRELS YOU GODFORSAKEN SQUARE!" One of them shouted.

Eventually, Kryptos managed to lose the gnomes and continued trying to figure out what kind of food Bill needed. And that was when he saw it. Through the trees he could see a bird feeder in the yard of a nearby house.

So, he waited until he was sure nobody was looking, and stole the entire feeder, running back into the woods frantically and spilling bird seed everywhere.

"I got ya food, boss!" Kryptos dropped the bird feeder in front of Bill.

Ugh. Seeds? I would've preferred some kinda meat but since I'm on the verge of death here I guess I should take what I can get. He picked up a sunflower seed in his beak and ate it, trying to ignore the unpleasant taste.

It took him a full minute and a half of eating seeds to start to feel somewhat normal again. All the while, Kryptos sat there and stared at him uncomfortably, making frequent glances behind himself to make sure the owner of the bird feeder hadn't given chase.

Another minute passed and then Bill suddenly stood up, puffing out his chest feathers. "Yes...Yes, it's working! I CAN FEEL MY POWERS COMING BACK TO ME!" He shouted, triumphantly. "I AM BACK, PEOPLE! EVEN IF I LOOK LIKE A FEATHER DUSTER, I AM BACK!" Bill began to laugh maniacally all while hopping around in circles.

In truth, he just wasn't hungry anymore and was also somewhat delirious. But he didn't realize this yet. He felt powerful again, strong again!

Bill was so excited he didn't notice it start to rain until a massive clap of thunder rattled the entire forest.

"Uh, boss? Can we go find some shelter or something? It's storming out." Kryptos asked nervously.

Bill was about to answer "Hell no!" when the rain started falling down even more heavily than before. As much as he loved the fear-inducing chaos of a good thunderstorm, heavy rain on the other hand was, well, annoying.

After an unsuccessful attempt to hide underneath a bush that resulted in the two getting attacked by a very angry badger, they eventually found a dry spot underneath a rusted-out car that had been abandoned in the woods sometime in the 1980s by the looks of it.

The duo sat there in silence as the storm raged on. Bill was already plotting his vengeance. As soon as this storm is over, we head over to the Mystery Shack and start causing chaos! I'll strike fear into people's hearts once again! That'll teach them that they can't get rid of Bill Cipher!

He yawned, and passed out from sleep deprivation a moment later. The bird and the dream-demon spent the night under the car, in the pouring rain.

Bill's first sleep in a trillion years was one plagued by nightmares. Faces screamed at him from darkened corners. He rolled with it at first and actually found it quite entertaining, until he started to notice that these were not human faces. They were different. The faces of creatures like him. From his home dimension. And they weren't just random ones, either. He remembered them from...from SOMETHING that happened a long time ago, but he couldn't quite remember what at the moment. Shapes and lines shouted and screamed at him from the surrounding darkness. A square, a line, another line, a circle...

Who the hell are these people?

It was only slightly unsettling, but it was definitely getting annoying.

"Stop screaming, damn it!" Bill shouted at the faces, but they ignored him. In fact, they started TALKING to him.

"Brother, why?"

"I didn't want this."

"Why would you hurt us like this?"

"This wasn't what we wanted!"

This was getting on his nerves really quickly. "Shut up." He mumbled, his voice quickly rising into a shrill shout. "Shut up! Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!"

End of Chapter 1.

So, how was it? Did you like it? Is there anything I could change that would improve it at all? Did anyone seem out of character?