A/N: Finally, I bet you're all saying, Saturday is finally here! so now Chapter Eight is also here to grace you with its presence! I hope you enjoy it! hehehe...

A Triangle in the Stars
Chapter Eight: Rage

It had been a good few thirty minutes since the two humans left the school. Bill was biding his time exploring the building more thoroughly, still ignoring the itch to cause more damage. He was bound to that deal, after all. He growled at the very reminder, but sighed. Nothing he could do about it now, but he'd make sure Sadie would be the first to die after he betrays her and Steven.

He found himself in one of the girl's bathrooms, having blatantly ignored the sign. He became quite curious about the toilets for quite a bit. He'd never seen one up close before. He fiddled with the little silver switch, eye half-lidded with a strange bored curiosity. This action, when he pressed a little too hard, triggered the toilet flushing, and a bit of the water splashed on him. He reacted with disgust, shuddering, and then anger. He summoned red fire, about to destroy this toilet. But then he remembered the deal again, and dispelled the flames with a loud growl and settled for kicking the toilet instead. He laughed and cried out at the pain that resulted, landing and hopping up and down while holding the injured foot.

The demon soon recovered, and shook off the offending water, before he exited the stall and floated in front of a mirror. He hadn't seen what he looked like since what seemed like forever. But, for a split second, for some reason, he didn't like what he saw. And it wasn't because of his missing hat either. But there was something... something else...

He liked the way he looked, all things considered—triangular and golden—but...

His eye widened soon enough and he stopped this train of thought forcefully. He frowned, and tore his gaze away from the mirror, deciding to think about how he wound up here, and especially about how he was going to tell Steven where he came from. He hummed with thought, rubbing at his "chin".

And that's when he remembered. Sadie and Steven. It's been a long time since she split off from him to find Steven. It shouldn't have taken her that long to find him, and the school felt even emptier than before. His frown deepened as he tried to piece the information together, and he pushed open the door to leave the bathroom, looking around the hall with his hands on his "hips" now. He made his way to the entrance. His sensors weren't picking up any auras. Which only meant one thing...

He growled and his hellish pupil started glowing a deep crimson. He then started out the door, locking it behind him and turning off the lights, and made his way back to the picnic site...

Sadie had put away the picnic basket and finished setting the donuts out. True to what she had said, Lars was nowhere to be found, so Steven had to help her. Right now, she had her phone in her hand and Bill's top hat poised on her head, preparing to take yet another photo of herself. Steven smiled and got into the photo, grinning. He put bunny ears above Bill's hat. Just as she was about to take the picture, however, they both felt a very familiar presence. And it felt very. Very. Angry.

Sadie's eyes slowly widened, and she looked towards the door. There was Bill, his usually white glow a deep red. His hands were clenched and glowing.

"H..how dare you?" the demon was eyeing their poses and the phone in particular. After a few seconds, he repeated the question more harshly and loudly, slipping into his demonic voice, "HOW DARE YOU?!"

Steven, terrified, hid behind his friend. But then he frowned and stepped back out in front of her. "We were going to come back to the school to find you, I promised! Right, Sadie?" he looked at her sternly, feeling actually afraid of Bill.

Sadie didn't say a word. She started sweating. She honestly "forgot" about Bill. She wanted to keep that hat. She wanted to make it last longer, especially by taking pictures. Bill glanced at Steven, seeming to consider what he was saying, but rage melted it away soon enough. Especially since he knew Steven had been participating in this debacle as well.

"...It's bad enough you took my hat! but then you LEAVE ME BEHIND AND CHOOSE TO TAKE SELFIES WITH IT?! SELFIES?!" he glared at them both, shuddering with rage, wanting to kill them both now. He levitated a step closer to them, the roof crackling with lightning.

"Sadie, give me his hat. Go. Run. To the back, somewhere," Steven ordered, biting his lip. He wanted to talk to Bill alone, and was a little afraid Sadie would interfere. "And Bill! leave Sadie alone! it was... it was my idea!" he hesitated in the lie, trying to draw attention away from the girl and to himself.

Bill scoffed, and the lightning crackled even harder, "I know you're lying, kid! that isn't gonna help you one bit!"

Sadie refused to run. She stayed put, "I'm not gonna let you take the blame for what I did, Steven!"

The demon would have been confused by this, but he was simply too angry for any rational thought. His red aura was beginning to consume his golden color.

"Sadie..." Steven took the hat off her head and put it on his own, and then shot his shield from his gem, taking Sadie away with it. He knew it'd hurt her, when he shot it. But he was sure there was no other way. Sadie gasped with some pain, and she soon ended up in the back room, lying on the floor. She groaned, beginning to regret this heavily. The demon then focused entirely on Steven, his brow deeply furrowed with hatred and rage. He growled, and advanced towards the boy another step.

Steven took another step towards Bill as well. "I don't want to hurt you! I just need you to calm down... we'll give you your hat back, and delete the selfies. I know what we did wasn't right... but you gotta be a better person. Look past it. We looked past what you did," he tried, gripping the hat tight.

Bill looked Steven up and down, and then gazed at his hat. His beloved hat. He calmed down a little bit, the red color dissipating and the lightning dispersing bit by bit with what was being said, and narrowed his eye at the boy, trying to scan for lies, "You really mean that? you'll really delete every single one of those pictures?"

"I promise," Steven said honestly, nodding. "It was a bad thing to do, what we did, and I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me... as well as Sadie," he took off the hat and held it out to Bill, biting his lip. Hoping this would really work.

Bill looked at him again, deeply surprised. And, as much as he hated to admit it, even a little bit touched. His eye twitched. He was confounded again. But he didn't go crazier like he swore he was going to do. In fact, there was this little feeling that cropped up. It was tiny, barely noticeable. But it was there, and he was confused by that too.

He shoved all three feelings aside soon enough, and shakily took back his hat. He set it atop his top point again, and, magically and quickly, the lightning dispersed and his red aura gave way to his usual white one. He sighed, "Thanks, kid," and then he crossed his arms, "but don't expect me to forgive you both any time soon!"

Steven shook his head, "Of course not. I wouldn't either. Sadie? please delete all the selfies with Bill's hat in it." He got out his own phone and started deleted them, one by one, turning so Bill could clearly see what he was doing.

Sadie had worked her way back to the main area of the shoppe, having recovered from the pain. She took out her own phone, and began, though she struggled, to delete all those selfies she took, holding her phone in a way so that Bill could see that she was doing it.

The demon observed this, unblinking. It was almost creepy, as Sadie inwardly noted, but he had to so that these two wouldn't pull a fast one on him. They weren't allowed to keep even a single selfie. Steven was alright with that. He had already sent some to Connie, though, and texted her to delete them, if she downloaded them at all.

Sadie was soon done deleting the selfies, frowning. She still didn't like what she had to do, but she figured it was the right punishment for what she did. She announced, "I'm done..."

Bill sighed, rubbing at his top point, "Good. Here's a reminder for you two kids," and then he pointed at his top hat, narrowing his eye, "this hat is mine. No one else's. Got it?"

Sadie nodded with no hesitation. She definitely didn't want to go through this again. Through her mistakes, she almost got herself and Steven killed. She'd probably never forgive herself for this.

Meanwhile, Bill noticed there was a slight hint in his voice that suggested he was tired. He grew somewhat confused by this. He never got tired before. But he supposed he had to take into account that he had only reformed yesterday, and thus using too much power at one time would be rather tiring. He didn't feel so tired as to want to sleep, however, so that was a good thing. They still had a long day ahead of them, and he didn't want to miss anything else.

Steven nodded, "Yeah, we get it. I'm sorry..." he held his arms out. He wouldn't hug Bill. He wanted the triangle to hug him instead, first, or maybe Sadie, if Bill did not.

Bill sneered at him. He still wasn't partial to hugs yet. Still thought they were sappy. Besides, he was still a bit angry about the whole thing. He simply stared Steven down. Sadie put her phone away and hugged Steven instead. She looked at Bill, "Yeah, I'm sorry too..."

The demon huffed, but was still tired, so that was all he did. Aside from staring her down as well. Steven let go of Sadie and watched Bill with curiosity, "Uh... what'cha wanna do now?"

For once, the demon couldn't think of anything else to do. Besides, he had to rest his powers a bit, and thus he had no more plans to cause chaos, sadly. The only thing he had to look forward to now was the news broadcast tomorrow, about the school and his malicious hijinks. He wanted to see that. He eventually shrugged, "Eh, nothing much now."

And then he raised an eyebrow. He remembered something. Steven thought-mentioned Connie while he was deleting those horrid pictures. He then asked, somewhat curiously though he already knew the answer, "Say, you planning on meeting Connie later?"

Sadie said nothing, going back to her job, back to behind the counter. She was still kinda beating herself up for what she did.

"Oh, yeah! she's probably already at the beach, waiting for me!" Steven gasped. He glanced at Sadie, "I gotta go check on Connie... uh, Bill, do you wanna come with me?"

"Sure. Why not?" he mustered up a smile. Fake as it was,—he was still somewhat sour, and tired—it did the job fairly nicely. He wanted to meet Connie too, hopefully get her strung along after he failed with Sadie. Perhaps he wouldn't lose his cool this time either. Or, even better and more accurately, perhaps she wouldn't give him a reason to flip out.

The girl nodded, working up a smile too, however uneasy, "You two have fun."

After all he did, anyone else would have cut Bill loose. But here Steven was, still sticking by his side. It was almost amazing, if even a bit idiotic in the demon's eyes. Granted, the last bit was their fault, completely. But still...

That little feeling came up again, but he crushed it immediately. He didn't allow it to linger at all. Steven took Bill's hand, waved to Sadie, who waved back, and then led him to the beach.

A/N: And there's Chapter Eight! I hope you enjoyed it!
Also, here's a "what could have been": had things played out differently, Bill would have taken his hat back and then the phones by force and snapped them in half. But instead you have this, which is excellent! I played both Sadie and Bill here, and Ace supplied an excellent Steven, as usual. :3
So.. yeah. :3 I'll see you next Saturday with Chapter Nine, unless you have reviews to leave! in that case, I'll see you when you do!