A/N: I apologize for the long wait in chapters. I can't promise it won't happen again. Real life has just left me drained of anything creative. Hopefully, you all will enjoy this chapter.

Just as the last chapter was mostly about Mabel, this one is about Bill and what he's been up to the last few years. I will also add a flashback to every other chapter that will kind of rewrite the 3rd Weirdmageddon to fit with the storyline of this fic, since I had started this before the episode came out.

Chapter 2: Resurrection

Dipper could hear the buzz of the television from his and Mabel's bedroom. Shonda Ramirez had snuck into the Fearimid and discovered that all the captured citizens had been turned to stone and gathered together into a horrific throne for Bill. By the time the camera panned on Wendy's family, Dipper had left the room. Seeing the horrified faces of the other citizens - the people he had gotten to know and care about over the last three months - was just too much for him.

He could hear the refugees mourning downstairs. The reporter had been captured so her voice was no longer heard. The sound of laughing monsters was heard for a few minutes before someone finally destroyed the camera and left the TV buzzing with static.

Dipper sighed as he looked at his old corkboard of photos, sketches, and red string from when he had tried to figure out who the author of the journals was. Something that had happened only weeks ago felt like a lifetime in Weirdmageddon. He wasn't even sure if time was even moving anymore. Now the journals were gone and the author was trapped in Bill's palace. It was over.

"Dipper?" He heard Mabel's voice but refused to look up. "Grunkle Stan made us some canned beans for us to eat." She set two bowls on each of the desk by his bed.

"I'm not hungry," he said quietly.

"Don't be like that," she worried. "You're gonna need your strength if we're going to take on Bill."

"With what Mabel?!" he finally turned to her, his voice going up a notch as his emotions he had been trying to bottle up began to spill out. "Bill destroyed my journals and he has Grunkle Ford! We're powerless against him."

The female twin sighed, shaking her head. "How many times do I have to tell you that you don't need those journals! You defeated Gideon without them after all."

"Gideon wasn't an all-powerful demon from another dimension! Those journals had all the answers to defeating him, and so did Ford!" He got up and stomped over to the corner of the room where they hid the oversized chess piece with a white sheet. He pulled the sheet up and sat down behind it, concealing himself. "Just leave me alone."

Frustrated, Mabel got up and pulled the sheet away to reveal Dipper sitting on the ground with his back facing her and his knees pulled up to his chest. "What was the first thing that journal ever taught you, Dipper?" she asked seriously.

"That your zombie boyfriend was actually a bunch of gnomes in disguise?" he retorted almost sarcastically.

"Trust no one," she continued, wishing he wouldn't bring that incident up. "Grunkle Ford followed his own advice, and look where it got him! Not even his own brother wants to help him! Every time you decide to go up against some monster, you think you can handle it by yourself. Doing things by yourself isn't always the best solution. You're stronger when you have Wendy with you. You're tougher with Soos there to back you up." She then stepped around him and knelt down so she could see his face. "You and I together are practically unstoppable. How can you act like this when not hours ago, we were riding atop a giant pig to escape from Bill's prison bubble?"

He turned his head away as he said, "Escaping is easy. Fighting back is a lot tougher."

She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to fight back alone."

He looked back at her and saw her hopeful smile. He still felt defeated, but he couldn't help but smile back at her. "I guess I let the sight of what Bill had done to the townsfolk get to me."

"So did everyone else," it was her turn to look away towards the floorboards where the twins could still hear some of the refugees still crying. A thought struck her. "We practically have an army down there; you know?"

Practically reading her mind, he agreed. "That's true. With McGucket's building skills, Wendy's knowledge of apocalypse survival, and Soos' love of anime and fighting shows, we could accomplish anything!"

"Don't forget Grenda's strength and Candy's psychotic tendencies!" Mabel added.

A plan started to formulate in his head. "We just need to rally them up. Find a way to sneak into the Fearimid, rescue the townsfolk and Grunkle Ford, and have him help us stop Bill once and for all."

"Excellent!" she exclaimed, jumping up, then hitting her head on the low wooden beam above. "Ow!" She started rubbing her tender spot. "The only question is how do we take down those other monsters?"

He didn't waste a moment on that thought. He grabbed her hand and quickly led them out of the room.

They made it to the front lobby of the Mystery Shack where the entrance to Ford's lab was. Dipper punched in the code and the door swung open. Once the kids had made it down the stairs and into the main part of the lab. The broken pieces of the portal were still scattered about in the dangerous part of the room and many other boxes and crates were there as well. The twins began searching.

Mabel went to the far corner and started looking through boxes. Sadly, all she could find were spare part and miscellaneous bolts and screws. Dipper had started looking through his desk, looking for any sketches or blueprints he might've left behind for another weapon to build.

After looking through a third stack of papers, he started to move to the other side of the desk, but he was stopped by his foot jamming into something hard. He started hopping on the good foot, hissing until the ache went away. He looked down to see what he had hurt himself on.

Under Ford's desk was a large wooden crate. Curious, he bent down and started to pull it out. Mabel noticed him struggling and dashed over to help him. It looked brand new and had an inscription that read Experiment 618 2.0 on top of the lid. They both worked together to get the lid off.

Inside the box was a stack of sketches spread out across the inside. Dipper began to gather them up and Mabel reached further inside. "Whoa, baby!" she exclaimed at the sight of the gun in her hands.

Dipper took notice immediately. It was the quantum destabilizer Ford had tried to use on Bill days ago. Hadn't it been destroyed with the church? He glanced at the drawings and figured out that this was an advanced prototype version of his gun, only it had a bigger scope. Dipper read the descriptions, finding that this gun could hold more energy. Judging by the layer of dust, Ford must've neglected finishing the gun in favor of the first one.

"Do you think we could use this against Bill?" asked Mabel.

Dipper looked from his drawings, to the gun, then to his sister. He noted the determined look on her face; that hopeful optimism that never seemed to leave no matter how hopeless she felt. That one look alone was enough to give Dipper the courage he needed. He wasn't sure if finishing their uncle's project would work or not, but it was better than hiding in the Mystery Shack and waiting for the world to end.

His grip on the papers tightened as he stated, "Let's take down that isosceles monster!"

Bill stood in the middle of his living room, his one eye tightly closed and his arms stretched out before him. He focused his energy as hard as he could muster, trying to create another portal out of it. He had waited years for his powers to return to its full strength. Once he was able to invade the dreams of one of his mortal enemies, he knew he was ready to strike back.

However, after Shooting Star had awakened from her nightmare, he had collapsed back into his prison, worn down and exhausted. Being stuck in the dreamscape, he was present in most anybody's dreams, especially if they were happening to be dreaming about the Mystery Shack. The problem was he was only a bystander. He could see the likes of Pine Tree, Sixer, and anyone else going about whatever was occupying their subconscious, but he couldn't interact with them. They didn't even seem to notice him when he tried to get their attention.

He spent the last six years relearning how to make his powers work once more. He did little things like trying to make the simplest of creatures appear in their dreams. He started with insects since they were the easiest to conjure up. It was three years into his re-training when a spider he created had landed on Question Mark's head, and he reacted to it by whacking himself in the head with a broom. Satisfied with his victory, he was able to conjure up other simple animals over the years and involve them in their dreams.

A year before, he had regained his ability to manipulate dreams. During one of Grunkle Stan's dreams, he had made a living maze and was able to shift and create new paths for the old man to wonder into. The triangle had been filled with excitement by this. But he knew he still had a ways to go before he could exact his real revenge.

While Bill had fun being able to re-control the dreams of the Pines family, he was still unable to make a full appearance in their dreams itself. Even though he could make a generic copy of himself or some type of allusion to them, he never did. He didn't want the Pines to see him coming until it was too late to stop him. He avoided doing anything drastic to Pine Tree and Sixer in their dreams, since they would be the most likely candidates to come up with a plan to stop him before he could act.

Now that six years had gone by, he decided to see how much better his powers had gotten. Even though Shooting Star was a big part in his ultimate defeat, she was the easiest target to intimidate, especially if it involved her brother. From years of observing her dreams, she knew enough of the young girl's insecurities to get under her skin, and that she had been having a hard time telling her brother how she was really feeling lately. For some reason, he didn't think the girl would tell anyone about her dream.

The dream was the first time in years he was able to take control of a dream from the inside and interact with others. While the idea of taking down the Pines with their own gun was satisfying, he had different plans in mind for them… much different.

A few days after the dream, his energy was back up to where he could use his powers again, but he was tired of dream manipulation. He felt now was the time to strike back at the Pines. However, he was going to need some assistance.

After what felt like an eternity, he felt a wave of energy shoot out of his hands. He opened his eye to see a blue swirling portal floating before him. Relieved that it worked, he quickly stepped through it, leaving the dreamscape for the first time in six years.

When in his most powerful stage, Bill had the ability to transport himself through any universe he wanted; except for the human world since it existed on a different plane than most universes. One of his favorite places was the Nightmare Realm since it was close to the dreamscape, but after Weirdmageddon, the dimension had eventually crumbled. With his power depleted, he had limited places he could transport himself to. The only place he knew he could go was the Center of Dimensions.

Just as the planets, stars, and the rest of the Milky Way galaxy revolved around the sun, all dimensions revolved around the COD. It was the easiest place for creatures of every dimension to meet up, but was only accessible to those who could dimension jump. It also served as a refuge for creatures coming from dimensions that were dying or gone for good. Bill was sure he would run into at least one of his old friends here.

On the other side of the portal, he found himself in an alleyway. It was dark outside and there was a lightbulb flickering on and off above him. He heard something moving in the dumpster to his left. Immediately, a purple cat with three eyeballs and a horned tail jumped out with a raccoon's tail hanging out of its mouth. It gave a low growl to Bill before running off. Slowly, Bill stepped out of the alleyway and into the bright big city that was the COD.

Tall, misshapen skyscrapers were everywhere. The streets were littered with multi-colored lights and all different creatures going about their daily lives. One of the things that amused Bill about the human realm was that all humans, no matter their skin color, were all similar in shape. It was the polar opposite of this realm. Every creature that came across him resembled a collection of young childrens'drawings, where no one was similar in anyway.

He continued to float down the street, keeping his eye out for any kind of establishment where his friends would be. He didn't search long when he bumped into someone.

"Watch it, triangle!" a gruff voice shouted at him.

Bill watched as a giant gray block with red eyes floated past him and continued.

"Well, sorry, loser!" he shouted back annoyed. Once the creature was out of sight, Bill faced forward and whispered with a grin, "I love this place!"

He then looked above and noticed a dully-lit sign flashing on and off that read "Szyslak's Tavern". Perfect, he thought as he took in the run-down building with swinging double doors.

Szyslak's was his old hangout from his younger days when he was learning to use his powers for the first time (which was close to a few millennia ago). He would often sneak to the tavern during after-hours and meet with his friends. If he was trying to find them, his best bet was here.

As he opened the tavern doors, he felt as if he traveled back in time. The place looked much older with its yellow stained walls and splinter-ridden floorboards, but the smell of smoke and blood still welcomed him with open arms. The building wasn't as crowded today as it was then with only fifteen or so creatures spread out across the room. The only sound that filled the place were muttered conversations and the dull humming of Gremoblin Chants coming from the half broken jukebox in the corner.

Bill paid no attention to the others as he strolled up to the bar. The bartender's back was turned to him, but the triangle demon still recognized him by the eight spider legs sticking out of his shirt. "Yo, Szyslak! I would like my usual, if you please!"

The bartender stiffened a moment, then turned to get a good look at the customer. He adjusted his glasses (with ten lenses to match it eyes) and smiled. "Well, well, well," Szyslak greeted in a weary voice. "If it isn't little Billy Cipher! How long has it been?"

"Since the third century," Bill replied casually. "I heard a rumor that you were dead, you old spider."

The spider hybrid laughed. "It takes a lot for a demon like me to get that ill. I actually heard the same of you."

"Is that so," Bill mused, his voice low. "What all have you heard?"

"From what I understand," Szyslak began as he prepared to make his drink, "your plans to take over the Earth realm didn't go as planned. Everyone assumed the humans destroyed you since you didn't make it back."

"Eh, it figures," Bill shrugged as he sipped his drink through his eyeball. "Any idea where I could find my group? See how many of it made it back or not?"

"Actually, Louie and Pyronica are sitting by the dart board if you want to say hi," the bartender gestured near the back entrance. "They've been missing you a great deal."

Bill turned to where he pointed. Sure enough, his fiery lady friend and the horrifying sweaty one-armed monstrosity were sitting in a booth chatting it up together. He thanked Szyslak, left a pile of small change on the counter, and made his way towards the duo.

"He did not!" Pyronica exclaimed with a giggle.

"It's true," Louie replied. "Hectorgon was the one who organized the whole thing! He nearly lost his mustache when the cake caught fire!"

The flame demon calmed her laughter, wiping a tear away from her. "Oh my goodness, I wish I could've been a fly on that wall." She paused a second, then recanted, "then again, Keyhole loves to eat flies."

"Don't we all know it!" another voice chimed in.

The couple turned to see a sight they never thought they would see again. Their jaws dropped.

"Bill?!" Pyronica exclaimed.

"In the flesh," the triangle gestured to himself. "Well, almost. This form still needs its full strength."

"b-but, how?!" Louie asked as he used his one arm to sit himself up so he could look at his old friend directly. "No one has heard from you in the last six years."

Bill came and sat next to Pyronica since Louie took up both seats on the other side of the booth. "I was blasted back into the Dreamscape. Those miserable humans designed a blaster that drained my new body of its power and left me stranded."

"Oh, how terrible," Pyronica shook her head.

"You're telling me," Bill took another sip of his drink. "What happened with you guys?"

Louie took a deep breath before he explained. "After you disappeared, the rest of us demons were sucked back into the void. After it closed, the Nightmare realm had begun to collapse on itself."

"Those who had enough strength to create portals were the only ones to escape," Pyronica continued, her voice solemn. "It was only a small few of us who survived."

Bill's eye drifted to the table, fixated on a spot of faded wood. "Who all came back?"

"Myself and Pyronica, Hectorgon, Keyhole, and Xanthar."

Bill cringed inwardly. That meant 8 Ball, Amorphous Shape, Kryptos, Paci-Fire, and Teeth were the ones that were left behind. His dear friends from long ago were now gone. If Bill was already angry, but after this new revelation, he was downright furious.

Pyronica noticed his form turn from yellow to orange, slowly making his way to red. She rubbed his arm, trying to soothe his rage. "I'm sorry you had to find out like this, Billy." She felt his arm flinch at the sound of her nickname for him. "I promise that everything is going to be okay."

The triangle took a deep breath, his normal color returning. "You're right," he said lowly. "Everything will be alright… Once I make the Pines family pay for what they did!"

"That's not what I – "

"We will round up the others," he instructed, not hearing Pyronica at all. "It will most likely take me a week to get my full strength back. Until then, we can formulate a revenge plan, find a creature who can create a spell to get to the Earth realm, and reclaim our rightful place as rulers of that dimension!"

Pyronica and Louie exchanged another quick look. It was her turn to start with the bad news. "Bill, we would love to help you and all, but Louie and I are out of the chaos business."

He looked at her confused. "What do you mean?"

"The lot of us were distraught after losing our friends," she continued. "We realized that even if we could live for thousands of millennia, we're not as immortal as we thought."

"We wanted to do something meaningful with our lives," the other man added and he gently grabbed Pyronica's hand in his.

Finally, Bill looked down at their joined hands and noticed a big red jewel sitting atop the she-demon's left finger. His eye widened a bit. "You two got married?!"

The couple grinned sheepishly, and Pyronica's face turned a deeper shade of red if even possible.

Bill gave Louie a sly look. "So, by doing something meaningful, you just meant each other," he laughed a little, then quickly stopped. "How does that even work anyway?"

"Bill!" Pyronica scolded.

"It's a legitimate question!" Bill argued. "You and I went out for a while, and I could at least shapeshift into whatever form you so desired. Last I checked, Louie didn't have any kind of powers like that."

"Rub it in, why don't ya," Louie said under his breath.

"It still doesn't explain why you guys can't help me with my plan," he changed the subject. "I thought we were friends for life."

"We are," Pyronica answered. "We would be willing to do anything for you, but world domination isn't in our plans anymore."

Once again, Bill felt defeated. He sat back down and took a slow sip of his drink. The other two remained silent, not knowing what to say to cheer their friend up. He was starting to think maybe he should give up. Even if he could get the others to agree, he still didn't have a solid plan in his head just yet. Heck, he didn't even have a way to get to the Earth realm without mutilating himself from the inside out.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The three heads shot up at the sound of a loud scream. They turned towards the entrance to see a giant blue tentacle monster hovering over a small cowering form. Upon closer inspection, Bill could see that the small form was a child.

A male human child, to be exact.

Bill's curiosity was caught instantly. How was a human child in this realm? Maybe it was a shapeshifter disguised as a kid? Nah, no one would be foolish enough to walk around the COD disguised as a human. They were the most despised creatures in all of the dimensions.

He noted everyone else aside from him and the Newlyweds were the only ones paying attention to the situation. Normally he would ignore something like this and let the tentacle monster have his snack for the day, but there was something gnawing at the back of his mind, telling him to help the kid out. He tried to refuse it, but it wouldn't let up. Finally, relenting, he got up and floated towards the scene.

"Hold it there, buster!" he called out.

The tentacle monster turned its attention away from the human boy and looked at Bill. Or, at least, he thought it was looking at him. The creature was literally nothing but a pile of tentacles. No face, torso, nothing! It was the epitome of anime nightmares. "Grrrrrggglll grrrrr!" it exclaimed, which Bill was able to translate as, 'How did you know my name?'

Bill could only shrug. "Lucky guess." He floated further until he was between it and the kid. "Listen, this kid right here is mine."

The monster tilted to the side, assuming confused.

"Not literally mine," he corrected, thinking of a very quick excuse. "He's my nephew visiting from the 88th dimension. You know how obsessed those creatures are with humans. It's practically disgusting."

The monster gurgled an agreement. He then gurgled some more nonsense, this time sound frustrated.

"I'm sorry for letting him wander off," he responded. "It'll never happen again."

At that, the monster gurgled low and started to float away, presumably mad it didn't get to snack.

Once he was gone, Bill finally turned to face the young boy sitting behind him. He had fair skin with a mess of dark blonde hair hanging a little over his glasses. His blue jeans were ripped at the knee and he wore a red shirt with a light blue dinosaur on the front. He looked visibly frightened.

Putting on a friendly act, Bill held out his hand towards him. "Don't ya worry, kiddo," he said jovially. "You uncle Billy's got your back."

The boy stared at his hand a moment, very confused. He wordlessly took it as the triangle helped him to his feet. Bill led him back to his table where his friends sat. "Syzslak! A glass of milk for little Dinosaur over here!"

"Cow's milk, goat's milk, or gnome's milk?"

Bill looked to the boy for a response.

"C-cow," the boy stammered, trying to not look at the giant spider sitting behind the bar.

Bill had the boy sit next to Pyronica and Louie sat up so Bill could sit next to him.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Pyronica asked as she tried to soother him as she did with Bill before. The boy flinched at her touch, but didn't leave his seat.

"I'm f-fine, thank you," he said politely.

"Kid, you shouldn't be running around places like this, especially after dark," Louie warned. "Where are your parents?"

The boy looked down as Syzslak approached with a glass of milk. He sat it in front of the boy who quietly gave his thanks then walked off. "I don't know," he finally answered.

"Maybe we could help you find them," Pyronica said reassuringly. "Do you remember when you last saw them?"

The boy inspected his milk before deciding it was safe to take a sip before answering them. "My dad and I got into a big fight, then I ran away from home. I pressed a button, and the next thing I knew, I was standing outside of this building."

Bill arched his eyebrow. "What do you mean you pressed a button?"

The boy stared at him a moment, almost as if deciding whether or not he should trust the giant talking triangle in front of him. He slowly took his left arm – which he had been hiding under the table – and laid it flat for everyone to see. Circling the boy's wrist was an odd looking watch.

Bill studied it for a moment. The strap of the watch was brown with a silver square in the center. There was a tiny black screen with two dials on each end and two buttons in the middle. On the black screen was a green was a green hourglass symbol moving in slow circles. He immediately recognized it as the logo for the Time Anomaly Removal Crew.

"My dad didn't want me to have this watch," the boy continued. "That's what we were arguing about before I got here."

Bill nodded slightly, still staring at the watch in wonder. Obviously, this kid was from a distant future if he was able to get his hands on something like this. But he knew from invading Blendin Blandin's mind that time watches could only take you through time in the Earth dimension. He shouldn't have been able to transport to this realm with it.

"May I?" Bill asked, his hand hovering over the watch.

Oddly enough, the boy didn't seem to hesitate in taking off his watch and handing it to him. Bill began turning it this way and that. It looked similar to Blendin's, but he remembered his watch had one dial and one button where this one had two. Carefully, he started fiddling with one of the dials.

"Bill Cipher, you better be careful," Pyronica warned, noticing how uneasy the boy next to her was looking.

Bill shushed her. After a moment, he was satisfied with what he found. "I gotta hand it to the little Dinosaur. You got yourself a pretty fine watch."

"It looks like any other time watch to me," Louie commented.

"Actually, it's more advance than that," the demon said almost evilly. "This watch can not only transport you through time, it can also jump you to any dimension."

Both demons looked at him with shocked expressions. "You're kidding me," Pyronica answered. She then thought a moment. "It would explain how a human got here."

And how I'm going to get to Earth, Bill thought evilly.

"Little Dinosaur, how about you and I make a wager?" Bill asked, friendly voice still there.

The demon couple glared at him warningly. They already knew what Bill was thinking, but he ignored them.

"What kind of deal?" the kid asked unsure.

"How's about you let me borrow your watch for a bit," he suggested, "in exchange for saving your life earlier."

The boy slowly reached and put his hand on the watch that was now sitting on the table. "I don't think that would be a good idea…"

Bill quickly put his hand over his. "I could always take it back and feed you to Syzslak's pet Jabberwocky."

The boy knew he was threatening him, but he just cocked his head at him. "The creature from Alice in Wonderland?"

"Yeah," he narrowed his eye menacingly. "He's out back waiting to be fed…"

"Actually, I had Jabbers put down years ago," Syzslak said as he overheard them making his rounds. "Poor old girl was getting on in age."

Bill rolled his eye as the bartender left their table. He noticed the boy sucking his lips between his teeth, probably trying not laugh at his failures.

"Okay then," he began deciding to go in a different direction. "If you let me use the watch for a little while, I will give you whatever you want."

Again, the boy was skeptical. "Anything I want?"

"Yes," the demon was almost annoyed. "A bag of candy, a puppy, your school to spontaneously combust the same day as your math test, you name it and it's yours!"

He held his hand out this time, blue flame engulfing it from fingertip to wrist.

The boy thought it over a moment before he finally shook the demon's hand. After that, the boy handed the watch over to him.

Bill stared down at the time watch in his hands, hope filling him once more. He was finally going to have his sweet revenge.

Meanwhile, Pyronica and Louie looked on with worried expressions. They had a feeling this wasn't going to end well….

(DZMWVIMT SFNZM XSROWIVM DROO YV UVW GL GSV QZYYVIDLXP!)

….

The real name for Louie in the Weirdmageddon credits was "The Horrifying Sweaty One-Armed Monstrosity". Obviously, typing that up every chapter was going to be a pain, so I named him after his voice actor Louis CK. Also, Szyslak is the last name of Moe from The Simpsons.

Thanks again for the reviews/follows! Like last time, I added another code to the end of this chapter. Still the same Atbash cipher as the last chapter.