A/N: I may or may not have upped the rating a bit. Just to be on the safe side, since what Bill does to his homeworld is not pretty.
It was like watching a Supernova.
In the long, long time that followed, Pyronica would say just that to anyone asking what it had been like. That one answer only, because to be honest - not something she often was - there was no other comparison she could think of that truly fit.
She had seen a Supernova explosion once, a long time before, from a safe distance. She had been watching when the star's core had cracked and collapsed, sending a terrifying shock wave to its surface. She had seen the impossibly bright flash that had resulted, so strong she could no longer look. When she had looked again, there was a fine mist scattered across the galaxy - and, at the very center, a small neutron star.
Except that it had all been silent, then, no sound reaching her through the immensity of space. There and then, in the Globnar arena, Bill's scream drowned out every other noise. Until it stopped abruptly, like someone had hit a switch, and the blinding light faded.
Then, there was a long minute of silence. Bill's form remained in mid-air, still and quiet, eye closed and limbs hanging limply. His body glowed white of a light that gave no warmth.
"... Is he dead?" 8 Ball asked, his voice a hoarse whisper.
A Supernova is a dying star, after all.
Pyronica opened her mouth to reply, but she really had no idea what to answer, so instead she glanced at Time Baby - who was staring at Bill as well, looking… wait, why was it just her or he actually seemed scared?
"Hey, look!"
"Something's happening!"
Bill's body glowed brighter once, then again, and finally the white glow began dulling into something else - a bright yellow that did not fade. There was another moment of stillness and silence, no more than a heartbeat, and Bill's frame shuddered, his eye snapping open. He stared at them for a moment before looking down at himself, pupil blown wide - then he threw up his arms and laughed.
"Ta-daa! Makeover! Whatddayathink?"
Yellow actually looked kinda cute on him and Pyronica opened her mouth to say as much, but she was cut off by Paci-Fire's sputtering. "What the- what? WHAT? You had a Time Wish and you used it for a makeover?"
Bill frowned down at him, still hovering in mid-air, and crossed his arms. "Wow, rude. I'll have you know I also asked for immense power and knowledge and am now virtually immortal, but you could at least have said something nice before we got to the finer details. Look what I can do now!" He exclaimed, and snapped his fingers. A party hat appeared on his upper angle.
Keyhole blinked. "... Ah. Er. Nice?"
Bill frowned at their lack of enthusiasm, then glanced up at the party hat. "Oh, wait. Hehe! Still gotta get the hang of it. Okay, how's this?" He asked, snapping his fingers again. The party hat disappeared to be replaced by a black top hat. "There! Much better. I missed the hat - gotta look good to beat up a baby."
… Wait, what? What did he just say?
She had no time to ask, because the next moment Bill had already turned back to Time Baby. "Hey, big guy! Why is a raven like a writing desk? Huh? Bet you don't know! I do! Not telling you, but I know! "
The worried expression that had been on Time Baby's face turned into confusion. "WHAT?"
Bill laughed and flew - levitated? What was even the right way to describe it? - closer, until they were at the same eye level. "And wait, hear this out! What's the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"
"YOU'RE SPEAKING NONSEN-"
"It's less than this!"
Bill spread out his arms in a sudden movement, and Time Baby was thrown back as though hit by a violent gust of wind. He let out a cry that sounded much like a wail and crashed against the nearby wall with such force he split it in two, causing the spectators who had been sitting on the tribunes to fall into the chasm. All other onlookers began screaming and trying to run away, trampling each other in the process; at least a couple dozen members of the Time Police seemed to appear out of nowhere, and pointed up their guns. Bill kept laughing, seemingly unaware of their presence.
"And that's for dropping me flat on my eye!" he called out. "You could have spared a moment to listen to me, but nooo, you had to be all high and mighty! How mighty do you feel now?"
"Bill!" Keyhole tried to warn him just a moment before the men shot. Bill turned, and spread his arms as though to offer a better target; all laser beams hit him, but bounced off, right back at the men who had fired. Pyronica and the others could only stare with wide eyes - at least those of them who had one or more eyes - as a couple dozen top notch officers of the Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement Squadron fell like a bunch of pins and stayed motionless.
Above them, Bill was still laughing. "Guns! Hahahahaha! That's so dumb it's funn-"
"ENOUGH!"
A ray of red light suddenly shot above their heads, powerful enough to drown out all other light, and hit Bill straight on, swallowing him.
He pulverized him, Pyronica thought in sudden panic, he must have, he-
Somewhere above them, Bill laughed again. "Hey guys, get down!"
All six of them - seven, counting Xanthar - were flat on the ground before he was even done speaking. And just on time, too, because the next moment a blue beam passed right over their heads and threw Time Baby right back against the wall, causing him to wail once more. When they looked up Bill was hovering above them, and still laughing. Something that looked like blue fire glowed around both of his hands.
"Wanna know something cool about energy, you dumb baby?You don't get to destroy it!"
Time Baby rose again, eyes glowing red. "HOW DARE YOU!"
"What did you think was gonna happen, Time Idiot?" Bill taunted. "Just giving away a wish like that! It was only a matter of time - heh, get it? A matter of time! - before someone was smart enough to cheat their way to it."
"Bill! Shut the hell up!" Paci-Fire called out, but no avail: Bill was paying no attention to any of them. Neither was Time Baby, whose eyes narrowed.
"CHEAT?"
"Ooooh, the twist!" Bill exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "I cheated! Who would have guessed? Oh, wait, I know the answer - anyone but you!" Bill said, pointing his fingers at him like guns and then making a clicking sound. Blue fire shot out of his hands, but Time Baby's laser eyes overpowered it. Far from looking worried, Bill just dodged the beam.
"YOU HAVE DECEIVED ME! BENT THE GLOBNAR TO YOUR ENDS!" Time Baby thundered, his voice loud enough to shake the earth.
Bill just scoffed. "What did you think, big guy? That I was gonna win it fair and square? The guys and I had already agreed to everything! I take what I want, you dumb baby, like you took this world - and you were stupid enough to hand it all to me!"
The scowl on Time Baby's face deepened, and his eyes glowed red again - except that, at the very last moment, it wasn't on Bill that they turned. It was on them - and, a moment later, two red beams flashed out. Someone shrieked, but it could have been just about anyone - Teeth or Keyhole or even Xanthar. Pyronica didn't turn to look: she just shut her eye against the painfully red glare, fully expecting it to destroy them all before they could even say 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis'. Well, at least they did get to see something cool before they were incinerated, after all. It could have been worse. For example-
"Oh no you don't!"
A shadow fell over them, and the sound of an explosion followed moments afterwards. She dared to peer up - everyone else still was face down and Teeth was chattering madly, turned to the other side - and all she could see for a moment was a yellow wall looming over them. It took her a moment to realize it was Bill, and that he was suddenly huge enough to have shielded them all from the laser beams.
"This ain't about them!" Bill snapped, his voice almost unbearably loud, even if nowhere as deep as Time Baby's. Smoke rose from where he had been struck, but he seemed not to even notice.
"THEY HAVE CHEATED, JUST AS YOU HAVE!"
"I won your stupid game! I get to choose their fate, and they're coming with me," Bill countered, and suddenly another set of arms was appearing from his sides, then another. "No one's ever again taking anything of mine while I'm not looking! Take on me only, Time Brat, or just step aside and get us back to the Second Dimension. I've got a bone to pick with them first!"
For a moment it looked like Time Baby would break into a tantrum and resume the fight, his features so twisted in fury he was hardly recognizable, then his expression slowly changed into something resembling calm.
"VERY WELL. IF THAT IS YOUR CHOICE, RETURN TO YOUR WORLD. RETURN TO YOUR TIME AND TAKE THESE CRIMINALS WITH YOU," he said.
The hourglass symbol on his forehead glowed blue, and something opened up above their heads: the unmistakable tear in reality that marked a passage between dimensions. Normally, they were swirling with colors - but this one showed only black, white and shades of gray.
Bill laughed. "Finally! Great to see at least one of us can be reasonable - 'cause I sure can't!" he exclaimed, and turned to glance at them. "Hop in, guys. There's a dimension for us to take over and a lot of redecorating to do!"
The idea of a whole dimension for themselves to rule over would have seemed ridiculous only a hour before, but now it felt like something truly possible - anything was possible, with Bill powerful as he was. And if all the inhabitants of his world were weak as he had described them, weak as he used to be… then taking it over would be a child's play.
8 Ball and Pyronica exchanged a glance. "Well. Didn't have different plans for the weekend anyway," she said, a grin already starting to curl her lips. That sounded pretty exciting, she had to admit - more than anything that had ever happened in the Infinetentiary prior to the riot, that was for sure.
"Me neither."
"We're free!"
"We're gonna make the rules!"
"You mean we're not gonna make rules!"
"Have you got moons where I can slaughter millions?" Paci-Fire was already asking. Bill didn't turn, eye still on Time Baby in case he tried anything, but laughed.
"No moons, but you'll get your millions," he said, and that was the last thing Pyronica heard before the interdimensional rift's pull lifted them up - sucking them into a world that would be theirs to undo, and that would become their home for a trillion years to come.
The portal's pull was powerful, but not nearly enough to make Bill budge - not even when he shrank back to his usual size. Nothing in the universe - nothing in the multiverse - could make him go anywhere he didn't wish to go ever again.
He was all-powerful. He didn't tire out. He could change his form if so he wished, and take on someone who could have squashed him with a finger not even a hour earlier. He could do anything he wanted - and what he wanted more than anything, right there and then, was giving his dimension one hell of a party. Everything else could and would wait.
Later… well, there were so many places outside his dimension that could use some partying, weren't there? An infinite amount of possibilities in countless places he had never been to and yet now could see. The mere thought made him want to laugh himself through eternity and back.
"Good call, ankle biter," he said, crossing his arms, and let the rift pull him up as well, staring down at Time Baby the whole time. "It's gonna give you more time before I come back to turn you into jam as well! See ya real soon!" he called out, and laughed at Time Baby's stony expression right before the rift closed and he was pulled back into the Second Dimension.
He was not there to hear when Time Baby spoke again.
"IMMENSE KNOWLEDGE, AND YOU ARE STILL A FOOL," he said, voice echoing through the ruined arena. "YOU HAVE CHOSEN YOUR NEXT PRISON, BILL CIPHER."
"Sheesh, this is where you come from?"
"Kinda anticlimactic."
"No wonder you wanted out."
"Yeah, told you it was bad. Sucks, doesn't it?"
8 Ball grunted in agreement, glancing at the gray dullness all around them, without a soul in sight and only a few buildings visible from a distance. It looked even more depressing than Bill remembered, even though nothing had changed.
He knew a lot of things now, and thus he also knew when they were: precisely seven years after his arrest, the same amount of time he had spent in the Infinetentiary. It looked like that dumb brat hadn't been up to give him back the wasted time, but it didn't matter. He was immortal now, after all. Seven measly years were less than the blink of an eye.
"Thought you were exaggerating," Keyhole muttered, causing Bill to cross his arms.
"Hey now! When do I ever do that?"
"Always," Pyronica immediately said, and she wasn't the only one.
"Constantly."
"All the time."
"Do you want the short list or the long one?"
Bill rolled his eye. "Sheesh, you're the ones exaggerating now," he said, but he didn't mind at all. Of course they exaggerated - that was why they were his people, wasn't it? He laughed and turned to the dull gray landscape before them. "... Well. I did say this place could use some redecorating, right?"
Using his newfound powers came as natural as moving his arms, or blinking: all he had to do was to will it, and it would happen. Sending a shockwave across his dimension took no more effort than lifting his hands to do so - and suddenly in a flash of blinding light, there was color.
It was nowhere as dull as the color in the Infinetentiary or the rest of Time Baby's boring domain: they were bright and vibrant and alive, the sky swirling with yellows and reds and purple and more colors none of the ten thousand existing dimensions had found words for yet.
I always wished I could see the colors.
Xanthar roared, clearly taken aback by the sudden change, but the rest of them cheered. Bill kinda liked being cheered at. It was the kind of thing he could get used to.
In the distance there were sounds - sirens and screams - and none of it was surprising. So much color everywhere was enough to cause the unaccustomed eye excruciating pain and everyone was certainly panicking, but Bill was beyond caring. He had been in prison for trying to do something for that rotten corner of the multiverse. Let the reasonable folk of the Second Dimension bear some discomfort as well.
"Much better, dontchathink?"
"This is awesome!"
"It looks like home now!" Pyronica exclaimed, clapping her hands.
"It is home," Bill said, and laughed. "This world is under new management - time to let them all know."
"What's going on?"
"What's happening?"
"My eye! It hurts!"
"Mom! Mom!"
"Oh Circles, what are those?"
"S-stop! In the name of-"
The Isosceles guard's attempt at stopping them before they reached General Assembly Hall was honestly kind of adorable, Bill had to admit. He might have even admired the courage if only it hadn't been so amazingly stupid. Look at them, the lowest of the low, facing the end of the world as they knew it and yet trying to protect their oppressors instead of trying to seize the chance or save themselves.
Much like his birth family, they were precisely where they deserved to be. Anything that would happen to them now was something they had brought upon themselves by fighting on the wrong side, or not fighting at all when they should have.
"They're all yours, guys," Bill said, and hovered higher up without sparing them another glance. Of course he heard screams and pleas, because even the best-trained of them were simply no match against his friends, but he paid them no heed. Those idiots were doomed, and he had bigger fish to fry. Literally.
Make it worth it.
You bet.
The General Assembly Hall was an immense Polygonal structure in the heart of the capital, and that was where the Circles dwelt… or more accurately hid, as it was the case now. It took Bill no effort to make himself as huge as the building, and he took a moment to adjust his bowtie - may as well look dapper while taking over that place - before snapping his fingers.
"Here, fishy fishy!"
The screams in the streets below him seemed to increase in volume when blue fire enveloped the roof, entirely destroying it in moments. And right there, in the council room at the heart of it all, the mighty rulers of that wretched world sat, paralyzed with terror. They had colors on them now, like everyone else in that world, most of them in hues of red and purple.
"Hiya," Bill said, peering down at them and tipping his hat. "Just a PSA - I rule. Like, literally. Name's Bill Cipher, new supreme ruler of this place, and I've got a bone to pick with you. Just thought you'd like to know why you're wearing those," he added. Another snap of his fingers, and chains appeared around the arms and legs of each Circle in the room.
"What… how… what's the meaning of this?" the Chief Circle shrieked, trying and failing to break free. Bill laughed.
"There's no meaning to anything, wise guy. Not anymore," Bill said, and reached down to grab him. He lifted him up so that he could see and hear everything - the blinding colors all around them, the panicking population, his friends shattering the last of their chosen Isosceles guard, their laughs mixing with cries and pleas and the roar of fire in the distance.
"LISTEN, EVERYONE!" Bill shouted, his voice powerful enough to send a shockwave across the dimension - so that everyone in it, even those who weren't there to see him, could hear. "The Circles were a bunch of hacks! The Laws of Nature were made up and are gone! Name's Bill Cipher, and there is only one law from now to eternity - no law. This party never ends - so join it, or join him!"
He lifted his hand higher, the Chief Circle still held tightly in his fist, and ignited it.
His screams weren't quite as loud as Bill's own voice, but still loud enough. Down below them, the citizen had stopped screaming and running around to look up, eyes wide. It was as though time had stopped and they could only watch in stupor as what had been their supreme leader until minutes earlier was turned into a charred, blackened lump.
Then Bill opened his hand to let said charred lump fall on the ground below, and chaos broke out again. Bill shrugged it off - they would learn to see things his way, sooner or later, and see that it was much better than anything they had ever known - and glanced down at his gang. They were done turning the Isosceles guard into a broken heap of angles and lines, apparently: only a few were still twitching weakly. Teeth was trying to get a spear out of his molars and Pyronica still holding a couple of guards in her burning hands, while 8 Ball was laughing at something Paci-Fire had just said. Knowing him as he did, he was probably boasting about his body count.
"Hey, guys! The building over there is the prison - mind to tear it open if you've got a minute? See if you find any friend of mine in there."
"Yeah!"
"Sure thing!"
"Let's get 'em out!"
Bill watched them go, and turned back to the chained Circles. No more than a hundred of them, and yet they and their forefathers had controlled their dimension for so long. Few, and weak - weaker than even the lowest of Isosceles, with no defense against their sharp angles and even less against the Women's points. That was why they had relegated them to the lowest place in society, wasn't it? Or, at least, the second lowest. Lower still there were the Irregulars: too few to rebel, but enough to make the others feel blessed even in their wretched condition. So many lies, such tight control and all due to pre-emptive fear. He could see it all so clearly now. It was so obvious.
And the least Bill could do now was providing an excellent reason for that fear.
"Hey, guys. Got a question for you," Bill told the quivering bunch, lifting his hands again and willing his body to change - his surface turning black, and his eye red. A few very satisfying cries ensued. He narrowed his eye. "Answer correctly, and I will let you-"
"Have mercy! Please! We'll do any-"
A beam of blue light, the crackle of electricity, and they all screamed.
"Bleep! Wrong answer!" Bill exclaimed, and ended the shock. Fun as it was, he didn't want any of those frail little things to succumb just yet. "C'mon, lemme ask my question. Maybe you'll surprise me," he said, and leaned closer - so close that his eye blotted out even the sky. "Tell me the name of every single Irregular you've had destroyed."
"That's… that's impossible to know!"
Bill laughed. He'd been doing that a lot since he had come back, but who could blame him? He had never felt so good before - all powerful, all seeing, crackling with energy and with everything within his reach… including revenge.
"Hahaha! Aww, your tiny minds are so limited! How cute!" he said, reaching down to give the Circle who had spoken a boop. Except that he squashed him instead, turning him into a wet spot on the floor. "... Whoops. Gotta practice on that," he said, and shrugged. His eye turned to the others, who had been too terrified to even react to their companion's demise. "Very well. I'll make it simple for you - don't really care about most of 'em myself, anyway. Just for one. So tell me - what was my brother's name?"
None of them knew. None of them lived.
But Bill made sure Liam's name was the last thing they'd ever hear.
Unsurprisingly enough, tearing the prison open had been short work for Xanthar, and the others has taken care of any guards that might have tried to fight. Well, at least Pyronica and 8 Ball, who were both a whole lot bigger than anyone else from that world, and Paci-Fire. Teeth could still get something done due to being, well, teeth - while Keyhole and Hectorgon were kinda useless in a fight, really, not that much bigger than his kind.
Come to think of it, Bill should probably give them a few powers of their own. Later. Once he got a few other things sorted out.
"Hey, Bill! We found a guy who says he knows you!" 8 Ball called out, waving his arm as soon as he spotted him hovering closer. With the walls down there was a whole bunch of prisoners running away as quickly as they could, stepping over rubble and the remains of the prison wardens - but some had stayed behind, too surprised or scared to run. "One, huh… What was that again, little guy? Crapton? Craptos?"
"Kryptos!" Bill exclaimed, and made a hasty landing in the middle of what had been the prison's courtyard. The prisoners still present stepped back; all but one, who was now blue instead of gray, but whose tilted frame hadn't changed a bit. His mouth - separated from his eye, a feature as unusual as his tilted frame - hung open for a few moments, and Bill just had to laugh, stepping right in front of him. "What is it? Can't recognize an old frie-"
"Bill!"
Even with the useful gift of near-omnividence, Bill hadn't expected Kryptos to launch himself at him, grab his sides and start shaking him.
"Whoa! Easy there!"
"It's really you! You're alive! What has happened? Where have you been?"
"That's a long story. And I mean long," Bill said, grabbing Kryptos' wrists so he would stop clinging to him. He glanced at the others. "Okay, everyone clear this place. Need a minute alone here." They left right away, no one daring to argue, and Bill turned back to Kryptos. "You look like a Cyclocks chewed you and spat you out," he informed him.
Kryptos blinked. "A… what?"
Oh. Right. No way he'd know. "I'll explain later. Lots of explaining to do. You first, though. What about the others?"
"Gone," Kryptos said, and seemed to choke up for a moment. Well, now that wasn't unexpected, but it did put a hamper on the general mood. "They… Tad is gone. Him and Pentos. They were arrested with me, but they tried to escape, and… and I didn't. I should have gone with them, but I was too scared. They didn't even make it out of the city."
Bill wasn't especially sorry about it - Tad had punched him in the eye and really, he should have listened to him when he could have - but he didn't say as much. "Nora burned, didn't she?" was all he said instead. He knew the answer, but he asked anyway.
"Yes. With your store, when they came looking for you. She… she took a dozen of their guards down with her. Even an Hexagon who was supposed to supervise the arrest," Kryptos added, and this time he smiled some. "We always assumed you had been in the shop as well - we thought you were dead."
Bill gave a brief laugh. "Heh! I'm full of surprises."
"They were fuming when news came. Tad wouldn't stop laughing. They hit him so hard that they bent one of his sides, and he still laughed."
Alright, so maybe the guy hadn't been quite the bore Bill had thought him to be. "What about Esther, Randall and C-C-Croatoan? And Hillmann?"
"Hillmann was killed during the arrest. Esther was executed. They made her talk first - I don't know how they got to her, maybe someone was careless and let something slip. I know they took her children. They said they would spare them if she gave them our names."
Except that they hadn't. Kryptos didn't need to say as much for Bill to know it. "So she gave us all away," he said, but he wasn't angry, not really. It was more than some would have done for their kids.
You let them take Liam away!
"They gave her no choice, Bill."
Don't give me that crap. There is always a choice, regardless what the Circles tell everyone. This was mine. Make it worth something.
Nora had willingly killed her own father and herself to buy him time. Esther had given away all of them, even her sister, for the slim hope her children wouldn't be destroyed. A sacrifice in order to save something they deemed more important than anything else. At least for one of them, it hadn't been for nothing.
"Can't blame her," Bill finally said. "Randall and C-C-Croatoan?"
"They escaped, I think. They were never captured. I don't know where they're hiding, or if they're even still alive, and with what's going on…" he paused, blinked, and looked around.
The prison he had languished and the guards who had filled it lay in pieces around them. Not too far away stood creatures he had never seen before. Everything around him, even the sky and his own body, was filled with colors he had never even imagined. In the distance, the once formidable fortress that was the General Assembly Hall was burning. All around them, cheers of the freed prisoners were mixing with the cries of bystanders whose tiny minds still couldn't process what was going on.
Finally, after a long pause, Kyptos' eye turned back him him.
"Bill," he said, "what in the Circles is going on?"
With a shrug, Bill reached to put a hand on his back. "I've come to liberate our dimension, that's what. You're welcome. Have a Martini," he added, snapping his fingers. A glass appeared in Kryptos' hand. He took a look at it, then gave a laugh that was more than slightly unhinged.
"I have no idea what you've been up to, but it's good to see you again," he said, and chugged down the whole glass before throwing it away to shatter among the ruins.
The pieces of the broken hourglass cracking further under boots alerted Time Baby of the arrival of the surviving members of the Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement Squadron - which was to say, all of those who hadn't been in the arena to uselessly try stopping Bill Cipher's rampage.
Time Baby turned to see them lining up before him. "Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement Squadron reporting," one of them spoke up. "If needed, I can have the trainees called to-"
"NO NEED," Time Baby cut him off. Not many of them were left, true, but it didn't matter. They would be enough for the task at hand: all that mattered was doing everything quickly. "LEAVE THEM TO THEIR TRAINING. IT IS NOT A FIGHT YOU'RE HEADED TO. WE CANNOT DESTROY CIPHER."
A few nervous gazes were exchanged. "Then… then what can we do?"
The hourglass on Time Baby's forehead glowed.
"CONTAIN HIM."