CHAPTER 15

The cabin shook as Bill came to in a flash, opening his eyes to the white walls of the cabin alongside his luxurious first-class accommodations, and Stanford's terrified expression. The scientist's rageful, brown eyes were as cold and hardened as a slab of steel. Bill sneered - just how liked them.

The demon smiled as he lunged for the man's neck.

Ford gasped as he narrowly avoided his possessed brother's hands, Bill's cat-like, electric eyes piercing his gaze like a rusty knife. Ford's instincts suddenly kicked in, and his clenched fist flew for Bill's stolen jaw. The man's stomach twisted as he quickly justified that Stan wouldn't mind…

"Kkkkkch - flight crew, brace for landing - kkkkkch…"

Ford's arm was suddenly pulled backwards as his whole body was pulled swiftly back into his seat. Bill gasped as the wheels of the plane brushed the concrete runway beneath them, his fingers clenched over the armrests and his pupils darting about like a frightened animal. Both of them grimaced as the plane barrelled down the runway, gravity quite effectively thwarting their attempts at violence.

The vehicle finally began to slow, and Ford exhaled as he looked towards Bill. His stomach still twisted into a tight knot, he readied himself to subdue the demon, but it no longer seemed necessary. Bill had grown still, staring out the closest, circular airplane window at the lifeless trees beyond the tarmac. Even from here, Ford could see the frost overtaking the grass beside the runway. The plane's heated air felt frigid as he looked to Bill Cipher's familiar vessel, his brother's limbs stiff as Bill sat in a terribly foreboding, ice-cold silence.

Ford gulped as the airplane pulled to a full stop, and a *ding* rang out as the seatbelt sign flickered off.

A collection of metal clasps clicked open in unison as the passengers began to stretch out and emerge from their first-class cocoons. Ford's heart pumped like a pounding, deafening drum in his ears as he stood up, his hands moving towards the clamp on the overhead storage bin like a zombie. In a flurry of other people's hands and flashes of fabric and wheeled bags, Ford located his bag and pulled hard as it tumbled out and fell hard against his chest. Now he just had to retrieve the bag from Bill's aisle and…

Ford sputtered as he looked to the empty seat beside his own.

Empty.

"B- Stan?!" Ford yelped, his voice cracking as he frantically scanned the emptying aisles, people brushing by him as he stood there slack jawed. His head began to swim as words tumbled out of his mouth to emptying passengers, mumbling if anyone had seen his brother. He was met with shaking heads and rolled eyes, realizing instantly that his disjointed words must've sounded like the ramblings of a crazed, old man.

He had to pull himself together. Bill was loose in the Seattle airport, and their plane was leaving in two hours.

He had two hours to find Bill. Or for Bill to find him.

In a moment of clarity, he realized it could have been worse. Bill had taken the wrong bag - Ford still had the carry-on full of his inventions and tools. All Bill had was clothes, shampoo, and spare razors. If Bill had gotten his hands on Ford's bag… to put it lightly, people might have been evacuating the airport, or much worse...

He took a deep breath before striding down the aisle, his steely gaze not meeting that of the familiar male attendant standing by the door, shooting the older man a smile as he walked off the plane and into the adjoining metal corridor.

"Thank you for flying Theta Airlines!"

Bill whistled quietly to himself, lightly swinging the carry-on bag in his hand while hordes of passengers hurried past him. He smiled as he spotted a nearby washroom and, with a spring in his step, flung the door open and strolled inside.

The fluorescent lights flickered against the white tiled walls. Bill tilted over until he could see under the stalls.

Empty.

Good, he thought to himself - he didn't need any nosy-parkers listening in on his upcoming, highly anticipated conversation. Bill couldn't help himself as he started to chuckle, his high-pitched laughter bouncing off the bleached tiles.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his newly-snatched prize. His eyes glistened as he stared down at the shiny new toy in his hand, and wondered if Ford would even realize that his precious cell phone had suddenly gone missing...

Ford's eyes scanned the airport map, flitting back and forth between gates and shops and restaurants and taxi zones… it was possible that Bill could hitch a ride in a taxi off to who knows where, but it seemed unlikely. Bill, like himself, needed to get back to Gravity Falls so he could get back home - in Bill's case, to the Nightmare Realm. Or so Bill thought anyways…

Memories flooded Ford's thoughts unceremoniously… painful memories of the strange, in-between realm of shadows and swirling foam… of Cipher's laughter bouncing off of asteroids… Ford growled as he clenched his fists.

"You need to snap out of this! Stanley needs you right now..." he murmured strictly, shaking away the haunting visions of his past.

That was then. This was now. And right now, his brother's body was missing.

He thought hard for a moment as he looked at the map again. No doubt this was one of Bill's childish games. Perhaps a keyword from the gates spelled out some kind of Cipher… or perhaps he was stalking the man right now from behind the concrete pillars...

He glanced up at the screen above him, noting the departing times for upcoming flights. The flight to Portland was an hour and a half away by now. Ford could feel himself sweating under the pressure, but that was okay - he could feel the gears in his mind beginning to turn.

Afterall, since when was he one to back away from a challenge?

Bill crouched atop a toilet seat, the stall door locked, while he stared at the lock screen of Stanford's phone. He didn't exactly have long - he had a few more things to do before Sixer found him, and he did still have to call in that favor that the gnomes owed him, but cracking the security code on Ford's phone couldn't be that difficult. Sixer was incredibly predictable, after all.

"Six letters, huh? Easy…" Bill smirked as he scoffed, cracking his neck back and forth before entering the letters on the touch screen.

A-U-T-H-O-R

The screen flashed to life as it displayed the main page. He was in. Bill yawned dramatically.

He quickly tapped the 'call' button and started scrolling through Ford's contact list. This would be a piece of cake. He had helped invent this piece of junk after all…

"Come on, where is it?" Bill muttered to himself as he looked alphabetically through the names, finding himself stumped at the empty 'D' section. "No… are Pine Tree and Fordsy on a first name basis now?! How adorable!"

Bill snickered as he selected Pine Tree's real, embarrassingly stupid name. This was gonna be like taking candy from a paranoid, sweaty, hormonal baby.

He could hardly contain himself as the dial tone began to ring through to the other end.

One ring. Two rings. Thr-

"Great Uncle Ford?"

Bill bit his tongue as he smiled.

"Great Uncle Ford, it's… ughh… four in the morning… Oh-oh my gosh, is something wrong?" Dipper's voice cracked through the line, panic starting to overtake his voice as he tried not to nod off. Bill tried not to laugh at how constantly paranoid the young teen was, not that Pine Tree didn't have a reason to be. The demon cleared his vessel's throat, readying his best Stanford Pines impersonation. "H-hello?"

"Pin - uh, Dipper, my boy!" Bill corrected himself quickly, adjusting his feet on the edge of the toilet seat. "How's my favorite great nephew doing these days?"

"Fine, I guess?" Dipper responded with an air of uncertainty. "Grunkle Ford, you know what time it is, right?"

"Oh yes, yes, I apologize for calling at this hour - still on Icelandic time, I fear!" Bill rattled on, rolling his eyes at human kind's fragile sleep structure. "And nothing is wrong at all, my boy! Actually, I have some incredible news to…"

"Ugh… stupid, I completely forgot!" Dipper suddenly interrupted him, along with what sounded like Pine Tree's hand slapping against his forehead. Bill frowned at the boy's apparently miniscule attention span. "What's the password?"

Bill blinked his wide yellow eyes as his balance on the seat wavered.

Password?

The demon cringed as his stupid vessel's body broke into a sweat. A password… damn it! Ford had set up preemptive security measures with the boy and everything! And who knew how many other people were in on this? He had to think of something, and quick. Ford was predictable, simple… it had to be something the old man and Pine Tree had in common… Bill squeezed his eyes closed as he tried the first thing that came to mind.

"With pen and paper, shield and sword, our quest shall be our sweet reward!" he proclaimed confidently. The line was silent for what seemed like an eternity as Bill waited for something, anything… Dipper suddenly began to chuckle awkwardly.

"Uh, yep, that's it! We're good!" the teen spoke. Bill shook his head as he silently chortled. This was just too easy… "Now, what were you saying again, Grunkle Ford?" Bill's eyes glinted under the halogens.

"Oh, I was just going to say that I have some great news!" Bill said, lowering his voice as he heard someone open the bathroom door. He took a quick peek under the stall at the mystery person's shoes - not Ford's. "I managed to pull some strings with the airline and I got us on an earlier flight home! We're should be home to the Mystery Shack in just a few hours, which, by my calculations, means that if you and Sho-uh, Mabel leave on a bus to Gravity Falls first thing in the morning, we can celebrate Thanksgiving together just like we planned!"

The line was silent for a moment.

"Wow, that's great!" the boy finally responded, Bill biting his lip in victory. "I mean, as long as my parents are okay with it, this is kinda last minute..."

"Of course, of course," the demon responded, nodding for extra effect. He cleared his throat. "Though, I do have some incredible specimens from Norway… much more interesting when they're fresh…" he trailed off, smirking as the teenager paused.

"Specimens, huh?" Dipper replied, the teen tersely wavering for an unbearably long moment. Bill crossed his fingers, hoping that he'd reeled in the big kahuna...

The young man exhaled and answered with fire in his voice, "Yeah, we'll be there."

Ford's exhausted, glassy eyes squinted at the storefront sign in the distance, his feet stomping across the tiled ground. He'd investigated every possible hidden code, every hint of a clue, every vaguely triangular sign, and he'd found nothing. That's when Ford realized that Bill wouldn't have wasted his time creating some clever treasure map for Ford to follow - instead, it'd be much easier to allow the man to jump to the conclusion of a complicated Cipher (which Stanford did, to the letter) and choose a simple hiding spot just to further tick Stanford off, which it had.

The glass door to the Spiffy Gentleman's Attire shop swung wide open with a flurry of chiming bells, and Ford spotted his brother's stolen body in the back of the shop, standing by the mirrors.

A tailor at his feet, along with a couple empty paper cups of that famous Seattle coffee, Cipher stood in a fitted black suit, bowtie, and a silken top hat atop his grizzled, grey head. A razor thin smile marked Bill's cracked lips as he met Stanford's piercing gaze in the mirror's reflection, his physical twin looking like a bat out of hell.

"You," Ford growled as he marched towards the demon, who waved his hand quickly to the tailor - a fancy 'get lost.' Bill swooped down and snapped up a shiny, bronze cane, leaning on it with a smirk as Ford came to a stop in front of him. With a huff, the carry-on promptly fell to the ground with a clatter, the man panting like an angry hound. "Explain yourself. NOW."

"What? Can't a guy change up his look now and then? I mean, ya gotta admit, the hat is so me…"

Bill flinched as Ford reached out and grabbed him by the back of his fancy suit collar and, rather unceremoniously, began dragging him toward the glass doors on the demon's heels.

"H-hey! What do you think you think you're doing?! I haven't paid for any of this yet!" Bill yelped, breaking Ford's grip on the suit as he dusted the suit jacket off, lowering his voice. "I mean, I'm all in if you want to commit a robbery, but…"

"Do you think this is some kind of game, Cipher?" Ford hissed, grabbing hold of Bill's suit lapels as he glared into the demon's shining eyes. "Taking off with Stan's body in a high security airport after you tore my brother away from reality mid flight?"

"Oh, excuse me, Mr. Roofie," Bill snarled back, pushing Ford off of him with the butt of his cane. Ford's nostrils flared as the demon adjusted his hat. "I mean, I'm fairly impressed that you managed to conspire with someone trapped in his own mindscape, or, heh, should I say, nightmare-scape." Bill's eyes glinted as his mouth curled into a nasty smile. Ford clenched his fists, minding himself as several customers walked past them, some of which were already eyeing the twins suspiciously. "Careful now, Fordsy - you don't wanna get thrown outta here by security, now do you?"

Ford let out a pained breath as he stepped away from the demon and defeatedly made his way to the cash register.

"We'll take everything he's wearing," Stanford muttered to the gentleman behind the counter, who smiled as he began to ring them up. Bill grinned as he leaned on his cane, silently slipping Ford's cell phone back into the man's pants pocket as Bill glanced up inconspicuously at the gold-rimmed clock above the glass doors. "We've got a flight to catch."

Time stood still as Bill sat aboard the flight to Oregon, Ford silently melding with a pocket laser in the seat beside him. Bill eyed the metalloid-plastic pieces with disdain, his mind whirring as the operation drew closer by the hour. By now, Pine Tree and Shooting Star would be on their way to Gravity Falls on a rickety, old bus, just as Bill and Ford would soon be.

He practically itched with curiosity at what would be waiting for him in town. A county-wide tackle as he stepped off the bus steps? Tomatoes and a stockade? No… not in the body of the town hero - Stan was somebody they respected nowadays.

Bill clenched his teeth as the plane dipped to the right, the aircraft circling the landing strip before its eventual touchdown. Ford silently packed up his inventions, stowing them before the flight attendants could hassle him about this flight violation and that safety concern… Bill glanced over at the man as he took out his cell phone, the demon grinning as Ford eyed the empty 'recent calls' page - the one Bill had been sure to clear before he returned Ford's little toy to him.

The demon grimaced as the air pressure changed, and he tried to swallow the lump in his throat that he hadn't noticed was there. He closed his eyes as his feeble vessel rode out the pressure on his sinuses, and opened his eyes promptly as he felt drowsiness begin to set in. Even though sleep shouldn't have been anywhere in sight after all that coffee, the massive amount of juice powering Stan's nightmare-scape was stealing energy by the second. If he was going to keep Fez thoroughly tied up until showtime, Bill was going to need to keep himself well caffeinated - perhaps he'd try his hand at mixing up some Mabel Juice. A nap was one thing, but there was no way he was giving Stan another six-to-eight hour window to play prison-break.

As the plane sped down the runway and the two of them rode out the change in gravity, Ford grabbed a handful of Bill's flashy new suit jacket in his clenched fist, and it didn't look like he was letting go anytime soon.

It seemed as if the demon had barely blinked when it was time to disembark the tin can. Ford's grip on the suit jacket was still iron-clad as they waited for the rest of the passengers to move along. The man's toe began tapping irritably. There was still so much to do. Finishing his components of the machine on the commute, assembling the machine in the basement, test runs, making sure Bill didn't set the Mystery Shack on fire in the meantime…

Time blurred as the two of them fetched their suitcases from the carousel, Bill only briefly riding around the luggage loop like a maniac. If anything, it helped steer Ford's thoughts away from his brother, and what hell he was being put through as the consequence of their actions. If Cipher hadn't been in the body of his twin, Ford would've strangled him thrice-over already. Bill's conniving yellow eyes mocked him on the face of his brother… it was the only thing that reminded him of what he was fighting for in the midst of this insanity.

Within a day, Cipher would be banished to the deepest pits of hell, worse than where he'd come from - Ford would be sure of that. Stanley would be surrounded by friends, and the two of them would have their first Thanksgiving together after a lifetime apart. They'd video chat the kids, and share their stories of the open seas… they'd be a family again.

Within what only seemed like moments, they had loaded their luggage onto the bus and sat tensely beside one another, each bristling with mad energy. Bill was confined to the window seat, and silently stared out at the swaying pine trees in the distance. Pocket laser in hand, Ford pinched the bridge of his nose before pulling out his half-finished module. Four hours would be more than enough time to assemble his section of the machine. Working atop his lap would just have to do. He glanced to his right, Bill taking another sip from his third or fourth coffee of the day - Ford had lost count. Whatever he was doing to Stanley was causing Bill a tremendous amount of energy loss. He could only hope that whatever horrors Stan was fighting through, he'd come out swinging on the other side…

A cold wind swept across bare skin. The hairs on Stanley's neck stood up at attention like little soldiers.

Stan opened his eyes.

The smell of burnt hair and copper filled the air like poison. He tried not to gag as he spun around, trying to figure out where in the world he was… or how he got there… All he could see was an inky blackness surrounding him, like a hazy, steaming oil slick shifting before his eyes - an infinite, dense, shimmering fog. He coughed as he raised a hand above his brow, trying to peer into the distance.

"Ford?" he called into the darkness. And the darkness answered.

"Stanley! Stanley, help me!"

The fog swirled before Stan's eyes as the voice echoed around him, circling him like heavy drapes before an image formed out of the void, and suddenly…

He was home, in the basement lab below the shack.

The three-sided portal that had haunted him for half his life stood before him like a monolith. Frost crept down the sides like lace, and Stan shivered as he zipped up his tattered winter jacket, the shoulders still damp with snow.

…Snow?

He reached back and startled at the feeling of hair against his neck. The same long, dishevelled hair of his twenties, that stupid mullet…

"Stanley! Stanley, help me!"

Stan spun around at the sound of the same voice again, the voice he suddenly realised was that of his twin brother.

"Stanford! Where are you?" he called out desperately, spinning around like top until finally, he looked upwards. Above him, mid air, his brother hovered in the gravitational pull of the gateway, Bill's invisible hand clenched around his brother.

Stan snarled, his fists clenched. This time would be different.

He knew he only had a few seconds to spare, but Stan knew exactly what to do. He'd had thirty years to study the machines his brother had left behind. He'd taught himself crude programming skills, read Physics-For-Dummies cover to cover, four times! This would be a piece of ca-

"Uh, uh, uh!" a high-pitched voice swelled through the shadows. Stan's skin crawled as time suddenly halted, mid-second.

Stan looked up in horror at his twin, dangling mid-air and frozen in time, reaching out desperately for his brother.

Stanley suddenly realised this wasn't just a memory, or a dream. In flashes, his memory was starting to come back… . Ford's terrified eyes darted about the room, and finally settled on Stan as the mulleted man stood there, gawking, and unable to move as he tried to will his foggy mind to put the pieces together...

"Now, now, Stanley - we can't have you changing history!" the voice cried out again, snaking through the darkness. Stan tried in vain to fight the vice grip on his body that held him in place, seething as the voice slithered past his face. "Your brother and I have a little date in my slice of the interdimensional plain! And I can't have you third-wheeling it up."

The portal began crackling, hot sparks flying as the ring began spinning faster and faster, until the lines became blurred and colors burst from the seams. Stan and his twin squinted from the light until, with a flash, a triangular figure whirling a golden cane emerged with a faint *pop.*

"Ah, both Stans reunited at last, and in an environment I can fully control! It's a dream come true," Bill smirked as he floated in front of the brothers, Ford shrinking in fear before the demon. Stanley remembered what little Stanford had told him about Bill's reign of terror on him in his days before the portal. This Stanford was a victim, frozen in time. Stanley finally managed to open his mouth and drew in a starved breath before snarling at the demon.

"You leave my brother alone! Us and the kids already defeated you, you three-sided freak! What is this, some kinda nightmare or somethin'?" he asked, looking around. Bill sighed as he pitched his eye in frustration.

"Oh, come on, Fez, I thought we'd already been through the memory loss thing! You don't even remember how you got here, do you? Ugh, you humans and your trauma, let me tell you..." Bill tisked, crossing his arms as he floated before Stanley, who stared back rather blankly. "I'm hurt, Stanley! And after all the good times we had together! I guess no one appreciates good old electrotherapy anymore…"

"Electro… oh god," Stanley breathed in quiet horror. Bill's eye creased upwards as he strolled across an imaginary floor, mid-air, away from Stanley as his memory flooded, and his body started to ache. "My body… Stanford! What is this? If this is supposed to scare me, it's not working, pal! I already made peace with my past, this is just a memory!"

Bill chuckled as he snapped his fingers and the portal slowly started sucking Stanford away.

"No! Let him go, Bill!" Stan suddenly protested, but Bill wagged his finger.

"Sorry, no can do. You said it yourself, Stan - this is just a memory," he said, turning his back on the man before floating away, but not before turning his head back at the man with an upturned eye. "But I can show you something that isn't."

Stanley looked to the demon, eyes fearful, as Bill snapped his fingers.

Stan cried out as the unwelcomely familiar tendrils coiled around his body, slamming him down to the ground. Bill circled him like a hungry shark.

"I gotta tell you, Fez, fitting the bill of 'Stan's worst nightmare' was tougher than I thought. I mean, I'm the master of the mind and even I had a hard time pinning something down! You don't care about your future, since you already resolved yourself to lose all your memories just so you could 'kill' me, hehe. And other than the tired cliche of hurting those Pines brats or your brother, and that heights thing I already took advantage of, I was drawing a blank, but then I got to thinking…"

Cipher stopped in front of him and dramatically motioned to the portal, and to Ford, whose desperate pleas grew louder as he got closer and closer to the border between dimensions.

"It seems like somebody hasn't been showing and telling his twin about the thirty years worth of memories and scars they accumulated in the big, bad multiverse! I didn't seem very fair to me, especially since you've been so forthcoming with Sixer lately, what with the voices in your head and all…"

"You were haunting my mind!" Stan shot back, but Bill waved it off.

"How long have you been sailing away on your little dream boat? Three months? And all the while, every time Stanford turned a corner with a frown or a flinch, you'd wonder just what terrible secrets he was keeping from you! Why he didn't trust you enough to just tell you! And don't bother telling me it's not true - I saw it all for myself…" Bill chuckled as Ford cried out.

"Stanley! Stanley! Do something! STANLEY!"

His journal fell to the floor where it skidded toward Bill. Stan bared his teeth.

"This isn't real, this isn't real…" the man repeated to himself like a desperate prayer, trying to turn his head away as Ford started to disappear.

"Well, today's your lucky day!" Cipher announced, motioning with his cane towards the portal, glowing white as Stanford was absorbed into the abyss. "Today you get to witness exactly what you subjected your brother to for thirty years! Stanford being my favourite pawn and all, I kept a close EYE on him while he scrambled from place to place."

Stan's eyes widened as the white doorway of the portal suddenly darkened and lightning crashed through the opening. The room grew dark, and the doorway suddenly displayed flickering slides in sepia tone - 10, 9, 8, 7...

"Let's start at the beginning, though, shall we?" Cipher spoke again, as the slides continued to count down - 6, 5, 4… "Right from the moment Stanford the scientist came crashing through the interdimensional gateway into my humble abode!"

The tendrils were wound around his body so tightly that he couldn't turn his gaze away, and even when he closed his eyes, the view was the same - the bright, flickering portal counting down to the very thing that had haunted him for most of his adult life. Now it was right in front of him, and as curious and haunted by the truth as he'd been, he didn't want to find out like this… without Ford by his side, without his brother's trust. Cipher's laughed boomed through his head.

3, 2, 1.

*AUTHOR'S NOTE*

Hey folks! Long time no see! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and sorry it was so delayed! Life just doesn't let up :) As always, I love hearing your thoughts so don't hesitate to leave a comment/theory/paranoid ramble behind! I write back to everything. Two left after this one (I think, lol) - it's about to get REAL. See ya next time! :)