Guess who's back - back again! Sorry, couldn't help it with the Eminem reference...

The morning after Independence Day was considerably more laidback and relaxed than its predecessor. The most exciting thing to occur was Angelo barreling his muscular chest into Bill, knocking him aside, and nearly trampling him on his way to hurry to Amy's side after she had called for the horse. It was blatantly obvious to everyone who had witnessed this that the beast had done this intentionally, as he whipped his head around with a delighted whinny and pranced around to Amy's side after doing so.

Considering Bill was the one who had "broken" the horse, Dipper wondered why the animal seemed to have it out for him. None of the other animals seemed bothered by Bill in any way; most of them even liked him. Except for Chuck, the rooster. But he hated everyone aside from Amy. Perhaps Angelo and other Telmak horses were just too intelligent for their own good. Or rather, for Bill's good.

It wasn't until they were all beginning to gather at the front porch to go inside for lunch that something…unsettling happened.

With a loud crack like thunder, a tall woman suddenly appeared in the clearing only a couple of yards away from them all. She smiled broadly, showing brilliantly white teeth and sharpened canines, her black and gold-trimmed dress settling around her as she threw her arms up.

"Good morning, darlings!"

Everyone who had been outside, Dipper, Mabel, Amy, Bill, Teeth, and a human Crusade, stared at her in shock of her sudden, and loud, appearance. Bud had jumped to his paws and was growling at the woman, and no less than a few seconds had passed before Ford, Stan, and Dionysus had thrown the front door open to investigate the sound. Bill appeared the most stunned by her before his surprise was quickly squashed by absolute fury and hatred.

"YOU!" he snarled loudly and those nearest him could have sworn they felt a wave of heat pass over them.

"Me!" She smiled more.

"That's impossible! How are you – I KILLED you!"

"Ah-ah-ah!" She waggled a finger at him, amused by his confusion and feeling giddy from his anger. "You thought you did! But you didn't," she said simply. "If you did, then how could I be here?"

"That's what I'd like to know!"

"That's her!" Dipper pointed at the woman. "That's the lady Mabel and I met on Summerween night! The one that – uh, y-you know…"

Bill suddenly turned on him. "Know what!? What did she do!?"

He cowered under his intense presence. It had been quite some time since they last saw Bill so furiously angry. He hesitated to admit it, "S-She's the one who told us about the Nightshade Amaranth! B-But!" he added quickly, seeing Bill's eye widen, "We didn't know it was dangerous! I swear!"

"It's true!" Mabel added in defense of her brother.

"Oh, dear little brother…" Atë sighed and Bill immediately turned his attention back to her. "You were always so clumsy."

He clenched his fists. "Don't call me that! You're no family to me!"

"Brother?!" Dipper and Mabel said together, expressing everyone's shock. The only one who appeared unfazed by this information was Dionysus, who was watching Atë through narrowed eyes.

"That's your sister?!" Dipper asked.

"Your older sister?" Mabel added.

"Shut up!" he snapped at them and they flinched away from him.

Atë laughed wickedly. She was like a witch, but far prettier than what storybooks would have described them to be. Still, she had the same sinister aura about her that one might associate with a witch, and, as the others were quite certain, magic to boot. Dipper half expected her to pull out a wand to cast spells at them, or worse, transform into some monster. If she was really the sibling of Bill, then…

"Look at you!" she said joyfully. "I think that form rather suits you, don't you?" She flourished her hands down by her sides to gesture at her own appearance. "I took this form to blend in with the humans for now. But you…" She laughed again, her golden earrings bouncing. "You're just pathetic! Some things never change! Hahaha!"

"Watch it, you stupid b-"

"Oh, come now!" She interrupted him, frowning a little and waving her hand dismissively. This seemed to infuriate him even further, if that was even possible… Dipper was ready to grab hold of Mabel's arm and book it if Bill decided to take that big dragon form again.

"How are you alive?!" It was more of a demand than a question. "I killed all of you and destroyed that entire dimension!"

Atë shrugged, rather nonchalantly, and replied in an indifferent but whimsical tone. "I guess you were never really as great as you thought you were. Like I said, clumsy."

This seemed to push him over his limit and Bill suddenly lunged for her. But Atë had vanished and reappeared somewhere else, popping into existence atop the chicken coop. "Oh please," she laughed. "You can't hurt me. You can't even touch me! I have all of my powers, and you…" She lifted her nose and peered down at him smugly. "You're weak! Pathetic! Useless!"

Something about this look that she gave him and her choice of words triggered something in Bill. An unwelcome memory. A deep-seated feeling of hatred so potently powerful that it could hardly remain suppressed for much longer. But…there was truth in what she had said. At this current point in time, he could not challenge her and hope to win, even if he chose to rely on the form Ragnarok had given him so long ago. Besides…In a place like Avas, that form would take up far too much of the power he had been storing. He already lost a good bit when he had protected Amy from Ragnarok.

Bill forced himself to remain as calm as possible, lest he allow his fury to control him and put Amy in danger. He was secretly hoping that Atë would not pay any mind to Amy and that Amy would keep quiet and remain as unnoticeable as possible right now. To his great relief, Amy seemed to be thinking something similar, or perhaps she had just become really good at reading him. Either way, she held her tongue and remained in the crowd near the porch, despite her curiosity and concern.

"So," Bill said through clenched teeth. It was incredibly difficult to control his temper whilst speaking to Atë. Even back then. "You've come to kill me? Revenge?"

"How crude! It's true, I do intend to watch you die. But you know me, little brother. I much prefer to set things in motion and watch from the sidelines rather than actively perform the deed myself. I just adore the suffering of others. Especially when they do it to themselves." She shot Dionysus a knowing, smug look that caused him to tense up and glare harder at her.

"It's true," she continued to Bill, "that you attacked and killed nearly everyone. Even the beta and alpha. That alone is punishable by death. And it's also true that you did completely obliterate our home!" She looked angry for a moment before grinning again. "And that, darling brother, deserves much torture and agony followed by death. I had hoped that the flower would be enough, but…" She sighed. "Oh, if only we could read our own kind like we can others, hm? Then I would have known. But! Nonetheless, I will personally ensure that justice is served. Retribution shall not be pleasant for you, little brother. Oh no. Ah, but that will have to wait for now!" She stepped down from the coop and began to walk away at a brisk pace, her dress flowing after her, then she stopped and turned on her heels to look back at him.

"I only came for a visit," she said, "but I see you hold no remorse or regret over what you did. Naughty thing you are. Certainly deserving of punishment." She raised her left hand high above her to bid farewell and smiled a smile of false friendliness. "I shall return at a later time, sweet brother! Darlings!" She addressed the crowd. "I expect you to take good care of him until my return. Ta-ta!" And with that, she disappeared with another loud crack, leaving nothing behind but her words and uneasy feelings.

Bill was livid. Without a word, he stormed over to the others, snatched Dipper up off the ground by his shirt, and thrust his hand into the boy's vest to retrieve the Enchiridion before he roughly threw him back to the ground.

"Ow! Hey!" Dipper pushed himself back to his feet and dusted himself off. "You could've just asked!"

Bill ignored him and forced the book open. If it had not been magically protected, it might have torn in half from the force with which it had been opened. "How the hell did that bitch survive!?"

The book responded by writing.

Apparently, Bill was not satisfied with its answer and said, "Then what good are you!?"

It did not respond.

Bill inhaled slowly through his nostrils, held his breath for a few seconds, then exhaled before speaking again; much calmer this time. "Okay. Okay… Then, is she the only one? Who else survived? Who's out there?"

Four images began to sketch themselves magically onto the open pages. The first was a black, equilateral triangle, as dark and foreboding as a blackhole, with a golden glow that outlined it. In its center, towards the top, was a single eye with a red slit for a pupil.

The second image was a light blue square with curved corners. It had two sad eyes and a small frown on its face.

"That guy!?" Bill said upon seeing it.

The third drawing was some kind of monster made up of pink spiky circles standing up in order from smallest to largest, the smallest being the tip of its tail and the biggest being its head. It had a mischievous look in its eyes and a sharp-toothed grin. Its hands and feet were like large round paws tipped with pointed claws.

And the fourth was drawn much larger than the others. It was a big, dark blue (nearly black) circle with crazy red and yellow eyes and a huge toothy grin. Atop it was what resembled some sort of crown and a pair of small, slightly curled horns.

Bill looked stunned at this one. "What?! Bates is –"

Before he could finish, the Enchiridion flipped a page and began sketching something else. It took up the entirety of both pages to draw out the serpentine body. In the center of the pages, it drew the head of some frightening beast of a monster. With two angled red eyes with pink vertical pupils, two sets of long fangs protruding from its upper jaw, and sharp spikes all over its black body, it resembled some sort of limbless horrid cross between a snake, a crocodile, and a centipede. Judging by the Enchiridion's drawing, it was also huge.

Bill stared at the image, stunned and seemingly lost for words. Finally, he found them. "No," he said. "That's not possible. I killed them! I killed HIM! With my own hands, I killed him!"

As the drawing faded away into the pages, the book began to write to him. Bill stared at the words, mouth slightly agape, then he slammed the book shut and thrust it back into Dipper's arms, nearly winding the boy.

"Bill," Amy said as he walked away towards the trees. "Are you okay? Where are you going?" She sounded concerned.

As if surprised by the note of concern in her tone, he halted abruptly and turned to stare at her. "I have to go check on something," he told her, his head slightly tilted to the side. "I'm going to Telmak." He turned to leave and was stopped once again by her voice.

"Are you okay?" she asked a second time.

"…" He considered her carefully for a moment before replying. "I don't know yet." He turned. "I'll be back later." Then, he strode off into the forest out of sight.

"Was that lady really his sister?" Mabel asked, looking up at Dionysus.

He nodded; he was looking far more serious than they had known him to be. "Yes. But like him, I thought that witch was dead."

"Wouldn't he have known there were survivors?" Ford inquired. "I mean, before now, he was capable of seeing and knowing many things. Not everything perhaps, but close to it. I would think he would have known this much."

"No," Dionysus sighed. "You see, all of Bill's kind had, er, have what is referred to as an 'all-seeing eye'. Of course, depending on their level of power, some are more 'all-seeing' than others. It gives them a sort of…omnipotent sight. But like I said, their personal power determines what, and how much, they can see. Some beings are too powerful and naturally block the power of the all-seeing eye. For example, they cannot use it to 'see' their own kind. Ragnarok and the other great dragons, Gaia, Valor, and Ouroboros, would be immune as well." He looked and pointed at Amy. "And, for some odd reason, so are you. Well, partly, at least. Though, I had an idea of why…"

She looked a bit surprised and curious but did not say anything in response.

"Personally, I have no problem with Bill," Dionysus continued, "but Atë… I despise her with every fiber of my being. Nearly as much as he does."

"Why do you hate her so much?" Mabel asked.

He sighed. "Because of Ampelos…"

"Huh?"

"I loved him very dearly. More than I can put into words."

"Ohh," Mabel said. "What happened?"

"Atë happened," he said darkly. "Trickery and deceit run in their family, but she was the most…adept at it. You see, Bill, although insane and violent, mainly makes deals and acts to benefit himself and his own well-being. His insanity just allows him to enjoy most of it… But he has a general reason for what he does and has done. Atë, on the other hand, simply takes pleasure in the suffering of others. Their suffering, their struggle, their downfall, and, ultimately, their death. Even her own brother… Even Bill has some sympathy, even empathy, within him, believe it or not. But Atë does not. None whatsoever. She never has."

"Like a sociopath?" Dipper asked.

"Sort of. But she does feel genuine joy from watching others suffer. Anyways… My poor dear Ampelos was just one of her many victims. There was once a great beast of a shadow that took the form of a bull. It rampaged and roved over the fields and crops, gouging or trampling anyone that came near it. It was one of the unique and obscenely powerful shadows. They had been trying to work out how to destroy it for months.

Somehow, Atë managed to put it into Ampelos' mind that he could take on that beast. She made sure that this would all occur in time for me to arrive and witness it, but not soon enough for me to prevent it. The bull gored him to death with its horns before running away to terrorize the local village. I was so devastated I turned his blood to wine and sent his soul up to the sky as a constellation."

"Aw," Mabel cooed. "That's so romantic and sad…"

Crusade was watching Dionysus closely. After a few minutes, he looked away at nothing in particular and said, "You know, that last drawing… The big guy that the book labeled as 'Alpha'. He looked a hell of a lot like the World Eater."

Dionysus thought for a moment, a tad surprised. "He did, didn't he?"

"What the heck is the World Eater?" Stan asked.

"I've heard mention of it before," Ford mused. "Back when I was stuck traveling through dimensions… Many people described it as a giant serpent in the sky that ate planets and devoured light." He looked to Dionysus and Crusade. "Is that correct?"

"Not quite," Crusade replied, "but close. Then again, we don't know much about him ourselves. I can give you a little history lesson about Telmak that talks about the World Eater."

"Very well." He gestured for him to continue, eager to know more about Telmak either way.

Crusade nodded. "Well, it starts with Star Pelt. When you went to Telmak at night, did you notice that there was no moon?"

"Yeah," Dipper said. "Now that you mention it… The stars are pretty bright though, so it's almost like there's a full moon's light."

"Mm-hm. Telmak is a world of magic and is very different from Avas. Your world, er, this planet, has a core of magma and heat. Telmak does not."

"It doesn't? Then, what is the core? How is Telmak warm? How is it -"

Crusade held up a finger to silence him. "The core is…Telmak!"

He flinched.

"You see, Telmak is actually the name of a giant slumbering spirit in the shape of a dragon. Long ago, Telmak formed a massive carapace of rock around itself. Then, Telmak's sibling Aquarius filled the exterior crevices and pits with water. He formed the rivers, lakes, and seas. Then, Gaia, who had been placed by the Original One to protect Telmak, used her magic to create life on Telmak. Originally, Telmak sat in eternal nighttime, it's only source of heat was the third sibling that surrounded it with its body. A massive spirit once called Nightwatcher. The dark blue was her pelt and the moon was her eye. These three are some of the only immortal spirits. All other spirits, though they live a very long time, will eventually die. And when they die, their light, no matter where it is, returns to Telmak where they become a star on Nightwatcher's pelt.

Telmak is the birthplace of magic, and spirits are made of magic. How fitting is it that a colossal spirit blankets that world and acts as a final resting place for spirits? Then, one day, a big monster called World Eater showed up. They say it looked like a snake in the sky. That big jerk would come and eat the stars from Nightwatcher's body. It was stealing spirits and their power!"

"Did it stop?" Mabel gasped.

"Only after Dawnbringer showed up," Crusade said with a wink. "See, Nightwatcher got tired of World Eater pretty quick, so one day, from her magic moonlight eye, fell a great flaming bird that lit Nightwatcher's eye on fire!"

"Didn't that hurt?"

"Nope! Nightwatcher's eye became Telmak's sun, and World Eater fled in fear of its burning light. After that, Dawnbringer promised to chase away any other threats that entered that world. Nightwatcher was renamed Star Pelt, as she began to close her eye and sleep, matching nighttime with part of Avas. Now, during the day, when Star Pelt is awake, she lifts her head up high to light the world with her burning eye and keep World Eater away. At night, when she sleeps, she closes her eye and the spirits light the way in the darkness."

"Fascinating!" Ford was writing everything in a notebook.

"Is that all true?" Dipper asked.

Crusade shrugged. "I mean, I wasn't born yet, but there are lots of dragons still around that were there. Gaia was there too, and I'm sure you could always ask Dawn."

"So," Ford said. "The sun of Telmak does not move to the other side?"

"Nope. She just closes it."

"And Telmak does not rotate?"

"Nope."

"So, that means that one side of Telmak is left in eternal nighttime?"

"Yup! But Star Pelt's body is the source of heat, not her eye. So, that side is almost as equally warm as the other side. There are no seasons anywhere on Telmak. The different biomes and weather are results of magic from the different types of dragons and creatures living in those areas. There are no polar caps. It just so happens that the north is where the icy folks chose to live. Uh, but yeah. Like I said, that story has the World Eater in it, but it doesn't explain much about him."

"We can just ask the book," Mabel suggested.

Dipper nodded. "Okay. Let's go inside first. …I'm hungry."

"Me too," Teeth said.

Crusade eyed him. "Are you ever not hungry?"

Teeth seemed to be contemplating it for a bit before shrugging. "Nope."

…

"What do you mean you won't tell me!?" Bill snapped.

Without being able to use his all-seeing eye, he had no way of reading these dragons' minds to figure out where his target was. The Enchiridion had only told him that he was taking refuge somewhere on Telmak but refused to give him any specific locations. So, Bill had to resort to asking the local dragons for information on his whereabouts. Lucky for him, he encountered two of them fairly soon after arriving. One was laying on its belly, stretched over a large boulder and basking in the sun, while the other was curled up in the soft grass. The unlucky part was that neither of them would give him any specifics either.

"Sorry pal," said the big green dragon laying on the boulder. "Apollo is on Telmak, yeah, but he's also under Gaia's protection."

"What?! Why?"

He shrugged. "Beats me. Frankly, I don't really care. Him being here doesn't affect us in any way."

"Why do you want to find him?" the other dragon asked. He was beige colored with a silver underbelly and golden horns. "Didn't you try to kill him before?"

"I thought I did kill him…" Bill muttered.

"Exactly. You hate him and want him dead, right?"

He did not respond.

"That's why we're not allowed to tell you where he is."

"You really think I'm not willing to scour this entire damn world to find that traitorous bastard?"

The green dragon spoke again. "Oh, we don't doubt that. Heck, I'd probably do the same if it were me. But! Like we said, he's under Gaia's protection. And for a reason."

"What reason?" he snapped at the dragons.

They both shrugged. "It's not our place to know or worry about it."

"And, as dragons, you're content with that?" Bill seemed bewildered by this.

The beige dragon tilted his head. "Sure. In fact, we kind of forgot about him until you showed up asking about him."

"If Gaia says it's okay," the green one said, "then who are we to question it? We're just a pair of omegas. We're content with our lives. Whatever that Apollo guy is doing here is none of our concern. Look," he said before Bill could retaliate, "we get it. We really do. We might never know exactly how you feel, but we still understand it. But you get on with Gaia pretty well, right? You know how she is. I get that you must want your revenge. You thought you had it and now you've found out that you never did. That must be really agitating. But… When you thought you had your revenge, were you really happy with it?"

"Yes!"

"Really?"

"… I don't know!" He threw his hands up and turned away from them, muttering darkly under his breath.

"Well," the dragon said, "either way, that's all we can tell you. If you do try to go looking for him, you should know that he has a sort of…bodyguard. Even you would have a tough time with that guy."

"It's one of Telmak's alphas, isn't it?"

He nodded. "Yup!"

Bill sighed heavily. "You know what," he said after a minute. "That guy's not even worth my time. The worthless coward. I should be far more concerned over the others…"

"Others?" The dragons exchanged curious looks.

"Thanks for your time," Bill told them. "I'm going to go talk to Gaia about something."

"Oh, all right then."

"Farewell Mr. Cipher."

…

July 5th

That woman called Atë… She's Bill's older sister! Bill apparently killed his own people and destroyed his world however long ago. He believed her to be dead like the others, but she survived somehow along with four others. Even Bill was shocked about it. She showed up in the clearing today just to tease Bill and belittle him. He got super ticked off about it. Then, she left after promising to come back and make him suffer to death. Sheesh. Talk about a mean older sister.

After she disappeared, Bill stormed off for Telmak for whatever reason, saying he'd be back later. He just got back, actually. Amy was so relieved and happy to see him, and he looked kind of confused about it at first.

Anyways, while he was gone, Mabel and I got the Enchiridion to tell us a bit more about Bill's past and those five survivors. It wouldn't show us. It only wrote it out and Crusade had to read it to us.

Basically, it told us how the world Bill came from and its residents were very critical and harsh. They had a strange system in place that was all about power. Anyone considered weak or inferior for any reason was treated like complete garbage. Even by their own family. Physical and magical weakness were some examples, but they also saw empathy and general kindness as weaknesses too. Only the strongest offspring were given any affection or attention. The weakest offspring was not ignored, but was belittled and attacked. Amazingly, Bill was apparently one of the weak ones. Not only physically, but because he actually displayed empathy towards others. I can hardly believe it honestly…

As such, he was treated…very poorly, to put it lightly. He came to hate that world and the people, even his own family. Nothing he ever did was good enough, and his sister was the worst one when it came to messing with him. They let the weak ones live only to entertain themselves with attacking them…

Bill did have one friend though. This blue square guy called Apollo. He was also a misfit. Too much empathy, apparently.

The Enchiridion told us how they planned to find a way to overthrow their leaders, the beta and alpha, and steal their power. It turns out that all immortal creatures can absorb the power of other immortals that they kill. Somewhere in the middle of it all though, Apollo chickened out and turned on Bill. He was too afraid that he was going to die, that the beta was going to kill him, so he attacked Bill to stay under their leaders' good sides and save himself. Bill didn't take that very well it seems…

After having killed and stolen the power of several other people, Bill managed to get just enough power for himself to beat them all, though the alpha nearly did him in. Then, he destroyed that whole dimension. It's just a blackhole now. We still don't know how those five survived or where they are. The alpha is apparently a monster the dragons call the World Eater, but they haven't seen him in a long time. The Enchiridion said that it's not allowed to tell future things, but it did tell us that the only one we needed to worry about for now was Atë. But how long is for now?

Atë

Apollo

Lycan

Bates (beta)

World Eater (alpha)

We still haven't even figured out what's going to happen when it comes to Ragnarok…

To be continued…

So, as the Enchiridion said, the only one to worry about right now is Atë. The others will not be making proper appearances in this story. They come in to play in the sequel that I will write eventually.