A/N: WOOOOOOO SORRY FOR THE TWO YEAR WAIT GUYS! but Chapter 16 is finally done!
Time for me to reply to the anons- (I've been wanting to for TWO YEARS NOW)

Unipuggy333: Thanks! but Idk if you've finished reading this because that's the only review you've done. ;3; You'll see more of that side of Luz definitely.

chapin94: Depends on where you look.

Idk: Lol what?

VoodootheSilk: King looks like Bill before puberty? that's a neat take. And since this story happens before he discovers his WEH roar, I probably won't include that. Sorry ;3;

Guest: Mmmmmmm... interesting. :3

Angelwings2002: Thank you! you'll be even more surprised with this one. :3

aND with that, read on, my fellow readers! read on!

Another Form, Another Time
Chapter Sixteen: An Exchange of Stories

A couple hours later, Luz sat on the bed in the attic, staring at the small piece of Emperor Belos's mask that still hung around her neck even now. She wondered how Eda and Hooty were doing. She wondered how her friends were doing. But in order to know, she'd have to leave this place behind. She sighed.

King stuck by her side, sipping at yet another cup of hot chocolate and staring at the piece she was also staring at. He frowned, narrowing his eyes and slightly nuzzling her arm. Luz glanced at him finally, smiling weakly.

"Still thinking about what to do, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah.." the human pursed her lips. "If I could, I'd clone myself two times. One for here, one for the Boiling Isles, and myself for home."

The demon laughed suddenly. "That's definitely not impossible, Luz."

Her smile became a bit more genuine, as she chuckled herself. "But think of the consequences. It's all gonna get really complicated eventually, all the different memories."

King simply shrugged, sipping his hot chocolate more. Dipper, having found his way back to the attic and sitting on his side of the room, looked up from his book, raising an eyebrow. "Trust me, wouldn't recommend cloning yourself. Unless you wanna deal with the clones conspiring against you."

He shook his head with a deadpan stare as he thought back to that incident. Luz raised her head to look at him, excitement shining in her eyes. Was this another story? she had to hear it. "You said that like you dealt with it before."

"Yep," Dipper still kept that deadpan stare. "Not one of my prouder moments."

"So.. what happened?" the girl blinked, eyes wide.

"It's.. not something I like talking about, but since you're not staying long I guess I could.." the young man scratched the side of his head, frowning. "I had found a copy machine capable of copying anything and anyone, and these copies came to life. So I had the 'bright' idea to copy a whole bunch of myself to make plans and be in a lot of places at once, so I myself could go on a 'date' with Wendy.."

Luz gasped, pressing a hand against her lips. "That's pretty nice actually."

"Nice?" he furrowed his brow, making it very clear what he thought about his actions. "I completely blew it. We all ended up fighting for the spot. If anything, your idea to use clones to save your places in the dimensions is way nicer."

King quietly listened, constantly sipping his warm beverage. Luz chuckled. "But then, if I did that, my clones and I would no doubt fight over who goes where, I think. So they're both pretty not good ideas.."

Luz frowned a little, crossing her arms. Dipper blinked, and sighed, feeling bad now for even bringing up his experience. He lifted a hand and pointed at the piece of Belos's mask hanging on her neck. "What's that though? I don't think I'd seen that on you before.."

The girl looked down at it, and nodded. "It's a piece of rebellion. You see, there's this emperor who rules the Boiling Isles, but he's a real piece of work."

Dipper dog-eared his book and closed it, putting it aside as he raised an eyebrow. "I would've never thought the Boiling Isles would even have an emperor in the first place."

Luz hummed, thinking about that. "I think it didn't before.. but anyway, he was going to publicly petrify Eda. But then my friends and I stopped him and rescued her. I managed to nick a piece of his mask off and lived to tell the tale."

"Wow, that's pretty cool!" the young man grinned. Luz sure was full of surprises—being friends with a demon was one of them, after all. He wanted to write this down in his journal, so he grabbed another book and flipped to an empty page. "Never knew emperors wore masks.."

"Trust me, this is the first one who does."

Dipper chuckled, and started by drawing Luz and King in accurate detail, knowing that they were just temporary guests in this world and wanting to remember what they looked like and that this incident even happened. He frowned.

"What's wrong, Dipper?" Luz asked, furrowing her brow upwards with concern.

"I'm just.. gonna miss you guys."

"Really?" King blinked, finally withdrawing from his drink. "Even after all I did? who I sound like?"

"Yeah. I know it's weird, but I finally realized that you're not Bill," Dipper smiled softly. "You're King. And I'm sorry for doubting that and making you doubt it too."

The demon blinked again, looking down. He didn't respond for quite a while, and Luz put an arm around him to comfort him. Eventually, King took a deep breath and looked back up at Dipper, looking more like himself than ever with a grin. "Thank you. I think I just realized something too.

"I'm Bill's reincarnation. But that doesn't mean I'm him. The Axolotl reformed him into me and then put me in a different time, a different place. So that means I'm different from him." His eyes shone with wisdom. "I'm King. The king of demons. But above all else, I'm a friend."

He looked at Dipper, and then at Luz with a smile in his eyes. Mabel wasn't around, at the store shopping for milk, but his look applied to her too. And Eda, whatever she was doing back in the Boiling Isles—he was thinking of her too. And uh, maybe Hooty too.

"Aww, King!" Luz scooped him up into a hug, careful not to make him spill his hot chocolate, and he chuckled, closing his eyes to further enjoy the hug.

Dipper found himself oddly touched by the speech, smiling. He grinned even more when he saw the display of affection, and he looked down at his open journal and proceeded to draw this very moment.

Hopefully there'd be more moments like this. But something told all three that their time of suffering was over.

A/N: WOOOOOOOOO AND YOU'RE AT THE END OF CH16! :D I predict at least two more chapters before this story is finally frikkin done, but if I go over or under that, that's fine too right? right.
Thanks for sticking around! :D and as usual, pls review! I always appreciate them. :D