After this confrontation, the rest of the day passes, and as the school day ends earlier on Wednesday than the rest of the week, Mabel is eager to invite Sammy and speak some more with Bill, as she wants to find out more as to why he's been acting oddly... not evilly. As she reaches home, she notices how much he and her brother are sharing stares of discomfort as she sits.

Despite the odd situation she's facing, she actually holds a smile. "So, I believe you both have a lot of catching up to give me, so I'm all ears!"

Bill makes Samuel act a bit grumpy. "Well I spent the day's breaks on cleaning duty and I have an entire morning of detention thanks to your brother, but that's fine!"

Dipper acts cold too. "You totally deserved it, though, so don't be mad at me!"

Mabel feels a good amount of tension between them and tries to joke around. "It seems you two sure have an... interesting relationship."

Samuel looks at her with an annoyed stare, making her wonder if she said something bad. He wants her to stare at the eyes so she'd get a reminder of who he really is. Seeing this, Mabel feels very concerned and tense, and Dipper lets him do, unless Bill should do or say something dangerous.

Bill wants to act reassuring, since he doesn't have bad intentions. "Calm down, Shooting star, I'm not gonna harm you! I just thought that maybe you would have needed a reminder about me..."

Mabel feels better, but she still acts a little concerned. "Reminder of...?" She answers softly, but she's also half scared.

He answers nonchalently about very sensitive topics for the two kids. "Who I am and what I did! You know, the deal with Gideon, the puppet show, possessing your brother, tricking you to get the dimensional rift, Weirdmageddon, Mabeland..." He concludes with the same uncaring attitude. "All that funny stuff!"

The way he casually brings up all the horrible things he's done to her and her family... She feels a strong feeling of discomfort and actually gets a little afraid, but she wants to be polite and answers with bad feelings. "Yes... I remember..."

"Good... Because if you didn't..." He grows more menacing. "I'd have to ensure you'd relive them for a little refresher!" She gets a surge of fear in her body, but Bill quickly changes his tone. "Kidding, kidding... But yeah, you understand that with such history, your brother has some... let's say... complicated feelings about me being here. Let alone in the body of your former best friend."

Mabel answers, relieved. "Yes, I understand... But then you'd have to explain to me... What happened with Samuel? How did you... end up possessing him?"

Bill is annoyed... "Ugh, I'm really gonna have to do that whole explanation twice...? Fine I'll tell you... After your return home, I used your brother's body to terrorize him. His school bullying was me. His milk poisoning that night he spent with you was me as well. And I had him severely beat up your bro's body before I revealed myself to him, so he'd make a deal with me and I'd replace him. That's why you were locked out of the bedroom that morning."

Mabel rarely feels anger, but hearing Bill's exploits... It genuinely makes a part of her boil for harming her brother and her best friend at the same time. But instead, she brings an important question. "But wait... How did you manage to possess Dipper? Surely, he didn't make a deal with you for that..."

Dipper feels a little stupid when he hears the question... "Wait, she's right, I was so caught up in emotions that I never thought about that."

Bill looks at Dipper, he explains things, but it also sounds like he's taunting him. "If you recall, Pinetree, our deal from back then was never truly off. You never ended it, meaning I could've possessed you again at any point if I wanted to. Which is what I did recently for the reasons you know."

The information he just heard gives Dipper the chills... Not only he could've just ended the deal before it got too bad that day, but also... the thought that Bill could've used his body again whenever he wanted to... It's very creepy to him.

Another important question gets raised in his head, however. "Wait, there's something else... How did you... end up free after your defeat?"

Bill is very angry to be reminded of his failure, but he tries his best to keep his composure to answer. "I have to admit, my knowledge might be near unlimited, but I might pull a blank here." He starts thinking... "Unless..."

"Unless what? You got a lead?", asks Mabel, encouragingly.

"This is only a theory, but... Did you happen to see my statue before you left for home?"

Mabel is confused. "... What statue...?"
Dipper is mute out of concern, but still asks... "... why...?"

"That statue was the remains of my previous physical form, and it's quite likely that it stored my consciousness to some extent before my reawakening... So if Pinetree approached it... Maybe he did cause my return through his mind."

Dipper is just frozen and shocked, as he recalls finding the statue.

Shortly before leaving the town, Dipper did one last visit of the forest, and he remembers finding the statue, which did have him rejoiced. He remembers approaching it.
"You finally got your comeuppence, you stupid monster!" He recalls giving a punch on the statue's eye. "Ow... That's very solid...", he says as he rubs the pain in his hand. Right after, he hears Mabel calling him with the talkie-walkie in his bag and decides to move on. But then...

As he turns around too quickly, he ends up tripping by crossing his feet. He managed to prevent himself from falling with the only support for that being the statue's hand... And at the time, his only thought was to taunt the statue. "Uh, turns out you're more nice and helpful as a statue than alive. Who could've guessed?" as he ran away that day, thinking that would be the last time he'd have to face Bill's presence.

His flashback is interrupted by Mabel's voice. "Bro-bro, are you okay...?"

Dipper feels miserable and struggles not to cry from the guilt... "Yes, I did find that statue... I did... I did touch it... I did touch the hand... accidentally... It's all my fault... If Bill returned... If Samuel is gone now... I'm the one to blame...!"

His sister tries to be comforting. "Dipper, it's not your fault... You didn't know..."

"Fuzzball was very kind-hearted, he made the sacrifice to ensure you were safe. I must say, you did choose a good friend..." Bill gives Samuel's face a mischievous grin. "Or... was he, just a friend...?"

As Bill implies something scary, Dipper gets angry. "What do you mean?"

Meanwhile, Mabel, starts putting two and two together. "Wait, I remember you can go inside minds. And if you fused with Sammy, that means... you have access to everything about him... Every memory, every liking, every fear, every regret..." She freaks out a bit. "... every secret..."

Bill nods. "I indeed do..."

"Even...?" She gets cut off by Bill because he just knows what she's thinking off. "Yes, Shooting star... Even that!"

Mabel sits silently and looks very uncomfortable, and Bill stays shut, since saying more would be wasting the body's vocal chords. She's isn't scared, but she's visibly troubled emotionally.

"What have you done to her?" Dipper asks angrily.

"Just ask her..." Bill leaves the room to go to the kitchen in case the siblings need a little privacy.

Dipper rushes to his sister. "What's wrong? What did Bill do?" Mabel gets too scared to answer. The feeling of her panicked heartbeat is too much to be able to focus on the question. "Are you okay? Why are you feeling so panicked? I swear, if he hurt you, I'm not gonna let it slide!" He says that with a very serious tone, and anger in his voice and stare if he's right.

Mabel starts breathing in her panic, trying her best to reassure him. "Dipper... He didn't hurt me... It's just..." She feels a lot of discomfort about what she needs to explains, and it shows on her face. "He... knows something..."

Dipper gets confused, asking curiously. "What do you mean...? What could possibly cause you to feel like that?"

His sister starts answering. "You see, before Samuel fused with Bill, he told me something. And... you don't know about it..."

Dipper gets a tiny bit frustrated as his patience runs thin. "Look, I appreciate your honesty in answering me, but this isn't really helping me understand why you feel like that... If you don't tell me, though, I'll give that demon a piece of my mind, body of Samuel or not!"

"Dipper, Bill is innocent in my current discomfort, okay? What happened is that in the first day of school, he went to talk to me in private and he said..." She says something unintelligible...

Her brother didn't get to hear a thing. "He said... what?"

She has had enough of his questioning, so she get straight to the point. "He said he felt things for me! Samuel has a crush on me! You understand that?"

Dipper, feeling bad for questioning her this much, gives her a comforting hug. "Sis... Thanks for being honest... Sorry if I was pestering you..." He feels sorry about this, but he also feels some very negative feelings about the whole thing.

Samuel enters the living room back, feeding on a cracker. He stays silent to not ruin the moment. And as soon as Dipper notices, he stops the hug and look at him in a hateful mood. "YOU..."

He answers, without being concerned "Yes, Pinetree? Something you wanna tell me?"

Dipper is furious. "You... like... my sister...?" He clenches his fist.

Bill answers immediately, finding the situation ridiculous. "What? Don't be insane, of course I don't!" He takes time to look at her and tell her "No offense! I mean in the way he means..."

Mabel understands and Dipper remains angry. "What do you think is the way I'm referring to here...?"

"Like, um..." He feels an opportunity to tease him, so he jumps on the occasion to do just that "... Like the way you used to be with that redhead..." He smirks, but Dipper ignores the tease. "I don't think of your sister the way you were then. But Fuzzball, though... Let's say he did have some thoughts in his heart about her..."

The boy lets his mixed feelings and anger of the revelation get the best of him. He feels furious, frustrated, betrayed, many different feelings preventing him from thinking straight.

Bill notices and gets confused. "Why are you so upset about this, Pinetree? Shouldn't you be happy for your sister?"

"Happy? HAPPY? Why should I be happy?" He breathes very loudly out of his anger.

Bill uses his intelligence and logic to act like a wise man without malice, for a change: "Because if you truly cared about your sister's well-being... You wouldn't feel mad that a nice kid might have had some kind of feelings for her, especially if they are shared from her side! If you told her to her face that you wouldn't want that happiness for her... Then I'm afraid you'd be more heartless than most monsters out there!"

It takes every ounce of strength for Dipper to not yell at Bill right now for what he said. But then, out of nowhere, he hears... "Bill is right..."

Mabel approached him to tell him that, and he feels betrayed. "You're agreeing with a terrible demon... over your own brother? YOU'RE TURNING TO HIS SIDE?"

Bill is surprised. He knows Dipper has shown some lack of judgement under the emotions, but to see him so paranoid about his own sibling is something he considers a new low. Sammy is quick to react, shielding Mabel from his stare "Hey, Pinetree, calm down! You're really starting to act insane, and not in an entertaining way!"

"Don't talk to me, demon!"

"You're the evil one here, treating your family like that!"

"SHUT UP!"

Mabel wants to hold her brother's hand gently. "Dipper... Don't..."

Bill cuts her accidentally. "Your sister cares about you! And I care about you! We both don't want you to act like this!"

Dipper takes time to let it all process inside him, thinking out loud. "Bill is the worst... and Mabel... she's defending him?"

Bill brings up a very logical argument. "And why does it matter when it's over something that isn't twisted and evil? She did defend me, true, but with her own, unchanged heart and mind! This is your sweet sister acting like that, she's not under a spell or anything!"

Mabel tries to speak her worries. "Bro, you get too emotive... It got you thinking wrong and saying awful things..."

"SHUT UP, you demon-supporting traitor!" Right after saying that, he gasps and puts his hands against his mouth, realizing how far he has come. Which isn't helped by how Mabel gets teary-eyed quickly. It does help to awake her brother's heart.
"Oh no... Mabel..." He starts crying, even harder than his sister. "I'm... I'm so sorry... All that discomfort towards Bill, Samuel's situation... It got me acting very stupidly... I'm sorry I yelled at you, again... I'm the worst..." He then turns to Bill, and says something he didn't expect. "And... I'm sorry I said these things, Bill... For once... I was the one with the black heart..."

Mabel hugs her brother, she accepts the apology. But she adds, seriously... "Bill or not, don't you ever get carried away like that again, okay? This is not good for you or anyone else!"

Bill then does something... unexpected... He makes two sock puppets appear, one of Dipper and one of Sammy... And he makes the two hug, which is something... he'd actually want?

Dipper giggles. "Yes, you can join in..." Samuel hugs Dipper, who closes his eyes in gratitude.

"Thank you, both of you... I... I'll try my best to improve my behavior" He breathes in comfort. But then, after a little bit during the hug... He feels something strange. "Wait... How come...?"

Author notes: This one sure was a big one, uh...? This is definitely what I meant earlier when I said the story would have character-based conflict, and you can expect a lot of that between the trio in the future. It is a very weird situation for them, after all.

And yeah, another cliffhanger, this chapter is already the longest yet, so I thought that was required.

Also I said I'd give explanations as to how Bill returned and how he could use Dipper. Maybe the explanation is "cheap", but then again, so was Bill's "canonical" fate. And hey, one explanation is better than none, right?