Bill Cipher was old. He had a few years on Time itself, in fact. He'd seen a lot, heard a lot, done a lot. And still, what he was about to do right now made him feel like a bug looking up at an incoming boot.

But by the Pythagorean Theorem, he was going to cross that dimension if it was the last thing he did.

Bill hovered above an elaborate diagram he had drawn, eye closed as he concentrated, balling his fists to focus. "A-X-O-L-O-T-L, I invoke your ancient power, allow me to have an audience with this god for but an hour." He whispered.

He kept chanting, repeating the words until he felt like it would be wrong to stop. He wasn't sure how long he stayed there, but it felt like hours. Just as he was beginning to believe the Axolotl couldn't hear him, he started to rise higher and higher off the ground- not by his own will- until the world around him simply blinked out of existence.

Silence.

"Bill Cipher." The words came crashing against the demon, unlike any voice he had ever heard. It was gentle, startlingly so. But there was another layer of reality beyond the five senses that he couldn't quite put a finger on. "You wanted to ask me something?"

It didn't sound like a question.

Bill's eye flew open and if he had lungs he would have had every molecule of air sucked out of them. All around him was light, a warm, full, intimate light that filled the demon with mixed feelings of not belonging and wanting very much to stay forever. At the center of the light was a pink amphibian-like creature with rosy frilled bobbles sprouting out of its head. Tiny black eyes stared out into the glittery abyss, somehow watching everything and only Bill simultaneously.

The dream demon fought the urge to shrink away and confidently flew up in front of those beady eyes, throwing his arms out wide. "Axolotl! I thought I would never get through to you. How've ya been?"

"You want to cross realms to find you're brother, yes?" Again It's voice sounded more like music than talking. Bill felt stupid, dropping his hands. Of course the lizard knew everything. He's heard every argument he rehearsed since Will was taken. He pushed his embarrassment down to keep his sunshine-yellow color.

"Hit the nail right on the head there, Axie. I need to cross over, and I need your help to do it."

"You know that is forbidden, Bill. Your home is in the 2nd dimension."

Bill's temper flared like a candle in a strong gale. "And so is Will's! How can you defend the people who are torturing him right now, who broke your rules, and refuse to help me?"

The Axolotl's swaying bobbles never even ruffled, his perpetual smile never faltered. "I intend to bring about justice to all parties. You of all people know there must be a balance in this universe. And I see the future, Bill. If you cross over, your anger and vengeance will too, and hundreds will suffer because of it. I'm sorry.

Let me take care of your brother."

Bill's black fists balled up so tight he thought they would implode. "But you don't understand Time like I do! I promised to cross over two days from now! Your justice could take years for all I know. You certainly didn't rush for mine." His voice quivered, switching between his normal and demon voice. He quickly realized what he did and shut his mouth, trembling with the knowledge that he just blew his one shot at crossing over for two thousand years.

Still the pink creature breathed a long, easy sigh, face expressing something along the lines of sympathy. "Bill, do you trust me?"

Bill didn't answer. His mind was still racing through something, anything he could say that he hadn't thought of before a hundred times. Something that could convince this thing to help him.

The Axolotl's tail swept away a portion of the sky into a cloud of starry dust as it hummed. "Then at the very least try to find peace with my decision."

Bill suddenly felt himself being gently pulled away, as if by a breeze. He started. "Wait, wait! Please! I'll do anything, I'll give you anything! Just wait!"

He blinked and he was back home.

All he could do was stare limply at the flat realm spanning for all eternity. "No…" he whispered, eye flashing red as his voice deepened, shaking the ground beneath him. "No no no!" He grew until he filled the entire sky and smashed his fists against the 2-D ceiling. "Let me out!" He screamed as he manipulated his form into any shape he could think of. Despair crawled along his being like black ink.

Bill growled and slowly shrunk back down, squeezing his eye as tight as he could to clear his mind. He had to think. He had to find another way. He had to.

Doors began appearing out of the ground like flowers, dotting the flat world and swinging open just a crack. Bill ignored them, slowly maneuvering between them.

He was so lost in thought he didn't notice one little boy stepping through one of those doors behind him until he was standing directly behind the triangle entity. Bill sensed the presence and nearly broke one of the doors with how fast he jerked back. The boy stared back at him silently.

"You," the demon growled, looking down at the head of brown hair and typical summer pajamas of tiny rocket ships against blue fabric. Looking at that child, a mixture of hatred and fear crashed in on him. "How… how did you get out of your dream?"

"I want to take you with me." He whispered with the calmness of a corpse.

"Like hell you are. What have you done to my brother this time, you little bastard?" Despite his tone Bill kept backing away.

"Don't worry, you'll be joining him soon enough. Mabel really likes her pets." Mason brought his hands from behind his back to reveal his journal, almost a quarter of his size, beginning to read off the pages. Crap.

"Get away from me!" Bill flared bigger, blue flames erupting from all sides. He caused a force to ripple out in all directions, flattening the doors flat and slamming into Mason. The little boy, grunted and rolled on his back, before fumbling for the book, which Bill levitated and held high out of his reach. "You would never be a threat to me if it weren't for this journal," Bill growled, opening it up and flipping through the pages, seeing crude drawings of his kind with hasty notes jotted beside them scattered throughout. Facts about him, weaknesses, secrets. Things he wished he never shared with anyone.

It wasn't the real journal, just a dream projection, a replica of the real thing, but he really wanted to watch it burn and char to a crisp. The broken pages sticking out started to smoke.

"Quocumque vadis, eo, quia fato te obligo!"

The journal dropped and Bill's line of sight was replaced with Mason's smug little face. He felt a tug pulling him forward like a rope.

"Uh, no. No thank you. Let me go you little creep!" Bill's resistance did next to nothing as Mason pulled him along like a balloon at the fair. He continued cursing and contriving whatever weapon he could in the dreamscape. Nothing worked. Why could nothing work?

Mason finally arrived back at his dream and opened it like a cellar latch, it still flat against the ground. "Having you where I know you are will make it easier to find you later," he called over his shoulder, hopping through. Bill was yanked forward towards the open frame. At the last minute, he braced himself against the opening of the dream and pulled back with one last effort. Bill grimaced as the door slammed shut on his fingers, almost cutting them off.

No. This is stupid. I'm not going to be hunted down like an animal.

Before another thought could pass him by, he felt the ground grind and rumble beneath him, and the contents inside Mason's dream detach from the earth and hover like dust specks. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a confused shadow cross Mason before scrunching up in increased concentration. Bill felt the spell start to slip though.

Then: "Hello?"

Bill grunted as he fought for a couple of inches to push the door back open a crack and call back, "Knock knock? A little help over here?"

He heard heavy, worn shoes thump hesitantly nearer. "What is this? What the hell are you?" The voice was as gravelly as a chewed-up driveway.

"Look ah, I know this sounds weird but you're gonna have to give me a tug, kay? Got a little current going on in here." Bill thought he hid the panic in his voice exceptionally well as he shot a dirty look at Mason, who was frowning himself in confusion. "I'll be eternally grateful."

Just as he thought the stranger had abandoned him, the door opened wide, and one hot, startlingly strong hand grabbed his skinny black arm and flung him out the door with a yelp as the other hand slammed the door shut.

"Eternally grateful, eh? Wanna make good on that?"

Bill flipped around to see a human and nearly jumped out of his brick pattern.

A real, non-dream, fleshy and bloody human standing in front of him, dressed in a tattered business suit and oddly well-kept velvet fez, holding a bat that looked one more swing away from splintering into pieces. Brass knuckles glinted on his fists.

The demon couldn't help but stare. Having a 3-D entity in a 2-D world looked weird. More than that, it looked wrong. The very thing that was forbidden by the council, by the darn Axolotl, by the very fabric of the universe.

And it wasn't just any human; This human was the spitting image of Ford Benjamin Gleeful, the Great uncle of Mabel and Mason Gleeful. The one who took Will.

No. It's not him, it's not him, it can't be. Bill finally recovered himself when he realized the guy's question wasn't rhetorical. "Nice… Nice to meet ya. The name's Bill Cipher. Now that I've answered your question, I've got one of my own."

"Can it, One-eye," The man swatted him aside, looking around the desolate world. His grip tightened on the bat's handle as he sniffed the air. After what seemed like an eternity of awkward silence the guy grabbed him by his black bowtie and pulled him in far too close for comfort. "Listen here, triangle. You're going to tell me where exactly I am, what year this is, and what the hell you are."

After the initial surprise of having his personal space invaded, Bill had to fight the urge to roll his eye as his bowtie melted into a black spider. It crawled through the guy's hand, scuttled around his yellow bricks, and morphed back into a bowtie, perfectly in place. The man recoiled his hand like it had been burnt. "You're in the second dimension, knucklehead. I'm a dream demon, and if you're trying to get back to your human dimension, It's 2012 in that world. Now, it's kinda rude to threaten a guy who doesn't know you. You got a name?"

The man swallowed and straightened his own shredded tie, his toughness trickling from his face a little. "Stan. Stan Gleeful."

Bill floated around him on all sides, hands behind his back like a person admiring a piece of art. Curiosity was starting to prod him almost uncomfortably. Almost. This definitely wasn't Stanford. "How did you get to this dimension, Stan Gleeful?"

He could have sworn Stan physically bristled as he raised his bat. "That's none of your business, wise guy. I'm just trying to get back home."

Bill's cat eye flashed like a light and he brightened, throwing his arms out wide. "Well isn't that a coincidence, so am I! Fez, do ya mind if I call you Fez?" He ignored the distinct "no" from Stan, "I need to cross over to your dimension to bring back a fella who's been stuck there. What's say we work together?"

A pause. "You're nuts," Fez turned and started to walk away, taking a round black object from his pocket and looking down at it like a clock. Bill narrowed his eye and grabbed his tophat to keep it on as he followed the old man across the vast empty land.

"Look, I know you know how to cross dimensions, and I can help you with whatever you need. Anything. Consider it a favor. What do ya say?" He peered over Stan's shoulder and saw a magic 8-ball, like the ones he's seen in some kid's dreams, plastic and leaking so a couple of bubbles would slosh in the liquid. After being shaken a couple of times the little blue triangle in the window had something Bill wasn't expecting printed on it: Listen to him.

He screeched to a stop to avoid bumping into the man, composing himself by the time Stan turned around. "How can you prove to me that I can trust you? And what could you possibly do for me?"

"I," the triangle trailed off, losing his confidence for a second. He looked long and hard at Stan. He may not know much about Stan on his own, but he'd visited his brother's dreams almost compulsively, and he knew everything about Ford. Like seeing a play from the side wings of a stage. The image of two little boys playing on a beach, sunburned backs freckled and blistered flickered in his mind before vanishing.

He came to his own conclusions.

"You're a twin of Stanford Gleeful, and brother with Shermie Gleeful, son of Caryn Romanoff Gleeful. You were a champion boxer when you were a teenager and when you were five you beat up a kid on the playground for teasing Ford. You, you're also a great uncle to Mabel and Mason." Bill stopped for a breath as Stan's face grew darker (sadder?). "Now, I've been around for a while. I know more about you than you probably know about yourself. If I wanted to hurt you in any way, I could, but I haven't. Comprende?"

Stan pursed his lips as he slowly lowered his hand into his pocket and pulled out a clear plastic case, something flickering dimly inside. He pulled away when Bill got too close. "You are going to be eternally grateful, triangle. I'll make sure of it. From here on out, you're gonna do whatever I say. Comprende?" His wrinkled face curled into a smirk. Bill stayed quiet and nodded before Stan continued, reaching into his other pocket. "This is something I picked up in one of the other dimensions. Scammed a lizard out of it. It's an infinity dice, when you roll it, anything– and I mean anything– could happen. I've only rolled it twice. The first time it made me an egg sandwich. The second time flung me into this place faster than the speed of light."

Bill had to physically stop himself from trying to touch it and instead tapped his manifested cane against his side thoughtfully. "But if you didn't get this on earth, how did you cross dimensions in the first place?"

"That's not important."

"But–"

"New rule. Shut. Up." Stan snapped. "You don't hafta know nothin else bout me to help." He held up the dice in his hands. "Keep your eye on the prize."

Bill slowly lowered his hands, which had been up high in surrender, "Ok ok, sorry. I like knowing stuff, It's kind of the only thing I have going on around here." He settled onto the grass-like green ground and gazed at the dice thoughtfully. "It's too risky to just roll it again. We'll have to rig it."

Stan did a double take and deadpanned him for a second. "Rig a dice? That has infinite possibilities?" Then he smiled, surprising Bill. "I'm starting to like ya."

Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Since I finished my summer semester, you'll get more frequent updates with my newfound free time so stay tuned! As always, comments and kudos are food to writers (or aspiring writers in my case) so your thoughts are greatly appreciated! Remember, reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold, byeeeeee!