Pointdexter: A Swooning Over Stan-fiction

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Bill Cipher?" Alice asked, a sudden shiver running down her spine. She couldn't explain why the name made her feel like spiders were crawling down her back, but she didn't like it.

"He came to me in my dreams, claiming he was a godly muse-," Ford explained, closing his eyes, a certain bitterness in his voice she'd never heard before. "A friend, someone who could do a lot with a little help, and I believe him. I put my unconditional faith in him, I asked for his wisdom, for his guidance, put him on a godly pedestal, and worshiped him, even going so far as to litter my house with his image."

"What happened?" Alice asked, tipping her head, worry written across her face.

"Well, when I consulted Bill about my unifying theory," Ford continued, his face still wrinkled with anger. "He told me that my answer lay in another dimension, and he could help me build a portal to it."

"Did you build it?" Alice asked, a sinking feeling warning her of the answer.

"I built it without hesitation- Without thought," Ford confessed, opening his eyes and shaking his head. "And instead of being a doorway to a 'weirdness dimension', as I had been led to believe, it turned out to lead to the Nightmare Realm: Bill's realm."

His hand was tight around hers, and Alice squeezed his back, his grip loosening. She took a breath, leaning and resting her head on his shoulder.

"He had tricked me-" Ford continued, his voice choking ever so slightly. "All he wanted was to cross into our dimension and model it all into his chaotic image. I shut the portal down before his plans could be realized, but it was too late- My mind was in shambles from Bill's influence. I should've ended it-"

Alice felt him lean back, she could hear the tightness in his voice. 

"I should have ended it. I should have torn the portal down, but I had put so much into making it work, I- I hid the instructions for its operation, instead. I tried to entrust a piece of it to Stanley, but after ten years apart, I..."

He paused, sucking in a breath.

"We fought. In the midst of it all, one of us pushed a button and pulled a switch- The portal was reactivated that day, and I was pulled into it."

"Oh my god..." Alice said, straightening and shifting to face him. She clasped her hands around his, shaking her head.

He didn't respond, instead, continuing his confession, as if that was the only thing he could bring himself to do.

"I spent the next thirty years in that portal-" Ford sighed bitterly. "Years of searching for the answer to a new question: How to defeat Bill, once and for all. But I was pulled back to this dimension, my home dimension, too early and- And all this frustration came crashing down. In this tiny town in a grand multiverse, I truly believed that I was meant for something more. Bill told me that I would change the world. I never questioned if it would be for better or for worse."

"You were doing what you thought was best-" Alice pressed, pulling his hand onto her lap. She wanted to wrap him up in a blanket and not let him go.

"At the time, of course!" Ford breathed out desperately. "But I didn't realize the repercussions of my actions would be so catastrophic."

"But you did it," Alice asked, glancing at him. "Right?"

"Did what?" Ford asked.

"Build the portal, left, came back-" She breathed with a wave of her hand. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be here."

"I did, yes-" Ford said with a now. "But I didn't do it alone. I was pulled back through the portal by Stanley- And Dipper and Mabel, of course. However, because the portal had been reactivated, Bill could enter our world at any time."