Alternate Ending (BillDip)

- 1 -

     Bill Cipher, the Master of the Mind, was locked in prison. After everything fell apart, and he was supposedly erased from Stanley's mind, he was brought back to reality instead, having his own specially designed meatsuit. He had never felt more alive, or more powerless. He shared a cell with one other person, who was moved to a different cell the day he was locked up. He was utterly alone.

     At least, he thought he was.

     At first, Dipper sat at the table in the family meeting room silently. When Bill was told he had a visitor, he swore it would have been ol' Sixer coming to see him, or to tell him off. But instead Pine Tree, the kid that outsmarted him, was seated in front of him. Dipper glanced up occasionally, gazing into Bill's one good eye (the other covered with an eye patch), but mostly stared at the table, not moving or saying a word.

     Bill peered across the table, his arms folded against his chest, his hair covering most of his face, and breathed, "Pine Tree, why don't you just go home?"

     Dipper shook his head. Not much time had passed since Weirdmaggedon, but Dipper had grown. He was no longer the little kid that Bill possessed. He was stronger, in more ways than one.

     The warden walked into the room. "Time's up! Prisoners, return to your cells!" The large man boomed. Dipper and Bill stood simultaneously, making quick eye contact, then heading separate ways.

~

     Of course, Dipper did not stay in Gravity Falls that summer. He returned to California with his sister and her pig. And that was fine. Bill had a lot of time alone to learn the controls of his weird, new form. When he possessed humans, it was much different; it was somewhat easier to use a different body, but his own was heavy and slow, though his form he took was tall, skinny, and trim. He brushed his blond hair out of his face and sighed, relaxing on the cot provided to him. He wondered why Dipper had even shown up that day. He wondered if anyone else knew he had been there to visit.

     Bill sighed deeply. The days were long in his small cell. He was only allowed out three different times during the day: breakfast, a short time dedicated to personal hygiene, and dinner, unless he had a visitor, which was rare. He was deemed too dangerous to be around the other inmates, since he nearly brought on the end of the world. While he had so much time on his hands, he spend most of it sleeping, milling about in his own dreamscape where he could be free. Other times, he studied human biology and human functioning, trying to prepare for when he was allowed to enter society. Yes, he may have been an omnipotent demon, but he was now just a human with some mind tricks. He might as well make the most of it.

     Dipper returned to Gravity Falls the following summer, a bit taller, a bit wiser, and a bit quieter. While Mabel had blossomed at school the previous year, making several new friends, Dipper seemed to retract himself from the world. He studied the paranormal, often talking on the phone with Ford and discussing abnormal topics. The only person he longed for was his Uncle Ford, and he was miles away on a boat in the arctic sea with Stan. When they returned to Gravity Falls, they stayed with Soos, who had embraced his role as the owner of the Mystery Shack. He loved every minute of his life, which was all anyone hoped for. Wendy, of course, was there too. She had started dating a new guy, someone from the town over. They had been camping at the same site and really hit it off. Dipper was happy for her, but it made him feel that much more alone. He was left to his own devices, and he hated it.

     Most of his summer was spent in Ford's bunker underground, studying in his footsteps the creatures he locked down there. The shapeshifter, now called, "Shifty" was still there, frozen solid, but new beings had appeared, ones he had never heard of or seen before. He started a journal, one that was much more unorganized than Ford's beautiful journals, but it was a start. He admired his writings, and traced each letter with a finger. He whispered the recordings to himself over and over. He was losing his mind.

     Suddenly, he heard an abnormally loud sound coming from above him. Surely someone was trying to break in! Had he been discovered? Dipper crouched in a corner under a table of machinery and waited in silence. Another THUD sounded, making Dipper clutch his head and tuck it down by his knees. There was a long, tearing noise, and light footsteps followed. Whoever it was had gotten in.

     Dipper closed his eyes, and small tear droplets fell before him on his journal. This can't be the end, Dipper thought. He clutched the journal close to his chest. The footsteps grew closer, and he saw from under the table the shoes of the mystery person. Brown boots, stained from mud and grass. He knew who it was.

      "Dipper, are you down here?" Wendy called out, turning in circles. He emerged from under the table, wiping his eyes quickly, hoping Wendy wouldn't notice.

     "I'm here," Dipper whispered as she turned to face him. She smiled weakly, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I thought...maybe he had gotten out...maybe he was coming to kill me..."

     Wendy's smile evaporated, and she crouched to pull him into an embrace. "He can't hurt you anymore. Never again."

     Dipper wept helplessly. That couldn't be true.