Return of Cipher (Hatters!AU: Return to the Falls)

Chapter VI: All Ends Bring New Beginnings

"Alright, alright." Lucky rolled her eyes. "Bendy it is."

"So," Blackhat began, stepping forward and making Bendy fall and lose his balance. "You mortals were curious about how Bill survived, yes?"

"Mhm!" Shooting Star hummed with a fast nod.

"Well, so are we," Blackhat said. "Bill, care to explain?"

"Sure!" I said. "I will warn you though, it's a very, very, very long story!

"Wait!" Pine Tree pulled out a notepad and a pencil. "Alright, now go."

I cleared my throat as everyone began to pull up various chairs and circle around me. "I'm gonna simplify this as much as possible.

"The last anyone had seen of me was when I had entered Stanley's mind, and was quickly erased soon after entering. As the flames grew high, I knew I had to come up with some way to keep myself alive, and I had to come up with it quickly. And so, I decided to take a leap of faith and call out to a merciful god who I'd heard tales about back in my own dimension, the Axolotl."

Lucky snorted. "You prayed to a giant fucking axolotl that floats in the sky? I'm sorry, but I can't take you seriously when you say that!"

"Ah, so you're aware of him too, huh?" I said, ignoring her snickering.

"I took advanced placement classes at the Judas Academy," Lucky said as she flipped her hair. "Anyways, continue."

"Right," I said. "Anyways, he kept me alive as best as he could, bringing back Stanley's memories and harboring me in his mind for those nine long years. It was in his mind that I sat, contemplatively looking back on all that I'd done in my life, and considering that, for once in my life, I was in the wrong. I realized being evil did not have to be my destiny, nor was it a predetermined path that I had been forced into choosing. But I figured, after disappearing back when we were younger, I'd see my friends again and let them know I was okay. So, I used Stanley's body to attempt to contact them while you two were sleeping! Now, I'm here to stay, and nobody's gonna stop me!"

After a few moments of awkward silence (saved for the scratching of Pine Tree's pencil against his notepad), Lucky started clapping. Bendy and Blackhat joined her, followed by the slower claps of Pine Tree and Shooting Star. After the clapping was over, I took off my hat and took a bow (well, as much as my triangle form could bow anyways).

"Okay, that explains why, of all the times, you came back now," Pine Tree said.

"Yep!" I said. "Had your old man not kicked the bucket, I wouldn't have come back so soon!"

"So, now that you're back, when are we getting that beer, Cipher?" Bendy asked, hopping off the stool he was sitting on.

"Hold up!" Pine Tree said, standing up and setting his notebook down. "We aren't going anywhere until we set some ground rules."

Shooting Star and Bendy groaned. Lucky looked at Bendy with a disdainful frown, but said nothing. And, had my triangle form had a mouth, I would have frowned with her.

~

Dipper

I walked up next to Bill and stood before the demons and my sister. "I know you'll all hate this, but we can't just have demons running around the house and act like we can just let them cause chaos everywhere. Bill, do you have a—"

"Whiteboard and marker?" Bill said, snapping his fingers and making a floating whiteboard and a green dry-erase marker appear above his hand.

"...How did you know that?" I asked.