Reformed

Chapter Five

 "There is absolutely no way those kids are going to take care of him! What are you thinking, Ford?!"

Mabel and Dipper sighed in unison as Stan continued to shout.

They had just finished up dinner in the kitchen and Dipper was about to go down to feed Bill, until Stan decided to voice his anger about it. Stan hadn't seen him take dinner to Bill the night before, nor Mabel bringing him breakfast that morning, so it was only now that he could rant about it.

"You're making a big deal out of this," Mabel complained. "We're just feeding him. Would you rather have us let him starve to death?"

"Sweetie, I think you know my answer for that," Stan said and crossed his arms. Mabel deeply frowned.

"It's actually important that we keep Bill alive and at least not hungry," Dipper chimed in. "He won't talk to us if he thinks we're purposefully trying to starve him."

"Why do you need him to talk?" Wendy asked. She was leaning on the entryway of the kitchen. She had just had dinner with them and was about to go home, but stopped after Stan had started yelling about Bill. "If you're looking for an apology, I don't think you're going to get one."

"Trust me, I know that," Dipper said and crossed his arms. "We just need to know how he became human. It's important."

"Why?" Soos asked with a shrug. "I mean, sure, it would be cool to know how he turned into a human, but I don't really see how it's important."

"Changing a powerful, immortal, creature of energy to a puny, mortal human isn't exactly easy, or even really heard of," Ford began to explain. "Keep in mind that Bill had a lot of powerful enemies, some of which were as evil and chaotic as him. If any of them came into our universe and to do this to him as revenge, that could end up being a big problem for Earth."

"Do you think maybe Tad Strange and him were enemies?" Melody asked. "He beat the snot out of him and ripped his eye out after all."

"Possibly," Ford pondered. "But that's an entirely different situation, and either way, I don't think Tad is much of a threat to the entire world. We just need closure on what happened to Bill so we can be prepared if some powerful, universe-destroying creature did this to him, and may have decided to make humanity their next target."

"Huh, I guess when you put it like that, it is pretty important that Bill tells us what happened to him." Soos chuckled.

"I think you're missing my point here!" Stan exclaimed. "I don't want Bill anywhere near those kids. He's going to try to hurt them, or worse."

"Stanley, they can handle this," Ford argued. "They've defeated Bill before as a dream demon, and they'd be more than able to take him down as a human if he tried anything. Either way, Bill barely even moves or speaks anymore, and he has restraints. I doubt he's going to try to hurt them, especially since he's relying on them for food now. He'll die without them, and I don't think he's stupid enough to do that."

Stan let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine, but if he even tries to lay even one finger on them, I want them to never lay a foot in that basement ever again."

"That sounds fine to me," Ford agreed. Stan just crossed his arms and didn't reply.

"Well, I'm going home now that we've got that all settled," Wendy suddenly said. "Goodnight, guys. See you tomorrow."

Everyone said goodnight to Wendy as she left. Melody and Soos left the kitchen to go restock, and Stan decided to go lend them an extra hand. Mabel left the room to go upstairs to get ready for bed. Dipper was just about to leave to go give Bill his food for the night, but Ford stopped him.