Chapter Text
“Not that it’s any of my business, buddy, but why on earth--”
“As you said just now, it is none of your business.”
The man tilted his head as though to concede the point, and didn’t press the matter any further: all he did was busying himself counting the money once more - a large wad of cash that was most of what remained of Ford’s grant for research. Still, he didn’t mind parting from it. It would be put to good use. The only thing that mattered right then was keeping Bill Cipher out of his mind. Keeping Bill out of their world as well would come easier once he had achieved that, wouldn’t it?
Wouldn’t it?
“Very well. I’ll get everything ready by tomorrow. Don’t eat until then, shave your head, yadda yadda. And stop doing that,” he added as soon as Ford pulled a flask out of his pocket to take a good swig of liquor. “Anaesthesia doesn’t go well with alcohol.”
Ford grunted, but he knew the man had a point, and put the flask away. He wiped his mouth with a sleeve. “Is general anaesthesia strictly necessary?”
“To put a metal plate in your skull? You bet it is.”
“I’d rather not be asleep for too long.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Not gonna risk you waking up halfway through, buddy. I’m a professional.”
“You’re an entirely unlicensed sawbones performing illegal surgery.”
A shrug. “And you’re the kind of weirdo who’s desperate or crazy enough to resort to my services,” he said, pocketing the cash. “Tomorrow at nine. Come with an empty stomach. And sober. If you’re gonna put that bottle to your head and pull the trigger, do it well away from my business.”
Ford made a point to make his ‘of course’ sound as disdainful as possible, but he did pause to empty the flask on the ground once outside.
Bill had to admit that Sixer’s attempts at keeping him out of his mind - or at least out of the relevant parts of it - were sort of adorable. Not only he had covered all of his images in his house, clearly having realized those were all peepholes in his world for Bill to use, but he had gone as far as willing his Mindscape into changing. What had been open space, bits of knowledge and possibilities was now endless corridors shrouded in fog, twisty paths and doors leading nowhere, made-up memories and encrypted thoughts.
Not that it was easy to tell which ones were encrypted and which ones were just muddled by whiskey but hey, it was still a pretty nice effort. He was putting up a fight, and Bill liked it. Too bad it was going to be useless, because he would have to lower his guard at some point. He would slip up, and when he did Bill would be there to seize the chance.
They needed a chat, really. Nothing big. A chat while he was at his most vulnerable, some buttering up, maybe a tiny little deal. He had trusted him before, he could make him trust him again. All he needed was getting him to reveal where he had hidden his journals with the instructions, just enough for him to activate the portal again. That was it. One moment of weakness, and the party could finally start.
Heck, maybe good old Six Fingers would enjoy it once he stopped being such a bore and learned how to have fun. He just needed to understand what it was that Bill could offer him. They needed to have a little talk, that was all.
Just. A little. Talk.
Falling asleep had never been easy business for Ford, his mind often working at full speed even when his body screamed for rest. How could he sleep, with so many questions unanswered?
Ever since finding out what Bill’s true face was, however, what had kept him awake wasn’t boundless curiosity as much as it was boundless terror. Terror what what he may have unleashed upon the world, of what truly awaited behind that portal - of what would happen if he lowered his guard, if Bill was able to use him one last time to tear apart the fragile barrier left between their worlds.
But anaesthetic, he suspected, would be more than enough to make him sleep.
“Okay, buddy. Deep breaths and get counting.”
He breathed in, and felt panic trying to grip his chest when his vision began blurring.
It won’t be long. I’ll be awake soon, and Cipher won’t be able to return in my mind ever again.
Between the lack of glasses and the anaesthetic kicking in, it was hard for him to make out anything except the vague outline of the surgeon’s face above him.
Stanford Pines’ defenses dropped so quickly and suddenly that there was simply no way for Bill not to feel the ripples across the Mindscape. A bit unusual, that, but not at all surprising: good old Six Fingers seemed so intent into drinking himself into an early grave, it was actually weird how he hadn’t collapsed sooner.
Ah well. It made things easier for him, and he wasn’t gonna question it.
He should have.
“You know what, IQ? This place looks waaaay better when you’re passed out. Cleaner. Was kinda getting lost in the maze you’d thought up. But I guess that was the point, wasn’t it?”
Cipher’s voice was the first thing he heard when he opened his eyes again, and it chilled him to the core. That was wrong, it was all wrong - he was not supposed to be there at all, not then, not while he was trying to keep him out.
“Get out of my mind,” Ford gritted out, turning to face him. His mindscape looked more like it did before the betrayal - the vastness of space littered with all the knowledge he possessed and could potentially unlock one day - but there was something subtly wrong about it as well. The stars were not as luminous, the whole scenario wavering around him like a backdrop hit by wing, and nothing but warnings written in red were to be seen on the books and scrolls that floated through it.
And, hovering above all, was Bill Cipher.
“Sheesh, not even giving a friend a chance to explain himself?” Bill said, rolling his eye. “Should have known, I guess. That’s just your style, ain’t it? Not letting anyone explain themselves before kicking them out. Like with your bro, huh?”
Stanley. Stanley will come soon, I found him, I wrote him, he must come. He must.
Hiding that thought from Bill wasn’t easy, especially now that he was in his mind, and had to make a terrible effort to cover it - but anger was already rearing up its head, hot and blistering, and that worked just fine for him. It was a distraction, for both of them.
“Don’t you dare,” he gritted out, and Bill laughed.
“Uh-oh, touchy subject! But that’s just what happened, isn’t it? You let him be kicked out without listening. And your assistant, too. You just-- Nah, wait, it was the other way around. Fiddlesticks kicked his own damn self out, didn’t he? Will sooner forget you exist - washed his hands of you and the whole project the moment he decided he didn’t wanna play anymore. Some friend. Can you just take note that I’m the one who’s staying and trying to get you to see the light, Fordsy?”
Ford scoffed, hands clenching into fists so tight that his fingernails sank into his palms. “You have deceived me from the very start, and you have the galls to claim--”
“Whoa there,” Bill cut him off, moving in with a sudden start and pausing just a couple of inches away from Ford’s own face. “I don’t claim things, Sixer. I’m speaking the plain truth. Where’s your research buddy? Gone. Did he speak to your once since he left? Nope. Where am I? Right here in your mind, trying to clear up our little misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding,” Ford repeated, spitting out the word like poison.
Bill rolled his eye. “Alright, fine. Might have been more of a miscommunication and hey, totally my fault. Shoulda been clearer, true - but I didn’t lie to you, smart guy. Not once.”
“You told me--”
“That you were gonna get answers to all your questions? Change the world? Yep! And I meant it!” Bill exclaimed, circling Ford’s head. “Told you you’d have answers to your questions, and I meant it! Told you that you look smashing in that coat, and I meant it! Told you that tattoo looks great on ya, and I… er. Okay, maaaaybe I sorta embellished the truth on that one. A little white lie, though. Well meant.”
“Whatever Fiddleford saw through that portal - whatever it was I got a glimpse of--”
“Are the makings of a better world!” Bill cut him off, reaching to ruffle Ford’s hair. “A fun world! As I said, your dimension will learn how to party! How’s that a bad thing, huh? Don’t you like partying? Wait, wait, okay, don’t answer. I know. But I betcha you’ll learn to love it! I can make you a god if you just-- whoa! Rude!” Bill protested, dodging Ford’s attempt at hitting him.
Fury making it hard for him to even vocalize his fury for a few moments, Ford had to pause and draw in a deep breath before speaking. When he did, his voice shook with anger.
“What I have seen through that tear is not a better world, Cipher. It is a nightmare.”
“Hey now, that isn’t nice! Okay, the guys look a bit wonky and it takes a bit to get used to it for limited minds like your own, but once your do--”
“I will never activate that portal again!”
Bill’s eye narrowed. “Oh, yeah? Then how come you’re not dismantling it, IQ?” he asked, his voice suddenly colder, and Ford found himself unable to retort.
This machine is dangerous. You'll bring about the end of the world with this. Destroy it before it destroys us all!
“I…” he began after a few moments of silence, but Bill silenced him with a wave of his hand.
“That was a rhetorical question, smart guy. I know why you ain’t dismantling it. Your life’s work and all, right? All that your research has been leading to, the crowning achievement and so on - of course you can’t just destroy it. But you can’t keep it on standby forever either, Fordsy,” he added, and opened his eye wide. The pupil disappeared, leaving only an image of the deactivated portal. “You know what good old Chekov said, right? If you've got a gun in the plot, it's got to go off at some point. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be there. The portal is there, and it will fire up. The only question is when that’s gonna happen,” he added, and something else appeared in place of the portal in his eye - a countdown.
Never, Ford thought. I am never going to let it happen.
“Get out of my mind,” Ford growled, trying not to let the growing sense of urgency leak through his voice, or show in his mindscape. The plate, he thought, the metal plate could be placed any moment, but it was meant to keep Cipher out. If he was inside when it went in place…!
“Or else what? You’ll pout at me, like, really really hard?” Bill asked, and laughed. “I’m here to stay, IQ, whether you like it or not. You used to like it, though,” he added, batting his eye and causing Ford to scoff.
“I am no longer your puppet. I used to think you were a friend.”
“I’m the best friend you ever got, believe me,” Bill retorted. “And, unlike Fiddlesticks, I ain’t going nowhere.”
Ford opened his mouth to retort, but something else caught his eye - something behind Bill, above him, above both of them: a darkness beyond the stars that littered the very edge of his mindscape, something blacker than night closing down around them like a dome.
The plate, he knew instantly. The metal plate was in place, and Cipher was in.
Too late.
The realization should have filled him with despair, it truly should have. He believed it would have, if it ever came to it. Instead, slowly, he found himself smiling.
Too late for both of us.
“... Huh, Sixer? Not that I don’t appreciate it that you grew a sense of humor all of a sudden, but that smile’s kinda creepy.”
Ford looked back at him, and his smile widened. “You know what, Bill? You’re perfectly right.”
Bill shrugged, rolling his eye. “Well, duh. Of course I was, I’m always right. I--”
“You are going nowhere.”
Bill’s eye turned back to him. Bill’s eye stared at him for a few moments. Bill’s eye widened, and Ford had a couple of seconds to enjoy the utter bewilderment turning into comprehension and then panic before Bill Cipher turned to look up, and see what had just happened.
“What the-- no, no, no, no, NO!”
Blue flames erupted from Bill’s body, engulfing him for a few moments before fading with a sound that reminded Ford of an old, sputtering engine. His smile grew, if possible, even wider.
“You should have taken my warning and left my mind, Cipher. You should have left when there was still a way out of here. Did the All Seeing Eye not see this coming?”
Bill turned to look at him, pupil blown wide in pure disbelief and something that was not too far away from horror. “What… why… what have you done?” he screeched, fury and fear distorting his voice. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”
Ford’s smile faded. “I’m taking you down with me. You’re not the only one who means what he says, Cipher. Don’t you remember?” he added, and took a few step forward until he was only a few inches away from Bill’s eye. His pupil was still wide with shock, and Ford could see his own reflection in it when he spoke again.
“From now until the end of time.”