A Code to DeCipher (BillDip)

Chapter 9

When Mabel finally woke up, she raised her head and frowned. She looked over at Dipper's bed and saw her brother working on something in his journal, his back against the wall, his head resting against Bill's head, who was fast asleep on Dipper's shoulder.

"You two've gotten pretty chummy." Mabel noted, sitting up, rubbing her head. Dipper's head shot up at his sister's voice, and he leapt to his feet, making Bill fall over, his eyes flying open. Dipper ignored the demon as Bill sat up and embraced his sister in a hug.

"Oh, Mabel, I was so worried..." He admitted, his eyes closed as he hugged Mabel tightly. Mabel returned the embrace, then pulled away. She looked over at Bill, who had gotten to his feet and crossed the room, leaning against the wall, to give the twins as much privacy as he could without leaving the room. Mabel pursed her lips, then sighed.

"Guess I should thank you, huh?" Bill just shrugged.

"Whatever floats your boat, Shooting Star." He replied before breaking off into a cough. Worry flashed through Dipper's eyes, and, despite herself, Mabel grew worried too.

"Bill, come here." She instructed. The dream demon stood up off the wall and walked over to the twins, only wobbling slightly as he walked. Mabel bit her lip as she felt Bill's forehead, and took a deep breath to calm her unavoidable concern.

"He's burning up." She reported, looking at her brother. Dipper's face was etched in worry, which made Mabel's stomach tighten. Oh, Dipper...I hope this isn't a trick of his...

"Perhaps I should step into the rain? Would that put out of my fire?" Bill wondered. Dipper and Mabel both looked at him, their eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Was he serious? Bill blushed slightly. "Oh...not literal..." Dipper shook his head in disbelief. "Sorry." Bill apologized. Dipper laughed slightly.

"Hey, you get their eventually." The boy pointed out. Mabel was thinking.

"Hmm...you might be on to something, Bill. Maybe you need to take a nice long shower. I know I feel better after cleaning off." She suggested. Bill rubbed the back of his neck.

"Uh...yeah. Okay. Sure. I'll go take a shower." He said, leaving the room. Dipper and Mabel watched him leave.

"He has no idea what he's doing." Dipper guessed when the door shut.

"Nope." Mabel agreed. The two fell silent and Mabel looked at Dipper, who blushed madly.

"What?! No way I'm going to help him! You do it!" He exclaimed. Mabel rolled her eyes.

"All you have to do is stand outside the bathroom and make sure he doesn't kill himself. Besides, I'm a girl. It'd be weird if I was waiting by the door while a boy took a shower." She pointed out. Dipper frowned at her, glaring.

"No way. It's just...weird." Dipper repeated. Mabel sighed.

"You were locked in a bathroom with him for hours, Dipper! Things can't get much weirder!" She reminded him. Dipper shook his head again.

"Yeah, but we were both fully clothed!" He insisted, ignoring the time when he had to change clothes. Mabel groaned.

"You just have to stand by the door!" She shouted. Dipper flinched at her tone and sighed, giving in.

"Fine." He snapped, grabbing his journal and walking out into the hallway. He sat down against the wall by the bathroom door. He waited until he heard the shower turn on before opening the journal and continuing his work on deciphering the code. He chewed on the end of his pen as he thought. What if the pairs of letters are meant to represent another letter? Like...a math equation! The number position of the letter in the alphabet plus the other letter's number position!  No...that would equal more than twenty-six.... Dipper scribbled out the alphabet at the top of his paper and numbered each letter. I wonder... If you didn't split it evenly, then.... Dipper shook that thought aside, scratching out the numbered alphabet. No, that wouldn't work... Perhaps... A thought occurred to Dipper. Bill loved to trick the boy, so...what if the second number really meant nothing? And the number of the letter's position represented... Dipper pursed his lips, stumped again. How many ways could someone number an alphabet? And what if it wasn't the first letter, but the second letter? What if it alternated? Dipper groaned, clicking the pen angrily. Figuring out a cipher was much harder than just decoding one.

"You could have at least given me name for the code!" Dipper shouted through the bathroom door when he heard the shower shut off. He heard Bill laugh, but the demon didn't say anything for a few moments.

"Nope, but I'll give you some hints. Second is never the best, and every other!" Bill replied. Dipper suddenly had an idea. He scrabbled out the alphabet again, and numbered every other letter, keeping in sequence. When he reached the end of the alphabet, he went back and numbered the remaining letters with the remaining numbers in the sequence. Second is never the best...so it is the first number! But... Dipper wrote another alphabet out, numbering it normal. Then he looked at the letters Bill had given him, crossing out the second letter in each pair. He was left with the following:

GIYDBL YAUI IBIYQIL

Dipper examined the letters, wondering which way the code went. Do the letter's position represent the letter in the normal alphabet or the alternating? He sighed and figured he'd might as well try them both. Going from normal to alternate left him with this:

MEXGCW XAPO QCQXHQW

Dipper looked at his results and frowned. Well, he thought to himself, now I know which way it goes. All Dipper had managed to do was double code the message, and he tried not to feel silly for doing so. He took a deep breath, growing excited, and he began to decode the message, going the other way around. His results were as follows:

DEMONS MAKE ENEMIES

"Demons make..." Dipper trailed off as he read the message allowed, slightly confused. Just then, there was the sound of a helicopter, and a window breaking. It came from the bathroom. Dipper leapt to his feet, praying that Bill was clothed as he opened the door. When he did open the door, he saw the government agents that arrested his great uncle all those years ago. They were attached by retractable wires to their helicopter outside. In their arms, was Bill Cipher, unconscious and only half clothed. He was wearing the jeans Dipper had given him, but he hadn't put on a shirt yet, revealing a tattoo on his back, the same one that Bill was seen with in the journal. Dipper didn't look at Bill. Instead, he glared at the government agents.

"What are you doing?!" He snarled. Without replying, the agents jumped out the hole in the wall they had made, taking Bill with them. Dipper ran to the edge of the building, ready to jump off after them, but Mabel ran into the bathroom and grabbed his arm.

"No!" He cried as the helicopter flew away. Soos, Wendy, and Stanley ran into the bathroom.

"Dipper! What's going on?!" Stan demanded. Dipper ran his hands through his hair, panicking.

"They took him...they took him...they're going to kill him...Mabel, they're going to kill him, I just know it!" Dipper cried, grabbing his sister by the shoulders. Mabel grimaced. Poor Dipper had fallen for a demon, and there was nothing she could do about it, except for try to keep him safe.

"Dipper, it's going to be okay. He's going to be okay." Mabel promised. Dipper shook his head, bringing out the journal. He showed Mabel the cipher he had just solved.

"He knew this was going to happen, Mabel, he knew it! And he let it happen anyway!" Stan walked forward and put his hands on Dipper's shoulders.

"Kid, what's wrong? Who was taken? Who knew?" Stan insisted. Dipper bit his lip, panic in his chest, desperation in his heart. His throat was stinging with worry, his eyes beginning to water.

"Bill. They took Bill Cipher."

A/N: Okay, so the Cipher was initially MUCH more complicated, but...I couldn't get it to work very well, so I made it very simple. You could say that Dipper and I figured it out together. Haha! The picture at the top is my scratch work. A lot of scratches...that's what I get for using pen. And yes, sadly, I did chew on my pen. Haha! I'll howl to you later!