#billdipweek2017

When a child reached the age of ten, they and their Guardians were educated in an ancient magic technique: The Synchronization, an ancestral art that consisted of merging soul, mind, energy, and magic into one body. The process of Synchronization isn't the same for everyone, was rumored that those who have a demon as a Guardian are people whose lives seem resolved since they become more powerful.

Big lie, Dipper thought, remembering that when he and Mabel were ten years old they were sent to Gravity Falls to be trained in the Synchronization with their Great-Uncles's help, Ford and Stan, along with their own Guardians. And like their old relatives, they also had demons as Guardians. The quadrangular Bet Demon, Tad Strange was Mabel's, while Dipper obtained the triangular Dream Demon, Bill Cipher.

It was a clash of personalities that their Grunkles and parents had to witness several times since they were children. Mabel was a girl who was always getting into trouble, a new scrape on her skin every day, with an energetic personality that a normal person would tire in a couple of hours while Tad was a quiet, analytical, careful, always worrying when Mabel was hurt. Dipper was a simple kid, he liked to read, not to play sports, to observe the magic, to make useful notes while practicing, meanwhile Bill was chaotic, destructive, with a bad sense of humor, and horribles puns.

Many times Dipper wondered why he couldn't get Tad as his Guardian and Mabel to Bill – Then he remembered that being Bill Mabel's Guardian it was possible that the world would end in a matter of seconds and neither he nor Tad could stop them. There must have been some reason why the Ancients decided to match them as Guardian and Protégé, right? The Ancients must have known something that neither he nor the demons knew.

At the age of thirteen, Stanford concluded that their bodies were already sufficiently ready to synchronize. Dipper was almost certain that neither he nor Mabel would manage to achieve a full Synchronization on the first try, they firsthand had denied everything about the rumors of having a demon as a Guardian.

Mabel surprised him by reaching a almost full Synchronization with Tad.

The roots of Mabel's brown hair were stained with a degraded purple. The pupil of her eyes became a horizontal line. Her skin had turned pale as if the Sun had never touched it in her life. It was strange to hear his sister speak at the same time that Tad's voice came from her lips. Stan told them that once the Synchronization was perfected their voice would be changed into a single and unique.

Dipper and Bill looked at each other and then ignored each other as they folded their arms just as Tabel, as the new person wanted to be called, approached them and dragged them into a hug. Mabel must have been the dominant entity in the body since Dipper recognized the strength of his sister in the embrace.

During the following years Dipper tried to progress with Bill's magic and his, nevertheless none of them wanted to return to touch the subject of the Synchronization. Somehow Dipper began to believe that it wasn't necessary. Stanley and Stanford had long since stopped synchronizing as they got older, however that didn't prevent them from using their magic and their demons' combined into one.

“Do you think we ever get to synchronize?” Dipper asked one night. Both had begun to get a little better, something everyone in his family was grateful for.

That night the rain fell calmly on Piedmont, Dipper had finished the duties Ford had sent him for the summer that he and Stan wouldn't be in Gravity Falls so he dropped into his bed next to Bill, the demon was playing the PSP that Dipper's parents had given him on his seventeenth birthday.

“If that's what you want. There's no problem for me if we never got to synchronize.” Bill answered in a surprisingly calm voice. Dipper must admit that he never believed that his demon could have that tone of voice. “As long as you become the most powerful magician in the world I think I can live with never synchronizing with you.”

“I wonder how Mabel and Tad managed to synchronize when their personalities are so different.” Dipper bit the tip of his pen, not biting so hard because it was the last one he had and he didn't want to waste more ink and toothbrushes. “I remember that one of the main points of Synchronization is that you must form a stronger bond than any other with your Guardian.”

“Sentimentalisms.” Bill replied.

“Yes, I thought the same thing.” Dipper agreed with him. Stan used to call these times one in a billion and Mabel always took pictures of those unique moments, Dipper could count those Polaroid with one hand.

“Mph.” Bill laughed quietly. “You have thoughts that I can't even understand why you have them in the first place.”

“Well, that makes two of us. Maybe from time to time you also want to share one to another.”

It was normal that between a Guardian and their Protégé telepathy was their kind of communication, especially when it was about secrets. But when the Guardian turned out to be a demon and that demon turned out to be Bill Cipher, not to mention that the Protégé was Dipper Pines – Let's say the telepathy between them was somewhat peculiar. Especially if it was insults.

“You could never understand what's going through my mind.”

Dipper arched an eyebrow, clearly Bill was avoiding the subject. Especially those who had to do with his life before him. “I get to understand your concept of party when I met your friends.”

“And the price was that I was locked up for a whole summer in one of those Sixer's anti-magic bubbles for corrupting the bright mind of a twelve-year-old boy.”

“Yeah,” Dipper shrugged, a small smile crossed his face, “I think it was a good summer.”

Lightning struck the whole room, its power was so strong that it cut off electrical power. The whole house, and probably the city as Dipper had seen at his window, had stayed in the dark. Gradually faint colored lights lit the neighboring houses.

“I need help.” Dipper heard his mother's voice coming from the kitchen.

“I'm going!” Mabel's enthusiastic cry echoed outside her room; A purple glow was quickly seen passing through the slit of the door of his room.

A slight golden glow appeared beside the young twin. Dipper looked to the side to see Bill with his natural golden glow illuminate only the space around the bed. “Won't you continue playing with the PSP?” Dipper asked as he took the electronic device and left it on his nightstand beside his bed.

“As soon as the electric power returns.” Bill said, avoiding seeing him, “You bags of meat can't do anything without it.”

Dipper rolled his eyes, it was ridiculous for Bill to say that, even though the creatures that turned out to be Guardians had to be tied to simple human laws. Bill was one of the few who took advantage of who they were to avoid the radar of the Ancients. Dipper decided it was better to read and study one of the scrolls that Ford had given him.

“You know,” Bill spoke up drawing Dipper's attention, “It was a night like this when I met you.”

Ah? “You mean when did you get into this house?” Dipper asked even though he knew Bill would deny it, his mother had already told them about when Bill and Tad had come to this house and there was no rain falling from the sky.

“I mean when you were born.” Bill said as if he was scolding him for something he didn't know.

Bill rarely spoke of the moments he had with him before Dipper began to have a sense of memory. “I think Stan had said that tonight you and Ford's Guardian wanted to start a discussion.” Dipper noticed what seemed to be a frown on Bill's triangular face, “Tell me,” Dipper approached Bill's side, his Guardian usually didn't talk about his influence in Dipper's early years, “How was that meeting?”

Bill sighed wearily, “It's what I hate about you humans, they don't remember anything.”

“And you do it?”

“That's right.” Bill spoke in such a serious tone that Dipper doubted whether he was joking or not. “You were so small that you could possibly fit perfectly into an Ancients' many fingers.”

Although the demons were descendants of them Dipper had the knowledge that it was difficult that they will be called family as did some magical creatures or humans. “You hardly ever talk about them.”

“Why would I want to talk about someone who expelled me from my own home? Sounds illogical in my opinion.”

“Do you regret having been a Guardian?” Dipper didn't know why he had asked that, but it made him feel a bit responsible for keeping Bill away from Nightmare Realm, despite not being guilty in the first place.

“No.” Bill responded, surprising Dipper, “Maybe at first, but it seems that someone here – ” He looked at Dipper, “Needed some fun in his nerdy life.”

“I'm going to try to turn that response into something cooler than it wasn't 'I had pity on you'. Now that I think about it, what could you tell me about Nightmare Realm? Of course you don't have to mention the Ancients.” Dipper added at the sight of Bill's face.

Bill tapped close to his face, “I could mention how I gave a violinist nightmares or how Xanthar and I destroyed the Underworld by annoying Lucitor, and when we stole a baby bottle – ”

Dipper settled into his seat on his bed, listening intently to some of the stories Bill narrated, sometimes with emotion, sometimes with hatred, and seldom with sadness. This was going to be a long night.

☽✠☾

“Your brother will be upset if you take one of his books as a support for your furniture.” Tad folded his arms as he watched his Protégé approach Dipper's room.

“Nonsense, Dipper loves me.” Mabel pricked her cheek as she winked at her Guardian and entered her brother's room being followed by Tad. Their father had thin books that would be of no help to her, but Dipper had books of a width that could be mistaken for a small box.

A snore came from her brother's bed. Mabel shook her head, it'll be noon, and Dipper was still sleeping, surely Bill wasn't in the house. She was doing him a favor by waking him up and sending him to breakfast.

With almost inaudible steps Mabel went to her brother's bed ready to jump the moment she removed the blankets that covered his body.

“Bad idea.” Tad warned, but at the same time he enjoyed the idea.

One... Two... Three... !

Mabel removed the covers with the speed of lightning but the moment she was ready to jump her body stopped. There was someone different in the bed of her brother who at the same time was her brother.

A boy of the same age as Dipper, with the same face, same type of hair and same clothes, with relevant differences that would have confused her if it weren't because she knew who belonged those differences. Her brother's hair before brown was now blond, his skin had tanned as if he had been under the Sun all afternoon except for the hands that were blackened to the wrist, and the peculiar thing was that there was a third eye in the middle of his front.

Mabel's eyes widened with astonishment, emotion, and pride. Her little brother – And Bill – Had achieved the Synchronization!

“Tad,” The quadrangular demon stared at his Protégé, who had a smile larger than the Cheshire cat, “Bring my camera.”