Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For twenty years, the fact that Liam Cipher was dead was a cold, dead truth. Until now. The first thing he sensed, after being revived from the bleak void, was an eerily familiar voice. It was heard as if muffled through cement walls. The voice gradually became distinct enough to be recognizable as his little brother’s whining. Yes, Bill was telling Liam to… stay by his side? But why was that even a question? And now that Liam’s eyes had adjusted to the light of the living world, what was that piercing hue that emanated from his form?

“Why do you look like that?” Liam interrupted his brother mid-spiel.

Bill sputtered in surprise before giggling. “Do you like it? I’m yellow now.” Liam’s bewildered gaze apparently spurred Bill on to explain, in fits and torrents, the wheres, hows, and whyfores of their unexpected reunion.

Liam listened without expressing any outward emotion or remark. Yet his remarkably astute mind was already putting the pieces together, filling in the untold gaps in his brother’s tale.

“And now I’m immortal, wielder of infinite knowledge. Join me! I can give you anything you want, and everything you deserve. Fuck the world! Let’s wreck this place!” Bill concluded.

Liam stayed silent. He knew by now, with complete certainty, that this was his little brother. Despite everything, he recognized that childish, stubborn little boy in the warped monster that appeared before him. Yet he also knew that the boy he once knew had long gone insane.

The terse tension between the two brothers thickened until finally, Liam spoke. “Bill, why in the world do you think I would be happy with what you’ve done in my name? How have I ever given you even an inkling of the thought that I enjoyed the suffering of others, even if they were my tormentors? In fact, innocents have died by your hand! People like me, Billy!”

Now that he had started, it seemed as if he couldn’t stop. Not for anything. “By invoking my name, you’ve made me complicit in your murders! Do you know how that feels? If anything, it seems to me that you did all this for your own satisfaction. Why— how— how did it come to this? How did you become who you are now?” By now, Liam’s voice had petered from a strangled yell to a whisper.

Bill waited for him to finish with unconcealed malaise, wary of his older brother’s unexpected disavowals. For a being who had taken for granted his brother’s unconditional love, this sudden betrayal was a shock to the senses. His form grew larger and turned an ominous shade of black.

“I made you,” he seethed. “I raised you from the dead, Liam! You should be grateful! Everything I did, I did for you. How dare you. Remember, I’m the ooooonly guy in the whole wide world who loves you! No one else gave a fuck if you lived or died, you—”

But before he could raise a hand against Liam to match his words, he was cut off with a hug. Liam’s voice cracked as he spoke. “You sure are stupid, Billy. Look what a mess you got into without me. Stuck in a crumbling dimension with a bunch of jailbird freaks. Relax, I’m sticking with you until the end of time. I don’t care that you’re a murderer, and callous, and sick in the head. Well, I do, but I care about you more than anything. So since you don’t seem to have a conscience, I’ll be yours. I’ll feel the guilt that you can’t feel for you. I’m always going to be there for you, Billy. No matter what. After all, someone needs to make sure you don’t go off the deep end and get hurt. That’s what big brothers are for.”
Liam had closed his eye and felt Bill gradually shrink in size until he fit in the cradle of his arms, like he always had and always would. Sharp angles and all.

“Well gee, thanks, Brainiac,” Bill muttered into the newfound quiet. “But I’m pretty sure I’m older than you now, give or take a couple decades.”

Now it was Liam’s turn to look affronted. “The duties and joys of being an older brother are not bound by the mere limitations of age, Billy.” He said sanctimoniously. “I’d still be your older brother even if you were an all-powerful demon hellbent on the destruction of the universe and I were… well, me. That’s just a fact of life.”

He felt Bill close his eye and smile into the crook of his elbow. “Sure, whatever you say,” Liam heard Bill say before he fell into a deep and quiet rest.

Chapter Text

Liam awoke in a bunk bed. He touched the sheets, felt the interwoven threads and examined the glinting sheen of silk. He heard soft, familiar snoring above him. As could be imagined, Liam was having a hard time coming to terms with reality. That is, the fact that he was even alive to begin with. Judging by the soft rays of malevolent red light peeking through the window, dawn was breaking.

Liam quietly slid out of the blankets and staggered for a moment on the hardwood floor. He padded across the room in bare feet before hesitating in front of the door frame. From behind the wooden door, he could hear the faint sound of raucous laughter. Peeking through the keyhole, Liam spied the forms of the “friends” that Bill had mentioned earlier. Liam was suddenly conscious of his pronounced limp, his awkward gait and lopsided form. He grew cognizant of his comparative weakness to anyone, let alone interdimensional monsters.

Sliding against the door to sit on the floor, Liam decided to wait until Bill woke to brave the waking world. He trained his eye on the wooden grain of the floor beneath his feet while listening to snippets of conversation as the light from the window crept across the floor and the soft, hazy silhouettes of indistinct furniture began to solidify and cast hard shadows.

All at once, Liam became aware of the fact that the monsters outside were talking about him. He also felt the increasingly pressing urge to piss. Liam slowly stood up and faced the door. With practiced ease, he slipped a hand through the not-quite flush gap between door and frame, grasped the door handle, and rotated it so as to allow the rest of his body to squeeze through the now unobstructed gap. No sense in potentially letting the door creak as it opened, after all. And by the sound of it, the crowd of strangers were some distance away, so no one would witness him. Still grasping the doorknob, Liam gently rotated it back to its original position. He peeked across the hall and let out a breath of relief when it seemed as if no one had noticed him. Not so by the time he finished doing his business.

Liam limped into the kitchen across the hall with painful slowness. A complete silence had entered the dining area by then. Then he heard someone whisper, “He looks like he’s ten”, and a sudden indignation filled his chest.

“Hi. I’m Liam. And I’m twelve, for your information.” He glowered.

“Hear that? He’s twelve!” a flaming figure exclaimed.

Liam started. He carefully did not look at the flames and began to examine the rest of the being. It had strange protrusions extending from what was presumably its center of weight, and masses under its thin exoskeleton that he could see flex and shift slightly as it moved, but at least it just had one eye.

“And what a cutie patootie he is! Just like his brother!” The thing sounded feminine, but he had to ask.

“Are you a lady?” he inquired. It seemed pleased by the question.

“What a gentleman you are! Yeah, you could say that. I’m Pyronica,” She said. While they had been talking, someone had guided Liam to a plate of pancakes and left a fork in his hand.

“Do you—” he started to say, but cut himself off by shoving a pancake into his orifice. Obviously, he had so much he wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to be rude to Bill’s friends. What was something he could do that wouldn’t make anyone upset?

Chess! “Do you want to play chess?” He asked. “A-after breakfast, of course.” He munched ravenously on more pancakes in order to stop talking, but also because they were tasty and, he realized, because coming back from the dead was hungry business. “What are all your names, by the way?” He asked between bites.

By the time he had finished eating, he had been introduced to all of Bill’s colorful cast of friends and was raring to play chess. The first go around, he had to get used to playing with someone who wasn’t Bill, so he lost after a long bout. The second time, he won after ten moves. The third time, he didn’t want anyone to feel left out, so they all cleared away the dishes and played, one after the other. The number of moves he needed to win grew shorter and shorter. Liam was so intensely focused on the board, he didn’t notice everyone’s mounting frustration at losing to a literal twelve-year-old until Teeth began eating the pieces while he wasn’t looking.

Liam felt his hands get clammy. He decided to keep everyone happy by throwing his little brother under the proverbial bus. “Do you wanna know what Billy was like as a kid?” He blurted out.

Everyone’s faces or face-adjacents suddenly appeared extremely close to Liam. “Tell me more,” Pyronica whispered.

Liam gulped. “Well, for the longest time, Billy thought his full name was Billiam… it’s not. It’s William.”

“Oh!” Keyhole interrupted. “I get it! Yours too, right? I mean, your full name is William? Damn, is this why Bill said anyone who heard his full name would explode?”

Liam blinked at that. “Wait, he would explode anyone who knew his full name? I, that’s actually bec— well anyway. To answer your question, yeah, but I prefer Liam.”

“What, so your parents named both of you William? Isn’t that…” Keyhole asked.

Liam shrugged. “They weren’t very creative when they adopted Billy to continue the family business. I don’t mind. And that’s how I got my name!” Here Liam smiled proudly. “Did you know Billy’s first word was ‘Liam’? He’s always been good with words, a good trait to have for a merchant. Some things took a little more time to learn though. In all the time I’ve known him, he’s never learned how to tie his shoes. He always wore these cute little light-up velcro sneakers with baseballs on them. I wonder if he ever figured it out?”

Everyone guffawed at that. “He doesn’t wear shoes at all,” Kryptos said. “Just floats everywhere. Too good to walk on the floor.”

Liam hummed. “You know, that reminds me. You guys know how he’s always loved his pranks? Well, this one time he climbed on top of the refrigerator. I still have no idea how he did it, he must’ve been five inches. Anywho, I think he wanted to jump on top of me, but he got too scared. Couldn’t get down. It was the funniest thing I ever—”

“NOOOOoooooo!” Bill suddenly yelled from across the hall. “Stop embarrassing me in front of my friends!”

Liam snickered. “Hey, at least I didn’t tell them your middle name. Guess I’ll fridge that idea as blackmail for later.”

Bill’s eye widened comically. “Middle name? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Liam raised his eyebrow. “Right. Well, you wouldn’t mind if I told everyone about the middle name you don’t have, huh?”

“NO!”

“No, you wouldn’t mind?” “No— I mean, yes!”

“Oh, you mean yes, you meant to say no? I see, I guess I’ll just say it out loud now—”

“Aargh! I get your point, you know what I mean!” Bill whined.

Liam let out a huff of laughter at that. “Then sit down and eat your pancakes, Billy. You sure slept in. It must be almost eleven by now.” By then, Liam had completely relaxed in the presence of the others. Even Amorphous Shape, whose existence he didn’t really want to think about just yet. They ate some more pancakes while the others excused themselves, but not before Pyronica invited Liam to something called Poker Night.

Liam squirmed in his chair, trying to contain all the questions he wanted to ask Bill after he finished his pancakes. Bill raised an eyebrow and began to exaggeratedly masticate his food, theatrically slurping and smacking his lips between bites. Finally, he finished eating.

Liam waited a final moment before rattling off the questions burning on his tongue. “Are you an all-powerful entity now? How do you float? Is yellow your actual color now, or is it some sort of paint? Can I have color and float too? What else can you do? Did you get my gifts?”

Bill smirked. He pretended to examine his nonexistent fingernails. He must have gotten that mannerism from one of his friends, Liam thought. “Yeah, and don’t forget the word omnipotent. As in the all-powerful, omnipotent ruler of the Nightmare Realm. I can peek into anyone’s mind, see their dreams, do anything, really. And you know, I can gift these abilities to you. Just shake my hand and we’ll have a deal. And no refunds!” Bill said, extending a hand wreathed in blue flames.

Liam’s eye watered when he looked at it for too long. “What?” He blurted. “Well first of all, don’t hand me all this knowledge for free. That’s so boring. Not to be rude, but I’d rather learn it for myself, you know. By extension, that also means I don’t really want to poke around in other people’s brains. Sounds gross. But other than that… sounds great! Just don’t ever peek into my head, Billy. That’s weird. And just to make this a real deal that has terms and conditions for both sides, let's just say that in exchange, I’ll always be by your side. I would never even try to leave you alone. It’s just perfunctory and perfectly obvious, but I still want you to know that I mean this in no uncertain terms. So pinky promise?” Liam really did not want to purposefully touch a fire more than necessary, even though he knew intellectually that there was very little chance that his little brother’s hand would ever harm him.

Bill smiled nostalgically. The fire turned into a tiny flame, and he linked his pinky to Liam’s. “Pinky promise.”

Chapter Text

Afterwards, Liam immediately jumped up and began doing infinity loops under the ceiling. It was such a rush to finally be free from his perpetual limp! He giggled giddily, before suddenly hovering before Bill and willing himself to turn neon yellow, fluorescent pink, and finally a greenish cyan. “Oh yeah, did you get my gifts?” he asked.

Bill blinked slowly. “What gifts?”

Immediately, Liam let gravity drop him onto his feet again. He did not show any visible reaction to Bill’s answer. “Is our house still standing?” He asked instead.

The two of them floated to the remnants of their childhood home in silence. Liam’s eye widened, but he said nothing as he witnessed the ruins that were left of all he had ever known. A husk of scaffolding and ashes stirred by their presence was all that remained of his home.

“Could you revert it to how it was? Even the parts of it you never saw?” Liam asked.

Bill spoke without inflection, “Of course. It’s just like what I did for you, except way easier.” And with a snap of his fingers, he did just that.

As they entered the threshold, Liam answered the unasked question in the mounting silence. “I knew that I couldn’t be there for you in the future, so I wanted to prepare gifts for every milestone you achieved. It would be like I was celebrating with you from beyond the grave. I gave them to Mother so that she could pass them on to you when the time came, because I knew you would open them the first chance you got. I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. Did she die unexpectedly, or did you… say something to her? She promised. It was my last request to her.”

Bill was worryingly silent. His voice was even, but his trembling hands belied his fury. “After I came of age and inherited the business, we had a spat. We stopped talking to each other since.” Since then, it seemed that Bill had also never stopped to wonder what had been left unsaid.

They entered their mother’s bedroom. Dust motes swirled through columns of sunbeams upon the opening of the door, remnants trapped within the amber of another time. They began to methodically search through the room, Liam reverently and Bill callously. Within minutes, Liam found the letters beneath their Mother’s pillows. They were opened, wrinkled, pages thumbed and rimed with tears.

Even now, looking at the evidence of his errors in their “spat”, Bill did not regret refusing his Mother even the crumb of a keepsake from Liam to mourn over. On the contrary, he still blamed her for his brother’s death, and he blamed her still more for the cherished yet desecrated gifts that were rightfully his to reminisce over. If he could get away with reviving her just to kill her, he would. But at this moment, Bill tenderly opened the envelopes addressed to him.

“I meant to write a letter for your graduation and coming of age, but I never got around to it. For some reason I thought I would still have enough time for when you turned sixteen.” Liam said. “But I wrote something for when you took over the business, for your first love, your eventual marriage get married, and for when you got kids, when you retired, when Mother and Father died, and when you lay dying of old age, hopefully. I wanted to be there for you through it all, Billy.” Liam slumped into the bed, his elbows planted on his knees and hands clasped together. “But I guess I got it all wrong, anyway. So it doesn’t matter.”

Bill still stood silently, parsing through the letters, before pocketing them to read on his own time. He sat down and leaned into Liam. Then a silent laugh shook his frame and resounded between them both. “Well, under any other circumstance, it would be mandatory for me to marry and have kids. And I would’ve had to die. I did use to just be a regular old equilateral triangle. Too bad I flipped the universe upside down, huh?” Bill said. And under the silently streaming sunlight, with the smell of their Mother’s perfume still lingering in the air, the two shared a secret smile.

Chapter Text

“But this doesn’t mean you can open the other letters!” Liam interjected. “You never know if you’ll find true love. Although I’d pity whoever had to marry you. You’re a real pain in the angle.”

“Hey!” Bill yelled. “I’m your pain in the angle.”

Liam rolled his eye. “Yes, that’s why I’d feel sorry for whoever had to deal with you. They’d know that they willingly subjected themselves to the torture of being with you for eternity.”

Bill crossed his arms and sulked. “I can totally be not-annoying! In fact, I’m the champion of un-annoying-ness! I can do anything! I can out-un-annoy you, or my Henchmaniacs, or anyone!”

Liam giggled. “You know I’m just teasing you, Billy. You’re worth more than everything. And did you really call your friends your ‘Henchmaniacs?’”

Bill preened and looped his arms around and around his older brother. It was a very uncomfortable hug, since Liam’s sides were uneven and they were both very sharp triangles, but it was also just right. “Yeah. Like I said, I can do anything.” Bill said. “Anyways, let's blow this joint! I forgot I haven’t shown you around yet.”

The idiom flew right over Liam’s head. “What does that mean?” He asked. Bill smirked and flicked him on the space above his eye. “It means you’re twelve, and not as city-slick as your little brother. Now let’s go.”

Liam followed Bill until they neared what used to be the library for the exclusive use of academic elites. Now it was a ruin, a relic of its time, fit only for the mulch and lairs of creeping worm and crawling spider. The mouldering domed ceiling, collapsed in on itself, allowed sunlight and weather to yellow the precious pages of its inner recesses.

Bill led him by the hand deeper and deeper into the library. “There!” He said. “Aren’t you happy? I know you love books.”

Liam found it hard to smile. Under any other circumstance he would have been overjoyed, but his joy was tainted by the tragedy that practically dripped from every surface. On the contrary, he felt as if he was mired in a dark sludge, guilt having coalesced into physical form. Yet he gently smiled and said, “It’s lovely, Billy. I just wish it didn’t come at such a heavy cost.”

Bill scoffed. “The circles? Who cares about them? Those old farts were nothing compared to you,” Bill said. He turned his eye away when Liam’s smile slipped away. “Anyways, who cares about that? Come on, check it out!” And Liam was led away from this testament to his brother’s sins, ever deeper into the pristine depths of an underground sanctum.

Despite himself, Liam was awed and cowed by the majesty of the library basement. If one were to remain in the outside world, they would never know of the beauty found within these ruins. Similarly, for someone who stayed here, would be unfathomable to imagine the wasteland just above them. Liam felt as if he could spend days hidden within this broken-eggshell bastion. He traced his fingers along the spines of books on arithmetic, geometry, and sciences he had never heard of before. There was theory, theoretical physics, and a single shelf of something called topology.

Bill saw the smile that spread like a breaking dawn across Liam’s eye and felt inordinately pleased with himself. He watched as Liam lost all sense of his surroundings, books floating up from the shelves to bob behind him like a line of happy ducklings. Liam was lost in his own world, oblivious to anything else. In this state he could even forget to eat, which could be dangerous. But Bill was happy just to share space with Liam on a quiet afternoon. He would be happy to remind his older brother to eat, and all those other banal inconsequentialities that really meant everything, until the end of time. And in this way they passed the afternoon.

Later in the evening, when Bill had convinced Liam to go to bed, the two brothers lay down in their bunk beds. Two eyes peered out from the darkness. From the gloam, an unseen voice asked, “What were Mother and Father like after I died?” and a voice responded with a not-quite truth, “The same.” “Oh.” The hurt from the voice in the dark was undisguised.

Chapter Text

And so the days passed. Every day, Liam would visit the library, choose a certain number of tomes, and take them with him to study in his parlour. While there, Bill and the Henchmaniacs would come and go, and he would ask each of each about their experiences. From Pyronica, for instance, Liam learned of beauty contests, which were immeasurably important to her. To Liam, however, the very concept of a beauty pageant boggled the mind.

“What do you mean there’s no beauty contests?” Pyronica asked. “How do you spend the time?”

The answer was objectively horrifying. “Well, all women look the same. They’re lines. Very sharp, but I mean, there’s nothing to embellish.” Liam replied. He continued on to say, oblivious to Pyronica’s growing shock, “But even if they weren’t there wouldn’t be much of a point. Here, women are— I mean were— like livestock. And, like how cattle have different breeds, women had to have a certain pedigree in their bloodline to prevent Irregularities like me, with my—” and here he gestured to his entire body— “from popping up down the line. But all women were treated the same, and used for the same end, which is to make babies. So there wasn’t much point in pageants.” Liam mentioned offhand. He appeared very callous, but in truth, he simply didn’t have any other frame of reference.

Pyronica was stunned, to say the least. “Do you believe in that horseshit too?” She asked. If Liam was a sexist little twerp, she didn’t know what she would do. It wasn’t like she could eat Bill’s older brother like she would anyone else, after all. Luckily, the cards were in her favor.

Liam answered, “Oh, no. ‘Course I don’t subscribe to that rhetoric. My Mother is living proof— I, I mean was proof that the whole thing was a big dumb farce. For one thing, I was born wrong because my Father waited too long to make babies, not because of my Mother’s bloodline. Then there was this book that said that ‘About three hundred years ago, it was decreed by the Chief Circle that, since women are deficient in Reason but abundant in Emotion, they ought no longer to be treated as rational, nor receive any mental education,’ but I think that’s hogwash too. I mean, I’ve met my Mother, and she’s more sensible than my Father any time, even without any fancy schooling. I didn’t even have to leave my doorstep to know that’s all baloney.”

Pyronica sent a prayer of gratitude to Liam’s mom for having existed. If Liam was as aggravating as all the rest of the pigs on this backwards ass planet used to be, she’d be morally obligated to eat him alive, and then Bill would murder her. Slowly. Painfully. But now Pyronica had the responsibility and pleasure of enlightening Liam to the wonders of the beauty pageant.

“So you ate everyone on your home planet because you got second place?” Liam asked. “But that’s amazing! I mean that you got second place in a global beauty contest, not that you ate everyone. Although on a purely scientific level, that is also an impressive feat. Tell me, what happens to the physical mass after you consume it? Is it converted into pure energy?”

Pyronica was pleased as punch. It had been several hours of her regaling him with tales of her former glory, and he had yet to grow tired of it like all the rest. He just kept asking question after question. What a good little listener! He was simply too adorable. She wanted to just gobble him up. “Yeah, that’s why these babies are white.” She flared the flames that covered her forelimbs and lower legs. “Usually they’re a nice hot pink. But I’m still riding that high, probably will for a trillion more years or so.” She had failed to notice Liam twitch in her reverie. “Anyways, are you gonna join us for Poker Night?”

Liam took a moment to respond. “Yeah.” Then he remembered a question that had been burning in his mind since Poker had been mentioned. “Wait, what is this ‘Poker’? I understand it’s a game that involves the participation of multiple people, but does it have to do with the physical action of poking? Or, like, a fire poker?” His voice trailed off into a mumble.

In contrast, Pyronica was overjoyed to hear that Liam had no idea what Poker was. He was so cute! Although on second thought, it made perfect sense that a prepubescent shut-in wouldn’t know what Poker was. “That’s a surprise!” she crowed. But now that she actually thought about it, Pyronica realized they’d have to change the regular rules for Poker night. Usually they played strip poker, which was fun because none, if any, of them wore more than three articles of clothing, if they didn’t just go nude. Strip Poker meant that they got to be creative about what constituted “stripping”. Keratin, enamel, skin, it was all fair game. But obviously Liam couldn’t play that… This bore some thought.

Chapter Text

In the end, Liam showed up. He couldn’t avoid it. He was simply too curious. Everyone had turned up, and Bill made a big show of doing tricks with a stack of cards. It turned out that he would be the dealer for the night. Apparently he was too good, and he “would ruin the fun for the rest of us” and needed to “at least give us a chance.”

Meanwhile, Pyronica was busy explaining the amended rules to all and sundry. Everyone took their seats, with Liam being invited to sit next to his brother. Liam grasped the rules with ease, but when it came to actually playing, he failed. Miserably. Bill was obviously cheating and dealing him the best cards, but it was doing more harm than good. It wasn’t that Liam didn’t understand how to play, or that he wasn’t strategic enough. It was that somehow, even though there was only one feature to his “face”, everyone could read him like a neon billboard sign. And with every play, Liam understood the value of the cards more, and thereby only made it worse for himself. He was easy pickings. The Henchmaniacs simply couldn’t go easy on him anymore. So finally, Liam lost. His punishment was to tell an embarrassing story about himself.

Despite his series of losses, Liam was enjoying himself. It was fun to see everyone try their best to outdo each other, fun to learn something new, fun to hear everyone’s stories, even fun to lose. Liam didn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed of losing to beings double or triple his age. And he figured that if he won at chess all the time, conversely, it meant that it was only fair for him to lose a bit at Poker. He was just glad that the game hadn’t consisted of what he originally feared it would, although he still didn’t know why it was called “poker” of all things. And he still hadn’t found out what millions Paci-Fire had slaughtered on his thousand moons. Moon men? Moths? Liam just didn’t know.

No, what Liam was nervous about was trying to come up with a story that was both embarrassing and entertaining. He could try to foist off a story about Billy, although he knew immediately that it wouldn’t work. But it would buy him time, and it couldn’t hurt to try.

“Okay, so when Billy—” Liam was cut off by Bill lighting his hand on fire and pushing it into his side.

“No cheating!” Bill yelled. But Liam could not reply. The flames curiously did not burn, but rather tickled furiously. Liam laughed, and could not stop laughing. He could not tell Bill that he did not like the flames. He could not get the air to do so. Finally, to get Bill to stop, Liam put a hand over Bill’s face, ignoring the “Hey!” that the response engendered.

He took a moment to breathe and get his bearings, before carefully not thinking about certain things that he could not afford to examine at the moment, or ever. He would rather think of anything other than that, and at last arrived at what he considered a good story to share.

“Right. Well, this happened before you came along, Billy.” Liam said, a dreamy glaze affecting his gaze. He seemed to retreat within himself. “When I was a kid, I liked to play with toys. But there were no toys that looked like me, of course. So I made some out of pipe cleaners and googly eyes and hot glued them to my skin, so they would never leave me.” Here he laughed softly. “It took a couple days before anyone noticed. I still have the scars. I guess they really did never leave me.”

A dead silence entered the room. It seemed to close in on itself, yet also empty of all sound like a vacuum in space.

“That’s not funny, Liam.” Bill said at last.

Liam felt vaguely surprised. “I thought it was. And I know you enjoy it when others get hurt, Billy.” He said softly. Everything about and to Liam felt soft and out of focus.

But for Bill, everything was only becoming more and more unbearable, like a hot sore. All Bill could say in response was “Yeah, but not if it's you.”

And when Liam asked “Why?” in genuine confusion, Bill felt a growing sick helplessness as the anger drained away and left the sediments of pain behind. Like a child, Bill could only sling hurtful words back. “The only thing that’s funny right now is how dumb you are. For a genius, you sure are stupid.”

But Liam really, truly did not understand why Bill was upset, or what he had done to hurt him so. Unbidden, the words “I just wish you cared more about the people around you, rather than just me” slipped free. Immediately, Liam furrowed his brow and touched his face. He finally realized that he had said something wrong. Liam intimately understood the pain of being identified as innately wanting by a loved one. He had never meant to say that to Billy, his little brother. He still didn’t feel real. He excused himself to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, which felt like forever and a step away, Liam white-knuckled the sink. His dilated pupil stared into the mirror and the void that it reflected back. A funny ringing, like the tuning of a TV, buzzed in his ears before a fuzzy din of voices could be heard in the distance. Liam slapped himself and whispered, “Wake up.”

Chapter Text

Liam splashed some water on his face. He allotted himself a few seconds to recoup, but knew that he would eventually have to leave. He propped his arms on the sink and stared into his reflection, willing himself to stop falling apart. And on the count of ten, he took a deep breath and stepped out to face the music.

To his surprise, everyone was gone and Bill was the only one left, wiping the table. The instant Liam saw Bill willingly clean up after other people, he knew that it was no coincidence that they were the only two people in the room. He breathed a sigh of relief at not having to force a veneer of calm in front of beings that he still had yet to fully familiarize himself with. With Bill, Liam could let down his guard. Without a word, Liam began to help Bill clean up and pack things away.

Liam began to contemplate his course of action while absentmindedly disintegrating the trash. He decided that his first step would be to break the ice, before he could warm up to comforting Bill and, eurgh, talking about his feelings. So without further ado, Liam asked, “Chess?” and conjured the game before their eyes.

Bill squinted. It wasn’t fair that Liam instantly grasped how to use his powers, he thought, whereas it had taken weeks for Bill to stop flying into billboards. Not that he would ever say that out loud. Bill eyed the board, before grumpily commenting, “Aren’t you tired of losing tonight? You’re going down, Brainiac.” Liam smiled. At last, familiar territory. “Make me.”

They played, just like old times, and just like old times, Bill lost. It took longer than usual, but Liam won fair and square. Liam squinted suspiciously at Bill. “You’re not going easy on me, are you?” He asked dubiously.

Bill was both pleased that Liam thought so well of his chess, and offended that Liam would ever suggest that he would intentionally throw a game for the sake of some hurt feelings. He definitely didn’t do anything wrong, so why would he go out of his way to do something so nice? “Don’t you know me at all, Liam? Of course not!” Bill whined.

Liam was surprised. “Huh. Well, it looks like you got some bad habits then. You shouldn’t just try to overwhelm the opponent with speed. Is that how you won against all your friends?” he commented.

“Excuse you! That is a valid strategy, thank you very much! It’s called shock and awe, for your information.” Bill retorted. He did not want to admit that he gained those habits from getting complacent, exactly like how Liam guessed.

Liam smiled fondly. “I don’t think that’s quite how you use the term, Billy,” he said. Then they played another round.

To the concise click of a chess piece, Liam planned his next move. “Have I ever told you how proud I am of you?” he asked suddenly.

Bill’s hand faltered as he played his move.

Liam continued on to say, “I don’t just mean my memory of you when you were younger than me. Although I’m proud of that version of you too. But I mean that I’m proud of you for surviving in a world that despised you. When you finally left Flatland for something better, in spite of all those stupid rules. When you were jailed in the Infinitentiary after you got caught escaping, where everyone was bigger and stronger than you, and you just showed them that you were meaner and smarter. And you made friends! Actual friends, who treat you right and stick with you through everything. Then you outsmarted Time Baby, tricked him into giving you your powers and setting you and your friends free. Ha! You sure showed them.”

Liam paused. “I don’t mean to say that there are some decisions you consciously made, and continue to choose, that I don’t think I will ever agree with, but just know this; I will always be proud of you for advocating for yourself. I don’t care if the world hates you, I’ll always want you in my life.” By this point, they had completely stopped playing. Bill simply stared.

“Wait, are you trying to comfort me?” Bill suddenly asked. He seemed aggravated.

Liam felt shocked, and once again wondered where he had gone wrong. “Can’t I? Is it working?” Liam asked.

Bill sputtered. “No, I, yes, But, but it's supposed to be the other way around!” he said. “I didn’t mean to call you dumb. And it’s me who should be saying that I want you around in my life! And you should never doubt what I say, Liam. Not ever. Your pain isn’t something to make light of.”

Liam furrowed his brow in consternation and moved his piece across the board to capture one of Bill’s pawns, just to avoid looking him in the face. Finally, he said, “Let's talk hypotheticals. If you never knew me, you would never have come in contact with the book of forbidden knowledge I ordered from Randall’s bookstore. And you wouldn’t have had to live in the wake of my death in a world that killed me. Would you still have destroyed Flatland?”

Bill immediately wanted to deny it, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie about something they both already knew the answer to. “Yes,” he replied. “This world would never be enough for me. And I always break the things that try to hold me back.” So saying, he played his move.

Liam nodded, the statement having been what he had expected from his little brother. “Well in that case,” he continued, “I’d still probably be dead, but possibly as collateral from you. The conditions for us to meet wouldn’t have been met, but even if we had I suspect you wouldn’t care enough to spare my life.”

Liam moved another piece and captured the king, unwilling to look Bill in the eye. “Face it, Billy. Outside of the memories we made together, I have no value to you as a person. I know you’ve murdered an unfathomable number of mothers and brothers, fathers and sisters, sons and daughters. People with hopes and aspirations, loved ones, memories of times gone by. People just like me. If I wasn’t your brother, I wouldn’t matter. Heck, I don’t think even Mother and Father mattered to you. So I really don’t see why you’re making such a big deal about something so innocuous that happened before you even arrived,” he said. And really, he didn’t.

Bill sat in silence, trying to find a way out of the game. He futilely moved a pawn to defend a useless rook. “I thought you were trying to comfort me,” he said at last. Liam shrugged and answered, “You didn’t want me to. Checkmate.”

Bill tightened his fists in his lap, knowing that he had to say something, or the conversation would end like this and never be mentioned again. “Yeah, well this ain’t hypotheticals. This is real life, and I want you in my life. I don’t like it when anyone talks smack about my older brother, not even you. Do it again and I tickle you again. I mean it!” Bill said, raising a fist of fire.

Liam shuddered and decided to never, ever bring up how he felt about himself to Bill again.

But Bill continued in a softer tone, “But really. I just want you to see yourself the way I see you, Liam.” Liam smiled softly in return and replied, “You don’t ask for anything easy, do you. But for you, Billy, I’d try.”

Chapter Text

That night, after everything had wound down, Liam was exhausted and fell immediately into a deep sleep. He dreamt, dreamt of something he would try to forget as soon as his eyes opened, but would wake up from instantly and without a sound. Liam dreamed of being a child again, of being taken roughly by the arm and touched, over and over again, by the correctional hospital’s long metal arms. Over and over again. But this time, Liam could not scream and beg and rage, whereas before he simply would not. He was not even strapped to the cold examination table. No, he took the therapy that was only meant to help, to save him from his own irregularities, in wooden silence. He watched from inside himself as his parents watched him, hand in hand. Then the dream ended. From beginning to end, it had been completely silent.

Liam sat up, slowly, and waited with bated breath for his brother to realize that something was amiss. The silence persisted for long moments beyond the dream. He felt relieved that Bill had kept his word and would not enter his mind without permission, but knew that he would be unable to go back to sleep. Cautiously, Liam crept out of bed and to the kitchen to fix himself a hot mug of chocolate. The unreality of the quiet in the dead of night, when the kitchen would usually be bustling with beings, soothed Liam’s frayed nerves. But Liam still did not feel real, had not felt much at all since the fire had touched him. He sipped at his hot chocolate, drank the nipping burn that ran thick down his throat, ran a soothing finger along his scars, until finally, finally, he began to feel real again. Liam left the house to breathe in the cool night air and ran straight into Kryptos.

“What are you doing here?” They asked at the same time. A pregnant pause settled between the two, before Liam answered first, “Couldn’t sleep. Bad dreams. And you?”

Kryptos blurted, “I was just visiting Randall.”

Liam, surprised, asked, “What? Randall’s still alive? Can I see him?”

But Kryptos only shrugged awkwardly and said, “Sure. I’ll take you there.”

Kryptos walked, and Liam floated, for a few long miles of silence. The moon, tinged red from the ever-burning wildfires, was setting to the west by the time they finally arrived at a statue fixed in a position of terror. By then, Liam had begun to realize what had happened. “Billy turned him into stone? What happened while I was gone?” He asked.

Kryptos gazed at his feet in shame, unwilling to admit the truth but knowing that Liam, at least, deserved answers. “It’s just like you said. Bill killed Randall, or at least I hope he’s dead and not conscious, because he didn’t agree with his modus operandi. To put it lightly. Bill always had this, this spark in him that you left behind, that none of us ever had. We all hated this world and its stupid rules, but he took it too far. He was always willing to go farther, do worse. To this day, I’m not sure exactly what happened, but Bill finally got the power to exact retribution, and that’s exactly what he did. Even to Randall, the one who let him in the know about us rebels in the first place.”

Kryptos smiled. “Funny how it goes. Sometimes the people who should be dead, like you or me, live, and everyone else dies, like you or Randall or, or oh my god, my cousin… It doesn’t make a lick of sense.” He knelt at the feet of the living statue, covering his face with his hands. “I visit Randall sometimes, to apologize, to tell him about my day, because I’m lonely, I don’t know… Sometimes I think about how unfair it is that you get to live again and not him or Tad, my cousin. Sorry. I shouldn’t be talking about this with you.”

Liam quietly knelt beside Kryptos and leaned against him. Then he said, “It’s okay. I get it. Don’t tell anyone, but my little brother can be pretty stupid sometimes.”

Kryptos looked at him incredulously before bursting into loud guffaws of hysterical laughter. “Oh Circles. You don’t know how much I needed to hear that.” He said, wiping his eye of tears. “Yeah. I wouldn’t leave him for the world, you know. He saved me. But really, everything is his fault.”

Liam frowned in denial. Then he closed his eye and murmured, “Not everything. I do feel really dumb sometimes. I know I made everyone really upset earlier, but for the life of me I still can’t figure out what I did wrong. Is everyone still mad at me?”

Kryptos put his hands on Liam’s and looked him in the eye. “No. It’s definitely not, and don’t listen to your dumb brother. He’s stupid, remember? You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re just, figuring things out. And no one’s mad at you.”

Liam smiled, before flicking Kryptos in the forehead. “Thanks for saying that. It means a lot to me. But never talk about my little brother like that again.”

Kryptos clutched his forehead and whined, “Oooowwww! So what, you’re the only guy who can talk shit about Bill? That’s hardly fair.”

Liam smirked and shrugged. “The privileges of being the older brother. Can’t take it for granted.” He said. “Oh, and don’t let me catch you cussing in front of him, or I’ll give you a stern talking to.” Liam glared in utter vehemence.

Kryptos, shocked, asked “Uh, you know Bill isn’t some pure-hearted damsel, right? I mean, he talks more shit than the rest of us combined.”

Liam shook his head in dogged denial. “Nuh-uh! If I don’t see it, I won’t believe it. I won’t listen to your filthy slander!” to the sound of yet more laughter. But the sun was rising a hazy red, and they both booked it before anyone could realize they had even left.

Chapter Text

Bill enjoyed hanging out with his brother, really. They were practically glued to each other’s sides every day. No, after Liam died the first time, Bill was never going to let it happen again, not while he was still around. But sometimes, he could catch himself staring at the horizon. Who was he kidding? It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. Bill had his Henchmaniacs, he held the world in the palm of his hands, Circles, he even had his big brother.

But he wanted more; to see the stars of other galaxies, the destruction of civilizations, the people sniveling and cowering at his feet, the fires upon endless pyres with his flames and in his name. He craved to hear the words “Bill Cipher” spread across the universe, to destroy Time Baby for trapping him in the Nightmare Realm, to glut himself on empires. In short, Bill was hungry. And he knew just how to get what he wanted.

He started small, whispering into the dreams of power-hungry, ambitious young mortals across dimensions. Seeping into other worlds through the mindscape, Bill could insidiously insinuate that he held the keys to all their wishes, hopes, dreams. He loved the thrill of living under their skin, of knowing their deepest, darkest, most intimate secrets and fears. Of warping their minds to bend under his will. And slowly, over the course of years, he was able to swallow entire dynasties and merge them into the Nightmare Dimension. It was great fun, and a way to spite Time Baby for imprisoning him there in the first place, but it had some unintended consequences.

Firstly, the Nightmare Realm was collapsing. In a scant few decades, it would be no more. Sure, it was fun to play the eldritch being that puny mortal minds couldn’t comprehend, but forcing entire galaxies to meld together inevitably caused some problems; namely, that a massive gravitational well was forming. There were simply too many black holes and contradictory physics for a single galaxy to contain, and while time slowed to molasses in the Nightmare Realm, millions of years were passing everywhere else. It seemed that Bill’s habits weren’t sustainable. Which was fine! Technically, it was good news that Bill wouldn’t have to wait literal eons for civilizations to mature enough for him to bring them crashing down, and this just gave him extra incentive to finally invade the biggest, most juicy dimension of them all; the Third Dimension.

But secondly, Liam was kind of pissed at Bill. Which was a little scary. But Circles, the guy just didn’t know how to lighten up. He could talk about figuring out a way to stabilize their dimension without any more conquering all he wanted, but until he actually did so, Bill was dead set on this next conquest, with all its rich resources and curious civilizations to bring to ruin. Once the Third Dimension was theirs to inhabit, Liam would understand. After all, wasn’t it always their dream as children to go to the Third Dimension? He just needed to see it his way, and then everything would be right as rain.

Chapter Text

The next day, Liam noticed that his brother woke up bright and early and, well, perky. When he asked why he was acting so uncharacteristically, Bill hummed and replied that he had a good dream. Liam raised his eyebrow. He hadn’t known that someone who had complete mastery over dreams could involuntarily enter one himself, and when he asked, Bill blinked exaggeratedly, another mannerism he had learned from his friends to imitate winking, and replied that it was a surprise. Now Liam was very surprised. How could a dream, even a lucid one, possibly be preparation for a surprise? Well, as long as Bill was happy.

Breakfast was pancakes again, but this time Liam tried his hand at it. He didn’t let anyone else take his burnt pancakes and ate them himself. It seemed like everything had gone back to normal, which let Liam relax a little. He was glad that what happened last night wasn’t being taken as seriously as Bill had made it out to be. In the meantime, Liam decided to go exploring by himself. He had been so isolated less than a week prior, when he only had his little brother for company. Bill’s friends were so nice to him, but it could be a little overwhelming. It was time to explore!

Liam began to float to his house before abruptly deciding to let gravity take hold of him. Seeing the world from on high, where there was simultaneously more and less of the world visible, he felt divorced from reality. Disrespectful. And so Liam slowly hobbled towards his childhood home.

The wind did not stir, and a dry heat emanated from fires beyond the horizon. Everywhere there was the haze of pleasant woodsmoke, and something sour, charred, in the air. What light that filtered through cast the world in a red haze.

Liam licked his dry lips and found them sticky. The residue of burning fat had dissipated into the air and clung to every available surface. Liam walked on, picking up a stray pipe from the ground to swing and tap at the debris around him as he headed home. He noticed a musk of sickly sweetness permeating the air, something he had never smelled before, and wondered what it could be. The scent became more potent the further along he walked, until it suffused the air with a dense pall. Liam found himself taking quick breaths through his mouth. He finally found the source of the smell in a charred body. The body lay nestled within cracked concrete. The fire had caused the muscles within its limbs to contract and shrink, curling the body into a fetal position and creating the appearance of a deep sleep.

Liam had hoped that the person the body used to be had died peacefully from smoke inhalation before the fire ever touched it, but its eye was open. He tumbled carelessly down the loose gravel of the incline to the body. Up close, Liam could see that the eye was fixed in a dead gaze towards the sky, towards stars that it would never see. Its eye was milky and clouded, as if obscured by cataracts. The boy suddenly wished that the sky was clear enough for stars to appear, though they would not be seen by the dead. He found himself kneeling before the body to close its eye. A gust of wind whistled a drawn cry from between the crevices of collapsed buildings. Liam did not get up for a long time, but he did eventually. When he crawled out of the crater, he felt the chill of the wind against the tear tracks along his face. He had not known that he was crying.

At the pace Liam had set, there were still hours to go before he would reach his home. He continued to trudge along at the same rate. At each dead body he happened upon, he would close its eye and feel his tears drip down, until eventually they ran dry. The monotonous landscape of blackened concrete spread around him at all sides. It was fortunate that Liam still remembered the way to his house from when Bill had taken him there. He felt as if he could lose his way on his way back and be lost among the neverending scrap.

The rubble crumbled beneath his feet. There was not a soul, not a bird nor bug to be seen across the wasteland. The heat had desiccated the oppressive air so that it hung heavy and still, and each breath was taken with the rasp of a knife cutting in and cutting out. Liam’s feet hurt, and he was hungry and dirty. Each mound of what used to be a home that he climbed over did not recede to reveal his own, but yet more of a seemingly never-ending wave of the same thing. And yet more bodies were to be found.

Some were children, some just younger than him, their fingers blackened, cracked and wizened in gross anathema to the plump joy that should mark childhood. Their eyes were open too, and horrible to look upon. The boy closed them so that he could not see them stare at him.

Some were burnt and blackened to beyond recognition. Their smaller size could indicate their previous identity as being infants or animals. The boy could not tell. He prayed that they were animals.

Liam walked ever on. The sun hung in the sky like some dim and dismal auspice of death. It was impossible to see more than a mile into the distance due to the dry smog that fell upon the land. He felt like a ghost, cursed to roam these lands forever, searching for a home that was long gone. A line of forlorn telephone poles pointed their accusing fingers at the sky, jutting out of the bleak blur before receding into a distant horizon that could not be seen.

Liam walked on with a bleary eye. It was too hot for him to feel so cold inside. It hurt to go on, but he could not stop and remain among the wreckage of lost homes. He walked on, amongst the dry dust that obscured sight and sound, towards a home that was really only a house, that was as dead and cold inside as the rest despite still standing. The boy walked on.

After a great length, he reached the house. Amongst the ruins, it stood out like a mirage with its shingled roof and shuttered windows, its front porch with the damask bench cover. With its white picket fence. With its gravel footpath, its varnished door with even coats of unpeeled paint, its manicured lawn, its mailbox with the carrier flag still raised.

Liam pitched a rock at the window, though he did not know why. He flinched at the muffled tinkling sound that resulted. Then floated in. A sense of déjà vu, of disembodiment, filled him to the point of drowning. It was a queer sensation, to feel like a ghost within your own home. Almost funny. Here was the wall where Bill’s height was marked. There was the kitchen cabinet where Mother would hang her oven mitts upon the raised handle. He ran a finger down the granite countertop and marveled that there was not yet a film of dust to be collected from it. Then he drifted further in, towards his bedroom.

The moment he opened the door, a cloud of dust rushed out. He blinked. It looked as if no one had been there for a long time. There were dust covers across every piece of furniture, blanketing the room in white as if it were a ghost, as if the white sheets wrinkled and fell to imply the contours of a life well-lived but would only reveal empty space underneath.

Liam snapped his fingers, and the dust covers fell away like curtains, revealing his belongings. He grasped the well-thumbed pages of his childhood; picture books, daring romance novels, and scientific journals. He gazed at the peeling stickers of cartoon characters that littered the bottom shelves of his bookcase. In the distance was the absence of sound, where before little feet had stamped the floor. Suddenly, he did not know what he was doing there.

He fled like a thief from the room to ensconce himself in the warm embrace of the kitchen. It had only been a week at most, but he felt that he had changed so much that he was a stranger, an interloper who did not belong among the remnants of a boy who had died twenty-odd years and a week ago. He pulled his knees to his eye, crossed his arms over them and buried his head in the welcoming darkness. The tiled kitchen floor beneath him, the dishwasher and sink cabinet to his sides, he took long, deep breaths so that he would not cry. Each inhale pulled a little indrawn scream through his vocal cords in its force, and each exhale was pushed until it shuddered and broke. He could not hear anything over his little involuntary sobs and the thudding of a heartbeat he did not want. Still, his eyes remained dry.

And eventually, Liam was able to stop sobbing. He peeked over his arms to see if anyone was there and smiled in relief to see no one. He collapsed in repose, letting his limbs splay out beside him and his body loll against the dishwasher, and felt his emotions drain out of him until he felt clean and empty. Wrung dry. His head ached, so naturally his body led him through the habitual motions of grabbing a glass from the cabinet and turning on the tap. There was no water, of course, because Bill had not fixed the infrastructure of the entire plumbing and sewage pipes along with reconstructing their home.

Liam felt exhausted again and slid to the floor. He could not get up, but rather gazed at the opposite end of the room, at the granite countertop. Thereupon lay sundry objects; a paper towel dispenser, the newspaper that his father subscribed to, keys to the house, the calendar. Liam realized, clearly and distinctly, that he did not know the date. Then he began to keen.

What Liam had realized was this: that for thousands of years, his people had assigned a date to their civilization—one that was arbitrary for a dead rock floating in the middle of nowhere, but one that had been faithfully kept. The people of his world had suffered and died, but they still numbered the days and life went on. And every day, no matter how banal or how horrible, had been recorded. This fragile miracle, so everyday and disregarded, was gone. It would never continue. And now he didn’t know the date.

Eventually, Liam was once again too tired to cry anymore. He had long since run out of tears, and in the arid air his throat was hoarse and raw. He finally remembered that he could use his newfound powers to conjure water, and drank greedily from his glass to quench his thirst. Cup, after cup, were guzzled down, until finally Liam sank down in a stupor. Some time passed before he realized that time was passing. He lay where he was, still as a corpse.

Chapter Text

Suddenly, he heard voices. Bill and Pyronica were talking to each other. As low to the ground as the boy was, he could feel the tremors of Pyronica’s footfalls. Liam felt as if he could melt into a puddle. He curled up into a little ball and peeked through his fingers, hoping and praying that they would leave soon. But of course, they had come to look for him.

Liam started hiccupping. He tried to hold his breath, but each time he did so his body would betray him and gasp and shudder through each desperate inhale and exhale. At that instant, he hated himself with a startling intensity. There was a pause in the voices, before they began to come nearer. There were two pairs of feet before him. Liam did not raise his head, but said in a muffled voice, “Go ‘way.” Circles, he sounded so nasally and congested.

There was a pause where he imagined Bill and Pyronica looking at each other, before Bill floated down and looped an arm around Liam. He flinched. The arm withdrew, before Bill asked in a horrifically cautious voice, “Uh, do you want a hug?”

Liam peeked at Bill just to glare at him. “No. Go ‘way. ‘M fine.” He had difficulty getting the words out between the aleph of each hiccup. Liam abruptly remembered that he should probably drink some water. He clutched a glass in both hands and sipped until he stopped hiccupping…for a moment. He curled into himself to hide his face, ashamed. He could hear Bill whisper, “Tell me what to do.”

But Liam could hardly think through the cotton inside his skull and behind his eyes. At last, he managed to mumble, “Go. I dun’ wanna let you see me like this. Iz stupid anyway.”

Bill had still not left, which infuriated Liam to no end. “Please just tell me what’s wrong,” he whispered.

Finally, Liam asked, “Whas da date.”

There was a confused silence, before Bill answered, “Uh, I ain’t got a clue. It’s a Thursday somewhere, isn’t it?” Time had no meaning to Bill, so of course he would pay no heed to something as inconsequential as the date.

Horrifically, Liam could feel his eye burn. The world was looking wobbly again. Panicked, Bill and Pyronica tried to comfort him again, but Liam could barely breathe through his hiccups and swollen throat. It took uncountable seconds before his breaths finally retained a regular rhythm. Throughout that time, Bill babbled to fill the silence. Liam still felt awful, but he could finally manage the breath to verbalize his feelings. He felt exposed, raw. He could not manage to deal with Bill’s prying gaze.

“Stop comforting me. Feels weird.” Liam took a moment to untangle his thoughts. “I, it feels, bad, when you do that. Like I don’t deserve it. Which I know is stupid. But it’s how I feel.” He paused to breathe, before adding, “Pyronica can stay. She makes sense. It’s like, I can rationalize her behavior. She’s your friend, so she wants to help me for you.”

Bill paused, before saying with an ire belied by his casual tone, “Well, I’ll be right outside. Call me if you need me. ‘M gonna, go kick a tree or something.” He had to restrain himself from touching his brother.

There was a silence, before Liam felt the heat of Pyronica’s hand hovering over him. He leaned away from it. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I should just get over it. ‘M sorry for getting you guys all worked up.”

Pyronica sighed. “Oh honey, you don’t have to apologize for that. Just tell me what’s wrong?”

Liam began to feel himself flush with shame again, before reminding himself that Pyronica was just doing this for Bill, and that comforting Liam was just an obligation for her to fulfill. “I dunno. I just started crying for no reason.” He said.

She sighed again before saying, “Sweetie. I’m sure there was a reason. At least tell me what you’ve been doing all day? You wouldn’t know it, but Bill was this close to snapping once he realized you had been gone all day.” She pinched her fingers together to demonstrate her point.

Liam blurted, “I’ve been closing the eyes of everyone I met.” A pause, until Liam realized he would have to elaborate a teensy bit. “Everyone who used to live here had their eyes open. I’ve been closing them.”

Pyronica sucked in a breath. “You’ve been what?” she exclaimed. “Shit, no wonder you’re all fucked up. Honey, please don’t touch the dead bodies anymore. Shit. You were a dead body a week ago. Fucking hell.”

But Liam felt frustrated that she had misunderstood, if only because he hadn’t said more. “I really just wanted to know the date once I realized I didn’t know it anymore,” he said.

Pyronica gave him a funny look before saying, “Well that’s fine. I’m sure Kryptos will know it. He’s the only one who’s been here since the beginning.”

At that, Liam brightened up instantly.

“But pleeeeaaase don’t ever disappear on us like that again, dude.” Pyronica continued. “You have no idea how close Bill was to freaking out. I’m sure you’re used to being by yourself all the time, but you gotta understand that after you died the first time, he’s never letting you out of his sight again. Thank fuck he thought to look for you here, or he would’ve flipped his shit.”

Liam giggled. “You know you’re not supposed to swear so much in front of me. But ok, I’ll let you guys know when I’m going out and stuff.”

Pyronica lifted a finger to her mouth and whispered, “Shhh, don’t tell Bill that I’ve been swearing in front of you.”

He giggled into his cupped hands before replying, “Oh, then you can never, ever tell anyone you saw me crying like a wuss. Which you didn’t, as a matter of fact. See? No tears. So promise?” Pyronica smiled. “Promise.”

Before they left, Liam made sure to loot the house of every single baby photo to use as blackmail against Bill. It was only what he deserved.

Chapter Text

They found Bill setting fire to the rubble outside. He seemed angry. 

Liam sidled up to him and gently took him by the hand. Slowly, the fire died. They leaned against each other, watching the fire burn itself out. 

“You look like crap,” Bill finally said. 

Liam theatrically gasped. “Not you too! Why is everyone I know so crass? Also, how do I fix the fact that I look like, uh, excrement?” 

Bill snorted wryly, before saying, “I can fix that.” 

As Liam felt the tears and snot evaporate from his face and the blood vessels in his eyes become less dilated, he smiled. “I’m glad we’re on the same page. No need to let anyone know about all that.” 

“Right-o,” Bill replied. He scuffed the dirt with his foot. “Look, I don’t like to feel useless. What’m I supposed to do when this happens? Nothing?” 

Liam shrugged and traced the scars on his arm. “Sorry. I know it doesn’t make sense. Look, let’s just chalk it up to my entire world and me dying not so long ago. That makes sense, right? And don’t worry. I’ll make sure you never see something like this again.” 

They had started heading home by now. Bill glared at Liam in affront. “I want you to not be upset again, not hide it from me. And if you do get upset, I at least want to do something about it, not just leave!” 

Liam held his hands up in sheepish placation. “Hey now. I just won’t get upset again, easy peasy lemon squeezy. Feelings are overrated anyways.” 

Bill harrumphed and said, “Yeah, they’re stupid and they suck. Who needs feelings anyways.” They nodded in mutual agreement. 

“Uuuuummm guys,” Pyronica interrupted, “I don’t think it really works like that. Liam, you can’t just shut off your feelings whenever they inconvenience other people. Bill, don’t agree with him!” 

“Well what am I supposed to do with them?!” Liam asked. He rolled his eye up to the sky and flexed his hands as if strangling something. 

“Why don’t you burn stuff? Cause a little mayhem and destruction here and there? That’s what I always do!” Bill said with glee. 

Pyronica slapped a hand over her eye and let it drag down her face. “How are these two the smartest guys I know,” she muttered under her breath. 

By that time, they had returned to their home base. 

“We’re here!” “We’re back at the Fearamid!” Liam and Bill crowed at the same time. 

Liam stared at Bill incredulously, before guffawing with laughter. “Seriously? The ‘Fearamid?’ First the ‘Henchmaniacs’ and now this? I gotta admit, that’s pretty cute.” 

Bill affected an affronted front and replied, “Nu-uh! It is so not cute! It’s a pun! It’s clever because it’s a pyramid and it strikes fear into the hearts of my enemies!” 

Liam chuckled. “Oh yes. I’m just quivering in my metaphorical boots here,” He said. 

Bill harrumphed. “You just don’t have an appreciation for true genius,” he grumbled. But he smiled inwardly at getting Liam to laugh. 

They immediately saw the Henchmaniacs on entering. It seemed they had been waiting for their appearance. Everyone had naturally turned to look on hearing Bill, Pyronica, and Liam’s arrival. Liam understood this, but still shrunk under their collective stares. 

“Where were you? You just disappeared on us!” Hectorgon asked, voicing the question that everyone was wondering. 

“I just went to my house and looked through my personal effects. I lost track of time. Sorry I didn’t think to tell you guys!” Liam said. Then he redirected the conversation. “But more importantly! Kryptos, what’s the date?” 

Kryptos sputtered, flummoxed at being put on the spot. Luckily, he was exactly the kind of person to keep track of such minutiae with an almost religious fervour. That is to say, he was neurotic. “Uh, it’s the sixteenth. Of July.” He replied. 

At that, Liam theatrically gasped. He made such a show of this news, if it may be called “news”, that everyone stared. “It’s almost a month to Billy’s birthday! Why did no one say anything!” He finally exclaimed after finishing his pantomime of despair. 

There was a pause. No one else had realized, either. Every day was spent in raucous revel with Bill, until they all blurred together. 

“Oh, wow! Is it that time of year already? I completely forgot!” Bill commented. 

Liam was bewildered. “What do you mean you forgot?!” He asked. “How could you forget your own birthday? It’s only the day dedicated to celebrating your birth!” 

Bill scratched a finger against his side, embarrassed yet pleased at the attention. “Aw shucks. Don’t make a big deal of it. After all, I already got my birthday present right here with me!” He said, looping an arm over Liam. 

Now, Liam may have had the same talent for lying as a walrus may have for flying, but he could sense a lie when he saw it, especially from his little brother. “Liar, Liar, pants on fire,” he chanted in a low monotone. 

Bill laughed nervously. “Uh, what’s up? Seriously, we can keep it on the down low.” He said. 

Liam simply gave a glance of derision. “ Sitting on a telephone wire. ” Liam continued. “I see you, Billy. I know what you’re thinking. Well just you wait, you’re in for one big surprise.” He threatened. “Just wait and see! In one month’s time!” 

To this ominous prophecy, Bill could only laugh with sweet delight. 

“But hold on,” Liam continued. “How old will you be, anyway?” 

“Uhhhh…” Bill had to think very hard in order to remember each and every ceaseless year of riot and rebellion. “I think I’ll be turning twenty-eight?” 

Liam was practically shocked into a state of catatonia. “You’re ancient…” he finally muttered. Bill could not help but feel offended. 

Talking to Kryptos had reminded Liam of something that he was ashamed to have almost forgotten. 

Later, when they were once again alone together, Liam presented a question to Bill. “Hey, Bill? Can you revive Kryptos’s cousin Tad like you did for me?” He asked shyly. 

Bill’s smile had a queerly fond, yet patronizing look to it. He prepared to answer in the negative, despite the fact that he had never attempted or even considered the repeat occurrence of such a feat. “Oh, Liam. Brother mine. You’re so sweet. Sad to say, but I can’t. You were brought back to life under very special circumstances. It was something that even I could barely do, and I’m a god!” Here he paused, relishing with practiced habit the feeling of taking complete control over any given conversation. “You know, you’re very special, Liam. Not just because you’re the brother of Bill Cipher, my brother. And you’re not just special for what’s on the outside, or what’s on the inside!” He said. “In fact, you’re the only person I’ve met who’s achieved this! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you’re even aware of what you did, are you? You wanna know what I’m thinking?” 

“For Circle’s sake, Billy, just spit it out!” Liam said, crossing his arms. He was not amused. 

Bill snickered. “I’m just teasing!” He said, rolling his eye. “Yeesh, learn to lighten up a little. As I was going to say, you’re the only guy I’ve met who stayed in this world after passing away without having to rely on past resentments or regrets. Even after two decades, no less! Otherwise,” he eyed Liam speculatively, “You would’ve turned into a more conventional form of the living undead. Say a zombie, or since you weren’t even left with physical remains, a ghost. But since you didn’t cross over, I still had an intact soul to work with. Everything else was child’s play. But even I can’t retrieve a soul once it’s passed into the Great Unknown.” Bill glared into the distance. Then he glanced at Liam again. “Say,” he said, “How did you manage to survive past your due date?” 

Liam deflected. “Well firstly, I sure am glad I’m not just a product of your own imagination made manifest. It’s such a relief to know I’m not simply the echo of imperfect memory.” 

“Hey!” Bill interjected. “You think I’m delusional or something? Also, excuse me?! Everything about me is perfect! Anyways, just answer the question!” 

Liam smirked. “I think you have delusions of grandeur, maybe. Really, Billy? You call yourself a god? But,” he continued more seriously before Bill truly lost his patience, “I think I know the answer to your question. I didn’t have anything left to lose, and I didn’t fight back when they came. I left willingly. I wasn’t angry.” Here Bill’s fingers twitched. “I had already sorted my affairs, and I knew you would be fine. You already had your future planned out for you, Billy. 

“But, and here I’m speculating a priori , I think I wasn’t ready to pass on because my last thought was of you. I knew you were going to be alright. You would grow into a smart, successful, capable young man. More charming than I could ever be. But, but I was worried that…” 

“That what?” Bill asked. His pupil had dilated from its predatory slit to a rounder shape more resembling that of the typical human’s. 

“That after I was gone, you would be left alone in a universe where no one loved you as much as I did,” Liam finished quietly. For once, Bill had no words. He could only offer a wobbly smile in response. 

“But now I’ve been proven wrong,” Liam said abruptly. He smiled proudly at Bill. “I’ve seen you interacting with your friends. They really love you! I think I could safely leave you in their hands. They would protect you with their lives. You don’t need me anymore. Maybe,” his smile took on a satisfied yet wistful tinge, “Maybe, you never did.” Liam sat down to turn in for bed, satisfied at least that his question had been answered, before he was suddenly besieged by hands and arms that twisted and looped around him. 

“Don’t say that,” Billy said. He squeezed his eye shut as he hugged his brother tightly. “Never, ever say that again. I still need you, always have and always will.” It felt as if he would never let go. 

His brother, who was starting to feel like a stuffed animal that had been loved and snuggled a little too much by its child, could only squeak out a single word in response. “Ok.”

That night, Liam found himself waking in the dark. Tracing patterns on his skin. They were his lodestone. How he found himself in the dark. Only a few millimeters, nanometers, epithelial cells deep, black scars on black skin. They were an intimate secret. A homecoming. The sweet ache of himself a missing tooth to tongue over. To lick. To savor. He found himself tracing a map back home in the dark. 

Chapter Text

That morning, Liam woke up bright and early once again. He listened to the absence of birdsong, observed the way light passed through the windows to bathe the room in red. He stared at the slats above him, atop which his little brother slept on. With a final sigh, he slowly sat up. It took a while longer before Liam could muster the will to face the day, instead of falling back into bed. In the meantime, he decided to make an itinerary; at present he would hang around and bug Bill, but the proceeding days would be spent preparing for his surprise. Liam already had an idea for what he wanted to make, it would simply take a while for it to come to life. He would simply focus on the day to day until the end of his days. 

By the time Bill finally appeared in the kitchen, Liam was locked and loaded for maximum annoyance. Throughout Bill’s entire meal, Liam stared unerringly at him without speaking. 

Bill raised his eyebrow. He knew that something was up. Several minutes elapsed after he had eaten his fill before Liam finally spoke. 

“Heeeeey Billy, can you do me a favor?” He drawled. 

Bill was already getting ticked off, but he played along for now. “Yeah, what?” he asked. 

In response, Liam pulled an egg from seemingly nowhere and crushed it in his hand without breaking eye contact. “Can you unscramble this egg? See, I just want to know more about our powers, and how else should I learn than by example? So show me what you can do, ‘God.’” Here he raised his hands in finger quotes, letting the raw egg splatter onto the kitchen table. 

Bill’s eye twitched. He knew that he was being goaded, but he could not resist a challenge. He waved his hand, and the egg was reformed. “Yeah, that’s right, I’m a god! If you need more proof, look no further. You should know better than to doubt me,” he said. 

But Liam was ignoring him in favor of the egg. ‘An egg!’ Bill thought. ‘How is an egg more interesting than me?!’ 

“Interesting. A casual demonstration that breaks the second law of thermodynamics. Of course, he must have been able to do so in order to revive me… I might see if I can incubate it…” Liam muttered, scribbling notes down. 

Bill pouted and blew a raspberry. “C’mon, this is boring! Leave me out of your nerdy experiments.” He whined. 

But now Liam was invested. “Tell me, do you have to think with intention every time the plumbing, electricity, gas, all these natural resources, are used? Do you notice every time someone flushes the toilet? Is this all pulled directly from your power each time, or is it enchanted?” He asked. 

Bill did not know nor care for the answer to those questions. He dismissed them, saying, “Schematics, semantics! Who cares about this shit except you? All that stuff doesn’t make a dent in my powers, anyway!” 

Liam replied, “First of all, that’s not how you use the word semantics.” 

“Oooh! Fancy pants rich McGee over here thinks he knows everything!” Bill said, pitching his voice obnoxiously high. 

Liam snorted behind his hand. He was having a little too much fun pushing Bill’s buttons. “Ok, fine. Next question: can you make a square circle?”

Bill was running out of patience in entertaining Liam’s seemingly innocent questions. He glared and crossed his arms, growling, “Are you fucking with me? Of course not!”

“But I thought anything was possible for you?” Liam goaded, flipping over as he floated to look at Bill upside down. He noted to himself the realization that Bill’s powers were limited by his imagination before tauntingly poking Bill above his eye. 

Bill glared at the offending finger. He looked stupidly adorable to Liam. Liam could not resist himself and teased, “Ok. Last, last question. Can you square a circle? By that, I mean can you construct a square from the area of a circle?” 

Liam could see the cogs in Bill’s head churning as he tried to solve a mathematical impossibility. He giggled behind his hand. 

At last, the ruse was up. “You’re just fucking with me!” Bill shouted, before attempting to bite Liam’s hand off. 

Liam felt razor-sharp teeth graze his fingertips as he rapidly dove out of the way. He cackled maniacally, shouting “Whoops! You almost got me!” as he dodged Bill’s furious pursuit. 

“Fuck off!” Bill shouted at last. 

‘Finally!’ Liam thought, giggling helplessly. “Ok, see you at dinner!” He shouted cheerfully in reply as he zoomed out of sight. He smirked on hearing the distant sound of yelling in response upon Bill’s realization that he had been had. 

Liam was very pleased with himself. In one go, he had been able to prevent Bill from getting too clingy after yesterday’s mishap, learned some crucial details regarding the limits of his powers, and as a bonus had the chance to infuriate his little brother to no end. At that moment, the smile he wore bore striking resemblance to Bill’s. 

He had learned three rules bounding Bill’s seemingly limitless power; that it was powered by belief, that it was, actually, constrained by the limits of science, and that while Billy had been granted omnipotence, he had not been granted the complimentary capacity to fully understand and make use of his powers. 

So on he headed towards the library, to start on the birthday present that would take a month’s worth of nonstop effort for his little brother. 

The next day, though, Bill started becoming twitchy at Liam’s long absences. 

Before he left again, Bill began a conversation with a completely innocent observation. “I think you need a makeover.” He said. 

Liam blinked slowly, caught off guard. “Uh, I already had one.” He said, gesturing at his body, or more specifically, his new color. 

Bill rolled his eye. “Yeah, but you need a little more pizzazz. Some panache! You’re my brother! How could I be seen in public with you when you look so lame?” He said.

Liam squawked, offended. “Hey! Excuse you! I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing my Father’s old clothes! If anyone looks lame, it’s you!” He accused. 

Bill was caught off guard. He had become accustomed to having no one who knew him as a child. He self-consciously clutched his top hat in his arms before changing the subject. “Well shame on me for trying to help you out, huh? I’m just trying to lend a hand to my boring old brother! Trust me, you need it.” He said. 

Liam arched his eyebrow. “Oh yeah? And what, in your artistic opinion, do you think would work for me?” He asked. He let his eye linger a little too long at Bill’s top hat and bow tie. 

Bill sputtered. “A cape, like Pyronica, or a bowler hat like Hectorgon, anything would be better than nothing! Although scratch that, forget I mentioned Hectorgon, he looks like a complete prig. But come on, at least a tattoo!”

Liam’s interest was piqued. “A tattoo?” He asked. 

Bill instantly started his sale’s pitch. “Well, I was just thinking how wicked tattoos are. Especially geometric ones. You could get some sort of sigil tattooed and it would just look so cool, don’t you think? It’d be mysterious.” He said with a certain conniving charm.

“And I assume you already have a design in mind, if you brought this up?” 

Bill perked up at the question that implied reception. “Yeah!” He said. “It’s not going to be too complex. In my opinion, these kinds of things can’t be too fancy, or they lose their charm. Don’t you agree?” And he traced a symbol onto the back of Liam’s hand with a finger. 

It was indeed a simple pattern. It felt to Liam like a diamond, extended on the long side, with a vertical line between the more obtuse angles of the diamond. Still, it did not matter to him what the tattoo looked like. 

“Nah, I’m not getting one.” Liam said dismissively. He had already made up his mind not to get a tattoo. He had been taught that such things were uncouth, vulgar, and besides that, he did not fancy getting poked with needles. 

“What? Why not? It’s such a cool design!” 

“Eh. I’d say it’s mediocre.” Liam said, egging Bill on. He was curious to see where this was going, why Bill was so adamant that he have this particular design as a tattoo. 

“Mediocre!” Bill muttered, outraged beyond belief. He would have much preferred to have his design deemed as a terrible blight upon the eyes that cursed all who saw it rather than given the dull label of mediocrity. “This is something of my own design! This is me!” He said. 

Liam was starting to have his suspicions. “And what, precisely, do you mean by that?” He asked. 

Bill realized his misstep too late. “Nothing!” He said, attempting to backtrack. “It’s just, I put my heart and soul into that design of mine! You know, it really hurt my feelings when you called it mediocre.” 

Liam was all aflutter, attempting to put his brother at ease. “Oh, you know I was just teasing you!” He stammered. “You know I didn’t mean anything by it! Of course I can see how you put your very self into this project! I— wait a second.” He suddenly had the dawning suspicion that Bill meant what he said all too well. He traced his finger onto the back of his hand in the same pattern he remembered feeling, then peered at his brother. His quick mind put the facts together and was fascinated by the outcome. “Did you really just try to do that?” He asked. “But for what purpose? You’re not egotistical enough to want to stamp your visage on me for no reason at all. Except—Oh, I understand, it’s an eye of providence. The all-seeing eye. Is that it? You just wanted to keep an eye on me?”

“You’ve got it totally backwards!” Bill lied with a straight face. “Have some good faith in me! Do you really think I’d do something so weird?”

Liam was not having it. “Sure,” he stated, “I totally believe you. After all, it would be really weird if you did that. But if, hypothetically, the case were otherwise, I would be more fascinated than angry. That would be an amazing application of your powers! Although honestly, I am a bit irked that you attempted to brand and surveil me without my say-so. Plus, what about when I have to go the bathroom?! In this completely fictional scenario, that would be extremely weird of you!” He said, absentmindedly wiping his hands on his legs as if there was something dirty on them. 

“So you’re not angry?” Bill blurted out. He had admitted to lying without realizing in his shock. 

“I am definitely feeling very weirded out,” Liam said, giving Bill a long side-eye, “But honestly, you should have just asked. I think I know what to do!” He then rushed to his room without any further explanation. 

On returning, Liam held three squares of ordinary paper. 

“Uh…” Bill said. 

“Just wait and see. And have some good faith in me!” Liam said, echoing Bill’s words back at him. “At least this is definitely a better option than what you had planned.” And so saying, he began to fold the paper crisply into triangles, rectangles, and squares. Gradually, a three dimensional shape began to appear out of the flat paper. It had no apparent meaning or function until Liam put it on his head. “Tadah!” He said, doing jazz hands. “It’s a hat! Now you can’t say I look boring!” The simple three-cornered hat fit snugly over his angle. 

“Uh-huh?” Bill answered. 

Liam rolled his eye. “Yikes, tough crowd.” He scoffed. He proceeded to fold another piece of origami. Bill recognized, with dawning horror, his own form emerging from the folded paper. Liam had even managed to fold a top hat using the same sheet of paper, before drawing on an eye using a sharpie. He then proceeded to do the same with the third sheet of paper. 

“What do you think?” Liam asked. He smiled cutely at Bill with the origami versions of Bill held within his cupped hands. “I figured out how to do this all on my own!” He proclaimed.

“This is the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.” Bill answered in deadpan. The origami-Bill was really a horrifying concept for a Flatlander to consider. Flat, geometric shapes had been folded into each other again and again, until a warped three-dimensional portrait was formed. “Wow. I have no words. Really.” Bill said. He paused, before continuing, “But good job! It takes talent to create something so creepy. Very eldritch. I think if our parents saw this they would pass out. You should really look into a career in the horror film industry. You could be the next Cronenburg, you know!” 

“I thought you ‘had no words.’ Honestly, if you have nothing nice to say, then just don’t say anything at all,” Liam said. He pouted as he fixed the pyramidal mini-Bill into his hat. “If you don’t want it, I can take it back.”

“What? No. I’m keeping this. It’s mine, forever.” Bill said, clutching his own version protectively in his arms. 

“Ok, well problem solved, right?” Liam said happily. “I’ll be seeing you soon!” And with that, he skived off to do some researching. 

Of course, before a week had gone by Liam had to return to his brother and humbly ask him for answers that could not be found within the library. Sheepish, he timidly asked, “Could you please teach me quantum mechanics?”

“Nope.” Billy answered in reply. 

“Pretty pwease?” Liam asked. Stars hung in his eyes and teardrops clung to his eyelashes like dew as he wore his best puppy face.  

Bill smirked. “Only if you call me ‘Billy The Great’.”

Liam sighed in fond exasperation. “How about ‘Billy The Worst’? Or ‘Billy The Terrible’? Because you sure are a little terror. But if you want to be called something as cheesy as ‘Billy The Great’, I can indulge you.”

Bill squawked in offense. “Hey! You’re asking for a favor here! Quit it with the backtalk already. Although come to think of it, I kinda like the sound of ‘Billy The Terrible.’”

Liam smiled wryly and said, “Ok, ‘Billy The Terrible,’ could you please teach me about quantum mechanics? Have some pity and enlighten your poor dumb brother here, would you?”

While initially suspicious, Bill’s ego was quickly assuaged. “You’ve come to the right guy! Just listen closely and I’ll teach you all there is to know.” He stated. 

However, a problem started to emerge after Bill revealed the secrets of the universe to Liam. He had unwittingly opened a Pandora’s box, and Liam was lost down a rabbit hole of research. 

After multiple nights of pretending not to notice Liam reading books in bed by the light of a flashlight, Bill had finally had enough. 

“Wanna play Truth or Dare?” Bill asked. 

Liam shifted in place. The muffled glow of a flashlight under multiple blankets dimmed as well. “Sure. I pick truth.” Liam said. 

“Yeah. Because you can’t lie to save your life.” Bill muttered. “Ok. When was the last time you had more than five hours of sleep?” He asked. 

“I changed my mind. Dare.” Liam answered. 

“I dare you to go to sleep.” Bill demanded. 

Liam pouted. “I don’t like this game anymore. I’m not a little kid! You can’t make me go to bed!” 

Bill changed his tactics immediately. It was pointless to argue with Liam like this; he was just as stubborn as Bill was. “Ok, well I, for one, want to go to sleep early. You know I can tell when you’re reading? That flashlight is too bright. Oh, I know! How about you read me a bedtime story?”

Liam snorted indulgently. “You can sleep just fine. I can hear you snoring when you do, loud and clear. But okay, I’ll read you a bedtime story.”

Bill had not known that he snored. Liam had never told him before, and no one had the chance to after he died. 

“Okay!” he chirped. He snuggled under the covers with Liam. He was simply happy that his ploy had worked, even if it embarrassed him. The low voice that read out loud Liam’s dry texts eventually faded into a murmur. Bill yawned. Liam yawned back, since yawns are contagious. Their legs tangled underneath the blankets as they burrowed into a shared warmth. And before long, Liam and Bill drifted off to sleep. 

Chapter Text

A month had gone by in poor weather. The fires had finally stopped burning, but veils of smoke still obscured the sun’s burning glare in a haze of fire. There was a constant rain of soft ash that carpeted the world like grey snow. 

Liam slipped on fuzzy socks in acquiescence to the cooler climate and slid across the hardwood floor. It was finally time! He stubbed his pinky toe against a table leg and hopped around on one foot, clutching the other in his hands and muttering “Ow, ow, ow” under his breath. He was much less graceful on land than in air. 

In the kitchen, he followed his Mother’s cookbook to make the delicious cookies that she used to bake. Anything more complicated, like a birthday cake, was outside of his capabilities, but this one recipe was still possible for him. He poured chocolate chips by the gram into the batch of batter before waiting a nerve wracking hour for the finished product. 

Liam knew that he could simply conjure cookies out of thin air like he could anything else, but they simply wouldn’t taste the same. He thought that if he followed the recipe like a science, he could perhaps taste a crumb of home. Liam still remembered the milk and cookies that would always, ever so innocently, be left on the dinner table for Bill to smuggle in when he sneaked into his room to be read bedtime stories to. Come to think of it, they had never questioned their appearance, simply taking them for granted, as if they were made by magic. So baking the cookies instead of making them from thin air really would make them a work of love. 

It was in the wee hours of the morning before they finished. He always woke up before Bill, but today he had gotten up even earlier in order to prepare the finishing touches. He left the cookies to cool on a rack before leaving the kitchen to retrieve his gift. 

Liam let his sharpest edge point in the direction of his home as he glided through the air. It reduced visibility, which was good because there wasn’t much to see anyways, and it also greatly reduced drag and friction to travel in this manner. He also enjoyed the way wind whistled by as he homed into his target like a missile. It was a silly sight to see, but no one was there to look as he whooped in glee. 

At last, he reached his destination. Liam hated every second of staying there. He felt claustrophobic as he stumbled clumsily to the kitchen table, where gadgets and wires were strewn about. He jogged his knee as he painstakingly wrapped the innocuous object in its complimentary wrapping paper. Then he sped away as if ghosts were haunting him, or as if he were the supernatural one. 

On arriving back, Liam discovered that Bill was in the process of eating the last cookie. He had woken up surprisingly early. “Spit it out!” Liam cried. In response, Bill stuffed the enormous cookie into his mouth so that his cheeks bulged like a chipmunk’s. 

“Nooooo!” Liam wailed. He shook Bill by the shoulders. “I didn’t even get to try one! Spit them back out, now!”

In response, Bill unfurled his long tongue with portions of undigested cookie still inside. He smiled impishly. “Wa’ one?” He asked with his mouth still open. 

Liam screeched and clawed at his eye. “Ewww! You! Are so gross!” He cried. 

Bill sniggered. “Hey, it’s your own fault for just leaving them there. What was I supposed to do, not eat them? And besides, I thought you baked them for me anyways, seeing as it's my B-day and all. But if it’s any consolation, the cookies were delicious. Tasted just like home.”

Liam instantly brightened, although he tried to no avail to stay angry. “I made an entire batch for everyone to try because sharing is caring. Not that you would know anything about that. But you said they tasted ‘just like home?’” 

Bill scowled unconsciously at being reminded of his Freudian slip. “Mm.” He grunted noncommittally. “Don’t know why you don’t just use your powers for this.”

“Because the secret ingredient to baking cookies is love!” Liam proclaimed. More academically, he stated, “I can’t imagine the exact taste of them because my nostalgia will inevitably define what they become. Especially since I haven’t had them in a while. It’s a case of knowing what I want once I see it, so I really just have to approximate a counterfeit of the originals by replicating the process in creating them. It’s a godsend that Mother wrote down her recipes.” 

“Well, make some more so I can eat some more then.” Bill ordered imperiously.

Liam rolled his eye and sighed laboriously. “Yes, yes. I was going to do that anyway.” He said, giving his little brother a fierce noogie. He snidely ignored the “Hey! You knocked off my hat!” that this action engendered. 

By the time the second batch had finished baking, the enticing scent of chocolate had attracted everyone to the kitchen table. They each took a cookie. Everyone was surprised when it turned out that Liam had been the one to bake cookies for everyone, Teeth most of all. 

“I still remember those pancakes you made. Burnt to high heavens! Tough as rubber!” He said. He was exaggerating, but not as much as Liam wished he was. “Did you really make these?” He asked. 

Liam shrugged and smiled in embarrassment. “Well, it helps to think of baking as a science. It doesn’t require too much skill to measure things or set a timer, just precision. Cookies are simple enough that even I can make them.” 

Meanwhile, Teeth had started eating the rest of the cookies. Bill furiously shoved a hand up his jaw, making his teeth shut with a clack , as he stuffed all but one of the remaining cookies into his mouth at once. He licked the plate clean of crumbs and glared over the edge at all the rest. 

By now, Liam had noticed the silence. He finally glanced up and caught the culprit of cookie-thievery red-handed. 

“William!” He exclaimed. “You ate all the cookies again?!” 

Bill knew that he was in trouble when Liam called him William and not ‘Billy’. “Mhm-MM!” he denied. His cheeks were so stuffed with cookies that he could not voice his protestations, but he pointed an accusing finger at Teeth. 

“Oh, honestly,” Liam tutted. He produced a handkerchief and wiped the crumbs from Bill’s face. 

With a valiant gulp, Bill finally swallowed all of the cookies and testified his truth. “I was just saving all the cookies from Teeth! He was the one who was eating all of them, so of course I had to stop him.”

“By eating the rest?” Liam asked. He was not impressed. But it seemed to be the general consensus from the rest of the witnesses that Teeth did, indeed, commit the crime. 

“Well, I saved you one,” Bill said defiantly. He produced it for examination from behind his back. 

Liam was secretly tickled pink that Bill had the presence of mind to save the last cookie for him. Not that he would say that out loud. He couldn’t let Bill off the hook that easily. But he took the proffered cookie and savored it slowly. 

“Well, this tastes so good that just this once, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones,” Liam begrudged. He tried to pout, but he could feel a smile threatening to curl the edges of his mouth. 

“You realize you’re just complimenting yourself, right?” Bill couldn’t help but tease. “Not that it isn’t deserved. But shouldn’t you be forgiving me because it’s my birthday and I’m your precious little brother instead?” He asked shamelessly. 

Liam glared at Bill as he slowly munched on his cookie. “Brat,” he muttered under his breath. But he was suddenly reminded about the traditions that entailed a proper birthday. “Oh! Hold on! I gotta get your birthday gift!” He exclaimed. 

Keyhole was surprised. “What? I thought your cookies were the birthday gift!” He said. 

Liam raised an eyebrow and looked at Keyhole as if he were an idiot. “Cookies are food. For an event. You eat them. Then they’re gone. They don’t come back.” He slowly said. “Duh.” He turned his back on Keyhole and went to retrieve his gift. 

“Damn.” Keyhole said. “Well, if I were him, I wouldn’t even bake cookies, let alone bake them twice, then spend a month making a gift by hand. Talk about going overboard. What can you even give to the guy who’s got everything anyway?” 

Bill was not impressed. “That’s why you’re not the favorite.” He said. “What did you guys even get me anyways?” 

“Surprise!” Pyronica exclaimed. “We signed a birthday card for you!” The card was extremely glittery, unapologetically yellow, and did seem to have all of the Henchmaniacs’ signatures on the inside page. Amorphous shape had stamped a handprint in lieu of a signature, which was dwarfed by the thumbprint that Xanthar had stamped next to it. ‘We Love You Bill’ was inscribed on the cover. 

“Oh. Thanks.” Bill said. He noncommittally closed it and placed it on the table.

“What? You’re not even going to pretend that you like it?!” Pyronica asked. “It’s not like there’s anything we can use here, Mr. Hotshot!” She swept her arm around her, and the gesture seemed to encompass the entirety of the wasteland they were trapped in. 

“I’m back!” Liam shouted happily. He slid down the hall in his fuzzy socks, enjoying their give on the smooth hardwood floors. Without even a wince, he banged his corner on the wall as he rounded the corner for the second time in a single day. A small box, neatly wrapped in cheery paper, was clutched between his hands. His eye was drawn to the birthday card, a burning neon, that lay innocently on the table. 

“Oh, nice! You guys made him a card?” He asked, oblivious to the tension that had previously enveloped the room. He traipsed across the room to put down his present and inspect the card closer. He squinted in order to distinguish the golden glitter from the electric yellow background, and found to his delight that a glitter trail had actually been drawn to create Bill’s profile, top hat included. “Oh! I see him now! Gotta say, this card is very Bill. The glitter was a nice touch.” 

“Anyways, this is for you.” So saying, Liam handed the box to Bill as nonchalantly as he could. His fingers tapped insistently where they rested on his crossed arms as he looked to the side. He knew without looking that Bill was opening his gift by the sound of tearing paper. 

“Oh!” Liam heard Bill exclaim. “A radio? Cool! Did you really spend the entire month making this? By hand?” Bill sounded honestly surprised. “But… you might not know it, but there aren’t any more radio towers here or anything.”

Liam was relieved that that was the only problem Bill seemed to have with his gift. “Silly Billy,” He drawled pompously. “Oh yee of little faith. What cause hath you to doubt me?” And he turned the knob of the radio. Instantly, smooth, though staticky jazz music played forth. He turned around to see Bill look truly gobsmacked. 

“Whuh, buh, how, you,” Bill stuttered. “Is this a prank? Is that a cassette player or something?” He asked. 

“I’m not you. You know I wouldn’t do something like that.” Liam dismissed, waving his hand as if shooing away his doubts. “See, the problem is that Time Baby trapped you in the Nightmare Realm, right? But what keeps you from getting out doesn’t prevent other things from coming in. Radio, or electromagnetic waves, are in essence wiggly beams of energy. Space is ninety-nine point nine-nine-nine-nine, nine-nine-nine-nine, nine-nine-nine-nine, * phew, * percent space. So across space-time, energy without mass, that can travel at three hundred thousand meters per second, travels with virtually no friction or inertia to slow or stop it! That’s how light from the stars is able to reach us— or in other words, how distant stars are visible. I checked when I breached the cloud cover. And from that, I posited that it would be theoretically possible to build a radio sensitive enough to catch radio waves across galaxies.” Here, he paused in his rambling spiel to catch his breath and check his audience. 

His audience was rapt, spellbound. 

“Of course, while the speed of light is literally lightning-quick, it still has to cross unfathomable distances to reach us. So no current news. But hey, you still get billions-year news!” He added as a disclaimer to fill the silence. Liam squirmed in the quiet. 

“My brother, y’all!” Bill exclaimed, hooking a proprietary arm around Liam. “What’d I say! A genius! Smartest guy in the world!” 

Liam was surprised. He had never heard Bill say so to others. Had Bill really talked about him after he had died? And called him a genius, at that?

“Wooo! Go Liam!” Pyronica exclaimed. “Hey, does that thing tune in to any true crime podcasts? Gossip rags? Anything other than Muzak?” 

“Well of course,” Liam said. “Although I hope you can be satisfied with the rather raunchy station I found that absolutely must be illegal. I made this radio for Billy, after all. Figured he’d get bored in here. Short attention span and all.” He cast a commiserating glance at Bill. 

Bill beamed proudly at his older brother. “Thanks! I love it!” He said. He elected to ignore the last part of what Liam had said. 

Liam cast his gaze away shyly. “Yeah, yeah,” he muttered airily in feigned coolness. 

“So what next?” Bill asked eagerly. 

“What do you mean?” Liam asked in surprise. 

“I mean what’s your next venture? Your next daring foray into scientific greatness!” Bill asked. 

“Hmmm. Well, I was thinking,” Liam said. 

“Thinking?” Bill demanded. He was on the verge of shaking his brother by the quasi-shoulders. 

“Cable TV!” Liam answered. He took the ensuing silence as a receptive prompt for elaboration. “In color!” He added, eyes bright. 

Internally, Bill shook his head in disappointment. ‘Flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams. Even my brother, brilliant as he is, never thinks to aim higher than his due. No matter, all he needs is a little push.’ “Instead of seeing the outside world from across a screen, wouldn’t it be better to actually leave this place though?” Bill gently broached the subject. “Don’t you remember how we always used to say that we would leave this place and go to the Third Dimension?” 

“Great idea! I don’t know what I’d do without you. But you don’t understand. I just applied the math to make this radio work. If we want to breach the Nightmare Realm, a miracle will have to happen, since magic was what trapped us here in the first place, right? And that’s exactly your forte.” Liam said. He had meant to agree wholeheartedly. But for some reason, the image of his childhood home amidst a sea of rubble flashed through his mind and altered his words. 

“Yep, couldn’t agree more! Honestly, where would you be without me? I’ll tell you what, you’d be six feet under and food for the worms.” Bill said. 

Liam nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He said. “Anyways, happy birthday! What’s your birthday wish?”

Bill smiled secretively. “That would be telling.” He said. But internally, he knew what he wanted. To rule the universe with his brother by his side. Yet nothing was said. After all, such wishes wouldn’t come true unless they were kept safe within the chambers of the heart. 

Chapter Text

As September set in, the weather began to cool in earnest. Heavy clouds muffled the harsh august mornings like downy blankets. They threatened to burst in showers and gales. The days were shortening. False dawns crept up the horizon to presage grey days in an eerie glow that glimmered on drizzlings of dew. And when day came, the sun was but a wan and pale pinprick of cold light that jabbed like a bony finger at the ruins of that bygone world. All the while the heavens were gravid with tears yet to weep. But when they did, they would come with a sound and a fury. 

Liam liked to rise early to listen to the quiet. Those twilights between day and night had become the only moments when he felt truly alone, felt truly himself, felt truly. Sky and sea of wreckage seemed to blend and blur in a wrinkled mass of contorted clouds and blasted concrete, extending far beyond the horizon. He liked to stand outside in the cold and damp and watch the shadows crawl by until the sounds of a household awakening were heard. In those moments between waking and sleeping, the cold numbing yet bracing, clandestine thoughts and dreams were allowed to traverse the plains of his imaginings. Feelings with names unknown were met. Liam could witness the day dawn grey. And yet that morning, Bill was the one to awaken, and far earlier than Liam. 

Bill decided to let Liam sleep in. He dreamt on. But after finishing breakfast without his now familiar company, Bill began to worry. He truly became alarmed when Liam did not start awake from his whispers or shouts until finally, frantic with worry, Bill pinched him. He twisted, as if turning the key of a rusty lock, skin gripped firmly between thumb and forefinger. Liam was awakened with a harsh gasp as if he were being resuscitated from the dead. For a moment, his eye gazed unseeingly at his little brother. 

“What the heck!” Liam exclaimed, startled. “Why in the world would you pinch me? Ow!”

Bill stared for a moment before mischievously replying, “You slept in and missed breakfast, Lazybones. What, were you having a dream?”

“Yes, I was, before you so rudely woke me.” Liam murmured in a daze. “Hold on. Let me get up and I’ll tell you all about it.” And he breathed morning breath into his face. 

“Agh! It smells like something died in there!” Bill screeched. 

“Then get off me already.” Liam muttered. When he sat up, he noticed that his extremities were numb. 

After performing his morning ablutions, Liam sat at the kitchen table and poured himself a bowl of cereal to eat before regaling Bill with a strange tale. 

“In the dream I had, there’s this huge, and I mean ginormous, pink… Thing. It was actually pretty cute. And it could speak, too! Which was rather unnerving. But only in rhyme, for some reason.” Liam said. 

Bill narrowed his eye. “Did this thing ever introduce itself?” He asked. It was starting to sound suspiciously familiar. 

“Yeah. It called itself an axolotl.” Liam casually replied, badly butchering the pronunciation in the process. 

Bill felt his heart skip a beat. He was unnerved, but knew not to show it yet. He needed to know what had happened to Liam in his dream before he could retaliate against The Axolotl. Bill waved a hand as a signal for him to continue his retellings while he took a fortifying gulp of his coffee. 

Liam grimaced at the mere scent of the steam that wafted off of the sugary abomination that constituted a ‘coffee’ for Bill. He took a sip of his own black coffee before continuing.

“This is what the axolotl said:”

‘Throughout the multiverse, you are a true anomaly,

Your mere existence an inconsistency.

For whether by fire, want, or parricide,

You have met your untimely end, this once aside.

An early death by man made means

Was yours to meet, until your brother intervenes.

With love so loud it breaks reality’s bounds,

But not the fate that yet resounds.

Yet how you fall is not your choice to decide,

For this destiny does not yours alone preside.

And while such looms your doom, 

The question of ‘how’ is not yours to presume.

Two brothers, fates intertwined,

Of godly powers but unsound mind.

Both have fatal flaws, hamartia their worst foe,

His a pride that will not bend, yours that bows too low.

A breach in trust shall make bridges break,

As the brother’s gilded masks begin to flake.

Your bones shall shatter, mind shall bend,

Before life must come to an end.

Each brother shall betray the other threefold in their promise true,

This shall prove their undoing as they collect their due.

Yet both would fain save the other,

Although each is born of different mother.

You shall pay the price, your life for his vice,

If you wish to save him from his demise.

Free him from the mire of his cruel desire,

Else both shall have died by fire upon the pyre.

With blood-stained tears in a distant land,

You save his life as your final stand. 

And yet the prophecy may be broken in the eleventh hour,

If only you love your—’

And that’s when you woke me up, you brat.” Liam finished. “But still, it's pretty cool, right? I can’t believe that dream came from my brain, I must be a genius or something! I could be a poet!” He exclaimed. Then, noticing Bill’s liquid dessert sloshing onto his trembling hand, he asked, “Hey, are you alright?” As he hurriedly wiped at the hot spills with a napkin in hopes of preventing a burn, Bill broke his silence. 

“You don’t know this, but that ‘pink thing’ you mentioned? That’s The Axolotl. Capital T, capital A, The. Axolotl . The Time Baby, my good old pal the prison warden, was his underboss. I think you just got a visit from the devil incarnate.” He said. His clenched fists were trembling, no longer in fear, but in sheer impotent rage. 

Liam paused in soaking the napkins in hot puddles. “But,” his brow furrowed, “that can’t be right.” He gazed, wide-eyed, at his brother.  

“I just said it was.” Bill said, his eyebrow twitching. 

“No, you don’t understand.” Liam refuted, waving his hands in a flurry. “‘ Each brother shall betray the other threefold in their promise true,’ right? Well, I’m just saying that that’s not possible. I get that The Axolotl is probably the cutest eldritch horror in the universe, but I’m just saying that this prophecy is a bunch of bull. Because that promise we made, I, I would never abandon you, I wouldn’t ever even try. Let alone thrice? It has to be a lie. Right!?” Liam asked, a desperate edge to his eyes. “What other possibility could there possibly be?”

Bill paused. “That’s right.” He said. His eye widened as the realization hit him. “This so-called ‘prophecy’ couldn’t possibly be true. He’s just messing with you.” He took tiny hands in his tight grip. “He’s messing with us. He won’t get away with this,” he said lowly as he stared straight into Liam’s eye. 

Liam winced in pain. 

Bill released his hands in favor of wrapping his fingers along his brother’s biceps. “I’ll tell you now, that’s the last you’ll ever see of him again.” he said. His gaze frightened Liam, but he didn’t dare look away. “I’ll finish him if it’s the last thing I do.” Bill continued. 

“Ok, I believe in you.” Liam said. He gave a tiny smile to Bill as his hand tugged at his wrist. But secretly, traitorously, he began to wonder how the prophecy would have ended before its abrupt interruption. He was afraid for Bill. 

Bill finally relaxed his hold on Liam and let go. “As you should,” he said, donning a veneer of cockiness as he pointed his thumb at himself. “Who else would help you like I do?” He asked rhetorically, smirking. 

Liam pretended to shove Bill. He squawked in mock offense. 

Unbeknownst to them, Kryptos, lingering in the hallway after a late breakfast, had overheard everything. He resolved to keep Liam’s dream to himself, but to be wary of the warning signs the prophecy foretold. He told himself that he was simply looking out for them. And silently, he slipped away from the stifling room to ruminate over what he had heard. 

Having finished breakfast, Liam also left to find Pyronica. He found her on the roof of an abandoned building, her flames signaling her presence like a beacon as she fiddled with Bill’s radio. The open air apparently allowed for better reception. 

The lonely, cold whispering of wind that had traveled a long ways meeting stone and steel resonated through the plain. “Hi Liam!” Pyronica yelled from across the vast field. Her voice broke through the desolation. The tinny voice of the radio was the only other sound that kept her company. 

“Hey Pyronica,” Liam said, “What are you listening to? And did Bill give you permission to borrow his radio?” 

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Pyronica stated. “But you won’t tell, right? Come on, just sit down and listen to this telenovela with me. You missed the beginning, but it’s just starting to get spicy!” She said. 

“Oh, would I!” Liam exclaimed. “You might not know it, but I happen to be a romantic! Just catch me up to date, would you?” He asked. Delighted by her offer, he had already flown up to the rooftop. 

“Ssshhh! Luis has just proposed to Maria!” Pyronica whispered excitedly. And indeed, the radio did declare that “I may be engaged to another, Maria, but my soul knows that we were fated to be together! Come with me, and we can elope to the Andes!” 

“Oh my, how forward of him.” Liam commented. Pyronica mimed zipping her lips at him. 

“Oh Luis, mi amour, our love was not meant to be. If only you were not Soraya’s fiance, I could happily be with you forevermore. Alas! We two star-crossed lovers, our ill-fated romance could only conceive tragedy!” Maria wept from within the radio. Pyronica discreetly wiped stray tears from her eye. 

“Nay!” Luis exclaimed. “We may be of different stations and comportment, but I know my love is true. From the very moment my eyes laid upon you, I was bewitched. You have stolen my heart, my Maria. You are much too great a temptation for one such as I. Let us be wed and bedded! I can restrain my passion for you no longer, my rabbit. Let me prove my love to you, and allow my overflowing passion to enter you! Feel it from within yourself!” Luis exclaimed. 

“Goodness gracious,” Liam exclaimed. He was terribly scandalized, but could not help listening for more…

“Stop!” Another voice suddenly entered the stage. “Luis is not what he seems. It has come to light that Soraya has been murdered. And the culprit at-large… Is none other than Luis!” 

“How could you!” “Luis, baby, no…” “My word!” Three voices simultaneously spoke. 

“Yes. It has come to light that Luis has killed his fiance in order to gain her riches and wed you, Maria. Not only this, but the blighted bastard was born out of wedlock! He is not the rightful inheritor of the Lopez fortunes. So Maria… Please, marry me instead!” The voice insisted. 

A collective intake of breaths. 

“Fool! You dare come between our sacred love? If I can’t have her, no one can!” Luis suddenly exclaimed. Pyronica and Liam were on the edge of their seats, which was rather dangerous considering they sat upon a rooftop. But then, just before they could hear what happened next—

An adbreak began to play. “Hi there! Are you sick of bandages that are hard to remove? Then what you need is the Rip-Off! The Rip-Off won’t give you rashes. I repeat, it—”

Pyronica shrieked in frustration and pitched the radio off the building. Liam had to dive after to catch it before it could shatter into a million pieces on the concrete floor. 

Chapter Text

Across the hall feet were thumping. Kryptos could hear the muffled sound of two voices singing off-key to the tune of the radio, which had been blasting disco music for a while now. It was too early in the afternoon to hear such caterwauling. Kryptos raised his eyebrow and continued to slowly sip his coffee. 

Across the hall, feet were thumping. Liam and Bill were having the time of their lives. Strumming on an air guitar, Liam bit out a bass line from between his lips to the accompaniment of Bill’s complimentary strutting and humming. To the tune of some song from the Andromeda galaxy, Liam sang the lead parts as Bill sang the choir. “Mamaaaaa,” Liam sang, swinging his conjured mic stand, “OoOOOooh.” “Any way the wind blows,” Bill whispered breathily. “Iiii don’t wanna die. Sometimes wish I’d never been born at aaalllll.” Liam continued melodramatically, to the wail of Bill’s air guitar and the radio. Bill gyrated to the beat of the song as he played his air guitar and voiced the sound effects. As usual, Liam backed him with his own interpretation of the bass line. He began to beatbox amateurishly. It was quite a long guitar solo. 

Kryptos finished his coffee and placed the mug in the kitchen sink without washing it. The dregs cooled and were leaving a waterline inside. He stopped subjecting his brain to the two brothers’ impromptu karaoke session and left the room. He could still clearly hear their voices as the door closed behind him. They were singing “Galileo” to each other in falsetto and bass voices, over and over again. Bill’s unique voice was pitched incredibly high. He quickened his pace. 

Outside, the air had a bite to it. Fires still smouldered in the distant heaps like cigarette butts, the air around them shimmering, but their dead warmth did not reach the Fearamid. It was chilly. Kryptos decided to head over to Randall’s. After all, there was nothing better to do. And he desperately needed to discuss Liam’s prophecy with someone. 

Kryptos had decided to do nothing with the information he had been exposed to, but he was beginning to have reservations about even that. It was impossible to be given information with such devastating consequences if true, and then to abstain from acting upon it in any way. Despite the fact that the prophecy had changed nothing of the present day, its implications still haunted him. He could not come to a decision, but remained pacing in front of Randall for quite a while. As deep in his thoughts as he was, his surprise far surpassed his contemplation when he felt a tap on the back. 

“I knew I would find you here!” Liam said cheerfully. He was levitating off the ground in order to reach Kryptos’s back. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” He asked, half-sardonically and half-genuinely. 

“Uh, no, of course not!” Kryptos exclaimed. He hurriedly turned around to face Liam, dislodging his hand from his person. “Was there anything you needed?” Kryptos asked, hoping to probe for some information to inform his future decision. 

Liam laughed sheepishly. “Actually, yeah, I do.” He began. “I didn’t think I did when I came here, but I do. Just a few questions. But let’s start with why I came here before that! I haven’t had the chance to tell you yet, but I asked Billy if he could make your cousin, Tad, come back to life. He, uh, said no. Said it was impossible.” Liam muttered. 

“You did that? For me?” Kryptos asked. 

Liam nodded. “Of course! It’s the least I could do for you.” He said, fidgeting a little with his hands. 

“I’m gonna hug you now,” Kryptos said. Without even waiting for a response, he rushed in to do just that. 

Liam let out a squeak and patted him on the back. He had been lifted so that his toes did not touch the ground. “But, I couldn’t bring Tad back?” He asked guiltily. 

Kryptos just hugged Liam tighter. “Just the fact that you asked at all is more than enough. I couldn’t even bring myself to ask Bill for Tad.” He said, vehemently arguing his point. He also couldn’t bring himself to ask Liam if Bill, that self-made god, had truly been asked the impossible or simply didn’t want to. Either way, he didn’t blame Liam. 

Patting his back as if tapping out of a clinch, Liam squeaked, “Ok, you can put me down now!” 

Once set down, Liam brushed himself off. Kryptos waited before asking, “So, what did you want to know?” 

Liam glanced comically to both sides of the empty wasteland, as if looking for eavesdroppers, before looking inquiringly at Kryptos as if asking for permission to speak. He motioned for him to continue. 

“It’s just that, uh, do you ever think about the future?” Liam asked. He took the answering silence as a request for elaboration. “I mean, realistically, I don’t think it’ll be cool… per se… if we’re stuck in the Nightmare Realm until the end of time. But at the same time,” and here he gauged Kryptos’s reaction again, “I understand that it might be for the best if we stay here. Not that I’m saying that it’s a good thing we’ve effectively been trapped in a hell of our own making!” Liam exclaimed, waving his hands. “But, well, maybe it is. For other people at least.” He said. His eye lingered on Randall. The tip of his finger, where his hand had been permanently outstretched in supplication, had already chipped off. 

Kryptos sighed wistfully. “Yeah, no. That’s just not going to happen.” He said. “As long as Bill is here, he has an infinite resource of time on his hands. Combined with his intellect, it's really only a matter of time before he breaks free. As long as he’s alive, no chains can hold him down forever. Something’s gotta break. And let me tell you, it’s not gonna be Bill.” He finished. 

Liam glumly examined the cracks that were forming in Randall. No speck of life had seen fit to home itself in those crevices as of yet. “Yeah. I thought so.” Liam said. Then, hopefully, he turned back to Kryptos. “But this will never happen again, will it?” He asked, gesturing to the rubbage surrounding them. 

Kryptos winced. “What do you think?” He asked. He genuinely wanted to hear what Liam thought. 

Liam slowly lowered his arm. “I, I’m not sure.” He answered. He wanted to think the best of Bill, but he was afraid. So, so afraid. For Bill, and for the world. 

A wordless slump of the shoulders. Liam understood. “No,” Kryptos confirmed. “You can try, though. To stop him. I’m sorry. I don’t think it’ll work, but you might be the only thing that can.” 

A look of mutual understanding passed between them. No words to be said. “No,” Liam replied, “don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.” 

Kryptos didn’t answer. He simply hoped, fervently, that Liam wouldn’t break. 

Days passed. Liam began to work on color TV, just like he said he would. He wanted to delay Bill’s boredom as much as he could. And with the experience of making a radio under his toolbelt, he finished making it in half the time. 

But in October the sky fell. It cracked open like an egg. Mandelbrot rainbows reflected in Liam’s eye like oil spills. They spun and swum through through the atmosphere, peeking out of clouds here and there. And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could ne’er put Humpty back together again, Liam thought. He could hear the sun, roaring. Just roaring. 

And just like that, the sky finally wept. It broke down in torrents of tears. It split straight down the middle, tearing in two, weeping like an old crone, breaking water like a young girl. For a new world had been brought down to earth. 

“Surprise!” Bill exclaimed. He stared at Liam. “Well. You sure look surprised.” He said. Liam had fallen to his knees. 

“How.” Liam said. 

“How?” Bill asked. “How?!” He repeated, cupping a hand over where his ear would be. “Well! I’m glad you asked! You see, all I had to do was flash a pretty smile, and I had those gullible idiots eating out of the palm of my hand! Piece of cake. Honestly, it was a breeze. I guess I’m just too dreamy, huh? But if they want a piece of me, it’s in their dreams. I’m just too hot to handle. You should have seen me out there, charming the masses! And what do you know? In just a coupla months, they brought their world to her knees for me! Didn’t even have to lift a finger.” He proclaimed proudly. 

“And… What, exactly, does this accomplish?” Liam asked skeptically. He slowly rose to his feet. 

Bill scowled at not getting the intended reaction. “Well, obviously it's to help contribute to our dream of getting to the third dimension,” He said. “Duh. I mean, just look at you! When I see you, building radios and TV’s and whatnot, I feel like I gotta contribute too!” He said. “And I did! Sooooo, what do you think?” 

“Um,” Liam said. “Uh.” He blanked. He tried again and came up with, “Well, I guess I’m just so overwhelmed. I just don’t know what to think.” 

Bill patted him on the head. “Not to worry, I get it. Your puny little brain can’t comprehend my genius.” He said. 

Liam grit his teeth. “It certainly is. Something.” He said, before clawing at the offending hand. 

Giving him a hard noogie, Bill frowned and said, “Something?! What’s that supposed ta mean?”

Fed up, Liam shouted, “Fine! It’s impressive! How in the world did you manage to convince that world’s inhabitants to merge into our galaxy in only a couple of months?! Just the fact that they were able to do so alone proves that these are highly intelligent lifeforms. How you were able to make them do something so monumentally dumb so quickly is quite… A feat.” 

Bill, smugly, started to use Liam as an armrest. A wriggly, sharp armrest. “Of course it is. I did it, after all. But you know, I partially have you to blame for all this. After all, you’re the one who gave me the idea. If we can’t get the world, the world can come to us! And now we’re one step closer to our goal!” He said, smiling victoriously. He finally heard the praise he had been fishing for from his big brother. 

Liam bit him on the hand. 

Chapter Text

With the storm came wetness. And with wetness came life. Nature had yet to show itself, but its scent betrayed it. Liam breathed in the smell of petrichor. He had missed it, although he certainly did not like the permanent new addition that came with the scent. The sky was still fractured by rainbow fractals. They were mesmerizing in their constant hypnotic movement. It was as if petroleum, toxic yet beautiful, had been spilled across the sky. Yet it literally pained Liam to watch the rainbows for too long, especially as he was not yet fully accustomed to such colors in his bleak and dull world. So he kept his eye to the ground and found life. Small, humble, miraculous life. 

A worm. Liam squealed, before clapping his hands over his mouth. He did not want to frighten it. But it had been so long since he had seen non-sentient lifeforms, even such basic ones as the worm. He quietly drifted over to it, but he inadvertently cast his shadow upon it. The worm curled into itself, fearing the predation of birds and other beings. Liam hurriedly moved away before gently cupping his hands and lifting it up. He elevated it to eye level and waited, gazing upon it as it slowly, ever so slowly, unfurled. He slowly clapped a hand over the palm holding it, forming a warm, clammy chamber, before flying to his little brother. He had to show it to him. 

“Billy! Pssst! Billy!” Liam whispered, except that his voice could be heard from across the room. 

Bill turned and raised his eyebrow. “Whatcha got there?” He asked, peering curiously at Liam’s hands. 

Liam slowly opened his hands as if revealing a great treasure, presenting the worm to Bill. “A worm,” he whispered reverently. 

“Uh, ok?” Bill said, picking it up between the thumb and forefinger. “What do you want me to do with this? Eat it?” He asked half-jokingly. He slowly swayed it above the cavern of his open mouth. His breath only served to enliven the worm as it wriggled frantically in his hand. 

“No!” Liam exclaimed. He tried to reach for what he had given Bill. In response, Bill raised it higher and higher above his head before simply tossed it over his shoulder. Liam startled before zooming past Bill to catch it. Cradling the little life protectively to his breast, he reproached, “I showed it to you because it’s cool! Do you know how long it's been since either of us has seen a lower life form?!” 

“And, uh, why do you care?” Bill asked. “It’s a lower life form.” 

“It’s, well. I think it’s self-evident why I should care,” Liam said defensively. “I just do. It’s cool.” It frustrated him how he could neither put something so seemingly basic to words, nor make Bill understand what was so obvious to himself. 

“Uh-huh,” Bill said, watching as Liam carefully lowered the worm onto a patch of wet dust in the shade of a concrete brick. “Well, anyway. I was just about to go looking for you! I have something to show you too.” 

“Oh, what?” Liam asked from where he was crouched. His curiosity had instantly been piqued. 

Bill grinned broadly. Adorable, thought Liam. “Just wait and see. I know you’ll like it,” Bill said. He led him by the hand as they zoomed past the derelict land. 

“And here we are!” Bill yelled, spreading his limbs akimbo in celebration. They had reached their destination.

Oh, thought Liam. Oh, no. He took a small step backward. 

“Come on!” Bill said, delighted. He pulled Liam forward by the hand. “I know how curious you are, so I thought this would be a nice time for you to ask some nice questions to our nice new neighbors!” 

Liam stared, wide-eyed, at the new inhabitants of the Nightmare Realm. They stared back. 

“Uh, Billy,” Liam whispered, “I don’t think this is a really good idea.” He tugged at his hand where it was still held in place. 

Bill blinked in surprise before saying, “Oh, if you’re worried for your safety, don’t! They understand how things work around here. Right, guys?” 

As one, the people nodded frantically. They still had yet to say a single word. 

“I can’t hear you!” Bill said mockingly. 

“Yes, Bill Almighty,” they immediately chorused. 

Bill jabbed a thumb at them before whispering loudly to Liam, “I taught them to do that. Now you give it a try!” 

Liam stared at Bill. He was suddenly strongly reminded of the Circle aristocrats that had previously reigned on this very land. 

The problem was, he really was genuinely curious about these people. Their culture, habitat, customs, science, language. He wanted to know it all. Just not like this. Bill really did know him well, but he had gone about this in entirely the wrong way. Or perhaps he did not know him well at all, because Liam was hard-pressed to even talk to them now. 

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Liam picked his words wisely. “Oh, I can ask them alright. But I don’t need you hovering behind me. I ought to let them know that I’m a menace in my own right, after all. And you don’t have to worry about leaving me with them, do you? After all, I’m sure you taught them good and proper.” He said. Technically, he told himself, nothing he said had been a lie. 

Bill hesitated for a moment, reluctant to leave, but he could not refute Liam’s words at the cost of his own ego. “Sure, sure, I get it. You got a rap to build. Don’t worry, I got your back. But if you ever need me, just call me and I’ll be right over!” Bill said, before slapping him on the back and flitting away. 

“...Thanks,” Liam called into the silence, before glancing back at the kidnapped new residents of the Nightmare Realm. They were still frozen like statues as they stood at attention. Some stood with hands dripping suds from where they had previously been crouched by their washboards. Others stood at attention like soldiers, or prisoners waiting for their turn at the gallows. Even the children stood in solemn silence where they held their Mother’s skirts and sucked their thumbs. He slumped under the heavy load of a sudden weariness. 

“I’m truly sorry this happened to you,” Liam said as he, too, left the scene. He despised how his paltry words could offer no comfort for them. But he could not bear the shame of witnessing the consequences of his brother’s sins any longer. Nor could he bring himself to impede on their lives with his inane questions when he stood by his brother’s side. But he resolved not to turn a blind eye to them any longer. After all, as Bill’s older brother, he was the one who should shoulder the blame. As he had said from the very beginning, he would be the one to feel the guilt that Bill could not, to carry the consequences that his little brother would not. 

Staring at the sky after his abrupt meeting with his new neighbors, Liam felt his eye water. He told himself that it was merely the effect of gazing for too long at its psychedelic patterns. Yet as he fixed his eyes upon the heavens, looking for the first star of the night to wish upon, he noticed something odd. As the sun began to set, the Mandelbrot Rainbows in the sky still gave a residual glow. They shimmered and pulsed like an aurora borealis, an eerily beautiful sight for being evidence of such tragedy. Yet one pinprick within that net of light remained dead and black. Perhaps it was his imagination. But as he watched, it never went away. Like a single dead pixel, it alone remained static against the ever-flowing sky. Closer, farther, the shifting tides of starlight receded and grew until slowly, slowly, Liam drifted asleep outside the Fearamid. 

Something warm held him in its arms. No footfalls announced its approach and no tread of feet awoke him from his slumber. He was brought somewhere warm, warm and bright. He snuffled deeper into the dark crook of an arm. The muffled voices of a party sounded from beyond a hall somewhere. The soft embrace brought him down and gently tucked him into bed. He curled up in the cold sheets and grumbled, clinging onto its warmth. With a quiet huff of amusement, it followed him into sleep. 

Chapter Text

The world was healing, nature on the hunt to reclaim its throne from amidst toppled cities. And yet Liam knew in the back of his mind that it was not to be. Things were coming together just to fall apart. He knew. 

Birds wouldn’t chirp for another eon. But dew condensed from blue steel and wet the earth. The wind breathed sweet musk. Day dawned crisp and cold. Fire stopped burning in hills faraway, and Liam woke up from yet another restful sleep without dreams. He wondered if Bill had anything to do with it. Turning to him, he asked, “Hey Billy, do you have anything to do with how I don’t seem to dream anymore?” 

“Oh yeah, didn’t I tell you?” Bill answered. “I said that you would never see The Axolotl again, so I warded your brain, especially from dreams. Don’t worry, I didn’t peek! But if anyone tries to crack open your head now, they risk ruining valuable memories. Which, considering they’d be trying to peer into your head, would be counterproductive. So rest assured! The matters of the mind are safe at hand.” He said lackadaisically. 

Liam felt a little off-put by Bill’s disregard for bodily autonomy, but he didn’t give anything but a token protest. He was somewhat glad that he was at least safe from his own nightmares. It felt ironic, considering that he lived in the Nightmare Realm and had Bill for a brother. “Are you sure that’s healthy for me, though?” He asked. “I know for a fact that REM sleep is a biological necessity.” 

“Oh, it’s perfectly alright,” Bill assured. “I’m not erasing anything your own mind produces, just targeting thoughts from outside influences. You’ll be fine.”

“Oh,” Liam replied. He began to realize that a foreign entity was trying to contact him without alerting his brother. The Axolotl was truly an insidious being for something so cute, he thought to himself. 

“Ah, is that how you were able to convince people to enter the Nightmare Realm? Through their dreams, that is?” He asked, having finally realized how Bill had realized the impossible. 

Bill smiled like the cat that got the canary. His visible joy was enough of an answer but he replied, “Yeah. Got it in one, smart stuff!” He said. 

Liam was impressed. Bill’s infectious smile was brilliant, so blindingly bright that he had to give a tiny smile back. He couldn’t help but respond positively to his little brother’s enthusiasm. 

As the days went by, Liam’s matching enthusiasm for knowledge tempted him into lurking by the areas that the new inhabitants had claimed for themselves. He needed to see for himself what their kind were like. And, he told himself, he had vowed not to ignore evidence of his brother’s flaws. It was time to observe their mettle, whether they were mice or men. 

So Liam took to observing the new people. A quadrupedal species whose defining characteristics included prehensile fins, skin folds, and tentacles for limbs, they spoke little and slept much. It was not interesting to watch them in their natural state, but Liam was incredibly reluctant to influence the population by making his presence known. He only wanted to save them from his brother’s influence.

From what he could see, the people fashioned themselves in flowing robes. They were accustomed to color, but the naturally monochromatic state of Flatland forced them to reuse their garments as signals and signs. They appeared to have tactile instead of visual communication, excluding systematic signage, which was typically color coded. It seemed that they were predominantly unisex, communal, and a peaceable species. Liam pitied them and wondered at how such highly intelligent creatures could fall so low. Literally, as the tentacles that would have flowed with grace in low-gravity environments struggled to gain ground on Flatland soil. 

It seemed that Bill had refrained from tormenting them for now. Liam would know, as he had consistently been loitering in the same area that they lived in. Yet, while Liam was happy to surveil them for their own protection, he knew that his presence was not welcome. After determining their immediate safety from Bill, he avoided direct contact with his new neighbors and decided to bother his little brother instead. 

“Biiiiiilllly,” Liam drawled, covering Bill’s eye with his hands. “I’m bored. Talk math to me!” He draped himself over Bill. 

Annoyed, Bill scoffed. “Ugh, fine. I guess I could grace you with my brilliance.” He replied. 

“Exactly!” Liam said. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun!”

Bill, bemused, enquired as to what knowledge Liam already knew. “Okay, so you know what Euler’s number is? And pi? And you know about imaginary numbers too, right?”

“Oh, oh, I know!” Liam said, bouncing in his seat. “I know all the things!”

Bill snorted. “Calm down, man. Anyways, what about Euler’s equation?” 

Liam looked curiously at Bill. “No, what’s that?” He asked. 

Bill was gobsmacked. “Really now?” He asked. “How do you know Euler’s number, but not Euler’s equation? Let alone being able to build an interstellar radio?” 

Liam proudly puffed up his chest. “Taught myself.” He proclaimed. “I couldn’t go to school, remember? So I learned this stuff all on my own.” 

“Wow,” Bill said in genuine awe. “That’s wicked. But I guess that explains those odd gaps in your knowledge. You’re just too cool for school.”

Liam could not decide between feeling offended or flattered. “Do you know how lucky you were to be afforded an education?” He asked, pouting. “Textbooks! Peers! A teacher who actually explains how things work for you! Lucky.” He repeated jealously. 

Bill smiled fondly. “Nerd. You’re the only guy I know who actually gets his kicks off of this shit. Luckily, you’ve got me to explain things for you.” So saying, he explained the wonders of Euler’s Equation, e iπ + 1 = 0, to Liam. 

Liam gazed at Bill with stars in his eye. “That’s so beautiful,” he whispered dreamily. The simplicity and complexity of how such transcendental numbers combined to form a singularity, and their implications within the field of physics, had momentarily overwhelmed him. Suddenly, his entire countenance lit up. “Ah, I have something to say!” He said, waving his arm in the air as if he were in a classroom. He must have seen it on TV.

Sighing in warm exasperation, Bill asked, “What, Liam?” 

“Here’s a joke.” Liam smiled conspiratorially. “So Pi squares up with i The Imaginary Number. ‘Get real,’ Pi says to i. ‘Be rational,’ i replies back. Euler’s Number swings by and says, ‘Join me! With your power, we can be — one!’” He waited in breathless anticipation for Bill to get the joke. “The joke is better when it’s written out,” he added. “Since the little extra pause turns into a dash, which looks like a negative one, see?” He asked. 

Bill got the joke. He laughed, long and hard. Wheezing, he could only incoherently blubber, “Rational— real — the dash turns into a negative sign…” He was having trouble articulating himself with how hard he laughed. A laughter so genuine, so true, sang like music to Liam’s heart. The ugly snorts and honks Bill let escape sounded like ringing bells. 

“I’ve— I’ve got one too,” Bill said after his peals of laughter had finished. “You know about topology, right? Well in a finite projective plane, parallel lines do meet. They’re just really discrete about it!” 

Liam’s mind blanked before he remembered what he had recently learned from the Circle’s secret library. “Pffft…” He giggled, trying to cover his giggles with his hands, before he let them burst forth long and loud. 

Bill waited patiently for Liam’s laughter to wind down. Yet every time he seemed to have finished, taking one deep breath of air after the other, something would set him off again. Once Bill could speak without being interrupted with yet more giggles, he promptly told another pun to Liam. “Okay, get ready for another gut-buster! So two functions of the unit circle, the identity function and the constant function, meet at the gym. You know what the constant function says to the identity function?” He asked eagerly. 

Liam answered in the negative. 

“Do you even lift?!” He answered, before laughing hysterically at his own joke. 

“Sorry,” Liam smiled awkwardly, “I don’t know that one.”

Bill grinned in reply. “Well that’s ok. I’ll explain it to you. It’s what I’m here for.” 

They spent the rest of the afternoon telling jokes and learning. It was a sunny day.

Chapter Text

The day that marked new beginnings began with bad bodings. Liam slept poorly. He awoke with his legs tangled in sweaty blankets. The first thing he saw on the morning of the new year, his brother’s eye gazing mere inches from his face, alarmed him terribly. He punched him. A wet, meaty smack permeated the air.

“Argh!” Bill screeched, covering his eye with both hands and backpedaling until he fell on his rump. 

“AAAAAAH!” Liam screamed, louder and shriller than Bill. “I’m so sorry! Oh my Circles, Billy, are you okay?!” He asked, terrified. He tried to get up but only managed to bang his head against the bottom of the top bunk and fall off the bed, still entangled within the sheets. He writhed fruitlessly before squirming loose and leading his brother to the kitchen. Bill’s eye was beginning to bruise spectacularly. 

At the kitchen, Liam immediately went to the freezer to take out a pack of frozen peas before expertly wrapping it several times in a paper towel to hold over Bill’s eye. While doing so, a constant babbling of apologies and offered recompenses streamed from his mouth. Bill interrupted him mid-sentence as he performed his administrations. 

“I’m fine. I’ve got enhanced healing.” Bill said, holding up one hand as a sign to stop as the other held up his improvised ice pack. “But what got into you?” He asked. 

Liam slowed down. “Oh, that…” He stalled awkwardly. “I was just having this weird dream. I was dreaming of back when I was a kid, when I would… Go to the doctor’s with Mother and Father. But my dream kept on getting interrupted, so partway through I’d literally be seeing stars. I can’t place what galaxy it was that I saw. It was like the TV kept changing channels in my brain. But then when I woke up, you freaked me out leaning over me like that, so I punched you. Sorry again.” He said. His hands fidgeted when they became too idle. It was only then that he noticed Pyronica and the rest, who had been interrupted in their peaceful meal by the commotion. He could only shrug sheepishly at them in apology. 

“I guess that makes sense,” Bill replied slowly. “I was just staring at you because you looked like you were having a nightmare. You were crying in your sleep.” He ominously stated, answering a question that had not been voiced. 

“Silently?” Liam interrupted. “It’s just, I wouldn’t want to disturb you or anything, you know.” He added. 

“Yep. Not a peep.” Bill replied. He was pondering how he could further improve his brother’s mental defenses. He removed the frozen peas to reveal an unblemished face. “Well, nice punch, at least,” he continued. “Good reflexes. Any time someone is acting like a creep to you, hurt them until they stop.” 

“Yeah, good job!” Pyronica, who also had only one eye, said. “You gotta hit ‘em where it hurts.” 

Liam nodded in agreement, but in his eye hid a wild fear. 

Soon it was twilight. The day was already halfway done, and it was only then that Liam realized the date. 

“Oh, it’s a new year today!” Liam suddenly exclaimed. 

“Huh.” Bill said, conjuring a pinup calendar from thin air. “I guess it is! What say we set off some fireworks?”

“Yeah!!!” Shouted Pyronica, her flames roaring in accompaniment to her words. In quick succession,Teeth, 8-Ball, Pacifire, Keyhole, Zanthar, and Hectorgon agreed. Liam jumped slightly at the sudden responses. 

“What’s a firework?” He asked. 

“What’s a firework?!” Bill repeated rhetorically. 

“Well, I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen one personally. Are they…fiery?” 

Bill groaned and put his head in his hands. “Oh man. You don’t know nothin’.” He uttered. 

Liam flushed. “It’s, ‘you don’t know anything.’ What you just said was an incorrect usage of the double negative.” He mumbled in embarrassment. 

In response, Bill flicked him on the forehead. “Dork. But to answer your question, a proper firework is like this.” So saying, he lit up a magnificent blue spark of power from his fingertip. It exploded like a dying star against the cosmos. The falling trails of light glittered like an umbrella of comets in the cosmos. 

Liam’s pupil dilated enough that the reflection of the firework could be clearly seen in it. He stared in awed silence before uttering a single word: “Wow.” Then he randomly pointed a finger in the midst of the crowd, his other hand braced against his arm to stabilize his aim, before letting off his own firework. Kryptos hurriedly corrected his arm towards the sky before Hectorgon could be shot in full force. A second, teal explosion graced the sky in order to briefly dye the world in unearthly hues. Liam’s face lit up in joy. He began to cackle madly as he rapidly used both hands to shoot fireworks one at a time, before stretching both palms towards the sky and blasting it continuously. From end to end, the sky was filled to the brim with a bright light. Red, yellow, purple, all the colors that Liam had recently learned of lit up the sky one after the other, until their hues merged and melded together. The unceasing boom of multiple explosions deafened the crowd. Slowly did the din die down until the clearest sound that could be heard for miles was of Liam’s laughter. It might have sounded slightly insane. 

Pyronica wiped away a tear. “I’m so proud of him,” she said. 

Bill wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Our budding arsonist. Let him have his moment.” He replied. 

Liam’s chest heaved for breath after his feat of power. 8-Ball tentatively tapped him on his shoulder. 

“Hey, is that you and your bro?” He asked as he pointed towards the sky, where a twinkling imprint of a scalene and an equilateral triangle were still left like glow-in-the-dark stars over their heads. The equilateral triangle was positioned perfectly so that the Morning star was centered within it where an eye would be. 

“It’s ‘your bro and you.’” Liam absentmindedly corrected. Then he processed 8-Ball’s statement and, refusing to feel embarrassed, replied, “Yes. Yes it is. And what of it?” He pretended that he had created it on purpose, not realizing that he was blushing. The firework stubbornly refused to fade from the sky. 

“Man, you’re adorable,” 8-Ball said, before easily hefting Liam onto his shoulder. 

“Am not! P-put me down this instant, you cretin!” Liam shouted. 

“I don’t know what any of that means, so I’m not going to let it stop me.” 8-Ball said as Liam continued hurling abuse such as “...Imbecile, troglodyte, dunce, nincompoop, brute…!” and more at him. Before Bill could put a permanent stop to it, Liam realized that he quite liked looking down at everyone for once. He quieted down and began to swing his legs from 8-Ball’s shoulder as he realized that he was not in any danger of falling. 

“There we go,” 8-Ball said, patting him on the leg. He was very glad that Liam was no longer shouting in his ear. 

There was a lull in the conversation. “That was tons of fun.” Liam said. “So what now? What do people normally do for New Year’s?” He asked. 

“What do we do for New Years?” Bill repeated, stalling for time. Without Liam, Bill and the Henchmaniacs would be taking heinous dosages of hallucinogens and killing people for funsies by now. That was literally why Bill had trapped his newly acquired victims in this dimension, after all. But then again, without Liam, Bill wouldn’t have known it was New Years anyways. It wouldn’t have mattered without him. Time was an arbitrary construct anyways. Ugh. Liam’s eye was literally sparkling with anticipation. Bill hated to disappoint him. “Obviously… New Year's resolutions!” He finally replied. It was so tame compared to what he was used to. But sacrifices must be made. 

“Oh, in that case, I’ll go first!” Pyronica said. “This year I wanna get even hotter!” She said as she flared the flames along her flexed arms. 

For an instant, Liam’s pupil shrank from the sudden brightness of her fire while the rest of his body stayed very still. “Oh, really? But you’re already so pretty.” He breathily replied, deliberately misconstruing her words. 

“Aren’t you sweet? You’re just buttering me up, aren’t you?” Pyronica replied, flattered. 

Liam giggled. “No I’m not!” He said behind closed hands. And the best part was that he really was telling the truth. In his eye, she was truly beautiful. 

“I’ll go next,” Teeth said. “I think this year I’ll work on being badder.” 

“You want to be… More evil?” Liam asked incredulously. “But aren’t you perfectly fine as you are?” 

Teeth clacked his teeth in annoyance. “Shows what you know.” He muttered. “I have an image to keep! Can’t be seen slacking, or everyone’ll think I’m cute!” 

Liam raised an eyebrow but wisely chose to say nothing in regards to his latter comment. “And what, exactly, does being ‘badder’ entail?” He asked instead, using finger quotes to insinuate certain opinions. 

Teeth paused. “Oh, you know.” He said. “Wrecking stuff. Biting stuff. Uh, eating stuff I’m not supposed to, I guess.” 

Liam crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow. 

“Stop judging me!” Teeth suddenly shouted. 

Surprised, Liam raised his hands, saying, “I didn’t say anything though!” 

“Yeah, but your face speaks for itself!!” Teeth angrily replied. Liam touched his face in curiosity. 

“Uh, moving on,” Kryptos interposed, “my New Year’s resolution is to learn some magic too, like necromancy or something.”  

“Oh, have you checked the library? There’s a ton of books on resurrection behind the false wall in the basement. But it’s more like records of science experiments than magic runes.” Liam interjected, always happy to help. 

“Why don’t you just help him yourself? You’ve got experience being on the other side, don’t you?” Asked Bill. 

Liam paused, before a gimlet smile spread across his face. “Dead men tell no tales.” He replied. “Really, I’m being serious! Some things just aren’t meant to be known.” 

“Aren’t you an exception to the rule, then?” Bill asked skeptically. Although, he internally admitted, it was true that he had not been given the knowledge of what lay beyond death along with the rest of his vast repertoire.

“That I am! I’ve got hidden depths!” Liam said, grinning cheekily. 

“Uh huh,” said Bill, “says the guy who can’t lie his way out of a rigged game of Poker.” 

Liam pouted. “I’ve got layers. Like an onion! I have a mystique. And if I’m so bad at lying, then you can tell that I’m telling the truth when I say I have a few cards up my sleeve.” He said. 

Bill shot back, “My bad, I guess you’re pretty good at lying to yourself if you’re this delusional.” 

“Am not,” Liam huffed. 

“Alright, alright, we get your point, let’s hurry things up so you can go to bed and we can get to drinking.” Hectorgon said. He was still somewhat salty that he had almost been hit by Liam’s firework. “I’ll go first. I want more potential customers here so I can get filthy rich off of them. And then I want to wipe my ass on gold leaf toilet paper. And I want a mansion. No, a kingdom. And a hundred concubines.” He said, completely missing the point of a New Year’s resolution. 

“If such is the case, I wish to feel the blood of millions against my skin.” Pacifire intoned. Liam shivered and dearly hoped that Bill would not find such success in tempting innocents into the Nightmare Realm again. 

“...” Said Amorphous Shape. 

“What’s that?” Asked Bill, cupping a hand over where an ear would be. “Your only wish is to watch the world burn? Again? Welp. No can do, since I’ve got to find us a way outta here before that happens.” He stated determinedly. 

“Oh, me too! I’ll do whatever I can to help you help us, that’ll be my New Year’s resolution!” 8-Ball said earnestly. 

“Uh, me three, I guess. That’s also my New Year’s resolution.” Keyhole said lamely. No one paid him much attention. 

Xanthar didn’t say anything. Liam sometimes wondered just how much he understood of the world around him, seeing as he didn’t have a mouth to voice his thoughts.

“... I want to get taller.” Liam sullenly muttered from his spot on 8-Ball’s shoulder. 8-Ball’s bat-like ear flicked. 

“Speak up,” Bill said. “Did I hear that correctly? You want to get taller? That’s your New Year’s resolution?!” 

“Yeah.” Liam said, slightly louder this time. 

“And your dream?” Bill asked. He thought he knew the answer: to travel far, far away from Flatland. He was proven wrong. 

Liam looked him straight in the eye. Adopting a steely tone of ice-cold resolution, he repeated, “To be taller.” 

“Aren’t you kinda dreaming small there?” Bill asked incredulously. 

Liam scoffed at him. “On the contrary, I am literally dreaming big.” He replied. 

“Ok, let me rephrase. Why, exactly, is your New Year’s resolution to be taller of all things?”  He asked. 

Scowling, Liam answered, “Why, you ask?! Isn’t it obvious? I’m smaller than you now! No more being used as an armrest! No more noogies! The disrespect! Why, I remember the glory days when you were this small.” And so saying, he demonstrated with his hands the exact size his little brother had been when he was ten. It was, indeed, small. “I could carry you around everywhere. Like a cat.” He grouched. He seemed to take it as a personal insult that that was no longer possible. 

“Aaaaaaww,” Pyronica cooed, “Bill, you were so teensy! Man, I wish I could’ve seen you then!” 

“I’ve got the baby photos, but I’m saving them for blackmail,” Liam admitted. “He was incredibly adorable. Not that he isn’t just as cute now, of course. Or rather, I should say that he’s grown into a fine young man.” He watched with amusement from above as Bill became increasingly flustered. He hid it well enough that only Liam could spot the difference, though. 

Then, Bill said something that completely derailed the conversation. “If you didn’t die, you might’ve been taller than me by now though.” He said. It was hard to read his expression. An awkward pause ensued. 

“Uh, whoopsie? Sorry?” Liam ineptly replied. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Billy. It couldn’t be helped.”

“Save your phony apologies for someone dumber than me.” Bill said. Suddenly, he was riled up but had no one to take it out on. 

“Well the good news is that Liam is still young, so he has plenty of room for a growth spurt now,” Keyhole suddenly interjected. 

“Oh. Right. Probably.” Liam stuttered. “It’s not like I’ll stay this size forever, right? Right?!” He said, hopping off of 8-Ball to stand at his true height. 

“Yeah, no, you’ll fulfill your New Year’s resolution. You’re young, but you’ll grow into yourself.” Teeth said. “I remember when I was eleven,” he reminisced, “Those were the days. People called me the darndest little ankle biter. But tendons are just so chewy! Say,” he continued, “You’re twelve, aren’t you, Liam?” 

“Uh, no. I’m thirteen now.” Liam casually remarked. To dead silence. 

“What?” Kryptos was the first to speak. “We missed your birthday?” He asked weakly. 

“Wait, when is your birthday?” Bill asked. He suddenly realized that throughout his childhood, he couldn’t remember ever celebrating it. A suspicion was beginning to dawn in his mind. 

“Uhhh…” Liam answered intelligently. His eye darted to Bill’s face before sticking to the floor beneath his feet. He was finding fascinating revelations in the dust smears on the concrete rubble, it seemed. “Wh-what were you saying, Teeth?” He asked, trying to redirect the conversation. 

No one was impressed. “Answer the question, Liam.” Bill said. 

“You know, I’m feeling really interrogated here,” Liam said, to no effect. “Um, oh!” He seemed to have suddenly hit upon an idea. “It’s the tenth of July.”

Bill’s  eye narrowed. “Nice try, you dope,” he said. “But that’s the day I resurrected you, not the day you were born.” 

Liam wrung his hands.  “Ugh, I wish you could have just stayed ten. Then I’d still be a nice two years older than you.” He muttered. He ducked his head before lying to Bill’s face. “Oh, it’s the sixth of December.” Liam said, spouting a random date off the top of his head. He tried and failed to maintain eye contact with Bill. 

Scowling, Bill answered, “I can tell when you’re lying, dumbass. Last chance. If you don’t tell me the truth, I’ll tickle you until you cry uncle, don’t think I won’t!” 

Liam’s shoulders rose up before he forcibly lowered them. “I’m not dumb.” He muttered. Then, quieter, “I don’t know.” 

Unfortunately, Bill had heard him loud and clear. “What do you mean you don’t know?!” He repeated incredulously, loudly enough for everyone to hear. He was beginning to realize that he hadn’t known himself, and that it had never occurred to him to question this lack of knowledge. 

Liam took offense to his tone. “I mean that I just don’t know!” He yelled back in a matching volume. “I’m not dumb.” He repeated.

Bill raised his hands in placation. “No one here’s calling you dumb. Right, guys?” He asked the Henchmaniacs, who were all nodding in agreement and starting to feel very uncomfortable for what was obviously a very humiliating and vulnerable experience for Liam. “See?” Bill asked, tone modulated. “So help me out and just explain it to me straight, would you? Liam? Why don’t you know your own birthday?”

Liam crossed his arms in a surly manner and scrunched up his face. “It just wasn’t mentioned.” He replied shortly. He was angry that he had to state something so obvious out loud. 

“Why didn’t I ever realize?...” Bill reproached himself. He did not even realize that he had spoken aloud. He was startled to feel the touch of Liam’s hand on his own. 

“Billy, you were ten when I disappeared. Ten year olds are generally not known for paying attention to anything but themselves. You were just a child. It wasn’t your fault, and nothing like that could ever be.” Liam answered, his tender look softened from its harsh glittering just prior. Bill gazed at him in amazement. It seemed that he regarded his very existence to be a wonder. 

“But wait, how do you know how old you are?” He suddenly realized. Liam took back his hand in order to wring it. 

“Promise you won’t make fun of me?” He asked, looking shyly up at him. Bill stared at him in bewildered shock before replying, “Of course not, dummy. But wait, why the fuck” he began to say, before being cut off by Liam. 

“Well, I got scolded.” He said. He seemed to hesitate to continue, oblivious to the confused glance Bill gave to his friends above his head. “See, what happened is that this one time, I started bawling my heart out. Like a kid. I don’t remember why.” He murmured, scuffing a hole into the dirt with his foot. “And then Father was like, ‘Young man! You are seven years old! You are not to squall like a babe! Stop that infernal racket this instant, you damn retard!” He parroted, flapping his hand like a mouth to the sound of his voice, lowered in pitch to mimic his father. “And that’s how I found out how old I was,” he finished, shrugging. “They never mentioned it again, so that’s all I have as reference.” 

The silence was profound. Then, “Man, I wish I could eat—I mean, meet your Dad. I just have a few words I wanna say to him is all.” Pyronica blurted. She met Liam’s furious glare with hands raised in surrender, saying, “Just saying!”

Bill stared at Liam for a moment, but Liam wouldn’t meet his eye. He wrapped his hands around his biceps. “Look at me.” He commanded. Liam’s gaze remained glued to the floor. Bill snapped his fingers in front of his face like a man commanding a dog. “I said look at me . ” He repeated. He discovered that he did not like it when Liam ignored him like that. 

Liam raised his gaze in vague surprise and met Bill’s eye hovering a scant few inches from his own for the second time in a single day.

“Repeat after me. You did not deserve that.” Bill ordered. Liam’s stare slid away. “You did not deserve that.” Bill repeated. He shook Liam lightly in his hold. 

Liam still would not look at Bill. He looked vacantly to the side. “But I did deserve it,” he replied dazedly. “I was being an inconvenience.”

“No,” Bill answered in frustrated desperation, “You were a child! It’s just like you said. Nothing you did could have warranted that! Why does what you say apply to me but not you?!”

Liam finally directed his vacant gaze at Bill, but it was as if he was staring through air. “It’s not the same,” he replied noncommittally, “you were born a miracle. I was born a mistake.” He stated, before returning to looking at the oh so fascinating rubble. 

“No!” Bill shouted in anger. “You can’t help being born. You did nothing that could have made you deserve what happened to you! You could never do anything to deserve that! Why can’t you get that through your thick skull?!”

“But in the end, I did get my dues,” Liam said sardonically, distantly. There was a disconnect between the two, now. 

“Stop saying shit like that!” Bill roared. He was angry beyond belief now, but this was not a trivial nuisance that could be swept aside with the flat of his hand. So his words flew like hounds unleashed instead. “This is your problem! Do you know how ungrateful you’re being?! I saved your goddamn life! It’s MINE now! The least you could do is to be thankful for it!” He yelled. Spittle splattered onto Liam’s face. 

Liam finally looked at Bill. He looked contrite. Sorry. But Bill bulldozed on. 

“You know what’s goddamn fucking wrong with you?!” He demanded without pausing to wait for an answer. “There’s something broken inside of you. The wires are crossed or something. I’m something of an aficionado on this, so if you just let me, I could fix you, you fucking moron!” 

Now Liam was speechless with hurt. His eye was alarmingly glassy. Pushing the words like thorny roses up through a throat clogged thick with unshed tears, he asked, “So, what? Are you saying that on top of how I look wrong, I am wrong? On the inside?” He was finally angry for what had been said to him. What had been done to him. 

“Yep.” Bill answered without hesitation. “And if you just let me fix you, you would be alright. Everything would be just peachy.”

A pause. For the silence a bullet hit home would grant. “I asked you not to make fun of me,” Liam whispered. Then, “There’s nothing wrong with me.” he retorted. “I’m fine! There’s nothing to fix! There’s nothing you can fix!” cried Liam. 

“You!...” Bill shouted. “... Are you crying?” He asked instead, his question replacing whatever hateful vitriol that would have spewed next. 

Liam touched his fingers to his face. To his horror and dismay, they came back wet. “No I’m not!” He denied. “Crying is for babies!”

Bill blinked. “You’re still a god-awful liar, you know.” He said. “That hasn’t changed in the past few minutes. Now come here.” And he opened his arms for his brother to walk into. 

Liam stepped back once. Twice. Then, he fled. 

There was a short pause. “Well, that could have gone better,” Bill remarked, nonplussed. He met accusatory stares from all around. “What?! I’m just telling it like it is! You expect me to lie to my own brother?” He asked, seemingly genuinely bewildered. 

Chapter Text

“I don’t know where things went wrong,” Bill said. “Why did he run away?” He appeared truly confused. 

“You mean you don’t know where you went wrong?!” Pyronica demanded. “For fuck’s sake, I thought you were smart! Let me list it out to you; first off, you kept calling him stupid, then you yelled at him up close and personal, and finally, you called him broken. And ugly, can’t forget that. You can’t just say shit like that and expect to get away with it!” Pyronica said, finishing her fiery rant. 

“But he is broken!” Bill testified. “He’s a broken record! Why aren’t you taking my side?! Didn’t you see how he wouldn’t listen to a word I said? Of course I’d get a little frustrated!”

A pause passed as the freaks exchanged mutual glances at each other. “Fine. Maybe he’s a little ‘broken’.” Kryptos conceded, speaking up, for a first. “But you can’t just talk about ‘fixing’ him like that! He’s not a—” 

“And why can’t I?” Bill challenged. “With a snap of my fingers, I could stop him from ever thinking shit like that again. Why would I refuse to help my brother like that? If I have the power to do so, aren’t I morally obligated to help him out? I’d be saving him! Fuck, I don’t know why y’all are so mad at me when I’m just presenting the simple solution to a huge fucking problem—” He rambled.

“Because he’s not a ‘problem.’” Kryptos continued. “Fuck’s sake, Bill, you’re acting like he’s your property. Quit talking like a Circle, talking about ‘fixing’ him like he’s a goddamn fucking chair. Face it, what you’re proposing isn’t ‘simple,’ and certainly not a solution. It’s just easy. For you .” He said, jabbing a bony finger into Bill’s chest. 

Bill began to glow red. He hated that Kryptos had just compared him to a Circle, but more than that, he was infuriated by how true the resemblance lay to his brother’s oppressors. 

“Not another word,” he said. “You’re being unfair. It’s Liam who’s being selfish, talking shit like that! He knows about all the trouble I went through to raze this stupid world that killed him to the ground and bring him back, and he still talks about how he should have been left behind? All I want is to save him! So why would he run away?!” He roared. All he wanted, with a need so desperate it felt vital, was to give to Liam what Liam had given him. Love. 

“But are you sure you did it for him?” Kryptos asked. “Because I don’t know about you, but I don’t think he’s very happy about you killing— Mmph!” Kryptos gagged, groping blindly at the skin that had closed over his eye and mouth. He stumbled and screamed, wordless and muffled, in small, grasping circles. 

“I said not. Another. Word.” Bill said. His fingers creaked where he clenched them in tight fists. His friends were trapped with him in a circle of crackling blue fire. Bill’s fury was out of control and it showed itself in a fire that consumed the air, oppressive and bright. The cool night air was gone as if it had never been. The flames were hot, heavy, and lit the world around them in shades of blue. 

Aside from Kryptos, who had begun hyperventilating for lack of air, nobody moved. Everyone stood stock still in a circle around Bill, at the closest distance possible to the tips of licking flames and the furthest from Bill. He felt crowded, watched, and feared. He held their fear of him close like a dagger to ease his own. 

Kryptos collapsed and stopped moving. Bill gave him back his features to replace the smooth expanse of his face. His chest began to slowly rise up and down again. 

The magically induced flames gave off no smoke, but the air felt thin to breathe yet thick to feel. The fire rose high. Its eerie glow cast strange, shifting shadows and hid the stars from view for those trapped below. Sharp sounds of fire with no fuel to eat filled the air. Nobody moved or even blinked. 

“Um.” 8-Ball said into the silence. All eyes turned on him. 

“What.” Said Bill. His synthetic voice broke along the edges, lined with static and uncannily low. 

Once 8-Ball was sure he was exempt from Bill’s rule of silence, he tentatively spoke up. “Well. I don’t mean to alarm anyone. But, uh, the firework is fading.” He said. At his height, he had a better view of the nighttime sky. 

For a moment, Bill had no idea what in the world 8-Ball was talking about. Then, abruptly, the flames vanished as he realized what he meant. As his sight adjusted to the darkness, he could finally see that the magic firework that Liam had created of Bill and him was winking out, ever so slowly. If nothing was done, all that would be left of their image would be the Morning star that had always and would always watch from up on high. 

“Shit!” Bill exclaimed. The fact that permanent proof of Liam’s magic was fading was a bad sign if there ever was one. He gripped his head in his hands and twisted his brow in fear. He had completely blinded himself to what was right before his eye. How had he forgotten about the only thing that ever mattered? Bill had no clue where in the world Liam was right now. 

Someone gasped. Bill swiveled around to see who. Hectorgon was pointing towards the distance, where a whole swathe of the horizon was lit a brilliant blue against the oil slick sky. It was almost as if the dawn was coming early, rising where it should set. “What the fuck is that?!” Hectorgon shouted. Everyone looked to Bill as if expecting him to be the cause. 

Bill’s eye widened. “Liam.” He whispered.