A/N: Some notes:

1. This story is non-romantic and contains no intended slash or pairing.

2. I'm running on the premise that GF took place in the year 2013 and Dipper and Mabel were born in 1999.

3. Spoilers plausible for, well, just about ANYTHING.

4. I'm working on the Axolotl redemption theory (to some degree). If you don't know what that is, I elaborate in the story.

5. Rated T (for now) for violence, action, sort-of child abuse (it depends on your point of view), and minor occasional cussing.

6. I do not own Gravity Falls. Alex Hirsch, if you're reading this, I love you. *Struggles To Keep A Dead Serious Face On But Erupts Into Laughter Anyway*

Sixty degrees that come in threes.

Watches from within birch trees.

Saw his own dimension burn.

Misses home and can't return.

Says he's happy. He's a liar.

Blame the arson for the fire.

If he wants to shirk the blame,

He'll have to invoke my name.

One way to absolve his crime.

A different form, a different time.

~The Axolotl in "Dipper and Mabel and the Curse of the Time Pirates' Treasure!"

Prologue: Cry Out

Blue fire enveloped the Dreamscape of Stanley Pines, brilliant in all of its horrid. Bill Cipher cried out, twisting and writhing into any form, shape, or color he could imagine, trying to escape fruitlessly.

'This isn't what I wanted!' He thought to himself. 'I can't die here! Anything, I'll do anything!'

In his last hopes, he sought the only chance left before him. He cried out:

"Axolotl! My time has come to burn! I invoke the ancient power that I may return!" To the ears of Stan Pines it was only backwards gibberish, but Bill knew better, and the Axolotl of course heard. The Axolotl had known that this day would come; the day when Bill Cipher's grief and nature drove him to heinous actions, and someone would come along to stop him, to kill him.

The Axolotl though, as powerful, omnipotent and sympathetic as it is, promised Bill that when his crimes came crashing down on him, an event Bill at the time had imagined would never happen, Bill would be given a second chance. The catch: Bill's path to redemption would begin as soon as he spoke The Axolotl's name, he would be given a new form, in a new time, in a place where The Axolotl believed he would most receive the help he needed, and punishment he deserved.

And as such, it was nine months after the events of Weirdmageddon, barely looking on a week into the summer of 2014, that Bill Cipher opened his eyes….