Hey! This is a follow-up to my other Gravity Falls story, Show Your Hand! Don't worry though, if you haven't read that one, it isn't necessary to read it in order to understand this story. Also, it is recommended that you watch Not What He Seems before reading this, or Show Your Hand, as both do contain spoilers to the episode.

Consider this for the moment as a non-canon compliant story, as we don't have any information beyond Not What He Seems to go on, so character reactions may be inaccurate due to speculations.

Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls

Cards on the Table

Stan's barely had time to adjust being back in Gravity Falls when he got a greeting by the last person he wanted to see. Follow up to "Show Your Hand".

It had only been a day. Only a day since his idiot older brother had re-opened the portal that he had left strict instructions to never, never be opened ever. Honestly, sometimes siblings were more of a pain than they were worth.

In one day, he had had a lot of information thrown at him. The big guy with a question mark shirt was Soos, his house had been turned into a place called "The Mystery Shack" (he needed to have a serious conversation with his brother about that at some point), and the two kids were his grandkids. That in itself was a shocker. Him? With grandkids? Perish the thought.

But there it was; a pair of twins, the girl, Mabel, the older twin, and then the boy, Dipper, the younger one. Dipper, he had been informed, had found one of his journals. His brother had always had the other, and then the last one had been taken from a Gleeful.

He hadn't had a chance to have a proper conversation with any of them. Sure, there had been a small conversation with his brother, in which the rushed introductions were included, but other than that he hadn't talked to anyone. The twins had avoided him, remaining upstairs in the attic planning what he thought was a strategy of attack for dealing with him, and the big guy had gone home. And, it wasn't like he wasn't doing his share of avoiding everyone either. Earlier he had thought of heading to the bunker, just for a little while, but decided against it. His brother hadn't told him who had had which journal, and he didn't know if the bunker was still secure. Not only that, but he had been gone for thirty years– he had no idea what happened to the experiments that had been down there. For all he knew, they could have escaped and were running rampant.

No, it was safer to stay away from the bunker. For now.

Besides, he had bigger things to concern himself with, like dealing with whatever the twins had in store for him. From what he had been able to glean from his brother, they were a pair of troublemakers, and there was no telling what they might have up their collective sleeves.

"Well, well, well," The voice echoed behind him and when he turned, there was Dipper leaning against the doorway. Something about the twin put him on edge though, and he couldn't place his finger on what it was. "If it isn't the author of the journals himself."

That was something he had been expecting; no doubt the kid would have been looking for the author of the journal. The unsettling feeling had yet to go away, and there was something about the kid that filled him with foreboding and, at the same time, a sense of deja-vu.

"It's been a long time," The kid continued, and it dawned on him that it wasn't an echo that he was imagining. "Pine Tree."

His heart leapt to his throat, and he clenched his hands into fists.

"Bill Cipher." How had this happened? His brother should have–

He stopped himself. His brother had undoubtedly been working for years to get the portal working. Who knew what slipped by him when he was obsessing over that project of his.

"Wow, you sure haven't lost your touch even if it's been, what, thirty years?" Before, there hadn't been any outward physical sign that it was Bill and not Dipper, and even now it was difficult to tell that it was Bill. This wasn't one of his shape-shifting tricks; the kid had actually let Bill take possession of his body. The only telling signs of Bill in the kid's body were the out of place grin on his face, and the slightly slit pupils.

"What are you doing here Bill?" He was trying his hardest not to yell, because he knew Bill's way of operating, and as soon as he drew unwanted attention, Bill would be gone. "What have you done with the kid?"

"Calm down Pine Tree," Bill-Dipper shrugged, the grin never leaving his face. "Can't an old friend stop by to say hello?"

"You're no friend of mine," Stanley growled, digging his nails in his palm before repeating himself, "What have you done with the kid?"

"Who, this poor sap?" Bill-Dipper shrugged, before laughing, "Ahahaha, get it, sap? Because he's a Pine Tree? I'm hilarious!"

Stanley was in no mood for Bill's mind-tricks. Not now. Not ever.

"But anyway," He controlled his laughter, looking at Stanley with that eerie, placid gaze of his. "We made a deal, isn't it obvious! I gave the kid what he wanted, and in return he let me have any puppet of my choosing."

"Well," Bill-Dipper shrugged once more, turning his back to Stanley. Bad mistake on Cipher's part. "I just passed by to say welcome back! And don't forget, I'll be watching you!" He repeated himself once more as Stanley lunged for the kid. "I'll be watching!"

Stanley missed, hitting nose first into the doorway as Bill-Dipper disappeared around the corner. As stars filled his eyes and his sight wavered black, the last thing he heard was the echoing of Cipher's last words.

"I dunno Mabel, maybe we should just leave him alone," And the first thing he heard when he came back was the same voice, missing the Cipher echo.

"Oh, pssh," Mabel said, "This is a great idea! He looks just like Grunkle Stan when he's sleeping."

"Yeah, which means he'll probably react like Grunkle Stan when you wake him up."

"C'mon Bro-bro, don't be such a worrywar– whoa!" Mabel reeled back, a glittery marker in hand as Stanley sat up sharply.

"See?" Dipper responded from the doorway. "What did I tell you– it was a bad idea."

"It wasn't that bad of an idea," Mabel puffed her cheeks out. "Not like some of the ideas you've had."

"My ideas aren't all that bad!" Dipper protested.

"You summoned the dead Dipper!"

"One time! I summon the dead one time–!"

"You promised you wouldn't!"

This had very quickly derailed into a sibling argument, and Stanley could only wonder for a moment how Dipper had summoned the dead before landing on the answer. The journals. Right. He probably had found one of the incantations for necromancy in whatever journal he had had.

The dead.

Bill Cipher.

Was there anything in those journals that the kid hadn't dealt with? Stanley was actually afraid to know the answer.

Actually, thinking of Bill Cipher reminded Stanley of the conversation between the two of them. He stole a glance over towards Dipper, but the twin was still in the middle of a heated argument with his sister. There was no outward sign of Cipher, but then again, when Cipher first showed himself there hadn't been an outward sign either. Stanley had had to rely on his prior knowledge of the dream demon.

There was also the possibility, as Mabel had said he was sleeping, that Cipher had visited Stanley in his dreams. Cipher always did prefer to deal with his meetings in the dreamscape, but that didn't explain why he showed up with Dipper's appearance. It was out of character for him.

Maybe Cipher wanted to rattle him? Stanley wouldn't put it past the demon, but something still unsettled him about it.

He felt that not all the cards had been laid on the table quite yet.