A/N:

So!

You guys have awaited this chapter with bated breath...

Y'know, since I told you guys it has our symbols and cipher wheel and everything :DD

I will have asked you guys in private what your symbol would be, and I have drawn a cipher wheel using those symbols!

I hope this chapter will not disappoint :>

AND YESS MY FINALS ARE FINALLY OVER WOOHOOOOO-

Anyway, hope you enjoy :)

*Story*

The next day Tad drove us around in his van and we arrived at the diner (Ramen was still sick so she stayed at the motel).

There weren't enough seats for us all to stay in one cubicle, so we split in two groups of four.

I was in a group with Star, Emma and Lexist, stuffing our faces with pancakes for breakfast.

"This stuff is so good..." I said, my voice muffled through the food in my mouth.

"No talking while you're mouth is full!" I heard Tad say in the cubicle behind us. I slumped and rolled my eyes, but chewed and swallowed my food before I spoke again.

I usually already only talked when there wasn't any food in my mouth, but this was only the third time in my entire life that I'd ever had pancakes, including the first time I'd tried one back home in the Middle East, and the second time which had been breakfast yesterday when I was deciding who to pick to go with me to the convenience store.

Well, today I'd already decided on going around with Star. But since she was quite shy, I decided some sisterly bonding time was overdue.

"Who're you gonna bring with you to Dipper and Mabel's wacky adventures?" Emma asked, squirting some maple syrup on her pancakes before picking up her fork and stabbing through the fluffy surface, soaked in syrup.

"Actually, I think Star and I are just gonna wander around the forests together for some much needed alone time." I said. "She's probably very drained from having to spend time around people all the time."

"Makes sense. We're very chaotic after all." Lexist said.

After finishing their pancakes, Emma and Lexist glanced at each other, flashing a devilish grin towards the other.

Both suddenly jumped up on top of the table.

"Prepare for trouble!" Lexist declared.

"And make it double!" Emma exclaimed.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all people within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Lexist!" She posed.

"Emma!" She also posed.

"Team Chaos blast off at the speed of light!" They exclaimed in unison. "Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth! That's right!" Emma mimicked in a nasally voice, and we all laughed.

They stepped off the table and sat back down, cackling at the shocked and confused faces of the people around them.

https://youtu.be/X2DUpDxFJyg

After everyone finished our breakfast at the diner, we headed to a nearby park to relax in the nature of the forest.

Or in our case, be chaotic arsonists, because Emma, Lexist, Loo and Moonstone were rubbing sticks together to make fire.

However, when Tad went over to scold them, Lexist spontaneously combusted, as she just had that unique ability - and so the flames spread over to the sticks.

Luckily the sweater Mabel had knitted back at the lake a week ago was fireproof, so Lexist was safe and the fire fizzled out.

On her, yes. But on the sticks - nope. The blaze that caught on the sticks continued on.

The four of them cheered and began picking up sticks, running around screaming maniacally, whilst also cackling like the chaotic quartet they were.

Azzy, having just finished making a tiny horse out of a small piece of aluminum foil, looked up to see this utterly confusing scene. And then proceeded to join in.

While Tad was busy dealing with that, I decided now was the perfect opportunity to take a nice walk with Star away from the hubbub.

"Hey, you wanna take a walk together?" I asked.

"Sure." Star said, and we began walking along the dirt path, the sun rays filtering through the leaves growing from the pine trees.

"So, you get into any new hobbies while you were hanging out with the others?" I asked.

"Not really." Star said.

A silence came between us. Not an awkward one, since this was normal between us, but it was still a little bit uncomfortable. So I broke the silence again.

"What were you and Moonstone doing when you were invisible with those invisibility potions, stalking us?" I asked, with a little laugh.

"We were camping in a forest together. Things were awkward though since Moonstone was the only one talking..." Star said. "But I'm not sure which was more uncomfortable - the awkwardness or that eerie feeling of being watched."

"Speaking of being watched..."

We'd walked into a birch forest at some point during our walk. The black lines of the trees' bark looked like eyes with slanted pupils, the feeling of unease intensifying when looking at them.

Maybe there was a reason Tad had ushered us out of one of these birch forests when we first arrived...

But I was not excited about more mysteries. I just wanted some time to catch up with my sister, since I'd been neglecting her for the past week.

"Come on, lets get back to the pine forest." I said, lightly grabbing Star's hand and walking back.

"Hey, what's that?" Star asked pointing at something glinting in the distance.

Unable to contain our curiosity, we headed closer, and discovered it was a piece of rusted metal peeking through behind grass, that was reflecting light from the sun.

I put my finger through the blades of grass, feeling for something, although I wasn't sure what...

Then I felt my palm grasp something, like a small switch. I flicked it and a hole opened up in front of us - a mystery ladder leading down into a cave too dark for us to see.

"Uh... Is the ladder long? I've never climbed a ladder before..." Star asked, nervous.

I peered down the hole, squinting my eyes, trying to gauge out how deep it was...

I could see the tiniest hint of ground at the end of the hole, and from that I could guess how long it was.

"Just three or four meters, it should be fine if we move quickly and carefully. Plus, the ladder seems to be sturdy." I said, tugging on it a bit to test it.

"Okay then..." Star said. "But you go first."

I had no complaints there. I wasn't about to force any of my siblings into something if they didn't want to do it. Or anyone. Unless it was a dire situation, but this one wasn't in the slightest.

I climbed down the ladder carefully (I was also uneasy when it came to heights) and Star followed closely behind - considerably slower than me, but that was fine.

When we both landed at the bottom, it was too dark for us to see anything. Star got out a glow stick that she'd gotten from the Mystery Shack (we traveled back to it so Moonstone and Star could get something from the shack as well), and she snapped it to activate its blue glow.

The cave lit up around us. It wasn't very big, and it led to a dead end, but there were markings on the dead-end wall.

When Star and I looked at it, Star dropped the glow stick and our jaws dropped.

Our gasps echoed in the cave, and for a few minutes we just stood there in stunned silence.

Finally, I managed to mutter something under my breath.

"This must be what they meant by 'cipher wheel'..." I mumbled. Star heard.

"What do you mean, 'cipher wheel'?" Star asked.

"Oh, uh... I once walked around in a forest and heard Tad talking to some other person... They mentioned cipher wheels..." I said. "Tad didn't fully explain to me what was going on, he just told me to keep it a secret. But you're the closest person to me, so I'm not keeping any secrets from you."

Star smiled. Then she turned to the cipher wheel, diverting her attention to the mystery at hand.

"That's weird." She said, referring to what I'd explained about Tad. "What's that thing in the middle of the wheel?"

"Hmm..." I said, putting my hand to my chin. The tie seemed familiar...

My eyes widened.

Tad.

Of course. If whoever he was talking to was some supernatural being, then it was likely Tad was also supernatural.

I turned to Star, but it seemed she'd also come to the same conclusion. She did after all start talking with Tad about her mental health, seeing as he was caring and understanding.

But just because someone's friendly doesn't mean they don't have their own secrets, and that was evident with Tad.

"Looks like we're gonna have to confront Tad about this..." I said.

Star nodded.

The two of us took a picture of the wheel with our phones (Star drew it in her sketchbook for good measure) and we climbed the ladder back out of there.

Our unease instantly came back as we were under the watchful gaze of the birch trees again.

Only this time I wasn't scared. Clasping my little sibling's hand gently, I stared the trees down.

This older sister was gonna protect her younger sibling with all her might, no matter what monsters were watching from trees.

+.*.+

We arrived back at the park to see Tad panting beside a pile of crispy (but extinguished) sticks, while the others continued to laugh psychotically with one another, having abandoned the fiery sticks and instead started climbing trees with the help of Lexist's beavers.

One of the beavers headed in our direction and we stepped to the side so it could shuffle inside a fallen log nearby.

"Kids! Don't go up there, you could fall down and get hurt!" Tad called up to them, running up to the tree they were climbing. The beavers whimpered at the mere sight of Tad... which was curious to say the least... and then proceeded to yeet them from the tree onto the ground.

A chorus of yells resounded from the five chaotic twelve year olds.

"Hey!"

"Booooooo!"

"Nooo!"

"Let go of me!"

"Traitors!"

All five of them were sat on the ground in front of Tad now.

"Listen kids, I know being chaotic is your group's whole thing, but you've still gotta be careful. I'm still your chaperone after all, and my first duty is to make sure you guys are safe." Tad explained.

"Okay..." They said.

Tad noticed the sun was setting. He smiled, forming an idea.

"Last one to the van is a normal, completely predictable person!" Tad yelled, running to the van. This immediately grabbed everyone's attention, and they scrambled to stand up and sprint to the van, pushing and shoving each other to make sure they weren't last.

I grabbed Star's hand and we bolted for the van, but we were much farther from the vehicle than the others were, so we arrived last (plus we're just naturally slow runners ;-;).

"Looks like Xelia's normal and predictable!" Moonstone said.

"Ha-ha, very funny." I said in a sarcastic tone, rolling my eyes - but I still had a little smile.

Everyone got in the van, and I sat next to Star. She tapped my shoulder and I turned to look at her.

"When are we gonna tell Tad about... the thing?" Star asked. She didn't need to lower her voice so the others wouldn't hear - she was a soft speaker and the others in the van were belching out botched up lyrics from 'Wheels on the Bus Go Round And Round'.

"I'll ask him about it this evening. You can come along if you want to." I said in a low voice. (I am a naturally loud person so I had to lower my voice)

We arrived back at the motel, and Tad went in Ramen and Azzy's room to check up on Ramen and see how she was doing.

Ramen came out of the room with a grin. "Guess who's back, baby!!" Ramen said. We all tackled her to the ground in a group hug. (Except for shy Star, who just stood there awkwardly until I pulled her in the group hug as well)

"Guys don't immediately dogpile on her! She just recovered from her cold!" Tad said with a chuckle.

Once the group hug was over, we all headed to our respective rooms. I chatted with Loo for a bit, and asked her about what had happened while Star and I were gone.

"Well, you know what happened at the beginning - we had the brilliant idea of creating a fire. Lexist spontaneously combusted - classic Lexist - and then we proceeded to commit mass murder on the blades of grass. Tad put it out but then Lexist called on her beavers and we rode on the bigger ones around the park." Loo explained.

"Then the beavers got tired so Emma put different emoji stickers on their heads and we were each given a beaver knight of our own. Emma was given 😜, Azzy was given 😋, I was given 🙄, Moonstone was given 😏, and Lexist was given 😈. Maybe tomorrow you, Star and Ramen can get your emoji beavers. After that we climbed a tree with our respective beavers, and you know the rest. Anyways, what were you and Star doing?" Loo asked.

I know Tad told me to keep a secret, but this was too big to keep to myself. Besides, it was better if this was out anyway. Plus... other than Star (who was my literal SISTER-), Loo was the closest person to me in the Cipher Society. Then after that it was Emma, then Lexist, then Moonstone, then Ramen, then Azzy.

Anyway, I decided that I'd tell Loo about everything.

I explained to her my encounter a few days ago in the birch forest with someone named Bill that seemed supernatural and was talking with Tad (and strangely seemed to be referring to him as 'Square') about cipher wheels and 'leaving the kids alone', which was probably referring to us. Then I told her about the cipher wheel Star and I found while the others were being their chaotic selves.

I showed her the photo I took on my phone.

"Woah..." Loo said. "Wait, why is it called a cipher wheel? Can those symbols be used to decode a cipher or something?"

I just shrugged. "I dunno. But Star and I are about to go confront Tad right now. Wanna come?"

"Yes, of course! It's been an entire week since I went on an adventure! I'm ready!" Loo said. "Mysteries galore!"

So we went to Moonstone and Star's room and asked Star to come along (Moonstone was too busy jumping on the bed to notice). Star nodded and we headed to Tad's room.

I filled Star in about letting Loo know about the situation while on the way.

Loo knocked on the door and Tad's voice gave us permission to come in.

"Hey! What is it that you guys need?" Tad asked.

"We wanted to uh... talk to you about something." I said. Tad sensed it was important and stepped aside so we could enter the room. He closed the door behind us and sat on the bed.

Star and I were too nervous to say anything, so Loo started (although they were also nervous).

Loo and I began explaining about what we already knew, and how we wanted answers to know the full story. Star was still too shy and anxious to speak so she just nodded with what we were saying.

Once we finished, Tad sighed and stood up. "Alright, gather everyone here and I'll explain."

The three of us nodded. We headed out of Tad's room, but not before I heard Tad mutter under his breath.

"They already found out and it's only been a little over a week, huh...?" He said quietly to himself. Loo and Star didn't hear, as they were already rounding up the others, but I managed to hear it before I myself went around to gather everyone.

Star went to get Moonstone, Loo went to get Emma and Lexist, and I went to get Ramen and Azzy.

All eight of us went over to Tad's room and we all sat down on the floor around him. Lexist flashed Emma a confused look and Emma just shrugged, confused herself.

"Uh... how do I start...?" Tad said. "I guess I'll just start by showing you my true form."

With a flash of light, Tad turned from a human with dark hair, a white collared shirt and black tie, to a purple square with a bowler hat and tie, with black spindly legs and arms. He had one singular eye with a slitted pupil.

We all gaped at him with widened eyes.

"There's a lot to explain, so let me start from the beginning." Tad said.

+.*.+

I'm a dream demon, and my chosen name is Tad Cipher.

Dream demons' real names are very dangerous to mortals, as they would evaporate one with an expression of horror and ecstasy on their face, so my brother and I chose names that would make interacting with mortals easier.

My brother's chosen name is Bill Cipher.

Although we are related by blood, we are extremely different.

Bill's insane, manipulative and dangerous. He makes deals with mortals to gain what he wants and makes it seem appealing to them, but in the end, they all regret it. He uses loopholes to get past any conditions the mortals put on their deals, and his singular goal is to get into the physical world so he and his goons can take over the universe, as he was banished into the Nightmare Realm.

I, on the other hand, am part of the physical world - that much is obvious - but I don't wish to inflict any harm on mortals - unlike Bill. I was fascinated by the lifestyle of humans, and so transformed into a human form to live out a human life as Tad Strange.

Bill has repeatedly tried to trick me into a deal that allows him access to the physical realm, but as a fellow dream demon, he was unable to trick me.

Dream demons have the ability to read minds, go into mortals' dreams, and interact with them in the mindscape. However, when they're in the physical realm, they can basically do anything they want.

And now to the cipher wheels. All dream demons have a cipher wheel - although Bill and I are the last of our kind - and this cipher wheel has many symbols that represent a person.

When these specific people gather together atop the zodiac, they can vanquish the dream demon should they ever enter the physical realm. Bill's requires more people than me, since he's more dangerous and more energy is needed to take him down.

And... yes, you eight represent the eight symbols on my cipher wheel. Uh... please don't vanquish me.

+.*.+

"Any questions?" Tad asked, after explaining everything.

We were all speechless. Our mouths had been gaping holes ever since Tad had transformed.

Moonstone fainted, came to, and then proceeded to faint again.

Lexist and Emma had a whiplash moment, as they kept looking at each other to Tad, back and forth, back and forth.

Ramen sneezed. Azzy kept blinking in surprise.

Star fell sideways onto my lap. I was just frozen, unable to do anything but gape at Tad.

"Oh boy... I broke you guys..." Tad said. "Uh..."

After a few minutes of Tad not knowing what to do, our shock had subsided. However, we had two very distinct reactions to this knowledge.

Half of us had a billion questions to ask, and half of us were super excited and starting asking Tad to manifest food.

Star, and I were part of the questions side, Azzy and Loo were on both sides, and Lexist, Emma, Moonstone and Ramen were all completely excited.

"TAD, YOU MUST GIVE MEH AN ICE CREAM SUNDAEE-"

"Infinite food for my growing beaver army..."

"YOUR CIPHER FORM LOOKS SO COOL AND GLOWYYYY-"

"CAN YOU GIVE US SUPERPOWERS, TAD????"

Everyone was all over the place, and Tad felt even more unsure of what to do.

"UH..." He said intelligently, as everyone started dogpiling on him. The weight of six twelve year olds didn't bother Tad (since he was a DREAM DEMON) but the twelve year old who started it was crushed by all the others and couldn't breathe - and started gagging.

Immediately Tad pushed all the others off so that they could breathe. It happened so fast none of us knew who it was that had been gagging.

"Guys, calm down! You almost killed one of us!" Someone yelled, but I couldn't tell whose voice it was.

Everyone was quiet after that.

Tad reverted back to his human form. "Listen. I didn't tell you guys about this so you could ask for things. I told you about this so that there wouldn't be any mistrust between us, and so that you'd know better than to trust Bill, if he ever comes up and asks for a deal. Got it?"

Everyone nodded silently.

Tad sighed. "Good. Now..."

He grinned.

"Who wants to head to the dining table and eat a bunch of ice cream?" Tad asked happily.

Everyone's eyes lit up and they all stood up.

"MEEEEEEEEEE!!!" We all said in unison. We laughed for a bit, and then all ran to the dining table.

"How about we play a game? We spin a wheel to decide what flavor of ice cream we get!" Emma suggested. Everyone get really excited and agreed.

Tad chuckled. "Well, now I don't have to go into a different room to do this."

He snapped his fingers and a wheel manifested, with different Baskin Robin ice cream flavors written in each section.

"Who wants to go first?"

+.*.+

After an hour of spinning wheels to decide our ice cream flavors, we played a game of Snakes & Ladders, watched a movie while drinking smoothies and sodas, and then headed off to bed.

Many of us had fallen asleep while watching the movie - despite half the group being immune to the callings of sleep - and Tad began putting us in our beds and tucking us in.

I only knew this because I was half-asleep when Tad carried me into bed.

Today was an eventful day, but overall, a fantastic one.

But who knows what could be in store for us next...

A/N:

Hello!

I hope you liked this chapter :>

I somehow managed to make this chapter the most wholesome, chaotic, and lore heavy chapter of this entire book lmao.

I mean, so far. There might be a chapter that tops this one, but idk - this chap seems hard to top.

Anyway! Hope I wrote you guys well, hope you enjoyed, and I hope you'll be excited for a chapter that focuses on Ramen and I next, to celebrate her returning from the dead! :D

Stay safe and well, and have a great day/night! <3 <3

- Xelia