Over the Gravity Falls
A one-shot crossover
A/N: Hey! This is an AU were Wirt wasn't able to make it home in the end, and Dipper is lost in the unknown. Enjoy!
-Mod Raven
As I gained consciousness, I started to realize that the place I was in was not my room, but the woods. Which was strange. I also couldn't remember going into the woods after going to bed. Not to mention these woods looked like the ones in Oregon, and I was in Piedmont, California.
I sat up and rubbed my head.
"Mabel?" I called. No reply.
"MABEL!" I quickly got to my feet, adrenalin running through my veins.
Suddenly, through the thick branches, I saw a light.
"Hello? Anyone there?" A voice called. It seemed to be coming from the general direction the light was coming from.
"Hey!" I called, desperate for help, "Over here!"
A boy emerged from the brambles. His clothing was weird. He was wearing a pointy gnome-hat and a blue cape. It was weirdly old-fashioned. He held a torch made out of tree branches in one hand, and a bag in the other.
"Oh, hi." he said. Looking a bit surprised.
"Hey, have you seen a girl, about a millimeter taller than me, bright colored sweater?" I asked, giving the best description of Mabel I could.
"No," the boy replied. He had a look of, well, something on his face. sort of a mix of grief and the face grown-ups have when they have bad news.
"What's wrong?" I asked. He obviously had something on his mind.
"I'm sorry, it's just, you're so young."
"Well, I, uh," That point was kind of hard to argue.
"Come with me. It's still not safe here after dark."
he started walking down the path. I jogged to meet up with him. It was hard to keep this pace. He was just so tall.
"Uh, who are you?" I asked.
"Oh, sorry. I'm Wirt."
"Dipper," I said, Looking around. "So, where am I, exactly?"
"The Unknown." Wirt replied.
"The what?" I asked.
"I'll explain later," he said.
We kept walking. Wirt looked about 15, at the most. He was young too, so why was it so important he pointed that out? I knew I was 12; and I knew that that was usually considered an age in which people try too hard to be older, hence the phrase "Shut up, you're, like, 12." (which was a comment I usually get on conspiracy websites).
"Can you explain now?"
"No. we have to find somewhere safe when I explain. In case you freak out. It's hard to grasp."
"Oooooh kay." What kind of place was this?
"So, do you remember anything? Like, before you woke up?"
I thought for a moment, suddenly realizing I didn't.
"Well, I know I live in Piedmont, California and I have a sister named Mabel."
Wirt's face looked sad. Not disappointed sad, so he wasn't upset about lack of information. He had the same half grief and half "I'm sorry" face from before.
There was a moment of awkward silence.
"So," I said, "What about you? Like, Did you just, like, wake up and you were here?"
"Well, yeah. I was really confused. We were trying to get home, but all we were able to do was wander the woods."
"We?"
"Well, I was with my brother, Greg. He managed to get home. I'm still lost." Wirt pushed away some branches, revealing a small log cabin accompanied by a mill. He walked over to the cabin and opened the door.
"What's this place?" I asked.
"Oh, this? I live here. My friend Beatrice lives with her family in the mill." Wirt got some flint and steel and started a fire in the fireplace.
"Okay. Now that we're 'safe' can you explain where I am?"
Wirt sighed and pulled out two chairs. I sat In one, and he sat across from me in the other.
"As I said, this place is called the unknown. Not many people find themselves here. But if you do, it means you're lost, wich means you had some unfinished business back on earth."
Suddenly I had a moment of realization. Back on earth... And the only time I've heard people say "he was so young" like wirt did was when my 13 year old cousin died of lukemia...
I gulped. "So... I'm..." I stared in the general direction of Wirt, but at the wall behind him, not his actual face.
"Dead?"
"Or dying. You could still be alive. Greg was just half-drowned. Me, on the other hand..." He trailed off.
My eyes stung with tears. No. Be a man. I. Am. Manly. No tears. I thought, but I wasn't able to hold them back.
I squeezed my eyes shut as images of Mabel smiling flashed through my head. Oh gosh, Mabel. She'll be devestated.
"GAH!" I grabbed at my hair and fell out of my chair.
"Dipper?" Wirt yelled. "You okay?"
"Yeah, just, I don't know man." I sat with my knees to my chest.
"What's wrong?"
"It's just, my twin sister. If I'm dead, well, I don't think she'll be able to handle this kind of emotional trauma. She cried for three days over a spork, not to mention the person who understood her the most."
Wirt looked genuinely saddened by that. He took off his hat, revealing scruffy brown hair.
"I know the feeling. I mean, who knows what Greg felt like after I drowned. It's been a while."
"How long?"
"I don't know. Time Is weird here. It could have been thirty minutes or thirty years ago."
"So, like, what year was it when, uh, you got lost?"
"It was Halloween of 1984."
"What?"
"Was it really that long ago?"
"Last I remember is was 2012!"
"Two thousand twelve? That's almost thirty years!"
I shoved my hand into my pocket, pulling out my phone.
"What is that?" Wirt asked.
"It's what phones look like now."
Wirt's eyes widened. "That's a phone?"
I attempted to call someone, but nothing happened.
"Dangit!" I swore. "I guess I won't be making any otherworldly prank calls."
I put my phone back in my pocket as another memory surfaced.
"I'm starting to remember stuff, Wirt."
I reached into my vest and pulled out journal number three.
"Now, I know that's a book." Wirt teased.
"I got this when I spent my summer with my great-uncle a few months ago. It's got some weird stuff in it, but I assure you it's all true. I should write about this place."
I opened the journal to the next clean page and titled it "the unknown".
The unknown is an endless forest in which "lost" souls enter when they die with unfinished business. Occasionally, one will make it back home to finish what was not done, but usually these souls wander the woods and start a new life.
Time is strange. It's slower and you don't age. Wirt has been here for almost thirty years and still looks fifteen.
Dipper finished the page with a rough sketch of Wirt in his pointy hat and the woods.
"You write good. How old are you?"
"Oh! Well," I scratched the back of my head, "I'm twelve?" I said nervously.
"Oh. You look older to me."
For some strange reason, the last few words echoed, as if Wirt was far away.
"Oh gosh, you're going back home. J-just don't panic. You'll be fine. Say Hello to Mabel for me, okay?" Wirt looked kind of sad.
I smiled. "Okay Wirt. I'll try and find Greg, tell him that you're okay. It'll be my new project."
And with that, the cabin vanished.
I woke up in a hospital room. I felt an IV in my arm and an oxygen mask on my face.
Suddenly I remembered the fire. We were at school, and I was trapped. I'd passed out from all the smoke...
I tried to sit up, but the world got darker and I blacked out.
When I came to, I saw the silloette of my family surrounding the bed. Mom, dad, and Mabel. I smiled.
"Hey guys..." I said. My voice was really raspy. My throght felt like crap, and the oxygen mask was replaced with some tubes up my nose.
"DIPPER!" Mabel screamed, "we thoughtwelostyouandthefirefighterscameandputyouintheambulenvebutthenyourheartstoppedandwethoughtwelistyouagainbutthenthedoctorsdidthedifibulatorthingandyouwereokaybutpassedoutandnowyoureawake!"
"What?" I gasped.
"Honey, the doctor says you shouldn't talk. Your throght is irritated from breathing in all that smoke."
Mom handed me a whiteboard and marker.
I wrote: Can I have a moment with Mabel? And Can you please bring me my journal?
Both my parents nodded. My mom got my journal out of her purse, gave it to me, and then left with dad.
Miraculously, the pages I wrote in The unknown were still there. I wrote down as much explanation that could fit on the whiteboard and handed the journal and whiteboard to Mabel. She read through it, eyes wide.
"So, this happened? For real?"
I nodded.
I grabbed the whiteboard, erased what was there, and wrote one sentence.
We need to find a man named Greg.
END