It was over. It was all over. The chaos, the danger, the pain… all of it, gone.
So then, why did she feel worse than ever?
It took the girl a moment to recognize her dark surroundings, to realize that she was underwater still. She could not feel the cold that had engulfed her as she had blacked out, or the strong ocean currents that were even now blowing about bits of seaweed and a few fish.
Perhaps she was still in danger after all.
Though the murky depths of the ocean appeared to be a uniform shade of blue, the girl could still tell which way led to the surface and propelled herself upwards as fast as she could. How far down was she? How long could she hold her breath before the water that surrounded her claimed her life? She still couldn't feel the pressure pushing against her or even the air within her lungs. Had her body gone numb in a desperate attempt to shield her from her looming death? Was that why the pain had left her?
The flashes of images that broke up the monotony of the ocean- fish swimming away from her at rapid speeds, mostly- did nothing to answer the endless questions that filled her mind.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity (though part of her was able to recognize that it had truly taken only a few minutes), she broke the surface and was greeted with the sight of a clear, moonlit sky covered in a field of twinkling stars.
The sun had just begun rising when… it… had happened, when she had lost her grip on her consciousness as her body had been engulfed in torturous pain.
And, as her gaze turned away from the night sky, the girl saw that she was not bobbing along the surface of the water as she had expected, but was in fact floating several feet above it.
Clearly, something had gone terribly, horribly wrong.
Before she could consider her situation much further, she heard a loud pop!, and a figure appeared in front of her. The figure resembled a man, but had pitch-black eyes and sharp claws and wings, these discordant features combining to form an image that the girl had seen in textbooks, but never thought she would encounter face to face.
And this figure, this creature… was smiling.
"Pacifica, we need to talk."
"Gͥͥ̉̾̏̏̑Ọ̸̞̤ͥ́̏̄̾ ̥͕̱̞̩̤̠̽̂A͏̗W̎͑̊̈́ͪ̋̐Ã̱͓͚̖ͨͩY̙̣̬̥̖͖̩̽̆͌͒̌ͯ!̖̫̒ͪͅ" Was that really her voice, with that weird echo? "I've had quite enough of y͘o͟ur̕ ̧ki͜n̢d for a lifetime, thanks."
The demon's smile disappeared as he took a step backwards.
"You don't remember." It was a statement, not a question.
"Remember what? Remember saving the world, saving my f͜r̛įén͜ds? Because I remember that quite clearly, actually." The girl glanced down at her fingernails, oddly comforted by the fact that her cerulean nail polish had not been so much as scratched during the fight, but in fact looked as smooth and clean as if it had been applied only moments earlier.
"And the world thanks you, Pacifica, but I still think-"
"Stop calling me Pacifica, you d̴emòn! My name is A-"
The memories came flowing back. The girl's mind filled with memories of a life that was not her own, not the one that she had been living only moments ago, yet it all felt so right. The new memories- well, new to her, though she knew that they originated from a lifetime centuries back- nearly drowned out the old ones. Her mind reeled as she struggled to put together the pieces.
The figure before her was still Alcor the Dreambender, the one that her teachers had warned her about, a frightful entity that could destroy you in the blink of an eye if he so desired. But now, she knew him by another name, another identity…
"…Dipper? What's going on?"
The demon- Alcor- no, Dipper gave the girl a weak grin. "You said it yourself. You saved the world."
The girl ran up to the demon and punched him in the gut as hard as she could, but the action only made his strange grin grow wider.
"Listen to me, you… you… you! W̵H̕A͞T̡ I̵S ҉G̀ÓI͠NG͝ O͠N?͝"
"Well, uh, I- I don't know how to-"
"I'm pretty sure you didn't go corporeal just to stutter at me and let me punch you. Pretty sure. So get on with it. I have questions, you obviously have answers. Spill the beans already."
"That's the thing- I'm… not… corporeal."
"What do you mean? Of course you are, I-"
It suddenly clicked.
"No. No no no no no. You're kidding, right? That's not… that's not a thing, that can't be…"
The stars that filled the sky were now blotted out by dark storm clouds. Raindrops fell, only a few at first, but soon rivaled even the mightiest of storms. The ocean, previously calm and quiet, roared alive with foam-filled waves.
Alcor- Dipper- changed shape until he resembled the dorky twelve-year-old boy that she had known so long ago."I'm so sorry."
The girl punched Dipper again, over and over and over until she could no longer muster the strength to do so, at which point she threw her arms around his waist. Dipper gently patted the girl on the back in response as she shivered, though not from the cold that she still could not feel. As the storm raged on, the two continued their tight, silent embrace, and the ocean water was soon disrupted not only by the falling rain but by teardrops of purple and gold.