Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls or its characters. If I did, I would probably make everyone cry.
Crack and Break
If Mabel was honest, the cracks had probably started forming the moment she had chosen to not push that button.
She hadn't had a choice though! It was true that her head had been agreeing with Dipper. There was too much evidence saying that Grunkle Stan shouldn't be trusted. She had looked into his eyes though, and she had not seen a trace of dishonesty. She had heard the desperation in his voice.
And then he had said, "Please." Even Dipper knew that he never said that; it gave him the willies. To use that word meant that this was probably the most important thing to him in the world. So, she had listened to her heart.
Still, Mabel had thought that everything had been fine. They had another great uncle, Dipper had finally met the author, and their story had made it clear that she had chosen correctly. She thought that Dipper had forgiven her for not listening to him. She thought that any cracks between them had been healed.
She had been wrong.
That uneasy twinge had come back that first night Dipper had stayed up to come up with dungeons after spending all day with their new great uncle. She had never seen him so into anything besides the journal.
He had never even seemed that happy when he hung out with her.
Dipper did spend a lot of time with Great Uncle Ford, but they had still had their own adventures around Gravity Falls. Mabel had ignored the distance that she felt between them for the first time in their lives. She had smiled and tried to get things back to normal. She thought that things were fine.
Mabel had never expected this. Things were a long way from being fine. Now, there was no way that she could ignore how cracked things had become.
"You lied to me?" Mabel could feel a prickling at her eyes as she stared in shock at her brother.
"Mabel, this isn't the time for this!" Dipper snapped, looking anxiously around as destruction rained around them.
Technically, Mabel knew that. There was a rift in time and space that Great Uncle Ford had sealed. It hadn't worked for long though as they were now in the middle of it trying to break free. Distantly, she could hear Grunkle Stan and Great Uncle Ford arguing about this as well as they worked to prevent more damage. Soos had already left in order to make sure no one else came near.
But that wasn't the issue.
Dipper had lied to her. He had known about the rift the whole time and hadn't told her. He hadn't trusted her.
Why couldn't he ever trust her?
"You lied to me!" She couldn't keep the disbelief out of her voice.
Dipper knew better than anyone that she hated liars. He knew exactly why she hated it when people lied. How many times had he comforted her after someone broke her trust and revealed that they had only gotten close to her to make fun of her? How many times had he acted to get back at them to try to cheer her up?
"I was told not to tell you!" Dipper said. "Come on." He went to move past her into the epicenter of this disaster where their great uncles were.
Mabel stopped him. "You couldn't trust me? I wouldn't have told anyone!"
She may like to chat, but she knew how to keep her mouth shut when it counted. Dipper's doubt in her hurt, and it showed how far apart they had gotten.
Dipper rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. Like I said, a bit more important things going on." He attempted to push past her.
She blocked his way once more. Last time they hadn't talked and it had brought them here. They were going to settle this now before more damage could be done.
"What's that supposed to mean? I can keep a secret." Mabel felt irritation growing in her chest along with the sting of Dipper's lack of faith, even as the heat in her eyes got worse. "Why couldn't you trust me?"
"Why couldn't you trust me?" Dipper shot back. "You chose Grunkle Stan over me! And this was way more important than opening the portal." They were getting to the root of the problem.
"I had to! He said please!" She said, ignoring what was going on. The sound of things exploding almost seemed to rock the ground. "You know that meant he was serious!"
"He could have been conning you because he knows how easily you trust people!"
Mabel flinched a bit at that. She knew that she tended to trust people a lot easily than Dipper and gave them more chances, but her brother had never made that sound like a bad thing.
"It was fine!" She said defensively. "Besides, it let you meet the precious author that you wanted to meet all summer!"
"So what? It's because you didn't press the button that we're here now!" Dipper was angry, and Mabel knew that things were going too far now. "How could you be so stupid?"
Her breath caught in her throat. She could finally feel real tears welling up in her eyes.
She knew that of the two of them, Dipper was the smarter one; however, for the most part, he didn't make her feel like that was a bad thing. After all, there were things that she was good at that he wasn't. He had always been the first to defend her from people who claimed she was stupid. Then when he said it, it had always been as a joke; this time, he meant it.
"How is it stupid to care about your family?" Mabel asked, and her voice was getting croaky like it did when she cried. Despite the fact that he was the one she could usually let go in front of, this time she didn't want him to see her tears. Dipper didn't even notice though as he tried to join the others. She held him back as she saw how unstable things were surrounding their great uncles. "It's dangerous. Don't go!"
He turned to glare at her. "Let go, Mabel! We've got to fix this."
"I don't think we can!" She wasn't just talking about the issue with the rift there. "If Grunkle Ford can't fix it, how are we supposed to? Besides, Grunkle Stan is with him. They've got it covered."
"Just let me help!" Dipper tried to tug away, but Mabel had a good grip on him. "I know I can!"
"Even if you lied, I don't want you to get hurt. If we get closer, that's what'll happen." That was what her instincts were telling her. She was trying to appeal to his sense of reason. It's what he always did with her.
It didn't work. "Stop holding me back, Mabel!" Just like with her, his words seemed to be about more than the situation at hand.
She let his hand slip away in her surprise. Mabel watched as he marched forward towards danger, which normally he would avoid. His time with their second great uncle had changed him a lot.
Dipper could occasionally say things that he didn't mean when he was angry or frustrated. She had long learned not to necessarily take it to heart. However, this entire situation had a strange feel to it, as if they would never be able to return to normal after this.
"You know…" Mabel said softly as the first tear ran down her cheek. "Of all the people I've put my trust in…" She sniffed and brought her hands up to clutch at her aching chest. This must be what heartbreak felt like. It hurt more than any break-up of her summer romances.
"I always thought that you would be the one person who would never hurt me."
The tears were falling in earnest now. She moved to wipe them away, and that's when she saw it from the corner of her eye.
There were some rocks that had been knocked loose by the shaking that was occurring; and they were heading straight for Dipper. Of course, like usual, he was forging straight ahead towards his goal, not paying attention to anything that was going on around him.
Mabel didn't even think about it. She was off like a shot, trying to outrun the falling debris.
"DIPPER!" She shouted as she got close, her hand outstretched.
Dipper turned toward her, annoyance written all over his face. His expression changed when he caught sight of her though. Before he could say anything, she shoved him out of the way.
As he tumbled to the ground, the rocks hit her. Pain surged through her so fast that she couldn't even bring herself to scream.
She fell to the ground and as her vision darkened, she realized that it might not even matter that she had saved Dipper.
Because the entire world seemed to be exploding now.
Dipper groaned as he made his way back to consciousness. He rubbed his head as he tried to remember what had happened.
He took a sharp breath as he remembered what he had said to Mabel. He couldn't believe that he had said that to his own sister! After all, those were some of the things that she was most insecure about. He couldn't help the facepalm as he mentally berated himself for his words. He shouldn't have said those things. Then, he remembered the last sight of her.
She had been crying.
He had made her cry. Dipper couldn't believe himself. Anyone who made Mabel cry deserved a punch in the face or some similar punishment, and usually it would be him dealing it out. What was he supposed to do when he was the culprit?
Dipper frowned as he thought about those last moments. Mabel had shoved him away, which was weird, as she didn't seem mad anymore. Besides, it wasn't like her to shove people around in the first place. Then everything had exploded so he couldn't really remember what happened next.
He stood and looked around, searching for any sign of his sister. His eyes caught a glimpse of colorful fabric and he darted over to where it was. What he saw made his heart stopped.
Mabel was partially covered by rocks, and they were in the exact same spot where he had been when she pushed him. Her motives were all too clear. She had probably saved him from getting hit right on the head.
But now she wasn't moving. Her eyelids didn't even twitch in the slightest. And to Dipper's growing horror, there was a pool of blood underneath her.
"Mabel?" His voice was small as the word dropped from his lips. "Mabel? Answer me."
Mabel still didn't move.
Dipper shook himself out of his daze and hurriedly pushed the rocks off her. As her form was fully revealed, he could see the awkward, uncomfortable way that she was laying. Though he knew that in situations like this you weren't supposed to touch the hurt person, he couldn't help pulling her up and moving her so that she was leaning into his chest.
Her body was limp as he made her more comfortable and her head lulled to the side.
"Mabel, come on." Dipper's voice cracked as he pleaded with her. He gulped as he looked at the blood staining one of her precious sweaters as well as the large puddle of blood. He felt as though his own blood was draining from his face as both continued to grow.
"Please wake up, Mabel." He tried to shake her gently. "I didn't mean what I said. I need you. So please wake up."
Tears built up in his eyes as she still gave no signs of life. He couldn't even really tell if she was breathing even though he was holding her.
"Come on. I admitted I was wrong so you have to get up and make me do some sort of song about it. You know you love being in charge for stuff like that." Dipper looked her up and down. "Please, Mabel, wake up."
Nearby, he could hear Great Uncle Ford calling for Grunkle Stan, sounding more panicked by the minute. But he couldn't focus on him when his own twin was in danger.
She was in danger because of him. She saved him, protected him, even though he had lied and ignored her. He had made her cry but she still cared enough to risk her life for him. She had looked out for him when he got over his head just like always.
In a way, it proved why she was better than him. He wished he could be strong enough to so easily forgive.
Dipper heard Ford's cry of distress as he apparently found Stan. He didn't want to know what state he was in to make him sound so bad.
It was probably just as bad as Mabel was now.
Dipper bowed his head as he held his twin close. A tear escaped from his watering eyes.
"Please wake up, Mabel."
Otherwise, how could he ever fix what had been broken?
AN: Yeah. For some reason, I have a persistent urge to put my favorite characters through a lot of pain. I think I've been involved with the SuperWhoLock fandoms for too long. Anyway, I got the idea for this after I saw "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons" because we can see that there is a bit of a strain between Dipper and Mabel forming as they are on the sides of different grunkles. Then, I saw a fan art when Dipper was bent over Mabel begging her to wake up, so this was born. Also, I put in some ideas based off of the SDCC trailer. Anyway, both pairs of Mystery Twins are in pain as something happened to Grunkle Stan as well as Mabel. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what the final results are for both of them.