Gravity Falls: Reality is Poisoning.
A/N: So, first and probably last FanFic for Gravity Falls right here. I'm posting this out before Weirdmageddon because this is one of the characters dying. Although I'm sure Stanley Pines is sure to be killed by Bill's fire, Dipper was who I thought to die in the series finale. You, Fallers, are amazing. I recently got into the show after seeing it around since it came out. (2012, right?) But here is my Oneshot.
SUMMARY: When celebrating her and Dipper's 13th Birthday, Mabel recalls the events, which she predicts, will be her brother's final demise. On the ride home, what she predicts becomes a poisoning reality.
WARNING: Death scene near the end! There will be no warning towards it! Read at your own tears!
A handful of confetti was thrown into the air by Stanley before Mabel blew out her Birthday candles which were letting off a light heat. Cheers from Grenda and Candy, along with Stanley, Ford, Soos, and Wendy, shrouded throughout the room. Grenda and Candy's plans had been changed upon the occurrence of Weirdmageddon, enabling them to go to Mabel and Dipper's 13th Birthday Party, like Mabel had wanted. Mabel would smile her smile, proudly showing off her silvery braces. Glee filled her hazel-brown eyes as everyone cheered.
Soon the cheering would stop. Wendy looked down for a few moments; a look of remorse and wonder on her bruised face. The redhead would then look up to Ford, who wore the same expression. Wendy's hoarse voice split through the silence, asking a question everyone wanted to ask.
"Ford," the teenager started with a hint of sadness in her voice, "would Dipper...be able to blow out his candles? It is his birthday, too." The painful thought of Dipper sailed into everyone's minds. The thought washed a 100ft tsunami into Mabel's mind, flooding all off her thoughts and filling a pool of blue sadness. In the blue pool, the flashback of what had happened ran through her mind.
"Dipper!" his sister screamed, terror soaring through her childish voice, "Watch out!" The brave boy turned to his sister. She stood in front of everyone else, who also had terrified paintings on their canvases. Relentless, Dipper kept running, unknowingly heading straight towards Bill, who was now transformed into his physical form: a pyramid.
"Yeah, Pine Tree." the Dream Demon smiled with his eye, "Watch OUT!" the demon raised one of his hands, which was now buzzing with electric, blue energy. The energy was slivering through his black, skinny fingers like snakes. Dipper's brown eyes would almost fall out as he slickly turned, running away from his sister and friends. The boy knew he couldn't lead Bill's deathly waith towards his sister, who he loved and almost lost because of a foolish decision, with Ford's convincing.
Dipper screamed along with everyone else as he fled. Desperately kicking his legs, he was picking up speed. But Bill was gone, and then in front of the boy. Dipper tried to bring himself to a halt, but his speed turned on him, throwing him into Bill's golden, pyramid body.
Ford, now alert, would run towards Bill. But just as he ran, every one was blinded by a bright blue light, and deafened by a scream of pure agony and pain. After regaining his vision, Ford saw Dipper fall to the ground. Bloodied, bruised. His heaving chest was the only movement Dipper could show. His clothes lightly burnt off from the blue flame.
Mabel, using her young athleticness to an advantage against Ford, who tried to take her brother away from her, ran and reached her brother's body first. At this point, tears overtook her.
"Dipper! No, Dipper! Please!" Wendy and Soos came rushing over to Mabel, hauling Dipper's limp form away from Bill, who was caught in an evil laughing frenzy. In the background, Mabel could hear the roars of the Multi-Bear, Stanley, and everyone else. But what she really wanted to hear…
Was Dipper's heartbeat. If he even had one anymore.
Pushing her hair out the way of her ear, and laying her head gently on Dipper's bloody chest, Mabel heard a slight pump, and then another. And another.
Relief and a swelling confidence swept by her, but disappeared in the breeze.
Dipper's eyes weakly opened, and the boy was immediately alert, but too weak and in immeasurable pain that prevented him to move. "Mabel…"
"Dipper?" Wendy and Soos came up behind the Mystery Twins with a first-aid pack that they had scavenged out from the ruins of the Gravity Falls Hospital.
"Wha…" the boy mumbled weakly, staring up at the orange sky as if he was actually dying. "What's going o-on…?"
Taking Dipper from Mabel's arms, Soos quickly began to attend to Dipper's wounds along with Wendy, who put a thick piece of cloth into his mouth. Something to bite down on as they removed his clothing that covered the wounds and when they cleansed and bandaged, due to there being no pain relievers or whatsoever.
Before Mabel's head began to feel light and her eyes were attacked by swarming dots, the last thing she heard was Dipper's agonizing screams in pain and desperation for Wendy and Soos to stop. Holding onto her brother's hand, which would jerk and twitch mildly, Mabel fell backwards next to her twin, who was barely escaping the grip of death.
Snapping back to reality, Mabel looked over to Soos, who had began to talk. "He's alive. He should be allowed," Soos agreed. Mabel turned to her brother, who lay asleep on the couch. He had become even weaker although his wounds were healing. It worried the thirteen-year-old. Could this be it for her twin? Was she about to lose her only true best friend?
Stanford seemed to have noticed the tears welling up in her eyes, because he had scooted over to her. Putting an arm on her shoulder, Ford whispered a sincere apology. "I'm sorry, Mabel."
But in that moment, Mabel's eyes turned to a glare of sadness, hate, and anger.
The short twin stepped onto her feet, and faced Ford. "Go away!"
Ford, taken back, looked at Mabel with confusion and slight fear. Was this his doing?
"Mabel?" The man asked in shock, "what do you mean 'go away'?"
"You tried to take my brother away because your brother took your future away!" Mabel's brown eyes seemed to be darker, as if she had become a different girl.
Ford's lips curled, "No, I didn't. I needed an apprentice, an apprentice from the family. I chose Dipper!"
"Why not your brother?! Why my brother?!" Mabel shot back. Wendy, Soos, Grenda, Candy, and Stanley looked at Mabel in shock, stepping backwards as they did.
"Because…" Ford was silent, and he looked away. Mabel smiled, "go away."
The man stood up and walked out of the Mystery Shack.
Stanley looked at his brother, before a smile appeared on his lips. Wendy and Soos just stared at Mabel, who grabbed a lighter out of Soos's pocket and lit the candles on the cake again. Bringing the cake over to Dipper, who had awoken within the rowl.
"Mabel? What just happened?" Dipper asked as Mabel helped him sit up.
Mabel looked at Dipper regularly before she smiled.
"Happy Birthday, Dipper."
The Next Day
Mabel and Dipper waited for their bus home, to Piedmont, California. Dipper held onto Mabel for balance as they stood at the bus stop. Stan held their bags as he watched them.
"Goodbye, kids." Stan sighed, "You were real fun." Dipper hardly looked up to Stan as Mabel smiled sadly, "Can we come back next summer?"
Stan looked at Mabel sadly, "unfortunately not. I have to get rid of the Mystery Shack because of Ford. Though, I haven't seen him since…"
Mabel knew what Stan meant, and felt no remorse as she knew.
Stan placed a hand on Dipper's shoulder, "Seeya soon, kid."
Dipper gave a light smile, but it faded almost immediately. Dipper was much weaker than usual, periodically coughing blood out.
Mabel noticed this immediately, and was in too much fear to wonder if this was the day. Since Bill's attack on Dipper, Mabel knew he wasn't going to survive. The hospital was destroyed. Without their resources, Dipper's possibility of survival was under 20%. With resources, his survival would've been over 50%.
Mabel felt a tear roll down her left cheek, but she quickly wiped it away. Reality was real. Very real. And she had to accept that. If her brother was going to die, she must live with it.
Wendy and Soos came out the Mystery Shack as they heard the bus come down the road. Wendy ran over to Dipper and gently squeezed him in a hug. Dipper would slightly blush, as his feelings were fading away for her slowly. "I'll come down and visit you sometime, 'kay dude?" The redhead smiled, releasing him from her grip. Dipper smiled again, this time it didn't fade immediately. "Thanks, Wendy."
Wendy smiled before she stepped back.
The bus came to a stop next to Dipper and Mabel. Stan grabbed onto the twins' luggage and carried it onto the bus, with Mabel helping her limping twin climb into the bus.
Heading to the back of the bus, as usual. Dipper laid down on his back, resting his bandaged head on his sister's lap.
Mabel looked down at her twin sadly. This was the position he was going to die in, she knew.
Stan gave the Mystery Twins one last look before he waved, and got off the bus. Mabel waved back, another tear coming down her face.
The bus gave a hiss before it slowly began to move, and it began to pick up speed a few seconds later.
Mabel ran her hands through her brother's hair as he coughed. Dipper looked up at Mabel, his burnt forehead a dark red.
"Mabel."
"Yeah, Dipsticks?" Her cheerfulness was all she could show to Dipper in his last minutes or hours. Mr. and Mrs. Pines would be having a surprise corpse when their twins would arrive home.
"Today, I.." He started, "don't feel….like I use to. It's kind of...different. I feel weaker and more...dazed?" Dipper gave a worried glance up to his sister.
Mabel's stomach turned. Oh, how intelligent had she become from reading Ford's journals whenever Dipper wasn't around or was asleep.
"Dipper…" Mabel had to break it to him, somehow.
"Yes?" Dipper half-frowned, half-smiled.
"You're probably…" Mabel cried softly, "d-dying…"
Dipper's eyes widened as it hit him hard in the heart, "N-No!"
Mabel couldn't speak over the lump in her throat.
"I-I can't be dying! I...I haven't even turned into an adult." Tears welled up in her brother's hazel eyes as he looked down at his weak, burnt body. It all made sense to him now.
"Dipper," Mabel cried, "it's okay. You're my brother, my twin, my Mystery Twin…"
Dipper looked around, "but I'm only thirteen…"
The boy coughed as his blood gurgled up into his mouth for the sixteenth time that day. This time, though, there was more blood than usual. I really am dying. Dipper thought sadly as he gazed up at Mabel, tears welling up in his eyes.
"I don't want to die, Mabel. I don't want to!"
Mabel put a finger to his lips, a tear falling onto her brother's pale face.
"Just enjoy the time you have, Marshal…" Dipper's eyes widened. My real name. She called me by my real name! I thought everyone forgot…
Mabel noticed her brother's look of shock as she said his name. "I never forgot. Like I'll never forget you when you're gone."
"Mabel, please…" Dipper pleaded sadly, "Don't mention it."
"I won't, dude." Mabel smiled, wiping her tears away.
"I love you, Mabel." Dipper smiled as he coughed again, blood coming up into his mouth again, which he ignored. Mabel smiled, "I love you too, Dipsticks."
Dipper shut his eyes slowly, his weakening body taking him into a sleep. A deep sleep.
Mabel saw Dipper's body relax. Too fast. He couldn't be asleep already, could he?
Her gut turned and her heart stopped for a few seconds.
"Dipper!"
Her twin didn't move or awake to her screech. Tears were immediately in her eyes as she called again, "Marshal! Wake up!"
Still nothing.
Mabel broke into a million pieces as she felt her brother's cold hand. He was gone. Bill had taken her brother. Her twin brother. Her Mystery Twin.
"Oh, Dipper… Rest in peace…" she said between sobs.
The guy in the driver's seat started to lightly tear up, even though he didn't know Mabel and Dipper.
"I love you…"
Two Months Later
Mabel sat in her room, looking at her mid-term report card. All F's. Her black hair flowed longer and brushed. Her sweaters were all black with no emblem to decorate them. Wearing her brother's hat, who was deceased, she couldn't smile. She never smiled since Gravity Falls.
Looking up at a poster of her deceased brother on the wall, which dated Aug. 31st, 2003 - Sept. 1st, 2016, Mabel Pines had changed. Wearing thick, black eyeliner, black lipstick, blue contacts, and now black-dyed hair, it left her former friend's from Gr. 7 confused and missing their old best friend.
Soon enough, the kids at school realized Dipper wasn't next to Mabel like he always had been in Elementary. Asking Mabel for answers, all they would get was a girl on her knees, sobbing Dipper's name.
It wasn't long before Mabel finally announced that Dipper had died on her lap, on the drive home to Piedmont, California. A memorial was held at school in Dipper's honor.
A loner at school, reality has poisoned the carefree 13-year-old.