I do not own 'Gravity Falls'.
A happy ending isn't always the happy ending for everyone.
Happily Never After
Dipper traversed through the woods in silence.
It was a long journey to get here. It had taken him many, many hours, more than half a day actually.
On his back was a backpack that was filled with everything that he'd need. He checked his list four times just to be sure.
He came to a seemingly normal part of the woods, if anything in the forest could be called such.
Dipper came to a spot that seemed to rise with moss and other debris. Slowly, he made his way to the mound and began wiping the mess off of it until it revealed a triangular figure with it's arm extended. It was the defeated remains of Bill Cipher.
Dipper stared at the stone for a moment as he steeled his resolve.
"Hey Bill, I don't know if you can hear me." Dipper began awkwardly. "You shouldn't be able to since your consciousness has been removed, then erased and all, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could."
He was greeted with silence. That was...reassuring, he doubt he'd be able to continue if Bill's statue was still...sentient. Even a smidgen of Bill being active was infinitely too much.
"We beat you." Dipper stated. "I didn't come here to gloat, but I couldn't resist. After everything that's happened, my family and I beat you." He sighed. "But you still won."
More silence.
"Yeah, you're trapped in stone, but at least you aren't conscious enough to suffer." Dipper continued. "I'm conscious."
More silence.
"I know what you're-what you would be thinking." He corrected. "How does me, a normal teenage boy, being conscious and free compare to you, a being who had unimaginable power, now nothing but stone?"
The statue was still silent, though the air was now still, as if it itself was awaiting an answer.
"Bill, that summer I had was the best thing in my entire life." Dipper stated melancholy. "I had everything I wanted, adventure, mystery and true friends. Sure, there were monsters that tried to kill me and then their was you. A being that tried to use and kill me. My friends. And my family." He sighed "And we beat them, we beat you, and now it's over."
He sighed, he felt as if he were tasting such a bitter thought.
"It's over." He repeated.
That last word hung heavy on Dipper for an unstated reason.
"Now what are we supposed to do?" Dipper asked. "Go home, live normal lives, wait until next summer then hope to come back. Then what?" He asked slightly frustrated. "Repeat the process over and over until we're grown up and have to move on with life?" The words were foul in his mouth. "Make cartoons about our adventures?" He asked. "Tell the stories to people who'll think that it's just that, stories."
That would probably work for Mabel, or anyone else in the world. Not him.
"Now the story's over and it's time for the Happily Ever After." He stated with air quotes. "Well not all of us want a Happily Ever After! Some of us don't want it to end!" He shouted, more to the world than the statue itself. "Some of us thrive on the adventure!"
Dipper looked at the statue, it hadn't moved in the slightest to his outburst. Good.
"Grunkle Stan, both Stans have their Happily Ever after. They're sailing into the unknown together." Dipper couldn't help but chuckle as a lone tear fell. "They deserve it." He sighed. "I missed my chance to sail with Grunkle Ford, my chance to learn from him, but I don't...regret the decision."
He didn't. But there's always that one stray though in a person's mind. A What If?
It's a good thing that both Grunkles are gone. Dipper thought. Otherwise one of them would try and stop me.
"I know what you would be thinking, or what a rational person would." He clarified. "There's still plenty of mystery left in Gravity Falls, in the world."
There was plenty of weirdness out there that had never been answered for, things he could probably get the answers to.
"Well it wouldn't be the same." Dipper stated. "Maybe it's the teenage angst talking, but it's how I feel."
It could be, he was more emotionally distraught since his and Mabel's birthday.
"So what am I doing here, right?" Dipper questioned for the statue. "If it's not the same, what's the point? Well I plan on starting a new adventure, one with no end in sight. That will be my Happily ever After."
An ending that had no end. He chuckled at the conundrum. Talk about a paradox.
"In a way Bill, I want to make a deal with you." Dipper stated. "I plan to free you...in away."
If the statue could move, it'd raise it's eyebrow in confusion.
"See your body is still here." Dipper stated. "I don't know how, seeing as your friends and all your weirdness was taken back into your world. But I'm not complaining, in fact, I'm happy." He paused. "Well, happy isn't the right word." He corrected. "But it's the closest one that describes the situation."
Dipper pulled out a book, one of Ford's Journals. Journal 2 to be exact. One that had been used by Gideon. It wasn't the exact same one, that had been destroyed. This was just one of the copies of the Journals that his Grunkle Stanley had made.
"You once stated that you're a being of pure energy with no weakness." Dipper stated. "And you probably were." He added. "But now, now you're an empty vessel."
Dipper looked at the statue, waiting for it to prove him wrong. Just the slightest thing, a twitch or a chuckle in the air.
"Here's a fact, energy can't be destroyed, nothing can. Things can be changed...converted...dispersed, but nothing can really be destroyed. It's why Ford and I saw no reason to smash you into rubble, it would make no difference." He explained. "But you're out there somewhere, in some way. Waiting to come back in some way. Maybe as an incarnation, or just a whisper in someone's ear."
Was that why he was here, whatever was left of Bill whispered this crazy plan to him?
It would just prove Dipper's theory to be correct. Nothing, not even conscious thought, could be destroyed. It was proven by both Grunkle Stan and, to a lesser degree, Fiddleford.
"I don't know for sure. Heck, consciousness is nothing but thought and thought is energy. Synapses firing away in the brain. But this," He motioned to the statue. "This is a vessel, and it's empty. I intend to free the vessel, but not whatever consciousness is left."
He turned to the desired page.
Possession Incantation
As the name implied it was a possession spell, one that came with a single warning.
One time use!
Lucky for me. Dipper thought. One time is all I'll need.
"As I stated, you're now just an empty vessel, no consciousness." Dipper stated. "Well possession is just pushing your consciousness onto another's. And now my consciousness is going to be yours."
Dipper began reading the spell.
Melody began closing up when she saw the lone figure of one
"Hey Soos, we got one more." She called. "Should I send him away?"
"You know what Mr. Pines would say." Soos spoke as he walked up towards her. "Never send away someone who wants to give you money."
The couple turned the sign from closed to open and went to greet the hopeful customer. Once he was close enough to make out who it was, Soos couldn't contain his joy.
"Dude!" Soos called in excitement.
"Hey Soos, missed me?" Dipper asked.
He was indeed happy to see one of his friends, even if said friend was wearing an eye-patch for some reason.
It seems Soos has been busy. Dipper thought as he walked around the shack to take in the site of it.
The place was no longer falling apart, it seemed Soos wasn't as cheap as Grunkle Stan when it came to fixing the place. Guess it helped when he could do the work himself. It still had the Under New Management sign hanging up.
"So where's the little Ham Bone?" Soos asked as he looked around.
"It's just me." Dipper answered.
This caught both Soos and Melody's attention. Though the man-child wasn't as alarmed, just curious.
"What's with the eye-patch?" Soos asked.
Dipper hand flew towards the patch that covered his eye. He didn't answer.
"Hey Soos, can I have a favor?" Dipper asked suddenly. "One Pterodactyl bro to another."
It was late in the evening.
The shack was quite, Dipper was sure that Melody and Soos had retired to their room for the evening.
His favor was to stay there for the night. Soos was more than happy to oblige, though he was a little disappointed when Dipper went straight to the room and stayed there.
Dipper made his way to the bathroom as silently as possible, which wasn't hard. It seemed that Soos had fixed most of the creaky floor boards.
Once inside, he headed straight for the mirror and examined himself. Taking a breath to calm himself, he removed the eye-patch. Staring back at him was his reflection, but there was one flaw.
Dipper's left eye.
It wasn't his usual brown eye. The sclera of his eye was a pale, almost sickly, yellow. His pupil was elongated into a vertical slit. It wasn't his eye, it was Bill Cipher's, or what was left of him.
There was a ringing sound. A phone. Thanks to the silence of the shack, it seemed to echo all around the place, even in the bathroom. So did it's abrupt stop as it was answered by Soos, Dipper could even here the conversation.
"Hey hey, calm down little dude!" Soos spoke frantically. "I can't understand you." There was a moment of silence as he no doubt listened to the other end. "What do you mean Dipper's missing...he ran away?"
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