AN: *nervously taps fingers* As you can very well see, this isn't my usual Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic. I hope I can do this incredibly awesome show justice!
Okay so I have seen many, many fics sort of like this, where Bill finds some way to wreck Dipper's body before he can recover it. And you know what? I didn't see any completed ones. (I may have missed some, of course.) So this is my take on how it could have happened. Not a one-shot, but not too long either. Enjoy, R&R please!
How did the day end up so utterly wrong? How how how?
This was practically the only thought running through Dipper's ethereal head as he watched Bill, inhabiting his body, chase his sister around the stage of her big puppet show. Everything was so overwhelming... And practically the whole town was watching! And he could do nothing!
His eyes were stretched wide as he watched everything happen. Glancing out at the audience, he saw that his friends and family had similar stares. Everyone else just had adapted looks of confusion, like they had no idea what to make of this crazy turn of events. A few had even gotten up to leave.
"THIS IS UTTERLY PATHETIC!" A loud wheezing cry brought him back to the game of cat and mouse going on onstage. Bill (I'm going to call him Bill no matter if he's in my body or not) had slowed down for a heartbeat, looking completely exhausted. "I WASN'T MADE FOR THIS MORTAL EXISTENCE," he insisted, rather more feebly than usual.
"Give my brother back his body, you... Meanie!" shouted Mabel, giving it her best effort. Dipper had to smile at that as he hovered, unseen, at her shoulder. Plus, she still has the journal hugged to her chest.
"DO NOT BE A FOOL," Bill hissed. "I'M STILL ALL-POWERFUL! I'M IMMORTAL!"
"You're in Dipper's body now," Mabel said with a smirk. "You haven't slept in a few days, and I know all about you! Like your weaknesses and all that. You're not some evil triangle guy now!"
"Someone really needs to give you advice on how to actually make a comeback," Dipper whispered with a worried smile, though no one could hear.
"I'M SICK OF YOUR GAMES YOU PITIFUL HUMAN. THE ONLY GAMES I PLAY ARE THE ONES I'VE CREATED!" And with that, breath regained, Bill Cipher leapt at Mabel,knocking her over and sending the journal skidding across the stage, further back into the set,
"OOF." Both Mabel and the demon were sprawled out on the wood. Bill scrambled to his feet and dashed over to the journal and picked it up.
"YES ALL THESE SECRETS ARE MINE!" he crowed, laughing, an inhuman smile splitting his face.
But there was something that none of them had yet noticed. An almost imperceptible hissing. Of course that box of 'pyrotechnics' had been a bad idea. But Mabel, always enthusiastic, had insisted, saying that she wanted "maximum glitter." In retrospect, someone flinging handfuls of sequins from the rafters would have been smarter. But even smarter than that was the fact that the button to ignite the box had been in Mabel's back pocket. Now the fuses were lit.
Mabel herself was the first to pick up on it. "Hey do you smell..." She started before the box exploded.
For the rest of the audience members, this was just too much. All of the patrons aside from Stan, Wendy, and Soos ran out of the doors, some screaming about explosive socks. Gabe himself dashed out because he didn't want to see puppet carnage nor hurt his own precious puppets. What kind of mockery did Mabel think she had created? "Sullied my art," he'd growled as he fled the scene.
On the stage, it was chaos. Mabel had shrieked and thrown herself flat to the floor to escape the fireworks zipping around. Dipper was floating near her head, wishing to comfort her, especially when a hot component of a rocket landed on the back of her hand. All he could do was suck in a breathe and lay his incorporeal hand over hers when she screamed. He didn't even notice when one of the fireworks flew through his chest.
Laughter jarred him from his place near Mabel. Bill was still flicking through the journal, completely unfazed by the whole ordeal.
"VERY INTERESTING..." It sounded like he was on a walk in the park rather than on a flaming sock puppet set.
"Bill! You gotta move you're gonna get my body hurt!" Dipper yelled angrily, almost to the point of crying with desperation, both for himself and his sister. Indeed, he could feel tears pickling in his eyes.
The demon either didn't hear him or was ignoring him. Either way, Bill didn't move.
A groaning from above them caused Bill, Dipper, and even Mabel to look up.
Though the rockets had mainly all exploded, small fires were still apparent and smoke was everywhere. But of course, some rockets had gone up and exploded on the ceiling. Some in more convenient places than others. The metal structure that was holding up the stage lights was coming loose from its moorings, the wires and rivets holding it to the ceiling straining.
All was quiet for a moment. Then...
"Dipper move!" That was Stan. Soos and Wendy were both shouting at the same time and couldn't be heard.
"BIPPER!" screamed Mabel desperately. This finally got him to look up.
His eyes were so peculiar. Most eyes, both those of humans and animals, looked like they almost had threads of light and color woven into them. They shimmer and took on an amazing iridescent quality.
Bill's eyes, or rather Dipper's eyes, had none of that. They were flat yellow with those awful slit pupils. It was like someone had painted his irises and sclera with a matte finish wall paint. The effect was so unnatural.
Even under the bright stage lights, which were getting closer and closer every femtosecond, those eyes didn't shine.
As the mess of steel came crashing down, the demon in the boy's body didn't flinch. The only thought running through his head was,
If pain is hilarious then this is gonna be a RIOT!
ΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔ
A crashing thud. That was all they heard. No screaming, no crying.
The smoke had been stirred up by the falling beams and the four of them coughed as they raced to the spot. Mabel, being closest, made it there first.
Her eyes widened and tears came quickly as she saw what she knew she'd see.
The metal structure was lying on top of her brother. His head was unharmed, but from his chest down he was underneath the cage-like light support. His chest looked strangely flat, as if there were no bones in it at all, and his arms and legs were bent at odd angles. Blood ran from numerous gashes on his lower half, and from his mouth and nose.
"Grunkle Stan!" she shrieked, in a sound that was half a sob. He had arrived next to her and couldn't speak. Neither could Wendy or Soos. They just stood with their mouths open, trying to fathom what had just happened.
Mabel crept closer to Dipper's body, as if it could reach out and bite her at any second. In reality, she was truly scared of reality reaching out and biting her.
Could a demon even die in a human body? She didn't know.
When she arrived at his side, she saw the blood on his nose and mouth bubble and heard slight wheezing gasps.
"He... He's still alive! We have to save him!" She cried as she bolted to the light holder and tried her hardest to lift it. Grunkle Stan and the others had raced over at that, and Stan had placed his hands next to Mabel's and prepared to lift, but then he saw his nephew's condition.
"Mabel," he began, sighing. He was a realist, right? And he knew... This was hopeless. Nothing could save the boy now. But how could he tell Mabel that? He put a hand on her shoulder. "It's... Too late, kiddo. I'm... I'm sorry. But he's way too badly hurt. Even if we could get him to a hospital in time... I'm sorry."
"No that can't be right!" She choked on her words as she sat next to her brother's head. "Dipper... Please wake up..."
Now what had happened to Bill and the real Dipper as this all went down? Bill had certainly been knocked out of Dipper's body and had fled quickly back to the Mindscape. Dipper had watched him go without a word. Now he hovered above his family, crying uncontrollably. He was dead. At least, his body was. He could feel an impatient PULL towards his own dying form that slowly was growing weaker. And he didn't know what to do.
If I go back to my body, I might be able to talk to them one last time! Dipper was pacing in midair, panicking and shaking as his time wore out. All of the puppets had been destroyed, including the one he had used as a 'vessel' before. But if I do that I'll... Die. And Dipper absolutely didn't want to die. The thought terrified him. He didn't know where he'd go... If anywhere! But... He might be giving up the chance to ever speak to his family again. But maybe he could fix this if he just clung to existence...
He stopped pacing and looked down at his twin sister, riddled with the indecision that had always plagued him, watching her carefully wipe the blood off his face with her sweater sleeve, only to have it replaced by more.
In the next second his choice was taken from him. His body's chest stopped moving and the pull vanished.
"Dipper!" howled Mabel. Dipper floated over to her and tried to comfort her, but he knew she couldn't see him. He turned to the others. Wendy was muttering something under her breath even as her vision clouded over with tears. He came closer.
"I always did care about you, you know... I don't know if it was because you seemed like my younger brother or if it was because I had a crush on you or whatever. I'm.. I'm really bad at those feelings, okay? And it was weird because you were younger and you really liked me and I had no clue what my feelings were and I still don't, but... I did love you in some sense, okay? I... I really hope you knew that." All of her words came out in a rush as she covered her mouth and eyes with her hands and let out a sob. Dipper found that once again his eyes were leaking too, and he bowed his head, trembling.
"This is so messed up," commented Soos in a hushed tone. He wasn't sure that this was all real yet. But if it was... "Real messed up."
The next few hours were spent with Robbie's parents, the funeral directors. Even they were hushed, and they tended to make the best out of their job. They didn't like seeing kids die, especially ones they knew.
A forklift was required to lift the stage equipment off of Dipper, and then Mabel refused to let him go. No forklift could pry them apart. Only Grunkle Stan.
"Mabel." He'd sat next to her, sadness on his face. "Theres nothing more we can do. You gotta let him go, okay? He would've wanted that."
"How could this happen, Grunkle Stan? I just wanted to put on a nice show for my summer crush and then Dipper got possessed and I wasn't quick enough... It's.. It's my fault, isn't it?" She looked at him, eyes brimming with tears. "It's my fault. I was too caught up in my own life to care about my brother!" And with that she carefully lay her brother down and flung herself at her great uncle, positively howling in misery.
Stan hugged her close, but he didn't know how to respond. Dipper, possessed? How could that have happened? He vowed to ask Mabel about it later, but this wasn't the time.
Now that Mabel had let go, Dipper's body was removed and driven to Robbie's house. Not before Mabel had found Dipper's hat and given it to Robbie's parents, though. She knew he would have wanted it.
ΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔ
Dinner that night wasn't really a dinner at all. Stan made sandwiches, but neither Mabel nor himself managed to eat one. Soos and Wendy had gone home in shock, probably to the same sort of night.
"Do... Do you want to talk, kid?" Grunkle Stan looked at his broken niece across the table.
"Not really, Grunkle Stan," she managed, pushing her plate away finally. "I'm tired. I should probably try to sleep."
"One thing. Before you go... You talked about Dipper getting possessed. What was all that about?"
Mabel sighed and gazed at the floor. "Can I tell you tomorrow? I just want to go to bed."
"Of course. Today was... Well, today was... A day. I'll talk to you in the morning."
"Come on, Waddles," Mabel said, patting the pig, who had been sleeping by the stairs, on the head. Waddles nosed her hand as they walked up the stairs, using his animal brand of ESP to tell that something was wrong.
When they got upstairs, Mabel slowly got ready for bed, doing the things that, until five hours and twenty minutes ago, she'd done with Dipper. There was just a constant lump in her throat, like that one time she'd swallowed a plastic dinosaur in her Mabel Juice. Except this was worse because she didn't have a brother to whack her on the back and make it go away. She didn't have a brother any more, period.
She gasped. Did this mean she technically wasn't a twin any more? She had no idea of the answer to that unsettling question, so she pushed the thought away and climbed into bed. Waddles curled up under the covers with her and she hugged him close. She took on last look at the empty bed in the darkness and spoke the words that she always did, though she knew they'd be heard by only herself. Tears sliding down her face, she closed her eyes and murmured,
"Goodnight Dipper."
ΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔ
But he did hear her. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, same as always, just... Not quite.
"Goodnight Mabel," he responded sadly. Then, scooting to the middle of his bed and drawing his knees up to his chest, Dipper cried. He cried for nearly twenty minutes before his tears slowed down and he sniffed and wiped his nose.
"Why did this have to happen to me!" he shrieked, sadness suddenly turning into anger. He tried to swipe some of his books of his desk but his arm just went right through them. That just caused him to shout more. He was breaking because he had to watch his sister break, something no sibling should ever see. Their hearts were connected, and, right now, both were covered in cracks.
"Our lives were good! Triangle demons aside, solving mysteries was fun! This summer was fun! We had... We had it all. And Bill took that from us! From all of us!" Dipper didn't know if he should blame Gideon for releasing Bill, the journal for pulling him into the search for the Author, or... Himself. He'd made the deal. He'd done this...
"No. This was Bill's fault. Maybe I was stupid to let him get his way, but he's the real evil," he said. Dipper could NOT let himself fall into despair. He had to find a way to fix this.
As he always did when he was thinking, he began to pace, tapping his chin. Then he saw Mabel's sweater of the day tossed onto the floor. It was covered with blood... His blood, and he shuddered, but the corner of the journal unmistakably poked out from the front pouch.
"Mabel, you did it," he breathed. "If I can just find a way to talk to you... You could see if there was any hidden messages in there to get me back to normal! Yes!" He actually smiled for the first time since being ripped from his own body.
And then he saw it. A small red bubble was blooming over his sisters sleeping form, glowing eerily in the night. Eventually it grew to the size of Dipper's head and stayed that way. Shimmering images flickered across the curved surface and Mabel make a small noise and rolled over.
"Is that... A dream?" Dipper asked the silent air. A pause, then,
"Oh no this is bad, I can see other peoples' DREAMS! What the heck what the... Okay calm down. It's not like I'm going to turn into a monocular glowing blue dodecahedron, right? Right? Okay, okay, as long as that doesn't happen... Whew." Having recovered from his panic attack, Dipper removed his hands from his chest and breathed deeply a few times.
Then he moved over to his sister.
The dreams must have been nightmares, because she had begun tossing and turning fretfully. Once, he heard his name mentioned. He could see the events of the day in the bubble, along with flashes of Bill's equilateral form and glaring eye.
Hoping to help his sister, he held out a hand near the orb and paused. The section of the bubble closest to where his translucent fingers were had turned a warm, sunny yellow. And he hadn't even touched it yet!
Wait... Dreams.
I can talk to Mabel in her dreams! he cried mentally, shocked. Holding both of his hands slightly over the face of the orb like a psychic at a crystal ball, one thought made him pause. The orb was now mostly splattered with gold instead of blood red, but...
Am I becoming a dream demon too?
Shaking his head, face set with resolve, Dipper ignored the troubling thought and placed his hands on the now pacified dream.
AN: Weeell how was that? I don't know, feels like it's missing something. Hope it's satisfactory! Tune in for more soon!
EDIT: I have reuploaded this chapter with a few coding fixes and a few edited lines!