We'll be alright
Disclaimer
Gravity Falls by Alex Hirsch and Disney
Transcendence AU by zoey-chu on tumblr
They were alone in the dark room, so bare and unwelcoming and Dipper couldn't help but think that she deserved more than lying in this bed with nothing brightening up the last place she would be in but her very presence.
It was so alien, the lack of color, not only inside the room but on his sister's face too. Silently he hovered by her side, her aged and wrinkled face calm and relaxed, amusement twinkling in her eyes as she looked up at him.
"What's with you making that pug-face, bro-bro?", she joked, voice weak but full of merriment.
He shook his head vigorously. He had not cried in years, decades even but right now he was at a point where nothing could stop the tears anymore, silently trailing down his face.
"Not now, Mabel.", he pressed out between his sharp teeth. It hurt so much. Screw the pain. This was not hilarious in the least, it was choking, destroying, breaking him apart.
Her gaze was understanding but still unwavering, not a shred of regret, doubt sadness or fear to be found.
"It's now or never." To her it was simple logic. No questions asked.
He just stared at her and couldn't understand.
"I'm scared Mabel.", he whispered as without his bidding he shrunk, his aura dimming and black golden eyes losing some of their unearthly glow.
"Of what?", she said and Dipper felt the scream rise up in his throat but it never left his mouth.
"Please, don't leave me.", he whispered, felling more lost than ever even with all the knowledge of the universe at his disposal.
And for the first time since she had come to the hospital, since having received visits from family and friends alike, her face gained a wistful expression.
"You're not gonna be alone, dumb-dumb. There's still Henry and the triplets, the kids, Wendy and Soos …", she counted on her fingers as she named every person they had ever come to cherish but he interrupted her.
"They're not you."
She was stunned into stupefied silence but surprisingly or maybe unsurprisingly a huge grin split her face.
"Of course they're not – no one can be as awesome as me."
He chuckled weakly but the tears still flowed.
"Also, I'll never be really gone. You've got my soul remember?"
The little bit of good feeling that they had struggled to scrap together immediately evaporated.
"That's not the same.", he hissed. He didn't want to remember, did not want to be reminded. It was no comfort.
For a while she studied him before patting the empty spot on the bed. Reluctantly, he sat down, slumping.
"Dipper,", she said in all seriousness, making him turn his head towards her, "if you really want me to be by your side again, you could always start a cycle of rebirth."
He shot up the air, his aura returning, flaming in a menacing blue.
"Mabel are you crazy!", he was screaming, raging, his voice echoing and booming across the room. What she was suggesting was horrible. "That's the worst I could do to you! Do you even know what that means!"
Of course she wouldn't. She was not an omniscient demon. Human souls were fragile, not meant to be pushed into a body and being ripped out of it again and again endlessly.
"You could cease to exist, be trapped in nothingness or become so thwarted and twisted it won't be you anymore! Demons use rebirth to punish people!"
He was shaking so hard he'd stopped to cry.
But his sister, calm in the face of the greatest demon's wrath, simply stared at him as though he was making stupid suggestions.
"I don't consider staying with my favorite brother a punishment."
The answer was so genuine, so sweet, so truly an utterly Mabel that Dipper couldn't else but laugh out loud despite everything inside him screaming 'hurt'.
"You really are something.", he choked. He wanted to lie down on the floor and never get up again but like always, Mabel gave out hope so freely and easily that he couldn't help but feel that maybe this could work.
She grinned, stretching out her hand: "Deal."
And Dipper looked at her, still upset, still hurting, still afraid but full of confidence that it would eventually work out. Because this was Mabel, his sister that could move mountains and cheer you up no matter what. The girl with a will of steel.
His hand grabbed onto hers, small and free of flames.
"Deal."