If you'd like to see the canon events prior to the start of this fic, watch "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future", and stop at the moment Ford is shot by the security drone.
Among the Stars: Chapter 1
It was getting dark by the time Mabel heard the back door open. She was curled up on her bed, head tucked away into the soft folds of sweater town. But for once her attention was not focused inwards, but listening for the sounds of her brother coming home. She'd given up on contacting him on the walkie-talkie hours ago, after receiving nothing but static since noon. He had to return home eventually, and she'd settled herself in for the wait.
She hugged her legs tighter, shifting towards an upright position as she listened for the hurried footsteps of her brother tripping up the stairs. She waited. And waited. She heard the heavy footsteps of Grunkle Ford, and the metal hiss of the vending machine opening up. She heard the volume of the television quiet for a moment, and then rise back as the door to the lab slammed closed.
She waited a few more minutes, but still no Dipper.
Mabel peeped her head out from her sweater, groaning a bit as the setting sun blinded her. The room was stained red with the dying light. Mabel glanced at her brother's empty bed, unmade since this morning.
Mabel dangled her legs off of the edge of her bed, listening for one more moment for the arrival of her brother. She pushed her arms back into the sleeves of her sweater. The floor creaked as she hopped off the bed and walked into the hall. The shack was quiet, eerily red from the sun.
"Grunkle Stan?" Mabel poked her head into the living room, where her great uncle was lost in some old-timey soap opera. The movie seemed to be reaching its climax, but Grunkle Stan's mind appeared to be somewhere else. He lacked the usual fervor he had for the shows, and sat quietly staring into the bit of nothing right above the television. She called his name again, which brought him out of his daze enough to catch his attention.
"What's up, sweetie?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Have you seen Dipper?"
"Nah, I haven't seen him. Poindexter's back though, maybe he's with him?"
Mabel nodded, and Grunkle Stan gave her a smile.
"Why don't you go check? I'm sure they're almost done with their nerd stuff."
"Yeah…" Mabel replied, and as she passed Grunkle Stan he ruffled her hair.
The code to the vending machine was the same as the day she and Dipper first found the hidden lab. The door opened with a hiss, just enough for her to slip past. The hallway was eerie, almost more so than the first time she'd been there. Last time, she had Soos and Dipper to back her up. Now, she walked down the stairs alone.
The elevator was just as nerve wracking as their first trip, and she stood clutching the edge of her sweater, praying the creaking sounds were normal. The door slid open to the lab, lit only by blinking buttons and quiet screens. The window to the portal room was closed off with a curtain. The desk was lit by a single lamp.
Grunkle Ford was standing at the desk. His body kept its contents from view. He turned as she entered.
"Mabel?" he asked. His face was shadowed, and for a moment a chill ran through Mabel's system. He was alone.
"Grunkle Ford? Where's Dipper?"
"You shouldn't be down here," he said, his voice strained.
"Where's Dipper?" she asked, and he didn't look at her. He looked back at the desk and heaved a heavy breath. The desk light flashed across his glasses, and her heart thudded in her chest.
"Mabel…" he started, but suddenly she only wanted him to stop.
"Something happened."
She clutched her sweater harder, taking a small step back as she frantically searched his face.
"No." she said, and Grunkle Ford stepped towards her. She was shaking her head as he kneeled, a solemn expression on his face.
"Dipper's gone, Mabel."
"No. No way."
"I couldn't get to him in time. I'm sorry Mabel."
Her breath was starting to catch in her lungs, and the forced vacancy was leaving her light headed.
"He helped me save the world, Mabel-" Grunkle Ford reached out a hand, with clear intent to comfort, but before it could come in contact with her shoulder she smacked it aside. She could feel the tears brimming her lashes, and she could see his wide-eyed shock.
The shocked silence seemed to last forever, but it was only seconds before the confused tears started to fall.
"Mabel…" Grunkle Ford started, reaching for her once again, but she darted from his grasp, back into the elevator.
He tried to lunge after her, but the doors closed just before his fingers, and she watched with tear-blurred eyes as the window rose above his pale face. She stood in the elevator, hands clenching and unclenching on the edge of her sweater. The door dinged, almost cheerily, and she stumbled into the hallway. She tripped on the corner of the open vending machine and sprawled onto the floor. It took Mabel a minute to pick herself up, and even then she hardly got to her knees. Her knees stung with the distant pain of rug burn, but with her world crashing down around her, she barely noticed.
She sat, staring at the floor beneath her and watching the accumulation of little drips, until the elevator door opened behind her. She jolted out of her daze, darting out the door before Ford could reach the gift shop.
The sun was low on the horizon, turning the forest into alternating bands of light and dark. As she slipped into the trees, she distantly heard the slam of the back door, and Ford calling for her. She kept running, with no idea where she was going but away from him.
Finally, the uneven forest floor beat out her frantic flight, and for the second time she found herself falling to the unforgiving ground. She pulled herself to her feet, but found she could hardly make it to a nearby tree. She slumped against it, pulling her arms into her sweater and tugging up her collar.
"Dipper… Where are you? Grunkle Ford can't be… right."
Tucked against the tree, Mabel cried for her brother.
It was cold and dark, and the only thing that was quieting his panic was the increasing chill. The glass (or what looked like glass, it couldn't be glass, could it? it was strong enough to resist the force that broke it out of the atmosphere, it couldn't be just glass), was cold beneath him, and he could do little against it but huddle up in his vest. His thoughts were getting scattered, lost to the cold and the shock of where he was. He'd spent hours pounding on the windows, at the panel imbedded in the metal behind him, until his hands were cracked and bleeding and the cold had sapped the feeling from his limbs. He didn't know where he was going. It was cold, and he didn't know what to do.
Images reeled in his mind, his last moments before being confined in a glass bubble and shot out of the atmosphere.
It was a mistake, really, the fault of the malfunctioning magnet gun. The jolt from its activation and the following clunk of the lifted plate nearly knocked him off balance. He'd flushed with embarrassment as he tried to pry the metal plate from the gun, flustered with his great uncle's offer, and how quickly he did something embarrassing in front of the man. There was no way he would maintain his offer of apprenticeship after seeing how clumsy Dipper was. Dipper was completely surprised by Ford's sudden praise and the shining goo stuck to the plate, and awed at how dumb luck could turn a moment of shame into one of hope.
The small moment of triumph quickly turned sour, as he recalled the sudden fear as something moved within the long dead ship. Grunkle Ford stood before him. Grunkle Ford was there to protect him. But not even Grunkle Ford could protect him from his own fear. And, in the heat of the moment, his hero couldn't protect himself from the concentrated fire of laser beams.
The shot burned into Ford's shoulder with enough force to knock him off his feet. Dipper cried for him as he fell. A heavy clang echoed through the metal corridors as Ford's skull impacted with the floor, punctuated by a distant crash as the damaged drone fell into the depths of the hall. Dipper scrambled to his feet, darting towards the limp form of his uncle.
"Great Uncle Ford?" he asked, voice cracking with fear. The man's eyes were shut, knocked out cold by the impact with the ground. Dipper grabbed at his shoulder, hands shaking as he tried to wake up his uncle.
Behind him, the glass orb of the security drone split open, metal arms snaking towards him. Compared to his uncle's sudden unconsciousness, Dipper's own jumping heart was like a shining beacon to its sensors. The arms were on him before he could stand, easily wrapping around his skinny arms and dragging him back towards the open slice of the drone's glass body. He fought, trying to rip free of the metal grip, but the glass bubble sealed shut with him inside.
"Great Uncle Ford!" he screamed, and his heart jumped with hope as Ford stirred, a low groan escaping his lips.
But too quickly the orb was moving, rocketed him away from the prone form of his grunkle. The twists and turns of the corridors were far from smooth, and Dipper had to brace himself against the glass to avoid slamming into it.
His mind was blank with panic, but as the bubble locked into position on a sleek metal ship, a sudden realization gave him new vigor. He pressed himself up against the glass, pounding at its surface, screaming for his Grunkle Ford and praying that the man would appear at the entrance to the tunnel the bubble pulled him through. And when the transport broke ground level and shot into the sky, he waited for his Grunkle to appear. Maybe he would hijack one of the ships and fly it after him. His hands shook as Gravity Falls became ever smaller below him, and watched as the continent began to shrink. He nearly blacked out when the ship left the atmosphere, bounced around in the bubble as he was.
It wasn't until the Earth became a little blue dot in the vast expanse of space that he realized there was no one coming to rescue him. Only one ship had left the abandoned alien craft, and he was its unwilling passenger.
Now he was cold, and alone, and scared. He had one last though before he succumbed to the dark. He pulled a walkie-talkie from out of his vest, and listened carefully for any sound. He pressed the button, sucking in a shaky breath before speaking.
"Mabel? Are you there?"
Silence answered him.
Dipper Pines, exhausted, frozen, and far from home, closed his eyes.
Hello people!
Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my new fic! :) I've had this idea rolling around for a while, and I thought it was finally time to put it out there!
I'll provide a bit more info about this fic in the next update. This chap is more of an intro, the next will get more into the nitty gritty of what the rest of the story will be.
Thanks for reading! See you next time!
-Missa