A brief story that I couldn't get out of my head for some reason. I don't know. It's something, I guess. Enjoy.

She stood over the sink, breathing heavily. Splashing water on her face, she looked up into the bathroom mirror and briefly wondered how her life had come to this.

An assassin. She had become an assassin. And a talented one at that. Not one mistake in over 4 years working. Over 100 successful jobs. She didn't know the exact number. She didn't want to know how much blood was on her hands. But it didn't matter. It would all be done soon.

Gripping the rim of the porcelain sink, she tried to steady her hands. "One last time," she whispered to herself. "One. Last. Time."

Walking out of the bathroom, she began her walk down the long, empty hallway, lit by harsh fluorescent lights, toward the single door at the end of the corridor. As she walked, she wondered how she had ended up here. Recruited to this… "family", or so they called it, at age 18. Killing for money. Lying to friends and family. How had this happened?

She shook her head. The past didn't matter now.

She felt her pocket and let out a sigh of relief. It was still there. The thing that represented her new life. The reason she had to leave this life behind and start over. No more lies. No more killing. She could be free.

Finally reaching the door at the end of the hall, she pushed through, and found herself in a dark room, with only a single spotlight in the center. Nothing in the room was visible in the darkness. Nothing about the room could be determined. Not its size. Not its shape. Not if there was anyone else hiding in the shadows.

Without hesitating, she walked towards and stood in the center of the spotlight. Suddenly, a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere greeted her. "Welcome back," it boomed. The voice was electronically altered, so it was impossible to tell who was talking, their age, their gender. It was all disguised. But she knew one thing: this was her boss, the person who told her who and when to kill.

"This is my last job," she declared. "After this, I want out."

After a moment, the voice answered. "I see. And you think you can leave that easily? That all the things you've done will be forgotten if you simply walk away?"

She grabbed her pocket. "It won't ever go away," she replied, teary-eyed. "I know that better than anyone. But I want to start over. I want to live my own life, an honest life. Not… this life."

There was a silence. An uncomfortably long silence. She braced herself, fearing she'd soon feel a bullet pierce her chest. But to she relief, it never came.

"Very well," boomed the voice. "You're free to go. So long as you complete this job. We'll go our separate ways. You'll never hear from us again."

She held her breath. It couldn't be that simple.

A small manila envelope fell at her feet.

"That's the target. Uphold your end of the deal, and we'll uphold ours. Take their life in exchange for your own."

She hesitated a moment before picking up the file and opening it.

Her heart sank and her knees became weak as she stared at the photo in her hands. It was a lie. It had to be a lie. "No," she whispered. "No, this can't be right." Looking around desperately, trying, and failing, to see the source of the voice. "No!" she yelled. "This can't be the target! You've got to be kidding!"

"Do you take me to be a person who kids?"

"But she's done nothing wrong! She couldn't have! She wouldn't have!"

"It isn't your place to question what she has or hasn't done. It's your job to kill her. And once that's done, you're free. That's the deal."

She stared at the photo, and tears began to stream down her cheeks. "I can't… she's like a sister to me… I can't…"

"Then you can't 'get out'. It's as simple as that. Either do the job or don't. If it's not you, someone else will do it. But if you want out, this is your one and only chance."

She fell silent. Tears continued to stream down her cheeks as she kept her eyes on the picture of her best friend.

The voice continued, "You have one week. Fail, and you'll be hearing from us soon enough. It's been nice working with you, Miss…?"

Quietly, she responded, "You know my name…"

"I know your first name. I know your code name. But you've never mentioned your last name."

A moment passed before she answered.

"Pines."

One week later

Dipper and Mabel Pines sat in the living room of the Mystery Shack, Gravity Falls' famous tourist trap formerly run by their great uncle Stan Pines. But since Grunkle Stan was travelling the world with his twin brother Stanford, the current owner of the Shack was Soos, one of Stan's employees.

The Pines twins, both 22, had moved to Gravity Falls before even finishing high school. They completed their senior year at Gravity Falls High. Dipper had since been working solving mysteries for the townsfolk. And when something supernatural wasn't trying to destroy the town, he worked with Soos and Wendy, who had tricked Soos into giving them a significant raise, at the Mystery Shack.

Mabel, on the other hand, got what she called a "grown-up" job. She worked in retail at a clothing store chain. Surprisingly, she took her job very seriously and was promoted all the way up to manager in only a few months.

They lived in an apartment building in town, where they didn't have to pay rent thanks to the generosity of the building's owner, their closest friend, Pacifica Northwest.

Well, at least, Mabel lived there. Dipper had recently moved out because…

"So how's the new house, Bro-bro? You and Pacifica manage to get everything all set up yet?"

"We're working on it. Er, Pacifica's having the butlers work on it. It kinda feels like I'm not helping."

"'Cause you're not."

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Thanks. That really makes me feel useful."

Mabel giggled, then started to bounce with excitement. "I still can't believe it! You and Pacifica are married! She's my sister now! It's amazing! And you get to be part of the Northwest family! It's like you're famous."

Dipper, seeing his sister's excitement, couldn't help but laugh. "Technically, she changed her last name. She's Pacifica Pines now. So it might be more accurate to say she joined the Pines family."

"Speaking of Pacifica, where is she?" asked Mabel, looking around as if Pacifica had somehow snuck in without her noticing.

"Oh, she should be here soon. She wanted to make sure the house was coming along well. Plus she wanted to change clothes before coming by. She may be a Pines now, but she doesn't… dress like one." Dipper replied, eyeing his sister's trademark sweater, which she still knitted herself and which hadn't become any less childish than a decade ago. "So it still takes her a while to get ready."

Mabel pouted, but before she could retort, they heard the front door open.

"PACIFICA!" shouted Mabel, who bolted for the front door and tackled the blonde into a hug. A few years ago, the hug would have knocked Pacifica down, but now she was a pro when it came to Mabel hugs and braced herself for the attack.

Like the Pines twins, Pacifica was also 22, and was as beautiful and fashionable as ever. However, one thing that had changed was her attitude. She was no longer the arrogant princess of the Northwest family. Instead, she was one of the kindest people in Gravity Falls. Having taken over most of her father's businesses, since he stepped down after trying to join Bill Cipher during Weirdmageddon, she redirected a lot of company profits towards charity work, with most of the money coming out of her own paycheck. Of course, given the size of her paychecks, giving most of the money to charity didn't really dent the family fortune.

As for her relationship with Dipper, that began as soon as the Pines twins moved to Gravity Falls. The two had realized their feelings for each other long before then, but it took until senior year of high school for Dipper to finally ask Pacifica out on a date. Things got serious, and, a few years later, the two were married.

The wedding was just last week, and the newlyweds were still in the process of moving their things into the house Pacifica's father gave them as a wedding gift. It had been a hectic week for everyone, but things were going pretty smoothly.

"Mabel…air…need air…" wheezed Pacifica. No matter how prepared she was for the hugs, it didn't mean she could survive them.

Mabel released her hold on the blonde, instead grabbing her hands and proceeding to bounce up and down rapidly. "Omigosh, we're sisters! That's even better than best friends! WE'RE ACTUALLY SISTERS!" yelled Mabel.

Pacifica laughed. "Yes, Mabel. We're sisters now. We've been over this every day since Dipper and I got engaged."

Just then, Dipper walked into the room. "Hey, Paz," he said, giving Pacifica a quick kiss. "Sorry, but I gotta go. Soos and Wendy just texted me, said they needed help picking something up in town. You two watch the Mystery Shack."

As Dipper walked to the door, Pacifica put her hands on her hips. "This better not be how my new husband treats me. Walking out as soon as I walk in."

"Don't worry. It'll be quick," replied Dipper. "And to make it up to you, I'll take you out tonight. Anywhere you want to go."

"Anywhere?"

"Anywhere."

Pacifica smiled. "Alright then. You're free to go. But don't think I'll let you forget that promise."

With that, Dipper stepped outside, hopped into his car, and drove off, leaving the two girls alone in the Shack. As he drove away, Mabel flipped the "Open" sign on the door to "Closed". As she turned back around to face Pacifica, she looked sad, like something was weighing on her. Pacifica was concerned. "Mabel? What's wrong? Why'd you close the Shack?"

"Actually… there's something I need to tell you. And I think it'd be easier to say if we weren't interrupted."

"Ok…"

Mabel looked down at her feet, not wanting to look Pacifica in the eyes. "I… I didn't want to do this to you and Dipper, but I don't really have a choice. I wanted us all to be together forever, so that we all could be happy all the time. My boss is making me, so there's not really much I can do."

Pacifica's concern changed to confusion.

"I… my boss wants me to manage one of our bigger stores in Portland, so I have to move. I didn't want to tell you guys 'cause I didn't want to leave. Especially so soon after the wedding. But we – "

Suddenly, Mabel found herself pinned against the wall, hand over her mouth, knife to her throat. And a teary-eyed Pacifica staring her down. "I'm sorry," whimpered the blonde through tears. "I'm sorry. This was supposed to be the last job. After this, it was supposed to be happily ever after. I wanted out, but they won't let me leave until this is over. I never wanted this. I never thought they would make me go this far. I'm so, so sorry."

Unable to speak, all Mabel could do was stare back at Pacifica, a mixture of fear and sadness in her eyes, tears running down her cheeks. Pacifica tried to steel herself. One last kill, then freedom. One last time. Staring back at Mabel, Pacifica steadied her hand.

Then dropped the knife.

Falling to her knees, Pacifica burst into tears. "I can't do it… I can't do it!"

Mabel hesitated, before slowly lowering herself to her sister-in-law. "P-Pacifica…?"

Looking up, Pacifica fell backwards, surprised to see how close Mabel was. The blonde scrambled to her feet and ran towards the front door. Mabel ran behind her. "Pacifica, wait!"

Before Mabel could stop her, Pacifica jumped into her car and sped off. All Mabel could do was stand and watch. "PACIFICA!"

Pacifica paced back and forth in the living room of her new house, anxious and unsure of what was next. She had never failed before, and now, she had failed in spectacular fashion. The target hadn't been killed and probably told the police, not to mention Dipper, what had happened, Pacifica missed her shot to leave her past life behind for good and was probably being hunted by both her employer and the police, and, worst of all, she had endangered the lives of the people she cared about the most.

Almost 4 hours had passed since the incident. It was starting to get dark, and Pacifica couldn't ignore a terrible sense of dread. Dipper hadn't come home yet, nor did Mabel come by the house looking for her. Not even the police came by, even though this should be the first place they'd look.

But what scared Pacifica the most was that her phone hadn't rung. Not even once. Somehow, that was terrifying. Not only because it meant no one had tried to contact her, but because, when someone did call, who would it be? Dipper? Mabel? Perhaps Wendy or Soos? Or would a familiar robotic voice greet her on the other end?

Something was horribly wrong. She could tell. Things shouldn't be this calm after a botched murder attempt, especially when the victim knows the criminal.

She felt her wedding ring. It had been in her pocket when she went to talk to her boss. She didn't want to risk them seeing it and realizing she was married. But it seemed like that didn't even matter anymore. The ring was supposed to symbolize her new life, her freedom from the things she did. But now, it was all messed up. Everything was for naught.

Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing in her pocket. Pacifica reached for it but hesitated when she laid her hand on it. Bracing for the worst, she pulled out her phone and look at the caller ID.

Mabel Pines.

Pacifica wasn't sure if she felt relieved or terrified. After all, what is one to say to a person they just tried to kill?

Pacifica answered, but, before she could say a word, a voice on the other end spoke. "You failed."

Pacifica's heart dropped at the sound of the unnatural, robotic voice. "No…" she muttered.

"The target got away. I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. I didn't expect you to back out of our deal so easily."

Pacifica was too stunned to respond until a thought crossed her mind. "Where's Mabel? What did you do to her?"

"Oh, her. Here, why don't you say hi?" There was a moment of silence before a familiar voice came through the phone. "P-Pacifica? I-Is that you?" It was Mabel. She sounded scared, but at least she was alive.

Pacifica let out a sigh of relief. "Mabel? Mabel, are you ok? They haven't done anything to you, have they?"

"Pacifica, what's going on? Why is this happening? W—" Mabel was cut off, and the robotic voice came back on the line. "Alright, enough of that. But you'd best be hurrying over here, Pacifica. After all, you owe your friend an apology, don't you? You would have killed her a lot quicker." The call ended.

For a moment, Pacifica was unable to move. All she could think was that she had gotten Mabel killed.

'No, not yet. She's still alive. I can fix this.'

That single thought was enough to snap Pacifica out of her depression. Grabbing her things, Pacifica bolted out the front door.

Kicking in the door to the pitch-black room, Pacifica drew her pistol. "Where are you? Show yourself! Give Mabel back!"

"Calm down. There's no reason for the hostility," replied the voice.

"Fuck you!"

"Watch your language, young lady. Though if you're so insistent on seeing me…"

Suddenly, the lights in the room turned on. Sitting in a desk on the other side of the room, holding a microphone, was Mabel. In a strange contrast to her usual colorful clothing, the brunette was wearing a black suit and tie. With her feet up on the desk, Mabel spoke into the microphone, her voice being distorted into the one Pacifica had come to despise. "Here I am."

Pacifica dropped her gun, staring at Mabel in confusion. "M-Mabel? What are you…? Why?"

Mabel smiled. "Sorry about that, Pacifica. Just had to test something. Hope you can forgive me."

Pacifica was too stunned to say anything. Mabel rose from her chair, walked around her desk, and sat down on top of it. "Oh, and don't worry about Dipper. I told him we were gonna have a girls' night. So no reason to worry about that."

Still in shock, but able to reasonably understand what Mabel was saying, Pacifica mumbled, "He would have texted me…"

"Oh, he did. I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of answering for you. He thinks the texts came from your phone. But don't worry about that now. What I really want to talk about was your mission."

"Mission…? Mabel… it was you? You were the one in charge of all this?"

"Yeah, pretty impressive, isn't it? You could say some of Grunkle Stan's criminal tendencies rubbed off on me. And I just love the way 'Boss Mabel' sounds, don't you? It's got a nice ring to it."

Pacifica still couldn't wrap her head around it. "But, why? And, why me? Why did you want to have me kill you? What the hell is going on?!"

"Ok, ok. Calm down. I get that your confused. That makes sense. This is a lot to take in. Had you killed me, you would've gotten a letter explaining all this, but I guess now I can do it in person. The short version is, you were perfect for the jobs I needed done. I know it sounds selfish, but, given your personality and who you are, I knew I could trust you to get stuff done quickly and without too many mistakes. So I recruited you. You might not realize it, but, since then, my little organization has gotten a lot more powerful." Mabel hopped off the desk and began walking towards Pacifica.

"As for why I had you attack me. I guess you could say it was a way of testing your strength. I figured once you and Dip got married, you'd want out. You've got a strong moral compass. But I also thought you deserved to know the truth about me."

Pacifica and Mabel were now only a few feet apart. Pacifica was still frozen, unsure of what to do. So Mabel continued. "I'm not a good person anymore, Pacifica. I've done plenty of bad things. But I wouldn't mind getting killed if you were the one to do it. Yet, I also wanted to tell myself that you, unlike me, could still be a good person. So I gave you a choice. Either you could kill me, knowing only the good side of me, learning about the bad after I was gone. Or you could let me live long enough to reveal this side to you myself. I wanted to know for sure that I hadn't corrupted you to the point that you'd lost that moral compass, that you'd kill me without reason. I wanted to be able to die knowing your strength of character was stronger than what I had put you through. And if it wasn't, then I'd die before I'd have to see you lose yourself completely. So, knowing all that…"

Mabel picked Pacifica's pistol up off the floor and handed it back to the blonde. "You have another choice. Now, the killing is justified. If you want revenge for the things I made you do, be my guest. But whatever you choose, know that you're free now. You'll never have to do this kind of work again."

Pacifica looked at the weapon, then up at her best friend. Then she threw the gun on the floor once more. "I told you. I'm done. No more killing." She felt her wedding ring once more and continued, "That's not who I am anymore. And I won't go back."

Mabel looked surprised. "You know I won't stop, right? If you let me go, you won't be a part of it, but I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing."

"I'll get you to stop."

"How?"

"I'll talk you out of it. Maybe not today, but I will. I'll make you a good person again."

Mabel smirked. "That's gonna be tough. Think you can handle it?"

Pacifica smirked back. "Please. I've had no problem handling you since we were kids."

"Looks like we're rivals again."

"Seems like it."

Mabel extended her hand. "Welcome to the family."

Pacifica hesitated. Mabel look confused before realizing why. "Oh, no. Not this 'family'." Mabel gestured around her. "You're done with that. I meant the Pines family. Welcome to the Pines family."

"Ooohhhh," replied Pacifica, and Mabel giggled.

Pacifica took Mabel's hand.

And the two women, rivals once more, stood together in that secret room, swearing that they would not be outdone by their new sister.

Didn't come out exactly as I imagined it, but you know what, I stand by it. Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!