Ordeal
Chapter 7
Pacifica was a liar and Robbie pissed his pants.
With Pacifica, all she could tell was that she was lying and she couldn't be trusted. Her sarcasm was a given, though. With Robbie, he told her one too many things because he was a wimp. With Gideon, it was fine and he gave all that she needed to know.
That was all Mabel could conclude, but of course, she didn't get their names. Except for Robbie. But Mabel didn't really remember any of them, since she had a poor memory after, oh, surviving the town and memorizing the journals for seven years. So, she didn't know their names or how they were so alike to some people she thought she knew. Mabel trashed it as some illusion her brain was pulling.
She knew that these nightmares were the same as the one she had gotten. It had the same premise. There was a black and white dream, taken in Gravity Falls, where a girl kept running away from triangles, as the boy turns into a demon and flies away, leaving the girl. Mabel was the girl and Dipper was, sadly, the demon. The triangles were Bill Cipher. She knew that. Bill played a part in her adventure, but it was nothing too major. It was all the same.
But her gut tells her it was different.
Her gut tells her Bill Cipher was coming back.
"That's not possible," she told herself, washing her face in the bathroom. "Bill died years ago. Now he's rotting in cratheos. That tri-son of a bitch." Mabel closed her eyes, leaning against the mirror. "But he could do anything... what if it happens? What if the last time he was resurrected, that wasn't what the dreams meant?"
She looked back at the mirror, and for a split second, her reflection was identical to that demonic Dipper. With real horns, black, feathery wings and crimson eyes. But it went away the moment she saw it. She shrugged it off, like it was a normal thing she would experience. But the strange thing was, there was someone else in the reflection, staring at her. She recognize it the second it stared at her, and if memory served right, it was practically nothing.
She caught a small glimpse of it, before turning back, finding nothing there in the bathroom with her. It was evidence to that 'practically nothing', to which she felt relieved. She looked back, and was face to face with the mirror demon, Lebam.
Legend told that, Lebam would be a reflection of you. It will mirror whoever you are, and drive you insane in reflections, till it could harvest your soul for death. Funny thing is, she couldn't harvest Mabel's soul. The name Mabel was a curse to her, and that the name was the original person Lebam had been before she spirited away. So, she couldn't reap herself.
But she could still drive her crazy.
Mabel watched as Lebam grinned at her, sitting on air in the mirror and snickering. "My dad really was a genius." It had been so long since Mabel heard that voice. Three years to be exact. But her mentioning her dad? That was something new.
"How so?" Mabel asked, not caring if she was just talking to a mirror.
"He's making you doubt yourself." Lebam said as she looked at her fingernails, not making any eye contact with Mabel.
Mabel bit her lip. There was no point in arguing with her, even if she just communicated with her. The mirror overlord didn't care if she went away. If there was any way to defeat her, it was to bore her. But Mabel couldn't do that if Lebam's goal was to irritate her by being in her presence. So, one of Mabel's ways to beat her was to bail the conversation and walk away, ignoring other mirrors.
And that's what Mabel did.
"DIPPER!" Mabel shouted after him.
Dipper's back shattered the glass windows of the castle, and landed into the training facility of the kingdom.
Most of the goblins there stopped whatever they were doing, and ran off to safety. Dipper was a monster to their eyes. A killer. A murderer. And he was able to kill any one of them if he chose to. Even while he's downed, it just takes a couple of seconds for him to end their life.
The masked assassin leaped out the shattered window, not needing to break anymore glass shards as he fell through. He landed in front of Dipper, who got back up on his feet and struck Tyrone in the jaw to faze him. It didn't work out as planned, and he got a kick to the chest instead. It was like a push, but this demon-clone was crazy strong, so it turned into a car-like shove. Dipper's body flew forty feet back, his feet digging into the dirt and preventing him from going any further.
Tyrone strode towards him, like he was a heavy tank that was moving its fastest towards Dipper. The gear he put on made him seem like too much, but there was never enough for this crazy clone. Tyrone had black ninja robes, that was established, but he also had an array untested military armor. Helmet, shoulder pads, bulletproof vest, knee pads, boots, gauntlets... whatever. And a few straps that do nothing but give him a place to tack on weapons.
All Dipper had against that was nothing but his wit and whatever was in his magical, blue coat and gray pants pockets. His mind raced through strategies to beat him, but whatever he was thinking, was already thought through by Tyrone. After all, this revenge act was planned by the demonic clone. Dipper dug into his pockets and pulled out a jade crystal, using its energy to disperse cyan telekinetic rays.
It was like Gideon's amulet, except, with only the magic and the crystal source.
Dipper felt a glow run through his body, and his eyes burning with light. With a single thought, he lifted the tents from the training facility and threw it at the military ninja. Tyrone deflected the tents with a backhand, like they were only nuisances to him. It's not everyday you get someone psychically throwing tents at you and you just smack them with an arm and continue your life. No, this was not normal.
Tyrone grunted, after moments of silence since this fight started, his voice was heard again.
"What's it like to feel desperate?" Tyrone asked. "Really. I'm serious. I never felt a moment to be backed into a corner."
Dipper hesitated to retort, but found out he was only talking to make him lose focus. As he was thinking of talking to him, Tyrone was in his range, and he had to use the most of this powerful crystal before it ran out. Eyes blazing with green light, Dipper let out a burst of energy that came through the jade shard and burned up everything that was in his perimeter. Something Gideon had done before: disintegrating things.
Tyrone caught a hint of what's happening. "Aw shi..."
BSHOOOOM! Tyrone was amazed at this power, holding his arms in front of his face to shield himself from it. However, he got caught in the upward explosion of green energy, and was trapped in the hellish burns of the power of a magical, telekinetic crystal.
With Mabel, she was terrified at what was happening, and how this all went downhill fast. She didn't know what was happening to Dipper, but that green light only made her think he was attacked by some sort of incantation from hell. She was about to rush through the castle, but the goblin king stopped her in her way.
"Don't." he said.
"Get outta my way!" Mabel shouted.
"You know, if I knew you were his sister, I would've planned against you instead." the king informed coldly. "But I didn't. You should be lucky..." He took a second glance at her. "But maybe you feeling your brother dying in front of you is a better punishment for him. So that he could feel how it's like to die failing..."
He thought about it for a moment.
"Go ahead." the goblin king said, letting her through.
Mabel ran after the battle.
The shard Dipper had, dissipated and crushed itself from its own power, meaning it turned to dust. Dipper was surprised by how short it lasted, and how the glow suddenly vanished. The energy flickered away and Tyrone's armor was smoking from the attack, seemingly unharmed by how he moved. The clone took a few seconds to regain his stature, before striking Dipper into the grass, and out of the burned, dead, circular soil he created. The monster hunter dug into his pockets again, getting a pen.
"More of your toys?" Tyrone asked, grabbing his hand and crushing his bones, also crushing the pen he had. "I told you, you're a big boy. You don't need any of those."
"AAGGHHHH!" Dipper shouted in agony, clutching at his wrist. The gruesome feeling of having your left hand crushed by the force of probably the strongest thing in the world, was terrible. And now his pen was crushed. He hated that. His adrenaline fought through the pain, as he backed away and snapped his bones back into place.
"That's not gonna do you any good." Tyrone remarked, catching his arm and pulling it away from healing his broken hand. "You're still gonna have fractures."
Dipper kicked him in the leg, twice. But it didn't have any effect. He did a graceful jump over the ninja, using the momentum to pull his arm forward and throw Tyrone to the ground. Dipper pulled a dagger from his back pocket, still wincing that it was his broken hand that was doing the work, and stabbing it forcefully into his clone's vest. Fortunately, it worked, because the blade was made of a substance from hell.
"I've just noticed you didn't seem to have a reaction to finding out I was here. Were you saying you counted on this all along?" Tyrone asked, in a taunting tone, like he wasn't feeling the wound of the dagger being stuck in his chest. With Dipper being silent, he continued. "If so, you should've prepared yourself."
Dipper pulled out his dagger and ferociously stabbed him a few other times, but Tyrone only felt it as a annoyances, and swatted his dagger away. Unarmed, Dipper had to get out of that situation. Instantly after that, Dipper kicked at him, but rebounded. However, that was part of his plan. If his kick was successful, he had a few seconds of stalling. If his kick goes unsuccessful, he would be propelled to the direction of his knife and he would be armed again.
Except... Tyrone grabbed his leg.
Mabel had dashed over to the fields, picking up a grappling hook from one of the traning boxes the goblins had. She worked her way through the advanced controls of the device, trying to figure out how to use her favorite tool back in the day.
"C'mon, work! Dipper needs my help!" Mabel cried, jamming buttons. "I can't lose him!"
Meanwhile, Tyrone slammed him against the ground, a forceful impact on his body. Dipper groaned in pain, his back aching and all other parts of his body breaking. Tyrone's gauntlet opened up a set of dual laser claws, and held it above Dipper's eyes.
"What's this? Didn't think I'd have a few tools?" Tyrone asked, seeing Dipper struggle and surprised to see that. "We've known to prepare ourselves. But one thing you lack that I don't is... the power." Tyrone pinned him in the ground by holding his neck against it. "You want power to control them. But you don't have that. I do. And you're jealous."
SSSSSS... That was the sound of burning flesh.
"YyaAAGHHHHH!" the monster hunter screamed.
The claws were being pushed into his stomach. The blue ionized laser was cutting through his flesh, stinging and burning Dipper alive. It felt like he went to hell and back, except he knew how it was like.
Mabel watched in horror as she saw her brother getting stabbed. That awe turned into anger, and that led to her cocking the grappling hook and shooting it through Tyrone's padded armor. It punctured through his skin and lung, which made him stagger back and let go of his... laser claws.
"LET GO OF HIM!" she shouted, and Tyrone did, in a great deal of anguish. Dipper seethed, trembling and experiencing muscle spasm as he was bleeding out. Mabel rushed over to her brother, grappling gun still pointed at Tyrone. She glared at him, and cocked the gun back and pulled the hook back through Tyrone's body. The feeling of this cold and relentless attitude felt natural to Mabel. It made her relax, seeing her enemies weaken.
Mabel pulled her brother up, placing his arm over her neck. She took his limping body into the forest, gun pointed at anyone who dared come across her. Tyrone didn't intervene, and let them escape.
The hunter huffed, his state weakening every second. "I didn't think you'd..." He passed out.
Gideon looked around the hallway Mabel was leading him through. It was cold, metal and smooth. Also dusty, since nobody had cleaned it. Gideon was still wary of Mabel, knowing she could rip out his heart at any given moment. Figuratively and literally.
I can imagine her being my girlfriend... for some reason. Gideon mused, feeling sick of his thoughts. I don't know why, but I do. What's wrong with me?
"Okay, Gideon, I want you to get your friends out of here and never come back." Mabel instructed, pulling out a familiar weapon. It was a gun that had lightbulbs on it and a metal dish. "But before that, I'll need to do something to erase your nightmares. And I'll need to get the full consent of your friends."
"Why don't you just do it? Why do you need our consent?" Gideon asked, "And why do I have to get my friends out? Can't the girl do it? She's less of a wuss than me."
"Because what I'm about to do will heavily violate human rights." Mabel answered, "And with your last questions, it's because I trust you more than them."
"Not to sound like a broken record, but why?" Gideon inquired.
Mabel stopped outside of the hallway, revealing her bunker to Gideon, who kept his distance of ten inches from Mabel. To him, the bunker was a mess, with papers and boards everywhere, a couch, canned meat and water hastily placed on a table. Cabinets were either destroyed or pushed down, and the lucky ones were still standing. Gideon didn't want to set foot in there.
"Because, you're the only one that's honest." Mabel remarked, "That blonde girl lies and the hoodie guy is too much of a pansy. You're the only one that has the best intentions out of the three."
Gideon was silent for a moment, trying to think of questions that this woman could answer. "What will you do to us that 'heavily violates' our human rights?"
"I'll erase your memories." Mabel said.
"Woah, woah, woah." Gideon took a step back, his arms holding up. "You're gonna give us amnesia?" He then stopped and thought about it. "Well, I was thinking about doing the same thing just a few hours ago... I shouldn't be complaining."
Mabel sighed, rubbing the spot where Gideon stabbed her with an arrow. "I'm going to go to hell. I need to check on something." she informed, looking through her cupboards for a book so that she could do her task.
Gideon raised a brow. "Go to... hell?"
A/N: I didn't know how to end it, so I'm ending it here. I'd still like to know which story is more interesting to you: flashback or present?
I'm out, and have a nice day!
