A/N: Wow, it's been almost three weeks since the last chapter. First off, I'd like to apologise for making you wait so long. I don't have any excuse, I'm just a terrible procrastinator and have some tricky spells of writer's block with certain stories. I'm gonna try to get better with that, but I unfortunately can't promise anything. But worry not, I fully intend to keep this story going. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this chapter :)


CHAPTER SEVEN

At first, Mabel was aware only of the strange dreams that now seemed to occupy every night. Incoherent visions of various things. A distant star going supernova, a glimpse of the asteroid that had brought the age of dinosaurs to an end, a brief peek into the lives of the Gnomes in the Gravity Falls forest, a snapshot of sentient mushroom people on a far off world. Then, she felt a tug on her senses, and she was pulled out of the strange dream.

She became aware of consciousness, and her heavy eyes slowly opened. She was lying at the trunk of an enormous tree beneath a sea of stars. Unfamiliar stars, she realised, not something she would have taken notice of back when she was human. But now… certain things were going to change whether she liked it or not, that much she knew. Seeing Dipper's burst of omniscience was enough to make that reality sink in.

She sat up and sleepily rubbed her eyes, yawning deeply. Looking around, she saw that the tree was rooted in the centre of a long, grassy plain. Just where the heck was she? She got to her feet and began to walk through it.

"Dipper?" she called.

There came no reply. This entire field was completely silent apart from a distant, calming white noise coming from nowhere in particular. Scattered throughout the field were small flowers of crimson and gold, and star-like sparkles rose from the ground. It was very pretty, Mabel thought, but she still had no idea where she was. Yet strangely, she felt no worry or alarm, she just felt… calm, and comfortable, like she was meant to be in this strange, ethereal landscape.

"Dipper?" she called again.

Still no reply. She went onwards across the lengthy field, the tree growing ever further away, until, at long last, the edge came into view, dropping off into nothingness. And there, sat with his back turned to her and his legs crossed, was Dipper, staring off into space. Following his gaze, she saw… oh wow, how hadn't she noticed that before? An entire galaxy was visible, close enough to appear larger than the moon would. She stared at it long and hard, taking in its beauty, thinking how there would be hundreds of millions of stars in each arm of the massive spiralling structure.

"Wow", she said in a hushed voice.

She went to sit beside Dipper, and together the two of them stared at it some more. Mabel had no idea if any of this was real or not, but it sure as heck looked it.

"Dipper, where are we?" Mabel said.

"Our mindscape", he said.

"Wait… you mean like that one time when we followed Bill into Grunkle Stan's mind?"

"Basically, yeah".

"But… I thought everyone has their own mindscape, so what do you mean by "our" mindscape? And how do you know that's what it is?"

Dipper sighed deeply.

"I… may have retained a little more information than I told Ford about".

"But… why didn't you tell him?" Mabel said, tilting her head slightly and cocking her brow.

"Because… I… I don't know", Dipper admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I… For some reason, I just didn't want to tell him everything I knew. I didn't keep much secret from him, but… a few things. This is one of them. When I came out of the omniscient state, I just… knew about this place, and how to access it. When we died, our mindscapes died with us. But then, we were reborn, and so were they… only, they sort of got mashed together and formed a single mindscape, one that we apparently share".

"But why?"

"I don't know. I guess… Remember how when we beat Bill, we sort of talked and moved in unison?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, I think that means we're linked Mabel. I mean we already have like, a natural connection as twins, so I guess when we were reviving ourselves with the same power source, our minds, souls and power became intertwined, and now, we're connected in every sense of the word. I mean we acted in unison when we beat Bill, we have the same dreams, and now the same mindscape too".

"Whoa, weird", Mabel said. "I guess I never thought about it that way, but… you're right, bro. Like, it's almost amazing that we're still two separate people".

"Yeah, that… that's something I'm grateful for. We still got to stay ourselves, we still got to be individuals. But there's no denying that we're connected now".

"Well, that's not so bad, is it?" Mabel said.

Dipper smiled.

"Yeah, I guess not", he said. "But it's still… freaky, you know?"

"You know I know", Mabel said, trying to wrap her head around all this.

There was a brief silence.

"It's kinda scary", Mabel said. "Thinking about all this stuff. I mean, the cool powers are one thing, but, they come with a price, don't they? Now, with all that weird omniscience junk, and who knows what else we'll be able to do eventually. I'm… scared that it's gonna change us bro-bro".

"I'm scared too", Dipper admitted.

The two of them linked hands, both of them noticing that the other was trembling a little.

"I felt… really lost, Mabel", Dipper said, a few tears in his eyes. "Just… really, really lost. I wasn't myself, it just felt like my individuality was drowning at the bottom of an ocean of information. All the secrets of the universe flooding into your head like that, it's… terrifying".

Mabel squeezed his hand, staring at him worriedly.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. Not great, but okay. I just… I never wanna repeat that again, but… given that we have an eternity waiting for us, I can't help but think that at some point we're gonna have to delve into the whole omniscience deal again at some point. But that terrifies me, because the pain, the sense of losing yourself and becoming nothing but a small part of what you are, that's… that's terrifying, Mabel. Just, thank you for getting me out of that".

"It's no problem, bro", Mabel said, attempting a grin but not quite managing it. "You know, I nearly got pulled into it too".

"Wait, what!?" Dipper said, his eyes bulging in alarm.

"I guess, because of that connection, you being in that state was pulling me into it. But then I just… did my thing, and you were back, and we were both okay. I don't even know what I did Dipper, I just did it without even thinking".

Dipper grimaced.

"Sorry", he muttered.

"Dipper, stop apologizing for things that aren't your fault", Mabel said.

"I was the one that opened the door and went into the omniscience, this WAS my fault".

"No, it's not", Mabel said, frowning. "You didn't know what it was. There was no way you could ever have known. We've only been what we are for a few days Dipper, accidents are gonna happen. Okay?"

Dipper looked away before nodding.

"Okay", he mumbled, not entirely sincerely.

Another silence overcame them.

"So how did you even get us here?" Mabel asked after a while.

Dipper shrugged.

"I just sort of… knew how to do it after what happened. It's like walking out of a room, only in your mind, and rather than walking from one room to another, you're walking from one reality to another".

"I guess that makes sense", Mabel said, having the feeling that after this first visit, she too was going to be left with an instinctive knowledge of how to get here. Unlike the time they had followed Bill, it didn't require a ritual of any sort, either. They could just do it now. Eventually, they'd probably be able to access other people's mindscapes, just the way Bill could. That made something in her mind click, and her eyes bulged at the realisation.

"What?" Dipper said, worry all over his face.

"Dipper… do you ever think… is it weird how similar our powers are to Bill's?"

It was Dipper's turn for his eyes to bulge.

"Oh, wow, yeah", he said, a lilt of horror to his voice. "Reality warping, entering the mindscape freely, omniscience… that's… really unsettling, actually".

"But how?" Mabel said. "He was a demon, right?"

"Well, I thought so, but… do you think we're not the only ones like us, Mabel?"

"Wh-whaddya mean?"

"I mean think about it, there's an infinite multiverse out there. We can't possibly be the only beings in all of existence to be like us. Maybe… Maybe Bill was created the way we were".

"But Bill was super shocked when he saw us, we were nothing like anything he'd ever seen before".

"Well, what if it's not supposed to happen on this scale? Maybe whatever happened to Bill gave him powers like ours on a much smaller level, with more limitations. I mean for one thing, he was totally stuck in the mindscape before Weirdmageddon. And even afterwards, his power had limits, his omniscience had a LOT of blind spots, but with us? I don't think so. We have true omniscience, we can really know everything when we get powerful enough to withstand it. And you remember our fight with Bill, we had infinite power, we were so, so much stronger than he was, he was nothing to us. So maybe our transformation has happened to others in the past, but maybe, just maybe, it's never happened on such a massive scale before. We're the first ones that are this powerful, the first ones that absorbed so much energy, the first ones that can really be called… well… gods…"

Mabel gawped at him long and hard.

"Words… not… I… what the, I, uh…"

"Yeah, it's weird", Dipper said.

"But then… why did we get limits afterwards? Why didn't we keep all the immense power and junk?"

"I… don't know exactly, but to hazard a guess, I'd say, since our souls are so knew to the whole infinite power deal, they couldn't keep it up for long. So for now, we've been locked out of that power. But I don't think that's gonna last, sis. We keep getting more powerful with every single day that goes by. Eventually, we're gonna be like we were when we fought Bill".

Mabel's heart hammered against her chest.

"I… I don't know if I really want that", she said.

"No, me either", Dipper said.

"We were so different then Dipper. Like, really, really different. Scarily different. We weren't even like the same people when we were like that".

"I know. But, you know, maybe by the time we get to be like that, we'll have learned to control it more. Maybe we'll be able to retain our sense of self better, you know".

A few tears threatened to spill from Mabel's eyes. She batted them away irritably.

"I hope so", she said in a hoarse almost-whisper. "You don't think… if Bill was made the way we were, does that mean… could we end up like him? I mean what if Bill wasn't the way he was when we knew him? What if he was good or at least decent once, but the power got to his head and the amount of time he was alive made him go crazy and stuff. What if that happens to us?"

"No way", Dipper said, placing his hand on her shoulder. "It's like you said to me when I was freaking out. We'll do this together. There's no one I'd rather spend eternity with than you Mabel, and I know, together, we can figure this out. We'll find a way to stay us, to keep our individuality and prevent ourselves from ever becoming like Bill. We're not like him, we're better than he ever was, and there's no way in hell that I would ever let you become like him, or you would let me become like him, because we're not like Bill, we're nothing like him, and we'll never, ever end up like him".

"You promise?" Mabel said.

"Yeah, I do", Dipper said. He smiled warmly at her. "There's nothing we can't accomplish together, Mabel. Like you told me, we're gonna be okay because we're gonna do this together, every step of the way. We'll find a way to make sure you stay you and I stay me".

Mabel returned his warm smile.

"I love you dorkface", she said, pulling him into a hug.

"Love you too, goofus", Dipper said, tightening their embrace.

They held the hug for a minute or so longer, before finally letting go.

"So hey", Mabel said.

"Yeah?"

"If we're in the mindscape right now, that means we can do whatever we want without limit, right?"

"Yeah, I mean we could do that even when we were human. I guess since technically it's not real in the traditional sense of the word".

"Then in that case", she said, grinning deviously.

She pointed her index finger, and from thin air she conjured a gigantic, flying rainbow squid. It was bigger than any living thing imaginable, flying a short distance away from the floating island they were sitting on. It drifted through the air, leaving a trail of rainbows wherever it went.

"Okay, so that's cool and all", Dipper said, "but… why?"

Mabel shrugged and made the "I dunno" noise.

"It's weird to think we'll be able to do that in real life eventually", Dipper said.

"Yeah", Mabel said, grinning. "That's gonna be awesome. Just think of all the things we'll be able to create. Like ice cream, puppies, laser sharks…"

"Machines that make the portal look like child's play", Dipper said, chuckling at the thought of the kind of experiments he could get up to with Ford now. Briefly the thought of eventually creating entire universes flickered through his mind, but such power was a long way away, and frankly it made him uncomfortable, remembering what they had been like when they had fought Bill. For now he let the thought go and focused on the present.

"That's gonna take some practise though", Mabel said. "I mean we can't make anything at all out of thin air yet".

"No, I guess we can't", Dipper said. "So for now, the mindscape is just gonna have to do".

He conjured a glowing castle sitting on a newly formed floating island, drifting a short distance away from their own island.

"Whoa, what's in there?" Mabel said.

"No idea. Wanna go find out?"

He proffered his arm and smiled at her. Beaming at him, she linked her arm with his.

"Definitely".

And together the two of them began to fly across the gap between the two islands, the two of them conjuring up whatever stupid junk came to their minds as they went. It may not have been real, but it was certainly fun, and for now, a good distraction from the future that faced them.