Chapter 10: Metamorphosis!
'Eric's recent premonition has given him the answers he's been looking for while unwittingly uncovering one of his hidden Star dimension abilities! What's going to happen now?'
Previously
Feeling his temper reach its absolute boiling point, Eric shuts his eyes and raises his glowing balled up fists.
"No one comes between me and Mabel!" Eric growls. "NO ONE!"
Flinging his arms to their respective sides of his body, the elevator suddenly jolts which throws both boys forward against the closed doors. The doors of the elevator now flies open with Dipper and Eric falling onto the ground in a heap. Quickly sitting up, Dipper rubs his head and adjusts his hat.
"What happened?" Dipper questions as he begins looking around. "And where are we?"
Eric now sits up and looks around, immediately recognizing their surroundings to be the first floor of the hotel.
"We're on the first floor of the hotel." Eric speaks, continuing to look around. "But how? We were just…..The elevator was….how did..?"
"I think it has something to do with what's going on with your hands." Dipper points out.
"My hands?" Eric questions, now bringing his hands into his view and noticing that they are glowing a bright white. The boy's eyes widen at this sight. "Ok, I don't even know what's going on here."
"I think I have an idea, but before I get into that." Dipper begins as he clambers to his feet. "I think it's best that we go pay a certain blonde a visit first. I have a feeling that you will have a better understanding of what's going on after we see her first."
Getting to his feet as well, Eric now cracks a devious grin.
"Let's do it." Eric nods in agreement.
Currently
"Do I look like her keeper?" Pacifica snaps at the boys as she begins inspecting her nails. "Why would someone like me would ever want to keep up with someone like her? I wouldn't want anyone thinking I'm actually friends with her! That would bring my reputation in this town down and that is so not good for business!"
"Well if you were friends with my sister, at least you'd have some tact!" Dipper snaps at the blonde. "Now you did something to my sister and I want to know what! She has been crying non-stop, isolating herself, and even sneaking out at night! She isn't the same Mabel and I know you had something to do with why she is acting this way! Now speak up!"
Whipping her attention to Dipper, Pacifica releases a growl.
"Listen up Pines!" Pacifica begins. "If you keep demanding answers out of me about your ridiculous sister, I will call security and have you escorted off this property in handcuffs! You got that?!"
"No, you listen!" Dipper begins, his temper equally matching that of Pacifica's. "If you don't-" Eric now steps in front of Dipper to try to be the voice of reason and potential referee between them.
"Ok you two." Eric speaks up. "Fighting won't get us anywhere. Now Pacifica, you can tell me. What has been going on with Mabel lately? She hasn't been herself and she broke up with me for a reason I have yet to find out. I really need to know what's wrong with her so please tell me if you know anything. I still care very much for her."
Quickly simmering down her temper, a sly smirk now crosses Pacifica's features as she approaches Eric and throws her arms around his neck.
"Why don't we just forget about Mabel and talk about us?" Pacifica suggests. "The offer is still on the table if you want unlimited happiness. After all, there's nothing standing in your way now so how about it?"
Quickly becoming disgruntled by Pacifica's passive attitude towards Mabel, Eric lightly growls.
"No thanks!" Eric sneers, now detaching Pacifica from himself. "I would rather be happy with my girlfriend Mabel!"
"She broke up with you so she is no longer your girlfriend!" Pacifica argues.
"Well I still consider her such so I'm turning down your offer!" Eric firmly replies.
Angrily snorting, Pacifica grimaces at both boys.
"Fine!" Pacifica snaps. "Have it your way, but you will never be as happy with her as you would have been with me! You just lost your pass to unlimited happiness! Now you two, off my property before I have you arrested!"
Stepping back into the door, Pacifica slams the door in their faces. Narrowing his eyes at the door, Dipper's mind begins going through numerous scenarios as to how he can make the blonde pay for one hitting on Eric and two, for not giving them the information they are looking for concerning Mabel!
"Boy, I should-"Dipper begins, but is cut off by Eric putting his hand on his shoulder.
"Let's go." Eric calmly says to Dipper. "I know what I have to do."
"But we didn't get what we needed from her!" Dipper angrily replies as he turns to Eric. "I should kick in that door and shake the answers out of her!"
"Trust me, we won't be needing her." Eric smirks. "Remember, my premonitions told me just what I needed about why Mabel has been acting strangely lately, but most importantly, helped me plan how to get her back while putting Pacifica and Gideon in their places! I have a plan."
Turning from Eric, Dipper turns back to Pacifica's door briefly before turning away and walking off the porch with Eric in tow.
"Fine." Dipper sighs. "What's your plan?"
"Ok, here's what we are going to do." Eric begins, but before he is able to complete his thought, a sharp pain now shoots through his head which causes Eric stop in his tracks and grip his head.
Seeing the boy suddenly overcome with pain, Dipper is overcome with worry as he watches Eric falls to his knees while howling in pain.
"Eric, are you alright?!" Dipper asks, now approaching Eric, but is abruptly stopped by Eric holding his right hand out to him.
"Don't…come..any closer!" Eric hisses. "Just….stay..back!"
Obeying Eric's orders, Dipper takes a step back from Eric and watches as the boy wreaths in pain. The overwhelming headache now dissipates with Eric's head sharply shooting up with his vision becoming focused in front of him, his black eyes now changing to a ghostly minty green. A premonition now hits him.
Premonition
In a starry mass of space, a red treasure chest appears and opens with journals 1, 2, and 3 now rising out of it. Stopping in mid-air, all three books are then jettisoned through the starry universe as if separated by dynamite. The town of Gravity Falls now appears with book 3 landing in the area of the forest in front of a downed tree. Dipper now arrives at the metal tree having hung up the signs that he was instructed to hang up. Discovering that the tree is indeed metal, Dipper opens up the tree panel and upon trying to get the controls to the old contraption to function, opens up a trap door in the ground instead. Turning around, Dipper proceeds to retrieve the book from its hiding space. Once in his hands, the book opens and immediately flips to the section about the Star Dimension.
Journal 2 now lands on a desk right in front of a crude construct of the Mystery Shack and certain members of the shack. Opening, the book now jumps to the section that speaks about the Star prophecy with Gideon appearing over the book with a demented smirk on his face. Picking up the book, the chubby boy begins reading through the section, particularly the area that illustrates the prince and princess's separation with Narsus's dark shadow appearing over him. Narsus and Gideon now break into maniacally laughter simultaneously.
Journal 1 now appears in Gravity Falls, but before the location of the book is revealed, the starry mass of darkness appears that brings the premonition to an end.
End of Premonition
Snapping back to reality, Eric immediately gets to his knees and turns to Dipper with a look of surprise on his face. Seeing the surprised look on Eric's face confuses Dipper. First he is howling in pain and now he's fine?
"The books!" Eric voices. "I saw the books and there are three of them!"
"What books?" Dipper asks in confusion.
"The journals!" Eric answers. "You have the third book right?"
"Yea, so?" Dipper replies.
"I know who has the second book." Eric continues. "But I don't know what happened with the first book as that was blocked from my premonition."
Dipper gasps in surprise as he pulls out his book 3.
"There are three of these?!" Dipper asks in surprise. "I thought mine was the only one in existence! So who has the second book?"
"Gideon." Eric simply answers. "And in it is the Star Prophecy! There is an area of the section that spoke about the prince and princess being separated by a woman with blonde hair. From the images in that section, the prince in the book looks like me, I know that princess is Mabel, and that blonde woman between us looks like Pacifica! Wait a minute! Recalling from my recent premonition, Pacifica and Gideon's plan was an exact re-enactment of the prophecy to keep Mabel from fulfilling her destiny! That was the basis for their plan all along! No wonder Mabel wanted to keep that a secret from me."
Having heard that Gideon has the second book, Dipper's brain has shut out the rest of Eric's explanation and sent the pines boy into shock! Not getting an answer from Dipper, Eric turns to him, notices that he has spaced out, and waves his hand in front of his face to get his attention.
"Hey Dip, did you get any of what I said?" Eric asks the spaced out boy. "Hello? Is anyone home in there?"
Not getting a response from him still, Eric grins with an idea hitting him on how to Dipper's attention.
"Wendy, I didn't know you followed us out here!" Eric voices with surprise. "Ok, I'll make sure Dipper makes it back home before dark."
Dipper now snaps out of his state of shock and begins looking around for the red-headed teen.
"Wendy! Where?!" Dipper asks, still looking around for the girl.
"I thought that might do it." Eric laughs. "Works every time."
"You know, it's not nice to use a man's weakness against him." Dipper firmly replies. "Wait, how did you know about my crush on Wendy?"
"Mabel told me." Eric answers. "She told me all about how much you adore the teen and your wish for the two of you to be together. I think it's pretty cool that you have a thing for an older woman. Not many guys have the guts to go after an older woman, but you do."
"Yea well, it's not as easy as you think." Dipper replies, the blush of embarrassment appearing on his cheeks. "But enough about that. What are we going to do about Mabel, Gideon and Pacifica? We never discussed a plan B."
"Right." Eric replies. "Well first, let me take a look at your book so to know exactly what we're up against."
Grabbing onto Dipper's '3' journal, a white halo now forms around Eric, which in turn engulfs Dipper. With both boys holding onto the journal, the halo around the two gets brighter and from an outside view, anyone looking directly into the light can become blinded instantly!
The blindingly bright white halo now dissipates with both boys blinking to refocus their vision.
"Ok what just happened?" Dipper questions as he turns to his journal. "That was just out of the blue."
"Well it might have something to do with why I have a sudden wardrobe change." Eric replies with Dipper looking towards him to notice that his clothes are indeed different. "I don't believe I put this on before we left the hotel."
Observing the boy's clothes, Dipper notices that Eric is wearing a navy blue jacket with a red sash that is crossing from the right shoulder to his left side, intertwining into the red cummerbund that is laced around the bottom of the jacket. On the left area of the jacket in the chest area are Star metals of Honor that are only worn by a king once he has earned his place on the throne. On the cuff of the sleeves and neck of the jacket are gold trimming which are lined with white stars that are also evident on the matching slacks of the uniform. Around Eric's waist below the cummerbund is a belt that is holding his royal sword in place. Trailing his eyes upwards, Dipper notices that Eric is wearing a king's crown with gold stars stamped in the fur lining on his head. Quickly trailing his eyes over the boy's outfit again, it then clicks to Dipper what is going on.
"Wait a minute, Eric!" Dipper begins. "It all makes sense now! Your sudden change and why your hands were glowing back at the hotel. It's all coming together now!"
"You can fill me in any time you're ready." Eric says in a slight panic.
"You are Prince Mordecai of the Star Dimension!" Dipper spills. "You're the prince that Gideon's book was talking about, Mabel is the rebirth of Princess Mabellita who Pacifica forced Gideon to make uncover her powers, and Pacifica is the one who has come between you two as you described in Gideon's book in your premonition! You just covered your destiny!"
Taking in what Dipper just said, Eric literally hears Pacifica talking to Gideon about Mabel in his mindscape.
"After dealing with that brother of hers, we all ended up in this weird place called the Star Dimension. We met an older version of Mabel who is a princess and sometime later, Mabel will turn into her. She even marries this guy named Mordecai or something like that in the future."
"Oh…my…" Eric stammers as he looks himself over once more. "I am him! But how did you know my nickname is Mordecai?"
"I didn't, but I do now!" Dipper cheers. "This is great! Now that you discovered your destiny, it's time to make sure Mabel uncovers hers so you two can fulfill the star prophecy and carry out the legacy together!"
"So exactly what part do you play in this?" Eric asks Dipper, now noticing that he is not wearing his normal vest, shirt, pine tree hat, and short outfit.
"What are you ta—" Dipper begins, but abruptly stops his sentence upon laying eyes on himself.
From what he can see, he is wearing a navy blue body suit that is covered by a suit of armor, complete with sword and shield with a large star in the center. Gaining a smile, Dipper turns to Eric.
"No way!" Dipper begins. "I have a transformation too! Mabellita said that I'm Mabel's royal protector, but I didn't think I'd have a transformation with my title!"
Giving themselves a once over glance once more, the boys are now changed back into their normal attire in a flash of a light.
"Do I even want to know what just happened?" Eric questions now turning to Dipper.
"I'll explain everything later." Dipper answers. "But for right now, we better go find Mabel before it's too late! Now in your premonitions, what else did you see other than Mabel, Pacifica, Gideon, and Narsus?"
"I remembered seeing the size altering crystals." Eric reveals. "I've had more than one premonition with them in the background with Mabel."
"The Size Altering Crystal Growing grounds." Dipper replies. "I know exactly where that is!"
"Hey do you think I can grab one of those crystals for Mabel?" Eric asks with hope. "I know how much she likes shiny jewelry."
Blinking, Dipper now face palms at Eric's question.
Pacifica's Mansion (Her bedroom)
Hearing the other line to the Gleeful residence ringing endlessly is furiously irritating the blonde. Having called Gideon the first time, Pacifica was told by his father that he wasn't present and to call back later. Now is that time, but she isn't getting a response. Closing her cell phone, Pacifica stomps her foot in anger.
"What is that chubby wannabe phony psychic doing?!" Pacifica growls as she throws her cell phone on her bed. "He better not be going at this alone! We made an agreement to put Mabel and Eric in their place and if he thinks he's going to get all the credit for this, he's sorely mistaken!"
Turning towards her window, Pacifica folds her arms across her chest.
"I better go over to his place just to make sure he's holding up his end of the bargain!" Pacifica decides as she grabs her jacket from her desk chair. "And if I find out that he is trying to take credit for both parts of this plan, he's going to wish that he never messed with Pacifica Northwest!"
Quickly putting on her jacket, Pacifica now slips out the door to her bedroom.
Gravity Falls Forest
Finishing his test run of Mabel's power into the swirling vortex in the sky above, Gideon closes his hands, which halts the raging thunderstorm created by the black hole. Now turning to the weakened Mabel, Gideon notices that her body is glowing with a faint white halo.
"Awe, isn't that sweet!" Gideon taunts as he approaches the unconscious girl. "The little princess is fast asleep. I'm sorry my little crumb cake, did I syphon so much of your power to the point of exhaustion? I should have been more considerate of your feelings."
Leaning down, Gideon now scoops Mabel off the ground with his eyes glowing crimson. Looking into the girl's unconscious face, Gideon grins.
"For a princess as lovely as you are, this cold forest floor is no place for you." Gideon speaks, now giving the girl a peck on the forehead. "To make up for my inconsideration, I'll take you to a really comfortable place to rest and I have the perfect place in mind. It'll be just perfect and where you'll have full view of me using your power to take over Gravity Falls! Now if you're a good girl, I'll keep you and make you my queen!"
His eyes flash crimson once more with the chubby boy now carrying Mabel off in the direction of his family's factory with Narsus's shadow trailing behind him.
Eric and Dipper
The two boys now arrive in the forest clearing at the crystal growing grounds. Looking around, neither boy spots Mabel anywhere.
"I don't see Mabel here." Dipper speaks up. "Are you sure you saw her in this area in your premonition?"
"Yes I did." Eric replies. "She was either standing or laying down in front of these in my premonition. Geez, they are big!"
"Was she here by herself?" Dipper continues.
"No, she was here with Gideon." Eric answers. "But then again, he's not here either. Man, oh man, I hope he didn't disappear with her or worse! We were so close to rescuing her! Now what are we going to do?!"
Having asked that question, a beam of light now shoots to the ground from the eye of the black hole and like a missile chasing its target, creates a light trail in front of the boys that is leading out of the forest. Both boys eye the trail suspiciously with a scripture now appearing in Eric's mind.
~The light of the stars will be your guide!~
"The light of the stars will be your guide." Eric suddenly speaks. "Dipper, we are to follow this trail and where it goes will lead us to Mabel!"
"Then let's go save the princess!" Dipper declares as both boys begins following the lighted trail out of the forest.
Alright everyone, we are just one chapter away from the biggest battle in the history of the Star Dimension! With Eric aka Mordecai's destiny uncovered as the Prince of the dimension and knowing that Mabel is the rebirth of the princess, things are about to get explosive! Stay tuned for chapter 11 as the preparations of the big battle begins! Next chapter: The preparations of the ancient star battle begins as an old enemy returns, destined to destroy the Star Prophecy forever!
And the new cover photo for this fanfiction, Mabel and Mabellita, was made by MarkMak on DA. Please check my DA page for the full size image! :) I can't get over how good it looks! :)
Review Please!