A/N Hey people! Did I mention I have a Tumblr? A Tumblr with art relating to this trainwreck? Well, look me up under Lucy Marigold! I'm on there somewhere, I hope. As always, reviews are welcome. Anyway, onto the story.
Chapter 10 - Severing Fate's Red String.
Dipper slipped his shoes on, a smile on his face. Why he was smiling? He didn't know. He jumped up from his bed, rushing out of the attic bedroom and down the stairs as he grabbed his backpack. "Mabes! I'm ready!" He yelled as he landed on his feet in the foyer of the shack. He noticed that Mabel's backpack was already sitting by the door, slumped over with whatever it contained. Mabel walked out from the kitchen, Stan following behind her. He looked at Dipper with concern before tossing something over to the teen.
"Here kid. You know how people get about that eye." Stan stated as they all walked to the porch. Dipper looked at the black eye-patch in his hands with a sense of irony.
"Thanks, Grunkle Stan." He slipped it over his right eye gently with a small smile.
"C'mon, bro-bro! Let's go!" Mabel nagged, pulling on his shirt sleeve as she began to drag him towards the forest.
"Don't get eaten, kids!" Stan shouted, waving goodbye as they left. "And don't forget to be back before dinner for the party!" They waved in reply, heading in the direction of the forest. Dipper helped his sister over a log, dodging a branch as he did so. He was trying to remember the route to their destination.
"You think Jeff would be happy to see us?" Mabel asked, pulling out a tree branch from her hair.
"I dunno." Dipper just shrugged, walking backwards for a second as he stepped over a branch.
"You seem happier today. Why the sudden mood change?" His sister pried, smiling.
"Bill isn't in my head anymore. Haven't heard from him in days." It was true. It had been at least five days since he agreed to that deal with Bill, the megalomaniac triangle not having bothered him at all. There hadn't been any signs of Bill taking over his body in days either. It was mostly because Bill wasn't there anymore. He was Dipper now and Dipper just accepted that fact. Although, the worst part of the deal was the constant stream of new information that swarmed his head. He'd get used to it eventually though.
"That's great. Maybe Bill just gave up or something." Mabel just shrugged it off, leaping off a rock before landed on the mossy ground a second later. They stumbled upon a grove, mystical mushrooms and other plant life growing in a supernatural way. Dipper heard voices as Mabel pushed aside some bushes. The bushes revealed a small group of gnomes, talking to one another. They all wore red coloured, cone-shaped hats and blue overalls. The gnomes all had white hair except for one gnome who had brown hair. He was the one who was shouting the loudest.
"You just can't expect us to get a Queen-" The brown haired gnome shouted until he looked up, spotting the two humans who were watching. "Oh look who has the guts to finally show up!" Jeff the gnome snapped, still clearly angry about their lateness..
"Hey, Jeff! Sorry, we're late! We had to eat, you know. How are you?" Mabel chirped, clearly ignoring the gnome's unagreeable anger.
"Oh, good yeah. Still trying to find a new Queen. You uh, still available Mabel?" Jeff's mood instantly shifted, suddenly trying to turn on the charm. Dipper glared at him. "Oh uh hey, Dipper Pines." Jeff shifted uncomfortably under Dipper's gaze.
"You wanted to show us something?" Dipper began, raising an eyebrow in amusement along with a faint smile.
"Oh yeah! Follow me." Jeff lead them out of the grove and through the forest. Grumbling under his breath. Dipper knew this path, it was one he travelled more than any other.
"This is the way to… " Dipper was about to say his statue but slowed down and refrained himself. "The statue." He voice became flat as he spoke, Mabel looking at him with mild concern.
"Something's wrong with it. When Mabel graced us with her heavenly appearance the other day, we thought you'd like to know." Jeff seemed all high and mighty as he complimented Mabel.
"What's wrong with it? Oh! Are the plants turning into acid and turning it all in melty-heaty-things?" Mabel was walking backwards while she spoke, somehow avoiding every rock, branch and log behind her.
"Not exactly…" Jeff pulled a bush aside so he could walk through. Sunlight was peaking through the canopy, highlighting Bill's statue. Although, now it was different.
The plant-life, which had been abundantly growing around and on the statue, had wilted away to charred and blackened husks. The statue itself was different as well. Runes we etched into the stone under the eye, a single pinetree craved into the centre of the eye. The stone tophat had crumbled to what resembled more of a crown than headwear. Dipper crouched down, tracing a finger along the carving of his zodiac symbol. "What do those rune thingys say?" Mabel asked, looking down at Jeff who stood at the edge of the clearing.
"Gnomes don't tend to learn Demon tongue. Those jerks can keep it to themselves." Jeff grumbled, crossing his arms.
"Demon? Are they like you arm doodles, Dip?" Mabel made the connection quicker than him. Dipper's eye grew wide, the other one still covered by the patch. He turned back to the statue as he lifted the eye patch up to get a better look at the runes. He pulled the black patch back down a second later, humming to himself. He trailed a finger along each rune, deep in thought.
Suddenly, there was a warm feeling on his forearm where his runes were. He looked down to see them glowing a pale blue, changing shape and form. Dipper smiled, at first faintly until he let loose a small laugh. "Of course!" Dipper looked up at his sister with a wide grin. "We've gotta get back to the shack. I left my demon alphabet in our room!" Dipper was ecstatic, grabbing onto Mabel's hand as he ran out of the forest. Jeff the Gnome watched them go in confused silence.
/(I)\
Dipper shifted through his papers, digging through to find his desired object. "What did it look like?" Mabel asked, shifting through Dipper's books and notepads.
"Norman notepad, spiral binder, yellow pages." He described, instantly recalling it from his memory. Dipper had to be honest to himself, it was great to remember things instantly. It was also great to know almost everything. He said almost everything because even Bill didn't know everything. And that he knew that.
"This is?" Mabel held up a notebook exactly as he described. Dipper's eyes lit up.
"Yes! Give it here." He shoved off a few of his books, pulling his own dark blue journal out and onto the table at an almost filled page. He grabbed a pen as he glanced at his forearm. Mabel watched, hovering over his shoulders. The first letter was a 'T' and then an 'O' and then a space, and then there was a 'B'. It continued to form in a legible sentence the more he wrote. Dipper put 'Learn Demon' on his To Do list as this was taking quite a while. When he was done, he glanced over at Mabel with a long sigh. Mabel looked at him, both of them concerned with the words written between them. Dipper knew what he had to do.
"We should tell-" Mabel began.
"No. We can't. It won't work if you leave now, Mabel." Mabel seemed startled, jolted back at his cold and empty tone of voice. Without hesitation, he began to read it aloud. "'To break the chains of fate, to break free from destiny, to bind two to one. eye eno tsuj htiw tsaeb eht raef ,yks semoceb htrae dna sllaF ytivarG nehW .cigam latrommi htiw dnuob luos latrom A .emit tnereffid a ,mrof tnereffid a ,enorht ym mialcer I taht srewop tnedicca eht ekovni I'" Dipper began speaking in reverse, Mabel suddenly jerking onto his arm but he didn't stop. "'denruter evah I ,nrub lliw dlrow ehT.'" He felt her slap him across the face. Dipper snapped his jaw close, staring at her for a second as his hand hovered over where she had hit him.
"What the hell was that!?" She screamed, panicked and teary-eyed.
"You're lucky I had finished it! You don't want to know what happens when you end something like that midway, Shooting Star!" Dipper shouted, covering his mouth after he realized what he called his sister. Mabel's face drained of colour. She turned to flee but Dipper grabbed onto her arm with pleading eyes, one normal, the other supernatural. "Mabes. I'm sorry. It just doesn't end well when you end something like that midway, it causes something worse to happen, something that could kill. I should have told you first." He explained. Mabel removed her tears "Awkward Sibling hug?" Dipper held out his arms, Mabel instantly grabbing him into a tight grip.
"Pat Pat." They both sheepish said, patting each other on the back.
"It's okay, bro-bro. I know you've been through a whole lot but you know you can tell me anything. Just please… tell me if anything bad does happen. Please don't keep me in the dark like before. I love you too much to see you get hurt again." She whispered, letting loose a yawn as the sunset casted a glow through the triangular window. They heard loud music beginning to play downstairs, Stan shouting something. Through the noise, Dipper whispered one thing in reply.
"I love you too."
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