Stanford stared into the fire in front of him. The aliens were off... doing whatever interdimensional aliens did, and the young refugee was left sitting alone with his thoughts. The fire was a strange pinkish-purple, and Ford would have immediately started to document it if it wasn't for the situation he found himself in.
Thoughts of Bill and Stanley swam around him, and he bit his lip, wanting to cry for the first time in a while. He had been tricked, he had fallen for Bill's flattery. Stanley would have seen it coming from a mile away. Because of Ford's arrogance he was now trapped in this hellhole...
He heard the sound of sniffles coming from behind him. If it wasn't for their rising volume he would have completely ignored them, wanting to wallow in his own sorrow. But the being that was behind him was beginning to cry loudly, and he turned to see them.
The creature was humanlike and was in a tan sweater which was pulled up above her (he could tell it was a woman) head, brown hair showing. If he was under any other circumstance Ford would just leave her be, but the thought of at least trying to comfort someone made him feel a bit better himself. At least he wasn't the only being in the universe to feel sad.
He stood up, and walked over to the woman, kneeling in front of her he placed a (hopefully) comforting hand on her arm. "Hey... Are you okay?" The sweater's collar was shrugged off, and he was met with a face that seemed eerily familiar.
"Dipper!" was her choked response. He flung herself on top of him, knocking him to the stone floor before he could react. "What? Why are you here?"
Ford blinked at her, as the woman pushed herself off of him. "I'm... What?" he responded, and the woman's face turned crestfallen. "Why did you follow me?! Do you know what Bill-" Her eyes flew to his hands, which he lifted in order to stop her ramble. Pushing himself up onto his knees he knit his brow at her. "I'm sorry... who?"
The woman blinked at him, and said, "You're... you're not Dipper." Ford shook his head, and the woman sniffed before leaning back against the wall. There were tears gathering in her brown eyes, and Ford sat down in front of her. "I'm so stupid... they were right about me." the woman said, pulling her knees up to her chest.
It was now Ford's turn to blink at the other human. "Don't be so hard on yourself. I'm the one who made a deal with a demon." The woman snorted, "You made a deal with a demon? I'm the one who dealt with Bill! I don't know what weird parallel dimension you're from..." She stopped her sentence there, a dawning realization in her eyes. "You're from a parallel dimension!" he blurted out. "Whoa! You've got to tell me everything about you! I'm Mabel, Mabel Pines.
"I'm a paranormal researcher in Gravity Falls Oregon."
Stanley was not. I repeat, NOT ready for his brother to have a girlfriend.
At least, that's what he thought the lady that came out of the portal was. Stanford brought her out, holding her hand and leading her towards Stanley. The two of them had pretty similar outfits, except the woman had a skirt and short biker's jacket whereas Ford had a trenchcoat. Also she had dark purple hair while Ford had grey, so he had that going for him.
Before Stan could say anything to Ford, his attention went right away to the woman. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt in any way?" Ford turned his back to Stan, and grabbed the woman's arms. She laughed a bit, and said something in a quiet voice. Whatever it was seemed to satisfy Stan's brother, and he turned back to Stan.
"If you insist." Ford said, right before stepping towards Stan and taking his mask off. Stan resisted the urge to glance at the lady, who was following Ford. "It's so good to see you!" Stan said, stepping towards Ford as they closed the gap in between them, "It's been so-"
Ford's first physical contact with Stan was a fist flying into Stan's face. Stan felt his head get jerked to the side, then he let out a cry of anger and protest. "Ow! What the heck was that for?!"
"Ford! Give Stan a hug right now!" a feminine voice from behind Ford said, and the next thing Stan knew, stiff black covered arms were flung briefly around his shoulders, then Ford stepped back from him. "There, happy?" Ford snapped, glancing back at his girlfriend, who shrugged.
Stan stared at the lady, who stepped up next to Ford and stared at Stan. "Sorry about him. He's always crabby this time of day... But that's normal for people our age." She gave him a playful poke in the side, which earned her a glare from Stanford. Stan blinked at her, then said, "Uh... Who are you?"
"That's a rather long story..." Ford said, and the woman nodded. "Just know that I'm a friend." she added, and Stan nodded back at her. "Anyway, this was an insanely risky move restarting the portal Stan! Didn't you read my warnings?!" Oh yeah, reality... that was something Stan still had to deal with. He shook his head, then snapped, "So I'm guessing that you'd have wanted me to leave you in a sci-fi space dimension with your girlfriend?"
"Girlfriend?" Ford asked, genuine confusion spreading over his face. Stan huffed, then added, "Fine. Wife. Happy now?"
Ford and the woman shared a look, and her mouth turned into a weird smile. "I think you misunderstand... we're related... sorta. I'm..."
"Hi! Yeah, uh, Mabel here... What on Earth is going on?!" the attention of all the adults in the room suddenly went over to Stan's young niece. The two portal people's eyes widened, and Ford immediately moved in front of the woman. "Stay behind me." he said, and the woman nodded, "Just what I was thinking."
Mabel walked towards the three of them, Dipper and Soos in tow. Ford took a step back, the woman poking her head out around his shoulder. "Don't worry Mabel!" She said, and suddenly Stan realized where he knew her voice from. "We don't hate you... We're just saving this universe... Oh, and hi! I'm Mabel!"
Mabel followed Stanford silently. Ever since they'd hopped through their very first wormhole (technically second, but she counted the first as being 'forcibly pushed') she'd been squeezing his hand like her life depended on it. He had six fingers, and she found herself comforted by the tiny bit of extra bulk they had. It turned out that she was right in saying that he wasn't her brother, but he was somehow related to her. He was Stanford, not Dipper, Pines.
A little thought in the back of her mind told her that they might be alternate versions of each other, but she pushed them down. Almost everything he had said about his own dimension was off, like their genealogies were mixed all up. For all she knew she could be his grandma or something.
Like that would happen now.
He looked back at her as she thought those thoughts, but he was forced to look back in front of him because of the rocky terrain they were in. Wherever they were was covered in mountains, with little to no vegetation. Ford joked that it was sort of like something from the Lord of the Rings, but Mabel shrugged it off. Ford seemed to be handling their exile much better than she was.
They stumbled along, Ford attempting to make small chit-chat every now and then, with Mabel either staying entirely silent, or responding in small grunts. Eventually the only thing they did was walk and stay absolutely silent.
Two days later Ford and Mabel came upon a small town, occupied by human/goat hybrids. The people took one look at the tired humans and knew almost immediately what was going on with them. Luckily for the two of them they already had their interdimensional translator, or they would have been completely in the dark.
The two of them found a relatively cheap place to stay, and almost immediately locked the doors and fell fast asleep. Any other time they would have insisted on at least one of them staying awake, but both of them had recently had their Bill ordeals, so any rest they could obtain was snatched up.
Looking back on it they were still shocked that they didn't get mugged, robbed blind, or murdered. It was good that they ended up in a dimension like that.
Ford looked at his companion, sitting against the wall, like she so often did. She had something in her hands, and what looked like a blue band was on the floor, ending in a small ball. He knit his brow, then asked in a quiet voice, "What are you doing?"
Mabel looked up at him, putting her small project down. "I figured that... we'd need a way to keep track of each other... in case we got separated." She lifted up whatever she was working on, and Ford saw that she was making a small wrist band. "I'm not the best with tech... but I figured we'd find something soon. Do you like the color?"
He blinked at the dark blue yarn she was showing him. It was the same blue as the water at the beach he had grown up near. He nodded an affirmative, and Mabel smiled sadly at him. "I haven't knit anything in ages... There was a point of time I used to knit an entire sweater every day. Dipper..." The light in her eyes dimmed, and she looked down at the ground. Ford sat down next to her, watching her start to knit again.
"Can you teach me?" he asked after a minute of silence. Mabel glanced at his now outstretched hands, then up at his face. She offered him a small smile, handing him the tiny project, and said, "Sure... Now loop this one over..."
"Wait. You're me?!" Young Mabel pointed at Old Mabel, who smiled at her from behind Ford. "Yeah! I am. Sorry about this... person in between us. We got told if two people who were the same touched... well... it would destroy the universe. I'm Mabel by the way!"
Ford glanced back at his friend, then said, "Well... We don't know exactly if it would destroy the universe. But the possibility is too great, so we'll play it safe." He looked back at he young girl, who tilted her head to one side. "Well... Uh... Ok." Mabel said, waving at the two adults. "You know that I'm Mabel, and you're Mabel, but who are you?"
"Oh him? He's Stanford! But you can call him Oblivious." Older Mabel said, earning her a glare from Stanford. Young Mabel chuckled, along with Stan. Then Young Mabel grew a confused expression. "Wait, did you just say that you're Stanford?" When the two adults in front of her nodded, Mabel turned to her Grunkle. "Wait. I thought you were Stanford! Did you fake his death!?"
Stan held his left pointer finger up, Stanford sent a glare directly at him, while Old Mabel just laughed, hiding her face behind Stanford. Stan winced then said, "Well... Uh... There's a perfectly logical..."
"Logical?! Logical?" Stanford snapped, his mouth opening wide. "You stole my name Stanley! How in the Multiverse is that logical?!" Stan winced again, then said, "Uh... I uh... had to pay your mortgage somehow?" He sent a look of 'please don't kill me' to his brother, who simply fumed at him.
Before Stanford could do anything to Stan, Old Mabel placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, hey, it's okay... he'll tell us all about it... right Stanley?" Stan nodded, his eyes staying on Stanford. "Oh... Uh... Yeah."
"Wait." Old Mabel poked her head out from behind Stanford again, staring at her young counterpart. "If you're here, and you're Mabel... Then that means that..." She looked up past Mabel, and her eyes widened, completely distracting herself from the Stans plight. "Dipper!" she said, pushing Stanford a bit forward. Young Mabel turned to her brother, and repeated Old Mabel's saying of his name.
Dipper stood there frozen, staring at the Author of the Journals, who met his glance then. His sister dashed over to him and grabbed his arm, "Come on Dipper! It's the Author, and another version of me!" Mabel dragged her brother forward, and he gave almost no resistance.
"You- You're... You're the Author of the Journals!" he blurted out as his sister brought him right up in front of the two new people. Stanford nodded at him, still glaring slightly at Stan. "Yes. I'm Ford. It's a pleasure to meet you Dipper."
Dipper swayed on his feet as Mabel let go of his hand. "You said my name." he breathed, and Ford nodded, "So it seems..." Dipper held his hands up to his face and cupped his chin in them. "The Author said my name!" Ford blinked at him, a look of concern replacing his anger. "Uh... Are you okay kid?" Dipper shook his head, then nodded. "How could I not be?! You're the Author of the Journals!"
"Yes... I do believe we've established that..." Ford said, glancing back at Old Mabel, who was staring sadly at the young boy. "I think I'm going to throw up..." Dipper said, leaning forward and pressing his hands against his knees. A look of disgust passed over Ford's face, and he watched his niece place a hand on Dipper's back and pat it.
"Well... Uh... that happened."
Mabel was brought out of the house by the sound of unearthly horror being released upon the world. She stared in awe at a giant hole in the sky, shaped like an X. She looked to her right as another door was flung open and Stanford and Dipper rushed out to stare at the same thing she'd been looking at.
"Ford! What in the Multiverse did you do?!" she yelled at him over the sound of the wind picking up. Ford looked over at her, along with Dipper. "I didn't do anything! Well... I guess you could call my lack of action... It doesn't matter!" Mabel rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever you say. Where's Mabel?" Dipper winced, but Ford just shook his head. "Doesn't matter right now. Bill's entered the world..."
"What do you mean it doesn't matter!?" she yelled at him, "She's just a kid Ford! Bill could-" Ford sent a pained look over at her, and said in the calmest voice he could muster, "It's... It's not quite like that Mabel... If we don't stop Bill he'll spread his weirdness to the rest of the world and it'll be too late... If we stop him first then we can find her later... when it's safer."
Mabel shook her head, "What if you go take care of that shi- that triangle... And I'll go with Stan and we'll get Mabel." Ford opened his mouth to send a rebuttal, but the glare Mabel sent him shut him up. "Alright. I'll take... Wait. Shouldn't I go get her, just to be safe?" Mabel shrugged, and said, "Well, if you insist. Take Stan, I've got Dipper." She grabbed Dipper's wrist right after she said that, and said, "I'm guessing it's in the same place." Ford nodded, staring almost blankly at her. "Thanks for your help Ford."
All he could do was watch her as she dragged Dipper back inside the house.
"Soooo... Where are you draggin' me off to?" It had taken Ford nearly twenty minutes to find his brother, who had decided that the freaking apocalypse was the perfect time to hammer up new signs. Ford grabbed his wrist and began to drag him away from the Shack, hopefully towards the place where Mabel was.
"Stanley, I'm a big enough man to admit when I'm wrong." Ford said, looking straight ahead and pulling Stan through the woods. "And I must say this is probably my biggest failure so... LOOK OUT!"
A giant hand, nearly the size of a car, came straight towards the two brothers, Ford jumped on top of Stan and rolled them out of harms way. As soon as they looked up they saw that the hand was connected to an arm, which was attached right onto a large, hairy, head. Stan cried out a word of profanity, while Ford told him to shush.
"Hey! Hey you two!" the hand/head/monster said, clawing its way towards Stan and Ford. "Hey! I'm talkin' to you!" Ford drew himself up onto his feet while Stan followed suit. "Can you two tell me where the town is? Then I have another favor to ask you." Stan and Ford shared a look, Stan looking much more afraid then Ford, who seemed to be acting quite calm for the situation they were in. "Of course," Ford said, pointing to the opposite direction that downtown was in. "Right over there."
The headmonster's eyes flicked to where Ford was pointing, and it said in its deep voice. "Ok. One more thing, can you two get in my mouth? I just really need some people to get inside of it."
"You know, it's a really nice offer..." Ford said, backing up slowly, "But we really must be going... Run Stanley!"
If Ford had thought that twenty minutes was a long time to leave Mabel all alone, he was definitely not prepared to leave her in whatever hellhole Bill had made for her for a week. A literal (probably, time seemed to be moving differently during Weirdmageddon) week. That was how long it took Stan and Ford to find Mabel's prison bubble.
On the plus side, they did it at the same time as Dipper, Wendy, and Soos.
"Mr. Pineses! It's you! It's really you!" Soos yelled, flinging himself on top of Stan and Ford, almost knocking the two of them down. Stan grumbled a 'getoffame', while Ford simply slipped out from under Soos. He stared at a group of cars driving away from them, and he blinked at them. "Uh... what's going on Dipper?"
"We found where Mabel is!" Dipper blurted out, pointing at Mabel's bubble. Ford and Stan nodded, looking at the purple orb hanging in the air. "How are we supposed to get in it?" Stan asked, and Dipper lifted up a golden key, a shooting star symbol in the middle of it that matched the one on Mabel's bubble. "With this, it unlocks it... I think. At least, that's what Gideon said."
Stan's eyebrows went up. "Gideon? That little scoundrel's still kickin'?" Dipper nodded, but before any of them could say anything else Wendy said, "Uh guys, let's get moving before something else tries to kill us."
Mabel stared down at her hands, her wrists covered by blue manacles. For some strange reason, Bill thought that she knew how to take down the barrier ("You're basically girl Stanford right? Figure it out!"), and she hadn't bothered to tell him the truth. Not because she didn't want to, but because he wouldn't believe her.
"You ready to talk?" After spending nearly a year as Bill's slave, she knew that the only thing she'd ever tell that insane triangle about was how much she hated him. A hatred that burned in her with a deep passion. "As if!" she said, glaring up at his eye. "I'll never tell you anything. You... you... YOU WALKING ONE-DIMENSIONAL SUNBLEACHED ILLUMINATI STEREOTYPE!"
Bill glared at her, his body enlarging and turning a terrifying red. "What did you just say you little-!"
"Biiiiiiilllllll!" Bill turned his 'face' to look over at one of his henchmaniacs. "The Pines family just got Mabel out of the bubble... Er, the other Mabel." Bill repressed some form of lashing out, instead turning back to the woman he was torturing. "Well... Well... Well. Things just got a little more... interesting. I think I'd like to introduce the two of you to each other... Unless you'd like to tell me that equation."
"I'd rather give up color!" Mabel shouted, glaring at the triangle. Bill sighed, "That can be arranged." he said, tapping her head with his finger. Mabel watched as every ounce of pigment flooded out of her body, getting captured in a small purfume bottle. One that Bill immediately held up near the top of his body, and sprayed on himself. "Ah, essence of Shooting Star."
Mabel just growled.
When Stanford saw Mabel (Old Mabel that was, he'd been trailing Young Mabel all week) he was not expecting this washed out woman. She looked like she was from an old movie, but she insisted that she was okay and that they needed to do the Zodiac before things escalated. Ford nodded, and she claimed that she'd stay just to 'make sure you don't mess this up'.
Long story short, one magic-interdimensional blast later, and Bill Cipher was more like Bill Bye-pher. Alex shook his head at old Mabel, claiming that 'the fans are crazy', but did his job anyway.
Hey folks!
There's not much to say about this. Except Thanks so much for the reviews! You guys are the best! As you can tell I'm a huge sucker for the Ford/Mabel relationship, and decided to make a IRF (Inverted Relativity Falls) chapter. It's like Drifting Stars somewhat as well. I hope you guys enjoyed this!
Also, let me know if there's anything you'd like to see in this fic. I'm always up for suggestions. Leave it in a review or PM me! Stay happy and healthy this... 2021!? WhAt? When did that happen!?
-BrilliantLight
