"Bill, stop! I'll make a deal with you!"
Mabel's head swiveled around to look in horror at her brother standing at the doorway behind Bill. There was only one thing left that Dipper could do, she thought.
Sacrifice himself.
But Dipper had lost himself, Dipper had not been Dipper, for… what? Days? Weeks? Who knew, time didn't exist here. He had just recollected himself, he had just remembered everything again. He couldn't do this; not after everything she had done to get to this point!
She thought this plan over so many times in her head. Hell, she'd even gotten help from Ford. How could it fail?!
Maybe Bill was right, she mused. Maybe she had 'potential' that she wasn't even using, and wasn't trying to make an effort to use because she was just a loser. She wasn't good enough to save the world, was she? Nobody was. It would be August 31st by now, so she was thirteen. A thirteen year old girl trying to stop an all-powerful Dorito and possibly the end of civilization. The old Dipper was right; she was pathetic.
Others could argue with her that she was wrong, that she was good enough - more than that maybe - because the Pines family was a family that'd done remarkable things in their past. But look at Grunkle Ford; how was coming to Gravity Falls only to f*ck up and summon an inter-dimensional dream demon who would destroy their home thirty years later a 'remarkable' thing?! Her family was only a screw up, and so was she. So she found herself sinking to the floor in defeat, not even trying to stop Dipper.
Dipper paused for a moment, thoughts racing through his head so rapidly at what he could possibly offer that would be of any use to Bill. He didn't really have anything left to lose, except-
His life.
And just as Mabel had guessed, that was the only thing that he could give. It was like selling his soul to the devil, but he had to do it for his family. He had no other choice. It was him or all of them, along with the rest of the world. Or at least, the town. Mabel knew better than to try to stop him - it would do nothing but risk her getting killed. She had to stay in place this time, and accept the fate of her life, and her brother's life too. Meaning was, indeed, upside down. Everything was torn apart, but it would never be put back together. The whole town of Gravity Falls was up in flames.
At least, that's what she thought until she realized something.
Because fire always needs a sacrifice for it to burn, right?
"In exchange for my family's safety, you can kill me, use me, do whatever you want with me. I don't care." he said, turning his head to look at his sister with regretful and sorrowful eyes and mouthing the word 'sorry'.
"Anything, ya say?"
They started to reach their hands out to seal the agreement, and that's when it hit her.
That's when she realized just what Bill was going to do.
"Dipper, no, please, don't!" she yelled at the stop of her lungs, tears staining her face all the same as all the other times she'd cried during this horrific apocalypse.
But she realized too late. Their hands were already grasped in a firm handshake.
Agonizing screams echoed through her brain, through her mind, through her ears as her brother was set aflame as quickly as gasoline. It was the only thing that she could register. She couldn't even hear the frightened gasps of everyone else around her, or the sound of them slowly being turned to stone.
All she could do was run. All she could do was run for her life, and she didn't even realize that she'd taken out her grappling hook and blindly shot it down at the earth somewhere, escaping the Fearamid before anything could happen to her.
Because, as Bill had said during her Sock Opera, who would sacrifice everything for their dumb sibling?
Dipper would.
She told herself that that was a good thing, that it was supposed to mean that he truly did care and love her as a sibling.
She told herself that it was for the better.
But she knew that was a lie.