"MABEL!"
"Well, what's your opener? Pretend I'm a boy"
"Come on down to Little Gideon's Tent 'O' Telepathy, coming soon at this location"
"Hey even in a sack I still look better than you!"
"Hey dude, you ready to blow up these hotdogs in the microwave one by one?"
"Pat, pat"
Mabel was in tears as more and more memories came back to her in fragments. She remembered Dipper the most, their childhood, always measuring each other's heights, the tiny little details in his face that made it different from hers, his expressions and mannerisms. That alone was enough to cause her to cry as she realized she was missing a true part of herself, but then a lot of Stan and Ford came back, then Soos, Wendy, Pacifica, and everyone else from before. "Pull yourself together Mabel" she said trying to look in the mirror but it was broken, as she was currently renting a rather sleazy hotel room at the very edge of town, the kind of place that didn't ask questions or keep up to date with news or wanted posted.
The fractured mirror seemed to cause Mabel even more emotional pain as she ended up lying on the moldy tile floor and continued to cry her eyes out.
"Then listen to me, remember this morning when I said wanted to tell you guys something, I wanted to say that you're going to hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me, everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!"
"Grunkle Stan, I'm sorry" she cried, what happened, why did she lose her memory? Was Dipper really in danger?
Then suddenly one of the most important memories came back to her.
She and Dipper were on a bus, heading to Gravity Falls from California. "You okay?" Dipper asked, as Mabel was rather down, compared to how she normally was when school got out, she was usually bouncing up and down trying to start conversations with anyone and everyone on the bus about how much fun she was going to have during the summer, or she and Dipper would play games about stuff they saw on the road or in the bus, but she currently wasn't in the mood to point out the color or models of cars.
"Yeah I'm okay, I just can't help but think about how different things are going to be now that we're not going to be together, we're going to be at different ends of the country for college" she sighed. "yeah but that doesn't make us not family anymore, we'll always find a way to chat, and much like with Stan and Ford, we'll always see each other during the summer and even during Christmas and Spring break" Dipper replied.
Mabel was content with that, but continued to stare out the window for the remainder of the trip. However Mabel instantly perked up when they saw Soos and Wendy waiting for them at the bus stop. "Dudes!" Soos called out, as both twins ran up to him and he pulled them both into a bear hug.
"It's great to see you guys again" Wendy smiled hugging them each individually. "Are Stan and Ford back?" Dipper asked. "Not yet, but we're hoping to see them soon" Soos said.
The four of them headed back to the Mystery Shack, all of them sharing stories about what happened while the others were away but then things changed. Pacifica showed up about an hour later and joined in the conversation. Mabel remembered how close she sat to Dipper and wondered if maybe she had a thing for him. However their conversation soon broke off into silence as they all felt a cold chill.
"Well hello again" Bill Cipher said cheerfully as he appeared out of nowhere.
"YOU!" Dipper said in shock before charging at Bill, who blocked him with just one hand and sent him flying sideways and crashing into a bookshelf. "Nice try Pine Tree but you're going to need more than that to beat me."
"Get away from him!" Mabel yelled, charging at Bill but found herself frozen in place, above the ground.
"Ah, Shooting Star, Question Mark, Ice Bag, Llama, nice to see you all again" Bill said still sounding incredibly cheery. "What did you just call me?" Pacifica demanded, however her question went unanswered as she was then flung completely out of the Mystery Shack.
Before Mabel could find her voice to say anything, Soos and Wendy were gone as well. Bill seemed to let go of his hold on her and she dropped to the floor with a thud. Ignoring the pain she crawled over to where Dipper was. "What are you going to?" she demanded.
"Well since you asked I'm going to cast an illusion on this entire town, so that when Ford arrives he will give me the key to leaving Gravity Falls" Bill said. "Grunkle Ford would never do that!" Mabel yelled. "Well maybe with the right incentive" Bill smiled snapping his fingers and a collar with Bill's likeness appeared around Dipper's neck. "As for you, don't worry you won't remember a thing!" Bill laughed as Mabel also went flying before everything went black.
After that Mabel woke up thinking she was a criminal, completely believing Bill's illusion.
Finally snapping out of it, Mabel once again looked to the broken mirror and wiped her eyes. "Grunkles, I'm sorry I didn't remember you, but I'm coming back and we'll save Dipper" she said and looked again to the shattered reflection in the broken mirror "I'm not you" she told it and ran out of the room, speeding off towards the Mystery Shack.
Ford nearly collapsed as Dipper beat him, but he refused to give in, despite Bill's taunting. "Dipper, you have to stop this! We didn't betray you!" Stan yelled but it seemed to fall on deaf ears as he was forced to watch his great nephew torture his brother, unable to move or help.
"Dipper, please!" Stan begged again.
"All this can stop Ford, you just have to tell me how to leave this stupid hick town" Bill said, gesturing for Dipper to stand down, Dipper didn't look happy at that, but with the way he looked to Bill at least he seemed to know Bill was the bad guy, but his mind was so warped he would side with him.
"N-Never, I will never help you destroy the world!" Ford said.
Bill started to glow red like he was going to lose it, however he turned back to yellow and with a snap of his fingers turned Dipper to stone again. "What if I just killed Pine Tree right here, then I'll go find Shooting Star and kill her as well" he said.
Ford hesitated for a moment, he looked to Dipper's stone form, then to Stan, then to Bill. "If you kill my family than I have nothing left to live for and I would die before I help you" Ford said firmly. Bill growled and started to turn red again, but Ford did have a point, he was no doubt one of those infuriatingly selfless "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" type of people.
He would have to get the secret another way.
Bill would need to think this through. "Fine then, well you and I both know there are worse things that can happen besides death, be seeing you" Bill said, grabbing Dipper and they both vanished. Everything went back to normal and Ford collapsed on the floor.
Stan had been quiet almost this entire time, he helped get Ford back to his room. "I'm okay, Stanley" Ford said but it was clear he had taken quite a beating. "That was-" Stan struggled to get the words out, he didn't know what he felt, the horror of seeing Dipper beat Ford was enough to weigh on him, but knowing Bill would stop at nothing to spread his sadistic plans to the entire world, it was one of the few times Stan knew he couldn't just punch his problems away.
"We'll get Dipper back" Ford said softly.
"What if we can't?! What if the only way to have things go back to normal is to give Bill what he wants! And you're being selfish!" Stan snapped
"I'm being selfish!" Ford gasped "Bill will NEVER spare any of us, not after what happened last time, the second he can leave Gravity Falls, he'll either kill us or torture us all for eternity, and you can't trust him to keep his word!"
Stan felt a wide range of emotions cross his face. "I know" he finally said, "though what are going to do? Nothing we said got through to Dipper, Soos is locked up, Mabel's gone, we don't know where anyone else is, there's no hope!"
However as if on that note the universe seemed to prove them wrong and gave them some hope. They heard someone barge through the door "Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford, I'm back, I remember everything!" Mabel said.
Stan's face nearly lit up, as he ran downstairs to hug his great niece.
"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel smiled as she hugged him back.
"You really remember us?" he said softly.
"I do, I remember everything, but I also know that Bill has Dipper, we got to get him back!" she said.
"We tried" Stan sighed and lead Mabel upstairs to where Ford was, and they both explained what happened.
All the cheer and happiness from Mabel's face was gone as she heard about what Dipper did. "Though now with you here, you can help us break the illusion on Dipper, and on everyone else, he may not have listened to us, but if anyone can do it, it's you" Ford said.
Mabel nodded, "I hope so" she said, normally Mabel was very overconfident, but the more she thought about it the more she realized it was always Dipper saving her, sure she had saved him a few times, or they had worked well together, but this seemed like something else entirely.
"Hey Grunkle Stan and can Ford and I have a moment alone please?" she asked, Stan blinked but then figured this must be about her nearly strangling Ford earlier so he nodded and left.
Ford then looked to Mabel "so, uh, I'm sorry about saying you ruined everything" she said softly. "It's okay, I know your memory was just slowly starting to come back, and I know I things were weird when I came in, and you didn't know the full story" he said.
"More than a little weird, we don't know what was going on, but we did quickly understand, but then you connected so well with Dipper and then when I thought he was going to leave me to be your apprentice-" she stopped.
"You don't have to say anything" Ford said "While I wasn't trying to break up the two of you, it was my mistake for assuming Dipper would just say yes and that you would be okay with it, and I am sorry if I hurt your feelings"
"But Dipper was okay with it!" she said "I . . . I don't know, Dipper always told me he doesn't regret his decisions but I often wonder if he made it because I was being selfish, if he said that to get me out of that prison bubble" she sighed. Ford didn't know what to say to that or any real words to comfort her. "Well regardless things did all work out and before all this we both know Dipper and you were happy, that's really all that matters" he said.
Mabel just nodded slowly.
After a moment's silence, Ford spoke up "Mabel, can you grab my bag and pull out my journal please?" he asked. She nodded and pulled out Journal #5, the first three had been destroyed by Bill five years ago, the fourth one Ford had sent to Dipper a little over a year ago, and he had it when they returned to Gravity Falls, but Bill probably destroyed that one too when he cast his illusion. This was probably the last of Ford's journal.
She was about to hand it hand it to him when Ford stopped her. "I want you to have it, I have summaries of the things I wrote in the other journals in there and if anything happens to me or Stan, what's in that journal will help you and Dipper, or at least, I hope it will" he said.
Mabel opened her mouth in shock and looked through the pages of the journal, during their first year at Gravity Falls she could never get into them the same way Dipper did, but now, if she was going to save him, it could help. She smiled and held the book close to her chest.
"I'll guard it with my life"