Mabel looked to her brother as he stood just across the grass from her. "Dipper, please, you have to believe me, this is an illusion created by Bill, we never betrayed you, and we would never leave you like that" Mabel said sincerely.
Dipper's face flickered from anger to a brief moment of wanting to believe her, but quickly went back to anger again. "Give me one good reason why I should believe you!" he demanded. "I have one, you just have to trust me" Mabel said pulling the letter they had written together out of her pocket and slowly moved up to hand it to him.
Dipper snatched it away from her and read it to himself.
"We have our whole lives ahead of us, we just need to stop Bill, none of this ever happened" she said.
Dipper however, soon became enraged, how could she said say that none of this ever happened?! Dipper's mind had been picked apart and his body broken in ways she couldn't even imagine. However as he looked over the letter some memories did come back to him, he remembered leaving Gravity Falls after Weirdmageddon, he remembered high school, he remembered long chats with Ford and being sent the fourth journal. It was all too much, his head was throbbing, it felt like he was going into overdrive as he remembered a lot very quickly, he dropped to his knees looking very pale.
"Uh, is he okay?" Pacifica whispered to Stan.
"I remember . . ." he said softly.
"That's good, just take your time" Mabel said and moving to sit next to him and wrapped her arm around him. She had been where he was, she thought about how she had cried her eyes out alone on the floor of that dirty motel bathroom, she didn't know if she was saying the right words but she just wanted to make sure he knew he didn't have to be alone.
"Did we really have a substitute teacher who couldn't tell the two of us apart?" he asked and Mabel nearly laughed at the memory. Two years ago during their sophomore year, their regular teacher ended up out on maternity leave so for the last few months of the school year they had a substitute teacher who despite the obvious gender differences and even their different voices always mixed the two of them up, it got to the point where they were so annoyed that Mabel kept her hair up so it looked shorter at a glance and started to wear some of Dipper's clothes, and Dipper started to wear tighter slightly more feminine clothing and it was only then that she got them right. It had lead to many laughs and jokes between the two of them.
"Oh yeah, Mrs. Graunty, she was . . . something" Mabel chuckled
"What about the time you brought Waddles to school for picture day? Real or fake?" he asked
"Real" Mabel chuckled.
They ended up staying that for a long while, Dipper calmly asking about things in their past and Mabel answering, everyone else could only just watch, despite Dipper seeming to remember they still had to be careful, as Ford remembered how one wrong move had set him off last time.
"Gideon's giant mech?" Dipper asked now trying to zero in on things.
"Real" Mabel replied "he was spying on the entire town."
"The Summerween Trickster?"
"Real, oddly enough"
"Time travelling so you could earn waddles?"
"Real"
"Did you ever date a merman?"
"Oh yeah, Mermando, I miss him sometimes" Mabel smiled at the memory
"Your sock opera? and . . . Bill stole my body?"
"Real, I-" Mabel started but Dipper cut her off. "I remember" he said as he got back up to his feet and Mabel followed. However his stare then turned dark as he tore up the letter into a bunch of pieces and threw them in Mabel's face "I remember what a selfish hypocrite you are!" Dipper yelled. "Every time I needed you, you were off chasing boys, or absorbed in whatever your obsession of the week was!" he snapped.
"Dipper . . ." Mabel looked on the verge of tears, however Dipper wasn't done yet. "You just confirmed that that things were real, when Bill stole my body, you nearly handed him the journal, willingly dooming me and all of gravity falls all because . . . you wanted to date a boy who liked to make out with his own hands"
"Dipper, that part couldn't of been real, you need to think clearly!" Ford said
"Uh . . . actually Grunkle Ford, that one really happened" Mabel admitted sheepishly.
"You've always been afraid to face reality, maybe that's because in reality, I am better off without you!" Dipper yelled.
Mabel finally broke down crying, without thinking she felt her hand move up to the rim of her shirt, it was almost basic instinct for her to pull her shirt over her mouth, as she no longer could fit her whole head most of her clothing. However realizing what she was doing, she caught herself, physically slapping her own hand away before turning back to Dipper.
"You're right, I can be selfish, and sometimes hypocritical, and yes reality scares me. We're about to go to different ends of the country for college and it terrifies me, because I'm scared of losing you, you mean so much to me" she admitted. "You're the one who said that real life stinks sometimes, but there's better way to get through than denial, and that's with the help of people who care about you, it's how we've gotten through our whole lives. You taught me to accept the bad with the good and now you need to accept the good with the bad. I'm so sorry for things I've done in the past, you don't know how much, but please, let me make things right"
Not all, but a lot of the anger seemed to wash away from Dipper's face as he looked to his sister.
"Please Dipper, we've always been there for each other, let me be there for you, you're my brother and I love you" she said holding her hand out, but her eyes had been welling up with tears so badly she could barely even make out her brother's form anymore.
However before she could raise her other arm to wipe her tears she felt her brother take her hand and wiped them for her.
"Sincere sibling hug?" he asked softly.
Mabel didn't even say anything and hugged him tightly.
"Pat, pat" they said together, with a soft smile. As they said that the golden collar of Bill's likeness came undone from around Dipper's neck and fell to the ground. As that happened, both Stan Ford ran up to them and hugged the already hugging siblings.
Soos gave it's a moment's hesitation before going up and joining the now group hug.
Pacifica who had been watching with fascination but didn't really know what to do. She felt like she knew Dipper but wasn't entirely sure from where. She then walked over to Wendy who was still passed out from earlier.
Dipper than looked to Ford, "Great Uncle Ford, I am so sorry" he started crying as well, however Ford pulling him into a single hug. "It's not your fault Dipper, I don't blame you, this was Bill's doing, not yours, let's just go home"
They all headed back to the Mystery Shack, with Wendy in tow. Having to tie her up as they did Mabel, so they could try to force her to see reason, luckily with Dipper, Mabel, and Soos there they should be able to eventually break the illusion on her too.
Just three more to go!
Mabel tried to stay with Wendy to see if she would wake up, when it was clear she wasn't going to awake anytime soon she headed to the room that she and Dipper shared. Dipper had recently showered, his hair was damp as he got to work putting his things back up.
"Hey, you okay?" she asked softly.
Dipper hesitated for a moment before answering honestly "no, I'm not, I know what's going on is an illusion but I'm still not sure of what's real and what's fake" he said softly. "And what I felt, that isn't going to just go away" he sighed.
"I know how you feel, or at least to some extent" she said and moved to sit next to him on his bed. "Bill made me believe that I was a criminal who had no family, I forgot our Grunkles and I forgot you . . . and I hate myself for it" she sighed.
"Don't blame yourself Mabel" Dipper said softly putting a hand on her shoulder. "We will beat Bill once and for all" he said.
"Do you have any idea where Robbie, Gideon or McGucket might be?" she asked.
"That's the problem, I don't know where Robbie is, but I remember Bill mentioned Gideon once, and I think I know where me might be but I'm not completely confident on it. Though I am sure that he's keeping McGucket in his fearamid like he did me, I saw him as I left. If I'm right then that means that eventually we would have to take the fight to Bill, and if I'm wrong he could eventually have us all on his own turf, we could end up walking into a trap and it would all be my fault" he sighed.
"Hey, now that we're together, we'll search every inch of Gravity Falls, we will find everyone" she said.
Dipper didn't seem so sure but he nodded.
"For now it's getting late, let's just try to get some sleep" she said moving over to her bed.
"Yeah agreed" Dipper sighed and turned off the lights.
Despite the familiar bed, the familiar look of staring up at the shack's ceiling, the familiar sounds of Mabel muttering things in her sleep. Dipper ended up staying awake, only drifting off for a few moments at a time, as part of him knew he couldn't fall sleep, as even without Bill in his head, there would still be nightmares waiting for him.