A/N Thanks for clicking on my story. "Not What He Seems" is now officially my favorite episode! (For what it's worth my top five after this one in no order: "Summerween", "Carpet Diem", "Gideon Rises", "Blendin's Game", "Sock Opera" though even those change depending on the day) Those last few moments though during the climax was epic and the animation was so wonderful, I mean you could watch it in mute and understand what the characters are feeling because even though their eyes are white circles with black dots, they managed to convey so much! It hit me right in the feels! Kristin Schaal's performance though is what made me want to write this because when she said she wanted to believe Stan, the delivery was so raw and painful to hear, especially considering how perpetually cheerful and optimistic Mabel normally is, even when things seem dire. It inspired me to expand that moment, that scene because oh man was it powerful!
None of the dialogue is mine, but everything else is my interpretation of what was happening in that scene and what was going through Mabel's head.
EDIT: 7/30/2015 In light of the episode "A Tale of Two Stans" after much consideration I have decided that while I will not change the original backstory I wrote about Stan in Chapter 7, I will however add in the identity swap between the two Stans as it is a matter of the characters identity and not plot. Over time it would be weird for Grunkle Stan to still be known as Stanford and the Author as Grandpa Stanley in this. So while there will be no major changes to the backstory plotwise, as it is in the show, Grunkle Stan is now Stanley and the Author is now Grunkle Ford and Grandpa Shermy exists. Since this story is so long, it's a work in progress, so please bear with me if you reach a chapter where the edit has not yet been made.
So anyway, here it is!
Enjoy!
Mabel's Choice
It's a lot to take in, a lot to process but the clock is ticking and time is running out fast.
They run to the keys—Funny, my sweater today has a key—and she and Soos and Dipper each take one and on Dipper's cue they turn them, activating the manual override to the machine that could destroy the world.
"That's it!" Dipper exclaims as a stand with a bright red button appears directly in front of the giant inverted triangle with a swirling vortex in the centre, "The shutdown switch!"
Together they run towards it. Lights flash and sparks fly all around them and the air feels heavy and hot and suffocating, her heart is racing and her mind reeling as she tries to comprehend the intense feelings that course relentlessly through her. How could he do that? How could he lie to me, to Dipper to everyone like that, and for what? Power? Knowledge? He built a doomsday device, why would he do that?
Dipper raises his hand over the button ready to hit it and put an end to it all before it can destroy them all, his expression bitter, angry and determined, "This all ends, NOW!"
Suddenly Stan bursts into the room, all dishevelled and breathless from running stilling Dipper's hand, "Don't touch that button!"
-1 minute, 07 seconds to go-
"Dipper, just back away," Stan begs, approaching them with his hands raised to show he means no harm, "Please don't touch that shutdown button, you gotta trust me."
"And I should trust you why?" Dipper hisses, furious, "After you stole radioactive waste? After you lied to us all summer? I don't even know who you are!"
She listens quietly as Stan and Dipper argue and it hurts because he's their Grunkle…isn't he? No matter what kind of horrible stuff he did, he still loves them, and cares about them, doesn't he?
Or was that all a lie too?
Stan tries to convince Dipper to hear him out and leave the machine on, but it's clear that his words aren't getting through to him. And why should they? After all the evidence they found that piled up against him... She's torn. She wants to hear what he has to say, but what good would it do? How would we know you're telling the truth after everything we learned?
An alarm on Stan's watch beeps and his eyes widen. "Oh no, brace yourselves!" Stan exclaims in warning just as something in the air shifts and suddenly they're lifted in the air and they're torn away from each other, scattered through the room, impossibly floating as gravity seems to disobey its own laws. Everyone manages to find something to hold on to, everyone except her that is as she finds herself floating without an anchor.
-35 seconds to go-
"Dipper!" she cries out in panic, but she realizes at that moment that she's not going to float away forever when she feels a tug at her foot and discovers it's caught on a power cord. She can feel the electrical heat of the machine behind her, tugging at her, radiating a strange energy that send a low electric current to pulse through her veins. It doesn't hurt, but it's a strange and uncomfortable and her whole body tingles, her muscles tense and she wants it to stop. All of it.
She wants everything to go back to like it was before with the fireworks and the water balloons and the icy pops and everyone was still happy and getting along and they weren't seconds away from certain death because their Grunkle Stan lied to them and betrayed them with this…this Doomsday device or whatever the heck it is.
Why, Grunkle Stan? Why would you build this? What is it for? Do you really want to destroy us? The universe? How could you do that? It doesn't make sense...
"Mabel hurry! Shut it down!" Dipper exclaims, keeping her thoughts focused and centered. She nods determinedly, pushing the hurt and fear aside so she can put an end to this. She's the only one who can do this now, but it's OK, she can save them all, no problem.
She grabs the cord and pulls herself down to ground level and grabs hold of the stand that holds the button that can save everyone, clinging on for dear life as gravity seems to want to pull her in the wrong direction. She gathers her bearings and clutches the stand tightly with one hand and lifts the other one to press the red button.
"No!" Stan begs, "Mabel, Mabel, wait! Stop!"
She pauses, looking up at him as he pushes his way towards her. Her eyes widen with fear, and she freezes. It's strange being afraid of her Grunkle Stan because the Grunkle Stan she knew would never hurt her on purpose. The Grukle Stan she knew might've done some bad things, but he's not a bad person. He cares about her and Dipper, in her heart she knows it but…all this time he had been lying to them. He either faked his death or stole the identity of their real Grukle—Why would you do that?—and now because of him gravity is pulling them away from the ground and a machine that he built tugs at her back, doing who knows what? What's it going to do when the clock reaches zero?
Before Stan can reach her Soos launches himself at Stan, "Soos! What are you doing? I gave you an order!"
"Sorry Mr. Pines, if that really is your name," Soos snaps with determination, "but I have a new mission now, protecting these kids!"
She grasps the stand with both hands, her heart beating so hard and so fast it feels like it's going to beat out of her chest.
-25 seconds to go-
Dipper pushes himself into the melee, helping Soos hold Stan back leaving Mabel free to hit the button and turn off the machine but she can't move.
"Mabel! Press the red button! Shut it down! "
"No you can't! You gotta trust me!"
So much is happening at once, it's too much to take. Hit the button, save the world or trust Stan that it will be OK, after everything he has done…Her heart is pounding so hard she can barely do more than hold on tight for dear life, and while the messed up gravity tries to pull her in one direction, up and towards the machine, it's Dipper and Stan who are tearing her apart by forcing her to make an impossible choice.
The pressure is too much to take and she feels as though she will burst into a million pieces. All logic tells her that she should listen to Dipper and Soos, hit the button, save the world. Save everyone. But the look in Stan's eyes…the desperation in his voice is unlike anything she has ever heard before. Something in her gut tells her that he's never been more honest with them than he is in this moment and maybe she should trust him because to make such a dangerous device, he has to have a good explanation and she wants to hear it so badly but…
"Grunkle Stan, I don't even know if you're my Grunkle!" she sobs as tears fall up and away from her eyes, floating into the air as the weight of the world presses down on her. The literal weight of the world. She doesn't want this kind of responsibility, she just wants everyone to be happy. She wants things to be like they were before, she wants the truth, she wants to be free of this burden suddenly thrust upon her.
Something about her words seem to strike a chord with everyone in the room and they all stop fighting, their expressions going blank as they hover in the air and watch her break down. "I want to believe you but…" If I don't stop this machine, everyone could die…but what if everything we know is wrong? No matter what we discovered, we don't have all the facts…what if by pressing the button, I make things worse?
"Then listen to me, remember this morning when I said that I wanted to tell you guys something?" Stan asks.
-20 seconds to go-
Another surge of energy pulses from the machine, pushing Dipper, Stan and Soos away until they slam into the back wall, while the messed up gravitational force tries to pull her towards the machine. It's all she can do to keep hanging on as the energy in the air sends another current to pulse through her, this time it does hurt a little, but the physical pain is momentary and was still nothing compared to the pain in her soul.
What do I do? What do I do?
No, I gotta shut it down...
"I wanted to say that you're going to here 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!"
"Mabel, what if he's lying?" Dipper asks, "This thing can destroy the universe! Listen to your head!"
She feels sick, it's too much, it's too much! She looks away at the swirling vortex and sees a vastness of stars that are equally beautiful and terrifying and she can hardly fathom just what kind of machine they were dealing with exactly.
"Look into my eyes Mabel! Do you really think I'm a bad guy?"
"He's lying! Shut it down NOW!"
She holds on tight and can hardly breathe as she looks back and forth between two people she loves so much, one who had never done her wrong, and one who might not even be the person she thought he was. It should be such an easy choice so why is it so hard? The evidence said that unless they stop the machine, unless she stops it, unless she presses the big red button the world would be literally torn apart, and she can feel it starting to happen. It's the strangest sensation pulsing through her body, and she wonders if the others feel it too, or if she's the only one, because of her close proximity to the machine…
"Mabel please!" Stan begs.
-10 seconds to go-
Nope, gotta stop this, she thinks, and once it's over, then Stan can explain himself…
Her hand hovers over the button but she hesitates, looking the man she knew as Grunkle Stan in the eyes, and in her heart she knows, she knows that when he was asking her to trust him, he was being more sincere than he has ever been. How can she deny him that? He might've been a liar but he still cares about her and Dipper, she knows it. There's got to be something important, something they missed, something they don't know about the machine because she simply can not believe that Stan would ever allow harm to come to them and he's desperate.
He has to have a good reason for wanting-no needing the clock to reach zero.
Suddenly everything in her head goes quiet and time seems to stop and she looks away, blinking back tears as she finally makes her decision, hoping she's not wrong—I'm so sorry Dipper.
"Grunkle Stan…"
-5 seconds to go-
"I trust you," she closes her eyes and lets go of the switch.
-4-
Her body floats up into the air, towards the mysterious machine as the heat and energy in the room grows more and more intense.
-3-
"Mabel are you CRAZY!" Dipper shouts.
-2-
"We're all gonna-"
-1-
-0-
Suddenly everything goes white and she's engulfed by an intense surge of energy that burns and it feels like she's being torn apart from the inside out, but literally this time around. She screams—I chose wrong, I chose wrong! I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry!—before everything goes black.
When she comes to—Are we dead?—Dipper, Stan and Soos are awake and getting their bearings, all too shocked to argue or do much else. She crawls towards her brother as he pushes himself up a shocked look on his face. Her body aches as though she's just finished an intense workout, her nerve endings still tingling with the sensation of pins and needles. That's her first clue that somehow they're all still alive, that and the fact that while the room is a destroyed mess, it still exists, her choice did not result in the end of the world.
Dipper reaches down and helps her to her feet where she sways with dizziness for a moment. He holds her steady, his eyes a quiet question of concern. Yeah, I'm OK, she silently returns with a small smile. Everyone seems more or less OK, a little bruised and sore maybe, but OK. Dipper nods with relief, but then his eyes darken and he lets go of her, and she can see that he feels a little betrayed by her. She understands where he's coming from, but at least they're all alive to sort it out.
I'm sorry Dipper, but I had to.
She looks to Stan for an explanation, but his eyes are fixed on the machine that's now broken, but still standing upright. Everyone follows Stan's gaze to a figure emerging from the machine—a portal of some sort, she realizes-I guess that explains the stars. She tenses, not knowing if the figure was friend or foe and clutches Dipper's arm but he shakes it off. A small gasp escapes Dipper when the figure kneels down in front of Journal #1, a gloved hand resting over the cover. Looking closer she realizes that the figure has six fingers and she too releases a surprised gasp.
"What?" Dipper exclaims breathlessly, "Who's that?"
"The author of the journals," Stan replies quietly as the figure lowers the hood that conceals his face revealing a man that looks nearly identical to Stan, "My brother."
Woah, I was not expecting that!
It all makes sense now, and yet there are so many questions. Questions left unanswered, each question leading to more and more questions. But they're all alive and that's what matters. The burden that pressed so heavily on her shoulders has been lifted, and even though gravity has returned to normal she feels lighter than air.
She can't help herself, in her shock she blurts, "Is this the part where someone faints?"
"Oh, I'm so on it dude!" Soos volunteers cheerfully, dropping to the ground.
She releases the breath she didn't know she was holding as she ignores the seed of doubt building in the back of her mind and concludes that she made the right choice.
Didn't she?
A/N So while this chapter was intended as a one shot and written to stand on its own, I've decided to write an AU version of what might happen next so if you want you can chose to stop here or continue reading. Either way, thanks for reading and please let me know what you think!