Dipper hung his arms over the glowing blue bars of him and Mabel's cage, clicking his tongue every few seconds. They'd been separated from the Stans. He could only assume that they were trying to find their way back to them, as the door they'd left through had been blocked off by Bill. He glanced over his shoulder, catching Mabel's eye. She was curled up in the foetal position against the wall, not saying a word. For the first time in years, he couldn't see the happiness and joy that made her who she was in her eyes; all he could see was fear and terror. He had no doubt that he looked the same way. He hadn't reacted well to being possessed, so when Bill tore the sky open, he'd been petrified. Those three days in Weirdmageddon had been rough; he'd nearly died over heat exposure, dehydration and blood loss in that time. The massive gash across his stomach still ached when he moved, and he was pretty sure he'd just popped the makeshift stitches anyway. He glared at the hanging tapestries that bore the faces of his friends, barely holding back tears when he saw Wendy and Soos.

There was no doubt in his mind that this was the last day. He was going to die, and so was Mabel. So was Stan, and so was Ford. His parents, too. He was only twelve, he was too young to die. He wasn't even thirteen yet, but he felt like he'd lived a lifetime in the past three months alone. He knew that Bill wouldn't keep his end of the deal with Ford. As far as he saw it, their best option would be to not give Bill the equation. He was going to die slowly and painfully anyway so why take the rest of the world down with him? He knew that Bill would make sure he felt every bit of agonising pain he inflicted on him. He knew that he was going to be bleeding to death, but still not dying. Bill wouldn't let him. He would push him to the brink, then resurrect him and start over.

And that's when an idea struck him.

He slung his backpack over his shoulder, setting it down on the floor and unzipping it. He flung the broken crystal flashlight away, before setting his sights of the memory gun. This was it. The only path to success. He didn't know the equation, but he also didn't have to. He knew that Bill was desperate enough to take anything at this point. It had to be him, Bill wouldn't buy Mabel knowing.

Mabel.

She was going to have to pull the trigger. He doubted he'd get his memories back, at least not any time soon. McGucket was proof of that. So in a sense, he had to convince her to kill him. He knew that she already blamed herself for this; she'd told him what had happened whilst they were building the Shacktron. He couldn't even begin to imagine how it would feel if he had to kill Mabel, and honestly, he was sort of glad that he didn't have to. It was a selfish prospect, but it was true.

As far as he was concerned, there was no version of this where they come out on top and he lives. At least, not anymore. They had a chance; now he and Mabel would have to pay for Stan and Ford's mistakes. He didn't blame Mabel for this. Not in the slightest. As far as he was concerned, this was all Ford. Stan had a hand in screwing up the zodiac, but he had reason. It was a mistake. Ford on the other hand, had made this whole nightmare possible and just decided that the climax of their battle was a good time to be petty. Ford knew the stakes, but he blew it anyway.

He pulled the memory gun out of his bag and turned to Mabel. "I think I have an idea," he said, his voice shaking. Every fibre of his being was telling him to save himself, but he couldn't bare to let Mabel suffer. He couldn't care less if Ford died at this point. The man was a selfish, arrogant bastard and this was all his fault. Was he being harsh? Probably, but now, he had to pay the price.

Mabel looked up, noticing the memory gun in his hand. Slowly, she began to piece Dipper's plan together. "If tell Bill that you know the equation," she murmured. "Then I can just erase him from existence and everything will be back to normal." The positive Mabel that Dipper knew and loved was back, but sadly, he'd yet to drop the bombshell on her.

"That's not how it works," Dipper said. "If you just erase the part that Bill's in, then he'll just move somewhere else in my brain. The only way to kill him is to destroy everything."

"W-what?" Terror was leaking into her tone, the dam holding it finally opening. "To kill Bill, we have to erase your mind?"

Dipper nodded gravely, and reached the ray out, offering it to her.

"I have to erase your mind," Mabel realised. "No." Gently, she pushed the gun back. "No. No, th-this is my fault. I-it should be me."

Dipper sighed, biting his lip and looking down to the floor. "He won't buy it. It has to be me."

"What?" Mabel screamed, tears spilling down her cheeks. "It's – no! It's not fair. It should be me, it should be me."

"You're right," Dipper conceded, placing the gun in his vest pocket and and his hands on Mabel's shoulders. "It's not fair. It shouldn't be you who has to do this, but it is. We are out of time."

Mabel slapped Dipper's hand away, yelling "Well maybe I don't want to win! Maybe I don't want to live in a world that you're not in. I don't care if the world ends, we'll be together. Mystery twins for life, right? Right?"

"We both know that Bill won't let us see each other. And hey, I won't die." He was lying out of his arse, every word he was saying was complete waffle. He didn't care how bad it made him feel, he had to convince her. "You can get my memories back."

But I wouldn't count on it, a little voice in the back of his head said.

"No. No, no, no, no, no. I can't – I won't."

"You have to," Dipper smiled. "I know you can. You're the strongest person I know. You can do this." He saw the pain and sorrow on her face, it looked unnatural. "It won't hurt, I swear. You could never hurt me." In a last ditch effort, he resorted to playing the most dirty, underhanded and manipulative tactic he could possible think of.

"Just think of it as my dying wish," he proposed. "You can't say no to a dying wish, right?"

After a minute of stunned silence, Mabel sighed heavily.

"Fine," she muttered, before running up and wrapping her brother in one last hug. She wanted to cherish her last moments with him. "Goodbye Mason," she sniffled. "I love you."

Dipper closed his eyes and hugged her tightly, tears falling down his face. Between, muffled sobs, he muttered what turned out to be his last words to his sister.

"I love you too."

He knew that a long goodbye would make Mabel rethink things, so he had decided to resort to something short. But before he had a chance to even begin, he heard Bill storming through the corridors of the Fearamid, and motioned for Mabel to hide the memory ray.

She stuffed it up the back of her sweater in the nick of time, too. Bill burst through the wall, Stan and Ford clutched in his inky black fingers.

"TIME'S UP FORDSIE! GIMME THAT EQUATION, OR I'LL SNAP OL' STANLEY'S NECK. IT'LL BE EASY, LIKE BREAKING A TOOTHPICK. ACTUALLY, ON SECOND THOUGHT, I HAVE YOUR KIDS TO USE AS A BARGAINING TOOL. I DON'T NEED FEZ."

Ford gasped, but Bill shushed him.

"LET'S START THE COUNTDOWN THEN!" he shouted to no one in particular. "FIVE!"

Mabel looked at Dipper and squeezed his hand, looking at him with a face that said, 'please don't go.'

Dipper could only respond by mouthing the word 'sorry.'

"FOUR!"

Ford pushed Bill's finger off his mouth and yelled something very inappropriate for the twins at him.

"THREE!"

Bill's fingers coiled around Stan's neck, and he got ready for the end.

"TWO!"

Dipper pulled his hand out of Mabel's grip and walked forward. He didn't look back, because he knew that if he did, he could never go through with this.

"ONE!"

"STOP!"

Bill's eye widened. He glanced over to the source of the noise. It had come from Pinetree. Sixer was squirming in his hand, Fez was attempting to eat his way out, and Shooting Star looked like a zombie. Her face conveyed no emotion, which was odd for someone as perky as her.

"I-I'll tell you the equation," Pinetree said, his voice shaking.

"Dipper!" Sixer yelled. "Are you – mph!" Bill silenced him once again.

"YOU KNOW IT?"

Pinetree smirked. "Of course I do. It was in the journals."

"AND LET ME GUESS, YOU'LL GIVE IT TO ME IF I LET YOUR UNCLES AND SISTER GO?"

Pinetree simply nodded.

Bill considered it for a moment. He knew that getting into Pinetree's mind the old-fashioned way would be next to impossible; the process of encryption it had only gotten about halfway through, but that could still take an immense amount of effort to get past. He dropped the Stan twins to the ground, and let the younger twins' cell open. Flying down to the ground, he shrunk to a smaller size and extended his hand.

Pinterest walked forward, the left side of his face bathed in the red light of the Fearamid. The other side was blue, the light of the flame stronger than any other.

"IT'S A DEAL!"

Pinetree reached out into the blue flames and shook Bill's hand, nothing but pure, unadulterated bravery covering his face. Bill took a sharp intake of breath, then let his ethereal form enter the mindscape. His stone body clattered to the floor as he flew towards Pinetree, right into his mindscape.

Funnily enough, that wasn't the last thing that Dipper remembered.

Because when he woke up, he didn't remember anything.

Came up with this idea at two in the morning, spent some time writing it and now I feel like I'm dead, so great start. Also, this hopefully won't affect the HIVE Mind, as these chapters will be shorter, and since there isn't really a plot, I don't have to put as much thought into it plugging up holes. Hopefully you enjoyed this, and I don't know when the next chapter will come out. Also, I know that the twins say that they love each other, but that is purely platonic. Anyone who ships them can go to hell.