Closer Than Ever Before
Author Note:
Hey everyone! Don't worry; I have not given up on One Day Reunited. But I was having writer's block on it last week, so I decided to flesh out this idea that's been floating around in my head for a while. I'm still working on Chapter 5-6 of One Day Reunited (Headhunters), but I can't say when it'll be out. Hopefully this helps tide you over. Sorry this chapter is so dark; Sock Opera is just already one of the darkest episodes in the show, and taking the most obvious "What if?" from it just makes things worse.
This story is completely unconnected to One Day Reunited.
If you haven't read Journal 3 yet, then: spoiler alert. If you haven't seen Gravity Falls yet, what the heck are you doing here? Go watch it, and once you've stopped crying, feel free to check out this and my other work.
Chapter 1: Duo Ex Tribus
Location: Theater Time Theater, Gravity Falls, Oregon, United States, North America, Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy, Virgo Supercluster, Dimension 46-24'\
Date: July 29, 2012
Mabel climbed the ladder as quickly as possible. This was her fault and she had to fix it. She raced along the catwalk, hoping she'd made it there before Bill.
Yes! she thought. Her brother's possessed body was nowhere in sight. There was the wedding cake, and inside it, the Journal. Hopefully there was something in there that could help. Heedless of the danger, Mabel climbed over the railing and stretched as far as she could, trying to grab the Journal, but she lost her grip and fell into the wooden cake, causing it to fall toward the stage.
Fortunately, it stopped after about a second, then started moving upward. Mabel sighed in relief, and started leafing through the Journal. "C'mon, c'mon, there must be some way to get Dipper's body back…"
"OH-HO! Now why would you want to do that?" That voice… it was Dipper's voice, but… something about it sounded so wrong. Mabel looked up to see her rescuer and gasped.
It was Dipper, dressed in the reverend costume Mabel had found for her play, grinning broadly as he pulled the support rope for the wedding cake. Mabel couldn't think of how she hadn't noticed it before, but Dipper's eyes were all wrong: sickly yellow with slit pupils, and glowing very slightly in the darkness.
"Bill-Dipper! Bipper…" Mabel said, narrowing her eyes at the monstrosity who was controlling her brother's body just like one of Mabel's own sock puppets.
"Shh," Bill said in that horrific mockery of Dipper's voice. "You wouldn't want to ruin the show." He pointed down into the audience, where Gabe sat watching with his puppets. From the look on Gabe's face, Dipper was doing a good job filling in for her.
Suddenly, Bill let go of the rope holding up the cake, and Mabel was falling again. "Whoops! It's slipping! How's about you hand that book over?" Bill grabbed the rope again, stopping her descent.
Mabel clutched the Journal to her chest. "No! This is Dipper's. I'd never give it away!"
As Bill pulled the cake back up to his level, he said "Hmm, you didn't seem to have a problem taking it for your own play, or ditching him when he needed you. So come to your senses. Gimme the book or your play is ruined!" The manic grin was gone, replaced by a look of anger. But all my hard work… Looking down at Gabe, Mabel sighed and held the Journal out to Bill.
"There it is," Bill said approvingly. "I mean, who would sacrifice everything they've worked for just for their dumb sibling?" He took hold of the Journal with one hand.
In that instant, a flood of memories flashed before Mabel's eyes. Everything Dipper had done for her… that time he shaved a line in his hair to fix their second-grade school picture when Missy stuck gum in Mabel's hair… helping her understand her schoolwork, especially math… rescuing her from the gnomes… saving her, Wendy, and the others from the ghosts at the Dusk2Dawn (though she still didn't know exactly how he'd done it, and neither he nor Wendy would say anything)… giving up a chance to date Wendy so she could have Waddles… letting her keep her extra millimeter… giving up his lifeguard job to help her save Mermando (I'm gonna delete that photo, she thought)... jumping off a cliff to save her from Gideon… singing girly karaoke to bust those zombies…
Mabel knew what she had to do. She looked into Bill's yellow slit eyes. "Dipper would," she said, and yanked the Journal back, pulling Bill into the cake with her.
Without him holding the rope, the wedding cake fell to the stage, shattering right on top of the wedding set. Mabel and Bill got right back up and kept wrestling over the Journal, pulling it back and forth. She pinned him down and yelled, "Get out of my brother's body, you evil triangle!" Then she grabbed the Journal away from Bill and whacked him in the face with it, stunning him so she could get away.
"You can't stop me!" Bill screamed. "I'm a being of pure energy with no weakness!" He crouched down like he was about to jump back into the fight, but then stopped and straightened up. The manic grin that looked so wrong on Dipper's face returned. "So you want your brother's body back, huh Shooting Star? Come and get it!"
Then he ran backstage, with Mabel in hot pursuit.
When the cake came down, Dipper dropped the puppets and flew out of the way. He didn't know if he could actually be hurt in this form. He hadn't felt anything when Bill fell down the stairs, or poured soda in his eyes, or slammed his arm in the kitchen drawer, or even when he stuck forks in his own arms. Sure, he knew it would hurt later when (has to be when, can't think about "if") he got his body back, but there was no real pain. However it had hurt when Mabel grabbed his sock puppet form to keep Gabe from noticing anything, so maybe he could still feel pain inside any kind of vessel, even one without nerve endings.
Apparently, Bill had realized he couldn't take the Journal from Mabel by force when inhabiting Dipper's body. Never thought I'd be grateful for my weak noodle arms… Dipper thought grimly, as he followed after the demonic triangle. There was something about the way he'd said "your brother's body" that sounded very ominous.
Since he could fly through the walls, Dipper caught up to Bill much faster than Mabel did, following him out of the back of the theater. What is he up to? Bill was sprinting toward the edge of town. Dipper flew up high over the town and looked ahead, seeing a tall, pointed silhouette. The water tower? Time for some answers… He flew after Bill, keeping pace with him and yelling "BILL! What are you doing?"
Bill looked over at Dipper's ghostly form and grinned in his typical insane manner, still running. "Oh hi, Pine Tree! How's the Mindscape treatin' ya? Good? I hope so, 'cause you're gonna be spending eternity in there!"
They had reached the foot of the water tower, and Bill began climbing. The combination of Bill's words and their location connected. If he weren't already basically a ghost right now, Dipper would have gone pale. He ascended alongside Bill, who continued taunting him. "This was my plan all along! After I smashed the laptop and burned that Journal of yours to ashes, I was gonna throw your pathetic meat sack off the water tower and make it look like you lost your mind! But hey, two out of three's not bad!"
"You broke our deal, Bill! You promised me the laptop password in exchange for a puppet, but instead you just destroyed the laptop! What happens when you break a deal, huh?" Dipper asked smugly.
But Bill just laughed. "I never said I'd give you the password, Pine Tree! But I did leave you a hint! Try looking at that busted-up computer a bit more closely!"
"Even if you did leave a real hint, how am I supposed to use that knowledge if I'm stuck in the Mindscape?"
Bill laughed even harder. "That's how it goes when you make a vague deal! Get used to it, Pine Tree. Soon, you'll be just like me!"
What does that even mean? I'm not a demon or whatever Bill is. Bill had now reached the top of the water tower and was leaning casually on the railing. Dipper's confusion must have been obvious to him, as he descended into even more maniacal cackling. "It's funny how dumb you are, Pine Tree! But look down there," he said, pointing down into the grassy area surrounding the water tower. "Shooting Star finally caught up with us! What say we give her a real show-stopper?" He climbed up onto the flimsy railing surrounding the top of the water tower, which sagged dangerously under his weight. Mabel looked up and saw what Bill was doing.
"NO! DON'T DO IT, YOU THREE-SIDED POOP HEAD!" Mabel shouted.
Bill turned back toward Dipper's spectral form, his maniacal grin seeming to glow in the moonlight. "Pine Tree, just 'cause you've been so hilarious, I'm gonna give you a little parting gift."
Thinking that a "gift" from Bill probably wasn't anything good, Dipper asked "What, like that severed head you offered me as a 'prize' yesterday? No, thanks."
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! That would be hilarious, but no. It's the chance to say goodbye to your sister! HEY, SHOOTING STAR! YOU WANTED YOUR BROTHER'S BODY BACK, SO HERE IT COMES!"
With that, Bill stepped off the railing. Dipper flew as fast as he could to reach the ground before his falling body did, barely hearing Mabel's raw, primal scream of "NOOOOOOOOOO!"
When it was just a few feet above the ground, Dipper saw Bill's true triangular form eject itself and vanish, his empty body landing right on top of him.
The next thing Dipper knew, he was in excruciating pain.
When Mabel saw her brother's possessed body cavorting atop the water tower, her heart jumped into her throat. So that's what he meant…
And when Bipper jumped off the water tower, Mabel's heart
plummeted with him. This is what Mabel had seen when she looked into the eyes of the Gremloblin earlier in the summer. She heard a tortured scream, then realized it was coming from her own mouth.
Losing Dipper had always been Mabel's greatest fear. They had been together since before they were born. Mabel couldn't even begin to imagine any kind of life for herself without Dipper in it. Unfortunately, it seemed that imagination wasn't going to be necessary.
Dipper's body hit the ground with the gruesome crunch of shattering bones.
Mabel was at his side in an instant, hoping against hope that somehow, Dipper had miraculously survived the fall.
She felt for a pulse in his less-broken-looking right wrist and found one. It was weak, but it was there. She looked at his chest, which was very slightly rising and falling. Then Dipper opened his eyes, and they were once again the same deep brown as Mabel's own. Bill was gone from his body, leaving just one last cruel trick: he gave Mabel her brother back… just in time for them to say goodbye.
Dipper's entire body felt like it was on fire. He could tell that most of his bones were broken (for real this time, not sarcastically as he'd said about Stan's malfunctioning sky tram at the Mystery Fair). Only his head and right arm seemed anything close to intact, which he could tell because he felt someone touching his hand. Though his skull didn't seem to be all that damaged either, his head was still pounding in time with his heart, sending a wave of agony through his body each time.
Slowly, Dipper opened his eyes to see Mabel kneeling next to him, tears streaming down her face. "M-Mabel…" he said, almost instinctively. At least he could still talk, even if it hurt to breathe.
"Dipper…" Mabel sobbed.
"I'm… sorry. Bill… tricked me…" he croaked.
But Mabel shook her head, sending tears flying. Some of them landed on his face. "No, Dipper. I-I'm the one who s-should b-be a-a-apologizing. This is all m-my fault. I-I s-s-should have j-just listened to you and h-h-helped you out like I p-p-promised instead of obsessing over a dumb b-b-boy… and… and now… you're gonna…" But she couldn't bear to say it, even when it was happening right in front of her. Mabel shifted her position, slumping over even more, and Dipper saw what was in her arms: the Journal. Suddenly, a desperate, crazy idea forced its way through the haze of agony that filled Dipper's mind.
Bill said I was in the Mindscape earlier… but today's not the first time I've been there… and the way we got there last time…
"M-maybe not… Mabel… remember when… we went into… Grunkle Stan's mind?"
Mabel looks at Dipper, a hint of confusion breaking through the sorrow on her face. Why was Dipper bringing up that, of all things, right now?
"What if I went… into yours? I'm no doctor… but I can tell… that I'm beyond… saving. At least… my body is. But that doesn't… mean I have to… leave you."
A small spark of hope flared in the midst of Mabel's despair and she shuffled closer, not daring to speak.
"I don't… even know… if it will work… but it's… worth a shot… right?" Dipper rasped, attempting a small smile. And people say I'm the optimistic one… thought Mabel. She looked down at the Journal in her hands and opened it. Cruelly, it fell open to the page on Bill Cipher. Mabel turned the page to find the spell Dipper had used to bring the two of them and Soos into Grunkle Stan's mind. That was the first time they fought Bill… She turned the book around so Dipper could see the words.
He took this as her answer and slowly raised his right hand, placing it on Mabel's forehead. "Hold my hand there…"
Mabel gingerly placed her right hand over Dipper's, wincing almost as much as he did at the obvious pain her touch caused him. With her left hand, she held the Journal open on the page with the spell.
"After this… put my body… in one of those… cryotubes… in the bunker… maybe there's… a way… to fix it…"
Dipper took as deep a breath as he could, which felt like drinking lava, then began the incantation.
"Videntis… Omnium…"
Mabel's eyes glowed blue, and Dipper assumed his own were doing the same.
"Magister… Mentium…"
The world went gray, leaving only Dipper's own hand and Mabel in front of him with color. This was the Mindscape…
"Magnesium… Ad Hominem…"
A second, much deeper voice joined Dipper's barely audible rasp. This voice seemed to echo only within his own mind and spoke different words along with him.
NUMQUID FACIEM EIUS, DIRIGENTES STELLA?
Dipper saw his hand on Mabel's forehead erupt into frighteningly familiar ethereal blue flames, and nearly yanked it away, but Mabel gripped his hand even tighter, so he continued.
"Magnum… Opus…"
PER VIAM JUDEX…
"Habeas… Corpus…"
ANIMO TRANSFERENDI EX ARBORE...
"Inceptus… Nolanus… Overratus"
GEMINI IN CORPUS...
Up until now, Mabel hadn't seen anything except for Dipper's glowing eyes, but that had happened the first time too, and the world going all black-and-white, but she barely noticed that.
Then Dipper's hand had grown slightly warmer and flinched, so Mabel tightened her grip. She had heard a voice inside her head, asking a question:
DO YOU ACCEPT HIM, SHOOTING STAR?
Shooting Star… that's what Bill had called her, but there was something different about this voice that made Mabel sure it wasn't him. Yes, she thought in response, as I should have all along.
When Dipper choked out the penultimate line of the incantation, Mabel gasped. Dipper's birthmark, the one that had given him his nickname, was glowing just like the stars it resembled, even brighter than his eyes, and pulsing along with his heartbeat.
"Magister Mentium… Magister Mentium..."
Mabel saw Dipper take what she somehow knew to be his last breath. Though his final words were barely audible, they still seemed to echo throughout the Mindscape, as if another, much stronger voice had joined him.
"MAGISTER… MENTIUM!"
Unlike when she, Dipper, and Soos entered Grunkle Stan's mind, there was no blinding flash. Instead, the glow in both Dipper's eyes and his birthmark faded, followed by all the color in his body, until he was as gray as the surrounding Mindscape. The hand on Mabel's forehead became scorching hot, but she didn't dare remove it, despite the pain. Then the hand turned ice-cold, and Mabel felt it go limp in her grasp. Dipper wasn't breathing anymore, and Mabel didn't feel any different either.
I guess it didn't work…
Mabel wasn't sure how long she sat there, holding the hand of her brother's lifeless body, and looking at his face. She noticed something odd: Dipper's birthmark had faded completely. Not only was it no longer glowing, it wasn't there at all.
At some point, she became aware of a hand on her shoulder. She didn't know how long it had been there, but it was familiar. Looking behind her, Mabel saw Grunkle Stan, and for the first time since she'd met him, he was crying, and making no effort at all to hide his tears.
When Mabel had yelled "Get out of my brother's body, you evil triangle!" Stan's first reaction was "Children fighting! I can sell this…" which he had apparently said out loud without realizing it.
But then Dipper had started acting like he was someone else entirely, shouting nonsense about how he was "a being of pure energy with no weakness" and talking about himself in the third person. And though it might have just been Stan's cataracts again, but he thought he'd seen something strange about Dipper's eyes. He had a sinking feeling that the kid had gotten mixed up in some dangerous weirdness again, because there was something fishy about this whole situation.
While Grenda reassured the crowd that Mabel was just in her dressing room, "composing herself," Stan told Wendy and Soos that he didn't believe it for a second, and was going to look for Dipper and Mabel. They agreed to help him. Stan got into his car, and his employees into Soos's truck, heading in different directions and scanning the streets for the twins.
After about ten minutes of nothing, Stan heard Mabel's voice shout something and headed toward it. A few seconds later, she screamed again, but this one was different. Only once before had Stan heard such a sound of pure anguish: from himself, thirty years ago, when the portal went dark after swallowing Stanford.
The scream had come from the direction of the water tower. He stomped on the gas, knowing that either Mabel or Dipper or both were in mortal danger.
When Stan arrived at the water tower, he saw a small figure hunched over at its base, clad in a pink sweater, so definitely Mabel. He exited the car and moved closer, until the sight of what his great-niece was staring at stopped him in his tracks.
No. No, it can't be. At the base of the tower was Dipper Pines. Mabel held one of his hands against her forehead, but as Stan watched, the hand went limp and Dipper's eyes closed.
Forcing himself to walk until he was right behind Mabel also gave Stan a better view of Dipper. Stan was no stranger to death. In his ten years on the run before coming to Gravity Falls, he'd seen his fair share of corpses. A body as broken as that of his great-nephew could not possibly be alive.
For the second time in Stan's life, a member of his family had been snatched away right before his eyes, and Stan had done nothing.
Knowing exactly how Mabel must be feeling right now, Stan very gently put his hand on her shoulder. He knew Mabel's pain, as it has been his own for thirty years. He said nothing, for he knew words could not begin to describe such pain.
For a long time, they stayed that way. They might have stood there all night had Soos's pickup truck not pulled up next to the Stanmobile. Soos climbed out of the truck, carrying Dipper's hat. "Mr. Pines?" he called out, "Did you find them?"
"Are they okay?" asked Wendy. Then they saw the body. Soos burst into tears and Wendy's eyes widened. "He's… he's not… he didn't…" she croaked out.
Stan turned to face Wendy, and his expression was all the answer she needed. After her dad, Stan was the toughest person Wendy knew. If he was crying like that, there could be only one reason.
Suddenly, Mabel stood up and turned to look at them. Her baleful gaze shifted to focus in turn on Wendy and then Soos, who flinched back upon seeing an expression of such abject despair on someone normally so full of happiness. Mabel looked at Soos the longest, her eyes moving to the hat in his hand.
She slowly walked the few yards toward him, and took the hat from his unresisting fingers. Then she turned it around, staring at the pine tree symbol on the front. Finally, Mabel put the hat on her head. Somehow, seeing Mabel wearing that hat was just as strange as her continued despondence.
More disturbing still was the expression she now wore, or rather the complete lack of expression. Her face was completely flat and emotionless. On Mabel, usually so bright and cheery, it looked wrong. Like she was dead inside, and all of them knew why.
Then she spoke, and for a second, Stan almost thought Mabel must be possessed too; her voice was so different. It sounded robotic, just as expressionless as her face. "You should take care of the body. He said to put it in one of those cryotubes in the bunker." She then walked to Stan's car, opened the door, and got into the backseat, completely still and silent. Those were not words Stan had ever thought could describe Mabel.
He looked at Soos and Wendy, then at Dipper's body, and sighed. "I'll… get her home. I don't know what all that about a bunker was, but if it was Dipper's last request, I guess he thought you'd understand."
Soos was still incapacitated with sobbing, but Wendy was already moving. She knelt down, slid her arms under Dipper's body, and lifted it easily, walking back to Soos's truck and waiting for him. Stan had already left with Mabel. Eventually, Soos trudged back to his truck, ready to honor his dino-bro's last, very strange request.
When they got back to the Mystery Shack, Mabel wordlessly exited the car and walked into the house. Stan hoped she wasn't about to try to join her brother in the worst possible way, so he followed her up to the attic bedroom, but Mabel was just lying there, on Dipper's bed rather than her own. Though it seemed impossible, her eyes were closed and her breathing steady. Mabel was asleep. Stan supposed exhaustion had finally caught up with her (not to mention the sugar crash from all that Mabel Juice).
If Mabel was capable of sleeping right now, Stan figured he'd let her. In the meantime, he just went back downstairs and sat at the kitchen table with his head in his hands.
Stan couldn't even fathom how he was going to break this to the kids' parents, but he definitely couldn't handle that conversation right now.
How could I have let things go so wrong?
When Dipper said the final words of the incantation (that strange deep voice intoning them in unison), everything went white. He didn't know if he was alive or dead because he couldn't see anything, including himself. But if I'm thinking about this, I must exist somehow. I think, therefore, I am, right? Something like that...
After a period of time that could have been seconds or centuries, the blank whiteness seemed to thicken somewhat, becoming more like clouds than nothingness. Dipper looked down at himself and saw the same pale, semi-transparent form he'd been stuck in for most of the day. He sighed. Well, at least it doesn't hurt anymore.
The "clouds" were turning blue and pink, like cotton candy. I guess Mabel does like cotton candy, but I kind of expected her mind to have way more unicorns, buff guys, and rainbows in it…
Wherever Dipper was, it seemed to just be an endless expanse of constantly shifting cotton-candy-like clouds that, when he looked closer, twisted into complex mathematical shapes, fractals spiraling into infinity.
"HELLO, DIPPER."
The voice seemed to echo across the entire endless cloudy expanse, but also sounded within his mind itself. It was the same voice that had spoken along with him during the spell. And it was coming from right behind Dipper. He turned around and saw the speaker. What in the…?!
"I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU."
Author note:
Three guesses who that guy is…
If anyone out there actually knows Latin, I'm sorry if Google Translate butchered it.
