Closer Than Ever Before

Author Note:

And now, the one you've all been waiting for (though fortunately not as long as last time)! This chapter is supposed to be kind of a mid-season finale, sort of like Not What He Seems was during Season 2 of the original show. That's why it's the longest chapter in this story so far, so I hope it's up to the same standard.

Before you PM me with wild theories, solve the code at the end. It will probably answer at least your first burning question… here's how to solve it:

Yek eht rof hcraes.

Also, I haven't done this before now, but this chapter has a lot of formatting to indicate different things, so this is what all of that means… except for one part right at the end, but that'll be obvious.

Narration/Current POV's thoughts

"Normal speech"

Internal monologue/Flashback narration

"Flashback dialogue/reading aloud"

"SHOUTING/BILL'S REGULAR VOICE"

"Distorted/electronic voice"

Axolotl's voice (memory)


Chapter 6: Magister Mentium

The next thing Mabel saw was… herself? What?! She tried to turn her head, but nothing happened. She tried to blink. Nothing. Well, she'd become used to that. All it meant was Dipper was currently in control. Somewhat apprehensively, she tried to ask him what had happened after she collapsed, but received no response. Was he giving her the silent treatment on purpose or had something happened to him? Mabel decided to wait and watch what happened next… not that she could really do much else.

Dipper reached into a backpack on the floor next to her and pulled out the laptop from the bunker. But Bill had smashed that; Dipper had shown her the wreckage!

"Alright, Mabel. Today's the big day!" That was Dipper's voice! His real voice, not the thought-sharing one she'd heard for the past few days (which wasn't really a voice at all), and it was coming from… her own mouth?

"Big day!" the other Mabel repeated enthusiastically. Something about this scene was extremely familiar…

"Soos finally fixed up the laptop. If this thing works, we could learn the identity of The Author and unravel the greatest mysteries of Gravity Falls. You ready?"

"Oh, I'm ready, baby," said the other Mabel, opening a pop-up book called Ready Baby.

Now Mabel remembered this, it was last Monday; the day she'd met Gabe! But where was Dipper? Once again trying and failing to look around, Mabel realized she was seeing through Dipper's eyes. This was his memory! So that's why she couldn't move or do anything… but why was she seeing this?

Dipper opened the laptop on the desk and switched it on. After a lengthy boot-up procedure, it displayed the word "WELCOME" over a strange design.

Mabel recognized that now; it was the portal down in the secret basement!

"Ha-ha! It worked!" Dipper cheered. He and Mabel did one of their many secret handshakes. "Blip, blap, bloopity bloop, twins!"

In addition to seeing from Dipper's perspective, Mabel could tell what he'd been thinking and feeling during this memory. And what he felt right now…it was just like what she'd felt from him when Grunkle Stan told them about the origin of the Journals.

But their joy diminished somewhat when the laptop screen turned red.

/UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS: FORBIDDEN/

ENTER PASSWORD

"Augh! Of course!" Dipper groaned. "A password."

"Don't you worry, bro-bro," Mabel heard the memory version of her say as she wrapped an arm around her brother. "With your brains and my 'laser-focus,' there is literally nothing that can distract us from–"

Piano music started up across the room, and Mabel turned to listen.

"–Did you hear that?"

They both looked back to see a slightly older boy with blue eyes and a blond ponytail putting on a puppet show for several small children.

Mabel stared at him with stars in her eyes, pulling out the "Ready Baby" book again, and this time opening it to a pop-out of a heart.

"Ba-bump! Ba-bump!"

"Oh, boy…" Dipper said. He knew what this meant. Another crush of the week for Mabel, and a definite distraction from the laptop.

"Just when I was getting over Mermando… of course YOU show up at my doorstep!" Mabel lamented.

"Oh, yeah… I forgot about Mermando," Dipper grumbled, walking over to a nearby shelf and looking over the book titles. He did not like where this was going. "Did not care for Mermando."

Pulling a book down from the shelf, Dipper walked back over to the desk. "Okay, according to this cryptology book, there are 7.2 million 8-letter words. I'll type, you read. 'K, Mabel?" he said, getting no response. "Mabel..?"

But the elder twin had left so fast that her stool spun on one leg. Yeah, Dipper definitely didn't like where this was going. With a heavy sigh, he got started trying out passwords.

After a few minutes (and several failed attempts), Mabel returned to Dipper's side, just as he finished trying one of the obvious solutions: the word "password" itself. Hey, you never knew.

"So, how'd it go?" he asked, slightly afraid of the answer. You could never tell at first glance with Mabel's crushes, especially this summer. Even the decent ones tended to be… problematic in some way.

"Dipper…" Mabel started hesitantly, then finished in a single breath, "How hard do you think it would be to write and compose a sock puppet rock opera with lights, original music, and live pyrotechnics by Friday?"

"WHAT!?" Dipper exclaimed, turning to face Mabel after yet another failed password. How did she always get into these things? "Mabel, are you serious?"

"I don't know what happened!" Mabel panicked, "I got lost in his eyes and his ponytail, and I'm gonna be so embarrassed on Friday if I don't have anything!"

"But… what about cracking this password?" Dipper asked. "You know… Mystery Twins?"

"If you help me with this for just a couple of days, I promise I'll help you with the password!" Mabel pleaded, hands clasped in supplication. "Please, pretty please!"

Then she broke out the puppy dog eyes. "It's for love, Dipper," she whispered.

Dipper was still reluctant. The last time he'd gotten involved in Mabel's love life, he'd been fired from a job at the pool; the time before that, he'd been tackled off a cliff by a child psychopath; and the time before THAT, they'd almost been squashed by gnomes. But this was Mabel. She'd do it even if he refused to help, he'd probably get roped in anyway, and then end up having so much fun that he wouldn't care. That's usually how things went around Mabel.

"All right, okay," Dipper conceded, much to Mabel's delight.

Mabel screamed at herself to forget about Gabe, then at her brother to change his mind. "NO! DON'T DO IT, DIPPER! For once in your life, DON'T help me!"

But no one could hear her, not even her twin. This Dipper was only a memory, and Mabel was a powerless spectator.

––––– I –––––

Dipper stood in a pine forest, not unlike the woods around the Mystery Shack where he liked to explore. Everything (except him) was in various shades of gray, black, and white. Various objects were scattered among the trees, just like what he remembered from Stan's Mindscape… which meant this must be his own. Among other things, Dipper recognized his most recent school desk, his bed from back home in Piedmont, and a plush chameleon that had been his favorite stuffed animal when he was little. There were also more recent items, such as the Mystery Shack golf cart, a broken copy machine, a time tape, a Fight Fighters arcade console, a flashlight with a crystal attached, the rolled-up electron carpet, a smashed cryotube… and even a sock puppet of himself.

The only thing with any color to it (besides Dipper himself) was the sky: a deep purplish-blue, like the night sky just after sunset. However, only seven stars were visible, much larger and brighter than normal and connected by thin white lines to form the constellation from which Dipper took his name.

Dipper remembered when he was four years old and their dad showed him and Mabel the constellations during a camping trip. When Dad pointed out the Big Dipper, Mabel had looked at her brother's face and immediately made the connection. At first, only Mabel had called him Dipper… and then they started school. He and Mabel were always together, and since Mabel stood out so much more, no one really bothered to learn his name. Even their kindergarten teacher had called him "Mabel's brother" at least as often as "Mason." When other kids noticed him at all, it was only for his strange birthmark, and with Mabel calling him "Dipper" all the time, the nickname stuck. At least it was actually his, unlike his real name, which was just another way for people to concatenate him with Mabel. Eventually, he'd just started introducing himself as Dipper, going so far as to find his teachers before the first day of class and ask them to call him Dipper when they took attendance.

By now, it was too late to tell everyone the truth, even if he wanted to. No one had called him Mason for years, not teachers or the principal, not Mom and Dad (unless he was in big trouble), not even Mabel. Whenever he had to write his name at school, he wrote Dipper, not Mason. Even within his own mind, he thought of himself as Dipper. Mason might be the name on his birth certificate, but it wasn't him.

The sky held no other constellations… at least not ones made of stars. Books and papers floated around, linked by different-colored lines of light, along with glowing mathematical formulae. It was like an impossibly vast, three-dimensional, cosmic version of the conspiracy board Dipper had created to discover the identity of the Author. This must be how knowledge appeared, at least to him. Just as Dipper realized this, one of the webs of multicolored light shifted and grew, and he somehow knew it was in response to this realization. It was the kind of thing that would be extremely difficult to describe in words.

Dipper wondered what he was doing here. The last thing he remembered was getting angry with Mabel when she apparently forgot that their strange situation was partly her fault. But that was the thing… he'd transferred his mind into Mabel's body. Their minds had been linked for three days, but he didn't see anything in here that looked remotely like what he'd expect to find in his sister's Mindscape. Were their minds more separate than they seemed? Or had something happened to Mabel during their fight? Maybe if Dipper could reach the center of his Mindscape, he could find out what was going on.

Immediately upon thinking this, he suddenly stood in front of a very odd structure, directly beneath his blazing namesake constellation. It looked like a structurally impossible conglomeration of the Mystery Shack and his home in Piedmont. This place must be the center of Dipper's mind; all the constellations of knowledge converged on it like the hub of a wheel. It made perfect sense for Stan's mind to have been centered around the Mystery Shack. Considering what Dipper now knew about Stan's past, it was probably the first place his great-uncle had really felt at home, likely even more so than where he'd grown up. But did that mean the Mystery Shack had started to feel as much like home to Dipper as the place he'd grown up? Yes… that was definitely true. Dipper felt like he belonged in Gravity Falls, far more than he'd ever done in Piedmont.

That still didn't explain anything about what he was doing here, or where to go next. The only other Mindscape he'd ever explored was Stan's, and its organization hadn't made the slightest bit of sense. Dipper would like to think his mind was more orderly than his great-uncle's, but based on what he'd already seen, it probably wasn't. He'd always been more of an "organized chaos" type of guy, much to Mabel's (and their parents') annoyance.

"What even am I right now?" Dipper said to himself. "If only there was someone I could ask about all this Mindscape stuff…"

Just as before when he'd realized what the "constellations" meant, one of them lit up, and a familiar high-pitched laugh echoed from the sky. All of the papers and books in that particular cluster featured the triangular likeness of…

"Oh, no, not this again…"

The lines of light turned bright yellow, rearranged themselves into an equilateral triangle with an eye in the middle, and with a bright flash of electric-blue, the outline transformed into the one being Dipper could definitely blame for his predicament.

"BILL CIPHER, MASTER OF THE MIND, AT YOUR SERVICE," the triangular nightmare said, tipping his hat as if they were old friends.

"You again!?" Dipper shouted. "Get out of my mind! Haven't you taken enough from me already?"

Pulling his cane out of nowhere and spinning it around, Bill somehow conveyed the impression of a smirk despite his complete lack of facial features. "GOTTA HAND IT TO YA, PINE TREE… I WAS KINDA LYING ABOUT BEING IMPRESSED WITH YOU BEFORE, BUT NOW IT'S GENUINE!"

Dipper just stared. The "I'm impressed" routine hadn't even worked on Thursday night during Bill's first appearance in Dipper's dreams. So why would Bill think it might work now?

"WHAT, NO DEFIANT RESPONSE? YOU'RE NO FUN ANYMORE, PINE TREE… ANYWAY, CARE TO EXPLAIN THIS?"

Just as he'd done right before their first fateful deal, Bill's body expanded and turned into something like a TV screen. This time, it showed the base of the water tower. Mabel knelt in front of Dipper's own broken and bleeding body, holding his right hand with her own, keeping it on her forehead, while holding Journal 3 open with the other. Despite seeming to be at least 10 feet away, the sound was perfectly clear.

As Dipper choked out the words of the spell, both his and Mabel's eyes (hers flowing with tears) glowed scene lost all color save for the twins themselves. Dipper's hand erupted into a nimbus of blue flames. He flinched, but Mabel just gripped his hand even tighter. After a few more phrases, Dipper spoke his last words, and all the color drained from his body, seeming to move toward his still-flaming right hand. The fire briefly flared even brighter, then vanished, and Dipper's body went limp.

But that wasn't what Dipper remembered… at least, not all of it. Sure, he'd been in extreme pain at the time, but that only made his final moments of physical existence all the more impossible to forget, and if Dipper was absolutely sure of one thing, it's that he hadn't been the only one speaking during that spell. Looking back on the memory, he realized it was the same voice which had spoken to him yesterday while talking to Stan about what to tell their parents; the voice which felt like a memory, but couldn't be… could it?

Yet for some reason, Bill hadn't picked up on that part, despite it having taken place in the Mindscape he claimed to be such a "master" of. That meant whoever had helped Dipper with the spell was either more powerful than Bill, or knew how to hide from him somehow. Or both.

"WELL?" Bill asked again, sounding impatient.

Dipper shrugged and replied, "I don't even know what you're talking about." It was partly true. Dipper had no idea who had helped him or why, but anything he knew that Bill Cipher didn't could only be an advantage, and he wasn't giving that up.

In an instant, Bill was massive, blood-red, and literally burning with rage.

"HOW IN THE NAME OF ME DID YOU DO IT?" he roared, "THAT LITTLE SPELL SHOULDN'T BE CAPABLE OF A COMPLETE MIND TRANSFER! THE ENERGY IT WOULD REQUIRE TO FORCE THROUGH–"

Just as quickly as it came, Bill's rage ended. Back to his regular size and color, he kept talking, but this time it seemed to be to himself, even tapping the area beneath his half-shut eye with one finger, as if deep in thought. "OHHHH… SO THAT'S WHAT THAT WAS…"

As he talked, Bill's body showed a series of images, fizzing with static like Stan's old TV. First was what Dipper recognized as the Author's underground bunker, complete with cryotubes and… was that Dipper's own body floating in the air? It was hard to tell, because the scene immediately vanished in a flash so bright, Dipper was sure it would have blinded him if he had actual eyes right now. That did match with Wendy's story (heard by way of Stan) of what had happened down there.

"BUT THAT STILL DOESN'T EXPLAIN… OH, OF COURSE," Bill muttered, "CAN'T LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE, THE FRILLY KNOW-IT-ALL… BIGGEST WASTE OF ULTIMATE POWER IN EXISTENCE, THAT'S WHAT IT IS…"

The image within the triangle's frame changed to some kind of tapestry featuring the elaborate design of an undulating frilly salamander (why did that thing look so familiar?), before returning to Bill's normal yellow brick pattern. He once again faced Dipper directly, and seemed to be in a much better mood.

"SEEMS LIKE YOU NEED SOMEONE TO SHOW YOU THE ROPES OF THE MINDSCAPE, KID! WITH THE RIGHT TRAINING, YOU COULD BE A VALUABLE PARTNER!"

Bill held out a hand, those familiar blue flames bursting into being around it.

"WHADDYA YA SAY?"

––––– T –––––

When Mabel collapsed, Stan wasted no time in catching her and checking the girl's vitals as best he knew how. Thank Moses, she was still breathing, even if he couldn't wake her up. He got the feeling something very bad had just happened, but the priority right now was to take care of Mabel, so Stan carried her back up to the attic and tucked her into bed. Then he went and got a chair, set it down next to her, and waited. Though Stan wasn't as smart as his nerdy brother, he knew taking Mabel to the hospital wouldn't be any help. Not only would normal doctors almost certainly be unable to tell what was wrong with her, they might mess up whatever brain-voodoo solution was actually required. If there even was one.


The scene changed. It was another memory.

"Later, ladies!" Gabe said, kicking off to continue his rollerblading down a trail through the woods.

"GWAA!" Mabel gasped, eyes wide with panic. "We gotta up our game, girls! Did you hear that thing he said about the stitches?!"

Candy and Grenda assured Mabel that they could handle it…only to immediately prove themselves wrong by pulling out (and in Grenda's case, accidentally ripping) some of the puppets they'd made. At the same time, Soos fell off the Stanmobile, along with the mountain of set pieces he'd been trying to tie on top of it.

"I'm not okay!" he said.

Behind his frustration, Dipper wondered why they hadn't put that stuff in Soos's truck instead.

"AAAA! Okay, I'm back on fabrication." Mabel said, frantically grabbing a box of unfinished sock puppets and running back toward the house. "Get me my lint roller!"

Dipper grabbed his frantic sister by the shoulders, causing the box to fly out of her hands. "Whoa, whoa! Hey, you just said you were going to help me!"

"DIPPER! This sock crisis just bumped up to a Code Argyle! The laptop can wait!"

"NO, IT CAN'T! FORGET GABE! FORGET THE SOCKS!" Mabel shouted at herself. But just as before in the library memory, no one could hear her.

"Mabel, do you seriously think that your random crush of the week is more important than uncovering the mysteries of this town?" Dipper asked. "You're obsessed!"

"I'm obsessed? Look at you! You look like a vampire! And not the hot kind!" Mabel rebutted, pointing to the deep bags under Dipper's eyes.

"But you said you were going to help me!" Dipper repeated after rubbing his eyes.

Knowing how her memory self was about to respond, Mabel shouted as loud as she could, not caring that it wouldn't do any good. "DON'T DO IT, MABEL! IF YOU CARE ABOUT DIPPER AT ALL, JUST KEEP YOUR PROMISE!"

"Oh, I can help you," Mabel said through a sock puppet, "With tickles!"

She proceeded to tickle Dipper, who involuntarily laughed a bit before punching Mabel's arm.

"Okay, fine! You know what? I'll do it on my own!" he said angrily.

This is the last straw! Dipper thought, storming off back toward the Shack. If Mabel can't keep her promises, then she can do this stupid play without me! So much for the Mystery Twins…

Dipper felt frustrated, betrayed, and hurt, and Mabel knew that she deserved every bit of it and more. Even without knowing the consequences, she would have still deserved it. Because for the first time in her memory, she'd broken a promise to her brother. There was no more futile screaming. All Mabel could do was sob in utter silence.

––––– S–––––

"No."

Bill didn't move, but for the briefest instant, he, the flames, and the entire Mindscape around them flashed a bright, searing, hateful blood-red. Then it was gone in less than an eye-blink; so quickly Dipper would have thought he'd imagined it… if not for where they were, and who he was talking to.

"WHY. NOT?" Bill said, speaking very slowly and clearly, still unmoving.

"You're the reason I'm even in this mess, because our last deal literally got me killed. Why would I ever make that mistake again?"

Retracting his hand, Bill turned red again, then black, growling in rage all the while. Then he turned back to his regular yellow, and sighed as if in resignation (which sounded extremely strange and made no sense whatsoever), rubbing his closed eye.

"Like you, Pine Tree, I wasn't always this way…" Bill explained. His voice had lost the sound of insanity, the mocking tone, even most of its usual echo. Bill Cipher sounded almost… normal. Somehow, this was far more disturbing than anything Dipper had yet seen from him.

"You think you've got it bad? Imagine living in the Second Dimension."

In Bill's eye, Dipper saw the image of a flat grid, covered in every imaginable kind of geometric shape. One of them, an equilateral triangle, was bright yellow.

SIXTY DEGREES THAT COME IN THREES

It was the same voice that had spoken to Dipper during the spell under the water tower, and while talking to Stan two days ago. The voice which felt like a memory, but couldn't be… Just as during the spell, Bill did not appear to notice, and kept talking as if nothing had happened.

"Flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams…"

The yellow triangle lifted free of the flat grid to float above it.

WATCHES FROM WITHIN BIRCH TREES

Now the yellow triangle glowed like the sun, and more shapes started to float free of the grid. In fact, the grid itself seemed to be dissolving.

"I liberated my dimension, Dipper…"

SAW HIS OWN DIMENSION BURN, MISSES HOME BUT CAN'T RETURN

It was the first time Bill had ever called Dipper by his preferred name instead of just "kid" or "Pine Tree." That raised yet another red flag. Why was Bill acting so weirdly… not weird?

"And I'd like to liberate yours."

Dipper got the feeling that Bill's definition of "liberate" was more along the lines of "tear to pieces, set on fire, and dance on the ashes."

"Once I enter your dimension, it will finally be free! Anything will be possible!"

SAYS HE'S HAPPY, HE'S A LIAR. BLAME THE ARSON FOR THE FIRE

Where were these weird messages coming from? Yet again, it's like Dipper was suddenly remembering something he'd forgotten a long time ago, but when else would he have learned anything about Bill Cipher?

IF HE WANTS TO SHIRK THE BLAME, HE'LL HAVE TO INVOKE MY NAME

Whose name? Who was this? As far as Dipper knew, the only ultra-powerful being he'd ever encountered was Bill himself, but something about these mysterious messages evoked feelings of… well, everything Bill Cipher wasn't: calm, serene, controlled, right.

"I'll remake a fuN wOrld–a bETteR WORLD!" The usual echo in Bill's voice started to come back as the triangle soared into the sky of Dipper's Mindscape, spreading his arms in exultation. "A PARTY THAT NEVER ENDS WITH A HOST WHO NEVER DIES! NO MORE RESTRICTIONS! NO MORE LAWS!"

ONE WAY TO ABSOLVE HIS CRIME: A DIFFERENT FORM, A DIFFERENT TIME.

Looking straight at Dipper, Bill floated back down.

"AND YOU CAN BE A PART OF IT!"

Once again, the hand wreathed in blue flames was offered.

"TAKE MY HAND. JOIN ME, AND I WILL MAKE YOU AS I AM: IMMORTAL, ALL-POWERFUL, GREATER THAN ANYTHING YOU'VE IMAGINED."

In Bill's eye, Dipper saw a vision of himself the size of a galaxy, and standing within one, arms spread and expression triumphant.

Why was Bill making this kind of offer? So far, he hadn't said anything that sounded like what would be Dipper's end of this deal, which was extremely suspicious. Even while gradually manipulating Dipper into their first deal, Bill had made no secret of the fact that he wanted something in return, whether a nameless "favor" or a vaguely defined "puppet."

Suddenly, it all became clear.

It's the same reason he smashed the laptop; the same reason he even appeared to me in the first place! Because I'd become a threat to his plans. And for some reason, I'm even more of one now, so he wants me out of the way.

"The answer's still no, Bill," Dipper said, keeping his arms folded. "No, as in absolutely never."

Just as when he had refused Bill's initial offer, everything flashed red, and this time, it stayed that way. The flames vanished, leaving only Bill's void-black eye to break up the crimson monotony. But this time, Dipper didn't even flinch.

"'Anything will be possible,' huh?" he said, smirking slightly. With a snap of his fingers, the all-consuming redness vanished, returning to the typical gray color palette of the Mindscape. Then he floated into the air, surrounded by a glowing blue aura.

"Thanks for reminding me that we're equals here."

With a single thought, Dipper conjured thick cuffs of blue light around Bill's stick-figure limbs, chaining him to the ground.

"I know what you're trying to do," he said. "You only appeared to me in the first place because you were scared I'd figure out your 'big plans.' Since your 'plan' to kill me backfired, you're trying to get me out of the way."

Bill was apparently unbothered by being chained up, or that Dipper had remembered what he could do in the Mindscape. That meant he probably still had a trump card up his nonexistent sleeve, and Dipper was pretty sure he knew exactly what it was.

"Now," Dipper said menacingly, "tell me what you've done with Mabel, or I'll blast your eye out."

Far from being intimidated, Bill seemed to find this hilarious, bursting into insane laughter despite his less-than-superior position.

"HAHAHAHAHA! OH, PINE TREE… IT'S STILL SO FUNNY HOW DUMB YOU ARE. YOU'RE THE ONE WHO SHOOK MY HAND, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CAST THAT SPELL, AND YOU ARE THE ONE TORMENTING SHOOTING STAR RIGHT NOW."

––––– A –––––

The scene shifted once again. This memory didn't have Mabel in it, but it must have been only a few minutes after the last one.

Dipper sat in the window seat on the non-bedroom half of the attic, trying more passwords, but his mind wasn't really on it. He was still thinking about Mabel's betrayal… okay, that was a bit of a strong word, but still! She'd promised that if Dipper helped with the sock puppet show for "just a couple of days," she'd help him with the laptop. Now, almost four days later, she'd gone back on that promise just minutes after restating it at breakfast!

"Passwords… passwords…" he muttered, barely paying attention to the keyboard as he typed. "Mabel…"

BZZT

"Is…"

BZZT

"Useless…"

BZZT

Each word felt like a punch in the gut to Mabel.

It was the first time Dipper could ever remember Mabel straight-up breaking a promise to him, and that hurt. Sure, they'd both forgotten stuff promised to each other before, but never in Dipper's memory had either of them ever outright refused to keep a promise to their twin.


"Wh-what do you mean?" Dipper asked, fear once again creeping into his voice.

"SHE'S IN THERE." Bill pointed to the strange building behind Dipper. "TRAPPED INSIDE YOUR MEMORIES, SLOWLY LOSING HERSELF." He cackled with insane glee.

––––– D –––––

Dipper yawned, feeling the inevitable effects of getting fewer than 4 hours of sleep three nights in a row. "Oh, man…"

In fact, this window seat was feeling pretty comfortable…

"Too many failed entries. Initiate data erase in 5 minutes."

The laptop then displayed the words /ONE ENTRY REMAINING/ along with a timer counting down. That shook away some of the fatigue. Dipper grabbed the ancient computer, scarcely able to believe it.

"No! Noonono! I'm gonna lose everything? I only have one more try?"

He frantically brainstormed potential passwords. He'd tried every eight-letter word in Journal 3, including the encoded ones. What if the password was something personal, like the Author's name? That wasn't anywhere in the Journals!… No, that was crazy; the Author was way too smart to use such an obvious password. But before Dipper could try anything else (not that he had any good prospects), a wave of gray swept from the center of the window across the room. Dipper climbed down off the window seat just in time.

Oh, no. Please don't be what I think it is.

With a clap of thunder, Bill Cipher appeared in the center of the stained-glass window (which Dipper only now realized greatly resembled him), legs crossed, eye closed, and holding blue flames in either hand.

"WELL, WELL, WELL. SOMEONE'S LOOKING DESPERATE." Bill said, floating into the room.


"No! This isn't what I wanted!" Dipper yelled. As his concentration broke, so did the chains around Bill, who floated upward as Dipper drifted back down.

"IT WAS INEVITABLE." Bill put a hand on Dipper's shoulder in what might have been a consoling gesture were he literally anyone else. "MAGIC OR NOT, THAT WRINKLY MEATBALL YOU SKIN-PUPPETS CALL A BRAIN ISN'T BUILT TO CONTAIN TWO MINDS. NOT FOR LONG, ANYWAY. TAKE IT FROM SOMEONE WHO'S DONE THIS BEFORE."

Another one of those strange déjà vu memories popped into Dipper's mind, and though this one seemed less forceful, it was definitely the same voice speaking.

That is the harder path.

Shoving Bill's hand away, Dipper sank to his knees. Sure, Bill might be lying, but the strange almost-memory voice wasn't. Of that, Dipper was absolutely certain, even if he still didn't know why he was so sure.

"THERE ARE A FEW WAYS THIS COULD GO," Bill continued, counting on his fingers and obviously taking great pleasure in tormenting Dipper with this knowledge. "DOOR #1: SHOOTING STAR'S BRAIN CAN'T TAKE THE STRESS, SO SHE DIES, TAKING YOU DOWN WITH HER."

"No, noonono…"

––––– E –––––

"I thought I told you to leave me alone!"

"I CAN HELP YA, KID." Bill turned and pulled his cane from thin air, leaning on it. "YOU JUST NEED TO HEAR OUT MY DEMANDS."

Dipper looked back at the laptop, where the countdown had just reached 4 minutes. It's not like he had any other options… But what would something like Bill, whatever the heck he was, want from a sweaty twelve-year-old?

Mabel could feel that her brother hadn't been thinking straight, sleep-deprived as he was, but of course, Dipper couldn't tell that for himself. He never could, always staying up late reading, playing video games, or lately, puzzling over mysteries. Mabel had tried to warn Dipper against sleep deprivation multiple times this summer, but he didn't often listen, and the week leading up to the puppet show was about the worst he'd ever been.

"What crazy thing do you want, anyway?" he asked. Stuff he'd seen in late-night horror movies and spooky comic books started popping into Dipper's head. "To eat my soul? To rip out my teeth? Are you gonna replace my eyes with baby heads or something?"

"YEESH, KID, RELAX!" Bill said, making a 'back-off' motion. "ALL I WANT IS A PUPPET!"

That couldn't mean anything good. Mabel had seen Bill conjure up all sorts of stuff in Stan's mind (such as her dream boys), so if he wanted a puppet, why not just make one? But in Dipper's desperate, sleep-deprived state, he didn't make the connection. And was it just because she was experiencing the memory of that state, or was it getting harder for Mabel herself to remember things as well?


"DOOR #2: YOUR MINDS SHRED EACH OTHER TO PIECES EVEN BETTER THAN I COULD! THAT WOULD BE HILARIOUS!" Bill laughed. "IF THAT HAPPENS, WHATEVER'S LEFT OVER WILL MAKE A GREAT HENCHMANIAC!"

"I can't let that happen…" Dipper croaked.

––––– A –––––

"A puppet?" Dipper asked, confused. "What are you playing at?"

"EVERYONE LOVES PUPPETS!" Bill said, "AND IT LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE A SURPLUS!"

A coat rack across the room covered in Mabel's sock puppets lit up, and Bill floated over to fiddle with one of them.

"I dunno, man… Mabel worked really hard on these."

Even now, he thought of Mabel. Dipper was way too good a person to have to put up with a selfish jerk like her as a sister.

"SEEMS TO ME ONE LITTLE PUPPET IS A SMALL PRICE TO PAY TO LEARN ALL THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE!" Bill's voice echoed even more on the last word, and his triangular body became a window into space, showing a glittering starscape. He floated back over to Dipper's side.

"BESIDES, WHAT'S YOUR SISTER DONE FOR YOU LATELY?"

Bill's body expanded, and his lower half showed a succession of images: Dipper driving the golf cart as he rescued Mabel from the gnomes at the very beginning of the summer; Dipper sighing as he pulled Blendin's time tape, giving up his chance to date Wendy so Mabel could win Waddles; Dipper reluctantly handing Mabel the megaphone to help Mermando, knowing it would cost him both his first job and yet another chance to hand out with Wendy.

"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU SACRIFICED FOR HER, HUH?" Bill said. "AND WHEN HAS SHE EVER RETURNED THE FAVOR?"

Mabel looked back on those moments in an entirely new light, while vaguely perceiving the memory of Dipper she was currently stuck inside of doing the same. Dipper really had given up a lot for her this summer. And as much as she hated to admit it, Bill was right about one thing: she'd returned that selflessness by breaking her word to him for the first time. This was highlighted when the memory of Dipper looked out the window, giving Mabel a perfect view of herself laughing with Candy and Grenda as they put together more sock puppets out on the lawn, completely oblivious to the fateful manipulation going on above them.

"TICK-TOCK, TICK-TOCK, KID!" Bill said, holding out a hand, which ignited with blue flames. His eye morphed into a clock face counting down the seconds.

After experiencing all this from Dipper's perspective, Mabel was ready to admit that it didn't matter what Stan said. This was her fault. Mabel felt like she was drowning in her own despair. And it served her right for betraying her twin. It was just like Dipper himself had said right before this torturous trip down memory lane.

After glancing once more at the laptop, where the countdown had reached 30 seconds, Dipper turned back to Bill.

"You were right, Dipper," Mabel said, feeling like she was fading away; as if she barely existed at all anymore. These would be her final words. "If I had kept my promise, you'd still be alive. I'm a horrible sister, and you shouldn't have to suffer for my mistakes. This is my fault, so I should pay the price. Go ahead. T-take my body. You'll make better use of it than I ever could."


"AND FINALLY, DOOR #3: ONE MIND CRUSHES THE OTHER AND TAKES OVER PERMANENTLY." Bill tipped his hat again. "CONGRATS, PINE TREE! YOU'RE DOING THAT WITHOUT EVEN TRYING! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Despite the dire circumstances, Bill's use of the word "door" stood out to Dipper. Why was that?

I offer you a choice.

Hurting Mabel was the furthest thing from Dipper's mind. He'd lost his temper, that was all. If there was even a chance that Bill was right, he had to find her. Then they could calmly ask Stan about the portal, and work things out rationally between themselves.

There had to be a way. Anything was possible here. Dipper concentrated as hard as he could on Mabel, and heard her voice saying "You were right, Dipper…" But something was wrong with it. She wasn't screaming in pain, nor even pleading. Mabel sounded like she'd given up completely… and the next words Dipper heard confirmed that.

"NO!" he screamed, saving Mabel the only thought left in his mind.

He opened his eyes to see a door. It looked just like the attic bedroom door in the Shack. Without hesitation, Dipper threw the door open, running headlong into it as Bill continued to laugh behind him.

––––– L –––––

"Just one puppet?" Dipper said. "Fine!"

He reached out to take the triangle's flaming hand.

And then the memory rippled as if it were a pond that someone had dropped a pebble into. Suddenly, Mabel could move again. She pulled her arm back and looked around, noticing that she no longer looked like Dipper. So she was still in the memory, but Bill had completely frozen, and the flames on his hand were gone. Also the bedroom door was open now, but Mabel scarcely had time to realize this before something launched out of the door, screaming "MABEL!"

Colliding with her, it sent them tumbling across the floor until they hit a rolled-up carpet in the pile of junk on the other side of the attic, which unfurled beneath them. The thing did not seem to want to let go of Mabel, and when she saw what it was, she didn't want to either, so they stood up, but kept hold of each other. It was just like when Dipper had miraculously come through that same door three nights ago.

After a while, they released each other, and Dipper explained his most recent confrontation with Bill Cipher –the real one, not the frozen memory version on the other side of the room– ending with Bill telling him that he'd been "crushing Mabel's mind without even trying." Mabel told her brother about living through his recent memories, which seemed to match up with what Bill had told Dipper.

"I never wanted to hurt you, Mabel," Dipper said, "I mean…yeah, it still hurts that you broke your promise, but it's not just your fault. You were looking out for me when you kept telling me to get some sleep, and I should've listened."

He pointed to the frozen memory of Bill near the window. "If I'd been thinking straight then, I would have remembered all the stuff you've done for me, both this summer, and our entire lives."

"But what about that other thing Bill said?" Mabel asked fearfully, "'One body isn't meant to hold two minds?' I mean, it's Bill, so maybe he was just being a stink-face, but… I was feeling pretty crushed before you got back in here, and that would also explain the headaches from before."

"WELL, OF COURSE! WHY WOULD I LIE WHEN I'M YOUR ONLY CHANCE TO BOTH CONTINUE LIVING?"

The memory of Bill was no longer stationary, but facing the twins and twirling his cane. While the amount of blame for this situation that rightfully fell on either of their shoulders was debatable, this equilateral nightmare was certainly more responsible than anyone else. Dipper wasted no time in firing searing lasers from his eyes, which Mabel followed up with a barrage of fluffy pink kitten faces.

But when they stopped, Bill still floated there, completely unharmed.

"ARE YOU FINISHED?" he asked, sounding bored.

"Nope," the twins said in unison, "This is our mind! You're not welcome here!" They closed their eyes, and a swirling red maelstrom opened up in the floor beneath Bill, emitting sparks of electricity as it began to draw him downward.

Instead of panicking as he had when they'd done this in Stan's Mindscape, Bill just chuckled. "HOW ADORABLE. BUT I REALLY AM YOUR ONLY CHANCE."

"No way!" Mabel shouted. "You killed my brother!"

"AND NOW HE'S INEVITABLY GOING TO DOMINATE AND KILL YOU," Bill said, staring first at Dipper then at Mabel. "UNLESS YOU LET ME HELP. HERE'S MY OFFER: I'LL RESTORE YOUR MIND AND BODY, DIPPER, TO EXACTLY AS THEY WERE BEFORE OUR FIRST DEAL. IN EXCHANGE, BOTH OF YOU LEAVE GRAVITY FALLS IN THE NEXT TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AND NEVER RETURN."

He extended a flaming hand to each of them, but before the twins could even consider Bill's offer, they both heard something else; a voice which felt like a memory, but couldn't be.

The vessel of your birth cannot be recovered… Bill Cipher is not the only one who knows how to make use of loopholes, you know.

Dipper remembered what he and Mabel had done to help .GIFfany earlier today. It had only been for a split second, but all the signs were there… and then the solution came to him in one incredible, ironic piece.

"No," the twins replied in unison.

Waving his hands to extinguish the flames, Bill laughed, "WELL THEN, HAVE FUN GOING INSANE! OR DYING, I'M FINE WITH EITHER."

"We won't go insane," Dipper said calmly as the vortex shrank and vanished. "And nobody's dying."

"OH YEAH? WHY IS THAT?" Bill said mockingly.

"Because I found Door #4. And I'm taking it." Turning to Mabel, Dipper continued. "We can't stay in the same body any longer, Mabel. But I don't think we have to. Remember what happened in the basement when I fainted, and up in our room the other day?"

Mabel looked confused. "Yeah… you started fading away."

"But I've been in the Mindscape without a body before, remember? I got there right here in this room, by making a deal." He grinned. "It's a good thing we decided to help Soos find a date, or I never would have realized this could work…

"We've always been there for each other, Mabel. That's how we've gotten through our whole lives. For the last three days, we've been closer than ever before, and it seems like that was too close. I might not ever be the same again, but I promise I'll always be there for you, so long as you promise me the same thing. Mystery Twins forever?" Dipper held out his right hand. It erupted into brilliant blue flames, just as Bill's had done minutes ago.

"WHAT!? NO! THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE POSSIBLE!" Bill screamed, turning bright red with anger.

"Mystery Twins forever, bro-bro," Mabel echoed, and shook her brother's hand.


Sitting on that old chair staring at his unresponsive niece/nephew, Stan couldn't help but feel entirely responsible, just like he'd told them down in the secret lab a couple of days ago. How long he sat there, Stan didn't know. Mabel tossed and turned a few times, and he heard her mumble random phrases like "You again?", "Don't do it…", "Absolutely never…", and "Can't let that happen…"

Shortly after that last one, Mabel sat bolt upright and screamed "NO!" Both her eyes and Dipper's birthmark on her forehead glowed with a powerful white light. Before Stan could do anything, she leaped from the bed, threw open the door, and charged out, shouting "MABEL!"

Following as fast as he could, Stan ran to block the stairs, but Mabel hadn't gone any further than the other half of the attic. She (or probably Dipper, given what they'd said) dove forward as if tackling someone and tumbled into the rolled-up carpet, which fell over and unrolled beneath her. A few seconds later, they stood up in a pose that suggested hugging someone invisible. Tears leaked from their still-glowing eyes. After several seconds, they released the "hug," and their mouth started moving, but no sound came out. Were they sleepwalking? Was that good or bad?

Mabel whipped around to glare at something in Stan's general direction, but it probably wasn't him, since whoever was in control didn't react to his presence at all. His first instinct was to grab hold of Mabel, but the thought almost immediately struck Stan that whatever this was, interfering was not a good idea.

With Stan looking on, Mabel stood there in what might be described as a battle stance, not moving except for her lips, as if still talking to someone. Then she turned to one side and held out her right hand as if offering a handshake. That's when everything really went crazy.

To Stan's eyes, the world flashed into black and white. This must be that "Mindscape" thing the kids had talked about. Suddenly, Stan could see not only Mabel, but Dipper as well, though Dipper was standing in the same spot and pose that he'd just seen Mabel take in the "real" world, while Mabel was as gray as their surroundings save for her eyes. Their right hands were clasped tightly and enveloped in electric-blue flames.

Next to Stan floated a single-eyed yellow triangle dressed like Mr. Peanut. In the back of his mind, Stan instantly recognized this character as Bill Cipher (both from the kids' descriptions and the numerous drawings of him in Ford's Journals). However, like Stan himself, Bill was highly preoccupied watching… whatever the heck it was the kids were doing. Despite lacking any sort of face, the triangle somehow gave off a feeling of mixed anger and shock.

All the color in Dipper's form leached out and flowed down his arm into Mabel, restoring her to normal, but leaving Dipper as no more than an outline, like a sketch of himself drawn in lines of blue light. The Mindscape itself began to warp and contract, space spiraling inward from all directions as if Dipper were a powerful gravity well, filling in his sketch-like form and leaving behind only blank whiteness.

When it was all gone, an invisible shockwave blasted outward, feeling to Stan like a powerful wind had blown right through him.

The twins finally let go of each other's hands. Both of them looked exactly the same as Stan had always known them to, except for one thing. It was difficult to see against the white void they now floated in, but there appeared to be a faint blue glow all around Dipper that wasn't present for Mabel and Stan… though it was rather similar to the faint yellow glow surrounding Bill Cipher.

"So I hear you've been in my mind recently, huh?" Stan casually said to Bill, as if they were sitting at a bar instead of floating in a white void after watching something that even Bill seemed legitimately shocked by. "Nice to finally meet the guy responsible for most of my problems."

Bill ignored Stan completely. Even when the old con man tried to punch him in the eye (with brass knuckles that certainly hadn't been there a second ago), Bill simply floated out of reach, expression unchanged.

"IT SEEMS I UNDERESTIMATED YOU," he said, glowering at Dipper. "BUT DON'T GET EXCITED. YOU MAY HAVE BECOME A MORE INTERESTING OPPONENT, BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER. I'VE BEEN PLAYING THIS GAME SINCE BEFORE YOUR UNIVERSE BEGAN. I'LL STILL WIN IN THE END."

Everything went black, and a glowing double circle appeared around Bill. Dipper and Mabel recognized it from the first time they'd fought him in Stan's Mindscape: divided into ten equal sections, each containing a symbol, including the Pine Tree and fishlike symbols from Dipper and Stan's respective hats and the Shooting Star from Mabel's sweater.

"UNTIL NEXT TIME, PINE TREE." Bill glowed even brighter yellow as the symbols in the circle lit up in succession. After the light made two complete circuits of the wheel, both it and Bill himself vanished with a sound like a huge bell being struck.


Mabel's eyes popped open. Even though it was dark outside, moonlight crept in through the stained-glass window, showing the color of the various kinds of junk piled into the storage half of the attic, including the blue shag carpet Mabel was lying on. A few feet away, Stan grabbed the stair rail, groggily pulling himself to his feet.

No longer could Mabel feel Dipper's presence in her mind… because he was right there next to her! She jumped up and tried to hug him again to celebrate the success of… whatever just happened, but her arms went right through him. Confused, she backed away, then noticed that while she and Stan stood firmly upon the floorboards, Dipper floated a few inches above them. He was also slightly translucent and still had that faint blue glow around his outline, much easier to see in the dark attic than the blank white space they'd just left.

"Hey, Mabel," he said, voice echoing slightly as if he were standing in a large cave. "Looks like it worked."

"You mean the handshake thing? Then why aren't you back!?"

"Who're ya talkin' to, pumpkin?… Or are you Dipper right now?" Stan asked, coming up behind her.

"No, Dipper's right there," Mabel said, pointing at him floating next to her.

Stan squinted at the spot, then shook his head. "Unless my cataracts have gotten a lot worse, there's nothin' there, kid."

"He is too there!" Mabel said indignantly. She could see Dipper plain as day.

"I'm still in the Mindscape, Mabel," Dipper said. "I don't think anyone else will be able to see or hear me. The only reason you can is because of our deal."

"I made a super-magical deal with Dipper and it got him out of my head, so he's basically a ghost now," Mabel said. "Kinda,"

Stan stared at her for a few seconds, blinked, and then shrugged.

"I suppose it makes as much sense as him being stuck inside your head in the first place."

"Bill said I'd become a more 'interesting opponent'… I think… that means I'm kind of like him now? That's probably why he was so mad," Dipper said, sounding both disgusted and mildly excited.

"Because now he's got competition."

END OF ACT ONE


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