Nothing is more powerful than…Mabel!
"Dipper, help me!" Mabel called out on screen just as a giant pair of metal hands pulled the two apart.
Dipper was flung onto a cliff above hitting his head on a rock, Gideon's hateful words echoing in the air. He got up and headed to the forest with his head down, looking for all the world as if he'd been defeated. Then with a roar of rage he turned around and leapt off the cliff. It looked like suicide and by all rights it should have been, but the robot's head turned towards his scream and he dove head first through the armored glass covering the robot's eyes.
"Holy shit, dude!" Soos said in shock, not having seen it from this angle before and realizing exactly how far Dipper had jumped and the risk he had taken.
The scene inside the robot's head played out with the pair fighting and Dipper winning, but then Gideon's head came up and his eyes glowed a familiar gold color and things departed from the script. "If I can't have her no one will!" Gideon roared and squeezed his right hand shut. Mabel's voice yelling for help cut off like a switch had been thrown and Dipper fell to his knees. The cuts his father had made in his chest reopened and blood began to pour out. The blood turned darker and darker until it was pitch black and began to cover the screen itself.
"That's Dipper!" Mabel realized. "He's inside the screen!"
"We're too late," Soos said in horror as the screen began to bulge outward a slowly growing sphere of absolute darkness.
"No!" Mabel screamed and started forward, but Soos grabbed her. "The book says that's death, dude. We got to go!"
Mabel tore herself in two and the one with a slight bluish tint to her hair broke free and dove into the obsidian sphere.
"I hope that book is wrong," Soos said tightening his grip on Mabel who was being pulled towards the blackness by a silver cord connecting her to her otherself. "Pretend we're fishing!"
"What?!" Mabel stopped fighting to escape.
"Grab the line and reel them in!" Soos explained. "It said there was no coming back, but it said nothing about being pulled back!"
*Inside the Sphere*
Mabel would have screamed if she could have drawn breath but the blackness burned it was so cold and a multitude of small wounds were opening on her skin as she was assaulted by memory after memory of every rejection and insult she'd ever received, of every injury or time she'd felt stupid. Following the pain was a strange numbness that was even worse, taking away everything, good and bad alike. It took her a second to remember why she was there, floating in the dark and bleeding.
Casting about for Dipper she started to swim towards a glimmer of light in the darkness like a distant star. She knew where he was, now she just had to reach him. She instinctively knew the distance between them was a recent thing, caused by their listening to others about how they should behave rather than each other. Ignoring the bleeding and the cold she focused on her connection to him, the times they spent together and how much he meant to her. The distance between them rapidly shrunk. Ignoring the pull behind her she swam as hard as she could, slamming into him just before a section of the darkness, that seemed to be reaching for him, could take hold.
"Mine!" she screamed, glaring at it.
There seemed to be a hint of amusement from the surrounding darkness as it began to fade away.
"M-Mabel?" Dipper stuttered out weakly.
"It's me," she assured him as the pull behind them increased, her otherself hauling them out of the darkness.
"B-but I got you killed, I failed you!" he cried.
"That wasn't real, you saved me," she assured him. "Besides, it's our job to save ourselves and each other, we're twins remember?"
"Y-yeah," he agreed clutching her tightly.
There was a loud popping sound as Soos and Mabel gave one final heave and pulled the two out of the globe of darkness, causing it to pop like a soap bubble.
The pair was a mess, covered in blood and open wounds, shivering with ice flaking off them, but they were slowly healing as the ice melted.
"Back to reality, dudes," Soos said, clapping his hands and breaking the spell, relieved it was over. "Let's get you to bed, you need some actual sleep." He reached down to help Dipper up, only to be thrown back into the wall in a flash of blue light.
"The only way you'll take him is from my cold dead hands!" Mabel growled, glaring through tear stained eyes, holding Dipper tightly.
"Point taken," Soos said rubbing the back of his head.
"Let's tuck you both in Dipper's bed," Mabel told her otherself, realizing they were still not all there, as Dipper wasn't speaking, just holding his twin.
"Ok," Mabel agreed as her otherself helped the two to bed.
"You guys are seriously cold," Mabel told herself.
"Yeah," Mabel agreed as she snuggled into Dipper's side and he held her tightly.
Soos and Mabel closed the door behind them as they left.
"We better get back to work," Soos said. "Before Stan has a cow."
"And puts it on display," Mabel agreed able to push aside everything that happened recently, since her otherself was dealing with it and would be keeping Dipper safe.
"How'd it go?" Wendy asked.
"They're ok but exhausted, so it's just us today," Soos told her.
Mabel raised a hand and pointed at the closed sign, causing it to flip over.
"Are you possessed again?" Wendy asked nervously, trying to remember all the words to the Lamby Lamb song, just in case.
"No, just practicing for when I find who hurt my brother and stole my Waddles," Mabel said cheerfully before walking back to run her register.
"Dude, is it just me or was that even scarier because she smiled and looked cheerful while saying it?" Wendy asked.
"It's not just you, dude," Soos agreed.
*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*
Mabel reveled in the warmth she felt from Dipper, knowing he was alive and well. Feeling his breathing change she realized he'd woken up, though he also seemed content to lay there holding her as well. After a minute or so she could feel him start to reluctantly withdraw even though he hadn't moved yet. "I saw the memory of dad talking about giving me space," she told him, wincing at the pain the memory caused him.
"You did?" he asked confused.
"Yeah," she agreed. "Mom gave me a similar speech and encouraged me to have a summer romance and help you find a girl for yourself."
"Really?" he asked.
"Yeah," she repeated, knowing he wasn't doubting her, but was just surprised.
"They probably read some trendy article about child raising and started manipulating us," Dipper said aloud as he thought about it.
Mabel sighed feeling his anger and disappointment mirrored in her own emotions. "First we were a status symbol to them and now we're a puzzle, but we aren't really people. I thought Mom was finally taking an interest in me as well, but she was just mimicking what she had read so she could ensure we would grow how they wanted, the perfect kids to show off to their circle of friends."
"I don't think we should go back there," Dipper said after a couple of minutes thinking it over.
"We have to," Mabel said with a sigh. "Sadly we are much too young to move out on our own."
"True, but all we have to do is act less than perfect and we could probably convince them to send us somewhere else," Dipper offered. "If we aren't trophy children we can be the perfect children by being away at some special school for gifted youngsters."
"Or here with Grunkle Stan while claiming that," Mabel said with a smile.
"We'll decide once we see how the summer goes," Dipper said. "Worse comes to worse we can at least blackmail them into ignoring us if we act perfect in public."
They laid there quietly just resting and enjoying being together.
"I have to see my friend in the woods," Dipper said suddenly.
Mabel tightened her grip on him. "Sorry, I'm not letting you go."
"Not now," he assured her. "Tomorrow."
"I may not be through holding you by then," she warned him. "I'm not sure when I'll be able to bring myself to move my arms from where they are right now."
"I'll carry you if I have to," he assured her. "I need advice and a way to protect myself from what that… Gideon version of me did. I couldn't protect myself from it and Waddles got taken."
"I know," Mabel agreed sadly. "But that's not your fault."
"It feels that way," Dipper shared with her. "But that's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because they took a member of our family, they took Waddles and we have to go get him back, and we will get him back, I promise!"
Mabel squeezed him tightly, a knot of fear and worry loosening in her chest as she heard the life and fire in Dipper's voice and she finally felt that things would get better and that she wouldn't lose him. As Mabel cried in relief Dipper simply held her and stroked her back, swearing to himself that the two fake Pines would pay for hurting her.
*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*
"Nice trick kid," Stan said as Mabel floated cash to and from the cash register, as the tourists applauded the free magic act. "How'd you do it?"
"Magic jewelry," Mabel replied.
"Fine, keep your secrets," Stan said with a chuckled. "Just keep up the good work."
"Will do Grunkle Stan," Mabel replied. "I'm borrowing the master bathroom tonight; I have to bathe a pig."
"Just be sure to clean up after him," Stan said.
"I will," Mabel agreed.
"I thought they grabbed Waddles?" Soos asked once Stan had left as they closed up the Shack for the night.
"Wrong pig," Mabel said. "I'm also going to make him dress right. He's going to be wearing clean clothes if I have to dress him myself."
"You are like the bossy Mabel while the other one is the emotional one," Soos decided. "Except the split is almost even, so you are both the same or nearly so. So, why the big difference?"
"She's taking care of the emotional side of things, so I'm concentrating on the physical," Mabel explained. "I used to nag him a lot until our parents made me stop. But seriously, he needs someone to look after him and make sure he takes care of himself, so I'm back on the job!"
"Have fun, hambone, I'm off to roll around in my own filth as only a single man can!"
Mabel laughed and went upstairs so they could start cleaning up and restore the closeness they'd lost thanks to parental interference.
"I could use a shower," Dipper agreed, "but for that you'll have to let go of me."
"Wash around me," Mabel replied resolutely.
Dipper groaned but was distracted by Mabel levitating his dirty clothes into a laundry basket. "Mabel, when did you get psychic powers?"
"I spontaneously developed them to avoid touching your dirty laundry," Mabel replied.
"Really?"
Mabel pointed to her hair clip while the other Mabel giggled.
"The stone," Dipper said recognizing it.
"Your v-card has given us great power," Mabel teased.
"Shower and laundry, followed by dinner and bed," Mabel said.
Dipper tilted his head and regarded Mabel. "It's been months since you've taken an interest in my cleanliness."
"Mom made me stop, said it was mean of me and that it hurt your feelings," Mabel replied.
"Mom was full of it," Dipper said with a sigh.
"I think she was jealous that I mothered you more than she did," Mabel replied. "Regardless I'm pretty much throwing anything either of our parents said out the window."
"Not everything," Dipper said. "The no biting while we're arguing rule was a good one."
"You're just saying that because my braces give me an unfair advantage," Mabel said smugly while the other Mabel muffled her giggles against his chest.
"They had some good rules," Dipper admitted. "The problem is that we don't know which ones are good and which ones were made to trick us into being Stepford Children."
"We'll have to use common sense," Mabel told him.
"You don't have any common sense," Dipper teased with a grin.
"It's wrong too much," Mabel replied. "If you want the right answer you often have to find the wrong ones yourself first."
"You are making a scary amount of sense right now," Dipper told her.
"And I'm hardly common," Mabel said with a grin. "Now off to shower or I'll bite you!"
"Slave driver," Dipper replied with a smile, not realizing how much he'd missed her fussing over him. "No biting!" He grinned. "And I don't think you can carry me to the shower…although with two of you, you probably can. I'm outnumbered by my twin!"
Dipper and Mabel floated off the bed.
"Actually I can carry you to the shower myself," Mabel said not letting him go.
"No back shall go unscrubbed!" Mabel swore, following the two with a floating basket of laundry.
The Next Day…
Dipper awoke from an uneasy sleep. He'd come close to having nightmares several times, but the two Mabels holding him kept them from fully materializing. He tried to figure out how to slip out from between the two without waking them when the Mabel on the right's eyes opened.
"Thinking of going somewhere?" she asked.
"Bathroom," he replied.
"And?"
"And Grunkle Stan's office to make a copy of myself," he admitted. "I need him to cover for me so I can see my friend."
"Really?" Mabel said, eyes narrowing dangerously.
"Just to cover at the Shack," he assured her. "I assumed you would be coming with me."
"Ok," she said, pacified.
"Except the bathroom, cause that would just be weird."
Mabel giggled. "Fine, but if you escape I'll find you."
"I know, I can feel you too," he agreed tapping his chest. They'd often gotten the odd feeling or hunch about one another before, but after she'd pulled him back from the icy grip of the abyss in his own mind it was no longer as haphazard and sporadic, it was a continual thing, like feeling the sun on your skin, you simply knew. He was sure it would feel invasive and embarrassing at times when they grew older, but for now it was a source of quiet comfort, letting him know his sib was alive and well and… dreaming of tacos?
Mabel helped untangle Dipper from herself and replaced him with a pillow that Mabel hugged tightly and drooled on. She ignored his amused grin as he gathered his clothes and started getting her stuff together as well. She'd just use Grunkle Stan's bathroom again while Dipper used theirs.
It was still early when they'd finished getting ready for the day so they met up in Grunkle Stan's office and Dipper used the copier to clone himself.
"Why don't you have the tree on your hat?" Mabel asked.
"No idea," the clone replied. "The copier never copies it.
"We should make a copy of you as well so the you here can get some more sleep," Dipper suggested.
"Dude, is it safe to take her… out there?" the clone asked.
"I'll have my spear and Mabel is pretty capable," Dipper pointed out.
"I just worry, sorry," the clone apologized looking ashamed but no less worried.
"I'll be careful," Mabel replied lying down on the copier. "Besides I'll have my grappling gun with me."
The copy of Mabel stood up and examined herself. "I just figured out why his hat is blank."
The three turned to her and she pointed to the rainbow on her sweater. "See the missing color? That one shade of blue doesn't copy."
Dipper took off his clone's hat and wrote a two on it. "I dub thee, Tyrone."
"Should I make more copies in case I get splashed?" Tyrone asked.
"Let's avoid another clone rebellion until we have Waddles back and we're rid of the evil twins," Dipper said.
"Ok, but we have to include Mabel in the next one," Tyrone said.
"Is there anything I need to know about being a clone?" clone-Mabel asked.
"Like the Wicked Witch of the West, avoid water," Tyrone told her.
"Gotcha," she agreed.
"Got your grappling hook?" Dipper asked.
"Right here," Mabel agreed patting her hips where she was wearing a hand knit holster for her grappling gun.
"Good, then we are off," Dipper said.
Mabel grabbed his hand. "Lead the way."
Once the two had left the two clones turned to each other.
"Clone war?" the chorused.
"You're on!" they agreed and fired up the copier.
*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*
He cursed loudly as he arrived too late to prevent the child from taking apart the calculator and examining it. Pushing a button on his watch caused a robotic wolf to rush out and scare the child away, chasing him into the brush. He picked up the pieces of the calculator and hit the self-destruct on the wolf before vanishing into the time stream once more. The self-destruct, hastily assembled, failed to completely destroy the robot and the child examined the remains with interest.
Typing by: The Last Primarch!
