Chapter Twelve: Memories

For the second time Mabel woke up on Gideon's ship, though this time was worse than last time. In a way, now laying in Gideon's bed with his arm wrapped around her waist, their clothes laying on the floor after Gideon had really claimed his 'conquest' of the night, Mabel considered herself lucky for the time she had been on Bill's ship. He had, in his own way, made sure she was okay, didn't expect anything other than what she was promised, while Gideon expected the world.

It had been hard, watching Bill's ship fade into the background, with Gideon standing by her side and quite proud of himself, as though this had really been the plan the whole time. As though no one else on the on the ship knew that she came back just so Gideon wouldn't destroy.

Gideon took her downstairs, and Mabel closed her eyes and imagined someone else, a man with blond hair who kissed her with passion and not possessiveness like Gideon did. She laid away when Gideon finished, staring off at the glass cage that still held fluttering butterflies that had no knowledge of her anguish.

The morning light was soft, which strangely reminded her of the morning spent with mermaids in the cold, and once more she was thinking about Bill before she could stop herself. Why did Gideon have to be such a jerk? Nothing would have happened in her life if he hadn't decided he needed to kidnap her. Mabel would have never been brought on his ship, Bill never would have encountered her, and she would have never met him. At least her heart wouldn't be broken right now, and she wouldn't feel like every moment that she laid there in a bed that wasn't nearly as comfortable as Bill's was.

"Morning, sugar plum." Gideon murmured sleepily, moving and kissing her shoulder. He seemed to stick with that nickname for a little while, but Mabel never really knew what she was going to be called next.

Mabel could only stare at the butterflies. She felt like them, trapped in a glass cage that gave just a taste of freedom but didn't fully grant it. Gideon didn't even move, resting his head against her shoulder as Mabel just laid there. If it kept Gideon away from the people she cared about, Mabel would do what she had to. She could live in a gilded cage, couldn't she?

"Morning." Mabel returned softly after a second. "Where are we going?"

How she hoped he would say home, and just take her back to where she could see if her family was okay without her or not. There were certain things that Mabel had to constantly reassure herself on, like the fact that she was absolutely sure that Bill was okay on his ship, and that her family had survived everything they had gone through. At the very least, Mabel allowed herself to hope that they were looking for her. Bill probably wouldn't be, but her family would never give up.

"There's these just wonderful little islands in the tropics. You gonna love it there." Gideon moved slightly, sitting up in the bed and rubbing his face as though he needed to wake up. Mabel continued to lay there, watching him rise and slowly make his way around the room. She stared at the ceiling so that she wouldn't have to stare at him.

"I really just want to go home." Mabel pulled the blanket up, over her shoulder before curling on her side. She wasn't facing away from Gideon, but she wished that she was.

"Oh, sugar plum." Gideon mumbled, his voice a sweet coo that almost made her feel like she was a child about to be reprimanded, "this is your home, it's not like you got anywhere else to go, do ya?"

Mabel didn't even bother to hide her cringe, remembering the fire and the hazy memories. Gideon moved over and sat down next to her, brushing hair out of her face, letting his touch linger longer than before.

"Just think about it, you and I, sailin' the seas, taking over everyhin' in our path."

She had thought about it, actually, but not with Gideon. A little while ago, she would have asked why she was willing to give up a huge part of her life for someone else, but at the same time, she had given herself over to Gideon without a second thought. All for the friends she had made, and the love that had grown.

"Sounds great." Mabel ended up saying, taking his hand off her face. Gideon seemed undisturbed by the act, but he did finally move away and made sure he looked like a proper captain before checking his maps.

"Course it does, my little butterfly. You'll see, it'll be great, being my queen."

The waters were rough for the ship that was almost too damaged to sail, and Bill did not care at all. He glared down at the ruined deck, looking at the damage that Gideon had caused in rage, and Bill determined that he would return every inch of damage ten fold.

"Captain, we're here." Kryptos seemed to be the only one besides Tad that dared to come up to the captain, and since Tad was busy, Kryptos took it upon himself. "What are you going to do if-when we find her?"

Bill turned his gaze from the ruined deck, wondering if they would be able to steal another ship in time. He had a backup plan in place, but it was probably riskier than what he was planning now. At least Kryptos knew to state that they were in fact getting her back.

"I'm taking her back." Bill almost snapped, but only sighed through his nose. Mabel was going to be coming back, be it willingly or a prisoner.

Kryptos nodded, looking down at the deck for a second just as Bill had done, before darting off to make sure the ship was properly tethered to the dock. They had finally come back to Gravity Falls, a place that Bill had vowed he would never return to once he had abandoned, but it seemed that desperate times called for desperate measures.

"You sure about this?" Tad asked, coming up to Bill and wiping his forehead to get rid of the sweat. Bill placed his hands behind his back, not even glancing at his men. By the end of tonight, half of them would abandon their cause, too cowardly to see this through to the end.

"I think the cause is enough to make sure that old rivalries are gone." Bill spoke quietly, already walking towards the deck. "I know the Pines will want her back just as much as I do."

"Are you even going to let her go back to them?" Tad followed closely next to Bill, a bit nervous to be back in the place they had once called home.

"Not even for a second."

On a warm night that was common for Gravity Falls, Dipper tossed and turned without a blanket over himself as Mabel softly snored near him. It wasn't uncommon for him not to sleep on warm nights, but it was uncommon that he stayed awake during the night without actually reading. Normally he only stayed awake so that he could read, but for once he actually wanted to sleep, and he couldn't.

Eventually, he did move, laying on his side and staring silently as Mabel continued to probably have dreams of rainbows and happiness and everything bright in her life. She was a strange girl, but Dipper loved her more than anything.

It was almost an hour of laying there that a strange smell came to his nose, making Dipper lift his head and glance around. Was that smoke? That couldn't be smoke, Dipper had no idea what could even light on fire near them. Plus, his bed was soft, why did he even want to get out of bed?

The smell of smoke just seemed to get worse though, and Dipper's nose scrunched up as though that would make the smell truly disappear. He tugged the blanket off himself, finally getting up. It was probably nothing, but it never hurt anyone to check.

Not wanting to turn on the light and disturb Mabel, Dipper yawned and stepped softly over the rug and made sure he didn't drag his feet. No need for them to have another body swap incident just because Dipper was too tired to think straight.

Fingers wrapping around the doorknob, Dipper couldn't help but yawn once more as he looked over at the hallway, which was on fire. The hallway was on fire. Dipper shut the door.

For a long second he stood there, before opening the door just to make sure that what he was seeing was real. His nightmares tended to be extremely vivid at times, Dipper always had to make sure that he wasn't really dreaming sometimes when incidents happened.

That fire was most certainly real.

Slamming the door shut, Dipper went and opened the window, then going to wake up Mabel. She was still asleep, but with how roughly Dipper shook her that didn't last very long. For a moment Dipper wondered if this really was a dream, but then reasoned that if this was a nightmare that Mabel would be fine with being woken up.

"The house is on fire! Get up!" Dipper shouted, actually managing to wake her up. Normally she was such a heavy sleeper.

Mabel yawned, but her eyes widened as Dipper spoke. Not even hesitating anymore, she wrapped her blanket around her shoulders and grabbed her favorite stuffed animal, one Dipper had given to her many years ago, heading towards the window. It gave them easy access to the roof, which had a ladder leading down to the ground.

Barely five minutes later, they were standing out on the grass in bare feet and pajamas, with Mabel shaking slightly as they glanced around for their uncles. Luckily for them, there was a loud banging from the front door as Stanford simply blasted the lock away with a gun, Stanley following right after him.

"Kids! Get water! Mabel, get help!" Each of them were too rattled to argue about anything else, Stan was already trying to get the water running so the house wouldn't be completely destroyed.

He didn't even notice Mabel darting off into the woods as Dipper helped his uncles, gathering as much water as he could as parts of the roof caved in, the three of them all forced to watch their only home and their livelihood burn. Eventually, when even Stan said it was too late to save it, and Ford had to pull Dipper back from the edge, that they noticed Mabel had never returned with help, and that they were still standing in front of a dwindling fire that they had only stopped from burning down the rest of the woods.

"Mabel should have been back by now." Ford said, almost stating the obvious and glancing around. "Something must have happened."

"No, really?" Stan muttered sarcastically, always one for pointing out that his brother had no grace or tact in conversation. "She's probably fine, just having trouble getting people here. Hopefully Soos won't mind us staying with him for a little while."

It wasn't as though they would have any other choice, and Soos had always been there for him before. Dipper awkwardly wrapped his arms around his chest to protect against the chilled air of the night, wishing he had thought to grab something before racing out of the house. It was all gone now.

With that, they started into town, Dipper shivering with the cold and his uncles not saying anything to each other. It was strange, walking away from ash and smoke that clung to their clothes, but it was even stranger to see the light from the dawn peeking over the trees and knowing that Mabel really should have been back by now, something must be wrong.

"Good golly gosh, look at you three!" Lazy Susan was just heading into the diner when the three of them made their way into town. "What in the world happened to you?"

"Suz, the Shack burned down, have you seen Mabel?" Stan look the chance to go up, sighing and letting Ford and Dipper have a moment.

"Oh, no! I'll call the mayor." Susan nodded to herself, rushing inside and leaving them standing outside.

It was awkward, standing there, until the sheriff showed up and they had to explain what happened. At some point Ford gave up his trench coat for Dipper to have as they were taken to Soos' house since none of them could think of anywhere else to go, and no one had seen Mabel.