"How is he still fighting?"

"Something is helping him cling to his world. It does not matter how long it takes, I will have the one who destroyed Bill Cipher."

The dreamscape

"Dipper!"

"Wha… who are you?"

"It's me, Mabel!"

"Mabel…"

Before Dipper could approach the familiar voice, he felt agony pierce through his body. He attempted to fight it off, but the voice that called out vanished. Dipper now remained alone in the barren wasteland. But now he had more to keep him going. He had hope for that comforting voice to return, and he had a name. A small piece of self.

Mabel's house

"Mabel! Dinner's ready!"

Mabel was shook from her trance by the sound of her mother, who was standing in the doorway. Mabel grew angry.

"I told you not to come in! I told you not to disturb me!" Mabel shouted.

Her mother stumbled back.

"I'm… I'm sorry." Mabel muttered before sitting back down, gloomily.

"Hey, it's alright. I should have listened to you. What were you doing in here, anyways?"

Mabel looked down at the book across from her and sighed.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"I… I was trying to find Dipper through a dream." Mabel said disheartened.

Her mother came in and sat down next to her.

"I know this is difficult, sweetie, but I don't think Dipper is coming back. I just…"

Mabel's mother started crying.

"It's just, you have to accept that there isn't anything we can do. I'm sorry."

"But I saw him, mom."

"I'm sure you did."

"No, I saw him. Not some random dream thingy."

"I'm sorry, Mabel, but that was just a dream."

"… I told you, you wouldn't believe me." Mabel said with a sigh.

Mabel moved over and retrieved the old book and closed it before standing up with her mother and going downstairs.

The dreamscape

Dipper fought against his pain. He walked through the barren desert of the dreamscape, wandering among the endless wasteland. But he had a name now, and someone to look forward to seeing again. He bumped his foot on something. He dug through the sand and took out a blurred object that seemed to fade into existence. A short, little man in strange clothes.

"…gnomes."

Another memory; he saw these things somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place where. He stumbled around again before remembering. That voice was with him when he found them. They were together.

Who is she? Friend…. no, family.

Dipper felt a warm glow in his chest even as the pain from an unknown source continued to carve into him.

Mabel's house

Mabel stayed up late into the night until her parents went to bed. They kept her downstairs for most of the time, afraid she might try to harm herself upstairs. Mabel went back into her room and read under the small light by her bed.

…if one finds themselves struggling to make and hold contact, there are ways to assist. Find an object or objects of the person you hold dear. Hold them close. Know how this was a piece, however small, of the person you wish to contact. Hold it close as if you were holding the person themselves. Use it as an anchor for your mind.

Mabel walked out of her room and went into Dipper's. She looked through his clothes before she assembled them into his old look. She took the things into the room with her and held them, molding them into the image of Dipper in her mind. She closed her mind off to all other things except him, before she fell over.

The dreamscape

"Dipper!"

Mabel appeared in a strange wasteland. As she fell further into the dreamscape, it morphed into several familiar shapes. Pieces of Mabel's past, cleaved out of time and frozen in place. She wandered past the faded memories, searching for her brother.

"Dipper!" she shouted again.

She walked through the mixture of her home city, covered in the trees from Gravity Falls. She found a strange blurred shape through a clearing in the forest, observing a giant half-man half-bull.

"Who are you?"

"Mabel?" it replied.

"…Dipper?" she said as she moved closer.

"…yes, that's my name, isn't it?"

Mabel ran over and tried to hug him, but found that she moved right through him. He was like an out of focus image, or something viewed through poor eyes. She started crying as she tried to hold him, but found that nothing was happening.

"Dipper, what happened to you?"

"… I don't know. All that matters is that you're here."

"Do you know where you are?"

"I don't know, really. This thing, what is it? I've seen it before."

"I've never actually seen that thing… ooh, do you know what that means?!"

"What?"

"You're not a hallucination!"

Mabel shouted as she fist-bumped

"Take that, Mom!"

Dipper couldn't help but laugh, even as he continued to feel a searing pain building up.

"That's… that's just like you, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"That energy, the liveliness. That's Mabel."

"Yep, and I'm never changing." she said, her spirits lifting with every moment.

"So, Dipper, do you know where you are?"

"We're… in Gravity Falls?"

"In this dream, yeah, but do you know where you really are?"

"I… I don't know what you mean."

"You… you do realize we're dreaming, right?"

"You mean… you're not real?"

"No, of course I'm real! It's just, this isn't real. This whole place. It's built from our shared memories. We're together with a lot of it, but there's some stuff I don't recognize, like that Minotaur thingy."

"I… I think it's called a Manotaur?"

"Well, whatever it's called, it means you're seeing the same stuff I'm seeing, right? The forest and city?"

"Yes."

"Good! Let's go for a walk down memory lane!"

Mabel tried to grab him by the hand, but remembered she couldn't hold him. Then she signaled him into following her.

Mabel dragged him through the memories, trying to get him to remember his own self. They silently watched the events of their lives.

"Who's that kid with you?"

"Huh?"

"That boy that's been with you? I keep seeing him."

"Dipper… that's you."

The shape stopped. It stood in place as it comprehended those words before it moved in closer. It took in the shape of a very strong memory. Something it could feel. It was during summer break when Dipper and Mabel were both eight. Mabel was outside, playing with the hose on the sidewalk while the strange boy watched, laughing. The memory began playing itself, speeding up into real time.

"Hey Mabel, cut that out." The memory of Dipper shouted as he was blasted with the hose.

"Make me!"

Dipper tackled Mabel as the real pair watched. They played on the sidewalk, laughing and fighting for control of the hose. As Dipper managed to grab control of the hose, he started spraying Mabel.

"Ah! Stop that!" she shouted as she ran down the street. Dipper ran after her until the hose ran out of length, leaving Mabel mocking him from a driveway. Mabel's eyes were closed as she laughed at her brother. Dipper then panicked; an oblivious driver was backing up, not paying attention behind him. Dipper darted out towards his sister and yanked her away just before the idiotic driver ran her over. They fell backwards onto the sidewalk as they watched the driver back up and leave, never even noticing the pair.

Then the real Mabel felt something. Hands wrapped around her, the sound of Dipper crying as tears fell onto her shirt.

"I thought you were going to die."

Mabel broke from his grasp after a few minutes and turned to look at her brother. He looked like Dipper again, the scraggily brown eyed male mirror of Mabel. She squealed with joy as she held him close, before Dipper groaned in pain.

"Uh, sorry. Wait, can dream hugs hurt?"

"It's not that… I've been in pain this whole time, but it just got worse… I remember. I was taken away by someone… Oh God, Mabel… I'm still missing, aren't I?"

Mabel nodded sorrowfully.

"How did you find me in the dreams?"

"There was a book. It had knowledge about how to go into the dream world and connect with others."

"Well, what else did it say? Is there any way I can contact someone else?"

"There is… but it's dangerous. The writer went too far and he found something."

Dipper looked down, disheartened.

"I'll find you. I don't care how long it takes, but I'll find you."

Before Dipper could move closer, Mabel began disappearing from view. Dipper reached out as she vanished, leaving him alone with his memories. But this time, he knew who he was. And he would cling to that through everything.