Part 3: The Missing Pine
The cell was dark. The atmosphere was even darker. Mabel did not know what to do. The officers had confiscated all her belongings, her bag and more. She did not know even what was going to happen to her. All she knew was that she was going to be on trial very soon to decide her fate in front of Time Baby himself. She pulls up her sweater and heads into sweater town. It must have been an hour at least until she heard a knock on her cell door. She looks up to see a guard. She goes up to ask what's going on. The guard hands her something. An orange glowing orb. It looks just like a time wish but smaller. She asks the guard what it is. The guard replies by saying it is a time thought. He explains to Mabel that it is similar to what people in her time call, the one phone call. He says that as bailing is not a thing available for her due to the severity of what she is in here for and that from records there is no one currently in the vicinity related to her, the orb is hers to use to see instead what has happened to those who care for her thanks to her changing the timeline. He says that they use these things to make prisoners feel guilty about what they have done by showing them what has become of those they care for due to their crimes. Mabel asks him if it works. He responds by saying it mostly works. He tells Mabel that sometimes the prisoners use it to see moments in history rather then use it for what its for. He starts to joke about how one prisoner used it to see what was recorded in the missing Nixon tapes or how one used it to see what happened to DB. Cooper. He then is about to tell Mabel the story of how one went to see if the world was black and white back in the 20s, however he sees Mabel is no longer interested. He leaves her to it with the wish telling her to use it wisely and also tells her that once she decides what she wants to see, she has one hour to use it before it expires.
Mabel realizes that she has in her hands the power to see any event in history now. She could go and see what the world looked like back in the renaissance or see where pirates buried their treasure and even see if the moon landings really happened and prove Dipper's theory wrong. It then hits her. Of all the people effected most by her action, the one she does not know what happened to, is Dipper. She follows the instructions given. She closes her eyes, and tells the orb she wants to see what happened to Dipper Pines, 21st century, year 2012, her twin brother. The orb begins to glow bright orange, as it does, the cell begins to change. The roof disappears, revealing a sky at dusk. The floor turns to grass, all around the scenery changes. No longer is Mabel in a maximum-security jail cell, but somewhere in the forests of Gravity Falls. She sees a stick and tries to pick it up. Her hand goes right through it. She is not in the forest of Gravity Falls at all, but rather a hologram showing her what really happened. She spots a clearing ahead and walks to it. She soon spots her and Dipper running on the bridge over the cliffs. The Gideonbot is on their tail. Mabel watches as her past self and Dipper are scooped up by the arms of the robot. She then sees as it through's Dipper and watches as he lands near by to her by the rocks. Dipper gets up, he can hear as past Mabel is screaming for help as Gideon happily celebrates saying if he can't have the journals, he might as well have a queen. Future Mabel watches as Dipper looks out at the cliff then turn around and walk away, tears racing down his eyes. Mabel tries to get in his way, shouting at him to not give up. But Dipper walks right through her, afterall, she was only witnessing this in a holographic state, all she can do is watch. Dipper walks deeper into the woods, farther and farther away from the bridge. Mabel then tells the orb to fast foreword and show her everything that happened up to her appearing toward the end of summer. The orb glows and changes the scenery around Mabel to show another scene.
Now they are at the city limits. Mabel sees Dipper stare at the "you are now leaving Gravity Falls" sign. He looks back into the sunset. Then continues down the long lonely road. The orb jumps them ahead to the next morning where Mabel sees Dipper using what little money he has left to buy some food at a small truck stop. He sees a newspaper, The Gravity Falls Gossiper. On the front page, he sees a photo of Gideon celebrating with Mabel in a clearly depressed state. Below the photo is the headline, "Gideon Gleeful single no more". Dipper throughs the newspaper on the ground and leaves, slamming the door behind him. Meanwhile back in Gravity Falls, Stan and Soos try and fail to get Mabel back, in fact they are lucky to be free still and not in jail with Gideon in charge. They then begin searching for Dipper. Driving through the town, looking in the woods and calling anyone who may have knowledge of his whereabouts. Mabel watches helplessly as Stan and Soos look for Dipper. The orb then shifts back to Dipper who is looking at a map someone dropped in the woods. Mabel then sees what Dipper is planning on doing. He his trying to find a route home. Through out the next few days, the orb shows Mabel Dipper going from store to store, often straight out stealing just to have food available. Eventually Dipper reaches a small post office where he writes and then mails a letter.
The orb takes Mabel back to Gravity Falls, its been almost a month now. Gideonland is almost open, the Mystery Shack is all but gone, a pile of firewood. Gideon spots a pile of letters, one addressed to 618 gopher drive, by Dipper to Mabel. Mabel then hears herself yelling from the 2nd floor of Gideon's new mansion asking if there are any letters for her. Gideon hides the letter from Dipper in his pocket and lies saying no. That evening he opens it up and reads it. While Mabel cannot properly see what it says, she is able to read that Dipper is sorry for leaving her, sorry for letting this all happen and for abandoning everything. Gideon then in anger throws the letter into the fireplace. Mabel watches as he helplessly burns Dipper's cry for help. She quickly moves into read it before it burns up in the flames. She is able to read that Dipper is trying to get back home to Piedmont. He hopes that people will listen to him there and can help, primarily their parents. Mabel is just able to read the final sentence before it burns away, it says "I will come back, I will save you, that is a promise." The letter burns up, becoming nothing more then ash.
The orb continues showing Mabel what Dipper did. From sneaking into passing by trucks to get a lift, evading attention, stealing food and supplies to stay alive. Eventually he ventures into the woods. Its now early August, Stan and Soos had followed many leads. From truck stop owners saying the spotted him, tourists saying they saw him hitch hiking near the roads like pioneers did to lumberjacks saying they heard him calling for help. However, every lead they got lead to a dead end, and they had given up hope. Finally, the orb shows Mabel what happens next. Dipper is now almost unrecognizable. His hat is barley there, his vest is gone, he not like he was back when he started. Almost one week in the woods had taken its toll. Then Dipper spots something up ahead. With what little energy he has left, he gets up and limps over to the clearing. There he sees a sign. "Welcome to California state". Dipper smiles. He was almost there. He starts to get up but then collapses right there by the sign. He looks up at it whispering to himself "I'm almost there Mabel, hold on". Mabel watches from a distance as she sees Dipper like that. Eventually she can't take it any longer, she starts to run towards him. Just then everything disappears. She is back in her cell in the time prison. She is confused, she looks at the orb, it says she has 15 minutes left of the simulation till it expires. She begins to wonder why it stopped. Did it malfunction, run out of battery, did she do something? Then Mabel remembers something that the guard had told her. The orb can show you what happened to people after you were imprisoned and even, their fates. Mabel realizes now why the simulation had just stopped and why Dipper had not been seen or ever made it back. She starts to tear up and cry. All that could be heard was the sound of her sobs and the clock ticking away.
About 2 hours after it all, a guard knocks on Mabel's cell door. Mabel walks up thinking its dinner time already. The guard then explains to Mabel that there's been a change of plans. The trial they were going to have for her in a few days has been rescheduled to and hour from now. Mabel is left confused and asks why it changed. The guard tells Mabel that there really is someone in this world and time that cares for her, Blendin then steps out from behind the officer. Mabel is surprised to see him. She asks Blendin if he is alright and what he is doing here and how he got back after she stole his time tape (also apologizing for that). Blendin first tells Mabel that he's alright, a bit shaken up after becoming Bill's puppet but fine. Secondly, he tells her that since she and Dipper caused those anomalies at the far that cost him his job, all time travellers now carry two time machines. One which is the tape and the other being a button on their wrists communicators (he also forgives her). Finally, he tells Mabel that he knows she never meant to cause any harm or to break any time laws, and that she and Dipper risked their lives for Soos and gave him back his job, so it was only fair he repays the favour and after hearing of her imprisonment, he came asap. He shows Mabel his new occupation card. He is now a lawyer. He tells Mabel he became an official time lawyer in a day after reading this book he found in the time library. He shows her his brief case and everything and tells Mabel that he will help her win her freedom back.
The guard opens the cell door, handcuffs Mabel so she can't try anything sneaky and escorts her and Blendin to the time courtroom. As they are walking to the courtroom, Blendin whispers something into Mabel's ear. He explains to her that he had to persuade the time officers a lot to move her trial to now and also let him become her lawyer. He tells Mabel that he is pretty much risking everything right now. His job, his house, his freedom and life even. Mabel asks what does that mean. He tells Mabel that if they win, He will go back to his old job like before and she will be set free, but that if they loose the case, she will be imprisoned still and so will him, again. And worse could happen if the time jury decides otherwise. They maybe put into the list of Globnar contestants, up against some of the best fighters. Mabel says she is not worried as she beat him before in Globnar, Blendin tells her it won't be him on the other side and shows her a display of all of Globnars best (living) players. One look and Mabel begins to get worried. She and Blendin look at each other and hope whatever happens in the next few hours will be worth it. The doors to the time court room open, the two are let in. The doors close behind them.
To be continued