A/N You guys are the absolute best! Thank you so much for the wonderful support and feedback, it means the world to me! Anyway, stay tuned for an important announcement after the show-er chapter.

Without further ado, enjoy!

Limbo

"Hello Shooting Star, took you long enough."

The voice surprises her and frightens her, and she twirls around to face the source of the voice, realizing that she's floating through an endless void. She turns but there's nothing there and she wonders briefly if she imagined it.

Mabel! No, no, no…wake up! C'mon stay with me…stay with me…she's so…she's so cold… Mabel!

"Dipper?" she turns and looks frantically. Her brother's voice is so distant and she can barely hear it, but she can hear the pain and desperation in his voice and it worries her, "Dipper! I'm here! Where are you?"

What's wrong with her?... She…No….What are you…?...THIS YOUR FAULT! You hear me?...No…stay away from us!

"Dipper!" she calls, straining to hear her brother's voice, the pain and the rage. He sounds so lost and she can't stand to hear him sound so incredibly miserable. He's speaking to someone but his is the only voice she hears.

The voice fades away and is replaced by laughter, and she feels a hand on her shoulder causing her to startle as she turns to face the culprit. "YOU!" she snaps, "What did you do to me? Where am I?"

"OK first of all, I didn't do anything to you Shooting Star, so don't be so snippy," Bill Cipher replies, rolling his one eye, "seriously, there's no need to be rude. Secondly, welcome to Limbo."

"Limbo?"

"Yeah, Limbo, for lack of a better word anyway as it doesn't exactly have a name per se," Bill shrugs.

"Meaning….?"

"You're dying."

"I am not you liar!"

Bill laughs, "Oh yeah? See for yourself…" he grabs her hand before she can say anything and the endless blackness flashes white and she's back in the yard outside the ruins of Mystery Shack. The surroundings seem to be drained of all colour except for her and the yellow triangle demon, but she hardly notices it because the moment her eyes rest on her brother, nothing else seems to matter.

He's on his knees, tears are streaking down his face and Mabel's a little unnerved to see him cradling her body in his arms. There's something wrong with the picture, besides the fact that she indeed looks like she's dead, a thought that terrifies her especially if it means her soul has ended up…here. Or in that endless void, Limbo or whatever Bill wants to call it, which is worse. Actually she can't decide which is worse, an endless void of isolation or having to watch her brother suffer at her loss. Her body is surrounded by what looks like faint wisps of smoke, tendrils of various shades of grey that seems to swirl around her body, poking and prodding.

"Mabel please, hold on…stay with me!" he begs, shaking her slightly in his arms in hopes to rouse her.

"Dipper!" she calls, "I'm right here!"

"Oh come on now, obviously he can't see or hear you," Bill scoffs.

"Dipper," Grunkle Stan says, he's standing a few feet away and slowly approaches them with caution, "I need to…"

"I said stay away from us!" Dipper screams, cradling Mabel's body closer to him, "This is all on you! Don't you get it? This is all your fault! She trusted you man, and…you did this to her!"

"What…what's wrong with me?" Mabel asks, glancing at Bill as she crouches down in front of them, studying her body's pale face with morbid fascination. The longer she looks at the smoke, the more it seems to take on a vague shape, almost human like. "I don't look like I'm hurt but…"

"That's the thing with internal bleeding," Bill says, "it's not all that visible right away. I admit I'm surprised you held on as long as you did, you're stronger than I thought. Believe me when I say it takes a lot to surprise me, so kudos to you."

"Internal bleeding? How?"

"When you let that clock reach zero there was an explosion of energy kid, energy that you took on full force," Bill explains, as though she should've already had that figured out. "Now you're slowly bleeding to death from the inside out." He laughs, like it's the funniest thing he's heard all day.

Mabel shakes her head, "No…no I don't believe you. This is a trick, it has to be."

"Go ahead and think that, I'm not going to waste my time convincing you of something that's right there in front of you. Denial doesn't make it any less true."

"What's with the smoke?" she asks, realizing now that when the smoke touches her body she can feel it, like a faint tingling buzz of electricity. No one seems aware of it, but it explains why she felt so strange. She watches Soos return from his broken truck holding a blanket as he jogs back to the scene draping the blanket over her body.

"That's not smoke, Shooting Star," Bill shrugs, "those are Wraiths."

"You mean like ghosts?"

"Kinda, but they're a special kind of ghost and potentially far more dangerous than anything you'd encounter here," he replies, laughing. "They are what was on the other side of the portal."

"So something else did get through!"

"And here I thought Pine Tree was the master detective between the two of you," Bill quips sarcastically, "of course something got through. Lots of somethings actually, it's just these ones decided to latch onto the first thing they came across, namely you."

"What do they…what are they doing to me?"

"You really are dense aren't you? What do you think they're doing?"

Mabel glares at Bill, "Just tell me!"

"OK, OK, yeesh," Bill exclaims, raising his stick arms up in mock surrender, "for such a cheerful and upbeat kid you sure can get cranky! You only brought all this on yourself, no need to turn on me, I didn't do this to you."

"That's still up for debate!"

Bill laughs, "Ironic coming from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, we wouldn't be here if you weren't so gosh darned trusting."

"And why should I trust you? After everything you've done? You invaded Grunkle Stan's mind, you tricked my brother and possessed him, you hurt my brother and all to steal the journal! You hurt my brother!" Mabel snaps, and she swears she sees Dipper raise his head and look directly at her, almost like he heard her, before returning his attention to her body. The Wraiths or whatever is encircling her body stop and notice her. She can see a face forming in the grey mist surrounding her, and it looks angry.

"But I've never lied to you," Bill tells her.

"That's a lie right there!"

"Ah, ah, ah," he hovers away from her angry advances, wagging a finger at her, "I may be deceitful through omission or manipulation or whatever, because who doesn't love a good loophole? But I will not tell a straight up lie."

Mabel folds her arms, turning her attention back to her family. Soos had disappeared around the corner to get the golf cart and apparently managed to get it working again. It too apparently sustained serious damage when the portal opened, the roof and the frame all bent out of shape, but it's fortunately still drivable.

"Soos!" Dipper exclaims as he drives it around the corner towards them, "You're awesome!"

"I don't know how far it'll get us, dude," Soos says, "but if it gets us closer to town we can probably borrow a working car."

"Anyway, if you must know," Bill sighs, speaking over them unnoticed to all but Mabel, "the Wraiths are draining all your energy, feeding off your soul. Inter-dimensional travel zaps a lot of energy so they're using you to gather strength. Plus they'll need a vessel if they're to y'know, bring forth the Apocalypse."

"And by vessel you mean…"

"You."

Mabel feels sick at the thought, which is weird because for all intents and purposes she's a ghost, and ghosts shouldn't be able to feel sick, right? No…no that can't be...

"I don't think they counted on you being so strong, strong enough to fight back as long as you did, so there's that. You should be proud kid and—Shooting Star I wouldn't do that if I were you…"

"Get away from me!" Mabel hisses suddenly floating towards the Wraiths engulfing her body with fury, I am not going to be used that way! "Find another vessel and stay away from me and my family!"

The Wraiths turn, taking form as a tall human-like figure and before Mabel can go in for the attack they retaliate, long wispy fingers slicing through her, cutting at her spirit-form like knives and she screams in agony, the pain unlike anything she's ever felt before reaching deep, deep in her soul. Meanwhile her body convulses, coughing up more blood.

"Mabel, hey!" Dipper cries in panic, turning her on her side so she doesn't choke to death on her own blood, "Hey, hey, stay with me…please Mabel…please!"

"We need to hurry," Soos says.

"There's no way that stinking golf cart is going to get her to the hospital in time," Stan's voice is thick with remorse and determination. "I'm not even sure it'll make it to the main road."

"Dipper!" Mabel calls out to her brother as she dodges the Wraiths' next assault. Her ghost flies towards her body and she closes her eyes, grabbing hold tight until she can suddenly feel everything again. She coughs and sputters and chokes, fluttering her eyes open to see Dipper's worried face looking down at her. He's in colour now and Bill's nowhere to be seen, neither are the Wraiths, though she can feel their invisible claws tearing at her, sending the strange electric energy to surge through her.

In the back of her mind she can hear their voices whispering to her, only instead of sounding almost soothing yet unsettling like before, they sound angry and vicious.

Let go…let go…stop fighting and maybe we'll spare your brother!

"Mabel! Hey, can you hear me?"

"D-Dipper…" she gasps, the taste of blood in her mouth makes her stomach roll with nausea, she immediately realizes she doesn't have much time to warn everyone of what's happening, "Wr-wrai…"

She feels something cold wrap around her and pull and she's yanked forcibly from her body, Bill's stick figure hand wrapped tightly around hers and the next thing she knows she's being pulled from the black and white surrealness of the Mindscape back through the swirling rainbow vortex into the void of Limbo.

"What are you doing?!" she cries, "Let me go!"

"Believe it or not Shooting Star, I'm protecting you!" Bill snaps.

"But…why would you do that?" Mabel sobs, realizing where she is. She was wrong before, this is worse than the Mindscape, this endless nothing surrounding her is almost suffocating. At least in the Mindscape she can be with her family, even if it has to be as a ghost but this… "Dipper!" she calls, but it's useless. "Take me back!"

"Why so the Wraiths can destroy you? Is that really what you want? Better to remain trapped here and maybe, just maybe have a chance at coming out of this with your soul intact, maybe even by some miracle alive than to try and fight them on their turf where they can slaughter you, not just your physical body, but also your soul. Do you want that?"

"But I don't understand…why would you bother protecting me? It doesn't make sense."

Bill chuckles, "Obviously because you still may be of use to me."

"Use to you how? Why me?"

"Gee you sure are nosy. It's not because you're special or anything, because you're not. The Wraiths only chose you because of your close proximity to the portal, and you're not much of a bargaining chip if even your soul is dead."

Mabel looks away, terrified and angry and hopeless.

"Say, I have an idea! How about we make a deal, eh?" Bill offers, floating in her line of sight moving with her as she tries in vain to look away.

"Forget it!" Mabel screams, "Leave me alone!"

"You're not even going to listen to what I have to say?"

"GO AWAY BILL!"

"Trust me," Bill snickers tauntingly, almost like he's mimicking Grunkle Stan, "You gotta trust me…you'll like what I have to offer…"

"Yeah but it's what you'll want in return that I'm worried about," Mabel hisses, "GO AWAY!"

"Fine, if that's what you want," Bill Cipher shrugs with a mock sigh, tearing a triangle-shaped hole into the void before disappearing through it.

The silence that follows is deafening, and Mabel hugs herself as she looks around at the infinite blackness that surrounds her. She sniffs and tears fall from her eyes, falling up to float around her. She's not even amongst the stars that had once frightened her, and now she wishes she could be there because that, that would be something. But this? This prison she finds herself in is nothing but total seclusion.

She doesn't know how long she drifts in the infinite nothing, curled in a foetal position, hugging herself as she sobs, completely alone, so alone Bill Cipher would almost be welcome company. It could be hours, days, weeks, she honestly can't tell how much time passes before she stops crying and eventually starts singing to herself. It's soft at first, nothing in particular, just humming a sad random tune. But then she starts to belt, singing every song she can think of, from "Don't Start Un-Believing" to "Disco Girl" and even "Straight Blanchin'" and she even tries to throw a dance in, but it's weird when she's floating in zero gravity, and she somehow somersaults in the void until it makes her dizzy so she gives up and decides to stick with singing to pass the time and combat the crippling, unrelenting loneliness that threatens to consume her.

"Friday night and we're gonna party 'til dawn. Don't worry Daddy, I got my favorite dress on!" she sings loudly and off key into the abyss, "We don't care what they say and all the boys are getting up in my face! Boys are a bore, let's show them the door, we're taking over the dance floor! Oh-oh, taking over tonight, WOAH-OH, girls do what they like! Something, something something, we do what we like! WOAH-OH taking over toniiiiggghhtt!"

She stops singing suddenly, the song bringing back memories. Happy memories of the time she and Grunkle Stan and Dipper, her two favorite people, got to sing karaoke together and even defeat some zombies in the process. She forces herself to smile at the memory, but it's empty, as empty as her attempts at distracting herself through song. Even though the memory is a happy one, it only makes her sad because that's all it can ever be now, a memory. And with everything that happened, there's no chance of ever making more memories like that one, especially considering she's stuck here in the literal middle of nowhere and meanwhile who knows what's happening with Dipper and Grunkle Stan and the rest of Gravity Falls.

The tears start coming again, and she closes her eyes, burying her face in her hands, "Dipper's right, I should've just hit the button… None of this would've happened if I just shut the machine off. I wish…I wish I listened to Dipper and hit that stupid shut-off switch…"

"Oh really! That so?" Bill exclaims happily, appearing out of nowhere. "I was hoping you'd say that! Today's your lucky day kid!"

"Wait, what?" Mabel exclaims in surprise as Bill grabs her hand and shakes it.

"Deal!" Bill declares, a little too eagerly, and before Mabel can even process his sudden reappearance, let alone register what just happened, everything goes white.

"Look into my eyes Mabel, do you really think I'm a bad guy?" Grunkle Stan pleads desperately.

Mabel's so startled to find herself back in the portal room, back at that moment with seconds left on the clock that she almost accidentally lets go of the switch and she gasps in surprise. How…? She can feel gravity tugging and pulling her towards the portal, just as before, the strange energy in the room, just as before, and she looks up at Grunkle Stan, Dipper and Soos, still trying to figure out how she ended up back here because she doesn't recall agreeing to any deal.

"He's lying! Shut it down NOW!"

"Mabel please!"

-10 seconds to go-

"Grunkle Stan…" she says looking him in the eyes, seeing the sincerity, the desperation, the need to let the portal open so he can see his brother again. And she wants to help him, she wants so badly to be able to let it happen, but she's wiser now. The consequences of letting the clock reach zero are too great and she closes her eyes, turning her head away, "I'm sorry."

"Mabel NO!" Stan cries out in despair as she slams her fist on the button and something about it just seems wrong.

What have I done? What have I done?

A/N Edit: THIS IS NOT THE END! There's more to come. I say this because I guess it wasn't clear since a couple of people were asking. No, I have a feeling we've only just begun...muahaha!

Gahh! This chapter was so hard to write! Bill Cipher is so hard to write! He's such an interesting character, but I never thought I'd dare attempt to write him because he's so hard to write! Hope I did him justice! Remember, reality is an illusion...

Anyway, while writing this story I find myself faced with a bit of a dilemma. As you know it was intended to be a one shot, but my muse decided to keep going and to keep with the style of the first chapter, I decided to keep it all from Mabel's point of view. The problem is that at this point in the story, it goes in two different directions as Dipper has his own story to tell, and I really want to tell it, but I think at this point, switching POV would interrupt not just the style, but also the overall flow of the story. So I'm writing a yet to be titled companion piece to this, not quite a prequel or a sequel more like a...quel? Midquel? Blaarggg! Whatever, a companion story that I hope can stand on its own (along with this one) but will hopefully compliment this story. So yeah, keep an eye out for that if you're interested in seeing Dipper's story because so much is happening while Mabel is in Limbo.

Well, once again thanks for reading! I would love to hear what you think! Reviews feed the muse you know! ;-) Well, until next time y'all! I hope to update soon!