From Kraven the Hunter: "Here's an idea: a Blinded AU short showing the POV of a newly-rescued Pine Tree as Mabel shows him around the Mystery Shack and his thoughts as he tries to suss out how much of who he is comes from being Dipper and how much comes from what the Society of the Blind Eye told him to be."

It's my first time writing for this AU, so it may not be exactly how the plot of the actual AU goes. This is only my interpretation. (For those who don't know the AU, Dipper and Mabel get their memories erased by the Society of the Blind Eye and while Mabel escapes and eventually remembers, Dipper is left behind and becomes a member of the society)

Nevertheless, enjoy the one-shot!

Wide Awake

He had been told for as long as he could recall that remembering was a terrible thing, especially since certain memories were erased for a reason. Ivan had always gotten irritable whenever he tried to talk to the man about his past, telling him that it was useless to try and that there was a very good reason for his memories to be gone. That he shouldn't try to remember anything because it was far too dangerous.

Pine Tree had reluctantly agreed at first, eventually growing to believe Ivan and the other members over time. It made sense, no matter how annoying it was to be told off. There was no reason to doubt any of them when they had taken him in after he had lost all recollection of his former life.

But then these strangers had broken in and now he was standing in an old-looking house (entitled "The Mystery Shack" on the outside) with this girl sitting across from him at the kitchen table. She wouldn't stop staring at him, and it was beginning to creep him out. It was almost as if she could hardly believe he was here.

He fidgeted in the clothes they had given him, running his fingers over the blue vest and orange shirt. It was an oddly familiar sensation, one he did not understand. It was also strange how the clothes fit him so perfectly...

"Do you want a tour?"

Pine Tree's head snapped up at her first words, something akin to deja vu resonating within him. "Uh, what?"

"Do you want a tour?" she repeated, leaning forward in her seat. Hope flickered in her brown eyes before being replaced by something sorrowful. He couldn't shake the feeling that she knew who he was - or, had been.

"...I suppose."

A small grin broke out on her face and he felt a strange flutter in his heart at the sight. Why was this so familiar to him? He didn't even know her name, and he was already gaining a headache from the pressure of memories building up in his head. There was a sort of way about her that gave him this sense of... security and warmth. Yet he did not know why.

She led him to the gift shop of the Shack, where the only soul in sight was a red-haired teenager working at the cashier (well, more like reading a magazine instead of working...). Her head snapped up at the sound of approaching footsteps and her expression of wariness became warm upon seeing them. "Oh, hey! What's up?" The inquiry was more directed at the brunette girl rather than him; she seemed a little unsure of what to say to Pine Tree.

"Not much. I'm just showing, um, him around." There it was again: the flash of sadness in her eyes. It made his heart and head ache for reasons unknown.

"Oh, cool." She glanced at him and bit her lip, looking hesitant. "I'm Wendy, by the way, if you don't remember."

We knew each other? "Oh...hello, I guess."

Wendy shot the other girl a look he couldn't discern, which she returned with a sad shrug of the shoulders. Feeling left out of whatever conversation they were clearly having about him, Pine Tree cleared his throat.

"Uh, did we know each other? All of us?"

Why do they keep giving each other those sad looks?

"Yeah," Wendy said carefully. She looked unsure again, as if she didn't know what to say. "Mabel's your... your twin sister, and we all were friends."

The pressure in his head was aching more fiercely than ever but he ignored it to gawk at the females.

"W-What? I don't... I don't have a sister!"

The brown-eyed girl (Mabel, his brain supplied, the name already sounding more familiar by the minute) flinched and played with a strand of her hair. She couldn't meet his eyes. "It's true. We're twins, Dip - um..." She paused like she had slipped up and glanced at Wendy for advice, to which she received an encouraging nod.

"Your name is Dipper and you're my brother."

Pine Tree (Dipper, that voice hissed loudly as the headache only grew worse) shook his head and rubbed it viciously. He didn't understand why these things they said were causing his head to hurt so much or why this was so confusing. Ivan had told him that learning his past was dangerous and inadvisable. He had been told that there was no need to remember.

But if what these girls said was true...

The preteen boy realized with a jolt that he wanted to remember.

How could he figure out what was real and what was a lie? Who was he?

"I-I don't..." His voice shook and he shut his eyes against the pounding headache, gripping his head tightly. He vaguely heard Mabel calling his name, someone asking him if he was alright, the sound of his heartbeat ringing in his ears. Images raced through his mind and he cried out on impulse as pain erupted in his skull.

Take it away! Someone take this pain from me please!

"DIPPER! Are you alright?"

Mabel's worried tone only made things worse for the boy, who trembled and watched an image of a large robot holding the girl pass before his eyes. What were these? Memories?

There was no memory gun to help stop the pain now. He was only left to deal with it on his own.

A pair of arms wrapped around him, embracing him, and he found himself curling toward the touch as he kept his eyes shut tight. No, maybe he wasn't alone. Not with these strangely familiar people here.