The Great Gallion let out a roar as it continued to soar through the dark clouds, lightning flashing all around it. In a cabin, a single candle was lit while a Seer Grimm floated above it.
"You are familiar with the Seven Deadly Sins, correct? Well, while labeled as sins, they can represent the fundamental desires of one's being. Usually in combat, the sin one would most likely feel is Wrath, commonly known as anger or rage which is usually felt through uncomfortable feelings that build up in response to a none-cooperative feeling provocation, pain or a threat."
Yellow Diamond appears inside the crystal, enraged as she fought Swayzak.
"When one experiences anger, they will quickly feel physical and mental responses to this emotion."
Scotty Blake let out an angered roar as he smashed through hordes of Bodach.
"When it comes to physical, anger would manifest through an increase in heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. It can quickly override other feelings and even influence one's own cognitive thought process and physiologically."
The tyrant troll known as Gunmar is shown next, tossing aside the troll assassin Angor Rot before attacking the Trollhunter Jim Lake Jr.
"This can affect the outcome of any action taken to address the behavior and actions of an opposing force, usually to oppose or stop them."
Bill Cipher is then showed in the mindscape of Stan Pines, literally glowing red with rage.
"Anger is seen as an integrated emotion in all sentient and even many non-sentient beings, usually considered normal and mature by virtually all individuals and can be seen as a functional response that aids in the survival of one's health when in precarious situations."
Pacifica is then shown literally blazing with rage.
"But when that anger is no form of control, it can have negative repercussions that can affect one's own physical and social status and negatively affect those around them. It can have many physical and mental consequences if not carefully managed."
Ben Tennyson is shown stepping back as an angered and afraid Julies lashes out with her fire powers.
"It can be easy for one to point out to this individual they are mistaken, that their feelings are of accidental nature, because anger, rage and wrath will often cause a loss in self-monitoring and objective reasoning."
Rose Quarts is then shown fleeing the wrath of Blue Diamond.
The images in the Seer Grimm's crystal ball vanished and the candle was left up, lighting Sammael's face as he leaned in and observed the candle. "A warrior must always be wary of these changes in just one their opponents but even in themselves. It can be the turning point in a battle, if one knows how to use it properly and best knows how to manipulate their own opponent's anger against them."
He blew out the candle and cabin was shrouded in darkness.
Xxx
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Pacfica-Bill let out a roar, breaking through the ice they had been encased in. "YOU THINK THIS WILL STOP ME?! I CONTROL TIME AND MATTER AT WILL!"
The ground began to crack, spreading along the walls. White dust and snow began to fall as the room along with the rest of the pyramid.
"YOU THINK THIS WILL END ME JUST BECAUSE I'M IN A HUMAN BODY NOW?!" Pacifica-Bill cackled. "I JUST HAVE TO REGENERATE AND REASSEMBLE FASTER THAN YOU CAN FREEZE ME!"
With that, Pacifica-Bill let out another roar as fire blasted from their mouth. Their form began to dissolve and disappear as the room began shake and shatter.
"We got to go!" Ford shouted from inside the cockpit.
Ed held out a hand and a blast of slime shot out, engulfing Nigel and pulling him into MEGAS's hand. With him now safely onboard, MEGAS shot clear of the pyramid as it broke and shattered into a shower of icy and snowy dust, sprinkling onto the forest below.
MEGAS landed on the ground and knelt down, allowing everyone to safely disembark onto the ground.
"Everyone, head back to the town. You'll safe there." Scrooge said, pointing in the direction of Gravity Falls.
"Safe?" A pillar of blue fire exploded from the ground, revealing Pacifica-Bill, fully healed from being frozen. "We haven't even started!"
A wave of blue flames shot out from Pacifica-Cipher in all directions, but Nigel was able to cancel out the flames heading towards him and his friends with his Elemental powers. Just as the flames were going to hit Dipper, a shooting star shot in, grabbing him and literally shot through the flames, hitting Pacifica-Cipher head on!
"GAH!" Pacifica-Cipher cried out as she hit the ground.
The star landed on the ground, fading to reveal Mabel holding her brother with a smile.
"Mabel-wha…" Dipper trailed off before he realized what happened. "Is that your Semblance?!"
"Yup!" Mabel said proudly. "I am Mabel, Shooting-Star!"
Stan and Ford both smiled proudly with Ford eyeing the bracelet on Mabel's wrist. The bracelet contained small pockets of unicorn hair.
'The unicorn along with her Semblance allows Mabel to literally attack Cipher without being affected. Usually in tandem with one's Aura, all it would normally offer would be protection, but Mabel's Semblance combines it into a form of offense and defense perfectly.' Ford mused to himself as he opened the car door and stepped out. 'She's changed so much since that time on the train…So much since I first met her.'
"Ford, where are you going?" Coop asked.
"I have to get up close to finish this, Coop." Ford answered. "You can't fight Bill as he is now. Not without killing everyone up close."
Coop wanted to argue but Ford made a really good point.
Pacifica-Cipher snarled as she stood up. "ENOUGH!"
The ground beneath everyone literally turned into quicksand before they could react, causing them to all to start sinking so fast that by the time they blinked, they were already up to their necks when-
SNAP!
Pacifica-Cipher snapped her fingers and the ground solidified, leaving them buried up to their necks. "All right, now let's get back on track."
Pacifica-Cipher looked up to see Ford emerging from MEGAS as it sank up to its torso and shot up, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and flew up into the air.
"GRUNKLE FORD!" Dipper and Mabel cried out.
Ford struggled to break free as Pacifica-Cipher hovered thousands of feet in the air. "Now, now, Sixer. No fighting. You wouldn't want to risk me dropping you, would you?"
Ford grunted but relented. "What do you want?"
"Ah, sharp as ever, Fordsy. As you may have noticed...I've recently had a," Their voice stated echoing throughout the area. "Multi-dimensional makeover." They stopped echoing and with a gesture, the stone pyramid that served as Bill's castle reappeared. "I control space, matter, and now that that dumb baby's out of the way, time itself! Of course, you forced me to take over the body of the only meatbag I had as a tether but details, details. But I wasn't always this way."
Pacifica-Bill dropped Ford on the floor, hovering towards where Bill's stone throne used to be, while chains appeared around Ford's neck, wrists and ankles. "Oof!"
"You think those chains are tight?" Pacifica-Cipher's third Eye showed a planet on a two-dimensional plane which began to burn. "Imagine living in the second dimension, flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams. I liberated my dimension, Stanford, and I'm here to liberate yours. There's just one hitch."
The Eye projected a hologram of him pushing against the dome around Gravity Falls.
"As it turns out, my weirdness can't escape the magical confines of this town. There's something keeping me in."
"Incredible! Gravity Falls' natural law of weirdness magnetism. I studied this years ago!" Ford realized and remembered.
"And did you find a way to undo it?" Pacifica-Bill grinned as she turned around.
"Of course. There's a simple equation that could collapse the barrier. But I'd never tell you!" Ford snapped.
"Listen, Ford, if you just tell me that equation, finally your dimension will be free." Pacifica-Bill projected an image of Bill Cipher drawing a smiley face in the midwest United States, then taking a bite out of the Earth and fly past his friends, who were destroying other planets, then to Ford, who was standing in the middle of a galaxy. "Anything will be possible. I'll remake a fun world- a better world! A party that never ends with a host that never dies! No more restrictions! No more laws! You'd be one of us. All-powerful. Greater than anything you've imagined! And all I need is your help."
Ford, however, would not relent. "You're insane if you think I'll help you."
Pacifica-Bill let out a cackle. "I'm insane either way, brainiac! But have it your way. I'll just fish around and get that equation directly out of your mind!"
With that, Bill entered the mental realm, leaving Pacifica's body as it collapsed.
"Not so fast! You know the rules, Bill." Ford held up a hand Bill returned to the physical realm, returning to his 'daughter's body. "You may be able to haunt my dreams, but you can't enter my mind unless I shake your hand and let you in."
Pacifica-Bill sighed. "You're making this so much harder than it needs to be. Everyone has a weakness, tough guy! I'll make you talk! It's only a matter of time."
"Let him go!"
Pacifica-Cipher turned to see MEGAS rising up with the Pine Twins, Stanley Pines, the Elementals, Scrooge McDuck and survivors of Gravity Falls.
All of them standing together to face them.
"Oh look, Sixer. A last stand." Pacifica-Bill grinned.
"It's over, Bill!" Dipper shouted, pointing at the fused Ciphers. "We're all immune to your powers. You can't beat us."
"I don't have to beat you, Pine-Tree. Good thing now that I've taken over, the little deal you made with my earthly tether can be considered…terminated!" Pacifica-Bill snapped the fingers and the ground beneath the group disappeared.
"Oh no you don't!" Mabel cried out as her Semblance activated while Dipper changed into a flock of paper birds.
Working together, the Pine Twins saved everyone and brought them back up into the stone pyramid, further frustrating Pacifica-Bill. "Good grief, why won't anyone of just DIE?!"
Before they could attack again, Mabel shot forward, her Semblance combined with the unicorn bracelet making her immune to the blue flames allowed her to shoot forward and slam right into Pacifica-Bill, knocking them down. Nigel placed a hand on the ground there was blast of Frost flames that caused ice to form, traveling straight at Pacifica-Bill who flew out of the way.
"ENOUGH!" Pacifica-Bill shouted, snapping their figures.
Immediately after snapping their figures, crystal prisms appeared around each of the group and MEGAS, holding them out over the town below.
"Now Sixer," They turned to the still chained Ford. "Give us the formula to break free or you can watch everyone make one giant SPLAT on the ground below!"
SMASH!
One of the prisms shattered, courtesy of Mabel's Shooting Star Semblance while Nigel's Frost Fire froze the crystal prism imprisoning him, reducing its very atoms to Absolute Zero. When his prison broke, Mabel caught him and brought him up to the pyramid, breaking through the rest of the crystal prisons and bring them up.
"WHY CAN'T YOU ALL JUST DIE?!" Pacifica-Cipher raged, unable to believe they were having this much trouble.
He threw Ford aside, slamming him into the wall and lashed out with more flames…
SMASH!
POW!
SMASH!
Luckily the fist of MEGAS smashed through the pyramid wall and slugged Pacifica-Cipher, sending them crashing through the wall behind her.
"Ford!" Stan ran over and picked his brother. "You okay?"
"I've been better." Ford coughed and groaned. "We're not getting anywhere like this. As long as Bill has a human host, Weirdmaggeddon can't be stopped. He's got unlimited power even trapped in that girl."
"So how do we take him down for good?" Stan asked urgently. "Come on, Ford. You got to have an idea how."
"I do, but it's a risk." Ford sighed. "We need to trap Bill in someone's mind and erase him with the Memory Gun."
"The Memory Gun?" Stan questioned.
Ford reached into his trench coat and pulled out the Memory Gun. "Yes. If Bill is someone's mind while it's being erased by the Memory Gun, he'll be erased along with it. But…Whomever it is used on will have to accept their complete memory. We can't risk some fragment of Bill surviving in any surviving memories."
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" Stan and Ford turned to see Pacifica-Cipher shoot back through the hole and slam into MEGAS, sending it and its human passengers shooting out of the pyramid.
They then snapped their fingers and another cage appeared Stan and Ford.
"You two wait here!" Pacifica-Cipher's skin turned red, and she grew six arms. I've got some children I need to make into corpses!" Their voice turned gravely deep. "SEE YA REAL SOON!"
With that, they shot off after the children.
"No! Wait! No! No!" Stan shouted, gripping the bars. "Oh, what do we do? What do we do?!"
Ford banged on the bars. "Kids!"
"We got move. This way!" Dipper shouted, leading Mabel, Nigel, Abby and Ed into a dark hallway with Pacifica-Cipher chasing after them.
Scrooge moved to attack but with a wave of Pacifica-Cipher's hand, the ground beneath him gave out.
"Oh come!" The retired Huntsman shouted as he fell through.
"When I get my hands on you kids, I'm gonna DISSASEMBLE YOUR MOLECULES! You've tricked me for the last time!" Pacifica-Cipher tried to grab them, but Dipper and Mabel flew away on the grappling hook, followed by the three Elementals.
Xxx
"Oh, I can't believe this. The kids are gonna die and it's all my fault because I stood around and did nothing!" Stan fell to his knees. "Uh, Dad was right about me. I am a screw-up.
"Ah, don't blame yourself." Ford shook his head. "I'm the one who made a deal with Bill in the first place. I fell for all his easy flattery. You would have seen him for the scam artist he is."
"How did things get so messed up between us? Between this and the train, we just can't seem to pull it off." Stan wondered as Ford sat next to him.
"We used to be like Dipper and Mabel." Ford said fondly. "The world's about to end and they still work together. How do they do it?"
"Easy. They're kids. They don't know any better." Stan paused as Ford stood up. "Whoa, where you goin'?"
"I'm going to play the only card we have left – let Bill into my mind." Ford answered solemnly. "He'll be able to take over the galaxy and maybe even worse, but at least he might let the kids free."
"What?! Are you kiddin' me?!" Stan stood up. "Are you honestly telling me there's nothing else we can do?!"
"Bill's only weak in the mind space." Ford gestured to his head. "If I didn't have this darn plate in my head, we could just erase him with the memory gun when he steps inside my mind."
Stan thought it over for a moment. "What if he goes into my mind? My brain isn't good for anything."
Ford couldn't hold back the chuckle at that remark. "There's nothing in your mind he wants. It has to be me. We need to take his deal. It's the only way he'll agree to save you and the kids."
"Do you really think he's gonna make good on that deal?" Stan asked skeptically.
"What other choice do we have?"
Xxx
"You know, I'm starting to think there's no way out of here."
Dipper had wanted to be optimistic but thinking and being the more logical twin was more his thing while optimism was Mabel's specialty.
"Like Grunkle Stan always says, when one door closes, choose a nearby wall and bash it in with brute force!" To prove her point, Mabel grew her hand with the flashlight and punched through the wall.
SMASH!
"AHHH!" Mabel let out a battle cry as she turned her hand back to normal.
"Cool!" Ed gushed in excitement.
"Wow." Nigel marveled at the flashlight. "You don't mind if I take a look at that when this is over, do you?"
"Focus now. Let's round up the townsfolk and together we can defeat...oh, no!" Dipper exclaimed in mid-sentence as he and the rest of the kids saw the rest of the refugees tied on the ground, guarded by the demons and Klarion.
"You'll never take us alive, monsters!" Grenda said defiantly.
"That's fine with us!" The Teeth demon said before eating Shmebulock.
"Oh, we're not going to eat you…" Klarion leaned in with a demonic looking face. "Yet. We still an audience to enjoy the show."
"Oh, no."
"Peeka-boo!" Before they could react, Pacifica-Cipher caught the Pine Twins and the Elementals in a tractor beam.
"Aaah!" The kids screamed.
Nigel, Abby and Ed tried using their Elemental powers but for some reason, their magic was negated.
"Nice try, but while your abilities give you control over the laws of existence, I BREAK those laws." Pacifica-Cipher taunted and laughed.
A moment later, Pacifica-Cipher re-entered the main room with kids suspended in a triangular field. "Alright, Ford. Time's up. I've got the kids. I think I'm gonna kill one of 'em now just for the heck of it! EENIE..MEENIE...MINEE" The third Eye switched between the pine tree, shooting star, freezing fire and a candy cane symbol with each word, then ends on the shooting star. "...YOU!"
They held up his other hand and prepares to end Mabel by snapping their fingers.
"Wait! I surrender." Ford called out, standing up.
"Good choice." The human/demon fusion dropped the kids and approached the cage.
"Don't do it, Ford, it'll destroy the universe!" Stan argued.
"It's the only way."
"Oh, even when you're about to die, you Pines twins just can't get along." Pacifica-Cipher taunted as the cage disappeared and Ford was tied up by energy chains.
"My only condition is that you let my brother and the kids go!" Ford stated.
"Fine." Pacifica-Cipher said without a second thought.
"No, Grunkle Ford! Don't trust him!" Dipper shouted.
"It's a...DEAL!" Pacifica-Cipher grabbed Ford's hand, then entered the mental realm, leaving behind Pacifica as he laughed evilly and entered Ford's mind, seeing nothing but a white void and a single door. "Oh, I'm here. I'm finally here! Look at this place: a perfect, calm, orderly void. Gotta hand it to ya, Ford. You really know how to clear your m-"
He opened the door to see Stan Pines on his chair in the Mystery Shack's living room with a paddleball, making clicking sound and pointed a finger-gun at Bill.
"WHAT?!"
"Heh heh! Do a pretty good impression of my brother, don't I? Switch clothes and no one can tell us apart. Welcome to my mind. Surprised you didn't recognize it." Stan replied.
Xxx
Outside of Stan's mind, Ford took off Stan's fez and pulled out the memory gun. Pacifia opened her eyes, which went wide when she saw the memory gun. "NO-"
Frost Fire appeared under her feet and freezing her up to her neck.
Ford spun and pointed the memory gun at her, entering 'Pacifica Cipher' and then fired.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Pacifica screamed as the memory gun erased all her memories of Bill Cipher from her mind.
The third Eye on her head began to vanish as the piece of Bill Cipher's soul that had been placed in her when she was born was erased.
Ford then entered 'Stanley Pines; and hesitantly aimed it at his brother.
Xxx
"WHAT?! The deal's off!" The door then shut and the room started to burn with blue fire. "What the... No NO NO NO!"
"Oh yeah." Stan leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head in a relaxing manner, despite being surrounded by fire. "You're going down, Bill. You're gettin' erased. Memory gun. Pretty clever, huh?"
"Y-you idiot! Don't you realize you're destroying your own mind, too?!"
"Eh." Stan simply shrugged. "It's not like I was using this space for much, anyway."
"LET ME OUTTA HERE! LET ME OUT! PACIFICA, HELP ME!" Bill attempted to use his powers, only to realize too late that they are now being negated thanks to the memory gun's influence. "WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING?!"
"Hey, look at me. Turn around and look at me, you one-eyed demon!" Bill did so, seeing Stan Pines glaring down at him. "You're a real wise-guy, but you made one fatal mistake – you messed with my family."
"You're making a mistake! I'll give you anything!" Bill's Eye showed a picture of a dollar sign, a star, a pot of gold and a galaxy. "Money! Fame! Riches! Infinite power! Your own galaxy! Please!"
Bill's form stated to literally glitch, succumbing to the memory gun's influence.
"NO! What's happening to me?!" He flasheed between several distorted forms; speaking backwards which Stan didn't know. "Nruter yam I taht rewop tneicna eht ekovni i! Nrub ot emoc sah emit ym! L-T-O-L-O-X-A!"
His form returned to normal but it was now black with his Eye wide and blood red. "STAAANNLLEEEEY!"
Stan reared a fist back and punches Bill in the eye and in response Bill disintegrated with a fading scream.
Finally, the nightmare was over.
Stan panted for a moment and then picked up a picture of him with Dipper, Mabel and Waddles. "Heh. Guess I was good for something after all."
The flames engulf him as he smiled.
Xxx
Once Ford finished erasing Stan's memory he drops the memory gun. Outside of the Fearamid, the rift began sucking all of the demons back into it, returning them to the Nightmare Realm from whence they came. Teeth spat out Shmebulock as he gets pulled away.
"Hey! Hey!" The Horrifying Sweaty One-Armed Monstrosity cried out as it was pulled back into the rift.
Klarion snarled as he was being forcefully returned to the Nightmare Realm. "NYX! WHERE ARE YOU?! YOU HAVE TO STOP THIS!"
The Fearamid is deconstructed and pulled into the rift. Once it was gone, a wave washes over the town, restoring it to its pre-Weirdmageddon state. The townsfolk looked around, and Xyler, Craz and Rumble all faded away. As for the Pines and the Elementals, they were all in the forest with Stan who was still collapsed on the ground.
He opened his eyes as Mabel ran up to Stan and put his fez on him. "Oh, my gosh! Grunkle Stan, you did it!"
However, Stan looked confused. "Oh, uh, hey there...kiddo. What's your name?"
"Eheh. Grunkle Stan?" Mabel asked, confused by her grand uncle's reaction.
"Heh." Stan looked around. "Who you talkin' to?"
"C-c'mon. It's me. It's me, Grunkle Stan." Mabel cried as Dipper pulled her back. "Grunkle Stan, it's me!"
"We had to erase his mind to defeat Bill. It's all gone. Stan has no idea, but he did it. He saved the world. He saved me." Ford knelt down next to Stan. "You're our hero, Stanley."
Ford then hugged his brother while Mabel sat down and cried. Dipper puts his hand on her shoulder and cries as well. Nigel, Abby and Ed hung back, all of them watching with saddened expressions on their faces.
Bill Cipher had at last been defeated…but at what cost?
Xxx
"They did it."
In a mysterious plane of existence, a chess piece resembling Bill Cipher faded to dust.
"The great and powerful Bill Cipher has been defeated. This is unprecedented but an outcome that is most beneficial. This consequences of this will spread far, many forces will seek to fill in the vacuum left in the wake of Cipher's demise." The strange entity mused. "Van Kleiss, the man punctured holes in the walls between worlds, Nergal the underworld deity who sought to unity everything and now Cipher, the ruler of the Nightmare Realm. These three are the first to fall but are they the only ones?"
INFINITY TRAIN ARC
"I'm coming, Dipper!"
Mabel ran as fast as she could through the train cars in the direction she hoped where she would find Dipper.
After everything they had been through, she hoped…
No, she prayed she could make things right with him.
'Dipper, I'm so sorry I ran out on you and the others. I wanted so badly for the summer to never end, for us to always be together that I…'
Mabel couldn't finish her thought, only choosing to run faster.
She had to find him and make things right.
In her determination, the outline of a star surrounded her, and she shot off with even great speed through the train, her mind solely focused on finding her brother.
Xxx
"Let me go! I have to help her!" Dipper cried out.
"Help her? Can't you see it's already too late? You'll just be another meal for it."
Then, before Dipper's eyes Mabel screamed as her life force was sucked away, leaving behind a skeleton that withered to dust…
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Dipper screamed…
Or rather a copy of him screamed.
Another Dipper rushed past him, picking up a branch and hitting the Gohm that killed his sister over and over again.
Even after it surprisingly exploded.
The Dipper fell to his knees, letting out a cry of anguish and didn't move.
Not to help the others fight.
Not to help the rest of his family.
Not even when another Gohm pounced on him and began sucking the life force out of him…
"Do you see?" The voice asked and Dipper was suddenly back at the moment when time froze around him. "Do you see what happens if you do not accept my help? Do you want her to die?"
"No…" Dipper frantically shook his head. "Please…Let me save her…"
"You know what you must do."
Dipper held up a hand, staring at it for a moment before clenching. "Fine! I'll be your avatar! I'll let you kill what it is you want dead through me but none of my friends or family are to be harmed in any way, not directly or indirectly! Do you hear me?!"
The voice cackled. "Of course! What do you take me for? Bill Cipher?"
Dipper didn't trust It.
As far as he'd seen, all so-called higher beings were equally questionable when it comes to morality…
But he didn't have a choice.
He had to save his sister.
Whatever it takes.
"Just do it." Dipper spread out his arms and closed his eyes. "Let's just get this over with. You want me? Here I am."
The voice cackled as a pair of lights circled around Dipper. "Don't look into the lights, Dipper. The lights offer power, but you must never look at them. They will make you float and it's not your time yet but you will make the abomination float."
The lights came in close to Dipper circling around him until they were mere inches from him.
"We all float, Dipper."
"We all float, Dipper." Mabel's voice suddenly spoke. "And you'll float to."
"You'll float too." Stan's voice was next.
"You'll float too." Then came Ford's voice.
A myriad of voices began to speak in rhythm, chanting over and over again.
"You'll float too."
"You'll float too."
"You'll float too."
"YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!"
"YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!"
"YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!"
"YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!"
"YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!"
"YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!"
Dipper groaned, feeling like he was not lying on anything solid but rather he was…
Floating.
He opened his eyes and found himself floating in…
"Is this…space?"
But how?
He looked around and noticed something massive floating through the void. It was round, with large feet and reptilian head poking out.
It was a turtle.
A giant gargantuan turtle.
A dead giant gargantuan turtle.
"A turtle?" Dipper wondered as he slowly began floating past the corpse of the giant creature. "That was not what I was expected."
It took a long time for him finally float past the dead creature, his eyes never leaving it.
Why was there a dead turtle floating in space?
Did it die from the lack of air?
Wait, he was floating in space too and he was still alive. He even took a few deep breaths to make sure he could actually breath.
"Breath one." Dipper inhaled and exhaled. "Breath two. Yeah, I can breathe all right out here. So it can't have been the lack of oxygen that killed this big turtle."
Or maybe it was some kind of space turtle.
A turtle that could actually survive in space.
Dipper's mind was racing with possibilities as he continued to float in the dark space like void, he had awakened in.
'Maybe I was left out here after I made that deal with that thing.' Dipper sighed. 'I knew it would turn out badly but I wanted to save Mabel…'
His sister…
Boy, him and his sister went on some crazy adventures this summer, but he wasn't sure he was coming back from this one.
Could he even come back?
"Did I really do the right thing?" Dipper looked at his hands. "It's getting harder and harder to tell with each day…Since I found Grunkle Ford's journal and tried to learn every weird thing there was to know about Gravity Falls. I got in over my head a lot of times, but Mabel's always been there to try and help me in her own way. For twins, we're different as night and day…I think using my head, I base everything I know what I can see and rationalize…Mabel on the other hand, she thinks with her heart, literally wearing it on the sleeve of those sweaters she wears."
That was what made them such a great team.
'Hello, Dipper.'
Dipper's eyes widened as he heard…It's voice.
It existed here as a mass of unshaped destroying light and here he would be vaporized into nothingness by the dead light or live forever only to be driven insane.
'You did me a big favor, letting me take over and kill that wretched Frankenstein rip-off made by the Impure.'
Impure?
'And you just met the corpse of my friend, the Turtle. Stupid idiot died choking on a galaxy or two after he vomited one out into his own universe.'
Choking on a galaxy?
'But it's all good now. Life is short, so let's talk a bit. Do you like the cold dark out here? Enjoying the grand tour of nothingness that lies Outside? The grand darkness that spawned the entity that would one day give birth to the Grimm?'
Birth to the Grimm?
Dipper's eyes widened. 'The Grimm came from here?'
'In a way, yes. The Grimm are the offspring of a force that sought to spread itself across your newly made universe. Ancient as Bill Cipher and myself but it ran into a little trouble and only a shard of it survived. The shard land on your mudball of a planet and eventually the Grimm were born. Oh, what a show they have made for the last thousands of years, it's enough to even entertain me despite all the trouble you micro-organisms cause me.'
"What do you want from me now? If the thing you wanted dead is dead, then our deal is over. I can have my body back." Dipper called out, still floating across the infinite void.
'Why would I do that when I finally have a new host in your world? I can resume my place as the Eater of Worlds! And you…Just wait, Little Friend! Wait until you break through to where I am!' The entity cackled. 'Wait for that! Wait for the deadlights! You'll look and you'll go mad, but you'll live…and live…and live…inside them…Inside ME!'
The Spider screamed in laughter, terrifying Dipper as he realized he had made deal no better than the deals he had made with Bill and Pacifica.
'Mabel…'
Xxx
"Dipper!"
There he was, standing on the other side of the bridge to the next car.
Still in that Spider-Knight form but Mabel didn't care.
Dipper was her brother; nothing would ever change that.
Her mind suddenly flashed back to the time when she and Dipper were in second grade, sitting in a chair with some other kids getting their picture taken.
Dipper sniffed. "Darn allergies".
Mabel put on a slap bracelet; her arm was covered with them. "Boom! A million slap bracelets! I'm gonna have the best photo ever! And how d'you like my new pigtaaailllls?" She asked, waving her head back and forth)
"Have fun, brat!" A kid rushed up and gum in her hair, causing the other kids to laugh.
"Ah! Gum! You ruined my hair! Dipper, what do I do?" Mabel exclaimed, trying to get the gum out.
"Um, well, I, um. I don't-"
Seeing he had no answer, Mabel ran away crying.
"Mabel, wait!"
"Dipper!" She called out to him.
The Spider-Knight slowly turned around, glaring at her with six glowing red eyes.
"Dipper?"
Xxx
"Dipper?"
Dipper's head shot up at the sound of his sister's voice.
Xxx
"Listen, Dipper." Mabel took a long deep breath. "I'm sorry."
Xxx
"Sorry?" Dipper muttered, wondering if he was just hearing things.
Xxx
"I know you've done so much for me…and I know now…I haven't been the best sister." Mabel slowly said, watching the Spider-Knight as it began to approach her. "I've relied on you for everything, brush you off when you were just worried about me. And…I know I believed I was doing what was right when Grunkle Stan begged us not to close the portal but I still trusted him over you…"
Just as Dipper was within reach Zoe and Frida grabbed him and pulled him back, holding his hands behind him. "MABEL HELP!"
Mabel looked away from Stan and looking at Dipper and then looked at Stan. "Grunkle Stan..."
"Six. Five."
Mabel sank into her uncle's embrace. "I trust you."
"MABEL, ARE YOU CRAZY?! WE'RE ALL GONNA-"
"One."
"I know it was because Grunkle Stan wanted to save his brother…but I know now it must have hurt because I didn't trust you as much as Grunkle Stan." Mabel admitted, tears beginning to slip down her cheeks.
Xxx
"Mabel…" Dipper muttered with a saddened face, but his eyes widened when he somehow could see the Spider-Knight approaching his sister. "NO! MABEL, RUN!"
Xxx
"But that wasn't the worst thing I did, isn't it?" Mabel continued, not moving an inch as the demonic creature approached her. "I brushed you off when you needed my help when you were trying to decode Grunkle Ford's laptop and you ended making a deal with Bill of all people."
Dipper-Cipher grinning maniacally with yellow glowing eyes.
"You got hurt and all because I was more focused on winning some weird boy's heart." Mabel closed her eyes and fell to her knees. "I even got us stuck on this train because I couldn't cope. I can't handle things like you can. You had the chance to be what you wanted to be…"
Xxx
"…an adventurer like Grunkle Ford."
"FORGET ABOUT ME, MABEL AND RUN!" Dipper screamed, seeing the Spider-Knight was standing over his sister. "MABEL!"
Xxx
"But all I could think about was how I would be alone, no friends, no brother…Just me." Mabel didn't move an inch, didn't look up even as the Spider-Knight glared down at her. "Dipper…"
The Spider-Knight raised a palm and red energy began to gather.
'MABEL!'
"I just want you to know…" Mabel slowly lifted her head.
"MABEL!" She could hear the voices of her uncles and friends behind her.
"Dipper, you are my brother…I am so sorry for how I acted…" She stared up at the demonic entity that used to be her brother with a smile. "And I love you, no matter what you choose!"
In that instance, the green numbers on both Dipper and Mabel's hands went down to zero and there was a flash of light just as the Spider-Knight unleashed its attack…
"MABELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" The Knight suddenly screamed, the demonic tone and Dipper's voice mixing together.
Only when the light faded, the Spider-Knight was greeted with the surprising sight of a portal standing in front of it…
Between it and Mabel.
Mabel stood up, looking at her hand and saw her number had reached zero. "I'm at zero…"
The Spider-Knight staggered back, its voice and Dipper's shouting as it grasped its head. "Stupid boy, what have you-Take it back! You got what you wanted so you can have it all back!"
The sky turned black and red energy shot out of the Spider-Knight's mouth as it began to shrink down, the amor vanishing to reveal…
"DIPPER!" Mabel shouted along with Stan and Ford.
As the last of the red energy vanished into the sky. "Returning by power matters not to me boy. For the end of your world is coming and when it does, I will feed off of the loss of life that will come from it! And it will feel so good!"
Dipper fell to his knees as Mabel rushed up and hugged him with all her might. He weakly hugged her back as their friends and family gathered around the pair.
"Dipper! I'm so sorry!" Mabel cried on her brother's shoulder. "I shouldn't have made you feel you had to choose between me and Grunkle Ford!"
"No, I'm sorry. I got so caught up I forgot, I'm still a kid." Dipper replied just as tearfully. "I got to some growing up to do before I can anything like Grunkle Ford."
Stan and Ford both smiled and knelt down next to the twins, followed by Frida and Zoe.
"Kids, you don't have to rush anything." Stan softly said, rubbing Mabel's hair with a gentle hand. "Whatever you decide, we'll be there to help out."
"All of us." Ford agreed.
"As a family." Frida and Zoe hugged their cousins who hugged them back.
One by one, the numbers of the Pines family decreased until they were down to zero and portals leading back to Gravity Falls opened up for them.
"Is that the way home?" Mabel asked, staring at the portals.
"Yes. Our numbers have reached zero." Ford looked at his number that was zero, indicating he and his family had worked through their problems. "We are able to get off the train."
"But…But…" Mabel turned around and saw Ed and the other Peach Creek kids. "What about you guys? We can't leave you behind."
"Oh yes, you can." Ed walked over and leaned in front of Mabel. "You can go home…And we'll go home too. Don't worry about us, Mabel. Double D and I need to find and help Eddy but we'll make and when we got home, I'll look for you on the Sky-Web so we can still be friends, no matter how far apart we might be."
"Ed…"
"Half-Wit Ed-Boy speak true. The danger has passed, and Rolf knows we will be alright." Rolf agreed with a happy smile. "Return home, Shooting-Star Mabel-Girl and do not fear. Rolf would not sleep at night knowing Ed-Boy is running free on the streets."
"Hey, if it's smooth sailings from here on out, I can stomach dragging Eddy back home." Kevin shrugged.
"Oh boy, we get to go on more adventures, Plank!" Jonny said happily.
Double D smiled softly, looking at his hand and saw his number slowly going down. 'Perhaps this is what I needed. I still plan to return to Gravity Falls and stop Bill Cipher…but maybe stepping onto this train and working through the trauma can help me. At least, I can make sure my friends do not lose their family like I have.'
Mabel sniffed and gave Ed a big hug which he returned. She then took out a pen and wrote something the palm of Ed's hand, the one without the glowing number.
"This is my Sky-Web address. I got a channel: Mabel's All Things Adorable." Mabel said as Ed looked at the number. "Don't take too long, Ed."
Ed nodded and laughed. "With bells on my toes, Mabel!"
Mabel laughed, which was shared by her cousins while Dipper simply smiled. "See, Mabel. You're not going to be alone…Ever."
Mabel stared at her brother and smiled. "No, I'm not."
The two shared one final hug and waved goodbye to the friends they made on the Infinity Train before they turned and walked through the portal with their uncles and cousins, returning to Gravity Falls. Ed and the Peach Creek kids still had some things to work out…but they knew their friends would be alright.
Xxx
(Credits: Take Me Home Tonight by Eddie Money)
Oh, yeah
I feel a hunger, it's a hunger
That tries to keep a man awake at night
Are you the answer? I shouldn't wonder
When I can feel you whet my appetite
With all the power you're releasing
It isn't safe to walk the city streets alone
Anticipation is running through me
Let's find the keys and turn this engine on
I can feel you breathe
I can feel your heart beat faster (Faster)
Take me home tonight
I don't want to let you go 'til you see the light
Take me home tonight
Listen, honey, just like Ronnie sang
Be my little baby, oh, ho, oh
I get frightened in all this darkness
I get nightmares I hate to sleep alone
I need some company a guardian angel
To keep me warm when the cold winds blow
I can feel you breathe
I can feel your heart beat faster (Faster)
Take me home tonight
I don't want to let you go 'til you see the light
Take me home tonight
Listen, honey , just like Ronnie sang
Be my little baby
Be my little baby, uh-huh
Just like Ronnie sang
I said
Just like Ronnie sang
Be my little baby
Baby, my darlin', uh, uh, oh, oh, oh
I feel a hunger
It's a hunger
Take me home tonight
I don't want to let you go 'til you see the light
Take me home tonight
Listen, honey, just like Ronnie sang
Be my little baby, oh, ho, oh
(Take Me Home Tonight by Eddie Money Ends)
Xxx
"Oh dear, is it over already? Looks like it. But we didn't get to the part where I take back control of the train again." One-One slipped back into the control console of the Infinity Train. "There we go, all done. How anticlimactic. And we can still cover how Ed and Double D make up with-Oh, that was not meant to be covered here yet. That's for later when we've solved the budget cuts. Oh, dear and what about the cat assassin still lurking around and Tambry? Do we know how she gets off the train? Covered on next, GrimmFall: Infinity Train....Why do you say it like that? I don't know."