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Chapter 23: Limbo

Author’s Note: You may have noticed certain sections of this book (such as the last part of the last chapter) which are written in illegible chicken-scratch. This is, in fact, intentional, and is not, in fact, evidence of some type of nervous disorder on my part.

In fact, these sections are easily decodable! Just like the after-credits codes in the show itself, I often use the Atbash cipher or a 3-spaced Ceasar cipher. Latter portions of the book will use Vigeniere, which requires a codeword.

I typically encrypt any sections of the book which are both unnecessary to the larger plot on their own, and needlessly spoiler-y. That makes them just a cool, foreshadow-y treat for anyone who cares to decode them. So, by default, you get a nice story. But if you're really curious, and want to put in a few minutes of effort, there are treats and goodies for you to uncover.

There are solvers online, I typically use the ones on Rumpkin.com. I leave the rest to you.

In the middle of Dipper’s mindscape, Mabel’s hunched form stood alone, glancing about uncertainly. “Dipper…?” She asked, as if doubting her own voice. “Dipper, are you… Here??”
Hi Mabel… Yes. I… I guess I am.
She put a hand to her head, as if confused or overwhelmed by something. She stuck a finger in her ear, as if trying to clear a blockage. “Uh…” She said. “Uh… Dipper? Can… Is that you?”
Can you hear me? He focused on thinking the words as hard as he could.
Mabel shook her head again, and turned in a circle. “Uh… No…” She said. “No I can’t…”
…Yes you can. Otherwise you wouldn’t have known to say ‘no’.
“Oh… Yeah… That’s right… I guess… Wait… Where are you?”
I’m looking right at you, uh… I can’t move or speak, I don’t think I have a body… We’re inside… Well, I guess we’re inside MY mind inside YOUR mind I think… I guess I’m dead? Did I get that right? I died?!?
“Uh…” Mabel turned slowly in a circle, her eyes passing right over the place where Dipper perceived himself being. If she couldn’t see him, his form must really be gone. Finally, Mabel settled down onto a nearby rock, with folded arms and a frown that looked annoyed and very, very tired… “Well… Yeah, mysterious brain voice;” She addressed him curtly. “Dipper IS dead… And he can’t come back… So… I think you’re Ford. You plugged me into a weird machine just to talk weird and cheer me up…”
Huh? No, I’m…! Well, I don’t think I am…
“Say something only Dipper would know.”
Uh… He racked his memory for something tangible to grasp onto. Everything was so blurry… So he stared hard at Mabel. At the shape of her hair, and her eyes, her red cheeks, her braces…
Her braces…
In the corner of his eye, one of the many hatches in his mindscape pushed aside some rubble far enough to open a crack. Mr. Upsidedownington is overrated… He finally recalled. Little bits and pieces seemed to follow the scrap. Some incomplete, some without form, some without image, but he mentally recited them as they came. A few more doors opened, here and there. And… And dad won’t let us race syrup after the waffle incident of ‘08… You ship anime characters while I pretend to listen… And… You were the one who invented the awkward sibling hug, but I was the one who named it… Uh… Uh… Dippy Fresh rocks and Disco Girl is stupid… Wait… No, the other way around. Dippy Fresh was stupid, and Disco Girl rocks… And… I don’t know… I can’t really remember what else… Oh, yeah, and you sing in your sleep… You inherited it from mom…
“You…” He saw tears coming to Mabel’s eyes, as she stood up again. Her eyes were searching him out more urgently now. “You… You really are Dipper…”
…Yeah… No… Well… I guess what’s left of him.
“Why can’t I see you?”
I dunno.
“Like…” She sniffled. “Like, just imagine a body for yourself! Everything you imagine comes true in here… Right?”
I… I can’t… I mean… I’m having a hard time… Imagining. I mean, I can’t remember things. And I just feel really, really confused, and I don’t know, I can barely think… I can barely think…
Mabel put her fingers to her head and squinted really hard for a minute, as if trying to be psychic. When she finished, Dipper found he could feel his body again. He looked down, and saw himself.
“Oh.” He wiggled his fake, imaginary fingers, flexed his fake, imaginary neck, and found he could speak. “Hey. Thanks. Uh…”
Before he could continue, Mabel had rushed up to him, wrapped her arms around this fake, imaginary body, and was already crying in his fake, imaginary shoulder. He fell silent. And the hug he gave her back was neither fake nor imaginary.
And so they just stood there like that. It felt like a moment but was probably longer.
Mabel wouldn’t stop crying.
“So…” He finally ventured. “I died, huh?”
The body Mabel had imagined for him flickered for a moment, and he felt parts of it go numb. Blood trickled down his forehead to blind one eye. He looked down and saw that he had a busted leg, big gashes in the chest, and one of his arms missing entirely. It didn’t hurt, not in here, but the injuries were somehow familiar. “Oh…” He said.
“Uhmf!” Mabel gasped and shook her head. “Sorry, sorry…” The body flickered again, and turned back to what they both recalled as ‘normal’. “Sorry… That’s… That was how… I’m sorry…”
“Hey…” He hugged her a little tighter. “It’s okay… Uh… Uh… You know, uh… Wow, 13 years old, huh? That’s… That’s pretty… I… How did I die? What was I doing? And… Why… How… I…” His mind began jumping around, fixating on those unfinished scraps of his life that now would never be realized. Ford’s apprenticeship that I wanted someday… Publishing a book… Hosting a ghost-hunting show… Wendy… Something with Wendy… “I… I had dreams…” He said.
“No…” Mabel sniffled. “Let’s talk about something else. Anything else…”
“…Okay…”
But, of course, one’s own death has a way of dominating the conversation. Neither of them could think of anything else to say.
“So…” Dipper finally released Mabel from the hug, and sat down in the grey grass. She eased herself down across from him. “So, uh… I dunno, is anyone else here? Is… What happened to Wendy? Is Wendy here? No, never mind, I mean… Is she okay? Weren’t we together when…? Did she…?”
Mabel shook her head. “No, don’t worry, she’s fine… Well… Like, she kinda… When… Well, she took your journal and stormed off into the woods 4 days ago and nobody but her dad has seen her since… I… I think Great Uncle Ford said she had radiation poisoning…”
“Radiation poisoning…? Is she okay?”
“I don’t know… The same thing happened to Great Uncle Ford, and he’s fine, just really really sick…”
“Ah.”
“I think she blamed herself for the crash…”
“Crash…?” In the corner of his eye, another memory hatch struggled open. Beyond, he saw a replay of the explosion, the impact, the escape from the wreck… He saw himself standing over Wendy’s unconscious form, and in front of him was… that… “Oh… Oh yeah…” He stared. “I… I died fighting that… Geez…” He couldn’t seem to remember the duel itself, but he saw the beast as it last had stood.
“Yeah…” Mabel sniffled.
“Is Wendy fine…? And… Wait, did I kill it…??”
“Yeah…”
“Wha…? How??”
“I don’t know…” Mabel wiped her eye. “But… You wrecked Gideon’s robot with your bare hands too, and beat Rumble McSkirmish, and won Globnar against a trained adult… This… This is like a stupid habit for you…” She tried to make a joke, tried to smile too, but neither worked.
“Ha ha…” Dipper rubbed his arm awkwardly, and almost smiled. “Dumb habit…”
“Really dumb…”
“Yeah…” He glanced about once more. It seemed to him there was something profoundly important he ought to be remembering right now, but he couldn’t recall what it was… Maybe it would come to him. “Hey, you’re right.” He said. “Let’s talk about something else. Anything else.”
“Yeah.”
The silence stretched on.
“Dipper…” Mabel finally worked up the courage to choke out the words. Dipper thought he could hear her heart racing from where he sat. “Dipper…” She repeated, trying to convince herself to talk. “I’m… I’m sorry…”
“Hey, woah.” He put up his hands. “Don’t blame yourself; I was the one who chose to fight it. You and Wendy didn’t have anything to do with—”
“N-no, not for that, for everything else… There’s… There’s a lotta stuff I never told you, and I never meant to tell you, but now you’re dead and… And I need to tell you so, and… I… Is Ford listening?”
“Uh…” Dipper glanced up at the sky, as if he would be able to see Ford up there, maybe hunched over his computer screen looking down at them. “He was reading my mind earlier…” Dipper recalled. “But I think he’s giving us some privacy right now…”
“Okay…”
“So…?”
“Dipper… I messed up… And I kept messing up…” Her voice broke, and warbled as it raised an octave. “Everything I do I try to do for the right reasons. I try to be nice, and to be sweet, and to love everybody and everything and make them love me… But it keeps breaking! And I want so bad to do whatever I’m doing that I just keep on doing it! Even when it gets stupid and things start to happen that I don’t want to happen, I just keep on being STUPID and SELFISH and DUMB! And… And…” She tried to wipe away her tears, but more just flowed in to take their place.
“Hey, it’s okay, what are you even talking about…?”
“And I’m just lucky!” She continued. “Lucky because everything always works out in the end! Lucky because everyone is always looking out for me! If it weren’t for you guys… Dipper, I’m not a good person at all…” She bent over, as if feeling sick. “I’m not a good person, the unicorns were right! And I’m sorry…”
“Hey, what? No…” He told her. “It’s okay… You’re okay…”
“I’m not though.” She sniveled. “I’m a terrible person…”
“No you’re not… You’re my sister; you’re Mabel! You-”
“Mabel is a terrible person then…”
“Yeah, well… She may have made her mistakes; everybody does bad things now and then… I mean, I know I do… It doesn’t make her a bad person. Just makes her a regular person… And the thing about Mabel? I love her.” He put an arm around her shoulder; it felt cold. “No matter what she’s done. Even if she’s crying, even if she’s hating herself, even if she marries a fish person… Even when I’m mad at her, even when we FIGHT, I’ll ALWAYS love her…! Always! Don’t… Don’t you know that…?”
“But…” She turned away from him by a couple degrees. “But I never told you the things I’ve done… If you knew…”
“It wouldn’t change a thing. I love you. And I forgive you. You understand?”
“But but… Oh… Oh yeah?!? Well… Well guess what?!? Well… Well last summer I almost ENSLAVED sev’ral people! I wanted to make them my toys for all eternity, until my friends stopped me! I never told you about THAT, did I?? And I never told you how I beat up Steve in 4th grade just because he was stepping on flowers… And I stole Rebecca’s birthday cake in 3rd grade because I was feeling really hungry… And I never told you about the vampires, did I? And… And… AND YOU NEVER KNEW WHY WEIRDMAGEDDON HAPPENED!”
“Hey, woah, calm down! That’s all… That’s… Listen…”
“YEAH!” She turned toward him, and was practically screaming at herself. “Yeah, you know how the little snowglobe thing with the galaxyness broke? You know how Bill got into our world?!? I never told you that because I promised I would never tell anyone because I LET HIM IN! I GAVE HIM THE SNOWGLOBE! ALL THE PEOPLE WHO DIED THAT WEEK, I KILLED THEM! I LET HIM IN!!”
“Woah, woah woah…! Hey… Hey… Uh…” As Dipper stood up and wrapped his scrawny arms around her again, he wished they were bigger; wished he could pretend to be strong enough to hold her.
I may not be all that Dipper was. He thought. I may not be able to stand beside her much longer… But I can tell her what Dipper knew.
“Hey… Look…” He said. “You know… You know why I never mentioned this whole thing before?”
“Why, cause you figured I was just a klutz and dropped it?” She snapped.
“Well… At first, yeah… But… But then I figured it out. I figured out why you never talked about it, and why Blendin left his last message… I put it all together; filled in the blanks. And I understand. Not just understand what happened… But I get why too… I do. I get it.”
She sniffled. “You do…?”
“I get what he promised you. I get that you were trying to do it for me… I get that you didn’t know… And for the record, you’re far from the only one, or the first one to fall for him… You were just unlucky enough to be the last.”
“But… But… But he almost gooshed the universe… And… He…”
“We all make mistakes. It’s just life… And as soon as you saw the truth, you worked harder than anyone to save the day, now didn’t you?”
“But…”
“So… That means you’re cool, right? It’s-”
“But that doesn’t make it all okay!” She wailed, shook his arms off, and pushed him away. “Because THAT’S NOT ALL!” She continued. “TODAY… Today I almost did it again!! Because after last summer, Bill left behind a statue in the woods, just a stone statue sitting there with one hand up like this, and… And I wanted you back so bad that I almost shook his hand and almost let him in AGAIN! I almost accidentally the whole thing AGAIN…! So… So how about THAT! Explain THAT away! Justify THAT! Tell me I’m still a good person after THAT…! I’m… Grunkle Stan found me and saved us all again… And… And… And also I was so mad at the robots for killing you that I tried to kill Juan with my bare hands, even though he never did anything and he’s just a BABY, and that makes ME the monster and… And… I’m so sorry Dipper, I’m so sorry…” She buried her face in her hands, and sobbed.
Dipper considered this for a long while.
Well, this was a dilemma.
What could he say? Could he call her evil a ‘mistake’ to try and lessen the blow? Could he tell her she hadn’t been in her right mind? Could he tell her ‘all’s well that ends well’? Could he tell her they were certain that Bill was dead for good? Could he tell her that anybody would have done the same thing in her place? Could he tell her that nothing wrong had been done?
No. For those were all complete lies.
She was right; there was no rationalizing or justifying her actions. She HAD done wrong. She HAD willingly repeated the mistakes of the past. She had betrayed herself and everyone else, and tried to throw away everything she knew… If things had run a little differently, if Stan hadn’t been there, if some piece of Bill really was still alive and present in this universe… She may very well have let him have his way. She might have. And she’d meant to.
His sister was guilty.
…But she was sorry.
So the only true thing Dipper could tell her was: “I forgive you.”

Ford kept his eyes off the screens; he’d promised Dipper’s simulation a time of privacy with his sister. After all they’d both been through, it was the least he could do.
He found a few cushions and propped them up as best he could around Mabel’s neck. Sleeping sitting up like that for hours on end couldn’t be easy on the neck, especially not when you’re wearing a helmet the size of a colander.
As he squeezed the last pillow in there, he took a look at her face. There were dark rings under her eyes, tangles in her hair, tear stains on her cheeks, and her face was almost pale; the last few days must have been horrible for her. Indeed, he didn’t think he’d ever seen her looking this bad. Even during Weirdmageddon, where showers, clean clothes, and fresh water had all gone extinct, she’d stayed strong and happy and hopeful. Even when messed up and dirty and oppressed on the outside, she’d always seemed to be… Glowing inside…
Pity what it all had come to. Such a pity.
But as he watched, a change came over her. Tears began to trickle down her face. But she didn’t struggle or move or show any other sign of distress; indeed, the beeping of the heartrate monitor seemed to slow down.
And on the edge of her mouth, there appeared the first hints of something precious: a smile.
Finally a smile.
Ford breathed a sigh of relief and shot a glance at the biological diagnostic screen. The Dipper backup file was decaying fairly rapidly inside Mabel’s head, and would eventually reach a point where he was no longer compatible with his sister’s brainwave. They’d have to uninstall him at that point, and, hopefully, be left with a Mabel in slightly better condition… One step forward, three steps back, I suppose. He thought. Even if we can’t save him, perhaps he can save her… I wonder what happened to her. Stan seemed to think this was pretty urgent.
Ford eased himself to his feet. Dipper wasn’t decaying quite as fast as anticipated; they still had 5 hours or so left before terminal failure.
Ford shuffled over to an old couch in the corner of his study, set an alarm for 4 hours, and eased himself down for a nap. The ever-more slow and calm beeping of the heartrate monitor lulled him off to sleep, though he couldn’t shake a vague, implacable feeling of paranoia…

“So… Uh… Well, anyway, we’re in the mindscape.”
“…Yeah…” She shrugged.
“So that means this reality is our playground. Like a lucid dream…” He glanced around, fishing for some fun idea she might enjoy. “Wanna imagine… Like… I dunno… Jetpacks or something?”
She seemed to consider briefly, and shrugged.
“…Rainbow powered jetpacks?” He elaborted. “…Made of Plush?”
“No…”
“Why not?”
“Not in the mood.”
He chuckled. “I think somebody mixed up our lines.”
She smiled off one corner of her mouth. “I guess somebody did…”
“Well… Come on…!” He encouraged her. “We’re inside my brain… I mean, normally you’d fight tooth and nail to dig up all the secrets and deep, dark thoughts… There must be something interesting around…”
She scratched her head. Then something seemed to occur to her, and her face finally broke open into her old, familiar, full smile.
Dipper was so happy to see her happy that he didn’t even question for a moment. But then, an enormous, rainbow-powered plush jetpack materialized behind her, swung its big fuzzy buckles closed across her shoulders, and rocketed her into the sky on a thundering blast of color, knocking him for a loop. He stumbled back to his feet, wiping some of the indigo off his face (Was this paint?!?) and looked around for where she was headed.
He saw the rainbow’s vibrant band arc up from his current location, turn a couple loops through the grey air, then swoop down near a shadowy grove of trees in the far corner of his mind.
He had a hunch what that corner was. A signpost leaning nearby confirmed his suspicions: romance. “Of course.” He sighed and smiled at the same time, before imagining a (not rainbow-based) jetpack of his own, and lifting off after her. It’s okay after all… He assured himself, as the rockets began to roar. It’ll all be okay.
She’ll be okay.
He turned the jetpack’s engines forward to slow himself down, then undid his straps and jumped clear just before it exploded on the ground. (Why did he have to imagine it being so explosive?)
Soon as he got his legs under him again, he followed Mabel down through a tangle of brambles and into the romance sector. “Oh, come on, you know what’s in here, Mabel! It’s not like you need to see or anything…!”
“Yuh-HUH!” She grinned back at him. “You never talked about it, and always shushed me when I did, so this is like my one chance!” She began to giggle. Then giggle harder. Her giggling rose to a feverish pitch as she scurried onward. “Besides, just try to stop meeEEE-HEE-HEE-HEE…!
“Uuuuugh…” He broke into a jog as he followed.
By the time he reached her, she’d already popped open several doors, and was moving further down the line.
Dipper glanced inside each as he ran past.
He saw just about what you’d expect: Him and Wendy playing at the arcade. Him and Wendy stunt-jumping the golf cart. Him and Wendy playing marbles with the jar of eyeballs. Him and Wendy messing around at the pool. The smell of her beef jerky still lingering on the goodbye letter… Each memory made him awkwardly blush a bit more, until he was sure his fake, imaginary face was as red as a stop sign. Mabel’s laughing didn’t help either.
He finally caught up to her when she stopped for a minute to inspect the contents of a particular door. He jogged up behind her. “Mabel, please, do—”
“Okay.” Mabel grabbed his cheeks and pointed his head toward the door. “WHY. Is THAT in here?”
The memory was him and Wendy trapped underground, being swarmed by the endless hordes of ravenous, razor-sharp, creeping, crawling, alien robot bugs from chapter 13.
“Uh…” He scratched his head. “Why is that in ‘romance’, you mean?”
“Just… Why?” She rubbed her temples. “Killer robots, fighting for your life… And then romance. Really. I… Uh… I don’t quite see how that fits really.”
“Well… Y’know… I was doing it with Wendy so I guess… Eh...” He shrugged. “I dunno. It felt just a tiny bit romantic at the time. If you were there you’d have been having fun too.”
Mabel looked again. The robots were tying Dipper down and starting to drill through his armor. He dropped his gun and was starting to really panic as their cutting bits burrowed deeper. “You do not look like you’re having fun.”
“Yeah, well, I was.”
The memory showed Dipper screaming for help. Wendy wasn’t able to reach him, but hollered at him to find his magnet gun. Her voice was the one non-hectic, confident part of the scene, and Mabel saw Dipper’s memory hold onto her voice, and use it to calm down. He reached out his hand, wrapped his fingers around the gun, and pulled the trigger. The EMP ended the battle, and Wendy finally reached him.
She hugged him, and promised it would be alright.
Mabel could see how much they cared about each other. “Oh.” She nodded. “…I get it now.”
“Yeah.” Dipper shrugged.
“Okay, enough of that, what’s over this way?!?” Mabel shook her head and rushed off.
Dipper saw where she was headed: a place where the trees crowded together ominously overhead, and the path sloped downhill, down into deeper and darker parts of his memory…
“What, NO! NO don’t go that way!” He squealed. “That looks like, I dunno, really forbidden stuff! Like stuff I don’t think about, or try not to think about or whatever! See?” He pointed to the wayside. “My subconscious even put up a sign here that says ‘off limits!’”
“What was that?” Mabel asked. “That sounded a lot like ‘blackmail fodder’ to me…!”
“Augh!”
“Hey, here’s one where Pacifica hugs you!”
“Look—”
“Ah-HA! And here’s where she kissed you on the cheek after your date! I always wanted to see that part… Aww that wasn’t a very long kiss at all! Shaaaame!”
“Won’t dignify with response.”
“Where’s the rest of the Pacifica junk?” Mabel peaked in a few other doors. “I can’t find it anywhere? Didn’t you help de-curse her house…? And where’s the rest of the date?”
“Probably over there.” Dipper pointed way across his mindscape, toward a more secure, less shady area. “’Paranormal event records’.”
“Why’s it all the way over theeeere?”
“Because, umm… Duh.”
“Hmm…” Mabel opened another door. “Oh, hey, there’s that girl! That… Like, that one girl! One of the girls that you flirted with during the road trip! …Hey, where’s Candy?”
“I would be profoundly confused if you found any candy down here.”
“No, not candy as in sugar snacks! I mean, like, Candy Chiu!”
“Oh… Her. Yeah, same for her.”
“Yeah, well… OOOOH HEY LOOK!” Mabel found a small, boarded-up door, stuck her fingers into the crack, and levered it open. “It’s Abby Lenin from 4th grade! I never knew you had a thing for her!”
“I dunno… Like… She could play piano and that was kinda cool…”
Mabel watched the memory, and gasped. “You gave her a valentine’s day card? I never knew that!”
“Yeah, well, I almost got a nervous breakdown writing that card. And then she didn’t give me one back, and wouldn’t talk to me for a while, so… Yeah. That door was tiny and boarded-up for a reason.”
“Yeah, okay, that makes sense. But how about now we… GO DEEPER!” Mabel turned and sprinted even further down the path. “How about THIS one then?” She flung open a very deep door. “Heeeey, who the heck is that? She looks like an adult…?”
“Hmm?” Dipper peeked over her shoulder to see what all the fuss was about. “OH AGH! Mabel that’s not even a human! That’s an anime character!” He grabbed her hand and tried to pull her off the door.
Mabel burst into uncontrollable laughter, and wrapped her arms around the handle. “Who is she?!?” She screeched hysterically. “What anime is she from?!?”
“Like, just some random thing I found on the internet! I don’t know! She’s like a secret agent cyborg ninja or something stupid and you really…! GRR! JIK! AKK!” Dipper got his fingers under her fingers, pulled them free of the handle, slammed the door shut as fast as he could, and then ripped the entire doorframe off the wall.
He stuck the doorframe under one arm, and extended his other to keep Mabel a safe distance away from it. “Look, it was kinda cool, but it shouldn’t even be in romance!” He pointed to the removed door. “I’m putting this over by my Star Trek junk! Now can we please just turn back! We’re getting into the weird, repressed stuff now! I bet none of this has even been in my conscious mind for, like at least a year now!”
Mabel stuck the sleeve of her sweater in her mouth, and chewed for a minute as she glanced deeper down the path. She was beginning to see the wisdom in that… “Uh… Just one more?”
“And then you promise that we leave the romance sector?”
“Fine.” Mabel carefully selected one last door, and opened it…
“Dude.” Said the memory of Wendy. “You’re lying on my bra.”
The memory of Dipper screamed his lungs out and fell off the bed.
Mabel giggled and closed the door. “Okay, let’s go.”
As they walked out, Dipper breathed a pent-up breath in through his nose and out through his mouth. He wanted to be mad at Mabel for what she’d just did… He wanted to be even slightly annoyed… But anything negative was rather difficult. He glanced at his sister out of the corner of his eye, and saw her braces glint from within her smile.
Given what she’s been going through. He thought. I’m happy to see her smile… Really, that’s all that really matters, isn’t it? “Hey…”
“That part of your brain is big and weird.” Mabel interrupted, gesturing one thumb over her shoulder.
“Uh… Yeah. But yours is probably bigger and weirder and crammed full of miscellaneous hunky guys, so shut up, that’s what.”
“Ha ha! Yeah… And really, yours wasn’t as big and weird as I thought it would be.”
“Oh… Well, that’s good.”
“Now how about we talk about your crush on Wendy?” Mabel poked him in the cheek. “You know, that one you totally just moved past last year… The one you know will never work out and that you swore to just forget about…?”
“Ugh! …Uh… Yeah… I guess I forgot to forget…”
“I always knew you forgot.” Mabel smiled. “You two have been practically glued together ever since we came back this Summer.”
“Ha ha… Ehhhhuuuuhhhh… Yeah, just a one-way train to nowhere. That’s what that is.”
“Whaaaaat?? Whaddaya mean?
“Come on. She’s a chill, athletic, 16-year-old human girl, and I’m a broken-down, laggy simulation of the brain of an awkward, sweating 13-year old… I mean really, come on.”
“Bah! We…! Uh… All this… Well… Well, if this hadn't of happened, I think it would have worked out.” Mabel said. “…She likes you.”
“Umm… No. No she doesn’t… I mean does she? Do people say that? Who says that? Does she really?”
“Okay then…” Mabel stopped walking. “…Did she dance with you? Remember? That night when we had the big party? I went up to set up a sleepover with Grenda and Candy, and what were you two doing?”
“Umm…” Dipper scratched the back of his neck. “Oh yeah…” His voice got small. “I, uh… I guess we did dance, huh…”
“EEEEEEEE! WAS IT BEAUTIFUL?”
A door hesitantly creaked open behind them. Party sounds echoed in through it, and Mabel saw the magical moment unfold… Well, it wasn’t really all that magical. Dipper never did just straight-up ask her, he just kind of started awkwardly dancing on his own, then she jumped up and joined him and started firing party crackers everywhere… The never held hands, never twirled together to the slow music, never did anything intimate at all really, but both of them were beaming the whole time.
“Umm… Yeah…” Dipper admitted. “It wasn’t all that beautiful really.”
“But look! Boom! Right there man!” She pointed to the door. “Look at her face! She’s having fun! That means she likes you! You don’t dance with people and enjoy it that much when you don’t like them!”
“Uh… Huh… I dunno. I guess… I couldn’t dance though.”
“So? Nobody can dance perfectly right away. My first time, I almost drowned in the punch bowl.”
“…Surprising no one.”
“I bet if you asked her on a date now, she’d be happy about it… I bet she’s waiting for it.”
“Well…” Dipper spread his arms toward the grey landscape around them. His fake, imaginary body flickered once, to fully remind Mabel of how absolutely, entirely un-date-able he was at the moment. “It’s not like there’s any point talking about it.” He told her.
“Yeah…” She nervously fiddled with her sweater for a minute, then turned and left the romance sector entirely. “Hey, c’mon!” She said. “I bet we can find a lot of cool memories over there!”
“Yeah, I bet…”
He pushed Wendy from his mind, and continued after her.

Ford lurched awake two hours before his alarm. He’d just had the strangest nightmare… A nightmare where a terrible enemy lurked both near and far, between and among, above and below… Who was it?!? Where was it?!? WHEN was it?!? He hadn’t a clue, but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that everyone was gone.
Everyone, every single one of his friends, family… Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Fiddleford, even the Corduroy lass, every last one of them, GONE. Were they dead? Were they insane? Or both? Or worse? Yes, they were all dead, and worse! But even more certainly, they were just utterly GONE! There was NOBODY LEFT! AND I WAS THE FIRST ONE TO GO!
He shook his head. No… All a dream… No, nothing but a dream… Just a dream. And, as everybody knows, dreams never mean anything at all…
He fished his phone out of his pocket, and pressed 2 to speed-dial Stan.
The line was quiet for a moment. Then it connected to his voicemail. “Get outta here lady!” Stan’s pre-recorded voice snapped. “I ain’t goin’ ta your resort, and I’ve told ya that 5 times now, so quit calling me! Beep.”
“S-Stanley…?” Ford stuttered. “I’m sorry, just… Just call me back. Just call me back. I’m sorry… Uh… Is everyone alright? Just need to know… Call me back. Sorry.”
He hurriedly closed the phone again.
What’s wrong? He racked his brain. What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with him? Why didn’t he pick up? Why am I so scared right now? What the heck is with that stupid nightmare? Why does it still feel more real than reality? What the devil is happening?!?
He looked down at his hands. Two palms, two thumbs, twelve fingers, fifty-three wrinkles, he counted twice. Every one of them shaking and sweating. Look at me. He thought. I’m already half-dead from the radiation poisoning of that blasted crashed ship… He was still on a liquid diet, and the past few days had been spent fading in and out of a dreadful fever. What more might it take to kill me?
He looked over at Mabel, comatose and helpless, plugged into the machine. What more might it take to kill her?
He looked at the computer itself, a most delicate assembly of wires, transistors, and little brown chips. What more might it take to erase all we have left?
No… No… ‘Just a dream’ my butt! Dreams… Dreams! What if… What if, what if…
What if what if what if…
Whatifwhatifwhatif…
WHATIFWHATIFWHATIF…
He struggled to his feet, grabbed a shotgun out of a cabinet, and collapsed back onto the couch with the barrel pointed toward the door. Without once taking his eyes away from it, he reached a trembling hand out, snagged half a mug of stone-cold leftover coffee off a shelf, and downed it in one gulp. This is a secure area. He reminded himself. Nothing could break in here. I can sit here and defend Mabel when something terrible happens… Or until… Until I come to my senses… Am I really going mad? I hope not, but what if? What if…
His eyes quickly grew sore from staring, his ears remained sharp, his fingers sat loose across the trigger, and so did he wait.
He waited…
What if what if what if…
What if I just haven’t been getting enough sleep?
What if I’m slowly going crazy?
What if it’s all real?
Just on the threshold of his hearing, he thought he heard something moving in the Shack above.
What’s if it’s already much too late?

Dipper pried the weeds and clutter off a hidden door, and got it open a crack. “Hey, look! It’s our first show and tell!” He smiled when he recognized the scene. “You remember that?”
“No…!” Mabel hurried over. “Did you really find it?”
“Yeah! Check it out…”
They watched the memory together.
“You brought a Lego X-wing.” She put her hands on her hips. “Because of course you did.”
“And you brought… Oh yeah. Look at that. A pinecone.”
“Wait, is that really a pinecone?” Mabel squinted hard at the memory of the shiny, egg-like object. “Are you sure…?”
“Yeah. It was so covered in glitter that nobody thought it was… I was the only one who believed you.”
“Ha ha…”
Dipper straightened up. “How ‘bout you? Did you find anything good?”
“Yeah, over here…!” Mabel beckoned him over to another part of his mind, and showed him a door. The scene it recalled was Dipper playing with model dinosaurs, making a pretend documentary. Little did he realize, Mabel was sneaking up behind. In an instant, she snatched his plastic camera, and ran off through the house, laughing like some kind of maniac… It seemed horrific to him at the time, but they both had a good laugh about it now.
They closed that door and continued on.
There was a lot of good stuff in this part of his mind. A ton of strange, hidden little memories here and there, memories that both of them had forgotten they’d made together… Bedtime stories, baking cookies, playing tag, stargazing, minigolf, the waffle incident… Even that time in Kindergarten they’d tried to dig a hole to the other side of the world, and Dipper insisted on bringing flippers and snorkels for when they came up in the Indian Ocean… That was fun.
Mabel ran on ahead to inspect another group of memories, her face finally alight were her smile.
As he ran after her, Dipper’s eyes strayed across all the great expanse of the inside of his brain.
Huh. He thought. We might’ve gone our entire lives without ever thinking of this stuff again. It’s only now that I’m dead that we really take the time to go back and relive all the good times… Only now do we realize how good we had it…
But I’m still dead… Which means all these doors, all these memories, all this stuff I have locked away, it’ll all just vanish into oblivion as soon as they unplug Mabel. And nobody will ever see them again… Nobody will ever remember them again. Nobody will ever even care.
I guess it’s like our lives. We’re all impermanent. We’ll all pass on. Everything we do will fade into obscurity and disappear, leaving nothing behind, not even a memory… And all we can do, all I’m doing right now, is procrastinating that… Delaying for a few hours the onset of eternity, the eternity where I am forgotten…
He shook his head. No! Don’t think about that… Don’t think about the future, think about the past instead… Because who wants to go to the future?
Don’t think about the future.
Don’t think about it…
Don’t think…
Future…
Mabel noticed he’d stopped running.
She turned around curiously, and saw the look on his face.
“What’s wrong…?” She asked, as if she didn’t know.
He tried a few times to compose his voice and gather his thoughts, but he couldn’t really hold back his tears. “Remember me, Mabel.” He finally managed to choke.
She took a minute to process that, then ran up and wrapped her arms around him. “Don’t say that Dipper!” She pleaded. “You know I will! I’ll remember you forever and always and you know that and I love you and…! And we’ll bring you back and it’ll be okay and—”
“No!” He struggled against her hug. “No, it won’t be okay.” He told her. “Don’t… Don’t hold on to me. Don’t rely on me. Don’t… It… Look, I AM going away, Mabel. I’ll be gone. I AM gone. Ford said this simulation is decaying, which means I’m basically rotting in fast-forward… And… Look, even if you DO somehow bring me back, as a robot or a clone or… A centaur? Heck if I know… I still won’t be able to be there for you all the time… You’ll still head off on adventures from time to time without me… Go on dates without me… Go to college without me… Get a job without me… Raise a family without me… Sooner or later… You’ll have to learn to live without me.”
Mabel eyes fell.
“And you…” Dipper struggled to find the right words. “You know what would make me happy? What I need you to do? What… What this entire world needs you to do?”
“What…?”
“You need to be stronger, Mabel… No matter what happens, to me or anybody else, we need you to be strong. Strong enough to hold together when something hits you. Tough enough to take a thousand hits and never break… So that you’ll never lose your hope, so that Bill will never tempt you, so that you’ll never be hoodwinked by some jerk guy… Just… I dunno. Don’t build your entire life on me being there for you, but don’t change a lick, even when something goes wrong… Be hopeful. Be loving. Be cheerful, and caring, and good… Be that way forever. With or without me. That’s… That’s what we need you to do.”
She held his eye for a long minute, then nodded slowly.
“I will.”
“I love you, Mabel… More than the world.”
“I know.” She nodded. “I love you too… More than the world.”
“I know.”
“And I’ll remember you.” She said. “I promise I will… I’ll remember everything…”
“I know… And thanks.”
A loud, distant sound interrupted them. A noise like a blast, that echoed into Dipper’s mindscape from somewhere beyond, resounding between the clouds and trees like a whisper of another world. Mabel was seized by a sudden spell of dizziness, and put her fingers to her ears.
“Was that a gunshot?” Dipper frowned.
“I dunno…” Mabel scratched her head. “Was that from real life? Did that, like… Maybe he accidentally bumped the helmet. Or maybe he’s trying to wake me up? I dunno, but that did not work.”
“Uh… Uh… I dunno, but we might not have a lot of time left.” Dipper assessed. “Okay.” He turned back to Mabel. “If this is it.” He said. “Uhh… Uh… Okay, just be careful out there. Be careful. Dying isn’t something that only happens to soldiers, old geezers, and evil henchmen, alright? It’s fast, easy, and it sucks.”
“Got it.” She nodded. “But… Uh… Okay, what do I do? What do I do? You and Wendy were right in a middle of some mission to find out where those alien robots came from, and to save the day or something, right? What do I need to do to finish it?”
“Uh… Okay, we found out where they came from: they were all farm animals brought to this planet aboard that giant ship. They came from a low-gravity, airless planet somewhere in another galaxy, but found they could survive after they crashlanded here.”
“Farm--?”
“The farmers themselves are dead, so they don’t need the animals anymore. Wendy and I were going to… Uh… To reprogram the gravity engines in the main ship to smash the entire robot forest… I don’t know. Maybe Wendy’s already on it.”
“… And that’s it?” Mabel winced. “They have to die?” She knew she’d do whatever she had to, but that didn’t mean she’d have to like it.
“Yeah…” Dipper answered. “Well… Actually no… Actually I don’t know.” He caught himself. “We really didn’t see any other way, we didn’t think of anything else. But we have to get rid of ‘em somehow. They’d do no good for mankind, only harm…”
“But what if…” Mabel wrapped her head in her sweater sleeves. “Hmm… What if… Hmm… What if there was a happy way?”
“I dunno, people might not go for it…” Dipper shrugged. “They were the ones that killed me, after all.”
“But they didn’t mean it… And… And they aren’t all bad…”
They were suddenly interrupted, as loud, voiceless words pounded through their minds:
-INPUT: The mindscape interface is ending. Prepare to exit.
“No! Wait!” Mabel looked up at the sky and waved her arms, as if that would do anything. “Wait Great Uncle Ford! Not now! Give us half an hour or something! Not now!”
-NOW UNINSTALLING GUEST BRAINWAVE.
-HOST BRAINWAVE, PREPARE FOR DISCONNECTION.
“But…!”
-UNINSTALLING:
- 2%
“LOOK!” Dipper grabbed her. “If there’s a better way, if there’s a happy ending here, a way to make things okay again, with me, with the robots, with everything…! Then you WILL find it! I believe in you! Just… Just I know you will. You always see the upside. You always bring the upside. It’s who you are… O… Okay?”
- 5%
She got a feeling in her gut; a feeling that agreed. “Okay.” She said.
- 7%
Dipper’s body flickered once, and he felt himself leaving. This might be it. He thought. I’ll never remember this, and I might never even live again. This moment, this might be all.
- 10%
“Do you think there’s a God?” He asked.
- 11%
Mabel blinked.
- 13%
“GOD!” Dipper turned his head skyward. His voice was starting to lose its form and its steadiness, though whether that was from panic or from getting disconnected, nobody could tell. Nonetheless, he prayed. “If you’re there, please save us! Help Mabel to be strong! Help Ford and Wendy and Stan to know what to do! Make everyone do the right thing…! Please help everything turn out all right!”
- 24%
“And God!” Mabel added. “Please bring Dipper back from the dead!”
- 32%
Mabel’s head began to hurt.
- 39%
Her sight got blurry for a minute, and when it cleared, Dipper was no longer there.
- 46%
The mindscape around her began to fade in and out; parts of it began to glitch and disappear.
- 58%
Trees toppled. Rocks split. Doors shattered. The ground crumbled beneath her.
- 72%
She felt herself falling.
- 85%
The pounding in her head became excruciating.
- 91%
Up was down and in was out and sane was mad and he was gone,
- 95%
when suddenly,
- 100%
Input: deactivating motor and sensory dampeners. Subject is awakening.

She awoke.
The massive computer buzzed tiredly as it finished its work and turned off. The helmet was warm from all its recent electrical activity. The pillows were damp from the tears she’d shed in her sleep. Her neck was just a little cramped from so long asleep sitting up.
The was a big hole blasted in the door, and a lot of overturned furniture and broken equipment.
Ford was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, there was only the monster, looking down at her.
She looked up at it, and remembered that the world still needed her to be strong, brave and kind. She still needed to keep her hope. “Please God.” She whispered quietly, as she tried to smile. “Please help everything turn out alright.”

The Shapeshifter shrugged.

Description

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Chapter 23: Limbo

Author’s Note: You may have noticed certain sections of this book (such as the last part of the last chapter) which are written in illegible chicken-scratch. This is, in fact, intentional, and is not, in fact, evidence of some type of nervous disorder on my part.

In fact, these sections are easily decodable! Just like the after-credits codes in the show itself, I often use the Atbash cipher or a 3-spaced Ceasar cipher. Latter portions of the book will use Vigeniere, which requires a codeword.

I typically encrypt any sections of the book which are both unnecessary to the larger plot on their own, and needlessly spoiler-y. That makes them just a cool, foreshadow-y treat for anyone who cares to decode them. So, by default, you get a nice story. But if you're really curious, and want to put in a few minutes of effort, there are treats and goodies for you to uncover.

There are solvers online, I typically use the ones on Rumpkin.com. I leave the rest to you.

In the middle of Dipper’s mindscape, Mabel’s hunched form stood alone, glancing about uncertainly. “Dipper…?” She asked, as if doubting her own voice. “Dipper, are you… Here??”
Hi Mabel… Yes. I… I guess I am.
She put a hand to her head, as if confused or overwhelmed by something. She stuck a finger in her ear, as if trying to clear a blockage. “Uh…” She said. “Uh… Dipper? Can… Is that you?”
Can you hear me? He focused on thinking the words as hard as he could.
Mabel shook her head again, and turned in a circle. “Uh… No…” She said. “No I can’t…”
…Yes you can. Otherwise you wouldn’t have known to say ‘no’.
“Oh… Yeah… That’s right… I guess… Wait… Where are you?”
I’m looking right at you, uh… I can’t move or speak, I don’t think I have a body… We’re inside… Well, I guess we’re inside MY mind inside YOUR mind I think… I guess I’m dead? Did I get that right? I died?!?
“Uh…” Mabel turned slowly in a circle, her eyes passing right over the place where Dipper perceived himself being. If she couldn’t see him, his form must really be gone. Finally, Mabel settled down onto a nearby rock, with folded arms and a frown that looked annoyed and very, very tired… “Well… Yeah, mysterious brain voice;” She addressed him curtly. “Dipper IS dead… And he can’t come back… So… I think you’re Ford. You plugged me into a weird machine just to talk weird and cheer me up…”
Huh? No, I’m…! Well, I don’t think I am…
“Say something only Dipper would know.”
Uh… He racked his memory for something tangible to grasp onto. Everything was so blurry… So he stared hard at Mabel. At the shape of her hair, and her eyes, her red cheeks, her braces…
Her braces…
In the corner of his eye, one of the many hatches in his mindscape pushed aside some rubble far enough to open a crack. Mr. Upsidedownington is overrated… He finally recalled. Little bits and pieces seemed to follow the scrap. Some incomplete, some without form, some without image, but he mentally recited them as they came. A few more doors opened, here and there. And… And dad won’t let us race syrup after the waffle incident of ‘08… You ship anime characters while I pretend to listen… And… You were the one who invented the awkward sibling hug, but I was the one who named it… Uh… Uh… Dippy Fresh rocks and Disco Girl is stupid… Wait… No, the other way around. Dippy Fresh was stupid, and Disco Girl rocks… And… I don’t know… I can’t really remember what else… Oh, yeah, and you sing in your sleep… You inherited it from mom…
“You…” He saw tears coming to Mabel’s eyes, as she stood up again. Her eyes were searching him out more urgently now. “You… You really are Dipper…”
…Yeah… No… Well… I guess what’s left of him.
“Why can’t I see you?”
I dunno.
“Like…” She sniffled. “Like, just imagine a body for yourself! Everything you imagine comes true in here… Right?”
I… I can’t… I mean… I’m having a hard time… Imagining. I mean, I can’t remember things. And I just feel really, really confused, and I don’t know, I can barely think… I can barely think…
Mabel put her fingers to her head and squinted really hard for a minute, as if trying to be psychic. When she finished, Dipper found he could feel his body again. He looked down, and saw himself.
“Oh.” He wiggled his fake, imaginary fingers, flexed his fake, imaginary neck, and found he could speak. “Hey. Thanks. Uh…”
Before he could continue, Mabel had rushed up to him, wrapped her arms around this fake, imaginary body, and was already crying in his fake, imaginary shoulder. He fell silent. And the hug he gave her back was neither fake nor imaginary.
And so they just stood there like that. It felt like a moment but was probably longer.
Mabel wouldn’t stop crying.
“So…” He finally ventured. “I died, huh?”
The body Mabel had imagined for him flickered for a moment, and he felt parts of it go numb. Blood trickled down his forehead to blind one eye. He looked down and saw that he had a busted leg, big gashes in the chest, and one of his arms missing entirely. It didn’t hurt, not in here, but the injuries were somehow familiar. “Oh…” He said.
“Uhmf!” Mabel gasped and shook her head. “Sorry, sorry…” The body flickered again, and turned back to what they both recalled as ‘normal’. “Sorry… That’s… That was how… I’m sorry…”
“Hey…” He hugged her a little tighter. “It’s okay… Uh… Uh… You know, uh… Wow, 13 years old, huh? That’s… That’s pretty… I… How did I die? What was I doing? And… Why… How… I…” His mind began jumping around, fixating on those unfinished scraps of his life that now would never be realized. Ford’s apprenticeship that I wanted someday… Publishing a book… Hosting a ghost-hunting show… Wendy… Something with Wendy… “I… I had dreams…” He said.
“No…” Mabel sniffled. “Let’s talk about something else. Anything else…”
“…Okay…”
But, of course, one’s own death has a way of dominating the conversation. Neither of them could think of anything else to say.
“So…” Dipper finally released Mabel from the hug, and sat down in the grey grass. She eased herself down across from him. “So, uh… I dunno, is anyone else here? Is… What happened to Wendy? Is Wendy here? No, never mind, I mean… Is she okay? Weren’t we together when…? Did she…?”
Mabel shook her head. “No, don’t worry, she’s fine… Well… Like, she kinda… When… Well, she took your journal and stormed off into the woods 4 days ago and nobody but her dad has seen her since… I… I think Great Uncle Ford said she had radiation poisoning…”
“Radiation poisoning…? Is she okay?”
“I don’t know… The same thing happened to Great Uncle Ford, and he’s fine, just really really sick…”
“Ah.”
“I think she blamed herself for the crash…”
“Crash…?” In the corner of his eye, another memory hatch struggled open. Beyond, he saw a replay of the explosion, the impact, the escape from the wreck… He saw himself standing over Wendy’s unconscious form, and in front of him was… that… “Oh… Oh yeah…” He stared. “I… I died fighting that… Geez…” He couldn’t seem to remember the duel itself, but he saw the beast as it last had stood.
“Yeah…” Mabel sniffled.
“Is Wendy fine…? And… Wait, did I kill it…??”
“Yeah…”
“Wha…? How??”
“I don’t know…” Mabel wiped her eye. “But… You wrecked Gideon’s robot with your bare hands too, and beat Rumble McSkirmish, and won Globnar against a trained adult… This… This is like a stupid habit for you…” She tried to make a joke, tried to smile too, but neither worked.
“Ha ha…” Dipper rubbed his arm awkwardly, and almost smiled. “Dumb habit…”
“Really dumb…”
“Yeah…” He glanced about once more. It seemed to him there was something profoundly important he ought to be remembering right now, but he couldn’t recall what it was… Maybe it would come to him. “Hey, you’re right.” He said. “Let’s talk about something else. Anything else.”
“Yeah.”
The silence stretched on.
“Dipper…” Mabel finally worked up the courage to choke out the words. Dipper thought he could hear her heart racing from where he sat. “Dipper…” She repeated, trying to convince herself to talk. “I’m… I’m sorry…”
“Hey, woah.” He put up his hands. “Don’t blame yourself; I was the one who chose to fight it. You and Wendy didn’t have anything to do with—”
“N-no, not for that, for everything else… There’s… There’s a lotta stuff I never told you, and I never meant to tell you, but now you’re dead and… And I need to tell you so, and… I… Is Ford listening?”
“Uh…” Dipper glanced up at the sky, as if he would be able to see Ford up there, maybe hunched over his computer screen looking down at them. “He was reading my mind earlier…” Dipper recalled. “But I think he’s giving us some privacy right now…”
“Okay…”
“So…?”
“Dipper… I messed up… And I kept messing up…” Her voice broke, and warbled as it raised an octave. “Everything I do I try to do for the right reasons. I try to be nice, and to be sweet, and to love everybody and everything and make them love me… But it keeps breaking! And I want so bad to do whatever I’m doing that I just keep on doing it! Even when it gets stupid and things start to happen that I don’t want to happen, I just keep on being STUPID and SELFISH and DUMB! And… And…” She tried to wipe away her tears, but more just flowed in to take their place.
“Hey, it’s okay, what are you even talking about…?”
“And I’m just lucky!” She continued. “Lucky because everything always works out in the end! Lucky because everyone is always looking out for me! If it weren’t for you guys… Dipper, I’m not a good person at all…” She bent over, as if feeling sick. “I’m not a good person, the unicorns were right! And I’m sorry…”
“Hey, what? No…” He told her. “It’s okay… You’re okay…”
“I’m not though.” She sniveled. “I’m a terrible person…”
“No you’re not… You’re my sister; you’re Mabel! You-”
“Mabel is a terrible person then…”
“Yeah, well… She may have made her mistakes; everybody does bad things now and then… I mean, I know I do… It doesn’t make her a bad person. Just makes her a regular person… And the thing about Mabel? I love her.” He put an arm around her shoulder; it felt cold. “No matter what she’s done. Even if she’s crying, even if she’s hating herself, even if she marries a fish person… Even when I’m mad at her, even when we FIGHT, I’ll ALWAYS love her…! Always! Don’t… Don’t you know that…?”
“But…” She turned away from him by a couple degrees. “But I never told you the things I’ve done… If you knew…”
“It wouldn’t change a thing. I love you. And I forgive you. You understand?”
“But but… Oh… Oh yeah?!? Well… Well guess what?!? Well… Well last summer I almost ENSLAVED sev’ral people! I wanted to make them my toys for all eternity, until my friends stopped me! I never told you about THAT, did I?? And I never told you how I beat up Steve in 4th grade just because he was stepping on flowers… And I stole Rebecca’s birthday cake in 3rd grade because I was feeling really hungry… And I never told you about the vampires, did I? And… And… AND YOU NEVER KNEW WHY WEIRDMAGEDDON HAPPENED!”
“Hey, woah, calm down! That’s all… That’s… Listen…”
“YEAH!” She turned toward him, and was practically screaming at herself. “Yeah, you know how the little snowglobe thing with the galaxyness broke? You know how Bill got into our world?!? I never told you that because I promised I would never tell anyone because I LET HIM IN! I GAVE HIM THE SNOWGLOBE! ALL THE PEOPLE WHO DIED THAT WEEK, I KILLED THEM! I LET HIM IN!!”
“Woah, woah woah…! Hey… Hey… Uh…” As Dipper stood up and wrapped his scrawny arms around her again, he wished they were bigger; wished he could pretend to be strong enough to hold her.
I may not be all that Dipper was. He thought. I may not be able to stand beside her much longer… But I can tell her what Dipper knew.
“Hey… Look…” He said. “You know… You know why I never mentioned this whole thing before?”
“Why, cause you figured I was just a klutz and dropped it?” She snapped.
“Well… At first, yeah… But… But then I figured it out. I figured out why you never talked about it, and why Blendin left his last message… I put it all together; filled in the blanks. And I understand. Not just understand what happened… But I get why too… I do. I get it.”
She sniffled. “You do…?”
“I get what he promised you. I get that you were trying to do it for me… I get that you didn’t know… And for the record, you’re far from the only one, or the first one to fall for him… You were just unlucky enough to be the last.”
“But… But… But he almost gooshed the universe… And… He…”
“We all make mistakes. It’s just life… And as soon as you saw the truth, you worked harder than anyone to save the day, now didn’t you?”
“But…”
“So… That means you’re cool, right? It’s-”
“But that doesn’t make it all okay!” She wailed, shook his arms off, and pushed him away. “Because THAT’S NOT ALL!” She continued. “TODAY… Today I almost did it again!! Because after last summer, Bill left behind a statue in the woods, just a stone statue sitting there with one hand up like this, and… And I wanted you back so bad that I almost shook his hand and almost let him in AGAIN! I almost accidentally the whole thing AGAIN…! So… So how about THAT! Explain THAT away! Justify THAT! Tell me I’m still a good person after THAT…! I’m… Grunkle Stan found me and saved us all again… And… And… And also I was so mad at the robots for killing you that I tried to kill Juan with my bare hands, even though he never did anything and he’s just a BABY, and that makes ME the monster and… And… I’m so sorry Dipper, I’m so sorry…” She buried her face in her hands, and sobbed.
Dipper considered this for a long while.
Well, this was a dilemma.
What could he say? Could he call her evil a ‘mistake’ to try and lessen the blow? Could he tell her she hadn’t been in her right mind? Could he tell her ‘all’s well that ends well’? Could he tell her they were certain that Bill was dead for good? Could he tell her that anybody would have done the same thing in her place? Could he tell her that nothing wrong had been done?
No. For those were all complete lies.
She was right; there was no rationalizing or justifying her actions. She HAD done wrong. She HAD willingly repeated the mistakes of the past. She had betrayed herself and everyone else, and tried to throw away everything she knew… If things had run a little differently, if Stan hadn’t been there, if some piece of Bill really was still alive and present in this universe… She may very well have let him have his way. She might have. And she’d meant to.
His sister was guilty.
…But she was sorry.
So the only true thing Dipper could tell her was: “I forgive you.”

Ford kept his eyes off the screens; he’d promised Dipper’s simulation a time of privacy with his sister. After all they’d both been through, it was the least he could do.
He found a few cushions and propped them up as best he could around Mabel’s neck. Sleeping sitting up like that for hours on end couldn’t be easy on the neck, especially not when you’re wearing a helmet the size of a colander.
As he squeezed the last pillow in there, he took a look at her face. There were dark rings under her eyes, tangles in her hair, tear stains on her cheeks, and her face was almost pale; the last few days must have been horrible for her. Indeed, he didn’t think he’d ever seen her looking this bad. Even during Weirdmageddon, where showers, clean clothes, and fresh water had all gone extinct, she’d stayed strong and happy and hopeful. Even when messed up and dirty and oppressed on the outside, she’d always seemed to be… Glowing inside…
Pity what it all had come to. Such a pity.
But as he watched, a change came over her. Tears began to trickle down her face. But she didn’t struggle or move or show any other sign of distress; indeed, the beeping of the heartrate monitor seemed to slow down.
And on the edge of her mouth, there appeared the first hints of something precious: a smile.
Finally a smile.
Ford breathed a sigh of relief and shot a glance at the biological diagnostic screen. The Dipper backup file was decaying fairly rapidly inside Mabel’s head, and would eventually reach a point where he was no longer compatible with his sister’s brainwave. They’d have to uninstall him at that point, and, hopefully, be left with a Mabel in slightly better condition… One step forward, three steps back, I suppose. He thought. Even if we can’t save him, perhaps he can save her… I wonder what happened to her. Stan seemed to think this was pretty urgent.
Ford eased himself to his feet. Dipper wasn’t decaying quite as fast as anticipated; they still had 5 hours or so left before terminal failure.
Ford shuffled over to an old couch in the corner of his study, set an alarm for 4 hours, and eased himself down for a nap. The ever-more slow and calm beeping of the heartrate monitor lulled him off to sleep, though he couldn’t shake a vague, implacable feeling of paranoia…

“So… Uh… Well, anyway, we’re in the mindscape.”
“…Yeah…” She shrugged.
“So that means this reality is our playground. Like a lucid dream…” He glanced around, fishing for some fun idea she might enjoy. “Wanna imagine… Like… I dunno… Jetpacks or something?”
She seemed to consider briefly, and shrugged.
“…Rainbow powered jetpacks?” He elaborted. “…Made of Plush?”
“No…”
“Why not?”
“Not in the mood.”
He chuckled. “I think somebody mixed up our lines.”
She smiled off one corner of her mouth. “I guess somebody did…”
“Well… Come on…!” He encouraged her. “We’re inside my brain… I mean, normally you’d fight tooth and nail to dig up all the secrets and deep, dark thoughts… There must be something interesting around…”
She scratched her head. Then something seemed to occur to her, and her face finally broke open into her old, familiar, full smile.
Dipper was so happy to see her happy that he didn’t even question for a moment. But then, an enormous, rainbow-powered plush jetpack materialized behind her, swung its big fuzzy buckles closed across her shoulders, and rocketed her into the sky on a thundering blast of color, knocking him for a loop. He stumbled back to his feet, wiping some of the indigo off his face (Was this paint?!?) and looked around for where she was headed.
He saw the rainbow’s vibrant band arc up from his current location, turn a couple loops through the grey air, then swoop down near a shadowy grove of trees in the far corner of his mind.
He had a hunch what that corner was. A signpost leaning nearby confirmed his suspicions: romance. “Of course.” He sighed and smiled at the same time, before imagining a (not rainbow-based) jetpack of his own, and lifting off after her. It’s okay after all… He assured himself, as the rockets began to roar. It’ll all be okay.
She’ll be okay.
He turned the jetpack’s engines forward to slow himself down, then undid his straps and jumped clear just before it exploded on the ground. (Why did he have to imagine it being so explosive?)
Soon as he got his legs under him again, he followed Mabel down through a tangle of brambles and into the romance sector. “Oh, come on, you know what’s in here, Mabel! It’s not like you need to see or anything…!”
“Yuh-HUH!” She grinned back at him. “You never talked about it, and always shushed me when I did, so this is like my one chance!” She began to giggle. Then giggle harder. Her giggling rose to a feverish pitch as she scurried onward. “Besides, just try to stop meeEEE-HEE-HEE-HEE…!
“Uuuuugh…” He broke into a jog as he followed.
By the time he reached her, she’d already popped open several doors, and was moving further down the line.
Dipper glanced inside each as he ran past.
He saw just about what you’d expect: Him and Wendy playing at the arcade. Him and Wendy stunt-jumping the golf cart. Him and Wendy playing marbles with the jar of eyeballs. Him and Wendy messing around at the pool. The smell of her beef jerky still lingering on the goodbye letter… Each memory made him awkwardly blush a bit more, until he was sure his fake, imaginary face was as red as a stop sign. Mabel’s laughing didn’t help either.
He finally caught up to her when she stopped for a minute to inspect the contents of a particular door. He jogged up behind her. “Mabel, please, do—”
“Okay.” Mabel grabbed his cheeks and pointed his head toward the door. “WHY. Is THAT in here?”
The memory was him and Wendy trapped underground, being swarmed by the endless hordes of ravenous, razor-sharp, creeping, crawling, alien robot bugs from chapter 13.
“Uh…” He scratched his head. “Why is that in ‘romance’, you mean?”
“Just… Why?” She rubbed her temples. “Killer robots, fighting for your life… And then romance. Really. I… Uh… I don’t quite see how that fits really.”
“Well… Y’know… I was doing it with Wendy so I guess… Eh...” He shrugged. “I dunno. It felt just a tiny bit romantic at the time. If you were there you’d have been having fun too.”
Mabel looked again. The robots were tying Dipper down and starting to drill through his armor. He dropped his gun and was starting to really panic as their cutting bits burrowed deeper. “You do not look like you’re having fun.”
“Yeah, well, I was.”
The memory showed Dipper screaming for help. Wendy wasn’t able to reach him, but hollered at him to find his magnet gun. Her voice was the one non-hectic, confident part of the scene, and Mabel saw Dipper’s memory hold onto her voice, and use it to calm down. He reached out his hand, wrapped his fingers around the gun, and pulled the trigger. The EMP ended the battle, and Wendy finally reached him.
She hugged him, and promised it would be alright.
Mabel could see how much they cared about each other. “Oh.” She nodded. “…I get it now.”
“Yeah.” Dipper shrugged.
“Okay, enough of that, what’s over this way?!?” Mabel shook her head and rushed off.
Dipper saw where she was headed: a place where the trees crowded together ominously overhead, and the path sloped downhill, down into deeper and darker parts of his memory…
“What, NO! NO don’t go that way!” He squealed. “That looks like, I dunno, really forbidden stuff! Like stuff I don’t think about, or try not to think about or whatever! See?” He pointed to the wayside. “My subconscious even put up a sign here that says ‘off limits!’”
“What was that?” Mabel asked. “That sounded a lot like ‘blackmail fodder’ to me…!”
“Augh!”
“Hey, here’s one where Pacifica hugs you!”
“Look—”
“Ah-HA! And here’s where she kissed you on the cheek after your date! I always wanted to see that part… Aww that wasn’t a very long kiss at all! Shaaaame!”
“Won’t dignify with response.”
“Where’s the rest of the Pacifica junk?” Mabel peaked in a few other doors. “I can’t find it anywhere? Didn’t you help de-curse her house…? And where’s the rest of the date?”
“Probably over there.” Dipper pointed way across his mindscape, toward a more secure, less shady area. “’Paranormal event records’.”
“Why’s it all the way over theeeere?”
“Because, umm… Duh.”
“Hmm…” Mabel opened another door. “Oh, hey, there’s that girl! That… Like, that one girl! One of the girls that you flirted with during the road trip! …Hey, where’s Candy?”
“I would be profoundly confused if you found any candy down here.”
“No, not candy as in sugar snacks! I mean, like, Candy Chiu!”
“Oh… Her. Yeah, same for her.”
“Yeah, well… OOOOH HEY LOOK!” Mabel found a small, boarded-up door, stuck her fingers into the crack, and levered it open. “It’s Abby Lenin from 4th grade! I never knew you had a thing for her!”
“I dunno… Like… She could play piano and that was kinda cool…”
Mabel watched the memory, and gasped. “You gave her a valentine’s day card? I never knew that!”
“Yeah, well, I almost got a nervous breakdown writing that card. And then she didn’t give me one back, and wouldn’t talk to me for a while, so… Yeah. That door was tiny and boarded-up for a reason.”
“Yeah, okay, that makes sense. But how about now we… GO DEEPER!” Mabel turned and sprinted even further down the path. “How about THIS one then?” She flung open a very deep door. “Heeeey, who the heck is that? She looks like an adult…?”
“Hmm?” Dipper peeked over her shoulder to see what all the fuss was about. “OH AGH! Mabel that’s not even a human! That’s an anime character!” He grabbed her hand and tried to pull her off the door.
Mabel burst into uncontrollable laughter, and wrapped her arms around the handle. “Who is she?!?” She screeched hysterically. “What anime is she from?!?”
“Like, just some random thing I found on the internet! I don’t know! She’s like a secret agent cyborg ninja or something stupid and you really…! GRR! JIK! AKK!” Dipper got his fingers under her fingers, pulled them free of the handle, slammed the door shut as fast as he could, and then ripped the entire doorframe off the wall.
He stuck the doorframe under one arm, and extended his other to keep Mabel a safe distance away from it. “Look, it was kinda cool, but it shouldn’t even be in romance!” He pointed to the removed door. “I’m putting this over by my Star Trek junk! Now can we please just turn back! We’re getting into the weird, repressed stuff now! I bet none of this has even been in my conscious mind for, like at least a year now!”
Mabel stuck the sleeve of her sweater in her mouth, and chewed for a minute as she glanced deeper down the path. She was beginning to see the wisdom in that… “Uh… Just one more?”
“And then you promise that we leave the romance sector?”
“Fine.” Mabel carefully selected one last door, and opened it…
“Dude.” Said the memory of Wendy. “You’re lying on my bra.”
The memory of Dipper screamed his lungs out and fell off the bed.
Mabel giggled and closed the door. “Okay, let’s go.”
As they walked out, Dipper breathed a pent-up breath in through his nose and out through his mouth. He wanted to be mad at Mabel for what she’d just did… He wanted to be even slightly annoyed… But anything negative was rather difficult. He glanced at his sister out of the corner of his eye, and saw her braces glint from within her smile.
Given what she’s been going through. He thought. I’m happy to see her smile… Really, that’s all that really matters, isn’t it? “Hey…”
“That part of your brain is big and weird.” Mabel interrupted, gesturing one thumb over her shoulder.
“Uh… Yeah. But yours is probably bigger and weirder and crammed full of miscellaneous hunky guys, so shut up, that’s what.”
“Ha ha! Yeah… And really, yours wasn’t as big and weird as I thought it would be.”
“Oh… Well, that’s good.”
“Now how about we talk about your crush on Wendy?” Mabel poked him in the cheek. “You know, that one you totally just moved past last year… The one you know will never work out and that you swore to just forget about…?”
“Ugh! …Uh… Yeah… I guess I forgot to forget…”
“I always knew you forgot.” Mabel smiled. “You two have been practically glued together ever since we came back this Summer.”
“Ha ha… Ehhhhuuuuhhhh… Yeah, just a one-way train to nowhere. That’s what that is.”
“Whaaaaat?? Whaddaya mean?
“Come on. She’s a chill, athletic, 16-year-old human girl, and I’m a broken-down, laggy simulation of the brain of an awkward, sweating 13-year old… I mean really, come on.”
“Bah! We…! Uh… All this… Well… Well, if this hadn't of happened, I think it would have worked out.” Mabel said. “…She likes you.”
“Umm… No. No she doesn’t… I mean does she? Do people say that? Who says that? Does she really?”
“Okay then…” Mabel stopped walking. “…Did she dance with you? Remember? That night when we had the big party? I went up to set up a sleepover with Grenda and Candy, and what were you two doing?”
“Umm…” Dipper scratched the back of his neck. “Oh yeah…” His voice got small. “I, uh… I guess we did dance, huh…”
“EEEEEEEE! WAS IT BEAUTIFUL?”
A door hesitantly creaked open behind them. Party sounds echoed in through it, and Mabel saw the magical moment unfold… Well, it wasn’t really all that magical. Dipper never did just straight-up ask her, he just kind of started awkwardly dancing on his own, then she jumped up and joined him and started firing party crackers everywhere… The never held hands, never twirled together to the slow music, never did anything intimate at all really, but both of them were beaming the whole time.
“Umm… Yeah…” Dipper admitted. “It wasn’t all that beautiful really.”
“But look! Boom! Right there man!” She pointed to the door. “Look at her face! She’s having fun! That means she likes you! You don’t dance with people and enjoy it that much when you don’t like them!”
“Uh… Huh… I dunno. I guess… I couldn’t dance though.”
“So? Nobody can dance perfectly right away. My first time, I almost drowned in the punch bowl.”
“…Surprising no one.”
“I bet if you asked her on a date now, she’d be happy about it… I bet she’s waiting for it.”
“Well…” Dipper spread his arms toward the grey landscape around them. His fake, imaginary body flickered once, to fully remind Mabel of how absolutely, entirely un-date-able he was at the moment. “It’s not like there’s any point talking about it.” He told her.
“Yeah…” She nervously fiddled with her sweater for a minute, then turned and left the romance sector entirely. “Hey, c’mon!” She said. “I bet we can find a lot of cool memories over there!”
“Yeah, I bet…”
He pushed Wendy from his mind, and continued after her.

Ford lurched awake two hours before his alarm. He’d just had the strangest nightmare… A nightmare where a terrible enemy lurked both near and far, between and among, above and below… Who was it?!? Where was it?!? WHEN was it?!? He hadn’t a clue, but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that everyone was gone.
Everyone, every single one of his friends, family… Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Fiddleford, even the Corduroy lass, every last one of them, GONE. Were they dead? Were they insane? Or both? Or worse? Yes, they were all dead, and worse! But even more certainly, they were just utterly GONE! There was NOBODY LEFT! AND I WAS THE FIRST ONE TO GO!
He shook his head. No… All a dream… No, nothing but a dream… Just a dream. And, as everybody knows, dreams never mean anything at all…
He fished his phone out of his pocket, and pressed 2 to speed-dial Stan.
The line was quiet for a moment. Then it connected to his voicemail. “Get outta here lady!” Stan’s pre-recorded voice snapped. “I ain’t goin’ ta your resort, and I’ve told ya that 5 times now, so quit calling me! Beep.”
“S-Stanley…?” Ford stuttered. “I’m sorry, just… Just call me back. Just call me back. I’m sorry… Uh… Is everyone alright? Just need to know… Call me back. Sorry.”
He hurriedly closed the phone again.
What’s wrong? He racked his brain. What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with him? Why didn’t he pick up? Why am I so scared right now? What the heck is with that stupid nightmare? Why does it still feel more real than reality? What the devil is happening?!?
He looked down at his hands. Two palms, two thumbs, twelve fingers, fifty-three wrinkles, he counted twice. Every one of them shaking and sweating. Look at me. He thought. I’m already half-dead from the radiation poisoning of that blasted crashed ship… He was still on a liquid diet, and the past few days had been spent fading in and out of a dreadful fever. What more might it take to kill me?
He looked over at Mabel, comatose and helpless, plugged into the machine. What more might it take to kill her?
He looked at the computer itself, a most delicate assembly of wires, transistors, and little brown chips. What more might it take to erase all we have left?
No… No… ‘Just a dream’ my butt! Dreams… Dreams! What if… What if, what if…
What if what if what if…
Whatifwhatifwhatif…
WHATIFWHATIFWHATIF…
He struggled to his feet, grabbed a shotgun out of a cabinet, and collapsed back onto the couch with the barrel pointed toward the door. Without once taking his eyes away from it, he reached a trembling hand out, snagged half a mug of stone-cold leftover coffee off a shelf, and downed it in one gulp. This is a secure area. He reminded himself. Nothing could break in here. I can sit here and defend Mabel when something terrible happens… Or until… Until I come to my senses… Am I really going mad? I hope not, but what if? What if…
His eyes quickly grew sore from staring, his ears remained sharp, his fingers sat loose across the trigger, and so did he wait.
He waited…
What if what if what if…
What if I just haven’t been getting enough sleep?
What if I’m slowly going crazy?
What if it’s all real?
Just on the threshold of his hearing, he thought he heard something moving in the Shack above.
What’s if it’s already much too late?

Dipper pried the weeds and clutter off a hidden door, and got it open a crack. “Hey, look! It’s our first show and tell!” He smiled when he recognized the scene. “You remember that?”
“No…!” Mabel hurried over. “Did you really find it?”
“Yeah! Check it out…”
They watched the memory together.
“You brought a Lego X-wing.” She put her hands on her hips. “Because of course you did.”
“And you brought… Oh yeah. Look at that. A pinecone.”
“Wait, is that really a pinecone?” Mabel squinted hard at the memory of the shiny, egg-like object. “Are you sure…?”
“Yeah. It was so covered in glitter that nobody thought it was… I was the only one who believed you.”
“Ha ha…”
Dipper straightened up. “How ‘bout you? Did you find anything good?”
“Yeah, over here…!” Mabel beckoned him over to another part of his mind, and showed him a door. The scene it recalled was Dipper playing with model dinosaurs, making a pretend documentary. Little did he realize, Mabel was sneaking up behind. In an instant, she snatched his plastic camera, and ran off through the house, laughing like some kind of maniac… It seemed horrific to him at the time, but they both had a good laugh about it now.
They closed that door and continued on.
There was a lot of good stuff in this part of his mind. A ton of strange, hidden little memories here and there, memories that both of them had forgotten they’d made together… Bedtime stories, baking cookies, playing tag, stargazing, minigolf, the waffle incident… Even that time in Kindergarten they’d tried to dig a hole to the other side of the world, and Dipper insisted on bringing flippers and snorkels for when they came up in the Indian Ocean… That was fun.
Mabel ran on ahead to inspect another group of memories, her face finally alight were her smile.
As he ran after her, Dipper’s eyes strayed across all the great expanse of the inside of his brain.
Huh. He thought. We might’ve gone our entire lives without ever thinking of this stuff again. It’s only now that I’m dead that we really take the time to go back and relive all the good times… Only now do we realize how good we had it…
But I’m still dead… Which means all these doors, all these memories, all this stuff I have locked away, it’ll all just vanish into oblivion as soon as they unplug Mabel. And nobody will ever see them again… Nobody will ever remember them again. Nobody will ever even care.
I guess it’s like our lives. We’re all impermanent. We’ll all pass on. Everything we do will fade into obscurity and disappear, leaving nothing behind, not even a memory… And all we can do, all I’m doing right now, is procrastinating that… Delaying for a few hours the onset of eternity, the eternity where I am forgotten…
He shook his head. No! Don’t think about that… Don’t think about the future, think about the past instead… Because who wants to go to the future?
Don’t think about the future.
Don’t think about it…
Don’t think…
Future…
Mabel noticed he’d stopped running.
She turned around curiously, and saw the look on his face.
“What’s wrong…?” She asked, as if she didn’t know.
He tried a few times to compose his voice and gather his thoughts, but he couldn’t really hold back his tears. “Remember me, Mabel.” He finally managed to choke.
She took a minute to process that, then ran up and wrapped her arms around him. “Don’t say that Dipper!” She pleaded. “You know I will! I’ll remember you forever and always and you know that and I love you and…! And we’ll bring you back and it’ll be okay and—”
“No!” He struggled against her hug. “No, it won’t be okay.” He told her. “Don’t… Don’t hold on to me. Don’t rely on me. Don’t… It… Look, I AM going away, Mabel. I’ll be gone. I AM gone. Ford said this simulation is decaying, which means I’m basically rotting in fast-forward… And… Look, even if you DO somehow bring me back, as a robot or a clone or… A centaur? Heck if I know… I still won’t be able to be there for you all the time… You’ll still head off on adventures from time to time without me… Go on dates without me… Go to college without me… Get a job without me… Raise a family without me… Sooner or later… You’ll have to learn to live without me.”
Mabel eyes fell.
“And you…” Dipper struggled to find the right words. “You know what would make me happy? What I need you to do? What… What this entire world needs you to do?”
“What…?”
“You need to be stronger, Mabel… No matter what happens, to me or anybody else, we need you to be strong. Strong enough to hold together when something hits you. Tough enough to take a thousand hits and never break… So that you’ll never lose your hope, so that Bill will never tempt you, so that you’ll never be hoodwinked by some jerk guy… Just… I dunno. Don’t build your entire life on me being there for you, but don’t change a lick, even when something goes wrong… Be hopeful. Be loving. Be cheerful, and caring, and good… Be that way forever. With or without me. That’s… That’s what we need you to do.”
She held his eye for a long minute, then nodded slowly.
“I will.”
“I love you, Mabel… More than the world.”
“I know.” She nodded. “I love you too… More than the world.”
“I know.”
“And I’ll remember you.” She said. “I promise I will… I’ll remember everything…”
“I know… And thanks.”
A loud, distant sound interrupted them. A noise like a blast, that echoed into Dipper’s mindscape from somewhere beyond, resounding between the clouds and trees like a whisper of another world. Mabel was seized by a sudden spell of dizziness, and put her fingers to her ears.
“Was that a gunshot?” Dipper frowned.
“I dunno…” Mabel scratched her head. “Was that from real life? Did that, like… Maybe he accidentally bumped the helmet. Or maybe he’s trying to wake me up? I dunno, but that did not work.”
“Uh… Uh… I dunno, but we might not have a lot of time left.” Dipper assessed. “Okay.” He turned back to Mabel. “If this is it.” He said. “Uhh… Uh… Okay, just be careful out there. Be careful. Dying isn’t something that only happens to soldiers, old geezers, and evil henchmen, alright? It’s fast, easy, and it sucks.”
“Got it.” She nodded. “But… Uh… Okay, what do I do? What do I do? You and Wendy were right in a middle of some mission to find out where those alien robots came from, and to save the day or something, right? What do I need to do to finish it?”
“Uh… Okay, we found out where they came from: they were all farm animals brought to this planet aboard that giant ship. They came from a low-gravity, airless planet somewhere in another galaxy, but found they could survive after they crashlanded here.”
“Farm--?”
“The farmers themselves are dead, so they don’t need the animals anymore. Wendy and I were going to… Uh… To reprogram the gravity engines in the main ship to smash the entire robot forest… I don’t know. Maybe Wendy’s already on it.”
“… And that’s it?” Mabel winced. “They have to die?” She knew she’d do whatever she had to, but that didn’t mean she’d have to like it.
“Yeah…” Dipper answered. “Well… Actually no… Actually I don’t know.” He caught himself. “We really didn’t see any other way, we didn’t think of anything else. But we have to get rid of ‘em somehow. They’d do no good for mankind, only harm…”
“But what if…” Mabel wrapped her head in her sweater sleeves. “Hmm… What if… Hmm… What if there was a happy way?”
“I dunno, people might not go for it…” Dipper shrugged. “They were the ones that killed me, after all.”
“But they didn’t mean it… And… And they aren’t all bad…”
They were suddenly interrupted, as loud, voiceless words pounded through their minds:
-INPUT: The mindscape interface is ending. Prepare to exit.
“No! Wait!” Mabel looked up at the sky and waved her arms, as if that would do anything. “Wait Great Uncle Ford! Not now! Give us half an hour or something! Not now!”
-NOW UNINSTALLING GUEST BRAINWAVE.
-HOST BRAINWAVE, PREPARE FOR DISCONNECTION.
“But…!”
-UNINSTALLING:
- 2%
“LOOK!” Dipper grabbed her. “If there’s a better way, if there’s a happy ending here, a way to make things okay again, with me, with the robots, with everything…! Then you WILL find it! I believe in you! Just… Just I know you will. You always see the upside. You always bring the upside. It’s who you are… O… Okay?”
- 5%
She got a feeling in her gut; a feeling that agreed. “Okay.” She said.
- 7%
Dipper’s body flickered once, and he felt himself leaving. This might be it. He thought. I’ll never remember this, and I might never even live again. This moment, this might be all.
- 10%
“Do you think there’s a God?” He asked.
- 11%
Mabel blinked.
- 13%
“GOD!” Dipper turned his head skyward. His voice was starting to lose its form and its steadiness, though whether that was from panic or from getting disconnected, nobody could tell. Nonetheless, he prayed. “If you’re there, please save us! Help Mabel to be strong! Help Ford and Wendy and Stan to know what to do! Make everyone do the right thing…! Please help everything turn out all right!”
- 24%
“And God!” Mabel added. “Please bring Dipper back from the dead!”
- 32%
Mabel’s head began to hurt.
- 39%
Her sight got blurry for a minute, and when it cleared, Dipper was no longer there.
- 46%
The mindscape around her began to fade in and out; parts of it began to glitch and disappear.
- 58%
Trees toppled. Rocks split. Doors shattered. The ground crumbled beneath her.
- 72%
She felt herself falling.
- 85%
The pounding in her head became excruciating.
- 91%
Up was down and in was out and sane was mad and he was gone,
- 95%
when suddenly,
- 100%
Input: deactivating motor and sensory dampeners. Subject is awakening.

She awoke.
The massive computer buzzed tiredly as it finished its work and turned off. The helmet was warm from all its recent electrical activity. The pillows were damp from the tears she’d shed in her sleep. Her neck was just a little cramped from so long asleep sitting up.
The was a big hole blasted in the door, and a lot of overturned furniture and broken equipment.
Ford was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, there was only the monster, looking down at her.
She looked up at it, and remembered that the world still needed her to be strong, brave and kind. She still needed to keep her hope. “Please God.” She whispered quietly, as she tried to smile. “Please help everything turn out alright.”

The Shapeshifter shrugged.