Chapter Text
“This all stops now!” Dipper yelled, raising his hand to smash down on the button that would shut down the portal once and for all.
“Don’t touch that button!”
Dipper’s hand froze inches away from the button. All three of them turned to look at the doorway, where Stan stood panting, a frantic look on his face.
For a long moment no one said anything. The only sound was the whirring of the portal and the ominous beeping of the countdown clock.
“Dipper, just back away!” Stan pleaded, starting towards them. “Please don’t press that shutdown button! You gotta trust me!”
“And I should trust you, why?” Dipper exploded. “After you stole radioactive waste? After you lied to us all summer? I don’t even know who you are!”
Stan continued towards them, stopping just short of Dipper. “Look, I know this all seems nuts, but I need that machine to stay on. If you’d just let me explain—” He was cut off as his watch beeped and the ground shook. “Oh no! Brace yourselves!”
The portal let out a great burst of energy, the white light falling away to reveal stars an galaxies. They all screamed as gravity lessened, and they all went floating into the air.
“T minus 35 seconds,” said the computer.
Dipper scrambled frantically for something to hold on to, latching himself to a piece of wood in the corner of the room.
“Dipper!”
He turned at the sound of Mabel’s fearful cry to see her floating near the button, her foot caught on a wire. “Mabel, shut it down!”
Somehow she heard him above the roar of the portal, and she started pulling herself along the wire towards the button.
“No!” Stan pushed himself off the wall where he had been stuck, swimming through the air to try and intercept her. “Mabel, Mabel wait! Stop—"
He was tackled by Soos, knocking him off course.
“Soos, what are you doing?”” Stan yelled, hitting and punching at the handyman to no avail. “I gave you an order!”
Soos grabbed him in a bearhug as they went spinning through the air. “Sorry Mr. Pines, if that is your real name, but I have a new mission now! Protecting these kids!”
“Soos, you idiot, let me go!” Stan yelled.
Dipper launched himself off the beam of wood, flying at the two, determined to help Soos keep Stan from stopping them. He grabbed onto his Grunkle, desperately trying to stave off his attempts at getting free from both of their grips.
“Mabel, press the red button!” he yelled at his sister. “Shut it down!”
Stan cut off his cries, forcing his nephew down and away from him. “No, you can’t! You gotta trust me!”
Mabel looked up at her warring family from where she held on to the rod holding up the button. “Grunkle Stan, I don’t even know if you’re my Grunkle!” She turned her face away, unable to look at him as fear and distrust welled up inside her, manifesting in tears.
The three stopped their fighting, horrified at the sight of Mabel’s tears falling upwards into the air.
Mabel whimpered. “I want to believe you, but…”
“Then listen to me,” Stan said, determined to get as much as he could out while Dipper and Soos were distracted. “Remember this morning when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?”
“T minus twenty seconds,” said the computer.
The portal released another even greater burst of energy, flinging Stan, Soos, and Dipper back against the far wall. Mabel screamed but clung on doggedly to the pole despite the huge force pulling on her. She raised her fist, determined to end it.
“I wanted to say that you’re gonna hear some bad things about me.”
Mabel paused at her Grunkle’s words, looking up at him.
“And some of them are true. But trust me, everything I’ve worked for, everything I care about, it’s all for this family!”
“Mabel, what if he’s lying? This thing could destroy the universe! Listen to your head!” Dipper cried from against the wall.
Mabel looked back at the portal, beyond conflicted. Through the floating rubble and beyond the spinning ring of rainbows, she could see galaxies. Could it destroy the universe? Would Grunkle Stan actually do something like that?
“Look into my eyes, Mabel!” Stan’s cry brought her back to reality, and she looked at him. “Do you really think I’m a bad person?”
“He’s lying!” Dipper screamed. “Shut it down, now!”
She looked back and forth between the two of them, distraught. She loved them both. She knew Stan wouldn’t destroy the world, right?
“Mabel please!”
She was almost ready to press the button, but then she looked into Stan’s eyes. In that moment she made her decision.
“Grunkle Stan,” she said, “I trust you.”
And she let go of the pole, allowing herself to float upwards even amidst the chaos and rubble.
“Mabel, are you crazy?” Dipper yelled. “We’re all gonna—”
But then she felt a tug. With a horrible lurch in her stomach, she realized she was being pulled backwards into the spinning vortex of galaxies. She screamed, grabbing for something, anything to keep her from being pulled, but there was nothing she could do. She turned around just in time to see the brightness of the stars fill her vision.
“Mabel, no!” Dipper saw his sister being pulled towards the portal and he started trying to fight his way to her, but it was too late.
“One,” said the countdown clock with a finality that spelled out certain doom.
Mabel vanished into the swimming plain of stars with a terrible scream that echoed in Dipper’s ears just as the portal flashed with the light of a million suns. He, Stan, and Soos all cried out as they were blinded. Then with a terrible crack, the portal dislodged from its holdings and fell to the ground with an earthshaking crash.
Gravity came back full force.
With a jarring thump that rattled Dipper’s teeth together, he hit the ground. It took him a moment to get up, his body sore and hurting all over. Before him, the broken portal sparked, the light fading away.
There was no sign of Mabel.
“Mabel!” he yelled, running forward, tripping over rubble and hoping he would find her lying on the ground. His heart dropped into his stomach as he saw that she was nowhere around the portal, even as the light died from the machine.
“Where is she?”
Dipper turned to see Stan struggling to his feet, rubbing at his head.
“Where is she?” he asked again, fear on his face.
Dipper heard himself say the words, but it felt as if everything had turned to a distant dream. “She’s…she’s gone.”
Colors blurred together, rushing past Mabel’s eyes so fast she could barely register all the different shapes. She tried to scream, but the rate at which she was traveling was so fast, when she opened her mouth all the air seemed to be ripped forcefully from her lungs. Sound was all around her, a constant roar amidst the colors shooting past her. She shut her eyes, wondering how long it would be until she died.
Then everything went still. The rushing ceased, and her body felt weightless. The roaring in her ears died away into calm silence.
Mabel inhaled, opening her eyes. She floated in a shining white void. It was bright, but somehow her eyes were not hurt. It was so peaceful compared to the chaos she had just been through, she didn’t want to leave.
“Do not be afraid.”
The voice came from all around her, having no certain source. It was indescribable, like the rushing of a great river, but it filled her with a sense of peace like she had never felt before. She felt a warmth envelope her, like a hug, but no one was there that she could see. She closed her eyes, leaning back into the warmth, not wanting to leave it.
“I am with you.”
Bill felt it; the tremor as the portal was finally reactivated by Stan Pines. He rose up, and the other beings in the Nightmare Dimension growled as they felt the tremor too.
The portal was opening, and it would open for its creator, wherever he was. However, if it stayed open long enough, the rift would open, and they would be free.
“Yes!” Bill cried as he felt the trembling of worlds. The barrier that divided Earth from others was fading, and the wall was crumbling down. Just a little longer…
Then the trembling ended. The opening of the rift ceased and portal shut off, the dimension returning to their normal state.
“No!” Bill cried, growing in his anger, but his rage abruptly ceased as he saw something. A bright light traveling across the dimensions like a shooting star.
He reached out with his mind and touched the individual who had apparently passed through the portal, shutting it off. He was greeted with rainbows, puppies, kittens, and a huge amount of cuteness that was generally nauseating.
Not just a shooting star, the Shooting Star.
“Interesting…” Bill mused to himself. He considered how he could manipulate her to his will, but then she vanished from his sights.
He looked for her across the mindscape, but she had vanished. The portal was meant to send those who entered it to the Nightmare Dimension, but she was gone, having vanished from all existence it seemed.
Bill knew only one who was capable of such a feat.
“You think you can keep that girl safe?” Bill shouted. “You think you can keep that stupid little planet safe from me? You’re wrong, you hear me? Wrong!”
Silence was the answer he received, but it unnerved him slightly just the same.
He knew he had been heard.