Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

C.J. didn’t know what to think of the giant pink bubble. Granted, she didn’t know what to think of a lot of things for the past four or so years of the absolute weirdest shit imaginable. The pink bubble was at least easy to comprehend.

Four years ago, something happened in Oregon and a thing called Bill Cipher had taken over the world and ripped into dimensional space, causing worlds to spill into each other. 

What that something was, no one knew. Someone had invited a mad god into the world and it had thanked its devotees by ripping the world up and tearing into nearby dimensions. Humanoid talking frogs built villages in old shopping malls, creatures calling themselves witches cast magic spells in forgotten areas of what was once America, A train that gave terrible therapy screamed by on an endless track, and pieces of a place called the Unknown popped up at random. There was also a brand of soda called Poop, which was the most normal thing and yet, somehow the worst.

And now C.J. was looking at a pink bubble. It seemed like it might hold the key to the weirdness, it certainly looked like something that you’d open in a video game to get a McGuffin or rescue a Princess or simply destroy to save The Mushroom Kingdom. 

So she decided to open it. With a tool she macgyvered out of a screwdriver and random electrical bullshit. If someone was alive there, they deserved freedom and if dead, they would have a proper funeral.

C.J. climbed up the chains with some difficulty, smacking a large bat out of the air, and then dropped on the platform. She then pulled out the tool and started working on the lock. She did not expect it to pop open but it did and CJ pushed through.

The entire world had the unsettling aura of decay. Constructs moved like old animatronics and off-key 80s pop music played like a skipping record in a world made of, what C.J. could only describe, as rotting candy. Everything smelled like wet wood mixed with old candy you couldn’t chew. The sun gave off a red glow, like a dying star. It reminded the teen girl a bit of The Other World from Coraline, just the sense of something being made to fulfill a purpose and then left to rot afterwards.

C.J. moved carefully through, her tool drawn. The weirdness clearly was not coming from here but the bubble had obviously been made to hide someone. Probably a kid and that kid could either be helpful or at the very least needed help.

The castle seemed like the safest bet to find the McGuffin. C.J. entered and looked around. It was dilapidated and some parts of the wall were crumbling, letting dark red light in. C.J. wasn’t often scared anymore but the entire atmosphere made her a bit nervous, like a horror movie or one of those haunted house video games she used to enjoy. The feeling did not improve as she went upstairs, giant bugs the size of her head scuttled by and a stuffed bear growled at her and jerkily chased C.J. until she picked it up and threw it out a window.

Right as she reached the top of the stairs, C.J. could hear voices. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. Someone was crying and a distorted voice was speaking. The sound left her feeling a sense of deep dread that screamed at C.J. about ghosts and other things that went bump in abandoned places like these. Pushing down her fear, the teen crept to the bedroom door and looked in.

A girl around her age, wearing a beat up old brown dress, was sobbing. A construct that looked like a boy about the same age was speaking, leaning over the girl and gesturing unnaturally. 

C.J fought the urge to run. The boy was fused with a skateboard and a hat, he looked like he was made of moldy dough with worms for hair. His eyes, blood red,shifted independently of each other. Nothing he was saying was remotely coherent to C.J. but it was clearly upsetting the other girl (who seemed to understand by how she was shaking her head) and it sounded unkind. He slammed the wall and the castle shook, sending dust cascading down into the hall.

C.J. sneezed. 

Before she could run or hide, the boy whirled much faster than he should have been able to and was at the door, towering over the much smaller and now terrified teen. 

What happened next was hard for the girl to process (due to the speed and violence of it) but she was fighting with the boy through the hall in a half frenzy as he repeatedly rushed her and knocked her around, breaking pictures,  furniture, and constructs alike. A few times he managed to get C.J. down and put his hand over her face, filling her mouth and nose with foul smelling dough in a horrifying attempt to suffocate her. The other girl was screaming for the boy to stop and was throwing things at him, which had definitely saved C.J. more than once.

C.J. was about to say fuck it, she did not need to save this girl and dough boy could have her if he wanted her so bad, when he suddenly turned and the girl in the dress’s head was completely engulfed in dough and C.J. ran forward with her makeshift taser multitool, burying it into what appeared to be his neck. Wouldn’t you know it he wasn’t immune to electricity, and then the girl was free. C.J. slammed the tool into the dough several times and threw a match onto the mass for good measure before grabbing the other girl and dragging her outside. The constructs simply watched them run, though some growled, and the music became more manic. The sun seemed to throb as it grew and the air was so red C.J could hardly see, she stumbled for the door, the dough boy thing was roaring somewhere behind them, they were going to die here-

And they ran and fell off the platform into open air

Chapter Text

C.J. spun haphazardly through the air, the other girl screaming somewhere a bit above her. She didn’t have many thoughts beyond, “Hitting the ground will hurt if it doesn’t kill me right away” and “Sky, ground, girl, sky, ground getting closer, sky getting farther away, oh shit!”

Then a miracle happened. The land since Weirdmageddon was prone to shifting, sliding smoothly around like the world was a large puzzle trying to assemble itself back to normal again. Not all places did this but around epicenters of weirdness? It was constant and as C.J. and Mabel rapidly approached solid ground, it turned into a pond, and C.J. barely managed to keep her legs straight as she hit the water hard.

She bobbed up coughing and spluttering, grabbing a small boat, pulling herself up and coming eye level to a trout.

It blinked.

C.J. yelped and let go, hurriedly splashing back to land. The girl was heaving onto the pond’s bank and half crying.

The black haired teen pulled herself up beside the girl and flopped onto her back beside her, coughing and swearing. They were alive and presumably in the Unknown, if the mist and the fishing fish were any indicator. Not the best place to end up but it was better than being suffocated to death in a hell bubble.

The girl had curled up on her side, still shaking. Her hair was matted with dirt and sugar dust which melted into her hair when she had hit the water. The dress had some of the brown wash off, showing it had once been a white dress. 

C.J. coughed and  gasped out, “Still alive. You alive too or do I start to dig?”

The other girl let out a shaky laugh in response and nodded.

“Good, because I don’t have a shovel.”

This made the girl laugh again, a little less shakily this time, and C.J. sat up and looked around. She could see the bubble above them, hitting the Unknown’s barrier and sliding off the sides. The Unknown was mostly immune to the weirdness, possibly because it was so strange itself. 

The girl finally spoke, “You shouldn’t have gone in there. Bill will know I’m gone.’

C.J. snorted, “Yeah well, maybe he shouldn’t have put you in the most obvious cage he could think of if he didn’t want people poking around. I’m Cora Jackson but everyone calls me C.J., what’d you get saddled with?”

Mabel replied as she sat slowly up, “I’m Mabel…you’re pretty calm for someone who nearly died several times less than 15 minutes ago.”

“It happens a lot more than I’d like, believe me. Who was the dough boy?”

Mabel looked down at her hands. There was a long silence.

Then she replied, “He used to be my…I guess my idea of my brother. Then I started aging and everything got mean on me.”

C.J.. processed this as she stood and looked around. It was early summer in the Unknown, which meant it was meant to be late spring in the real world. Bill liked playing with the weather too much for there to be regular seasons outside of the Unknown besides the invented Bee Season (a time when Bill would release a thousand bees on the world) but it was nice to see that somewhere things were going somewhat normally.

C.J. helped Mabel up and said, “You can tell me more about it later but right now we have three worries: shelter, food, and dry clothes. The people here are pretty friendly but we’ve got to find them first. Also don’t follow any opera singing or you’ll turn into one of those trees.”

Mabel looked where C.J. had pointed and yelped. A twisted Edelwood tree, made of screaming distorted faces loomed behind her. 

She hugged herself and stood closer to C.J., “No following mysterious Opera singers, got it. Anything else we should worry about?”

“Typical fairy tale realism stuff, witches that want child slaves, talking animals, the usual.”

hey’d been walking for maybe half an hour, the damp air thick with the smell of pine sap and wet moss. Mist drifted low to the ground, curling around their legs like it was curious. Every now and then, something rustled in the trees, sometimes sounding like footsteps, sometimes like laughter.

Mabel hugged herself against the chill. Her dress had mostly dried, but her hair still clung in sticky curls. “This place is… really quiet,” she said softly.

“That’s usually a bad sign,” C.J. replied, tightening her grip on the multitool. “Quiet means the Beast is around.”

“Cool,” Mabel muttered. “Love that.”

A pair of voices could be heard just ahead, both singing. One older and one much younger, probably a little boy.

The older voice became clearer as they got closer.

“Two voices, now they are singing. Then ten as the melody soars. Round the shimmering pond, all are joining in song As it carries their reverie on.”

The cheerful voice piped up, “Over the treetops and mountains Over the blackened ravines Then softly it falls by a house near a stream And over the garden wall to theeeeeee!”

The older voice sighed, “ Little loud there Greg.”

“Sorry!”

C.J. motioned for Mabel to stay behind her and edged forward through the mist.

A boy around seventeen sat on a mossy rock, strumming a makeshift harp. His red cap had seen better days and his brown coat was patched at the elbows. Beside him stood a much younger boy, who was around nine. He was holding a bullfrog and a long stick he appeared to be conducting the older boy with.

The younger one noticed them first and waved.

 He asked brightly, “Do you like singing in the woods too?”

The older boy jolted and nearly dropped his instrument. He turned toward C.J. and Mabel, eyes wide. “Uh, hi. Sorry. It’s been a weird morning.”

C.J. lowered the multitool slightly and replied, “Yeah. Same here I guess…”

Greg meanwhile, seemed thrilled at the new company.

 “I’m Greg! This is my brother Wirt, and this is Jason Funderburker!” 

He pointed proudly to the frog, who gave a slow croak.

Mabel asked, “You named your frog Jason Funderburker?”

“Yep! He’s got a great singing voice, want to hear?”

Wirt cut in quickly, “Greg, no frog songs, not until after we find the road again.”

C.J. raised an eyebrow and asked, “So you’re lost too?”

“Not exactly,” Wirt said, straightening his hat as he spoke, “Just…yeah okay. We’re lost, four years ago the sky got ripped apart and Greg and I fell back into the Unknown. We’ve been in and out ever since. In is much, MUCH better than out. That place outside is an actual nightmare.”

Mabel asked,  “So you just…stay here?”

Wirt gave a humorless laugh, “Not by choice. We sort of wander and try to stay in the Unknown as much as possible. There’s a tavern a few miles east, though. If we can get there before nightfall, the owner sometimes gives travelers soup and…makes them sing. We were practicing."

Mabel smiled for the first time and said, “Soup sounds good,”

Greg started walking ahead, humming to himself. “Over the garden wall we goooo, to get some soup to throow”

“Greg, Please don’t throw soup again.”

C.J. exchanged a look with Mabel, then shrugged, “Guess we’re following the singing.”

“Better than following the Beast, I guess. At least they seem nice.”

Chapter Text

One thing about the Unknown was that, even in fair weather, the mist never completely lifted until wintertime. It lingered near water, in deep woods, and at the edges of the dirt road. It was a lot like walking through a dream that way, everything outside the line of sight was vague until you walked towards it.

C.J. liked it. It felt lonesome in a strangely pleasant way and it was a nice change from the chaos outside. Anything was better than Bee Season.

Greg was humming as Jason the Frog hopped beside him. Greg was walking well ahead and was currently petting moss as he waited for them to catch up. Mabel was shivering beside C.J., when Wirt suddenly dropped his coat over her head.

“Here, you look cold.”

Mabel blinked in surprise before hesitantly smiling, “Um….thanks but don’t you need it?”

Wirt shrugged, “Nah, it’s getting warmer and you need it more than me right now. You can give it back once we find you dry clothes.”

“Okay.”

Mabel pulled the coat around her shoulders and Wirt walked ahead of them, lightly tapping Greg on the head as he went past him. Greg gave the moss one final affectionate  pat before following his older brother, frog under his arm.

C.J. noticed something. Wirt had a hatchet on his belt and his hand never went far from it.

As the shadows grew longer, they approached the Tavern. The windows were dark and Greg ran back to walk behind Wirt. Wirt slowed down, hesitating. 

C.J., sensing something was wrong, asked quietly, “What’s up?”

Wirt shook his head and replied, “Something's up, it’s never that dark this early in the evening. Wait here. Greg, you wait here too.”

“Okay!”

C.J. took out her tool and said, “I’m coming too. Mabel, you stay with Greg.”

Mabel whispered panicked, “But what if the Beast attacks us or something?!”

Greg said cheerfully, “Don’t worry Mabel, Jason Funderburker will protect us!” He held the frog aloft above his head. Jason croaked as if to say, “I will not be able to do that actually.”

C.J sighed and handed Mabel a large stick off the ground, “I dunno, just whack him? Or throw the frog, either way, stay here.”

“I…okay. Okay fine.”

Mabel stood nervously beside Greg as the sun sank further down. Wirt and C.J. had been in there for around ten minutes or so but it seemed longer. The woods, once alive with noise, seemed to be waiting for something. Even Greg had gone quiet and was standing half behind Mabel, Jason in his overalls.

Greg whispered, “Are they coming back?”

The girl gave him an encouraging smile, “Of course, they’re just checking everything! Very thoroughly, without any visible signs at all! It’s fine!”

“You don’t sound sure…”

Suddenly Wirt came running out followed closely by C.J., who had a bundle under her arm. Wirt waved his hatchet frantically and yelled, “Run! Ghom, Run!”

“A what now?”

Greg seemed to know and grabbed Mabel by the arm, screaming,  “Run! It’ll suck out your soul!”

A large creature, winged with tentacles and dark in such a way that Mabel later felt she could never truly see it, came crashing through the wall and tore after the other two teens. Mabel screamed and picked Greg up, running. The monster crashed behind them shrieking as it went and tearing through trees and throwing dirt. In the confusion she lost sight of C.J. and Wirt, she crashed through the trees, branches whipping her face and scratching her, before coming up to a wall. Mabel threw a sobbing Greg over the wall and climbed the vines after him before the Ghom grabbed her and pulled. The girl gripped onto the vines and was torn off for the trouble, thrown to the ground, the Ghom was over her and it hurt and she could feel something leaving and then. And then the Ghom screamed and turned and Mabel pushed herself out from under it, something lit up the monster's carapace, and Wirt grabbed Mabel and pulled her through a previously unseen gate. C.J. followed a few moments later, slamming the gate shut and all three teens collapsed on the grass as a smell like burnt shrimp filled the air. Greg ran over and tackled Wirt in a hug, sobbing hard.

Mabel gulped in air as she yelled, “What was that?! What was that?!”

Wirt sat up slowly holding Greg and panted, “That was a Ghom. They’re invasive, some of them came in on the old train station before it got shut down and they tore the rails up to keep out The Train.”

“Train?! What kind of train has things like that?!”

C.J. snapped, “The super messed up kind! It’s a therapy train that gives you therapy while making you more traumatized! I hate it, I hate Ghoms, I hate this bullshit, I got you clothes!”

With that C.J. dropped clothes on Mabel and stomped off. Mabel blinked as she looked at the clothes, a plain green dress with black stockings and boots. It looked old fashioned but she couldn’t bring herself to care, at least it looked dry and clean unlike the costume dress she had been wearing.

Wirt nodded towards the house, “That’s Mr. Endicott's house, he’s away on business but his wife Marguerite'll let you change. She opened the gate and ran back inside.”

A tall woman in rococo style clothes stepped out, holding a ladies pistol.

She called out, “Is it dead?”

“Yeah, C.J. killed it with electricity.”

“Good, bring Greg and your new friends inside, I’ll have some tea ready.”

Chapter Text

The opulence of the Endicott house was a stark contrast to the Unknown, in a way where it seemed a little unreal. The shadows filled up empty spaces in the hallways and the house was darkened due to the growing night outside. Even with the lamps lit, it was still quite dark.

Marguerite led Mabel to a room to get changed, insisting it had to be done before she had tea. The room was blue with a standing mirror and a bed with a layer of dust on it, clearly an unused guest room. It smelled like cloves and cedar wood mixed with dust and stale air.

“You will feel much better in clean clothes and with some tea and food in you. I’ll burn your old dress, if you like.”

Mabel nodded, “I’m never wearing this again, especially if I don’t have to.”

Marguerite smiled at her, “Good. Now, if the dress doesn’t fit, you’re welcome to anything in the wardrobe that seems travel worthy. Most of the clothes in there are from when I was a young girl.”

“Thank you Mrs. Endicott.”

The older woman replied, ““The pleasure is mine, dear. Call if you need anything.”

With that, Marguerite left, closing the door.

Mabel stood for a moment in the half light of the room before pulling off her old dress and changing into the green one. It was definitely old fashioned but comfortable, an Edwardian travel dress (Mabel only knew the style because Grunkle Stan saw it in a “The Duchess Approves” remake and complained for days about the inaccuracy.) The boots fit perfectly and buttoned easily without a hook, which Mabel was glad of. 

She stepped out into the hallway. It was much darker than the room, lacking the natural light, and only one lamp was lit. Mabel carefully walked down the hall, boots clicking on the floor. The hall had seemed…much shorter on the way.

—----------

The parlour’s furniture was stiff in the way that mostly unused furniture was and the tea had the faint taste of perfume. The snacks were a mix of sweet and savory, the names of which were French and sounded expensive. Mabel felt incredibly out of place but not as out of place as C.J. looked, the other girl was moving stiffly and seemed terrified of touching anything that wasn’t the food or her teacup. Greg (who was sitting beside C.J.) was drinking a teacup filled with apple cider and sitting on a towel that Marguerite had clearly placed there due to how messily Greg tried to feed Jason Funderburker. Jason was not terribly interested but seemed resigned to politely try one of everything Greg offered.

Wirt was sitting beside Mabel and was drinking the tea with the look of someone who didn’t like tea but was too polite to say anything. He cleared his throat, “How long is Mr Endicott going to be gone?”

Marguerite sipped her tea and replied, “Two weeks, he’ll be sorry he missed having guests. We don’t have many guests anymore, due to the Ghoms and the thing in the woods.”

C.J. asked curiously, “You mean the Beast?” She was carefully lifting her teacup to her mouth as she spoke, holding the saucer under it tightly, like it was a frisbee she was about to throw.”

The older woman adjusted the girl's grip as she replied, “Hold your hands like this dear, that’s right. No, the Beast isn’t seen as often lately, he comes and goes from the Unknown and besides, he’s not as…memorable.

There was a long pause. Wirt broke the silence by asking, “What is it then?”

Marguerite seemed delighted by the chance to gossip.

“Well, it sometimes tries to take the form of a man, but most of the time it’s a creature made of green and black sludge covered in many eyes and with antlers on it’s head. He attempts to take possession of people often and Miss Whispers has been making amulets and potions to keep him off. She’s making very good money for charging so little.”

Greg gasped excitedly, “It sounds like a super villain!”

Marguerite smiled indulgently, “Oh, he thinks he’s a villain but he’s very easily outmatched by the people here. Enoch, for example, forced him to till the fields after he tried to possess a resident of Pottsfield and Lorna has whacked him a few times with her broom.”

She added quickly, “Not to say he’s not dangerous! He is but if you’re ready for him and you’re brave, he usually leaves.”

Wirt, who had forgotten about his tea, asked anxiously, “Does he come up to the house?”

Marguerite laughed airily and waved her hand, “Oh no, not since the Peacocks set on him, animals absolutely hate him. Especially birds. Now, I think you shall all finish your tea and stay here for tonight.”

C.J. shook her head, “No, we can’t impose.”

“Nonsense! You will stay here and tomorrow I’ll stock you up properly on supplies and maybe a weapon for this other young lady, if she likes?”

Mabel looked down at her teacup and thought about it. She’d definitely need something more dangerous than a stick if the Ghoms were anything to go by and Mabel knew that C.J. and Wirt may not always be around to save her. She got lucky with the Ghom the first time, she’d never be that lucky again.

She nodded and said, “I’d like that. I don’t want to not have anything like I did earlier.”

Marguerite nodded like that settled every problem and clapped her hands.

“Now if you’re all done, follow me to your rooms.”

They all left the cups standing on the little table with the snacks. A peacock called in the night. The darkness of the house was oppressive and somewhere in the woods was a creature called It and He by the locals, stumbling around the woods, afraid to touch the Endicott fence.

Chapter Text

Two days after Weirdmageddon started Dipper, Wendy, and Soos had stumbled in, shell shocked and exhausted after failing to catch up with Mabel’s bubble. Soos had to carry Dipper because he couldn’t be convinced to give the chase up even as the sky was cracking open. The survivors huddled in the shack and listened to the dimension tear itself at the seams for hours. Eventually, Wendy peeked out to see an entirely new world or a world that spilled over into other places. Or maybe both.

Four years later the situation had somewhat improved in that witches helped extend the wards and there was now a street sized Bill-proof area. That was pretty much the only real progress. Ford was still Bill’s captive and  Mabel was still trapped in her bubble as far as anyone knew. Since Weirdmageddon was now global it was that much more difficult to find them and it didn’t help that the survivors had to take a year to rebuild and figure out what a rescue plan would even look like.

Eventually it became clear that a solution wouldn’t just drop out of the sky. So Dipper started to strike out to look for Mabel. Stan tried to stop him at first but eventually gave in on the condition he had a weapon and always traveled with someone. At first it was just Dipper and Wendy. Then Eda (Stan’s ex wife from Vegas, go figure) showed up with her pseudo daughter Luz, Luz’s actual mom Camila, her son King, and a collection of assorted kids/adults.

 Luz, Hunter, and Amity insisted on helping and for the first time in a year Dipper felt he wasn’t searching alone. Then they got joined by a stranger one night, a kid who introduced himself as Dib Membrane, he’d wandered into their camp and sat beside Dipper at the fire while holding a sci-fi gun. His family was also missing. 

Then three girls named Marcy, Anne, and Sasha saved them from a swarm of man-eating bats and they insisted on helping as soon as they heard what they were doing out there. 

By this point, three years later, Wendy had stopped coming out with Dipper. Her youngest brother Gus needed looking after and was the only member of her family not turned to stone. Dipper didn’t blame her, if something happened to Wendy, Gus wouldn’t have his sister anymore. And Dipper knew what that was like.

They were currently making camp in the gym of an old elementary school, mostly because the building was big enough to find good hiding places but was small enough to be thoroughly searched for any ghouls or other nasty surprises that had a tendency to hide in the dark.

Luz, Sasha, and Amity were scouting out the rest of the building. Marcy and Hunter  were building tents, Anne was prepping food, and Dib was…doing something under the bleachers.

Dipper sighed and stood up from where he had the dimensional map lying and walked over to where Dib was.

“Dib. What are you doing man?”

The other boy shook his head at Dipper and pointed at the girls, motioning him to be quiet and look.

With a sense of unease Dipper looked and then gagged slightly. There was a skeleton huddled under the bleachers. 

Less comforting than that, the bones looked new.

“Shit…”

Dib nodded grimly, “Yeah, it’s bad…what do we do? The others aren’t back yet and I don’t want to freak Luz or the other two out by showing them this.”

Dipper ran his hand over his face and sighed. This time of night happened to be the most dangerous so moving camp wasn’t a safe option. However, they ran the risk of ending up like this poor guy if they stayed.

Finally he said, “We can’t move camp now. We’ll double up the watch, ward the gym, and pray whatever this is isn’t in here with us.”

Dib snorted, “Yeah, it’d suck to ward the place, only to trap it in here with us.”

Dipper wasn’t listening. He was examining the dust around the skeleton carefully. He looked up at Dib, his face pale.

“Ghom.”

Dib immediately looked up at the ceiling, his gun drawn, a popular place for ghoms to drop from.

Marcy noticed and called out, "What’s going on guys?”

Both boys motioned at her to check the ceiling. Marcy looked.

“There’s nothing there? What are you looking for-”

Marcy froze. As she looked back down at the boys her eyes caught something massive and glitchy crawling past a hall that faced the gym's glass doors.

Anne and Luz noticed Marcy’s expression and looked too. Anne immediately hissed, “Kill the lights Luz!”

Luz dosed her light spell, plunging the gym into darkness, and everyone huddled in place. After a few tense minutes, the back doors to the gym opened, and Hunter came sprinting in and slid behind the bleachers, followed by Sasha and Amity.

Dipper whispered to Sasha, who was closest, “Did it see you?”

Sasha shrugged and shook her head, breathing hard. They must have run as soon as they saw signs of the Ghom, judging by how out of breath they all were

Hunter gulped and motioned, two fingers and then four circles. Dipper squinted at him and it took a few more motions before it clicked.

Dipper turned to Dib.

He whisper-yelled, “there are eight fucking ghoms here!”

Dib gave him the you have got to be fucking kidding me Pines look before sighing and whispering, “of course. Why wouldn't there be eight, one for each of us.”

Anne was quietly packing the food and Luz had already bagged the tent and made her way over, followed closely by Marcy. 

Luz whispered, “What do we do?”

Amity whispered back, “We have to leave but I think…I think they know or something, theyre looking for us.”

A loud shriek echoed through the building and the teens flinched. Hunter peeked out through a gap in the bleachers and motioned at Dipper to come do the same. Dipper carefully made his way over and Hunter nodded at the glass door.

The ghom had bright yellow eyes and seemed to be moving jerkily. Something was controlling it.

“Bill.”

Hunter muttered tightly, “I was afraid you'd say that. He knows we're here.”

At that moment Anne was finally behind the bleachers with them.

She whispered, “It didn't see me but it saw the back door, it's not shut all the way!”

Dipper looked at the door. It was cracked open, clearly the door was caught on something, maybe the floor mat. 

“Damn it.”

The Bill-Ghom let out an unnatural chuckle and stepped through the door, eyes fixed on the back door as the beast stalked forward. It sounded like a dead fly trying to laugh, dried up and wrong.

“I know you’re heeere Pine Tree. Come out. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

The Ghom moved with precision towards the back door past the bleachers. For one moment, Dipper had a wild hope that Bill–Ghom would go out the back door looking for them and they could run out the glass door and make a break for an exit.

Bill-Ghom stopped. Sniffed around the door.

And closed it.

Marcy made a small noise of fear and Luz shushed her quietly. The Ghom looked around the gym.

“Finally, we can have some real fun! You eight have been a real pain in my side but that’ll change soon! Now...where are you all hiding…”

It clicked past the bleachers, pausing momentarily next to where Hunter was and then charged at the bleachers on the other side, crashing into them.

Dib stood and threw something that clattered and there was a bang before a sudden bright flash and suddenly Hunter was running beside Dipper out the door and down the hall, Dib close behind them. He could hear Bill-Ghom screaming as he crashed after the trio.

“I’VE GOT YOU NOW YOU BRATS!”

Dipper yelled, "What's the plan?!”

Hunter yelled back as he yanked Dipper around a corner, “Run and hope Dib or the girls have one!”

Dib was keeping pace with them now. He snapped, “I don’t have a plan! My plan was to distract the fuckin thing but Bill apparently has good recovery time! FUCK YOU, YOU TRIANGLE FUCK, I HOPE WE GIVE YOU FOOD POISONING!”

“I”LL KILL YOU FIRST BRAT!”

“WORK FOR IT ASSHOLE!”

Dipper let out a shocked  laugh in spite of himself and Hunter threw Dib in the front further away from Bill.

Dipper panted, “He means that shit Dib!”

“So do I!”

Hunter ignored them both and scanned the ceiling. He wordlessly grabbed his knife off his belt and threw it, striking a sprinkler head. The entire system proceeded to go off making the floors slippery and Ghom-Bill stumbled around, cursing all the while.

The boys also slipped and for one frightening moment Hunter hit the ground hard but Dib pulled him up and then pulled the fire alarm. Amazingly, it went off and the Ghom shrieked and the yellow in its eyes flickered. More shrieks could be heard in the school, some frighteningly nearby and others deeper in the building.

“CHEATER! CHEAT! YOU CAN’T DO THIS, HORRIBLE CHEATING BOY!”

The boys ignored Bill and slammed into the outdoors, making a break for the woods. Dipper could just see Marcy, Amity, and Anne running out the back following them and Sasha jumped off the school's roof with Luz in tow, quickly catching up. Bill-Ghom was furious, his screams echoing through the night like a foghorn before abruptly being cut off. Then the Ghom, back under its own power, came running out of the school, pounding its head off the cracked old parking lot in agony from the sound of the alarms. A few others had followed it but were in a similar state, one even letting out an agonized scream and falling over dead. Clearly the stress had killed it.

They kept running until they hit an abandoned suburban neighborhood and ran into the nearest house with an open door, closing and locking it.

Dipper collapsed against the door and Anne also sat down hard close by, gulping air. Due to an adrenaline crash, Luz had promptly thrown up in a wastebasket in the living area, Amity rubbing her back. Marcy was curled in on herself and shivering. 

Meanwhile, Hunter immediately started closing any open blinds and checking windows, going into what Luz sometimes called Soldier Mode. He looked at Sasha and said, “You and Dib check the house for anything that could kill us or that we could use.”

Sasha looked like she was going to argue, then saw Hunter’s face and changed her mind. She grabbed Dib by the sleeve, “C’mon. Marcy, you come too, you’ve got better eyes than me.”

Marcy nodded and grabbed onto the back of Dib’s jacket and followed. Dib mumbled something along the lines of, “It’ll be okay Marce.”

Dipper closed his eyes and tried to slow his breathing. The ghoms were still out there somewhere, going mad or furious and searching. Bill had nearly gotten them. And still no sign of Mabel

Chapter Text

After about ten minutes, Dipper shakily stood and carefully stepped over Anne before walking into the front living area. Luz had finished vomiting and was sitting on the floor, her head in her hands. Amity was sitting beside her, back against an old armchair that was covered in a layer of dust. Hunter was checking the garage and Dipper could hear Marcy, Sasha, and Dib’s voices from upstairs.

The entire house was covered in a mix of dust and cobwebs, it looked like the occupants had simply left for the day and never came back home. There were pictures of the family on the walls, a sign reading “Bless This Mess” in the kitchen, and once clean plates in the dish drainer. Bill’s henchminions had never entered this place, probably because no one was inside at the time Weirdmeggdon started. Which was good, it meant they were unlikely to come back and the Ghoms from  the school clearly hadn’t noticed the direction the group had been running in or they’d be knee deep in another fight with the monsters by now. For the time being, it was safe.

Dipper wandered into the hallway off the kitchen, thinking of helping Hunter search the garage, when he noticed a door slightly open. He peeked inside and saw a staircase, leading above the garage. It had clearly been added to the house later on, probably leading to an in-law suite. 

Dipper drew his machete out of habit and slowly climbed the stairs. He doubted anyone was upstairs but some things that fell into the world liked to lurk, it was better to be safe than to wake up with a zombie or a ghoul chewing on your legs. He got to the top of the stairs and pushed the door open.

The in-law suite was clean. Not clean as in “whoever lived here had tidied before leaving” but clean as in, “someone has been living here.” The windows were blacked out with paint and black sheets, there was a strange camp stove set up on the electric stovetop, and a makeshift bed in the living area. They weren’t alone in here.

Dipper backed up slightly and heard a click on his left. He turned and paused. There was a young looking white anthropomorphic bear wearing military pants and a gray t-shirt, pointing a pistol at him, an Enfield No. 2 by the looks of it- Stan had old books on guns the boy had started reading them after running out of other things to read, books were not a priority item in the apocalypse- and the bear seemed tense. Not angry or afraid yet but Dipper was going to have to get really good at talking, really quickly.

He put his hands up, “Hey! Hi, don’t shoot.”

The bear gestured at the machete with the gun and said in a rough strange voice, “Drop it and step into the light, hands up.”

Dipper dropped it and stepped forward into the moonlight shining through the skylight.

The bear lowered his gun slightly, “Name and age?”

“Dipper Pines, I’m 16. I’m looking for my sister Mabel, have you seen her?”

“You’re the first living human I’ve seen in three months. You alone?”

Dipper briefly considered lying to the bear but knew that it wouldn’t end well if somebody came looking for him. The other kid was clearly on edge and hadn’t been around a lot of people in a while, his voice had the quality of someone who hadn’t talked much in a long time.

“No, there’s eight of us, including me…what’s your name and age?”

The bear briefly considered him and then lowered his gun completely. He replied, “Rupert Bear, 16 I think. It’s been a long time. Have you seen a badger named Bill or a human boy named Dib?”

Dipper realized he didn’t actually know that much about Dib before the other boy had joined the group but if anyone knew a talking bear, it would be Dib.

“I know Dib, he’s here. He’s upstairs right now, I think-oh dude, don’t cry!”

Rupert’s entire face had crumbled and he was doubled over, quietly sobbing in clear relief. He looked very young to Dipper all the sudden and it kind of scared him a little, the bear had looked older at first. 

Dipper awkwardly knelt in front of Rupert, who was kneeling now. He felt sympathy in spite of the awkwardness, he’d had a similar reaction on finding out Candy and Grenda were both alive. 

“Hey man, I know the feeling. Believe me, I do. Do you want to come with me and find him?”

Rupert wiped his eyes and sniffed, “I’m sorry, I’m being so silly, I…yes. Yes please.”

“Hey guys, I found someone-Hunter don’t hit him!”

The final part Dipper directed at Hunter, who had his staff raised and was unsuccessfully trying to hide behind the door to the apartment.  

Hunter took a good look at Rupert and deadpanned, “Of course, a  fucking bear. Why wouldn’t you find a bear here?”

“Shut up dude, he’s cool. He’s looking for Dib.”

Before Hunter could say anything else, someone yelled, “Holy shit Rupert” and Rupert was tackled in a hug by Dib. Rupert was half laughing, half fighting tears and Dib was yelling incoherently and crying.

Hunter, meanwhile, looked like he had so many questions and not enough answers. He pointed at the pair.

“He knows Dib? Dib knows him? Dib knows a talking bear? Is the bear hostile?”

Dipper nodded, “Yes and no, Rupert isn’t hostile.”

Hunter sighed and replied, “Cool, it’s fine then, probably. We should introduce him to the others so they don’t panic when a storybook character magically appears.”

Marcy had walked up, clearly looking for Dib, and stopped, “There’s a talking bear. Sasha come look!”

Sasha walked up and squinted down Rupert and Dib. After a brief silence she asked, “Is the bear hostile?”

Marcy asked excitedly, "What's his name? What does he eat? Is he-”

Dib stood up and pulled Rupert up with him, “He’s Rupert, he’s not hostile generally, and he eats what we eat. Let’s talk about this as a group so this doesn't get repetitive.”

Chapter Text

After a series of introductions, everyone had moved to the upstairs living area. The first reason for this  was that the windows had been blacked out and Rupert had flipped the breakers so it was the only room able to be lit in the house. This was mostly to keep hostile groups from making camp in the building but also meant that Rupert had the upper hand in an attack, he could see in the dark after all.

 The second was the space heater, it was unnaturally cold at night even when Bill allowed summer. It was the warmest part of the house without the risk of drawing attention with chimney smoke. 

Rupert had put on an electric kettle and was making some kind of stew with bits and pieces of people’s rations. It smelled surprisingly good. Dib called it “Stone Soup” and it was apparently a specialty of Dib and Rupert’s old group, before they all got separated. The bear tasted it and asked Dipper off-handedly, “What are you all doing out here anyways? Most of the area’s been picked clean mechanical wise, so you can’t be scavenging.”

“We’re looking for my twin sister, Mabel. We came from Gravity Falls, in Oregon.”

Rupert choked on a piece of meat in surprise. Dib laughed and thumped his back, “Yeah, we hiked a ways.”

“I’ll say you have, hell of a walking holiday! You’re in what was Nevada, according to my road map here and some road signs this was the suburbs of Carson City. You think she’s out here?”

Dipper replied, “Luz got a lead from a guy who said he saw a bubble floating over the highway while he was evacuating. It sounded like it was here but now I’m not sure…”

Rupert went very still.

Dib nudged him with his shoulder, “You okay?”

After a long moment, the bear asked, “Was the bubble pink with a shooting star on it?”

Dipper’s heart started to beat faster and everyone else’s gaze was now fixed on Rupert. 

“Yes.”

Rupert turned down the heat and looked at Dipper, “I saw it for the first time  a week or so ago, closer to the Sierra Nevada. Didn’t think much of the thing, stayed away from it actually. The land shifted around a lot underneath, would occasionally spit something nasty out like a Ghom or a giant centipede-”

Sasha snapped, “Get to the point!”

Anne swatted at her friend unsuccessfully and hissed, “Sash! Don’t be rude!”

“I’m not I-”

Rupert held up his hand for silence then continued, “A couple of days ago I was collecting some dandelion leaves nearby and the bubble broke. Not popped, cracked so violently I thought it was a gunshot. Two figures fell out and I ran to try to help somehow, I know a little magic, but the land switched right as I stepped on it. They fell into the Unknown I think, there was a lake, lots of mist. Then I got sent to the edge of the city and had to hike back in the dark. I’ve been looking for thin places to try and find the two people but the Unknown is finicky. I’m guessing one was your sister?”

Dipper nodded, unable to speak. Luz squealed and hugged him and Anne put her hand on his shoulder encouragingly.

Hunter spoke up, “We can go look in the morning, it’s not safe this time of night” he looked at Rupert and asked, “Can you take us to the spot?”

“Absolutely I can. Let’s eat and sleep, we’ll go first thing tomorrow.”

Chapter Text

The thing about the Train was that Bill Cipher could not actually control it. Ghoms he could kind of puppet with a lot of concentration but the train itself was something mostly outside his grasp.

There was one part of the train Bill could access though. He could speak through a comm system or radio if the train car had one. This was good for frightening denizens of the train and hurting morale of the passengers but not much else. 

Then One-One and Amelia managed to seal off all but one frequency and drop a near empty car into the Unknown. Now Bill could only speak through the lone radio to the one person in this apocalypse that didn’t really seem to care at all.

When Weirdmageddon started, Tulip Olsen took shelter in the train after it stopped under a bridge near her house, where she had been hiding. Her mother was at work and her father was out of town, the options were hide or get caught. Tulip was not getting caught. After that she spent a lot of time moving from car to car and meeting new passengers from other worlds, all with numbers but nowhere to go after they hit zero. Most people stayed in cars One-One called Cozy Cars, little neighborhoods in different pocket dimensions. Some struck out on their own.

Then, after a year, Tulip ended up in the Unknown. Bill had a cult following on the train thanks to his radio transmissions and Tulip volunteered to isolate the frequency so he couldn’t create any more chaos devotees. It worked but she ended up being in the car when it was cut loose, something Tulip suspected Amelia had done on purpose. 

Tulip had been in the Unknown ever since. Not trapped, it was just safer than most of the outside world. 

Her routine consisted of: wake up, eat a breakfast of porridge at a nearby inn, get taught to cook by the Innkeeper, repair locks in the workshop she built out of a lean-to, read and write letters for locals who couldn’t while eating pemmican for lunch, go home, practice cooking by making dinner, and then doing whatever she wanted until bed. She spent as much time out of the car as possible, because Bill wouldn’t shut up otherwise.

Currently, doing whatever she wanted consisted of working on a spanish colonial lock, something Mr. Endicott had wanted repaired as a gift to Mrs. Endicott for their anniversary after he returned from his business trip. Tulip missed coding but lock repair was challenging and she enjoyed it. The train car’s interior had taken on a wooded appearance after entering the Unknown and a small rough cabin was where Tulip slept. The only somewhat modern thing was the 1960s retro radio, designed to look futuristic. The trains radio had morphed into this and it was how Bill spoke to Tulip whenever he remembered she was there.

It must have occurred to him she existed, because the radio crackled to life, making the teen jump.

Bill’s voice crackled, “Hello Blossom! I can call you Blossom right? I feel like I can because we’ve known each other so, so long!”

Tulip sighed and adjusted her glasses, “Do what you want, you will anyway. What do you want?”

“Can’t I chat with my old friend? Catch up? Talk for the sake of talking?”

The girl went back to working on the lock and retorted flatly, “You do a lot of that but not lately. Which means you either want something or you’re bored.”

There was a brief silence, then Bill chuckled and said, “Good guess Blossom. See, I can’t enter the Unknown-”

Tulip interjected, “Thank God.”

Bill continued speaking, ignoring her magnificently, “-And I lost something of mine there, girl named Mabel. She’s confused, led astray by someone she thinks is her friend. Mabel…caused all this and she’s just not safe in the big bad world! So. You help me get her back and I’ll pardon you for what happened on the train!”

Tulip stared at the radio for a moment and then leaned forward, lock forgotten in her hand, “Okay, first thing. Calling a person a ‘something’ is super creepy. Second, I didn’t do anything to be pardoned for, you tried to indirectly kill people on the train by introducing a death cult and I helped stop it. Third, you probably tricked her, because that’s what you do, Bill. Lie and trick people! I’m not helping you, period!”

She then turned back to aggressively fix the lock.

There was a longer, more dangerous silence. Tulip had half forgotten the radio was still glowing a sickly yellow when Bill finally spoke again.

“Well, Blossom, since that’s how you feel. Still, I’d hate for Longfellow and Sprout to get mixed up in it, especially Sprout. Little kids get hurt easily.”

Tulip pointed one finger at the radio and snapped, “You can’t touch Wirt or Greg in here, so don’t even try that!”

Bill hissed, like a snake or like something being fried in oil and the girl slid back instinctively as she continued her work. He was clearly throwing a fit, probably gliding around the room he was in.

His voice was distorted, “HELP ME AND I’LL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT, YOU HORRIBLE GIRL! WHAT CAN I OFFER YOU?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”

“You don’t have anything I want. Go away Bill.”

Bill shrieked and Tulip slammed her hands over her ears as it rose in pitch and the radio rattled with it, until the noise filled the entire car, and then it suddenly stopped. The radio glowed its usually friendly white. Old music from the 40s played from one of the few radio stations still active on the outside. The crickets chirped outside as they had their yearly summer dance.

Tulip picked up the lock and continued working with shaky hands. Tomorrow, she would find Wirt and Greg and look for Mabel. She needed to be warned.

Chapter Text

“Alright, so here we have some ladies weapons.”

After a breakfast of bread with strawberry preserves, eggs, and ham, Marguerite had eagerly rushed Mabel  and the group to the master bedroom. Wirt was sitting on the vanity stool, Greg was playing with Jason Funderburker on the floor and CJ was sitting on the bed beside Mabel as Marguerite laid the weapons on the bed with the air of a merchant selling some very rare goods.

CJ asked, “Why not men’s weapons?” She was examining a long sharp hatpin as she spoke.

Marguerite explained, “Oh I could show her those, if she wants, but sometimes a lady wants something to match her outfit!”

“Cool. I want something so I don’t die.”

Wirt added, “Same, something sharp and useful. Like my hatchet.”

The older woman waved CJ and Wirt off, “Yes dears, now, we have several options. The hatpin is a classic ladies weapon but requires the user to be…lets say in range of whoever they’re fighting. Then of course there is the ladies pistol and this parasol. A witch from the Isles sold it to me at a very good price but I have no use for it, I rarely travel anymore.”

Mabel picked up the parasol and examined it. It was light gray with white designs stitched in that shimmered slightly and it had a sharp looking metal tip. There was a long gray ribbon that was clearly a strap so a person could carry it on their back.

“So I just” Mabel demonstrated a stabbing motion, “Stab somebody with it?”

“You could but it has an interesting feature, let's step outside for that.”

Marguerite’s room had a door to the garden, an addition to the house after Ghoms entered The Unknown, in case she or Quincy had to get out quickly. The group all spilled out onto the grass. The early morning dew was beginning to dry up and it smelled like fresh mown grass.  A peacock wandered up and pecked at Greg’s shoes until Jason croaked so loud the bird shrieked as if offended and flew off.

Greg cheered, “Take that fancy bird!”

Wirt, who was already tired, sighed, “It’s a peacock Greg.”

Marguerite ignored all this and turned Mabel away from the house, explaining, “Now, what you do is you point at whatever is attacking you and press this button here on the handle. Try aiming for Cora.”

C.J.  looked alarmed, “Wait, what? What did I do?! Is this because I said something critical about women’s weapons?!”

“Don’t worry dear, it won’t hurt. And yes, that is exactly why.”

Mabel protested, “I don’t want to hurt C.J. though!”

The older woman smiled and replied, “It won’t hurt her,  it might knock her off her feet however. You could also aim at that sludge thing on the fence.”

Mabel looked and gasped. A large green slimy humanoid covered in eyes that blinked in different ways and with long hair underneath its antlers was climbing over the fence. It didn’t seem to notice them, noticing it and was laser focused on Greg, who was throwing sticks at it.

Greg shouted, “Go away you big dumb bug!”

Wirt was already moving to grab Greg. The monster lunged just as Wirt reached him and Mabel pressed the button and swung. For a moment the parasol seemed like it might be stuck but then, it snapped open and a strong gust of wind sent the creature flying back over the fence. Wirt was doubled over Greg, his ballcap had been knocked off by the wind though.

Mabel pulled the umbrella closed with some effort and turned it in her hands.

“How did that happen?”

Marguerite pointed out the threads on the lining and explained, “These threads are glyphs. When they get pulled together it casts a wind spell, the harder you swing it the stronger the wind! Very useful and it will continue to cast as long as it’s opened.”

Wirt carried Greg over and set him down firmly, “Greg, I told you to leave that guy alone! He’s dangerous, he tried to possess the Highwayman last week!”

The little boy argued back, “Mabel got him though! And he was bothering us first, he climbed the fence!”

“Yeah but still! Next time, run away, alright? Alright, Greg?”

Greg kicked the ground and mumbled, “Okay…sorry Wirt.”

C.J. whistled low as she approached and said, “I’ll never doubt ladies weapons again, great job Pines! Who is that anyways?”

Marguerite rolled her eyes and replied, “Oh, he calls himself Belos but Enoch says his real name is Philip. The man has been here for four years, he either can’t leave or won’t. Wirt is right, that he’s dangerous, but as long as you’re brave and don’t let him get too close, he’s easily dealt with.”

“Huh. Neat but hate it.”

—--------------------------------

Meanwhile.

After waking up and letting the Innkeeper know she wouldn’t be working, Tulip made a list of all the places Mabel could have ended up.  

The Inn was the most obvious but Tulip was just there and there wasn’t anyone named Mabel. Lorna’s house was too far back in the woods to come across on accident and Pottsfield was underground until harvest time. That left Mr. Endicott’s estate and the Tavern. Tulip drew a symbol on one side of a stone and flipped it between the two. 

She said out loud to a cricket dressed in colonial clothes, “Symbol side up says Tavern, Symbol side down says Endicott’s.”

The stone landed with a dull thud on the ground in front of the train car. Symbol side down.

Tulip stood, “Endicott’s it is.You coming Mathilda?”

Mathilda chirped rapidly and Tulip nodded.

“Okay, good luck with market day! Stay safe!”

With that, Tulip started off. It was a mild summer day, insects buzzing around and the air smelled distinctly like grass and warm fresh air. She had tried living outside the Unknown a few times but nothing beat a natural summer’s day.

Nothing very eventful happened until she got close to the Endicott estate at about 10am according to her watch. A sudden gust of wind, strong enough it kicked up a few dust devils, nearly knocked Tulip over and a green sludge thing went flying over the fence. 

She froze, unsure about exactly what she had witnessed. 

The creature made disgusting wet noises as it tried to reconstitute itself, like mud under rubber boots. One of its eyes looked at Tulip and a mouth managed to form after a few tries.

“If…you...help…me” it rasped with a lot of effort, “I will…reward…you. You will….”

“Nope.”

Tulip lit and threw an old lighter she had found onto him, setting him briefly alight, and scaled the fence.

“Mrs. Endicott, don’t shoot, it's just me! Belos is behind me!”

She fell on the other side and managed to scramble away from the fence before someone small tackled her.

Greg hugged her, “Hi Tulip! Why are you here?”

Jason croaked between them in protest at being squished.

Tulip hugged him back, carefully avoiding squishing the frog, “Hey Greggy, I’m looking for somebody named Mabel. Is she here?”

“Oh yeah, she’s over there, she made Belos fly away up out of here.”

She let out a sigh of relief and stood. The group all stared at her, Wirt waved as she got closer and Tulip nodded in response.

Mabel had long wavy brown hair and looked thin and a little tired. Marguerite had clearly given her some clothes and a magic weapon, which definitely suited her.

“Okay so…this is gonna sound weird but Bill is looking for you. He tried to get me to help him and I said no but he could get help from the outside-”

A small teen girl with short black hair and dressed in plain brown clothes asked suspiciously, “How did you talk to Bill?”

“It’s a long story but the short version is he can access most radio waves. I wanted to warn Mabel and Wirt and Greg about it, he’s pretty determined to get her back. I take it you're the friend he was ‘worried’ about?”

“Probably. Cora Jackson, people call me C.J.”

“Tulip Olsen.”

Mabel shifted slightly as Tulip finished speaking, adjusting her grip. The garden was quiet other than the wet noises of Belos slithering away to recover in peace. 

“Bill knows I’m out?”

Tulip nodded, “Yeah, my guess is he has but didn’t figure out where you were immediately. He’s overextending himself a lot.”

C.J. sighed,  “Fantastic. Bill and now that joker over there.”

Wirt shrugged, “He doesn’t seem to realize that how he looks is off putting to people. As long as we avoid him it should be fine. And I’ve used my hatchet on him before, it’s gross but it keeps him away.”

Tulip said, “Yeah…you did good, you know?”

This was aimed at Mabel, who looked surprised, “I just…swung. I nearly froze though.”

The other girl shrugged, “Yeah, we all do it at least once, but you didn’t freeze and that’s important.”

Greg hugged Mabel and exclaimed, “Yeah! You did great, he went WOOSH and then Tulip got him!”

Wirt corrected, “She set him on fire. We don’t celebrate immolation.”

“We do if it’s Belos!”

The older boy rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, “I mean…yeah. Yeah okay. He is the worst.”

The group drifted back to the house.

Tulip asked Mabel as they walked, “What are your plans? Being out and all?”

“Mabel replied, “I need to find my family, then figure out how to deal with Bill.”

“Nice. I’ll help. It’s not good to spend too much time in the Unknown, you start forgetting things.”

Mabel glanced at her and asked, “Forgetting what?”

Tulip hesitated for just a second.

“…things,” she said, “People. What you were doing. It gets…foggy if you stay too long.”

C.J. nodded, “Yeah that tracks. I’ve heard of people being unable to leave after a while.”

Wirt added, “That’s why Greg and I leave every two weeks. It’s dangerous but getting stuck in the Unknown isn’t ideal either, even if it is technically safer.”

Greg cheerfully said, “The Unknown eats your memories and turns your brain into worms! That’s why Belos looks like that.”

Tulip snorted and ruffled his hair, “Pretty sure that’s the wild magic dude, that’s why the witches keep making you wash the glyphs you draw  off your skin.”

“Aw, but they’re cool…”

Wirt gave Greg a Look and said, “They also do THAT to your body, which is why we don’t do that anymore.”

“Okay…I like drawing them on paper though!”
“Paper is fine.”

Marguerite opened the door, “Alright,, shoes off, I’ll get supplies prepped and you can all go while the light is still out on the outside! I’ll let the peacocks out, to take care of Belos.”

Outside, something shifted in the grass beyond the fence. The peacocks rushed at it and angry yelling and shrieks filled the air as the door closed.

Chapter Text

The next day was cold. Not so much that the group was in any danger of freezing to death, it was more the type of chill someone would feel during an unusually cold summer. There was also a light breeze, which wasn’t helpful.

The trek out to where Rupert had seen the bubble was tense. It was safer in the daytime but in the same way it was safer on a life raft than in the open ocean. 

Rupert led the way, Dib on one side and Dipper on the other. Marcy, Anne, and Luz were just behind them. Amity, Hunter and Sasha guarded the back, Amity watched the sky and the other two kept an eye out on either side. This was open country, which added to everyone's tension.

The wind whistled low and lonely. There hadn’t been many birds in this part of the west coast for years and the only animals most people heard of were coyotes or stray dogs, both dangerous in their own ways.

“Not too much farther now. How’s everyone holding up?”

Rupert spoke at a normal volume but everyone still flinched. He lowered his voice further, “Sorry, you’re all probably not used to being out in the open like this, especially in daylight. If it makes you feel any better, anything trying to kill you will see you long before they hear you.”

Dib half laughed and whispered, “that does not help but thanks.” 

“What’s that?”

Everyone looked where Luz was pointing. A fragile looking piece of pink glass the size of a tree glimmered in the pale sunlight. 

Dipper ran forward and looked at it. Sticky rotted candy lined the lower half but the top was clear and had a shooting star design on it.

“It’s Mabel’s…Rupert, could the Unknown shift here again?”

Rupert shrugged, “Hard to say, it does what it likes.”

Dipper sighed and ran his hand over his face as Anne approached and started examining the glass. This was probably the closest he had ever been to finding Mabel. If they had gotten here sooner-

“Look out!”

Dipper ducked, which turned out to be wrong, because he was scooped up from underneath by a yellow bubble along with Anne. It closed around them and immediately began to rise into the air.

Hunter yelled up at him, “Why would you fucking duck?!”

Dipper yelled back, “Why would you not be specific?!”

Before anyone could say anything else, The ground started to vibrate and small stone turrets, about knee height started firing into the group. Hunter grabbed Sasha and dove behind a rusted out truck with Amity, Rupert jumped behind an old fishing boat and pulled it over a ditch, which created cover that Dib, Marcy, and Luz quickly took advantage of. Rupert fired over the top and took out two turrets.

Dib tried firing at the bubble. The blast fell short and landed on a turret.

“They’re too far away!”

—----------------------

Anne hyperventilated as she watched the ground get further away, “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit-”

“Anne, breath, it’ll be fine, everything is gonna be fine! We aren’t dead yet right?”

“WELL HELLLLO PINE TREE! IF YOU’RE WATCHING THIS YOU’VE FOUND THE BUBBLE!”

A video or hologram of Bill was on the glass inside the bubble.  It was difficult to tell due to the fact Bill and the bubble were similar shades of yellow.

Dipper put his arm in front of Anne, who was drawing her sword, “Don’t hit it, if we fall from this height we’ll break our legs at best!”

Bill continued, clearly having been prerecorded, “Congratulations! You get your sister back and you all live happily ever after, at least until I kill you! This Bubble is just to make sure you’re paying attention, custom-built! Only you get front-row seats!”

Anne scoffed, “Yeah, that’s why I’m here.”

Bill tilted his body, similar to a head tilt, “But the real question here is: do you want your sister back after what she did?”

There was a long silence.

Anne asked, “What does he mean? Dipper, what does that mean?”

“I don’t know….what do you mean Bill?”

The hologram looked delighted, “Oh you don’t know? Well, Mabel wanted just a little more summer! And I cut a deal with her, give me the rift and I’ll give her more summer than she’s ever dreamed of!”

Dipper crouched in the bubble and pointed at the recording, “Liar! Mabel wouldn’t just give you the rift!”

 Bill laughed, “Oh I can hear your little squeaky voice ‘liar, she’d never do that!’ Well how about I show you some evidence!”

A grainy video opened on another wall. Mabel at twelve, smiling, handing Bill the rift.

“We need a plan!”

Rupert yelled back at Sasha in irritation as he shot out another turret, “We know Sasha! Everyone knows! Dib knows, Marcy knows, Amity knows, Hunter knows, the bloody ants know, old women in Gameland know! Stop shouting about it and contribute or start getting rid of turrets!”

Sasha flipped him off and Rupert returned it without looking at her.

Dib snapped from underneath the boat, “That’s really helpful! We’ll definitely survive, I’m so glad I met exactly three people in this group!”
Marcy and Luz were ignoring all of this, frantically leaning over glyph paper and clipping pieces together as they drew spells.

Luz crawled over to Dib and said rapidly, “Okay so, this glyph should make your gun stronger and strengthen the bolt so it shatters whatever Bill’s got going on! Marcy and I have been testing this spell on smaller weapons behind the shack but we’ve never used it on a rifle, especially not this type!”

The boy forgot about yelling at the group and asked, “What happens if it doesn’t work,  say the spell misfires?”

Marcy let out a high pitched terrified giggle and replied for Luz, “The gun blows up and that gun uses radiation so…we all get blown up?”

Dib stared at her for a minute then sighed, “Cool, hopefully it actually kills us straight out if that happens.”

With that he slapped the glyph paper on and aimed. Luz activated the spell nervously and backed as far back as she could, pulling Marcy with her.

Dib called out, “Amity, get ready to catch them. Rupert pray for us.”

Amity peeked around the truck and asked, “Wait, you have a plan? What is it?”

Rupert gave Dib a suspicious look as his friend steadied the weapon, “Why do I need to pray?”

Instead of answering, Dib fired. There was a brief moment of quiet then a long bright white blast fired and struck the bubble. It shook the boat and Rupert misfired, the bullet glancing off of the truck.

The bear snapped, “Was the plan to shoot them with the fucking sun David?!”

“Shut up, we aren’t dead!”

A blinding white flash filled the bubble and Anne grabbed Dipper’s arm.

“The hell was that?!”

Dipper didn’t answer, just stared. The bubble started cracking, each one  like a gunshot.

Anne shook him, “Dipper!”

He blinked, “Sorry, um…oh” Dipper’s eyes widened at the cracks and he exclaimed, “Oh shit!”

“No kidding!”

The bubble split open and the pair tumbled through the air before landing with a soft thud.

The turrets had either been destroyed or slid back underground after the bubble was shot. Amity had put out an abomination hand and caught them.

“Anne!”

Marcy and Sasha both tackled Anne. Dipper just stepped off the hand and sat down, stunned. Somewhere in the background, he could hear Rupert and Dib bickering about shooting suns. It should have been a relief they all lived. 

Instead Dipper felt like he was going to vomit.

Amity knelt in front of him, “Are you hurt?”

Dipper shook his head.

Hunter, who had sat down beside Dipper, asked, “What happened?”

He swallowed hard and replied, “Mabel. She gave Bill the rift.”

Chapter Text

It was dead quiet. Fortunately Dipper had spoken loud enough everyone heard or he’d end up saying it over and over again until he sounded like a broken record. 

Sasha spoke first, “Are you sure? I mean, if that’s true it’s a pretty big deal. Do we even want to find Mabel after she-”

Luz cut her off sharply, “Sasha! Of course we want to find her, Bill probably just made it up or something! Tell her Amity!”

Dipper sighed shakily and ran his hands over his face. He wanted to be the person he was before seeing that message. 

Amity looked at Dipper and said carefully, “I mean…Bill does lie a lot and he doesn’t have a reason to tell the truth but he also can’t actually create anything on his own. Every bad thing we see here in Weirdmageddon is either something Bill distorted or something he accidentally brought here when he merged realms. So I’m guessing there’s truth to it but I dunno how much.”

Sasha huffed, “Great, so she either did give him the rift or she got tricked, either way she’s responsible.”

Dipper flinched when Sasha said responsible.

Marcy spoke up from where she had decided to sit, on the left side of Dipper, “Sash, she was twelve, it isn’t really hard to trick twelve year olds. She made a mistake-”

“Like how you made a mistake?”

Anne gasped, “Sasha!”

Sasha retorted, “It’s not as if it’s not true!”

There was a long uncomfortable silence as everyone stared at Sasha with varying levels of shock. Even Rupert, who had no clue what the blond girl was even talking about, looked slightly put off.

Dib snapped first, “Now? Really now? You wanna bring up how she sent you all to Amphibia now?!”

He gestured at the general landscape as he continued, “You wanna bring up old shit now, when it doesn’t matter and we are constantly running for our lives?! Okay Sasha, let’s talk about you and how you joined a fascist military because they MIGHT have been able to get you home, you hypocrite!”

Sasha turned red but yelled, “I was thirteen Dib! What did you think I’d do, not join people who said they could help?!”

“When they’re obviously lying? Yes! And Mabel was twelve!”

Marcy held up her hands and planted herself firmly between the two.
“Dib, it’s okay, let’s not start a fight in the middle of an open field where we can be seen and heard for miles, okay?”

Dib stopped short and instead of more yelling, aggressively pointed at the other girl over Marcy’s shoulder before sitting and cleaning his gun while muttering to himself. Anne patted him on the shoulder while glaring at Sasha, who looked guilty but defensive. 

Rupert raised his paw and calmly said, “I don’t know what any of this is about but bringing up old fights solves absolutely nothing. Look Dipper, Bill is a bastard and I wouldn’t trust a thing he says until we hear from Mabel’s side of things.”

Dipper nodded, “I agree. Look, you all don’t have to stay with me and help if you don’t think Mabel deserves it but she’s my sister. I need to hear from her what happened.”

Hunter stood and pulled Dipper up before addressing the group, “This is the kind of thing Belos would have done, give half the information to create confusion and a split. Make resistance weak. I’m with Dipper and if Mabel did give Bill the rift, we’ll deal with it when we get back to Gravity Falls. Does anyone want to come with us? I’m assuming Rupert, Luz, Dib, and Marcy will.”

After a moment, Amity sighed, “I’ll come. I think she was probably manipulated and anyway, no matter what Mabel did, she’s still Dipper’s sister.”

Anne moved closer to the others, away from Sasha. 

Sasha looked around and sighed, “Look, I think this might be a mistake but Amity and Rupert both have good points…and Dib too. Even if he was an ass about it.”

“I was being right but okay. Let’s get out of the open, before something notices us again.”