Work Text:
"Mabel ! Mabel ! It's happening again !"
Mabel quickly looks over her computer and sees her twin jumping like an idiot, almost hitting his head on the ceiling of the attic. They are back in the Mystery Shack, but now it seems smaller than before. Even if she is really happy to share the room with her brother again, he still annoys her with his way of playing with his pen in the middle of the night. At some point, Mabel doesn't know if the scribbles on his arms are his tattoos or just drawings he makes himself while he is sleeping.
"What is happening again ?
- The portal that Ford and I picked out thanks to our software in the lab. It's open !
- A lot of portals opens every day, Dipper. We're not going to check them all."
She doesn't have time to do some weird thingy today, she is currently working on her laptop. Their 21st birthday is in a few days, which means it would be legal for them to drink so obviously she needs to set up a pub crawl in Oregon that they have to do with Grunkle Stan in less than 24 hours before they go back to school.
"Yeah but this one is special."
This past few years, Dipper and Mabel Pines became quite experts about portals through other dimensions. Not only they've been into some of them already, thanks to Grunkle Ford and his friend Rick, but they also built portal guns, portal machines and stuff so they could travel alone. It's a matter of calibration. And actually, there are two types of dimensions.
The alternate realities are where everything is almost like your original dimension except one little detail that can change a lot. This is the kind of dimension where you can find your alternate you, and the last time Mabel had to face different versions of herself... well... it didn't go smoothly. Since, she avoids alternate realities. Alternate realities can be create because of time travelling, Dipper and Mabel made hundreds of them when they tried to build a time machine, an experience Mabel wants to forget (but she can't help but be scared of trains since).
The second are the different universes. If alternate realities are facets of the same infinite prism, different universes are just... different. A whole new planet kind-of different. THOSE are the plane of existence Mabel adores to discover. Dipper likes to go on a tour in different universes with her, it helps him to write his new comics and animated shorts, but Mabel... Mabel often thinks about leaving her dimension to go in another one for some years. She is thirsting of discovery, hungry for encounter.
But she needs to have her psychology degree first.
And to talk to Pacifica too.
Anyway, a portal through another dimension isn't something new, even if since every dimension is unique, every portal have their own signature. The portal Dipper is referring to is one that, strangely, appears here and there. But what could make it special ? Not an alternate reality ? Not a different universe ? Honestly, sometimes the gap is so tight that it's difficult to say if it's another reality or another universe.
That place with Gems for example...
"How special ?
- The portal... We understand the signature now. It is made by magic."
Mabel closes her laptop.
Magic ? Special indeed. And also probably dangerous.
The only being that told her about magic portals wasn't very eager to let it happen again. She remembers those long nights when he phoned her, talking about the Darklands like a nightmare he didn't escape. His new home, his new form, his new life weren't easy for him to adapt, he just found some stability by building a library inside the New Jersey Trollmarket with his girlfriend. Mabel can't handle the idea of his quietness being ruined because she wanted to have some beers.
"Where ?
- I put the coordinates on the portal gun.
- Let's go."
The portal gun is an invention of Rick, but Dipper modified it so it doesn't only travel through dimensions but also through space. Just type geographic coordinates and voilà !
Teleportation, baby !
They arrives in front of an old cottage, the portal replacing the porch. It is blank, like, pure light presented in the form of a rectangle and Dipper can't help but roll his eyes.
"Great. We can't see what's inside."
And there is no way they go inside a portal with no idea what's behind. Dipper have already done it once... and he will definitely not do it twice.
"So we just wait ? asks Mabel.
- So we just wait. But let's hide behind the trees. Who knows what's going to come."
Dipper knows his sister, almost more than he knows himself. She is thinking about Jim, about trolls, about dark creatures coming from a magic portal. Of course, maybe it's not the case. Maybe it's just an elf or a fairy who wants to spend some time in this plane. Who knows. Quietly, he hides behind a tree, Mabel behind another tree across the road. And they wait. There is no sound coming from the portal... and no one too. Which is strange. But they still wait. At some point, Dipper thinks it's just some kind of anomaly and not a portal someone opened... and then two people appears, followed by a weird animal, a tiny wolf with a skull on the head.
One is a girl, she seems human even if she has a cape that makes her look like a witch. Her brown hair is short, and her brown eyes watches at the horizon with awe and fear. The other is a woman... perhaps. But she had pointy ears, grey skin, and when she finally gets up a strange green light surrounds her hands. She is going to attack her !
Quickly, Dipper looks at Mabel who nods. They will protect the girl, no matter who she is. Dipper is ready to jump at the woman and...
"LUZ WATCH OUT !"
He freezes. He can't move, he just freezes. He feels like time has stopped and nothing can repair it anymore. He is 12 again. Forget all the wisdom he learned, all the skills he had, all the confidence he gained. Everything is gone, the strong, smart, clever 20-years-old Dipper is gone. He is a kid again, and he is scared. He freezes and he doesn't realise that the girl and the witch fight near him. He doesn't hear them yell and then talk and then leave.
He doesn't.
He only hears one thing in his head.
"watch out watch out wAtCh OuT WATCH OUT"
He doesn't feel his sister approaching him, calling him softly because she goddamn knows what is happening to him Mabel knows his brother almost more than she knows herself and she tries to calm him to reassure him but it's over it's done it's their birthday soon and it's summer and it's some sunny day...
The tiny wolf.
"It's him, Dipper says after a while. It's him. He's back.
- Dipper, listen to me.
- It's him, Mabel.
- No. It's a creature from another dimension.
- It has his voice.
- Didn't look like his voice to me.
- It's less distorted, but it's his voice.
- Dipper...
- IT'S HIS VOICE !"
Mabel stares at him.
"He is gone. Look. He is not here. The portal is closed. You're safe.
- He is still alive somewhere.
- And when we'll meet him again, we will fight him and defeat him, like we have already done once. We can do it.
- I can't."
He is shaking. He is freezing and it's some sunny day. He wants to cry so badly. He is a kid again.
And Mabel just stares at him.
She knows. She saw him watching his arms and hands all night after the puppet catastrophe. All. Night. She heard him scream after nightmares that always included a one-eyed demon. She witnessed him scratching his skin to the point that he bled. She knows. Every time a person calls Dipper "Pine Tree" to make fun of his name, his face melts and it's so scary that person regrets it immediately. Every time Dipper had to draw a triangle for his art classes, he refrains himself to puke.
He is a kid again.
Afraid of triangles.
He feels her gently taking his hand and opening a portal with the gun, guiding him through it and letting him sit on the sofa. He feels the Grunkles seeing them but Mabel shakes her head. "Not now." They understand. They say nothing. Even if they are worried as hell.
Dipper just let her put a blanket on him and then she gives him some ice-cream and... maybe it's because of the ice, of the frost, but it clears his mind little by little. He focuses on his sister, on his Grunkles and, oh. Pacifica is here too. Oh yeah, she is working with Soos in the Mystery Shack.
They are all here for him, and he feels a bit stupid.
A voice. It was just a voice.
Maybe it wasn't him. Still. He will keep a watch on that magic portal. And if really that freaking demon appears again, at least he has his family and his friends by his side to beat him. Yeah. Mabel is right. They can do it.
Until then, he will keep an eye on that door.