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He knew they were going to die.
They were royally fucked this time, that’s for sure.
His mind raked every single option he might’ve had at one point but found no recourse. There was absolutely no way he could’ve avoided the fate that stood before him.
“Dipper…” Pacifica whispered, squeezing his hand and effectively jostling him from his monologue of internal panic. He turned his head to look at her, brown meeting purple and took her in.
She looked utterly terrified. Eyes welled up with tears. Dirt and blood covering her usually flawless face but he couldn’t help but thinking that she looked beautiful, a stark contrast to the red sky filled with smoke behind her.
“Sorry… I just- I just don’t know what to say.” He replied shakily.
“Is there a plan?” Her voice broke desperately.
Dipper held her gaze for a little longer than turned towards the scene below. The whole town was on fire, monsters roamed torturing, tormenting, and playing with any resident they could find. Buildings that he had seen standing proudly yesterday were now in ruins, the only thing left of Gravity Falls was chaos, anarchy, and destruction.
There was no plan, they got lucky seven years ago. Bill wasn’t going to be defeated that easily again. Not to mention, the zodiac characters were either dead or scattered. There was no ingenious way to get out of this one. Bill wasn’t after anything other than revenge. They were going to die, the end was here.
He took a long breath in. “No.” He said resignedly.
He felt her sharp intake more than he heard it. “Okay.” She whispered. He squeezed her hand again and then made to sit down on the cliff effectively pulling her with him.
She landed to his right side and sniffled as she pulled the hand she was holding up and positioned his right arm around her shoulders. She then leaned her head on his shoulder and started to quietly cry. He let her. Just watching the destruction and listening to her crying.
He felt fully resigned that there was absolutely nothing he could do. Naturally, the only thing that came to his mind was that he didn’t want to spend his last moments in despair.
“Do you remember when we took that daytrip up north for graduation?” He asked.
She started a bit and looked up at him from her place in his neck sniffling. “What?”
“We drove all day and ended up getting lost and found that field in the middle of nowhere.” He continued. “We ended up running around the field like children and I got that wicked sunburn.” He chuckled a bit.
She kept staring at him, face unreadable. “Yeah… that was fun.” She said wobbly. “ I remember it being really sunny that day… It was… nice.” Her expression started to twitch into a smile.
“Do you remember when we were fifteen and you, Mabel, and I went looking for the Mothman?”
“We got so lost in that forest that we ended up completely out of water and had to be rescued by a town-wide search team.” She quipped back, laughing a bit.
He smiled. “I kissed you when we got rescued and ending up cracking both our lips.”
She laughed again and seemed to understand what he was doing. “You remember when we went on our urban exploring kick, the summer we were sixteen? We saw that Slaughterhouse that freaked me the hell out. The old shopping mall where you were convinced that there were going to be ghosts. Oh! And the old timey casino place where you thought that a cult resided. Mabel and I thought you had lost it at that point.” She was laughing so hard now her body was shaking him.
“Okay to be fair, I had reasons for all of that.” His smile was so big it was starting to hurt his cheeks. “You remember our first date?”
She nuzzled into him a bit further and took a long breath in. “Yeah… my favorite part was the car ride home where we listened to that god awful song and your windows stopped working so you started blasting the heater to try and make up for it.”
“The genre was rap country… I think.” He said quickly as she snorted. “And I was so embarrassed. I knew my car was a piece of shit but that was truly horrible timing for the middle of winter break, even if we were in California.”
“I guess you’re just unlucky.” She said lightly. As soon as she said it, she regretted it, feeling the tension she created. The silence was deafening. She looked back up at Dipper and saw that his smile was gone, replaced by a small frown. “Sorry.” She awkwardly supplied.
Just as she said it, her head whipped back up to the scenery to see a bolt of lightning lighting up the sky with thunder quickly sounding behind it. She heard numerous screams from the forest where the lightning seemed to strike. She shivered. Dipper squeezed her tighter to him.
“I’m glad you’re with me…” Dipper whispered, feeling tears welling up in his eyes. “This town is strange… maybe we’ll end up... being ghosts and haunt whoever ends up here when this is all over.”
“We could go haunt a white picket fence house just like we always dreamed.” She said mournfully. “Live the dream… just not with the alive part.” Dipper chuckled.
He turned to her fully and grabbed her face softly. Both their eyes shined with tears. He slowly leaned his forehead on her own. “I’m not afraid to disappear with you.” She let out a whimper and started to quietly sob.
“Oh! I was looking for you two!” Dipper and Pacifica stiffened, slowly turning their heads to the source. “You were hiding out here were you? Oh well, hide and seek is over now. Ready to die?” Bill taunted and then started to cackle.
Dipper gripped her face a bit tighter and turned her towards him again. He stared into her eyes for a minute before whispering, “I guess the end is here… I love you. Thank you.”
Pacifica could barely control her sobs but managed to spit out, “I love you Mason Pines, I’m not afraid to disappear with you either.” She quickly darted forward and kissed him. She poured everything she had ever felt about him into the kiss, he responded with the same amount of passion, trying to convey the love, the desperation, and the acceptance he had into the action. He leaned back and settled his forehead back on hers.
“Ready?” He whispered. She looked straight into his eyes and nodded with conviction.
“Ew gross… Okay, night night.” Bill snapped his fingers and then Dipper and Pacifica both felt a little pain before everything went black.