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The portal room buzzed with electricity as a low hum filled the cavernous space. Dipper stood alone, leaning over the control panel, eyes fixed on the various bars and meters as he listened to the beeps of the countdown behind him. He had been here before—twenty years ago—standing in the room in front of him, helpless as the machine ripped his sister away.
The numbers continued to fall. Dipper took a deep breath, trying to steady his shaking hands, but the anxiety in his chest was unbearable. He had spent years—decades—fixing this machine, pouring every ounce of his energy into repairing what had been broken. He had stayed up nights on end, even now he felt drowsy. But it was worth it. The portal was almost ready.
And for the first time in years, Dipper began to wonder—was it worth it?
Go! Mabel, press the red button! Shut it down!” Dipper yelled as he and Soos wrestled Stan in midair.
“No, you can’t, you gotta trust me!” the old man said as he tried pushing his nephew away.
“Grunkle Stan, I don’t even know if you’re my grunkle!” Dipper turned his head to see his sister Mabel grabbing onto the button that could end this madness, tears in her eyes. “I wanna believe you, but--“
“Then listen to me. Remember this morning when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?” I wanted to say that you’re gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I’ve worked for, everything I care about, it’s all for this family!" Stan pleaded. A part of Dipper wanted to believe the man he lived with all summer. The man who fought dinosaurs and zombies for him and his sister. Surely he did care for the two of them? But he couldn’t trust that, not while a doomsday weapon he built was this close to going off.
“Mabel, what if he’s lying? This thing could destroy the universe! Listen to your head!” Dipper shouted, trying to appeal to Mabel’s reason.
“Look into my eyes, Mabel! You really think I’m a bad guy?”
“He’s lying! Shut it down NOW!”
“Mabel, please!”
“Grunkle Stan, I trust you,” Mabel said, as she let go of the button and let herself float higher.
“NO!” Dipper yelled. Eyes fixated on the button, he pushed himself off the wall and lunged forward. He felt himself bump into his sister, but grabbed onto the lever and pushed the button. There was a brief moment where he felt a sense of relief and satisfaction.
“DIPPER!”
Dipper looked up, and of all of the close encounters with various monsters over the summer, he never felt as much horror as when he saw his sister fall into the rapidly closing rift.
There was a flash of bright light and an Earth-shattering boom.
When Dipper came to, was met with the sight of the doomsday device in ruins, the vortex that was forming in its middle gone without a trace. Dipper heard groans and turned around to see Stan and Soos getting up. He turned his head around the room twice, and only after realizing there wasn’t a pink sweater in sight that he processed what he just saw. What he just did.
Dipper stood in front of the portal, his head still groggy. Perhaps he should have gotten more sleep the night before, but he couldn’t have missed this for the world.
The young man stood alone. He wasn’t the only person who helped with the device. Soos, Pacifica, Wendy, and even Stan before he became too ill. But he didn’t tell anyone when the portal was ready. If things went south, he couldn’t risk losing anyone else.
He listened as the countdown grew closer to zero and watched as the multicoloured rift in the middle of the portal steadily grew larger. A small part of him said to shut it off. Millions of untold horrors could come out of this thing, as well as one horror he knew very well. But that didn’t matter to him. He spent 20 years on this machine. He would gladly stare into the devil’s single eye yet again to get his sister back.
As the countdown reached its last moments, Dipper closed his eyes. He could feel a familiar blinding light from his eyelids as the count hit zero. When he opened them again, he was met with a portal in one piece and fully stabilized. As smoke cleared, he could barely make out a lone figure walking out of the rift.
“Mabel? Ford?” He called out as he walked closer. As he walked closer, he noticed something was off. The silhouette was far too small to be an adult human. “Who’s there?” Dipper asked again.
“Come on, Bro-Bro, has it been that long?” came a familiar voice. Dipper’s eyes widened as finally saw his sister again after 20 long years. Not because she had changed, but because she hadn’t. There she was, 12-year-old Mabel Pines, still wearing the same pink key sweater she had when Dipper saw her last.
“Is… is that you, Mabel?” Dipper asked as he cautiously approached his sister. Mabel nodded, a smile on her face. Dipper rushed forward, pulling his sister into a hug.
“Mabel, you’re back! You’re finally back!” Dipper cried. He didn’t know how this was possible. The logical part of his brain was telling him to question this more, but he didn’t care. This was his sister, he knew it was, and right now that was enough for him.
“Mabel, I’m so sorry. I should have trusted you and Stan, I should have never pushed you. I’m so, so sorry,” Dipper exclaimed through the tears in his eyes.
Mabel remained smiling. “It’s alright Dipper. You brought me back, and that’s all that matters, isn’t it?” she said.
Dipper wiped some tears from his eyes before responding, “Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. You’re finally home.”
Mabel broke the hug and asked, “Where are the others? Soos, Wendy, Pacifica? Did you fix the portal all by yourself?”
Dipper’s gaze broke away from Mabel for the first time since she got back. “They helped,” he began, unsure why he was looking away from her. “Pacifica pitched in most of the funding, and Wendy and Soos helped a lot with the manual work. But I did most of the work. But they all have their own lives too, and I couldn’t risk anything happening to them, especially after Stan-“
“Why?” Mabel asked, cutting him off.
“Why what?” Dipper asked, looking down, confused.
“Why would you push away all our friends?” Mabel asked again, her smile remaining.
“I didn’t push anyone away. I told you they have their own lives! Soos is married, and he runs the Mystery Shack. Pacifica’s become so much braver since she left her parents. She’s running for Mayor! And Wendy moved out of state for university, and got a great job-“
“And what did you do?” Mabel interrupted as she tilted her head, her grin remaining.
“I-I saved you! I spent years of my life working tirelessly, all for you Mabel!” Dipper shouted in frustration. He didn’t understand what she wanted from him.
Mabel looked down, and Dipper had to lean in to hear her mutter, “So you wasted your life away, threw away every opportunity for happiness. School, friendship, said no to all of it, just to save someone who’s already gone?”
Dipper stared in confusion, then in fear as Mabel turned her head back up. Her face had blue cracks in it. He grabbed onto his sister, barely noticing the portal behind her going up in flames.
“Mabel, what’s going on, what’s happening!” Dipper yelled as the cracks in his sister’s skin started spreading.
“Nothing Dipper,” his sister replied sombrely, still sporting that innocent smile, “it’s been 20 years, there was never anything left to save.”
“No, no, no, I can save you! I saved you!” Dipper pleaded. He grabbed onto Mabel. The two of them were in the centre of the inferno that had spread throughout the room. Dipper desperately held on, even when the fire consumed the two of them, and he could feel Mabel turning to ash in his grasp.
“Was it worth it?” Mabel whispered, her voice barely audible over the roar of the flames as she finally disappeared.
Dipper stared into the fire. The inferno turned blue, and suddenly it was all he saw.
Dipper raised his head. He still saw the blue light, but it was shrinking in concentration. Eventually, it settled into a circle. Dipper tried to focus, as he looked around the light, seeing the metal triangular frame. The young scientist became keenly aware he was staring at the portal from behind a pane of glass. He was still in the control room.
Dipper turned around and looked at the timer. Around a day left before the portal would reactivate. He then looked at the clock, nearly one in the morning.
Still tired, he walked, took off his coat and left it on his chair before heading to the elevator shack. As he entered out from behind the vending machine and into an empty lobby, he heard the sound of the television. Within the living room, he found Soos, still wearing his Mr. Mystery outfit, fast asleep on the couch, the television still running.
As Dipper turned on the lights, Soos stirred before opening his eyes.
“Oh, hey dude,” Soos yawned, “must’ve fallen asleep on the couch. Had a long day.” Soos rubbed his eyes, before suddenly turning to face Dipper. Panicked, he said, “Oh shoot, I totally forgot to help you with the portal today! I’m so sorry dawg.”
“It’s fine, Soos. The portal is almost done. It’ll be working by tomorrow,” Dipper said as he took a seat.
Soos looked at him with a mix of relief and confusion. “That’s great, man!” He said, sitting up straight. “But why are you looking so glum?”
Dipper sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. “I just... I had this weird dream,” he began, his voice trailing off as he tried to find the right words to explain the emotions that had just crashed over him. “Mabel was there. But she was just a kid again. And she... I’m wondering if all of this was worth it.”
Soos leaned in, his eyes wide with concern. “Worth what? What are you talking about, dude?”
Dipper looked around the room, at the posters peeling off the walls. “Worth sacrificing my life for. Worth pushing everyone away.”
The room grew quiet as Soos digested Dipper’s words. He looked around, taking in the reality of the situation.
“You know,” Dipper spoke up, “I can’t remember the last time we did anything just for fun. Just you and me.”
Soos looked down at his hands, his thumb tracing the outline of a screwdriver in his pocket. “You’re right,” he murmured, “It’s been a while.”
Dipper nodded, his gaze drifting back to the television. “And Pacifica,” he said, his voice a little softer, “I see her here maybe once a week, but it’s always about the portal. I don’t know if I even know her anymore.”
They sat in silence for a moment before Dipper spoke again, “And Wendy... I haven’t talked to her since she moved away. I never even went to visit her.”
“Dipper, we’ve all made sacrifices for this,” Soos said, trying to comfort his friend, but Dipper just scoffed.
“You know, I think Stan was right,” he said, looking at Soos with a hint of sadness in his eyes. “This has become an obsession. I’ve been so focused on bringing Mabel back. What’s am I going to have for her to come back to?”
Soos reached over and squeezed Dipper’s shoulder. “Hey,” he said, “we’ve got each other. And we’ve got one more night before the big moment. How about we make it count?”
Dipper managed a small smile. “Yeah,” he said.
The two of them grabbed their coats and went for a drive. As he drove through the quiet streets of Gravity Falls, Dipper knew that no matter what happened tomorrow, he wouldn’t have to face it alone.