Gravity Falls, Oregon
July 15th, 2043
"Mike, wake up."
"Ugh, what do you want," said Mike in a daze.
His twin sister Daron was standing over his bed looking down.
"Remember what we talked about yesterday?" she said, "We were gonna go out into the woods and explore."
"But didn't mom tell us not to?" replied Mike.
"It's still early," said Daron, "If we hurry, we can go out, check out a bit of the forest, and get back before she wakes up."
"You're bad...I like that."
He quickly got dressed up and the two tip toed downstairs. The sun was still creeping up over the horizon as the two made it to the exit. They were about to leave, when...
"Mike and Daron Pines! What on Earth are you both doing?!"
The twins turned around and sure enough, Mabel stood there looking down at the two of them.
"We...uh, it's not what it looks like mom!" yelled Daron, "We were, just...uh-"
"We were gonna go check out the forest," said Mike. He covered is mouth immediately once he realized he wasn't supposed to say that.
"Nice save moron," whispered Daron.
Mabel sighed, "Now kids, what did I tell you?"
"Not to go out without your permission or supervision?" said the twins.
"No."
Daron and Mike looked on confused.
"Well...I mean, yes, I did tell you that. But I also said don't go outside without being fully prepared."
"But mom, you never said that?" said Daron.
"Oh, did I?"
"Uh, no. You didn't."
"Well, I'm saying it now," said Mabel, "I guess, what I'm trying to say is, I don't want to see you both cooped up in the shack for the remainder of our stay here. If you wanna go explore, with me, Soos, or heck, alone, go for it. That's what I always used to do."
"Are...you okay mom?" said Daron.
"So, you don't wanna go outside?"
"No, no!" the twins yelled.
"I thought so," said Mabel.
The three of them smiled as the twins ran over to hug their mother.
"Oh, that reminds me, I have something for both of you."
Mabel turned around and handed Mike something.
"Woah," he said, "Is this a-"
"Yup, it's a grappling hook," said Mabel, "It used to be mine. It saved my life on several occasions too. Might come in handy for you too."
"Oh, I thought it was an actual gun. Thanks, though mom," said Mike as he started pointing it around.
Mabel laughed, "Oh Mike, like I'd ever be dumb enough to give you an actual one. And Daron, this is for you."
Mabel handed her a blue book with a pine tree on it.
"Woah," she said, "What's this?"
"It's a journal," said Mabel, "When you're exploring the forest, you gotta keep track of what you see. You can keep all sorts of things in this. That way you'll never forget your adventures."
Daron smiled, "Thanks mom," she said.
She then noticed a few ripped out pages and showed them to her mother, "Was this your Journal mom?"
Mabel paused, "Uh...well...let's just say, I was given this book by someone as a gift for someone else. But they never got to use it and I got it back. Now it's your turn to fill it up like it was always meant to be."
"Uh...okay," said Daron, still a bit confused.
"Alright, I've kept you two adventurers inside for long enough. Now get out there and explore," said Mabel.
And with that, the two waved goodbye as they set out for the forest.
"Geez, are you the same Mabel Pines that went to bed last night, or did you get replaced by a more responsible one?" said Soos as he walked in.
"How long were you standing there?" said Mabel.
"Oh, I just arrived when you told them to go explore."
"Yeah, well, I guess I've been a bit too hard on them. I mean, if it was me in their shoes and Grunkle Stan wouldn't let me leave the house, I'd try to sneak out too."
The two sat stood and watched for a bit as Daron and Mike ran off into the woods.
"You know, I always found it a bit odd," said Soos.
"What?"
"Well, I mean, in your family, Mr. Pines had a twin brother and your two kids are twins too. But yet, you were an only child."
Mabel pondered for a second, "Yeah. I guess it must've been a gene thing. Skipped a generation."
"It's a shame really, I always wondered what you having a twin sister or brother may have been like," said Soos, "Anyways, you want some coffee?"
"Oh, you bet I do," said Mabel, "I'll be right back though."
Mabel walked outside and sat once again on the old orange couch. There, she began processing what Soos had just told her.
"So, I wasn't dreaming," she said to herself.
The memories of what had happened last night flooded in.
----
Tired and wanting to get back to sleep, Mabel walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. Her childhood habit of a late-night drink had never ceased. But as she raised her glass to take as sip, a bright blue flash of light flew past her.
"What the heck was that?" she thought.
Following the source of it, she found herself standing by the entrance to the gift shop. The vending machine lay open in a way she hadn't seen it do for years. Someone was downstairs in Ford's old lab.
Grabbing a baseball bat that lay nearby, Mabel tip toed down the long flight of stairs. But as she reached the bottom, she could begin to hear who was downstairs all the way from above.
".... If you connect the memory gun to a radio and set the frequency correctly, it can be used for mass memory wiping. I set the frequency to the regular human ear, which is why I told you to cover your ears because I needed you to remember me. And, I broke it so that no one else could use it."
The voice sounded familiar to Mabel. As if it was of someone she had known for ages. It then hit her.
"Di...Dipper?" she whispered.
She pressed her ear to the elevator doors and listened to the conversation that the two were having. Just from hearing his voice, her memories flooded back in. That first summer. That apocalypse. That day she lost him and that moment when she found out he was still alive.
"...there's none of me here and given no one looks at the family photos from what Mabel told me, I should be able to slip away."
"Slip away?"
Mabel was soon able to piece back what was happening and now knew what that ray of light was. Dipper had tried to make her and everyone else forget him. And while it worked, it didn't so with her.
She wanted to say something. She wanted to very much race down the elevator and stop him. But then she heard him say something which stopped her from doing that.
"Blendin, I did this because of Mabel. I know her better than anyone else. She maybe thirty years older, but she's still very much the Mabel Pines I knew all those years ago. I don't want her to suffer through losing me again. She almost lost me once. Then she did for thirty years. And now that she got me back, I'm leaving her again...permanently this time. I'm doing this for her. So that she can live her life without the guilt of losing me for a third and final time."
Mabel pulled her hand away from the elevator button. If Dipper had the will power to do that for her, then she felt that she needed to let got of him in order to repay that favor.
She heard Blendin sob a bit, the two talk a bit more, and then, she heard the unmistakable sound of the time tape as it disappeared with Blendin, and her brother into an unknown that she knew she'd never know the outcome of.
She went down into the lab and sure enough, she spotted the smashed up and beyond repair memory gun laying in the garbage. Nearby though, she found something else.
----
Now alone, Mabel took that thing out of her pocket.
It was a photo. A photo of her.
A photo of her, and Dipper.
A photo of her and Dipper on their first day in Gravity Falls all those years ago.
Mabel smiled and even teared up as she looked at the faded but still visible Polaroid. Those memories were now left in her mind only. She knew that while she could tell others, it would be a longshot to see if they even knew what she meant. She decided that this was maybe one story that was better off not being told.
"Hey Mabel!" yelled Soos from inside, "Your coffee is getting cold!"
"Coming Soos!"
She folded the photo up and put it back into her pocket.
As Mabel walked back inside, the sun rose over the horizon as it signalled the start of another day. Its light gleamed all across the woods and onto the shack. She looked on at it and back into the forests of Gravity Falls where memories of that summer long ago still lingered.
"Stay safe, bro-bro, I'll be okay," she said, before walking back inside the shack for a cup of coffee.
The End
"Memories are the treasures that we keep locked deep within the storehouse of our souls, to keep our hearts warm when we are lonely."
- Becky Aligada
Art by moringmark on Tumblr.