Cataclysm -A Gravity Falls Fan Fic

Chapter Three- Soos's Philosophical Question

Mabel widens her eyes.
"What are you...?" Mabel's voice fades out.
"Bill whispered to me all the secrets of the universe," Dipper says, smiling. "And now I know with all the pain and madness in this world, that life has no real meaning,"
"But...but Dipper, if you know all of the secrets of the universe, surely you know all about love, family, and happiness too, right...?" Mabel asks.
"Huh...happiness? Love? Bill...did not teach me those things," Dipper replies.
He stares into space for a second, as if searching an invisible database.
"Ah, yes!" Dipper starts. "I remember Bill said those things are just...lies,"
"Do you not remember all the memories with your family? With me?" Mabel asks.
"The only memories I remember with family in it are negative ones," Dipper states, plainly.
"No, Dipper, Bill must've--" Mabel starts.
"Hey, you two again!" the lifeguard shouts. "Do you need help with anything? How's the kid shaping up?"
Mabel came looking for help, but now she knows no lifeguard can fix what Bill and Dark Mage have done to Dipper's mind...only the journal can.
"Yeah, he's definitely not doing terribly! Thanks," Mabel grumbles sarcastically, mustering a smile, and leading Dipper back to Stan.
     They're on their way home in the car, Stan and Mabel talking about some of the good things that happened in the midst of all that chaos.
Dipper sits in the middle row with Mabel, grinning, not a care in the world.
"Hey, Dipper! How ya holding up?" Stan asks.
"Better than ever!" Dipper laughs. "Better than I used to when pain first entered my life!"
Stan shares a slightly confused look with Mabel, who sighs.
     They walk inside of the Mystery Shack, ready to wrap up the long, fun, but confusing trip to the waterpark.
"Hey, Dipper!" Wendy says, on her way out.
"Hey, Red! How're your problems with your family going?" Dipper smiles.
She widens her eyes in shock, but before she can answer, Dipper is nonchalantly sliding his way up the stairs.
He staggers a bit, his body still weak from earlier; Mabel helps him the rest of the way up to their room.
"How'd he...?" Wendy mutters, looking to Mabel for answers.
"I don't know how to explain it," Mabel sighs. "His brain is just really messed up right now."
     Mabel wakes up in the middle of the night to the sounds of Dipper rolling around in bed, groaning.
Mabel gets up and walks over, and shakes him.
"You...okay?" Mabel asks.
Dipper sits up and yells, but when he realizes the nightmare is over, he sighs.
"Y-Yeah, sorry, Mabel...j-just had another nightmare," Dipper stutters, sighing.
"Uh...about what...?" Mabel asks, noticing his change in personality.
"I had a dream I was...walking along a pool. And then...and then I received images of Bill whispering secrets to me...but...Bill was in your body," Dipper explains, scared.
Those aren't nightmares...those are two different memories! Mabel thinks.
"Oh...sounds terrifying," Mabel comments, cautiously.
So now we're back to clueless Dipper. Mabel thinks.
"Are you sure you just can't sleep because you're thinking about...Wendy?" Mabel winks, testing him.
"What? N-No! I told you, I d-don't think I have a crush on her...I mean, if I did have one, it wouldn't be huge or anything!" Dipper stutters, blushing.
"Haha, sure! Okay, night dum dum!" Mabel smiles, climbing back in bed.
"Night Mabel," Dipper sighs, laying back down.
"Kids, downstairs! Breakfast!" Stan yells up, just like he does almost every morning. They sleepily climb down the stairs.
They sit at the table with Soos and Stan, all eating toaster strudels.
"These...these are glorious," Soos says, shoving one into his mouth and chomping loudly. "Om nom om,"
"Yes...they really are," Mabel agrees, shoving another one in her mouth, eyes sparkling.
"Well, enjoy 'em. It was hard to steal these," Stan says. "Apparently they're pretty valuable!"
"I can see why," Dipper agrees, chewing.
"I think they taste terrible," Stan adds. "And I definitely do not have a stash in my room,"
With that, Stan gets up and suspiciously backs into his room with a plate and a fork.
"I will find your stash, Stan!" Mabel yells from the table.
"Never!" Stan yells, through his closed and locked door.
"So," Soos comments. "I heard yesterday evening was a bit rough for you, Dipper,"
"Oh, yeah, it was," Dipper comments, assuming he was talking about his nightmare. "D-Did Mabel tell you about it?"
"Everyone knows about it, dude!" Soos says, taking another bite of his strudel.
"Everyone...?" Dipper stutters, glancing at Mabel, who's sweating. "You told everyone my nightmare?"
"No, I did not! But, hey guys! Maybe we should talk about something...I don't know...else!" Mabel says, throwing her arms up.
"What nightmare? Dudes, I was talking about Dipper almost drowning!" Soos says, chomping.
"You must've misheard, I dreamed of drowning," Dipper corrects. "I...didn't actually almost drown,"
"Then why did Mabel have to help you up the stairs last night?" Soos asks.
"Last...night...?" Dipper mumbles. Suddenly, images of last night flood into his head. "No...I can't...ugh,"
Dipper rubs his head.
"Hey, Dipper, speaking of being confused, do you ever think about the meaning of life?" Soos asks, fulfilling his "daily philosophical question from Soos" quota.
Dipper closes his eyes. Slowly, he sits up to look at Soos with a smile.
"Ya really wanna hear the meaning of life?" Dipper smiles.
Mabel's eyes widen.
"He just...switched again!" she whispers.
"Yeah, bro! Hit me with it," Soos smiles casually.
"Okay," Dipper starts. "Life has no meaning except pain, loss, suffering, and the inescapability of death,"
There's a long silence that follows.
"Anyway, have a fun day, kids!" Dipper laughs, walking away.
"Mabel...is something wrong with Dipper?" Soos asks, a bit worried himself.
"Yeah," Mabel sighs. "Something is definitely wrong. Which is why I need to get started now!"
Mabel runs upstairs to start her research on the journal.
"Not quite sure what just went down," Soos says to himself. He shrugs, and takes another strudel.
     Ever since Mew, Dipper's cat, noticed Dipper acting differently, Mew has explored, trying to find a way to help his owner.
He knew the Mage's had something to do with it, so he secretly followed Mabel there when she went to help with the two Mage's in their cat forms.
Once Mabel made it inside White Mage's room, Mew secretly departed from them. He stayed in the Mage's quarters for a bit, exploring the halls and pawing through books. He stayed hidden by pawing silently in the shadows.
After a few hours of searching, Mew was padding down a hall, when he heard his master's name.
"And if I ever get my hands on that Mabel," Mew hears a hiss. "She'll get worse than what I did to Dipper's brain! You can count on that!"
Mew's ears perk up, and he peeks around the corner, into the hall the voice was coming from. He sees White Mage looking through a small window in a door.
He hides until White Mage is walking away, then he paws over to investigate.
He jumps up and balances on he locked doorknob, peering through the small window. He sees Dark Mage screaming in the light pulsing room.
Dark Mage almost misses him.
"What is...is that...a...cat...?" Dark Mage whispers.
She widens her eyes when the idea hits her, and grins evilly when she realizes what she's about to do.
"Gvnklizib hlfo...hdrgxs!" Dark Mage hisses, with just enough energy to pull it off.
There's a spark of dark energy, and the next thing Mew knows, now he is inside the room pulsing with light.
Dark Mage wakes up in the cat's body, and grins as much as she can in that form.
She takes a moment to recover from the pulsing, and sprints down the hall towards White Mage's room.
White Mage is laying in her bed...crying.
But Dark Mage doesn't care; she doesn't want her sympathy.
She crawls up on to the side of the bed that White Mage isn't facing, and stretches out her neck to see...
Yes! Dark Mage thinks.
The key is on a chain around White Mage's neck.
The cat jumps off of the bed and waits patiently for White Mage to be fully asleep.
Once she is, Dark Mage stealthily claws the hook. It takes a few attempts, but the hook comes undone, the chain splitting, releasing the key.
It falls on White Mage's pillow.
Dark Mage crawls around to the other side where White Mage is facing, and where the key fell.
She scoops it up in her mouth and slinks out, unseen.
She jumps onto the doorknob, and tries to unlock it.
This better work. I'm not going to fail because of this small, stubby form I'm in! Dark Mage thinks.
Finally, using her mouth to put it in and her paw to twist it, she hears a click.
Just in time, she thinks. The spell wears off soon.
30 seconds later, there's a flash of dark, and Dark Mage is back in her body, Mew back in his. Dark Mage, hurting from the light pulsing yet again, crawls over to the door and just manages to open it.
She collapses out.
Mew frantically jumps off of the doorknob, about to race his way out and try to warn someone.
But it's too late; Dark Mage grabs him by the tail and slings him harshly up against a wall, and Mew falls, unconscious.
Dark Mage shakily stands up.
"I'm coming, Mabel," she whispers.
"I never thought I would be looking through his nerd book," Mabel says, flipping through the pages. Meanwhile, Dipper is laying on his bed, sighing depressingly.
"Whatchya doing, Shooting Star?" Dipper asks, still staring at the ceiling.
"Don't call me that," Mabel grumbles, not taking her eyes off of the journal's pages.
"Sorry...when The Demon teaches you things...it's hard to ignore them!" Dipper says. "That's what he calls you, right?"
"Yes," Mabel sighs. "Or else I wouldn't care!"
"I figured," Dipper sighs, rolling over onto his face.
He hits the back of his own head a few times, bored.
Mabel tries to ignore him and continues with her research.
Mabel finds the page on the memory gun.
"That's the only thing that could possibly help," Mabel sighs. "But I don't wanna screw up his brain even more!"
"Y'know, I'm still in the room," Dipper says.
Mabel sighs.
"I'm gonna take a walk to clear my head, maybe figure out what to do," Mabel says. "Wanna...come...?"
"Nah, I'd rather wait here for my impending doom," Dipper laughs.
Mabel sighs again.
     Mabel is walking around the Shack, trying to decide what to do.
"What should I do?" Mabel mumbles to herself. "I can't just leave him like this forever!"
Mabel pauses to think.
"But I don't want him going even more bananas," she sighs. "I mean, what if Dipper changes personalities last minute and I accidentally erase real Dipper!"
As Mabel walks, rubbing her temples, she hears a branch crack from behind her.
She turns, but nothing is there.
"Huh," Mabel grunts.
She's about to turn around, when she feels two hands cover her mouth.
She screams and tries to wriggle free, punching and kicking, but she sees dark energy coming from the hand and entering her mouth, making her feel sleepy.
She collapses to the ground, and just before she passes out, she manages to yell,  "Dipper...help!"

(Note: Hope you guys enjoyed it!! I'm excited to get deeper into the sequel. Yay!! I hope you guys are excited too. Have any of you guys tried decoding the secret messages in the description yet? 😏😁 See ya soon!!!
❤️🐷❤️👋🏻)