Gravity Falls: Pushing Rewind

[5.]

Mabel was floating.

Her head felt heavy as a headache pounded against her skull but her body felt as light as a feather. She groggily peeled her eyes open, expecting to find herself in her bedroom with Dipper alive again, and sleeping in his bed across from her's, but instead she found herself in a room that was completely white. Mabel took shaky breaths to keep herself calm. "Everything's fine..." She assured herself. "I'm just dreaming...that's all. I'll wake up any minute!"

Mabel squeezed her eyes shut, counted to ten in her head before opening them again. Her hopes dropped just as quickly as they had risen and her shoulders slumped in disappointment when she still found herself in the white room. "Am I...dead?" Mabel questioned. "Is this what the afterlife is like? But...But how did I die? Dipper's the one that died. Not me. How am I dead?" Mabel exclaimed, becoming quickly frustrated. "Maybe...maybe if I can still feel pain, that'll mean I'm alive." She thought logically aloud.

"Okay," She took a shaky breath and pinched her own arm. "Ow! Okay...I'm not dead." Mabel grumbled as she rubbed the sore spot on her arm.

"Alright then...if I'm not dead, then where am I? Hello? Is...Is anyone there?" Mabel called out to the empty whiteness that seemed to go on forever, with no end. "Mabel Pines." A large voice boomed. Mabel yelped and shielded her eyes as a blinding, bright flash of light flashed in front of her. When she was sure the light had diminished, she slowly uncovered her eyes and gasped in surprise to find Time Baby floating in front of her, not looking very happy.

"T-Time Baby? Wha...What are you doing here?"

Mabel stammered, tilting her head in confusion and pushing down the slight fear that had built up in the pit of her stomach.

"You have messed with time, Mabel Pines. Time is not a force to be reckoned with. When it is messed with, there are consequences. I discovered that something was wrong. A new time loop has been created. I tracked down which Time Traveler had made it, only to find that it had been none other then Blendin Blandin."

Time Baby let out a huff of annoyance and crossed his chubby arms across his chest.

"To say I was furious, would be an understatement. I was beyond furious. I insisted he tell me that instant what caused him to make a time loop. He said it was because of you. I made no hesitation to time travel myself to this exact spot, after doing a few calculations and discovering the purpose behind the time loop. Now my question to you, Mabel, is why? Why did you do this?"

Time Baby exclaimed, in a voice that didn't fit his appearance.

Mabel felt her body trembling with fear. "To...To save my brother! We got into a fight and he ran out of the Shack. I ran after him to try to find out how to make it better but...but I wasn't fast enough." Mabel felt her eyes watering and she wanted to break down right then and there but she forced herself to hold it in. For now at least. She sniffled and whipped her eyes to keep the tears from falling.

"D...Dipper...he-he didn't see the tour bus coming in. No one did, until it was too late. The bus hit him and he died. To me, everything else went by in a blur. What happened next isn't really important. What's important is that none of this is Blendin's fault. It's mine. I wanted to go back and rewrite my brother's fate. I can't live without him. Blendin warned me of the consequences but I didn't listen..."

Mabel didn't realize that tears had begun to rapidly cascade down her cheeks like rushing waterfalls. "This will be my fifth time reliving this day. I-I have to get it right! I'm sick of watching my brother die over and over again!" Mabel cried.

"Yes, you do have to get it right. We're stuck in a time loop, Mabel Pines. The only way for us to have the days keep moving forward is for you to save your brother's life from being hit by that bus. But that's impossible. Time always mends itself. You should know this. You may save your brother's life today, but something else will take it. May it be later on the same day, the day after or even a month later. Avoiding death for a mortal like yourself is inevitable. You will die. Making this happen with Blendin was a mistake."