PHASE 1

To Mabel, the ocean was a new adventure waiting to be explored; to Dipper, it was a threat

There was too much to take in at once. Aside from the throbbing headache that had made its home in her skull, Mabel felt so…normal. What she had only an hour ago considered a reality was only an illusion, and here she found herself in another time and space, and it felt so right. Propped up against two beds' worth of pillows and with a pink blanket curled around their legs, Dipper and Mabel sat together on the sister's bed, holding their heads and each other's hands in silence while they tried to process everything. One hour ago she had woken up in her bed in the Mystery Shack attic. One hour ago, a set of memories had been restored in her mind. One hour ago, she had been reunited with the brother she had forgotten she ever had. Mabel stole a glance at him. He had retrieved his "Journal 3" from under his pillow and he would occasionally glance down at it or turn a page. Mabel peeked at its pages as well, but the entries served only as a reminder that the memories in her head came from two different places. There was a page about a crystal for example. The book told of the mineral's mysterious ability to enlarge or shrink a living being when light shone through it. Mabel distinctly remembered the adventure where she and Dipper had fought about being the tallest twin and they used part of the crystal and a flashlight to try and grow taller than the other. This was clearly a memory from Mabel's current existence. The page Dipper had hand-drawn and written about cursed wax figures however, brought two memories into Mabel's mind. The first was remembering how she and Dipper had fought them off during the funeral for Grunkle Stan's wax figure's funeral (it was a long story), but in the other memory, she had fought them off herself. Both memories were equally vivid and real in her head, but Mabel had to wonder if the second memory was really a memory at all. Perhaps it was all a dream. She had woken up at the end of it after all. The only thing keeping her from dismissing the second life she had ingrained in her head was the tight hold she had on her brother's hand, like he was her anchor to reality.

Looking into his eyes, as brown as the ones she saw in the mirror, she could see he felt it too. Funny how she knew so much about this boy after living a whole life where he was a stuffed sheep. The concept made her giggle to herself.

"What's so funny?" Dipper asked, closing the book in his lap so that the cover faced downwards.

"I was just thinking about how in my dream you were a sheep," Mabel grinned. She poked his shoulder, "You know like, 'who wants a lamby, lamby, lamby'?"

"Oh, don't go there," Dipper groaned, letting go of her other hand.

"I do! I do!" Mabel continued to sing, poking him with both fingers.

"Oh, please!" her brother moaned and slid off the bed, but Mabel could see he was hiding a grin.

"So go up and greet your mammy, mammy, mammy! Hi there! Hi there! C'mon Dipper, I know you know the words." Mabel jumped off the bed next to him. "So…." She held her hands out to him as if to cue him.

"I'm not gonna do it," Dipper said with a tease in his voice.

"Soooo…" Mabel cued him with her hands again.

"You can't make me do it!"

"Soooooooooooo…." Mabel poked Dipper in the side and he giggled and squirmed.

"No don't!" Dipper yelped, pulling his vest down over his weak spot.

"So march!" Mabel tickled his side again. It wasn't long before she had tackled him to the floor, roughly tickling his sides as he laughed and tried to fight her off.

"C'mon Dipper, I know you know the words!" She said in a sing-song voice as she made her way up to his underarms.

"So march, march, march around the daises!" Dipper sang as best he could through his laughter.

"And don't, don't, don't you forget about the ba-by!" The twins sang together, Mabel giving jazz hands at the end.

"You win this time," Dipper offered in a defeated tone before pushing his sister off his stomach.

"Yes! I'm the best!" Mabel shouted, not getting up from where she had fallen on the floor.

The two lay in silence on the floor for a moment, listening to Dipper's breathing as he caught his breath.

"What happened?" Dipper asked at last. He lifted his head to look at his sister. "To us, I mean. Do you remember everything too?"

"Yeah like, two weird lives I've lived, one way more fun than the other," Mabel answered, waving her hands in the air.

"But why? What happened?"

Mabel didn't reply, but she looked up at him too.

"Something weird has to be going on, that kind of stuff doesn't just happen."

"I dunno I mean, this is Gravity Falls we're talking about," Mabel suggested, "We've seen weirder things, right?"

"I guess, but usually there's some sort of logic behind it, or at least the journal tells us something," Dipper put his head back down. "This just doesn't make any sense."

"Can we…" Mabel looked up at the ceiling, "Can we maybe not talk about it? Just for a little while?"

"Why not?"

"I just…" Mabel folded her arms over her chest. Dipper looked up at her again, then lay back down.

"Sure, I guess so, that was all kind of wild," Dipper put a hand on his stomach, "We can wait for a bit." The two lay together for a while longer before Dipper spoke up again. "I missed this, us hanging out." Mabel scratched her chin, but didn't say anything. "I missed you. All the crazy adventures we've had over the summer-not even just the summer, our whole lives…It was so weird seeing how much it would suck if you weren't there."

"Yeah," Mabel agreed. "We're a pretty great team."

"Mystery twins?" Dipper offered, pointing his fist towards her.

"Mystery twins." The two were forced to awkwardly sit up halfway in order for their fists to meet, but the collided and the two let out a satisfied "boosh" before lying back down.

"Well, I'm hungry," Mabel said, sitting up, "I haven't eaten since…well I dunno but I'm still hungry."

"Oh yeah, me too," Dipper agreed, "Let's go bother Stan into making something for us to eat."

"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel shouted as soon as she reached the steps, "The twins are hungry! The twins crave sacrifice!"

"Human sacrifice!" Dipper shouted after her. They were met with no reply

"Not you specifically!" Mabel corrected, "We could eat someone else!" They hit the bottom of the stairs, but were again met with only silence.

"Aw we scared him off," Dipper muttered jokingly, crossing his arms.

"Well if he's not around to make us dinner, then he's not around to say we can't 'borrow' some money and go out to the diner," Mabel suggested mischievously.

"You strike an excellent point," Dipper stroked his chin and pouted in mock thoughtfulness, "Yes, yes an excellent point indeed. I'm in."

It wasn't hard to swipe a 20 from the duffel bag of bills Stan kept hidden in the living room, and the twins were soon off walking into town.

"It's so quiet," Mabel remarked, slowing her skipping so her walking brother could catch up.

"I know," Dipper said quietly, "I haven't seen anyone since we left."

Mabel walked alongside him, and they listened. Mabel heard her feet on the gravel, the wind in the trees, rushing water in the distance, but not a lot else.

"Where is Stan?" Mabel asked softly, but Dipper didn't answer. They made it into town, but there didn't seem to be a soul in sight.

"Dipper?" Mabel grabbed his arm gently.

"Mabel, something's wrong."

"Where is everyone?"

"I don't know."

Dipper pushed open the door to the convenience store, and the bell above the door welcomed them cheerfully. The lights were all on inside and everything was stocked, but there still wasn't anyone to be seen.

"Hello?" Dipper called from the doorway. His voice echoed quietly in the building, but then it went silent again. The twins tried the gas station, and the arcade, and the diner, but each building they visited was just as empty as the next.

"Dipper, what's happening?" Mabel whispered as they stepped of the porch of the movie theater.

"I think…" Dipper began. He hesitated, then he said, "I think the real question is: how long were we asleep?"