“If the dragon wakes up, it’ll be the end of the world,” Mabel muttered. For a moment, she felt like she could see the magic energy running through her hands, pulsating with potential. “If it wakes up… That’s such a big responsibility for me to have.”

She didn’t want to have this power, she didn’t want to be the hero of this story. But since when had she gotten what she wanted?

Another Gravity Falls Transcendence AU / Mother 3 crossover, which once again has absolutely no continuity with the previous two that I wrote. The general idea is that Mabel is Lucas, Dipper is Claus, Wendy is Kumatora, and Waddles is Boney.

This was inspired by TAU-tober 2021 day 21: “needle”.

“Are you ready, my dear? Are you ready to fulfill your destiny?”

Mabel gulped. Doria was smiling, but her stare seemed to burn into Mabel’s skull, filling her with the awful weight of what she was about to do. She turned to Wendy for support, and the older girl gave her a thumbs up.

“You can do this, Mabes,” Wendy said. She kneeled down to her level and gave her a pat on the shoulder. “You got this.”

“If the dragon wakes up, it’ll be the end of the world,” Mabel muttered. She stared at her hands. For a moment, she felt like she could see the magic energy running through them, pulsating with potential. Then it was gone, and she felt emptier than before, just a little girl standing in a forest wishing it could swallow her up.

“If it wakes up… That’s such a big responsibility for me to have,” she finished.

“You heard what Doria said,” Wendy replied. “If you pull more needles than the bad guys, we can save the world. The dragon’ll listen to you. After all, you’ve got the biggest heart of anyone I know!”

Waddles squealed in agreement with this. He bounded at Mabel, almost bowling her over with excitement. She had to giggle at the little licks and nose boops her beloved pet gave her. When she looked up, Wendy was smiling too.

“The dragon will wake up either way, my dears,” Doria said, breaking the moment. Both girls glanced at her, and the wistful look on her face had turned a bit dour. “It is too late to stop what has begun. And though my story is about to end, I can’t help but to wish you the best of luck. I was always fond of you humans. It’d be a shame if Porky won and the dragon pulled you into the nightmare realm.”

“Y-yeah,” Mabel said, putting Waddles down. She looked at her trembling hands again – clenched her fists and let go. “It’d be a shame.”

She took a deep breath in, and then gave Wendy a nod. “Okay. I’m ready.”

“Thatta girl,” Wendy said. She stood up, and coaxed Waddles back so that the two of them could give Mabel some space. “Show that dragon who’s boss!”

A weary grin flickered on Mabel’s lips, but she did not share it with her friends. Slowly, she approached the crater where the needle stood. It was glowing brighter than before – a foreboding glimmer that practically poured over the lip of the crater. With another deep breath, she began to descend the ladder.

Step by step by step. Images flashed in her mind, images she didn’t recognise, images of places in the world she’d never been to, people she’d never met. A dark figure stared at her through her mind’s eye, gave her a grimace filled with sharp teeth, and it sent a shiver down her spine. She didn’t want to have this power, she didn’t want to be the hero of this story.

But since when had she gotten what she wanted?

Mabel stepped up to the needle, and the energy she felt thrumming beneath her feet was enough to make her recoil. Still, she stretched her arms, then her fingers. Wrapped her hands around the neck of the needle. Sank deep into that well of magic that flowed through her.

She reached toward the sky and pulled.

In a different time, a different place, a deafening roar rebounded through the valley.

Light poured from the hole in the ground, pounding like a palpable force, ripping its way out of its prison, sending Mabel, Wendy, and Waddles toppling. That energy twisted in on itself and fell back as lightning, scorching the earth and threading it with a sickening sense of miasma.

Smoke silhouetted the dark figure whose hands had gripped the needle. It stepped through the chaos, snow crunching beneath its boots, and it watched the girl in the red and yellow sweater. Watched her writhe in agony. Watched her with an empty heart that matched the look in its eyes.

Mabel looked into those yellow-and-black eyes and shuddered.

Something in her made contact, like fingers brushing past one another’s mind, and in it she saw poison, she saw darkness, she saw a memory. She saw herself.

The Masked Man lifted its hand and threw a bright, blue fireball at her.

Mabel screamed and rolled over to avoid it. When she could see again, she caught two void black wings unfolding from the figure’s waist, flapping, once, twice, taking off. Buffeted by the wind, her bleary eyes watched the light glint off the figure’s helmet, and then it was gone.

The Masked Man kept watching her as it flew away, until the snowy valley was nothing but a spec in the distance. It felt the power surging through its body as it flew, as it soared across the sky toward New Pork City. It felt the dragon’s voice whisper to it, when it pulled the needle and brought the world closer to its end, an end burning just as fierce as the fire that rushed to its fingers. The demon breathed in, and the air tasted like ash.

“I like this demon more than the last one. It doesn’t ask any questions.”

Alcor landed on a balcony, high up on Porky’s tower. This is where it belonged, where the voice in its head pulled it, but at the same time the whole thing felt wrong. Alcor sniffed, and examined its hand. Blue wisps still crackled around its claws, and it felt the memory of the girl they were intended for. It was unacceptable that it missed that shot. The girl should’ve gone up in flames.

But she’d done something to it. She’d reached out psychically, and it felt her touch like a warm embrace. She lingered as an echo, as a ghost that would not die. Alcor grasped into the air for her name, but nothing came. There was a ringing in its head. The helmet that Porky had given it felt so, so tight.

“It is an extension of my will. It will do whatever I tell it to do. It has already pulled two of the needles.”

And yet the Masked Man could not deny its instincts, could not push past the growl building inside of it, could not escape the chains that kept it tied here.

“Soon all will be mine. Everyone will see my true power, now that I am godlike. Everyone will know Porky.”

Alcor put the girl out of its mind. It had a job to do – find the needles and pull them first. It was beholden to a contract made before its birth, a contract inherited from an old enemy, that day when a little boy tried to steal revenge from the demon who had killed his mother. But Alcor was not a little boy anymore, and the magic that permeated its body was strong enough to kill a thousand mothers if it needed to. It was a machine, it was a mercenary. Nothing else mattered but the successful completion of this deal. When Alcor’s soul turned inside out and fell into the service of King Porky, all thought and memory dissipated.

“Get back to work, idiot. We had a deal.”

A contract was the only thing that could truly bind a demon, even after death.

So Alcor put the girl out of its mind, and stepped into Porky’s tower. It would rest, recharge, and wait until the next needle revealed itself. And if that girl got in its way again, if that girl stole another needle from under Alcor’s thumb, it would not hesitate to exterminate her.