I know I said that this story was over, but I had this idea for another ending in my head the entire time and I couldn't for the life of me avoid writing this. It continues where it left off and I'm sorry if I cause any of you to cry but I really wanted to add this in. This is the final chapter of this story and I'm really pleased with how it turned out, despite being so short. Thank you for reading this and going on this ride with me.
The wedding was beautiful as he had expected from his Star. She was everything he wasn't and he knew it. Years after the wedding past by so fast for Bill. He was forced to watch his Star grow without him. They found out they couldn't actually have kids with one another and that had been sad news for the both of them, but yet somewhat of a relief for Bill, he still wasn't sure what being pregnant with a demon would do to her.
Before his own eye he saw his Star grow from a young adult to a middle aged woman in what felt like for him meer minutes. Like with the blink of his eye and she was fifty. She walked around and talked as if she were still twenty four, but she couldn't do as much as she used to and Bill had noticed. He noticed how hard it was for her to walk up the stairs of their house. She played it off like it was nothing but when she came down in the morning she was always out of breath and tired, so tired.
Bill had tried reading up on anything that would prolong someone's life span or even halt it altogether, but even with his vast knowledge he couldn't find the spell for immortality. Mabel didn't seem fazed with it, but she did notice the haunted look in Bill's eye whenever she would grow frail and sickly. She knew it would never kill her, it was just a cold but Bill was always so nervous around her when she fell ill that it hurt her to see him like that. She always told him that if she were to die from something like the flu or a cold that he would have to eradicate the illness of the face of the Earth. He seemed to take it more seriously than she had expected.
Mabel didn't die from the flu like she joked about so often. Stage four brain cancer. It went unnoticed by so many doctors, she didn't display the symptoms, she didn't have frequent headaches; she didn't have difficulties with motor functions, besides the fact she got tired more frequently, but all elderly couldn't climb a mountain like they used to; she didn't have vision changes, her eyes were as powerful as a hawks; no speech problems, no nausea, no cognitive problems, she never displayed any of them. She seemed as right as rain until she locked up one day and fell down the stairs.
Bill had never been more afraid in his life than to see his Star laying stiff at the end of the stairs, her body covered in bruises. He had never moved so fast in his life either. He usually avoided the use of his powers in town for it would frighten the people, but his sudden appearance in the ER was definitely something he could overlook. Mabel was taken to get a PET scan almost immediately and after they had come back, they confirmed with him that she did in fact develop cancer. At such a late stage they couldn't do anything except make her more comfortable.
The last few weeks Bill spent at her bedside, holding her hand. They had his Star hooked up to so many wires and instruments to keep her stable until her time came. He frequented her dreamscape, only to find it empty. Never in his life had he seen someone's dreamscape filled with such blackness that he thought that she was already dead, and perhaps she was. She never woke up, not once to say goodbye to him, but when he went into her dreamscape for the last time, he found her, sitting amongst the blackness on her lonesome. She hadn't recognized him and he didn't expect her to, she was almost brain dead and the doctors had told him that if she did wake up she wouldn't recognize anyone.
He reintroduced himself and told her all about their life, watching as she smiled at him and held a conversation with him for about an hour before she slowly faded away. In the background he could hear her heart monitor flatline and doctors come rushing in to try their best to save her, but Bill had seen with his own eye that there was no coming back from this. Telling Dipper what happened was almost impossible for the demon. The boy was devastated and mad at the same time. He yelled at Bill for not telling him sooner and missing saying goodbye, but Bill made no move to defend himself, he stood there in the entrance of Dipper and Pacifica's shared house, eye cast downwards.
Bill made himself scarce for years, hiding out in his dreamscape, the only place where he could relive each moment with his Star. She seemed so vibrant in there that it was almost like she was with him, but he knew that deep down she was gone forever and that his cheap parlor tricks wouldn't keep her with him. The years that followed his seclusion was rocky to say the least. He liberated at least twelve dimensions, each one different from the last. His name was remembered across the multiverse as the Liberator of Worlds, but Bill wasn't in it for the title or the fear that he brought with him, he was hurting and he had broken his promise with his Star.
He guessed that her nickname truly lived up to the real thing. She was just like a shooting star, so beautiful and full of wonder, but short lived. He's not sure how long it had been since he had visited their dimension, but he came back. Dipper and Pacifica were long dead, their great great great great grandchildren having children of their own. He supposed that if he and Mabel had children they would've been living their lives right about now, enjoying every moment. He visited their condemned house, everything inside untouched by time. It was as if no one had lived their since her passing. The dust covering everything was the only reminder that things would never go back to how they were. He had made his way back up to their room, the bed made and all their things in their dresser. Her makeup was still sitting on the bathroom counter, her perfume still lingered in the air. Her sweaters still hung up in the closets, her shoes still scattered across the floor, she never bothered to pick them up.
In a fit of rage, Bill burned the house to the ground, the scent of fire in the air bringing life back to him. When the fire department had put the flames out and there was nothing left but smoldering embers, Bill walked amongst the debris, stopping as he found a single thing that had miraculously survived the destruction. Bending at the waist, Bill scooped up the pink sweater that held so much meaning. The faded symbol on the front brought back unwanted memories to the forefront of his mind. Of times long come to pass.
"Come on Bill, this way!" Her chipper voice rung through his ears and led him into the woods further.
He came to stop at a small clearing, a rather small girl dancing alone to no music playing. Her long brown hair spun around her as she swayed to the music in her head. The bright colors of her outfit making her stand out amongst the green of her surroundings. His cackle filled the air as he rushed to pull her into a slow waltz. They spend the day there dancing to no music and laughing with one another like they had been lifelong friends.
"I know you can do better than that, really try Bill!" She sung as she sunk another ball.
He picked up one of the brown balls that lay in a row, aiming before tossing the thing and watching as it fell into the pocket with a small thud.
"See I knew you could do it!"
"Catch me if you can!" She laughed, her skirt billowing out behind her as she ran through the store, the cart squeaking as she pushed it.
"Ma'am please don't run through the isles, you may hurt someone!" Bill laughed at the poor man trying to get her to stop chased after as she ducked into another isle.
"Oh Bill, you mean so much to me. It hurts to see you in pain." A voice brought him back to the present.
He spun around, finding no one behind him. He could've sworn… no it wasn't possible she's been dead for centuries.
"I'm right here Bill, you just have to believe me." The voice spoke again, the soft lull familiar and warm.
Bill closed his eyes, finding himself back in his mindscape. The person who stood before him had tears blurring his vision. The female held her arms out, a small smile plastered on her face as she waited for him to come closer. Bill wasted no time in enveloping her into a hug, his arms once again filled with the love of his neverending life.
"I've missed you so much, Star." Bill muttered into her neck, breathing in the familiar scent of her perfume.
"And I you." She looked up to meet his eye, a small frown playing on her face. "I thought I told you to live for me, not destroy dimensions for me."
"It's been too hard without you Star, no one's there to tell me right from wrong anymore." Bill cast his gaze downward, avoiding her pointed stare.
"You never needed someone to do that before, you made your choices on your own, I just influenced them." Mabel tisked. "I don't have much time here, I can only stay for a little while longer, please listen to me when I say there isn't a time where I don't miss you. I know it's hard right now and you're hurting, but you can't make others hurt with you."
Bill didn't respond, his head still hung to avoid her gaze. There was nothing he could do besides obey when her finger came under his chin and forced him to look up at her.
"Keep living, don't look back." Was Mabel's last words before she disappeared for the second time.
Bill pulled himself out of his dreamscape, the sweater still clutched to his chest.
"Look back…"
With a predatory gleam in his eye, he apologized to his love one final time for ignoring her request and with the snap of his fingers, he found himself back in the mindscape. The sight of a young girl with long brown hair and curious chocolate colored eyes was in front of him. She was on the ground, her hand held by her face as she gazed up at him in what he thought was a bit of fear and a whole lot of confusion.
"Sheesh Shooting Star, this place could use some decorating." The words stung to say, but the look on her face was the same it had been before.
"Bill? What are you doing here?" Everything was like how it was.
Mabel moved to get up, eyeing Bill as he moved to circle her. Bill couldn't stop the small sound of pain that slipped past without his knowing.
"Bill?" Mabel asked again, her eyes drawn together in confusion and a little bit of sorrow.
"Don't worry about it Star, I have something to show you." The glow of his form brightened and Mabel found herself in a clearing, the dark night sky filled with stars and fireflies fluttering about around them.
Mabel looked up into the sky, watching as a shooting star sailed clear across the darkness.
"Pretty isn't it?" Mabel looked over to Bill, his eye not watching the sky, but her.
"Yeah, yeah it is." Was all Mabel said before she looked back to the sky.
*FIN*