2019 AN: Hello, writing this one right after the finale of the mini-series, I just want to clarify a couple of things with a better preamble. This fanfiction is indeed based on the pilot episode of Infinity Train and not the final show. If you're a fan that jumped into the Infinity Train hype car late, I suggest you to watch it, since that will help you understand the context of this fanfiction better (pilot!train and show!train are fairly different, so to say). As a result of this, this fanfic right now is an Infinity Train AU on top of being a crossover with Gravity Falls. All Author's Notes you will find after this one were written along with the story back in 2017 and I've kept them as they were back then.

Train of Infinite

Chapter 1

New Passengers

Bill was starting to get a bit fed up.

He might have been an interdimensional dream demon who'd lived for thousands of centuries, but that didn't mean he had learned about the concept of patience. And that definitely wasn't true now, as he watched the specific pair of kids who made progress day after day, getting nearer to answers… and possibly nearer to messing his plans up.

He had waited for so long… and seeing Pine Tree and Shooting Star so close to make a little discovery about their great uncle was worrying… and annoying.

Yet, Bill couldn't really blame them. He was very, very impressed by the twins, and no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't argue that they were particularly skilled. Together they had lived through peril that would have left the most powerful of the mortals as a crying mess on the ground… which, infuriatingly, included being able to fight him back. Twice.

Not that it would have saved them in the end.

But alas, Bill's patience had run thin. The Pines needed to understand that there was no stopping him, and they needed a little lesson… possibly one that would terrorize them for the rest of their lives.

And, from his personal dwelling, Bill had recently found a place that was just perfect for what he had in mind.

"Gah!" Tulip hastily closed the door behind her and coughed, trying to fill her lungs again with fresh air. "Really? Skunks?!"

"Adorable, weren't they?" One-One replied with his usual happy demeanour, only to follow with a low, "The smell of a natural defence is nothing compared to the filth that is life."

Tulip ignored both halves of his robot companion. "I swear, this train is making fun of me. I could solve whatever iper-complex math equation you could throw at me, but no! We have to literally enrage a dominion of talking skunks!"

"At least it wasn't a fart car, Miss Tulip," Glad-One tried to cheer her up. "Besides, they seemed like fine people!"

"Until you ruined their lives' work…" Sad-One added.

"I don't need you two to remember me… ugh!" Tulip groaned. "I didn't like doing it, all right? It was just… we need to go forward, no matter what... We need to find a way home."

"Then, off to the next car we go!" Glad-One chirped.

"We are yet to encounter the burp car… maybe this one will be it," Sad-One muttered.

Tulip would really have liked to tell her two weird companions how much she didn't like their observations, but she didn't reply. As much as she found them annoying at times, Tulip knew that One-One had been his only company during their trek inside the train. They were always willing to help her and followed her without question, ever since she had first met them.

On that passenger car. The one where she had woken up in, with only a few memories left.

She shook her head, shooing the thought away from her mind, and walked to the entrance of the next car. "I just hope we won't end up with more talking animals…"

"Corginia wasn't bad, though!" Glad-One replied.

"Until they began rolling us around like footballs…" Sad-One added.

"That was… I don't know how long ago, thirty cars?" Tulip counted mentally. "The fact is, that was the last time we met someone who didn't either want to dispose of us, eat us or throw us out the train!"

"Even I prefer not to remember the eating part…" Sad-One said, shuddering with the entire body of One-One.

"Good. Now, try to keep quiet and let me do the talking… if we can make it through this one without running for our lives, I'd take that thank you very much!" Tulip said as she unlocked the next door and opened it. "Now, what do you have in store for us, train of…"

The words died in her throat. In front of her there was a very narrow hallway that brought directly to the left side of the car. Strolling, Tulip followed the direction and looked behind the next corner: the hallway stretched through the entire length of the car, reaching the far end where another symmetric corner waited. On the right side of the hallway there were various entrances covered by dusty, green curtains, but there was no mistake: the curtains hid the single compartments of the carriage.

It was a passenger car. One identical to the very first car Tulip remembered.

"Oh! What a surprise! Maybe we'll meet someone like Miss Tulip!" Glad-One said excitedly.

"Or maybe someone who would really like to eat us…" Sad-One grumbled.

"Shut it, you two! Let me think!" Tulip ordered, gaining the silence of the sphere robot. "This… this can't be the same car. It wouldn't make sense! It's been at least week, I don't even recall how many cars we've crossed since then…"

"Well, it isn't exactly the brightest type of train car," Glad-One admitted. "Let's hope whoever staying here is!"

"Not the brightest, you say… dusty and left to itself. That is different… if there was one car type appearing more than once, it would be this one, indeed," Tulip reasoned. "But wait… if there are more cars like this one… then maybe there are really more people like me!"

Her eyes fell to her right palm, where the '49' persisted in annoying her with its presence. Although Tulip, since the incident in Corginia, had learned to tolerate it, she had not stopped thinking about the possible meanings behind the two-cipher number… she now had a clue, which was better than nothing, but getting to the bottom of it was another matter.

Especially if that meant dealing with a robotic terror.

But now she had another chance. Passengers cars were there to carry passengers… even in a strange train as this one. Overexcited, Tulip forgot every stealth rule and rushed to the first compartment much to the dismay of One-One, who fell from her backpack and rolled away. Tulip quickly grabbed the curtains and moved them side-wards, to reveal the occupants of the seats.

But there were none.

Tulip's happy mouth slowly faded away as her eyes checked for evidence of human activity. The seats were, however, covered by dust, a signal of the exact opposite, and the same could be said for the curtains covering the window of the compartment. There were no objects out of the ordinary, no variations in its dull appearance… nothing. No one had ever been there, and if they did that was long time ago.

Tulip's eyes closed and she frowned. She let herself fall on the nearest seat and there she remained, even as she heard One-One calling for her. "Miss Tulip?"

The little robot came in, or to be precise the two components did separately. "Miss Tulip, are you okay?" Glad-One repeated.

"That's a rhetorical answer…" Sad-One commented.

"Won't stop me from asking!" Glad-One retorted without a hint of hindrance in his voice.

"No, you're right. I'm not okay… I just need a moment…" Tulip explained. The two halves slowly trudged to her leg and struggled to climb up until they were beside her, one per side.

Glad-One and Sad-One remained silent. They simply looked and waited for her to speak, observing the few lone tears that were coming down her cheek.

"I just… I just thought that there could actually be someone else inside the train who's not linked to a car… one who, just like us, travels through this train… maybe someone with some answers. Huh… I guess I'd have to simply accept the fact I'm alone."

"Loneliness is indeed a possibility, but life is lonely anyway, so does it matter?" Sad-One replied.

"You don't have to worry, Miss Tulip! I'm sure there are more people as amazing as you around the train... and someday, we'll meet one!"

"Ha, thank you One-One… but how long is even the train? I don't know… it's already been a few days of travel and we have not only failed to reach an end… we didn't find a clue about the distance from it… or even about its existence. I might end up not finding anyone even if there was someone…"

"Congratulations, you've made me even more gloomy," Sad-One commented. The quip had the effect to steal a chuckle from the red-haired girl.

"Heh, that's not easy. They should give you a medal for doing it…" Tulip said while trying to stifle the giggles.

"A giant, gold, shining medal to display for all!" Glad-One exclaimed.

"A medal depicting the overall futility of our struggles…" Sad-One said.

Tulip chuckled again. The way the sentences of the two drones conflicted and complemented with each other was annoying sometimes… but the other times it was comedy gold. Yes, maybe she was alone as a human… but she had One-One.

"You have a point. I have you, and I'm glad I do," she said, putting her hands on both parts of One-One. "We'll get through this even if it's only us travelling inside this stupid train!"

"NOOO!"

Tulip stood up in complete shock and surprise, reacting on instinct as she looked around for the source of the scream.

"We're all gonna die," Sad-One muttered.

"Not now, One-One! Hush…" Tulip commanded. She remained immobile, standing in the compartment, and so did Sad-One and Glad-One. There they waited for a few seconds before they heard noises. Movements.

"There's someone in the compartment next to ours…" Tulip whispered.

"Let's go meet them!" Glad-One immediately said, but Tulip grabbed him before he could move. "No, you won't. This time we're doing it my way, One-One. You will stay in my backpack and you will wait there until I say otherwise."

"Enclosed in the total darkness of a simple rucksack… how fitting," Sad-One commented. Yet, Glad-One had the guts to find something happy even in this situation, "We're gonna make them such a surprise! Great idea Miss Tulip!"

Tulip sighed. "Just get in," she cut short. After One-One was hidden behind her, Tulip focused on the task at hand and took a peek of the connecting corridor of the car.

No tentacle monstrosity in sight… well, that's a bonus, she thought. Quietly, Tulip moved out and began walking towards the next compartment. Like the previous, this one was hidden by a green curtain, but there was a difference… namely, the noises coming from inside.

There was something moving over the seats… but it didn't seem like it, or they, were big giant beasts of sorts. Deciphering the noises was hard, and Tulip knew there was only one way to find out what was going on. Ugh. Here goes nothing…

The curtain was split in two parts which crossed each other in the centre, right where the entrance was. Tulip oh so slowly put a finger behind the left curtain and, centimetre after centimetre, she moved the thing out of the way, until a little fissure was made through. Carefully, Tulip approached the curtains with her eyes and, finally, she looked through the opening at what was inside the compartment.

It was pretty much identical to the previous one… if we excluded the two kids lying on the seats.

Tulip tried her best to remain calm. Hey eyes weren't deceiving her: there were two kids there. They lay opposite of each other, on the two different seat rows, and for all she knew, they were peacefully sleeping with no thought for the outer world.

…maybe not that peacefully, now that she thought about it.

At Tulip's left, there was a girl. She was curled into a foetal position, which thanks to her long hair and the oversized sweater she was wearing gave the impression she had formed a perfect ball. Her face was the epitome of fear and it was clear that she was shivering… and Tulip was pretty sure it was far from being cold there.

On the right side of the compartment there was, on the other hand, a boy. Much differently from the girl, he was fidgeting all around the seats, rubbing his limbs on the fabric and thus generating the noise Tulip and One-One had heard before. The redhead could even hear him talk in his sleep, but his whispers were too low for her to hear.

That was, if she didn't enter the compartment.

"What is it? What is it?" came the voice from her backpack. In alarm, Tulip turned away from the curtain and hastily removed One-One from his hiding place. "One-One, I said quiet!"

"There is silence only in the vastness of death," Sad-One said.

"Wrong answer! Why would you even… ugh, forget about it. Listen closely," Tulip requested. "Don't ask me why because I have no clue, but there are two kids in this compartment. They're sleeping… having nightmares, I think,"

"The dreamworld is often the source of our worst fears," Sad-One remarked.

"Two kids! Oh my, I wanna see!" Glad-One was trying his best to escape Tulip's grasp.

"Calm down! I'm going to let you see them for yourself, but you must be silent. They…" she moved her eyes towards the curtain for a moment. "They look frightened. We don't want to startle them out of their sleep."

"So, you're going to wake them up?" Sad-One asked.

"Uh, yeah, duh? What's wrong with that?"

"There are a lot of reasons why those children might be here… and not all of them may condone an awakening of them," the bot continued. Whether Glad-One was listening or not remained unknown since there was no quick quip from his voice. Sad-One was in control now.

"What… what do you mean? Of course I'm going to wake them up, it's not like…" and then, Tulip remembered.

RETURN TO YOUR SEAT.

"…oh."

One-One had a point. She wasn't just endangering herself this way… she was probably doing the same for that pair of strangers waiting beyond the curtains.

Yet, there were other reasons for her decisions, reasons Sad-One did not talk about.

"One-One, those kids are not okay. It doesn't matter whether we're all going to get in trouble afterwards… we cannot leave them in their state. Now, that wouldn't be okay."

She looked at her right hand and inspected the bright '49'. And maybe… maybe they'll have a way to help me out…

"Yaas!" Glad-One suddenly cried. "Let's go help the-" Tulip hand reached out and blocked his 'mouth', or rather his speakers. "One-One. Hush."

Tulip stood up, letting the bot free, and she carefully moved the curtains away. One-One was visibly excited but a glare from the redhead made him keep the silence. Tulip tiptoed into the chamber, observing the two kids, still in their lying positions. The tremble of their bodies was clear.

Whatever they're dreaming about, it must not be pleasant, Tulip thought. She suddenly noticed she had stepped on something and picked up the object: a white cap with blue details, including a tree on the forehead. She tried to link the image to something from her memory, but nothing came out of it.

Tree… where do you two come from? she thought. Tulip looked for a moment outside, beyond the uncovered window of the compartment, to see the borderless desert that the train was moving through. Likely not from around here.

One-One had already climbed on the right-side seats and was currently looking at the face of the sleeping girl. Tulip decided to do the same with the other kid, sitting beside him and momentarily placing the hat on the armrest.

Now that Tulip was near him, the girl was able to listen to whatever he was muttering in his slumber. But the words that came out of the kids' mouth didn't make sense to her.

"No… leave her be… Bill… Mabel… don't trust… you cannot… Mabel…"

Mabel? Tulip mentally made the possible connection with the girl. One-One was carefully inspecting her sweater at the moment. They're both freaked out… we better put an end to this now.

She made a gesture to One-One, who raised a robotic limp as a nod, then Tulip sighed and proceeded to lightly grab the boy's shoulders.

No reaction.

"Hey…" Tulip timidly started. "Hey. Wake up."

"You won't get away with this… Bill…"

This Bill guy must not be the best person they've ever met, I guess. "There's no Bill here. Wake up!" Tulip added a little shake to the kid's shoulders.

Yet, his eyes remained closed. Tulip rolled her eyes and decided to go with a slightly harder route: she shook him a little more energetically, then she said with her normal voice, "C'mon, rise and shine!"

Finally, there was an effect. The kids' eyes flinched, and his eyelids opened for a second.

"There," Tulip reassured, letting him away. The kid's eyes were still half-closed, but they were looking at her. She was sure she had managed to get him out of his nap quietly.

That was, until the boy suddenly jumped like a spring, screaming at the top of his lungs. Both One-One and Tulip cried in surprise, with the first rolling away from his position and the latter standing up and away from the kid, who agitated his fists towards the redhead.

"Stay back!"

"Calm down, I'm not your enemy!"

"I said STAY BACK!"

"Do you even listen?! I won't hurt you!"

"No, I'm not falling for this Bill! Do you hear me?! I know you're here!" the boy shouted, looking around frantically. "I won't fall for your nerdy version of Wendy, Bill!"

"I have no idea what you're talking – wait, nerdy version of who?" Tulip wasn't sure whether feeling insulted or confused.

"I don't know what you're up to, but we won't simply play your games!" the boy continued to ramble on, seemingly threatening Tulip with his fists. Sheesh, has he lost it?

Before Tulip could try once again to reason with the nervous boy, One-One interjected. "Uhh, excuse me…" Glad-One said.

Both Tulip and the boy looked at him. He had somehow managed to climb back over the seats during the commotion… and right now he was standing right beside the girl.

Tulip immediately noticed that the girl had somehow reduced the space she was occupying even more. Her muscles were tensed and she could even see her slightly chubby cheeks were wet from crying. She didn't like our show… Tulip thought matter-of-factly.

She was distracted by the boy's sudden cry of alarm. "Mabel!"

He literally threw himself towards the lying girl and grabbed her. "Mabel! MABEL! Come on, Mabel, wake up! I'm here! It's Dipper!" It seemed he had completely forgotten about the existence of One-One and Tulip.

Tulip scowled when she saw his frantic attempts at waking the sleeping girl up. "I'm sorry, but I don't think you know what you're-"

The head of the boy that was probably named Dipper turned towards her with a dry twitch. "What did you do to her?"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Tulip was starting to get sick of all the random accuses. "I found you both here already sleeping, I did nothing more than-!"

"What did you DO TO HER?!" the boy demanded again. The desperation in his voice hit Tulip, to the point that she suddenly found herself without words. One-One had retreated away from the pair of kids and he seemed to be scared as well, which is saying something since he normally wanted to wave at living horrors like it was nothing.

Before the boy could restate his question, though, a flail voice was added to the mix. "Dipper…"

Tulip and One-One disappeared once again from the boy's thoughts. "Mabel?"

"I'm okay, Dipper. Calm down…"

"Okay-okay?"

"Okay-okay," the girl confirmed. Dipper finally let her away from his grasp and sighed in relief. "Oh, man… oh man. I need a break."

The girl sat up, side by side with the boy. "Me too. I… I don't know, Dipper. Do you remember?"

"Bill?"

The girl nodded.

"Yeah. Hard to forget someone like him… ugh. Whatever he's done this time, I didn't like it. It was like going through the bottomless heck instead of the bottomless pit."

"Huh-uh. It was… horrible. With all the screaming, and fire, and what? And I didn't see you anymore, I thought you were a goner…"

"Hey, don't worry. That's no more our concern… we're here, we're together, and Bill's not around," the boy said, making sure to look at her right in the eyes.

"Not yet. What if he shows up again?"

"Then we'll fight back. Bill got us by surprise, Mabel, and separated us to do whatever he wanted before we could react, but this won't happen again. We're both in this, got it?"

The girl pondered over his words for a few moments, before smiling. "Got it. Just a question, though… where are we?"

Dipper and Mabel looked around the train compartment… and their eyes fell on Tulip, who had simply witnessed to their conversation without interrupting. They immediately tensed up, unsure what to think about her and the weird sphere robot who was looking at them as well.

"Well… Mabel," Tulip finally said. "You've just asked the million-dollar question."

AN: I'll just say I've recently finished watching Gravity Falls and holy cow, what a wild ride. By chance I have coincidentally been infected (again) with the hype for the potential of Infinity Train, so… this is the result. Hope you liked it!