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minijenn · 7 years

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Universe Falls Chapter 35, Part 3

OK my go you guys I feel so fucking dead while posting it but holy shit its finally done and I’m so proud of how it turned out I really am because UGH its so angsty and good and AHHH JUST READ IT YOU’LL LOVE IT I”M SURE AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK WHEN YOU DO OK?!?!?!? Woo... but anyway, enjoy!

Previous: http://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/161206360979/universe-falls-chapter-35-part-2

Chapter 35: Fusion Fiascos

Part 3: Forever Alone

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Lion let out a soft, roaring yawn, only briefly opening his eyes before settling back into a peaceful snooze amidst begrudgingly letting Steven and Mabel play with his mane. All the same, the pair conversed cheerfully while they collaborated on braiding the pink beast’s luxurious pastel locks while relaxing on the floor of the shack’s den.

“I still can’t believe we’ve never done this before!” Mabel quipped, tying off another small braid with a floral clip. “By the time we’re finished, Lion’s mane is gonna be the prettiest portal to a secret magical tree ever!”

“I know!” Steven agreed with a smile as he began to take on another tendril of pink hair. “And I’m so surprised at how calm Lion’s being about this. He usually never lets me play with his mane for this long!” Of course, no sooner had the young Gem said this than the pink beast suddenly awakened and stood up, stoically shaking the braids and clips out of his mane, essentially undoing all of the pair’s hard work on it. “Heh, I guess I spoke too soon,” Steven said with a small shrug as Lion casually padded off.

“Lion, wait!” Mabel gasped, hopping to her feet as she hurried after the pink beast. “You gotta let us finish! Or at least keep the braids in long enough for take a few pictures of how adorable you’ll look!” Steven could only let out an amused chuckle as he watched Mabel try to reign Lion in, only for her attempt to be thwarted by the pink beast abruptly and broadly licking the side of her face. “Hey!” Mabel protested, though she was unable to hold back a laugh as she playfully pushed Lion away. “Did I ask for any Lion kisses? No, I didn’t! And just for that I’m gonna use twice as many flower clips this time!”

As Mabel tried and failed to hop onto the pink beast’s back to continue braiding, Steven continued laughing, though his levity was only briefly interrupted as he happened to stop Dipper rushing downstairs from the attic. “Hi, Dipper!” the young Gem greeted brightly, seeing as how this was the first time he had seen him today.

“Hey, Steven!” Dipper called back quickly, barely even glancing over his shoulder as he hurried to the kitchen. “I can’t talk right now, I’m super busy.”

“Well, what do you know!?” Mabel smirked teasingly as she willingly fell off of Lion. “Looks like somebody finally decided to step out of the ‘conspiracy cave’ for a minute to get some fresh air.”

“Ha! As if there’s even time to do that,” Dipper remarked sardonically, practically running out of the kitchen with an armful’s stash of Pitt Colas. “The only reason I can down was to refuel. I feel like I’m just on the verge of uncovering something huge, and if I don’t keep my train of thought up, then I’ll lose it completely!”

“What do you mean ‘something huge’?” Steven asked curiously, though before Dipper could answer, Mabel let out an exasperated groan.

“Steven, don’t ask him that,” she said, flopping down onto the floor, already bored. “If you do, then he’s just gonna go off on another one of his nerd rants about his boring research.”

“No, I won’t!” Dipper scoffed in protest. “And besides, this ‘boring’ research I’m doing is actually really important!”

“Here we go…” Mabel mumbled as she rolled her eyes, rolling over to lie facedown on the carpet. But even so, Steven listened intently as Dipper began to explain nonetheless, putting his sodas down as he began to restlessly pace back and forth.

“After everything that happened in the bunker, I realized that we’re still not much closer to finding the author,” he said, his tone serious and devout. “I mean, Soos is fixing up that old laptop we found, sure, but who knows how long that could take, or if it’ll even give us any answers at all? So, I figured that in the meantime, I need to take matters into my own hands. For the past few days, I’ve been pouring over the journal, carefully examining every single page for anything I might have overlooked before.”

“And have you found anything yet?” Steven asked, quite invested.

“…Not yet,” Dipper huffed, somewhat frustrated. “But I’m not giving up! Besides, this isn’t just about finding out who the author is anymore. You guys remember what Peridot said when we saw her at the Kindergarten the other week, right?”

“Yeah, we do,” Mabel interjected, rolling onto her back. “She said: ‘I’m reporting this, you CLODS!’”

“Wow, Mabel!” Steven exclaimed, impressed. “You do a really good Peridot impression!”

“Thanks. I’ve been working on it.”

“No, no, no!” Dipper cut in, aggravated. “Before that. She said she was there to ‘pick up where they left off’. But what does that mean? Who’s ‘they’? Homeworld? Someone else? What to ‘they’ even want to do? What was Peridot really doing at the Kindergarten? Or the Galaxy Warp? And why was she-”

“Ok, ok, we get it!” Mabel interrupted, her tone clearly exasperated. “There’s a lot of questions that we don’t have any answers for yet. But that’s fine, bro-bro. The Gems have got that mystery covered!”

“Oh really?” Dipper crossed his arms skeptically. “Steven, how much new information have the Gems uncovered about what Peridot’s up to since what happened at the Kindergarten?”

“Uh… pretty much nothing…” Steven admitted, scratching the back of his neck. “They’ve been pretty busy with other missions lately, so they haven’t had a lot of time to look into the whole Peridot thing.”

“Which is exactly why I’m doing it for them,” Dipper asserted with a determined grin. “Somewhere in the journal there’s got to be something that can at least point me towards some answers. Not only am I going to figure out who the author is, but I’m also going to find out what Peridot’s up to so we can stop her once and for all! And after we do, the Gems will be so impressed by all my hard work that they’ll have no choice but to take me seriously from now on!”

“Dipper,” Steven said with a small, good-natured laugh. “You don’t need to prove anything to the Gems! They already take all of us seriously!”

“Steven, do I really need to remind you of how we nearly froze to death outside of the warp stream just because of how much the Gems didn’t take us seriously?” Dipper asked dryly.

“O-ok… well…” the young Gem frowned, glancing down awkwardly before perking up and chancing the subject. “Well, hey! Why don’t you take a little break from all that researching and hang out down here with us for a while?”

“Yeah!” Mabel chimed in enthusiastically. “We were just giving Lion a super cute makeover. You know, braiding his mane, putting adorable tiny hats on him, the works! If you stick around, I’ll even let you put the bow on his tail!” She grinned as she held up a tiny pink bow in one hand and the tip of Lion’s tail in the other.

“As… fun as that sounds,” Dipper began rather sarcastically as he reclaimed his stash of sodas and turned towards the stairs. “I’m gonna have to pass.”

“Aw, come on, Dipper,” Steven encouraged with a pleading smile. “You look like you’ve been working really hard-”

“He’s been up with the journal for the past two nights in a row,” Mabel cut in, rolling her eyes impetuously, though Dipper didn’t try to dismiss her claim, mostly because it was true.

“Whoa, really?” the young Gem asked, quite concerned. “Well that’s all the more reason for you to take a break! At least sit down and relax for a bit, maybe go take a walk outside, or-”

“Sorry, Steven, but no,” Dipper interjected, resolute. “I’ve got to get back to work. I’ve already wasted enough time just standing around here talking, and every minute I’m not upstairs researching is another minute we don’t know who the author is or what Peridot’s planning! This is serious stuff you guys, and if I were you, I’d be taking it as seriously as I am.”

“I’ll tell you what I’m taking serious,” Mabel remarked with a coy grin. “Lion’s cute face! Isn’t that right, Lion?” she asked dramatically, smooshing the pink beast’s face with her hands as she leaned in close. “Isn’t that right?”

Dipper simply let out a disgruntled sigh as he began making his way up the stairs, shaking his head in disappointment and slight dejection all the while. “Sometimes I don’t know why I even bother…” he muttered sourly, though Steven happened to overhear him as he watched him leave with sincere worry.

“I can’t believe Dipper’s been up for two nights straight trying to figure all that stuff out…” the young Gem remarked with a frown once Dipper was out of earshot. “He really seemed like he was more stressed out than excited about it…”

“That’s because that’s just how he is when he gets all ‘obsessy’ like this,” Mabel said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “And to be honest, I hate it when he’s like this. He gets all moody and boring and he becomes like this total loner, spending all his time with his dumb books and notes. It’s not healthy!”

“It doesn’t sound like it could be,” Steven noted fretfully. “There’s gotta be something we can do to help him relax before he totally wears himself out…”

“Forget it, Steven,” Mabel shook her head. “I’ve tried to get Dipper to loosen up tons of times before, but it never works. All my plans usually just end up annoying him or making him mad and he gets like: ‘Mabel, cut that out! I’m busy!’ or “Mabel, go away! I’m in the middle of something really important!’ And it drives me nuts! Why can’t he just drop all that boring research stuff, lighten up and have fun for a change?!”

“Maybe he just needs a little push in the right direction?” Steven suggested with a small smile.

“Ha, good luck with that,” Mabel rolled her eyes. “I’m telling you, Steven, anything we try isn’t going to work. Dipper’s like, no joke, one of the most stubborn people I know. And I should know seeing as how I’ve known him longer than literally anyone.”

“Yeah, but we’ve got to at least try!” the young Gem exclaimed earnestly. “Dipper may be stubborn, yeah, but he works harder than anyone else at what he does. We both know that, Mabel! And the stuff he’s researching is pretty important, especially if whatever Peridot wants to do is bad. So I figure the least we can do is show him how much we appreciate all his hard work by helping him unwind a bit.”

“Well, I still don’t think this is going to work, but I’m down for whatever you have in mind,” Mabel pensively agreed. “Speaking of which, what did you have in mind?”

“Well…” Steven began with a widening grin. “I was thinking something along the lines of… a party?”

“Steven,” Mabel said boldly, quickly taking up the young Gem’s zealous smile as she instantly jumped on board this fledgling plan. “You had me at ‘party’.”

Dipper let out an exasperated sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose in the hopes that it would restore his waning focus where it belonged: on the journal. He couldn’t exactly say he was tired; after all, he had pulled all-nighters before and he had managed to catch a few minutes of sleep here and there last night whenever he happened to accidentally nod off. But he was certainly starting to grow a bit weary with his self-imposed mission. For all of his intent and careful searching through the crinkled pages, weathered words and cryptic illustrations, Dipper had relatively little to show for it. The previously obscured black light text did reveal a few new interesting details concerning the details behind how the Crystal Gems ended up in Gravity Falls, but they were hardly pertinent to the pressing matters at hand. Frustratingly enough, the journal only occasionally made reference to the Gem Homeworld, and really only in passing. Dipper did manage to decipher one code pertaining to more in depth notes concerning Gem history, but it merely cut off into a footnote reading “see journal 1 for more information”. And seeing as how he didn’t even know the whereabouts of journal 1 much less where within it such information would be contained, it was safe to say that lead had hit a dead end very early on.

Still, Dipper refused to let that deter him. There had to be something he was missing, something between the lines that he just wasn’t getting or a piece of a puzzle he just hadn’t found yet. Certainly, the journal contained some form of a clue, whether it be about the Kindergarten, or the Galaxy Warp, or Homeworld, or even more elusive than all of those things, the identity of the elusive author himself. Some way or another, those clues were there, just waiting to be uncovered, and no matter how much digging he had to do, Dipper was determined to find them. And really, by all accounts, he felt as though he had to find those clues and the answers they pointed towards. For if he didn’t, then who else would?

In fact, Dipper was so engrossed in scanning over a page concerning Gem weapons that he didn’t even notice a certain pink lion wedge the attic door open with his nose before slipping in, accompanied by his usual pig companion. He still paid the pair of animals no mind as they casually sauntered towards his bed, which was covered in copious pages of loose-leaf notes he had taken over the past two days of research. But Dipper did finally notice Lion and Waddles when the latter happened to suddenly snatch a large mouthful of said notes and promptly turned to make off with them with his pig accomplice in tow.

“Hey!” Dipper hotly shouted after the pink beast, quickly jumping off the bed to follow him. “Lion, get back here with my notes!” Of course, Lion didn’t stop, but continued pouncing off, running off much like a mischievous cat would with the crumbled pages still in his maw. “Ugh, seriously, Lion?!” Dipper asked, frustrated, though he kept his distance as the pastel beast let out a possessive, warning growl. “Why do you always have to be so—hey!” Dipper cut himself off as Lion brusquely leapt past him, clearing the way to the attic door as Waddles trotted cheerfully behind him. Aptly annoyed but refusing to lose his hard-earned research, Dipper gave chase, hurrying after the pink beast as he retreated from the attic, leaving a certain cryptic journal behind in the process.

And of course, no more than seconds after her brother left the attic, Mabel easily slipped in without notice, swiping the book and sneaking downstairs with it. She made sure that things were still going according to plan as she passed by the den, where Lion still distracting Dipper as he chased the pink beast around essentially in circles, shouting aggravated ultimatums and threats all the while. And as much as Mabel wanted to stick around and laugh about that, she continued on her way outside undetected, the journal still in hand as she exchanged a brief nod with Steven to let him know that everything was still on track. She did make sure to hurry though, tucking the journal away in a secure, yet concealed spot close enough to the shack that it would still be accessible if needed. She managed to finish this task just in time too as Lion suddenly burst out of the shack, notes still in his maw as he confidently padded over to Steven while Waddles sauntered over to Mabel. Of course, Dipper wasn’t too far behind them, though it was clear the chase had exhausted him quite a bit as he had to take pause and lean against the door frame to catch his breath.

“L-Lion, you… you better give me back those notes or I-I’ll…” he trailed off, breathless and quite annoyed. “Come on, I’m not that out of shape, am I?”

“Surprise!” Steven and Mabel interjected in enthusiastic unison, diverting Dipper’s attention towards what they had set up in the yard. In a surprisingly small amount of time, the pair had managed to put together a modest “party”, complete with streamers, balloons, and other festive decorations. They had also organized a small snack table, as well a wide and open area, one clearly intended for dancing, which was only made clearer by the upbeat music already playing on in the background.

“What is this?” Dipper asked, confused as he stood properly and glanced around.

“It’s a party, bro-bro,” Mabel remarked with an eager grin. “Well, technically, we should call it a ‘break party’, but hey, a party’s still a party, no matter what kind of party it is!”

“I think what Mabel’s trying to say is that it’s a party,” Steven reiterated. “For you, Dipper!!”

“…Ok…” Dipper said tentatively, still quite puzzled as he crossed his arms and looked between the pair. “But why?”

“Because you deserve a break,” Steven said with a warm grin. “You’ve been working really hard lately. If there’s anyone who’s earned a chance to kick back and have some fun, it’s you!”

“Wait, so you guys set all of this stuff up… just to get me to take a break?” Dipper asked rather incredulously, even if he was still admittedly having a hard time following their specific intent. “I think you guys might have gone a little overboard then.”

“Overboard?” Mabel scoffed. “Pfft, please, bro-bro. We tailor-made this party just for you! Look, we got all of your favorite snacks over here: Chaaaps, Pitt Cola, and even those little mini-brownies you got sick from eating too many of that one time!”

“And we even found one of your BABBA CDs, so we decided to put it on for you!” Steven added, nodding to the radio, which was unmistakably playing one of the band’s iconic pop ballads.

“I… noticed…” Dipper frowned, giving the pair a rather skeptical, almost unimpressed glance. “Look, I appreciate what you guys are… trying to do here, but I was sort of in the middle of something that I’d really like to get back to, so… thanks, but no thanks.”

“Wait, what?” Steven asked, surprised and dismayed as Dipper turned to head back inside. “But you can’t just leave already! What about the party?”

“Oh, uh, its… nice, and everything,” Dipper shrugged, trying hard not to let his disinterest show. “But I just don’t have time for it right now. I have to get back to researching and everything, you know?”

Steven pouted a bit upon hearing this, clearly disappointed that all of their hard work and hopefulness was about to go to waste. Fortunately though, Mabel had a plan. “Well, ok, if you say so…” she said, feigning disappointment. “Oh, but wait! How are you gonna get any research done if you don’t have your journal?”

This instantly caught Dipper’s attention as he briefly turned around to give his sister a quizzical glance. “What do you mean?”

“Ha!” Mabel smirked triumphantly. “We got you, bro-bro! While you were chasing Lion around trying to get your dumb old notes back, I snuck off with the journal and hid it in a place you’ll never find it.”

“You what?!” Dipper turned around fully, much more alarmed by this news. “Mabel, that’s not funny! Give it back, now!”

“Oh, I’ll give it back…” Mabel remarked coyly. “But only after you relax and enjoy this totally awesome party we set up for you!”

“Ooooo!” Steven exclaimed, stars in his eyes at how impressively Mabel had just flipped the entire situation around. “This is great! Now you’ll definitely want to stick around, right, Dipper?”

Dipper let out a harsh scoff of disbelief upon hearing this, appalled and irritated at just how easily he had been tricked into what had, in retrospect, been such an obvious trap. Still, given that he couldn’t progress any further in his investigation without the journal, he had no choice but to very begrudgingly play along. “Ugh, fine!” he exclaimed, severely aggravated with them both and not afraid to let it show. “But I’m only staying for an hour. No more, and preferably, a lot less. And when that hour’s through, you guys give me my journal back. Got it?”

“Oh, we got it…” Mabel exchanged a sly smirk with Steven, both of them already fully intending on doing whatever they could to get this party to last much longer than a measly hour.

“And I’m not dancing,” Dipper asserted crossly. “I don’t care if you guys have all of BABBA’s best hits on or not. It’s bad enough I have to waste time out here in the first place. I’m not completely embarrassing myself too.”

“Oh, you won’t…” Steven assured casually, still smiling conspicuously.

“And could you guys stop talking like that already?!” Dipper huffed, annoyed. “It’s starting to creep me out.”

“Oh, we will-”

“Mabel!”

“Ugh, fine, we will,” Mabel said plainly, rolling her eyes at her brother’s frustration. “Now without any further ado…”

“Let’s party!” both Steven and Mabel proclaimed in excited unison, gathering close and sandwiching a very perturbed Dipper in between them. And while he remained sullen and sour, that didn’t stop the pair from cheerfully kicking their “break party” off with a literal bang, curtsey of the party poppers Mabel happened to have on hand. Dipper was anything but amused as Steven laughingly showered him with confetti, eventually prompting him to retreat and take a seat next to the snack table, which he only very lightly partook of out of protest. Still, Steven and Mabel both figured it was a start, and while Dipper had made it clear he had no intentions of dancing himself, that didn’t mean they couldn’t. While neither of them were diehard BABBA fans, they still had quite a fun time dancing to the Icelandic group’s music, though they did so apart from each other, mostly for the sake of avoiding unintentional fusion. Yet all the same, they didn’t let their bittersweet memories of their time together as Maven stop them, especially as they bounced around the “dance floor” wildly and recklessly. For a while, Dipper was only barely watching them, instead choosing to sit, scowling and arms crossed as he impatiently checked his watch every few minutes. Still, even he couldn’t hold back a small smirk of amusement as Mabel tried (and failed) to perform a front flip, only to end up falling flat on her face. And, in time, that smirk turned into an outright laugh as Steven and Mabel ended up accidentally ramming into each other, sending them both comedically falling to the ground in a messy heap of limbs.

Though somewhat discombobulated after falling, Steven couldn’t help but let out a small, hopeful gasp upon hearing Dipper’s continued laughter from his spot near the snack table. A wide smile filled the young Gem’s face as he realized that they were finally starting to wear down his rather strong, stoic defenses. “It’s working!” Steven whispered to Mabel as they picked themselves up quickly to continue their impromptu plan. “Come on, Dipper!” the young Gem hurried over, holding an enthusiastic hand out in offer. “Dance with us!”

“Steven, no,” Dipper said, forcing himself to suppress his genuine smile for the sake of being serious. “I already told you; I’m not going to—whoa!” He was abruptly cut off as Steven suddenly grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him not just out of his chair, but onto the “dance floor” as well. Mabel was still going strong, twirling and spinning freely as Steven readily joined her once more, even if Dipper refused to, his former frustration returning. “Guys, are you even listening to me?!” he tried to protest, more than prepared to head back and take his seat once more. “I said I wasn’t going to-”

Dipper was interrupted once more, this time by Mabel as she forcibly grabbed his arm and began pulling him along with her, just as the song Disco Girl began to play. Despite the tune being Dipper’s favorite of BABBA’s discology, he still tried to pull away from Mabel, out of annoyance more than anything else, but she stubbornly refused to relinquish her hold on his hands. “Ugh, come on, Mabel!” he shouted amidst the music as they continued haphazardly spinning. “Let go already!”

“You’re telling me to let go?” Mabel asked with an incredulous chuckle. “I think you’re the one who needs to let go here, bro-bro.”

“She’s right, Dipper!” Steven encouraged with a smile as he stopped dancing himself, but only for a moment. “All of that research you’ve been doing is important, yeah, but taking breaks and having fun is important too! You’re at a party! And there’s never any shame in having fun at a party.”

Dipper didn’t really say anything in response to this, even as Mabel finally let him go to continue dancing on her own, essentially leaving him standing in the middle of the floor to watch her and Steven continue to have the time of their lives. While he hadn’t before, he suddenly felt quite left out as he watched them and the clear, genuine fun they were having and reveling in, a kind of fun that, he had admittedly been denying himself of lately. And the longer he stood on the outside of that fun looking in, the more he strangely found himself wanting to join in on it, to the point that, on a mere whim of impulse alone, he decided to do just that.

Mabel let out a surprised gasp as she felt someone grab her hand out of the blue, but her face lit up with an elated grin upon seeing that someone was none other than Dipper. “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked with a knowing smirk, pausing her dancing for just a moment. “I thought you said you weren’t going to dance.”

“W-well, I guess now I am,” Dipper said uneasily, clearly having to swallow his pride just to be out here on the dance floor. “Now let’s just do this before I change my mind, ok?”

“You got it, bro-bro!” Mabel grinned brightly, not hesitating to pull her rather unprepared brother into a lively dance to the ongoing pop ballad. For a while, the twins spun freely around the yard, tripping over each other’s feet several times, though that didn’t stop them. Steven smiled in warm satisfaction as he watched them, his excitement only growing upon noticing that Dipper was laughing just as hard as Mabel was as they meandered about to the music. As the first chorus of the song reached its apex, Mabel decided to shake things up as they danced past Steven, and, without any warning, she spun Dipper out just so the young Gem could fortunately catch his hand before he fell.

“Nice catch, Steven!” Mabel called as she continued blithely dancing on her own.

“Guess that means it’s my turn!” Steven said to Dipper with a hearty, mirthful laugh.

“I guess so,” Dipper chuckled with equal amusement, though he did let out a surprised gasp as the young Gem suddenly pulled him forward. The boys’ dance was by far less sloppy or free-spirited than the solo dance Mabel was currently pulling off, but even so, it was clear they were having fun with it. Their shared laughter rarely stopped as they spun around, every now and then spinning each other out but remaining linked by their hands before spinning back in. There was a certainly looseness and bounciness to their moves, making it clear that neither of them really knew what they were doing, though neither of them could really care less. They only thing they knew was that they were both having an amazing time, something that excited Steven the most, seeing as how, despite all of Dipper’s earlier protests, there was no denying that he was, at last, genuinely cutting loose and having fun.

All three of the kids were caught up in their own respective dances that they only vaguely noticed that the song was about to come to an end. And so, to end their dance on what would certainly be a high note, Dipper and Steven both acted upon the same idea, spinning each other out one last time, but keeping contact by their hands alone. By the time the song reached its final few notes, they had stopped spinning and instead stood bold and bright, arms outstretched wide yet connected as they both began to laugh hard and happily, both of them more than fulfilled by the sheer fun they had just had. And yet, amidst their shared amusement, neither of the boys were aware of the bright pink glow of the gemstone under Steven’s shirt. This light poured out from the stone and filled in a surprisingly wide radius, one that soon overtook Steven and Dipper both, silencing their laughter all at once as it prepared to fill it in with something else entirely.

Mabel was so caught up in her own lively dancing that she initially didn’t notice this expanding light. Though seeing as how it was hard to ignore, she caught sight of it soon enough, and, bewildered, she stopped dancing and turned to face the wide glow that had obscured her brother and her best friend. But as that glow started to thin out and dissipate, she couldn’t hold back a stunned gasp at what, or rather who appeared in their place.

He stood as confidently as he had before, no longer laughing but still smiling widely and brightly. However, the moment he opened his eyes, that smile disappeared instantly as he became aware of the feeling that something was alarmingly off, though he couldn’t figure out what. Confused, he glanced around to both sides, puzzled to see that he stood alone, even if he hadn’t mere seconds ago. “Where did you-” he instantly cut himself off, a hand flying to cover his mouth out of shock upon hearing a deeper, yet still youthful voice that certainly wasn’t his come out of it. “W-why does my voice sound-” he interrupted himself once more, frightened as he confirmed that voice was indeed somehow his after all. His eyes were wide as he finally managed to glance down at Mabel, who seemed much shorter than she should have been as she stared up at him, her jaw dropped in clear awe at what she was seeing.

“Mabel, what’s wrong?” he asked hesitantly, still unnerved by the sound of his own voice, but he forced himself to put that concern aside for now. Of course, Mabel was still too dumbfounded to give him a proper answer, so instead, he posed his question again, this time even more frantically. “Mabel?! Why are you looking at me like-” He stopped short with an abrupt, terrified cry as he finally glance down at himself, only really noticing one thing about his current appearance, which alone was enough to throw him into a full on panic. He had not only two usual arms hanging from his shoulders, but a completely new other pair, ones that jutted out from a little lower down his torso and had hands clenched into tight, shaking fists of fear. “W-what the heck is going on?!” he asked in apt alarm as he used one of his upper hands to grab onto one of his lower arms to confirm that they were indeed somehow real. “I have four arms! Yeah, I can see that, but why do I have four arms?! I don’t know, but they’re so cool! What?! No, they’re not! Where did they even come from?! And why am I so tall of the sudden? And we do I-”

“AHHHHHH!” His barrage of frightened questions was cut off by a loud, excited scream from Mabel, who had somehow managed to figure out what had happened on her own. He looked to her, startled and bewildered by her apparent elation, especially as she looked to him with a huge, delighted smile.

“What?!” he asked anxiously, holding all four of his new arms close to him out of surprise as Mabel continued to happily squeal without end. “What is it?! What’s wrong?! Why are you—AHHHHHH!” His alarm suddenly turned into the exact same ecstatic scream, a huge smile claiming his expression as half of him realized the same thing Mabel had, even if the other half was still left in panicked confusion. “W-wait! Why am I—AHHHHH!” he cut himself off once more with another overjoyed shriek, one that Mabel joined in on as she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet in excitement. “Wait!” he tried again, only to burst into happily screaming for the third time. “AHHHH!—Why are—AHHHH!—Ugh! Why are we—AHHHH!—Can you please—AHHH!—let me—AHHHH!—finish already!” He finally stopped at this, forcing himself to calm down, even though there was still a wide, exhilarated grin on his face. “Oh! Sorry! What were you saying? Ugh, finally. Now, what exactly are we all screaming about?”

“Dipper! Steven!” Mabel laughed, grinning up at him knowingly as she finally provided an answer. “You guys fused!”

For a moment, the only thing the new fusion could do was stare down at her with wide, shocked eyes upon hearing this, shock that grew as he glanced down to all four of his hands once again. “W-we… we… what?” he asked in quiet awe, though that awe instantaneously shifted back into unbridled glee once again. “Yeah, we did! How do we look?”

“You two look awesome together!” Mabel gushed brightly. “I totally love that whole four arm thing you have going on there! I mean, it was cool enough that Maven had four eyes, but four arms is even cooler! You guys could be like, some kind of juggling master!”

“You think so?” the fusion grinned down at his newfound extra limbs, apparently not bothered by them at all. “Because I think we could—Whoa, whoa, hold it! What’s wrong? What’s ‘wrong’ is you guys; we didn’t fuse.”

“Uh, yeah, you did,” Mabel pointed out. “I’m looking at your fusion right now.”

“No, you’re not!” the fusion protested anxiously. “Because if we fused, then that means we… we’d… we’d be taller! Oh, but we are! See?” He glanced down at himself, easily gaging that he was more than twice as tall as Mabel was. “O-ok… well, uh… Oh, I know! If we fused, then we’d have extra eyes or arms! Which… we technically do…” The fusion took in an apprehensive breath, lifting one of his lower hands to his chin as he began to pace back and forth, surprisingly already steady on his new, longer legs. “Oh, hold on! We can’t be a fusion, because if we were a fusion, which we’re not, then we’d have your-” he stopped short as he glanced down at noticed the unmistakable pink gemstone resting upon his partially exposed stomach. “…gem…”

“Well, looks like the evidence is irrefutable!” Mabel quipped happily as the fusion silently covered his mouth in shaken shock. “You’re a fusion now, boys! How does it feel? Feels pretty awesome, doesn’t it? I should know, since I’ve done it before myself.” The fusion didn’t answer right away, instead staring at the ground before him with wide, almost fearful eyes as he let out a small, shaky breath. Slowly, one of his upper hands came to rest upon his opposite shoulder, as if he was steadying himself in a way that only partially worked. Of course, the fusion’s apparent distress didn’t go unnoticed by Mabel, as her eager smile quickly faded into apt worry. “Uh… are you guys… ok?”

The fusion gasped, snapping himself out of his alarm and forcing himself to perk up and smile cheerfully once again. “Uh, yeah! Everything’s ok! We’re just fi… we… we’re just… I… I can’t believe it…” The assurance in his voice completely faded into an awestruck mutter as he shook his head in overwhelmed disbelief.

“Um… well, believe it, Ste-bro!” Mabel exclaimed, sending the fusion a sly wink. “Get it? Because you’re Steven, but you’re also Dipper? Pretty clever, huh?”

“Y-yeah, I get it…” the fusion frowned, rubbing his arm uncomfortably as he glanced to the side.

Mabel frowned herself upon seeing just how uneasy the fusion seemed to be, a feeling that she couldn’t really say she knew too well in regards to fusion, seeing as how comfortable and confident Maven had been. Still, she couldn’t deny that it concerned her quite a bit to see the fusion of her brother and best friend be so obviously tense and anxious, which was why she had every intention of fixing that in any way she could. “Uh, hey!” she spoke up with a reassuring smile. “Why don’t we go inside so you guys can see what you look like for yourselves? I’m sure that’ll get you both super pumped about this whole fusion thing, right?”

“Oh, yeah!” the fusion suddenly smiled himself, almost seamlessly switching out of his discomfort and back into excitement. “That’s a great idea, Mabel! What, what? Yeah! I mean, I already know we have four arms, but I wanna see what else there is aside from that! What, is having four arms not weird enough for you? Because it’s definitely too weird for me…”

“Aw, don’t be like that!” Mabel chastised lightly. “You guys look great, trust me! And you’ll think so too after you get a load of your new fusion digs. Now, come on!”

“Mabel, wait, I-whoa!” the fusion was cut off as Mabel grabbed one of his lower arms and pulled him towards the shack, eliciting both annoyance and laughter from him. Still, he half-followed and was half-dragged by Mabel to the attic, where the best full-length mirror in the house awaited.

“Well, go ahead and take a look!” Mabel exclaimed as she gave the hesitant fusion a push towards the mirror. “Five bucks says you’re gonna be all like-” she gasped, throwing on a shocked, yet amazed expression before giving the fusion a challenging grin.

“Oh please, I’m not gonna-” his scoff quickly faded into silence as he happened to steal a glance at his reflection in the mirror in front of him.

“Yes!” Mabel cheered in a whisper upon seeing the fusion’s jaw drop in awe as he took in his reflection for the first time. “I win!”

Of course, the fusion paid her no mind as he instead simply stared at himself with wide, curious eyes. If he had any lingering doubts about being a fusion before, they were instantly put to rest upon seeing the perfectly equal semblance he bore to both Dipper and Steven. His eyes were bright and expressive, yet alert and intelligent, going well with the rest of his somewhat boyish yet almost mature features. As he was already well aware of, he had four arms, all of which were surprisingly well toned, much like the rest of his body, clearly a merging of Dipper’s thin frame and Steven’s stocky build. Likewise, his hair was on the darker end of brown, short, but thick and unmistakably curly, even if most of it was well contained under Dipper’s usual pine tree cap. He also wore his dark blue vest overtop Steven’s pink star shirt, which was short enough to reveal the gem on his navel and had somehow gained an extra set of sleeves to accommodate the lower set of arms. All of that, along with a long pair of comfortable jean pants and a set of grey and white sandals, culminated to create a look that was surprisingly appealing and intriguing, even if his extra arms did throw it off just the slightest bit.

“Whoa…” the fusion finally spoke up, turning a bit to catch a better look at himself. “We actually look kind of…Great? Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking! W-well, I was gonna say…”

“Adorable!” Mabel chimed in, startling the fusion by snapping a photo of him. “Oh, that’s a keeper for the scrapbook!”

“Adorable?!” the fusion exclaimed, offended. “We are not adorable. Well… we might be, just a little… No, we’re not!”

“So if you’re not adorable, then what are you?” Mabel asked with a goading smirk. “Handsome? Because hey, you actually have muscles for once, Dipper. And the ladies love muscles.”

The fusion let out a small, somewhat uncomfortable laugh at this, his face lighting up in an embarrassed blush as his levity quickly faded into a scowl. “Ok, this is getting weird,” he said stiffly, looking to his reflection once more. “Huh? What’s so weird about this? I think the better question is what isn’t weird about this?” The fusion frowned as he lifted his lower arms up, cringing at how admittedly odd the sensation of controlling them was. “Oh, come on! I know it’s a little different at first, but you’ll get used to it! Trust me. Get used to it?! Why would I ever want to get used to—Whoa, hold that thought!” he gasped, his eyes wide as he noticed something interesting while looking at his reflection again. “What is that?” Intrigued, he slowly started lifting a hand up towards his forehead, but his other half was quick to catch onto his intention and hurriedly put a stop to it by grabbing his wrist tightly to halt his approach. “No,” he said simply, his tone rigid and his expression set in a hardened scowl that soon turned into hesitant confusion. “Why not?”

“Yeah, why not, Dipper?” Mabel asked, crossing her arms and grinning knowingly. “Are you afraid of letting Steven see your birthmark?”

The fusion snapped a glance of angry panic over at her, but this news only made him all the more curious. “You have a secret birthmark?!” he asked with a fascinated smile. “I wanna see it! No, you don’t, and you’re not going to. Aw, come on… can I see it? Please? No. But why not? Because… because I said so! But I just wanna know what it looks like!”

“You might as well let him see it,” Mabel interjected, still smirking. “After all, in a way it’s sort of his birthmark now too.”

The fusion was still scowling as he looked to the mirror once more, a brief look of hopefulness crossing his expression before he finally let out a relenting sigh. “Fine…” he released his tight grip on his other hand. “Just… just don’t laugh, ok? Why would I laugh? I’m sure whatever your—or our birthmark, is, it’ll be super cool! Just like us! …Right…” Without anything holding him back, the fusion removed his hat, freeing the upper half of his poofy, somewhat messy hair, which was soon pushed upward so he could get a better view of the mark on his forehead. And when he did, both halves of his whole froze in surprised amazement at what they saw.

“What the…?” he muttered, confusion filling his expression first before astonishment quickly replaced it. “Wow! It’s the Big Dipper! Just like the constellation! Yeah, but… what’s with the star?” His bewilderment quickly returned as he leaned in a bit closer to the mirror, taking note of the small star perfectly contained within the mark iconic constellation, which, when he was on his own, had always been expectantly empty. Still, as strange and somewhat disconcerting as that was, he easily bounced back into excitement with a gasp of realization. “Oh my gosh! This where you got your name from, isn’t it? Uh, well its-”

“Dipper’s not his real name, Steven,” Mabel informed casually. “It’s just a nickname.”

“Can you please stop telling him things?!” the fusion asked, aggravated first, then awestruck. “Whaaaat?! You mean I’ve known you all this time and I don’t even know what your real name is!? That’s crazy! No, it’s not, because as far as I’m concerned, nobody needs to know it. Aw, but its ok! You can tell me! No way! I already let you see the birthmark, I’m not letting you-” The fusion cut himself off with a startled gasp, his birthmark and gem both briefly flashing as he took a stumbling step backwards. “W-what was that?!” he asked, breathless and alarmed before breaking into a huge, knowing smile. “Whoa, so that’s your real name?! Wait… what? How did you—what did you do?! I… don’t really know. But whatever I did, I guess I found out that your real name is Ma—Don’t.” He cut himself off, his tone harsh as he glared at his reflection. “I’m serious. Don’t say it. O-ok… I guess I won’t then…”

“Yeesh, calm down, Dipper,” Mabel rolled her eyes. “It’s not like your real name is even that embarrassing. Oh! But speaking of names, I just realized something! You don’t have one yet!”

Mutual confusion filled the fusion’s face as he looked down at her. “Uh… yeah we do?”

“No, no, I’m not talking about Steven or Dipper, I’m talking about you,” Mabel corrected with a smile. “The fusion! Stevonnie and Maven both had names, so you need one too!”

“Er… no, we—Oh my gosh, we totally do!” the fusion gasped. “I can’t believe I hadn’t thought about that until now! … You guys aren’t serious, are you?”

“Of course, we are!” Mabel nodded firmly. “Now let’s see here… Steven and Dipper… Dipper and Steven… How about we try… Diven!?”

The fusion scoffed, turning his nose up at the purposed name as he put his hat back on. “You are not calling us that. Yeah… I’m not really feeling ‘Diven’ either…”

“Ok… well… how about Stedip!?”

“Eh…?” the fusion stuck his tongue out. “I’m not a fan of that one either… Yeah, because it sounds dumb.”

“Pfft, everybody’s a critic,” Mabel sighed petulantly, but still, she wasn’t about to give up. “Ok, let’s try… Dipen?”

“No.”

“Stever?”

“Nah…”

“Dien?”

“Are you kidding?”

“Ugh, cut me some slack, guys!” Mabel exclaimed in frustration. “It’s not like combining your names is as easy as just tossing Steven and Dipper together and getting-” She gasped, her eyes widening as a new idea struck her. “I got it… You—you being the fusion of Steven and Dipper—shall henceforth now and forever be known as… Stepper!”

“…Stepper?” the fusion repeated incredulously, though elated stars appeared in his eyes just a second later. “I love it! It sounds so cool! W-what? No, it doesn’t. Yeah, it does! And it fits us so much! Well, even if it does fit, we’re not going by it. Huh? Why not?”

“Yeah, what gives?” Mabel asked, just as confused. “Stepper is the perfect name for you guys!”

“It’s not about the name!” the fusion, now apparently dubbed as Stepper, exclaimed in annoyance. “Then what is it about? It’s about the fact that we don’t even need a name because we’re not staying like this. Like what? Fused! What?” he asked in unison with Mabel, both of them surprised and upset upon hearing this. “B-but I don’t understand… Aren’t you having fun? Fun?!” he scoffed in appalled disbelief. “We have four arms and you just read my mind or… something! How is that fun?! Oh yeah… I… I’m sorry about the whole mind reading thing… But like I said, this whole fusion thing just takes a little getting used to! Right, Mabel?”

“Right!” Mabel agreed with an enthusiastic nod. “Then again, it took us like no time at all to get used to being Maven so… maybe you just need to be a little patient about it?”

“Patient about what?” Stepper asked with a scoff. “Getting used to being… this?” he pointed to himself. “Look, I know it can feel a little weird and awkward—Oh, awkward doesn’t even begin to describe how it feels—But it’s so worth it! If you just give it a chance, then you’ll see that it’s really not so bad, I promise! Are you sure about that? Because it feels weird and uncomfortable and confusing and… and I just… I don’t want to feel like this! But it’s ok for you feel like this! I can feel it too, a-and it doesn’t feel good, but I know how this can feel. So… how is it supposed to feel then?”

“It’s supposed to feel like the best thing that’s ever happened to you, Ste-bro!” Mabel quipped with a reassuring smile. “Well, at least that’s how it felt for us.”

“She’s right,” Stepper said with a small, fond smile. “And that’s how it felt for me and Connie too. And… I want it to feel like that for us… But… why? Because you’re my friend, and you like I said before you deserve to have a little fun. And as far as I know, there’s no better way of having fun than fusion! You… you’re really serious about this, aren’t you? Of course I am! But… I don’t want to force you to be this if you really don’t want to. I just… really hope you’ll at least give this a chance… please?”

The fusion was silent for a moment at this, conflict and pleading both written all over his expression. For as disconcerted and uncertain as half of him felt, the other half clearly wanted this to work out, for them have the experience of sharing this mind and body at least for a while. As he happened to glance over at Mabel, he could see that she shared the same sentiment as she looked up to him with hopeful eyes, silently begging to him to stay together just for the spectacle of it all. And while he still wasn’t fully on board with the idea, upon being pressed from both sides, he realized he didn’t really have much of a choice. “Ok, fine,” he relented, taking in a deep breath as he looked to the mirror once again, pulling himself to full height. “We’ll stay… like this. For you two. Don’t do it for us! Do it for yourself. Uh… sure, whatever you say. But we’re not going to stay like this for too long. Just for a little while, got it? Aw, but why? Because I saw what staying fused for too long did for ‘Maven’,” he pointed out dryly, casting a small, critical glance towards Mabel, prompting her to glance away guiltily. “And I really don’t want the same thing happening to me. Hm, fair enough, I guess.”

“Ahhhh! I’m so excited for you guys!” Mabel exclaimed, quickly perking up as she grabbed the fusion’s lower arms and spun him around, much to his surprise. “This is gonna be so great! You two are gonna have such an awesome time together, trust me! I already have so much fusion fun planned for you guys! We should-”

“Whoa, hold it!” Stepper quickly interjected. “Before either of you guys get carried away, we need to lay down a few ground rules about this whole fusion thing. Like what? Well, for starters, we aren’t going on any little ‘fusion parade’ around town like Maven did.”

“Aw, but come on, Stepper!” Mabel encouraged with something of a teasing smirk. “Don’t you wanna show the world how awesome you are?”

“I do!” Stepper exclaimed with an excited grin that was quick to disappear. “Well, I don’t. If we actually went out looking like… this, then people would go running the minute they see these extra arms of ours. Huh… you might have a point about that…”

“Well, if you guys aren’t gonna go out on the town, then what are you gonna do?” Mabel asked, disappointed.

“I’ll tell you what we’re gonna do,” Stepper asserted calmly as he took a seat on Dipper’s bed. “We’re just going to sit here and do nothing for a few hours until we get this whole fusion thing out of our system. And then you guys are going to give me back the journal, I’m gonna get back to my research, and we’re going to pretend like this whole thing never happened, ok? What? No! Not ok! We can’t just sit here and do nothing! We’re fused! We should at least do something fun while we’re together!”

“Seriously, Dipper,” Mabel scowled at the fusion, knowing well that this stubbornly passive behavior was coming from her brother. “Can’t you at least lighten up and let yourself have a little fun instead of pushing everyone away just like you always do?”

“I’m not pushing anyone away!” Stepper protested, crossing his upper arms. “You’re the ones who keep insisting that we stay like this, so the only way we stay like this is if you both bear with me. Well… I guess that is what we agreed to, isn’t it?” The fusion let out a long sigh as he flopped down to lie on his back, knowing he had no choice but to comply with his other half. “I wish we could at least go show the Gems…”

“Oh my gosh, Stepper!” Mabel gushed, perking back up to excitement again. “That’s such a great idea! Let’s go do it! Like, right now!” Out of a severe desire to curb what would no doubt be a boring afternoon, Mabel rushed over and grabbed one of Stepper’s lower arms, abruptly pulling him upright and to his feet before he could have any say on the matter.

“Mabel, wait!” Stepper protested hotly as she began dragging him out of the attic, even though he partially was voluntarily following after her. “I said we aren’t going anywhere!”

“And I said we are!” Mabel chimed insistently.

“Oh! So did I!” the fusion himself quipped, raising one of his spare hands.

“So, its two to one, which means we win!” Mabel cheered, practically pulling Stepper down the attic stairs, despite his best attempts to remain anchored to the banister. “Now quit being stubborn already and… come on!” She finally managed to rip the protesting fusion away from the railing, though thankfully, she didn’t have too much trouble getting him out of the shack. Still, the trip up to the temple was a very slow one. All the way up the hill, Stepper was in constant flux between eagerly heading for the temple out of excitement and turning on his heel to head back to the shack out of petulant anxiety. Still, with Mabel’s help, the conflicted fusion eventually made it to the temple, even if she did essentially have to push him up the porch stairs and to the door.

“Ok, Stepper,” Mabel said with a confident grin. “I’m gonna go in and give you guys the best introduction ever! So wait here and don’t run off.”

“No promises,” Stepper scowled, crossing his lower arms before reassuring her. “Don’t worry, Mabel. We’re not going to run off. Uh, no; we’re totally bailing out of this. But I want the Gems to see us! They’re gonna think we’re so cool! How do you know that? Their reactions to Stevonnie and Maven were pretty mixed, at best; what makes you think they’ll take us any better? Uh… well… I guess we-”

“Uh, I’m just gonna go inside and let you two sort this out…” Mabel interjected with a frown as she turned to enter the house. “Be right back!” The fusion continued to argue with himself as she headed inside to find the Gems all conveniently relaxing on the couch as opposed to being away on a mission. “Guys! Guys! Guys!” Mabel exclaimed, rushing over to them and not hiding her building excitement.

“Yo, M-bel!” Amethyst greeted with a casual smirk, reclining back in her seat. “What up?”

“Something totally awesome, that’s what’s up!” Mabel exclaimed, throwing her hands down on the coffee table. “Now, I bet you guys are wondering ‘where’s Dipper and Steven’?”

“Why, yes!” Pearl nodded, already curious. “I was actually wondering that. Are they still down at the shack?”

“Nope!” Mabel shook her head. “They’re right here!” She boldly motioned towards the door with a wide grin, only for it to remain closed, a clear sign that the fusion had missed his cue. “I said, they’re right here!” Upon still not getting a response, Mabel let out an exasperated sigh before briefly turning back to the Gems. “Give me a minute.” The Gems exchanged a confused glance as Mabel marched outside, and even though they were on the other side of the screen door, the trio could still hear the rather loud argument going on right outside.

“No! I told you! I’m not going in there! Aw, but I really want to!”

“Seriously, you better get in there. The Gems are waiting!”

“Then we shouldn’t keep them in suspense! Come on! Er—no! We’ll just end up embarrassing ourselves or something! No, we won’t!”

“Yeah, you’ll be totally fine! The Gems will love you!”

“Fine?! What part of this is fine?! Well, it will be fine once we go in and see them, I’m sure! I don’t think so. But we—no, we—Well, I—I can’t—We-”

“Oh, well you just get in there already?!” Mabel finally shouted in clear frustration, finally pushing the fusion into the house as she threw the door open. Startled, Stepper stumbled into the house, nearly falling to the ground, though he managed to use his extra arms to catch his balance in full view of the Gems who sat before him on the couch. The fusion took in a sharp gasp as he straightened up and looked over at them with wide eyes, both halves completely unsure of what to say as the Gems took him in with equal surprise.

“Uh… um… hi, guys!” Stepper exclaimed, his tone surprisingly bright as he held up a hand in greeting, one that one of his lower arms soon slowly pushed down as his smile switched to anxiety. Flustered by the Gems’ apparent stunned silence, the fusion glanced away, sucking in a deep breath as he prepared to head back for the door. “Uh, you know what? I’m just gonna go-”

“Oh no, you don’t!” Mabel quickly stopped him, pushing him back over to the Gems. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet the one, the only… Stepper!”

“Mabel!” Stepper snapped, quickly casting a heated glare at her for outing him like this. However, his frustration was replaced with surprise as Amethyst suddenly broke out laughing from her spot on the couch.

“Oh my gosh, this has gotta be the best one yet!” the purple Gem howled, holding her stomach as she chuckled hard. “I told ya we should have been placing bets on when this was gonna happen!”

“You know I would have won,” Garnet spoke up, stoically adjusting her shades.

“And, man!” Amethyst exclaimed, jumping up from her spot on the couch as she approached the disconcerted fusion. “Just look at you! Steven, I gotta hand it to you; first Connie, then Mabel, and now Dipper? You really get around! If you know what I mean…”

“W-what?” Stepper asked the purple Gem, alarmed and confused by what she had just implied.

“Amethyst!” Pearl scolded sharply, quickly rising from her seat as well.

“And hey, check me out!” Amethyst continued with a wry smirk, shapeshifting an extra pair of arms to match the fusion’s. “I’m pulling a—what’d you say his name was again?” she asked Mabel aside.

“Stepper.”

“Stepper? Really?” the purple Gem scoffed, glancing the bewildered fusion up and down. “I would have gone with Stedip.”

“Hey, I tried,” Mabel remarked. “They didn’t go for it.”

“Oh well,” Amethyst shrugged. “I’m pulling a Stepper!” She laughed, using her lower arms to point playful finger guns at the fusion, who blushed in embarrassment as he secretly tried to hide his lower arms behind his back.

“Amethyst, could you please stop terrorizing them!?” Pearl asked in a huff as she walked up to Stepper, pushing the still-laughing purple Gem away. “Sorry about that, boys. By the way… you two haven’t been fused for an… unprecedented amount of time… have you?”

“Uh… no?” the fusion raised a confused eyebrow. “We’ve only been fused for about an hour, I guess. And even then, that’s still too long, if you ask me…” he muttered his last statement, which Pearl didn’t happen to catch as she let out an allayed sigh.

“Oh, well that’s a relief, especially after-” the white Gem abruptly cut herself off as she happened to glance over at Mabel, who met her gaze with a curious, innocent look. “Uh… after nothing!” Pearl laughed her insensitive near-slip up off, quickly chancing the subject as she turned back to the fusion. “S-so, Stepper, was it? It’s quite fascinating that you would have four arms, especially seeing as how you’re 75% human!”

“Fascinating?” Stepper frowned, gently at first, though it soon turned to melancholy as he gingerly gripped one of his lower arms out of shame. “You mean it’s weird, don’t you…?”

“Oh! No, I didn’t-” Pearl stopped short, her eyes wide at the prospect of offending the fusion. “I was just implying that your arms are an anomaly given the already improbable chances of your existence as a fusion!” Of course, her phrasing only managed to impact Stepper in a way that seemed to visibly offend him, something that could be seen by the confusion and discomfort in his expression. “Wait! That’s not what I meant!” Pearl tried again, flustered herself by now. “What I meant to say was—well, you see I—Oh, why is it so hard to talk to these new fusions!?”

“Pearl,” Garnet fortunately interrupted right on time, lightly pushing her flabbergasted teammate away from the alarmed fusion. “I’ll take it from here.”

“Ah, but I—good idea…” Pearl finally hung her head in defeat, retreating to stand alongside Amethyst and Mabel, both of which couldn’t help but send her amused smirks as she petulantly joined them.

Because of what he had assumed Pearl had implied, Stepper was so disconcerted and awash with worry, that by the time Garnet stepped up to him, he barely even noticed her presence until she spoke up. “Stepper,” she said, instantly catching the fusion’s attention.

“Ah!” he gasped, startled as he looked up at her. “Oh, uh… hey, Garnet…” Still apprehensive, Stepper was quick to look away from her, holding onto both sets of his own arms as his fretful gaze met the floor. And yet, Garnet silently drew it back up towards her as she placed a gentle, motherly hand under his chin and lightly tilted his head up towards her, something that clearly caught the fusion off guard.

“Stepper,” the Gem leader began again, her tone intent, firm, and almost cold. Yet at the same time, even though her expression was mostly concealed by her shades, there almost seemed to be a hint of pity in it. “I need you to listen to what I’m about to tell you, because it’s very important.”

“O-ok…?” Stepper consented, his voice a shaky whisper as he looked to Garnet with wide, almost nervous eyes.

Garnet paused for an oddly long amount of time, almost as if she wanted to keep the fusion in suspense. Or almost as if she didn’t want to tell them what she knew she had to. “You… are an unstable fusion.”

Stepper bristled upon hearing this, his eyes growing even wider as he took a sudden step back away from Garnet, as if what she had just said had injured him. “I’m… what?”

“You’re unstable,” the Gem leader reiterated. “Out of sync. Conflicted. Imbalanced.”

“I… I don’t understand…” the fusion shook his head, his voice nearly trembling from unanimous nerves. “What does all that mean? T-this ‘unstable’ thing… is it bad?”

Garnet let out a deep breath, her hands falling to her sides as she finally averted Stepper’s questioning gaze. “Fusion is a state that requires a bond of complete and total harmony between all participating parties. For a fusion to be stable, healthy, and functional, the sum of its parts must foster a connection based on mutual trust and understanding, strong enough that they’re united in both mind and body, in every sense there is. Both halves have to want and feel the same thing. That steady foundation must exist for a fusion to work. And you, Stepper… you don’t have that foundation.”

“H-how can you tell?” Stepper asked, his expression awash with concern. “Can you like, feel it o-or something?”

“Don’t need to feel it,” Garnet shook her head. “I can see it.”

“Yeah, its kina obvious that you guys are a nervous wreck,” Amethyst interjected laxly. “No offense.”

“Amethyst, please!” Pearl snapped hotly before turning to the alarmed fusion. “But, well… yes, you two do seem a little… unsteady… but still, what fusion isn’t during their first time?”

“Maven wasn’t!” Mabel spoke up with blithe innocence, though she was quick to retract upon noticing Stepper’s clear distress by this revelation. “Uh… I mean… w-we were totally unsteady. Basically, we were one big, awkward, four eyed, adorable disaster!”

“No, we weren’t…” Stepper spoke up, his voice still very soft and small and his eyes taking on almost a haunted look. “Maven was fine. Better than fine, really! They were… perfect! Stevonnie was perfect! I’m… I…” he trailed off, staring down at all four of his hands. “I don’t even know what I am…”

“Stepper,” Garnet interjected, as calmly as ever as she placed a firm hand on the dejected fusion’s shoulder. “Even if you are unstable, that doesn’t mean you’re unsustainable. After all, you’ve managed to remain fused for this long. Clearly, something in both Steven and Dipper wants to keep you together, to see this work out.”

“I do want this to work out!” Stepper exclaimed, though his earnest tone quickly shifted to one of uncertainty. “I… I don’t know if I… I just… Like I said, I don’t know… But I want to know! I want us to have this, for both of us… Please…” The fusion was quiet for a long moment, and no one bothered to interrupt his focused thinking as he looked between his hands once more, as if the halves that composed him were silently debating for once instead of doing so out loud. And while the conflict and dread were clear in his expression, determination and resolve could be found there to. And in the end, that determination was somehow enough to push him forward. “H-how do we become stable?!” he asked Garnet intently, his tone almost desperate.

“You have to find the harmony between yourselves,” the Gem leader said simply.

“W-well, how do we do that?!” Stepper asked rather frantically.

“I can’t tell you how,” Garnet remarked, crossing her arms. “It’s a very different process for every fusion and it all depends on the two of you. But what I can tell you is that you both need to meet each other on the same ground. You need to allow a connection of trust to grow between yourselves. And once that connection has grown, there’s where you’ll find the harmony you’re looking for.”

“Well, that’s vague…” Stepper muttered somewhat sarcastically, though it easily shifted back into worry. “A-and if we can’t do that?”

Once again, the Gem leader looked away from the fusion, adjusting her shades as she frowned deeply. “If you can’t… then your fusion will continue to destabilize until both halves of yourself pull even further away from each other. And then… you’ll fall apart.”

“F-fall apart…” Stepper repeated, his breathing still shallow as he absently ran a hand through his hair. Half of him knew well what the sensation of abruptly ending a fusion was like, and while it wasn’t at all painful or necessarily even bad, it was still wasn’t something he wanted to experience, mostly because it always symbolized the conclusion of a feeling he had come to relish: the feeling of simply being fused. His other half didn’t know what “falling apart” would even be like if it happened, and though he had professed to wanting this experience to be over as soon as possible, he also somehow feared its cessation for reasons he couldn’t possible explain. But in the end, neither halves could reach a suitable conclusion among themselves. Should they just let their instability overtake them until they inevitably split apart? Or should they actually put forth the effort into keeping themselves together, just for the sake of seeing where this might lead?

Uncertain of which road to take, Stepper glanced over at Amethyst, Pearl, and Mabel, all of whom offered him no help as they simply averted his gaze awkwardly. As he looked to Garnet once more for guidance, the Gem leader simply upheld her firm stance, only offering him a small nod that told him only one thing: that this was his choice to make. Together.

“I… I… I want to…” the fusion took in a deep breath, squaring both sets of shoulders as he puffed his chest a bit in determination. “I’m—I mean, we’re going to find that harmony!” he declared brazenly, though his confidence soon petered out to his usual uncertainty. “O-or… y’know, try and make ourselves more stable, or w-whatever…”

Garnet’s stoicism broadened into a wide, clearly pleased smile upon hearing this. In fact, she could scarcely contain her newfound elation as she suddenly pulled Stepper into a tight, reassuring hug, much to his surprise. “And you will find it,” she confirmed softly, still smiling. “It won’t be easy, and it’ll take work and compromise from both of you, but you can and will find it. I know it.”

“W-well, it’s a good thing you have future vision then…” Stepper frowned as the Gem leader relinquished her hold on him. “I don’t even know where to start with this whole ‘harmony’ thing… B-but we’ll figure it out! And the best part is, we can do it together!”

“That’s the spirit!” Mabel cheered, running up to the fusion. “And I can help you guys find it too! I know all about what being in a super-stable fusion is like from when we were Maven, so my expertise is bound to come in handy!”

“Expertise?” Stepper looked to her incredulously. “You guys literally only fused once.”

“Hey, same for you, Ste-bro, though you’re still going for it!” Mabel smirked, grabbing the fusion’s lower hands. “And we’re all so proud of you for trying! Right, guys?” she asked, turning towards the Gems.

“Oh, well, uh…” Pearl trailed off, glancing aside with uncertainty.

“Uh, sure?” Amethyst shrugged halfheartedly, though luckily Garnet stepped in once more to give the fusion a much-needed confidence boots.

“Yes,” she firmly agreed. “We’re very proud.”

“Aw! Thanks so much, you guys!” Stepper gushed with a bright smile that dropped into a look of hardened resolve. “Well, I guess we better start trying to figure this fusion thing out… I don’t think that’ll be too hard…Speak for yourself. Well, technically, I kind of am!”

“Alright, you two, enough one-sided banter,” Mabel rolled her eyes in amusement as she began pushing the fusion towards the door. “We’ve got some harmony to find!”

“Yeah!” Stepper cheered enthusiastically as he allowed himself to be pushed outside. “Harmony! Harmony! Harmon—Could you maybe stop pushing us, Mabel?! We have two working legs—and four working arms—don’t remind me. Anyway, we can walk. And run, and jog, and jump, and do all the other great things people with legs can do!”

The fusion continued to ramble amongst himself as Mabel finished shoving him out, sending the Gems a somewhat uneasy laugh and shrug before leaving herself. “Are you sure they’ll—or rather, he’ll be alright, Garnet?” Pearl asked the Gem leader somewhat worriedly after the kids had all left. “He seemed rather… well…”

“He’s a mess, just like I said before,” Amethyst shrugged plainly, eliciting an aggravated glare from the white Gem.

Garnet simply adjusted her shades, her future vision providing her with a glimpse of what might result from this situation. “He may be a mess now, but whether or not he gets past that is entirely up to him. All we can do is wait and see if he does.”

“Ok, boys!” Mabel began boldly, pacing back and forth in front of Stepper as he sat on the floor of the shack’s den. “Operation Find The Harmony is a go!”

“Ok but… why did you write that on a chalkboard?” Stepper asked with a confused frown, nodding to the chalkboard Mabel had pulled out and drawn all over.

She paused, glancing between the fusion and said chalkboard for a moment before giving a somewhat exasperated response. “I don’t know! Maybe you should stop asking so many questions, Dipper, and focus on our mission!”

“Hey! That wasn’t me this time!” Stepper crossed his upper arms defensively before sheepishly raising one of his lower ones. “He’s right. That was me.”

“Oh!” Mabel perked up into a wide grin upon hearing this news. “That’s great then! That means you two are starting to rub off on each other! Quick! The Dipper half of you! Say something Steven would say!”

“Uh… Mabel? I don’t think that’s how this works…” Stepper remarked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, no!” Mabel shook her head. “I said say something that Steven would say, not your usual ‘Doubtful Dipper’ stuff.”

“Heh, Doubtful Dipper! That’s a good one!” Stepper laughed, though he instantly cut himself off in frustration. “Ok, are we actually going to be serious about this, or are we just going to keep messing around? Aw, but we’re just having a little fun! We’re not supposed to be having fun! We’re supposed to be finding this ‘harmony’ thing, remember? But who says we can’t have a good time while looking for it? Because we should be taking this seriously! But I don’t get why it has to be so serious. We’re just trying to make ourselves stable. Of course, you wouldn’t get why this is serious! You never do! You always so-”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Mabel quickly cut in upon noticing the fusion’s singular argument begin to escalate. “You guys need to tone all that crazy tension down! You’ll never find the harmony acting like that. Now, just take a minute to cool down and take a deep, relaxing breath…”

Stepper took her advice, closing his eyes as he took in a long, slow breath. Though before he could let it out as peacefully, the door leading to the gift shop suddenly slammed open abruptly, courtesy of a very perturbed Stan. “Kids!”

“G-Grunkle Stan!” Mabel gasped in surprise, not even noticing Stepper as he hurriedly scrambled to his feet, his eyes wide with alarm.

“What in the name of all that’s worth money is with all that junk you munchkins left in the yard?!” the conman asked hotly. “That dumb pig and crazy lion got into those snacks and left a huge mess out there that somebody’s gotta clean up. And I can tell you that somebody isn’t gonna be…” Stan trailed off, his anger shifting into dry bewilderment upon finally spotting the fusion, who was currently trying his best to conceal himself behind Mabel. “Uh, Mabel?” the conman said, raising a questioning eyebrow. “Who’s the four-armed freak trying and failing to hide beyond you there?”

“F-freak?!” Stepper exclaimed, offended as he properly stood.

“Aw, Grunkle Stan, you scared him!” Mabel exclaimed fretfully, turning to the fusion. “Just look at him! He’s got that deer-in-the-headlights look and everything! Poor thing!”

“What? No, I don’t!” Stepper protested, his alarm quickly turning into a scowl. “Well, you gotta admit that Mr. Stan did kind of scare us a little. Whatever. Maybe he scared you, but not me. I… think he got us both, to be honest. But its ok, Grunkle Pines! We know you didn’t mean to!”

For a moment, the only thing Stan could do was stare at the fusion in bewildered confusion for a moment, before a wave of exasperated recollection and realization washed over him. “Oh great, another one,” her remarked sardonically, rolling his eyes as he stepped closer to Stepper, who was rather stiff under his dry scrutiny. “And let me guess… this time, its Steven and Dipper, isn’t it?”

“Uh… well, I-” the fusion shakily attempted to explain himself, though Mabel enthusiastically cut in for him.

“Yep!” she chimed brightly. “I call him Stepper!”

“A name I never agreed to, by the way!” Stepper spoke up, still flip-flopping between personalities. “But a name that I think is just great!”

“Speaking of great,” Mabel grinned at Stan, nodding towards the fusion. “Isn’t that what he is? Cause I certainly think so!”

“Well, he sure is something, pumpkin,” the conman said with a small, bemused sneer as he looked over the fusion again. “To be honest, I didn’t know either of them swung that way, but eh whatever floats their boats I guess.”

“Uh… what’s that supposed to mean?” Stepper asked, simultaneously disturbed and confused by this statement.

“Oh nothin’,” the conman shrugged nonchalantly. “You’ll get it when you’re older. But for now… Hey, Soos! Wendy! Get in here and get a load of this!”

“W-what?!” Stepper gasped fearfully. “Grunkle Pines, don’t call them in here! No, do call them in! They’re gonna love us! No! They can’t see us like this, especially not Wendy! But I thought you were over her. I am! Then why are you so nervous? I’m not nervous! Yeah, you are, I can feel it! Oh, can you just-”

“What’s up, Mr. Pines?” Soos asked as him and Wendy casually entered the den.

“Yeah, you wanted us to see-” the cashier cut herself off, both her and the handyman’s jaws dropping as they noticed Stepper. Of course, the only thing the flustered fusion could do at such a moment was let out a loud groan as he buried his face in his upper hands, even though one of his lower ones offered the pair a wave of cheerful greeting. Neither Mabel nor Stan could suppress small chuckles upon seeing Stepper’s embarrassment mingled with obliviousness, altogether creating quite a humorous scenario as Soos and Wendy reacted to him.

“Whoa… Nice extra arms, dude…” the handyman said fervently, even if he still had no idea who the fusion really was.

“Uh… thanks?” Stepper frowned, holding one of his spare arms awkwardly, especially as Wendy slowly approached him. The cashier’s eyes were wide with rare wonder, her usual calm all but gone and replaced with a soft blush, one that was much more poignant on the bewildered fusion as she stared at him in awe.

“Um… hey,” she greeted him as casually as she could, coyly glancing away as she absently played with her hair. She looked back to him once again, this time with an undeniable flirtatious smile, one that made Stepper’s jaw practically hit the floor with shocked disbelief. “What’s up?” she asked, sending him a playful wink.

For what seemed like ages, the fusion was at a complete loss for words, and even when he did find them again, they came out in stumbled, disjointed ramblings. “I… uh… you… not… u-up… um… we… uh…” As he trailed off, his eyes wide as the half of him in control failed to make sense of what he was saying. So the other half decided to simply take the reins instead. “Oh, not much,” he shrugged with a sudden blithe, composed, but still innocent smile. “What’s up with you, Wendy?”

“Huh?” Wendy blinked out of her flirtatious manner, confusion filling her expression instead. “B-but… but how did you…?”

“Psst, Wendy!” Mabel interjected, barely managing to contain her laughter as she whispered to the befuddled cashier. “That’s actually Steven and Dipper.”

“Mabel!” Stepper snapped, completely outraged over how she had ruined the moment. “Wait, I don’t understand. What just happened? And why are we so sweaty all of the sudden?” The fusion was quick to slap one of his lower hands over his mouth at this, anxiously glancing towards Wendy, who looked to him with disturbed shock.

“O-ok! This just got way too awkward…” she remarked, tearing her gaze away from Stepper as she briskly walked away. “I-I’m just… I’ll just be over here for a second… Yikes…”

“W-Wendy, wait!” the fusion called out after her as she retreated to the other side of the room for a moment. Of course, by now, both Stan and Mabel were besides themselves with laughter, to the point that they were both practically in tears over what had just happened, much to half of Stepper’s frustration as he sent them a fierce glare.

“Whoa, hold on a second!” Soos cut in with a surprised gasp as he looked to the fusion. “Did you two dudes fuse?!”

Stepper let out a long sigh, though it quickly turned to excitement before he could say anything. “You bet we did! O-on accident, of course! We didn’t mean to. But we did, and so here we are as Stepper! Again, I didn’t agree to that name! Well, I think it’s kinda safe to say that its stuck by now. Unfortunately…”

“Aw, I’m sort of disappointed…” the handyman frowned as he looked to the fusion. “I mean, you guys look totally awesome together, don’t get me wrong, but you don’t look anything like my design for a Steven-Dipper fusion!” At this, Soos pulled out his ‘fusion folder’ and presented Stepper with a drawing that, against all odds, bore a striking similarity to him.

“Soos, what are you talking about?” Stepper asked in slight confusion as he looked over the sketch. “This looks almost exactly like us. What? How do you see that? I mean, it’s a great drawing, Soos, it really is but… yeah I gotta agree, it just doesn’t look like us at all…”

“Yeah, I can’t really see it either…” Mabel remarked as she got a peek of the drawing, looking between it at the fusion.

“…Are you guys serious?” Stepper asked dryly, letting out a small sigh of exasperation.

“Alright, alright, enough gawking over him,” Stan cut in, pushing Soos away from the fusion. “It’s not like he’s any less of an annoying smart-aleck or an unbearable optimist like this than they are when they’re apart. Nothing new to see here.”

“Hey!” the fusion protested, even if half of him was quite confused. “I think we’re pretty new… In a good way! More like a really uncomfortable way…”

“Still…” Stan continued, ignoring what Stepper had just said as he began to circle the fusion in examination. “That weird four arm thing you got going on there does have some potential… I think people would pay good money to see that many arms not artificially glued onto a person, but on a real… sort of person instead.”

“Wait… what?!” the fusion asked with a scoff that instantly shifted into elated excitement. “Oh my gosh, Mr. Stan! You really wanna make us an attraction here at the Mystery Shack?!”

“Eh sure,” the conman shrugged. “Plus, seeing as how you’re half-family, I could get away with only half-paying you. Or I just won’t pay you at all. That honestly works even better, if you ask me.”

“Oh, of course, we’ll—No!” Stepper fiercely cut himself off. “No way, Grunkle Pines! We are not headlining as one of your dumb attractions just for people to look at us and laugh! But people wouldn’t laugh if they saw us! They’d probably really like us, and think we’re cool—Are you serious?! Just look at us! We have four arms! There are literally two personalities running wild inside our head, and they couldn’t be any more different! So? What’s the problem with all that? We’re still trying to do this together, aren’t we? The problem is that we’re—we’re a—we—Augh!” The fusion derailed into a sudden sharp cry of distress as his entire body was covered by a bright white light, one that was quick to consume him completely. Soos and Wendy gasped in alarm upon seeing this, and even Stan looked to him with newfound concern, especially as his form began to waver and his ongoing cry started to split apart into two separate, but very familiar voices. Fortunately though, Mabel recognized what was happening, and with a fearful gasp, she quickly rushed over to the destabilizing fusion, taking his lower hands tightly before they could dissolve into nothing.

“Stepper!” she exclaimed adamantly over both Steven and Dipper’s disjointed, struggling shouts, their fusion’s form crumbling apart more and more with each passing second yet for some reason, still not falling apart entirely. “You guys gotta stick together! Remember what Garnet said! Remember your mission! Operation Find the Harmony isn’t over yet!”

Upon hearing this appeal, something in the faltering fusion seemed to shift, his outcry turned from being disconnected and strained to unified and determined. Mabel gasped again as he pulled his trembling lower hands away from her, and all she could do was watch with wide eyes as he struggled to pull that set of arms close to himself. After what seemed like ages of fierce turmoil on the fusion’s part, he finally managed to wrap his arms around himself in what looked like a desperate hug. As he tightened this embrace, the light that had enshrouded him abruptly disappeared, revealing that Stepper was, against all odds, somehow still together.

Still, this small victory was not without its cost. Exhaustion from the ordeal he had just passed through filled his features, and as his eyes suddenly began to roll back into his head, Stan took a large, hurried step forward in an attempt to catch him as he started to sway. The conman was a second too late, however, as Stepper collapsed to his knees, breathless but supporting himself with his upper arms as his lower set still held him in a tight embrace that he refused to break. Overwhelmed with worry, Mabel rushed to hug him herself, though the fusion silently held up a hand to stop her in her tracks before she could. His expression was unreadable, largely obscured by shadow thanks to the brim of his hat hanging low as he weakly pulled himself up to stand. And though he was a little unsteady on his feet at first, he succinctly turned around and walked out of the room without sparing another word or glance for anyone.

“Stepper!” Mabel called, concerned, as she ran out of the shack after him. “Wait up!”

A beat of awkward silence passed in the den after the kids had left, seeing as how no one was entirely sure of what to make of what had just happened. But of course, Stan was the first to break it, playing the entire situation off as though it hadn’t been incredibly disconcerting and alarming. “Yeesh, talk about your split personality,” he remarked, feigning sarcasm. “For a minute there, I thought he was actually gonna pass out or something. Then again, considering who he’s made of, I guess that wouldn’t have been too far out of the realm of possibility.”

“Uh, shouldn’t we be worried about Dipper and Steven?” Wendy asked with a fretful frown. “They did just sort of have a major breakdown there…”

“Oh, they’ll be fine,” the conman rolled his eyes passively. “But I’ll tell you what you two should be worried about. Getting back to work!” At this staunch command, Soos and Wendy found that they had really no choice but to comply, as concerned as they were. And yet, as they headed back towards the gift shop, Stan lingered a moment longer in the den, finally letting his own apprehension show as he cast a frowning glance towards the door Stepper and Mabel had just went through. “Oh boy…” he sighed with undeniable worry that went easily beyond what had just happened. “I really hope you kids know what you’re doing with all this magic mumbo-jumbo…”

“Stepper!” Mabel exclaimed, easily catching up with the fusion, seeing as how he had stopped just past the porch. His manner was still quite tense as he stood, his upper hands clenched into tight fists at his side while his lower arms held onto those arms consolingly. His eyes were still largely concealed as he kept his gaze downward, not even glancing over at Mabel as she came to stand alongside him. “Hey, a-are you guys ok?” she asked with a frown as she looked over the clearly troubled fusion. Stepper gave her no signs of response aside from a very soft, almost inaudible sigh as he looked away from her even more. Mabel bit her lip anxiously at this, completely at a loss of what to do to help him, especially after what had just happened. Still, that didn’t means she wasn’t going to try. “Ok, so… Operation Find The Harmony hit a bit of a snag back there, but that’s fine! You two managed to pull it together anyway! Literally!” She let out a bright laugh at this, in the hopes that it would spread to the fusion, but of course, it didn’t as his continued empty silence only lingered. “W-well, uh… don’t worry! There’s still plenty of other things we can try to get you two to be-”

“What’s the point?” Stepper finally spoke up, his tone dejected and morose as his grip on his own arms tightened. “We’ve been trying all day just to stay together. How are we supposed to find the harmony if we can’t even do that?”

“Aw, come on, you guys, don’t sell yourselves short!” Mabel encouraged, running to stand in front of the fusion instead of beside him. “If there’s anyone who can do this, it’s you two! All you need is… Oh! I know! What you guys really need is a deep, genuine bonding experience! That’s bound to get you guys in perfect harmony!”

Stepper finally looked at this, his dejection fading into curiosity. “Bonding experience? Like what?”

“Uh… well…” Mabel paused to mull over this before providing him a mostly suitable answer. “Like something you both like doing, or something that would get you guys to work together instead of always arguing. Or something that does both…”

“…Did you have anything in mind?” the fusion asked, raising an eyebrow as he waited to see where she was going with this.

“Of course!” Mabel perked up at the realization of her newfound idea. “Why didn’t I think of this before?! Steven, you like adventure, don’t you?”

“You know I do!” Stepper exclaimed, starting to bounce back from his earlier melancholy.

“And Dipper, you love mysteries, right?”

“I… can’t really argue that I don’t…”

“Then there’s one sure fire thing that’ll get you as stable as a Stepper can be!” Mabel exclaimed excitedly. “A mystery adventure!”

“…A… what?” Stepper asked, mutually confused.

“A mystery adventure!” Mabel repeated just as zealously as before. “You know, kinda like a mystery hunt, only with 100% more adventure! Doesn’t it sound awesome?!”

“A mystery adventure, huh?” the fusion mused, seeming to take the suggestion seriously. “I guess there wouldn’t be any harm in anything like that. After all, there’s no way it could make things worse by this point… And who knows? It might even be fun! Do you really wanna go there with that whole ‘fun’ thing again after what just happened? …Uh… well… m-maybe instead of having fun, w-we’ll finally find the harmony! It would definitely be about time for that to happen…”

“So is settled then!” Mabel proclaimed confidently. “Let’s go, boys! To find adventure, mystery, and most of all…” She trailed off, grinning to Stepper, who only returned it with a look of blank confusion. “Uh, this is the part where you’re supposed to chip in with ‘harmony’!”

“Oh. Harmony!” Stepper cheered, determined at first, then uncertain. “Y-yeah… harmony…”

“Ok, so where do you guys—or should I say—you, Stepper,” Mabel paused as she sent the fusion a sly wink that he didn’t quite understand. “Think we should start with this whole mystery adventure thing?”

“Hm…” Stepper pondered this, quickly diving into conversation with himself as he began pacing around. “Well, when we go on mystery hunts, don’t you usually figure out what we’re going to go look for with the-” the fusion suddenly cut himself off with a sharp gasp. “Oh my gosh! The journal! I’ve been so distracted with all this fusion stuff that I almost forgot about it! O-oh… well, I don’t really see why you would have needed it before now. It’s not like we’d find the harmony in there anyway, right? Uh, m-maybe we could? A-after all, there are a few notes in there about fusion that could be helpful... Really? Yeah, but the only problem is… I don’t know where it is since somebody felt the need to hide it earlier…”

Mabel shrugged awkwardly as Stepper sent her an unimpressed glance. “Hey, it was the only way I could get you to stay out here, bro-bro,” she said defensively. “And aren’t you totally glad you did? You guys would have never fused if I hadn’t hidden that journal!”

“Whoa, you’re right!” Stepper gasped with a smile. “How lucky was that? Probably too lucky… But uh, you still know where it is, right? I’m sure it would be really handy on our little, um… adventure mystery?”

“That’s mystery adventure, Ste-bro,” Mabel corrected. “And of course I know where it is! Steven knows too, seeing as how he watched me hide it and everything. In fact, it’s right over-” She stopped herself right before she could reveal the book’s location, looking to the fusion with an appalled gasp. “Hold on just a second! This isn’t just Dipper trying to get the journal back so you guys can unfuse and he can just go back to his dumb old research, is it?”

“Um… no! I’m just trying to-” Stepper interrupted his own defensive protest as an instantaneous flash of light sparked from both his gem and concealed birthmark. He let out a shocked gasp amidst his surprise, his eyes widening first before filling with hurt anger. “He was just trying to get the journal, just like you said! I can’t believe you! You were lying to us! Ok, seriously?! You need to cut it out with that weird mind reading thing! It is not ok! No, I’ll tell you what’s not ok: pretending like you actually wanted to do this when you don’t! Please, that’s not why I—wait.” The fusion paused, his frustration turning to stark realization. “If you can read my mind while we’re fused… then maybe I can do the same thing to you! W-what are you-” Stepper gasped once more, his upper hands flying to his forehead while his lower ones reached for his gem, all while they both briefly lit up once more.

“Steven, wait!” Mabel exclaimed adamantly. “Don’t let him-”

“Oh, so that’s where you put it, huh?” Stepper smirked triumphantly at Mabel before letting out a disappointed sigh. “Sorry, Mabel… I-I didn’t know how to stop him. Well, at least now you know how creepy it feels to have somebody randomly probing your thoughts. Also,” the fusion turned back towards the porch, kneeling down to find that the journal was, sure enough, sitting under it. “Under the porch, Mabel? Really? I gotta say, not your best hiding spot.”

“I wouldn’t have had to hide it in the first place if you hadn’t been such a nerdy lame-o.” Mabel remarked, petulantly sticking her tongue out at the fusion.

“Call me whatever you want. I’m just glad we can finally put this whole awkward mess behind-” Stepper stopped short as his hand touched the journal, a huge gasp escaping him as the book disappeared into thin air the instant he made contact with it. “W-what just happened?!” he asked in alarm as he pulled back and quickly stood. “Where did it go?! It vanished! Yeah, I can see that, but why? And more importantly where?!”

“Maybe it just decided to hide itself so you two would stay fused longer,” Mabel purposed with a small, satisfied grin at this odd turn of events.

“Not helping!” Stepper exclaimed hotly. “Well… it’s gotta be around here somewhere, right? Oh, it better be, because I-” The fusion stopped short, his eyes widening with surprise as he glanced down at the brightly-glowing gemstone on his navel. “W-what’s happening?!” he exclaimed, his alarm only growing as a radiant pink orb slowly began to emerge from the stone. “I-it’s ok! This is normal! …I think. But it’s just our—How many times to I have to tell you that no part of this is-”

Before he could get his final word out, the orb split from his gem, instantly taking shape into something else entirely as the light abruptly faded from it. Before Stepper could even realize what that something was, it began to fall towards the ground, though his lower arms somehow managed to awkwardly catch it right before it could. Confused and curious, the fusion glanced at what he was now holding, his shock only growing as he held it out to get a better look at it.

“I-is that… the journal?!” Stepper exclaimed, his jaw dropping in mutual shock as he glanced over the seemingly familiar, leather-bound tome. And yet, something was undeniable off about it, even from a first glance. “N-no… It’s not… it looks… This is… What is this thing?”

As opposed to the telltale book the kids had all seen many times before, this journal was quite different in mere appearance alone, bearing only a vague semblance to the usual one by way of size and thickness. Instead of burgundy, its surface was a dark shade of pink, and altogether the book was far less weathered and battered, instead looking pristine and new as it lightly shimmered with a continual pale glow. There was something of a rose theming to it, with designs of pink petals in its corners and thorny vines along its spine. However, the design on its cover was by far the most interesting thing about it: instead of a six-fingered hand, it was a large yellow star, harboring the effigy of a smaller Big Dipper inside of it. For a moment, the only thing the fusion could do was stare at this mysterious journal with apt confusion, though before he could eve make any comment on it, Mabel made one of her own.

“Whoa!” she gasped, amazed as she looked at the journal herself. “Looks like you got a journal upgrade! This one’s way prettier than the usual old, dusty one!”

“Uh… sure it is…” Stepper frowned, finally pulling himself out of his initial surprise as he held the book a bit closer. “No, but really, what is it? I… I think… it’s our weapon… What?”

“Yeah, seriously, what?” Mabel asked, just as confounded. “How are you guys supposed to use a book as a weapon? Are you just supposed to throw it at monsters or something?”

“I… don’t know…” the fusion looked over his journal with tighter scrutiny this time. “Maybe there’s something inside of it that”-

“Oh, hey! Good idea!” Mabel exclaimed zealously, suddenly plucking the journal right out of Stepper’s hands before he could stop her.

“Hey!” he protested, trying to grab it back from her, but she was easily able to keep it out of his reach.

“Ok, let’s see here…” she mused, opening the journal to a random page as she began rapidly flipping through it. “Huh, it doesn’t look like anyone hid a secret knife or dagger in here like Grunkle Stan did with some of the books at the shack… Oh! I know! Maybe it’s some kind of magical spell book instead!”

“Isn’t that basically what the regular journal already is?” Stepper asked, looking over Mabel’s shoulder as she began paying closer attention to the journal’s content. “Well, there’s more to it than just spells. There’s all sorts of other things in there, like incantations, and maps, diagrams, and exorcism guides, and-”

“And probably nothing in there about how Dipper used to sleep with a stuffed turtle named Mert every night when until he was eight!” Mabel cut in with an unrestrained snicker, one that instantly caught the fusion off guard. “Cause this journal’s totally got that covered and so much more!”

“Wait, what?!” Stepper exclaimed in alarm, instantly pulling the journal away from Mabel to get a better look for himself. And sure enough, much to his appalled shock and bewildered confusion, page after page of the first half of the book was filled with information about really only one thing: Dipper. From preferences to pet peeves, interests to skills, and even memories from both childhood and recently, it was as though this mysterious journal had assembled a perfect profile far more accurate and detailed than anything even he could have compiled himself. And needless to say, this revelation completely floored half of the already dumbfounded fusion. “W-wha—How did all of this stuff get in here?!” he asked hotly, his face red with embarrassment. “I have no idea, but this is so cool! I’m learning so much neat stuff about you! H-hey! Don’t look at this! Well, how can I not look at it when we’re using the same eyes? Ugh, just-” Stepper cut himself off, abruptly snapping the journal shut in disgruntled frustration. Of course, it was only seconds later that his upper hands undermined that choice, pulling the journal away so it could reopen it and continue exploring. “Hey! I said don’t—whoa, cool! This part’s about me!” The fusion gasped, an intrigued smile filling his features as he noticed that the entire second half of the book seemed to be dedicated to Steven in the very same way its first half had concerned itself with Dipper. The split between the two halves seemed to be right down the middle, though Stepper was far too preoccupied investigating his strange yet remarkable journal to even bother to spare a glance at whatever might be on the page where the halves intersected.

“Oh!” Mabel gasped in sudden realization as the fusion continued to pour over his tome in disturbed, yet excited curiosity. “I get it! That journal’s 50% about Dipper, 50% about Steven, and 100% about you, Stepper! It makes perfect sense!”

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Stepper staunchly corrected, closing the journal again. “Why is this book about us and nothing else?! Maybe because its magic? It did come from my—I mean, our gem, after all. So what? Are you telling me the journal turned into this just because we’re fused? That’s the only explanation I can think of.”

“It’s just like how Steven’s shield and my grappling hook turned into a grappling shield when we fused into Maven!” Mabel quipped cheerfully. “Our weapons fused, just like we did!”

“Yeah, but this… thing isn’t even a weapon at all!” Stepper scoffed, pointing to his journal with clear disdain. “M-maybe there’s just something about it we’re not seeing… No, we’ve seen the whole thing and its totally obvious. Not only is this journal embarrassing; its useless! Wait!” The fusion tried to stop his upper arms before they petulantly threw the odd journal down in a huff, turning his nose up at it as it disappeared into a burst of soft light as it hit the ground. “What did you do that for?!” Stepper asked himself in frustrated disbelief. “If we had gotten a better look at it, then maybe we could have figured out what it can really do! It’s a book, for crying out loud; it can’t do anything! Well maybe it could if you’d just give it a chance! And maybe while you’re at it you could trying giving this a chance for once too!”

“G-guys!” Mabel tried to intervene, already fearing a repeat of what had just happened inside the shack. “Don’t fight with each other! Remember Operation Keep The-”

“I am giving this a chance!” Stepper exclaimed hotly, completely ignoring Mabel as his argument with himself continued. “I’ve been giving this a chance all day, but it’s getting harder and harder to accept things like having four arms, and mind reading, and a creepy magical journal that’s filled with every little detail there is to know about me! Why does all that stuff bother you so much?! It doesn’t bother me! Yeah, because you’ve done this before! You’re used to it! I’m not! But you’ll get used to it! You keep saying that, but it’s just… not happening! Because you won’t let it happen!”

“Stepper-” Mabel attempted to cut in once more, though this time the fusion didn’t block her out.

“Don’t call me that!” he snapped fiercely. “Oh what, do you really have a problem with our name too? That’s not our name! …Names—Whatever! The point is I never asked for this to happen in the first place! Well it’s not like I ever tried to force you into it. Yes, you have! That’s literally what you’ve been doing all day long!”

“Stepper-” Mabel persisted, growing increasingly more worried for the fusion as both of his halves grew more frustrated with each other.

“You just keep pushing and prodding at me to stay like this, and I just don’t understand why! It’s because I want to help you! Help me what? Feel awkward and uncomfortable inside my own head, because if that’s what you were trying to do, then it definitely worked! Ugh, how do you still not get it!? Get what? That you’re trying way too hard? No! That the reason I want this to work so badly is because of-”

Stepper suddenly found himself abruptly cut off, not by Mabel this time, but by a very abrupt, very loud crash that rattled the entire area. The fusion in particular almost lost his footing, though he managed to catch himself by relying on the nearby porch beam, his extra arms aiding him in regaining his balance. “Whoa! What the heck was that?!” Mabel asked in newfound alarm, already starting off towards the source of the crash before prompting Stepper to do the same. “Come on, you guys! We gotta check it out!”

The fusion was really in no place to argue, his eyes still wide with surprise as he realized that he was trembling, though more out of lingering anger than fear. Still, he surprised his anger and conflict for now, heading after Mabel towards the sudden commotion out of curiosity more than anything else. And indeed, the sight the kids found after a rather short walk through the woods was certainly something to see.

An entire round of trees had been completely decimated by a pod of large, green, spherical orbs, the very same kinds that Peridot had sent to earth just a few weeks prior. The robots had already sprouted their legs, though these were different than the short stubs the green Gem’s robinoids usually had. Instead, they were lanky and versatile, their long, sinister tendrils raising the bots high off of the ground as they began combing through the nearby area. While the kids were quite startled by such a frightening group of machines, fortunately they were far enough out of their line of sight that they avoided detection as they tucked safely behind the trees. And even more opportune was the fact that before the robinoids could even get close, the Gems themselves arrived on the scene, their weapons already drawn as they seized up their upcoming opponents.

“Whoa! Look at these crazy things!” Amethyst remarked, prematurely swinging her whip around. “Hey, now!” she lashed her weapon out as one of the robinoids’ long arms suddenly spiraled towards her. “Getting friendly with us already, huh? Pretty cheeky of ya, if you ask me.”

“I can’t believe Peridot’s still sending these things here!” Pearl huffed, jumping out of the path of a plummeting robotic limb before sending her spear flying at the bot who had attacked her. “She knows we’re just going to destroy them, just like we did with all of her other robots, doesn’t she?”

“Not this time, you Crystal Clods!” the green Gem’s nasally voice rang out as one of her robinoids rose up high over all the others. A monitor flashed over the round body of said robot, showing Peridot herself upon it as she looked down upon the Gems with a smug grin.

“Peridot!” Garnet shouted, her gauntlets already clenched into tight, threatening fists.

“Well, well, well,” the green Gem’s smirk remained as her robinoid drew in close to the Gems. “You three must think you’re so clever, what with destroying the control room at the Prime Kindergarten. But you failed to anticipate that I wouldn’t merely take your traitorous behavior lying down. I’m not about to let you defective rebels interfere with my assignment again! So I figured, why not just take you three out the easy way and then simply proceed as planned!”

“So what? Are you just gonna bore us to death all this ‘revenge’ talk or are we actually gonna fight?” Amethyst asked dryly, rolling her eyes.

“Grrr, see this is exactly why you Crystal Gems deserve to be taken out!” Peridot growled crossly. “You’re just a bunch of impetuous, annoying lumps!”

“Takes one to know one,” Garnet shrugged casually as Amethyst and Pearl both chuckled at her clever retort, setting the green Gem off even more.

“We’ll see who has the last laugh when my attack robinoids are through with you!” she shouted, fiercely commanding her bots to action. “Go! Shatter them! Shatter them so I can be free of their aggravating meddling once and for all!”

The Gems had no time to reply to this as the robinoids all converged on then, their sharp tendrils shooting out towards the trio at an alarming speed. Fortunately, they managed to cleanly leap out of the path of the mechanical arms, but even still, the kids all shared fearful gasps as the robinoids began their aggressive barrage of attacks all while Peridot continued to watch on and laugh in amusement at the Gems’ rather futile attempt to destroy them.

“Oh my gosh!” Mabel exclaimed fretfully, stepping out from the tree line a bit, even if Stepper stayed back. “You guys, the Gems are in trouble! We gotta get out there and help them get rid of those spidery robot things somehow! Come on!” She charged forward out of the woods, more than ready to do whatever she could to aid the Gems, even if she had no idea what. But she stopped short upon noticing that the fusion wasn’t following her, instead clinging to one of the trees as he looked to the attacking robinoids almost fearfully before apprehensively glancing down at his lower hands. “Uh… Stepper? Aren’t you coming?”

Stepper jolted at this, somewhat surprised as he quickly glanced up, his eyes wide with immense uncertainty. “Uh… give us a minute,” he said, forcing a reassuring smile onto his face. “W-we’ll be right behind you.”

Mabel frowned as she noticed the fusion’s clear hesitance, and though she wanted to ask him the reasoning behind his delay, she knew it likely wouldn’t be the wisest thing to do, given his current unsteady state. “Ok… Well, I’ll see you out there, I guess…”

“Y-yeah…” Stepper waved her off absently, glancing to the ground. “See… see you…” As he trailed off, Mabel hurried out into the open, leaving the fusion behind to watch as she tried to distract the attack robinoids away from the Gems, much to their shared disapproval and alarm. Even as he stayed in his hiding spot, the fusion could see just how much danger they were all in, with Peridot’s robinoids relentlessly attacking them on all sides, and while a large part of him did want to run out into the fray himself, he still ended up holding himself back all the same. “We need to go help them…” he said to himself, his voice an earnest whisper. “I-I know, but… we can’t. Not… not like this. Why not?!”

His voice suddenly rose as he took a large step back into the woods, the low branches obscuring much sunlight from falling on him. “Are you seriously that embarrassed about being this that you can’t even let it go during an emergency like this?! I’m not embarrassed, I just—Yes, you are! I can feel it! You’re embarrassed by our arms, and our journal, and by being fused and… and by me. No, I’m not! I just… I’m just… Oh, I don’t know! Why does it even matter!?”

Stepper let out a loud, frustrated groan at this as he thoughtlessly pushed back even further into the woods, not even noticing as they apparently seemed to get darker. “It matters because you need this! Need what? To be fused? Because at this point, I’m pretty sure that’s the last thing I need! No, it’s not just about being fused! It’s about how you always try to shut yourself away from everyone! You always think you have to be alone, but you don’t. I-I don’t try to shut myself away from—Yes, you do and you don’t even realize it! That’s why we set that party up for you! Because we wanted you to finally take everything off your shoulders and open up and just… have fun for once! But… you just won’t let yourself enjoy this… And that’s why we can’t find the harmony… The things we want… they’re just way too different… We’re way too different…”

The shadows of the forest seemed to pounce upon the fusion as he said this, though instead of remaining black and dark, they abruptly turned to varying shades of pink and blue, all of which appeared to paint Stepper in messy, uneven splotches. The fusion let out a soft gasp of alarm at this, but he was quick to disregard it as a sudden rush of anger filled in for his former regret. “O-oh yeah? Well what about you?! W-what about me? I never wanted to be this in the first place, but you’re trying to keep us together just so you can have the same feeling you did with Connie and Mabel! No! That’s not what I—Yeah it is, and I can feel it; it drives you crazy that we’re not as compatible or as stable as Stevonnie and Maven were. N-no, it doesn’t! I… I just…”

Stepper sighed, closing his eyes as the colors covering him seemed to drift apart, looking less like mixed splotches and veering more into equal halves. “I just wanted to have that feeling again… Well, sorry if I’m not good enough to give you that feeling! Because I guess the only things you’re feeling with me is all of the stress and awkwardness and confusion that I’ve been feeling ever since any of this began! Hey, none of that’s my fault! It’s not like I’m the one making you feel any of that! Yeah, you are, by forcing us to stay like this.”

The fusion’s eyes widened as the colors on him abruptly snapped into perfectly even halves across his body. “W-what? I told you before, I’m not forcing us to do anything! Yes, you are! You might have said that you weren’t going to force us to be this, but you went back on it! When did I do that?! When we were falling apart back at the shack! I was ready to let go, I wanted to let go, but you wouldn’t let me! You just… pulled us back together without even caring about whether or not I wanted you to or not… You didn’t even ask…” Stepper gasped at this, one of his upper hands flying up to cover his mouth out of pained shock. “Y-you… you’re right… I didn’t ask… I didn’t even think about… about what you were… what you might have…” The fusion gasped once more, his body lurching forward as the connected colors on him abruptly snapped apart. With this, Stepper’s form was only enshrouded with the destabilizing white glow for a moment before, with far too many warring thoughts in his head and emotions in his heart, he finally fell apart.

The boys collapsed away from each other, the colors returning to normal as bits and pieces of light began to spill in from the canopy of trees overhead. In the distance, the sounds of the Gems combating Peridot’s robinoids could vaguely be heard, but Dipper hardly paid that any mind as he slowly sat up, his head throbbing as he let out a small groan. “Ugh, why do I suddenly have such a-” He abruptly cut himself off however, upon hearing the sound of his own natural voice, as well as looking down and seeing his usual short legs, the regular journal tucked into his vest, and, sure enough, only two arms instead of four. “Oh my gosh!” he exclaimed with a small, admittedly relieved grin. “W-we’re back! It’s just me again! And—Steven!” Dipper gasped, instantly jumping to his feet and looking around for the apparently missing young Gem. “Steven, we un-”

“Yeah… I know…” Steven muttered dejectedly, prompting Dipper to quickly turn around to face him. The young Gem sat, his back turned to him and his knees pulled to his chest, his body language alone conveying that he was anything but happy about their sudden unfusing.

“Oh no…” Dipper frowned with sudden regret, already feeling quite guilty about Steven’s obvious melancholy. Not really knowing what to do to make the young Gem feel better, he slowly walked over and sat down on the ground beside him, noticing as he slightly turned his head away from him the moment he did. A long bout of silence passed between the boys, one that seemed to suggest all of the countless things both of them wanted to say to each other and yet not conveying anything at all. In the end though, Dipper felt the most obligated to break this silence, and he started with a long, remorseful sigh as he tried to piece together exactly what he wanted to say. “Steven, look, I’m-”

“Dipper,” Steven quickly interrupted, his voice somewhat shaken as he spoke with his head still buried into his knees. “I’m so sorry.”

“What?” Dipper frowned in apt confusion. “Steven, no, don’t be sorry. If anyone should be sorry, it should be me.”

“No, it should be me!” Steven retorted earnestly, finally looking up as tears started to well up in his eyes. “I knew you weren’t comfortable, but I just keep pushing you and pushing you! It’s like… it’s like I couldn’t take no as an answer, and all because I wanted another ‘perfect’ fusion! But we weren’t perfect, and I… I guess I couldn’t accept that. You wanted out, but all I did was pull you back in every time, without even giving you a choice about it! I-I made you feel…”

“Trapped…” both boys said in unison, their voices equal in dismay and regret as they finally exchanged a glance.

“Steven…” Dipper sighed again, still unsure of how to voice his own apology, though fortunately, Steven still wasn’t done with his.

“And the craziest part of it all, was that this all started from me wanting to help you have a little fun…” the young Gem looked away again with a somber sigh of his own. “A lot of good that did. I only ended up making everything worse… And all because I had to take things too far…”

“But you only had to take things that far because of me!” Dipper exclaimed insistently, throwing out any form of planning on his apology as he just let it out instead. “Every time you reached out to me to try to get me to enjoy myself, all I did was push you away! Mabel was right, I really do do that to everyone…”

“But that’s ok,” Steven said forgivingly. “I mean, that’s just how you are, Dipper. And… I think I’ve finally realized there really isn’t a problem with that. It’s like we said… we’re really different. And… maybe that’s good thing.”

“Steven, holing myself away from everyone just to research stuff and forcing myself to spend all my time alone for it… really isn’t a good thing…” Dipper admitted, glancing away in shame. “If there’s one thing fusing with you taught me, it’s that.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah. I mean, being fused and essentially sharing a mind and body was really weird and uncomfortable and overwhelming, but… I think I finally understand what Garnet meant when she told Maven that fusion turns you into something greater than yourself…”

“I-it really does…” Steven smiled softly. “It’s like you can feel everything that you’re feeling and everything that the other person is feeling. And when both of you are feeling good, its… it’s incredible. It feels like there’s nothing in the world that could bring you down from that. And…. that’s what I wanted for us, I guess…”

“And I just wouldn’t let us feel like that...” Dipper remarked somewhat bitterly. “I was so wrapped up in how stressed and anxious I felt that I wouldn’t let all of your excitement and happiness about it rub off on me. We could have had such a great time together, but I had to go and be stubborn and mess everything up, just like I always do…”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it. I mean, this is my fault just as much as it is yours. And to be honest, I’m actually really glad we managed to fuse at all. I mean, did you see how cool Stepper was?!”

“Yeah, you know, I actually have to admit… he was—we were kind of impressive. And like Mabel said, we had some pretty nice muscles, which was definitely a plus.”

Steven let out a genuine laugh at this, one that Dipper couldn’t help but join in on. A newfound understanding seemed to exist between the two boys, one that had been born out of their intense conflict of personalities and had come to replace that conflict with a different kind of foundation instead. A foundation of trust rather than misgivings, of similarities as opposed to differences, and compromise instead of contempt. And the contentment they both felt at the establishment of this new foundation was as clear to see as the smiles on both of their faces. “Steven,” Dipper began as he rose to stand. “I’m sorry for being such a stubborn stick in the mud. Do you think you could ever forgive me?”

“Of course, I can, Dipper!” Steven exclaimed brightly. “But only if you can forgive me for being so pushy.”

“It’s a deal,” Dipper laughed, grabbing Steven’s extended hand as he stood so they could shake on it. “But uh… I think in the middle of all this apologizing and feeling sorry for ourselves that we sort of forgot about something important…”

“Oh my gosh, you’re right!” Steven gasped in realization. “The Gems and Mabel are still fighting off Peridot’s robots! They’re gonna need our help!”

“Well…” Dipper grinned somewhat leadingly as he glanced to the side. “I do know of a certain fusion who might be able to do an even better job of lending them an extra hand, or two, or four…”

Stars appeared in the young Gem’s eyes upon hearing this proposal, a surprised gasp escaping him at the same time. “Oh, Dipper! Do you really mean it?!”

“I do,” Dipper nodded, resolved. “But only if we’re both on the same page about it this time.”

“Right,” Steven sobered up a bit, though it was clear he was still excited. “Well, I guess we better—whoa!” The young Gem was cut off as Dipper abruptly grabbed his wrist and pulled him into a loose, yet lively dance. Of course, the dance itself mattered little considering the revived comradery between the boys, and before they knew it, amidst their shared laughter and revelry, a familiar bright light enveloped them both. And out of that light, Stepper emerged, looking identical to how he had appeared before, but feeling so incredibly different.

“Whoa,” the fusion gasped as he opened his eyes, looking over himself with a growing smile. “W-we did it! On purpose this time! And wow… It… it feels so much better now… Is this…? This is… It is. This is how it’s supposed to feel.”

Stepper’s already huge grin widened even moreso at this before it ultimately escalated into a laugh that he was powerless to contain. In fact, his newfound joy at the innate delight that was simply existing in such a harmonious state was enough to send him tumbling to the ground amidst his heavy laughter, both sets of arms wrapping him in a tight embrace. It was as though all of the doubt and anxiety and inner conflict that had plagued him before had completely vanished, instead replaced with a kind of warmth and elation that he could scarcely even begin to describe. Instead of awkward and strange, he felt natural and at peace, both halves of his whole finally content to be as they were, together and united in every way there was.

In fact, Stepper was so caught up in his own ecstasy that he almost didn’t notice his gem light up with a bright pink glow. Still, he saw it nonetheless, cutting his laughter short as he quickly rose to stand. As he expected, the same odd pink journal emerged from it, no doubt still filled with copious notes on both of his halves. However, what the fusion found alarming was that he didn’t even have to catch the journal. Instead, it drifted out from him and remained floating in place an arm’s length away from him, its unique cover facing him squarely, almost as if it was beckoning him to touch it. Confused, Stepper reached out to do just that, and the moment his fingers skimmed the emblem on its cover, both it and its inverted match on his forehead, as well as his gem, lit up in a radiant glow. The fusion gasped softly, especially as this glow refused to go away this time, but even so, he found himself strangely prompted to press his palm against the star and the constellation upon the journal’s cover, which flashed brightly as he did so. He quickly pulled his hand away, however, as the book flattened itself out, flying open and flipping its pages rapidly on its own accord. Stepper watched the entire process with awestruck curiosity, until at last, the pages stopped right at the very center of the tome, the light finally fading from it, his birthmark, and his gem, all at the same time.

Intrigued as ever, the fusion leaned forward to get a better glance at the page the still floating journal had opened to, one that contained no information about either of the boys, but instead featured only one thing: a large drawing of Steven’s shield, one that spread across both pages in full, delicate detail. “What the…?” Stepper finally muttered, raising an eyebrow as he drew his hand into the image. The journal shined once more as he placed his hand upon it, one of his lower arms coming to rest a small distance underneath the book at the same time. As if guided by instinct, the fusion slowly started lifting up his other hand, and as he did, a visage of the iconic pink shield began to rise up from its image on the pages as well, sparkling brightly all the while. Stepper gasped in amazement, his eyes wide as he somehow managed to pull up an entire shield from the journal, one that was smaller than its usual counterpart, but still corporeal and three dimensional as he flattened it down to float over the open book. “Well, what do you know?” he asked himself with a satisfied smirk, especially as he noticed just how surprisingly sharp the edges of this newly-generated shield were. “I guess I really can use a journal as a weapon after all! And I think I know of a perfect way to test it out…”

Despite all of their best efforts, the Gems were quickly starting to realize that Peridot and her attack robinoids were nowhere near the easy opponents they thought they’d be. In fact, the green Gem’s bots were surprisingly very powerful and very precise, something that kept Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl on their toes throughout the duration of the battle, lest they be shattered by the mechanical tendrils that seemed to be shooting about everywhere. Peridot’s continual mocking and taunting aside, it didn’t help that, amidst the battle they also had to keep an eye on Mabel, who adamantly refused to flee in favor of assisting the Gems as much as she good. Fortunately, she had her grappling hook on her, like she usually did, but the tool wasn’t able to do much after one of the robinoids managed to knock it cleanly out of her hand and away from her reach. It was around this point in the fight that the tide seemed to turn even more against the Gems as, in an attempt to push Mabel out of the way of one of the robinoids before it could snatch her, Amethyst managed to get tangled up in one of its lengthy coils. Garnet and Pearl, and even Mabel followed soon after, the bots tightly and firmly restraining their limbs and tossing their weapons away from them.

Peridot laughed triumphantly as she directed her robinoids to pull her struggling opponents up towards her towering screen, more than prepared to hold her incoming victory over them. “Struggle all you want,” she goaded smugly. “None of it will matter after you all are broken to itty-bitty, soddy bits!”

“Not if we break your insipid robots first!” Pearl retorted back crossly, wrigglingly fiercely in an attempt to wrench her arms free from the robinoids holding her.

“Ha! Like there’s a chance of that happening,” the green Gem rolled her eyes. “Clearly I am the one who is about to emerge from this encounter as the victor while you all face agonizing and crushing defeat at the hands of a far superior Gem! I’m so excited about it I can hardly contain myself!”

“Ugh! Contain this!” Mabel huffed, her arms pinned down, though she still managed to kick her shoe off, letting it fly right into Peridot’s holographic monitor.

“Hey!” the green Gem exclaimed hotly, glancing down at the mark the now fallen shoe had left on the bot below her. “Your gravity connector cover scuffed up my robinoid! Just for that, I think I’ll finish you off first, you ‘Mabel’!”

Mabel gasped in sudden alarm as two rather sharp tendrils emerged from Peridot’s personal robinoid, both of their deadly tips aimed right at her. However, before either of them could attack, a sudden pink blur happened to rush by, one that sliced both coils cleanly in half. “W-what?!” Peridot exclaimed, appalled as the tips crashed to the ground. Another unknown projectile flew in seconds, cutting the tendril that was wrapped around Mabel, freeing her and allowing her to land on the ground below mostly unharmed. Grateful yet confused by this sudden rescue, both her and the Gems turned towards its source to find a figure that none of them had really been expecting.

“Stepper!” Mabel gasped, overjoyed as she watched the fusion emerge from woods with a far different manner about him this time. His former uncertainty and fretfulness was far removed and instead replaced by confidence and assurance as he stood firm, ready to face off against the robinoids himself. Floating above one of his lower palms was his unique tome, which he had unanimously decided to dub as his shield journal, and resting just a few inches above it was another weaponized shield, one that he was fully prepared to send flying at a moment’s notice.

“Peridot!” he exclaimed boldly, not even flinching as the green Gem turned her robinoid to face him. “Let the others go, now!”

For a moment, Peridot simply looked to the fusion with an expression of dumbfounded confusion before she let out a dry scoff. “Please. Are you kidding me? Why would I ever do something that amicable or agreeable? These are my enemies I’m about to destroy here! Duh.”

“Fine,” Stepper shrugged with a small, daring smirk. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” With a shout of gusto, the fusion flung his shield out from the journal, watching with satisfaction as it flew fast and high. Its blade-like edges easily snapped the coils clinging onto the Gems, releasing them and allowing them to renew their own weapons, though all they could really do was stare at the fusion in amazement and slight alarm as he ran forward into the fray.

“Boys, wait!” Pearl called fearfully as Stepper rushed for one of the robinoids head on, another shield forming over his journal. “You can’t fight like that! Y-you’re unstable!”

“They were unstable,” Garnet corrected with a clearly proud smile as she watched the fusion launch his shield at the nearest bot. “But they aren’t anymore. Just watch and see.”

The Gems did so as the projectile crashed directly into the machine, ripping through its spherical body like a knife. Peridot gasped in shock as her bot exploded from this strike, but Stepper didn’t even bother to celebrate this small victory as he ran onto the next one, throwing yet another shield and downing yet another robinoid.

“Yeah!” Amethyst cheered, pumping her fist as the Gems remained on the sidelines, seeing as how the fusion actually had things handled himself. “Go, Stedip!”

“That’s Stepper,” Mabel corrected with a satisfied grin, delighted to see that, against all odds, the boys had succeeded in their mission.

After watching a third robinoid blow up, however, Peridot finally started attacking back, making her extreme frustration quite clear in the process. “Who do you think you are, you interloping, four-armed….whatever you are!?” she asked fiercely, glaring down at the fusion as several robinoid arms chased him in vain.

“Who am I?” Stepper repeated with a coy grin, positioning another shield over his journal as one of his spare arms casually readjusted his hat. “Oh, nobody too special. But if you care so much about names, like some people do…” he paused, sending a playful wink Mabel’s way as she let out a small, amused laugh. “Then I guess you can just call me Stepper.”

“Yes!” Mabel exclaimed excitedly. “The name finally stuck with both of them! I knew it was a good one!”

“Ugh! They’ll be calling you Shattered when I’m through with you!” Peridot growled in outrage as she pushed her robinoids even harder. Stepper managed mostly jump out of the path of a tendril that spiraled towards him, yet while he cut through said arm with a shield, he failed to notice another one that snuck up on him from behind. The fusion gasped in surprise as his upper right arm was caught, quickly followed by his lower left one soon after. As his other left arm was grabbed, the shield journal fell out of his grasp, leaving him essentially defenseless, a fact that Peridot was more than happy to brag about. “Well, it looks like you’re all out of options, you ‘Stepper’. So what do you intend to do now that you’re mere seconds away from your inevitable demise?”

“Oh gee, I don’t know…” Stepper remarked, his tone clearly sardonic, a fact that set the concerned Gems somewhat to ease in the idea that he likely knew what he was doing. “I guess you really got me, Peridot. But uh… you forgot one just little thing…”

“Oh?” the green Gem asked, rolling her eyes. “And what’s that?”

“My fourth arm,” the fusion smirked, pulling the arm he had wisely hidden behind his back forward and revealing a shield still hovering over it. Peridot only had time to let out a startled gasp as he tossed the projectile forward hard, watching with satisfaction as it rammed right into the green Gem’s personal robinoid, sending it tumbling to the ground hard. Since the key robinoid was connected to all of the others, the remaining bots all collapsed as it fell as well, all of them deceiving as the master unit crashed and burned. Still, in the machine’s final moments, Peridot’s monitor remained, and she didn’t hesitate to launch all of her intense fury at the fusion for foiling her plans so easily.

“Augh! You… you too-many-limbed, malformed, human, abomination of a clod!” she shouted furiously, glaring daggers at the fusion as he merely returned it with a triumphant grin. “I’ll make you wish you were never formed! This isn’t the last you’ll see of me! I’m going to complete my mission, no matter what I have to do! Even if I have to come to that miserable planet of yours myself, I’ll-” The green Gem’s threat was cut off right in the middle as the main robinoid finally exploded, abruptly cutting off her transmission as her monitor disappeared.

Stepper’s smile widened a bit as he saw this, knowing that, for as harrowing of a task as it had been, his job was done. And with its completion, so too came the bittersweet end of his functional reason for staying together. After all, for as great as being fused now felt for them, half of them knew very well that it was shame to spoil oneself with too much of a good thing. And so, with contented sigh, Stepper closed his eyes and bowed his head a bit, fall four arms falling to his sides as the pale glow that represented unfusing enshrouded him, this time completely on his own terms.

As the peaceful glow disappeared, so too did the fusion, leaving the two halves that composed him in his place. As Dipper and Steven opened their eyes and exchanged a glance, neither of them could suppress their huge, elated smiles, though before they could celebrate the victory they had just shared on their own, Mabel and the Gems were quick to pounce upon them first.

“AHHHH!” Mabel practically screamed, pulling both of the boys into a tight, celebratory hug. “Oh my gosh, you guys, that was so awesome! You totally kicked Peridot’s butt! Well, not her butt, but all of her robots’ butts! …Do robots even have butts?”

“I-I think what Mabel is trying to say is that you two did an exemplary job!” Pearl applauded with a warm smile. “Both of you should be very proud of yourselves for such wonderful work!”

“Yeah, you guys totally bailed us out!” Amethyst smirked. “Who knew that all it took to beat Peri’s dumb robots down was four arms and weird shield-making book?”

“I guess we did,” Steven laughed as him and Dipper humbly accepted the adulation.

“And I gotta say,” Dipper interjected with an amused grin. “The look on Peridot’s face when we flung that shield at her? It was-”

“Priceless!” both boys exclaimed at once, chuckling brightly as they did so before Mabel and the Gems joined in.

“Well, it looks like you two managed to find the harmony after all,” Garnet grinned as she placed a hand on both of the boys’ shoulders. “I never doubted that you would. After all, some of the strongest fusions are made up of two halves that seem like exact opposites, but have more in common than they think they do. Believe me.” The Gem leader’s tone turned a bit vague as she adjusted her shades mysteriously, though she was still smiling all the while.

“Ah, this is so great!” Mabel exclaimed, delighted by all of the warm feelings going around. “Since you guys are so full of harmony right now, you should totally form Stepper again! Just so we can all check out just how awesome that journal really is! Please?”

“Uh… I think we’ve had enough Stepper for one day, Mabel…” Dipper remarked with small, somewhat tired smile.

“But that doesn’t mean you’ll never see him again,” Steven clarified. “Right, Dipper?”

While Dipper would have certainly opposed such an idea earlier that day, now he could only offer the young Gem a confident smile and an affirmative nod to the very real possibility of them fusing again someday. “Right, Steven. But for now, I think there’s something really important I need to get back to.”

“Let me guess,” Mabel huffed, already exasperated. “Researching?”

“Nope,” Dipper shook his head, still grinning as he threw an arm around Steven and Mabel’s shoulders. “Hanging out with you guys.”

“Aw, Dipper!” Steven gushed happily, stars in his eyes as he pulled both twins into a tight hug, one that the Gems had no choice but to join in on as their young ward silently beckoned to them. And yet, in the midst of it all, Dipper and Steven exchanged one last warm smile, one that reminded them both, just as much as the memory of being Stepper himself did, just how much their friendship had been tested and tried over the past several hours alone. And yet, it had come out of it all undoubtable changed, yet largely better than it ever had been. As Garnet had advised them to, they had found the harmony, but not just for the sake of their fusion, but for the sake of their own bond even outside of it. And that harmony was something that neither one of them intended on letting slip away from them any time soon.

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