-21: Dipper-
Dipper was stunned. This tear had opened up, simultaneously, in both Mabel's closet and the gem's fridge. He and the gems had tracked the source of the voices to the interior of the fridge, where the tear had cut some old macaroni in half.
"DIPPPPER!" The sound of Mabel's voice was surreal, and his heart soared with joy. "Why are you in there? Come out!" His sister cried.
The hole was about the size of a crumbled piece of lined paper, and Dipper could see movement within it.
"Whoa! Be careful Mabel, it's not-!" But Mabel's hand shot through the tear, her fingers grasping. Dipper grabbed her hand, and for a moment the twins clung to each other across realities, feeling closer than ever but still eternities apart.
"Mabel, you can't." Dipper said, slowly pushing her arm back through the portal. "It's not safe, you could lose your arm." As he pushed into the Gravity Falls reality, he felt static run across his skin. Right now, part of him was in Mabel's closet, but the rest of Dipper was being chilled by Steven's open fridge.
"Can I have a turn?" It WAS Steven! He was not only ok, but he was with Mabel in the Mystery Shack! Was this tear even an accident?
Steven's face floated bizarrely in the fridge, and Dipper saw his eyes glow with the sight of Dipper, Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst squatting around the scene with wonder. Water gathered in Steven's disembodied eyes.
"Guuuyss…" He blubbered. "I didn't know… If I would…"
Dipper backed out of the way as the gems rushed forward, all comforting the lost child. Dipper wanted to tell them to stop putting their darned hands through the portal, but who was he to stop Garnet from reaching in and tousling Steven's hair? He was starting to see the gems as Steven's weird aunts, and they loved him just as he loved Mabel; as family.
"What IS this thing?" Steven asked through the portal, taking turns with Mabel to peer through the fridge.
"Well, it's obviously some kind of wormhole that connects both universes. It's not the first one." Pearl seemed refreshed, having seen that Steven was alive and healthy. "I don't know how and why it connected US like this, but I'm not going to look down on cosmic luck at a time like this."
"Seriously." Dipper agreed.
"Hey, why don't we just shape shift and go in there?!" Amethyst sounded eager, but Dipper had to stop them. Even if they could shape shift so dramatically…
"Wait." Dipper stood up in front of the portal. "I think it's bad for you to go through these portals. We don't want you guys getting trapped on the other side forever. These things are unpredictable."
"I have to agree." Dipper was surprised to hear Pearl's voice supporting him. "Steven, honey, can you shape shift into something really small and come over here?"
Long pause. "Ummmm…" Dipper felt somebody touch his back from the portal, and he swatted at it, complaining.
"Seriously, stop doing that!" He yelled, and Mabel's laugh answered him, and he felt that same happiness he had when he'd first heard her voice through the portal. For the first time since this adventure had started, events seemed to be working out in his favor.
"Perhaps if we look elsewhere, we can find a tear large enough for you two to fit through." Garnet said, arms crossed as she thought about the situation.
"But… we won't know where to look. So far, there's no real reasoning behind where these appear." Dipper said, also trying to quickly whip up some ways to use this new knowledge to their advantage.
"Then let's just look all over!" Amethyst threw her arms up. She was always very animated whenever she said anything. And maybe she was right.
"We have the lunamesionalmoth to worry about, ultimately." Pearl was wringing her hands together.
"You should look for a bigger hole AND the moth!" Mabel cried.
"Mabel." Dipper answered, "YOU should look for the moth. It's on your side of the portal, wormhole, whatever. Have you been able to find anything?"
"No." The sigh belonged to Steven. "We went back to look for it, in the place where we came from, but…" Dipper could see some of Steven's head through the portal, and his hair was exploding with pink bows. Glitter sparkled all over his thick brown head.
"Mabel, what did you DO to him?" Dipper muttered to himself. He was very glad that Steven seemed at home in Gravity Falls, even so.
After a time, they all decided that they would scour their respective towns for both inter-dimensional wormholes and the moth that had created them. The gems took off almost immediately, much to Dippers frustration. They appeared to have no need for food or sleep, on top of everything else they could do.
Dipper knew that time was running shorter every second; that as the tears between the universes multiplied they would eventually shred both realities. Even if they managed to squash every last caterpillar in town, the problem would persist if the mother lived on.
Be he was plain exhausted. And even though he wanted to keep up with his super powered alien team… he couldn't deny the magnetic appeal of the voices from beyond the portal. He unplugged the fridge, grabbed blanket and a melting bowl of ice cream and made himself a space in the fridge. He discussed adventures with Dipper and Mable until all three of them started to fall asleep, curled up next the portal, as close to "together" as they could manage.
As he was nodding off, something important suddenly jumped to the forefront of Dipper's mind. "Hey, Steven?" He asked softly, not wanting to wake Mabel if she was asleep.
"Uhhh hey, Dipper?" Steven's voice was cloudy with exhaustion too.
"Thank you." He closed his eyes, feeling relived. "Thank you for helping me so much when I first came here."
"It was no problem." Steven replied. "Thank you for believing in me." Dipper felt a tap on his head, and saw Steven's hand through the portal. What did he-? Dipper raised his own hand tentatively, and to Dipper's awe they gave each other a tiny high five across time and space. Everything would turn out alright.
-22: Dipper-
Knock knock knock
Dipper groaned. What was that? He woke up and realized he was inside an open fridge. Thankfully he quickly remembered why. The portal was still there, too.
He got up and walked to the door, where someone clearly wanted in.
"Steven?" A young girls voice sounded from beyond the beach house door.
Dipper opened the door to reveal a dark haired girl, wearing a light blue and white sun dress and big red boots. She seemed familiar… that's right! She was the one from the photos; Steven obvious crush.
"It's you! Your name is something weird… something with stars… Little Dipper, or something? Is Steven here?" She asked, peering past Dipper and into the house.
"Hey! How'd you know about me? Also it's just Dipper, thanks." The sound of that lame old nickname made him blush.
"Steven sent me those photos of you. He told me about how you're from another universe and all that. Pretty crazy." She sounded only slightly impressed.
"WHAT photos?! He didn't tell me he had any photos of me! Show me!" Dipper demanded.
"Sure. If you tell me where Steven is. I haven't heard from him in over 24 hours! Is he ok?"
"CONNIE?!" Steven's voice squeaked through the portal. "I'm here!" Steven's hand waved through the portal. Connie rushed into the house.
"What?! Where are you?! Steven what happened? Why are you in the fridge?" Connie held Steven's hand through the portal with her own. "I was worried! I'm still worried. Where… is this one of those portal things?"
Dipper still wished people would stop doing that, as touching as each reunion was.
Steven, Dipper, and Mabel all explained the recent days events to Connie, who listened carefully, both thoughtful and worried.
"Wow." She said after a time. "Do you think the gems will be able to beat that moth monster? I've heard about the portals and worms popping up in town… but I didn't know it was this serious! Though it was just, ya' know, gem stuff."
"I'm sure they will!" Steven said through the portal. "But we should still help them if we can."
"But… how?" Connie sighed, bringing her arms around her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Steven, I wish I could be more useful in situations like this."
Dipper had started to pace, mind whirring again as he struggled to face the "situation." Where had the gems gone now? It must drive Steven crazy to have to live with people who never told you where they were going for hours at a time… all while the world was ending…
Faintly he overheard Steven explaining his ordeal, repeating the part about how he passed out in Mabel's arms.
"Wait a minute." Dipper said. "You passed out a few hours after going through the portal. So did I. I've been wondering about the portals effects on the body… but who would volunteer as test subject for THAT?"
"Hmmm... maybe we shouldn't worry about organic life yet." Connie said, focused. "We might be able to test out the effects of the portal on matter without using live test subjects. It'll be more practical, ethical, and cleaner."
"Okay… how?" Dipper asked, intrigued at how quickly she had apparently solved the problem.
Connie grabbed a piece of paper from a notepad, scribbled something on it, balled it up and passed it through the fridge portal.
"Ok, please, please stop sticking your hands through that, when it gets cut off you can't say I didn't warn you." Dipper whined, unable to hold that thought back any longer.
"Pass it back. That's all it says. What're you getting at, Connie?" Steven replied, and, to Dipper relief, tossed the paper instead of passing his hand through again.
"You." Connie was gesturing to Dipper, handing him the notepad and a pen. "Keep track of how many times the paper passes through the portal." Without skipping a beat, she tossed the paper back to Steven.
"Why are we playing catch?" It was Mabel, who threw the paper back. Dipper rushed to record three tick marks.
"Because this way we can find out if matter can withstand repeated travel through the wormhole! We can find out just how many times it takes before anything changes, if it all. This is great!" Dipper cried, distantly frustrated that he hadn't come up with it himself.
"Thanks." Connie said briskly, running a hand through her long brown hair.
They played inter-dimensional catch for about fifteen minutes, and Dipper was starting to get bored. He was about to ask for a turn as catcher when he heard a cry form the other side of the portal.
"It's crumbling!" Mable cried. "A piece fell off… ugh, it's dusty."
"Throw it back!" Dipper yelled, and as she did, the paper fell even further into dust. After a few more throws, it was reduced to ash, sprinkled over the interior of the fridge and closet.
"It's gone." Dipper said, stunned.
"How many throws did it take?" Connie grabbed the paper from Dipper. "256… that's… a lot, I guess. And it was only a piece of paper. Would a live animal be able to withstand more or less…?"
"But this means that going back and forth with the wormholes will eventually break down matter. It means the portals are not safe, like I thought. Maybe you pass out the first time, but what about the second time? Or the 100th time? Bleed from your eyes? Have a stroke? Dissolve into nothing?!"
He was pacing again, hoping that he and Steven were not already permanently damaged by their travels.
As if answering his thoughts, Steven called tentatively "We only went through once… It should be ok to go through one more time." He was always trying to make people feel better. It was really nice, but not very helpful.
"What about the moth?" It was Connie, of course. "You said it's from an in-between space and doesn't belong in our realities. Surely, traveling between universes is hard on it as well?"
Dipper was in shock. He had been so preoccupied with worrying about his own life that he had missed the most essential part of this discovery.
"That's IT!" He yelled. "That's how we can kill the stupid moth! We have to find a way to keep chasing it through the portals, until it breaks down like the paper did! The gems need to hear this!"
"Steven, your girlfriend is totally brilliant!" He ignored Connie's surprised blush, already focused on sketching out battle plans. "Now we have a way to win!"
