GORE/TRIGGER WARNING

(Mystery Twins)

Mabel watched, horrified as the smile across Bill's face spread.

"I've never done this before!" He let out a laugh that made her stomach churn. He started to glow and his body twisted into the light, and for a moment she could see a second Steven-shaped ball of light before both figures twisted together. She shielded her eyes from the brightness. When the light dimmed she looked up. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Who-er-What are you?" Ford demanded as the figure before them fixed the dark pink bow tie around his neck.

"I think my name would be Cipheven, or maybe Still. Yes I think I like Still more." He chuckled and leaned forward. Mabel looked Still up and down. His shoes were shiny and black without laces. He was wearing light pink formal pants with a brown belt, the belt buckle was a yellow triangle. His suit coat was a darker pink and open casually. Underneath the coat was Steven's dark green question mark shirt, but it was shorter than before, revealing a large, pink gem where his belly button should be.

His clothes weren't the strangest part about him. The thing that horrified Mabel the most was Still's face. He had three eyes, one on the right side of his face that looked like Bill Cipher's eye, yellow with a thin pupil. He had two eyes on his left side, the eye on top was larger and pink, and the lower eye was brown and glistening.

Two horns spiked up from the top of his head and one smaller horn on his forehead. The base of the horns were light pink and slowly faded into a dark maroon. Two pastel pink horns cut out of his skin from below his ears that jutted forwards along his jawbone. Still smiled down at Mabel, his front canine teeth were long and sharp. Like fangs.

Mabel felt her eyes burn. There was something so awfully unsettling about looking at the creature before her. His smile was smooth and kind, but full of trickery.

"Didn't your mother's teach you that it's rude to stare?" Still stood up straight and glanced around.

"Bill what did you do to this boy?!" Ford shouted and took a strong step forward.

"What did Bill do? Cipher is a part of me," He took a graceful step forward in a challenging manner, "I am not Steven and I am not Bill. I am Still, both of them together."

"What kind of mind tricks did you play on Steven?" Dipper's voice sounded strong, but Mabel knew he was scared.

"Mind tricks? That's an awfully rude accusation. Steven taught me all about this actually! It's a simple trick called fusion." Mabel took a step back. Has Steven been working with Bill? I thought I could trust him…

"It's something anyone with a gem can easily do." Still tapped the pink gem on his stomach with a claw-like fingernail, "Are there any more questions that I can answer for you?" Still clasped his hands together and stood up straight.

"Why do you have scary devil horns?" Grenda shouted from the porch.

"Scary?" Still raised a hand and touched the horns on his head, "It's something from Steven's past, nothing really important though." Mabel noticed that Still's pink and yellow eyes were following everyone's movement, while the small brown eye looked away. It looked like Steven's normal eye and it was so full of pain and rage, a single tear formed at it's corner.

"Whatever this is Bill, and whoever the kid is, you need to leave him alone!" Ford widened his stance and squared his shoulders.

"I don't think you want to pick a fight with me, old man." Still rolled his eyes.

"Oh really?" Stan stepped forward, his brass knuckles on his hand.

"I really think you wouldn't want to try fighting a criminal from multiple dimensions and one of the rulers of the galaxy. Honestly you should be doing whatever he wants. He's saved your skins multiple times."

"He?" Dipper wrinkled his nose.

"Do I really have to explain?" Still groaned dramatically and rolled his eyes, "You know who the interdimensional criminal is. It's not too hard to guess who the space tyrant is." Still massaged his temple and mumbled, "You morons are giving me a headache."

Ford and Stan didn't draw back from their attacking stances. Mabel's heart raced, she felt sick. Space tyrant? Saved our skins? Does he mean when Steven helped the Gremloblin? She noticed that the tear that had formed was rolling down his cheek, small and barely noticeable.

"Last chance to stand down." Still's voice wasn't light anymore, it sounded more like Steven's voice. Mabel stood helplessly. She stared at Still's face. While his pink and yellow eyes were fixated on Ford and Stan, Steven's eye looked around frantically and made eye contact with Mabel. It was pleading, begging for help.

Mabel felt helpless. How can I help him? She ran over to Dipper and motioned for Candy and Grenda to come closer.

"We can't let them fight! I don't think Steven wants to fight!" Mabel whispered.

"How can you tell?" Dipper's voice was full of anger.

"Look at his eyes. The brown eye is Steven's eye and the yellow eye is Bill's eye!" Mabel pointed to Still with her thumb.

"What about the pink eye?" Candy glanced up nervously. Still noticed their gathering and stared straight at them. Mabel felt a chill snake up her spine. It made her head feel tingly.

"Planning a coup are we? Tsk tsk. I expected more from you Shooting Star, and especially you, Pine Tree." Still turned on his heels, making the gravel crunch beneath them. He took a step forward, but something stopped him from taking another step.

Still grit his teeth and closed his eyes. His form looked like it was tearing apart. Mabel nearly gagged, Still's face was twisted up in pain and he let out a screech before turning into a mass of light like he did before. Steven fell to the ground and Bill hovered in the air for a moment.

"Weakling!" Bill spat before disappearing. Mabel ran over to Steven's body sprawled out on the ground.

"Is he dead?!" She wailed. Steven was pale and had dark circles under his eyes, like all the life had been drained from him. Stan ran over and kneeled next to the boy, placing two of his fingers underneath his jaw.

"No I feel a heartbeat. Ford, help me get him inside." Ford jogged over and helped Stan lift Steven and carry him to the breakroom. Mabel looked from her friends to Dipper. None of them could figure out what to say or even form words in their mouths.

They heard the sound of gravel crunching underneath shoes and turned behind them to see Wendy and Soos walking in together. They were laughing and chatting.

"'Sup Dudes?" Soos stretched his hand out for a high five, but no one moved.

"You guys look like you've seen a ghost." Wendy's laugh trailed off when she looked at their faces.

"He's back…" Mabel breathed.

"Who? Gideon?" Soos looked around frantically.

"What? No." Dipper shook his head, "It's Bill, he's back."

"How is that possible?" Wendy looked around, "Do the Stan's know?"

"Yes. They are taking care of Steven now." Candy piped up.

"Wait, wait. Explain what happened." Soos looked from Wendy to the group of kids. And all four at once tried to explain.

I'mma try a new prospective for the next chapter. I'm also gonna try to post more lmao XD