"This way!" Mabel shouted, running through the trees. Gideon was behind her, and their progress was slow (which was problematic, considering that they were on a rescue mission of sorts).

"You know, I could just levitate—"

"No!" Better to take a little longer to get to Dipper and be in one piece than to fall apart from the trauma of being levitated by Gideon's amulet.

Dipper kept screaming, and Mabel was getting a little less worried. If he had the air to scream that loud and for that long, he couldn't really be getting hurt, right? But then, why was he screaming in the first place? Mabel quickened her pace.

"Your brother," Gideon said between breaths, "is really loud."

"Tell me about it," Mabel panted back.

As they drew nearer, Mabel could hear other voices floating beneath Dipper's. One was deep, one was high-pitched, and one was. . . hers. "Don't do that. . . . Please, Dip, don't make me feel bad. . . ."

A clone! Mabel shot around a tree and skidded to a stop, finally able to see her brother. He was standing there, untouched, simply screaming.

Oh, no. He did this sometimes. It was his last resort whenever Mabel wouldn't give him his way.

"Dip, c'mon: I already told you that—"

The Mabel clone's voice cut off, along with Dipper's screaming. He, Star Mabel, and the two kids behind them had all seen her. "Mabel!" Dipper yelled, breaking the silence and running to his twin sister. He threw his arms around her. "Are you okay?" he asked. "I've been trying to find you all morning, but the clones wouldn't tell me where you were, and I never should've let you go out alone, and I should've been here for you when you were scared, and—"

"Hey, hey, I'm okay," Mabel said softly, cutting him off. She smiled. "Were you really that worried about me?"

Dipper stepped back and held up two fingers, almost touching. "A little bit," he said. His eyes traveled past his sister, and she turned her head to see Gideon standing over her shoulder, a few feet away. "Did you save her?" Dipper asked him.

Gideon nodded once.

"I'm not a damsel in distress," Mabel said, folding her arms. She wasn't really annoyed, though; she was too happy to see her brother again.

But Dipper didn't look happy anymore. "You told me not to bother you anymore," he said to Gideon, "and then you come out here and find my sister for me?"

"That isn't how it happened," Gideon said defensively. "There were these two clones bothering" —he glanced at Mabel— "an acquaintance of mine, and I figured out what was going on and decided to go help Mabel out. In fact, I should probably go check on them."

"How did you figure out where she was?" Dipper demanded.

Before Gideon could answer, a Mabel clone burst through the trees at top speed. She came to a sudden stop, spraying up snow, and stared at the group in front of her. "What's going on here?" she asked. Mabel took note of the broken heart symbol on her chest.

"Did you win?" Star Mabel asked. Mabel had almost forgotten she was there; she hadn't tried to touch her or anything.

"Yeah, you?" Broken Heart Mabel replied.

Star Mabel nodded. Both clones then turned simultaneously to look at Mabel.

"Mabel, don't let them touch you," Gideon said in a low voice.

Oh, but Mabel wanted to. She wanted the same sense of peace she had gotten from Five-Fingered Mabel. Why couldn't she have that?

It doesn't actually solve anything, her brain reminded her. That's what Gideon said, and he knows from experience.

Mabel set her jaw and moved back towards Gideon. "Can I take care of them now?" he asked when she was next to him.

"No killing," she repeated in an equally low voice.

Gideon sighed and stepped forward. His amulet started to glow. "You can't come near her," he said firmly to the clones.

They charged.

Star Mabel was immediately lifted off the ground by a blue glow. One of the kids behind Dipper, the small Asian-looking girl, bounded after Broken Heart Mabel and launched onto her from behind, landing on her shoulders and pushing her to the ground. Meanwhile, Star Mabel floated higher and higher, looking more and more scared. The expression made Mabel's stomach churn as she remembered her own fear at being levitated. "Gideon!" she shouted to get his attention.

He turned around quickly, which broke his eye contact with Star Mabel and sent her flying. With a scream, she cartwheeled through the air into the distance. Gideon and Mabel watched her go. "Oh," he said.

Mabel groaned.

Gideon's feet lifted off the ground, and he started flying away, hovering just above the snow. Mabel looked back at Dipper and his friends, wrestling Broken Heart Mabel to the ground, and decided to follow Gideon. She trudged through the snow, following the faint blue glow in the trees, until she came across Gideon and Star Mabel, facing each other in the snow. Star Mabel seemed unharmed; Gideon must've slowed her fall.

Star Mabel glowered at Gideon and looked ready to charge him. Gideon, for his part, gripped his amulet, which was glowing brighter and brighter. He glanced to the side and saw Mabel standing there.

Star Mabel ran for him with a war cry.

There was a flash of bright blue light; for a second, Mabel couldn't see a thing. Then her vision cleared, and Star Mabel was nowhere to be seen.

Mabel gasped. He killed her! After everything she said, he still—

Oink oink.

Mabel's eyes traveled down to the ground, to see, sitting at Gideon's feet. . . a pig?

Gideon looked back and forth between Mabel and the pig, looking as surprised as Mabel felt. "A. . . pig," Mabel said, stepping forward. "You turned her. . . into a pig."

"I didn't know I could do that," Gideon said, staring down at it.

"She's a pig now."

"Yep."

They stood there silently for another moment, ignoring the yelling in the distance. Then they looked up at each other. "Um, will she still get absorbed if she touches me?" Mabel asked.

"I'm. . . not sure," Gideon replied. "But. . . let's go." He looked down at his amulet and seemed to decide to walk rather than levitate, lest he accidentally turn himself into a pig. Good choice, Mabel thought.

They headed back to Dipper, trudging in silence through the snow, both still weirded out by what had just happened. When they made it back, Dipper's fierce little friend had Broken Heart Mabel in a chokehold.

"Yield! I yield!" she croaked.

"Um, you can let go now, Candy," Dipper said nervously.

The girl, Candy, released her hold, and Broken Heart Mabel stood up, massaging her neck. She saw Mabel and Gideon come from the trees; but with a nervous glance at Candy, she didn't move.

"Got any more tricks up your sleeve?" Mabel asked Gideon over her shoulder.

He shook his head.

Broken Heart Mabel suddenly danced away from Candy before she could grab her again. "You guys don't get it, do you? I can't abandon my mission, no matter what!"

She ran at Mabel, who dodged. Like an enraged bull, it was too late for Broken Heart Mabel to change directions, and she was on a crash course straight for Gideon.

Gideon grabbed his amulet on impulse; and, with a blue flash, Broken Heart Mabel went flying through the air. Mabel saw her burst into white smoke only halfway through her arc of travel. The smoke dissipated in the air as Mabel whirled around to face Gideon. "What did I tell you?" she yelled.

Gideon looked unrepentant. "I just saved you. Again. How many times do you owe me now?"

"None!" Mabel replied vehemently. "Every time you've 'saved' me, I would've been fine; but instead you barge in and kill people and stop me from destroying the thing that almost killed me!"

Gideon put his hands up. "Woah, calm down."

"I will not calm down! You haven't helped anything! I nearly died thanks to your friend, and what do you do? You stop me from smashing the amulet, and you kill my clones without any remorse; and no, it doesn't matter that they weren't even people, because — because—"

Her voice cracked and then stopped working completely, and she was vaguely aware of Dipper's arms around her as she sank to her knees in the snow. "I almost died," she whispered. "And. . . and now I've seen myself die." She could hardly hear the whispered words, but she knew she was saying them.

Dipper held her close. "It's okay, sis, you're safe now." His head moved as he turned it towards Gideon. "Are there any more clones running around?"

"Possibly," Mabel heard Gideon reply, "but it's best if I go find out myself."

She heard what he wasn't saying: The only clones left were the ones that went after Pacifica. One who was terrified of her and one who wanted revenge. Mabel wondered vaguely which clone won. The way she had felt all the time lately, it was sure to be the scared one.

Mabel wasn't sure when Gideon left, and she wasn't sure how long she cried in her twin's arms. She had already cried over all this once, right after she'd been attacked by her; but then she'd been more shocked than anything. Now, she'd had time to process everything. Now, she could cry it out.

As she did, she realized something: This was how you worked out your emotions. Not with running away, not with yelling at people, not with magical clones.

You worked them out with support from a loved one. With a quiet moment to stop and think. And, finally: with a good, messy cry.

Art by Sikke Anki