Sometimes, after enough time has passed, even the least well-written books or least thought out ideas can enter into legend, if they're famous enough. Too bad for Dipper, he gets to live long enough to see it. And when his sister is born into a cult that has been influenced by those legends and worships him, things get...awkward.

Okay, I said once that I was going to start putting one-shots that have more than one chapter into separate stories as well as posting them inside "Tales of a Dreambender. This is the first of them.

Dipper knew he should check in on his Mizar. He hadn't since she was first born into this lifetime, and he missed her so, so much.

No matter what lifetime, Mizar was his rock, his anchor, but he'd learned the hard way that it wasn't fair to that soul to pin everything on them.

That was why he'd started seeking out other souls, other connections.

And as much as he hated to admit it, well...Mizar didn't need him yet. He needed her, but..he could sense her, through their connection. She was loved, and being cared for...in fact, if his connection said anything, it said that the only danger she was in was of being spoiled. And she was still so young...

And, well...he'd promised himself. And he'd promised her. He wasn't going to forget everyone else again and focus just on one soul.

Plus...Willow's current incarnation needed him right now. Odd as it was, a demon was the only one on that kid's side at the moment.

If things didn't get better soon, he might have to take steps, and that...probably wasn't going to work out well. At least he had experience with making false human identities by this point, so if worst came to worst he could take care of her. Probably not the best, but...better than the way she was living now.

He'd also figured out where both Stan and Ford's current lives were (they had reincarnated together again, as siblings, and that soothed something Dipper hadn't realized hurt) and he'd checked in on them a few times already. He was going to wait until they were a little older to introduce himself.

Ford seemed like someone who was into the paranormal this lifetime again, so there was that opening...of course, it could also mean Ford would know enough to reject Dipper, and not enough to realize he was trying to be friendly.

They were the only ones currently incarnated, though he had a feeling more might be coming soon. Ugh, it was so hard, and to have to try again each lifetime...

The point remained, though, that while he wanted to check on Mizar, right now, Antares needed his focus, and Mizar...well, she didn't.

He'd regret not paying attention later.

Dipper was just cleaning up the lunch dishes when he felt the tug of a summons. This one was strong, the kind of tug that an accomplished, knowledgeable set of summoners could create, strong and not something he could just ignore or send to the answering machine unless it was an emergency.

That could be a very good thing, or very, very bad.

Quickly he poked his head into the living room, where Antares...Pearl...was sitting, playing quietly. He felt some vague regret that it had come to him taking her away, but, well...when the literal demon, albeit the currently trying to be somewhat human demon, was the better choice of parent...

He still wondered, at times, how his Mizar was doing, but...raising a kid took nearly all your time, even when you were a dream demon and therefore didn't need an actual job to create money, or to eat, or to sleep. Add in the face that Ford and Stan's reincarnations were just down the road and Pearl had managed to befriend them, so he was keeping an eye on all three, and...well, he did check up on Mizar, with the connection between them, he just hadn't been able to look in on her.

She kept radiating pride and well-being, lots of pride actually, and a vague sense that translated to being happy and busy, so he hoped she'd forgive him in the space between lives for not hovering over her in this lifetime.

That would all have to wait, though. The call of the summons was getting stronger the longer he put it off, so he called out a quick warning to Pearl, letting her know he was off for a summons, dinner was in the fridge if he wasn't back in time, and waited just long enough for her to respond before he blinked to the source of the summons.

Over the years, Dipper had been dragged into some odd summonings. In fact, he'd been dragged into some very, very odd summonings.

Despite that, he still had a certain image in mind when he felt a summons, especially one as strong as this one. A certain idea of what he should see, what should happen, how everything would unfold.

Today, that image was not to be.

Instead of a dark warehouse or basement, lit only by sterile florescent lights or the weak, flickering light of candles, Dipper found himself coming into corporeality in a brightly lit room, full of dazzling and colorful light.

He was surprised enough to fumble his usual opening, falling silent as he paused to get a better look around.

The more he looked around, the more confused and unsettled he was.

His circle was carved into an alter, a high piece of black and white marble, and the room...it had high ceilings, and that was where the resemblance to his usual summons ended. The walls were black stone with gold gilt decorations, mainly of stars or highlighting the lines of carvings, all polished to a high gleam.

Stained glass windows behind the alter and along the wall threw colored light, like a careless scattering of jewels tossed across black velvet, over the room and everyone inside.

There were people seated in pews, actual darkly stained wooden pews that lined an aisle carpeted in dark gold, all of them dressed as if for church.

In heavy vases along the walls, an abundance of flowers lent the air a heavy, thick scent. Spaced between them along the walls were heavy white candles, their holders shoulder high and the candles wrist thick, their light glittering off the gold of the vases and the walls. Swags of cloth draped along the pews and walls, gold and white, all of the building decorated as if for some holy event, but in Alcor's colors, blacks and golds with highlights of white.

It was all the people inside that kept Dipper from openly looking up to see what the window behind him, the largest of them all, displayed, from being quite as open about his gaping and confusion as he wanted to be, though the shapes of the colored light on the floor gave him a bad feeling that it was his symbol up there, in the stained glass of the window.

Professionalism and pride clamored not to let anyone see when he was thrown. Even in a case like this, when he was very, very thrown, not only by the building that appeared, to all intents and purposes, to be a church dedicated to him, though not one of the Circle of the Dreamer's Star, whose worship he was becoming more accepting of, but also by the air of anticipation that hovered over the crowd.

Instead, he slowly turned and directed a glare onto the robed man standing at the top of the shallow stairs at the front of the room, the man standing in front of the alter that Dipper now saw had Dipper's symbol inlaid on the front in gold and draped with something thick and rich, his circle inlaid onto the top and blood staining the grooves.

The man (priest? Cult leader? Dipper wasn't sure, but this certainly looked intensely religious, and the fact that they'd summoned a demon didn't make him any less cautious about what they might be planning. Religious folk had tried to summon a demon to 'purify' it before, after all. They just usually left Dipper alone, as he was ridiculously overpowered and generally considered best left alone – and he wasn't going to take the fact that this appeared to be dedicated to him at face value) looked taken aback for a brief moment at Dipper's irritation but Dipper was impressed by how quickly he rallied.

Apparently, he'd prepped himself for the demon wanting to know what the hell was going on, because once that moment was over, his face broke out into a huge, joyous smile.

Dipper was instantly even more suspicious.

"Our great lord Alcor! Long have we awaited this joyous day, and great is our honor to bear witness to it!"

Idly, Dipper wondered if there was some kind of script cult leaders were given alongside the summoning circles. If they were respectful at all, they all seemed to talk the same way...

"Eighteen glorious years ago, we were blessed to have born to us Mizar, the Gleeful, the Merciful, the Free. We have been honored all these years to raise her with love and pride and to prepare her for this day. Today, Mizar is ready to be returned to her Alcor. We gather here as witnesses to this solemn moment, when the Twin Stars are reunited, to once again glow as one, guiding lights to us all."

Dipper was seriously freaked out by this point, but he kept his face as impassive as he could. So this was where his Mizar was? Or was it someone else who was pretending to be...no, a gentle probe told him that his Mizar was here, she was just outside waiting for her signal to enter, and he wasn't sure that was much better.

...if they were going to sacrifice Mizar to him then this place wasn't going to stay pretty for long. That wasn't quite the vibe he was getting from them, but it was still a plain fact that it was a possibility.

What the hell kind of cult was this? Dipper was getting serious Jonestown vibes from all of these people, and that was even with him having mostly come to terms with the idea of someone worshiping him. Bad enough when they got over-zealous about sacrificing things to him...

But this...this was a full fledged church, and although there was some of the warmth he got from the still (thankfully) small Circle of the Dreamer's Star, there was still a good deal more of a fanatical vibe. There was no way they could just haul around an altar like that from place to place, or have a building like this, and not be obvious about what they were doing, so this had to be some sort of compound, someplace really dedicated to this...

But...despite the fact that the whole thing felt weird, there wasn't anything...wrong? Just a lot of people looking at him? In a really odd way? Like they were really glad to see him, which was really weird in and of itself, and he got a general feeling of anticipation. Anticipation was normal at a summoning, but this was...eager? Positive? Joyful? Like they didn't expect this to end in blood and tears?

...he'd never been to a summons before where everyone was sitting in nice clothing in pews like they were waiting for a sermon or something. This whole setup was creepy, and this was a demon saying that.

Was he...supposed to be saying something? Everyone was waiting, but...what was even going on?

Why hadn't he been paying more attention?

Okay, stay calm, Dipper told himself. Maybe this was just something like the Circle and he was just being paranoid over nothing. They just wanted to present Mizar to him, right? That was a good thing, he missed her, and if they knew she was Mizar and were this into it then they wouldn't have to sneak around about meeting each other, and she probably wasn't going to freak out about the whole demon brother bit. This could be a good thing, right?

Music swelled, cutting through Dipper's frantic thoughts, and Dipper felt his heart drop to his shoes. Oh please, please, let that song he heard not be what he thought it was...

Doors opened at the back of the hall, and Dipper took a deep breath he didn't technically need before he turned to see if it was as bad as he thought.

And as soon as he'd gotten a good look, he started silently cursing in every language he knew even as the rest of him blue screened.

Because walking down the aisle, in full western bridal garb, from elaborate white dress to trailing veil draped longer than the dress' train to sparkling tiara to huge, cascading bouquet, was his sister.

His. Sister.

Okay so not maybe his blood sister now but the soul was hers and it was the same as being a sibling to him.

Dipper gave a full body shudder, even his hair poofing, and he had to bite back the urge to puke.

This was not good.

He wasn't trying to feel his Mizar, but he could feel her emotions all the way from the front despite actively blocking her, they were so strong. Pride, and joy, and a good deal of nerves, and oh crap this was her wedding day they honestly bought all that Twin Souls eternal bond crap as meaning wife and not sister and this was a wedding his sister's wedding day and oh this was going to be messy.

The time Dipper's brain had needed to reboot had apparently been enough for Mizar to make it to the front of the church (and oh, this was why he'd never gotten a sense of another name from her, Dipper realized in a flash – they must had dropped her birth name as soon as they'd realized whose soul she had and referred to her just as 'Mizar' ever since) and it seemed most of his dismay hadn't shown on his face, as everyone save the 'groom' was still beaming.

Mizar stopped at his side, and she was short this life, short enough she had to tilt her head back to look into his face (though that was, admittedly, at least partially because he was still floating) and she gave him a look of such love and longing that Dipper really did want to be sick. His sister should never, ever look at him like that.

"Okay, hold up," he said as the priest began to speak. "I get what's going on here now. And you've all got the wrong idea. Um. Sorry. But I can't marry Mizar."

"But...but why?" the priest cried into the stunned silence Dipper's declaration had caused. "She has studied and trained for this all her life. She is ready to give herself to you, body and soul, as is only proper for the mate of a demon of your power and status, the only one who has ever taken a mate! She is your Mizar, surely you cannot deny her this renewal of your bond!"

The protests and dismayed exclamations began almost before the last word had left the priest's mouth, the congregation agreeing with him and begging Dipper to reconsider, questioning why he would refuse Mizar.

If it had been anyone else they'd been trying to foist off on Dipper he might have just left, or given some short, pithy lecture about marrying demons, made a joke or snarled them into silence, but this was Mizar, his Mizar, and she looked so stricken, waves of despair and heartbreak almost visible, strong enough to make even his heart ache, that he had to say or do something before she did something drastic. Who cared about anyone else, his Mizar was hurting.

"Mizar, you're my sister," he said, his voice cutting over the risen voices around them as he spoke directly to her, catching the tear-filled eyes with his, ignoring everyone else. "I know it's not blood, but the relationship is the same to me. I don't know where anyone got the idea for all...all this," he gestured around them at the church, the altar, the dress and all the trappings, "...well okay I kind of have an idea where they got the idea but we've always been siblings. I get how much this means to you, but we're not getting married. Ever. I...I'm sorry, but no."

Mizar's eyes never left his face throughout Dipper's explanation, silently (and, it seemed, automatically, thoughtlessly) accepting the handkerchief he pulled out his jacket pocket to dry the tears overflowing from her eyes.

"You...don't want me?" she said when Dipper paused, searching for the words.

Dipper flailed for a few seconds in the face of her pain before lunging, grabbing up his Mizar in a tight, desperate hug. In her surprise, she dropped the bouquet, and slowly her arms came up to return the hug as he spoke. "I love you. You're my Mizar, and I always want to be near you," he said, suddenly as choked as she, "but not like this. Sister, not wife. But I already love you so, so much."

"But the wedding!" the priest cried out in protest. "The binding! It must be renewed! 'Tis not the first time someone has been both sister and wife!"

Dipper bit back a snarl by sheer effort, pulling back from the hug reluctantly, one hand stubbornly remaining on Mizar's shoulder even as she scooped up her bouquet and wiped her face again with his handkerchief, calmer now that she was assured of his love, even if it was a different type of love than she'd been expecting. If anything, Dipper thought he felt relief coming from her, not as strong as the pride and joy as before and with a strong overtone of guilt, but relief all the same.

Human , he reminded himself. Not completely demon. You can handle this. "The bond between myself and Mizar is renewed each time we meet in a new lifetime and get to know each other," he said sharply. "Not because of ceremonies. And I'm not marrying my sister!"

"But the ancient legends all say..." the priest continued to protest, and beside Dipper Mizar was radiating nerves and vague fears, though they were directed at the priest and his retribution for this ceremony gone wrong and of what Dipper might do to him, if he was feeling her correctly.

It was hard to tell, especially when he hadn't been human for so long and the emotions were all muddled together.

"The ancient legends are wrong," Dipper snapped. "Are you seriously going to argue this with me? With Alcor himself? I know the bond between myself and Mizar in ways mortals could never comprehend!"

The priest continued to sputter, and Dipper pinched the bridge of his nose. It was physically impossible for him to get a headache, he reminded himself. There was no reason for it to feel like he was getting one now.

"If you keep talking about me and my sister doing...having...ugh. Having sex," Dipper ground out the word, "Then I'm going to be sick. Demonic puke is a pain to clean up, you don't want to deal with that. This is a nice carpet." He sighed again, deciding to keep playing along for Mizar's sake and so, so grateful he was in one of his saner periods right now.

"Look, everyone," he said, turning to face the audience, who'd sat in stunned silence since the first protests, "You've got a party all ready. Go celebrate. It's not a wedding, but you still did it. We're reunited. So go celebrate that. I want to talk with my sister for a bit. We've got a lot of catching up to do."

Mizar grinned, wiping away the last of her tears. With a whoop, she suddenly spun and pitched the bouquet over her shoulder into the crowd.

And suddenly, despite how this meeting had gone down, Dipper suddenly had a good feeling about this incarnation.

Notes: The reference to priest makes about how Mizar & Alcor could be siblings and spouses refers to more than one instance of it in older gods, such as Greek or Egyptian. This was an idea I had a good while back that I finally wrote out.