"Trust me, Kid. She's not worth saving."

"But she's in pain, I have to try."

"So what you're saying is that you want me to help you commit mass genocide, just so you can talk to the one person who's more insane than you?"

"Yes!"

"...fine, kid. You win."

"Promise?"

"...yeah. I promise."

"So, you're finally here? How many friends did you kill this time? Ten? Twenty?"

"Too many."

"Told ya Kid, you don't want to go down this path."

"I have to."

"Then, I have to stop you."

"But... you promised."

"Yeah… and this is why I don't make promises. Too many strings attached. Too many regrets."

"But... but..."

"Sorry old lady. Sorry Kid. I just can't do this anymore."

"Welp. Can't say I didn't try. … just, remember to reset for me, will ya. And… take your time in the ruins. I don't want to see you anytime soon."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Sure you are, Kid"

The Good, The Bad, and The Broken

Chapter One: The War is Over (and we are beginning)

Once upon a time, there was an angel named Frisk. She was the kindest girl anyone had ever met. She fell into the hostile underground and helped everyone she saw. And, despite being constantly barraged by danger and peril, she never hurt anyone. She led the monsters that inhabited the underground to the surface, giving them hope and prosperity for the first time in over three hundred years. Then, she found out that there was one person yet to be saved.

The person was a demon, a remnant of the first fallen human of the underground. The spirit went by the name of Chara and was made up of misery and hate. So, when Frisk learned how to talk to the spirit, she grabbed the opportunity at once. Unfortunately, that meant reseting her progress in the underground through the power of Determination and going back to murder everyone she'd ever saved. She tried multiple times trying to kill as few monsters as possible but she never met Chara. Finally, the once selfless girl gave up and killed everyone in the underground, including the woman she called her mother.

When she finished her goal, she stood before Chara, the one person she had never once saved. But the demoness that was once full of loathing now looked at the shattered soul before her and felt only sadness. The roles had been reversed. Now Frisk was the one that needed saving, the one who was broken. Chara was saved, her soul given back to her by an old locket found in the king of the underground's castle, but Frisk was not the same girl who had fallen down in the beginning.

The two girls reset and once again saved the underground. And when the monsters once again looked out onto the sunrise, it seemed that everything was once again back to normal. The monsters scattered around Mount Ebbot, inhabiting various towns with the majority moving into a small mountain town called Gravity Falls.

Frisk Dreemurr was lying on the floor of a small apartment in Gravity Falls. It had been a month since the monsters had been freed by her and her adoptive sister Chara. Her light, chin length brown hair lay pooled around her as she lay, spread eagle, in her and Chara's room. She wore her favorite blue and purple striped t-shirt along with a pair of jeans. Her socks covered her ankles and disappeared into her jeans. Her old, black tennis shoes lay discarded by her side as she took a page from her friend Napstablook's book and thought about her existence, eyes shut peacefully. She was just about to slip off into a slumber when her sister burst through the door.

"Frisk!" Chara shouted as she ran into the room. "Get up, we've got company!"

Chara looked almost identical to Frisk. Her hair was the same shade and length as the other girl's. She wore a green and yellow striped short sleeved t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. She wore a golden heart-shaped locket around her neck that seemed to emit a faint red glow. She wore a pair of grey tennis shoes and white shocks that poked out just above her shoes. The only major difference Chara had from Frisk aside from her choice of clothing were their eyes. While Frisk's eyes were a warm chocolate color, Chara's eyes were nearly crimson, a trait that had scared off more than one would-be bully in her time on the surface.

"Frisk!" Chara groaned, annoyed at the other girl's lack of response. "Wake up!"

Frisk blinked a few times, her eyes flicking around the room for the source of the intrusion on her thoughts. When she spotted Chara, she smiled kindly and pushed herself up into a sitting position. She rubbed her eyes and gave her sister her undivided attention.

"Oh sorry Chara, I was thinking," she said kindly. "What did you say?"

"I said that we've got company, Frisk," Chara repeated. "A whole bus load a tourists who've probably never seen a monster in their life just arrived. We have about ten minutes before they get here and do something nasty. " Frisk nodded and quickly stood, grabbing her shoes and shoving them onto her feet.

"Let's go." She said as she ran out of her room. "Mom, we're going to go meet the tourists." With Chara on her heels, Frisk ran out of the house and towards the bus stop, Toriel's kind reply of acknowledgement following them out the door.

Dipper Pines sat in the back of the bus next to his energetic sister Mabel. She was bouncing around laughing and messing around as usual. He… had his nose stuffed into a book, paying no attention to her as he read about their destination. His messy brown hair was tucked under a military green baseball cap with a dark star on it to keep it out of his dull blue eyes. He wore an orange t-shirt under a fluffy, navy blue vest along with light grey shorts that sat just above his knees. He had black sneakers that were tied on tightly. In all, he looked like he was an average kid.

His sister however, was the more eccentric of the two. She had long brown hair that went down past her waist and curled up at the ends. It was tucked behind her star earring adorned ears with the help of a turquoise headband that never moved even though the twelve-year old was jumping all over the place.

Her bright, green eyes shone with excitement and her braced teeth never disappeared behind her lips as she was constantly smiling and laughing. She wore a sparkling purple sweater with the face of a purple cat on it, even though it was well over eighty degrees outside. She wore a turquoise skirt that was the same shade as her headband as well as black slipper-like shoes over ankle high white socks. They were heading towards Gravity Falls, where their great uncle Stan lived and worked.

"Gravity Falls, Oregon, one quarter mile." the bus driver announced.

Dipper closed his book and slid it into his backpack that was sitting next to him. Mabel grabbed her suitcase and stood up, her brother following her a second later. They made their way to the front of the bus, the only two people to get off at the backwater town. As they stepped off the bus they saw a man with grey hair in a black suit and dark red fez leaning against an old, red car looking bored. They recognised him as their uncle because of family pictures. Mabel smiled and ran towards the man.

"Grunkle Stan!" she shouted excitedly. The man looked up from the ground that had captured his attention in his boredom. He grimaced uncomfortably and started to nervously ring his hands.

"Hey ah, Mapel right?" he said. "Didn't you have a brother I was supposed to look after too?"

"It's Mabel, Grunkle Stan." Mabel clarified, still smiling "and my brother is called Dipper. He's right over there by the bus."

It was true, Dipper had not moved from his spot by the bus. This was because he was watching two girls argue a few feet away. They looked almost identical but that was not the weirdest thing about them. As they were arguing they were pushing a tall man dressed in a very realistic skeleton costume into a bush.

"That can't be real," he thought as he watched the bush shift through the skeleton's leg bones. "Yeah, definitely not real, but that guy must have spent over a year making that."

"I told you this would happen." the girl in a green shirt said in an annoyed tone.

"I'm sorry, Chara. But I can't see into the future. How was I supposed to know Sans would leave?" the girl in a blue shirt asked in a carefully level tone that barely hid her sadness as they successfully pushed the man into the bush.

"HUMAN? WHEN IS SANS COMING BACK?" the man shouted from behind the bush.

"I don't know, Pap." the girl in blue said, her whole body wilting as she followed the other girl into the bush.

"Hey Dipper!" Mabel shouted from across the lot, tearing his eyes from the scene. "Come on, Grunkle Stan's house isn't going to explore itself."

Dipper nodded and ran towards his sister, pushing the weird man from his mind. The two kids climbed into the back of the convertible watched the scenery as Stan drove them to his house.

Frisk walked behind Chara and Papyrus all the way to the skeleton's house. Yes Papyrus was a skeleton. He was what many would consider a lovable idiot. He wore the chest piece of a set of plate mail armor with a bright red star over his left breast along with a semi-shredded bright orange scarf that hung over his left shoulder. He wore the crotch piece of the plate mail and knee high, orange combat boots. He wore dark red gloves with golden cuffs that served no real purpose as he had no skin to keep warm but everyone just laughed it off and let him wear the things, if only to not hurt his feelings.

Everything else was left bare to the world, exposing his bones to the people of Gravity Falls. His small beady eyes were bright with excitement as he chatted about everything he had done since the last time he had seen the girls, namely improving his spaghetti recipe. When they reached the tall skeleton's house he smiled down at them and waved as he walked into the door, no literally, into the door.

"WOWIE!" he shouted with his smile never dimming. "SOMEBODY PUT THIS DOOR IN MY WAY. BUT NEVER FEAR, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL NOT BE HINDERED."

He pointed his finger upward as he shouted this but once he was done he opened the door and waved goodbye as the two girls. Frisk waved back while Chara simply grimaced before they turned away from the house.

"Come on, Chara. Let's go, Mom's probably got lunch ready by now," Frisk said as she started to run towards their house.

"Hey wait up," Chara yelled as Frisk sped away.

After three days of working in the Mystery Shack, the tourist trap Grunkle Stan had converted his house into, Dipper was more than ready to get out and enjoy the summer. Mabel had taken the place in stride, having taken only a single night to set up her room and organise her things. She was now flirting with every single boy who stepped within twenty yards of the place, it was... a little freaky if Dipper had to be perfectly honest. He, on the other hand, had not had such an easy time adjusting. It was not his idea of a perfect summer.

This opinion was not improved when Grunkle Stan told him to do yet another menial task. This time it was to hang signs along the road and in the forest to draw in more customers for the shack. Dipper was less than thrilled with the job and reluctantly took the signs Stan had handed to him, along with a hammer and a bag of nails.

"Really Grunkle Stan? Everytime I go out there I feel like I'm being watched." Dipper protested. Stan sighed, rubbing his eyes under his large square glasses.

"Look kid, the monsters in the forest thing is just an urban legend. Something guys like me thought up to scare and attract people like him." Stan explained harshly, pointing to a round tourist in a pink striped t-shirt who was giggling at the sight of a Stan bobblehead.

Dipper groaned before walking out of the shack and down the road, nail up signs every couple of trees. After about a mile of this, Dipper was almost out of signs. As he grabbed the last one and readied the nail, he sighed in relief.

"Ah, finally. I can go back to the shack now." he said as he hammered the nail into the tree, only to hear the wood clang metallically and the nail to jerk back in his hand. "Gah! What the-?"

He tapped on the tree with his hammer to make sure it wasn't just his imagination. The tree clanged once more. Dipper put the hammer in his pocket and felt along the tree for any form of crack or imperfection. The tree was perfectly smooth, only painted in extreme detail to look like a living tree. It took a few seconds but Dipper did find a crack in the smooth metal. He pulled at the nearly invisible door with the tips of his fingers. Once he got under the plate he pulled it open to reveal an ancient radio transmitter.

Dipper flipped one of the many switches on the console, trying to turn the thing on. When nothing happened he jiggled one of the other switches a little only to hear a the sound usually only associated with sci-fi movies, the sound of a pressurized door being opened. Dipper turned around to see a small square had oped up in the ground a few feet away. He walked over to it and looked inside.

There was nothing but a white pac-man-ghost-like thing wearing headphones in the bottom. As soon as the ghost saw the boy it closed it's pale grey eyes and began to make a small buzzing sound.

"ZZZZZZZZZZZ." the ghost droned, as if pretending to be asleep. Dipper stared at the ghost in a mixture of confusion and fear. "Are they gone?"

"Um no, no I am not." Dipper replied, thoroughly confused at that point.

"Oh- I'm sorry, I come down here to be alone. I didn't mean to ruin your adventure," the ghost said sadly. "I think I should go now. See you later."

As soon as he said that he vanished into thin air. Dipper shuddered, wondering if he was going crazy, before turning his attention to the box instead. It would probably make more sense anyway. It was a metal box, a foot deep, with the only thing inside being an old, spider-web-covered book with a dark red cover. Dipper picked it up and blew off the thick layer of dust that had accumulated on it's cover. It had a gold, six fingered right hand on its cover with a number three drawn on the hand in black ink.

Dipper turned around and opened to the first page, placing the book on the ground as he did so. At first glance it seemed like a journal, with various entries on various dates going all the way back to thirty years prior. But as the twelve year old kept turning the pages he found it was more of an encyclopedia. An encyclopedia on the supernatural activities in Gravity Falls. Dipper flipped through the journal until he arrived at the last filled page. He read the final journal entry out loud to himself.

"Unfortunately my suspicions have been confirmed. He was not here to help. He's watching me. I have managed to only delay the inevitable but I fear I may have doomed another group to extinction while doing so. I need to hide the journal. Keep it hidden where he can't find it. I have to remember, TRUST NO ONE!"

"What?" Dipper asked as he snapped the book closed. "What does that mea-"

"HELLO!" Mabel yelled happily from behind him, cutting off his monologue and scaring him into fumbling with the closed book. "Whatcha doing? You left like an hour ago. Oo what's that? Some nerd thing?"

She pointed at the book clutched in Dipper's arms as he turned around to stare at his twin with wide eyes. She was wearing a bright pink sweater with a colorful shooting star on the front today, which was getting moss and dirt all over it as she was laying on a fallen tree behind him. Behind her stood Stan's pet goat, who had apparently followed her and was currently staring at the book hungrily. Dipper looked at the book before not so sneakily slipping it behind his back.

"It's uh, uh it's nothing." he stuttered

"It's uh, uh, uh nothing." Mabel laughed, imitating her brother and waving her hands around. "Come on, are you really not going to show me?"

"Uh no, but let's go somewhere private before I do ok?" Dipper said while jerking the book away from the goat, who had trotted over and tried to take a bite of the old tome. Mabel nodded and the two kids headed for the shack side by side.

In the Dreemurr apartment things were normal, well as normal as things could get in a house filled with the former queen of monsters, two human girls and a psychopathic flower that couldn't feel emotions. Toriel, the previously mentioned queen of monsters, was finishing up making dinner for them in the small kitchen while Frisk and Chara were in the living room. Chara was laying on her stomach, drawing Flowey the flower as he posed dejectedly for her a few feet away. Meanwhile Frisk was spread out on the couch reading, managing to take up nearly the entire thing and still sit upright.

"Children, dinner's ready." Toriel called out.

The two children got up and helped their adoptive mother set up for the soup that she had prepared. Chara set Flowey on the table as he watched the proceedings, glaring at Frisk and Toriel whenever they bumped him. When they all sat down, Frisk looked over everyone and smiled. Chara was laughing at Flowey as he tried to tip over her bowl with the large leaves he used for arms and Toriel was smiling as she ate her soup.

Toriel was a goat-like monster with an air of kindness and regality. She had bright, clean, white fur with long floppy ears that hung down an inch past her chin, as well as two small grey horns that spouted from the top of her head. Her eye's were a fiery red and she had small fangs protruding from her short muzzle. Other than that, she looked rather human-like with five fingers and basic human structure.

She wore a long, dark purple robe along with a black and gold scarf wrapped around her neck and shoulders. On the front of the robe was a white symbol that looked like a pudgy bird flying above three stars. Around her waist was a white belt with a bright orange jewel resting in the center of it. She wore a pair of ragged wrappings around her feet as the only form of protection from the stones and pebbles that littered the sidewalks of Gravity Falls.

After dinner Chara and Frisk went to a walk in the forest to the north of town, or, at least, they tried to before Toriel got them wrapped up in a conversation about Papyrus and methods of introducing monster to more humans.

"I'm simply saying that humans as a whole are idiots who love nothing more than to kill what they don't understand." Chara griped half an hour later with her arms crossed.

"People have changed Chara." Frisk said "They're not all bad. Look at how much good Asgore has done."

"But those are politicians, Frisk," Chara argued. "You can't trust them farther than you can throw them."

"Why not just kill the idiots and keep the rest?" Flowey asked, smiling evilly.

"No!" Frisk said quickly, glaring at the sentient flower. "Flowey, we talked about this. You can't just kill people you don't like."

The flower grumbled about Frisk being a spoilsport while Chara chuckled and fingered her locket. The argument continued on for nearly an hour before the girls remembered that they had wanted to go take a walk. They shouted their intentions to Toriel and ran out into forest. They saw several monsters from the underground along the path, including a white frog-like monster called a froggit. Frisk laughed a bit when the froggit started to hop around a bit at the sight of them. Frisk started up a fake combat with the creature, smiling as it sent flies at her and hopped around.

"That's very good," she laughed as one the flies hit her, ending the sparring match. "You're getting better."

"Ribbit ribbit." the frog replied, blushing slightly at the complement.

Frisk smiled kindly while Chara merely grinned slightly at her sister's antics. The two kept walking until they were deep in the forest. The sun's rays barely made their way through the thick foliage. Chara stopped for a second and looked around as if considering her surroundings.

"It kinda reminds you of Snowdin's forest doesn't it?" Chara asked.

"Yeah it kinda does." Frisk said evenly as she fingered a flowering bush, her smile from before having faded over time.

"Yeah now all we need is tons of snow and Sans popping out telling us crappy puns." Chara laughed.

"Yeah." Frisk said quietly, her face falling like a rock.

Chara clamped her mouth shut and wisely chose that opportunity to shut up before she made the situation worse. She stuffed her hands into her pockets and walked back the way they had come, her eyes firmly stuck to the ground in front of her feet. Frisk, however, stared at the bush, lost in thought. She stayed like that for a few minutes before looking up. Chara was nowhere in sight.

"Chara?" the Savior of Monsters called out. "Chara, can you hear me?"

She heard the snapping of twigs behind her and whirled around. An orange, radish-shaped Vegetoid froze in it's progress of burying itself into the ground. Frisk relaxed and waved at the monster. It smiled at her before burying itself up to it's leaves. The girl looked around slowly, trying to find anything that could help her get back to town, as her sense of direction was nothing to brag about. She didn't see anything at first but as she looked deeper into the trees she saw some movement several yards away.

It looked like someone retreating into the foliage. The girl ran after them dodging trees and rocks as she hurried to catch up with the one person who could help her. As she got closer to the figure, she heard voices. It sounded like a girl and the deep voice of a Loox with a head cold.

"Finally, alone at last." the girl said loudly, sounding as if she had been waiting forever to say that sentence.

The Loox said something that Frisk couldn't hear and she rushed forwards, trying to cross the ten yards that was still between the two parties. Just as she was about to rush into the clearing the Loox and the girl were in, a sack was thrown over her head and she was tripped by something at ankle level. In under two seconds she was tied up and being carried around by dozens of people with small hands and deep voices.

"It's okay, Mabel. We understand," a new, smoother voice said kindly. "Just know that we'll never forget you...because we're going to kidnap you." The girl screamed but was swiftly silenced.

"Hey boss, we found this girl running towards you and Lady Mabel," a gruff voice said as Frisk struggled in her bonds "What should we do with her?"

"Take her with us, the queen will need servants." the smooth voice said

"Yessir." the gruff voice agreed.

In the time after he had explained the journal to Mabel, she had gotten herself a creepy boyfriend that called himself "Norman," and then gone on a "date" with him. That part Dipper was fine with, what he wasn't fine with was the fact that "Norman" acted like no other human the boy had encountered before. He seemed to have no coordination at all, no feeling of pain, and only spoke in short broken sentences. Dipper had consulted the book and come to the conclusion that Norman was a zombie.

"Mabel, I'm telling you Norman is not what he seems," Dipper argued with Mabel after she got back to the mystery shack.

"Oh Dipper, you're just being paranoid," Mabel said lightly, waving away his concerns.

"No, I'm not," Dipper said drawing out the journal from a pocket on the inside of his vest and opening it up to the page concerning Zombies. "Everything adds up. His lack of reaction, to pain, his limp, and have you noticed? He never blinks, ever! Remember what the book said? Trust no one."

"Well what about me, huh?" Mabel asked, getting annoyed at her brother. "Why can't you trust me?"

"Mabel, I am telling you. He's going to eat your brains!" Dipper shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her slightly.

"Listen dipper," Mabel said angrily, getting fed up with his paranoia. "I am going on another date with Norman at five o'clock. I am going to be adorable."

She pushed him away from her, making him stagger back a few steps. Her usual smile was gone replaced with pure irritation. Dipper looked at her wide eyed, obviously not expecting this response.

"He is going to be dreamy." Mabel continued now shouting loudly, pushing him closer towards the door of their room. "And you are not going to ruin this with one of your stupid conspiracies!"

With that she shoved out the door and slammed it in his face. Dipper sighed and sat on the floor, pulling out the journal and staring at the zombie page. He heard footsteps approaching down the hall and looked up as Stan sauntered down the hall.

"Jeez kid, ya look like you're a kicked puppy or something." he said looking between the door and Dipper in confusion. "What's eatin' ya?"

"Well I'm convinced that Norman isn't who he appears to be," Dipper sighed "I think he's dangerous, and to top it all off Mabel won't listen to me."

"Well what proof do you have?" Stan asked, crossing his arms

"Just a hunch." Dipper said, closing the journal so Stan couldn't see what it was.

"Well then there's your problem." Stan said, smirking "ya got no proof, no evidence. I'll loan my old camera. That'll probably work for ya." Dipper stood up and nodded determinedly.

"Thanks Grunkle Stan." he said as the old man led him down the stairs.

Chara ran through the forest, eyes flitting back and forth through the trees. She had been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't noticed that Frisk hadn't been following her after her blunder. She vaulted a log and finally ended up back in the grove. The Froggit was gone...and so was her sister. Chara looked all over, even called out her name a few times, but she did not hear or see any signs of the other girl.

"Damn it!" she shouted before rushing towards the town "If she's hurt I'm-." she cut herself off and ran faster to gather the other monsters to search for Frisk.