The night came to its darkest point. The creatures surrounding the shack stood still as strange whispers surrounded the air. Inside the room with the hooded person, the candles were all extinguished and slight fumes of smoke were emitting from them. Spider webs and smoke were all over the place. The fireplace in the chimney was now reduced to a very small flame, at which the hooded person stared silently and quietly as shadows were dancing around him. From the light emitted from his eyes there were hints of regret and fear, but also relief and a sense of accomplishment. He eventually sighed and turned to look at you as he continued to speak.

"What do you give a person who has it all? That, my friends, is a question as old as time, for all across the era were people who wanted to give presents to their acquaintances (For all sorts of reasons), but came to realize they had everything they could possibly wish for. Some of these people, however, wanted more than they already had, for they were too fazed by the enclosed reality of their perfect lives to actually realize what they have until the day they died. Some of them… Until the day they lost everything. In my opinion, just like parents show tough love to their children in order to strengthen them, instead of giving, you sometimes have to take from a person in order for him to gain the gift of knowledge and understanding better the world, so he can understand himself and his situation and become a better person. Sadly, in Pacifica's case, she was taken too much from".

Chapter Three- The poverty of a rich girl

Ten years ago,

For a girl literally born on a silver bed, Pacifica was quite the smart person, learning to speak at the age of two years and making her first steps even before that. She was raised with her mother and father into becoming a perfect person, a worthy successor of the Northwest name. Her parents were quite rough, but she still liked them. But the person she liked the most was her grandmother, Adriana Macbeth. Whenever kids at the royal kindergarten at which she attended would laugh about her hair and say it's fake or bleached, she would go to her Grandma, who has the same hair, for consolation. She was such a warm person, Pacifica always snuck into her house when she felt bad.

"There, there. Everything is going to be just fine" said Adriana as she gently brushed her hair "You are a very special person, you know? You have something others don't, some unique factor only you possess" she said wiping her tears and smiling at her a tired smile. "Pacifica! I told you to stop sneaking out here!" said Preston as he slammed the door opened, walking angrily towards her and grabbing her arm "Come, you have private math lessons to attend to". Pacifica freed her arm from his hand and went towards Adriana "No! I wanna stay with grandma!" weeped the child as Adriana stared at Preston with a look Pacifica would only later learn to be a disappointed look. "Preston, my dear, have you found her yet?" asked Priscilla Northwest, Pacifica's mom, as she entered the room and saw Pacifica's grandmother "Adriana" she said to her with a rather unpleasant nod while Pacifica's grandmother looked at her with a hostile and disgusted look "Priscilla…". Since she was too young, Pacifica couldn't really understand and didn't really care about the weird relationship her parents and grandmother had. Whenever Pacifica would ask her father about it (Her mother barely referred to her unless she was doing something unbecoming of a lady), he either escaped, seemed nervous or simply ignored her. Pacifica would always give up on further asking any questions, until the day her grandmother died.

3 years ago,

Pacifica's parents received the call about her grandmother having a seizure only after her old friend found her lying unconscious in her house's floor and called an ambulance. As Pacifica cried in her bed, a weak hand would pet her head. Looking straight at her dying eyes, she could notice the golden glimmer in them slowly disappearing "Grandma, don't leave me… Please, don't…! *weep*" Adriana began to move speak as tears rolled over her cheeks "Elise? I-Is that… Really… You?" she struggled to speak as the doctor tried to calm her down "Grandma? It's me, Pacifica! Can't you recognize me?" "You're alive…! I'm so… Happy to see you again…" Preston began to pale out at this point "I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry… Elise…" said Adriana with tears in her eyes as she let out one final breath. "Grandma? Grandma! Grandma, don't go! Please, don't… Don't leave… Please…". On that day Pacifica cried more than she ever did her whole life, because it was the first in a long series of tragedies that were about to cross her life.

That day, Pacifica decided to confront her father while he was shaving "Dad, why did my grandma call me Elise?" at that moment Preston panicked and cut himself "Ouch!" he said while washing his face and turned to her clearing his throat "Why do you *Mhmm*… why do you ask?" he simply replied "Dad, I'm nine, I'm not dumb. My name is not Elise, so who was she talking about?"

"Well, your middle name is Elise, maybe she wanted to sound nice" his panic turning into sadness "Really? That's what you're coming up with?" asked Pacifica, realizing his bluff as his sadness turned into annoyance "Look, that's the truth so leave me alone now. I have business to attend to, you know?" but Pacifica won't give up that easily "Dad, would you please just answer me!? Why did grandma act gross towards mom? Why do you and grandma always seem to fight? Why did she call me Elise and who is-"

"-I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!" snapped Preston, breaking the mirror he used to shave with in a loud sound, on his frightening face reflected fury and rage like Pacifica has never seen. A face so scary that Pacifica ran away as fast as she could while her father was left alone. Looking into the shattered mirror at his face, Preston began to calm down and then he kneeled and punched the ceramic floor of his bathroom while crying and sobbing silently.

From that day on, Pacifica's father began to be much more strict and even abused her with a bell and a method meant for dogs in order to make her more obedient and ask less questions while striving to become the perfect girl, but he also spoiled her a lot in order to make her dependent of him and making sure she would never rebel against him. Pacifica was leading quite the lonely life as not even her grandma was left to console her, but came to discover that money, like alcohol, can make your problems 'go away'. She already had quite the influence as her parents manipulated the press and votes for contests behind the scenes (Later on, they even taught her how to do it), as well as her own sense of overachievement and natural competitive behavior, but as she began to spread money around and began to read fashion articles inspired by her mom's designs and her own inspiration, she gained quite a lot of followers she called friends, and became the social dictator of Gravity Falls- What she says, goes. Pacifica came to realize she had quite the power in her hands, she realized her grandma was right all along: She was special, she had something others missed and she had power.

"Too bad she took it the wrong way…"

Pacifica became a person as horrible as her parents, no matter what her behavior became worse and worse. Even when her eternal rival Mabel taught her about the nice side of people, she would later progress to forget it all by the hands of a certain secret society. It was only later on, when the same young man who erased that society, was hired by Pacifica to take care of her family's dirty work, only to make Pacifica see the horrible side of her family and telling her that she doesn't have to be like her parents that she realized how bad of a person she really was, yet also how much better of a person she can become. She hoped she could one day return that favor to him and his family. Preston freaked out that day and the day afterwards when gravity was getting out of control in a town he knew wasn't that normal. The events that took place this last summer made him rethink for a long time about a lot of things. Not to mention that his daughter was now showing signs everyday of becoming a better person, a great woman. Just like her grandmother Adriana, just like her…

Two weeks ago,

"Pacifica, dear, we have to talk…" said Preston with a surprisingly serious look as he shot a plate with his hunting rifle. He and Pacifica were out on the field during the new mayor's Election Day, shooting flying plates with his and his father's hunting rifles, since he gave up on real hunting after a long hour of arguments with Pacifica. "What is it?" said Pacifica as she took a long break and aimed with her butterfly-scope* at a plate that was shot in the air, focusing really hard for a second and pulling the trigger as she watched the plate breaking in the air. "Well, you've come to a certain age and…"

"Ew, dad, what!?" Pacifica blushed, she heard that 'you're at that age' phrase too many times already in movies and soap operas "No, no, no! What I'm trying to say is that you're mature enough for me to tell you some things that perhaps you weren't ready to hear when you were younger"

"Oh" said Pacifica as a plate crashed near them. Preston continued to speak "Well, as you may already know, the Mayor died a couple of days ago"

"Yeah… And?" asked Pacifica as she signaled her butler, Jorge, to stop launching the plates. After getting a thumbs up from him, Pacifica turned to her father to listen to him "Well, that, alongside many other things, made me realize a couple of things about life and all… I guess that what I'm trying to say is that sometimes the best thing to do is tell people the truth in the face and I want to tell you something"

"Okay…" Pacifica became nervous; what was he going to talk to her about? "Well… I 'Come on! Get yourself together Preston, you're a Northwest, for Pete's sake!" thought Preston as he encouraged himself, but immediately lost every bit of courage as he looked into her deep, dark blue eyes "I, uh… Your family has been trading endangered species ever since 1927!" he blurted out the first lie he could think of "Wait, what?" Pacifica was shocked, but still quite weirded out as to why did her father take it to such weird seriousness. After all, she already knew he was a fan of the hunting sport. "Yeah, I'm sorry me and your mother told you before, but let's not talk anymore, let's continue, shall we?" he said as he signaled Jorge to resume launching plates into the air, some of which Preston missed out of nervousness. Pacifica thought that from experience, it was best not to dig too deep into stuff when it comes to her father. She simply enjoyed the rest of the day target practicing as she competed (And won) against her dad.

Four days ago,

Pacifica was never really scared of the weird side of Gravity Falls. Lately she became aware of it, but she was as great as ever. However, she was shocked to see as some sort of triangular demon invaded reality and threatened to destroy it. She was even more shocked to hear her father's response: "I would just like to say that as a rich capitalist I welcome your tyrannical rule. Perhaps I could be one of your, uh... Horsemen of the apocalypse?"

"Dad!" protested Pacifica, she knew her dad was greedy and power hungry, but what in the world would drive a person as proud as himself to bow before a monster and even ask to become his servant? "Now, now, sweetie. Grownups are talking" was the only answer she got from him. Unfortunately for both of them, Bill had other plans in mind for those two, especially for Pacifica. "Oh wow, that's a great offer. How bout' instead I shuffle the functions of every hole in your face?" said the dream demon as he snapped his fingers and twisted Preston's face like a Picasso painting. Preston fell to the ground, groaning in confusion, fear and pain as Pacifica hugged her mother and backed away from him. Bill laughed as he broke reality, time and space all around him, declaring the world as his. He then turned towards Pacifica and her mom with a devious look on his eye as his monster friends surrounded her. Pacifica's mom, who grabbed Pacifica out of plain panic, tossed her in front of Bill and began to run away "Mom!" yelled Pacifica while reaching a hand towards her "You're not my kid!" yelled her mom as she proceeded to run with the crowd "Mom…?" said Pacifica with tears as her mom left her sight.

"Oh, what a sad ending for you, little llama… Here, let me finish your suffering" said Bill with maniacal laughter as he pointed his finger at her and a beam of blue light was shot from it towards her. Preston saw the scenario and by surpassing human limits he ran and jumped in between Pacifica and the beam, getting vaporized by it "Dad!" yelled Pacifica "You see why I hate heroes wannabes guys? They always ruin the fun by jumping in and taking the bullet" said Bill to his friends and sighing as turned his attention back to Pacifica "Now, where was I?" asked he Bill with a joyful look, right before a beam of blue light his hat and blew a tree nearby to smithereens. Pacifica took that chance and ran away.

Two days ago,

Pacifica was exhausted, not only mentally, but physically as well. Living in the wasteland wasn't as easy as it seemed in movies and videogames; running away from monsters, hiding from the discount automart warriors, fighting bandits, scavenging for resources and supplies through the destroyed post-apocalyptic wasteland… She would've probably been dead by now, if it wasn't for the Chinese sword she found with oh so much luck in a trash can. How did it get there? Pacifica didn't even care anymore; she now had a weapon that packed quite a punch and years of fencing experience to back it up. Of course, she never really killed anyone. Only in extreme cases that required action, she'll injure someone or something badly and escape. The only thought lingering in her brain was survival while the only thing her heart desired was death, quick and painless as possible. She journeyed all across the land, helping people by inspiration from that butler with the W neck, eventually trading her clothes with a group of orphans and an old person. The only things she wore now were a makeshift dress made from old store rags and her llama hair boots she got from her uncle, Matias from back when she visited him in Chile.

Her journey eventually brought her into a cave, which she assumed was a great place to settle up, find resources and get some sleep that'll last longer than 3 hours. "Please, don't have bears, please don't have bears, please, don't have bears…" Pacifica crossed he fingers as she entered the dark cave, which she discovered to her fright, was filled with bones and skeletons. Suddenly, two massive and scary shadows charged at her. in a reflex, she sliced her sword at the one closer to her, only to get a scratch on its iron skull "Agh!" yelled the creature, holding his head in pain "Why you…!" he said, towering above her with his left fist high and about to smash her into bits.

"-Wait, Chutzpar, don't!" said the second creature as he stopped his fist with one of his many arms "Why did you do that, Multi-Bear? She's dangerous! Look at her weapon; she's clearly a dangerous bandit who came here to kill us and take our stuff!" Exclaimed Chutzpar "No, look! She's just a scared little girl…" said Multi-Bear to Chutzpar as she saw the shaking Pacifica drop her weapon from her sweaty, shaky arms and dropping to the ground. As her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, she came to realize the true shape of the creatures in front of her: One of them seemed like some weird mix between a Minotaur and an old guy in the sauna, wearing a towel. The other guy looked like a huge bear with many limbs at first glance, but looking at him with closer inspection, Pacifica came to realize he was actually a bunch of bears sharing one body while there was a main bear head that controlled the main limbs of the creature. She clearly had no chance of winning against those beasts, nor outrunning them. Pacifica surrendered to her fate and waited for them to charge at her and rip her to shreds. Instead they helped her up and dusted her "Here. Drink some" said Chutzpar with a sorry look on his face as he handed her a can of Pitt Cola. Pacifica had no words left in her mouth, so she simply accepted the can and drank to her heart's content while also eating some beef jerky the Minotaur-like creature offered her.

"What is your name, kid?" asked her Multi-Bear. "P-Pacifica… Pacifica Northwest" Answered Pacifica eventually. "Well, the brute here is Chutzpar, a Manotaur: He's basically half man, half bull. My name is Multi-Bear, I'm… Well, my name says it already, I'm a Multi-Bear" said Multi-Bear as he introduced her to Chutzpar and himself, getting a little depressed from the thought of his way too simplistic name. "Who are you, guys?" Asked Pacifica eventually. "I am one of the manliest creature in this city. Youngest one of the Manotaur tribe, Chutzpar!" said Chutzpar proudly. "Yeah, also the one who wouldn't stop picking on me because I 'Wasn't man enough" said Multi-Bear "Right. Sorry" apologized Chutzpar as Multi-Bear turned his attention back to Pacifica "I'm Multi-Bear, a magical beast that resides on this mountain and also one of the 4 patriarchs of the forest. You might not know us, but maybe you know a kid Dipper?"

"You know Dipper? Is he alive?" asked Pacifica, happy from the idea that the only friend ever she didn't get with money might still be out there "Unfortunately, we don't know" said Multi-Bear "Destructor's been gone for days now. We thought maybe you had a clue as to where he was" said Chutzpar. "Well, that doesn't matter. What about you? What's your story?" Pacifica's expression darkened immediately. Now that all the craziness, exhaustion, fear and confusion were gone, she could truly feel the weight and despair as she remembered her Father's death and her mother saying she wasn't her mother and ditching her to Bill's mercy. But even though she felt horrible, she felt like she had to take all this emotional weight of her chest, so she began telling her tale from the time she met the Pine Twins until now.

When she finished, Chutzpar and Multi-Bear were shocked. Multi-Bear hugged the empty Pacifica while Chutzpar struggled with all his might to keep the tears in the back of his eyeballs. "I'm so sorry" said Multi-Bear "We shouldn't have asked you to relieve those painful memories. Please, forgive us".

"It's okay" said Pacifica, but from the void in her eyes, one could clearly tell she was everything except 'okay'. Multi-Bear looked at Chutzpar, who had an idea "Hey! Maybe we should go to your mansion!"

"Huh?" said both Pacifica and Multi-Bear, who was more annoyed than confused "I mean, your house must have many supplies to help us survive and considering it's an ideal settling place, your friends might be there as well"

"Yeah, and most likely a couple hundred monsters and Eye-Bats as well" Said Multi-Bear, but Pacifica simply shrugged and said: "Sure, why not?"

"You realize that place is the first place the monsters will look for survivors, right?" asked her Multi-Bear "Yeah, which is why there's a good chance they left that place empty and might be looking now for the second most obvious location for survivors to hide in, in this case, a cave" she said, gesturing to the huge cave in which they resided. Unable to argue with Pacifica's logic, Multi-Bear eventually agreed to go over to the Northwest Manor. The trio then came down the mountain as stealthy as they could, crossing under the bridge and the huge floating red orb in it, crossing the town while evading the eye-bats and eventually climbing the hill towards the huge Northwest mansion. Both Multi-Bear and Chutzpar tried to cheer her up, telling her jokes and funny stories from their life as weird creatures in an even weirder town, but all they could get from her was a fake, sad smile.

The manor was in ruins; part of the roof was missing, ashes covered the entire building, the garden was completely destroyed and there were even a few blood spills there and there. But the creepiest thing of all was the ominous silence that covered the huge mansion that was always a loud place. They stepped into the place very carefully as they walked inside the place. "We should split up, we can cover a wider area like this" said Pacifica, all of a sudden "(Are you crazy!? You know what happens to people in the movies when they split up)!?" whispered Chutzpar "I survived so far just fine by myself. I think I can handle some minor danger, assuming there even is some danger in this dead place" seeing as she was incredibly stubborn, Multi-Bear and Chutzpar sighed and reminded her to be careful out there as they each went on separate directions.

To Pacifica's surprise, most of the food stocks were partially intact. Her clothes were all burned, but just like her sanity, her sense of fashion was long gone, so she didn't really care about that and instead took some towels and a letter backpack and started loading it with cans of food, kitchen knives and other stuff that might be useful. She eventually entered her father's bedroom, apologizing in silence to the air as she began to search the room. The bedsheets were too heavy for her to carry; she might have to call the guys later to help her with them. Her father's deck was covered with dust. As she opened the cabinet, the whole piece of furniture came down crashing, which almost gave Pacifica a heart attack. She was about to leave the pile of ashes, when she suddenly spotted her dad's seal on a letter that was inside the cabinet. She lifted it up, examined it, broke the seal and opened the letter, reading every word with utter sadness:

'Dear Pacifica,

If you are reading this letter, then I'm afraid things have taken a turn for the worst, and I'm no longer in this world to tell you this. The truth is, Priscilla is not your real mother' these words hit her consciousness like a truck 'your biological mother's name was Elise Agatha Northwest… My one and true love and a woman like none other. She was the light of my life, and I'll never forget her cute smile and the way she giggled over my stupid jokes…. She died in a car accident 12 years ago, as a poorly built log truck's ropes were cut and the logs felon her car, pushing it off the road and smashing it to bits. She died protecting you, the one she cared the most about in her life. I'll never forget the day I witnessed the ambulances taking away her corpse and you crying while lying on my arms, clothes covered with blood. I was destroyed, never stopping asking myself why it wasn't me, why they didn't take me. Yet I thanked whoever was up there for sparing your life.

'I never wanted to tell you like this. I was hoping that perhaps I could have this conversation with the 18 year old you over a cup of coffee or something, but even back then I knew that nothing lasts forever, and things can end faster than anyone can imagine. The fact that you're reading this further proves my point. I know I was a horrible person for everything I did. I know I was a terrible father everything I did to you and even marrying that disgusting old model, Priscilla, to be your mother. I know there's a decent chance that you'll never believe me and hate me forever. I'm absolutely fine with it and I even deserve it, but I want you to know that despite everything, despite all the things I did and despite the man I turned to be, there's one thing that will never change…'

"I love you…" Pacifica read the last line with tears in her eyes. Attached to the letter was a picture folded like a window. As she opened it, she saw the picture of a beautiful young lady with dark blue eyes with blond hair in a ponytail wearing a blue sweater and tights, standing next to a handsome young man with brown classy hair wearing a flannel shirt and black jeans. The woman held in her hands a newborn baby with blond hair and dark blue sleeping soundly in her arms. Pacifica took the picture and shoved it in her boot "Thank you, dad…" she said with a renewed will to live on, for the sake of the sacrifices her family has made for her. She'll become the best Northwest in history and not even some dumb triangular demon could stop her.

It was then that she heard a bear's cry.

Pacifica took her dad's hunting rifle and went in the direction of the main hall, in the upper floor by the double staricase. There, it looked like some huge muscular person with purple skin, sharp claws and red, triangular eyes was trashing the place, fighting Chutzpar and Multi-Bear. It tossed Chutzpar towards the fountain and began beating Multi-Bear's multi bear heads. Pacifica quickly loaded the magazine with the only two bullets she could grab in a hurry. She aimed towards the monster with her shaking arms and missed by little. The monster immediately noticed her and sent a boulder in her direction. Pacifica jumped out of danger, but crashed into the floor. As the monster approached, she took out her Chinese sword and tried to throw it at his face, but he simply caught it and used to hit Chutzpar who was coming from his right in his forehead, reopening his wound and slashing Multi-Bear's left eye, stopping his attack from behind.

When she noticed the monster was about to kill Multi-Bear, she charged at him while screaming. The monster tried to smash her with its hand, but she avoided it and climbed on top of its arm, using the lift from its attempts to shake her off to reach the balcony, grab the gun and aiming it at the charging monsters head with the most stable of hold, scoring a perfect bullseye through his left eye and taking it down "That's for hurting my friend" said Pacifica, but then immediately threw the gun to the floor and held her head in fear and tears from the realization that came to her as she saw the bleeding corpse of the creature- She just killed a living being.

A couple of minutes later the main door was breached as Stan arrived the scene with a group of people and creatures. As Stan saw what happened to the place, he immediately turned around and began ordering people around "Team Candy, search for supplies. Team McGucket, attend the wounded creatures. Team Blubbs, secure the area. Team Grenda, stand guard at the exit. Go!"

"Yes, sir!" answered everyone as they split into four groups and did what they were ordered to. Stan gently approached Pacifica, who was in a fetal position in the corner, and kneeled in front of her "Hey, kid, is everything alright?" he asked her. "No! It's not alright! I lost my dad, my mom turned out to be fake and now my friends are hurt because of my stupid decisions. Do you have any idea what it feels like?"

"Yeah. I know exactly how it feels like, to have it all and then lose it all" he said, hugging Pacifica, who burst into tears "I thought I was stronger… So why am I still crying…?" she said with her voice being choked by her tears "Because you're a person, you're not made of stone. But it's a good thing" he then stood up and offered her a helping hand "So, what do you say? Do you feel like joining a fellow loser and get out of this place?"

With a tired smile and dried eyes, Pacifica wiped her last tear as she joined the old Pines and followed him without knowledge as to where she was headed to, but also no fear into the place where destiny will test her one last time.

"So that's it. Those were the three stories of the people once known as the villains of the story. My time is over, but before I go I'll end it in a traditional matter with a lesson for life: Enjoy your life, because it may not last long and remember: life might not last forever, but precisely because it ends, it's worth living such a beautiful moment".

Suddenly, reality began to shatter around him. there was nothing left but darkness and the hooded person. He began walking awaya silently. Unlike Pacifica, he knew where he was headed, but he was just as unafraid to keep on marching until he dissapeared from plain sight.