Pines Tale

(Sorry that this one took longer than the others, been feelin' kinda lazy. Anyway I edited CH2 a bit, changing the way SAVING works for the twins, making it more instinctual than just the big dumb sparkles somewhat like how SAVING works in the fic Reach Out but not as powerful, they won't be able to teleport between Saves or fully manipulate time, took out the hint to Gaster, and had Dipper and Mabel find the toy knife and ribbon.)

Listening to the full Undertale OST to keep me DETERMINED!

Chapter 3: I'm Sorry Mother

The first thing Dipper noticed as he began to regain consciousness from the clutches of sleep was the smell of cinnamon and butterscotch.

'Did Grunkle Stan take up baking or something?' He thought groggily. 'Oh god, what if Mable did?'

It was then the boy opened his eyes and it was then that he remembered where he was and what happened. "Oh yeah, underground with a potentially homicidal faun that saved us with a definitely homicidal flower." Dipper said to himself as he stared at the ceiling.

A moment later he heard humming from behind the door growing louder as the person neared it and it was then that he noticed that Mabel's bed was empty. Before he could panic though the door opened and Mabel walked in with a fork in her mouth and two plates with slices of pie on them, the one in her left hand missing a couple pieces.

"Hm, hm, hm, hm, hmmm, hm?" She hummed before stopping suddenly, seeing her brother away she smiled, the fork pointing up from her mouth shifting and said cheerily. "Mornin' Difer, yu seep goob?" Her speech horrible garbled by the fork in her mouth.

"Mabel, what the hell are you doing!?" Dipper exclaimed quietly so as not to alert Toriel.

Mabel gasped in surprise, dropping he fork that luckily landed on her plate, she looked confused and kinda hurt at her brother's question and tone. "I was…helping with the pie and…I thought I'd bring you some for when you…woke up…" She replied with a look akin to that of a kicked puppy.

Dipper felt like a total ass for making his sister feel bad, but she shouldn't have left to interact with a complete stranger alone. Even if he personally felt, for reasons he couldn't comprehend, that Toriel was trust worthy. "I know Toriel seems nice but we can't be sure of that yet. We should stick together until we know she's not gonna turn on us like that flower did."

"I'm sorry." Mabel apologized.

"No, no I'm sorry." Dipper also apologized. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

"It's just…Mom just been so nice to us, and just feel like we can trust her." Mabel hugged herself as best she could with two plates of pie in her hands and a small smile crept on her perpetually blushing face. "I feel safe around her."

"Mom? Why did you call Toriel mom?" Dipper asked with confusion.

"I don't know, it just slipped out when she woke me up a while ago to help with the pie, I was still half asleep. She looked…happy that I called her that, so I just kept calling her mom." The slightly elder twin explained before she gave her brother a worried look. "There's nothing wrong with that is there."

"What about our actual mother?" He asked but he wasn't really bothered by it.

Mabel looked a little guilty, but not much. "I hate to admit it, but Tori already feels like more of a parent than mom and dad ever did."

Dipper couldn't disagree with that since he kinda felt the same way. Their parents were never around much during their lives, always working or God knows what. When they said there would be "family bonding" over the summer they were so excited to finally spend a significant amount of time with their parent, only to have their hopes crushed when they were sent off to live with a relative they've never heard of before.

Don't get them wrong, they love their Grunkles Stan and Ford very much and loved it in Gravity Falls, but it still hurt that their parents would rather ship with off instead of actually spending time with them.

"Can't fault you for that…" Dipper said and trailed off. He then remembered the smell of the pie slices which were still in Mabel's hands and decided to change the subject and lighten the mood. "So, uh…that pie any good?" He ventured.

Mabel gave a soft appreciative smile and handed him the whole slice before sitting next to him with her own slightly eaten slice. "It's super good, bro. I didn't even know Bscotch-Cinnamon Pie existed before!"

With a ringing endorsement like that how could he resist? Dipper grabbed his fork and took a chunk off of the golden yellow and brown desert and stuck it in his mouth. The moment his taste buds registered the flavor he stiffened before relaxing into it and shutting his eyes with a blissful look. "Mmm…so good!" The boy moaned out around the fork.

"I know!" Mabel gushed, kicking her little legs wildly as she too dug into her pie.

"Whoa what the heck, it's gone!" Dipper exclaimed as the B-C Pie vanished from his mouth as he swallowed, as if it was made of air.

Mabel snorted at the astonished look on her brother's face before explaining. "Yeah, I almost freaked out too. Mom said that monster food is made mostly of magic, so when we eat it, it vanishes but you still get the energy and nutrition. So we get all the benefits with none of the consequences!"

Dipper looked at his pie with an amazed look. "All you can eat candy without killing your teeth?" He ventured.

"Infinite cheeseburgers without getting fat!" Mabel cheered with a grin

"Unlimited ice-cream without stomach aches!" They said in unison with a fist pump.

"Awesome!" Dipper concluded with a smile before he digging back into his pie.

It didn't take long for them to finish their pies and it was then that Mabel decided to show her brother something. "Come on, there's something I want to show you."

"Wait, Mabel!" They boy's protests were unheeded as his hyperactive sister grabbed his hand and nearly dragged out of the room and down the hall to the room next door.

"Mabel what did we just talk about?" Dipper whined.

"It's okay, Goat-Mom is busy knitting in the living room." Mabel reassured her overly paranoid brother as she entered the room.

"I was exploring the house before I helped Toriel with the pie and I found her room and this." Mabel said as she pulled Dipper over to a desk with a diary or journal on it.

"You read her journal? Not cool Mabel." Dipper admonished.

"It was already open, and I just read these two pages." She replied defensively. "But look at this, they're full of jokes!" She nearly cheered as she began to read from the book. "Why did the skeleton want a friend?" She paused and stared at her brother giddy expectation.

He just shrugged.

"Because he was feeling bonely!" She finished just before she burst into laughter.

"Boo…" Dipper heckled with a thoroughly unamused tone but there was a slight grin on his face.

"You have no sense of humor." Mabel groused, sticking her tongue at her 'humorless' brother "How about this, Did you hear about the guy who got hit in the head with a soda can? He was lucky it was a Soft Drink!"

This time the heard a fit of giggles erupt from the door and both of them whipped their heads toward it to see Toriel standing in the doorway trying not to lose it as she giggled into one hand while the other held her stomach.

"To-Torial I'm sorry, we shouldn't have come in here and read your journal without permission!" Dipper apologized quickly, scared that despite her mirthful state she may actually be very upset with the siblings' trespass.

"No-no its fine!" The faun said through her giggles, slightly mollifying the boy's worries. "I never said you two come in here, and I did leave the journal wide open, so that's my fault."

"Why is it full of so many puns and one liners?" Mabel asked as she tried to sneak a look at another page only for Dipper the slap her hand away.

"Oh well…there is a locked door in the Ruins and one day as I was passing it I heard a voice and a knock coming from it." Toriel began to explain as she sat on her bed and the twins sat on the floor in front of her to listen. "the voice said "Knock, Knock" so I replied "who's there?" the voice answered "Dishes." "Dishes who?" I asked. "Dishes a very bad joke!""

Mabel and Toriel began to giggle in unison while Dipper groaned but couldn't help grinning at the joke.

"It was so long since I last heard a good I couldn't help laughing like a lunatic and ever since then we'd trade jokes back and forth through the door." Toriel finished with a mirthful smile.

Mabel got the biggest most sparkly eyed expression on her face as grabbed her cheeks and gasped. "That's so romantic!" She almost squealed and Dipper rolled his eyes with a sigh, Match-Maker Mabel was back. "You two should meet up in person!" She gushed.

Toriel's mouth curved into a smile that was almost sad but not quite, almost nostalgic and she chuckled softly. "No, I've already had my time with romance and I'm not interested in trying again." She chuckled again, this time with more gusto. "Besides, no one's going to be interested in a silly old woman like me and the door is sealed."

"Don't be silly! You can't be that old! Our Grunkles Stan and Ford are old!" Mabel insisted.

"Yeah, you can be older than…what 28, maybe 34-ish?" Dipper ventured with a sheepish shrug, hard to judge her age what with the fur and goat face and all.

Mabel was about to reprimand her brother for 'probing a lady about her age' when Toriel burst out into fits and tucks of giggles and laughter, clutching her stomach like it hurt.

She wiped away a mirthful tear as she began to calm down and said. "Hahahaha, ahhh, if only you knew my child. Oh!" She started as she remembered something. "But enough about me have somethings for you two!" She said delightedly as she stood up, helped to twins up from the floor and guided them by the hands out of the room and up the hall toward the living area.

Mabel had already seen it but as Dipper examined it he saw that it was a warm and cozy area. A small dining table sat toward the southwest corner of the room, a large plush recliner near it, a small bookshelf filled with books of different colored covers, and a fireplace with a flame burning within it warming the area was the rest of the house was chilly.

As they neared the balmy fire Toriel released her gentle grip from the children's hands and blocked their view of the chair. She seemed to pick something up and turned around to show them what she had.

In her hands were two scarves and a sweater. The scarves were both the same color, which was a light chocolate brown color with some fringe dangling from the ends but there was one distinction between them. Both had a thick braided line going down the length of them on the center-right side of them and one had a bright yellow line while the other had deep red.

The sweater was also a deep red color turtle neck style with a blue pine tree on the chest.

"These are for you!" She chirped happily as she handed the yellow-lined scarf to Mabel and the red-lined scarf and sweater to Dipper. "This part of the Underground has a lot of holes in the ceiling that lets the cold mountain air in, so it gets very chilly in the Ruins."

"Wait it does? But other than that one hole we fell in I haven't seen any others." Mabel said as she wrapped her scarf around her neck.

"If I had to make I guess, it's probably that the trees and shrubbery are so thick that most of the other holes blend in with the dark ceiling." Dipper speculated as he removed his vest to put on the sweater over his shirt, followed by his scarf before replacing his vest. The sweater hugged his form more than Mabel's sweaters do and the sleeves stopped at his wrists. His souls still showed on his chest, almost as if it was as much a part of the sweater as the tree design.

"That's a very good theory; you're very smart for your age." Toriel complimented, getting the boy to flush bashfully.

Mabel draped herself over her brother shoulders from behind with a big goofy grin. "That's cuz he's a huge nerd!" She cheered, pressing her fingers into Dippers cheeks.

A frown so intense pulled at Dipper's mouth you could swear it was on the verge of physically falling off his face and Toriel couldn't help laughing at the twins antics.

Eventually Dipper was able to shoo away his sister and the trio decided to relax for the time being. Almost immediately he was drawn to the book shelf and one particular book caught his eye. "History of Monsters: Volume I." Dipper said to himself before opening the book and started to read.

Long ago, two races ruled over the Earth: Humans and Monsters. Until one day a war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They forced us underground and sealed us within using a powerful magical barrier erected by seven human souls.

Fearful of further human attacks we retreated. Far, far into the earth we walked until we reached the caverns end. This was our new home, which we named "Home".

"As great as out king is, he is pretty lousy at names." Dipper finished with a smirk but it quickly fell as the rest of the passages settled in his mind. 'Nothing about this was mentioned in our history lessons, how can our history with a whole other race of beings just not exist on the surface?' He asked himself mentally, absently flipping through random pages, glancing at the illustrations of humans and monster silhouettes. 'Also, who started the war and why?'

With that Dipper let out a big, mighty yawn that was soon followed by his sister. Checking a watch he had on it has only been a few hours since the fell so it was fairly late now and they were still tired from the trek up, into, and through Mt. Ebbot.

"Oh my, even with that nap you must still be exhausted from the day's events." Toriel observed allowed with a tone of motherly concern.

She wasn't wrong; it took everything Dipper had left not to collapse like he did an hour or so earlier. He didn't even notice when Toriel picked him and Mabel up and carried them back to their room.

Before they even knew it Dipper and Mabel were back their beds and drifted back to sleep.

A few days later Dipper and Mabel returned to the house after exploring, finding little more than they saw yesterday, or the days before that. There was a rather dower ghost named Napstablook they met and Mabel manage to raise his spirit a bit with jokes and encouragement, but that was about it and the ghost disappeared before Dipper could ask him for a way about of the ruins.

"Mabel, I know you like being with her, I do too, but we can't stay here forever. Grunkle Stan and Ford must be worried sick about us by now." Dipper said to his sister with a sad seriousness, the two sitting on one of the beds in their room.

Mabel looked down sadly. "I know Dipper, but I also don't want to leave her all alone in here. I get the feeling she been very sad until now."

"It's not like we are gonna abandon her." Dipper replied, trying to reassure his sister. "Once we find a way out we can visit her from time to time."

"But what if there is no way out? What if we can cross the barrier? We'd have left her for nothing." Mabel argued, remembering the history book Dipper told her about one of the nights before bed.

"We have to try." Dipper said with Determination before entering the house. Mabel reached out to stop him but hesitated before sadly following her brother.

The twins found their self-appointed caretaker in the living area, reading a book on her chair next to the warm fire. Hearing the duo enter the area she looked up from her book and Toriel gave them a warm smile. "Hello my children, how what your exploits through the ruins fair?"

"Uh, fine. We met a ghost named Napstablook and he seemed nice, if a bit depressed. But Mabel managed to cheer him up some." Dipper said, rubbing his arm nervously; and anxious knot forming in the pit of his stomach.

"That's wonderful to hear!" Toriel said gently. "I hope you two are settling in nicely." She added sincerely.

Oh no.

"I have already put together a curriculum for your education!" Her tone was almost giddy at the notion.

Please, this is already hard enough.

"This may come as a surprise but I've always wanted to become a teacher." Her brow creased and her smile became more nervous. "Or maybe not so surprising. Still…" Her face scrunched up into a more thoughtful look before shifting back to her usual cheery demeanor. "What there something you two wanted?"

Dipper steeled himself while Mabel remained silent behind him, equally as axious as him. Finally he said what needed to be said. "When can we go home?" He said bluntly. No point in dragging this out.

"Huh?" Hurt and confusion spread across the goat-woman's face. "Bu-but this is your home now!" She exclaimed, her voice wavering nervously.

"How do we exit the ruins?" Dipper asked again doing his best not to waver while his sister held back her tears, clutching one of the sleeves of the sweater Toriel made for them.

"I-I have to do something, wait here for a moment!" Toriel said quickly before sitting up from her chair and nearly ran out of the room toward the stairs that she said led into the basement.

"Toriel! Mom wait!" Mabel shouted as she ran down the stairs after her, with Dipper on her heels.

Immediately something felt wrong, instead of a basement the stairs led to a long dimly lit hallway made of purple-grey stone like the rest of the ruins. Toriel had sopped but kept her back to them.

"You wish to know how to return "home" do you know?" She questioned, her voice even and monotonous. "Ahead lies the end of the ruins, a doorway to the rest of the underground." She half-turned toward the twins, a grim expression on her face. "I am going to destroy it. No one will ever leave again." She stated.

Dipper and Mabel gasped at her declaration and looked at each other nervously, unsure what to say.

"Now go back upstairs and be good." Toriel ordered her children before turning away and continuing her way toward the exit.

They did not listen and continued to follow the woman that had cared for them the last few days. As they walked Toriel began to speak again. "Every human that falls down here meets the same fate." She began, her face schooled into a neutral frown and her voice still cold and even. "I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die."

The children stopped and looked at he with shock and horror, and it was then that Dipper remembered. "The shoes…the toys…" He whispered.

Toriel stopped as well but did not turn toward them, she spoke. "You naïve children…if you leave the ruins. They…Asgore…will kill you." She looked over her shoulder at them. "I am only doing this to protect, understand? Now go to your room." She said more forcefully before continuing on and ended with. "This is your final warning; do not try to stop me." And then she turned a corner.

"Dipper, what do we do?" Mabel questioned, frightened of the things Toriel said and the way she was acting.

"We…we have to follow her Mabel. We have to find a way out." Dipper said with a hardening resolve, he was determined to get home to the Mystery Shack. Maybe Great Uncle Ford could help them find a way to break the barrier?

"You want to leave so badly?" Toriel inquired as she heard the twins approaching, a set of large violet double doors with the same emblem as that on her gown emblazoned on them in black. "Hmph. You two are just like the others."

"Fine, there is only one way to settle this..." She trailed off as she turned toward them. "Prove yourselves." She challenged as flames gathered in her hands, but this time they were orange and far more intense. "Show me you have the strength to survive!" Suddenly a black…something spread away from Toriel at an alarming speed, engulfing the area. The twins shielded themselves from it but it passed over them harmlessly. The saw that the world around them had turned black and white and including themselves everything but their Souls, they felt a tug on them and they grew to cover more of their chests, almost as if protecting them.

Two green bars marked "HP 20/20" appeared as well as an assortment of "buttons" marked [FIGHT], [ACT], and [MERCY].

Toriel shot her hands forward and a duo of fire bullets soared toward the Mystery Twins. They both shouted in unison before diving out of the way and splitting up as a result.

"Toriel stop this!" Dipper protested, rolling to his feet to avoid another projectile. The [ACT] Button was glowing as he spoke.

"Toriel please! We don't have to do this!" Mabel pleaded and ducked under another fire blast herself.

Toriel did not respond to their words, her face set in a stony look of indifference as she sent wave after wave of flame.

"Momma, I don't want to fight you!" Tears streamed down Mabel's face as she tried to get through to the goat-woman that was more of a mother to her than her real one.

Toriel seemed to hesitate and her eyes welled up slightly with her own tears, but she quickly retook control of herself. She gestured with her hands and a line of fireballs formed in front of her that shot out all at once like a shotgun blast.

This time the twins couldn't dodge them all and got hit, Dipper in his right shoulder, stomach, and cheek while Mabel took a hit in her chest that burst away the star on her sweater.

"There is no other way, fight me or go upstairs." Toriel said in a tone that was paradoxically motherly and neutral. "I refuse lose another child to that man!"

Talking doesn't seem to be the solution.

Mabel looked devastated while Dipper grit his teeth in frustration.

"Looks like we don't have much of a choice." The boy said to himself as he struggled to his feet. He reached into his vest and took out the large toy knife he found in the ruins, not really a suitable but it was sturdy and he didn't want to seriously hurt Toriel anyway.

A part of him was telling him this was a huge mistake.

The [FIGHT] button began to glow.

"That's right, here in the ruins any monsters you encounter can be reasoned with. But not outside, not Asgore and his ilk." Toriel said with distain and the battle began anew.

"Dipper, no!" Mabel wailed but it was too late.

Dipper swung once seemingly harmless toy knife once.

A deep wound appeared on Toriel, a slash the when from her left cheek, across her back, and over her belly from the left, tearing her dress.

Shock spread across all three parties as Toriel fell to her knees and clutched the gaping wound on her side. Mabel shrieked and cried, Dipper dropped the knife and recoiled from it in horror.

"Heheh…heh…you are much stronger than I thought." Toriel chuckled out weakly as the purple dress darkened with her blood.

"No…nonono, I didn't m-mean too, I thought it was just a toy!" Dipper stammered.

"It is just a toy; this is why we lost so badly against the humans so long ago. A monster soul is nothing compared to a human's."

"Dipper how could you!?" Mabel cried angrily at her brother, why didn't wouldn't listen to her!

Why didn't you show mercy!

Dipper was beginning to hyperventilate. "Nonononononono, I'm sorry I didn't mean too!" He pleaded, tears beginning to well in his chocolate colored eyes.

"It's alright Dipper, Mabel, now I know you two can survive out there." Toriel cooed reassuringly to the twins before coughing up a small bit of blood. "Listen to me little ones; please be good, won't you?" See asked as her form began to grow fuzzy. "Asgore…do not let Asgore take…your…souls…my children…"

Her body blew away in a flurry of white and purple dust and all that remained was a tiny, white upside down heart that quivered in the air. Her soul.

"Toriel…" Dipper dolefully whispered.

The soul cracked.

"Momma…" Mabel said weepily.

The soul shattered, a blew away as its owner did.

"MOTHER!" They both wailed sorrowfully, falling onto their knees in the dust of the woman that was so kind to them, tears streaming down their faces and clearing channels out of the dust the landing on them.

"No…no, no, no I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!"

"Mommy…"

"I take it back, I take it back, I didn't want this!"

"No…"

"I want to go back, I want to try again!"

Suddenly, the two found themselves once again within the black void but this time they were alone, and they did not see the outlining of objects around them this time.

"Where are we? What's happening now?" Dipper questioned nervously, but Mabel stayed silent and frightened.

And before them, two "buttons" just like before floated before them.

[Continue] or [RESET]

Hesitantly, Dipper reached out to the [RESET] button, and everything went white.

And so ends another chapter…that got really heavy at the end there. Hope you guys liked it!