Heya, wonderful humans and creatures galore! :D I added "creatures galore" because apparently at least one reader is half monster xD (I'm still waiting for that explanation, by the way!). Anyways, I'm really proud of how this story is turning out! I'm not taking too long with each chapter, rather about a week to publish/finish each OwO seriously, my other two stories I can barely update once every few months or so... And I'm having so much fun writing this, I kid you not! And I'm also so happy that a lot of people like it already! QwQ thank you guys so much, your reviews, follows, and favorites all make my days brighter~!

I've revised this chapter specifically as best as I could, being this is the longest I've written thus far (AROUND 4,000 WORDS?! WTF?!). If you find any errors or any wording wrong, please don't hesitate to tell me -English isn't my birth language so sometimes it's a bit difficult for me to not make any mistakes... either that or I have weird tendencies while writing dialogs. By the way, thanks to the person who pointed my lack of " . " in the dialogs! Usually I don't use them, but I think I should really do it form now on! n.n and I'm glad I haven't seen any complaints on having Papyrus talk LIKE THIS!... and Sans doin' his thing. And I know some people have been hyped since they decrypted the last chapter's message; don't worry, I did a little thing here and I promise for the next chapter you'll read the rest! :D

Again, thanks to anyone who has enjoyed this story so far! And if you have any trouble with decrypting the code, I'll leave a link bellow directly to the cipher and give the number (it's still gonna be the same cipher and number for a while, to avoid any confusion). Now enjoy~!

Normal narration.
"Normal dialog."
'Character's thoughts.'

Dream sequence
"Dialog"
'Thoughts'

Chapter 2: "Friend or foe?"

It was around 1 AM. Soos had long gone back to his grandmother's house with Melody, leaving the Pines to assert themselves back in their respective places. Dipper and Mabel prepared their stuff in their attic room; Stan kept the Master Bedroom while Ford made accommodations to get comfortable in his lab. They all slept peacefully for their first night back in Gravity Falls, when…

Knock, knock, knock.

The sound echoed through the whole shack and alerted everyone (minus Mabel, who was sleeping like a log) that someone was at the door.

'Ugh, who's crazy enough to come here at 1 AM?!' Dipper thought grumpily, running a hand down his face while sitting in his bed. He was merely staring at Mabel, contemplating whether to go downstairs and see who (or what) is knocking… or going back to a peaceful sleep –an idea he really liked and decided to do.

And so, Dipper settled back down, even after hearing another loud knock. Mabel's light snores just helped to lull him back to sleep, ready to greet the Wendy he was dating in his dream.

Stan walked down the stairs, grumbling to himself about how his good sleep was interrupted so suddenly. Ford had also gotten out of his lab/room; not murmuring angrily like his brother, but with a simple groan of displeasure.

Stan saw him coming and waved his hand in a dismissive way.

"I got this…" he murmured and answered the door. "Do you have any idea how late it is?!" he yelled, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "We're closed right now, so I why don't you go…" his voice trailed off and his eyes widened slightly at the sight of a small kid in front of the door. "… away…" he coughed and cleared his throat. "Uh, sorry kid. But it's late and everyone was sleeping so…"

"I'm sorry, sir," came the kid's quiet voice. "But we don't know where else to go."

"Do you need any help?" Ford questioned from behind his brother; he turned on the lights of the room. "How did you get here?"

"Someone said you could help us; he said you would understand our… situation." The child said, choosing their words carefully.

"Who sent you here?" Ford asked warily. It was just a kid, but the thought of him sending anyone here set him on edge.

"And what do you mean 'us'? Who's here with you?" Stan demanded.

"Well…" the brunette kid began. "I'll show you, but please don't freak out, okay? They are really nice, and they would never hurt anyone!"

"Okay, okay! Geez, just show us already!" Stan answered.

"Alright then..." they looked to the side. "Hey mom, guys!" they called out. "It's okay, you can introduce yourselves!" they smiled.

"Finally!" said an impatient, feminine voice.

"Undyne, please be nice!" scolded someone else with a motherly tone.

Footsteps got closer to the door. Stan and Ford exchanged a look before they fully opened the door. The kid came in and after them…

"HELLO, HUMANS!"

"Holy sh-" Stan stumbled back and fell on his bottom; a tall skeleton had gotten in his face and yelled his greeting before the old man could even react.

"Stanley!" the other yelled with worry. He reached for his magnetic gun, but…

"i wouldn't do that if i were you, buddy." Came a deeper voice from behind him, startling him and making him turn around. "we don't wanna fight 'ya if we don't have to, ok?" said the grinning (and shorter) skeleton in front of him.

'How did he even get near me? He was right at the door, behind everyone else!'

"Grunkle Stan? Grunkle Ford?!" called a worried, female voice from upstairs.

"Is everything okay?!" asked a boy, their voices and footsteps getting closer.

"Kids, don't come in here!"

"What wrong?!" the twins rushed to the room and the sight before them just baffled them.

A tall skeleton wearing an orange-red scarf was standing before their grunkle Stan, a confused expression on his face as he stared at the startled man still sitting on the floor. A shorter skeleton with a blue hoodie was standing close to Ford; the skeleton was grinning, but there was a cautious light in his eye-sockets. A fish-lady in a black tank top was standing protectively in front of a reptile-like woman with a lab-coat; the first holding a spear while the latter looked scared. In the doorway stood two goat-looking creatures (male and female); the male wore regal clothes and a crown atop his head ('He must be a king!' Mabel concluded to herself) and was holding a flower in a pot ('Does that flower have a face?!' Dipper thought frantically), while the female in a white and purple tunic hugged a human child close to her. The brunette kid wore a blue and magenta striped sweater, and they looked at everyone else with a concerned expression.

"Whoa, what's going on here?!" Mabel questioned.

"Who are you?!" Dipper demanded warily, holding up the baseball bat that was leaning on the wall.

"Everyone, stop!" shouted two voices, making everyone in the room stare at the child and talking flower.

"Seriously, all of this shouting is annoying me!" grumbled the flower.

"I know this is weird, and they may look intimidating at first…" spoke the little ambassador. "But they are nice."

"We have no desire to harm anyone." Continued the goat man. "So please, just hear us out. Chutzpar, an old friend of mine, showed us the way here and said you might be able to help us."

"Wait, you know Chutzpar? The manotaur?!" Dipper asked in shock, slowly returning the bat to its original place.

The king chuckled, glancing at the young twins at the other side of the room. "Yes, from a time long before the war. Howdy! I am Asgore, king of monsters. It's a pleasure to meet you!" he introduced himself happily, surprising Dipper.

"I'm Toriel, and it's nice to meet all of you." the ex-queen smiled warmly at the human family, making Mabel smile brightly at her.

"Hiya, punks!" the ex-royal captain exclaimed. "The name's Undyne, and whether you like it or not, we're gonna be besties!" she grinned widely and looked at the scientist behind her. "Come on, hun! Introduce yourself."

"H-hi there…" the reptile fidgeted in her spot (now shoulder-to-hip with Undyne). "M-my name is Alphys! It's-um… I mean, I-I'm glad I- it's really nice to meet you!" she stammered quickly, making some of the monsters chuckle and her partner hug her tightly.

"Don't be so shy, Alphie! These guys seem fine!" She laughed.

"HELLO, HUMANS!" greeted the tall skeleton. "I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I'M SURE YOU'RE PLEASED TO MEET ME AND MY FRIENDS –hopefully- AND I HOPE WE CAN ALL BE GOOD FRIENDS!" he grinned with a childish light in his features.

The shorter skeleton grinned at his tall brother and looked back at the man he had scared earlier.

"heya. i'm sans." The glowing small orbs in his sockets dimmed slightly ('does he feel guilty?'). "i'm sorry 'bout earlier; didn't mean to scare 'ya too much."

Ford smiled awkwardly. "No, it's fine. I might have overreacted."

"heh, no prob." Sans chuckled, extending his hand. "let's just shake on it."

"I –uh…" Ford hesitated, a small flashback of a horrendous deal coming back to haunt him; but he covered it up with a forced smile ('This situation is too delicate to mess it up…'). "Sure thing." He slowly lifted his hand to meet the skeleton's when all of a sudden…

Pfffffffffffft.

The fart noise echoed in the entire room and everything got quiet… until most of the people in the room started laughing (except Ford, who at first was just shocked and managed to crack a smile; Dipper cringed, while Papyrus just groaned in annoyance).

"heheh. the ol' 'whoopee cushion in the hand' trick. always a good one."

"SANS, NOW THE HUMANS WON'T BE OUR FRIENDS!" Papyrus basically shrieked at his brother.

"aw come on, paps. you gotta admit that was pretty humerus" Toriel howled with laughter and Papyrus just yelled at his brother.

"Now, then," Toriel began when she had finally calmed down. "why don't you introduce yourself, dear?" she gave her human child a small push.

"I'm Frisk, the now ambassador of monsters" the kid –Frisk- smiled and gestured to the flower. "And this is Flowey. It's nice to meet you!" Flowey just murmured something about not wanting to be with so many people.

"Well, I'm Stanley Pines, and this is my nerd brother Stanford" the grunkle said and gestured to Ford.

"Hi, I'm Mabel!" she waved happily at everyone. "And this, right here, is my bro-bro Dip-stick!" she said, lightly punching her twin's arm.

The boy rubbed his arm and smiled nervously at their guests. "It's Dipper, actually. And it's –uh- nice to meet you, too."

Mabel gasped, drawing her bro's attention. "Oh my god, I love your sweater!" she exclaimed, gesturing to Frisk's outfit. "Oh yes, we can be sweater buddies! Do you wanna be my sweater buddy?! Please say yeeeeeess~!" she looked brightly to the monster ambassador.

Frisk took a moment to process her speech and gave her a thumbs up and a smile.

"I would like that!" came their happy response.

"Aw yes!" Mabel fist pumped.

"Now, now, everyone." The king began. "I believe there are most pressing matters to discuss."

"Right." Ford agreed. "Dipper, Mabel, could you both please go for some chairs?"

"Sure, we'll be right back!" Dipper and Mabel went to the kitchen.

"Oh, you really shouldn't bother." Toriel rushed to say.

"It's fine." Mumbled Stan.

"We don't have enough chairs for everyone, but once you've all gotten comfortable, we'll discuss the matter at hand." Ford cleared.

The kids returned soon enough with four chairs from the kitchen. Alphys sat down in one of the chairs; Toriel sat in another with Frisk sitting in her lap and Flowey in the human's hands; Papyrus refused a chair, so Sans accepted it. One chair was left, and Dipper noticed Stanley rubbing his backside.

"Grunkle Stan, do you need to sit down?" he asked, worried.

"Yea sure, I don't see why not." He took his seat and sighed relieved.

"Now that we're all here, would anyone like to start explaining from the beginning?"

"Yes, of course!" Asgore began. "You see… it all started centuries ago –over half a millennia, if I'm not mistaken… us monsters lived peacefully on the surface along with the human race. Of course, to appease de needs of most of our kind, it was decided that us monsters would stay near mountains and water bodies.

One day... the humans –for reasons unknown even now- declared war against us. Naturally, that battle wasn't fair at all."

"The humans overpowered us easily." Continued the goat mother, hugging her children close. "We monsters may have our own magic abilities, but a human's soul is enough to match a thousand monster souls combined. Besides, unlike a human's soul that can linger even after death, our souls don't last longer after being turned to dust."

Dipper noticed the way Frisk stiffened at that part, but decided to ask at a better moment.

"As I was saying, the humans outmatched us. We were defeated and forced to retreat to the caves under the mountain for safety. Seven mages created an unbreakable barrier that kept us inside." Asgore explained. "Of course, some of us were able to flee to the other side of the mountain and continue existing on the surface."

"namely, they took cover in these areas." Sans added and for the first time since they got here, he looked mildly serious. "and the rest of us? we had to cope with being locked inside the mountain, and made it alright with the resources we could find." He then shrugged. "o' course, i didn't live through the time the war waged; but i've heard and read the stories."

"To break the barrier, we needed a powerful source of energy that could outmatch the mages'."

Sans glanced at Ford's clenched fists.

"guess you've heard the stories, huh?" Ford nodded slowly. "so you know what he's talkin' about." It wasn't a question, Ford noticed.

"The power of seven human souls." Silence fell in the whole room. Dipper and Mabel looked shocked, the first immediately glanced at their guests warily and took a step in front of Mabel.

"Is that true?" he asked.

Asgore looked down in shame. "Indeed. I have done many horrible things just to give back hope to my people, and all of it is something I deeply regret." He said seriously. "I understand if you don't accept me here…" he looked up with sad eyes. "but please, my people need a second chance at life on the surface."

"Please, the whole Underground is counting on us!" Frisk begged.

Both Stans were looking down, without saying anything. They have both done awful things –each with a different purpose- and they know perfectly well how such regret felt like. Stanford had made a deal with Bill to gain more knowledge, while Stanley did many (illegal) deeds to get by and for 30 years he lived with the regret of pushing his brother to what could've been his demise. They both made their decision and hoped the kids would agree without any objections.

"We'll help you." they said at the same time.

Asgore looked surprised. "What?"

"We'll help you and the rest of your people, as long as you don't hurt anyone." Ford said.

"Just tell us what you need." Stan finished for his brother.

"Directions to the town itself, and to talk with whoever is in charge here." Frisk said, a proof of how mature they were for their age. "We need to talk to them for living and job arrangements and to evade any problems against the races." Toriel looked down at the child, a look of motherly pride lighting her features.

"And once that's taken care of, I'll go back to the Underground and tell the news to the rest of us." Asgore concluded.

"Sounds fair to me." Shrugged Stan.

Toriel looked down at Frisk tugging her sleeves. "Hm? What is it, my child? Do you want to say something?" Frisk nodded. "Go ahead, then."

"Thanks." They said when they noticed everyone was going to pay attention. "Thing is… I ran away from the place I grew up in. That's actually why I climbed Mt. Ebott in the first place. I grew up in an orphanage, and most kids were mean to me; so I decided to hide in a place no one would dare to look.

I didn't really plan on tripping down to a cave underneath the mountain, but I did. A flower bed softened my fall, but the scare still made me faint mid-fall. When I woke up, I was underground; there was no way back up, so I had to go look somewhere else. In the next room, I encountered someone." Flowey stiffened. "They tried to hurt me, saying it was 'kill or be killed', but mom saved me!" Frisk smiled at Toriel and Flowey relaxed.

"On my way through the Underground, I spared every monster I encountered; whether it was by saying a simple compliment or flirting with them." Frisk giggled at the memory. "I befriended everyone, even those who were supposed to take my soul." Undyne grinned and ruffled the human's hair.

"In the end, I had to fight Asgore." The king flinched. "The good thing is, everyone came to support me and stop the fight. Then after a fight with someone else, he became my friend, and…" they took a deep breath. "he used the 6 human souls and the soul of every monster to break the barrier;" The ambassador smiled sadly. "but that also meant he wouldn't be himself anymore. I want to help him be back to his old self again, and I want every monster to be happy, too!"

"We understand perfectly." Ford smiled. "Tomorrow, we'll show you to the mayor's mansion, and from then you can decide what to do. Given the situation, I suggest the king and your ambassador to talk to him first. Other than the possible scare he'll have at first, Mayor Tyler is a nice man and I'm sure he'll understand."

"Very well, tomorrow it is!" Asgore smiled.

"B-but the only problem r-right now…" Alphys interrupted. "Where are we going to sleep?"

"Well, uh…" Stanley spoke up. "Do any of you have a problem with sleeping on the floor? I think there were some sleeping bags and spare covers somewhere…"

"nah, i can sleep anywhere." Sans confessed with a shrug.

"Usually, I would be against the idea of not sleeping in a bed…" Papyrus murmured. "BUT I, THE GREAT SLEEPER –and early riser- PAPYRUS, WILL GLADLY SLEEP WITH YOUR ACOMMODATIONS!"

"Oh, oh!" Mabel enthusiastically raised her hand.

Ford sighed. "Yes, Mabel? Do you have any ideas?"

"Can some of you guys sleep in our room? Pretty pleeeaaaase?!" she gave the monsters the puppy eyes. "It would be like a slumber party! And we could have a pillow fight, and do other stuff together, pretty pleeeeaaaaaasse~?!"

Frisk was the first to answer with a big smile. "Sure, I would love to!"

"Wait a moment…" Undyne starts. "Did you say… 'fight'? A pillow fight? You wanna fight us?!"

"No, Undyne!" Frisk giggles. "A pillow fight is like a friendly spar. It's just a game, no one really gets hurt! We just throw pillows at each other." They explained.

"Huh…" Undyne thought deeply… before her expression broke in a huge, enthusiastic grin. "That's sounds awesome! Let's do that! Hey Alphie, you coming?"

"I-I'm not sure…" she answered nervously. "I'm not good with s-sleeping with others a-and I'm not good at throwing pillows…"

"Aw, come on, Alphys!" Mabel encouraged her. "It'll be fun! Plus, Dipper isn't good at pillow fights either" she snickered when the boy in question stammered.

"T-that's absolutely not true! I'm really good at pillow f-fights…" he blushed in embarrassment. "In fact, I'll prove it now!"

"Is that a challenge, punk?" Undyne grinned, brimming with confidence. "Get ready to lose!"

"Oh, it's on!" Mabel fist-bumped Frisk.

"I, PAPYRUS, HAVE DECIDED TO PARTAKE IN YOUR GAME OF PILLOW FIGHTING!" the tall skele-bro declared. "PREPARE FOR YOUR LOSS, NYEHEHE!"

"Let's go, follow me!" Mabel said, dragging Dipper along with her.

Frisk followed them (first leaving Flowey in a table near a window and giving him a good night kiss; of course, the once-prince recoiled and blushed… how he does that when he's a plant, no one knows…). Undyne carried Alphys upstairs, making the poor scientist blush and stutter. Papyrus was about to follow but first turned to look at his brother.

"SANS, ARE YOU COMING?"

"nah, i'm bone tired right now. you go have fun paps, and let me know if 'ya need anything."

"I WILL!" Papyrus smiled and gleefully ran upstairs with the others.

"Well, now that that's settled, I'm going back to my room" Ford smiled tiredly.

"Me too, I need to help Soos tomorrow with restocking." Stan said, walking back to the master bedroom.

"Good night, everyone." Ford bid them.

"Good night to both of you." Toriel smiled. "And again, thank you so much for your help."

"No problem, miss." Stan chuckled and left the room.

A few minutes later, the few remaining people downstairs had settled in their sleeping bags and the male goat was already snoring loudly. Toriel had a calm smile in her face while she dreamt and Flowey was finally calm enough to close himself and breath quietly.

Sans, on the other hand...

Thud.

He heard the sound from upstairs and went to take a look. Sans was wide awake the whole time, being his first night on the surface and already having to deal with strangers set him on edge. Don't get him wrong –they seemed like good people; he was just worried for his brother's wellbeing and how the humans were going to treat him. Not just that, but he felt someone was watching them –someone who wasn't directly interacting with the people in the room. As if someone who didn't belong here was just watching from outside the window or a dark corner. And so, with an eye almost burning, he quietly teleported himself to the top of the stairs, just outside the attic room. He leaned closer to the door and listened…

"Ow! Mabel, don't push me off the bed!"

"Sorry, bro! You were blocking my throw."

"DON'T WORRY, HUMAN NAMED DIPPER. I'LL DEFEND YOU!"

"I'll help, too!"

"Ooohhh, you're messing with the wrong people, 'ya losers!"

"Y-yeah! We'll w-win for sure."

"We're playing in teams? Aw yeah, come here Waddles! The ultimate pillow fight is oooonn!"

"NGAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

"NYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUGHHH!"

"SQUEEEE~"

Multiple thuds, battle cries and oinks could be heard clearly through the door. A genuine smile grew on the skeleton's face and he chuckled light-heartedly. 'those kids are something special, all three of them.' He mentally mused. 'frisk befriended everyone so easily, then that girl easily brought everyone together and her brother certainly adds something entirely different on their fun.'

He teleported himself to the roof of the shack; there was a spot near the kids' window, where he could sit down and gaze at the stars for the first time ever.

'yup, our stay in this town will certainly be interesting'. Sans smiled again, leaning back to enjoy the whole view. He slowly closed his eye-sockets and let himself fall into a deep slumber without any nightmares…

… oooor so he thought.

"ow…" Sans said, as if he had fallen rather hard on something. "ugh, what the…" he opened his sockets slowly to greet a dark place. "I... what?" it was all colored in grayscale (and even then, it was hard to see anything in front of him with how dark it was); it was a long corridor lined with many doors at his sides, the one he could see at the end of the hall read "Bad Memories"and it glowed an eerie dark red.

"wow, nope! i'm not gonna deal with that!" and like that, he just turned and walked away. "after all, i'm no photographer; and fear is a dark room where negatives are developed." Sans chuckled at his own joke.

"HAHAHAHAH! That was a good one, blue-heart!" a voice echoed throughout the whole space.

"huh?" Sans looked quizzically around him. 'where did that come from?'

"Right behind you, bone-sack!" Sans quickly turned around and in front of him saw…

'a flying triangle…?' the thing was indeed triangular in form; and yellow, a really bright yellow. It was using a black top hat, has black arms and legs and a single eye in its… body?... face?... whatever, the only thing that Sans cared about right now, was to watch out for that dark mischievous aura surrounding the being.

"Nice to finally meet you, Sans! The name's Bill Cipher, and I'm sure we'll get along just fine!"

And it was at this moment, Sans knew… things would get even more complicated for them.

...oh geez, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME FOR LEAVING IT AT THAT POINT! Sinceriously, the chapter was long enough as it is! And I think this'll keep you hyped for the next one, right? So there ya go! Hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a Review to tell me what you think, Follow this story so you'll know when another chapter comes up, and Favorite if you really want to! Read you next time, wonderful creatures!

Next Chapter:

IFCB XYLSB GRPQ PQXOQBA CLO QEBFO HFKA
CRII LC BKQBOQXFKJBKQ, CLO VLR XKA F
YRQ XP AXKDBO IFKDBOP FK BXOQE XKA JFKA
YBTXOB QEB YBXPQ TFQE GRPQ LKB BV

(Caesar Cipher, Rotation N. 23). link: / tools / cipher /

And remember, guys:

REALITYISANILLUTION-THEUNIVERSEISAHOLOGRAM-BUYGOLD-BYEEEEEEEE~!

~Ami~