Dipans was finally able to smile honestly, just staring at where the demonic fusion was previously. But even with this small moment of happiness, everything he now knows, everything he is and has gone through.

He now has to deal with the fallout.

How will his sister/brother react? He stood there thinking over everything, about what he had to do to ensure Bill never succeeded, that had to be his first concern, seeing as Chara wouldn't be something till the end of summer.

As the guy stood there, his magic slowly released the hold it had on the barrier, allowing others to finally enter. Dipans wound up face to face with the very people that he had done all this for. "Nice to meet you all."

Toriel did her best to keep a straight face, even as she had tears in her eyes. "Why couldn't you keep your promise?"

Before either version of Sans could respond, one of the colored hearts within a joint of Dipans' wing spoke as it glowed with its words. "But Sans did help. I remember when he made that game in Snowdin's outskirts, it was a fun shooting gallery."

Toriel looked at the yellow heart in surprise. "My child?"

The blue heart glowed in a similar manner to the yellow as a different voice spoke up. "Yeah, we are all still conscious here. This is honestly a lot more preferable than being shoved into soundproofed glass containers. Also, I remember that game being a memory puzzle."

Dipans shrugged, as he spoke in the gruff tone they recognized as Sans'. "Honestly, I changed it up for each of you after our initial meeting in the underground."

Papyrus gasped. "Sans, is that why you were so lazy with your puzzles? Because you were busy ensuring their first puzzle was keyed to their liking?"

Sans chuckled, scratching the back of his skull as he turned away, yet remained silent.

Before anyone could speak up again, Toriel spoke once more. "But, you are all dead. How could he have done his best to help you, if I am staring at his failures right now?"

"It was painful."

The orange heart didn't glow as brightly as the others had when it spoke. "Each of us wound up in the underground for our own reasons, we didn't know each others' until Sans and Dipper came and asked for our help. But afterwards, we found out that we were experiencing the same illness that Frisk has."

Frisk looked confused "but, i'm not sick."

Dipans sighed. "Determination resists the symptoms better than other soul traits. But the air under the mountain is saturated with magic, so much in fact, that it leaks into any that enter. This has gone on unnoticed by the rest of us, because we are made of the stuff. But humans no longer have the capability to harness that magic, so as it seeps into them and with nowhere to go, it boils under the skin and fills their souls."

Sans widened his eyes as he thought of the many times he guided the kids through the underground. Recalling how each of them, at different lengths in their journeys, started to show signs of being ill. "Magic poisoning. It has been so long since there has been any means for humans to get it, that we no longer have records of it. How did I not recognize the signs?"

Frisk looked at Sans. "What do you mean? I feel fine, how can I be sick?"

"The reason that you have the ability to save and load, especially reset, all points to you absorbing the magic from the underground. Magic poisoning was rare back before the war broke out. It only came about when someone tried to handle more magic than they were capable of. Determination soul traits were able to handle more magic naturally than other soul types. But even they weren't immune to it."

Sans actually looked more tired than usual. "Without the proper skills to channel that magic, you will slowly die, and with as long as humans have been separated from magic, they no longer have what's needed to control it properly."

Asgore grunted as he nodded. "I never thought I would encounter this. It has been so long since the last case, I can't even remember what we did when it happened."

An old turtle stepped forward. "And this is why I made it my goal to keep you youngins informed. When it happened back then, other wizards were able to draw the magic from the one infected. But with no human wizards here to help, and monsters risking outright melting if they try to help, there isn't much we can do."

At Gerson's words, everyone turned concerned looks towards Frisk, who merely stood there, with a bit of fear showing on her face.

Dipans sighed, "without the antidote, you will keep that magic you have absorbed within you, and as long as you stay out of the underground, you will last longer. But that magic within you will continue to boil under the surface, and eventually, it will burn your physical body out, causing a true reset, and restarting this whole thing over again."

With all the monsters distracted with learning of Frisk's fate, none of them really noticed his words. Sans was more distracted with having to experience the resets, the evidence of where that timeline would lead standing before them.

Ford however. "Antidote?"

That one word brought everyone's attention to the scientist. "You said antidote, as if you know there is one."

Dipans shrugged, reaching into his coat and pulling out a vial of glittery water. "Well, I don't mean to brag but."

Everyone just gave him a deadpan look, while Mabel and Papyrus shouted at the same time. "Bro/Brother!"

The two continued to berate the alternate version of their sibling at the same time, shouting over one another. "Why would you let us think all was lost when you have the answer like that? Dramatic tension should be saved for less serious moments."

"How can you be so lazy that you don't mention such an important detail right away. Speaking doesn't tire you out that much! I should know, considering all the puns."

Both siblings almost missed the tear that Dipans shed as he smiled slightly wider. "Sorry Mabel/Papyrus. I wasn't going to hide it, I still want to spare your world the fate of my own after all."

Hearing the duo voices from the guy was a bit disorienting, but given the circumstances…

Dipans handed the vial to Toriel. "It took me fusing into what I am before I figured out how to create that. As long as your Sans and Alphys talk with Ford and Dipper, you can figure out how to make it. Or you can always seal off the underground from more humans going in."

Toriel smiled as she nodded. Dipans turned to address Frisk as he continued. "That potion will remove the magic from you, keeping you from using your soul traits, but you can start to learn magic properly with a bit of training, and eventually gain them back. Being responsible with your magic is your responsibility, I don't want to come back here one day and find that I regret helping you."

Mabel noticed something. "Come back?"

Dipans shrugged, "got to go back and ensure my timeline works out better than the first time. I have a triangle to stop, and a kid to set straight. Promises to keep and all that."

Dipans winked at Toriel, before he was suddenly gone within the next blink of an eye. Which somehow happened to everyone, though seeing him gone might have caused them to blink. Either way, the guy disappeared, leaving everyone to their own thoughts and lives.

That of which is a different chapter, for a different story.

As Dipans stepped from behind a tree, taking notice of a twelve-year-old boy pulling a journal from a hole in the ground. Not giving his full attention as the boy's sister gave him a scare.

Dipans sighed, "So, how can we handle this? Don't worry kid, we just have to keep an eye on things here, while checking the next town over for my demon. So, as we fix some of the bad things about my summer, we go and guide your own to where we want. Solid plan, though you might want to handle Frisk without me, I don't know what I will do if I face them."

And with a plan set. The god from outside of time began to fix summer for a couple of kids.

As Mabel was walking out the shack with her new boyfriend, the boy suddenly tripped on a small bone unseen by anyone. As Mabel screamed over her boyfriend falling apart, Stan and Dipper rushed out to check on her. Only for all three to stare in shock at the five gnomes.

Before Jeff could say anything, Stan glared at him as he pulled a gun out of a small semi-hidden cupboard near the door and took aim. The five gnomes squealed as they scampered back into the woods, barely dodging the three times Stan pulled the trigger. Stan continued to glare. "Stupid short creeps."

Dipper stared in surprise at his gruncle. "You just shot at mythical creatures."

Stan rolled his eyes at the kid. "Those five short guys, who were old enough to have beards, tried to woo your sister. Of course I shot at the creeps."

After hearing it put that way, Dipper tightened his hold on Mabel's hand, which she grabbed when Stan pulled out the rifle.

As the family dealt with that issue, Sans chuckled as he watched the gnomes scamper further away. His glare went unnoticed by them physically, but none of the gnomes could shake the feeling of their sins crawling along their spines. "Hopefully, they don't come back. Now we get to play the waiting game."

As Sans wandered about town, he kept an eye on everything. Even things that Dipper hadn't known of in the beginning, Sans just kept snooping around, avoiding entering the underground.

Sans wanted nothing more than to go check on Papyrus, but if he entered the underground now, he would be trapped until Frisk broke the barrier, since his own souls couldn't alter the world around him like they could before he removed himself from time and space. He has gained so much power and strength, yet at the same time, he has been nerfed.

Sans did step over and try to remove the barrier from the outside, but his souls couldn't get a good enough grip on the barrier. His people needed Frisk to release them.

So, since the events of Dipper's summer were taking so long, Dipper took control and scouted the neighboring village, scouting it for Frisk. And when he found her, he wasn't very happy about it.

Frisk, in this timeline at least, had a horrible life.

She looked absolutely miserable. Several bullies teasing her as she made her way through town, her mother was sick, and her father wasn't handling the issue very well, from what they could tell from the distance they were keeping. Sans did feel for the girl, Dipper wanted to help, but there was nothing they could do. If they wanted to use their godly power, they would have to sacrifice one of their selves that were connected to the timeline to access their limitless power. And what magic they could use wouldn't help, the illness was too far along. She would die before the end of summer.

So, with plans to keep an eye on the situation, they jumped back over to Gravity Falls. Making it back just in time to witness Mabel going on her date with Gideon. Well, maybe they should make Gideon keep his promise?

As Gideon cued the bird to come in, it suddenly cringed and fell. Gideon suddenly had a dead bird in his hair as he screamed and scrambled about. Several other guests stared in shock as Gideon shook the animal about, the waiters and other employees scrambling over to help him.

Mabel stared in shock, even her lobster stared. This was not what she expected, and with everything that was going on, she actually managed to take notice of someone that looked out of place. A tall broad shouldered guy, the hood of his blue jacket up, shadowing his face that wasn't hidden by the red scarf.

The mysterious stranger gave her a wink as he suddenly disappeared. As the venue calmed down, Gideon wound up being fussed over, by everyone, several people were still bandaging his face up from where he got scratched up.

Mabel decided to speak up before Gideon could try another attempt at asking her out. "Maybe you should go get those cuts checked out at the emergency room, you never know what that bird could be carrying. I am honestly all tuckered out from the excitement."

As Mabel got up, she waved back at Gideon. "I will check up on you later Gideon. See you tomorrow."

Mabel dashed out of there quicker than she had dashed from anywhere else. Gideon growling over his failed attempt to ask Mabel out again, frustrated over the whole bird situation, Gideon snapped at several of the employees. Even snapping at the nurses or doctors that checked him over as his dad took him to the emergency room for a check up.

Mabel had gotten home, and by time she was able to mention her weird day to her family, Stan was already laughing over the picture in the newspaper that everyone else was looking at with concern.

Apparently, Toby had managed to snap a picture of Gideon with the bird in his hair.

"And that is when I noticed a guy wearing a jacket winking at me, so I just took that as my cue to skedaddle." Mabel had been explaining her night to her brother in the attic, letting Stan have his moment of victory over his nemesis.

"I can't find anything matching that description in the journal, so maybe he's new?"

Dipper had scanned the journal thoroughly at this point, even asking Mabel to identify one or two images he felt matched, only for her to deny the connection. After checking through once more and finding nothing, Dipper felt both exasperated and excited for a new mystery.

Exasperated because there was yet another mystery to solve, yet excited to discover something the author had not documented in the journal. As long as he hadn't done so in a previous volume at least.

The soul that belonged to Sans, as it dwelled within Dipper's mutated body, watched as Frisk's family fell apart. And was beginning to actually understand how everything went how they had. He was starting to sympathize with the kid, thinking back to how they must have traveled through the underground with everyone attacking first, trying to only be friends after they possibly killed her a time or two.

Walking through this town for a day or two, they had found out a good deal about Frisk's life, and Sans was finally able to answer his own questions about how someone could become as cruel as the demon that killed everyone in the underground.

Through Dipper's memories, Sans has learned a couple phrases humans nowadays have. The one relevant to this scenario, it only takes one bad day to make someone go crazy, only Frisk has been having a lousy life. Bullied by other kids, the reason why was still unknown, his judgment skill revealing nothing about their reason for bullying her. Dipper had an answer, but Sans was still uncomfortable accepting it.

Kids can be cruel, just doing things to do them, no rhyme or reason. Just being cruel, to be cruel.

Sans had moved without thought as he stopped a kid from dumping a trash bin onto Frisk, flinging a fish into the face of another kid that was about to shove her into a pond. Sans had only ever been able to see one side of this story, and after seeing how the other end occurred, he and Dipper had a plan to ensure his demon remained just a memory.

Back in Gravity Falls however, his Dipper half was left cringing at all the dumb antics he got up to throughout the summer.

He had to sit through the other seven souls reprimanding him for the stunt he pulled in the convenient store. The laughs, and cheering, as he went through the manliness challenges, along with meeting the Multi-bear.

That was a nice meeting, explaining things to him over tea was interesting.

That was mostly what the monster god did, jumping back and forth between the two towns, keeping an eye on everyone. They had to step in more often with Frisk, foiling what plans they could to make Frisk's life a bit more pleasant, while Dipper and Mabel continued with their summer, which as long as they could pop in to either kill Bill before he could make his final deal with Mabel, everything will be fine.

The point they decided to pop in again was with the Mystery Fair, when the two were about to steal the time tape. Which he stole first, before the twins could make a mess.

Dipper was the one to spot Dipans this time, receiving a wink as he disappeared within the crowd.

Dipans almost walked out to fight Rumble for Dipper at the end of that series of events, but figured this was a lesson he could deal with learning. The crystal incident however, was something that caused Dipans to have no choice.

He had tried to keep Dipper from finding the crystals, except Dipper was more determined and smart enough to still locate them. "You might want to leave them be, you won't like what taking one would cause."

Dipper jumped as he spun to find the taller man staring at him, the hood covering the top half of his face within shadow, his red scarf hiding the lower half. "You!? You stole the time tape and stopped me from fixing my mistakes!"

Dipans shrugged, "some mistakes are better left made. Messing with time is a good way to cause more problems than solve them, trust me."

Dipper scowled at the older looking boy. "That isn't for you to decide."

Dipans chuckled. "It won't work out, you know?"

The boy stopped scowling and glaring, blinking in surprise at the older boy's words, "wha?"

"I understand that you're young and dumb, but this whole thing between you and Wendy, will only cause you pain in the end."

"You don't know what you're talking about!."

Ignoring his outburst, Dipans continued. "Wendy isn't the kind of girl you would enjoy being with."

That line threw Dipper off, "now I know you don't know what you're talking about. You don't know me and my preferences."

Dipans sighed, realizing he was a bit cornered, because he needed to keep Dipper from playing with the size altering crystals. "Actually, I think I do."

As the older boy ran his fingers through his hair, knocking his hood down and revealing his forehead, Dipper got a look at a very identifiable birthmark. "But, how?"

"Long story kid, but I can tell you with all accuracy, that your current road is not a very well off one. With the size issue, or Wendy."

Dipper blinked. "So, you killed a bird to cause a big enough distraction for Mabel to get out of further dates after her first pity date with Gideon, as well as stole the time tape before I could. The first one you obviously did to help Mabel, but the second, you did to bully me."

Dipans rolled his eyes. "I did that to help you. That guy, Blendin Blandin, was a member of an elite squad of Time Enforcers, and that device was under his name. You jumping through and messing with time would have gotten him in trouble, and he would have come back for revenge. Do you think you could fight a guy that can travel through time?"

Dipper gulped as he understood the implications of what Sans was saying. "So, you were keeping me from making an enemy of the time law?"

Dipans smiled, "exactly."

Dipper frowned. "Then why be so secretive about it all?"

Dipans rolled his eyes. "Because I had my chance, and I failed. This is the chance that my sacrifice gave you, I might not want you to throw it all away making the same mistakes, but some of them you need to make, in order to grow. I step in when I feel the consequences outweigh the lesson, case in point, this whole size thing. If you continue to fight about it, you and your sister will endanger your lives, and be traumatized."

Dipper looked between the crystals and Dipans, "fine. But what can I do to stop them from bringing up such an insignificant height difference?"

Dipans blinked. "Call them out on their less than stellar intellect? I don't know in all honesty, I just know that this event was one I regretted."

"And, about Wendy?"

Dipper sounded desperate, Dipans just sighed. "If you want a chance with Wendy, you will have to give up on her for now. Maybe when you're in your twenties, and the age gap is less noticeable, she might say yes, but at the moment, she feels uncomfortable dating younger boys. If you express your feelings now, you will definitely be rejected. Stop pursuing her as a crush, and just settle for being her friend for now, that is the best advice I can give you concerning her."

Dipper frowned, taking a deep breath through his nose. "So I do have a chance, just not anytime soon?"

Dipans shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Mabel shoved me into a closet and forced me to confront her this summer, so I don't know if anything would be different if I waited. I do know that this summer will be a lot more fun, if you just let it go. I would advise you to forget about being more than friends, and just enjoy her company as is. You can hope she will come around later, but it won't be this summer kid."

Dipper sniffled a little as he nodded. "I guess I was in over my head a bit, of course I wouldn't be cool enough…"

"Gonna have to stop you right there." Dipper jumped slightly at the interruption. "Wendy finds you cool, she just isn't interested in noticeably younger guys. When you are older, she might come around, but are you really going to wait for a girl later, and ignore the girls around you that you could find love with? Don't hold out for a hero, be the hero. Allow the inner strength you don't know is there to stand and move forward, and find that shining light that you deserve."

Dipper tilted his head. "You sound like you're quoting something… Are you quoting something?"

Dipans pouted at the boy. "Hey, I can be poetic, you just don't comprehend that skill yet. Maybe you should try it, might make a girl fall head over heels for you."

Dipper blinked as he thought over the older boy's words. "I still don't like them picking on me like…"

The taller guy stiffened as he interrupted him. "Gonna have to hold that thought, something just came up."

Before Dipper could say anything else, he vanished in the blink of an eye, gone from Gravity Falls entirely, for a couple days. Dipper groaned as he looked between the size altering crystals and where his older form had been standing previously.

Groaning, Dipper just grabbed a crystal, his plans being completely different from what they were before he had set out, still desiring to study the properties of the crystal itself if nothing else.

Frisk had noticed her luck making a turn upon this summer, almost as if some greater power felt the need to give her a break from her terrible life. After her mother fell ill, her father had started to have small breakdowns. It started with the man showing signs of depression, leading to an extra beer when he got home. Eventually, he began to have trouble with work, being hungover in the morning did not help with getting there on time, even with people giving him some slack with what was happening.

She however, got no slack from the kids around the neighborhood, who continued to torment her for whatever silly reason they had. Until this summer.

As Frisk watched her home life fall apart, she was surprised by all the bad luck her bullies were having. A trip before they could drop something on her, a fish flopping out of the pond before they could put a hand on her. And the one time that she bumped into someone, causing her to be slightly late, but that had caused a police officer to be the victim of the prank instead.

Frisk was glad she wasn't hit, as well as happy her groceries weren't ruined. Things were going well, and it was only a matter of time until the other foot dropped, which in this case, was the call telling them her mother had passed.

She sat on her bed, crying, mourning, and hiding. Her father didn't take the news well, having planned for the two of them to at least be there for her as she passed, but he didn't want her to see how bad he was taking her situation.

Getting drunk the night before to bury his stress, caused him to not be able to take her to see her mother earlier, causing them to miss her mother's passing. And now, he was getting angry, destroying several things, trashing the living room, shouting. It all frightened her, so she hid away from it all.

Her father was also drinking more throughout the tantrum he was throwing, trying to lessen the pain he felt through every means he could think of. The last thing she wanted was to be one of the things he threw or smashed in his drunk, rage-filled grief.

That is, until her door was something he broke.

As Frisk sat on her bed, staring with wide teary eyes, her father stood over her, now broken, door. His red puffy eyes set in a glare, as he was speaking random unintelligible mumbles. The only real thing she could discern, was he started blaming her.

As the man raised the half filled glass beer bottle, preparing to throw the item, shouting again, there was suddenly someone in front of her. A large boy in a hooded jacket, grabbing the bottle out of the air, before he just rushed forward and smacked her father out of her room. "It might not be very safe here for a bit."

Frisk had no idea what was going on, although she did somewhat recognize the boy. He had started to show up recently, near the start of summer, and had even been the guy she bumped into when she went grocery shopping.

Had this boy been diverting the bullies' attention away from her?

"We should leave before he wakes up. I know an old lady that'd be more than happy to take care of ya."

Dipans looked down at the adult he just pushed. One handed, flat palm, right in the chest, which was now somewhat damaged. Maybe the pain will snap him out of his rage.

Dipans turned to look at Frisk, finding the young girl staring at him in shock and awe. The monster human hybrid rolled his eyes as he grabbed her wrist and began to guide her out of the house. Ignoring the curious eyes that looked out their windows, Dipans guided the girl out of town, thinking over everything so far.

Everything was so much clearer now. The summer hasn't even gone on very long, and Frisk was almost assaulted by her father, which makes his Sans half question.

Did Frisk in the first timeline have to deal with that situation throughout the entire summer? The girl was bullied as the unpopular scapegoat, her mother died of an illness, and her father lost himself to grief, and Frisk was tortured throughout nearly three fourths of a summer like that. How far had her father fallen until the girl made the trek up the mountain to end it all?

Only for her 'death' to entail so much more bullying.

Sans was willing to admit, some monsters in the underground could be aggressive upon first meeting them, and he had heard how Toriel had tried force to keep Frisk with her. And after seeing what the girl had to deal with before entering the underground, even just the beginning, he was having trouble keeping his anger at the girl.

"Where are you taking me?"

"To what your town calls Mount Ebott."

"So, you're trying to…"

"Save you."

Frisk flinched as she stared at the mystery boy's back, but before she could find her voice again, he continued. "This town has given you enough problems. I am taking you away from them, so you can meet people that will truly care."

"Impossible, there is no one that cares for anyone but themselves. Life is cruel, dark, evil. There is nowhere, especially not some mountain where kids die, with people that would ever show kindness to some random brat."

Dipans almost missed the tears, barely looking back in time to see her crying. Dipans sighed, "call me Mason. And believe me, this old lady that I know, she adopts every child that she meets, and does nothing but treat them with love and care. Even if it hurts her so much when they leave her, ignoring her when she asks them to stay. She enjoys baking pie, she loves teaching. And if nothing else, you can always rely on me to protect you from now on."

Frisk blinked as she looked up into the boy's eyes. "You were the one that did all those things to stop my bullies, aren't you?"

Mason smiled, letting out a chuckle. "You caught me, I guess."

Mason placed his hand on Frisk's head, ruffling her bangs. "I at first didn't understand much, and after learning a bit about you, I couldn't let you suffer anymore. Today was the last straw, I refuse to stand by and do nothing any longer."

Frisk looked up into the boy's eyes, before she sniffled and smiled. "Okay, I trust you."

Alright, first things first, sorry for going on a bit of a hiatus. No excuses, I ran into a bit of writer's block and was unable to really break out of it. I tried to work on different chapters for several different stories, but wound up not being able to stay focused long enough to finish any, until now.

I would have posted this chapter yesterday, but I kind of slept through the entire day, not feeling very well for whatever reason. No clue what is wrong with me, probably just a cold, the headaches are just bleh.

I will give you all a short heads up for next chapter, cause if you haven't expected by now, Frisk is going through the underground, sooner than what she is supposed to, and she gets a dedicated guide this time around. Any specific interaction you want me to draw specific attention to, feel free to ask about in reviews.

Something else though, I must ask that certain reviewers here on FFN, won't specifically point fingers, but stop demanding more chapters. Asking me to focus on this story once is one thing, but demanding that I update, after I receive an email telling me someone reviewed, three times in a row, leaves me a bit depressed, and only makes it harder to write.