Whatever was chasing them wasn't letting up. This was worse than the gnomes, worse than the shapeshifter, worse than Lil Gideon's robot and the million other things that had been chasing them all summer. Whatever this was, it was out for blood.
It had Bill written all over it, of course. Reality was seemingly breaking down around them as they ran. Were they even in Gravity Falls anymore? Oregon? America? Nothing really looked familiar, except miles and miles of forests and dirt tracks leading all the way up a huge, barren mountain. Dipper and Mabel had no choice but to sprint up it, the adrenaline pushing them forwards long after their energy had run out.
"Just get to the top!" screamed Dipper, pulling Mabel along by the hand while trying to figure out where they could actually escape to. There didn't seem to be anywhere out of sight, and neither of them could outrun Bill Cipher forever. Regardless, they kept pushing onwards, hoping that something would eventually come swooping in to save the day as it usually did.
The ground was bumpy, littered with sharp stones and old tree roots. Dipper was so focused on escaping, he barely noticed where his feet were landing. Before he could react in time, his foot caught on one of the roots, tripping him up— and dragging Mabel along with him. The two fell into a giant hole, reminiscent of the bottomless pit back in Gravity Falls, although this particular pit was very much bottomless. They could see the ground barrelling towards them and the two kids screamed, holding their arms out instinctively to protect their faces from the inevitable crash land. Never mind Bill Cipher, this was how they were going to die: by falling into a hole. Among other things flooding Dipper's head, he was rather disappointed at the lack of heroism in this death. If he was going to die, he wanted to at least go out while battling a horrifying monster.
He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the inevitable, silently apologising to Mabel for getting them both into this mess in the first place.
After an agonising minute or two, they finally landed with a heavy thump, onto something soft enough to dampen the impact, but still enough to wind them. The fog of panic inside Dipper's head cleared enough for him to do a mental check over himself: he didn't think he was dead, or even that badly injured. There was a twinge of pain in his ankle, but other than that, he was mainly just frazzled.
He heard someone groan next to him, and his eyes flew open.
"Mabel?!" It was very dark where they'd landed, the ground only slightly illuminated by the distant sunlight above. Dipper crawled over to where he assumed Mabel was and gently shook her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"Ugh, what... what happened?" Mabel tried to sit up, cradling her aching head in her hands and blinking out at the darkness. Dipper, who was slightly ahead of her in his recovery, helped her up, and the two slowly stood themselves upright. "Where are we?"
"I think we fell into the mountain," replied Dipper. He craned his neck upwards to look at the pinprick of sunlight that remained in the dark chasm; they must have fallen for miles, and how they had even survived was a complete mystery. Dipper looked down at what they had fallen onto and noticed an unexpected bed of yellow flowers, conveniently placed exactly where they had landed. Almost as if something had been expecting them. Dipper shivered.
"This place is kinda creepy," he murmured, his eyes slowly adjusting to the surrounding darkness. Other than the bed of flowers, there was nothing else here besides rock. "Maybe we should go."
"How? Climbing back up will take us days, if we don't fall and crack our heads on the rock."
"Well, we can't just stay here... ." Dipper listened out for any noise, but all he could hear was the occasional tapping sound of falling stones. "Looks like we've lost Bill."
"Well that's... that's good, right?" Dipper gave a sort of non-committal noise, unsure whether he trusted this place. There wasn't a lot that could stop Bill, so this mountain must have held far more power than first appearances, and Dipper was wondering if this was perhaps some sort of trap.
"Howdy!" The two siblings jumped at the sound of a brand new voice, and Dipper instinctively tried to shield Mabel away from whatever had just spoken. It was coming from the darkness ahead, and they slowly backed away towards the spot of sunlight behind them. A flower suddenly popped up in front of them, yellow like the ones they'd fallen onto, except this one... had a face.
"I'm Flowey!" it said. "Flowey the flower." Mabel gasped in delight, pointing at the flower with a grin on her face and that familiar twinkle in her eyes.
"A talking flower!" she squealed. "Hi, I'm Mabel!" She went to run up to it, but Dipper held her back.
"Hold on," he whispered. "You don't know if you can trust it." Mabel scoffed.
"Come on, Dipper, it's a talking flower! How dangerous can it be?"
"Yeah," replied the flower, apparently listening to their conversation. "I'm just here to introduce you to the underground! You must be so confused!"
"The underground?" asked Dipper. As much as he was wary of this so-called Flowey, he had to admit he was curious. "What's the underground?"
"Why, you're standing in it!" Flowey laughed. "Someone ought to teach you how things work around here," he continued. "I guess little old me will have to do!" His voice grated against Dipper's ears, infuriatingly reminding him of Lil Gideon.
Suddenly, though, something strange happened. There was a glow from Dipper and Mabel's chests, illuminating a red heart underneath Dipper's shirt and a green heart underneath Mabel's sweater. Dipper stumbled back in surprise while Mabel was once again enamoured by this new encounter.
"It's so pretty!" Dipper heard her say.
"These are your Souls," explained Flowey. "The very culmination of your being! Your Soul starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV." Dipper frowned at the suspiciously rehearsed speech.
"What's... LV?" asked Dipper.
"Why, it stands for Love, of course!" Mabel squeaked happily and punched Dipper on the arm in excitement.
"I like this guy," she said. Dipper rubbed at the sore spot on his arm, still frowning at the flower.
"You want some Love, don't you?" Flowey continued brightly, to which Mabel nodded enthusiastically. "Don't worry, I'll share some with you!" A mass of white stones appeared around Flowey, circling him like a halo. Dipper kept his eyes on them, once again holding an arm out to shield Mabel.
"Down here, Love is shared through little white... friendliness pellets!" He grinned, an empty smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. "Are you ready? Move around, collect them all!" Before Dipper could stop her, Mabel escaped from his grasp and ran forward to catch the pellets.
"Mabel, no!" Dipper screamed, trying to grab the back of her sweater, but his hands clasped at thin air. Mabel tried to catch one of the pellets, but they seemed to zone in on her, and within moments, they shot at her like bullets. Mabel was instantly catapulted to the ground, sliding along the rocks and stopping just beyond Dipper's feet. She was unconscious, and badly bruised from the impact of the bullets.
"Mabel!" Dipper fell to his knees and bent over her, inspecting the damage and desperately trying to shake her awake. "What did you do?!" he screamed at the flower, but all he was met with was evil laughter. Dipper looked up and saw that the previously kind face had dramatically changed into an expression of twisted glee. Flowey sported a wicked grin, his eyes flashing and immediately sending a feeling of pure dread shooting through Dipper's body.
"You idiot!" he screeched, his voice even higher-pitched than before. "In this world, it's kill or be killed! Why would anyone pass up an opportunity like this?" More bullets appeared from nowhere, poised ready to attack the two children. One more hit, and Mabel would surely die, and Dipper would clearly fare no better. They were surrounded. Dipper frantically searched around for some kind of escape, but there was nothing but rock face and a tiny circle of light that taunted them from above.
They were doomed.
"DIE!" screamed Flowey, and Dipper could do nothing but shield Mabel with his body and wait for the impact to hit him full force. He briefly wondered if this had anything to do with Bill, and then he decided to stop caring, because the last thing he wanted on his mind when he died was Bill Cipher. Instead, he thought of Grunkle Stan, and Soos, and Wendy... he was never going to see them again.
"Huh?" Dipper heard the exclamation, confused as to why he had yet to feel any of the bullets pummelling his body. There was a shout of surprise, and then the Underground was silent. Dipper braved a peek, opening his eyes and turning to where Flowey had once been standing. The flower had disappeared.
Dipper stared into the darkness, distrusting that he wouldn't pop up once more and destroy him and his sister. He lifted Mabel into his arms as she finally began to stir, but just as she opened her eyes, a new being suddenly appeared in front of them.
Whatever it was, it looked nothing like Flowey. It was some sort of... goat person, towering over the two of them, with white fur and curly horns. Dipper held Mabel closely to his chest and glared at the monster.
"Stay back!" he shouted. "I won't let you hurt us!"
"Do not be afraid, my child," said the monster, and what came from her mouth was a soothing, gentle voice that would have calmed Dipper's nerves for a moment, had he and Mabel not almost been killed moments before.
"Who are you?"
"I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins, and I'm afraid that awful creature was just trying to torture you." She walked forward, stopping just before she got too close and bent down to their level. She held out a large, fluffy paw. "I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down, and you are the first humans to come down here in a long time." Mabel lifted herself up, with some help from Dipper, and her previous enthusiasm had dissipated to Dipper's own signature distrust.
"Are you going to hurt us?" she asked. Toriel shook her head.
"Of course not," she replied, and Dipper couldn't help but believe her. Her voice was so calm, so motherly. "Let me help you." She moved even closer and took something out of her pocket. It looked like an apple, red and juicy. "Take a bite of this, my dear," she offered. "It will heal you."
Mabel took the apple, but Dipper grabbed her hand.
"Wait," he hissed. "Don't eat it, it might be poisoned."
"I can assure, child, I have no intention of hurting you. The Ruins are far nicer than the impression you've had so far." She looked out of the corner of her eyes at where the flower had disappeared off to. "He is... an outlier," she explained. "Gaining pleasure out of torturing you poor, innocent youth. The rest of us are not like this, I promise."
Gradually, Dipper let his fear of her melt away slightly, and Mabel took a bite out of the apple. Almost at once, her demeanour changed. Her bruises vanished, and she sat up with a sudden burst of revived spirit.
"Hey," she exclaimed. "I feel better!" She stood up just to prove it and took another bite of the apple. "You sure know how to grow good apples, lady," she remarked, spewing chunks of apple all over the place as she spoke with her mouth full. Dipper cringed in embarrassment, but Toriel simply laughed pleasantly.
"Why, thank you," she said. She held out both of her hands, one for each of the twins. "Come," she prompted. "I will guide you through the catacombs." Mabel took her hand instantly, while Dipper hesitated for a moment before following suit. Toriel led them to the left, down through a tunnel that ended with a giant, purple doorway.
The moment they stepped through the doorway, their surroundings changed. In front of them, just beyond a wide pathway stood another doorway, this time atop two flights of stairs that interconnected with each other. Strangely enough, there was a pile of red leaves on the ground. From where... Dipper couldn't tell. There didn't seem to be any trees around. Mabel let go of Toriel's hand and ran to the leaves, crunching them underfoot and kicking at them so they exploded around her. Her laughter echoed around the low walls, until she noticed the small ball of sparkling light, glowing brightly above the leaves, which both twins instantly felt drawn to. Mabel was the first to touch it, of course; Dipper could see the twinkling light reflecting in her wide eyes. Dipper himself couldn't help but reach a hand out to touch it, mesmerised by the glow, and a burst of warmth flowed through him as his hand met the light.
Any lingering pain from the fall disappeared in an instant, just like how Mabel had been cured by eating the apple, and a feeling of what he could only describe as determination inexplicably spread through his chest and urged him forwards into the catacombs. Whatever adventure he had stumbled into, he was at once ready to face it head on.
AN: I probably won't be uploading the next chapter for a while. I just want to see if people like this first before I commit to continuing it, because it's going to be LONG.