"Well here we are," Clancy said as he brought Nick and Judy into a white place. "The Timeless Void, where the laws of time are... substantially different." He explained. "It's not that time itself does not exist here. It's just that entropy does not have hold here."
"Judy!" Nick said as his wife stormed off in the direction of the only visible building for miles around. An immense fortress that was colored a dark blue. "Wait up!" Nick said, Judy only grumbled loudly. "Look, I know your upset that Pandora... apparently is making herself a super villain but that's-"
"Oh I'm not upset Nick." Judy said still sounding angry. "I'm not upset that our little girl is using time travel to take over the world and remake it in her own image. I'm not upset that she has somehow managed to get involved with parallel versions of herself. I'm not upset that's she's doing all of this to settle a grudge with some camel. I'm not upset that she's been playing god! I'm not even upset that she tried to kill Olaf, just because he wasn't in the timeline she came from!" Judy ranted. "I'm not upset about any of that! I'm scarred! I'm scared because... because our sweetheart of a baby has been so traumatized by a life spent where we were at best in the same room but didn't actually do anything. I'm scared because in THIS timeline... I think, we're such lousy enough parents that she does... will do... all of these terrible things. I'm scared because I don't know how, if at all to keep OUR Pandora from becoming this obsessed maniac..." Judy ranted, sounding quite angry.
"Okay... that doesn't explain the angry voice though." Nick pointed out.
"That's because Bogo never thought to tell us. That Imbali was a freed genie!" Judy shouted. "THAT IS A BIG BOMBSHELL RIGHT THERE! AND I AM INSENCED THAT BOGO NEVER TOLD US THAT BEFORE HE LEFT FOR THE IDL!" She wailed, her voice echoing through the dimension where time held no sway.
"It is good to see that your priorities are in order Mrs. Wilde-Hopps." Clancy snarked. "But we must focus on getting to the Citadel Out of Time... which thanks to some new technology that the Pandora's seem to have employed. I couldn't just teleport us inside of."
"And how do we get there on foot?" Nick asked.
"You walk... I'd provided transportation. But forces far beyond your comprehension are keeping me from doing just that." Clancy said.
"Well it shouldn't be too long anyway." Judy said.
Several million years passed, and they were still no closer to the Citadel then when they started. "So... are we there yet?" Nick asked.
"Very good! You went a whole million years without asking that question again!" Clancy said.
"Answer the vulpine's question Clancy!" Judy said angrily.
"No... no we're not actually at the Citadel Out of Time yet." Clancy said, the eons came and went, but eventually they arrived at the immense doors of the Citadel Out of Time. "And now, we're finally here."
"Okay... how are we even still alive?" Nick said in exhaustion as he and his wife leaned against a nearby wall.
"Again, this place is out of linier time, ergo neither of you can experience entropy... just accept it and ask no more questions." Clancy said.
"Just one... what exactly is... are... Pandora... Pandoras- ARRGH! What is going on in there, and why does this thing even exist?!" Judy roared.
"Well the Pandora's have been performing experiments and creating legions of robots, clones and spliced hybrids... and that's just what YOUR Pandora is working on." Clancy explained. "As for the why it's here... you remember Mimir's tale of Ragnarok?"
"Yep... one of the few things I can really remember after BILLIONS OF YEARS OF TREKING!" Nick shouted.
"Well to put it simply, all but one of the Ruinous Ones were destroyed by Thor's rampage. A servant of the Changer of Ways survived the Aesir's wrath, a being named Sarthorael, the Ever-Watcher. Since Ragnarok he has been manipulating events in the mortal realm, in EVERY alternate universe and timeline to destroy all of creation in the process." Clancy said.
"You mean... our baby girl has been manipulated by some sort of eldritch horror?" Judy asked.
"Yes, the Ever-Watcher has been manipulating events all throughout Mamgards history since Ragnarok the make the destruction of all time AND space a reality. Of late... more or less, he took the form of a camel by the name of Elijah Camelski, and in your future timeline he formed a corporation that specialized in advanced robots with Pandora... and eventually he removed her from the company altogether." Clancy explained. "Poor girl was crushed, not only by the betrayal of someone she considered a friend. But shortly after THAT you faked your death to become the head of the International Defense League."
"Excuse me?" Judy said indignantly at the comment about her faking her death.
"Well... there was a mission you both went on in Budapest, you both nearly died. So you took up as the head of the IDL, all the while controlling a clone of yourself with a neural headband. Then the clone was killed in a terrorist attack a few years later. Then after THAT Pandora put together the threads of what happened... and she was FURIOUS at the deception." Clancy explained.
"Oh... wow we sound like lousy parents." Nick said.
"Basically, then after that she willfully lived in poverty in Happytown to develop the Time and Space Displacement Device." Clancy explained.
"Was there... a specific reason that you didn't share any of this on the TRILLION year long walk?!" Judy yelled in frustration.
"Because shut up... seriously, you could alert the Citadels security. This is already happening with other versions of use all across the perimeter of the Citadel!" Clancy said.
"So would it be safe to presume that this... 'Sarthorael' made this Citadel right?" Nick asked.
"Yes! Now pipe down while I try to-" Clancy was cut off as a Pala'peli and a number of combat robots cut him off. "open the door..."
XXXX
Eventually, Nick, Judy and Clancy were brought to a cell. At the door was Pandora Prime, the Pandora that had found the Citadel Out of Time, the one from there timeline. "So... the traitor AI just had to bring mom and dad into this mess." Pandora Prime said in disgust at Clancy.
"Everything I've been doing has been to keep you, and Creation as a whole intact!" Clancy protested.
"Pandora... Pancake... he told us about what'll happen." Nick said, trying to reason with his daughter.
"Save it dad... it's much too late to change what's gone wrong." Pandora said bitterly.
"But you have a time machine!" Judy pleaded "You could convince your younger self that doing anything with Camelski would be a bad idea!"
"And cause irreparable paradoxes to the space time continuum?! I admit that me, and the other Pandora's are crazy. But we're in enough hot water as it is!" Pandora said. "Look... I don't hate either of you two... it's THOSE two I'm on the outs with!" Pandora Prime said, pointing to the older Nick and Judy from her timeline. "I want to make the world a better place on MY terms! And you two have the gall to talk down to me about my methods?... what I did to Camelski after all was said and done was horrible sure. But what the mammal was willing to do just get rich... it deserved a slow death!" She ranted.
"But Camelski isn't even a mammal! He's some kind of... outer-god monster who wants to destroy EVERYTHING... via you... somehow." Present Nick said.
"He's right, it's like what I was trying to tell you when we first found this place!" Clancy said. "Yours's and the other Pandora's work in the Timeless Void will result in every universe collapsing on themselves! Your revenge and your desire to make the world a better place will be made moot! That's why I tried to bring Olaf into your timeline!" Clancy pleaded.
"ENOUGH!" Pandora Prime shouted. "Like every other Nick, Judy and Clancy that's been imprisoned for your benighted tunnel-vision... we've poured centillion's of years into this... CENTILLIONS... that's at least three-hundred and three zeroes! We're all collectively older than our own universe by eons. There's no going back... goodbye." Pandora said as she left the jail... eventually, she got lost a few times in the labyrinthine dungeon.
"3... 2... 1..." Clancy counted, then unexpectedly the cell doors opened. "Lazy writing at its finest, readers at home." He muttered.
"Well... I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth." Nick said.
"But first... I have a bone to pick." Judy said as she went into the cell where her future self was sitting. "You mind explaining yourself old timer?" The younger Judy demanded of her future self.
"I... I was so focused on making the world a better place, that I neglected my children... Pandora most of all" Future Pandora said regretfully. "I thought... I hoped that she wouldn't use the TSDD for anything more than research and keeping the timeline going the way it's supposed to go. But then... well it's kind of a long story." She explained.
"Time has no hold over us here Honey Bunny. I think we have time for all the gory details." Future Nick said. Future Judy then explained that her original timeline had Dr. Mulerson take over the world with his robots, after which Pandora worked on the original TSDD to undo the robot apocalypse. The Future Judy succeeded... and learned that her future wasn't as perfect as she had hoped it would be. While her family was happy and successful, Pandora Prime was willingly living in poverty to work on the TSDD.
Then Future Judy went to prevent Bogo's assassination by Draco Long-Fang's thugs. Pandora Prime found out about the alternate timeline she had come from in the first place. Future Judy theorized that the reason Pandora Prime never went back to deal with Elijah Camelski before the eldritch horror set her on the path to universal domination was of fear of accidentally causing a paradox and allowing the robot apocalypse to happen.
"Carrots." Present Nick said the Present Judy.
"Yeah Slick Nick?" Present Judy said.
"You remember when we were just trying to find lost mammals, end a mad sheep's schemes, and catch a sloth for speeding?" Present Nick said.
"Yeah." Present Judy said.
"I miss that simple stuff... I really like the simple stuff. I really wish we could go back to those simple times, when we didn't have to deal with Vampires, robots, and time travel, and other science fiction or fantastic issues." Present Nick said.
"We do too... and we've literally had EONS to regret our poor choices." Future Nick said.
"Now... now all we got left is to keep our baby girl from destroying everything." Future Judy said.
Then a glowing Nick and Judy wearing togas approached the four of them. "Then let us take up arms against our wayward daughters!" The godlike Judy Hopps said as the other Nick and Judies met up.
"Yes my wife dearest... though it pains me." The godlike Judy said. "We must stop the Pandora's from destroying all of Creation, and if we can save her."
"We. Will. Save her." Present Judy said determinedly.
"Well... then we've got to move. Take the fight directly to them and there monsters." Future Judy said.
Over the next few million years, the Nick's and Judies fought a massive guerrilla campaign through the universe sized Citadel Out of Time. Fighting in addition to Pali'peli's, clones, hybrids and robots, but demons and other monsters.
Finally though, they met each other in open combat. "Pandora's... lend me your strength!" Pandora Prime said as she held up a paw. Then all the other Pandora's shot up into the technically non-existent sky in bolts of light. Then falling into Pandora Primes hand, and eventually turning her into the massive beast that Nick and Judy saw when Mimir tried to decipher Judy's prophetic nightmare.
"Uh... Clancy." Every Nick and Judy present said in perfect unison.
"Yes. You can merge with your alternate selves like that." All of the Clancy's said. Then Nick and Judy Prime imitated Pandora Prime's motion, and also turned into massive versions of themselves.
"ALL... WHO DEFY ME... SHALL... BURN!" The Gestalt Pandora roared, breathing fire on the Gestalt Nick and Judy.
"Pandora... stop this." Judy said with an ethereal voice. "You are better than your anger." She said, unphased by the fire.
"Yeah Pancake... we... by that, meaning ME specifically. Lived with bitterness for years before we met your mother. We were miserable by our lot in life." Gestalt Nick said, trying to reason with his renegade daughter.
"All the sacrifices I've made... have been so that no one... NO ONE ever has to experience what you had to experience. So that the scars mean something... so that all that is can truly become better!" Gestalt Pandora said. "And if that quest must lead to your deaths, then so be it!" She roared as she leaped at her parents, roaring in anger.
"It's finally ending." The Clancy's said in unison "Untold eons of bitterness and rage, plots and schemes, of seeing Creation undone in short sighted and careless plots... we can finally rest." They said.
XXXX
Eventually, after untold eons of battle... Pandora was defeated, and she along with her parents and Clancy were alone in a grey void. The same one from Judy's prophetic dream. Pandora was on her knee's, wearing a grey robe that obscured her features.
Nick and Judy cautiously approached her. "Mommy... daddy... I am so sorry." Pandora whimpered.
"Pandora... I'm so sorry... we should be better." Judy said, as Pandora started to turn to ash.
"You know... it's actually really funny. I've spent eons planning, and planning, and teaching myself whatever I could... but despite my intellect. I am in the biggest fool there ever was." Pandora said as she sobbed.
"Pandora... we'll find a way to keep this from happening to you." Nick said, unable to hold back his tears.
"Perhaps... I don't even care... my sins have caught up with me. And I deserve to fall into oblivion for my misdeeds." Pandora said.
"Don't say that!" Judy said as she wept for her daughter.
"Clancy... I want you to take a message... one that MUST save all that we know." Pandora said, stoically. "I don't have much time."
"As always, I am your servant Pandora." Clancy said in a subdued tone, he then began recording.
...keep the scars that strengthen...
...mend the scars that condemn...
...heal the scars that can be healed...
...live with the scars that cannot be removed...
...keep the trench scar from opening...
...save... me... from... myself... mommy...
...stop... the monster... from ever existing...
"What do those words even mean?! WHO IS THAT MESSAGE EVEN FOR?!" Judy wailed.
"I want this... to fade away... the bitter monster that I've become... to never again be the threat that I've made myself to be. And I want... I want Elizabeth, to take up the TSDD." Pandora said.
"It would be an honor Pandora." Clancy said solemnly as Pandora further disintegrated.
XXXX
Nick and Judy woke up in there bed, back at the exact point in time from when they left. "Your back... and I need to strike up some deals." Clancy said, standing on the bed sheets. "Enjoy yourselves, and always try to be there for Pandora as often as you can." He said as he opened a wormhole and jumped through it.
Nick and Judy got up and checked in the children's bedroom. In there, little baby Pandora was sleeping soundly in her cradle.
"She's okay..." Judy mused as she buried her face in Nick's chest. "She's alive!" Nick said nothing as he hugged his wife.
"So..." Davies said, sitting at his computer desk. "How did the time hop go?" He asked.
"We'll tell you Davie Hoppit... but you've got to take notes. Because it is a dozy!" Nick said.
"Only if I get to do this without hearing you whine." Davies said as he got up from his chair.
"Do what?" Nick said, and then Davies slammed his foot onto Nick's tail.
"That... and NEVER use that nickname ever again... it's a stupid pun to begin with." Davies said in disgust as Nick held in a pained yelp.