Pandora looked haggard and tired as she entered the office. "Still more nightmares?" A moose psychiatrist asked.
"Yeah..." Pandora gasped as she went to the big leather couch. "I don't know what's wrong... maybe it's a quirk of my hybrid biology. B-But I still... I still see them." She said, referring to the nightmares of her working alongside alternate universe versions of herself, to remake there universe's. All of which ended with her parents, Nick and Judy, defeating the Pandora's and saving the multi-verse in the process.
"That is strange." The moose commented. "Most of the drugs I prescribed should suppress dreaming altogether.
"I know Dr. Metro, my company made at least one of the drugs you prescribed." Pandora said in exhaustion. "The only thing that's really changed lately is that just before I wake up in a sweat... is some voice telling me to talk to my Uncle Davies about it."
"Well... that is perplexing." Dr. Metro said. "I still stand by my initial diagnosis that your suffering from stress. It can't be easy for someone so young to manage a technological corporate empire."
After this appointment, Pandora went to the home of her uncle. Blackpaw Manor. "I take it this isn't a social visit?" Anna Blackpaw said sardonically as her hybrid niece entered the manor.
"Where. Is. Davies?" Pandora demanded.
"Pandora, we both know that you could have just... communicated to him," Anna said. "I swear, are phones even a thing these days? Point is, he's out and won't be back for a while."
"Then I'll stay until he comes back," Pandora said, then several hours later. Davies returned home. "Uncle... I came here to ask some questions of you."
"What kind of questions?" Davies asked, unperturbed by his niece's presence. Pandora then explained at length the nightmares she was having. Davies sighed when she finished. "I was so hoping that we wouldn't have to deal with this ever again."
"Deal with what again?" Pandora asked inquisitively.
"Well... it's like this." Davies began. "We've had problems with time travel... from you."
"Excuse me?" Pandora asked in bewilderment.
"It's a bit of a story there... see. Once upon a time, your mother ran into a mammal just like you. And by like you, I mean she was you." Davies began. "See, there was this time where you made a time machine, and Judy came from a future where Mulersons robots took over the world. She came back in time to stop that apocalypse from happening. That created a timeline where you were... kind of a jerk." He then went into detail about how that version of Pandora was embittered by a lifetime of being mistreated by others, and Nick and Judy's sub-par parenting. He also went into detail about her time-traveling adventures... at least the ones that directly involved him.
This went on for about an hour or more. "I... I don't understand." Pandora said in disbelief. "I-I-I mean... let's say that any of this is true. How could I be remembering things that technically didn't happen?!"
"Because by that same logic, it also still happened despite the timeline being changed," Davies said. "I'd go into further detail, but I think you can figure out the point I'm trying to get across."
"My life... it's built upon paradoxes?" Pandora said in disbelief.
"I'm afraid so kiddo," Davies said empathetically. "Still, you've done a lot of good since Tadashi died, regardless of the paradoxes."
Then without warning, Josephus the fruit bat Vampire burst through a wall. "THE TIME HAS COME YOUNG PANDORA WILDE-HOPPS!"
"Blast it, Josephus! What have I told you about destroying my house!" Anna said in aggravation.
"BEHOLD!" Josephus shrieked, not reading the room as he presented a small box. "AS THE TINY ROBO-SPIDER DICTATED SOME ONE-HUNDRED YEARS AGO!" Inside of the box was a blue colored metal substance. "BEHOLD! TEMPUS METALLUM!"
"Uh..." Pandora said in bewilderment as she reached out her paw, and touched the tempus metallum, and was shocked by it. "Ow! What... I saw it."
"Saw what?" Davies asked.
"I... I saw everything that you described." Pandora said in awe. Then without warning, Clancy came.
"And that is my queue to enter the scene." The spider-like robot watch said.
"And I remember you!... you withheld information for no good reason from me on multiple occasions!" Pandora said.
"The plot must flow, and now comes the next chapter in your adventure," Clancy said, he then projected schematics. "This will allow you to build a Time and Space Displacement Device with the tempus metallum."
"And do what?" Pandora asked incredulously.
"To put it simply... several Pandora's escaped the climactic battle, and others simply never found the Timeless Void in the first place," Clancy said. "Your job will be to hunt down the renegade Pandora's. And keep the rest from finding the Timeless Void, or threaten the space-time continuum in any way, shape, or form."
Pandora then screamed. "I JUST WANTED TO GET A GOOD NIGHT SLEEP AGAIN!" She then broke down crying.
"Pancake..." Davies said sympathetically. "I am so sorry- Clancy what is wrong with you?!" He said in outrage. "All she wanted were answers for her nightmares. And you drop THAT on her?!"
"It's nonsense like this that almost everyone holds you in contempt Clancy," Anna said in disgust. "Dear... just let it all out." She said as she hugged her niece.
"I am but a servant of the plot." Clancy then disappeared into a time portal.
Several hours later at home, Pandora had regained her composure and built the TSDD as per Clancy's specifications. Complete with the AI that he specified. "-and... there we go." She said as she activated her TSDD. The Clancy within it screamed for several seconds.
"Clancy Prime is online," Clancy said.
Pandora then strapped the device to her wrist. "Okay, little guy. Here are some ground rules. First, you don't withhold anything from me. Anything that would allow me to do this mission properly. Secondly, in between universes. I get to return home to rest and recuperate from whatever adventures I'll get myself into. Third, if I like whatever universe we're in or meet anyone I find interesting, we'll spend three linear days in that universe. Fourth, I also get to use time travel to speed up finding that universe's version of me if we find a concrete lead." She listed irately.
"And I suppose you also want to know how a time machine can travel between universes?" Clancy asked.
"No... the science that other Clancy gave me were quite explicit on how it could work." Pandora said. "I... I just have the biggest headache right now. Not just from... all of this. But from working on this thing specifically." She said in frustration.
"To be fair, in the last timeline you had five years by yourself to fully work out how the Time and Space Displacement Device works," Clancy said.
"Either way... get me some headache medication," Pandora commanded, Clancy then created a bottle of pills for just that. "Thank you."
"Just remember to only take the recommended dosage," Clancy said as Pandora took the pills.
One week later, Pandora began her journey in earnest. With Clancy opening a time portal... which sucked her into a wormhole. "WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING?!"
"This is what travel to another universe looks like," Clancy said, eventually Pandora was shot out of the wormhole into another universe. And fell out of the sky,
After that, Pandora vomited. "Okay... no eating before inter-universe travel... did you know that BEFORE?"
"Regardless, we must find this universe's version of Pandora," Clancy said, Pandora then looked around at where she landed.
"Why is everyone naked?" Pandora noted as the mammal's bellow were completely naked.
"In this universe, being a Naturalist is not only socially excepted. It's also mandatory by law." Clancy said nonchalantly.
"Really? That Yak character would have loved this universe." Pandora said in disgust. "Now where would we go to find my alternate self here?"
Several minutes later. Pandora was at street level, completely naked, and snarling. "To be fair, this is the most advantageous way for you to blend in," Clancy said.
"Shut. Up." Pandora said scornfully. Thankfully for the frustrated hybrid, she found her alternate counterpart fairly quickly. "You."
"What the heck?!" The Naked Pandora said in surprise.
"Are you... or are you not, working on a time travel device?" Pandora seethed.
"Well... yeah, I'm trying to create a society where mammals aren't required to be naked." The Naked Pandora clarified.
"And...?" Pandora asked suspiciously.
"And that's it! I'm only interested in making a society that doesn't throw anyone who covers up into the stockades!" The Naked Pandora said. "Do you have any idea how cold it can get sometimes?" She ranted.
"And you haven't come into contact with anyone going by the name Elijah Camelski? Or someone with a similar sounding name?" Pandora asked.
"What? No!... well besides cousin Elijah but other than him no, I have no memory of meeting an Elijah in my life!" The Naked Pandora objected.
"Huh... well what do you know Clancy. Coming here was a false alarm!" Pandora said in irritation to Clancy. "Take me home. NOW." Then a time portal back to Pandora's universe opened. "Thank you, Clancy." She then jumped through the portal back home. "I just... why would you send me to a universe like this when there isn't even a threat?"
"Consider it caution. Even if there only ambition is to just improve the quality of life for there universes in one way or another. We must make certain that they won't use time travel for there own ambitions..." Clancy said. "Pandora... you have to understand, while the War in the Void technically didn't happen. It did, and every other Clancy and I do not want another conflict like that to happen again."
Pandora's mood sunk. "And I just wanted to be able to sleep again..." She was then struck by the temporally distorted memories of what happened to her.
"And there's my point... you allowed your bitterness to consume you. You allowed the Empress Pandora to run roughshod over you, and by extension the other Pandora's. Even though the destruction of the multi-verse, the Empress Pandora and several others are missing. There needs to be something to keep her from trying to do this all again... the other Clancy's and I would do this ourselves. But... the truth of the matter would break your mind." Clancy explained. "Trust me, one my alternate selves did just that, and his Pandora went completely bonkers."
Pandora then emerged in her home universe, specifically in her bedroom. "Just... give me that week I asked for... and a change of clothes. I'm still naked, and... I just feel exhausted right now." Clancy didn't say anything as he used his poorly defined reality-warping powers to manifest a change of clothes for Pandora on her body. "Yeah... not sure which part of all of this is tiring me out." She then fell on her bed and started loudly snoring. "The revelation that I nearly destroyed the universe... and then some. The strain of going through a wormhole. Or... or the frustration of stripping naked for a wild good chase." She muttered in between snoring.
"Dream your dreams Ms. Wilde-Hopps... they might be the only place your free," Clancy said.