To say that Stanford Pines had never expected to come home again was an understatement. He had been stranded, lost in another dimension entirely, with the portal to send him back wrecked and half-finished, and a brother with only six brain cells left to fix it.
So he embarked on a thirty year adventure throughout the multiverse. Finding everything he could about Bill in hopes to defeat him, travelling with outlaws, stealing enough parts to create a Quantum Destabilizer, learning thirteen languages that did not even exist in his home dimension, and getting into fistfights with talking couches. He and ex (it was hard to say what he and Rick exactly were. Ex-lab partners, ex-gang members, ex-partners…but there was definitely an ex in there, because that was just the kind of person Rick was) even made a smaller version of his machine, a portal gun. But without the coordinates to his home dimension, there was never any hope of returning.
That was until one day Rick showed up with a pen, a coffee cup with a question mark on it, and a notepad crossed with both his and his brother's handwriting.
So he returned to the dimension the portal machine spat him out of thirty years ago, and waited. And waited. And just when he was ready to give up entirely, the portal opened, and he was home.
To say that Ford never expected to come home again was an understatement. But it wasn't joy that Ford felt when he stepped into Gravity Falls. It wasn't relief that the journey was over, and he could retire from his years of living on the run and live a peaceful life. It wasn't pride in his brother that he was somehow, against all odds, able to save him.
No, Ford was pissed off.
"Ford," said Stanley as he walked through the portal. "You're here. After all these years…"
Ford decked him.
"OW!" said Stanley. "What the f—ruitcake, Poindexter?"
Stanley never held himself back from swearing unless there were children present. It was then Ford realized he had an audience. The lab had been half-ruined, no doubt a side effect of when the Portal activated, but it was packed to the brim with almost everything he had found in his studies of Gravity Falls. Gnomes, Manutaurs…was that Fiddleford sitting in the back, refusing to meet his eye? He had grown so old…and rustic. On a screen beside him was some video conference with a skeleton, certainly not a human one, watching lazily. Beside them, a girl with a cat.
"Aren't you going to thank me," said Stanley, shaking him back to reality. "From saving you from some weird…sci-fi sideburns dimension?"
"Thank you?" said Ford. "After what you did to me 30 years ago?"
Ford charged him again. Stanley was getting rusty. Just like old times, Ford was able to pin his arms behind his back.
"Don't think I'll hold back on ya just because we need ya!" said Stanley, as he broke out of his hold. That was a new one. The fight began.
He was so distracted by the fight, however, that he didn't even realize when the Portal Machine activated again.
Even over the zombie apocalypse, the sound of 80's pop music was impossible to drown out.
"Zombies and Gentlemen," said Mabel. "I'm Mabel, this is Neal and Alvin, and we're Love Patrol Beta!"
It was a poor last minute substitution, even poorer because at the very last minute she lost her DJ, but Mabel knew this would work. She had seen it before.
Besides, it was fun to watch zombie's heads explode.
Dipper was looking at Wirt, but it was too hard to focus on him as the corners of his vision grew fuzzy. His whole body was shaking. He tried to scream, but he could not even breathe right. His heart drummed against his chest, growing tighter and tighter as the branches ensnared his Soul.
Dipper must have realized what was going on, because he helped guide him to the larger pumpkins to sit down on. He waited until Wirt's breathing grew easier to talk.
"Are you feeling any better?" Dipper asked once he had regained his senses.
"No," said Wirt. "I'm dead, remember?"
"Oh," said Dipper.
"I drowned. Or, I was drowning, and I ended up here in the Unknown," said Wirt.
"Well," said Dipper. "If it makes you feel any better, you're the nicest ghost I've met."
"Gee, thanks," said Wirt. "How are you so calm? Why aren't you worried at all?"
"It's not that I'm not worried," said Dipper. "But freaking out right now won't get us anywhere. We have to make a plan. So…what do you remember about the Unknown? Is it like…limbo or something?"
Wirt hadn't exactly tried to think about the Unknown the first time around. It was too weird for him. Even the people he thought could help could hinder just as much. The Woodsman, Aunti Whispers, Beatrice…
"Wait," said Wirt. "We're in Pottsfield, right?"
"Uh…think so?" said Dipper. "It's kind of hard to remember…I think whatever Bill did to the timeline is making me remember things that didn't happen…"
But Wirt remembered very well. The skeletons, the weird people in the pumpkin costumes, that one girl that said that he "didn't look ready yet", the guy in the large pumpkin costume…the only thing Wirt couldn't remember was his name.
"Enoch," said a low, sing-song-y voice behind him. "Head of the Pottsfield Chamber of Commerce. Might I ask why you two boys are sitting on our prized pumpkins?"
Greg had seen it before. Or, at least, he thought he did. There were too many thoughts in his head to really remember which ones were his. But he had seen it before. He would meet the Witch in the forest, and then all of this would stop.
Sure enough, there she was. She was less of a witch like Greg was thinking, less like Adelaide or even like Aunti Whispers. She flickered like a candlelight. She sparked like lightning. She was just as scary-looking as either of them, even as scary-looking as the Beast, but Greg wasn't scared. In fact, looking at her made him feel sad.
He walked closer to her, careful to dodge the bursts of lightning she sent his way.
"Hiya," said Greg.
"What do you want?" said the Witch.
"Hmm…well, I want a lot of things," said Greg. "I want a magical tiger, and for Westly to get fingernails so he can play the guitar better, and I want to find my brother and find a way back home."
The image of the Witch flickered.
"But in order to do that," said Greg. "We gotta get past you. So, is there anything you want?"
"I—I want—they'll suffer—I—"
"Maybe you want a Rock Fact?" Greg said, and pulled the rock from out of his overalls. "'Did you know that if you didn't have mucus, your stomach would digest itself? It's a Rock Fact!"
"You—you'll pay for this," said the Witch. She was less a person and more of a series of flashing lights.
"Yeah, I didn't actually pay for the Rock," said Greg. "I stole it from Young Man Daniels. And that's why I gotta get home, so I can give it back to her. And I really want to find my brother again. And my frog. But you're welcome to come with us!"
"I—what?"
"Yeah, the more, the merrier!" said Greg. "I don't think you want to spend the rest of your life in this forest. It gets kind of boring after a while, trust me. So maybe you can come with us! You can meet Wirt, and Mabel, and Beatrice, and Lorna—"
"YOU'RE LYING!"
Lighting struck all around him. One bolt collided directly with his Soul, sending him flying backwards. Greg tried to get back to his feet, but the Witch towered over him. She was far less human than she used to be, barely a spark, but she still looked so sad.
"You have beautiful eyes," said Greg, so distracted by them that he did not notice the portal open behind him.
"Kid!"
Coraline ran out of the portal. She pulled the cannon off her back and fired. It collided with the Witch head on, causing her to regain her form and stumble backwards. It did not do too much damage, since it was only a t-shirt from a t-shirt cannon, but it was long enough to distract her and for the Cat to lunge into action.
"Are you okay, kid?" said Coraline.
"I'm okay," said Greg. "But I'm not too sure about her."
"It's fine," said Coraline. "She'll be fine. Let's worry about fixing everything else first."
"Enoch," said Wirt, trying to ignore the way his voice cracked. "We need to get out of the Unknown."
"That's what you all say," said Enoch, with a sigh. "I'll warn you: it won't be easy. Is whatever you have going on that important?"
"Of course it is," said Wirt. "It's for my brother."
"He'll be here eventually, I'm sure," said Enoch.
He didn't want to think about Greg putting on a pumpkin costume and dancing around with a bunch of skeletons. Unless they were sans and Papyrus. They seemed pretty cool.
"Wow, okay," said Dipper. "But Bill will hurt everyone. Here, Gravity Falls, the Underground, everywhere. We have to stop him."
Enoch's head pivoted like a turntable, focusing its eye holes on Dipper. He squirmed slightly, but remained focused.
"You can leave," said Enoch. "It's a little too soon for you to be here. But I'm afraid that you friend here has reached the end of the line. He's gonna have to find what's on the other side."
So he had been right. He had drowned. Or, he had been in the process of drowning. The distinction was important somehow, but he was trying too hard not to panic again to figure out why. Wirt took a few deep breaths, trying to steady himself.
"But I left the Unknown before," said Wirt. "Or, I think I had. There has to be a way, right?"
"There is," said Enoch. "But you won't like it."
"Just tell us what we have to do," said Wirt.
"You'll have to climb back over the garden wall," said Enoch. "But it won't be easy. Part of your soul will still be here, in the Unknown. Whatever life you live up there will be a tortured life. A short one. And when you return…well, the forest always needs a Beast."
He remembered the Beast. He remembered confronting the Beast. He remembered how the Beast had lied to him, how it seemed like a senseless sacrifice. But now, he was not too sure. Enoch may be cryptic, but he was not lying.
"There has to be another way," said Dipper.
But Wirt didn't think there was. At least, not now. The fact that both he and Dipper remembered things that had not happened proved that this was not just a problem between life and death, but of time as well. Bill was playing with time and space, and they were caught in the middle. But if they could stop things from happening now, then there was a chance they could use Bill's tricks against him. They could go back to before this deal ever happened, or before they even fell into the pond, or before he put that stupid mixtape into Sara's coat.
That would be after. Or, before, rather. Wirt had to make his decision right now.
"So let me ask," said Enoch. "Are you prepared to face any consequence to save him? Are you willing to face true darkness?"
"I'll do it," said Wirt.
The carved smile on Enoch's costume grew larger, and larger, until it hardly resembled a smile anymore.
The next thing Wirt knew, he was underwater, desperately gasping for air. Somehow, he managed to grab onto Dipper's vest and bring them back to open air. Somehow, someone had managed to grab onto both of them and bring them back to solid ground.
His vision was blurred, but he could see a blue figure hovering above him.
"B—bea—trice?" He asked, voice shaking.
A girl leaned in closer. A human girl, and one that Wirt was sure he had seen before.
"Co…ra…"
He couldn't make out anymore. His vision grew dark, and that was the last thing he could remember.
Coraline was quite surprised to hear that the Stans Lee and Ford had stopped fighting once she left. They were still arguing, sure, but they were at least shouting and not coming to blows. The two had huddled over the lab tables, talking in hushed tones about their next course of action.
"good job kid," said sans. "there's just one more kid that we ran into left to find."
"You're not going to like it," said the Cat. The fur on his tail was starting to bristle.
"Why?" said Coraline. "Do you know where the other kid is?"
"I can guess based on patterns," said the Cat. "If we're going to all the other places Frisk has gone, then there's only one place left. Beldam. The 'Other Mother', you called her."
Coraline remembered that world all too well.
"Then that means we have to make sure they're safe," said Coraline.
"I know that," said the Cat. "But it won't be easy."
The Machine seemed to work on its own. All Coraline needed to do was step through, and she would be exactly where she needed to be. She thought it was magic. sans suspected it was something else. But the Cat knew exactly who it was helping them.
The Other Mother's World had changed. It did not look the nicer version of the Pink Palace that she had made to trap Coraline, but it did look quite a bit like the version of Blithe Hollow in her memories.
No, she realized, not her memories.
She turned to speak to the Cat, but his attention was turned elsewhere. It looked like he was talking to the wall…
"Fine," the Cat said, and turned his attention to Coraline. "We'll work on distracting the Beldam. But it won't work forever. Find the other kid, and fast."
"Got it," said Coraline.
But that was easier said than done. The Other Mother could make as big a world as she wanted, and she did not know Norman well enough to guess where he could be. She ran through the halls randomly, checking every room until she found him sitting on the bed.
"You're…Norman, right?" said Coraline. "We have to go."
Norman did not move. It then occurred to him just how sad he looked.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"The other ghosts told me what's going on," said Norman. "But…I don't think I'm ready to leave yet."
"She'll kill you if you stay," said Coraline.
"I know," said Norman. "But…that was the first time my dad smiled at me since Grandma died."
Coraline felt her Soul plummet. It would be easier if the Other Mother had promised him cake, or toys, or something that did not matter. But Norman mattered, and so did his need to belong. She thought back to the Bubble she had been it. It was much like the Other Mother's world, too much like the Other Mother's world, and that had been the only way she had escaped. But she thought to what the Other Mother and the Bubble had made for her. She wanted her parents to stop working on that catalogue so they could play outside together. She wanted to be with her friends, away from the Pink Palace. Were those so wrong to want?
"It's not like he's a bad person or anything," said Norman. "None of them are. But sometimes…they say and do things that hurt because they're afraid."
"They shouldn't be afraid of you," said Coraline. "You're, like, ten."
"Eleven," said Norman.
"You deserve to be treated better than that," said Coraline.
"Maybe," said Norman.
"Definitely," said Coraline. "You're a cool kid. And if they can't see that, then I'll tell them that. And so will the others. I'm sure Mr. Stan would love the excuse to beat someone up!"
That made Norman laugh.
"I don't need him to beat them up," said Norman. "I want them to change their minds. Even the worst person can change."
An unholy wail echoed through the hall. Sounds like the fight with the Beldam had started.
"That sounds like we should be going," said Coraline. "Ready to head into the unknown?"
"No," said Norman. "Let's do it."
Now what's Over the Garden Wall without any idea on what the hell is going on?
There are two key questions left unanswered at the end of OtGW: the nature of the Unknown, and the nature of the Beast. And to be fair, we don't really need an answer? The world is called "The Unknown" for a reason, right? But I felt like if I were to build on that series without starting from scratch and writing a fan season 2 (maybe. …maybe.), I would have to at least touch on them. So hopefully I came up with something interesting, and that's just clear enough to understand without cramming in unnecessary worldbuilding.
Urgh, that Coraline and Norman scene…I've rewritten it like 10 times and I'm still not wholly satisfied. These kids deserve better