Chapter 1

Many Beginnings

Wendy Corduroy wadded through the tall, purple grass, carefully stepping to avoid tarnishing any clues about her mother's whereabouts. Sure, it was a long shot, but the rumors were that a redhaired bounty hunter had last been seen stalking her quarry among these lackadaisical asteroids. Each hunk of space stone grew a colorful coat of grass that made this area of space habitable. Perfect for a roguish hideout.

She did her best to not hope too much. They had already searched so many worlds, wringed out information from so many people, questioned so many refugees and lone wolves running around the multiverse. Nothing.

I don't even know if she's still alive, she admitted to herself. But if there's even a small chance, I have to try! If anything, to get closure for-

"Wendy! We found something!" Dipper shouted, his voice cracking a bit. Despite herself, Wendy grinned; even as an adult, his voice had not entirely abandoned its adolescent ways.

The asteroids did not provide a lot of gravitational pull, allowing Wendy to leap from her purple asteroid to the green one just above her. She flipped in the air and landed softly in the grass chest-high grass. Dipper was on the other end of the asteroid, heaving up a hidden door, covered in grass and metallic muck.

"Dipper! Be careful of traps!" Ford warned.

Dipper jumped aside just in time, narrowly avoiding three stakes zipping out of the hideout. "Yikes!" he yelped. Wendy hurried over, but luckily found her fiancé unharmed. She gave him a quick, reassuring hug.

"Boobytraps, eh? Guess we just found out who the boob in our group is," Stan laughed, flying over from his asteroid.

"Yeah, but look who gets to hug some boobs," Dipper fired back. Wendy snorted and shoved him into the grass.

"Hey, Goldie is great! He never talks back to me, but is always there to listen, and sure he may be hard to cuddle and all, but-"

"Stanley, have you made sure that I'm no longer legally married to one of your broken-down scams?" Ford demanded.

"And that's the best part! I can cheat on Goldie whenever I want or have an affair with any consequences!" Stan said happily. The moment he landed on the asteroid, his twin slugged him hard in the gut.

Wendy shook her head and carefully crawled over to the secret opening. It still amazed her that Stan went and got himself married to that nightmare. How drunk had he been? She remembered that crazy night that Stan broke into Hoo-ha Owl's Pizzamatronic Jamboree to steal an animatronic badger. That crazy summer was just like yesterday!

"Save your lovers' quarrel for when we get back to the Mystery Shack," Wendy ordered, checking the shallow stairs leading further down. There didn't seem to be any other traps, so she motioned for everyone to follow.

Ford took out some new doodad to scan the site for any magical tampering or hidden messages. It could also get an accurate reading of the space. He muttered under his breath, "The molecular makeup of these asteroids is messing around with my device. It's still hard to get an accurate reading on this place, let alone a scan!"

"Don't worry, Grunkle Ford! Jump out of the way Wendy! Magic sparkles!" Mabel appeared from behind and blew on a fistful of revealing glitter. Wendy leaped back and let the sparkling particles coat the entrance.

In their search for her mother, the Pines and their friends had collected all kinds of wondrous devices and resources from across the multiverse. They had also dealt with a ton of bounty hunters coming after Ford. That was how they had gotten some good intel on her mother, following rumors and guesses from alien baddies they had bagged and interrogated.

"Look! Some silly writing," Mabel declared. "But it looks like the ghost is clear! And had Dipper gotten skewered, we would have had two ghosts to make sure were clear," she added with a giggle.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll try to be more careful," he said, tapping the metal door at the bottom of the stairs.

Ford used a translator to read the message. "Nothing too important for us. It speaks to the Carathian exiles, telling them to not eat the grass because it'll give them diarrhea, that the milk in the ridge should still be good, wait for a trucking caravan to hitch hike with, and until then, enjoy all 999 seasons of Acquaintances on DVD… How did these aliens get their hands on that contraband!?"

Stan helped Dipper check the door and they ascertained that there were no more traps. However, opening it required knocking on parts of the metal door. Wendy stood back and watched the Pines work together, playing like a dysfunctional band banging on the metal. She laughed and joined in before Stan got lucky and hit the right combination. The door swung open and they stumbled into dusty, stuffy room.

It was packed with sofas leaking their stuffing. A few refrigerators stuffed with green and blue milk were in the corners. No one dared touch these. A large, flat screen was affixed to one wall and a cabinet was crammed full with dusty DVDs. Mabel happily popped one in and began watching a weirdly accurate alien knockoff of FRIENDS.

"This would make a cozy hideaway," Dipper noted, but I don't see any evidence of bounty hunters using this place."

"That's because you're not looking, Dipper," Stan chided. "Look for weird grooves in the walls and floor. Check in between the cushions. We'll find something."

Wendy followed his lead and soon they discovered a weapons closet under one couch, a surveillance system hidden behind the screen, and whole cache of grenades stuffed between the cushions. The family quickly piled up the small arsenal. This could come in handy later, but there was no other sign of anyone using this place. The layers of dust suggested it hadn't been used at all in a long time!

Wendy couldn't help but feel crestfallen. Wasn't I just telling myself to not hope? But we found something… She could have been here. Perhaps there are some clues.

She continued searching, feeling awkward and frustrated with herself for digging deeper. Dipper whispered something to the other Pines. They collected their findings and exited. Stan had swiped a bag of holding off a tentacle-faced space wizard, which Mabel now snuck to sweep all the duplicates of Acquaintances DVDs into.

Wendy was scrapping the bottom of the weapons hold when Dipper knelt beside her.

"There might be something scratched into here. Can you go and ask Mabel for some more of her glitter?" she grunted.

"Sure thing."

He quickly returned and blew a handful of glowing glitter into the empty cabinet. There was nothing. Wendy began shaking. There had to be something else! Perhaps if they turned over all of the couches…

Dipper pulled her into a gentle hug. Wendy felt so ashamed, but a single, womanly tear eeked out of her eye.

"I was hoping…" she whispered pathetically. "I was hoping that this time we might have found something!"

"We'll keep looking," Dipper assured her. "Perhaps you can leave a message for her, just in case she comes back this way."

They both knew that the chances of that were slim to nothing. With each failed attempt to find her mother, Wendy lost hope. She was glad that she was keeping all of this a secret from her family. If this search was eating her up inside, she could only imagine what it would do to her sweet father and dorky brothers.

Dipper took out a marker with invisible ink and a regular pen and a sheet of paper.

"Look at you being Mr. Boy Scout," Wendy joked, trying to regain her composure. He grinned sheepishly and handed them over to her. Wendy completed her messages for her mother and then gave Dipper a kiss on the lips. He was still shorter than her. "Thanks, Dip. It really means a lot that you're going along with this. That you aren't telling me it was hopeless, and we should just leave."

"Nah. I would act the same if it was anyone in my family." He smiled up at her and they held hands as they exited.

Stan coughed gruffly when he saw them and croaked, "Come on ya love birds! Let's not keep Soos waiting. We'll pick up again tomorrow."

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Sasha drove Anne and Marcy over to Terri's lab in her car. Their reunion date had taken a very interesting turn when the scientist contacted them out of the blue with an urgent message. They wanted to see all three of them at once. Marcy was hurriedly writing something in her old journal. It was full to burst at the point. Chances were the silly gal had another journal ready to go in her bag.

Anne was on pins and needles. Terri had been the one to make the portal work, Dr. Frakes' crazy portal that managed to connect Earth with Amphibia.

It had been an incredible birthday! Her best friends from middle school had surprised her. It was so much fun catching up with her girlfriends. But to now get an urgent call from Terri, Anne could not suppress the feeling that something BIG was about to happen.

They arrived at the texted address, which turned out to be a government facility. And out front to greet them was Mr. X, looking as fly and energetic as ever.

"Wow, looks like Terri really took the deep state upgrade," Sasha remarked.

"Psh! This isn't a deep state building," Marcy said, waving her hand all whimsically like. "They try to make their facilities look like dry cleaners, hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurants, and tourist traps in the middle of nowhere!"

"Maybe that's exactly what they want you to think," Sasha fired back.

"Girls! Long time, no see! Special lanyards for ali-all," Mr. X called to them as they reached the front gate. "And make sure you don't lose them, because I'd have to otherwise arrest you for trespassing and lock you away for the rest of your lives."

"Oh X, always the jokester," Anne said.

"I'm not joking Boonchuy," he said, stuffing the lanyard into her hands as she sat in the back of the convertible. "Ringing you three in. Terri thinks you should see this immediately!"

Mr. X got them through security and ushered the trio into the garage and then deep into the building. Anne recalled to Marcy and Sasha how she broke out of a building similar to this one by fighting all of X's goons with a plastic laser sword. Yeah, those were good times.

They were soon ushered into a wide lab full of power generators and all kinds of peculiar machinery that led to a platform. Anne remembered it as the same one she and the Plantars stepped through to return to Amphibia. The memory made her wonder how they were all doing. What could Sprig be possibly be up to right now?

Maybe I'm about to find out, she thought, excited.

"Anne! Girls! Great to see you all," Terri cheered from behind their computer, crammed into the furthest corner.

"Yo, Terri my dude, looks like you've been seriously busy," Anne called back.

"Yeah, I've been experimenting on the leftover Newtopian tech from Frogvasion to see if there was any way to use their futuristic tech and ancient understandings to reopen the portals. If there was a way we could open a line between our worlds once again. Mr. X convinced the bigwigs that if we could communicate with other worlds and dimensions, it would help us prevent another intergalactic invasion."

"It's cost the taxpayers a pretty penny, though," Mr. X sniffed.

"But you managed to make it work?" Marcy asked excitedly.

"Not really," Terri said, sounding embarrassed. Anne immediately felt crestfallen.

Sasha noticed and protested, "Then why call us here? What's up? Unless you've got a banger birthday gift for Anne!"

"Well, I hope we'll have something," Terri said nervously.

Mr. X coughed into his hand and said, "An old governmental associate from the Reagan Era came out of the woodworks recently and sent us a power cell to help us power up our project. I have no idea how he got wind of what we're doing here. And from what we can tell, the device is extra-terrestrial in nature."

"Alien technology!?" Marcy gushed. "Oh my gawd, oh my gawd, oh my gawd! I have to see it!"

"Obliged," Terri replied with a grin. They walked over to the platform and opened up a panel to reveal a tube of strange, green-glowing material. "When we turn this on, it will send a charge to the power generators, which will amp up the input and give us an even greater output so we can mimic the power of the Calamity Gems."

"Fascinating! So the core right there must act as an accelerant," Marcy said. "Because as everyone knows, you can't just create energy. But if it was possible to harness all the existing power in any given material, you could harness power that would allow you to bend the laws of time and space!"

"Yeah, everyone knows that," Sasha said, glancing awkwardly sideways.

Anne's excitement returned. Was she really going to have the chance to return to Amphibia? Was she ready for this? Was she going to lose a shoe again?

Perhaps I should already call out for tomorrow… Just in case.

"Now, I still have the musical notes to help us locate Amphibia," Terri said, returning to the computer desk. "Let me punch everything in and see what we get!"

Marcy had already danced and tripped over to watch the scientist at work. Even though she had chosen an artistic profession, Marcy was still a super nerd at heart.

The portal powered on. The generators kicked into life. The platform glowered an eerie green as the lights flickered. Mr. X adjusted his glasses. Sasha fidgeted nervously with her jacket. Just like Anne, she and Marcy had many reasons to return and see their home world away from Earth. A rift in time and space was cleaved open.

And…

A fairy flew through.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting that," Sasha said flatly.

Anne shared a glance with everyone before cautiously approaching the fairy. "Uh, hi there. Are you from Amphibia by chance?"

The fairy opened a mouth as large as a shark's and screamed, "Give me your skin!"

"GAH!"

Anne clobbered the deranged fairy, knocking it out.

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Luz's life was perfect. She had an amazing girlfriend. She was living in the Boiling Isles, studying all things Wild Magic. She was about to graduate, and her friends were planning a special trip to the other side of the planet to visit some islands that held more clues about King's powers and past. The world was free of Belos' corrosive touch and the many loyalists to his horrible empire were imprisoned or in the process of reforming.

And she had direct access to both Earth and the Boiling Isles. Luz was the girl who had it all!

But as she was doing field work with Edric, researching the best means to harvest galdrakes, something very strange and distracting happened. That was rather unfortunate, because galdrakes were extremely temperamental. If you angered them while harvesting them, they would insult you in the most personal ways possible. Their punishment was downright debilitating!

Oddly enough, galdrakes were an essential ingredient in brewing bravery and truth-telling potions…

Luz was carefully massaging a galdrake out of the ground, complementing the ugly root on the yellow foliage sprouting from its grubby head. It helped to whisper compliments to the galdrake so as to soothe it. However, the shocking appearance of green-tinged rift in space cause her to squeak and drop the galdrake.

The root's response was immediate, "Butterfingers! Am I like all those appointments with Gus you've dropped? If it's not about Amity, it's like nobody or nothing else matters! Oh, and don't you dare get me started on that everything is kay because you conveniently use other people's powers to balance out your perfect life now! NOOOOO! No, no, no, you don't get to skirt around this, girlfriend!

"When did you last apologize to everyone for how stupid you were in the past? You do realize how much they sacrifice for you? Cuteness only gets you do far in the real world, missy! If you keep dropping people like me and your responsibilities, you can kiss any future with Amity goodbye! You'll drive her away! You will-!"

The galdrake's words drilled into Luz's heart like poisonous dagger. However, she could not help but gasp as three older girl, probably her age, walked through the portal. One was dark skinned, with bushy hair up in a ponytail and wearing ranger clothes. A second girl, Chinese American perhaps, was wearing the obvious getup of a professional webtoon artist and the biggest, most excited smile Luz had ever seen. The third girl was way too cool for school, wearing a slick jacket and looking like she could snap a man in half without blinking.

"Definitely not Amphibia," the third girl said, flinging a knocked-out pixie onto the ground. "Not humid enough."

"Don't go around interrupting me!" the galdrake screeched. "I'll get to you in a moment, Sasha Waybright! Your continuous hypocrisy knows no bounds!"

The blonde girl, Sasha, stomped on the galdrake, grinding it under her heel. It broke and sputtered purple fluids everywhere. Luz looked down in shock.

"But, this shouldn't be possible," the darker girl said, sounding very worried. "Terri punched in the tune for Amphibia. It worked last time! Why aren't we there?"

"Well, we could ask one of the locals," the Chinese American girl suggested, taking out a notebook and nodding to Luz.

What in King's Dad's forgotten name is going on? Luz thought frantically.

"Good idea Mar-Mar. Hey, Hi! I'm Anne Boonchuy. Sorry about your vegetable right there. But we're lost. Could you please tell us where… We… Are?"

Luz looked up at her in shock. A feeling of familiarity resonated within her. She felt like she knew this girl, but she couldn't place where or when exactly.

She got up shakily and offered a sweaty hand. "H-Hi… My name is Luz. Luz Noceda. And you're on the Boiling Isles."

"Excuse me. The what?" the blonde asked sharply.

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"Alright everyone, watch and learn! This is how a pro raids a dungeon!"

Sprig Plantar lifted a single pebble, showing it off to the younger adventurers in his group. A small assortment of frogs, toads, and newts oohed and awed as the pebble sparkled in his hand. He cleared his throat dramatically and set the stone in his slingshot. With careful precision, he took his aim.

Thwank!

Sprig loosed the pebble. It clacked against a strange outcropping of ancient stone in the tunnel before him. It ricocheted the wall, smacked against a tile in the floor, was launched up into the ceiling, hitting the fixture of a frog hanging from its tongue. The pebble continued to ping all around the entrance and into the tunnel, hitting every single oddity along its route.

The traps all went off. Spikes in the floor, a blast of purple fire, saw blades swinging from the walls, poisonous darts, the works. Sprig's audience cheered as the entrance to the ancient dungeon was cleared.

Sprig struck a dramatic pose, his luscious, golden-orange hair bobbing from underneath his adventuring hat. He had let it grow out for this newest quest. All the cool guys were letting their doos grow out these days.

Once the echoes of the final trap died, Sprig said, "And now it is safe to enter the ancient structure. But please be careful! We want to preserve as much information as possible! The ancient Amphibians left all kinds of murals and writings behind that we are still decoding. There's so much to be learned!"

He rolled his shoulders, setting his backpack more comfortably on his back and led the way in. Sprig continued explaining, "From what we have gathered, these dungeons served multiple purposes throughout ancient Amphibian history. The most ancient dungeons suggest that they were originally refuges from creatures beyond the stars!"

"Ooooo!" the younger adventurers said together.

One excited, blue frog jumped up and down, waving her hands. "Just like the ancient Plantar Caverns where the resistance hid out during the Reclamation War of Unification?"

"Yes, kinda like that," Sprig replied. He still wasn't a fan of that name for the war he and Anne had fought in to save Amphibia. It sounded more formal than it had actually be, and already legends were far outpacing the truth of what had all gone down.

Some frogs just loved to embellish things.

Trip!

Sprig yelped as he tipped over one unseen trip. Steel jaws burst from the floor to crush him.

"Gaaaaah!"

"Gotcha!" Ivy shouted, tackling him from behind, narrowly avoiding the trap herself. They rolled across the stone floor. Ivy leaped gracefully to her feet, spinning Sprig back onto his. "And that is why you double check for any remaining traps! The ancient Amphibians didn't want anyone getting down to their treasures!"

The others broke out in cheers. One toad snorted, "Some leader he is. Couldn't even get all the traps."

"Then you're free to clear the next dungeon all by yourself," Ivy said simply before giving Sprig a kiss on the cheek. "You're doing great, Sprig. Now, what else should they know about these ancient dungeons?"

Sprig gave his wife's hand a quick squeeze. Blushing a little, he picked up where he had been so rudely interrupted. "We're still uncertain what these other creatures from beyond the stars were. We have plenty of pictures, but no real definitive conclusion. However, according to a few murals, things changed when a frog appealed to the heavens an a great newt appeared, shielding Amphibia from the skies.

"The dungeons then became grand palaces for a time. New kingdoms grew and prospered. However, we theorize that eventually they went to war. The larger underground palaces were destroyed and filled in. Warlords and rick folk buried their treasures in small dungeons, filling them with traps after being buried inside with all their gold and stuff.

"But this was all eventually lost when Newtopia rose to power and discovered the potential of the Calamity Gems left to us by the Three Stone Deity or Guardian."

One newt with bad acne and braces raised his hand.

"You've got a question, sport?" Sprig asked.

"Yeah, if your understanding of the evidence is correct, and supposing your hypothesis is correct, does that mean that Amphibia has three different deities? Or is the Great Frog not one of them? Or could they all just be cosmic beings playing around with us for their entertainment like some eternal game of Flipwort?"

Sprig and Ivy glanced at each other and laughed nervously. "Nice existential question you've got there. The truth is we don't know," Sprig replied.

"But we hope that by continuing or trips to this continent and working together, we can figure it all out!" Ivy declared.

The couple led the group deeper into the dungeon, navigating more of its traps and false passageways. Being underwater for so many years, all kinds of sea growth had formed, sometimes blocking the way. The group would have to clear it, as well as fight off what monsters remained. The salt water had been drained by newt engineers weeks before to make these expeditions possible.

When waiting for the next dungeon to be dry, Sprig and Ivy had taken to exploring the vast, alien jungles of the forgotten continent. Everyone was arguing about what to call it, but that was for people stuffed in stuffy colleges to consider. Well, Sprig was in a stuffy college. His experiences in the war and on these adventures had given him a chance to take the fast track to getting several degrees at the Newtopian University.

He was basically the Amphibian version of Oklahoma Jake, an archeologist, historian, grave robber, and suave ladies' man, whose movies Mr. Boonchuy loved watching. All Sprig needed was a whip. But who needed a whip when he had his trusty slingshots?

Eventually, they broke deeper into the dungeon and uncovered the treasure room. It was full of silver and gold, along with many curious artifacts. Ivy and Sprig had to slap a few hands to prevent some of the greedy youths from pocketing some of the riches.

"Alright newbies, spread out and make sketches of everything you can! Toby, you there! Use Polly's newest picture contraption and document this whole place. We want to preserve as much of its original state as we can before we start hauling stuff outta here," Ivy ordered.

Sprig hopped around. The gleaming treasure was cool and all, but he was after something far more precious: knowledge. Coming to this forgotten continent had given him the chance to learn not only more about his world's history, but to discover more about the multiverse. Signs pointed to possibilities of him revisiting Earth if he could only find the right creature or power source. Other beings roamed the cosmos. Perhaps he could one day, too.

It would be so nice to reconnect with Anne and share with her everything that had happened in his life so far. Working Polly and Hop Pop, and utilizing salvaged technology from Andrias' old army, they had come up with all kinds of inventions to mimic what they had experienced on Earth. This new camera was still inferior to Anne's phone that Sprig kept close and handy, but it was a good step in the right direction.

Sprig came to a halt before a mural that looked very familiar. It was an ominous illustration depicting a gigantic, black snake descending from storm clouds. It was always positioned as if to devour the world. Only this time, it was very different.

There's no way! Sprig thought wildly, recognizing the alien continents carved into the rock. That's Earth! That's America, right there!

He stumbled back, taking in more of the image. The large black snake descending to swallow Earth whole. Lording over the clouds was a triangle… Wearing a hat and bowtie? Figures flew in the sky. Inscriptions surrounded the mural, written in proto-Amphibian.

Sprig stammered, "I-I-Ivy! Go and get Maddie quick! I think I just found something very important!"

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Marcy was bursting with excitement. This was not how she had envisioned her reunion with Anne ending up. They were sitting around a wonky table with a bunch of witches on another world! The Boiling Isles to be precise. She had already filled an entire notebook with details and notes, moving onto a second.

They were currently talking with Eda the Owl Lady, the dean for the College of Wild Magic on the Boiling Isles, helping the witches of her world restore their connection to the island, which was actually the giant corpse of a great Titan, that had become overgrown with magic giving life to everything on this planet!

If she wasn't careful, Marcy knew she would start hyperventilating.

"Alright, so let me see if I can get this straight after the tenth try," Eda said, pouring a bunch of cups full of some kind of steaming potion. "You three girls are no strangers to world hopping. You spent an entire summer and then some on another planet called Amphibia, populated by talking frogs, toads, and newts."

"That's correct," Marcy said excitedly.

"Yeah, we helped save Earth too from Frogvasion," Sasha said insistently. She pointed to the girl named Luz. "You should know about it if you're from Earth. It's one of the most popular and controversial films of all time!"

"Yeah, I always thought it was a hoax. It was too weird, even for me," Luz said sheepishly.

Marcy already liked this girl. She was totally a fellow nerd and loved learning! Marcy couldn't wait to bond with her, but first everyone needed to get on the same page. Marcy had been working hard over the years to not overwhelm people with her likes, hobbies, and smarts. It was especially difficult when she was in the presence of a kindred spirit.

The purple-haired girl Amity brushed her shoulder up against Luz and said, "Now that's saying something! After everything we've experienced, I'd have thought nothing was too weird for you. Well, besides Hooty."

"I aim to defy expectations! Hoot, hoot!" The weird worm-bird-thing that came out of the cuckoo clock house strapped to the back of Eda's sister, Lilith, was yet another fascinating creature of this planet. Just looking around, there was so much variety here!

I could get lost here for decades and probably not discover everything, Marcy thought happily.

"Riiiiight," Eda drawled, passing out the cups to everyone using her sickle-blade arm. This woman had to be such a cool professor! And scrappy, too. "So you three are having a special birthday party for Angelica here-"

"Anne," Anne corrected.

"-And you got a message to go and meet with this old scientist you all know. They made a portal that was supposed to take you all back to this frog world… Which for some reason sounds so ding dang familiar, but I can't place how or where."

"Yeah, I agree," Luz said, giving Anne a curious look. Amity appeared conflicted by that expression.

"But you three ended up here and waltzed right into my star pupil and basically daughter, Luz," Eda concluded.

"That's about it. I don't get why that's so difficult for you to understand," Sasha muttered.

"Well, how would you react when humans who aren't supposed to access the Boiling Isles except through one door suddenly pop up? And your distraction could have gotten Luz and Ed killed!"

Marcy sniffed the cup's content. It was earthly, sweet, and magical. She took a swig. Beaming at everyone, she said, "Tasty!"

Then she collapsed.

Marcy knew she was out cold. Even though she had just been on a world of witches, things didn't immediately switch to a Caverns and Creatures setting in the blink of an eye. Being in the clutches of the Core had taught her that. This was a dream.

"Took you long enough, kiddo. With you accident prone ways, I expected you to get conked out cold a lot sooner."

She recognized that voice. Marcy spun around and found herself looking up at King Andrias. He was whole, unlike the last time she had seen him. There was something about him that made the old newt look even livelier and more real in her dream.

Dreams are weird, she thought with a smirk. "Andrias! Looks like we do get to see each other again! Though it's always just in dreams. I hope you're doing well."

The gigantic newt faltered for a second. She spied a tear in the corner of his eye. He got onto one knee and extended his hand. She climbed onto it. Andrias cradled her in a soft hug.

But just because dreams are weird doesn't mean they can't be nice.

Andrias broke off the hug and held her out. "Good to see you, Marcy. I wish we had time now to catch up and everything, but events are already moving swiftly. I have a potion here that I need you to memorize and then brew while you're on the Boiling Isles. It will help you to See. With its powers, everyone will be convinced of the truth of what is going on.

"My hope is that it will help you form the alliances you need far quicker and perceive what we cannot. Otherwise, all worlds might fall in the coming days."

"Wow, that sounds a little heavy," Marcy said. Looks like this dream is taking a dark turn. It would suck if whatever I drank induces nightmares. That would be embarrassing for all my new friends to witness!

Andrias unrolled a scroll and showed it to her. "Mar-Mar, if we can pull this off, I hope we'll be able to really see each other again."

There was such a strong note of sincerity in his voice that Marcy could not ignore it. Her old friend and mentor, turned captor and tormentor, was earnestly asking her to do something. Though this was a dream, there was weight to it. She couldn't just ignore how she felt.

She gave Andrias a warm, comforting smile and said, "It'll be alright, big guy. Let's have a look at this potion- Wow! That's a lot of steps!"

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Dipper had not expected to find the Tscheapwhetzar hanging out in the Mystery Shack with Soos. It had been a long time since he had last seen this hooded and masked man, the one with the grinning skull face. This peculiar guy had arrived on the scene after everything that had happened with Madladl, explaining how his influence had helped push events to become what they had, by removing Bill Cipher from their universe.

This had caused a kind of branch off from the main timeline, allowing them to live in a new existence within the multiverse, and yet separate and unique from all other worlds, dimensions, and timelines. It was enough to make his head spin if he thought too hard. Grunkle Ford had taken a liking to this guy quickly, because of all the knowledge he possessed and for keeping a leash on Bill, who had apparently cast a spell to give himself one more shot at life.

No one exactly like that, but so far everything had been well in hand.

Well, maybe current events were a testament against that.

"Hey dudes," Soos called out as they exited the portal. "My Creepy Face showed up again. Says he's got an important message for us all. Hopefully we can wrap this whole biz up nice and fast. Melody will be putting the kids to bed soon, and they can't get a night's sleep without a hug and kiss from daddy, y'know?"

"Soos, you really are the world's most perfect man," the Tscheapwhetzar said.

"Haha, thanks dude!"

"Tscheapwhetzar, I sent the package, just as you directed me," Ford said when he saw him.

"Excellent! That'll mean that everything goes according to plan," the masked man said clapping his hands. He walked up to Dipper and Wendy and extended his hand to her. "Wendy, first of all, my condolences."

"Huh? What do you mean?" she asked angrily. Dipper felt a sinking feeling.

"Your mother is already dead," the Tscheapwhetzar said heavily. "Killed by the creep calling himself William Cryptic." He retracted his hand when Wendy didn't take it. Somehow, he was able to see despite not having any eyeholes in that disturbing mask. "However, I do have some good news if you care to hear it. This is only one timeline. There are many different things that have happened to your mother, and there is a way that you can help another Wendy out there rescue her before it's too late."

Wendy reached for Dipper 's hand and crushed it.

Ouch! All part of being a good partner, he reminded himself, biting back a howl.

"Really?" she asked breathlessly, her anger quickly dissipating. "How?"

The Tscheapwhetzar reached into one of the many pockets in his robes and pulled out a jar full of blue, twinkling smoke. "With this. But first, I need to explain something to all of you. The Stans have already heard some of this earlier, but I need to tell you everything in full."

He snapped his fingers and chairs appeared for all of them. Soos looked nervous to take a seat.

"Don't worry, I'll keep this as short as I can."

"Okay dawg…"

Once they had all seated themselves, Mabel said, "Stop keeping us in suspense! I get that it might be part of your vibe, but don't make the world's most perfect man and this lumberjane wait any longer. Out with it! Spill the tea! Tell me everything you know!"

Laughing, the masked man replied, "Well, to be true to my word and keep things brief, my meddling in your story has caused a strange ripple effect that was unforeseen. First of all, it led to the creation of William Cryptic, a man who wants to take Bill Cipher's place in the pantheon of multiversal deities. He will use that position and power to call forth the Destroyer and wipe out the entire multiverse.

"In the wake of such destruction, he will use that energy to pierce the veil between all these existences and the Realms just beyond. He wants to go even further and find the Originators who birthed the gods, and from there, tear them down as well. It will lead to countless deaths that we can prevent.

"However, doing so requires that I made a bargain for help that prevents me from interfering further in your story. Everything will come down to you heroes here in this room. And yes, this does mean you can save your mother, Wendy. Because you are going to reach out two different timelines and their dimension, rallying the heroes of not just Gravity Falls, but also the Boiling Isles and Amphibia."

"Ha! The Boiling Isles! Can't wait to get there and take some samples," Ford said excitedly. "And there should be plenty of ugly, desperate women for you there, too, Stanely."

"Alien babes? Sign me up!"

"More like witches."

"Ha! I was married to one once. Well, she treated me and disappeared on me like a witch," Stan chuckled. "I guess you could say, it's my head canon. Right, Soos!?"

"You have learned much, Mr. Pines," Soos said, giving Grunkle Stan a pat on the shoulder. "I hereby graduate you to official nerd."

"Woah! I did not ask for that!"

"Guys! I hate being the voice of reason here, but don't you think this is a little too serious to be joking about?" Mabel snapped.

With Soos and Grunkle Stan shrinking a little in their seats, the Tscheapwhetzar continued, saying, "Thank you, Mabel. Now, here's what you will do. You are going to use a pinch of this stuff from Time Baby to get in contact with your past selves in 2019 in another timeline. You will direct them to find the Calamity Trio, made up of Anne Boonchuy, Sasha Waybright, and Marcy Wu. They must also find the Good Witch Luz Noceda. They will work together with these girls to confront the Archivists."

"The Archivists?" Ford gasped. "Not those ethereal pricks!"

"Hey, who are you calling an ethereal prick?" a childish voice said crossly.

Dipper and the other jumped with fright. What the? Did we bring something back with us?

They all looked to the portal, but nothing was there. Ford hurriedly turned it off as the voice snickered, "I thought you said the one with six fingers was one of the smartest guys in the whole multiverse! Seems more of a fraidy cat to me!"

Dipper watched his great uncle's eyes dance as he did some calculations and dredged up old memories. Ford grimaced and said, "Don't tell me, you brought one of the Archivists here, didn't you?"

"One that the others abandoned after using him to do their dirty and pave the way for the conquest of the Titans. They did quite the number on that planet and abandoned it after they had wiped out the Titans. All but one. I don't think they realized that by leaving the planet and not setting it on fire that they allowed for life to take hold in the beasts' carcasses," the masked man said grimly.

"I was imprisoned by the biggest Titan of them all and stuck on the planet, marooned by the other Archivists! The meanies!"

Dipper noticed shadows shifting across the basement. Those shadows in turn noticed him and winked. As Dipper stared, dumbfounded, amazing colors and stars burst from the darkness and small, cherub-like boy burst from the swirling shadows. He laughed and zipped around the gutted lab.

Mabel gasped. "Oh my gosh! He's so cute! Look at his little hat, and those slippers! And his pajamas, too! I'm dying over here!"

"You're dying? Is there anything I can do to help?" the kid asked, zooming up to Mabel.

"Yes. I need a hug!" Mabel pulled the Archivist into a bone-crushing hug.

"Ugh! I like a nice hug, but you're a little too strong!"

"Cute aggression gives me super strength!"

"Meet the Collector. That's his name," the Tscheapwhetzar said, amusement in his voice. "His powers will come in handy to help you all break the rules of time and space. He's got a notebook for you, Ford. That way, you'll be able to get into contact with the others much easier. Tech is nice, but god-like powers are even better."

As if to emphasize his words, the Collector broke free of Mabel and spun about, throwing stars in all directions. As they hit the long-gutted, and dismantled lab, the whole room was restored. All of the machinery was fixed, but now made super cute and bright. Dipper even wondered if it was real; there was an almost cartoonish, toyish look and feel to the restored equipment and portal.

Wendy pressed the masked man. "How do I find my mother? How can I save her if she's already dead? Won't that screw up the timeline or something? Cause a butterfly effect and make us all aliens that talk out of our feet?"

Ford was about to mutter something, but Stan elbowed him hard, shaking his head.

"You can save her in another timeline without screwing up this one," the Tscheapwhetzar emphasized. "Those details are in the notes I left with Collector."

"Got 'em right here!" Collector said happily, waving around a spiral-bound notebook.

"Like I said, Soos, I'll keep it short. Follow my notes, use that Time Baby magic," the masked man said, handing the heavy jar to Dipper. "Work together, communicate, and I believe you will pull this off. No matter how blown out of proportion everything suddenly gets. Good luck."

Without another word, he ripped his own portal in the air and stepped through it, vanishing.

"Well, I'm lost and confused!" Soos laughed.

"That's why I'm here," the Collector beamed.

"Well, I need to check on Melody and the kids. I'll be right back, so… Go to commercial break? They still have those… right?"

"Kids! Ooo! I wanna see them!" and Collector zoomed towards the elevator.

There was an awkward pause and silence as everyone looked at each other, still trying to process what had just happened. With a loud cry, they all jumped to action and scrambled after the young Archivist.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The more Maddie read, the more she muttered, and the more she muttered, the more concerned Sprig grew. He tried to not keep glancing at the mural's snake and weird triangle being. There was an aura about them that made him very uncomfortable.

Eventually, Maddie pulled back from the wall and growled, "Well, this is very, very bad Sprig."

"What is it?" he asked, growing anxious.

"I'm thousands of years too late to witness the great battle between the great Axolotl and the Destroying Serpent! There was so much magic that I could have harvested! So many spells that are now outside of our reach!"

"Umm, so this isn't anything we should worry about?" Sprig pressed.

"Oh, this? Yeah, this is definitely something we should all be worried about." Maddie ran her hand along the wall and its carvings and paintings. "This panel here speaks about an ancient war between the cosmic gods that originated on Amphibia and those that come from beyond. There are some gods that would love nothing else than to destroy everything. They reside far from here and if they ever meet, they could be unstoppable.

"Should they meet, though, there are heroes who can be summoned, wielding the power of their own deities as champions. But it's unclear who could win. The Serpent is meant to consume and annihilate everything!"

"Man, why are all the prophesies we come across about death and destruction?" Sprig said, shaking his head.

It was good to have Maddie along for this expedition. She had left Wartwood at his request. She had loads of occult, magical, and historical knowledge. He hoped that there was something she could bring to help uncover the secrets of these dungeons. It had been the right call.

However, Sprig could not shake an odd feeling. It felt like a deadly miasma was creeping up on his back. It was a persistent, vague sensation that he couldn't shake. This was one just one of dozens of dungeons they had discovered, but there was something about this one that set him on edge.

It was as if the triangle being was watching him…

"Hey Maddie, what can you tell me about that thing up there?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

William Cryptic emerged from the temple, walking out onto a desolate world. The inhabitants, alive barely an hour ago, were no mere, skeletal shades of the beings they had once been. They were weak pawns, but sufficient for padding out the size of his army. William needed everyone and everything he could get in order to pull off his plan.

Speaking of which, he rolled the black Mask of Amalgium in his hands. This was the last step before the endgame. That damn Tscheapwhetzar was too late to stop him. Whatever motley group of heroes and champions he was assembling would not be enough. He was so many steps ahead that the race was won.

However you wanted to put it, William Cryptic was the victor in this quiet war. The gods still wouldn't do anything but sit back and accept their inevitable end.

"Your armies await you, Cryptic," Madladl's priest hissed, emerging from the shadows to stand at his side.

"Perfect. Make sure they're all secluded and remain unseen until it's time to encircle the rest. The fleet will wrap in to slam into at least four separate armadas that I know will be there. Secure their ships and covert their crews. The more the better."

"Understood."

They walked down the steps to be greeted by the cursed dead. Throngs of twisted, animated corpses rushed up to greet them, fall prostrate upon the ground. An odd language spilled out of their slackened jaws. It was a language that William didn't recognize. He covertly spun a ring on his left hand, activating a warding spell. Cryptic didn't entirely trust the priest.

He had fought alongside Abominations after all.

Oh well, I'll put up with him and his antics for a bit longer. He's desperate to survive, and desperation makes him valuable pawn. But once the endgame commences, it will only be a matter of time. I'll be free of this place for good. And then, I've got a long list of people to talk with before flaying them alive.

Starting with Alex Hirsch.