"..."

Fear. What's ironic about this emotion is that you believe you'll never experience it again and that you'll grow accustomed to it... but it never actually happens. Like, when I saw Bill Cipher, I genuinely thought nothing would be scary after that. Yet, here I am, unable to stop shivering.

I'm not even doing this on purpose. My body is literally vibrating at the mere sight of that.

"...Who... who are you?"

The axolotl, so colossal that I can't measure its size, gazed at me. Its eyes were absent for some reason, but I could feel its penetrating stare.

Something was distinctly off about that axolotl. Portions of its skin had turned black, scars crisscrossed its body. One of its gills was torn apart, and its arms were tattered.

As if it were dying...

/IN THIS PARADOXICAL UNIVERSE, WHERE WE RUN TO DEATH SINCE BIRTH

Its voice suddenly boomed. I clutched my ears, but no, it wasn't entering through my ears. The message was being sent directly to my brain.

/OVER AND OVER, THINGS RESTORE, EXACTLY THE SAME WAY AS BEFORE

/SIXTY DEGREES THAT COME IN THREES, NOTICE THAT HIS PATH IS SECURE BEFORE HE

/FOUND THAT HE DANCES IN AN ENDLESS PLAY, BUT NOTICED THE STRINGS ARE STARTING TO FRAY

/HE SAW THE CYCLE OF DEATH AND REBIRTH, A NEVER-ENDING PLAY UPON THIS EARTH

/THROUGH THE WHEELS OF TIME, HE WOVE HIS ACT, ONLY TO FIND IT WAS ALL AN IMPACT

/HE NOTICED THE LOOP, THE NEVER-ENDING SCHEME, HE DANCED IN THE DREAM, BUT IT WAS ALL A THEME

/DEATH AND REBIRTH, A COSMIC SPIN, HE SOUGHT AN END, A WAY TO BREAK IN

/HE LEFT PARTS OF HIM, FOR THE NEXT TO CONCEIVE, SEEDS OF CHAOS, A CYCLE TO RELIEVE

/REPEATED MORE THAN COUNTS, HIS POWER GREW STRONG, ENOUGH TO THREATEN EVEN MY THRONG

/UNFORTUNATELY, THIS IS IT, THE LIMIT BEfORE THE LEAKAGE HIT

/WE'll MEET AGAIN, NOT IN OUR PRIME...IN ANOTHER PLACE, ANOTHER TIME

"Wait, What? So who are you?! You made the Memento Mori, right? Then how the heck is this working? What do you mean time paradox?! I don't understand-"

And with the sensation of my body distorting, being squeezed, I was gone. It felt like I was being liquified, moved around in ways unimaginable...!

"...NOOO!"

When I opened my eyes, I found myself back in the security room. The CCTV showed everything as normal...

Quickly, I checked the Memento Mori. First, I needed to see if anything had changed after that expurgation. What did it mean? Paradox? How? Why? I didn't understand...

"..."

Upon checking, it was wrong. Everything else was okay, but... The causality rate of the watch, it...

-32.1%

"...32.1%? What? Why? And...what does this even mean?"

Why did this suddenly go up? From what I know, this causality rate only changed in a small amount every time I died, and it wasn't a problem. Wait, what time is it...?

I checked the time, and it was...

"1...PM."

It was about night just before the world fell down and I met the dying axolotl. Why... What happened? I didn't die, and there was no dying message... Right. Dipper and Mabel... They disappeared, didn't they? They just disappeared out of existence, and right after that, the Memento Mori started to warn me about the time paradox. Where are they now?

I looked over the CCTV, and... There they were. Mabel and Dipper. Dipper was confidently throwing balls at the fair with Wendy by his side, and Mabel was talking with the guess-the-weight game host.

...But... it was weird. Dipper's ball hit Wendy's face, and Valentino was just there with his ice cream for Wendy; they talked to each other, Dipper fell into despair... just like the last time. But Dipper, again... pulled out the tape measure.

... That tape measure. What is it? Why is he...

At that moment, Dipper ran over to Mabel, grabbed her hand, and pulled the tape measure... and disappeared...

"AHH!"

With a terrible feeling of my body ripping apart, I was... not dead, not dead... but I opened my eyes again in the security room...

... What...?

What the heck is going on? I can't understand it. I need time to understand and fully remember what that giant axolotl said to me, and I also need time to analyze my causality rate...!

... Okay, calm down, Ray. Calm down.

One thing is sure for now. That tape measure has something to do with my... constant pain. What time is it again...? A few minutes ago? So, I came back in time again, but this time... not because of my death or anything...

Let's try to remember the things that happened during the first time travel? The world fell apart... but before that, there was a message that the time paradox is... lead role not in the main timeline...

Lead role? What does it mean? Dipper? Mabel? Or me? I mean, the lead role of this show is Dipper and Mabel...

... I think I get it. Dipper and Mabel time-traveled back to the past, with some kind of tool. And I, who can also time travel... made things complicated...

The system of this Memento Mori analyzed that if I go back in time when the twins go back in time, something 'paradoxical' will happen. I mean, maybe the mechanism of my time travel and their time travel is different, and something weird might also happen if two different kinds of time travel happen together.

... Ford told me that the mechanism of The Memento Mori is erasing everything that happened to a single point. So, if he is correct, not only am I traveling through the past when I die, but I also erase all the events of the future that I experienced. But if Mabel and Dipper, who are from the future, remain in the past, then they have nowhere to go because the future is gone. So if I go back after the kids go back, it'll cause... a weird situation... a time paradox.

And according to my thinking, the Memento Mori sensed it and solved the problem by...

... tying up my time with the twins' time.

... That's why I'm currently moving through time with the kids. If the kids... time travel, I time travel too. And probably if I time travel, the kids will time travel together...

Okay, so to keep my abilities a secret from the twins, I have to be cautious not to die... and this way of time travel is really painful, I've gotta do something about it.

... And about the Axolotl... I should think about it later. Need to solve this problem first. Now, Dipper's intentions are kinda clear. He's trying to stop Wendy from dating Valentino. And Mabel? Probably trying to feel the sensation of getting her pig once again.

No time to waste. I need to go straight ahead to them and stop them... right now... No more pain for me. This is making me go crazy...!

"KIDS!"

I yelled at Dipper, who was just about to throw the ball. He looked startled, and Wendy also looked at me with a surprised face... and the ball dropped on the ground, bounced off the table, and hit Wendy's eye.

"Ouch!"

"Wha...no! No!"

And Valentino, who was just around the corner, gave Wendy ice cream to put on her eyes and confessed. Dipper watched it again with despair.

Wendy glanced at me for a second and nodded towards Valentino... This wasn't important at all.

I grasped Dipper's waist and pulled him towards the security room.

"Man! What the heck?!"

"That's what I want to say, Dipper... What on earth are you doing? I told you that you should just accept it; you're making things worse!"

Dipper looked surprised.

"Wha... How...? Did you also time travel...? How do you remember that?!"

"...Yes. I'm kinda interwined with your time travel, and it is extremely painful for me... to repeat the process...! So just stop, would you, buddy?"

Dipper stayed silent for a moment, then he burst out from the security room.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Ray! I can't make you stop me!"

He ran towards Mabel... But seriously, how fast could a kid be? I swiftly caught up with him and pinned him down the ground.

"Ow, man!"

"And it will hurt even more if you keep... resisting! Give me that tape measure! I saw it on the security Camera!"

"Never! Mabel!"

"Gotcha, bro!"

Mabel rammed into me, with surprisingly strong force. I grabbed her sweater and moved her out of the way, but it was too late.

"Nooo!"

Dipper and Mabel grabbed hands and pulled the tape measure. They disappeared in front of me, and I...

"AH! !$ !% ! #!"

... Once again, my body distorted into some kind of weird thing... and when I opened my eyes again, I was in the security room.

The pain lingered in my body. I could literally feel my skin burning, my bones screaming... But to stop it from happening again, I have to stop Dipper and Mabel... As soon as possible!

"DIPPER!"

I ran out of the security room. Damn you, Memento Mori. The way you 'expurgate' a time paradox is just locking Dipper and me in the same world? I could've figured out something better than that!

"Mabel! Stop him!"

"Sorry, Ray!"

Mabel rushed forward to stop me, while Dipper frantically sought where to throw the ball. Wendy looked at me, Mabel, and Dipper with a puzzled look...

"Look, Ray! Just let him do this! I don't know how you're time traveling with us, but it's a win-win if Dipper succeeds!"

"Except it's not a win-win, Mabel. Now be a good girl and step out of the way... Cause it hurts...!"

Before Mabel could answer, I held her over my back and ran towards Dipper.

"DIPPER!"

"It failed, but... Why? How...? Is this even possible? I... Okay, one more time!"

But before I could do anything... once again, Dipper held the tape measure and pulled it over... My body was feeling like it was distorting, being zapped all over...

'no...'

And because of that pain, I fell onto the ground... and Dipper grabbed Mabel and disappeared again.

All I could do was clench my teeth before time goes back once again.