Chapter Text
He stood at the threshold between worlds. This was the nexus, a place that served to connect the multiverse in a giant interconnected web. Countless paths stood before him each one seemingly identical to the last. Each path would lead him to a different universe where only the souls would remain constant between worlds. His omniscience was useless in this place, and were it not for the tag he had placed to Toby he would have no idea which path to choose. Leaving behind his world he continued forward his path chosen for him.
Reaching the end of the path he was met with a golden wall with specs of green dotting the surface. The wall stretched out in all directions in from of him with no visible entrance, but this was what he expected. The universes existed along parallel lines, side by side never touching one another, but still connected through the nexus. Were he more powerful he may have been able to force his way through the wall, but as of yet he still lacked the power to do so. So instead he looked for the crack he knew still lingered upon the wall. A crack that formed from the violent opening of a wormhole.
Wormholes are the only natural way to cross between universes and if Toby was in an alternate universe this would have been the only way he could have gotten there. Alcor knew that most wormholes close up almost instantly after opening, and that only the passage of solid matter would delay its closure. It takes an enormous amount of energy to punch a hole into another universe, and that energy leaves behind a trail to follow manifesting itself into a crack on the barrier between worlds.
Narrowing in on Bill’s soul he quickly found the crack which glowed a bright red. Digging his claws into the red crack he forced it open, reopening the wormhole that would allow him passage into the universe. Peering into the new universe Alcor at first saw only an inky blackness that soon warped and shifted into a kaleidoscope of colors. As he passed through the wormhole the colors eventually settled into familiar shapes revealing a forest filled with pine trees, the sun floating high in the sky.
Flaring out his wings Alcor landed softly on the forest floor, his demonic features being highlighted by the blood red glow of the dimensional crack behind him. Floating slightly above the ground he scanned the forest searching for any sign of Toby. As he did so he began to realize just how similar this world was to his own, recognizing this forest as the one he had passed through so often in his long life. This was the Gravity Falls forest; of that he was certain. Though unlike his own world the magic that flowed through the air was much thicker and more concentrated. Though why this was remained a mystery to him.
A frown quickly appeared upon Alcor’s face as he realized that Toby’s tag had disappeared. Not only that but Bill’s soul had become increasingly difficult for him to track down, with Alcor only being able to tell that the boy’s soul was within a hundred-mile radius. Sighing he decided to start his search for Toby at the most likely place, the Mystery Shack. That is of course if this universe even had a Mystery Shack. Still it was unlikely that Toby had gotten too far from the wormhole opening, and the Shack would be the closest to Alcor’s current location deep within the Gravity Falls forest.
It took him less than a ten minutes to reach the edge of the forest as he came face to face with this universe’s version of the Mystery Shack. The Shack was back to its old self or at least what he remembered it being over a thousand years ago, back before Stan converted it into The Stanley Pines Memorial Library. He did so after Ford’s suggested that it would make him more business than the current Shack, which was struggling to make money after the Transcendence made the supernatural natural.
Floating just out of sight on the edge of the forest Dipper wondered if the Transcendence had even happened to this world yet. That would explain the thicker concentration of magic in the air, which would still be trapped within the natural barrier that at one point still surrounded his own Gravity Falls. Looking at the Shack he spotted Stan’s old car parked off to the side of the Shack and some small children’s toys left in the grass near the gift shop entrance. The Mystery Shack was back to its original self and Alcor felt like he had just stepped back in time.
“What if I have?” Alcor said as he felt the golden tears threatening to fall from his eyes.
No, he knew that this was an entirely different universe. No matter how similar this world was to his own, there was no going back from what had happened to him. His priority now was finding Toby as soon as possible, as he could only keep the wormhole open for so long. Resolving himself he stepped out of the shadows ready to face whatever laid hidden within the Shack.
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Toby sat on a crusty bench of the Diner that the Pines family had taken him to. Next to him sat the old man that had introduced himself as Stanley Pines. On the opposite bench sat Mabel with her twins Gladys and Finn to her left and right. In the next booth over Wendy and Dipper sat together, with Dipper claiming the window seat. Their daughter Phoebe sat in a high chair to the side of their booth. The only person missing was Ford, who according to Dipper was staying home to finish up some valuable research and would be joining them a little latter.
Looking out the window to his right he still couldn’t believe that this was the same Gravity Falls that he had visited last year. Where were all the high rise buildings and the multiple large hotels he saw the last time he was here? More importantly, where was Jerry when he needed him?
“Welcome to Greasy’s Diner! What can I get you guys? Oh! I haven’t seen you before. You new to Gravity Falls? How ya like’n it?”
Turning around Toby come face to face with the Diner’s waitress. Going by her name tag her name was Susan and she looked to be around the same age as Stanley and Ford. Her hair was pulled up into a beehive style with her face covered in heavy makeup. Her left eyelid was currently being held open by her hand as she spotted him amongst the Pines.
“Hey Lazy Susan, this is our new guest Toby who will be staying with us for a little while,” said Stanley as he roughly patted Toby on the back.
“Nice to meet ya!” said Susan as she dropped her eyelid. “So what’ll it be?”
The Pines family was quick to order their favorites, with Stan ordering burger for Toby and himself. Susan soon left after taking the orders, and with her gone Dipper immediately turned around to face Toby’s bench blurting out his questions in rapid fire succession.
“Toby earlier you mentioned the Transcendence. What is that exactly? Who is Alcor? How old are you? And why do you wear an eye patch?” asked Dipper visibly excited.
“Dipperrrrrrrrr! I thought we agreed no more questions!” Mabel said clearly annoyed as she turned around to give her brother a light push.
“What? No, no, I'm uh…just…just trying to start conversation, yeah! That's all! Um, he can totally ask questions too if he wants!” Dipper said as he attempted to defend himself.
“Nice try, kid. Your sister’s right. Let him eat first,” said Stan forcing Dipper into a temporary silence.
As much as Toby would like to agree with Mabel and Stan, Dipper’s earlier question on Transcendence worried him. No one here seemed to know a thing about the events of Transcendence.
The Transcendence changed the entire world and there was no way anyone would be able ignore its impact. So how could they not know about it? Did that crack send him back in time or something? Wait…what if it did? A bead of sweat fell down his face. If that was the case then did Alcor even exist yet, and what if he was trapped here? Breathing heavily, he began to panic.
No, that can’t be the case! I’ll just confirm the date with Stan and he’ll prove I’m wrong.
“Hey kid don’t forget to breathe, ok?” said Stan noticing Toby’s accelerated breathing.
“Um…you wouldn’t happen to…know what…day it was?” said Toby, his breaths coming fast and quick.
“It’s Saturday, why?”
“No…what is…the year?” Toby said his panic rising.
“It’s 2029, but are you ok?” said Stan now worried for Toby’s health.
“What! But that’s…impossible…Transcendence should’ve…it should’ve…” with those last words Toby found himself gasping for breath, his asthma gripping at his lungs.
It was now clear to the Pines family that something was very wrong with Toby.
“Mommy is Toby gonna be allwight?” asked a concerned Gladys.
“Dipper, I think he might be having an asthma attack?!” Mabel said panicking.
“I’ll call an ambulance!” said Dipper as he reached for his phone his voice also laced with panic.
“Kid, you gotta breathe for us. Can you do that?” asked Stan in a calm voice.
“Does anyone here have an inhaler? We have a dude here who needs one stat!” Wendy said as she stood up to deliver her message to the rest of the people in the Diner.
Toby knew that they were trying to help, but he also knew that the only thing that could help him now would his own inhaler. Reaching into his shoulder bag that he had remembered to bring with, he pulled out his inhaler quickly using it to calm his ragged breathing. It took a couple doses, but soon his breathing was back to normal.
After seeing that the crisis had been averted the Pines family soon calmed down. Seeing that Toby was fine Dipper ended his call with the 911 operator apologizing for the false alarm. Wendy meanwhile worked to calm down Phoebe, who had started to cry upon seeing the panic that had surrounded her. Feeling responsible for the trouble that he had just caused Toby was quick to apologize.
“I’m sorry about causing all that trouble. I should have told you I had asthma,” said very apologetic Toby.
“Mommy what’s assy-ma?” said a now curious Gladys.
“Is that what made him go all wonky?” asked Finn.
“It's when sometimes someone's lungs makes it hard for them to breathe,” said Mabel as an answer to the twins’ questions.
“Does that mean we could get it?” asked Finn.
“No, it’s not contagious. That means you two can’t get it,” she said pulling her two kids into a motherly hug.
“So what caused this sudden asthma attack?” asked Stan.
“Well, I don’t know if you guys would even believe me if I told you,” Toby said in a soft voice.
“Kid almost nothing you could say would surprise me, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that,” said Stan as the rest of the family nodded their heads in agreement.
“Ok, well you see I think this may not be my world.”
“So are you saying you’re an alien! Cool!” said an overexcited Mabel.
“What no! I just realized that no one here knew about Transcendence, even though it should have happened already. You see in my world the Transcendence happened over a thousand years ago back in 2012. It changed the whole world making demons common knowledge, and creatures that were once thought to be pure myth real. In my world it’s the year 3116 and well let’s just say that the last time I visited Gravity Falls it looked nothing like the town I saw today.”
“Doesn’t that just make you a time traveler?” asked Stan.
“It would, if people here knew about the Transcendence. You see I didn’t mention this before, but the epicenter of the events that led to the Transcendence occurred right here in Gravity Falls during the summer of 2012. If this was my world there is no way the people of Gravity Falls would not know about the Transcendence.”
“So Dipper what do you think?” asked Mabel.
“Well Mabel I never put much stock in the whole multiverse theory, but I think this confirms it,” said Dipper smiling.
“You guys believe me?” asked Toby surprised.
“Pfft, Dipper and I see stranger stuff all the time. If you say you’re from a different world, that means you’re from a different world,” said Mabel as she shrugged her shoulders completely confident in what she just said.
“Thanks, but now that I know that I’m from a different world I’m worried that I won’t be able to find my way back.”
“Well then stop your worries, cause the Pines are here help! We’ll find you a way back home, no problem!” said Mabel as she gave a helpful wink to Toby.
As she said this their food finally arrived with Susan announcing its arrival with a loud “Food!” before leaving them to eat. As Toby ate his food he found himself feeling more comfortable with the Pines family. Maybe he didn’t have Alcor, but somehow he felt that he could trust them to find him a way back home.
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After seeing Dipper and the rest of his family off, Ford descended into his underground lab. As much as he may have wanted to accompany them, his priority was to research the strange stones that Dipper had given him. Having now arrived in his underground lab he placed Dipper’s bag down on a table removing the stone fragments from within its depths after putting on his gloves. Placing a small magnifying glass to his eye he proceeded to examine each fragment looking for any visible abnormalities. After ten minutes of careful observation of the five fragments he was forced to conclude that the stones were just regular sedimentary rocks. Even looking at the chemical composition provided no evidence that the stones had any abnormal origins. The fragments were just simple gravel rocks with no lingering magical signature.
“Was this just a dead end?” asked a frustrated Ford.
No, there was no way Dipper would lie to me about this. So that must mean the abnormalities I’m looking for reside back at the original point of origin.
Quickly heading over to his global anomaly scanner he narrowed the scanning radius to the forests in and around Gravity Falls. The forests were naturally teaming with a wide range of anomalies ranging anywhere from a 0.1 to a 5.0 on a 20-point scale. Realizing this Ford focused on searching for any anomalies registering above a 5.0. Finding nothing above the usual range Ford decided to check the backlog for any anomalies registering at or above a 10.0. If this was in fact a rift or perhaps a temporal crack it would have registered above a 10.0.
Eventually he found the anomaly he was looking for registered in the backlog as a 10.2 with a 7:45am timestamp in the eastern Gravity Falls forest. Though strangely enough this anomaly had disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared, dropping off the map just three minutes later at 7:48am. Still this was the only anomaly he could find that would possibly match Dipper’s story on how he found the boy in the forest. Hopefully the anomaly’s location could provide him with a few more clues on how this “Toby” got here and where he came from.
After registering the anomaly’s original location on his watch Ford was about to leave his lab in search of it, when he suddenly heard the alarm on his global anomaly scanner go off, indicating that a new high level anomaly had just been detected. Looking back at the anomaly scanner Ford was surprised to see that the anomaly he had just registered in his watch was back on the map. Not only that but an even stronger anomaly was right next to it registering in an unbelievable 19.6. He hadn’t seen anything this strong in years, not since…Weirdmageddon.
“No! That can’t be right! Unless he’s back? But that shouldn’t be possible, I was sure we had locked Bill permanently in the nightmare realm with no way out,” Ford said as clutched his head in frustration.
Looking back at the scanner once more Ford felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he noticed that the impossibly high level anomaly was now on the move, and it was heading straight towards the Mystery Shack at an alarming speed. Reaching into his weapons vault Ford hefted the quantum destabilizer onto his back, his ray gun clipped to his belt. Now fully equipped Ford left his lab behind, taking the elevator upstairs to the gift shop. He would protect his family from whatever horror awaited him just beyond the Mystery Shack, even if it killed him.