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The 23rd of June, 1973.
The worst day of Jack Kennedy's life.
On this day, he made a grave mistake. One that would haunt him for a long time. Long after stars form and die.
It was his greatest regret.
It was Dee's birthday. He left her alone, for some irrelevant reason that would have never mattered now. And what became of her? Slender limbs and a face forever painted with tears of a life short-lived long ago. Trapped inside the body of a marionette, given the purpose to protect those who ended up like her, and forced to face the agony of failing every time.
It hadn't been long until he joined her. At least, without her, it hadn't felt as such. It couldn't have been more than 2 nights. However, as Jack lay bleeding out, an anomaly happened.
There was a split between the body and the soul. Not in the regular way, of his spirit joining the afterlife, but something different. Jack was no longer his body, and no longer his soul. His body was reanimated, given the role to give the children their happiest day.
And the soul?
The soul bore the name of Blackjack and took the form of his childhood dog, Sparky. Though with alterations. His fur was a bright purple, and he donned a yellow top hat and bowtie. He was the inverse of The Real Fredbear. In a way, it could be seen as poetic. The Real Fredbear was born from the desire for freedom from the young murdered souls while Blackjack and his power were born from the regret of not being able to save his sister.
Guilt and regret.
Two of the most powerful emotions. So powerful, they birthed a superpower.
Blackjack was able to travel through timelines.
In hindsight, he felt it as more of a curse. He felt pathetic, nothing he did or said could change what happened. No matter how much he bit and kicked and scratched for someone, please, don't let Dee go with William, he was either never acknowledged or he scared people away with his presence.
He could tear into Henry's throat and drag him into the void with shaking jaws as he had done prior as much as he wanted, but he would never be able to change what happened. He was always too late.
And if he wasn't, the brief satisfaction he got from bringing him justice before he could hurt his sister was overtaken by the crushing weight of his previous failures.
It didn't matter how many times he could save Dee, it would never compare to the amount of times he couldn't.
It would never change what happened in his original timeline.
In his original timeline, Henry was sealed in the void.
But that was only giving him eternal life. What he wanted. What he killed for.
He had to pay.
He was shocked to see the girl.
In every timeline he had traversed, he had never seen her before. He reached one conclusion. She was a time traveller. A time-line traveller, perhaps?
It seemed unlikely, but here she was, killing the world's worst person with a frantic shot with a grappling hook. Unknowingly saving Dee, William, Jack, and many others.
Blackjack was watching from the sidelines as The Real Fredbear gave her her task, one that was originally assigned to Jack in nearly every other timeline.
It hadn't yet been a day later when he confronted her.
"HOW STRANGE. I HAVE NOT SEEN YOU BEFORE, IN ANY ITERATION. JUST WHO ARE YOU?" he floated behind her, in a pitch black empty space. Obviously, not using the word 'void'. Even if the voidwalker is now deceased in this timeline, no one wants to go there.
She jumped at the sound of his voice, and it occurred to him that suddenly being in what seemed like an abyss would be frightening, and to hear an unrecognised booming voice from behind you would not help. She turned around, her confused expression completely disappearing when she laid eyes on him. "Oh my gosh! A shadow doge!"*
"A WHAT."
"Wait, are you a doge? Yeah, you look like it... unless you're from the multiverse?"
"I'M GOING TO IGNORE THAT. WHAT ABOUT MY QUESTION?"
"Oh! My name is Mabel. Mabel Pines. What about you?"
"MY NAME IS BLACKJACK. OUT OF EVERY TIMELINE, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE ENCOUNTERED YOU. YOU'RE NOT FROM THIS TIME, ARE YOU?" Something akin to unease appeared on her face, her eyes widened at being caught. "DON'T WORRY."
"Uh..." Mabel laughed, "Yeah, you caught me. I time travelled here. But how did you figure me out?" She gasped in mock horror, and placed the back of her hand on her forehead, closing her eyes in dramatisation. "Oh no! My acting skills are so much worse than how they used to be! Whatever shall I do?" She paused. "Wait..." She squinted her eyes at him. "Timeline? You're a time traveller, too? Oh, that makes everything-"
"NOT IN THE SENSE OF THE WORD YOU THINK. THIS IS NOT THE FIRST... VERSION OF THIS REALITY I HAVE ENCOUNTERED, SO TO SPEAK."
Mabel's eyes widened once more, though this time in understanding. "Oh! I think I get it! There are different timelines, right? I... don't know, I'm not the best at this nerd-talk. My brother would probably understand..."
"REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOUR BROTHER WOULD KNOW OR WHAT HE WOULD DO, I FEEL I SHOULD THANK YOU." She had a sibling, Blackjack took note of that. Where was he?
"Thank me for what? All I did was kill some guy, even if he was a butt-face, but-"
"YOU SAVED HER. MY SISTER."
Blackjack could see the girl's gears turning in her head as she connected the dots. "The little girl who was going to get..." she trailed off and winced, obviously not wanting to say the word 'murdered' in front of her alleged brother. "Wait. Wasn't her older brother the guy who saw me and William trying to dispose of the body? Ohmygosh, are you a shapeshifter? That's so cool!"
Seems like he had a lot to explain...
"So... if I hadn't time travelled here, your little sister..."
"DEE." He corrected.
"Dee, would have been murdered and made to possess a marionette? And you would have worked there until you died as well where your body and soul split and you dragged Henry into hell? And you also turned into your pet dog?" She questioned him.
"TECHNICALLY, THIS DID ALREADY HAPPEN. JUST IN A DIFFERENT TIMELINE. BUT IT DIDN'T HAPPEN HERE, BECAUSE YOU TIME TRAVELLED HERE. YOU SAVED DEE AND DISPOSED OF HENRY ACCORDINGLY, AND YOU ARE ALSO TAKING ON THE ROLE MY BODY ORIGINALLY DID. BUT ASIDE FROM THAT, YOU'RE RIGHT."
Mabel sat in stunned silence for a moment. And another, until finally she spoke. "I can't even imagine what you went through after your little sister died, that must have been..." Her eyes widened as she appeared to realise something, and curled up into a ball. "Oh no..."
He walked closer to her, sitting next to her so they were side by side, shoulder to shoulder. "WHAT'S WRONG?"
"If there's more timelines, then- my brother back in Gravity Falls! He must be so worried! Can you... if you can travel through timelines, can you at least tell my twin that I'm okay? I don't know how long it will take to free the two of them, but..." She gave her best puppy-dog eyes (he thought he was supposed to be the puppy here).
"... I'LL SEE WHAT I CAN DO."
Dipper Pines had not seen his twin sister anywhere. Not since yesterday morning, when she asked to join them on their expedition. He hadn't been sure why she specifically couldn't join until Ford had said so. Apparently, the anomaly they were investigating was basically the Anti-Mabel. It hated glitter and would react violently if it were to come into contact with something shiny.
Even so, he felt he could've been nicer about it.
Dipper decided if his sister didn't show up within the next 5 minutes, he was going to send out a search party complete with bloodhounds and helicopters.
"Yo dude! Check out this cool dog!"
Soos. His voice rang out from the gift shop, and Dipper walked in to see what he was talking about. On the floor, he could see a purple Shiba Inu with white eyes and a yellow top hat and bowtie set staring up at him. "MASON ALEX PINES." He said.
"Woah, dude, did you piss off an eldritch doge? Not cool." Soos shook his head.
"What? No, I would know if I-"
"YOUR SISTER IS SAFE AND IN GOOD HANDS."
"...What does that mean. What did she get herself into?"
Soos started petting the dog, much to his indignance, but eventually, he succumbed and rolled over with a dopey grin on his face. No matter how much Dipper probed, the talking dog would not elaborate before walking out of the gift shop and vanishing into thin air.
"Did you tell my brother I was safe?"
Blackjack nodded.
"With dramatic flair?"
Blackjack nodded again.
"You are one cool dog! Do you like treats? Good boy!"
"NEVER SPEAK AGAIN."