Chapter 42: Axolotl

Narrator's POV

In a misty place, tinged with slightly pink hues, Stan Pines floats aimlessly for a while.

"You gonna keep me here much longer? We both know I'll bust out once my body's done evolving."

Stan knew he wasn't alone. He could feel a mystical presence all around him.

"Congrats on saving your world from its destiny, but... you're not off the hook yet." A peaceful voice echoed around him before a creature looking like a Pokémon, in Stan's opinion, appeared.

'This thing feels familiar. Pretty sure I didn't see it in the original Gravity Falls story, but in some book.' Stan hadn't known Axolotl in his past life, but he recognized its description and name thanks to Terri and the Boiling Isles.

Though Terri had failed to bring back the music box, she'd managed to snag a book with info about the Calamity Box.

Surprisingly, this book also had dirt on Bill Cipher, like the existence of a secret society called 'the Anti-Cipher Society'.

She was trying to limit Bill Cipher's influence in the US with some special dome.

Beyond Bill Cipher info, the book also talked about some cosmic entities.

Among these was a creature looking just like the one now standing before Stan.

"You're Axolotl?" Stan asked, frowning.

(Image)

"Yep," the massive creature simply responded.

"Why drag me here to tell me this when you could just beam the info straight into my brain or something?" The creature's weird actions were making him uncomfortable.

"The stuff I gotta reveal is super important. I can only talk about it here, in my domain. Unless you wanna mess up your timeline again with your screw-ups," Axolotl explained in a calm tone.

His words only made Stan more confused.

'How the hell can information wreck an entire timeline?' Stan first thought Axolotl was exaggerating, but he remembered those weird entities that could mess with whole universes just by existing.

"Explain what you mean to me." Stan got serious. If he was facing an entity so powerful that info about it could trash a whole universe, he'd better take this seriously.

"You've busted the causal chains of your world. That alone's created a massive problem." Axolotl started explaining the scale of Stan's mistake.

Simply put, every person and entity has a "role" to play in the grand show of existence, what people call destiny.

Sometimes an "ant" manages to switch roles in this show, but that usually doesn't mess with the big picture.

But neither the stage master nor the audience likes it when "actors" change their roles in a big way, 'cause that wrecks the plot.

If that happens, things gotta be rebalanced to keep the show's ending the same.

'Huh... so that explains those rumors on Earth about Bill Cipher not being dead. Maybe destiny just gave him another role,' Stan thought, shocked.

"If you'd just replaced Time Baby in his role, things wouldn't have been so bad. But... you went and changed the roles of your entire timeline." Axolotl's voice got slightly hostile.

"And? Was I supposed to just sit there and watch my family get crushed by that yellow triangle?" Stan snapped, annoyed.

He wasn't about to back down from this.

"Yeah, but now it's too late... Destiny's started giving you a new role, matching your screw-ups." Axolotl's words gave Stan a really bad feeling.

"What do you mean?" Axolotl didn't answer right away but looked into the infinite pink mist like he was staring at something before turning back to Stan.

"I've got permission to tell you a bit. You've racked up a massive amount of negative karma..."

Put simply, by changing his timeline's destiny, Stan Pines had condemned another timeline to play the role his would've had in the grand show of existence.

The multiverse had balanced out the mess Stan caused, but innocent people had died because of him.

This was just like Constantine, when he took the fall for the massive timeline change Flash made in "Constantine: The House of Mystery".

"You're now just like the being you're trying to beat..." After this last line, Axolotl vanished.

"Great, real sore loser, aren't ya," Stan mumbled, looking up.

...

[We won, but at what cost?] Surprisingly, anyone could feel the sadness in Arlecchino's cold voice, echoing in the Mystery Shack's basement.

"Quit your whining, tin can. Dad's still alive, I can feel it," the Collector declared, staring at Stan, still asleep.

The war was over.

The Emperor's Coven members had all come back from the Boiling Isles. Nobody had died for real since Stan had brought back all the dead during the conflict, but the mood wasn't exactly celebratory.

The Emperor of the Boiling Isles had been seriously messed up, and this news was gonna spread fast.

That's why Lilith couldn't stick around with her Emperor: she had to keep the troublemaking coven leaders in check.

[It's my fault, it's my fault, it's my fault...] On a screen a bit away from Stan, an all-too-familiar AI was stuck on repeat, mumbling her guilt, her unstable gaze fixed on nothing.

*BAM*

"GIFfany, knock it off... The boss forgave you. That's why you're still here, so chill!" Old Man McGucket shouted after seriously smacking the computer screen.

[Sorry...] she whispered before shutting off the screen.

"Damn it, she's really starting to get on my nerves... Oh yeah, didn't the boss mention something for this kinda situation?" Old Man grumbled, looking annoyed.

These words made the Collector's eyes go wide.

"Oh right! Dad said to bring back some Ford guy and do what he says till he gets back," the Collector declared, realizing he'd forgotten this crucial info.

[I see... Gotta bring back the Master's brother... Wonder if he'll be as good as him.]

Luckily for them, Ford's portal didn't necessarily need Titan's blood to work.

Nuclear energy could do the trick, but they'd have to wait at least six hours to fire it up, unlike Titan's blood, which would've opened things up instantly.

...

A few hours later, in Amphibia...

"Hey, I'm looking for this weird creature. Check it out, here's what it looks like," a blue-tinted frog declared, holding out an image.

"Oh, you mean Marcy!!" the guard immediately responded, recognizing the stranger who'd recently done a ton for Newtopia's evolution.

"Exactly! Where can I find her?" the blue frog exclaimed, way too excited without realizing it.

"Calm down, kid. She's a VIP guest of King Andrias," the guard explained, pointing toward the castle.

[After days of walking and munching on bugs, I've finally found one...]

Yep, the blue frog was none other than Terri, transformed thanks to an artificial devil fruit Stan had given her.