The Traveler

Where do you go when you dream?

The Dreamcatcher visits strange worlds under different suns, a witness to what the rest of us can not imagine. After an encounter with the dream entity, Gumball awakes to find a world he does not recognize, and a strange suit that, when combined with special pendants, allows him to visit new realities with every dream.

When back on terrestrial ground in the waking hours, he sets out in search of a way out of this alternate universe, seeking answers to overcome the insurmountable obstacles between him and his home, where his family and friends team up with Rob in their search for Gumball. Witness the grand narrative forged by otherworldly creatures as they guide the Traveler across landscapes and realities where we cannot follow, collecting memories and unique experiences from across the barriers of space, time, and consciousness.

Read on, the first chapter of many more to come. Lie back, relax, and journey…

Original concept by Klayton and Josh Danforth
Based off the album "End of an Empire" by Celldweller

Author's note: I have curated a YouTube playlist for this story. It is named "TAWoG: The Traveler Playlist" and can be easily searched on YouTube.

Prologue

Thulcandra

a compound noun, formed with the prefix Thulc, meaning "silent",

and handra, meaning earth, land, or planet, referring to the third planet from the sun in English

"Silent Planet" or Earth

He woke up in a cold sweat. He sat up in his bed, panting hard, and gripped at his chest, as if to stop his heart from exploding. It pounded like a powerful drumbeat in his ears.

"Bad dreams again?"

Gumball turned to the voice in the darkness.

Drawing a shaky breath, he replied, "Yeah. I'm sorry, buddy."

"It's not your fault, dude." Darwin said.

It was the third night in a row since these dreams started to plague Gumball. They were unequaled by any that he had ever experienced before. Each nightmare brought terrifying perils and disturbing mysteries that always succeeded in disrupting his sleep, resulting in abrupt awakening. Consequently, Darwin had had little sleep as well.

"I think we should follow Mrs. Mom's advice and get help." Darwin said.

"From who?"

"We can figure that out later. Try to get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay. Good night. Sorry for waking you up. Again."

Gumball turned in his bed, shutting his eyes and hoping to get some rest before school. He took a deep, controlled breath, and started to drift back into sleep. He hoped to wake up feeling refreshed and well-rested, ready to tackle the day ahead.

Refreshed but not relieved.

He hadn't felt relief since the dreams began.

He wondered if he would finally have a good night's sleep tomorrow.

He doubted it.

Who has never killed an hour?

It is a loss that we experience daily in the privacy of our lives,

and that loss is too empty to share.

The ringing of a schoolbell assaulted dozens of ears at Elmore Junior High, eliciting sighs of relief. Students flooded out of their rooms, eager for lunch, as their teachers yelled out last-minute assignments and reminders.

In the cafeteria, a ghost wandered aimlessly, tenaciously watching everyone else eat. She suddenly came across a sleep-deprived Gumball, fast asleep and snoring loudly, his face buried in his tray of food. Seated at the table with him was his siblings and Penny. Darwin looked extremely tired, but he soon perked up and smiled as Carrie approached.

"Hi, Carrie." Fatigue was apparent in his voice.

"Hey Carrie," Penny said.

"Hey guys," Carrie replied.

She gave Darwin a confused look. "What happened to you? You look undead."

Penny shrugged. "I know, right?"

"Nightmares," Darwin replied. "Gumball's been having them every night since three days ago, and it's getting worse. We don't know what to do."

"Her, too?" Carrie asked, pointing at Anais' unconscious form, slumped over the table.

Darwin sighed. "No, she just tried interpreting Gumball's dreams again."

"I have to admit, it was kinda funny," Penny said.

Gumball suddenly jolted awake, inhaling sharply. He shook off the pasta on his face and blinked twice, eyes adapting to the brightly lit cafeteria.

Penny laughed. "Good morning, sleepyhead."

Gumball gave her a sheepish grin. "Hey Penny! Sorry, I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately."

"That makes two of us," Darwin muttered.

"Hey, it's not my fault, dude. These nightmares aren't like any dream I've had before. Anyway, how long was I out?"

Darwin shrugged. "I don't know."

Anais pulled her face off the table, groaning. She grabbed her head and started massaging her temples.

"What happened?" she asked.

Darwin replied, "You passed out trying to make sense of Gumball's dream. Again."

Anais buried her face in her arms. "Remind me never to do that again."

"What kind of dream was it?" Penny asked.

"Yeah," Carrie said. "If it's been causing you that much trouble, it might be something supernatural."

Gumball opened his mouth to speak, but the bell rang before he could utter a word.

"Time for class," Darwin said. "We can't be late again, Gumball. Miss Simian will blow a gasket."

Gumball shrugged. "So? She does that all the time. Why should we care? Apart from the fact that our eardrums might rupture."

"Don't you remember? If we come in late one more time she'll expel us both."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"But Mrs. Mom will kill us."

"Oh, right. Good point."

A loud voice in the distance pierced the air, sending chills down the spine of each student.

"No running in the halls!"

The shrill cry of Miss Simian.

The two boys sprinted out of the cafeteria at breakneck speed, somehow producing a large dust cloud despite Rocky's cleaning efforts. They sped through the halls, leaving blinded, coughing students in their wake.

The boys burst through the doors of their classroom and got in their seats before their classmates could tell what was happening. Not one second had passed before the door was slammed open again, revealing Miss Simian. She had her usual mug of steaming coffee in one hand, and a stack of paper in the other. She seemed to enjoy the air of dread and foreboding that now permeated the classroom.

As she launched into a brutal lecture that was too technical and vague for the typical 7th-grader. Gumball immediately lost contact with reality and slammed his face on his desk, succumbing to sleep once more.

Where do you go when you dream?

Gumball heard a tiny voice. It seemed to be singing.

"It's the end..."

He opened his eyes, but it made no difference. Darkness confined him.

"It's the end..."

He could feel a cold presence. It made his heart pound and his skin crawl. If he could move, he would have curled up into a ball.

"It's the end..."

He wanted so badly to get away from whatever it was that held him, but at the same time he felt no hope, and was content to resign himself to this dark world. Apathy and indifference surrounded him like a web, making the smallest of actions an impossible effort.

He closed his eyes again, expecting his demise.

"It's the end..."

Suddenly, a light shone in front of him.

He opened his eyes and his vision readjusted, and he saw a blue emblem in front of him, glowing brightly.

A shimmer of hope trickled through his system.

"It's the end of an empire..."

He focused on it and willed himself to move, to reach out, to hold on to something amidst the emptiness.

"It's the end of an empire..."

He touched the emblem, a strange-looking watch, and immediately felt free from the invisible shackles that bound him. He felt soothing warmth, comfort, and relief.

"It's the end of an empire..."

As the voice sang one last time, he felt the dark world peel away from him like a suffocating cocoon.

Immediately his environment changed and his mind was cleared.

He blinked hard, and he saw...

A gray expanse, as far as the eye could see, with splotches of black and dark blue, like stains on worn concrete.

Gumball surveyed his surroundings, searching for anything else within the strange new world around him. As he turned around, he found a planet of sorts, made of the same material as the expanse that contained it. The planet's surface, however, was coated in the blue-black substance, which seemed to pulse and writhe, as if alive.

In spite of this strange sight, Gumball had focused his attention elsewhere, on something else that seemed to demand fear and reverence. It made his blood go cold.

Someone.

"What are you?" he asked.

In front of the planet stood a strange creature that seemed to be made of rock or metal. The pair of black, bottomless holes on its face seemed to suck Gumball into a dark abyss; a piercing gaze, probing and digging into his very soul and subjecting him to intense scrutiny.

Then a thought that was not his own boomed in his mind.

Time is running out, Traveler.

Gumball blinked. The creature in front of him did not seem to have a mouth, yet he knew for certain that it had spoken.

You cannot stay here any longer.

Gumball replied, "What are you talking about? What's going on?"

Static began to fill Gumball's vision, and pockets of darkness began to appear once more, tearing at the environment. Fear flooded back in full force as the creature began to fade from view.

Death awaits. But do not fear. Even Death will end.

"W-wait!" Gumball stammered. "Don't go! Don't leave me here!"

In time.

As the final thoughts of the creature echoed within Gumball's mind, he felt the dark thing from before return. Its wrath, intense and crippling, focused on him like a beam of sunlight, freezing him in place. Though he knew it was futile, Gumball still tried to resist. Clawing, scratching, and tearing through, with every iota of willpower he could muster.

It was a mere drop in the ocean of rage that swallowed him.

For one bleak moment, all was still. No motion, no glimmer of hope, not the faintest trace of life. There was no breeze, no sound, no sensation. Yet somehow Gumball could still feel it all, like a terrible hollowness reaching up for him.

And then, sound came forth once again.

The sound of screaming.

The sound of his own screams.

The sound of Darwin's voice, yelling Gumball's name along with two words.

"WAKE UP!"

Reality and dreams can be analogous to the brain and the mind

The brain is restricted to spacetime and matter

The mind has no such limitations

The sound of a school bus arriving and opening its doors prompted Nicole to stand from the kitchen table, where she had been piecing together a puzzle with Richard. In truth, Richard had absolutely no idea what they were doing, but he was content to play along, since opportunities of sitting next to the fridge were few and far between.

Nicole walked to the door, wanting to greet her kids with a warm smile as the door opened.

"Mom!" Anais said as she jumped into her mother's arms.

"Good evening, Mrs. Mom!" Darwin exclaimed.

"Welcome home, kids." Nicole replied. Her smile faded when she realized a certain someone wasn't present.

"Where's Gumball?" she asked.

Darwin's grin deflated. "He went for a walk in the park. He had a nightmare in class and… it didn't end well. He said he'll be home before dinner."

Well that should teach him not to sleep in class, Nicole thought as she shut the door behind Darwin. This was a first for Gumball, however. No matter how much trouble he got himself into, he had never been as dejected as to go for a walk in the park alone.

"Alright. What happened this time?" she said.

Darwin would much rather have Gumball do the explaining, but as he thought about it, he realized that if he couldn't make sense of what happened in the classroom that afternoon, it probably wouldn't do any harm if Nicole knew.

He took a deep breath.

"He started talking in this creepy voice," he said. "Like he was hypnotized or just really, really bored. He was going on about time and all sorts of deep philosophical stuff. Then he started screaming. I had to shake him awake."

Nicole covered her face with her hand and sighed.

"I swear, the chances of robot overlords taking over Elmore are bigger than that boy having a normal day."

"Uh… mom?" Anais asked. "You might want to see this."

She pointed to the TV.

"Robot overlords are taking over Elmore!" yelled a news reporter.

Nicole clicked her tongue. "Of course."

Several robots were seen flying overhead the reporter, who was breaking down in hysteria.

"This is a dark day for Elmore, and possibly the world! Will mankind finally pay for his absolute narcissism? Is this our abrupt wake-up call from our self-induced sedation and ignorant bliss? Is this our inevitable confrontation with the machines of our disgrace? Do we even have a chance of winning? Will we be exterminated? Or worse, will we be subject to menial labor?"

They watched the reporter ramble on in fear, and he would have gone on for hours about being unemployed and replaced by the robots, if not for someone grabbing his microphone.

Darwin's eyes opened wide when he saw the stranger.

"Rob?"

"You know him?" asked Anais.

"Yeah," Darwin replied. " He said he'd become me and Gumball's nemesis."

"My and Gumball's nemesis," corrected Anais.

"Nemesis?" Nicole said. "Like a bully or something?"

"No. It's… complicated." answered Darwin.

"You're not letting him walk all over you two, are you?"

"Actually, we pretty much have to try really hard to even remember his name."

Rob cleared his throat and continued.

"As I was saying, we are Outland Industries. The best in science and technology, unlike anything the world has ever seen. We have operated in secrecy for years, but now the time has come for us to share our secrets with the world!

"No man can tell what tomorrow may bring. Men's souls wrestle with the mere thought of tomorrow. No longer!"

The reporter asked, "But what about the Bobert Store? Don't they say the same things?"

Rob laughed. "Look around. Nothing's changed, but the stakes are higher than ever before. The Bobert Store cares only about profit and is blind to one crucial fact, that technological advance without virtue is worse than no advance at all. The nuclear button is in the hands of madmen. Outland will not just advance our technology, but also our morality."

"But how will you do that? You can't make good people by law."

"Of course not. Which is why we resort to other methods. Like so."

Rob outstretched his right hand, palm facing the sky.

The reporter and cameraman yelped as they slowly floated into the sky.

"Hey! What's going on? Put us down!"

The camera was yanked away from its operator, and slowly revolved around Rob, showing various levitating objects. He made a fist, making everything except the camera drop. He made it briefly pan the horizon, showing the robots flying off into the distance and the news crew scrambling to their feet and running away. He then returned the camera's focus to himself.

He spoke in a quiet, menacing voice. "Evil and ignorance permeates this society like a plague. I'm gonna help all of you cleanse this disease from the planet."

A loud crumpling noise accompanied static on the screen as Rob crushed the camera. He flashed a sinister grin before the screen went dark.

The Wattersons stared at their TV in silence until Darwin broke it.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting serious 'Area 51' vibes from that."

"Those robots flew towards the park," Anais said. "I sure hope Gumball doesn't run into trouble."

The ground has given way to instability

So long solid foundation and hello dear anarchy

Stupid nightmares, Gumball thought as he skipped a stone across the park lake. It bounced thrice before making a large splash in the bright orange water, reflecting the light from the setting sun.

Gumball sighed as he watched the ripples fade, and stared into his reflection as the water's surface smoothed out.

"What is wrong with you?" he said to his mirror image.

Don't be lonely.

Gumball snapped to attention, eyes scanning the dense forest behind him. He thought he heard someone speak. He could see nothing out of the ordinary, but realized that the park had become deathly quiet. No wind, no birds, no rustling in the leaves. It's as if time itself had frozen, leaving him in an isolated patch of reality.

"Okaaaaaay. This is creepy..." he said to himself. "I'm... gonna go home now."

He made his way back the way he came, but the deafening silence unnerved him. He had a small urge to freak out and hightail it, but he maintained his composure.

He focused on the sound of his own footsteps in the grass, trying in vain to take his mind off the strange stillness that had come over the park. His imagination had run wild, however, and was now feeding him with unknown fears.

It felt like something malicious was watching him intently with the cruel patience of a hungry spider. It was for this reason he maintained his slow, steady pace, fearing that whatever was out there was simply waiting for an opportunity to strike.

He shook his head, trying to rationalize the situation. He was probably just imagining things. It was just his mind conjuring up creepy stuff. There's nothing strange about a calm, quiet park.

So why am I so tense? he thought to himself. As he crept along, he saw something that answered his question.

At the base of a tree were some dark red spots in the grass. It was hard to tell what they were from a distance, but Gumball decided to walk in another direction, not at all interested in figuring it out.

It really felt like something was out there, as full of wrath as he was full of fear. The urge to run was stronger now. This time, he did not resist it.

He sprinted through the woods, nearing the park's exit. His ears picked up on a strange sound, however. It was the only other noise apart from his footsteps and breathing. It only made him run faster. Despite this, he heard it come closer. It was like a high-pitched squeak, as if something was dashing through the air.

All mine.

He definitely heard that, and he was sure he didn't imagine it. He kept running even though his legs were starting to cramp. Whatever was out there wandered close by, the noise making adrenaline course through Gumball's veins.

He could see the exit now, and he ran even faster towards it, his legs begging for rest.

Then something hit Gumball like a brick wall. He saw what looked like a shadow, engulfing him and smashing into him with the force of a truck. He was thrown into the grass, where he lost consciousness.

Half an hour later, the air nearby shimmered, and a beam of light washed over Gumball's motionless form.

A voice spoke. "What did you find?"

A robotic voice replied, "Gumball Watterson. Unconscious. Uninjured."

"Lazy kid fell asleep at the park... Any sign of the Phantom's wraith?"

"Detected blood of local wildlife."

"It can't be far, then. Don't let it get any further. Keep searching."

"You do not have authority to issue commands to Scandroids, neophyte."

"Whatever. Just find that thing."

The invisible robot silently left the scene just as Gumball regained consciousness. He slowly stood and patted himself off, wondering what had happened. He could come up with no answer, and decided to just walk home. He was hungry, after all.

True to his word, Gumball made it home before dinner. He entered the living room and saw Richard asleep on the couch, a slice of pizza on his face. Nicole and Darwin were setting the table for dinner, while Anais was seated at a table, thoroughly invested in a thick book.

Gumball said, "Geez sis, you're like one of those antisocial shut-ins who never see sunlight, except with books instead of the internet. How many hours a day do you waste on studying?"

"More hours than you've spent killing brain cells," Anais replied with a smirk.

"Oh ha ha, very funny."

"Welcome home, Gumball," greeted Nicole. "I heard you had an... incident in class today. Want to explain why you were sleeping over dinner?"

Gumball's shoulders slumped under the weight of extreme fatigue as memories of his bad day flooded back.

He replied, "Actually, I've lost my appetite. I'm going to bed."

"Are you sure? Not even a little bit?" asked Nicole as Gumball dragged his feet upstairs.

She received no answer. She looked to Darwin, who only shrugged. The silence persisted until they heard the bedroom door close.

The first remark came from Anais. "He looks awful."

"Well, he's had a long, rough day," Nicole replied. "Bring up some dinner for him, will you, Darwin?"

"Sure, Mrs. Mom."

Gumball didn't bother turning on the light in the room. The moonlight was enough to keep him from stumbling around in the dark. He took a deep breath, which turned into a yawn. The chaos of the day had taken its toll, leaving him an exhausted mess. His bed seemed to beckon to him, an invitation to rest that he could not deny.

He dropped into bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

But soon, he awakened to an empty void of pitch darkness. He felt like he'd been through this already.

He couldn't move, but he could feel his body. Frozen in time or paralyzed by an external force, he could not tell.

He could not turn his head.

He could not move his eyes.

He could not even blink.

He could not.

"You grant them sight, so why can they not see beyond the boundaries of their own mortality?"

A voice. One that Gumball didn't recognize.

A figure materialized in the darkness, accompanied by immeasurable, swirling, multicolored particles of light; like galaxies in the black void of deep space. An unintelligible, static-like noise assaulted Gumball's ears.

The figure stood in the middle of the kaleidoscopic environment. It donned dark-colored clothes under a black leather jacket, in stark contrast to the vibrant backgrounds of light. It wore a helmet similar in appearance to a plague doctor's mask, except with wires, cables, and glowing electronic parts.

There was a symbol on the entity's back: a white circle with some kind of bird in the middle. It had glistening metallic arms. A miniature version of planet Earth, radiating a bright green aura, floated above the entity's open palm. It continued speaking to an unseen listener.

"I hold an individual world for each of them in my hand. It will give them hope. It will give them purpose. Life. Without it, these frail creatures will wither, and die."

The being's beak lit up yellow when it spoke. It seemed to be talking to someone else.

"They are not prepared for the empire that is coming."

Another voice made itself known. A deep male voice, radiating authority.

"Go to them. They will need you."

The strange being approached Gumball. An overwhelming, indistinguishable feeling bombarded his brain: a mixture of intense fear, anxiety, and despair. No matter how hard he tried, Gumball remained unable to exert any form of control over himself.

The planet in the entity's palm began glowing brighter, until the light started to blind Gumball. His vision turned white, and all sensation ceased as the strange being spoke once more.

"Give yourself to me. I am life."