As soon as Gumball grabbed the notebook he clutched his stomach in pain and fell even further onto the ground. It looked like his torso was disappearing now too. He checked his phone for the time, he only had ten minutes left. He had to get out of here now. The man looked at him nervously. It looked like he was going to disappear any minute now.

"Do you have a plan on how to get home? I'm not exactly sure how to open a portal between worlds," the man admitted. He probably should've thought of that earlier.

"I might," Gumball said nervously. If the notebook was anything like the remote, hopefully it'll affect stuff in Elmore, and since he was from Elmore, maybe it'll work on him too? He hoped so, he didn't have any other ideas on how to get back home. "Well, I guess this is goodbye," he said. The man felt a stab of sadness. He wasn't working on the show anymore, and he didn't think Gumball would ever come back to this world, so he would likely never see him again. He would never know if he succeeded in his quest or not.

"Just….good luck in there Gumball," he said. Gumball looked at him in surprise. His voice sounded more tender and caring than he ever heard it sound before. No time to dwell on that though, he had to get home before he disappeared completely. He wrote in the notebook, praying that it would work. He saw a flash of white light and closed his eyes at the brightness. When he opened them again he saw that he was no longer in the office. He was on a street of some kind. He looked around and gave a sigh of relief when he recognized some of the buildings. There was the Joyful Burger, the arcade, Ripley 2000. Thank goodness, he was back in Elmore. He then examined his body to see if anything had faded. Nope, still as solid as ever. The notebook had worked, it had actually worked! He finally had a way he could save everyone!

"Gumball!" He heard someone shout. He looked around for the source of the sound and saw Rob rushing towards him with a worried look on his face. Gumball smiled and headed towards him. He was about to give him a hug, but he remembered that Rob didn't like it when he did that, so he stopped himself at the last minute. "Gumball what happened?" Rob asked. "I was standing outside in that alley then there was this white light and the next thing I knew I was here."

"Yeah, that was my doing. If I did everything right we should be back….." Gumball trailed off as he pulled out his phone to check the date. He smiled as the screen read, June 24 2019. He was back in the day it all started. "Yes! It worked!" He cheered as he showed Rob the screen. Rob looked at it in confusion.

"You brought us back to the day Elmore started falling apart? Why would you do that?" He asked.

"Well, this is when it all started, I figured this is where it should end too. Besides, there are a few days in my past that I don't exactly want to re-live," Gumball explained. Rob nodded, made sense. There were some days that he didn't want to re-live either, and some of Gumball's adventures had looked exhausting. He understood why he wouldn't be keen on doing them over again.

"So you have a plan?" Rob asked.

Gumball nodded. "I do. I took something back with me from the real world." He took out the notebook and showed it to Rob. "With this we could rewrite the ending, give us and our show a happily ever after."

"You really think that's gonna work?" Rob asked cautiously, not wanting to get his hopes up.

"Well, it got me back here, didn't it?" Gumball pointed out. Rob nodded, that was true. "And if you need more proof…" He then wrote something down and the color of the sky changed from blue to yellow and back again. Rob's jaw dropped and he looked at him in awe.

"Did….Did you do that?" He asked. Gumball nodded. Rob felt a feeling spring up in his chest. He hadn't felt it in a long time, but it felt like hope. This notebook, if it worked how Gumball described, it could save everyone. This could actually work. "Well, what are you waiting for? Write a happy ending!" For some reason Gumball seemed nervous and he hesitated.

"Wait….there's still some things I want to…..Just in case…."

"We have plenty of time for that stuff later," Rob urged him. He wanted to end this whole ordeal as soon as possible and he couldn't understand why Gumball was hesitating.

"But…" Gumball said feebly. He knew that he didn't have much of an argument, but he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. There was no way that this was going to work perfectly the first time, these kinds of things never did. He was maybe hoping to find some friends and family, just in case he never saw them again. Rob gave him a confused look, though he thought he saw some concern in there as well. Gumball sighed.

"I can't explain it, it's just….Something doesn't feel right," Gumball said. "It feels like this is too easy."

"You think going through The Void and into the real world was easy?" Rob asked in disbelief.

"No, that's not what I mean. It's like….it doesn't feel like it's over. That there's bound to be some unforeseen complication, some third-act twist."

"Gumball, I think you're just being paranoid. This isn't an episode of your show, there isn't a neatly structured story, and there's no twist in the third act. You've been living in a TV world for far too long," Rob said. This was certainly a role switch, he thought. Usually he was the pessimistic one and Gumball was more optimistic. He wasn't sure if he liked this change of temperament. But he had finally started to feel hopeful again and he didn't want Gumball to squash that.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Gumball said, but he couldn't let go of the feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong. He took a deep breath and braced himself to write in the notebook when he felt someone tap his shoulder.

"Gumball? Or should I say, Future Gumball?" He heard a voice from behind him say.

"Darwin!" Gumball shouted as he turned around and squeezed him tightly. He was so happy to see him again. He always felt better when Darwin was by his side. "You're right, I was the Future Gumball at the warehouse that day. How did you know?"

"You were talking with Rob so I kinda figured," Darwin explained. "It's been about a month and I still remember what happened. So, did you ever find a way to stop the apocalypse?"

"Well, I've got one thing that should work," Gumball said as he pulled out the notebook. "I got this notebook in the real world, so hopefully it should affect things in this one."

"Wait a minute," Darwin said, trying to process what Gumball just said. "You went to the real world? Like, the actual, real world?" Gumball nodded as confirmation. "How? How did you get there? What was it like?"

"I promise I'll tell you all about it later. But I should probably, you know, save Elmore first."

"Yeah, you probably should," Darwin agreed. He then took a more serious expression. "So, this is it, huh?"

"Yeah. I think so. I actually wanted to find you. It looks like this might be our last chance so I wanted to see you, you know, just in case this is goodbye."

"It won't be," Darwin told him. He took his hand and gave it a squeeze to reassure him. "I believe in you, we all do." Gumball was about to ask what he meant by "all" when his gaze moved away from Darwin and towards the massive crowd of people standing behind him. In it he saw his family, both immediate and extended, Penny and both of her parents, all of his classmates from Elmore Jr High, as well as some of the faculty. Even Mr Robinson was there. The sight of it was enough to make Gumball speechless.

"What?...but...how? How did you get all of these people to show up?" He sputtered in shock.

"I mentioned that you were in trouble," Darwin said. "Everyone came to help after that. More people care about you than you think." Gumball started tearing up. Did they really all come out here for him?

"Wow. I don't know what to say other than thank you. Thank you so much," he said. He tried to stop the tears, but they just kept coming. He felt bad dragging them all out here when he could probably take care of this whole thing himself. But it was the thought that counted. Besides, it was probably good that they were all in one place, that way, if things did go wrong, at least they would all be together. He didn't want to lose anyone again.

"What's going on Gumball?" Penny shouted from the crowd. It wasn't like him to get so emotional. "What's happening?"

"If this works, hopefully nothing," Gumball replied. "But if it doesn't, let's just say that things will go downhill fast. I want to keep you guys all together so I don't lose you."

"Lose us? What do you mean?"

"I would try to explain but it's a long story and I don't know how much time we have left."

"Until what?" Anais piped up. "Because so far it seems that all you've done is send us on a wild goose chase! What's going on here Gumball? Really?" Gumball couldn't look his little sister in the eye. He remembered how upset she was the first time the world fell apart. He didn't want to put her through that again, especially if it could all be avoided. Besides, what would he even tell her? There was no explanation that his super-logical little sister would believe.

"I'm sorry sis, I can't tell you. At least, not right now. Maybe once all this is over…."

"When all of "what" is over? Why won't you tell me what's going on?"

"Look, all you need to know right now is that if I don't do something soon then something terrible is going to happen." Anais looked skeptical and she crossed her arms.

"Oh really? Why should I believe you when you won't even tell me what it is?"

"Come on Anais, you know me. Do you really think I would be acting like this if it wasn't serious?" That seemed to get through to her as she dropped the skeptical look and uncrossed her arms. She had to admit, he did have a point there. He looked like he was really freaked out about something. "I know I'm being really vague right now, but I've seen some things that can't be logic-ed away. Things that you wouldn't believe. I'm sorry, but I just have to ask you to trust me on this one." Anais thought it over, could she just trust him on blind faith alone? This could be another Gumball scheme. But then again, she really didn't think so. He had pointed it out himself, he was acting uncharacteristically serious. He seemed pretty freaked out about something. She wished he would tell her what it was so she could help, but it didn't look like he was going to be doing that anytime soon. If trusting him was the best way to help him, then so be it. After about a minute Anais took a deep breath and nodded.

"Okay."

"Okay? Really?" Gumball said. He didn't think that she would actually trust him with this. Usually she was always looking for some kind of explanation for everything.

"Okay. I trust you." She repeated. Gumball bent down and gave her a hug, causing the little girl to jump as she wasn't expecting it. But she quickly gave him a hug back. Whatever this was, it seemed to be seriously affecting Gumball. "But I am going to make you explain everything at some point."

"I wouldn't want it any other way," Gumball told her. Eventually he broke the hug. Now that everyone was here he was feeling more confident about the task that lay ahead. But there were still some things he wanted to do first. He turned back to face Rob again, who had been looking a little awkward since the big show of support. He didn't think that most of the people in the crowd liked him very much. And he wasn't proud of it, but he did feel a stab of envy seeing everyone come out here for Gumball. It wasn't like anyone came out for him when he was in trouble, after all. But he tried to squash that feeling down. It wasn't Gumball's fault that everything happened the way it did. He knew that now. He saw Gumball coming up to him and tried to give a neutral expression, trying to hide his jealousy.

"Look, Rob," Gumball started. "You have no idea how grateful I am that you stuck with me throughout all this. You've helped me so much already, and I have no right to ask you to help me more. But I'm going to. I know you said that nothing's going to go wrong, and you're probably right. But just in case something does...I might need some backup." Gumball said as he took out the remote and placed it in Rob's hands. Rob looked at it, speechless. Gumball wouldn't let him touch the remote this entire time, and he didn't blame him. Last time he used it he tried to destroy him and everyone he loved. So why would he trust him with it now?

"But...why? Why give this to me? Now you have Darwin and Penny and…."

"And none of them know how to use this remote. You do," Gumball said. "I trust you, ok? Now just take it before I change my mind." Now it was Rob's turn to get teary-eyed. Even after everything that he had done, Gumball trusted him. Sure, it wasn't a whole crowd like Gumball had gotten, but it still meant the world to Rob. He took the remote carefully. Now that he had Gumball's trust, he didn't want to lose it. Still, he hoped that he wouldn't have to use it.

"Thanks Rob," Gumball said. He couldn't tell if Rob's tears were grateful or frightened, so he felt appreciative when he took the remote. He hoped nothing would happen, he didn't want to drag Rob into another one of his messes. He then turned to Darwin, his oldest and best friend. The only one, apart from Rob, who knew what was really going on. It was hard to look him in the eye.

"Darwin? I know this all seems pretty straightforward but I just get this bad feeling that something's going to go wrong. So, just in case…." Gumball then opens his arms and brings Darwin in for a tight hug. Darwin quickly hugged him back. Though he would never admit it to Gumball, he had a nagging feeling that something was gonna go wrong too. But if it did, he was sure that they could get out of it, they always did.

"Now, quit stalling and do what you've gotta do," Darwin teased, attempting to lighten the mood a little. Gumball gave a small smile and nodded. He got out the notebook and attempted to write, but as soon as his pencil touched the paper the ground started to shake. Gumball's stomach sank, this was just like what happened the first time. But it wasn't time yet! It was much later in the day the last time this happened. Then it hit him, this was just like the van chase, The Void was trying to stop him. This was Gumball's last thought before the ground gave way and Elmore's citizens went plunging into The Void.