The Final Rewind

The Prologue

"You only have yourself to blame."

Words rang inside Gumball's head. He couldn't tell where he was or what he was hearing- he wasn't sure if someone was talking to him, or whether these were memories. It didn't seem like he was having a conversation, but the voice was so loud and real inside of his head. Who was this voice? He knew he recognized it.

"I never wanted to be the villain."

Yeah, Gumball was sure he knew that somewhere. Who was this? It was on the tip of his tongue.

"I will destroy you, and everyone you love!"

In a flash, it all came back to him. That voice- it was Rob. Rob, his so called arch nemesis who was able to destroy his life in under an hour. The same Rob who had always failed at "destroying him" before had finally succeeded in his plans.

Where was he now? Where was Gumball?

He woke himself up with a cough. The first thing Gumball was met with was horrible stinging throughout his entire body, before he even opened his eyes. He sat up on his elbows, peering around at the sight before him.

He was in the mall, however, it wasn't the mall he knew. The entire place was empty, not a soul in sight. What time was it? Maybe it was closed- but after what had just gone down, he doubted it was as innocent as that.

Gumball winced, once again aware of the horrid stinging pain. When he looked down, he saw his hands covered in plethoras of small, red cuts, and he guessed his feet as well. The perpetrator was the shards of glass covering the floor, man he hoped there wasn't any in his skin. He spied around, wondering where it all came from. He looked up, and then he realized.

The railing on the top floor had been shattered. He remembered what had happened instantly, he'd never forget the look in Penny's eyes as she fell to the world below. Wait- Penny! What had happened after she fell?! Was she alright?! She wasn't here now... so then, where was she?

Come to think of it, where was anyone else? Mom and Dad... were they still angry at each other? Was Darwin still angry at him? What happened to Anais?

He paced back and forth. It was coming back to him now, in bits and pieces. The way Rob had either hurt the people close to him, or turned them against each other, and the fight that went down between them after that. How much time had passed since his fight with and now? What had happened when he was out? How was Rob able to control everyone?

Control... Control... controller, Gumball thought. He had an epiphany. Of course, the remote! He wasn't sure how he'd forget something so important. Rob had been able to ruin everything with one press of a button.

But he doesn't have it anymore, he thought. Gumball had it- or at least he did. It must've done something, since he was no longer falling into the 'inescapable void of the world's mistakes'. However, it was nowhere in sight. It wasn't on the floor, in his pockets, or anywhere nearby. He started searching further into the mall, desperate to find the one thing that could fix all of this.

And yet, it was all in vain. He'd never put this much effort into searching for something in his entire life, and still he came up empty handed. His mind raced with all of the possibilities of what happened to it. If he didn't have it, who did? And if he couldn't find it... how was he supposed to fix everything?

Gumball clenched his fist and started walking. Despite the pain and oncoming tears, he was determined to get out of this mall and find a way to reverse this. He had to, or his world might be ruined forever.