The following isn't an imaginary story.
It happened.
It starts with a corpse on a lonely country road.
While in the town of Rivervale...
Archie Andrews has somehow just come back from the dead.
Arch?
Sorry I woke you, Betty.
No. It's okay.
I was having a nightmare.
What was it about?
The whole town was sacrificing you.
Sorry I woke you, Fangs.
I was just...
having this crazy-ass dream.
You were...
drowning.
And... you came back as a ghost.
Was I trying to hurt Baby Anthony?
I was having the strangest dream, Reggie.
Did I get dragged to Hell in it?
Nana, what are you doing in my room?
I had the most frightful dream, child.
Same. I...
You and I swapped bodies for some reason.
Morning. How'd you sleep?
I'm not sure.
Were you up late writing?
No, I woke up in Archie's garage.
I think I was sleepwalking.
It's probably just nerves.
Yeah.
Wait, what am I supposed to be nervous about?
Well, it is your first day back at school teaching, isn't it?
You know, it's got to be slightly nerve-racking.
But don't worry, it will be great.
You will do great.
Hey, Jughead!
What's up?
Ben?
You're Ben Button?
Of course I am. Who else would I be?
Ben, you died.
You jumped out of a window when you sacrifice yourself to the Gargoyle King.
No, you're thinking of that dude from Stonewall Prep.
Mr. Chipping. Yeah.
No, no.
You did it first.
Maybe you hallucinated it?
Yeah, maybe I'm just hallucinating all this...
FYI,
daytime hallucinations are a symptom of paranoid schizophrenia.
But listen, have an awesome day.
Jug, hey!
You okay, bro? You look like you're about to pass out.
Just light-headed.
What's going on?
Not much. Just updating everyone on the wedding plans.
Wedding?
Who's getting married?
Awkward.
Jug, Betty and I are getting married this weekend, and you're my best man.
Impeccable timing, as always.
Yes, Dr. Curdle?
Miss Cooper, I have some very distressing news.
This afternoon, I received a corpse.
Jughead Jones's corpse.
Is this more of your gallows humor, Doctor?
Because I'm looking right at Jughead, who is very much alive.
That's not possible.
Look, if you're still upset about not being invited to my wedding,
get over yourself.
Goodbye and please stop harassing me.
Hey, you okay?
Yeah. Dr. Curdle's attempt at humor, I guess.
He claims that your body is on his slab,
which is obviously impossible because I'm talking to you.
Mr. Jones.
It can't be.
And yet it is.
Well, may I?
It's a paradox. It must be.
How did I... How did he die?
Asphyxiation.
His wind pipe was crushed.
He was strangled.
And where was he found?
The Lonely Highway.
At the town limits. By the sign.
Face down.
Where are his clothes, his personal effects?
Keep this body on ice and under wraps, okay?
The Lonely Highway, you said?
_
It was impossible, yet happening.
Somehow, I had in my possession a set of comic books
that seemed to be about me and my friends.
Where had I gotten them?
I couldn't remember.
And why was my doppelganger clutching one when he died?
For that matter, how did I even have a doppelganger?
Hoping to find sane answers for these impossible questions,
I sat down and began to read...
from the beginning.
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How many more boxes of comic books do you have?
This is just a fraction.
I'll be honest with you, Jug. I didn't know you were that into comics.
Well, what can I say, Archie? I contain multitudes.
Hey, how was your first day back?
Tabitha.
I feel like I'm living in a movie about parallel universes
and I need your help to figure this out.
Okay.
I've been having these strange hallucinations.
And these comics,
they're about us.
Our lives.
The first 95 are called Riverdale,
and they're set in a town called Riverdale.
And then there's this explosion, and suddenly it's Rivervale.
Okay, So you think Riverdale
is a parallel universe to Rivervale?
No.
No. I think Rivervale is a parallel universe to Riverdale.
It's like the comics. Riverdale comes first.
And then there's Rivervale, which is a lot like Riverdale
except it's darker, nastier. It's...
it's like a warped reflection of Riverdale,
and it just keeps getting more twisted.
So we live in the parallel universe?
Yeah.
I know it's counterintuitive.
Read them.
Then we'll talk.
And Tabitha did.
And her experience reading them was very similar to my own.
I remembered recent events clearly,
but going back further in my memory was...
hazier.
Reading about events in the Riverdale comic books made me recall them,
but as Tabitha said...
That's so strange.
I mean, I remember these things happening, but not in Riverdale.
All this happened here in Rivervale,
didn't it?
I went to Betty and Archie next.
I wanted to ask them about one page in particular.
Do you remember that explosion, Archie?
No.
Not at all.
That event is the one that ended the Riverdale comics.
The next issue is when Rivervale started.
I have a theory that that explosion is what created
this parallel universe we currently find ourselves in.
Wait. I kind of remember something about this. Arch, didn't you have
a dream about an explosion like this one or am I making that up?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But that was just a dream, Jug.
I went to Veronica and Reggie next.
This is impossible.
What is it?
These comics depict my father terrorizing Riverdale for years,
but my father died the night before my quinceanera.
I was so distraught. We had to cancel the Jonas Brothers performance.
That's a massive discrepancy.
Because in Riverdale, Hiram is the main villain.
He's like Darth Vader.
So if Rivervale is the dark twin-verse then who is our Big Bad?
- How come I look different? - What do you mean?
I mean, I look like two different people, look.
Both devastatingly handsome.
But other than that...
That might be an anomaly.
Have you shown these to Cheryl?
So, according to this horrid pamphlet,
Kevin Keller and Moose Mason discovered the corpse of my dead brother
whilst secretly canoodling in the woods?
Yeah.
How's that sync up with your memory of Jason's death?
It doesn't, you ghoul-lunatic.
To begin with, Jay Jay's not dead.
What're you talking about? That's impossible.
I mean, your life was basically defined by his death.
I don't know what to tell you, but I can assure you he is still very alive.
No, he's dead. You had a funeral for him,
and then you talked to his corpse for months.
Hey, Jughead. I didn't know you were here.
You ready to go hit the court, Cher-Cher?
Yeah, I just need a minute. Wait for me at the convertible?
Sure. Don't take too long.
We... We had an in-memoriam page for him...
in our yearbook.
No, hobo, we didn't.
Now, if you'll excuse me,
my beloved and very much alive twin brother and I are off to play doubles.
Toodles.
And feel free to see yourself out.
And then, I had one of my hunches.
I was right.
Though Riverdale and Rivervale diverged in ways minor and major,
they were analogous.
But I needed to understand the rules of these worlds.
I needed to sharpen my knowledge of parallel universes.
Damn, you're all knotted up, babe.
- What gives? - Jughead.
He triggered me with all that talk about my father.
Yeah, Donnie Darko is the worst.
I got you, though.
How can Reggie make it all better?
Hey, babe.
Miss me?
I'm sorry, Mr. Jones, but The Philosophy of Parallel Universes
was checked out years ago and never returned.
What?
Who checked it out?
Dilton Doiley.
Great.
Can't even ask him because he's dead.
Mr. Doiley is alive.
In fact, he teaches physics just down the hall.
Dilton.
Hey, Jughead.
I heard you were coming back to teach. We've missed you.
Yes, we have.
Ethel, what are you doing here?
Ethel's my teaching assistant.
Oh, yeah?
So, I shared my wild theories with Dilton
who, miraculously, said...
I believe you, Jughead.
And I know a thing or two about parallel universes.
Okay. I think the explosion at the end of issue 95 of Riverdale
is what created Rivervale, like the Big Bang.
- It's as valid as any theory. - Why do you think
the events that happened in Riverdaleare playing out differently here?
In my research, parallel universes are exact copies
or mirror images of one another.
What you're describing is...
something in between.
Like a warping, right?
And...
I don't know, I have this...
impending sense of doom,
like something bad is going to happen.
- What do we do about it? - Do?
We do nothing.
At any given moment, there are an infinite number
of parallel universes in peaceful coexistence with one another.
Just forget it, Jughead.
- Live your life. - Dude, I'm not just gonna drop it.
I became aware for a reason,
conscious of the two universes. Why?
What about the other Jughead?
- Isn't that a paradox? - It sounds more like
an anomaly than a paradox.
Dilton, he was murdered by someone.
Then, have Sheriff Keller investigate, if you want.
My advice, stop trying to figure out the secrets to the universe.
You have a good life here, Jughead.
Go with the flow.
So, you're saying he's me?
No, bro, you're me.
- There is no you, all right? - There is, though.
I mean, based on Jughead's earlier visit, there are two parallel universes,
and, apparently, two Reggies.
But I came first. I'm Reggie Prime, baby.
Yeah, but you've been in, like, three issues.
- I've been in dozens. - Guys...
It doesn't matter who came first or who has been in more issues.
You're both here now
and whatever else,
we obviously can't have the two of you
running around town freaking everybody the hell out.
So, you're both staying here
incommunicado until further notice.
I have to get the casino ready for the bachelor and bachelorette parties tonight.
- What? No. I'm coming. - Yeah, I want to go.
It's Archie's bachelor party, and I can't miss it.
I would much rather crash the bachelorette party.
Yeah!
- How're you hanging in there? - Yeah, good.
You know, I'm not going to lie, I've been thinking about my dad a lot recently.
He would've loved this.
Me marrying Betty? Come on. He would have been beside himself.
This is stupid, but I keep...
I keep imagining...
that, somehow, he'll show up for the wedding...
He'd be standing next to us, smiling.
It's not stupid, Arch.
Come on, the night is young.
Let's dance.
Who wants to dance with me?
Excellent. Thank you, other Reggie.
I knew I could count on you.
Come on, Reginald.
Don't be shy.
You know,
we could have a sweet thing here, the three of us.
Nobody has to know.
Sorry, Ronnie.
I'm not used to sharing.
Yeah, well, me neither.
You know what, guys?
The irony is, Veronica Lodge is more woman
than either of you can handle alone.
Thank you.
Do you guys remember when we were in high school,
we'd party too hard and be hung over,
and we could just skip class?
Yeah, the good old days.
Being a teacher sucks.
Oh, my God.
Babe, what's wrong?
My brother has been kidnapped by some lunatic calling himself the Black Hood.
What? Who's the Black Hood?
How the hell should I know, Cousin?
But he's demanding some insane ransom and saying,
if I don't pay, he's going to kill my brother.
Listen, Archie, I know this is gonna sound nuts.
I think I know where Jason Blossom is being held.
Is this another one of those parallel universe things?
Well, yeah.
But if the events of Riverdale are repeating here in Rivervale, then...
I think Jason Blossom is being held at the Whyte Wyrm.
What do you want to do?
Let's get Sheriff Keller to back us up...
and let's go save him.
Jason, Jason...
What the hell is going on here?
It occurred to me that whoever was under the mask
was most likely the same person who killed my double.
Rivervale's big bad.
Not Hiram Lodge, but...
Clifford Blossom.
Excuse me.
Are you kidding?
Why aren't you dressed for the rehearsal dinner?
- Either of you? - He started it.
I don't care who started it.
I am so done with this macho,
toxic, competitive bull crap.
We're all adults here. So, we should be able to act like we're adults.
But until that happens, you're both grounded.
- What? - No fair!
You two need to work out whatever it is you need to work out in order to co-exist.
You're out of the Pembrooke and out of my life.
Idiot.
I want to thank everyone for being here on this very special occasion.
It's not every night that a mom gets to host the rehearsal dinner
for her daughter's wedding to the finest
young gentleman in this town,
Archie Andrews.
Now, I think my husband, Hal, would like to say a few words.
Just a few, though.
Thank you, Alice....
I remember when Betty was born, she...
Toni?
What is it? What's happened?
I knew it even before Toni said it.
She's dead.
Who's dead, Toni?
Cheryl.
She was strangled.
Betty and I went to Thornhill straight from the rehearsal dinner.
The scene there was a gruesome one.
The rules of this universe were making less sense every day.
It was as if Riverdale's reality
was trying to reassert itself on Rivervale,
and innocent people like Cheryl were dying.
How could I take Dilton's advice to do nothing?
Wait a minute.
Dilton.
I've been wondering who this universe's big bad is.
Could it be meek Dilton Doiley hiding in plain sight?
Well, considering you're here in the middle of the night, I think it's time we talk.
- A little busy right now, Jughead. - No.
Dilton, you asked me to sit down and do nothing. But it's happening again.
The same events that took place in Riverdale are happening here!
- People are dying. - Yes.
- Isn't it glorious? - What?
- You know what's going on, don't you? - He does.
I'm sorry, Jughead.
But I had to see what would happen if the universes remained conjoined.
And now, we know.
They've become dangerously unstable,
and eventually, they're both going to implode.
Why are they going to implode?
Riverdale and Rivervale,
the two universes are expanding, as universes do.
But they're still linked at the point of creation.
So, what? They're bleeding into each other?
They're just going to expand into each other?
And I, Dilton Doiley,
will have a front row seat to their destruction.
I'll be the first scientist to document
a prime and pocket universe collapsing in real time.
How do we stop it?
We don't. We can't.
It's too late.
Ethel?
I snuck poison into his grape juice.
Why?
Because he was willing to let everyone in two universes die, just so he could
study what happens when the twin-versus implode.
Ethel, do you know how to save these universes?
Of course I do, Jughead.
Well, one of them, the prime one,
I can save Riverdale.
Reggie?
Reggies!
You dim, egotistical,
narcissistic morons.
When I said "Settle this," I didn't mean with a duel.
That's the moment in time the pocket universe,
this universe, was created.
If we could recreate the circumstances of its birth,
then theoretically, the same energy that conjoined them
could also separate them.
We just need to figure out what that moment was and where?
I think I know.
Archie's bedroom, when that bomb exploded.
No, I think it would have to be a more significant event than just an explosion.
That might not sound like a lot,
but it was a confluence of good and evil.
Archie and Betty's love, Hiram's, hate.
There was creation. I was in the garage, writing,
and destruction, the explosion.
There was science. Archie had this...
chunk of palladium on his desk, and magic.
Cheryl's curse on the town.
That might definitely do it.
Okay, so by your logic,
we just have to accurately recreate the events in Archie's bedroom.
As closely as we can.
And the universes should separate, yes.
The prime universe will stabilize, and our universe will...
cease to exist.
Everyone in Rivervale will die?
Jughead,
Rivervale wasn't ever meant to exist.
You, me, all of us, our town, we're just...
Aberrations.
One, big, messy anomaly that will simply...
stop being.
And if we do nothing...
both universes will collapse?
Billions will die?
So we just need to detonate a bomb under Archie's bed.
- With Betty and Archie in it. - What? No.
No, no.
We're not blowing up Archie and Betty.
They're about to get married.
We have to recreate the circumstances as closely as possible.
I mean, if not Betty and Archie, then maybe it could be...
Me and Veronica.
What are we, if we're not counterparts to Archie and Betty?
Ethel...
you're brilliant.
So if, what you're saying is true,
and we do this...
we won't die?
No. We'll...
cease to exist painlessly.
All so Riverdale,
a universe we don't even know for sure exists,
- can be spared. - It does exist, Veronica.
It's... a universe of high school dances,
and masked serial killers, of football, and milkshakes
and musicals, and cults,
diabolical board games and murderous nuns.
It's a world where billions of people will die
if we don't split the universes.
All right.
Let's do it.
Let's make out to save the universe.
One thing.
Can we do it during the wedding?
Because I'm not really in the mood?
Yeah, I hear that. Same.
Here's to Vughead becoming cannon.
Is it possible to be nostalgic for a life
that you're not even sure is yours?
Flipping through the yearbook, I remembered things
as if I'd seen them in a movie of my life.
All right, Lodge.
We doing this or what?
Archie,
what are you doing here?
You know, when you didn't show up to my wedding,
I knew, you'd be doing something stupid
like trying to separate the two universes.
Well, I can't let you do that.
Before you do anything final,
know that Veronica is on her way here right now.
No, Jug, she's not.
Ronnie's dead.
I killed her.
What?
Why would you do that?
Because you told her the truth
about the universe, and she was gonna help you destroy it.
You killed Cheryl...
and the other Jughead?
Not Hiram or Clifford or Hal,
- you're Rivervale's Big Bad... - I'm not a villain, Jug.
No one stays dead here.
Cheryl and Ronnie. They'll be back.
All the people we've lost...
Everyone comes back to life in this universe.
Everyone comes back.
- Is this about your dad? - Don't you get it?
He's coming home.
He has to.
He would never miss my wedding.
Especially not to Betty, he loved Betty.
Archie, how do you know all this?
The rules of this world?
How did you know to kill the other Jughead before I even showed you the comics?
Bro, I know all the secrets of this universe.
I was at ground zero for the birth of Rivervale.
The moment of creation and destruction.
The threshold of revelation.
I saw everything.
The other Jughead,
the dead, coming back to life,
the distortions.
It's not...
a copy or a mistake like you think it is.
It's another chance for me to be with my dad.
Archie...
If we don't separate these universes, and soon,
everyone's going to die in both of them.
And you don't know that Fred can come back. Not everybody does...
If there's a 0.001% chance that he will,
I want to be here waiting for him.
I'm sorry.
Betty.
Never leave a Cooper woman standing at the altar.
Hey. Hey, are you okay?
How did you know to come here?
When Archie stood me up at the altar, something clicked.
I don't know, like, my life flashed before my eyes.
I knew to come here.
You also know that Rivervale should not exist?
That bomb needs to be detonated.
By us?
If you're willing.
What we do now. We just wait?
No. We need to recreate the moments before
the original explosions closely as possible.
- Well, Archie and I... - I know.
I read it in the comics.
Hey.
Hey, sorry. Look...
There may be a way to separate the two universes without erasing this one.
Okay?
Well, we should probably stop the bomb. Betty, could you please disarm it?
What I'm... What? I don't know how to disarm a bomb.
Yes, you do. You went to the FBI Academy.
You've actually done it before, when Polly had a bomb strapped to her body.
You came back from the dead too.
Where were you after Archie strangled you?
The great Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe in the sky.
From the second I walked through that door,
I immediately felt at peace.
The sweet Hereafter Pops is a lot like ours,
except it also sells comics.
It's like one of those old fashioned soda shops.
Everything about this Pops is old-fashioned.
Grab something to read, and have a seat.
It's all you can eat. On the house, of course.
And that's when I found it.
A special comic book
that came in between issues 95 and 96,
and it bridged the gap between Riverdale and Rivervale.
It told the tale of two linked universes
and how, if that second universe
were to become separated from the first, it would die.
Unless a new power source could be found and maintained.
I was looking around at all these comic books.
All these wonderful stories
made me realize what that power source could be.
And so I resurrected, and I came right here.
What is the other power source that's going to fuel Rivervale after it separates?
Imagination.
It's limitless and all powerful,
it's boundless and ever replenishing.
There's no fuel more potent,
no generator more awesome.
- I don't understand. - I think I do.
The explosion is destruction, right?
What's the opposite of destruction?
- Creation. - Exactly.
I mean, it's all the comics, how Jughead here is gonna save Rivervale
by becoming a living battery.
A...
Story generator?
That powers Rivervale by writing the stories that fuel the universe?
So it doesn't have to keep leeching off of Riverdale.
It's an over-simplification, but...
yeah, you write, and Rivervale lives.
One thing though, once you start producing,
you will have to be in complete isolation.
I mean, think about if someone saw two Jugheads just walking and talking,
it could actually break down reality, so...
Well, no. No! Then why can't you do it?
I'm the narrator. He's the writer.
What does that mean? This isn't fair!
No! It's...
It's how it has to be.
If everyone is going to live, our family, our friends.
This is why I became aware, isn't it?
Because I'm both inside and outside of the story.
In the end, the universe knew I'd be the only one capable of saving it.
All right.
Where do I set up shop? Dilton's bunker?
Your typewriter is already down there.
You'll have plenty of paper and tons of food.
And once you're settled, we'll...
seal you in.
This is insane. I will not be able to live with myself, Jug.
Actually, you will, in time.
Well, very quickly, actually.
Soon you will forget all about Jughead's sacrifice for you and for us,
and he will fade from memory.
Oh, my gosh!
- This is... - Hey, Hey! Look at me.
I need you to be strong. Please.
I need you in my corner for this one.
Make sure that bomb goes off.
Jughead.
It's gonna be okay.
Really.
We got this. You and me.
Saving the universes.
It was at this moment, that Jughead and Betty began, yet again,
the doomsday clock's countdown.
While in the living room,
Archie Andrews reanimated and resumed his mission to stop Jughead.
Hey, Cooper, whatever happens...
We'll face it together.
There was nothing to do but wait.
Betty and Jughead held each other tightly,
like children terrified of the dark.
As the bomb's counter finally reached zero,
Betty and Jughead braced themselves for an explosion
that should have obliterated one or more universes.
But instead...
never happened.
The bomb was gone.
The pounding on the door had ceased.
And Betty and Jughead realized that the storm had passed them by.
They survived.
They could resume their lives.
There you guys are.
We were just about to send a search party.
Seriously! What were you guys doing up there?
I actually can't remember.
Don't mind him. He always turns into a space cadet
when he's working on a new novel.
No, seriously, what were we... What were we doing?
Come on, Betty. Your spaghetti's gonna get cold.
Thank you.
After dinner, Jughead and Tabitha
will start moving his belongings
out of Archie's garage and into their new apartment.
Including a comic book collection, Jughead had forgotten that he had.
And though he will not know it in the moment,
this collection of comic books
and the secrets contained within its pages
will one day save his
and countless others' lives.
So it worked.
Rivervale will continue to exist in an endless time loop you created,
as long as you keep typing.
Luckily, I've got a lot of stories.
One question, though.
What happens in the prime Riverdale universe?
Guess we'll never know if someone did something
to change the course of events in Riverdale.
_
Can you hear that?
It's my phone.
- Hello. - Get out of that house, Betty!
Who is this?
Listen to me, there's a bomb under the bed.
You have to go now, right now!
We have to go.
Now.
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