Chapter 1

Before I start the story, I want to say it's been confirmed Peppermint Butler's past will be revealed at some point in the show. When that happens this story may or may not be relevant. But, it will be something to think about. Big note: Peppermint Butler and the rest of the candy people were a race created by the first Princess Bubblegum.

He couldn't be like that anymore. He knew it, Death knew it, and soon, so shall you.

You know, the way he had been his whole life. How he used to co-rule the Land of the Dead and created the 37th Dead World. How he took over the Nightosphere and sent evil souls to dwell there for eternity. How he was a spy for Death himself.

He was a normal candy child with a normal candy house and normal candy friends and relations with all the love and affection Princess Bubblegum, ruler of Ooo and Head of the Candy Kingdom, had bestowed on her people. At least until he was about seven years old – that's when the visions started. Oh, those horrible visions of Death and the Land of the Dead. They came to him in his sleep.

Please note this was several years before the great Mushroom War had started (when Peppermint Butler was a child). The story will switch between Pep But's flashbacks and what he was doing in the present. Tell me if that is confusing, I can edit it. When I say "presently" or "currently" and such, I mean him in his state of adulthood (like in the show). Also, this Princess Bubblegum is not the same as the current one because the war had happened 1000 years before the show takes place.

Back to present Peppermint Butler. He lay on the floor of his room in the Candy Castle (built with the finest chocolate in Ooo, as Peebles insisted), both head and heart aching. He thought about the first sleep-vision (or croak dream, if you will) he had. Yes I'm talking about the first one when he was seven. With the Cosmic Owl and everything.

"Child of Peppermint" the dream had started.

"Who – who's there?" squeaked past Peppermint Butler (Peppermint or Peps, as his friends called him, and what I will call him).

"Death." said the raspy voice. "Death is here."

"Did I die?" said Peps.

"No. This is merely a dream."

"Why – why are you here?"

"I came to warn you," said Death. "To warn you of Mushrooms, Hunson Abedeer, and the number 37."

"I don't understand," Peps said, in a state of confusion. "What are they?"

"Your future."

"But-"

"I will return in 5 years. Prepare yourself for war. Tell nobody this happened," said Death.

"But you just got here! None of that even made sense."

"That's not my problem," A flash of red light, and the Cosmic Owl flew right from the light at Peps, and the he woke up.

"What?" he said to himself. Peps' head was throbbing. To him, that couldn't have been real. "But the Cosmic Owl..." he thought. He sighed, and made a pact with himself then and there that he would tell no one.

Me again. Just wanted to say Peps had more dreams between the first and second visions about Death, just not as clear as these. The dreams he had were more like reminders.

Present Peppermint Butler kept going over that first vision in his mind. Eventually he thought about the second one.

Five years after the first croak dream, Peps had been visited by Death again, only this time, he was awake.

"Child of Peppermint," said Death.

"Death!" Peps exclaimed, looking up from his comic book. It was late at night, and storming. Knife storming, that is.

"The age of the Mushroom War has come. Beware the Lich and his Well of Power."

"What does that mean? And what did you by the first warning you gave me?" Peps asked.

"You will learn this, in time," Death said. "Now, do you want to save the mortal world?"

"Sure. When I become a psychopath that gives himself up to Death." Peps said sarcastically.

"Too bad," he said. A flash of red light and BOOM!

Peps reluctantly opened his eyes. He was staring at a red floor. Cautiously, he looked up and saw walls sculpted out of – what? Bones? He looked over. Death was standing right behind him.

"Where are we?"

"My castle," Death replied. "From which I watch over the Land of the Dead,"

"Wha – what?!" Peps ran over to the window. He saw a small river running around the building, and beyond that nothing but dead grass and skeletons. He could have sworn he saw one move.

"Now. I expect you want some explaining."

"No, I wanted a bagel," he exasperatedly.

"Very funny." Said Death. "Let me explain to you what's going to happen in exactly one year. 10000 years ago, an evil spirit dwelled here – who happened to be my brother. He was as powerful as I was. We were created to rule over the land of the dead together. It wasn't enough for him though. He took over peoples minds and used them as slaves. But he could only do this through visions. He mind controlled a human into engineering a bomb. Not just any bomb – one that could conjure up so much energy, my brother could create a mortal body. That human's name is Simon Petrikov. He was weak, and he had a connection to the Land of the Dead, which was a crown, but that isn't important. That bomb will be dropped in Asia in one year. Of course, the price will be that it takes out a chunk of the earth, killing nearly all humans. Anyway, his mortal body will become something he calls 'The Lich'".

"Why would he do that?" questioned Peps.

"Because," started Death. "He wants all living things on earth to die, for an armada of followers here."

"Fine then. Why do I need to know?"

"Do you know why Princess Bubblegum created a race of candy people?"

"Because she…liked chocolate?" said Peps.

"No! Because you will be the only ones to survive this war. The sheer force and radiation of the explosion will destroy the human race. The reason I'm telling you this is because I can't visit the mortal world, and you're the only one with half a brain to completely freak out when I ask – order – you to save this planet,"

"But I didn't agree to-"

"No buts!"

A giant portal appeared.

"We are going to train for the oncoming war".

He jumped through the portal, and his voice echoed back to the castle where Peps was "You coming or not?"

Peppermint butler sighed. "I guess I am," and jumped through the portal.

"WHERE ARE WE GOING!?" Peps yelled to Death as they hurtled through the portal.

"TO THE REALM OF HEROS!" Death shouted back (as well as he could; his voice is somewhat whispery).

CRASH! They had landed at the foot of huge building. Peps looked around and saw nothing but trees. He could've sworn something moved at the corner of his vision. An owl hooted. Peps shivered.

Death walked over to the huge building and pushed open the two cracked stone doors. They had a carving of a dog on one door and a human boy on the other. Peps didn't think much of it.

On the inside of the building was a long hallway, made of red, torn carpet. On the sides were piles upon piles of treasure. The ceiling was taller than the eye could see. Columns went from the floor up to these ceilings. Paintings of great conquerors were hung askew all over the walls. The whole place was unkempt, yet fascinating to Peps.

"Death" said a voice that penetrated off the walls. It seemed to have a slight lisp. "I haven't heard from you in centuries."

"Show yourself!" Death shouted.

A tall man materialized in front of Peps and Death. He had grayish green skin, graying red hair and beard, a noticeable scar on his left shoulder, and…no nose. Just a sapphire in place of it. He looked as though he had fought many battles and was wise beyond his years.

"Billy." Death smiled. "How lovely to see you."

Billy nodded. "And who do we have here?" He looked straight at Peps, his intimidating yellow-green eyes made Peps take a step back.

"This is Peps," Death said. "My companion. I need you to train him."

"I told you I was done with adventures." Said Billy.

"Exactly. In one year…" Death went on to explain the war. Peps looked at the treasure. He fixed his eyes on a lone sword sitting in a glass case on top of the largest pile of treasure. It seemed to be calling to him.

"Peps," The voice called to him, in his mind at least. "Peps. Do you want to be a conqueror, Peps? You can be the envy of all your friends. How neat would that be? To own a real sword?" Peps started climbing towards the sword, in a trance, while Death and Billy ignored him. "All you have to do, Peps," said the sword. "Is break the glass."

"Don't touch that!" yelled Billy. Peps snapped out of his trance and fell back down the pile. "You have to master the Demon Sword before you use it, or the demon blood will burn your skin."

"Wait but…it was talking to me!" said Peps.

"And it would have gladly burned you,"

"Really?"

"Well, unless your hands were covered in fur, which they aren't." said Billy. "Anyway. I have agreed to train you to master evil. It won't be easy."

Peps thought for a moment. He could train to be hero in this "war" Death was always blabbering about in his dreams and probably die, or go back to him family and watch as the world ended. He sighed. He knew what he had to do, and would regret it if he didn't.

"Okay. I'll do it."

"Good," said Billy. "Death," he said, turning to him. "I will send him back in about three"- Billy motioned three with his fingers-"months."

Death paused for a split second. "Alright. Farewell Billy," He turned to Peps. "I will see you then." A flash of red light, and Death was gone.

Billy registered Peps for a moment, and then pointed to end of the hallway. "Come," he said. They walk through double doors at the end of the hallway out onto a balcony. The balcony was overlooking 10 cages, each about the size of a two car garage. "In each of these cages is a new blood thirsty monster, each one fiercer than the last. I'll train you for two weeks, then you will have one week to learn how to defeat each kind of monster. At the end of every week you will put your skills to the test and fight that specific kind of monster."

Peps felt sick on his stomach. He recognized the Two-Headed and the Hamburger Monsters, but the rest looked completely foreign. "This is so not mathematical," he thought.

Yo yo yo it's me, the author with all the explanations. Princess Bubblegum the First designed her candy people with a love of learning, so phrases like 'mathematical' and 'algebraic' are seen as describing something cool or fun.

"Don't worry." Billy said. "You probably won't die."

"Thanks," said Peps. "How reassuring."

"Now, to start your training we gotta find you a sword."

"Already?"

Billy looked at him. "War is no time for waiting. " He motioned for Peps to follow him in room just next to the balcony. The room was filled with weapons of all shapes and sizes. There were beaten, wooden dummies standing in the middle of the room. Gold, silver, and bronze shields were hanging on one wall. There were maces in a trunk next to the door. Various knives and daggers were in a pile next a wall opposite to the shields. On the far wall were swords, intricately designed and in many different styles and sizes. There must have been at least a hundred.

"Which one will fit you best…" Billy wondered out loud as he walked over to the sword wall. He tossed Peps a sword on the smaller side. "Take a swing at one of the dummies." Billy said. Peps swung the sword with all his little might. The sword hit the dummy and clattered to the floor, while Peps was thrown back from the force. "That one is probably too big." Billy said. "Here. This one is just your size." Peps took a swing with it. It cut straight through the dummy.

"Wow. This one works perfectly," Peps said. He tossed it in the air and caught it by the hilt.

"Good," Billy said. "Now the first thing I'm going to teach you is The Five Main Sword Hits: Side, Diagonal, Down, Uppercut, and Jab." He grabbed a sword off the wall. "Side swing," said Billy, and cut off the dummy's head. "Now you try."

Peps walked over one of the dummies. He awkwardly swung the the sword but didn't quite cut its head.

"That was good." Said Billy. "Try to cut it's head off, like I did." Peps took another swing at it. It chopped through most of its neck, but not all of it. "That was better." Peps continued that several more times until he got it. "I'm going to go get more dummies," Billy said, as he walked out the room.

Peps looked at his sword. The blade was somewhat chipped, the hilt was tearing, and there was red stone at the bottom – nothing special.

Billy walked back into the room. "Billy," Peps said. "What is the name of this sword?"

Billy thought for a moment. "Scarlet." He said. Peps looked back at his sword. "Rhombus," he thought to himself.

Back at Death's castle, Death was pacing the floor in front on his throne, staring at his crystal ball. He saw his brother at his Well of Power, becoming mortal. He saw Simon Petrikov, slowly going crazy. He knew Simon was going to survive the war, even though he was human – he wasn't going to be human much longer after that. He would become an immortal being, isolated as King and Wizard over the lonely Ice Kingdom. There was someone else though - with another crown. Just like Simon's. But this crown didn't have an owner. Just a lone crown. He saw Princess Bubblegum in his crystal ball – Princess Bubblegum! He knew she could build an enclosure to trap his brothers spirit if he was defeated. He had to talk with her.

He suddenly appeared in the Princess' room (well, a vision of him. He was still at his castle). "Princess," he said.

She looked up from her science notes. "Death!" she said. "Did you find someone for defeating the Lich?"

"Yes," said Death. "I've come here to talk about my brother."

Princess Bubblegum shoved a cup of pencils off her desk. "He is such a butt!"

"Yeah yeah, I know." Death said. "Look. You are the only one smart enough to design something to hold my brother's spirit for eternity once he's capture. It needs to be done before the bomb goes off and starts this war."

The Princess looked back at her notes. "True. I've been thinking about what will happen when he is defeated. If, he is defeated. I figured something to hold his spirit would come in handy. I have a design," PB dug through her notes. "…that could hold him for eternity. He will only be able to mind control people who come within ten feet of the enclosure. Hopefully, no one will have to. If they do, I can design a rsistance gem to it."

"Good. And will this be built in time?" said Death.

"Yes. I think so." Said The Princess.

"Yes. Of course." He said. "Farewell, Princess. Hopefully we can stop my brother."

"Goodbye," waved Princess Bubblegum. A flash of light and the vision of Death was gone.

Back at his castle, Death slumped down in his throne. He didn't bother looking at his crystal ball. "It's going to be a long year," he thought.