My burning body contained within this metal tin can, a mark of royalty if I've ever seen one. I smirked and looked into the glass mirror within my burning room cocking my head at each clink the armour made with each shift in my body.
Its been years, if only he could look at me now.
Fire pitted my stomache and I angrily let out a wild scream, blasted the mirror mixing shattering and melting in one slick movement.
Everyone in Ooo is dead. There is no more Finn. There hasn't been a Finn since I turned 16.
"Flambo!" I screamed at the empty doorway.
"Yes my Queen?" the cat-like fire demon slinked into sight, annoyed at being beckoned forward.
"Clean up this mess, I have another hearing to attend." I ordered pointing at the shimmering puddle pooling at the floor.
"Alright." he responded and skittered over, his face unwavering.
I sighed, at his silence before opening my mouth, "You're not going to ask me what happened?"
"No point, I'd still have to clean it." Flambo retorted bitterly before beginning to lick up the mirror like milk.
The corners of my mouth twitched and I turned away from him before briskly walking out the door. I strolled down the halls taking time to look at the pictures of long gone family members and smile at guards as they bowed low to the ground before me. Same as it has been in the last few years. The molten core of the fire kingdom was soothing, but everything else was almost annoying.
I paused before the door to the throne room, and listened for a few minutes to the crowd of murmurs behind it. Some sounded angry, some frightened, some even sad.
I took a long breath before gingerly pushing the door open. Flame elementals were scattered all throughout the grand hall between pieces of shattered glass, after I destroyed it I demanded no one touch the pieces that remained. I wanted to remind myself there was no going back. The room hushed rapidly into silence.
I sat at my throne with the metal in my armour clinking with finality. Dozens of fiery eyes stared back at me, unmoving.
"The court is now in order." I loudly pronounced, "Those who wish may now step forward and plead their case."
Silence reigned again, dragging on for minutes, the inferno of the volcano making heat waves flicker over the crowd.
"Anyone at all? Is this a perfect kingdom then in your eyes!?" I asked, raising my voice even louder.
Another moment ticked by before a small flame child stepped forward. She raised her chin up to me with her eyes burning like coals and small licks of fire swirling down her back, in her hand she held a piece of coal gingery, careful not to burn it.
"My Queen, your entire kingdom is starving. You may not have to eat coal like the rest of us, but we your people are suffering." she stuttered her voice wavering between words, "This piece is all my family has left."
I narrowed my eyes at the shiny black rock before slowly rising from my seat. The crowd erupted into worried and fearful murmurs as I glided down the stairs so I stood before the child who by now was quaking in her boots.
I bent over and lowly I spoke, "So, where do you suggest I get more coal to feed my kingdom?"
"My Queen," she stammered and bowed before looking back to me, "there are no more mines."
"Then you can't expect me to do anything about it." I hissed in her ear before turning back to return to my throne, behind me the crowd rose in volume from whispers to begging.
"You can't just let us starve!"
"Where will we get food to feed our families!?"
"This is all your fault!"
"...Fuck you." a voice boomed throughout the grand hall, silencing the crowd.
I stopped mid stride. I knew that voice. My foot landed on the floor with a solid clang, and slowly my foot screeched across the floor creating a shower of sparks in its wake, I glared into the crowd my eyes ablaze and hair flickering angrily on end.
"You brought all this misery on yourself. I'm gone for only two and a half years, not even and you FUCKING BURN DOWN OOO!?" She screamed.
It was that vampire, her eyes wide and fangs bared menacingly. Her tongue whipped around tasting the sulfur ridden air and her hair snaking out ready to pounce.
"Finn was going mad. You have to understand." I stated simply the curls of fire beginning to ball between the palms of my hands.
Marceline growled and took a step forward, "No you understand bitch, you made a serious mistake messing with with my new home. I don't care if Finn was going crazy, Bubblegum was going to help him! He didn't need you to destroy him and the land he defended for so long! So understand this, you piece of shit, I'll make you pay. Oh you'll pay all right. You'll have nothing left but your fiery color, but even that will be gone when I'm done with you."
She licked her lips and brazenly dropped her body to the floor, scraping her fangs along the barren rock so a high pitched scream erupted.
"Bring it on worm" I screamed, fury erupted all over my body, the fires inside me multiplied rapidly, and I felt myself growing and flames streaking all across the room. This blazing inferno was me, I was the Queen of all things fire how dare that undead witch tell me how to enact my rule. I was honest with my people, fair, and merciful. Was I not merciful to Ooo by not letting them suffer?!
In my thoughts and fire, I hadn't realized the soft fingers brushing my forehead.
"I wonder who you are, Flame Queen, without your precious gem." that thousand year old voice whispered delicately in my ear, each syllable dropping in me like a bomb.
"No…" I whispered, my eyes widened and as the fingers firmly plucked my gem off my brow, exposing me to the torment of my elemental matrix...